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Upon hearing the news, Harry shot to his feet.
"What did you say?! Sebastian’s in Azkaban?!"
He truly hadn’t expected that Sebastian would end up imprisoned in Azkaban of all places.
Morphin took two quick breaths, gasping as he said, "Yes, he’s in a cell just one room over from ours on the right... He should... still be alive."
"Professor," Harry glanced at Dumbledore and turned to leave.
The mont he stepped out of the cell, a Dentor glided toward him.
Harry snapped his fingers, and a ring of azure flas erupted around him.
The Dentor recoiled as if confronted by sothing terrifying, retreating swiftly, almost as if it were the one facing a Dentor.
"Harry, you shouldn’t do that," Dumbledore’s voice echoed from the cell.
Without looking back, Harry replied, "I’m just reasoning with them."
With that, Harry found the cell Morphin had ntioned.
Through the bars, he could see a frail, hunched old man curled up inside.
"Sebastian?" he called softly to his old friend.
The old man’s head jerked up, staring outside in disbelief.
"Harry? Is that you? Harry?"
Harry flicked his wand, lting the bars, and strode quickly into the cell.
"Sebastian, is it really you?" He crouched before the old man, asking.
"It’s , it’s ," Sebastian said, head bowed, one hand shielding his face. "I never imagined... Miss Malfoy’s prophecy was right. You really did return a hundred years later..."
"Cassandra’s prophecy?" Harry asked, stunned.
Sebastian paused, then said to Harry, "Yes, after you disappeared, Miss Grindelwald was frantic. She wanted to know what had happened, whether you’d died with Ranrok... But Miss Malfoy brought a prophecy orb from her family. She said she didn’t want your friends to grieve. The scenes in the orb were unlike anything we’d ever seen... Later, Miss Malfoy said you were actually from 1991, so we guessed you’d returned to your own ti."
"After that, Miss Grindelwald found a ti-travel spell and planned to use it to reach 1991. We helped her fortify Slytherin’s study... Then Poppy vanished, followed by Miss Malfoy. Though Miss Malfoy had visited Professor Trelawney’s ho to study prophecy, she returned for so reason. After that, she disappeared too. Mr. Malfoy was furious and disowned her from the family."
"I suspect she went looking for you... But a few years later, perhaps because Miss Grindelwald was sealed in Slytherin’s study, my uncle Solomon—you know, the one Miss Grindelwald saved—regained his mory." Sebastian sighed. "For so reason, Solomon recalled what I did to him with the Killing Curse. So... he reported to the Ministry. They checked my wand and found I’d used all the Unforgivable Curses, more than once. And, well, here I am... Before I was taken, I entrusted Anne to Ominis, hoping he’d look after her..."
"Speaking of Anne..." Sebastian suddenly forgot to cover his face, looking up. "How is she, Harry? Have you seen her?"
"I’m sorry, Sebastian," Harry sighed. "I ca here looking for Ominis... He left a letter at one of the rlin Trials. I also encountered a Sphinx—I used the Basilisk’s gaze to kill it, though I only learned afterward that a Sphinx won’t strangle you for failing its riddle."
"A Basilisk? Killed a Sphinx?" Sebastian’s expression turned peculiar. "Harry, don’t you know? Sphinxes are immune to a Basilisk’s gaze..."
At those words, Harry’s heart sank.
He quickly pulled out his wallet and opened it.
Inside, the Basilisk, Alfonso, writhed on the ground like a maggot, hissing in Parseltongue, begging for rcy. The Sphinx, now transford into a griffin-like form with an eagle’s head and lion’s body, was pecking at Alfonso’s tail.
It seed the Sphinx had no intention of eating Alfonso—perhaps it was rely retaliating for the glare he’d given it.
"Gryffindor boy!" the Sphinx roared, noticing Harry open the wallet. "You dared try to kill a symbol of Gryffindor..."
"You’re just a Sphinx, not a lion," Harry protested. "Besides, it’s not my fault. Legends say Sphinxes strangle people who can’t answer their riddles..."
"Oh," the Sphinx said, then added, "Your Basilisk—I don’t know why a Gryffindor would keep one, but rest assured, it’s not dead. I’m just playing with it."
"Playing like this?!" Alfonso roared indignantly. "And my great master is a Slytherin, not a Gryffindor!"
"Only a Gryffindor would be this reckless. You’ve been fooled, Basilisk," the Sphinx hissed in Parseltongue.
"His traits are absolutely Slytherin!" Alfonso retorted.
"We’ll deal with this later," Harry said, head aching. "And you two, keep it down. I have important business to attend to."
With that, he snapped the wallet shut.
"So, your wallet holds a Basilisk and a Sphinx?" Sebastian let out a dry, half-ford whistle. "You’re way cooler than I was back then, Harry. All those fun spells I taught you didn’t go to waste."
"Yeah, and then you landed in Azkaban," Harry sighed. "How are you holding up? I’ll get you out soon—first, I need to ask Morphin Gaunt where Ominis’s portrait is."
"You ntioned Ominis," Sebastian said, concerned. "What did his letter say?"
"Ominis wrote that he used a ti spell to seal Anne in a cave sowhere, hoping that a century later, there’d be a way to break the dark magic curse," Harry replied.
At Harry’s words, Sebastian froze.
His cloudy eyes stared at Harry, as if unable to believe what he’d just heard.
"What’s wrong?" Harry asked, worried.
To his surprise, Sebastian clutched his head in agony, tugging at his sparse hair. "rlin... Ominis... Ominis..." he whispered, sobbing softly, unable to compose himself for a long ti.
Harry sat beside him, waiting until he spoke again.
"That spell... I know it," Sebastian said, voice thick with pain. "It requires the caster’s life as the price. Those who tamper with ti always pay a cost, one way or another... Ominis..."
Harry stared at Sebastian, stunned. He hadn’t imagined that freezing Anne in ti would demand such a sacrifice.
"I shouldn’t have entrusted Anne to Ominis. I knew it, I knew it..." Sebastian pounded his head, guilt-ridden. He loved his sister, but he never wanted to lose his best friend for her sake.
Seeing his distress, Harry tried to comfort him. "Maybe it’s not as bad as it seems. You know Ominis—he always finds a way."
Sebastian remained unresponsive, lost in his grief. Harry spoke again, "Maybe you should co with . We can find Ominis together and save Anne."
"It’s no use, Harry," Sebastian said softly. "I’m a wanted criminal. The Ministry won’t let go so easily."
"I’ll talk to Dumbledore," Harry said. "He’s the president of the International Confederation of Wizards. If he steps in, I’m sure you’ll be free soon."
Sebastian looked up. "If it’s just about getting out, that’s not the hard part," he said quietly. "Actually—"
He stood, and to Harry’s horror, Sebastian’s frail body seed to slough off like a shed skin, revealing a translucent ghost.
It was the seventeen-year-old Sebastian, as if ti had frozen him in Harry’s mory.
"This is a dark magic artifact I stole from the Gaunt family," Sebastian explained. "It lets disguise myself and evade the Dentors’ detection. In truth, I died decades ago."
Harry struggled to accept this. "But you were just..."
Sebastian gave a carefree smile. "I told you, it’s dark magic. Don’t ask too much about it, Harry—I’m not teaching you this one. I’m afraid Grindelwald and Malfoy would co after and obliterate even my ghostly form."
"They wouldn’t," Harry said quickly. He studied Sebastian’s ghostly figure, then asked curiously, "So how do I get you out? If the Dentors see you, they’ll hound you and try to suck you dry."
"Open your wallet. I’ll hop in for now," Sebastian said. "Release when you’re back at Hogwarts—rlin, you have no idea how much I miss the school days."
Sebastian’s tone was light, as if becoming a ghost wasn’t his own fate.
Harry did as he was told, opening the wallet. With a whoosh, Sebastian’s ghost dove inside.
Harry tucked the wallet away, gave one last look at Sebastian’s body, and left the cell.
As he stepped out, Dumbledore erged from Morphin’s cell. Spotting Harry, he beckoned him over.
"I take it you’ve finished talking with Mr. Sallow?" Dumbledore said. "How was the reunion with your old friend?"
"We’ll talk about it when we’re back," Harry replied.
Dumbledore’s expression turned serious. "You didn’t... put him in your wallet, did you? I must remind you, while Dentors can’t detect him in your Undetectable Extension Charm pocket, they will check his cell."
Harry understood Dumbledore’s implication: If you’re taking him, you’d better have him in that chard pocket and find a suitable substitute, or the Dentors will never let you go.
"There’s a slight problem—he’s a ghost," Harry said quietly. "He says he died long ago but used so Gaunt family dark magic artifact to stay hidden from the Dentors. If they find out he’s a ghost, things could get ugly."
"I see..." Dumbledore nodded slightly.
They hadn’t taken two steps when a swarm of Dentors surged onto the seventh floor, surrounding them.
Leading them was a Dentor larger than the rest, clad in a robe of mottled, oppressive black. He stepped forward, tilting his head toward Dumbledore. "My people tell your companion visited another cell unescorted," he said, his voice muffled and hard to discern.
"Oh, indeed, that did happen, Aeniac," Dumbledore said, not bothering to deny it. He looked down at Harry. "Harry, what’s this about?"
"It’s like this, Mr. Aeniac," Harry said, forcing a friendly smile. "I needed to use the bathroom. I saw an empty cell, but when I ca out, I found a dead man inside."
"A dead man?" Aeniac’s brow furrowed as he stared at Harry.
He gestured to two Dentors behind him. They glided to Sebastian’s cell and soon drifted back, whispering to Aeniac.
Aeniac looked up. "The man in that cell—Sebastian Sallow—is dead. Young sir, you wouldn’t have..."
Before he could finish, Dumbledore interrupted. "Aeniac, my student is only thirteen. Surely you don’t think he killed Mr. Sallow?"
Dumbledore’s blue eyes seed to spark with anger.
Aeniac t his gaze for a mont before explaining, "Oh, no, that’s not what I ant. It’s just a coincidence. Well, if there’s nothing else, I suppose you should both leave Azkaban."
With that, Aeniac and the Dentors parted, clearing a path for Harry and Dumbledore.
They walked through the Dentors, Dumbledore showing no trace of fear. Harry felt their malevolent gazes on him but shrugged it off.
What, are they going to follow to Hogwarts and ambush ?
Hah, as if.
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