Al Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

7 - 100 useful methods for faking death

- This way – Scorpius whispered and led Albus through a dark tunnel. – That's where your family friends were imprisoned. But that wasn't my dad's fault, either. It was a punishment for granddad, that the Dark Lord had his headquarters here. He always wanted to monitor what they were doing. Here we are. We have to open this door somehow.

The two boys were standing in front of a small door made of metal.

- Alohomora won't be enough, I guess – Albus whispered.

- We'll have to blow up the lock somehow. Step back.

- Very cunning – Albus grinned and followed his friend's order.

- I know – Scorpius put his tongue out. –I'm always telling you you should think before doing anything.

He said something very strange and pointed at the lock with his wand. Nothing happened.

- Er... is this a real spell? – Albus asked, but suddenly they heard a noise and the lock fell on the floor in two pieces.

- Guess it is – Scorpius grinned and opened the door. The boys stepped into the darkness but the next moment they lit up their wands. The room wasn't big at all and on the inside it looked like a library and a storage mixed. The walls couldn't be seen because of the big bookshelves which were full of old, thick books. The floor was covered with boxes which were closed and the boys were pretty sure that not only with glue, but with powerful spells and they would be really hard to open. The only furniture in the room was a table, on which lay only a thing that looked very much like a skull.

- That's... not real, is it? – Albus whispered staring at the table.

- I don't know. I hope not – Scorpius pretended to be calm: he didn't want to seem to be afraid in the prescence of a Gryffindor. No matter that he was his best friend, he still wanted to show that Slytherins are just as brave as them. – But we don't have to find out, do we? Let's find the book. I hope granddad has a copy of it.

- What is this room, anyway? – Albus asked while reading the titles of the books on the shelf standing the closest to the door. – Did your granddad just bring here all the black magic stuff when he didn't need them anymore?

- Looks like it, yes – Scorpius grinned. – It's hard to imagine, though. But it's hard to imagine having any black magic stuff at all... Let's just find the book.

- I... guess I found it – Albus said hesitantly and reached out his hand to get it off the shelf. He hesitated for a moment, he didn't know if he should dare to touch it, but then he did. – 100 useful methods for faking Death. This is it.

Scorpius stepped to him and stared at the cover of the book. Albus slowly opened it and the boys started to read it. Deep inside they were afraid that something was gonna happen, like the book was gonna burn their eyes out, but it seemed safe to read it.

- Does it really... give you advice how to pretend your dead while you're not? – Albus asked unbelievingly. – These are really difficult spells, I don't think they teach something this hard at Hogwarts.

- And you want to use them, or what? – Scorp grinned. – Look, there are spells with which you can make someone else seem dead, without them knowing it. Do you think something like this is possible without Dark Arts?

- I don't know. But who could use this book and for what? Someone wants to make all of the students seem dead? What is it good for if they aren't really dead?

- Look! – Scorpius suddenly seemed extremely excited. – Here's a way you can actually kill all those people with just one spell. But here's a warning that it needs decades of practise. Oh my god, who could have decades of practise in Dark Arts at school? Do you think that one of the teachers is a former Death Eater and nobody knows about it? Al, do you really think it is possible that someone wants to kill the entire school with one spell?

- It sounds really bad – Albus raised his eyebrow. – We have to stop him somehow.

- You won't like the idea, and you will say that I'm too much of a Slyherin, but... - Scorpius took a deep breath. - ... we have to tell someone about this.