A Bend in Time - Chapter 161

Turning on her heels, Rowan returned to the chest and pointed her wand at the books to shrink them down. Carefully pocketing them, she turned to walk out, before pausing to hiss, "Whether this was your original intention or not, nevertheless thank you." About to apparate away, she pauses at hearing a loud booming echoing noise in the far-off distance.

Someone was inside of the Chamber of Secrets with her.

Hurrying forward, Rowan quickly left the hidden chamber and made her way back out. Sliding down the nest of bones, she hurried across not caring if she slipped and fell. Scrambling forward she kept going before emerging at the top of the opening of the stairs. Glancing into the far distance, she quickly douses her light and begins to creep down the stairs in the strange green light. By the time she made it down, she heard footsteps rapidly approaching through the tunnel.

Hiding behind a column she waited for what seemed ages as the steps only grew louder with time. At long last, someone appeared at the edge of the carved serpent columns. "I always knew that Salazar had exquisite taste," Professor Adric mused in approval causing Rowan's face to grimace at the remark as she fell further back into the shadows as Professor Adric raised his wand that was glowing with light at the tip of his wand.

Glancing around, Professor Adric lets out a gasp of awe at seeing the majestic stone statue of Salazar Slytherin. "Incredible," Professor Adric said before his eyes became fixated on the stone steps leading to a path on high to entrance up high. Curiosity and greed getting the better of him, Professor Adric began to climb to see where the path led.

"It's a shame, he didn't get to meet the Basilisk," Rowan thought to herself as she watched Professor Adric climb higher and higher. He was more than halfway up when it occurred to her that it might not be a good thing for Professor Adric to have found the Chamber of Secrets.

Even if there was no longer a terrifying monster below this was a place where Salazar Slytherin taught forbidden dark arts to his students. It was a place that must stay forgotten to protect the current Slytherins. But the reason that finally tipped the scales was the fact that Professor Adric either spoke parseltongue or knew of someone else who did. How else did he get the entrance in Myrtle's bathroom to open and the great serpents carved door?



With hesitation and dread, Rowan pointed her wand at Professor Adric. Her hand trembled as she found that she couldn't speak all of a sudden. It was one thing to kill a creature that had yet to even live, but another to kill another with their unprotected back exposed. And yet she found that she could not lower her wand either.



The seconds turned into minutes as she wrestled with her inner turbulent feelings. Finally, Rowan could no longer stand it and raised her wand to cast the tripping jinx. With painful slowness, the wand fell out of Professor Adric's grasp as it plummeted first down below like a falling star. Professor Adric followed next as his arms and legs desperately churned as he fell backward. He must have cried out, but Rowan wasn't able to hear anything over the sickening pounding of her heart.

The wand hit the stone ground first bouncing twice, before rolling to a stop. Seconds after, the body of Professor Adric hit the ground with a sickening thud. Like an egg that had been broken open, red fluids poured out of the still, mangled corpse of Professor Adric.

Trying to not hurl, Rowan tries to breathe only to find that the air smells of a metallic wet smell. Feeling bile climb up her throat, she instantly teleported away to the dorm's bathroom. Stumbling into a stall, she proceeded to hurl everything she had for dinner and before. Large gasps were squeezed out of her as begged for clemency from the porcelain god before her.

Finally, the tremors ceased as she leaned back to tiredly leaned back to rest against the stall door. Ignoring the fact that she was slumped on the bathroom floor, Rowan tiredly reached over to flush the disgusting mess in the bowl again. With a churn, the swirling mess disappeared to only leave a spotless white bowl.

Rowan must have lain on the bathroom floor for some time as when she tried to finally climb to her feet, she found that her legs were a bit numb. Gingerly shaking the sleep out of her legs, she winced as her legs almost folded underneath her, but kept moving forward despite the painful tingling running up and down her legs. Limping over to the sinks, she freezes at spotting her pale, greenish reflection in the sink.

Bending over, Rowan began to splash cold water face, gargling and spitting out water as well. With her face almost numb from the chill of the water, she finally stopped as she let the cold drops drip into the sink below. It was another minute before she finally dried her face with her sleeve, before glancing up at her reflection to stare at the snakeskin scarf around her neck.

Slowly untangling the scarf around her neck, she finally held the scarf in hand and pointed her wand at it. Rowan once more chanted the simple transfiguration spell and transformed the shrunk snakeskin into a muffler. Holding the muffler in hand, she finally returned to her room to find the girls all sound asleep in bed. Glancing at the time she found that it was only three in the morning. Dawn was still a long way away.

As quiet as she could be, Rowan opened her trunk and slipped the second muffler into the bottom of her trunk, carefully wrapping it around the shrunken books. Closing her trunk once more, she slowly disrobed and returned the pillows to their original state. Climbing into bed, she found that she could not close her eyes as every time she did, all that she could see was the image of Professor Adric falling over and over before smashing into the stone floor below.

Clenching her teeth, Rowan turned on her side as she stared at her wand that was currently residing on the bed stand. For some time, she merely stared lifelessly at her wand as she contemplated the murder that she had just committed. She had taken a life not because she was in danger but for the greater good.

The urge to laugh suddenly appears and Rowan does, but all that emerges is a painful cough instead. Yes, for the greater good. Who exactly does that sound like? Gilbert Grindelwald and dear old, Dumbledore. Ah, yes, isn't that what they said before they sent off dozens to their deaths?

The mad laughter died in Rowan's eyes as she clenches her teeth in anger at herself. She shouldn't be pointing fingers when this was solely her decision to make. She could have just walked away; she could have found another way! But she didn't and for that, the sole blame lies with her. Afterall, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Suddenly, Rowan turns green again and clenches her eyes shut as she grits her teeth. A familiar sickly feeling appears inside of her as she feels the magic within her grow again. Clenching her teeth so hard, she bites her lip causing it to bleed. But she didn't even notice as she stifled the urge to scream, to smash, to destroy, to weep.

However, it was to be to no avail. The magic still poured into Rowan and her wand. The game was death, and she had more than won this round. She was the undeniable winner.