Ch 28 Herpo The Great? Part 2

Sirius rolled his eyes and did the same and went towards the books, he scanned over the large bookshelf to find that it was divided into a few a section.

As he pulled out a book, his excitement waned. The text within was incomprehensible, resembling squiggly shapes more than any recognizable language.

"Hey, Celine, can you see what language these books are written in?" Sirius called out, expecting a response. When none came, he turned to find Celine fixated on the gold chest, her gaze distant. Concern laced his voice as he asked, "Celine, are you alright?"

Celine shook her head, her tone eerily calm. "Sirius, can you shrink the chests for me?"

Confusion etched on his face, Sirius complied, waving his wand and shrinking the chests, imbuing them with a lightweight charm. Celine promptly stowed them in her pocket. Then, she made an unexpected request. "Can you create a portkey to the airport for me?"

"Why?" Sirius asked, bewildered by her sudden urgency.

"We've achieved our goal, and I've received my reward. I have something to attend to," she explained urgently.

"But—"

"Please, I wouldn't ask if I still had magic. Please..." Her desperation was palpable, compelling Sirius to acquiesce

Somewhat hurt by her abrupt departure, Sirius conjured a small rock and chanted the incantation "Portus." The rock glowed brightly, signifying its transformation into a portkey. Levitating it toward Celine, he presented it to her, ready for her touch. "Why the rush? Don't you want to explore what lies beyond that door?" he queried, pointing to the massive door at the far end of the room.

"What door?" Celine's voice held confusion as she followed his gaze, seemingly unable to perceive the imposing entrance.

"You can't see it?" Sirius asked, perplexed. Realizing something was amiss, he began to piece together the strange occurrences. "Celine, I believe something is affecting you. You should wait—"

'LET HER GO,' a voice whispered from behind Sirius. Instantly, he spun around, wand raised, scanning the room for the source of the voice.

"Sirius, I need to go," she insisted, her voice betraying hints of internal struggle. Before Sirius could react, she seized the portkey and vanished in a swirl. "Wait!" he shouted into the empty room.

It dawned on Sirius that something was amiss from the moment Celine had touched the gold chests. Her subsequent behaviour mirrored that of a Muggle ensnared in a Muggle-repelling charm, consumed by an urgent need to depart.

"Welcome, child," boomed a voice from behind Sirius. He spun around, his gaze settling on the seemingly inconspicuous magical seer's ball resting on the pedestal. To his astonishment, it emitted a faint glow. His heart raced as he gulped, stammering, "D-Did you just speak?"

"I did," the voice replied, emanating directly from the enchanted ball. It levitated toward Sirius, halting a meter away. "Be proud, child. You have admirably passed the test," the voice declared arrogantly. "Though you are older than I anticipated, you will suffice... I suppose."

Sirius's mind raced as the word 'Horcrux' filled his thoughts. If his assumption was correct and the ball was a Horcrux containing the spirit of Herpo the Foul, then he was completely and royally fucked, because for one thing he didn't know of any spell that would work against a spirit or that would stop him from getting possessed.

And the only way he knew of dealing with the Horcrux was from the canon... none of which were helpful to him at the moment. The Fiendfyre spell was uncharted territory for him, and attempting it would likely result in his own demise.

The second option, Basilisk's venom, was even more frustrating as he had very recently killed a bloody Basilisk but he acted dumbly and didn't immediately harvest a few drops for future uses which would have been very helpful to him at the moment.

And the last option, Killing curse, was the flimsiest one as well as the only one he could somewhat rely on. Because it was never particularly specified that it works against a Horcrux it was somewhat unreliable, as the only Horcrux that was destroyed using the killing curse was the one inside Harry and he didn't know for sure that it would work as well against an inanimate object as he was pretty sure that Killing curse was only supposed to work on living beings.

Now that he thought about it was really stupid of him to enter the tomb of Herpo, a wizard famously known for being the creator of Horcrux without giving any thought to how he would destroy one if he had created one. However, dwelling on blame would not yield a solution. He had to stall for time, hoping a stroke of inspiration would illuminate a path forward.

"A-Are you the one who sent my friend out of here?" he asked the first question that came to his mind.

"She was your friend? I thought she was a mere retainer or something," the voice responded, sounding perplexed. "So I sent her away after allowing her to take a few pieces of gold."

"Never mind her," the voice continued in a haughty tone. "Why are you standing there like an idiot? Why haven't you bowed before your teacher?"

"My teacher? Wait! So you don't want to possess my body or anything like that?"

"Of course not," the voice replied disdainfully. "Why would I resort to such lowly tactics after you passed my test? And how would I even do that? Do you take me for a Horcrux?"

"You're not?" Sirius asked, scratching his head with a puzzled expression.

"You fool!" the voice erupted in anger. "How dare you mistake me for that faulty piece of magic! I would never stoop so low as to rely on those foul things. Anyone with even an ounce of common sense would know that I am an intricate piece of complex Divination magic."

"Divination?"

"Do you know anything about Divination, boy?"

"Um... No."

The voice sighed in disappointment. "Has the younger generation fallen so far that they lack even the most basic knowledge?" It mumbled to itself for a moment before deciding to explain the basics. "I have neither the time nor the desire to delve into the complexities of Divination. So, here's the gist: Divination is essentially a seer's future self sending thoughts in the form of mental energy to their past self, who then tries to comprehend and divine the future."

"Sure..." Sirius said unsurely, the tension still hadn't left his body even though the ball said that it wasn't a Horcrux as he couldn't be sure that he wasn't being tricked but it wasn't like he could do anything at the moment except listen to the talking ball.

"And what I am doing is the exact opposite of that," the voice in a smug tone as if he was supposed to be impressed by what he was doing, "Instead of the past I am currently sending my thoughts into the future,"

While Sirius didn't understand the thing completely, the one thing he was sure of was, "So what you're saying is that you're just a talking ball?"

"Haven't you been listening? The ball is merely a medium. I am communicating through it from the past," the voice replied.

"So, you can't use magic?"

"And how would I do that without a physical body?" the voice responded with a sigh of exasperation.

Sirius felt a wave of relief wash over him as he lowered his wand. "Phew... I was terrified for no reason."

Now that he had calmed down he was back into the mood to explore so he went towards the bookshelf while asking it, "So why exactly are doing that Divination thing?"

"Naturally, to pass on my knowledge as a successor—Wait! How do you not know about that? Who even informed you about this place if you don't even understand its purpose?"

"The Headmaster of Hogwarts told me..."

"Hogwarts, you say?" the voice pondered for a moment.

Frustration building, Sirius turned his attention to another book filled with incomprehensible squiggles. "What language is this?" he asked, annoyed.

"It's Parseltongue,"

"Of course it is," Sirius said sarcastically before shaking his head while looking down at the book that could contain powerful ancient knowledge, "Guess I can never read it..."

"Why not? You only need to supply a small amount of magic to the Key in your right hand to do that,"

Sirius regarded it sceptically before shrugging and following its advice. As he infused a strand of magic into the bracelet, the words in the book became comprehensible, as if he were reading ordinary English. "Wow... this bracelet is quite useful."

"Indeed," the voice replied with pride. "How else do you think you can understand me? I painstakingly created and enchanted it..." the voice continued but Sirius was barely paying it any attention as he was busy reading the titles of the book in front of him.

"Most of them are about healing and wards and a few about divination, " Sirius suddenly interrupted the boastful magical ball in a confused tone

"What's wrong with that?"

"What's wrong with that?" the voice questioned.

"There's nothing wrong," Sirius replied, confusion lacing his tone. "I just expected more Dark Magic considering your reputation..."

"My reputation?" the voice asked, puzzled. "What exactly were you expecting?"

"Things like how to create a Horcrux, methods of torture or the process of breeding a Basilisk... stuff like that."

"What? Wait a minute! Who do you think I am?"

"Aren't you 'Herpo'?" Sirius asked, his confusion mounting.

"Indeed, I am!" the voice responded proudly. "I am 'Herpo the Great,' renowned as the greatest Healer and Divination expert the world has ever known."

"I don't know about great, but the only Herpo I know is called 'Herpo the Foul,' famous for inventing the Horcrux..."

"You imbecile! That's not me," the voice scolded angrily. "That's my brother."

"What?!"