Work Text:
I
Slowly the crypt opened in front of Sebastian. A cold breeze came to him like the gasp of a dying man. A shiver came over him, but at the same time he welcomed the coolness. It was a hot day in the south of France and the sun was burning down mercilessly on him, fortunately it was now going into darkness.
"Lumos" he whispered and he descended the bare uneven stone steps. Only after a while Sebastian realized that the steps were not made of stone, but of pressed human bones.
Here he had to be careful, if already so the greeting looked, who knows what curses work here.
Arrived at the end of the bone stairs he reached a tunnel, at the nearest wall he saw a mosaic of human fingers, still shiny bloody like freshly cut off. It represented the cube he was looking for, so he was right on track. Maybe his search was over and he could try to make up for his mistake, maybe Anne would talk to him again.
He followed the tunnel for a while longer and was surprised to encounter no more disturbing clues or any curses. This was too easy, he probably had to expect the worst.
Slowly the tunnel narrowed, the walls became denser and the ceiling came more and more towards him. At some point, normal walking was no longer possible, so he first had to move on his knees, but then crawling. Sebastians felt how he almost got stuck several times, the cold of the stone wall pressed against his back. As if this were not bad enough, he also began to hear a high-pitched melody. Where did it suddenly come from? He panicked a little, what had he gotten himself into. Was it really worth it? He crawled a few more meters and hardly noticed how his wand went out. Darkness enveloped him. Should he try to apparate? Leave all this behind? Maybe he just had to crawl a few more feet, but he couldn't stop moving or the madness would take him. Just as the pressure became too great, he fell headlong down a slope. When he fell, he landed on his left forearm, a loud crack and a sudden pain made it clear to him that he had broken his arm. Shaking, he felt his arm and cried out, part of the bone was sticking out. He pointed his wand at his injured arm, but nothing happened. Magic must have been suppressed here.
Slowly, his eyes became accustomed to the darkness. A faint glow came from an angle. Without any real alternative, Sebastian moved toward the glow. With each step, the pain of his arm bored deeper into his body. He hoped the cube was worth this ordeal.
After what felt like an eternity, he reached the source of the glow and briefly considered running back into the darkness. The glow came from a room full of floating candles just like at Hogwarts, only the contrast with the Great Hall couldn't have been greater.
The floor consisted of disfigured bodies that, like the fingers at the beginning, still looked fresh and bloody. He saw split heads, burst open like watermelons. A bloody mass from which one could make out remnants of hair, eyes and bones. Arms and legs, broken or dismembered several times. Torsos disemboweled, organs in places mixed into bloody lumps. Sebastian had to throw up, this was too much even for him. Cold fear coursed through his body, would he end up like this too? He hoped not.
In the center of the room was a pedestal built from human remains and on it rested the cube. He looked so calm and innocent there. He gathered all his courage and entered the room. No sooner had he put a foot on the flesh carpet than it began to scream. It was the screams of all those who lay here. Sebastian saw the bodies twitching, he saw some half-healed heads whose mouths were moving. Screaming, he ran across the room toward the cube, ignoring the suffering around him.
With his healthy hand he grasped the cube and his eyes went black.
II
Sebastian woke up, the pain still dancing in his arm and the sun shining blithely down on him. Slowly he straightened up and looked around. He didn't know where he was, but it still seemed to be the same area.
In his left hand, he still clutched the cube. Fascinated, he slowly turned it up and down. Beautiful patterns were stamped on the faces and there seemed to be some kind of sliding mechanism. He had read about this, a certain configuration was probably necessary to activate it. With his broken arm, however, this was not possible for now, so he stuffed the cube into his coat pocket and slowly straightened up. The pain in his arm caused small flashes to twitch before his eyes and he almost fell to the ground. He closed his eyes and imagined the lands of Hogwarts. He took a deep breath and apparated.
A swirl of colours passed him by, and with a jolt, the muddled fog faded away and he gazed upon Hogwarts. The evening sun bathed the castle in a blood-red light.
Wonderful, he had made it in time. His little trip had only cost him an afternoon. If his arm hadn't been completely battered, no one would have noticed.
Shuffling and stumbling, he approached the entrance, it was probably already dinner time. The meadows and paths to the castle were deserted. With a little luck, he could enter the infirmary without being seen by anyone.
Quietly he opened the entrance gate of Hogwarts and was already thinking about where he should go.
"Mr. Swallow, why aren't you at dinner?" he heard a voice behind him. He turned and looked into the face of Professor Garlic. His herbology teacher was about to give him a telling off when her eyes locked on his arm.
"What have you been up to. Really, these students!" the nurse hissed, trying to heal his arm for the umpteenth time. "Why in Merlin's name is this fracture not healable?"
Sebastian remained silent and said nothing. He wouldn't say where he had gotten the fracture in his life. But it still worried him that the injury was not curable. At least he had no more pain, at least he was spared this. However, he did not feel anything else either. The pain potion had been extremely strong, he could no longer feel his entire body.
"I guess nothing helps, we have to use Muggle methods. Wait." The nurse said to him and disappeared.
Sebastian let himself fall back into bed and looked at the evening sky. He was lucky to be alive. Hopefully it was worth it. He would probably dream about this place for the rest of his life. Even now he could feel the springy ground of human flesh beneath his feet. And these screams…
The door of the hospital room opened and Ominis rushed in.
"You idiot!" he shouted. "You were in the tomb? I know it!"
"Ominis wait, I can do it-"
"You promised me you'd stay away from it." Ominis reached Sebastian's bed. He felt for Sebastian's hand and squeezed it.
"I heard the nurse talking to Professor Black, your arm is not curable?"
"Yeah, apparently a curse. But I guess it'll be okay."
Ominis shook his head. "I've warned you over and over again."
"Don't worry about it, it worked. He's in my coat, to the left of you."
Ominis groped to his left until he found chair on which his coat lay. It wasn't long before he had the cube in his hand.
"So this is it?" he asked, slowly touching the sides.
"That's right, I guess you have to push it. At least that's what the book said."
Ominis pushed back and forth a little on the sides.
"I guess with eyesight this is a little easier." joked Ominis. Sebastian was glad that his friend showed some humor, so he couldn't be that angry with him.
He heard a clack and saw Ominis actually pushing the sides of the cube back and forth.
"Ah," made Ominis. "The cube cut me." Ominis' thumb was bleeding quite profusely, staining the sides of the cube bloody. Sebastian was about to say something when he saw the cube slowly soaking up the blood.
"Do you hear that melody, too?" asked Ominis in a haggard tone. Sebastian looked at his friend questioningly. Something was not right. Ominis' face was getting deep dark streaks down the side of his mouth.
"Sebastian, there's someone talking. Can you hear him? He's calling me. I-" that's as far as he got. Ominis's whole body stiffened. His lower jaw suddenly snapped off and disappeared before it fell to the floor. Sebastian could see the upper row of teeth and the tongue. All at once, the body split down the middle. Organs and blood came shooting out, but disappeared similarly quickly. It took less than a few seconds and his friend vanished.
III
Sebastian lay awake staring at the ceiling of his dorm room. He hadn't said a word in almost a week, since the night Ominis disappeared. The shock was still too deep in him. Professor Black tried to question him several times, but what could he say? It was his fault. It was his fault alone and Ominis had warned him. The book in the Forbidden Section said the cube would open the gate between life and death, it would show the dead. Nowhere did it say anything about the nightmares he discovered instead. Ominis had said from the beginning that this was not how he would bring his uncle back. There would be something fishy about it. If it was so easy to bring someone back, why would this book be in the Forbidden Section?
He straightened up and picked up his wand. It couldn't go on like this. Something had to be done about it. He had taken far too much time as it was.
Slowly, he slipped out of the dormitory and went to the common room. It was well past midnight, no one would disturb him now.
He put the wand on the table and looked at the cube. His left arm was still ruined, it just wouldn't heal with magic. But at least the bone no longer protruded.
Last time blood had awakened the cube, so why not again. Sebastian took his still functioning thumb in his mouth and bit hard at one spot until the blood came. He wiped all sides of the cube. As soon as he took his thumb away, he heard the melody from the crypt again. Quickly he picked up his wand.
"Well, who wants to play?" spoke a disembodied deep voice in his ear.
"Oh look, another student".
"This one is mine!"
"No mine!"
"I wonder if he'll scream like that other too?"
Sebastian looked around. He couldn't make out the owners of the many voices. But somewhere around here they were. Clutching the wand tightly, he moved into attack position.
"It won't do you any good."
A rumble of thunder rolled through the common room, the lights all but a few extinguished, and the wall to his left took a deep crack and moved apart. Smoke and light blinded Sebastian. A chain shot out and encircled his wand hand. He was jerked forward and lost his wand.
"How simple."
More chains followed, each grabbing his limbs and yanking him into the air. He was now floating in the air and felt the cold iron eating into his skin. Shapes emerged from the crack in the wall in front of him. In all his life, Sebastian had never seen such creatures. An eerie cruel beauty surrounded these beings. They were deeply deformed and misshapen. A woman to his left had her abdomen cut into strips, and the skin on her head was pulled back. In the middle, on the other hand, came a being whose entire clothing appeared to be made of his own skin. An open large wound was emblazoned on its neck and Sebastian could see its vocal cords.
"You summoned us." Spoke these creature.
"I want to know why you killed Ominis. And then I will kill you. All of you together."
Haughty laughter surrounded him from all sides. More shapes came out of the wall, all mutilated in their own way.
"My boy, you won't be able to kill us. And we didn't kill your friend either. Quite the contrary. He was most interesting to us."
A cold hand clasped Sebastian's neck from behind. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a figure slowly creep into his field of vision. It was Ominis, but he was no differently mutilated than these creatures. His lower jaw was still missing, and the rest of his body was altered as well. His skin looked like it had been peeled off, in the light of the few candles it shone like a freshly skinned fish.
"Ominis," Sebastian brought forth through tears. "I never meant to, I'm so sorry." Sobbing, he looked down at the floor. He had done this to his friend, because of him he was now such a creature.
"No tears please," the creature in the middle spoke again. "it's a waste of good suffering".
Sebastian's head was jerked upwards. Ominis had his head in his hand, the dead glittering eyes looking directly at him.
"Ominis, please."
He felt his friend poke him in the eyes with his fingers. His cold fingers dug under his eyes and slowly ripped them out of his head.
Sebastian screamed like he had never screamed before in his life and never will again.