Seeing the human-face masks on the walls up close was still terrifying, even though she had prepared herself.
Pomona looked at the faces of those men and women, then touched her own face. Goosebumps rose all over her body.
Only the footsteps of their small group echoed through the narrow corridor. Even knowing that the monster on this level had been eliminated, they still did not dare relax.
Louis XIV, with his taste for extravagance, had led the French nobility into collective decadence. At first, he had done so to keep the nobles busy currying favor with him rather than training troops on their estates to someday rebel against him.
The French soldiers from the War of the Spanish Succession had gone to Italy as conquerors. They had never expected getting lost to lead to such an outcome.
This maze had not been protected by a Muggle-Repelling Charm, which meant Muggles could try to solve it too.
Judging by their faces, Muggles and wizards were no different. Pomona had expected to put on a scheming performance with Nadia Vasika, yet somehow she had simply started tackling the trials.
Of course Voldemort was not afraid. Even if this attempt failed, he could always find more people to keep trying. Everyone else only had one life, and they were facing an examination where failure was not allowed.
Otherwise, they would end up like those people on the walls.
"Is it still not too late to leave?" Pomona asked. "That monster is already dead."
No one paid her any attention. They seemed to have already made up their minds to investigate to the end.
"This is too reckless!"
"Stop complaining already," Severus said coldly.
She shot him a sidelong glare.
His attitude toward her was atrocious now, worse than his treatment of ordinary