"Ah! It's choking me!" Ron cried in terror. Vines had already wrapped around his waist, squeezing his body painfully and making it hard to breathe.
"Don't struggle!" A flash of insight struck Hermione, and she suddenly remembered the line from the book: "Its fear of light can be reversed by high-intensity light and heat spells!" "The more you struggle, the tighter it coils! Relax! Harry! Ron! Relax your bodies! Try not to move!"
Hearing this, Harry and Ron fought through their fear and suffocation, forcing their tense bodies to relax and no longer struggling. Sure enough, the vines seemed to pause, and their tightening slowed.
"Light! Bright light!" Hermione immediately raised her wand, took a deep breath, and focused all her concentration. "Lumos Maxima!"
Buzz—
An incredibly dazzling white orb, like a tiny sun, burst from the tip of Hermione's wand! The brilliant light instantly filled the cramped space, illuminating every writhing dark-green vine in perfect detail!
"Hiss—!"
It was almost as though they could hear the vines' anguished shrieks! The vines wrapped around Harry and Ron recoiled and convulsed as if scorched by a red-hot iron! They writhed frantically, releasing their prey as swiftly as a receding tide and desperately shrinking away toward corners far from the light, toward deeper shadows!
In just a few seconds, the Devil's Snare that had nearly swallowed all three of them retreated into a corner under the intense light. Trembling, it formed a dark-green, constantly writhing mass of shadow and no longer dared approach the orb's glow.
Harry and Ron collapsed onto the ground in disarray, gasping for breath, their faces full of relief and lingering terror. Hermione also let out a breath, cold sweat covering her forehead as the arm maintaining the light spell began to ache.
Lynn stood beside her. The vines had not caught him earlier, perhaps because of where he had landed. Now, as he watched the little sun in Hermione's hand drive away darkness and danger, a barely noticeable flicker of approval passed through his eyes.
The bright light had not only driven back the Devil's Snare but also revealed the full extent of the space. It was a stone chamber. Other than the still-writhing Devil's Snare in the corner, there was only a narrow passage ahead, leading who knew where.
"Well done, Hermione!" Harry praised sincerely.
Ron nodded as he panted. "Th-thanks... You saved us!"
Hermione pressed her lips together a little shyly, maintaining the orb of light. "Let's go. There's another path ahead."
The passage was not long. At its end lay a brightly lit stone chamber. Its arched ceiling was covered in glittering star patterns, and bright torches burned along the walls. Yet the most eye-catching sight was in the center of the chamber.
Thousands upon thousands of keys glittered in every color! Like a disturbed swarm of bees, they buzzed and flew wildly through the vast stone chamber! Some were as large as brooms, others as small as beetles, all in different shapes. Some gleamed silver, some shone gold, while others were bronze, iron-gray, or even rusted. Their wings, made of feathers, metal slivers, or even magical light, beat furiously, forming a chaotic, dazzling storm of streaming light!
At the far end of the room stood a heavy oak door, tightly shut, with a huge, ancient-looking brass padlock hanging from it. Clearly, they needed to find the right key to open it.
"This..." Ron stared dumbly at the flying "bugs" filling the air. "We have to find the key for that lock in this pile of stuff? How is that possible?!"
Harry frowned deeply as well, his gaze moving back and forth between the swarm of flying keys and the enormous padlock. The keyhole was an unusual shape. It seemed to require a key with wing-shaped decorations on its handle.
"Find it." Lynn was concise, his gaze as precise as a probe as he rapidly scanned the keys flying overhead. Eventually, his eyes fixed on a corner near the ceiling.
There, an old-fashioned silver key was trying to hide behind several enormous iron keys. Set into its handle was a pair of tiny magical wings as translucent as sapphires! It was exactly the shape required by the padlock's keyhole!
"Found it!" Harry spotted it too and shouted excitedly. "The silver one with sapphire wings!"
But there was a problem. That key was incredibly sly, and it flew the highest and fastest, like a nimble fish within the vast school of keys. It seemed to notice it was being watched and immediately accelerated, weaving through the key storm in an attempt to shake off its pursuers.
"We need brooms!" Harry reacted at once and rushed toward the corner of the chamber. Sure enough, several flying brooms lay there. They were old-fashioned, like the school's spare brooms. He grabbed a Nimbus 2000, an older model than his Nimbus 2000, and swung himself onto it. "I'll chase it!"
"Wait, Harry!" Hermione called urgently. "There are too many keys! It's too chaotic! It'll be hard for you alone—"
Harry had already kicked off, and his broom shot into the key storm! He nimbly dodged the keys charging in all directions, keeping his eyes fixed on that streak of silver light as he pursued it. The swarm became even more chaotic, like a poked hornet's nest. Countless keys tried to strike Harry, ringing out with sharp clinks and clangs.
Ron hurriedly grabbed a broom as well. "I'll help him!" He clumsily rose into the air, wobbling as he tried to intercept the key.
The key was astonishingly fast and extremely cunning, using its companions as cover. Several times, Harry was just about to catch it when it narrowly slipped away. Ron's arrival only made things more chaotic, and he nearly collided with Harry several times.
"No! We can't catch it like this!" Hermione watched anxiously from below.
Lynn's eyes calmly followed the silver key's flight path, his mind calculating at high speed like a precision instrument. He noticed that whenever the key was driven into a corner, it would make an extremely brief feint, as if trying to dash upward toward the star-patterned ceiling, before suddenly diving and changing direction. It seemed to be deliberately trying to lure its pursuers into crashing into the ceiling.
"Predict its direction," Lynn said quietly to Hermione. Then he picked up a broom himself and mounted it in one fluid motion. "Cover me."
"Huh? All right!" Though Hermione did not understand his exact plan, she raised her wand without hesitation, aiming at the crafty silver target amid the swarm of keys. "Impedimenta!"
An invisible Impediment Jinx shot precisely into the silver key's flight path! Caught off guard, the key slammed into the invisible barrier. Its speed abruptly stalled, and its flight path was thrown into disarray!
At that instant, Lynn moved! Rather than charging directly at the key, he sent his broom soaring upward at an incredibly tricky angle! His target was not the key's current position, but the direction in which it was most likely to flee after its course was disrupted—its habitual upward feint!
Sure enough! After breaking free of the Impediment Jinx, the silver key instinctively made that upward feint! And Lynn, like a hawk that had been waiting there all along, appeared directly in its path with flawless precision!
His timing was exquisite! Lynn did not even reach out to grab it. He simply hovered steadily in place. The panicked silver key, carried by its momentum, flew straight into his open, waiting palm!
"Got it!" Hermione cried excitedly from below, her eyes filled with surprise and admiration.
Lynn firmly gripped the key and guided his broom lightly back to the ground. Harry and Ron landed as well, panting hard, their faces full of admiration.
"That was brilliant, Lynn!" Harry said sincerely.
Lynn said nothing. He simply walked to the heavy oak door and precisely inserted the silver key with sapphire wings into the huge brass padlock.
Click.
The lock opened.
Beyond the door lay the unknown next trial. But at that moment, all four of them were filled with the exhilaration of having passed two challenges. Lynn pushed open the oak door, and a dim light spilled out from within, illuminating the new challenge ahead. Hermione looked at Lynn's calm profile, her heart still beating a little fast—not only from the danger they had just faced, but also because of the reassuring strength and tacit understanding he possessed. The Moon White Stone against her chest pulsed with a warm, sweet tremor.
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