This scene was a hundred times more shocking than the doors opening had been.
If opening the doors had merely shattered their common sense,
then this tower had utterly crushed their courage.
"What the hell is that thing?!"
Rodolphus Lestrange backed away in terror until his back pressed against the cold stone wall.
"It ate Antonin! That tower ate Antonin!"
Panic spread through the top-floor cell block like a plague.
The Death Eaters who had been clamoring to tear Douglas apart just moments before were all trembling now.
Douglas ignored their screams.
He took out the brass key again and turned his gaze toward the next cell.
Augustus Rookwood's cell.
The former Unspeakable from the Department of Mysteries was staring at Douglas, his face deathly pale.
As Douglas took a step,
a scene of madness unfolded.
"Stay away! Don't come any closer!!"
Rookwood let out a shrill, distorted scream.
He lunged toward his cell door.
But he was not trying to escape.
He was trying to-block the door.
He thrust out a filthy finger and desperately jammed it into the rusty keyhole.
"Block it! Hurry, block it!"
Rookwood roared at the prisoners around him, all his usual reserve gone.
"Don't let him put the key in! As long as the doors stay shut, he can't swallow us up too!"
"Yes! Block the keyholes!"
Mulciber, next door, caught on too.
These Dark Wizards, who had once terrorized the entire Wizarding World, now looked like a bunch of troublemakers hiding from a room inspection.
Some used their fingers, some used strips torn from their clothes, and some even tried using chewed-up dry breadcrumbs.
They desperately tried to plug those damned keyholes that led to "hell."
"I'm not leaving! I won't leave even if it kills me!"
Travers clawed at his keyhole with