Chapter 90: A New Use for the Unlocking Charm

A great dog's roar came from overhead, its head jammed into the entrance beneath the trapdoor.

Allen remained utterly unmoved; he carefully controlled the effect of the Levitation Charm, letting himself drift down slowly.

Halfway down, Allen heard the anxious voices of Harry and the others below. Before he could make out what they were saying, a stream of bluebells-like blue flames erupted from below.

Allen quickly sped up his descent, but when he landed, he found they had already escaped danger, though they looked rather disheveled.

"What happened?" Allen asked, puzzled.

"It was just Devil's Snare. Let's keep moving!" Harry said, pointing to the only path.

Allen opened his mouth but said nothing, so he hurried to catch up.

The only path was a stone corridor, quiet except for their own footsteps and the sound of water droplets slowly trickling down the walls.

Suddenly, they heard a faint rustling and tinkling sound coming from ahead.

"There's light ahead—I see something moving."

They reached the end of the corridor and found themselves in a brightly lit room with a high, vaulted ceiling. Countless tiny birds, glittering like gems, fluttered their wings, flying everywhere throughout the room.

Across the room stood a heavy wooden door.

Shielding their faces with their arms, they rushed swiftly to the other side of the room.

Reaching the door unharmed, they pulled the handle, but it was locked.

Ron and Hermione followed. They pushed and pulled together, but the wooden door wouldn't budge. Hermione tried her Alohomora spell again, but it was no use.

"What do we do?" Ron asked.

"These birds... they can't just be for decoration," Hermione said.

The three of them watched the tiny birds flying overhead.

"They aren't birds at all!" Harry suddenly declared. "They're keys—winged keys. Look closely."

Harry scanned every corner of the room and spotted a pile of broken Flying Broomstick fragments in one corner.

He rushed over to inspect the broomstick fragments.

"I know what's going on!" Harry said. "We have to fly up and catch the key for that door! But the broomsticks are all broken!"

Allen and the others also walked to the corner of the room, looking at the scattered Flying Broomstick fragments on the floor.

"The breaks are fresh; they were just destroyed," Allen said firmly, picking up a broom handle.

"It must have been Snape. Is there any way to repair the broomsticks?" Ron asked.

"The books don't say how to fix Flying Broomsticks. Do your Quidditch team teach that?" Hermione asked, frowning.

"No, they don't!" Harry answered bluntly.

Looking at the broomstick fragments scattered everywhere, Allen said, "This level of damage is beyond our ability to repair. We need to find another way through that door!"

The four of them finally accepted the truth and returned to the door.

They waved their wands at the wooden door, casting various spells in an attempt to break it down.

But their efforts were doomed to fail; the wooden door didn't even show a single mark of damage.

Then they changed tactics, starting to cast spells at the keys flying in the sky. They needed to knock down an antique-looking large key—possibly silver, shaped like a doorknob.

But the enchanted keys seemed extremely sensitive to the trajectory of the spells; not a single spell cast by the four of them hit its mark...

"Does this mean we're done for today?" Ron was the first to fall into despair. "We're stuck now. Once Snape gets the Philosopher's Stone, he'll easily take care of all of us."

"

Harry fell silent, but he stubbornly continued casting the Petrification Spell at the sky...

Hermione began casting the Unlocking Charm on the wooden door again, but it had no effect at all...

Watching Hermione cast the Unlocking Charm with sweat on her brow, Allen suddenly remembered that he had once deciphered an ancient runic key-value pair for the Unlocking Charm. At the time, he hadn't understood how to use it. He still remembered that the meaning of the key in that runic pair was "whether to return."

Allen felt a vague thought stirring in his mind...

He drew his wand, pointed it at the door's lock, and chanted, "Alohomora!" while constantly thinking "need to return" in his mind.

The moment the spell took effect, Allen felt a thunderous boom in his head. His soul seemed to instantly fly out of his body, intersecting briefly with a vast will in the endless high sky, before snapping back into his body...

"Allen, wake up!" That was Hermione's voice, but it seemed to Allen as if it were coming from very far away...

Allen still felt groggy and didn't want to wake up, then he felt a splash of cold water poured onto his face.

He instantly snapped to his senses.

"What happened to me?" Allen asked, somewhat startled and uncertain. After waking, he found himself lying on the ground, with Harry and the others anxiously gathered around him.

"You fainted when you cast the spell on the door just now!" Hermione's brows knitted tightly. "And while you were unconscious, your forehead was glowing, like a rune, though I didn't get a clear look at the rune..."

"So did I succeed?" Allen asked the three of them with an inquiring gaze.

"No!" Harry stepped aside, allowing Allen to see the wooden door behind him. The door still stood there, completely intact, inspiring utter despair...

The three of them began to feel dejected.

"Looks like our journey ends here!" Ron said dejectedly, kicking a broom handle on the floor away...

"Perhaps the only thing we can do is ambush Snape when he comes out." That was Hermione speaking, but her tone lacked confidence.

Harry said nothing, continuing to cast spells at the keys in the sky; everyone could feel his irritability.

Meanwhile, Allen felt something strange within himself. He closed his eyes and carefully sensed his inner state...

"I think I just succeeded!" Allen suddenly opened his eyes and stated firmly.

The three of them turned sharply to look at Allen.

"How did you succeed? The door is still fine right there!" Ron retorted.

Allen stood up, drew his wand, pointed it at a piece of broomstick fragment on the ground, and cast a spell that surprised everyone else:

"VeraVerto!"

Then, to the astonishment of the three of them, that piece of Flying Broomstick fragment transformed into a large, silver-gleaming key...

The key's structure was complex and precise, every single detail on it extremely clear...

Hermione looked at the key on the ground, seeming to have many questions to ask, but Ron had already picked up the large key from the floor...

He shoved it into the keyhole and twisted hard.

Click!

The door opened!