Chapter Text
It was a bitter autumn morning at Hogwarts, the sun barely had the strength to peek through the thick clouds, casting long shadows across the grounds. Inside, students wrapped up warm with their scarves and cloaks, books huddled to their chests as they raced to get to the warmth of their classroom.
Lando’s leg jogged under his desk, quill between his fingers as he shuffled through his half filled notes on the effects of incorrect summoning charms. Five minutes remaining. He could wait that long, he’d managed to wait the last half an hour. Eventually the clock tower’s bell struck, signalling the lesson was over. He rushed out of the room, bag haphazardly perched on his shoulder as he ran up the moving staircases, finally arriving in Gryffindor tower.
“Carlos, c’mon mate where are you?” He jogged up towards his dorm that he shared with Carlos, Charles and Lewis. Carlos was lying across his four-poster, wand between his teeth with a charms book in his hands.
“Give it up, man. It’s painful just watching you.” Lewis rolled his eyes at the young Spanish wizard.
“ Joder , Flitwick is going to kill me when I fail.” Carlos sighed into his hands.
“No time for that mate, it’s finally time, I’ve got no more lessons. Pince is out for the next hour or two, give or take. I made a deal with Peeves, big mistake I know,” he added at Lewis’ raised eyebrow, “We need to leave, like, now.” Lando nudged his friend with his foot, picking up the discarded mahogany wand.
“Si, I’m coming, cálmate.” (Calm down.)
They made their way through the busy corridors, past Professor McGonagall who gave them no attention besides a frown and a head shake as the pair rushed past her. She was long used to their antics by now, of all of her students, these two were the most troublesome.
“I’m telling you it’s somewhere here. “The shadowed one…”
“Mierda, that’s what it’s called in English? I found that ages ago.” Carlos walked round to the otherside of the bookcase and pulled out an old leather book, its pages torn and wrinkled.
“Seriously, man.” Lando rolled his eyes and they opened it up on the table, illuminated by their wand tips. His eyes skimmed the page until he found what he was looking for, however it wasn’t what he was expecting.
“Shit, how am I meant to read that then?” He huffed. The whole section was in a language that Lando could only describe as alien.
“I really need to start teaching you languages, otherwise learn a translating spell, they're not difficult. It’s in Latin,” Carlos rolled his eyes.
“I- okay first, what the fuck? Second, translation please?”
“Paciencia, mi amigo. I’m reading.” (Patience, my friend.)
Lando mumbled under his breath and looked at the pictures on the page next to the text. It seemed to depict a cauldron surrounded by a dark shadow surrounding it, as well as a moon hanging above it.
“‘Solus thalamum ferre valebit Dignus umbrarum. Magnus thesaurus dicitur esse absconditus et in cubiculo umbrarum absconditus..’ That’s about as far as I can understand, the rest is too… deteriorado.” (Decayed.)
“Right, well I understood none of that.”
“Mierda, Lando, I am going to teach you basic languages as soon as we get out of here. It says: ‘Only those who are worthy will be able to endure the Chamber of Shadows. It is said that a great treasure, hidden and concealed, lies within the chamber of Shadows.’”
“So… do we know where this ‘Chamber of Shadows’ is? Like, does anyone know? Is it even real?”
“I know as much as you do, we should ask Minnie, no?”
Lando shot Carlos an incredulous look, “Yeah, that will be a great conversation, ‘hey Minnie, have you heard of the ‘Chamber of Shadows’ before? Yeah we’re looking for treasure.’ Amazing, Carlos.”
“Ay dios mío, you are so annoying-”
They heard a crash and a muffled yell from the entrance of the Library. Carlos hastily threw his invisibility cloak over them. Lando casted ‘muffliato’ as they ran for the exit, narrowly avoiding the flailing arms of Filch as he chased Peeves through the corridor in the opposite direction.
Eventually they made their way back up to their dorm, moonlight spilling through the windows. “That took you way too long, what did you find?” Lewis asked as they sat in a circle in the centre of their room.
“Basically, somewhere, and I’m assuming in the school, but we don’t know where, is a room called the ‘Chamber of Shadows’.” Lando explained, Charles’ eyes widening.
“Wait, you’re assuming? You don’t know?”
“It didn’t say, the writing was in Latin for a start so Carlos translated what he could, the book was falling apart.. Anyways, apparently only those who are worthy can enter and that there is a secret treasure there, just like we originally thought.”
“I knew there was secret treasure here somewhere, man. But we need more information to go on.”
“We know, we’ll go back in the week, but until then we either ask around-”
“-
Discreetly-”
“-Or look by ourselves.” Carlos finished.
“Okay, I can probably ask Max tomorrow, if anyone knows anything, he will.” Charles stood up.”
“Best not, we do want to keep this to ourselves, remember. The less people know about it, the better.” Lewis reminded him.
“Charles rolled his eyes, sighing. “I know, I know. I’ll drop a few hints to Nearly Headless Nick, though he seems to have something against me.”
“Yeah, and we all know why that is, remember what he caught you and Max up to down that unused corridor? He’s scarred for the rest of his ghostly life.” Lando laughed as Charles’ face burned.
“Yeah, well. He had no reason to be down there, did he. No. Now, bonne nuit everyone.”
“Buenas noches!” Lando and Carlos called out, giggling.
“Night guys.” Lewis smiled fondly.