Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

“Get ready for battle!” Okegiga muttered, taking his spear out.

Looking at the slowly opening stone door, Evan focused preparing for an all-out battle.

The next second, he panted and put down his wand. There was nothing in the other side of the stone gate.

At this time, the fallen Centaurs were all fighting outside, and did not expect someone to sneak in from the depths of the lake; the whole Temple of the Moon was empty.

“Very well, our plan was successful. No one noticed that we have entered the Temple.” Without hesitation, Okegiga turned straight to the left side of the passage. “This way, human! We don’t have much time to waste. We have to get to the top of the Temple before they discover us. It’s our destination, where the evil rituals are going on.”

Under the dim light of the torches, the ancient temple was full of mystery.

The mottled walls left only traces of years of erosion. Many Centaurs’ unique hieroglyphic ornaments and giant stone carvings stood quietly in the corners, covered with dust.

In the empty passage, only two people’s hurried footsteps echoed.

It was just like what Evan saw when he entered the Temple for the first time. Even after 800 years, the quiet temple had not changed.

However, he soon discovered a difference. As he passed through a huge round arched stone room, Evan noticed that the ground and the surrounding walls were covered with dark red paint.

Questions arose in his mind: ‘What on earth are these fallen Centaurs doing?’

‘Why did they smear their sacred Temple with red paint? This is quite unusual.’ He said to himself

Then, he realized he was wrong. These dark red liquids were not any pigments at all. They were all clotted blood stains. There had been a massacre here!

There were no corpses, no wreckage; only dry blood clots were left behind, quietly telling of the crimes that had occurred in this room.

Evan followed Okegiga in, his feet sticking slightly to the ground, making a slight tearing sound as he lift them.

Hiss, hiss, hiss…

It sounded very disturbing, and the pungent smell of blood reached his face.

Evan felt nauseous, and he forbore himself from vomiting.

“The fallen Centaurs are completely mad. They believe that the evil god can lead them to glory!” Okegiga was also very uncomfortable. “Following its requirements, they captured a large number of creatures and carried out massacres here. The evil god and its followers needed a lot of flesh and blood as tributes”

“It’s crazy, let’s move from here!” Evan waved.

He tried to hold his breath and tighten his rib-cage, to keep himself from reacting to what he was seeing. He never expected to witness such a scene in the Centaurs’ Temple.

As Professor Trelawney said, the Dark Temple was full of taboos.

They moved forward quickly, across the room. The stone door opened slowly, and Evan took the lead. Then he stopped abruptly, staring at the corridor in front of him in disbelief.

On the ground not far away was the corpse of a water monster, the Grindylow.

It seemed to have been forgotten there by the fallen Centaurs. Its highly decomposed face was facing Evan. That face looked like that of a human being, and its expression was painfully twisted. The missing muscles seemed to have been eaten away by unknown creatures. Its bare eyes looked ahead with hatred!

Evan did indeed just kill one of these creatures, but this was way too brutal for him.

It was just to satisfy the killer’s momentary pleasure, or possibly more evil, to torture this Grindylow’s soul, so that it could never rest in peace.

This was the key to making Horcruxes. Through the torture before death, the soul becomes extremely unstable and easier to split, or absorbed.

Evan’s feeling of nausea grew stronger, and he unconsciously tightened his grip on his wand.

A golden flame emerged from his wand, burning the Grindylow’s body, in the hope that it would be able to rest in peace.

“That’s only part of it. The crime you’re about to witness is far beyond your imagination!” Okegiga said coldly, with a repressed anger in his voice. “The evil spirit has made the noble Centaurs degenerate into committing evil heresy, which can never be forgiven!”

Evan nodded, and his mouth was full of bitterness.

He tried to calm himself down, as if it was not a big deal. He was determined to stop the evil god that was being summoned.

The circular room, all clotted with blood, seemed to be a signal. As Okegiga said, on the way back, Evan saw many unimaginable scenes.

The walls at both ends of the passage were painted with horrible monsters, swallowing flesh and blood with their tusks open.

As far as Evan knew, these devilish creatures never appeared in any magic book, as if they were of the Centaurs’ imagination and never existed in the world.

He actually hoped that it would be true, that these monsters were all non-existent. Otherwise he could not even imagine how to fight them. This was far beyond his knowledge and expectations.

What he saw and heard along the way gave him a new understanding of the Centaurs’ species.

In the words of the house-elf Dobby, if a house-elf was to become evil, then he would be bad and nonredeemable. This sentence was equally applicable to the Centaurs.

Centaurs didn’t only love stargazing, Divination and archery.

These seemingly ruff magical creatures were full of unimaginable fanaticism.

Evan and Okegiga moved forward. Although they did not communicate, they both accelerated their pace unconsciously.

“Hold on, that’s really strange!” Okegiga frowned suddenly and said. “The Temple is too quiet. They would never leave it without a guard.”

Although it was a secret assault, it would be a great joke if they were able to just rush to the top of the Temple and destroy the ongoing calling ceremony.

The fallen Centaurs would not be so stupid, and the extra challenge that Gryffindor posed to Evan would not be so simple. There must be something else waiting for them.

“The fallen Centaurs are all fighting outside, if they can’t just be here, they must have other defensive measures left behind.” Evan analyzed.

He thought of the horrible statues he had seen in that room before, worm-like monsters with holes all over their heads.

“Maybe we can…” Okegiga suddenly stopped.

He clenched his long lance and looked nervously ahead, as if something was coming.

Buzz, buzz, buzz…

Evan was stunned, and wondered how there could be bees here, but he soon saw what it was. What he saw, was the furthest thing possible from bees…