#14 - Returning

Grace remembered the reflection, and waved cheerfully at it. When it did not seem to stand aside for her awesome power, she sighed and pulled out the second invisibility potion that Lucas sold her. It had been a good investment, but she had been hoping to use it to go do something more sneaky when she needed to. Oh well. She could probably make one for herself later.

She poured the invisibility potion over the same blanket as before, since it had reverted back to being visible. She expected more of the same, the blanket becoming invisible. Once again, she was incredibly careful not to pour it on herself directly, just in case it was big poison or something like that.

When she was done pouring the potion over the blanket, she draped it over herself and waited for her reflection to disappear.

Grace entered the Artefact Room, the same sense of wonder came over her. She made her way over to the main wall, eyes wide. The Gryffindor crest had the strongest pull over her, and Grace took a deep breath before walking over to it. She was initially cautious to take the talisman out, afraid she was going to drop it. She quickly got over it and pulled it out.

Maybe the stone plinth wanted the artefact. That would make sense. What was an artefact room with no artefacts? Grace was still hoping for a magical knife, or failing that a magical sword. She held the talisman above the plinth, but did not yet put it down, fearing that she might be doing something wrong.

Grace cried out in pain as the vision overwhelmed her. Why were visions painful? She'd have to ask a teacher about that later. As soon as it was over, she whipped her head around to see if some creature was going to attack her. Convinced that, for now at least, she was safe, Grace then realized that her exit was closed off. Well, there went any hopes of just turning around, not that Grace had even considered doing so.

Maybe the artefact was hungry for blood. Well, it was out of luck. Grace couldn't think of any way to get her blood out of her, unless maybe she bit her lip really hard, and she didn't really want to kiss the artefact. She searched through her bag, wishing that the artefact had really turned into a knife. That way she could at least put some blood on it, like Gryffindor did.

Grace pulled out one of the horns that she'd bought for potions use, and decided it might suffice for a light stabbing. She decided her little finger was the one she would miss the least if anything happened. She held her hand above the artefact as she pressed the point of the horn into her little finger, hoping to give the artefact a little blood.

She also considered it just a little gross that she'd been carrying around something with blood on it for a while, but there were more pressing matters to deal with.