“Why does Incendio only go up to ‘Tria’? Would be nice if I had a Quadra as well!” Sol slowly advanced as he blasted the Ice Knight with flames. Under the intense heat, the wall of icicles around him started melting bit by bit as did the Ice Knight though the latter melted at a far slower pace.

With one hand using his wand, he dug at the satchel by his side and took out some potion bottles with swirling orange liquid. It was a bottle of LiquiFlame he made all those years ago. He stopped his wand for a moment and threw the bottle at the Ice Knight.

The orange liquid splashed all over the Knight, covering its upper body. With another burst of flames blooming from Sol’s wand, the liquid caught flames. With the Ice Knight now having lingering flames on it, the speed at which it raised the sword was slower albeit still faster than when it was being burned by Sol.

With the extra time, he aimed his wand at the walls icicles beside him and cast Incendio once more. The icicles began melting quickly under the direct heat from the flames being cast on them. A small cubicle was formed in the wall for Sol to hide into.

Coincidentally, the Ice Knight’s sword had reached its apex. The Ice Knight disregarding the flames on his body swung his huge sword down once again. The sword impacted the ground causing a loud crash as ice spikes started sprouting toward Sol once again.

He dove into the cubicle and dodged the spikes once again. “Fuck, this is getting tedious!” he grumbled to himself.

From inside the cubicle, he reached out his hand and aimed his wand at the Ice Knight casting flames once again.

“It is not repairing itself, so it has no core like a golem,” Sol sighed. “So, is it just a battle of attrition?”

Half an hour later

The Ice Knight who only had his lower body left collapsed on the ground. Sol came out from a hole completely drenched in sweat. Prolonged exposure to flames had made him sweat even in this room full of ice. He massaged his arm which was sore from being raised for more than half an hour.

“Fuck me; it was a battle of attrition!” Sol kicked a piece of ice in frustration. He walked past the remains of the Ice Knight. He looked at the door which it had been guarding all this time. He did not reach out for the handle. His legs which felt like lead finally gave away and he sat down, leaning his back on the door.

He looked up at the ceiling. It no longer had any icicles. His breath which became white mist as soon as it left his mouth, mixed with the air.

“I-In the end…I could not overcome the limits of my human body. Despite everything I’ve done, I’m still weaker than ever. A mere imitation of a golem has pushed to me such a state,” Sol looked at himself in disgust. Strands of hair sticking to his sweaty forehead, a back full of cold sweat and muscles that ached from soreness and fatigue; when had he last felt so powerless?

Had he ever been in a proper battle this life? He has cheated his way out of every fight he ever encountered- against Quirrel and even the Basilisk.

“This is my first f-fucking battle…” he laughed mirthlessly. “Sneaking around, snaking my way past every obstacle, was this my style? What happened to ‘guns blazing’?”

He used his hand to sweep the hair from his forehead. Kneading his arms, he thought aloud, “Had I, perhaps, always subconsciously thought myself to be weak?”

“Ah, how the mighty have fallen!” he slammed his fist into the door behind. The dull pain that came from that action only fueled his frustrations.

“I wish I never had these remnants,” he slumped and hung his head lower. “I…I don’t want my knowledge anymore.” He looked up at the ceiling. His eyes that had dark circles from staying up late nights seemed strained and hollow.

“Even being like this shows how pathetic I truly am,” he leaned back and rested his head on the wooden door.

His thoughts soon faded. He no longer wanted to think about these things. He spent half an hour counting the cracks on the ceiling.

“Run, run, run away. Do what you do best,” with a deep exhale, Sol got up from the ground and dusted the snow from his butt. He grabbed the door and swung it open. He peered through the doorway. Darkness. It seemed he was seeing it too much these days.

He stepped into the room and the door swung shut behind him. As though, the room had noticed that someone stepped inside, the torches mounted on the walls lit themselves.

With the torches illuminating the room, he began surveying the interior. The first thing he noticed was that the room was not made of ice this time and he no longer felt the biting chill from the previous room. The comfortable warmth made his nerves less tense.

There was a column in the midst of the room which glowed a fiery orange glow. The warmth he felt seemed to be emanated from it. He walked closer and the column reacted.

Like a lotus, its sides unfurled towards the ground and revealed that which it contained. A broken wand and book. They looked ordinary and worn as if they belonged to someone. Yet they had none of the degradations that come with age. It seemed these items had been frozen in time, hidden away from the eye.

He reached out and grabbed the items. The wand which only had its lower part left had no magic left in it. Its core seemed depleted.

He put the wand away and looked at the book. It looked unremarkable in every way. Its leather cover was peeling off in many places and the pages were yellow. He opened the book yet understood none of its contents. The drawings made no sense but by the looks of it, the artist must’ve either been in a hurry or was a lunatic.

A pattern of words kept popping up repeatedly. Under the drawing of a castle were the words ‘Caledonia’ written in Ancient Language.

“I-Is this perhaps the Hogwarts Castle?” Sol’s eyes widened as he looked at the drawing carefully. “But what is Caledonia?”

Similar words were scribbled under other drawings as well but now was neither the time nor the place to decipher them. Shoving the book in his robes, he decided to come out the way he came.

Opening the door, he went back to the ice room which looked devastated after the fight. Not even sparing a glance around the room, he made his way to the hole in the wall in which he came through and squeezed in. He popped out of the hole and went up the stairs as if nothing happened.

At the top of the stairs from where he came, the illusionary wall seemed to have reappeared. It seemed it was a permanent addition to the castle and would regenerate over time. He passed through the wall as it rippled like a stone had been thrown in a still lake.

He did not feel this to be worth it. He realized more things about himself than he wanted to know.

“Even my constant pursuit for peace despite the two years of bullshit I’ve had to endure here was just me running away. I keep running, running, and running away from the shit I don’t want to face. Is this what it means to understand? I’ve known my problems and their answers for so long but why is it only until now that I truly understand?”

Sol sighed. Come to think of it, he had been sighing quite often these days. He made his way throughout the castle stealthily. He finally came out of the castle and stood in the grassy courtyard between the castle and Gryffindor Tower.

The bright full moon had subtly changed positions yet lost none of its grace. He felt the gentle caress of the wind as it rustled the leaves of the trees around him. His shoes clacked as he walked on the cobbled path.

“In the end, what the fuck is it that I want?” His whispering plea never reached anyone and only ended up being a soliloquy.