Chapter 126 – The Box
On the same day, after we left the ruins and arrived back home, I hurriedly pulled out the box from our pouch, doing it like how muggles think a wizard should act. It would have been only better if I pulled out a bunny of it; alas, we didn't have any crowd of muggles watching us.
"Well, the symbol is on it, so this is the correct thing. The question is, are we going to open it?" I asked, making Quincy chuckle.
"Maybe... But I don't think we would be able to."
"Charms and hexes?"
"Charms and hexes!"
"Exactly." Answered Grindelwald, walking into the room, smiling, not looking offended at all. "You can, of course, try it. I am curious if you can crack it or not."
He didn't have to say anything else as we took turns trying to dispel the magic on it without blowing the whole thing to pieces. It was, as one would expect, an abject failure. Our first prodding spells simply bounced off it, almost setting our home aflame. Then, we tried to do it more subtly, but that also backfired. For the following night, I had whiskers for some reason while Quincy sprouted a sunflower, growing from the top of her head. It just did not work.
"I give up!" I shrugged, throwing my hands in the air while Quincy was trying to pull out the sunflower, but it was like yanking on her hair.
"Make this thing disappear!" She cried, looking at Grindelwald, who simply smiled, clearly enjoying our plight.
"It will be gone by the time morning comes, don't worry. I enjoyed your approach, trying to disturb the sealing spell on it; the only problem was none of you had deep enough knowledge to outplay it. You would have to cast a preliminary, probing spell that does not activate the seal but excites it only enough for you to gain an understanding of its nature and workings. Then, you can identify it by comparing the spell with others of its kind, deriving the unknowns before modifying an already existing counter-spell to the parameters of this one. The true grandmasters of magic could do it. If I had to guess, Albus could open it in a day or so. That is why you don't have to feel bad, kids. As I said, you lack the experience to do it; one day, you will be able to break it without my help!" He concluded, tapping his wand at the box that answered with a soft click.
I don't know what I expected to be hidden within it, but when he opened it, I did not expect a weird-looking cauldron, a rolled-up leather toolkit, and a bunch of tied parchment greeting us. But these should be important, or why would it have been guarded by a vampire in the first place?