Jisung was pretty sure he had never felt more terrified than now.

Looking back, all those arguments he had had with his parents, all the nights spent sleepless because of an important test the following day, the time he had believed he and Felix were going to be beaten up by the entirety of the Slytherin team, even; compared to the scene his eyes were now witnessing, nothing could quite compete.

The Gryffindor wanted to scream – he wanted to so badly. But he couldn't, and he knew he couldn't because if he got caught, he would've had no way to help Minho out of this situation.

The Slytherin, thruth be told, was handling the fight rather well for how unprepared and unseasoned he was compared to the 'Maester' – whom, right from first watch, Jisung had immediately disliked: he was a tall man, with hair so fair that, more than blonde, seemed white, and who had a completely black mask emblazoned with many emeralds to cover his face.

That maks, however, must've had holes where the eyes were supposed to be, for the precision with which he was sending jinxes and curses was rather phenomenal.

The situation, since Minho's brave gesture to come out from what the Gryffindor judged now the most comfortable position on earth (and that was – where they couldn't be seen), had escalated quickly: apparently, neither the Maester nor the woman had particularly appreciated the boy's sudden appearence – although, as Jisung suspected, for different reasons.

The man, at the sight of the Slytherin, had had a second's surprise, but had recovered so quickly that, hadn't Minho developed through many quiddich trainings very good reflexes, the jinx would've hit him immediately.

But unluckily for him, Minho had good reflexes, and had therefore managed to roll uncursed down the Chamber's floor.

"Damned child! Who are you to dare come violate my private space?", the man had roared with anger, accompanying the words with another curse.

Minho had easily avoided that one too. "Your private space?" his voice had had a very mocking undertone, and he had sent a deadly glare towards the man. Jisung had been aware that the tone was not the appropriate one the Slytherin ought to have used, but the ladder had sounded so masterful that he couldn't help but find the ladder absolutely attractive.

"This is not your private space, it's Hogwart's. And I can go wherever the heck I feel like, especially when giant snakes are seen roaming around the castle" had spat the Slytherin, and this time he had sent a spell in the direction of the old man too: he hadn't voiced it, but Jisung had been sure that it had been a disarming charm when the man's wand had gone flying towards Minho.

The Slytherin had been about to grab it, but a few moments beforehand the entire floor had trembled, causing him to fall, together with the wand, that had rolled near where Jisung was standing: the old man, clearly, knew things about that place that, even with the most preparation possible, the two students didn't.

Before the Gryffindor could even think about anything at all, the woman had stumbled to catch her Maester's wand.

Oh shit oh shit oh shit. Jisung was really starting to panic: the sudden trembling seemed to have got Minho hurt, and the boy was struggling to get up. Besides, the woman had been on her way to hand the wand back to the Maester – although she'd been doing it very slowly, continuously glancing back as if she'd forgotten about something and she was looking for it.

Jisung, however, had reached his peak terror stage. He was not even noticing, for how terrorized he was, that the woman was glancing towards him. All he could think of was the terrible ending Minho might have if he didn't come up with something soon.

All his reflections were leading to something, when he heard an insistent cough: quickly turning around, he finally locked his eyes with the woman's – the poor servant looked almost as scared as he was (and that was saying something), and was flashing fast glances towards Minho. The woman didn't speak, but her message was pretty clear: Do something, you only can save him now.

"LUCRETIA!" the man's voice echoed within the Chamber. He was standing right below the monumental statue of Salazar Slyhterin, and looked so powerful that Jisung, for a brief moment, almost thought that he was indeed the old founder. "What's taking you so long?"

The woman lingered at Jisung for one last time. Despite the situation, something about her face triggered a memory in the Gryffindor's mind: he could've sworn that he'd already seen her... then he remembered of the name the man had called her not long ago, Lucretia, and somethinf finally came up to mind: the dream he'd had, obviously! He didn't know for sure if she was the woman of the nightmare, but now it seemed as likely as it could get. But she shrugged the thought off quickly: that was not the time for those kind of reflections. It's now or never.

Without even knowing what he was doing, the Gryffindor suddenly jumped over and landed softly on the Chamber's floor. The room felt imposing and masterly, and to be standing right inside felt very odd – but it was not something that Jisung noticed.

The ladder had just had the time to reach Minho – grabbing the Slytherin's wand in the process – that the Maester had growled in rage.

The man would've easily cursed the two of the on the spot, but the woman was quick to grab his wand arm: "Don't", she ordered, and Jisung was surprised to see how confident and authoritarian she'd sounded: it felt as if she had been keeping that part hidden for a very long time, but she had once known how to use it.

That was just for a quick second, however, because when she next talked she sounded, if anything, even more intimidated than before. "Y-you can't touch them", she stuttered.

"Why wouldn't I?" the man seemed most shocked – and furious.

"It's not convenient!" she was quick to answer. "Their absence will go noticed, – it's probably already got noticed – people will search for them and when they'll find them here, hurt" she gulped, "or killed, it'll only be a matter of time before they find you. They can discover whose wand did the deed".

The Maester growled. "And what should I be suppsed to do then, eh?" he spat. "Free them? Have them come back to their fucking dorms?"

"J-just cast an Oblivio spell to them. You can then have them wrapped and leave them here... just – just don't touch them".

"Be lucky that I know you have no life" said the man disgusted, "or I would think you actually had feelings for the two scums". And with that, he drew his wand out and sent what seemed like an emprisonment charm.

Jisung was ready to accept it almost willfully, – anything was better than death, at that point – but he felt a hand get grip of his hips and, before he knew, he found himself laying on the other side of the room, Minho above him: they'd avoided the curse.

The man, if furious before, now was absolutely rageful: but before tackling the two guys, he turned to face the woman. "You-", he started, but he never got arounf finishing the sentence that he had so demandingly started.

"STOP!" Jisung looked, awed, as the Slytherin was getting up. He wore a look so serious on his face, that had he not been on his side he would've probably passed out of fear right on the spot. "Let her go. Now".

And before anyone could refute, a sudden stirring filled the Chamber, and a green silhouette broke into the scene.

~🤍~

Okay, so in the last chapter I promised there would be an album review so here it goes:
first of all, I absolutely ADORE it. I don't know how it stands with Levanter, but then again, I don't know how anything can quite stand with Levanter
my favorite track remains slump (fucking masterpiece), but EASY and phobia are up there too.

the title track was amazing (3racha never lets us down) but there still is one criticism that I wanted to point out, and that is (as you can probably already imagine) with the line distribution: I don't know if it is fair for me to complain, but I seriously am quite underwhelmed by the amount of lines Minho (didn't) got. I mean, it can be acceptable in a b-side, but you can't have a TITLE TRACK with one member not even having ONE line (not to say that he got no screen time and that is not okay). I mean I get it, he's not among the most popular members but that does not make up for it.

All in all, I'm not trying to bash Stray Kids or anything, because I love them to pieces (good lord I have been writing a full ass NOVEL on them for the past six months), but I am hoping that, if we make this heard, then they will take our criticism into consideration for the next comeback.

That being said, PLEASE stream the mv, vote & support our boys throughout this comeback, because if there's a group that deserves a win for june it is Stray Kids and Stray Kids only!!😞🖐🏻🖐🏻

Also, let me know what your opinions on GO LIVE, I'm really curious to hear what you think🥰

see you on monday, take care~

Vic🌙.