Chapter 748: Advanced Apparition Techniques Boom!Shattered specks of magical light drifted through the air.It was a beautiful sight, yet it was filled with danger enough |
The moment Draco appeared in the second-floor girls’ bathroom, Moaning Myrtle, who had been assigned to guard this girls’ bathroom... no, more precisely, to help watch over it, passed straight through a stall and appeared in front of Draco and Hermione.
It had to be said.
In such a cold, gloomy place, and in the middle of the night no less, anyone else would probably have been scared out of their wits by that scene.
“Isn’t that Malfoy? Did you come to visit me? It’s been a month... or maybe three months since we last saw each other.”
“Don’t stare at me, Hermione. I think spirits like her probably don’t have a very clear sense of time.”
Faced with Hermione’s suspicious gaze, Draco, who had absolutely no interest in a female ghost... in Moaning Myrtle, felt that he needed to explain quickly. He and the other party were completely innocent.
In fact, ever since the day he defeated the Basilisk, Draco had never stepped into this place again, let alone seen Myrtle, who was somehow blushing in front of him.
Fortunately, the Myrtle before them seemed to realize her mistake as well. “Huh, now that you mention it, Malfoy, you really have grown a lot taller. You look much more manly now.”
“...”
This was probably the first time Draco had ever been teased by someone.
And by a ghost from the Dark Lord’s era, no less.
Mm... If it had been Lady Ravenclaw instead...
Ahem!
In any case.
Draco did not continue dwelling on this and went straight to the point, asking Moaning Myrtle about the matter at hand.
“Have you seen...”
“Professor Snape? Er... I mean, Headmaster Severus.”
Checkmate!
The instant they heard those words from Moaning Myrtle, Draco and Hermione exchanged a knowing look and nodded at the same time.
It seemed Draco’s guess had been right.
Snape had indeed entered the Chamber of Secrets, and he was very likely waiting for them to arrive...
...
Passing by Myrtle, who had begun sobbing softly out of emotion, Draco led Hermione straight to the entrance sealed by magic.
The passage that had been destroyed back then had now been repaired by magic. In its place was...
“It doesn’t look like a Jinx.”
“It’s a spell I’ve never seen before. Truly fascinating.”
“Not only that, but in Hogwarts, where reckless use of magic would be noticed, this is basically impossible to solve.”
That Miss Know-It-All Hermione was online again.
Without giving Draco any chance to speak, Hermione stepped forward first and began studying it.
What stood before them looked like a wall, but behind it was actually the pipe leading to the Chamber of Secrets.
Draco did not interrupt Hermione. Instead, he first noticed a spot in the corner of the wall, as if something there had drawn his attention.
And just as Hermione turned a pleading gaze toward Draco, she saw him silently take out his wand and tap the wall three times.
The strangely familiar sight nearly made Hermione cry out in surprise.
Click, click, click.
Before their eyes, the wall split apart to both sides in a short span of time, revealing a pitch-black, deep opening in front of Draco and Hermione.
“...Isn’t this?!”
“Yes. The same trick as Diagon Alley.”
“You knew about it already?”
“No... In fact, if Snape hadn’t left a mark, I wouldn’t have known this kind of magic had been used here.”
Without Draco’s reminder, Hermione would never have noticed that there was such an inconspicuous magical mark in the corner of the wall.
Or rather, the words were written there.
Three taps...
...
Tap, tap, tap.
In the pitch-black passage, the only source of light was the faint glow from the wand in Draco’s hand.
It was the Wand-Lighting Charm, a simple spell every young wizard could master...
After passing through the wall, Hermione, both nervous and curious, clutched Draco’s robe tightly with one hand while still tossing out question after question.
“So this is Slytherin’s Chamber of Secrets? Is this where the Basilisk came from? Is it dangerous in here?”
At that moment, Hermione was like an overly curious child, filled with questions the entire way.
But she did not seem to need Draco’s answers.
Because she would find the answers herself...
“So that’s it. This passage was built later.”
“The air isn’t as bad as I imagined. Is that because someone cleans it regularly? The House-elves, maybe?”
As Hermione asked and answered her own questions, Draco and Hermione gradually arrived before a door that had already been opened.
And behind that door was an extremely spacious chamber.
If one looked carefully, traces of the battle from back then could still be seen. It seemed they had been deliberately preserved...
It had to be said.
This scene reminded Draco of how dangerous it had been at the time.
The Basilisk with the Deathly Eyes.
And the Dark Lord’s Horcrux.
It could be said that it was from this place onward that Draco truly drew Voldemort’s attention...
Seeing Draco fall somewhat silent, Hermione seemed to understand something. She looked at the relief wall before them, the one carved with human figures.
“This is where you fought the Dark Lord’s Horcrux?”
“That’s right. It was also here that Norberta and the Basilisk had a proper fight.”
“I see. So that was when everything began to be exposed.”
After withdrawing her gaze, Hermione finally looked around.
More precisely, she began looking for the true purpose of their visit tonight.
“I don’t see Snape. Did something go wrong?”
“No... He must be here. Otherwise, there’s no way to explain the clue he left just now.”
“Could it be...”
“Careful. Take out your wand, Hermione!”
“Huh?!”
At that moment, a powerful surge of magic suddenly came from the depths of the darkness.
Then, in the next second, the sound of air being torn apart rang through the chamber.
Along with a single spell.
“Sectumsempra!”
...
That familiar dark magic, paired with that cold voice.
Draco and Hermione recognized the attacker’s identity at once.
And precisely because they recognized him, their expressions were filled with shock and confusion.
Although they froze for an instant, Draco’s reaction was not slow at all.
The moment the invisible blade was about to reach them, Draco released the same dark magic and easily resolved the crisis.
“...Sectumsempra!”
The same spell, cast by two different wizards.
Boom!
Before the burst of air could engulf them, Hermione immediately used magic to block it.
Their coordination could only be described as seamless.
However, compared with praising Hermione, Draco was far more concerned about the reason behind the attacker’s actions.
Why attack them?
“Why...?”
As Draco’s voice fell, the wizard who stepped out from the darkness was none other than the one draped in black robes.
Severus Snape!!
...
Boom!
Shattered specks of magical light drifted through the air.
It was a beautiful sight, yet it was filled with danger enough to make one tremble.
Because the malicious surge of magic, and the magical light from the wand pointed their way, both made one thing clear.
The one who had come meant them harm!
...
Familiar dark magic.
An undisguised cold laugh.
But compared with the shock and wariness of being attacked, the attacker’s true identity was what really stunned Draco and Hermione.
Seeing Snape emerge from the darkness, Hermione murmured doubtfully, “Was that to confirm our identities...?”
“...”
“...”
Clearly, what Hermione really wanted to say was this.
Perhaps Snape had used this method to confirm that the people who had appeared here were not the Death Eaters secretly following him, but Draco and Hermione.
In Snape’s eyes, only a wizard who could react in time and counterattack with the same dark magic would be the Draco he was waiting for.
Mm... That was the only explanation Hermione could come up with.
Only.
Perhaps even Hermione herself did not believe it.
Otherwise, her expression would not have been so tense, and she would not still have her wand raised at Snape across from them...
As for suspecting that Snape was someone else in disguise?
If the dark magic just now had not been Sectumsempra, perhaps Hermione would have used that reason to convince herself.
In fact, Draco did not offer any excuse for his godfather, nor did he say anything to justify what had just happened.
A misunderstanding?
A slip of the hand?
Or had Snape mistaken them for someone else?
No matter what the reason was, Draco only believed what he had seen with his own eyes.
At least for now, he had no intention of lowering his weapon first...
...
Boom!
His robes billowed violently.
A terrifying surge of magic erupted from Draco’s body.
Facing a powerful wizard like Snape, Draco naturally had no intention of hiding his strength or holding back.
Or rather, he had no room to hold back at all...
Was this worthy of the Chamber of Secrets secretly built by Slytherin?
This place seemed able to block all detection, and it could even violate the various restrictions set by Hogwarts.
Because of that, no matter what kind of magic was used here, it was possible, and the wizards in Hogwarts Castle would not notice anything unusual at all.
Just like the battle between Norberta and the Basilisk back then. No one had noticed it, not even Dumbledore.
In a sense, perhaps this Chamber of Secrets beneath Hogwarts Castle was the true inheritance of Slytherin.
In other words, even if Draco and Hermione were killed here, no one would ever find out!
Crack!
“Hermione!”
“I know!”
The instant space twisted and Snape vanished, Draco shouted to Hermione.
Hermione, understanding what Draco meant, answered with a clear cry.
Destination, determination, and deliberation!
Crack!
Crack!
The three of them appeared from the air again and again, attacked, then vanished once more.
The scene unfolded inside the Chamber of Secrets like a feast of magic...
In that short span of time, every side of the Chamber of Secrets was blasted by all kinds of scattered magic.
Those magical marks had all been left by missed spells and Jinxes.
Just when it seemed that the magic was about to strike one of them, that figure would vanish into the distorted air.
That was Apparition.
And what Draco, Hermione, and Snape were displaying now was an extremely advanced technique in wizard dueling.
Continuous Apparition!
...
This attacking technique required more than mastery of Apparition and precise magical control. During the process, one also had to cast offensive magic at the enemy.
If it were only using Apparition to avoid attacks, that would indeed not be too difficult. With some time and practice, it was not impossible to master.
But once Apparition and attacking were combined, the difficulty rose by an enormous degree, far beyond what an ordinary wizard could use.
The true threshold for this technique lay in the application and perception of space, as well as the ability to divide one’s attention and cast offensive spells while appearing.
Aside from talent, it also required a certain amount of effort...
In fact, even Hermione, with her exceptional learning ability, had not truly mastered this technique yet.
At this moment, she was only using Apparition to dodge.
The one truly fighting Snape, exchanging attacks back and forth with him, was Draco...