Chapter 141. Quirrell... is dead!
"Newt, look over there."
Tina stood up and raised her hand to point into the distance.
There, lightning danced back and forth through the dark clouds like a silver serpent, turning almost the whole sky white by reflection.
After a short while, as if the end of the world had come, the roaming silver serpent plunged downward, and web-like arcs of electricity flickered in the air.
It looked like one silver-white World Tree after another hanging upside down from the sky, making it impossible to look away, hearts clenching tight.
A fear of directly facing the terrifying might of nature welled up, and a sense of smallness arose involuntarily, making one long to turn and flee.
Newt stared in disbelief for a moment, then looked back at Professor Kettleburn and asked, "Are you certain this is Duncan, an eleven-year-old child, casting magic?"
"I know it's hard to believe, but it's true.
And isn't Duncan your grandson?
How can you not be clear on this?"
Professor Kettleburn eyed Newt with suspicion, as if questioning whether Newt and Duncan's blood relationship was reliable.
"I—I'm certainly clear on it, it's just that when he cast it before, the power wasn't this great, so I'm surprised..." Newt cleared his throat, a little guilty, and lowered his voice.
When he had travelled with Duncan before, he had never seen—nor known—that Duncan could use magic this powerful.
But he could not admit that in front of Professor Kettleburn, or this fellow would definitely use it to mock him.
"Really?" Kettleburn narrowed his eyes, saw through Newt's guilty conscience, his eyeballs turned, and a notion rose in his heart.
Smiling broadly, he said, "Newt, stop acting.
How would you have seen it before?
I taught him this after he went to school.
Well then, in teaching students, you're a long way behind me, aren't you?"
Hearing this, Newt's face stiffened a little and his eyes drifted aside.
He had not expected to brag right in front of the person involved.
"All right, you two stop bickering.
Jocelyn is back."
Tina cut the two of them off.
Her gaze passed over the bushes in front of them.
A burly, square-faced man with a full beard was glancing all around and striding quickly towards them.
When Jocelyn, who had gone to gather intelligence, slipped into the bushes, Tina immediately asked, "How are things at the gorge?"
"It's a good opportunity!" Jocelyn panted and said, "Many of the wizards guarding that side were drawn away by the commotion Duncan made.
Now, apart from a few key positions, there are no wizards left anywhere else."
"Are you sure you saw clearly?" Newt, forgetting his quarrel with Professor Kettleburn, hurriedly asked.
"Absolutely sure!" Jocelyn replied.
"I sneaked around all those hidden places for a look.
I saw it very clearly!"
"Good." Newt nodded solemnly.
"Tina, shall we set out?"
"Mm." Tina's eyes swept over the people around them, and she said seriously, "Everyone, be careful later.
Don't force a head-on clash.
Protect yourselves.
I hope when the fighting ends, we all come through safe and sound."
"Understood, Mrs Scamander.
We're not children.
We've gone through battles like this many times!"
The younger witches and wizards clustered nearby joked.
Most of them were Newt's students or fanatical magical-creature enthusiasts.
Tina smiled and nodded, straightened her back and stepped forward, as if she had found the same high-spirited verve she had when she fought the followers of Grindelwald in her youth.
With boldness she waved her hand and said, "Let's go.
We're going to wipe out those filthy bugs!"
"Yes!"
The others raised their wands and replied in unison.
By the time Tina and the others reached the steep, towering gorge, a fierce battle broke out at once, with spells of every colour flying through the air.
On the other side of the forest, the thunder gradually subsided, with only the occasional bolt of lightning falling to lick at the towering trees.
Duncan came out of the case, looked around, called the two Erumpents back into the case, and left only Mori at his side to guard him.
Hearing movement behind him, he frowned and said, "Didn't we agree?
Your body is still very weak right now.
You should be resting in the case.
I can go to the gorge alone just fine."
"I don't feel at ease letting you go alone.
Besides, that magic worked very well.
I'm almost recovered!"
Olivia climbed out of the case regardless, a relaxed smile on her somewhat pale face.
She stood up straight beside Duncan.
The Unicorn's healing magic was extraordinary.
After a full course, the wounds on her body had basically closed up, showing no abnormalities.
Right now she was only a little weak.
As long as she ate more nourishing food and rested quietly for a while, she would be fine.
"Please, I'm stronger than you, all right?" Duncan said.
"If anyone needs to worry, it should be me worrying about you!"
"But you're younger than me!
And I've been to that gorge.
I know it better than you!" Olivia said, with bluster that didn't quite have the logic to back it up.
"Fine." Duncan said helplessly.
"But you must promise me: if the fighting gets intense later, you have to get back into the case at once.
No dawdling and no lingering to fight, absolutely not!"
"Got it..." Olivia pouted, using the tone one would use to humour a small child.
But under Duncan's serious gaze, Olivia sighed and then said, "Don't worry.
When the time comes I'll run faster than anyone!"
"That's more like it!"
Duncan nodded, satisfied, picked up the case, and, following the directions from Kray the Thunderbird circling above the treetops, sprinted through the forest towards the gorge.
After running some distance, Mori, who was curled up inside Duncan's clothes, suddenly poked out his head in alarm.
He stretched his neck to sniff hard at the air, then whispered in Duncan's ear, "I can feel a familiar evil aura.
It seems like something I smelled at the school."
"Oh?"
Duncan slowed his steps and hurriedly asked, "Who is it, and in which direction?"
"Over there!"
Mori turned his head towards Duncan's right.
Duncan nodded and moved in the direction Mori indicated, while warning, "Olivia, be careful.
We may be about to meet a terrifying enemy."
"Mm, I know."
Olivia answered solemnly, and her hand tightened around her wand.
After running for a bit, Mori sniffed again and whispered, "The aura is very strong now.
He should be nearby."
Duncan crouched carefully, used the bushes to conceal his body, watched the surroundings, and prepared to release a statue.
But he looked for a long time without noticing anything unusual.
Only when his gaze slid to a low-lying place did he see the corner of a black robe.
Duncan raised his eyebrows and tentatively fired a few spells at that spot, but after waiting for a long time there was still no movement.
"No one?"
Duncan rose slowly, moved forward cautiously, edged to the lip of the depression, and leaned over to check.
A middle-aged man with a scarf wrapped around him lay soundlessly at the bottom of the hollow.
He was thin, and there were scorch marks on the surface of his skin.
"Quirrell?"
Duncan's eyes went wide, and he exclaimed in disbelief.
After vanishing from the school, Quirinus Quirrell had actually come here and gotten mixed up with that mysterious organisation.
And he had died here without a sound.
If not for Mori catching his scent, perhaps no one would ever have discovered it.
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