The early morning sun filtered through the windowpanes, waking Kyle from his slumber.
Cedric and Hannah also climbed out of bed, looking somewhat dazed.
"Hey! You're awake! I didn't wake you, did I?" Hagrid's voice drifted over from the side.
It seemed Hagrid had risen very early. It must have been difficult for a giant as clumsy as him to move so quietly; Kyle hadn't noticed a single sound.
Having finished washing up, the three young wizards followed Hagrid out of the small hut.
"Come on, we need to report last night's events to Professor Dumbledore."
Since the first rays of dawn had only just hit the ground, the lush green grass beneath their feet was still slightly damp. They quickly closed the distance to the bluish-gray castle.
As the four of them reached the castle entrance, they ran into Professor McGonagall and Professor Sprout, both of whom looked extremely anxious. Both professors appeared exhausted, as if they hadn't slept at all the previous night.
"Hagrid! Were the three of them with you last night?" Professor Sprout asked.
Professor McGonagall pursed her lips tightly, checking the three children over repeatedly for any injuries.
Last night, Kyle's cry for help had been heard by almost all of Hogwarts. If it hadn't been for Kyle's crow, Itachi, bringing a note to Dumbledore—who had just emerged from the Forbidden Corridor—stating they were safe, the professors would have truly been driven mad with worry.
Hagrid nodded. "Professor McGonagall, what exactly happened last night?"
At the mention of this, Professor Sprout's expression suddenly turned dreadfully grim, her eyes burning with a fierce rage. She truly could not imagine what kind of cold-blooded wizard would attack her beloved students in the middle of the night.
Furthermore, that wizard's method of attack was to release Dungbombs right at the entrance of the Hufflepuff Common Room!
Worse yet, he had blasted the exit of the Hufflepuff Common Room shut, trapping her students inside! They had been rendered unconscious by the sheer stench!
She didn't know what those Dungbombs were made of, but it had taken her and several other professors a massive amount of effort to clear the odor from the basement corridors. By the time they cleared the debris from the entrance to the Common Room and the kitchens, Professor Sprout found that the vast majority of students in their dormitories had fainted, foaming at the mouth.
Even the House-elves had all been knocked out in the kitchens.
Professor Sprout didn't dare imagine what might have happened if the professors had arrived any later—it could have been a mass casualty event by suffocation. This was perhaps the most serious public assault in the history of Hogwarts.
Listening to Professor Sprout's narration, the three young wizards behind Hagrid wore strange expressions.
"Look at what you've done!"
"None of my business! You're the one who threw the Dungbombs first!"
"I only threw two in the corridor! Are you seriously saying you weren't the one who dumped dozens of them into the fire?"
Standing behind Hagrid, Kyle and Cedric engaged in a silent argument with their eyes. Either way, they absolutely could not take the blame for this. If they were caught, Professor Sprout would likely beat them to death.
Just then, Dumbledore emerged from the Great Hall, interrupting their silent bickering. Through the doors behind the old man, the scene inside the Hall was visible.
The other three long tables were mostly full, but the Hufflepuff table was empty and desolate, save for a few lucky souls who had been out for a late-night stroll and escaped the disaster. Now, the vast majority of Hufflepuffs were cooped up in Madam Pomfrey's hospital wing. Their bodies weren't physically harmed, but their spirits had suffered a major blow.
Meeting Dumbledore's crystal-blue eyes, the three young wizards felt as though they were being seen through.
Kyle took the initiative to step forward. "Professor Dumbledore, we encountered Voldemort again last night."
"Voldemort!?" Professors McGonagall and Sprout both let out gasps of shock.
Dumbledore looked at Kyle and Hagrid. "I wish to know what happened last night."
Kyle gave a brief account of being attacked at a corridor corner after returning from outside. Of course, he omitted two trivial details: the fact that they had sneaked back from Hogsmeade in the middle of the night, and their use of Dungbombs to stall Voldemort's assault.
The part where the three of them fled outside the castle was picked up by Hagrid.
While Hagrid reported to Dumbledore, the three young wizards slipped into the Great Hall to enjoy breakfast. Hogsmeade didn't have a single decent restaurant; they had just cobbled together a random meal the night before, only to be thrust into a "Battle Royale" the moment they returned to Hogwarts. Pumpkin juice wasn't very filling, and they were starving.
"The Eight Inner Gates?" Dumbledore's tone sounded exceptionally surprised.
Dumbledore was aware of the Taijutsu technique Kyle had developed. Originally, he thought it was merely a way to release physical limitations, allowing a wizard to perform certain movements they previously couldn't. Nothing more.
But he had clearly underestimated the power of this technique.
Dumbledore suddenly felt a sense of relief. If Hagrid hadn't mastered the Eight Inner Gates, and given that the professors were distracted and he himself was absent, Kyle and the others might have been in grave danger. The things this boy tinkered with actually had some merit.
At the Gryffindor table, the three "little badgers" had abandoned their own house table to huddle here.
"So, Harry won't be able to play in the Quidditch final tomorrow?" Kyle looked at the empty seat next to Ron, where a certain Boy Who Lived should have been sitting. It seemed Harry was currently lying in a hospital bed alongside the rest of the Hufflepuffs.
A short-haired boy nearby suddenly leaned over. "Harry went to the corridor on the right-hand side of the fourth floor last night! He stopped a Dark Wizard from stealing a treasure! That's how he got hurt!"
Kyle recognized him: Seamus Finnigan, Harry and Ron's roommate.
He was hailed by many Hogwarts professors as a genius of demolition; even a simple Wand-Lighting Charm could cause severe destruction in his hands. If Fred hadn't gotten there first, Seamus might have been a better fit for the position of "Seiryu" in the Akatsuki.
Hearing Seamus's words, Kyle turned his gaze toward Ron, who sat across the table. It was eighty percent certain that Ron's big mouth had let this slip.
Cedric shook his head with some regret. "I was hoping for a fair duel between Seekers. The Hufflepuff team has improved a lot lately."
Cedric was confident now that even without relying on Kyle's "Bludger Snooker"—a technique derived from Shurikenjutsu—they could have gone toe-to-toe with Gryffindor.
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