Chapter 206: A Loud Slap! Waking Up the Strongest white wizard
"Albus, stop!"
When Hermione shouted, Dumbledore had already stepped into the dark red mist.
The mist gushed from the pit, clinging to his chest like a hand pressing against his heart.
In the mist, a blonde girl lay in a pool of blood.
A shattered room, chaotic spell light, three raised wands.
And Ariana, who had fallen forever.
Dumbledore's eyes suddenly went vacant.
Those eyes that always held a smile now contained only regret, as if it had been unearthed from his very bones.
Hermione's expression changed drastically.
"Cassius! The Principal's mind is being dragged in!"
A line of water condensed at Draco's fingertips, but he didn't dare to strike.
Dumbledore was too close to the pit; if he were accidentally harmed, no one could save him.
Luna, with a candy in her mouth, said softly, "It isn't grabbing his hand."
"It's grabbing his heart."
Cassius stood before the pit, eerie blue flames burning close to his body.
As soon as the dark red mist approached him, it was like hitting red-hot iron, burning right through.
That bit of psychic poison tried to burrow into his consciousness but couldn't even find the door.
The Dual-Soul Furnace roared within him.
Two souls from two lives were forged into a single furnace; even the chill of a Dementor could be used as material, let alone an illusion induced by regret.
But Dumbledore was different.
The smarter a person is, the more they convict themselves.
The more powerful a person is, the more they shoulder all the blame.
This black ring was specifically prepared for such people.
Deep in the pit, the dark red mist condensed into a clearer image.
Ariana looked up, her lips trembling as if calling for her brother.
A low, hoarse sound of pain escaped Dumbledore's throat.
"Ariana..."
He raised his hand, which was wrapped in eerie blue chains, and actually began to break free by force.
The elder wand hummed in his palm.
Cassius's gaze turned cold.
This old fox is really about to take the bait.
Hermione said urgently, "We can't let the Principal touch the ring! Scans show there's extremely potent soul poison around it; touching it will allow it to corrode the body through magic!"
Draco's face turned pale.
"Then what do we do?"
Cassius didn't answer.
Because the answer was simple.
Dumbledore had already reached the edge of the pit, knees slightly bent, reaching his right hand toward the bottom.
In the dust, a black ring lay quietly.
The black stone on the ring's face glowed faintly.
The light wasn't bright, yet it seemed capable of dragging the dead out of memory.
Dumbledore's fingertips were less than a foot away from the ring.
The dark red mist writhed with excitement.
Hermione almost held her breath.
"Cassius!"
In the next second, Cassius moved.
No spells.
No persuasion.
And certainly no nonsense.
He stepped to Dumbledore's side in one stride, raising his right hand as eerie blue magic wrapped around his palm, pressing ten times the gravity into the edge of his hand.
Slap!
A slap landed squarely on Dumbledore's face.
The sound was so crisp that the entire ruins fell silent.
Dumbledore was sent flying three meters, snapping a rotten wooden pillar before falling into the dust.
The elder wand flew out of his hand.
Cassius made a grabbing motion in the air, pinning it firmly to the ground.
Hermione froze.
Draco's mouth hung open, unable to utter a single word.
Luna blinked, as if she had seen someone wake a Troll with a soup spoon.
That was Dumbledore.
The Hogwarts Principal.
The legendary Wizard who defeated Grindelwald.
The name closest to the concept of security in the hearts of every Wizard in Britain.
Now, he had been slapped in public by Cassius.
It wasn't a nudge.
It was a real slap.
Blood seeped from the corner of Dumbledore's mouth, and half of his face quickly swelled.
But the emptiness in his eyes was also shattered by this slap.
The old Principal coughed, his vision refocusing.
First, he saw the pit.
Then, he saw Cassius.
Finally, he felt the sharp pain on his face.
After two seconds of silence, Dumbledore's voice was hoarse.
"You really hit me."
Cassius looked down at him.
"I told you, if you lost control, I would slap you awake."
Hermione couldn't help but swallow hard.
But a light shone in Draco's eyes that he couldn't suppress.
This was Cassius.
No matter who was on the other side, if they were in the way or being foolish, he'd slap them back to reality.
The dark red mist seemed provoked.
Deep in the pit, the black ring suddenly spewed a cloud of black mist.
The black mist transformed into a venomous snake, lunging toward Cassius's face.
Hermione immediately shouted, "A remnant soulcounterattack!"
Cassius didn't even lift an eyelid.
He pressed his fingers together like a blade, an eerie blue light blade extending from his fingertips.
One slash.
The black mist snake was split in two.
It tried to reform.
Cassius delivered three more slashes with a backhand.
The eerie blue light blade sliced through the black mist like cutting through rags.
A tiny scream echoed from within the mist, carrying the malice of a young Tom Riddle.
"Malfoy—"
Cassius said coldly, "Shut up."
A swirl of eerie blue fire reduced the remaining mist to black ash.
Dumbledore propped himself up against the rotten wood, his face looking grim, but he didn't approach again.
He looked at the ring in the pit; there was still pain in his eyes, but he was finally awake.
"That was truly..."
"It's just a broken stone that conjures images of the dead."
Cassius interrupted him.
"It can't give you back your sister, and it can't change the past."
Dumbledore's fingers suddenly tightened.
These words were cruel.
But accurate.
Hermione glanced at Dumbledore, immediately suppressed her emotions, and turned toward the pit.
"There's still a lingering instant-death curse around the ring; the risk of touching it is extremely high, it must be isolated."
Cassius took a pair of goblin steel pincers from his toolbox.
The body of the tongs was engraved with isolation runes made of unicorn horn powder, and the handles were wrapped in dragon hide.
Specifically for handling high-contamination samples.
Draco's mouth twitched as he watched.
When others seek deathly hallows, they bring reverence and legends.
Cassius seeks deathly hallows with tongs.
This was very Cassius.
Cassius leaned over, the steel tongs accurately gripping the black ring.
the ring immediately emitted a piercing grinding sound.
The black stone lit up, and Ariana's image was about to emerge again.
The eerie blue fire in Cassius's palm deepened.
"Keep playing these tricks, and I'll grind you into powder."
The image distorted instantly.
Hermione's eyes went wide.
This thing actually seemed afraid.
Cassius pulled out the ring and stuffed it directly into a high-strength isolation crystal bottle.
The moment the bottle's mouth closed, the dark red mist slammed against the walls.
The eerie blue runes on the surface of the crystal bottle lit up, pressing the mist back inside the ring.
Dumbledore stared at the black stone in the bottle, a hint of pleading rising in his eyes again.
"Let me see it for a moment."
Cassius ignored him and snapped on a second layer of goblin steel rings.
Dumbledore's voice grew even lower.
"Cassius, just one look."
Cassius looked up at him.
"You almost died just now because of that 'one look'."
Dumbledore closed his mouth.
Cassius placed the crystal bottle in the center of a temporary workbench.
"Hermione, Jackdaw Type II."
Hermione stepped forward immediately, placing the black-silver raven-feather-shaped alchemical device into the fixing slot.
Draco stood to the side, a line of water hovering at his fingertips, responsible for cutting off any leaking mist.
Luna retreated a short distance away, her eyes ethereal as she stared at the bottle.
"The bugs inside are very hungry."
Cassius said flatly, "Good that they're hungry."
Hermione took a deep breath and activated the observation crystal.
"Isolation layer stable."
"dragon blood powder trigger zone normal."
"Dementor core debris is reacting to the dark red old traces."
The Jackdaw Type II slowly pierced into the small holes of the crystal bottle's outer layer.
The remnant soul inside the black ring screamed as if pricked by a needle.
Dumbledore's brow furrowed.
Hermione's fingers recorded rapidly, her voice steadying.
"The first layer of the remnant soul shell is beginning to peel away."
"There are memory fragments inside."
Cassius stared at the writhing black mist in the bottle.
"Slice it thinner."
Hermione grit her teeth and adjusted.
The edges of the Jackdaw Type II glowed with eerie blue light, like an extremely fine blade picking apart the dark red mist.
The observation crystal lit up.
In the image, a stretch of pitch-Black Lake water appeared.
The lake's surface was dead silent.
Beneath the water, countless pale arms drifted slowly.
Hermione's face turned pale.
"What is that?"
Dumbledore's voice sank.
"Inferi."
The eerie blue fire in Cassius's eyes grew stronger.
He looked at that lake, and the corners of his mouth slowly curled up.
"Found it."
Chapter 207: deathly hallows? Just a Low-Quality Projection
"You're saying this is a relic of Death?"
Cassius looked at Dumbledore, his tone devoid of any reverence.
There was only disdain.
Inside the crystal bottle, the black ring was still screaming.
The Jackdaw Type II pierced into the bottle, its black-silver crow feathers like needles, forcibly prying open the shell of the remnant soul.
In the observation crystal, the images churned.
The Black Lake, a stone basin, a locket.
Underwater, deathly pale arms slowly rose up.
Hermione's face was pale, but her quill didn't stop.
Draco's water line hovered at the mouth of the bottle; if the remnant soul overflowed, he would sever it immediately.
Luna, with a candy in her mouth, stared at the black stone on the ring's face and said softly, "It still wants to bite people."
Dumbledore did not answer immediately.
His face was still swollen, and every time he opened his mouth, the corner of his lips throbbed with pain.
But he couldn't care about that.
He stared at the black stone, his voice low and raspy: "In legend, the resurrection stone can call back the shadows of the deceased."
"Shadows?"
Cassius sneered, tapping the crystal bottle with his fingertip.
Deep blue magic pressed down along the bottle walls, and the black stone shuddered violently.
"It cannot resurrect the dead, nor can it bring back a complete soul."
"It merely feeds on the spirit of the living, projects a phantom of the dead, and then uses regret to drag people in."
Dumbledore's eyes stiffened.
Cassius added another blow: "To put it bluntly, it's a low-quality illusion prop."
Hermione's pen stopped mid-air.
The corner of Draco's mouth twitched.
The deathly hallows, called a low-quality illusion prop?
If anyone else had said this, they would definitely sound like a madman.
But this thing had just been clamped into a bottle with pliers by Cassius and then impaled by the Jackdaw Type IIto strip its memories.
Sacred?
Hardly.
There was only an experimental bench here.
Dumbledore's expression was complex: "You don't believe in the deathly hallows?"
"I believe in things that are useful."
Cassius pointed at the crystal bottle.
"The elder wand can amplify spellcasting; it has value."
"The invisibility cloak can provide long-term concealment; it has value."
"This stone only amplifies regret, dragging the living toward death."
His voice grew cold: "To me, its value is very low."
Hermione took a deep breath and noted this sentence down.
She knew this judgment would cause many Wizards to break down.
But the longer she stayed by Cassius's side, the more she understood one thing.
Legends cannot replace utility.
Ancient does not mean safe.
A magical item that harms people is a hidden danger.
Dumbledore looked as if his strength had been drained away.
He looked at the black stone in the bottle, and that sliver of frantic longing in his eyes finally faded away bit by bit.
Only exhaustion remained.
"Perhaps you are right."
"It's not a 'perhaps'."
Cassius snapped the crystal bottle into a fixed stand.
"It is a fact."
The black ring seemed to understand.
A dark light flashed on the ring's face, and a new image suddenly surfaced in the observation crystal.
An underground vault.
A towering stone door.
Mountains of gold coins and silverware.
Deep within the treasures, a golden cup lay quietly, its body engraved with a badger crest.
Hermione snapped her head up: "Hufflepuff's Cup!"
Dumbledore's expression changed again.
Draco frowned: "Is it giving us clues?"
"No."
Hermione immediately negated the idea.
"It's creating a distraction. Every image could be a deception."
Luna crunched her candy and said seriously, "When a snake drops its scales, it's not to pave the way for you, but to make you slip."
Cassius stared at the screen, his eyes showing no fluctuation at all.
He had long since accounted for Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes.
The diary was already crippled.
the ring was right before his eyes.
The locket was in the Lake of Dead Corpses.
The cup was in the Lestrange vault.
The ravenclaws diadem was in the Room of Requirement.
It wasn't time for Nagini yet.
The remnant soul in Harry's forehead was also being pulled out bit by bit by the Jackdaw.
These weren't surprises.
But for Hermione and Dumbledore, they were puzzle pieces.
Cassius wanted them to see one thing clearly.
Lord Voldemort's secrets were not some untouchable taboo.
If the cage is hard enough and the blade is sharp enough, even a remnant soul has to spit out intelligence.
"Record it."
Cassius said: "The cup will not be handled for now; its priority is ranked after the Lake of Dead Corpses."
Hermione frowned: "Why not go to the vault first? At least there isn't an entire lake of Inferi there."
Cassius glanced at her.
"Because the Lake of Dead Corpses is more suitable for modifying the Jackdaw."
Hermione understood instantly, but a chill ran down her spine.
The Lake of Dead Corpses was dangerous.
But it contained death energy, despair, and soul pollution.
To others, it was a disaster.
To Cassius, it was materials.
He never just destroyed danger.
He would dismantle the danger and install it into his own weapons.
Draco couldn't help but ask: "Then what about the lake? Use the Patronus Charm to disperse the Inferi?"
Cassius sneered: "Too inefficient."
Dumbledore frowned: "That lake is deep within a cavern, soaked in Dark Arts for many years, and the number of Inferi is immense. We cannot rashly—"
"I know."
Cassius interrupted him.
"So there's no need to enter the water."
Hermione's eyes flickered: "Are you planning to drain the lake?"
"Too slow."
Draco ventured: "Blow it up?"
"That would destroy the samples."
Hermione stared at his expression, and a ridiculous thought suddenly occurred to her.
"You wouldn't be thinking of..."
Cassius didn't answer.
He pulled out the Jackdaw Type II.
Dark red residue clung to the edges of the crow feathers, and two more memory etchings had appeared inside.
Hermione immediately scattered isolation powder to seal the blade's edge.
"Stripping complete."
She reported quickly: "The activity of the black ring's remnant soul has dropped by seventy percent, with three memory shell fragments retained."
"The Lake of Dead Corpses, the underground vault, and an unknown Gray Tower phantom."
Cassius nodded: "That's enough."
Dumbledore looked at the black ring, his voice tight: "What about the resurrection stone?"
Cassius picked up the crystal bottle with tongs.
Then he tossed it aside casually.
Thud.
The crystal bottle landed in the toolbox, falling between dragon blood powder, unicorn horn powder, and scraps of goblin steel.
That black stone, which had driven countless Wizards mad, was just mixed in with a pile of materials like that.
Dumbledore's eyelid twitched.
Draco almost laughed out loud.
Hermione pursed her lips, trying hard to remain serious.
Luna commented earnestly: "The bones of Death have been tossed into a toolbox."
Cassius corrected: "Spare trigger consumable."
Dumbledore closed his eyes.
Absurd.
Crude.
Even sacrilegious.
But somehow, it caused the string in his heart that had been taut for decades to snap.
When a so-called divine artifact is treated as a consumable, the longings that tortured him suddenly seemed laughable.
Ariana would not return.
A stone cannot atone for sins.
Cassius didn't understand gentle comfort.
He only knew how to crush the false hopes that lured people to their deaths.
Hermione packed away her tools and looked up at the ruins of the old house.
"The underground pollution remains. If it isn't cleaned up, it might affect the nearby Muggle village."
Cassius walked outside.
"Then burn it."
Dumbledore immediately reminded him: "Don't alarm the Muggles."
Cassius raised his hand.
An apple-sized deep blue fireball condensed in his palm, causing the air to distort instantly.
"I will control the range."
Hermione immediately backed away.
Draco pulled Luna back to the safety zone.
Dumbledore looked at the fire and suddenly understood one thing.
Voldemort turned fear into a door.
Cassius blew up both the door and the wall.
Voldemort turned regret into a hook.
Cassius slapped the person who bit the hook awake.
Voldemort hid Horcruxes in legends.
Cassius stuffed the legends into a toolbox.
In the next second, the fireball fell toward the center of the Gaunt Shack.
There were no soaring waves of fire.
Only a deep blue high temperature silently spreading.
Rotten wood, black mud, walls, and residual curse marks were all burned into a glazed hard shell.
The Dark Arts toxins screamed, twisted, and dissipated in the fire.
The Gaunt Shack collapsed bit by bit, finally turning into a patch of dark blue flat ground.
Hermione said softly: "There's no chance of recovery anymore."
Cassius withdrew the firelight.
"Let's go."
Draco asked: "Back to Hogwarts?"
Cassius looked at the black ring in the toolbox, then at the crystal in Hermione's hand recording the Lake of Dead Corpses.
"Back to the Hospital Wing."
Hermione understood immediately.
Harry needed to know the new clues.
The remnant soul in his forehead also needed new bait to continue forcing it out.
Dumbledore stood in place and suddenly spoke: "Cassius."
Cassius looked back.
Dumbledore touched his still-swollen face.
"Next time, you could be a bit lighter."
Cassius's tone was calm: "Depends on how stupid you are next time."
Draco finally couldn't help himself, turning his head to cough.
Hermione lowered her head, her shoulders shaking slightly.
Dumbledore sighed helplessly.
The Portkey glowed again.
Before everyone disappeared, Luna suddenly looked toward the dark woods in the distance.
"Something smelled the scent of Death's bones being burned."
Cassius's eyes turned cold.
In the wind outside Little Hangleton, a wisp of extremely faint black mist was clinging to the ground, fleeing into the distance.
Chapter 208: Hospital Wing Shaken! Boiling the Lake of Dead Corpses
"Albus, what happened to your face?"
As Snape finished his sentence, the Hospital Wing fell into an immediate deathly silence.
Dumbledore was tossed onto the sofa by Cassius, his robes covered in dust, blood at the corner of his mouth, and half of his face frighteningly swollen.
The most absurd part was—
His right hand was perfectly intact.
It wasn't broken, blackened, or rotting.
Only that palm print on his face remained, as clear as a freshly stamped seal.
Snape stared at that print, his expression going blank for a moment.
McGonagall had just stood up from the bedside, her eyes behind her glasses widening suddenly.
Madam Pomfrey held up a potion bottle, her voice turning shrill.
"Merlin! Principal, who attacked you?"
Draco looked away.
Hermione lowered her head to flip through her notebook, her shoulders tense.
Luna bit into a candy and said seriously, "By reality."
Madam Pomfrey didn't understand.
Snape understood half of it.
A second later, he looked at Cassius.
Cassius placed a toolbox on the table and took out a crystal bottle sealing the black ring.
Snape's lip twitched.
"You hit him?"
"Life-saving measures."
McGonagall's voice was tight. "You call slapping the Principal a life-saving measure?"
Cassius looked up. "It was effective."
Dumbledore rubbed his swollen face and gave a bitter smile.
"Minerva, it was indeed effective."
McGonagall fell silent.
Snape's gaze, however, turned cold.
He knew Dumbledore too well.
For this old fox to admit it was "effective" meant that it wasn't just a danger at the time—it was nearly the end.
"The black ring?"
Hermione immediately handed over her notebook.
"Confirmed discovery of the resurrection stone ring Horcrux at the Gaunt Shack. The black ring uses mental induction, specifically targeting the Principal's deepest regrets to force him to touch it. There is also a lethal curse on the surface of the ring."
After scanning it, Snape's face turned completely grim.
He stared at Dumbledore.
"You almost touched it?"
Dumbledore did not deny it.
The temperature in the Hospital Wing felt as if it had been sucked out.
Snape smiled, a cold and piercing expression.
"Knowing full well it was a trap, you still reached out?"
Dumbledore remained silent.
"Disgustingly great."
McGonagall frowned. "Severus!"
Snape did not stop.
"If it weren't for this little monster slapping you awake, Hogwarts would have lost its Principal tonight. We would have to deal with the remnant soul in Potter's head, handle those useless people at the Ministry of Magic, and try to guess how many riddles you hid in your last words."
His words were as venomous as a blade.
But no one refuted him.
Harry was lying on the hospital bed, his eyes originally closed.
Hearing this, he opened his eyes, his face pale.
For the first time, he truly realized that even Dumbledorecould lose control.
Not because of greatness.
But simply because of the past.
Just like him, having his wounds seized by Lord Voldemort.
Cassius saw that Harry was awake and casually tossed a crystal shard onto the bedside table.
It was a thin piece with faint blue burn marks on the edges, sealing a grayish-black deathly aura inside.
Harry instinctively backed away, the scar on his forehead suddenly throbbing with pain.
"What is this?"
"New intelligence stripped from the black ring."
Ron immediately blocked the bedside, but his movements stiffened.
Cassius had just saved Dumbledore, and for a moment, he didn't know if he should stop him.
"Will it hurt Harry?"
Hermione approached, her voice steady.
"The outer layer is sealed. As long as you don't touch the scar, it won't actively invade. Harry, you only need to hold the edge; let go immediately once you see the images."
She paused.
"If you're unwilling, you don't have to look."
Cassius sneered.
"You can choose not to look, and then continue waiting for Lord Voldemort to make decisions for you."
Harry's face went white.
Hermione immediately glared at him. "Don't provoke the patient."
"I am stimulating his active consciousness."
It was harsh.
But Harry knew he was right.
If he kept hiding, the thing in his forehead would open its eyes for him, choose for him, and walk toward Lord Voldemort for him.
Harry gritted his teeth and reached out to touch the edge of the crystal.
An icy chill pierced into his palm.
Images came crashing in.
A seaside cave.
Water dripped from black rock walls, and the sound of waves crashed outside the cave.
Deep inside the cave was a Black Lake.
In the center of the lake stood a solitary stone basin.
Beneath the water, countless pale corpses opened their eyes, pressing against the surface of the lake, waiting for a living person to approach.
Harry's breath hitched, and his fingers nearly let go.
The next image pressed down again.
An underground vault.
Gold and silver vessels were piled like mountains, and ancient treasures filled every corner.
A golden cup lay among the treasures, the badger emblemon its side clearly visible.
Harry let go abruptly, his chest heaving violently.
"A lake... many dead people... and a golden cup..."
Ron's face went white.
"A whole lake of dead people?"
Madam Pomfrey immediately shoved a calming potionover, muttering under her breath, "Students shouldn't be seeing such things!"
Dumbledore said softly, "The Lake of Dead Corpses."
McGonagall's expression darkened.
"Lord Voldemort hid a Horcrux there?"
Cassius corrected her, "At least one clue is there. Another points to the Lestrange vault."
Snape said coldly, "Gringotts isn't a place you can just break into whenever you want."
Cassius glanced at him.
"So we deal with the lake first."
Hermione had already spread out a piece of parchment.
"Inferi fear fire, but lake water will suppress ordinary flames. Traditional plans involve dispersal, luring, clearing in batches, and protecting the person retrieving the item."
Draco frowned.
"Water Cut can slice through the horde of corpses, but the loss of power underwater is too great. If there are too many, it won't hold them back."
Ron couldn't help but say, "Then what do we do? We can't just fish them up one by one, can we?"
Cassius looked up.
"Why would we fish?"
The Hospital Wing went silent for a moment.
Hermione's heart skipped a beat.
She remembered the blue fire Cassius used to burn through everything in front of the Gaunt Shack.
Cassius tapped on the bedside table.
"Prepare solidified magic fuel, white phosphorus fragmentation bombs, High-Intensity Light Ignition Cores, and twenty Blizzard shells."
McGonagall's expression changed.
"What are you planning to do?"
Cassius's tone was calm.
"Boil the lake."
Ron's mouth fell open.
Harry froze on the bed.
Madam Pomfrey nearly dropped her potion bottle.
Snape's brow twitched violently.
Dumbledore looked up, as if he wanted to say it was too mad.
But he remembered the Gaunt Shack.
He remembered almost putting on the ring.
He remembered that slap.
And so, he swallowed his words.
Hermione was the first to react.
She didn't question it; she immediately began calculating.
"To destroy the Inferi's mobility in a short time, we must first seal the cave's airflow, then spread the fuel into a floating layer. The white phosphorus will be responsible for continuous combustion, the high-light core will lure the Inferi to the surface, and the Blizzard shells will blow apart the dense areas."
Draco followed up, "I'll be responsible for the outer water line interception, but I can't enter the high-temperature zone."
Cassius nodded.
"You only guard the outer circle."
"Understood."
Hermione's pen moved rapidly.
"Add gravity restraint to compress the heat back beneath the lake's surface; we can't let steam disperse the fuel layer prematurely."
Cassius looked at her.
"That is your task."
Hermione looked up, her eyes shining brilliantly.
"I'll give you the ignition sequence tonight."
"Good."
McGonagall finally couldn't help herself.
"Can you all please remember that this is the Hospital Wing, not a tactical briefing room?"
Cassius looked at her.
"Lord Voldemort won't wait for patients to be discharged."
McGonagall was left speechless.
Harry looked down at his hands.
The images of the Lake of Dead Corpses still felt cold in his mind.
But this time, he didn't shrink back into his covers.
He looked at Hermione.
"What can I do?"
Ron was stunned.
Hermione's pen also stopped.
Cassius glanced at him.
"Stay alive first."
Harry gritted his teeth.
"I'm not talking about that."
He looked up, his voice raspy, but he didn't hide.
"I saw the route, and the thing in my forehead might know it too. If the remnant soul reacts to that place, I can act as bait."
Ron got anxious.
"Harry, are you crazy?"
"I don't want to just lie here anymore, waiting for you all to pluck things out of my head."
The ward went quiet.
Cassius stared at Harry for a few seconds, then suddenly gave a small smile.
It was faint, and also dangerous.
"Not bad."
"Finally looking like a living person on a battlefield."
Hermione frowned. "We can't risk Harry."
"I didn't say I'd let him die."
Luna walked in from the door, still holding a candy.
"The dead in the lake will hear the snake's calls from his forehead."
She looked at Harry, her voice light as a breeze.
"But with the blue fire nearby, the louder the snake hisses, the tighter the net closes."
Hermione understood immediately.
"You want to use Harry's remnant soul reaction to calibrate the Jackdaw Type II?"
Cassius nodded.
"The Lake of Dead Corpses is one of the places where Lord Voldemort's old traces are heaviest. It can force a deeper reaction from the remnant soul there."
Dumbledore said solemnly, "The risk is very high."
Cassius looked coldly at his swollen face.
"Lower than you going alone to put on the ring."
Dumbledore fell silent once more.
This time, even Snape didn't offer a taunt.
Because Cassius was too accurate.
Just then, hurried footsteps came from the corridor outside.
Filch's voice was trembling and off-key.
"Principal! More people from the Ministry of Magic have arrived in the Entrance Hall! They say... something went wrong with the Dementor withdrawal order!"
Snape whipped his head around.
Hermione's expression changed.
Water light shimmered at Draco's fingertips.
Filch rushed into the Hospital Wing, clutching a rain-soaked, crumpled piece of parchment, his face deathly pale.
"The Dementors on the outskirts of Hogsmeade are gone."
He swallowed hard.
"They didn't withdraw."
"They've all gone to the seaside!"
Chapter 209: Disaster at the Door! The Tyrant Begins the Feast
"They've all headed toward the seaside?"
Cassius looked up, his voice not loud.
Yet everyone's heart in the Hospital Wing felt as if it had been doused with ice water.
He merely added indifferently, "Good, it saves me the trouble of hunting them down one by one."
Filch was soaked through, his tattered coat still dripping water.
He clutched that water-wrinkled parchment, teeth chattering. "It's... it's news from Hogsmeade. Those Dementors outside the village suddenly stopped following Ministry of Magic orders. As if they've caught a scent, they're all flying toward the western coast!"
"The Ministry people have gone mad, searching everywhere for the Principal!"
The fireplace crackled and popped.
But this bit of firelight couldn't suppress the chill rolling in from outside the door.
McGonagall's face darkened, her gaze behind her lenses both cold and urgent. "If the Dementors leave the outskirts of Hogsmeade and pass through Muggle villages, the consequences will be unthinkable."
Dumbledore sat up straight, bracing himself against the sofa's armrest.
Half of his face was still swollen, but the exhaustion in his eyes had been pushed back into the depths.
"This is no ordinary migration."
"Dementors chase death, despair, and decay. If they are all being drawn to the seaside cavern, it can only mean—"
He paused for a moment.
"That Lake of Dead Corpses is leaking an even thicker aura of death."
Ron's face turned pale.
His throat bobbed. "So... a whole lake of dead people, plus a swarm of Dementors?"
Snape's black robes hung beside the hospital bed like a shadow clinging to the floor.
He let out a cold sneer. "In other words, the Ministry of Magic not only failed to control the Dementors but also released a pack of hungry monsters right next to Lord Voldemort's old trap."
The words were venomous enough.
But no one refuted them.
Because they were too accurate.
Cassius tapped his fingertips on the bedside table, his tone frighteningly flat.
"High-grade consumables being delivered right to the door."
"This isn't a losing deal."
The Hospital Wing fell into a sudden silence.
Madam Pomfrey held her medicine bottles, her eyes looking as if she were staring at a madman.
McGonagall opened her mouth, a reprimand on the tip of her tongue, but she forced herself to swallow it back down.
She knew Cassius wasn't joking.
He was truly calculating how to dismantle the Dementors, the Inferi, and Lord Voldemort's old trap all together.
Snape's eyelid twitched violently.
He was all too familiar with this expression.
The calmer Cassius was, the more it meant something was about to meet a terrible fate.
Hermione reacted the fastest.
She turned and rushed to a corner, pulling open the bag enchanted with the Undetectable Extension Charm.
The copper buckle snapped open, and the clatter of goblin steel immediately burst out.
"Twelve canisters of Solidified Mana Fuel."
She slammed brass boxes onto the table one by one.
"Twenty-six White Phosphorus Fragmentation Bombs."
"Six High-Intensity Light Ignition Cores."
"Nineteen Blizzard Shells."
"Two semi-finished Jackdaw Type IIs."
"Three spare sets of Stability Rings."
She looked up, her eyes shining with startling intensity. "If we act tonight, I need ten minutes to recalibrate the ignition sequence."
"I'll give you five minutes," Cassius said.
Hermione glared at him. "Five minutes can only guarantee we don't blow ourselves into the lake; it won't guarantee the structural integrity of the cavern."
"The cavern isn't important."
Cassius picked up a High-Intensity Light Ignition Core.
A flash of deep blue mana flickered at his fingertips, and the runes on the brass shell were forcibly lit before he suppressed them back to a dull hue.
"The locket is important."
"The Inferi are important."
"The Dementor residues are even more important."
"Don't waste energy protecting Voldemort's broken hole."
Dumbledore frowned. "Cassius, that cavern doesn't just have Inferi; it also has ancient protections Tom laid down himself. Acting rashly could very likely alert the Horcrux, or even injure Harry."
"So bring Potter along."
Cassius turned his head to look at the hospital bed.
Harry was leaning against the pillows.
His face was still pale, and a faint green luster from the potions remained on the back of his hand.
Hearing those words, he suddenly looked up.
Ron was the first to explode.
"No!"
He stepped in front of the bed to block him. "Harry just recovered from that hellish thing! He can barely even stand steady, and you want him to go be bait next to a lake full of dead people?"
Cassius didn't look at Ron.
He only stared at Harry.
"Speak for yourself."
A spare wand lay quietly by the bedside.
Harry didn't touch it.
The sharp pain of the Jackdaw piercing his scar back in the Workshop that night still felt like a nail driven into his brain.
The black ring from the Gaunt Shack, Dumbledore's swollen face, the feeling of almost being dragged into the depths by the remnant soul—it all weighed on his breathing.
He was afraid.
But heavier than fear was the unwillingness to give in.
In the past, everyone pushed him to the front, calling him The Savior.
But no one had ever told him the full truth.
Now the truth was laid out right before him.
If he stayed lying down, he would forever just be a patient waiting to be operated on.
Harry threw back the covers.
The movement was too abrupt, and the wound on his shoulder throbbed as if it were being torn open.
His face went white, but he still braced himself against the edge of the bed and stood up.
"I'll go."
Ron's eyes widened. "Harry!"
"I can feel them."
Harry gritted his teeth, his voice raspy, but he didn't flinch.
"I can guide you."
"I don't want to lie here anymore, listening to others decide my fate."
Ron rushed over and grabbed his shoulders. "You'll die!"
Harry turned to look at him.
Those green eyes held none of their usual impulsiveness, only a cold, hardened resolve.
"If I don't go, the things Voldemort left behind will still find me."
"If I keep hiding, the remnant soul in my forehead will eventually walk there for me."
Ron's hands stiffened.
He was speechless.
That wasn't just acting tough.
It was the first time Harry had forcibly dragged himself out of the position of "the one being protected."
Hermione was silent for a second.
Then she picked up a modified Stability Ring and fastened it near Harry's forehead.
A silver light slowly glowed against the scar.
"If you must go, then wear this."
She lowered her voice. "If you feel any discomfort, tell me immediately. I'll be watching your scar's reaction."
Harry nodded. "Okay."
Snape spoke coldly, "Potter is swaying just trying to walk. Bringing him along will only be a hindrance."
"He's a human tracking device."
Cassius adjusted his gloves, his tone calmly infuriating.
"You follow him."
"At the critical moment, don't let the tracking device die."
Snape's face was as dark as the bottom of a cauldron.
"You're calling me along just to have me clean up after Potter?"
"You're cold-blooded enough, and rational enough."
Cassius looked at him. "If the regret in Dumbledore's mind flares up again, he will hesitate."
"If Professor McGonagall's heart softens, she will also hesitate."
"You won't."
"So tonight, you are the most suitable to protect Potter."
Snape fell silent.
McGonagall's expression was grim, but she didn't argue.
Dumbledore slowly stood up.
A deep exhaustion was suppressed in his blue eyes. "I'm going too."
"No," Cassius interrupted directly.
Dumbledore frowned. "That is Voldemort's Horcrux. I understand his methods better than you do."
Cassius glanced at the swollen half of his face.
"To go to your death with the regret in your head?"
"Or are you planning to go into the cavern and touch another thing you shouldn't?"
In the Hospital Wing, the air felt as if it had been pinned down.
McGonagall's lip twitched.
Madam Pomfrey gasped.
Draco lowered his head to check the Water Storage Bottles, his shoulders trembling slightly.
He was struggling hard to suppress his laughter.
Dumbledore touched his face and gave a bitter smile. "Do you always speak so mercilessly?"
"Only to those who are dying and don't know it."
Cassius closed the toolbox.
"The Principal stays at Hogwarts."
"Guard against the Ministry, guard against the remnant soul, and guard against those brain-dead officials who might try to seal the Workshop while we're away."
Dumbledore was silent for a moment.
Finally, he nodded. "I will hold the school."
"Professor McGonagall stays to manage the students."
Cassius's gaze swept over everyone.
"Lupin stays in the Hospital Wing to assist Madam Pomfrey."
"Ron stays too."
Just as Ron was about to speak, Cassius had already looked toward Draco.
"Draco, bring the Water Cut bottles and three Blizzard Shells."
Draco immediately straightened his back.
Excitement and nervousness were simultaneously suppressed in his eyes. "Understood."
Hermione shouldered the bag, her fingers quickly buckling each brass box tight.
"I'll bring the ignition cores, the Jackdaw Type II, and the Stability Rings."
She paused, then continued, "Nora isn't here. Luna also isn't suited for a place with too much death aura."
"The sensing will be done by Harry."
Luna sat by the window, a candy in her mouth, looking out at the rainy night.
She said softly, "The dead in the lake will sing old songs."
"Harry can hear them."
"But don't sing along."
A chill ran down Harry's back.
The Stability Ring against his scar flickered once.
He still nodded. "I understand."
Cassius walked toward the door.
Snape pulled an old silver buckle from his sleeve and tossed it in his palm, weighing it.
"The portkey can send us to the seaside cliffs."
"But the dark magic near the cavern entrance is too heavy; the landing point won't be very precise."
"It's enough."
Cassius pushed open the Hospital Wing doors.
The torches in the corridor were pressed low by the cold wind.
Fine frost condensed on the stone walls, and the sound of an argument came from the entrance hall, mixed with the shrill voice of a Ministry official.
Filch hurriedly chased after them for a few steps. "Mr. Malfoy! There are still Ministry people in the entrance hall!"
"They say no one can leave the school without the Minister's order!"
Cassius didn't stop his pace.
Draco gripped the Water Storage Bottle, his knuckles turning white.
Hermione carried the bag, a quill tucked into her hair; her face held none of the panic a student should have, only the focus of someone about to validate a mad plan.
Harry followed, leaning against the wall.
The Stability Ring on his forehead emitted a faint silver light.
Snape gave Dumbledore one last look.
"If we don't come back, Albus, you'd better not touch any more rings."
Dumbledore sighed helplessly. "I will try."
"It's not 'try'."
Cassius's voice came from the end of the corridor.
"It's 'don't be stupid'."
In the next moment, a hysterical scream erupted from the entrance hall.
"Stop!"
"Minister Fudge has signed an absolute Lockdown Order!"
"No student is allowed to leave Hogwarts!"
Cassius finally stopped at the head of the stairs.
He slowly looked up.
The deep blue light in his eyes brightened, bit by bit.
Chapter 210: School Lockdown Order? Kneel and Speak
"Fudge's lockdown order?"
Cassius stepped down the last stair, his gaze falling on that piece of parchment.
"Have him come here and kneel to say it himself, and perhaps I'll listen to half a sentence."
The entrance hall fell into dead silence.
Several Ministry of Magic officials in dark green robes blocked the main gate, with six Aurors standing behind them, all with their wands drawn.
The tips of their wands were aimed at the staircase.
Yet every hand was shaking.
The leading official held the parchment high, his voice trembling with shrillness: "Cassius Malfoy! According to the 'Absolute School Lockdown Order' signed by the Minister, all students at Hogwarts must accept protection from the Ministry of Magic. Without approval, no one is permitted to leave the school!"
"Protection?"
Draco sneered.
"Your Dementors have all run off to the seaside to eat dead people, and you have the nerve to talk about protection?"
These words hit like a slap, turning the official's face purple.
He whipped his head around: "Malfoy Family child, watch your tone! The Ministry of Magic is handling this matter!"
Hermione took a half-step out from behind Cassius, the brass buckle on her handbag clicking softly.
"The way you're 'handling' it is by locking down Hogwarts, covering up the Dementors' loss of control, and stopping those who can actually clean up the disaster?"
The official saw her, and contempt immediately rose in his eyes.
"Miss Granger, as a Muggle-born student, you have no qualification to question the emergency directives of the Ministry of Magic."
As the words fell.
The air in the entrance hall grew heavy.
Not cold.
Heavy.
Harry stood in the back, his breath hitching abruptly.
He saw the smile vanish from Draco's face.
Snape frowned and took a half-step to the side.
Hermione's expression turned cold, and she was about to speak.
Cassius had already taken a step forward.
"What did you just say?"
The official was pinned by those deep blue eyes, his throat bobbing.
Yet he was still trying to hold his ground.
"I said, she has no qualification—"
Boom!
An invisible pressure smashed down from above.
No spell.
No wand light.
It was as if the entirety of Hogwarts had suddenly pressed down on the shoulders of the officials.
The leading official's knees cracked first.
Snap!
Immediately following, a second sound, a third sound.
Before the officials could even raise their wands, they were forced down onto the stone floor.
Faces pressed against the parchment.
Their screams sounded like toads being crushed.
The six Aurors' faces changed drastically, and their shield charms lit up simultaneously.
The next second, the shields were flattened.
They stuck to the ground like thin sugar shells, shattering into shards of light.
The students peeking from behind the pillars all gasped.
No one dared to make a sound.
Harry saw it too.
The official who had just insulted Hermione for her background was now clawing at the stone floor with both hands, his face smeared with snot and tears.
He looked as pathetic as a worm.
Cassius didn't wave his wand.
He simply walked over.
One step.
The dust on the stone slab vibrated into a circle of fine lines.
Another step.
The backs of those officials bent even lower.
"The credibility of the Ministry of Magic is ruined by things like you."
Cassius stopped in front of the leading official and looked down at him.
"The Dementors are out of control; you don't clean it up, you don't evacuate the Muggles, and you don't notify Hogwarts to assist in defense."
"Your first reaction is to lock down the school to hide the ugly truth?"
The official's voice trembled with pain: "You... you are attacking a Ministry of Magic official... I will arrest you..."
Cassius lifted his foot and stepped on his shoulder.
He didn't use much force.
Yet the official was pinned flat against the ground, his scream stuck in his throat, his eyes nearly popping out.
"Arrest?"
Cassius's voice was very soft.
"You six Aurors, plus these few breathing robes, are you enough for me to warm up?"
The Aurors' faces turned a mix of green and white.
No one answered.
They had all heard about that night at Malfoy Manor.
Six elite Aurors, routed in three seconds.
Robards's wand was broken in front of him, and he was still receiving mental counseling at St. Mungos.
And the current Cassius was heavier and more dangerous than that night.
Whoever stepped up now would die.
Snape watched coldly, a hint of mockery curling his lips.
"If I were you, I wouldn't reach out to pull the tail of a Dragon just when it's preparing to go out hunting."
Hermione scanned the officials on the ground, her anger not yet dissipated, but her mind already running again.
"They might have communication badges on them; Fudgewill know we've left the school."
"Let him know."
Cassius snatched the 'Absolute School Lockdown Order' from the official's hand.
A flash of deep blue flame appeared at his fingertips.
The parchment turned to ash instantly.
"It'll just give him time to prepare the money for damages."
The official's eyes widened: "That was an official document signed by the Minister!"
"It isn't now."
Cassius turned to look at the main gate.
The storm hammered against the oak doors, and the cold wind crept in through the cracks, carrying the damp, fishy scent from the depths of the Black Lake.
The students in the entrance hall were all watching him.
Fear.
Excitement.
Some people were even holding their breath.
Harry pressed his hand against the Stability Ring on his forehead, his heartbeat racing painfully.
He hated this arrogance of Cassius.
But at this moment, he had to admit—
When the Ministry of Magic blocked the path to survival with a piece of paper, Cassius's method was terrifyingly simple.
No debating.
No applying.
No waiting.
Just crushing right over it.
"Tell Fudge."
Cassius stepped over the official's shoulder, his tone scraping like the back of a knife against bone.
"I'll personally go to the Ministry of Magic's underground vault to dig out the cleanup fee for wiping his ass."
The official lay on the ground, his vision going black from the pain.
Let alone raising his head.
He didn't even dare to breathe loudly.
When Draco followed, he deliberately walked past the official.
The tip of his boot brushed through the ashes of the lockdown order.
He couldn't suppress the upward curl of his lips.
Satisfying.
Too satisfying.
Hermione didn't look at the officials again, only tightened her grip on her handbag.
Tonight's battlefield wasn't here.
This was just a joke of a group who mistook themselves for obstacles.
Snape took out the old silver clasp and whispered the spell to activate the Portkey.
A dark blue ring of light emerged on the surface of the silver clasp.
Harry walked to the door and suddenly turned back.
Above the stairs, Professor McGonagall stood there, her expression complex.
Dumbledore did not come down.
He only stood behind the railing, watching quietly, half his face still swollen, looking somewhat comical under the firelight.
Yet no one laughed.
Harry knew Dumbledore wanted to follow.
But this time, no one let him go.
"Potter."
Snape spoke in a cold voice.
"Grab the Portkey, and don't throw up halfway."
Harry reached out and grasped the edge of the silver clasp.
Draco and Hermione pressed their hands on it at the same time.
Cassius was the last to reach out.
Just as the Portkey was about to activate, the official on the ground suddenly seemed to remember something and struggled to shout:
"You can't go! The Minister has already notified the Aurors to blockade the coastline! It is now under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Magic!"
Cassius didn't even turn his head.
"Then we'll clear the field, Aurors included."
Silver light exploded.
The entrance hall, the torches, the sound of rain, and the shrill screams of the officials were all twisted into a mass.
Harry felt as if his stomach had been viciously hooked.
His whole body was dragged into the darkness.
The next instant.
A salty, fishy sea breeze rushed at them.
Several people landed heavily on a desolate sea cliff.
The rain lashed diagonally against the rocks, the gale whipped across their cheeks, and the crashing waves beneath their feet roared like a giant beast gnawing on bones.
Just as Harry stood steady, his breath froze.
Above the cave in the distance, black shadows circled densely.
One.
Ten.
Hundreds.
Dementors.
They gathered into a massive black vortex, like a flock of crows smelling rotting flesh, or like a Grim Reaper's cloak torn open by the night.
And beneath the vortex was the entrance to the cave.
Cold, deathly energy surged out from the depths of the cave, greedily devoured by them.
Harry's knees went weak, and he nearly knelt.
The Stability Ring on his forehead flared with silver light.
Deep within his scar, a cold and greedy tremor emerged, as if something had been awakened.
Draco's face turned pale, his fingers gripping his water storage bottle tightly.
Hermione bit her lip and quickly took out her recording quill.
But the moment the tip appeared, a thin layer of frost formed on it.
Snape looked up at the black tide, his voice so low it sounded squeezed through his teeth.
"This is not a migration."
Cassius stood at the edge of the cliff, deep blue fire burning inch by inch in his eyes.
He watched those Dementors surrounding the cave.
He also watched the deathly energy overflowing from the depths of the cave.
"This is dinner time."