Draco stood up, clutching his face.
He could feel his body trembling.
He could also feel the imprint of John's palm on his cheek, faintly burning.
That scorching heat felt like flames searing him, hurting not just his skin and flesh, but straight into his heart.
"How dare you, how dare you treat me like this!"
Draco stared at John coldly and spat out a venomous curse. "My father is Lucius Malfoy! I'm a member of the inquisitorial squad!"
"What are you all standing around for?! Hurry up and arrest this lowly Mudblood!"
"I want him flogged in detention for an entire year!"
"No! Not just that!"
"I want Lady Umbridge to expel you!"
"I want to kick you back into that filthy mud pit like a pigsty!"
"That's where a Mudblood like you belongs!"
The moment Draco's words finally paused, Depp inwardly cried out that things were bad.
The situation in the entrance hall was like a powder keg, held at a fragile balance only because of his earlier show of force against those two Gryffindors.
And what Draco had just said was undoubtedly the last straw.
The final spark that ignited the flames.
Sure enough, after Draco hurled out those words, the entire entrance hall first fell into an eerie silence.
And then... It exploded.
"Roar! Kill that bastard!"
"Beat him to death!"
"Malfoy family dog shit!"
———
The crowd roared as they began charging at the inquisitorial squad, filthy insults spewing nonstop from their mouths.
Those terrifying, ferocious faces scared the inquisitorial squad members pale.
BOOM!
A dazzling white light erupted first from the tip of Depp's wand.
The violent shockwave violently hurled the onrushing crowd backward.
"Attack! Attack now! They've gone mad!"
Depp's frantic shouting finally jolted the inquisitorial squad members out of their stunned state.
Gritting their teeth, forcing down fear and hesitation, they raised their wands.
In the next moment, more than a dozen brilliant magical flashes burst to life inside the entrance hall.
The crowd that had just struggled to their feet was struck again.
Even though the inquisitorial squad members held back due to the rules and didn't use any high-powered spells, the sheer brute force of the magic colliding was still enough to send people flying in all directions, dizzy and battered.
Seeing this, John and several other student leaders at the front no longer cared about school rules forbidding students from casting spells in public areas without permission. They directly drew their wands and led those around them in a counterattack.
Amid flashes of multicolored magical light, a full-scale battle erupted.
At the same time, Depp, the one who had fired the first "shot", had already stopped attacking.
He knew very well that although they were stronger than ordinary students, trying to face that group of lunatics with just a dozen people was pure fantasy.
Finding a chance to retreat and call for reinforcements was the top priority.
Depp glanced sideways, saw Draco still there laughing and cursing wildly, and spat in disgust. Then, leading several closer companions, he rushed toward Draco.
There was no choice.
No matter how much he despised Draco at this point, he still had to try to save him.
After all, this would be a huge favor that could greatly benefit his future.
However, just as Depp and the others started moving, a figure appeared in his field of vision.
The instant they saw that figure, Depp and the squad members beside him all froze in place.
Their faces were filled with terror.
They had seen this figure not long ago.
To be precise, one they would never forget.
Link Flamel.
That devil of a man who had shown them what a nightmare truly was in the Forbidden Forest.
Even though nearly a month had passed since that day, the godlike figure descending from the sky, the screams of teammates frozen solid, the gorgeous colors formed as blood crystallized in ice, the metallic taste at the back of the throat, all of it still lingered in their minds, refusing to fade.
And now, that man was once again walking slowly toward them.
Link also noticed Depp and the others.
He gave them a slight smile, and then the black ebony wand, etched with deep, intricate patterns, silently appeared in his hand.
This sight was like a thunderclap exploding in Depp's mind.
He no longer cared about anything else. Waving his wand, he screamed, "Run!"
As soon as the words fell, the squad members snapped out of it and began fleeing toward the opposite direction, out of the castle.
But it was already too late.
Under the terrified gazes of Depp and the others, Link had already swung his wand.
Humm~
Along with a barely audible hum, a thin mist began to rise inside the entrance hall.
Seeing this, Depp and the others completely lost their reason, with only one obsession left in their minds, escape Hogwarts at all costs.
Driven by this strange state of focus, their speed actually increased even more.
But just as they were about to step out of the entrance hall, a miniature snow tornado suddenly appeared on the castle steps outside.
Driven by the raging wind, the cold mist transformed into several gigantic hands, tightly gripping Depp and the other squad members in their palms.
Piercing screams rang out from their mouths.
They desperately waved their wands, hurling out all kinds of spells, but none of them had any effect on the icy mist hands gripping them.
By the time the misty hands loosened again, they had all turned into lifelike ice sculptures.
At the same time, inside the entrance hall, John and the others were still fighting the remaining inquisitorial squad members.
The battle between them was so fierce that most people didn't notice the cold mist at all.
Even when the thick mist began to obscure their vision, they simply thought it was snow and wind being blown into the hall from outside and didn't pay it any attention.
But soon, the seemingly harmless mist rapidly filled the entire entrance hall.
The students also discovered, to their surprise, that once their spells entered the dense fog, their power quickly weakened, until they turned into a flash of brilliant light and vanished completely.
It was as if the fog they were in was devouring those spells.
However, the failure of magic didn't stop the fighting.
On the contrary, the battle inside the hall became even more intense.
People threw away their wands and roared as they swung their fists.
This completely broke the remaining inquisitorial squad members.
What had been a stalemate quickly turned into a one-sided beating.
Watching John, who had clearly recognized the source of the mist, running through the crowd trying to persuade everyone to stop, Emily shook her head and said to Link, "The situation is already out of John's control."
Link smiled when he heard that.
"What, are you disappointed in John?"
Emily was silent for a moment before nodding.
"Yes, I am. You handed him an entire factory, along with all the tasks tied to it."
"But look at him now, does this count as doing his job well?"
"This is practically betraying your trust."
"I don't agree with you. I don't think John betrayed my trust at all. On the contrary, I think he did very well. I'm very satisfied."
Link shook his head and said, "You only see that he couldn't even control the people he's been drawing in through the factory."
"But have you ever thought about this, if he really did reach the point where those people followed orders without question, whose favor would they actually be repaying? Mine, or John's?"
Emily seemed stunned by this.
It was something she had never considered before.
Her life experience simply hadn't given her the chance to encounter this kind of situation.
Seeing her reaction, Link smiled again and said, "That's why John is doing just fine right now."
"What belongs to him stays his, like the status and money that come from managing the factory."
"But something like people's hearts, he absolutely must not take that."
After speaking, Link took a deep breath and raised his wand once more.
"Hoo… It's about time to end this farce."
As soon as the words fell, the dense fog enveloping the entrance hall began to churn violently.
Under the surging air currents, the people tangled together were quickly forced apart, and the cold mist wrapped around their limbs condensed into ice under Link's precise control, firmly binding them to the walls and floor.
John finally let out a breath of relief.
Everyone in the entrance hall had already been driven insane by rage and the idea that "the law can't punish everyone."
If Link hadn't stepped in just now, Draco and his group would almost certainly have been beaten to death.
And if it had come to that, there would have been no way to turn things back.
John felt completely drained and collapsed onto the floor, which had already formed a thin layer of ice.
Only now did he realize that his back was already soaked through with sweat.
Link didn't immediately go check on John.
He knew that what John needed most right now was a moment to catch his breath.
So he led Emily toward the spot where the crowd had been densest earlier.
After pushing aside the battered ice sculptures of Goyle and Crabbe, Draco finally appeared before them again.
But unlike his earlier arrogant demeanor, Draco's mind had now completely collapsed.
He was curled up in a small snow nest, trembling nonstop, his face covered in snot and tears, a complete mess, while his mouth kept muttering words like "Dad" and "Mom."
Link looked down at Draco from above, cold and indifferent.
Anyone who had seen Draco earlier, when he had been so arrogant that he wanted to ruin someone's entire life with just a few words, would be utterly incapable of feeling even the slightest sympathy for him now.
After a long while, Link lightly kicked Draco with his foot and said flatly, "Get up, Draco. This is embarrassing."
The moment Link's voice sounded, Draco's entire body stiffened.
He stared wide-eyed as he slowly turned his head to look at Link, his pupils dilating to their limits.
Draco felt as though an overwhelming terror had descended upon him.
In fact, when it came to psychological trauma toward Link, Draco would rank second to none in all of Hogwarts.
The long-term suppression by Link and Emily had already carved an instinctive fear deep into him.
So after a brief moment of shock, Draco screamed without hesitation and bolted.
He knew all too well how severe a provocation his earlier actions were to Link.
What awaited him next would absolutely be a punishment he would never forget.
For example, the Exposure Explosion Spell he had personally experienced before.
He even began to suspect that everything that had happened today was planned and orchestrated by Link from start to finish.
That he had never truly possessed any so-called power at all.
That from beginning to end, he had always been held in Link's palm, never once escaping.
Fueled by this force called despair, Draco burst out with a speed that even surprised himself.
Unfortunately, after only a few steps, he was tripped hard and fell to the ground.
Draco didn't scream.
His fear of Link had overridden even his sensitivity to pain, something utterly unprecedented for a pampered young master like him.
He merely instinctively glanced at the damn thing that had tripped him at such a critical moment, preparing to keep fleeing.
But that brief glance completely froze him in place.
Because what had tripped him was none other than the ice sculptures of Goyle and Crabbe.
Staring at the lifelike faces inside the ice, bruised, swollen, and filled with intense pain and shock, Draco's mouth fell open in disbelief.
His pupils, which had been dilated by fear, now shrank to pinpoints.
He stretched out a trembling hand, first pointing at Goyle and Crabbe, then pointing at Link. His throat made continuous "gk-gk-gk" sounds for a long time before he finally forced out the words, "Y-you… you… you killed them?"
Hearing this, the muscles on Emily's face twitched.
She was practically about to cry from how stupid Draco was.
How could Link possibly publicly kill someone at Hogwarts over something this trivial?
And not just one, an entire group?
That was something even Voldemort wouldn't do.
Right now, including Goyle and Crabbe, these students were merely frozen by Link's special cold mist.
She took a deep breath, about to scold Draco harshly,
But at that moment, Link stepped forward first, forcing a warm smile onto his face as he said to Draco, "Everything is exactly as you see."
"But there's no need to worry too much. You'll be going to see them soon anyway. Maybe they'll still be willing to be your lackeys after that."
Link's words were like a bolt of lightning, striking Draco head-on.
His mind went completely blank, as if his soul had been ripped away.
Scenes of being together with Goyle and Crabbe kept flashing before his eyes.
They were stupid, barely literate, sometimes dragged him down, and he often beat and scolded them, but they were, in fact, Draco's real friends.
Friends who grew up together, side by side.
A surge of wild fury ignited in Draco's chest.
Burned by this fire, everything around him seemed to rapidly disappear. In his vision, only the "corpses" of Goyle and Crabbe remained, along with Link's devilish smile.
In the next instant, he let out a furious roar, grabbed an icicle from the ground, and charged straight at Link.
"I'll kill you! Link Flamel!"
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