Voldemort suddenly vanished, turning into a gust of black wind, just as he had when he arrived.
More than one person thought Voldemort had fled for his life, abandoning his Death Eaters and decisively fleeing from Dumbledore.
No one found it surprising.
Even Malfoy, Bellatrix, Rabastan, and the few Death Eaters still conscious were not particularly surprised.
Only one person was an exception: Dumbledore.
"Stay where you are, Harry!"
People saw Dumbledore, whose expression had barely changed even when he lost a hand, show panic for the first time. He shouted at Harry, who was stepping out from behind Sirius's half-turned body.
Something had happened.
Sirius realized it at once. He tried to turn and push Harry away, but he himself was flung aside like a shot put.
Many people were calling his name.
Harry realized this because so many people in the hall were staring at him in terror, but he could not hear a thing.
Some force had stripped away his perception of sound, and the real world seemed to be rapidly receding like a dream.
Everything in his field of vision tilted, and then Harry realized that he himself had fallen.
Then Harry's scar burst open.
The pain should have been something he had never experienced before. It seemed excruciating, but because it had surpassed a certain limit, it instead became strangely indistinct.
In his daze, he felt himself leave the Ministry of Magic's reception hall.
He did not know exactly where he was. Everything around him was pitch-black, and he was trapped within a circle formed by a red-eyed monster coiled around him.
The monster held him so tightly that he could barely tell where his own body ended and the monster's began.
They had merged into one, bound together by pain, with nowhere to escape—