The Creditor Comes Calling

"[Sectumsempra] "

Professor Snape's lips parted slightly, and he uttered the incantation rapidly, like a viper flicking its tongue. His wand swept out diagonally from the lower right to the upper left, unleashing three invisible blades one after another, each accompanied by a sharp yet subtle whistling sound. One blade shot straight towards Loren's chest, while the other two blocked his escape routes to the left and right.

"The speed is too fast; the Apparition might be forced to Splinching..."

Loren's pupils contracted slightly, and a crystal-blue light quickly covered his eyes. He turned his wand upside down, pointing it at himself, and a gentle yet swift Magic Power instantly enveloped his entire body. He became light and airy, and without moving his legs, he floated upwards like a ghost.

Three invisible blades landed on the floor of the Abandoned Classroom, leaving three clean, sharp cracks.

Before he could even regain his footing in mid-air, two golden spells swept past, grazing his hair. Then he heard Professor Snape's mocking chant: "[Protego Totalum]".

Less than three minutes into the duel practice, Loren was already drenched in cold sweat. He didn't even have time to use his familiar Transfiguration and Shield Charm. If Professor Snape hadn't gone easy on him for the purpose of practice, he might already be hanging in mid-air.

I thought that Professor Snape, who had devoted himself to Potions research for many years, would be less skilled in actual combat than Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick. I didn't expect that the combination of powerful Dark Arts and these trivial curses would be even more difficult to deal with.

Professor Snape's offensive continued relentlessly, a series of Langlock giving him no chance to breathe. There were extremely brief gaps between the spells, and invisible blades were always ready to strike, waiting for Loren to reveal a weakness.

Loren's pores contracted slightly as he dealt with these disgusting little curses while analyzing the current situation.

This "Professor Snape" skillfully wielded his own created spells, his casting and switching speed even rivaling that of Professor Flitwick, and his control over the rhythm of the duel was also incredibly meticulous...

Loren secretly resolved to take the initiative and stop competing with him in the connection and application of spells.

With a horizontal swing of the wand, a dense burst of flames erupted, hovering in mid-air and burning fiercely without any fuel. A series of minor curses disappeared into the flames, as if sinking into a bottomless abyss, without causing any ripples.

Even the subsequent Sectumsempra only extinguished the scattered flames, and the gaps that were broken were quickly filled back up by the continuous flames.

"Fiendfyre? No, it's not Fiendfyre ..."

Professor Snape's face lit up with interest. He had expected Loren to unleash his Fiendfyre again, but Loren had given him a new surprise. The flames before him were just as powerful, capable of incinerating everything in their path, yet they lacked the rampant greed of the Fiendfyre; their core was instead more stable.

It's like... Dumbledore's fire shield.

Professor Snape narrowed his eyes slightly, guessing that he was inspired by Dumbledore's battle with Voldemort that night. While feeling admiration, his hands did not stop, and he poured out spells more frequently, even swirling up pebbles from the ground and throwing them over.

The surging flames accepted everything, burning away Dark Arts and minor curses into nothingness, turning rubble into ashes.

"Puff!"

"Puff!"

"..."

The game of attack and defense lasted for nearly half an hour before Professor Snape finally realized something was wrong. He withdrew his wand, which was constantly casting spells, and asked in confusion, "Are you planning to keep going like this forever?"

Loren extinguished the flames, sighed, and smiled helplessly, "It's not that I intend to drag this out, but I'm not yet able to control this fire at will."

A flash of light, Flamel, now back to his original appearance, raised an eyebrow and asked, "Oh, you could control the Fiendfyre before, so why is the gentler flame after the adjustment even more difficult to control?"

"Previously, the Fiendfyre could expand rapidly on its own, and every area covered by the Fire Domain had enough flames for me to use. Now that the restrictions on the spread and expansion of the flames have been removed, it is more difficult to control them."

"I see..." Flamel nodded thoughtfully. "Nicol encountered a similar problem before. Alchemy requires careful temperature control when smelting metals. Perhaps you could refer to relevant research..."

"So that's how it is... Compared to directly controlling the flames, controlling the infused Magic Power is a better way to guide the flames..."

As dawn broke, the sky gradually brightened.

Sunlight streamed through the narrow gap in the curtains, casting a long, thin beam of golden light. As the sun rose, the beam gradually moved onto Loren's cheek, the glare causing discomfort to penetrate his eyelids. His long eyelashes began to flutter gently, indicating that the sleeping boy was slowly waking up.

Immediately afterwards, a short, thin figure came to the window and silently drew the curtains.

"Winky, Winky?" Loren had already woken up, his eyes still slightly sleepy and filled with confusion. "What are you doing here?"

"I...she...we..." Winky, wearing a white short-sleeved overalls, clutched the curtain in her hand, feeling somewhat guilty for disturbing Mr. Morgan's sleep.

Another House-elf in a little dress stared at Loren in the dim light with her big, tennis ball-sized eyes, a tear rolling down her pointed nose.

"Mr. Crouch has passed away, and Loren Morgan is on holiday and has left school," Winky said sadly in a low voice. "But Winky made a promise with Loren Morgan: if Winky fulfilled the promise as required, Mr. Morgan promised to let me see Mr. Crouch again and help Winky return to the Crouch family. But now, all of that is impossible..."

Loren sat up in bed, blinked a few times, and sighed inwardly. He had completely forgotten about this... but he had never intended for Winky to return to Crouch family in the first place.

"Don't cry, Winky." Loren pinched the bridge of his nose wearily, his tone slightly probing. "Do you really want to go back to the Crouch family, or some other wizard's house, and do housework and serve them day and night without asking for anything in return?"

Winky lips trembled, and tears welled up in her eyes again. Loren's heart jumped.

"Winky ... Winky doesn't know." The House-elf swayed, its ugly head bobbing rapidly from side to side, so fast that Loren worried its slender neck might snap at any moment. "Winky wants to stay at Hogwarts, but Winky misses Mr. Crouch, misses Master Barty, Winky is worried about them..."

"Fortunately, they're not completely beyond redemption..." Loren breathed a sigh of relief, and after thinking for a moment, he said in a deep voice, "Since you miss them, then go back and see them."

"Go back... and take a look?"