The Final Wager

"Where's Nel?"

Adele did not obediently walk through The Veil. Instead, she looked around the battlefield and asked curiously. Under the Basilisk's gaze, the brutal scene that had been so active here not long ago had already vanished. The entire battlefield was silent. Only a single warrior remained in the distance, doing something with desperate, life-or-death madness to stop Herpo the Foul's advance.

"He's gone to do something more important." Professor Slughorn crouched in front of her, stroked the girl's soft blond hair, and said softly, "Go back now. Nelson wouldn't want you in a place like this."

Adele nodded, turned around without the slightest delay, and left.

"She's still too young. She doesn't know what this scene of ruins and wreckage truly means."

Flitwick's shrill voice sounded behind Slughorn. He hopped over to Slughorn's side, tightly clutching the Sorting Hat, and looked at the place where Adele had disappeared.

"She knows," Professor Slughorn said, shaking his head with a sigh. "I handled her admission paperwork back then, and I also went to Boston with Albus. You would find it hard to imagine what I saw there... Miss Wiltening, like Nelson who adopted her, is a strong witch. Perhaps when we fall as well, children like her will be the first to stand up and protect her home."

With that, he straightened and waved his Wand toward the empty battlefield. Behind him, one professor after another, either still serving or already retired, stepped out. The magic maintaining the portal had already been devastated because the Wizards tending it had been badly wounded by the Basilisk, and the instant the last professor—Professor Merrythought, ancient and decrepit, his left hand trembling nonstop—walked out, it closed.

"Albus isn't here. Right now, I am the acting headmaster. I'll lead you in the charge. We