Hermione and Snape were still reeling from shock.
Not far away.
The chaotic vortex on the Bronze Door began to turn once more. A familiar figure slowly emerged from the viscous mist—long silver-white beard, half-moon spectacles, and starlight dancing across a purple robe. As the evil Dumbledore stepped out of the vortex, the air in the Forbidden Forest became unbearably tense again.
"Why is there another Dumbledore?"
Hermione's eyes widened in stunned disbelief.
Yet.
Snape could offer her no answer. What was happening now went far beyond the first-year witch's understanding. Even he, a Hogwarts professor and Head of Slytherin, felt an incomprehensible strangeness. All the knowledge he possessed could not explain the current situation.
Silence.
Still silence.
And the Albus Dumbledore beside them seemed unsurprised by this.
"Are they going to fight again?"
Hermione's nails dug deeply into her palm, and the wand in her hand trembled slightly. The battle just now had already terrified her, leaving her with the tiny, helpless feeling that she could die at any moment. She had only just relaxed a little when the fighting ended, yet now it seemed as though time had turned back.
Another Dumbledore stepped out of the Bronze Door.
Hermione's heart leaped into her throat again. The night wind suddenly fell still. She found it exceptionally difficult to breathe, as though invisible hands had closed around her throat.
The two identical old men faced each other across the distance, moonlight drawing a silver boundary between them. Snape's expression kept changing, his heart taut with tension.
If they fought.
The young witch was terrified.
But was he any different?
He merely had better control over his emotions than Hermione and could conceal the tremors in his heart behind a blank expression—that was all. The Hogwarts professor wanted to say something.