The strength Professor Flitwick displayed was beyond Rodolphus's expectations. He had not imagined that the Charms Class professor, remembered as the champion of a dueling wizard tournament, seemed to have improved even more. He realized that, never mind the fact that his accomplices had already been turned into chunks of meat—even if they had been prepared, his group would not have been a match for Professor Flitwick before him.
And realizing that time was limited—that if the commotion drew other wizards, or even the Harrises... Rodolphus looked a little wildly at the large wooden barrel lying toppled on the ground. Earlier, he had planned to use a lit candle inside it to ignite the Greek Fire, so that the brief time while the candle burned would give them a chance to escape. But now that the candle could no longer be retrieved...
"Then I just won't use a candle..." No sooner had the thought crossed Rodolphus's mind than he decisively stretched out his wand and pointed it at the barrel. As if he cared nothing for his own life, Fiendfyre burst from Rodolphus's wand tip, trying to ignite the Greek Fire inside the barrel directly. The firelight reflected in his widened pupils, dangerous and crazed.
A little flame began to take shape in midair, forming into a fire snake and starting to grow larger. It darted swiftly toward the barrel, but just as the flame was about to touch it, it seemed to strike an invisible barrier. The fire was forcibly wrapped in ice, flung to the ground, and shattered into pieces.
Rodolphus seemed somewhat enraged from embarrassment. After releasing fire several more times in succession, only for Flitwick to dispel the flames with a special counter-curse each time, he simply threw caution to the wind and hurled himself at