Whoosh!
With a sharp whistle, the longsword seemed to have its rewind button pressed. It suddenly shot backward and landed back in his hand.
George made his move at that exact moment as well. He had only been a fraction too late to grab the blade.
He clenched his fist tightly, feeling nothing but empty air in his grasp, and a trace of regret rose within him.
If he had managed to seize the blade just then, Neville's Summoning Charm would instead have become his aid, helping him close the distance in an instant and reach Neville.
Neville took a deep breath, his feet never stopping as he repeatedly used the Impediment Jinx to create footholds one after another, sprinting through the air.
At the same time, he alternated between the Knockback Jinx and the Summoning Charm. The longsword seemed to come alive, darting and weaving through the air above the swamp as it launched sudden attacks at George from all sorts of tricky angles.
The tide of battle had reversed again. Now it was George who had been caught off guard.
Neville had not mastered the nonverbal Summoning Charm and had to recite the incantation each time to call the longsword back to his hand.
Yet those repeated incantations only added to George's pressure.
George's original plan had been to use three Portable Swamps to restrict Neville's movements, then leverage the magical armor's advantage in close combat to suppress him.
But he had never expected Neville to have held something back—an Impediment Jinx and a Summoning Charm. Using the swamps as barriers instead, Neville had returned the battle to its initial state, precisely the rhythm he was most comfortable with.
The bogs originally meant to trap Neville had now become shackles beneath George's feet.
They made it difficult for