Hermione hurriedly put away the Invisibility Cloak. As she and Ron helped Harry up and retreated the way they had come, her mind raced for a solution.
But how could a solution come so easily?
Their pursuer was an adult wizard. However she looked at it, the gulf between his strength and hers was almost impossible to bridge.
Bzz-
They had barely stumbled a few steps when an indistinct incantation sounded behind them, too muffled to make out, but low and venomous.
Hermione's hair stood on end. She hastily looked back and saw a torchlike human outline slowly "rise" above the snowy slope where they had been hiding moments earlier. He "pointed" toward them, and broad swathes of dark gray light radiated outward from him in strange ripples.
Unlike Harry and Ron, who were unfamiliar with the Multispectral Vision Charm, Hermione knew that the Spectral Vision Charm Vaughn had developed was not merely a research aid. It was actually a remarkably versatile spell.
The dark gray waves spreading outward now, for instance, were electromagnetic waves naturally emitted as magic became real "mass-energy"-as a wizard used magical power to work a miracle and give magic form in reality.
What she was seeing was infrared light among those countless electromagnetic waves. Since light traveled fastest, and waves followed their own patterns, the Multispectral Vision Charm could even help her identify the strength and trajectory of an opponent's magic.
We can't outrun it or dodge it! In almost a single instant, countless thoughts flashed through Hermione's mind, along with the techniques for the Multispectral Vision Charm that Vaughn had taught her recently. She reached an instinctive conclusion.
She stopped.
Ron stumbled as she pulled him to a halt and stared at her in bewilderment. "Hermione?"
Hermione did not answer. Instead, she drew her