Hurling Hex

Riddle's broom suddenly began to tremble violently, spinning and rising incessantly, as if trying to throw him off into the air!

In that critical moment, Riddle's expression showed only a fleeting panic before he suddenly displayed remarkable courage, jumping from ten feet in the air before the broom had even reached a high position.

Before either Xiwen or Professor Prenton could react, he had already landed on the lawn, his feet touching the ground, his brow furrowing in pain.

"How are you feeling?" Professor Prenton quickly came to Riddle and examined him.

Xiwen immediately pulled out his wand and cast the Summoning Charm on the out-of-control broom.

The broom flew towards Xiwen, but spontaneously combusted mid-flight, turning into dust in an instant and scattering in the autumn wind.

Some powder fell beside Professor Prenton. He looked up and saw the broom spontaneously combusting in mid-air, and his expression turned grim.

"I suggest you take Riddle to the Hospital Wing to have your knee and ankle joints checked." The professor cast a simple healing spell on Riddle's leg, then looked at the frightened young wizards and said, "Who among you is willing to take Riddle to the Hospital Wing?"

"Professor, let me do it." Xiwen landed in front of Professor Prenton.

"Alright, then I'll leave it to you. I'll take care of some remaining things here and be there in a bit," the professor nodded and said to Xiwen.

Xiwen Abu and the Abu greeted them, then helped Riddle to his feet and headed towards the castle.

Throughout the journey, Riddle remained silent, his expression indifferent as if he had never encountered the matter at all.

"Do you know who tampered with your broom?" Xiwen suddenly broke the silence, asking Riddle.

"Who else could it be?" Riddle, who had remained silent all along, asked indifferently.

"Lestrange and Avery?" Xiwen frowned. "Where did they learn such a vicious curse?"

"Rozier, you come from the same background as them, do you really not understand how they managed to do this?" Riddle asked softly.

Xiwen silently pondered Lestrange and Avery's clumsy magical skills, unable to imagine that they could learn such an advanced poison spell against brooms in such a short time.

Then we'll probably have to resort to external tools.

"A portable, trigger-type poison curse?" Xiwen asked.

"Probably," Riddle shook his head noncommittally, saying casually. "They've toned it down a bit since you went to our dorm. But this morning I saw they received a lot of packages in the Great Hall; I bet a lot of them are aimed at me."

Xiwen's brow furrowed even deeper.

He vaguely guessed that it might be because of his help to Riddle that Lestrange and Avery became more resentful and rebellious, leading them to resort to more extreme methods.

"Should I go and talk to them?" Xiwen sighed and asked softly.

"No need, I'll handle it myself," Riddle replied.

Then, the two fell silent again, walking to the Hospital Wing in silence.

After Mrs. Dallaire had treated Riddle's slightly displaced bones, Professor Prenton arrived, accompanied by Headmaster Dippet and a young Slytherin wizard, Dick Lestrange, whose face was now unusually pale.

"Mr. Riddle, the problem with your broom is caused by a curse that appeared more than a decade ago," Professor Prenton explained to Riddle as soon as he arrived at the Hospital Wing.

"This curse is called Hurling Hex. It causes the broom to go out of control, throwing the wizard off like trash; after throwing the wizard off, it will spontaneously combust to eliminate evidence of the curse."

"However, this kind of curse has been around for over a decade, and it's a fairly common way to sabotage Quidditch players. Any player with a little experience knows how to use it: simply stick the cursed note on the broom, and it will take effect when someone starts flying."

"And this Doctor Strange deliberately switched places with Mr. Riddle after lining up, a move that was all too obvious; it was easy to guess that he had tampered with the broom."

Professor Prenton pointed at Lestrange and said to Riddle.

Lestrange's rugged face turned ashen, as pale as the ashes in the Slytherin Common Room, and he stammered, "I... I was just trying to joke..."

"Doctor Strange, have you considered that your so-called joke could potentially threaten another student's life!" Headmaster Dippet said sternly.

"I...I was tricked by them..." Lestrange struggled to speak. "The owner of Knockturn Alley said he wouldn't leave any evidence..."

'So you confessed?' Xiwen looked at Lestrange speechlessly, feeling that he wasn't quite right in the head.

There was indeed no concrete evidence initially, but after his explanation, the evidence immediately appeared!

"I will notify your parents to come to Hogwarts to discuss your punishment," Headmaster Dippet said to Lestrange, taking a deep breath to calm his anger.

Professor Prenton shook his head, somewhat bored, when he saw that Lestrange immediately admitted his mistake.

He then turned to Riddle and praised him, "Your reaction was very timely. Jumping off the broom before it had fully ascended into the air certainly reduced the harm of the curse."

"I should thank you for your help, Professor," Riddle said politely.

"It's nothing, it's what I should do as a professor!" Professor Prenton patted his chest and said to him with a smile.

Having other matters to attend to, Headmaster Dippet and Professor Prenton left the Hospital Wing together after instructing Riddle to take good care of his injuries. They also took Lestrange with them, leaving it unclear what punishment he would face.

Xiwen glanced at the trembling Lestrange, then his gaze was suddenly drawn to the wristband on Lestrange's wrist.

The exquisite wristband appeared to be engraved with Ancient Runes, clearly indicating it was an alchemical artifact.

Before Lestrange left the Hospital Wing, Xiwen silently activated his All-Seeing Eye to carefully observe the Runic Circuits on his wristband. From the All-Seeing Eye's perspective, the magic within the wristband shimmered with a silver light, flowing through different patterns.

'These represent Runes: shield, knockback, and heavy attack...'

Xiwen only had time to distinguish the three Runes types before Lestrange walked out of the Hospital Wing and was subsequently obscured by the wall.

Looking at Riddle lying on the hospital bed, Xiwen said seriously:

"Riddle, I think you need to be more careful from now on."