The Clash of the Lion and the Giant Serpent (IV)

The Gryffindor section erupted in laughter. Seamus laughed so hard he collapsed onto Dean's shoulder, Colin raised his camera and snapped a picture of Crabbe's expressionless embarrassment, and even Hermione could not help curling her lips slightly. Indeed, after the glow at Crabbe's wand tip dispersed, nothing happened—no Barrier Charm, no Binding Charm, not even a tiny spark.

Yet Slytherin's side was unusually quiet. Pansy covered her mouth and turned to say something to Daphne. Daphne shook her head slightly, a faint, ambiguous smile at the corners of her lips.

No one joined in the laughter, and no one seemed embarrassed. Their silence was like waiting for thunder that had yet to sound.

Ron stopped laughing soon enough.

Hermione was the first to notice that something was wrong. On the owl perches high above the Great Hall, the owls that had been dozing suddenly began to stir. The fluttering of wings rose and fell, as though an invisible hand were prodding them one by one.

A barn owl cocked its head and let out a short, agitated hoot. Then came a second, a third, until the entire flock of resident birds from Owl Post had awakened.

Bird cries poured down from above. They were no longer clear, pleasant chirps, but a piercing, oppressive din, like hundreds of fingernails scraping across a blackboard at once.

Ron looked up, his pupils contracting at the sight before him: an overwhelming mass of feathers and droppings rushed straight at him.

But the owls were not the only threat. More than a dozen harmless decorative enchanted vines sprang from the corners of the platform like living snakes. Normally, they were merely ornaments in the Great Hall. Even when students' spells occasionally struck them, they would only sway gently, like willow branches in the wind.

But