Operation

"Are you ready?" Seeing Snape pull out a sheet of parchment and squint at it for a long while, Pandora could not help asking.

"I'm ready." She patted the small bag on the table. "Everything's in here."

"Wait a moment." Snape did not look up, his eyes still fixed on the Marauder's Map. "Let me check again."

He had been tracking the movements of the little black dot representing Mulciber, planning to act once it disappeared from the map.

At that moment, the setting sun slanted through the high windows of the Room of Requirement, casting dim light across the room.

The two of them had just eaten a few pieces of bread here and did not intend to go to the Great Hall for dinner.

Time passed bit by bit. Snape's eyes suddenly lit up: Mulciber had finally entered the Secret Passage again, and the little black dot vanished from the map.

"Come here. Let me cast a Disillusionment Charm on you." He hurriedly beckoned Pandora over.

As he spoke, Snape raised his Wand and tapped the top of her head with practiced gentleness. "Done."

"Nicely done, Severus." Before she blended into the background, Pandora lowered her head to look at her body and said appreciatively.

At the moment, her body looked as though it did not belong to her at all.

She had not become completely invisible, but her color and texture had turned exactly the same as the nearby walls and equipment, like a humanoid chameleon cleverly hidden in its surroundings.

"Let's go." Snape was about to tap himself with his Wand when he suddenly saw a translucent Wand floating in midair descend onto his head.

Something icy flowed from the spot where he had been tapped into his body.

"Thanks, Pandora." Snape picked up the small bag. "This thing's pretty heavy. I'll carry it."

The door to the room opened without a sound, then quietly closed again, vanishing perfectly into the stone wall.

The two of them carefully went down the stairs to the fifth floor.

When no one was around, Snape opened the mirror leading to the Secret Passage.

"Go on, get inside." He lowered his voice and spoke to the air around him, afraid someone might overhear.

Unsure whether his companion had already entered, he waited a few more seconds before withdrawing the foot he had used to block the entrance.

A faint glow appeared in the air, drifting about like fireflies flickering in the night sky and illuminating the uneven stone walls.

"This is a nice place," Pandora's voice echoed through the Secret Passage. "It'd be great for experiments. Why do you want to destroy it?"

"Uh..." Snape did not know how to answer for a moment. "Well, this place could be used by bad people. Don't you already have a laboratory? That makes this place unimportant, doesn't it?"

"That's true. All right, I'll begin." Pandora did not dwell on it. "Put the bag on the ground. I can't see it."

"Oh, okay." Snape put the small bag on the ground. "Let's lift the Disillusionment Charms."

As the spell took effect, they reappeared.

Once visible again, he watched Pandora take several miscellaneous jars from the small bag, filled with all sorts of powders and liquids.

To the sound of Pandora's chant, like a song, the magical materials rose into the air and slowly fused together, covering the walls and stone steps of the Secret Passage layer by layer.

As she chanted, glowing Runic letters appeared on the walls, shimmering with mysterious light as though they were about to leap right out of the stone.

After a while, they really did break free from the stone walls, glimmering faintly in midair before slowly fading away.

"Rare ancient magic." Pandora's voice was full of satisfaction. "I tried many different magic-reducing agents and spells before I managed to clear them away.

"They also gave me some new ideas. That Runic Symbol ' '—I always thought it meant explosion, but it was actually used as a protective spell."

"What?"

"."

"Forget it." Hearing Pandora say that, Snape began to wonder whether his excellent Ancient Runes grades had been fake. "What do we do next?"

"Let's use Bombarda Maxima." Pandora suggested it, her eyes gleaming with eagerness.

The moment she uttered the first syllable, Snape hurriedly stopped her. "Wait! Let me do it. Get to the side."

He was somewhat worried. What if she got hurt? He did not want an accident to happen to Pandora after he had come along.

Just then, Snape smelled a gust of wind drifting from the stairwell, carrying a sharp, fishy stench, and a sudden chill ran over his arm.

Before he could react to what the smell was, a slimy, ghastly white hand had already gripped the stone steps and crawled out.

He looked up and sucked in a breath: a mass of corpses was crowding upward from underground.

Below, ghastly white heads and hands emerged from the darkness—men, women, children—all with sunken, sightless eyes as they closed in on them.

"Inferi!" Snape shouted. "Bombarda Maxima!"

A powerful surge of magic blasted toward the stone wall, cracking it in several places, but it was far from enough.

They did not have time to destroy the Secret Passage.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

The first Inferius to appear tumbled down with a thud.

"Impedimenta! Binding Charm!"

Snape retreated while frantically waving his Wand through the air, but more Inferi continued to crawl upward without stopping.

Their withered hands gripped the icy rock. Their hollow, misty eyes stared blankly at them, their faded, rotten clothes stained with mildew and dirt dragging behind them, while contempt showed on their sunken faces.

"Pandora, run!" Snape dragged her to the entrance and, trembling, drew a little owl with his Wand. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The Inferi, ignorant and unfeeling, continued to advance step by step, stretching their desiccated hands toward them.

He prayed that the exit would open quickly and let him and Pandora escape safely.

"Wait, Severus." Pandora staggered as he dragged her. "I have a way."

She tried hard to wrench free of Snape's hand, but he gripped her tightly and refused to let go.

"Don't worry about that now, hurry up! Go find the professors!" Snape shouted anxiously, his voice cracking.

The entrance finally opened.

Before Snape could pull Pandora out, a flash of light streaked past. He felt his ankle being seized, then he was lifted upside down into the air.

"Got you! Snivellus, give me back my things!"

James's savage face met Snape's upside down, his eyes filled with fury and hatred.

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