Zila--
The moment the words "Bellatrix" appeared, the row of benches closest to the door suddenly scraped against the ground, making a harsh scraping sound.
Several junior students stepped back with pale faces and overturned a silver wine glass.
Next to Gryffindor table, Draco's originally tense face lost all color in an instant.
Hermione immediately turned to look at him, and subconsciously reached out to pull his sleeves, but then he remembered that this was Great Hall, there were many people, and his fingertips stopped halfway.
Two steps away, Harley had already stood up straight from his seat.
The girl's green eyes were fixed on the open door of the Great Hall without blinking, and her face was gloomy and terrifying.
In the center of the faculty bench, Dumbledore stood up immediately.
He did not make any comforting speech, Robes swept his hem across the steps, and in a few steps he reached the entrance of the Entrance Hall, which was covered in blood, and leaned over to hold down the trembling patrol boy.
"Where did you last see her?"
Dumbledore's voice was very low, but it spread clearly throughout the silent front row.
The boy gasped for air, clutched the material on his chest with blood-stained fingers, and replied intermittently:
"Entrance Hall...Entrance Hall Near the steps outside... the protection was blown open..."
"Who else is out there?" Dumbledore asked.
"Bock... and Macdonald..." the boy choked out a mouthful of blood, his voice trembling violently, "The two of them were patrolling the stone steps on the right... and they didn't come back with them..."
Dumbledore's expression was slightly condensed, and he immediately stood up and handed the wounded on the ground to Professor Sprout, who came quickly.
"Pomona, stop the bleeding first. Minerva, have someone notify Ministry of Magic and Auror Office immediately through Fireplace."
Putting these words aside, Dumbledore held Wand tightly, hurriedly stepped out of the Great Hall gate, and went straight to the main entrance of the Entrance Hall, which was attacked.
Professor McGonagall took over Great Hall at the same second.
She stood in front of the steps of the high platform, holding the Wand high in her hand, and her stern voice suppressed the screams that had just emerged from the crowd:
"All Prefect, gather students from their respective colleges immediately!"
"Return to the dormitory along the checked inner corridor! Everyone stays away from the outer door and no one is allowed to stay without permission!"
Long Table Suddenly there was a dense sound of getting up.
Professor Flitwick quickly jumped off the high platform, waved Wand to seal the high windows on both sides of the Great Hall, then turned around and ran towards the adjacent transept passage.
Professor Sprout half-knelt on the ground to clean the Curse wound on the injured man's shoulder, and at the same time urged Hufflepuff's Prefect to bring the frightened first-year student inside first.
The other professors drew their sticks and spread out, guarding each exit.
While Professor McGonagall was staring at the order of the four Long Tables, he waved his staff with his backhand, and several silvery Reinforcement Charms hit the stone arch leading to the inner corridor one after another.
The riot that was on the verge of getting out of control quickly gathered itself into an evacuation queue under the teachers' vigorous dispatch.
Cordelia stood on the edge of Gryffindor table and did not move immediately.
Because no one was moving around.
The first thing she saw was Draco, who was still standing where he was.
The young master Slytherin, who always had his eyes high above his head, didn't even bother to get out of the way of the people pushing and pushing him by. His light gray eyes were fixedly staring in the direction of the Entrance Hall.
"Draco."
Hermione called him in a low voice.
But Draco just pursed his lips tightly and didn't react at all.
At this moment, several Ravenclaw senior students hurriedly got up and returned to the team. Professor Sprout and two faculty members lifted up the injured on the ground, and the crowd nearby quickly made way for a passage to both sides.
Boom--!
Entrance Hall Suddenly there was another dull explosion from the outside!
The shock wave poured in along the porch, causing the gravel and dust on the door frame to fall down, and large pieces of choking smoke and dust rolled towards the door of the Great Hall.
Professor McGonagall turned around suddenly and raised his staff to open a wide invisible barrier on the inside of the threshold, firmly blocking the splashing gravel outside.
The students in the front row let out a burst of exclamation, and the queue that had been lined up was suddenly in chaos for a moment.
Almost everyone's eyes were drawn to the billowing dust at the door.
Only Harley moved in these few seconds.
She did not follow the Gryffindor team to the inside. Instead, she ducked through the space between the two Long Tables and rushed towards the door against the flow of people.
"Harley!"
Ron was the first to notice that she was walking in the wrong direction, and her face changed drastically and she shouted.
Several people around him turned their heads sharply.
Harley has already crossed the high threshold of the Great Hall in one swift step.
The usually slightly messy black hair had been neatly tied into a ponytail with a rubber band at some point. It hung behind his head and swayed violently as he ran. His right hand was firmly holding on to his Wand.
Ron stared hard at the ponytail and back, and the blood on his face faded away.
He pushed away the wooden chair in front of him and ran after him.
"Harley! Wait--"
Hermione followed Ron almost at the same second as he took a step forward, flipping over a pile of dinner plates at the edge of his robe.
"Harley is back!"
Draco was originally frozen beside Long Table and did not move.
It wasn't until Hermione's figure completely disappeared into the smoke and dust outside the threshold that his pupils suddenly shrank, he knocked away the student next to him, and chased him out.
"Come back! Potter! Weasley! Malfoy!"
Professor McGonagall had just blocked the debris outside the door when he turned around and noticed this scene. He tried to stop with a livid face, but he only had time to see Draco rush out of the corner of the door frame.
On the side of the teaching staff's chair, Snape's Black Robes suddenly lifted up.
Without saying a word, he held Wand tightly and strode out of the Great Hall; Lupin, who was a few steps away, also had a darkened expression, and followed Snape to chase Entrance Hall.
Over at the main entrance, Dumbledore was blocking the steps of the blown-out gate to intercept the aftermath of the attack. Outside the Entrance Hall, the field on the side near Black Lake flashed two dazzling cursed lights in succession.
Harley, who was running at the front, obviously saw the movement on the lake side. As soon as he left Great Hall, he turned into the short corridor inside the Entrance Hall and rushed out along the side door leading to the venue.
Snape and Lupin chased into the same side corridor without hesitation.
There was commotion again in the Great Hall, and several senior boys subconsciously wanted to follow them out to help.
"Get back! No one is allowed near the door!"
Professor McGonagall The horizontal staff was blocked in front of the threshold, sternly suppressing the commotion, and waving his hands to order each hospital Prefect:
"Take the person away! Return to Common Room immediately!"
Fred and George tensed their faces. They stopped Gryffindor students from the left and right who were trying to squeeze out, and loudly urged the crowd to evacuate to the inner stone corridor.
Cordelia stood next to Long Table, watching the figures disappearing one after another outside the door, and subconsciously clenched the sleeves of his robe with his fingers.
She didn't rush out.
The battle at Seventh Floor half an hour ago had drained her of all her strength, and her ankles were already a little weak when she came downstairs. What's more, she knew very well in her heart who was controlling Gavin's body now.
That man is cunning and cunning, and is smarter than anyone else. He will never be so stupid as to follow the Gryffindors to die.
Cordelia calmed down, turned his head, and wanted to discuss something with Gavin beside him.
However, there was nothing around him.
There was only a knocked-out wooden chair leaning in the middle of the aisle.
The black-haired boy who was standing half a step away from her just now disappeared without a trace.
"?"
Cordelia's breathing stopped unconsciously.
The trade-offs and hesitations just now were instantly thrown out the window.
She pushed aside the wooden chair blocking the road in front of her, raised her feet and walked quickly towards the Great Hall gate.
However, this step was taken too quickly, and the soreness and numbness remaining deep in the leg bones immediately hit him, his muscles suddenly twitched, his feet suddenly felt weak, and his whole body swayed.
Fortunately, my right hand held the edge of Long Table in time to prevent me from falling, but my knuckles had turned white from the exertion.
She didn't dare to stop for even a second, using the strength of the edge of the table to stand upright and continue walking towards the exit.
Before she could get close to the threshold, a tall Stone Pillar next to her suddenly stretched out a hand and stopped her firmly in front of her.
Elliot Vale was wearing the dark gray fitted Robes. He stood on the side of the evacuation channel and spoke with a cold face. The volume was no different from when he usually called names on the podium:
"Mr. Rowle, follow Prefect."
"No, I--"
A group of junior students from Ravenclaw were lining up and hurried past Stone Pillar. Several students raised their heads and glanced at the new substitute professor. No one thought much about it and walked away quickly with their heads lowered.
It wasn't until the footsteps of the group of students were a few steps away that Vale turned sideways inconspicuously, blocking the surrounding sight, and suppressing the sound to the level that only the two of them could hear:
"Lia, what's wrong?"
Cordelia then stopped talking and raised his head suddenly.
The title she had only heard at home penetrated her ears, and her eyes met the gray-blue eyes of the man in front of her.
The unfamiliar blond hair, the unfamiliar male profile, but the look under his eyes when he frowned slightly, was the look she had been familiar with since she was a child.
Turns out to be the mother?
No wonder when I asked him to be Ancient Runes's assistant coach, he immediately agreed.
This surprise only occupied her mind for a short second, and was suppressed by the anxiety surging in her chest.
I didn't bother to ask my mother why she appeared in Hogwarts with this face.
Cordelia immediately grabbed Professor Vale's forearm with his backhand, breathing rapidly and lowering his voice:
"Gavin... He's gone, he may have gone too!"
Vale followed her line of sight and glanced outside the Entrance Hall where the smoke and dust had not dispersed.
Entrance Hall There was a faint muffled sound of cracking masonry from the main entrance, and intermittently from the side corridor leading to the venue, there were calls for help from the patrol students who were trapped.
Vale withdrew his gaze, looked down at Cordelia's slightly trembling hand that was still holding on to the edge of Stone Pillar, and simply nodded:
"I'll take care of it. You go back to the dormitory first."
"But he-"
"No but, leave it to me." He turned around and said, "Farley Prefect, take him back."
Cordelia subconsciously wanted to explain clearly the abnormalities in Gavin's body.
But Vale had already let go of the hand that was holding her back, patted the back of her hand, turned around and strode towards the Entrance Hall, and in the blink of an eye she melted into the dim light and shadow outside the corridor.
"Let's go." Gemma Farley stood aside and took her arm.
Cordelia stood next to Stone Pillar and stared at the empty Great Hall door for two seconds.
She is completely powerless now, not even able to break free.
In the end, she could only let Gemma Farley pull her, and turned around to join the crowd retreating to Cellar.
On the gravel bank below Black Lake, the cold wind blew the water vapor on the face.
Hermione stood alone on the narrow shore path, his chest heaving violently, and his rapid breathing was particularly clear in the dim air.
She held Wand tightly in her right hand, the tip of the staff was slightly shiny, and she scanned the surroundings vigilantly.
Just two minutes ago, she was closely following Harley and Ron.
After they rushed out of the Great Hall, they saw a dazzling cursed light flashing from the side of the lake. They pushed open the side door along the short corridor inside the Entrance Hall and ran all the way up the stone walkway above Black Lake.
However, just halfway through, a violent explosion suddenly exploded outside the side corridor.
The air wave shook off large pieces of gravel on the protective wall of the trail. Hermione was running at the end and could only stop abruptly. He raised his staff and chanted a mantra to deflect the falling stones. He was forced by the impact to take several steps back, all the way back down the descending stone steps leading to the lake shore.
When the dust dispersed, the original intersection of the trail above had been blocked by collapsed rocks. Harley and Ron, who were running in front, had already turned along the trail and disappeared completely.
It's not completely dark yet.
There was a bit of leaden skylight remaining on the lake in the distance, and the lights high up in the castle were tightly blocked by the steep grass slopes and half of the retaining wall.
Occasionally, one or two professors' stern shouts could be heard from above, but through the corners of the hillside and the sound of the wind, it was impossible to tell which direction they were in.
Hermione knew that Harley and Ron were on the trail above, and did not blindly run towards Forbidden Forest or the venue in the distance.
While she pricked up her ears to listen to the noise above, she walked quickly along the damp lakeside path below, trying to bypass this landslide and find the nearest ascending stone steps.
The gravel underfoot clicked lightly.
Just as she passed a towering bush, the grass beside her suddenly rustled.
Hermione's heart suddenly picked up, and he almost instinctively turned his body, taking half a step back. Wand instantly raised it, and pointed the tip of the staff firmly in the direction of the sound:
"Who?!"
The dense grass blades were pushed aside with one hand.
The first thing that emerged was a piece of Slytherin Black Robes stained with dead leaves and dust. Then, Draco's pale and thin face came out of the shadows.
His breathing was also rapid, his short pale blond hair was a little messy by the branches, and the white bandage wrapped around his right wrist was stained with black ash.
The moment their eyes met, Draco's tense shoulders relaxed visibly, and he let out a long breath.
But the next second, his face immediately sank again, and he strode up to her:
"Hurry back with me."
Hermione was relieved when he saw it was Draco. He slowly lowered the hand holding Wand by half an inch, glanced at the thorns hanging from the corner of his robe, and then looked up at the top of the slope blocked by falling rocks.
When she was retreating down the stone steps on the trail, Draco, who was running behind, obviously saw her. However, the passage above was completely blocked by the collapsed gravel, so he could only forcefully bypass the large bushes from down the slope and find his way all the way.
Hermione ignored the cold sweat on his forehead and eagerly took half a step forward:
"Did you see Harley? Where did she and Ron go?"
"Professor Snape and Professor Lupin have already given chase."
Draco didn't want to stay on this topic for even a second. He raised his finger and pointed at another stone step leading to Castle Side Wing not far behind, and urged in a stiff tone:
"You can still walk over there, so go back now."
Hermione glanced in the direction he pointed, but all he could think of was the way Harley had just tied up his ponytail and rushed out, and subconsciously turned his toes towards the upward slope:
"I'm going to find Harley, but she won't listen to advice now! If she really bumps into Bellatrix, I have to find her first--"
"Potter There are so many people who care about you, and you are not missing!"
Draco interrupted her angrily.
The boy's voice was raised very high, and it sounded particularly harsh on the empty and cold lake shore.
His usual arrogance could hardly be seen on that pale face, and his eyes were filled with unconcealable fear and jealousy, as well as a bit of a stinging sense of isolation when watching others being protected by countless people.
Hermione's movements froze.
She turned her head, stared directly into Draco's eyes, and pushed back without giving in at all:
"She's my friend."
Draco's jaw was tense, the veins on the back of his hands protruded, and he almost shouted:
"The professors have all gone!"
Hermione His chest rose and fell violently, but he slowly calmed down.
Reason told her that it would be much more useful for the two professors to rush to rescue people than for her to wander around here.
The cold wind blowing also made her sober up a little. She also understood Draco's worries and how dangerous the situation for the two of them was now.
The girl took a deep breath, suppressed the panic in her heart, and looked away at the top of the slope:
"Okay, I'll go back with you."
She looked at Draco and added the second half of the sentence:
"You go too."
With that said, Hermione stopped delaying and walked along the lakeside path toward the stone steps back to the castle.
Draco followed half a step beside her. Their leather shoes stepped on the wet gravel, and their footsteps sounded urgent and heavy.
But just a few steps away, the footsteps beside him suddenly slowed down.
Draco suddenly spoke:
"You go back first."
Hermione stopped suddenly.
She turned around and looked at the blond boy who stopped two steps away, and her voice suddenly became tight:
"That's it again."
Draco raised his head to look at her, his lips were so white that there was no trace of blood, and his light gray eyes were full of bloodshot eyes:
"It's me she's looking for! It's dangerous for you to be with me! Hermione, do you understand or not--"
"I understand!"
Hermione directly cut off his words.
"But you only say this every time! Tell me to stay away from you, tell me not to mind my own business, and tell me to go back first!"
"You are obviously the one who doesn't understand!"
The girl's eyes instantly turned red. She held Wand's right hand tightly and her voice was trembling uncontrollably:
"We were here last time, you fell in the mud, and I couldn't even pull you up! I put down my face and asked Gavin to teach me Patronus Charm, but you came and asked me if I liked him!"
She took half a step forward, stared at him with her red eyes, and shouted word by word:
"Draco Malfoy, haven't you ever thought about why I have to learn it?!"
Draco was frozen in place, his lips moved, and he couldn't answer a word.
After two seconds, the boy roared hoarsely in extreme panic:
"Bellatrix will kill you!"
"Then if you drive me back, can I stop being afraid?!"
Tears finally welled up in his eyes. Hermione stared at him and almost cried out the last sentence:
"You don't even know what I'm afraid of!"
The only thing left on the shore of the lake is the soft sound of the cold wind blowing through the grass blades.
Draco looked at her blankly.
The indifference and paranoia that he held on to were shattered to pieces by this sentence. The young man's eyes trembled violently, and he unconsciously raised his right hand and stretched out half an inch forward, as if he wanted to touch her arm.
His lips moved, as if something was coming to his lips, but no sound came out.
The outstretched hand suddenly stopped in mid-air.
Hermione His chest was heaving violently. Just as he was about to turn his head to steady his breathing, his eyes suddenly froze.
She found that when she shouted the last few words, there was an obvious white air on her lips.
The biting cold pressed down from all directions without warning.
The shallow puddles at their feet formed a thin layer of frost between their breaths.
Hermione raised his head suddenly.
I saw that the sky above the lead-gray lake bay was densely covered with black shadows at some point.
Three or four Dementor nearby were swooping down against the wall and the water, their tattered black cloth cloaks fluttering in the cold wind.
And high in the sky behind them, ten, twenty, thirty, and more black shadows continued to appear from the thick fog on the lake, almost completely blocking the sky over the entire lake bay.
The rotten and cold atmosphere instantly permeated every inch of the air.
Hermione's heart contracted suddenly, and for a moment, the quarrel at Black Lake's side a few days ago flashed through his mind--
Was he attracted by the fierce quarrel between the two of them?
As soon as the idea came up, she suppressed it forcefully.
Now is not the time to think about this. She has already learned from Gavin, and she knows what to do now.
"Come to me!"
Hermione did not retreat. He grabbed Draco's sleeve with his backhand and asked him to come closer to his side. At the same time, he raised Wand high with his right hand:
"Expecto Patronum!"
Dazzling silver-white light mist burst out from the tip of the staff!
This time it's no longer scattered white smoke.
Thick silver mist quickly gathered in front of the two people, faintly pulling out the outline of a long-necked and wide-winged bird. The warm light emitted collided head-on with the two Dementors that first pounced down, forcing them to stop in mid-air.
Hermione gritted his teeth and tried his best to maintain the silver light on the tip of the staff, while the corner of his eye anxiously glanced towards the stone steps to find a way out.
Her attention was completely grabbed by the black shadow pressing down in front of her.
At this moment, another Dementor slid down silently from above the parapet behind the two of them, with a withered and rotten gray-white palm sticking out from under its hood, and pounced straight at her from the blind spot.
Draco found the falling shadow.
But he didn't have time to remind her, so he had to grab Hermione's shoulders with his left hand, pull her down, and forcefully throw her away to the side.
Tsk--
The Dementor hit the spot where Hermione was standing just now and flew into the air, causing the cold air flow to scratch the person's cheek.
This violent pull also completely disrupted Hermione's waving movement.
The silver mist of flying birds that had not yet completely solidified in mid-air swayed and dispersed in the cold wind with a pop.
The black shadows that were forced back suddenly closed up again!
The moment Draco landed, he forcibly twisted his body and stood up. His thin figure blocked the front of Hermione, and Wand with his right hand swung out:
"Incendio!"
With a bang, blazing orange-red flames rolled up on the dark shore of the lake!
The firelight illuminated the nearby tattered black cloak and scab-covered palms, but it failed to burn away the monsters at all.
The biting cold air quickly suppressed the beating flames, and several black shadows penetrated the firelight and continued to approach without hesitation.
Draco gritted his teeth and swung his staff to create a stream of fire. Seeing that he still couldn't open the passage, he immediately stopped making useless efforts and grabbed Hermione's wrist with his backhand, dragging her back towards the stone steps:
"Let's go!"
Hermione relied on his strength to stand firm, and raised his right hand again Wand to prepare to cast the spell again.
But as soon as she took two steps back, the hand holding her wrist suddenly lost all its strength.
Draco's tall and thin body swayed, and he knelt down heavily on the gravel ground with a thud on his right knee.
He firmly supported the ground with his left hand, gritted his teeth, and wanted to stand up, but his long-term overstretched body was completely pushed to the limit by the terrifying mental pressure of several Dementor around him, and the other leg also weakened.
"Draco!"
Hermione reacted very quickly, stretched out his arms to hold his shoulders in time, and then knelt down on the stone ground together, using his own arms to cushion him so that his head did not hit the protruding black stone.
"Draco! Wake up!"
The boy in his arms did not completely faint this time.
His eyelids trembled heavily, and when he heard Hermione calling his name, his light gray eyes barely opened a slit and turned in her direction with difficulty.
His chest was heaving rapidly, his lips were purple from the cold, and the fingers holding Hermione's forearm were frighteningly cold, but he was still trying to tighten them.
Hermione tried to put his right arm on his shoulder, gritted his teeth and lifted it up.
But the half-strength young man was too heavy, and the black shadow above his head was already less than ten steps in the air. With her own strength, it was impossible to drag him up the steep stone steps before Dementor pounced on him.
Hermione decisively stopped dragging.
She quickly adjusted her posture, knelt down on the gravel ground, let Draco rest firmly on her left shoulder, held his back firmly with her left hand, and raised Wand again with her right hand.
On the forearm, Draco's cold fingers were still gently exerting force in response to her call, but they were already so weak that they could no longer hold on.
The rotting cold air blew against the ground.
In this suffocating coldness, the calm voice in the abandoned classroom resurfaced in Hermione's mind without warning -
"The emotion that drives Patronus Charm is never happiness, it's the determination to hold on to it."
"You can't do it just because you're not determined enough."
"Isn't it enough?"
Hermione murmured to himself, while looking down at the young man leaning on his shoulder.
In the back of my mind, a picture from the past briefly flashed across my mind.
It was an old photo that accidentally slipped out from the yellowed pages of the book when we were looking through old Malfoy family books in the corner of the library.
In the photo, the sun is shining brightly on the lawn of the manor. The young Draco is standing next to a pure White Peacock with its long tail feathers spread out, with its little face raised and a defenseless smile.
When he discovered that Hermione was looking at it, he immediately snatched the photo back and put it away with his ears red.
She didn't ask much at that time.
I just kept it in my heart silently.
But looking at this pale face so close at hand, Hermione had only one clear thought in his heart -
The man in front of me has lived in the sun like this before.
And he is still alive now, and he can and should still live like that in the future.
So--
She wants to bring him back to the sunshine!
Hermione didn't recall any spellcasting theory.
He just used his left hand to gently hold Draco firmly, lowered his head, looked at his barely focused light gray eyes, and spoke word by word:
"Draco, look at me."
The young man's fingers moved slightly in her arms, and his eyes fell firmly on her face.
"I'll take you back, I swear."
The last ray of skylight overhead has been completely swallowed up.
Countless rags Black Robes were flying wildly in the cold wind, surrounding them layer by layer from the frozen lake surface and from the collapsed walls, turning the entire lake bay into an airtight black cage.
On the empty and dead gravel beach, demons are waiting around.
The figure of the girl half-kneeling among the rocks was small and lonely, as if she would be completely swallowed by the darkness coming towards her in the next second.
Hermione Facing the biting wind, he gently closed his eyes and suppressed all the fear in his heart.
The next second, the girl's eyes suddenly opened.
There was no wavering in those brown eyes. She straightened her thin back, clenched Wand with her right hand, and waved resolutely towards the black shadow in the sky above her head:
"Expecto Patronum!"
A dazzling silver-white light exploded from the tip of the staff.
This time, the silver light did not stagnate at all, and instantly condensed into a complete entity in mid-air.
It was a gorgeous and slender silver-white peacock.
The moment it jumped out from the tip of the staff, it landed firmly on the open space one step in front of Hermione and Draco, and its slender tail screen immediately spread out in all directions.
Hundreds of tail feathers flowing with pure light like mercury were spread out in layers, and each feather eye bloomed with a hot and dazzling silver light, forming an airtight curtain of light in front of the two people.
The three Dementors that were the first to swoop in front of the nose hit the light curtain and were violently thrown away on the spot.
Immediately afterwards, White Peacock raised its head covered with a silver crown and let out a clear and long cry.
Its wings suddenly fluttered, and it rose up from the ground dragging its long and colorful tail feathers!
The silvery white light and shadow circled straight up against the lake shore, and every time the broad wings flapped, they created a layer of fiery silver ripples in the cold air.
It took the initiative to face the dense black shadows above the lake bay, and its long tail drew bright arcs in the night, forcing back and scattering the Dementor that were swirling down layer by layer.
In just a few breaths, the Dementor that shrouded the head of the lake bay was completely driven away by this silver-white peacock. It screamed, feared, and fled along the lake in embarrassment toward the thick fog in the distance.
The biting frost subsided quickly.
In the distance, the sounds of fighting can still be heard vaguely at the main entrance of the castle and on the other side of the site, but the shore of this secluded bay has once again been filled with warm and soft silver light.
Hermione no longer paid attention to the movements in the sky, and immediately lowered his head to check Draco beside him:
"Draco? Draco!"
She screamed twice, until the boy's eyes clearly met hers again, and then she breathed a long sigh of relief.
Draco still doesn't have the strength to stand up.
He was half-relying between the black stone behind him and Hermione's shoulders, his chest heaving violently, and his fingers, which had been stiff from the cold, gradually regained some strength under the warm silver light.
Above the head, the silver-white peacock was still circling quietly.
Draco slowly raised his head and stared blankly at the Patronus in mid-air.
The light gray pupils reflected the silvery light that was flowing all over the sky. His eyes moved little by little along with the stretched and gorgeous long tail. After looking at it for a long time, he slowly moved back and landed on Hermione's face.
"Peacock..."
His voice was very soft, hoarse after losing strength.
Hermione followed his gaze and looked up.
She recognized the form she had seen in the photo, and when she turned back to look at Draco, the corners of her mouth that had been tightly pursed finally slowly relaxed.
There were still tears hanging on the girl's cheeks, her fluffy brown hair was messed up by the wind, and she couldn't even calm down her breathing, but her smile suddenly became brighter.
She looked at the young man close at hand and said softly:
"Do you understand what I mean now?"
Draco didn't speak immediately.
He just looked at her without blinking, his Adam's apple rolled up and down, and the hand originally resting on her forearm slowly slid down and held her hand firmly.
"I... I understand."
The young man responded in a low voice.
After stopping for half a beat, he tightened his fingers a little more and added in a very low voice, but very clearly:
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that to you."
Hermione looked at the end of his red eyes and didn't say anything about forgiveness. She just let him hold her hand without pulling her hand back.
Draco looked at the tears on her face, slowly raised his other hand and gently touched her cheek.
His fingertips were still cold, but his movements were as gentle as if he were afraid of breaking something.
Hermione's breathing was slightly stagnant, and he leaned down slightly according to his strength; Draco, who was leaning against the stone, also felt something and slowly raised his head.
The distance between the two people is getting closer and closer.
In mid-air, White Peacock stretched its long tail and passed by at low altitude, and soft silver light slid quietly over their overlapping figures.
All the shock and gasping only took up a dozen seconds in total.
At this distance where the two people's breaths are about to touch each other--
Snap.
Snap, snap.
A clear sound of applause suddenly sounded from the way back in front.
They both froze at the same time.
On the path leading to the stone steps of the castle, in the shadows of the shrubs and parapets on both sides, a tall woman's figure walked out of nowhere.
Her Black Robes hem was still stained with Stone Powder left behind by the collapse of the Entrance Hall. She had obviously retreated all the way along the side of the main entrance. She was attracted by the peacock silver light that suddenly lit up over the lake bay, and was slowly clapping her hands.
Hermione turned around suddenly.
Her left hand was still firmly holding Draco by her side, but her right hand had already tightened her grip on Wand the moment she turned her head.
The White Peacock above the head has not yet dissipated, and the flowing silver light falls down, clearly illuminating the woman's pale and thin face, messy black hair, and the crazy smile in her eyes--
Bellatrix·Lestrange.
Bellatrix stopped clapping his hands, tilted his head, and looked down at the two people on the ground. His hoarse and joking voice slowly swayed along the quiet shore of the lake:
"A white peacock Patronus? It's really touching, Draco."
"In the last moment of your life, it's nice to have a little Mudblood girlfriend who loves you to accompany you on the road, isn't it?"