That evening, different voices began to emerge at Hogwarts.
Even in Gryffindor, some people began to question what Harry and Dumbledore had said before. Although Harry's classmates in his year and his roommates still believed him, different voices had already begun to emerge in the Common Room.
"He said the Dark Lord was back, so how could he still be alive? Are you telling me he could duel the Dark Lord and come back alive?" This was the question those who doubted Harry and the others asked most often, and it was also the hardest to refute.
There did not seem to be anything wrong with thinking that way.
After all, if an underage wizard who had only been fourteen at the time could escape Voldemort, then Voldemort did not seem to be anything to fear.
In response, Harry really wanted to fire a Sword Beam Charm straight at whoever said it.
Yes, he had escaped Voldemort, but no one knew better than he did how he had escaped. In a straight fight, trading spells head-on, he felt that even a hundred of him would be no match for Voldemort.
For one thing, his magic could not even inflict any real injury on Voldemort. He remembered all too well how his Sword Beam Charm had struck Voldemort's hand and failed to sever even his palm.
Harry was certain that, against one of those people making snide remarks, a single Sword Beam Charm could cut his head right off.
If his wand had not come through at the crucial moment, if not for that strange Prior Incantato, if the other Death Eaters had not stood there stunned, if Dismask had not refrained from intervening, if the trophy Portkey had not worked quickly enough-without any one of those conditions, Harry would have