Harry bit down hard on the tip of his tongue!
Agony exploded.
An opening of clarity was instantly torn through his muddled mind.
He forced his head aside!
Don't look! Don't look at that mirror!
The mental assault was still intensifying. His brain felt as though it would be torn apart, and he could not even form a complete spell.
Eliminate the interference first!
His gaze swept over the Puffskein.
No.
It was only noise.
His cousin Douglas's words rang in his ears.
"Don't try to untangle the mess."
"Find the knot."
"Then cut it!"
The knot...
Harry's gaze finally locked onto that beating, purplish-black heart.
That was it!
It was the source of the unstable magic!
It was powering the Puffskein's jinx!
And it was sustaining the illusions in the mirror!
Harry made his choice.
He clamped his left hand hard over his ear.
Turning sideways, he watched the mirror's direction out of the corner of his eye, but never looked at it directly.
He did not waste magic attacking the Puffskein.
He raised his wand, its tip aimed at no enemy.
Instead, it pointed between his own eyebrows.
He silently cast a spell Douglas had taught him, one that worked on himself.
Heart Like Still Water.
A cool, mint-like sensation instantly flooded from the wand tip into his brain.
It did not feel like a barrier.
It felt more like a small pocket of absolute concentration, a calm vacuum, had been forcibly carved out within his chaotic mental world.
The Puffskein kept screaming.
But he could now hear it without listening.
He had secured a brief moment of focus.
His wand pointed steadily at the mass of magic.
Destroy it?
No.
That would only trigger a more violent explosion.
An image surfaced in Harry's mind: Douglas privately dissecting