The net of light tightened like an invisible hand, gripping the desperately struggling Nagini and forcibly dragging her into the cage rapidly shrinking in midair!
Bang!
With a dull thud, the Silver Wire Cage returned to the size of a palm and landed steadily in Douglas's hand.
Inside the cage, a snake compressed to the size of an earthworm was frantically battering the walls, letting out helpless, piercing hisses.
Everyone froze.
The mockery and gloating on the Death Eaters' faces remained frozen in the shadows beneath their hoods.
Even the rat Wormtail had turned into, who had just escaped with his life, stopped and stared back blankly at the scene, his beady eyes full of disbelief.
"How-dare-you?!"
Voldemort was the first to break the deathly silence.
For the first time, pure, undisguised terror and fury appeared on his snakelike face.
It was not anger at having his authority challenged, but fear from the depths of his soul at having his very foundations shaken!
Nagini!
She was the vessel he had chosen for a Horcrux.
Because of the earlier writing on his soul, and the atmosphere in the United Kingdom's wizarding world.
He had never had the chance to turn her into a Horcrux.
And now she had been... caught by a Mouse Trap?!
He let out an inhuman roar and almost instinctively tried to charge forward.
But at that very moment, someone moved faster than he did!
It was Lucius Malfoy!
As though pumped full of stimulants, he suddenly charged out of the circle!
He moved like lightning, his face filled with extreme, sky-is-falling panic and loyalty!
He seized Voldemort, who was about to charge at Douglas, and cried out in a hoarse voice that was almost a roar:
**"Master! Run! It's a trap! He wants to catch you in