The troll's roar made the doorframe itself tremble.
It abruptly raised an arm to block its eyes, and the wooden club that originally aimed to smash Malfoy deviated in its direction as well.
With a loud crash, the club slammed against the edge of the door, and stone fragments and wood chips flew out together.
Before Malfoy could steady herself, her wrist was grabbed.
"Go inside!" Harry pulled her hand to retreat into the showroom, casually drawing her behind a table.
A piece of shattered wood grazed his left arm, tearing an opening in his sleeve, but he did not spare the time to look.
The young lady steadied herself on the edge of the table and opened her eyes.
The white light in the corridor had already receded, but Potter's wand tip was still glowing brightly, and even his eyes behind his lenses were illuminated quite clearly.
"Can you walk?" Harry asked.
"Of course!"
She answered quickly, but after finishing, she realized her hand was still tightly gripping the sleeve of his robe.
Malfoy quickly let go and turned to look the other way.
Hermione was supporting the girl, and Ron had already run to the side of the two, resting the girl's arm over his own shoulder.
"The other door is over there," Ron panted, pointing to the other end of the showroom. "We came through there."
Harry nodded, preparing to lead Malfoy to follow, but the troll outside the door had already lowered its arm.
The light had failed to injure it; it had only blinded it temporarily.
Now, the enraged troll was bending down, squeezing that disproportionately small head into the doorframe.
The wooden club smashed aside the residual paneling nearby, producing a succession of crashing sounds.
Harry's palms broke into a light sweat.
In the original book, Ron used the Levitation Charm to lift the club and knock the troll unconscious.
Yet the thick wooden club before him was much heavier than anything he had practiced with recently.
What was more, there was now a girl who could not walk steadily.
Try it once following his memory?
Harry glanced at Malfoy's just-blanched face and instantly dismissed the thought.
"Get people across first, I'll block it." He turned around and raised his wand tip.
Without any incantation, the white light that had just gathered shone brightly once more, directly illuminating the doorway.
The troll growled, skewing its head and reaching out to cover its eyes, and the foot it had just stepped inside stopped beside the table.
Ron supported the girl and could not help looking back.
"Harry? You call this Lumos?!"
He had seen others use the Lumos charm before.
Yet whose Lumos charm could illuminate a troll so brightly that it could not even see the path?
The previous instance was simply like moving the sun from the Great Hall's ceiling into the corridor!
"Go first!" Harry's voice was a bit more urgent than usual.
Ron immediately retracted his gaze and, together with Hermione, supported the girl as they walked toward the other door.
Harry's breathing, however, gradually grew heavier.
Maintaining this level of brightness was far more strenuous than ordinary illumination, and magic was continuously surging out from the wand tip.
He could shine it a bit longer, but that wooden club had already been raised.
Though the troll could not clearly see people, it could still hear where they were.
It swung the club fiercely in the direction of the light source, completely unconcerned that a table still blocked its path.
"Potter, to the right!" Malfoy yanked his arm.
Harry stepped back along with her, the table edge descending nearly touching the robes of both of them, and the paper boxes and lamp stands on the table all rolled to the ground.
The light wobbled along with it, and the troll immediately stepped forward.
Malfoy raised her wand, pinning the overturned table to the ground. The troll reached out, grabbed a table leg, and gave it a vicious yank, causing the wood to begin fracturing.
"It won't hold out much longer." The young lady's voice grew somewhat tight.
"Just long enough for us to take a few steps." Harry reined in the illumination and pointed his wand toward an empty iron box nearby.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
The iron box rose, crossed the edge of the table, and crashed against the wall on the other side of the showroom, producing a harsh, grating sound.
The troll abruptly turned its head, and Harry seized the chance to pull Malfoy past the shattered wood on the floor.
Yet they had barely run a few steps when the sound of breaking table legs echoed from behind.
Hermione and Ron had not yet reached the door.
One of the girl's shoes had come off, and her bare sole stepped upon the debris, causing her to wince and shrink back.
Ron hurriedly hoisted the girl higher onto his shoulder, while Hermione moved aside a blocking cardboard box.
The door was clearly right before their eyes, yet the troll was rapidly approaching as well.
Harry relit his wand, staring at those two sturdy legs, his gaze suddenly falling toward the wall.
There stood an unopened roll of white gauze, its cylindrical wooden axle resting on two low stools.
Beside it, a piece of already unfurled gauze curtain trailed upon the ground.
He suddenly recalled that while detouring just now, Ron had nearly tripped over a piece of cloth.
"Hermione, pull the cloth over here!" Hermione looked in the direction of his gaze and understood immediately.
She had the girl sit down leaning against the wall, drew her wand, and lifted a corner of the gauze screen.
"Ron, help me lift the other end!"
Ron glanced at the approaching troll behind them, the hand gripping his wand involuntarily trembling slightly.
"Wingardium Levio--"
"Sa!" Hermione reminded him urgently, "A lighter wrist, don't fling your entire arm out!"
Ron clenched his teeth and waved it once more. The other end of the white cloth finally left the ground.
The gauze screen the two of them pulled lay across the troll's path, the cloth surface swaying violently.
The troll had no intention of stopping at all; its thick soles stepped straight onto it.
"Malfoy, secure both sides!"
"This young lady sees it!"
The young lady had already raised her wand, successively sticking both ends of the gauze screen to the ground.
Ron and Hermione instantly lowered their wand tips and rapidly retreated to the side. The troll's other foot stepped onto the white cloth as well.
Harry shifted a step to the side, his wand flaring abruptly.
The white light shone past the side of the troll's face, and it roared, twisting its head, raising the club, and swinging it toward that detestable bright spot.
Harry hastily crouched down.
The club swept past the top of his head, slamming into the low stool beside the wall.
The wooden axle dropped off, rolling beneath the troll's raised foot.
It stepped on it, the wooden cylinder rolling violently, while its other foot was ensnared by the taut gauze screen, causing its massive body to pitch forward abruptly.
"Run!" Harry raised his head, sweat beginning to bead even on his forehead.
The cloth was already emitting tearing sounds; this method clearly could not trap it for long.
Yet just as the troll lowered its head to yank at the cloth, a sharp cry suddenly rang out from the other end of the showroom.
"Back, all of you!" It was Professor McGonagall.
Supporting the girl, Ron almost instantly caught sight of hope.
Hermione hastily grabbed his robe and pulled him back to the side, and Harry also guided Malfoy away from the doorway.
A red light crossed over several people's shoulders and struck the troll fiercely.
Snape stood behind Professor McGonagall, his wand already raised.
The troll swayed, having just torn free from the gauze screen beneath its feet, when a second spell closely followed.
Professor McGonagall waved her wand, and the fractured table legs on the ground rapidly transformed into thick ropes, entangling the troll's arms.
The wooden club slipped from its grasp, smashing heavily onto the ground.
The troll stood wobbling for a moment, and then collapsed with a loud crash.
The showroom floor seemed to sink down along with it.
Leaning his back against the wall, Harry finally reined in the light at his wand tip.
Lowering his head to look at his own hand, he realized he had gripped his wand so tightly that his knuckles had turned somewhat white.
Beside him, Malfoy did not speak either.
She looked at the troll on the ground, then gazed at her own disheveled robe sleeve, and only after a long moment did she slowly exhale a breath.
Ron settled the girl against the wall and slumped onto the floor himself.
"Did I... succeed just now?"
"You succeeded." Hermione's voice was shaking as well. "You successfully lifted the cloth."
Ron looked down at his wand, the corners of his mouth just starting to turn up before they met Professor McGonagall's gaze.
He immediately wanted to stand, but his legs refused to cooperate.
Professor McGonagall walked with brisk strides to the group, first inspecting the girl and then scanning the four of them one by one.
Her lips were pressed tightly together, yet her eyes still held lingering shock and anger.
"Is anyone injured?"
As Harry prepared to shake his head, a sharp pain suddenly came from his left arm.
He lowered his head and saw the tear on his robe sleeve, with blood already staining the fabric beneath. "Just a graze," he said.
Malfoy's gaze immediately fell upon it.
Professor McGonagall did not accept the explanation. "All of you, to the Hospital Wing."
Snape stood beside the fallen troll, his gaze shifting from the white cloth on the ground to the shattered lamp stand, and finally resting on the wand in Harry's hand.
"Potter," his voice was very low. "Was the illumination spell just now cast by you?"
Harry paused; busy saving lives a moment ago, how could he have spared a thought for such matters?
"Yes, Professor. Lumos."
"You did not speak an incantation?"
Malfoy raised her head as well. She had seen Potter perform Nonverbal Spellcasting, but looking at Snape's expression now, she realized that light just then had even caught the professor's attention.
The showroom plunged into a sudden, instantaneous silence.
Harry glanced at his already extinguished wand tip, his expression entirely normal.
"I naturally need to speak the incantation, Professor."
He answered with complete composure, even revealing an obedient smile.
Malfoy, however, abruptly raised her head.
What nonsense is Potter uttering?!
She had witnessed Harry performing Nonverbal Spellcasting with her own eyes!
The young lady instinctively parted her lips.
Yet when she saw Harry's harmless-as-a-lamb demeanor and observed Professor McGonagall's and Professor Snape's scrutinizing gazes, she suddenly understood something.
Malfoy pressed her lips together and ultimately did not speak out to expose him.
Hmph!
This young lady couldn't care less about your secrets!
Nevertheless, Snape merely looked at him coldly.
"Is that so, Potter?"
He slowly narrowed his eyes, a mocking curl forming at the corner of his mouth.
"That is truly strange. Perhaps something has gone wrong with my ears."
He paused deliberately, his gaze resting upon Harry's face.
"What is even more astonishing is that this pair of eyes of mine also appears to have malfunctioned."
Harry: "..."
Ruined, caught red-handed on the spot.
Snape leaned forward slightly, his voice growing increasingly chilling.
"Or perhaps our illustrious, gifted Harry Potter has mastered some advanced technique of chanting incantations through his nostrils of which even I am unaware?"
The corners of Harry's mouth twitched slightly.
No.
Professor, your tongue is truly venomous.
Malfoy, standing to the side, had originally been somewhat nervous, but upon hearing this, she nearly failed to hold back a laugh.
She hastily pressed her lips together, though her shoulders still trembled lightly twice.
Stupid Potter, you've done it now, haven't you?
Before Professor Snape, those little clever tricks of yours won't work anymore!
Yet, laughter aside, the young lady knew clearly in her heart.
This detestable fellow had actually mastered Nonverbal Spellcasting for real.
That was something even many upper-year students were unable to accomplish.
Before you continue