Outside the light screen, the Ministry Atrium seemed to have been muted.
Hundreds of eyes stared wide-eyed, the Quick-Quotes Quill hovering in mid-air, hesitant to fall.
"... Ravenclaw?" someone in the crowd murmured, repeating the word as if they didn't understand it.
"How is that possible?! That is—" The white-haired old man from Wizengamot suddenly stood up from his seat, his silver-tipped cane nearly slipping from his hand.
He stared at the blue eagle circling above Allen's head on the screen, his voice filled with barely suppressed excitement.
"That is a guardian spirit formed from the wisdom of Ravenclaw! That is—that is the mark left by Rowena Ravenclaw herself!"
"What a joke!" a tall wizard in the back row blurted out. " Ravenclaw has been dead for a thousand years! How could her mark possibly appear on a wizard of unknown origin?!"
"I don't know!" The white-haired old man didn't turn around, but his voice rose several octaves, "But that's the mark of Ravenclaw!"
"I've seen those ancient documents in Hogwarts Castle, and they describe the exact same form!"
"That man—the one with the fox mask—he has gained Ravenclaw's approval!"
An uproar erupted in the main hall.
Rowena Ravenclaw?! The Founders of Hogwarts?
"Impossible! She's long dead! How could she possibly acknowledge a living person?"
"Who exactly is he?!"
Fudge stood in the front row of the VIP area, staring at the scene before him in disbelief.
His mind was in complete turmoil Dumbledore had just announced in public that the You-Know-Who was still alive that morning, and now another You-Know-Who had appeared, recognized by the founding wizard from a thousand years ago.
All of this happened too fast, far beyond his capacity to process.
The tall male wizard from the International Confederation of Wizards stood at the front of the crowd, his expression shifting constantly.
His gaze was fixed on the black figure in the light screen, and his original plan to show Dumbledore's failure had been completely disrupted.
Meanwhile, the situation was even more delicate inside the Great Hall Hogwarts.
The leader in black robes unconsciously tightened his grip on his wand; he could sense a change in the aura of the fox-masked man opposite him.
A few minutes ago, he could still see the other person's fatigue and dishevelment, but now, the person's aura had completely changed.
Just like...
Just like when he first met the leader.
"... Who exactly are you?" the leader of the black-robed men asked again, this time without the previous contempt in his tone.
Allen held onto his mask, feeling a strange power surging within him, like some ancient wisdom slowly seeping into his bones.
Countless pieces of knowledge flashed through his mind, and the truth of magic seemed to open its arms to him.
This information flowed into his mind like water, clear and distinct, and he could understand it without thinking.
At the same instant, not far behind Allen, Harry's gaze pierced through the chaotic crowd and landed under the overturned long table beside him.
There lay a flying broom, the very one that Madam Hooch had dropped when she was shot down.
Without a second thought, Harry seized the moment when the Death Eaters ' attention was drawn to the fox-masked man and suddenly rolled over to pounce on the broom.
The moment his fingers gripped the broom handle, he felt that sense of security that only a flying broom could provide.
Then he suddenly flipped over and mounted him, pushing off with his toes, and shot off, skimming the ground.
" Potter!" a Death Eaters cried out, but Harry was too fast.
He Bludger, crashing directly into the Death Eaters was holding Malfoy's shoulder. The man had no time to dodge and was struck hard in the side by the broom handle, staggering and releasing his grip.
Malfoy was thrown to the ground, where he curled up in a ball, clutching his head.
Harry grabbed him by the back of his collar and dragged him a few feet to the side, while simultaneously charging toward another Death Eaters who was holding Ravenclaw girl.
"Get out of the way!" Harry yelled, the end of his broom sweeping across the man's wrist. The man cried out in pain and let go, the girl falling to the ground and crawling backward with tears streaming down her face.
A gasp and curses erupted in the Great Hall as Harry's rampage momentarily disrupted the Death Eaters ' formation.
The leader of the men in black robes frowned and roared at his two subordinates, "Grab him! Don't let him take the man away!"
The two Death Eaters turned to chase after Harry, but they had only taken one step—
Allen raised his arm almost instinctively, without even consciously thinking about what spell to use.
Countless pieces of knowledge flashed through his mind like a surging tide, automatically filtering out the one most suitable for the current situation.
" Repulso."
In a silent instant, a semi-circular silver-white light spread out from the tip of his staff, like a light shield suddenly thrown out, sweeping across the front half of the Great Hall along the ground.
The two Death Eaters chasing Harry were propelled off the ground by the light, flying backward and crashing into the long table behind them, creating a cacophony of shattering metal and ceramic.
The remaining Death Eaters were also thrown off balance by the shockwave, and the once tight encirclement formation instantly cracked open.
The leader in the black robe steadied himself, his hood pulled back slightly, revealing a pair of bloodshot eyes.
His gaze was fixed on Allen. In just a moment, how could the person in front of him have increased in strength so much?!
This ability to control the effects of spells, this judgment to see the big picture even in chaos—
This person was just struggling to stay afloat, how did they suddenly become like this?
"... You've been toying with us all along?" the leader of the black-robed men choked out the words.
Allen looked down at his wand, shook his head, and sighed as if talking to himself, "Knowledge is power; the ancients were right."
His gaze swept past the leader of the black-robed men and swept towards the exit of the Great Hall. Harry had already led Malfoy and the Ravenclaw girl behind the faculty dining table, and several other students were also taking advantage of the chaos to retreat out.
The hostages are mostly safe. The remaining problem is how to stop these dozen or so angry men in black robes.
The leader of the men in black robes clearly realized this as well. He shifted his gaze from Allen, glanced at the students scattered around the Great Hall and the broken tables and chairs, and then suddenly raised his voice.
"Everyone! Fire-Making Spell! Burn this entire Great Hall down!"
A dozen or so Death Eaters simultaneously raised their wands, orange flames gathering at their tips, the heat emanating from them distorting the surrounding air.
Allen's pupils contracted slightly.
He knew the spell; it was an enhanced version for group casting, releasing a dozen flames simultaneously, enough to turn the entire Great Hall into a sea of fire within seconds.
The surging tide of knowledge in his mind paused for a moment, and the next instant he spontaneously remembered how to deal with it, and he raised his wand almost at the same time.
Finite Incantatem.
A silvery-white light slowly rose from the tip of his staff, spreading out like water, gently yet firmly covering the condensing Fire-Making Spell.
The orange flame vanished Silencio the moment it came into contact with the silvery-white light, like a candle being extinguished.
At the same time, more than a dozen Death Eaters felt a lightness at the tip of their wands, as if the magic they were releasing had been interrupted by something.
"... This is impossible." A Death Eaters looked down at his wand, incredulous. "How could it interrupt the spells of more than a dozen people at the same time?!"
The leader of the black-robed men's faces darkened completely. He gave the man in the fox mask in front of him a deep look and gritted his teeth.
"Withdraw! Withdraw everyone!"
He first pulled a palm-sized broom from his robe and tossed it into the air. The broom instantly expanded to its normal size, and he flipped over and stepped onto it.
The other Death Eaters, as if waking from a dream, pulled out their spare brooms, scrambled onto them, and rushed out of the side window of the Great Hall.
Allen's body had already taken to the air, his Flight Spell activated at full power, his trench coat unfurling behind him like a black flag.
He burst through the shattered window frame and into the cold air outside Hogwarts Castle, where his view suddenly opened up. A dozen or so figures in black robes riding broomsticks were dispersing in different directions.
Allen took a deep breath and raised his wand.
" Petrificus Totalus."
Three beams of blue light shot out simultaneously, accurately striking the backs of the three closest Death Eaters.
The three men froze, like frozen statues, and plummeted straight down from their brooms, crashing onto the grass below the castle with three muffled thuds.
Stupefy.
Two red lights followed closely behind, and two more Death Eaters fell off their brooms.
Allen felt as if the magic power within him would never run out, and each spell he cast was as smooth as breathing.
Despite the dozen or so Death Eaters flying through the air and fighting back, one after another, they fell from the sky like Death Eaters being dropped into a pot.
They pose absolutely no threat to Allen!
The leader of the black-robed men turned around and saw that almost half of his men had been shot down; his face instantly turned deathly pale.
He suddenly lowered his body, the broom almost skimming the outer wall of the castle, and rushed towards the Black Lake.
After Allen shot down the remaining Death Eaters, he gave chase.
The distance between the two was rapidly closing, but the broom of the leader in black robes was clearly much better than an ordinary broom, moving at an extremely fast speed.
Just before Allen could reach him, the leader in black robes suddenly twisted the broom handle, using the momentum to rush directly towards the dark water outside the window.
The lake surface rippled a few times before returning to calm.
Meanwhile, the light screen in the Ministry Atrium had completely fallen silent.
Hundreds of people craned their necks, looking at the lake that had returned to calm, even their breathing became cautious.
"... He actually shot down more than a dozen Death Eaters," the female reporter in the round hat said in a breathy voice, her Quick-Quotes Quill now at rest.
"One person!" another reporter chimed in, "One person shot down more than a dozen Death Eaters! And he didn't even have to exert any effort."
The white-haired old man from Wizengamot slowly stood up, his gaze never leaving the light screen.
The main hall erupted like a powder keg, filled with a cacophony of voices—discussions, exclamations, and the scratching of quill pens.
Fudge stood there, mouth agape, unsure whether to deal with the Hogwarts attack first, figure out who the man in the fox mask was, or process the scene unfolding before him.
He felt like his head was about to explode.
In the light screen, the figure in the black trench coat still hovered above the Black Lake.
The hem of the trench coat fluttered in the wind, and the purple-striped fox mask gleamed with a dim light in the afternoon sun.
But his movements didn't seem to stop there; he raised his wand and slowly pointed it at the Black Lake.
"What... what is he going to do?!"
Looking at the vast Black Lake and the tiny figures, everyone couldn't help but feel puzzled. At the same time, an idea that they couldn't believe surfaced in their minds.
Could it be that this masked person is going to...?!