Chapter 46: Poaching and Taking the Blame

Harry slept soundly and deeply. When he woke up, the sky was just getting light, but he felt very energetic.

"Hmm?" Harry felt uncomfortable. It was not the kind of discomfort in the conventional sense. It was like knowing that he had forgotten something very important, but he couldn't remember what he had forgotten. Or, it was like there was an itch on his body, but when he reached out to scratch it, he found that the itch was not here, but in another corner. This feeling made Harry a little restless. If any experienced wizard were to replace him, they would know that this was because the magic network had lost its response to the wizard. Wizards mainly cast spells through wizards, because the original arcane energy is violent and chaotic, and few wizards can use it directly.

"Ah!" A scream from the depths of the soul seemed to sound in the depths of Harry's mind. The scar on Harry's head suddenly hurt like fire. He quickly covered his head with one hand, trying to relieve the pain, but it didn't work. Fortunately, the pain came and went quickly, and Harry returned to normal in just a moment. But at the same time, another person also knew about the change of the Horcrux.

"Who? Who?" A hoarse voice sounded in a snake's body, "Who knows that secret, the secret of immortality?" Voldemort is now lingering on, and he can't even maintain his human form. He possessed his own Nagini, hiding in an uninhabited mountain forest, waiting for the opportunity to come. The Horcrux is his deepest secret and the guarantee of his immortality. As long as a Horcrux is intact, he can never be completely destroyed. But just now, he suddenly felt that one of the Horcruxes had lost its sensitivity. This must be someone who discovered his secret. It seems that he must speed up his actions.

At this time, Sherry took the fangs of the basilisk away from the gem on the crown. Now looking again, the entire Ravenclaw crown is a pure green color, without any impurities, and is extremely beautiful. Sherry threw the crown into the air, and he turned into a huge silver net to catch the falling crown. Then the whole net shrank with the point where it touched the crown as the midpoint, wrapping the crown layer by layer, swallowing and analyzing all the rules on the crown with all its strength.

"Boom!" With a bang, the whole Hogwarts seemed to tremble in this sudden thunder. Compared with the movement when it swallowed the Mirror of Erised last time, this time the battle was incomparable. Endless black clouds appeared above Hogwarts, and the sky darkened instantly. There was no buffer or omen at all. "Sizzle!" sounded continuously, and one after another lightning shot directly from the black cloud.

A layer of translucent, water-like barrier blocked these lightnings above Hogwarts. This was the defense system of Hogwarts itself at work. The lightning shattered on the barrier, turning into tiny electric sparks, rolling on the barrier. However, when one lightning shattered, another lightning struck in the air, vowing to break this layer of things blocking the way. Soon, the entire translucent barrier was covered with broken lightning, which made the sky of Hogwarts bright again.

Sherry could feel that the moment he swallowed the crown, a deep malice had already locked onto him. Everything around him seemed to be shouting at him: "Get out! Get out! You outsider!" A tall bookshelf on the left suddenly fell down and smashed towards Sheeey's position. Sherry moved and changed his position. "Boom!" The bookshelf fell to the ground, and the neatly arranged books were scattered all over the floor, splashing a cloud of dust.

Sherry didn't care and continued to swallow the crown. Although the crown had no will of its own, as a magical item, it was a very important part of this world. It instinctively resisted Sherry's swallowing. Sherry had to suppress the resistance of the crown while avoiding various unreasonable emergencies around him. When being maliciously targeted by the will of the world, Sherry could be said to be an enemy everywhere. A book, a sword, a table, and a stool here were all his enemies. These things would hinder his actions in various situations, intending to interrupt his analysis and devouring of the crown.

Dumbledore urgently gathered all the professors and asked all the students to hide in the Slytherin cellar immediately. A single passage was opened between the fireplaces of each college, leading to the Slytherin common room. It's not that they didn't think about evacuating Hogwarts completely, but there was obviously no time, and the thundercloud was endless, and it was unknown how large the range was. What if they ran out and were still within the range of the thundercloud without the shelter of the school? How unfair it would be!

Slytherin originally had the fewest people among the four colleges, and their common room had always been visited by few people. But now, the whole common room was crowded and noisy, and everyone was a little overwhelmed. This situation had never been encountered before!

"Students, be quiet!" A silver-white ghost flew out of the fireplace and hung above everyone's head. It was Professor Binns, the teacher who taught the history of magic. Professor Binns was a ghost and was very afraid of thunder and lightning, so he was arranged by Dumbledore to calm the students' emotions.

"Hogwarts is in a critical moment. An unknown force is attacking the defense system of Hogwarts. The cellar is the deepest part of Hogwarts and is much safer than other places." Professor Binns said, "We will stay here until this crisis is over."

"Professor, can't we just leave Hogwarts?" A senior Ravenclaw student stood up and asked, "The safety here is only temporary. Can we just wait like this and do nothing?"

Professor Binns sighed and said, "The floo network leading to Hogwarts is strictly restricted. This is for the safety of Hogwarts. It is obviously too late to unlock this restriction now. As for other methods, we don't know how large the range of this attack is, so we can't act rashly." The boy who asked the question returned to the crowd silently.

"Now, all prefects and the presidents of the male and female student unions, immediately count the number of people in each college to see if anyone is still outside." Professor Binns saw that everyone had no problems, and immediately started to count the number of people, fearing that there were still students outside.

Many female students in the lower grades cried silently, and the boys were pale. The performance of the seniors might be stronger, but it was also very limited.

At this time, Dumbledore and all the professors stood on the top of the astronomical tower. Facing the black clouds and lightning in the sky, Dumbledore's face was as gloomy as water. This time's attack was just as inexplicable as last year's, but unlike last year, if the lightning this time was not stopped, I'm afraid the whole Hogwarts would become charcoal.

The translucent barrier above the head was already in danger, and lightning had already penetrated in some places. It seemed that the collapse of the entire Hogwarts defense system was only a matter of time.

"Get ready!" Dumbledore raised his wand and pointed it to the sky. The rest of the people also drew their wands and prepared for battle. In the hearts of these people, Hogwarts is a place more important than home. For her, they would not hesitate to sacrifice their lives.

Dumbledore waved his wand vigorously, and the barrier covering the entire Hogwarts suddenly disappeared. As the headmaster of Hogwarts, he naturally has considerable power to control the school. The defense system of Hogwarts is not easy to build. Although it is difficult to repair, it is much easier than rebuilding it after it is completely destroyed.

At the moment when the barrier disappeared, McGonagall, Flitwick, Snape and Sprout worked together to build a layer of defense shield in the sky to protect Gryffindor Tower and a nearby area. They had long discovered that these lightnings were always bombarding one place violently, that is, the area near Gryffindor Tower. Although there were lightnings in other places, they were scattered and not as dense as here.

Dumbledore waved his wand, and the dark clouds in the sky were torn open, revealing the bright sky behind. But the dark clouds were endless, and soon the gap was filled. The remaining professors and faculty members also took action, including Madam Pince, Madam Pomfrey, Hagrid, Madam Hooch who taught flying classes, and so on. Everyone cast their own magic spells at the black cloud in the sky. Even if the effect was weak, they were not discouraged, because everyone knew that such a powerful attack could not continue without consumption, and there must be a limit.

Sherry could feel that the malice around him was getting heavier and heavier. More than half of the crown had already entered Sherry's "belly". This should be the final backlash. As long as he could survive this wave, then Sherry could be said to have completely established a foothold in this world and no longer have to worry about rejection.

The black clouds in the sky outside have shrunk a lot with the teachers' attacks. The people standing on the top of the astrology tower can even see the light outside the black clouds. At this time, the lightning stopped all of a sudden, and the whole black cloud began to rotate around a center. Lightning flashed in the vortex continuously, but it just didn't fall. At the same time, the pressure in the air became heavier and heavier.

"Stop it! This attack can't be stopped." Everyone knows this posture. This is preparing to gather energy for a big wave! After maintaining the magic barrier for a long time to protect Hogwarts from being damaged, the faces of the four Mags have become extremely pale and their bodies are shaky.

"When the last lightning strikes later, everyone will cast their most powerful spells, and leave the rest to me." Although Dumbledore was very tired, he did not show it, but arranged a response plan to try to protect Hogwarts to the greatest extent.

The black cloud gathered smaller and smaller, and finally turned into a cloud with a radius of only ten meters, and then the final attack came quietly.

"Boom!" It seemed like only a small sound was made, but everyone felt the space around them shook, all the windows of the entire Hogwarts were broken, and even some not-so-strong walls had several cracks.

A purple lightning with a diameter of ten meters suddenly blasted down on a tower next to the Gryffindor dormitory.

"Now!" Dumbledore's roar sounded in everyone's heart, and everyone quickly sent out their most powerful attack spells. A phoenix flew out from the tip of Dumbledore's wand, Snape's seemed to be a wave of nothing, and Professor Flitwick's attack was a red lightning,... For a moment, colorful spells collided with lightning. (To be continued)