There were eyes hidden in the gap!
Perhaps because of the Cruciatus Curse practice just now, the student who saw them immediately had a terrifying association. He gasped sharply, as though an invisible hand had clamped down on his throat—and every sound got stuck in his chest.
…
Draco's attention was drawn by the noise from Nott's side, so he hadn't realized he'd already been discovered.
He kept his eyes fixed on the group torturing rats with the Cruciatus Curse, his jaw clenched tight, and he unconsciously tightening his grip on his wand.
The wand trembled constantly in his hand.
To be honest, he had played it out in his mind countless times—casting the Cruciatus Curse on Crabbe, Goyle, Blaise, Weasley, Potter… imagining them kneeling at his feet, begging for mercy through tears.
But now, seeing a living creature twisting and convulsing on the ground, hearing its agonized, broken screams, Draco swallowed involuntarily. His face had gone paler than usual, tinged faintly with a bluish-white hue.
Cold sweat slid down from his forehead, plop—falling onto the filthy pipe.
…
The eyes in the gap blinked, bloodshot veins faintly visible in the folds of the eyelid.
Terror flooded into the student like ice water bursting through his veins. His legs gave out, and he let out a bloodcurdling scream—
"Ahhh—eyes! There are eyes over there!"
The cry ricocheted in the narrow space. The nearest few people jumped in fright, while others immediately looked in the direction he was pointing.
Draco reacted a beat too late. By the time he scrambled backward in panic, quite a few others had already seen those hidden eyes.
Unlike the terrified student, the rest didn't think of monsters or ghostly illusions. They realized at once—
"Someone's spying! Catch him!"
Boom!
As Draco crawled desperately, he heard the iron mesh covering the pipe entrance blown apart. Someone clambered up, stuck his head inside, and shouted: "There he is! I see him!"
He raised his wand and shouted loudly: "Petrif—cough, cough, cough!"
A pearl-white figure suddenly swept through the pipe. Moaning Myrtle had blown out all the dust that had been collecting there for who knows how many years. Choking, the boy doubled over coughing and his spell was cut short.
Blocking the entrance, Myrtle prevented the others from attacking too. That gave Draco just enough time to scramble past a bend where direct spells couldn't reach him.
Myrtle floated alongside him, her half-transparent body spinning sideways in glee. She giggled: "How about that? If it weren't for me, they would've caught you!"
"Don't talk—just hurry—"
Draco didn't finish his words. He whipped his head around—only to see a thick mass of rolling black smoke surging after him!
"Damn it! They're not going to let me go!"
He swore hoarsely, and fear flashed in his cold gray eyes. He scrambled forward as fast as he could on hands and knees, but the smoke was rapidly gaining on him.
He broke into a fit of choking, ragged coughs:
"Cough—cough—these… cough… lunatics…"
"Don't be afraid!"
Moaning Myrtle swam through the air beside him, most of her body overlapping with the stone wall. She urged anxiously: "Follow me! I know there's an exit here!"
…
"Viper" was actually a seventh-year Slytherin, Perse Rosen. He turned around, and his cold eyes swept across everyone in the room.
Behind him, at the pipe's entrance, several torn-off cloaks and some students' bags were burning in the fire. Another Slytherin was casting spells, directing thick smoke into the passage where the spy had fled.
"He saw us."
Rosen said slowly: "That guy saw us practicing Unforgivable Curses. If he reports it to Dumbledore, every one of us here will be expelled—maybe even thrown into Azkaban!"
The crowd grew anxious: "Then what do we do?"
Someone clung to false hope: "I—I didn't take off my hood just now…"
A student who had shown his face gave a cold snort: "If one of us gets caught, do you really think he'd keep your identity a secret?"
Silence fell.
Everyone knew exactly what kind of people they were dealing with. Loyalty, brotherhood, or promises—those were just empty words.
And even if someone wanted to keep a secret, there were far too many ways to force the truth out of a wizard.
"Catch him!" Perse Rosen said darkly. "As long as we seize him before he can tattle, our secret stays safe!"
Wade nudged Antoine, who raised his voice to ask: "And after we catch him? How do we make sure he won't talk?"
Pansy's face was twisted with malice. "Maybe there's only one way…"
She didn't finish. Glancing around at the others, she added: "But if a student dies in school, that might stir up even bigger trouble."
Someone argued: "Didn't Myrtle die back then? And nothing ever came of it?"
"No need for killing," Rosen said. "I can wipe his memory clean."
The Memory Charm was a dangerous spell. A wizard who misjudged its power could strip away too many memories at once, even damage the brain.
But forcing someone to forget what they shouldn't know was far more merciful than murder.
At that, even those who had been wavering hardened their stance. One student shouted: "I can track him—follow me!"
The rest immediately charged out of the chamber.
As they left, Wade tugged Antoine aside and whispered quickly: "Find a way to slow them down. Buy some time."
Antoine blinked. "You're going to save that eavesdropper? Is he your friend?"
"Not exactly," Wade said. "That's Draco Malfoy."
Wade didn't particularly care about Malfoy's standing in Slytherin, or whether he was tormented by these budding vipers.
But his father, Lucius Malfoy, had just been sitting upstairs in Dumbledore's office not long ago—likely to become an ally of the Order of the Phoenix. At a time like this, they couldn't let his precious son get hurt at school.
Watching Wade slip quickly down another path, Antoine blinked, then gave the wand hidden under his robes a subtle flick.
A student at the front suddenly "accidentally" tripped, and the ones behind couldn't stop in time. They all tumbled together in a heap, yelping in pain and blocking the entire corridor.
…
"Reducto!"
A flash burst from the wand's tip, blasting apart the rusted iron grating. Draco practically tumbled out of the pipe, landing hard.
He collapsed onto the cold floor, back hunched as he coughed violently. His pale blond hair was plastered to his face with sweat and soot—making him look disheveled and miserable.
At that very moment, a hand suddenly shot from behind and grabbed his neck!
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⭐Harry Potter: Becoming a Study God (HP:BSG)- 200+ Chapters
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