A shower of sparks erupted from the tip of Professor Lupin's wand, striking the wardrobe's handle and forcing it open. The creature that had been constantly banging and clawing inside finally managed to burst through the door.
A humanoid figure shrouded in writhing black mist stepped slowly from the wardrobe. Ominous darkness swirled around its face, obscuring its true features. Where eyes should have been, only two streaks of blood-red light could be glimpsed through the shadowy veil, swaying and flickering as the creature moved, leaving crimson trails in the air. Its mouth, however, remained uncovered—slowly curling into a bone-chilling, malevolent smile.
The figure wore the familiar black wizard robes of a Hogwarts student. Hidden beneath the right sleeve, something metallic caught the sunlight streaming through the window, glinting with a cold, deadly gleam.
"Pfft!"
From within the crowd, Draco lost his composure after a moment's stunned silence. His eyes widened progressively, his mouth fell open, and memories he thought had been erased came flooding back.
The image was somewhat exaggerated, but bloody hell—wasn't that Glenn?!
More precisely, it was Glenn as he'd appeared in the Forbidden Forest after their training sessions. Glenn had claimed he was going to "relax," then charged into what remained of the acromantula colony and went absolutely berserk.
This scene had unfortunately been witnessed by both Neville and Draco, who had mustered the courage to follow despite their exhaustion, wanting to provide backup in case Glenn overexerted himself or got injured.
That night, back in the dormitory, Draco had immediately cast a mild Memory Charm on himself, erasing this traumatic memory from his mind.
Now Neville had brought that image back to life, and Draco's forgotten memories were resurfacing in his mind.
How do I deal with this? Dead memories are suddenly attacking me.
What are you doing, Neville?!
Neville's expression went blank instantly. He instinctively stepped backward, then in horror tried to turn his head toward Glenn.
Oh no—what will Glenn think when he realizes I'm most afraid of him?!
But as he tried to move his neck muscles, Neville discovered with even greater horror that he couldn't turn his head at all.
Standing at the very front of the crowd, Glenn naturally witnessed everything. His face remained expressionless as he subtly curled his finger, silently casting a spell to control Neville's head and prevent him from turning in his direction.
Are you kidding me? If Neville turns around now, won't everyone else figure out that thing has something to do with me?
"...Glenn, that looks rather like you, doesn't it?"
Hermione squinted at the creature steadily approaching Neville, then leaned close to Glenn's ear and whispered.
She wasn't entirely certain—it seemed familiar and similar, so she thought she'd ask. After all, Glenn had never displayed such a terrifying aspect in front of her before, but Hermione just had this feeling.
And that smile...
...honestly, it was rather compelling. If this really was Glenn, then Hermione thought she'd quite like to see him smile like that in person.
Hmm, now that I think about it, I'm actually a bit curious.
Hehe.
"...It's probably me."
After observing for a long while, Glenn reluctantly nodded, admitting that the humanoid monster-like figure was indeed himself.
After all, the body posture and movement habits were seventy to eighty percent similar to his own, and the physical characteristics matched perfectly with how he appeared when unleashing his killing intent without restraint.
Am I really that frightening?
Glenn felt a bit dejected and simultaneously decided to increase Neville's training intensity.
"Pfft... hahahaha! When did you ever show Neville such an image? Poor him. If it were anyone else who witnessed you like that, their Boggart would probably manifest the same way as Neville's!"
"It's like you were caught doing something wicked and were about to silence the witness."
Indeed, the Boggart's version of Glenn radiated such intense oppressive force that all the surrounding young witches and wizards looked uncomfortable.
People's fears don't resonate with each other. For Hermione, seeing this other side of Glenn that he'd never shown her before was merely interesting and delightful. She felt none of the oppressive aura that the Boggart was emanating.
"For a period of time, I took Neville and Draco into the Forbidden Forest for practical combat training."
It was bound to come out eventually.Hermione's question could still be deflected with artful language, but in another day or two he planned to tell Hermione his secrets anyway. There was no need to hide these things anymore.
"?"
"When did this happen? How come I never knew about it?"
Hermione felt a giant question mark appear above her head, then grabbed Glenn's ear...
...though she didn't have the heart to pull it, merely kneading it gently.
"Starting from first year, every other night after curfew I would take Neville and Draco into the nighttime Forbidden Forest to help them find dangerous magical creatures—like acromantulas—to serve as opponents for practical combat training."
Glenn briefly summarized what he'd been doing, then noticed Hermione applying more pressure to his ear.
"Starting from first year?!"
"Unbelievable! You told me to sleep early and maintain good living habits, but you were secretly taking those two out to stay up all night?!"
"You really do have so many secrets. I'm telling you, if I don't completely exhaust you on Saturday night, don't even think about sleeping."
Hermione glared at Glenn with puffed cheeks, pulling him close and threatening him.
"Sorry."
Glenn apologized expressionlessly.
"...When you apologize to me like that, I don't feel apologized to at all. You're really infuriating... Don't hide things from me anymore."
"I never actually intended to hide anything from you. If you had asked me about these things, I definitely would have told you."
"It's just that you never asked."
"Argh, that's exactly why I'm so frustrated!"
Hermione clutched her chest in mock anguish.
"I know you would never lie to me. I just replayed what you said in my memory and realized that I had asked you similar questions long ago, but they weren't specific enough. Then you, you annoying person, gave me vague answers and got away with it. Looking back now, I feel like such a failure!"
"You're terrible!"
"My mistake."
"...And when you use that expressionless, innocent face to apologize to me, it makes me even more frustrated."
Glenn fell silent, wisely choosing not to speak.
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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