It was a late night at Hogwarts.
On the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall, where students from every House were gathered together, magical stars twinkled and shone.
Rain was falling outside the castle walls, but on the ceiling above, not a single storm cloud was in sight; only the Milky Way flowed majestically.
It seemed even the Slytherins were afraid of the lunatic Lestrange, as they refrained from picking fights with other students and quietly settled into their sleeping bags.
The colors of the uniforms, hidden inside the bags, gently concealed which House each sleeping student belonged to.
Dumbledore, who was looking down upon the scene with his hands clasped behind his back, smiled faintly and thought, *Perhaps, this is the very ideal of Hogwarts.*
And yet, amidst the peaceful slumber of the Great Hall, two people had their eyes wide open.
*'H-Harry. How long do we have to stay like this?'*
*'Wait, Neville. As soon as Professor Dumbledore leaves, there won't be any patrols for a while.'*
Harry and Neville hadn't even gotten into their sleeping bags in the first place.
How, then, had they avoided the eyes of the professors taking turns guarding the Great Hall? The answer was, of course, the power of one of the Deathly Hallows: the Invisibility Cloak.
Having thrown the cloak on as soon as they assembled in the hall and stuffed dummies into their sleeping bags, the two stood against a wall, waiting for a lapse in the professors' surveillance.
And after some time, Professor Dumbledore finally swept his gaze across the Great Hall with a benevolent smile and slowly walked out.
*'Now!'*
As Harry whispered to Neville, the two, still under the cloak, tiptoed after the departing Dumbledore.
They had even used a charm to completely silence their footsteps as they moved slowly. Just then…
*'…!'*
Dumbledore, who had been walking with his hands clasped behind his back, casually turned his head.
Though they were under the Invisibility Cloak, Dumbledore was looking directly at them.
*'Did he see us?'*
Neville, of course, froze, but even Harry was momentarily paralyzed by his gaze.
And then, Harry's eyes met Dumbledore's.
As Harry, faced with the sage's clear blue eyes that seemed to see through everything, held his breath, Dumbledore gave a faint, gentle smile, then turned his head away nonchalantly and muttered, "It seems to be a night for licorice wands."
Then, as if nothing had happened, he resumed his stride and soon disappeared down the corridor.
"…*Hwaah*."
Only then did Harry and Neville let out the breath they had been holding and whisper, "He… he didn't see us, right?"
"No way. If he had, he wouldn't have just left us alone."
Although a faint sense of unease lingered, there were no more obstacles blocking their path.
Harry and Neville, still under the Invisibility Cloak, headed for the passage that led outside of Hogwarts.
Neville, anxious, asked in a trembling voice, "But Harry, how are we going to find Lestrange? If she were that easy to find, the professors wouldn't be having so much trouble."
For someone trembling with fear, it was a question that cut straight to the heart of the matter.
But Harry just grinned and answered, "We're not going to find Bellatrix. She's going to find us."
"What? What does that…"
Before Neville could finish, they reached the main entrance of Hogwarts.
Beyond this point, a short walk would take them to the Forbidden Forest.
In other words, from here on, they were no longer within the bounds of Hogwarts. That meant Dementors could appear at any moment.
Harry warned Neville of this fact.
"This is the Forbidden Forest from here on out, so be careful. Watch out for Dementors, too."
"D-Dementors. Got it."
Having already had one run-in with the Dementors on the train, Neville couldn't relax his tense heart.
Silencing their presence, they continued to walk quietly toward the Forbidden Forest, still hidden under the Invisibility Cloak.
The reason they chose the Forbidden Forest was because it and its surroundings were filled with all sorts of caves, making it a perfect hiding place for criminals.
Normally, Hagrid would patrol the forest with his hound and drive out such people, but with the Dementors scattered about, there were no such patrols this year.
Most of the professors also agreed that Bellatrix was likely in the Forbidden Forest. It was just that finding her was difficult, so it remained in the realm of conjecture.
But finding her was difficult; making her come to them was not.
After walking for a long time, an exhausted Neville grabbed the hem of Harry's cloak, panting.
"Hey, Harry. How much, *huff*, farther do we have to go?"
"Hmm… right. This should be good enough."
Harry glanced around. The spires of Hogwarts were visible in the distance. They were probably near the heart of the Forbidden Forest. After a quick look around the dark woods, Harry threw off the Invisibility Cloak.
"H-Harry?"
Before Neville could even register his shock at Harry's sudden action, Harry moved on to the next.
He adjusted an Amplifying Charm. Loud enough to echo throughout the Forbidden Forest, but not so loud as to reach Hogwarts.
With his voice magnified, Harry shouted, "Bellatrix! You defeated coward! Harry Potter is here!"
"H-H-H-Harry!! Are you crazy?!"
Of course, the idea that Bellatrix was in the Forbidden Forest was only speculation. She might have already gone to attack Hogwarts, or she could be hiding somewhere else entirely.
And yet, for some reason, Harry had a strange certainty that Bellatrix was here.
And his master had always said that a wizard's baseless intuition always had a reason.
This time, too, his master was right.
*Fwooooosh!*
A sound like a speeding arrow cut through the air.
At the sudden noise in the silent forest, Harry and Neville turned their heads in its direction. A tattered broomstick, who-knows-where-she-got-it, was flying towards them, carrying the witch of despair.
Harry grabbed the Invisibility Cloak he was holding and tossed it to Neville.
"H-Harry? What do we do? She's coming!"
"Neville. I'm not going to say something ridiculous like telling you to fight her from the start. Stay under that cloak, and when I give the signal, you come out. Got it?"
"Wait, Harry, hold on!"
But before Neville could grab him, Harry pulled his wand from his pocket and ran towards Bellatrix.
"Bellatrix! It's been a while, hasn't it?"
"Kyahahaha! You impossibly arrogant brat! Last time was quite a thrill, you damn kid!"
*CRASH! BOOM!*
In an instant, the witch and the wizard clashed, wands in hand.
Neville, who had hurriedly thrown on the Invisibility Cloak, watched the entirety of their collision from the comfort of his personal air-raid shelter.
*BOOM! CRASH!*
Even the clash of simple, basic spells filled the forest with tremendous booms.
Neville was able to observe exactly how the spells Harry had taught him were being used.
"So that's a real Disarming Charm…" Neville muttered to himself as he saw the Disarming Charm Harry cast collide with Bellatrix's spell, generating a shockwave.
And that wasn't all.
The Blasting Curse Bellatrix used, the Severing Jinx.
As if putting on a demonstration for Neville, Harry blocked every single one using only the spells he had explained.
Seeing this, Bellatrix's eyes rolled back to show the whites as her lips stretched into a wide grin.
"Potter, you've improved! The naive little boy who panted before me is gone!"
"Hah, you talk a lot for someone who got thoroughly beaten by that naive little boy!"
"Kyahahaha! But by the grace of my Lord, I have returned! And, Potter, it seems you have improved… but will that be enough? For someone who did the taunting, you seem awfully busy just blocking! Try to do something proper!"
As Bellatrix said, although Harry was fighting on equal footing, he seemed to be on the back foot.
Harry sneered in response, "If I got serious, this would be over in an instant. Are you sure you'd want that?"
At his words, Bellatrix's eyes flashed wildly again as she raised her wand.
"Hah, you're impossibly arrogant, Potter. In that case, I'll return the humiliation from last time!"
Seeing her swing her wand, and hearing the word 'humiliation,' Harry reflexively thought of *Crucio* and summoned a large rock from the ground as a physical shield.
However, the spell Bellatrix cast was not the Torture Curse, but a Severing Charm.
*Slice.*
The boulder Harry had pulled from the ground was split in half.
"Still… naive to malice!"
And through the gap in the sundered boulder, Bellatrix's spell shot forth once more. It was an attack that caught Harry completely by surprise.
As she thrust her arm forward, red lightning shot from Bellatrix's wand.
Unlike other spells that fired as rays of light, this one conducted through the air as if lightning had struck from nowhere. Neville, inside the Invisibility Cloak, knew its identity all too well.
That destructive current was the unforgivable curse that had stolen his parents' sanity. The Cruciatus Curse.
To Neville, the curse spreading toward someone he cared about once again seemed to move in slow motion.
He could easily imagine what would happen next.
The thought of Harry—his friend and, for a day, his master—writhing in agony was something Neville absolutely could not bear.
With courage surging in his chest, Neville threw off the Invisibility Cloak and stood up.
It wasn't just because of courage. In a way, it was because of fear.
The fear that if he didn't step forward now, he never would—that was what moved him.
One step, then another. After forcing his feet forward, Neville snatched a stone from the ground and threw it right into the path of the Cruciatus Curse.
*CRACK!*
As expected, the red lightning shattered the stone, but the momentarily deflected bolt missed Harry.
"What's this, Potter? Did you bring a friend?"
Then, Bellatrix, a grotesque smile spreading across her face as she spotted him, and Harry, with a flustered expression.
But Harry's expression wasn't one of relief at having escaped mortal danger, but rather the look of someone whose plans had gone awry.
Realizing something was off, Neville looked at Harry and finally understood that Harry's free left hand had been preparing to use some other magic to dodge the curse.
"Neville, why did you come out already?!" Harry exclaimed in frustration.
In the end, Harry hadn't needed his help at all.
But even realizing this, the courage surging in Neville's heart did not diminish.
On the contrary, a new confidence bloomed within him—the confidence that he had, somehow, deflected Bellatrix's magic.
"So, who might this little friend be?"
Neville glared at Bellatrix and said,
"Frank Longbottom. Alice Longbottom. You remember them, don't you?"
"Frank… Alice… Longbottom? …Ah, yes. I remember now. Kyahahaha, yes! I know who you are! The Longbottoms' child!"
A smile spread across Bellatrix's face as if she had found a new toy.
"Yes, of course I remember! The way your parents' faces twisted in agony was so beautiful! And the sweet chorus of their screams was absolutely fantastic! Ah, what a beautiful night! To think I can kill the Longbottoms' child as well!"
Staring intently at Neville's hardened face, Bellatrix tilted her head.
"Still, don't you worry too much. Your grandmother is already used to sending her children off, isn't she? Kee-hee-hee-hee!"
Neville couldn't take it anymore.
Just as Harry had taught him.
With the intense desire to snap his opponent's neck, he aimed his wand and shouted.
"Stupefy!"
The most powerful spell Neville had ever cast flew towards Bellatrix.
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