The two of them almost turned their heads toward Hogwarts Castle at the same time.
Under the faint moonlight, they could clearly see that the place that had originally been the Headmaster's office now had a huge hole blasted open in it.
But strangely, aside from the loud noise causing many lights inside the castle to turn on, there was no fire or smoke coming out.
It looked as if some enormous creature had punched the wall with all its strength.
Harry opened his mouth wide and looked at Snape in shock.
It was as if he was asking why Snape had just said they still had more than an hour left, only for something to happen in the Headmaster's office right now.
Snape, however, looked even more nervous.
The moment he confirmed what had happened at Hogwarts, he immediately climbed onto the carriage and drove it into the sky.
He no longer cared whether the warning spells placed around Hogwarts would detect them.
He swore that he had arranged a perfect delayed activation on that "spatial anchor."
With things like this happening, either Dumbledore had become suspicious and discovered the "spatial anchor," or those French bastards had no sense of honor and launched the attack early.
Honestly, neither possibility mattered anymore.
At such a sensitive time, as long as Dumbledore hadn't become senile, he would definitely know that Snape was behind it.
So their top priority now was to get as far away as possible.
However, before Snape could accelerate the carriage, a piercing pain suddenly appeared in his arm.
The agony that reached his bones and soul made him freeze, and he fell straight out.
At the critical moment, a pair of hands reached out from behind, caught him, and pushed him back into his seat.
"Don't worry about me, I'm not in serious trouble. But Harry, you'll probably have to control the carriage yourself. I'm in terrible condition."
Snape spoke through gritted teeth.
As he spoke, he rolled up his sleeve.
The Dark Mark engraved on his arm, which had already faded almost completely, now looked as if it had come back to life. It was swelling and twisting constantly.
It caused Snape unbearable pain.
But Snape actually didn't care about the pain itself.
What he cared about more was Harry's safety, and what the Dark Mark flaring up again at this time meant.
Did this mean Voldemort was also involved behind the "spatial anchor incident"?
Had Voldemort himself perhaps already arrived at Hogwarts?
Just thinking of that possibility made Snape's body tremble uncontrollably.
Voldemort's terrifying figure was something he would never forget for the rest of his life.
And at that moment, the hand behind him that belonged to Harry, which had just supported him, now rested on his tense forearm.
Something strange happened.
The violent Dark Mark actually calmed down under the gentle touch of that hand.
This sudden change drained all color from Snape's face.
He stiffly turned his head.
What he saw was still Harry's face.
But now, Harry's face carried an extremely sinister and strange smile.
"Severus, my loyal servant, it's been a long time."
BOOM!
Without the slightest hesitation, Snape gripped his wand with his remaining hand and swung it down.
A huge invisible blade suddenly appeared and split the entire carriage in half.
The frightened Thestrals cried out and ran away, while Snape himself was thrown to the ground by inertia.
Harry, who had been directly attacked, looked completely unharmed and lightly landed in front of Snape.
"Voldemort... get out of that child's body!", Snape roared and continued attacking.
As his wand swung, dozens of sharp invisible blades tore through the night, turning into a rain of knives that rushed toward Harry, or rather, Voldemort.
But Voldemort's smile only became more contemptuous.
He didn't even bother to counterattack.
He merely twisted his body as if dancing, avoiding every attack with elegance and precision.
"Oh? Severus, is this how you treat your master? I think you should be kneeling on the ground licking my shoes. I personally taught all of you that etiquette."
As soon as Voldemort finished speaking, another enormous Severing Charm came flying over.
This time, Voldemort did not dodge.
He simply waved his wand lightly.
Buzz!
A massive torrent of magic burst forth.
The invisible blade turned into lightning and shot back at an even greater speed, slashing across Snape's chest and leaving a wound so deep that bone could be seen.
Snape groaned and was knocked to the ground by the tremendous force.
Blood continuously poured out of the wound, quickly staining his black robes with another patch of red.
Snape still wanted to resist.
But in the next moment, a wand was already pressed against the Dark Mark on his arm.
No magical power could be seen flowing, but the Dark Mark became even more active than before, making Snape hurt so badly that he nearly passed out.
"The Dark Mark is a spell I specifically created to control you Death Eaters. It not only contains communication, sensing, and identification functions, it also has a punishment mechanism. And the pain from that punishment is comparable to the Cruciatus Curse.", Harry, who had become Voldemort, drilled the wand against Snape's arm as he spoke.
"So where exactly did you get the courage to resist me while bearing the Dark Mark?"
The intense pain left Snape unable to speak.
Everything was clear now.
The reason Harry had behaved so strangely during the "spatial anchor incident" was entirely because the fragment of Voldemort's soul had awakened.
Only then would Harry cooperate so fully in advancing the "spatial anchor," because this whole thing was very likely Voldemort's plan.
And now that the plan had officially begun, the awakened soul fragment hidden inside Harry naturally seized control of the body.
So what about Harry, the original owner of the body?
How was he now?
Snape didn't know.
All he could do was glare fiercely into "Harry's" eyes.
"For this child? Or more accurately, for that woman named Lily?"
Believing he had already gotten the answer, "Harry" pointed at himself and said in surprise, "You betrayed me for a Mudblood, willingly became Dumbledore's lapdog, and even paid with your life for it?"
"Don't... call her... a Mudblood...", Snape spoke with extreme difficulty.
Hearing this, "Harry" suddenly stood up, his face twisted as he roared, "Trash! Pathetic trash!"
A green light began to shine from the tip of "Harry's" wand.
The wand pointed at Snape, and the twisted expression on "Harry's" face suddenly became calm like a deep pool.
"Die! Avada Kedavra!"
Snape closed his eyes in despair.
His despair wasn't because his life was about to end.
It was because of Harry.
After doing so much, he still couldn't protect Lily's only child.
How tragic.
Yet the cold death he had expected never came.
Instead, "Harry's" shrill screams entered his ears.
With difficulty, he opened his eyes and discovered that "Harry" was clutching his head in pain and rolling around on the ground.
From time to time, he would inexplicably punch himself in the face.
It looked as if two souls inside his body were constantly fighting for control.
"Is... is it Harry?", Snape muttered in disbelief.
Then it felt as if a force entered his body.
Struggling to his feet, he raised his wand and pointed it at "Harry."
Harry himself hadn't given up, so how could he sink into despair?
BOOM!
A huge burst of magical force was casually released by "Harry," sending Snape flying again.
By the time Snape got up once more, "Harry" had already transformed into a streak of black smoke and sped toward Hogwarts.
Across the empty wilderness, only "Harry's" mad laughter echoed, "Run, Severus! This is the last mercy I'll show you. But after committing so many sins, there aren't many places left for you in this world, are there?"
"How about the South Pole or the North Pole?"
"Hahahahaha!"
———
[More Than Half An Hour Earlier]
[Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts]
Dumbledore had just made himself another cup of black tea.
Across from him, the magical portrait of Headmaster Black was cursing loudly.
"Dumbledore, you're far too irresponsible! At a time like this, you're still thinking about contacting Link and leaving the decision to him! If that's the case, what's the point of having you as Headmaster? Why don't you just retire and hand the position over to Link completely?"
Hearing this, Dumbledore closed the tea tin and shook his head helplessly.
"Actually, he's already half the Headmaster. You haven't forgotten that Hogwarts has now switched to a committee system, have you? Besides, Severus is one of Link's closest professors, so emotionally and logically, my decision is correct."
"Bullshit! That's exactly why you should have handled Snape directly like I said!"
Headmaster Black scolded.
"You informed Link about this, which means you're putting him over the fire. What are you expecting him to do?"
Dumbledore looked at Headmaster Black speechlessly.
He finally understood.
This old Black simply didn't want Link to be put in a difficult position, so he kept urging Dumbledore to make the decision himself.
But Dumbledore and Snape had fought side by side for more than ten years.
Although they had mostly been using each other during that time, there were still some feelings between them.
Old Black had never considered that.
He was completely biased toward Link.
Shaking his head, Dumbledore raised his hand to pull the curtain over the portraits.
This was the best way to deal with overly talkative portraits and effectively quiet them down.
"Hey! Dumbledore, you can't do that! It's inhumane!"
Headmaster Black waved his arms desperately in protest.
"And think about it. After you die, you'll also have a magical portrait hanging here, so you can't treat us like this."
"Otherwise, Link might follow your example. Surely you don't want your own portrait to be treated this way in the future, right?"
By the end, Old Black's voice had become weaker.
Because he knew very well.
A magical portrait was merely a magical object created from part of the original person's memories.
Strictly speaking, it wasn't even a person, just a memory storage device with a certain degree of intelligence. It had nothing to do with the original owner.
So with Dumbledore's personality, he probably wouldn't care in the slightest, nor would he care what kind of treatment his own portrait would receive.
By then, he would already be dead anyway.
Yet just when Headmaster Black was despairing over being plunged into darkness again, he unexpectedly discovered that Dumbledore had actually stopped.
Delighted, he opened his mouth to speak again.
"Shh!"
Dumbledore suddenly made a gesture for silence, his expression serious as he interrupted first.
"Don't speak. Stay quiet. Did any of you hear something?"
"What? Hear what?"
"The sound of magical power flowing. It's very faint, but extremely clear. I can guarantee the source is inside this office."
"Hah!"
Headmaster Black laughed dismissively.
"I thought it was something important! Isn't magical power flowing inside the Headmaster's office perfectly normal?"
"You just installed all those formations as Hogwarts' protective measures not long ago. What's wrong with them making some noise?"
"No, no! I swear that definitely isn't the sound of the formations. I've lived in this office for decades. I know what sounds should be here."
"Besides, all those newly installed formations are silent. This sounds more like... some kind of alchemical machine?"
As Dumbledore spoke, he searched through the office.
Headmaster Black shook his head and was about to continue mocking Dumbledore's caution.
But in the next second, his eyes widened in horror.
Because Dumbledore had actually dug out a rotating cylindrical alchemical object from inside the wall.
"Uh... did you just dig out the core of the protective formations?"
Headmaster Black asked, clinging to his last bit of hope.
Dumbledore ignored him completely and threw the cylindrical alchemical object away.
He could sense that a thick layer of magical power wrapped around the object, while inside flowed highly concentrated spatial magic.
The two kinds of power continuously clashed, causing the outer layer to rapidly dissipate.
It was like a time bomb.
And more importantly, that time bomb was about to explode.
BOOM!