Chapter 90: Ambush, Counterattack
Malfoy and his group fled in panic. Once they returned to the empty Potions Classroom, their spirits sank.
“Draco, we’ve set everything up—what happened?” Two girls cautiously carried several glass bottles through the door, their expressions puzzled by the group’s dejected mood.
“Break it up, Pansy,” Theo Nott muttered, shoulders slumped, voice flat. “Gray isn’t coming. Professor Sprout noticed—he’s been watching him closely.”
“You’re all overreacting! Now look what you’ve done!” Malfoy snapped, kicking a stool hard enough to send it crashing. He then plopped down at the table, fuming. Crabbe and Crabbe glared at the others as if the entire mess was their fault.
“Next time,” Zabini sighed, sitting down as well. “As long as you want it, you’ll catch him eventually.”
Though he spoke with calm, the momentum had already broken. Morale among the Slytherins, already fragile, now plummeted—except for Malfoy.
The blonde girl who’d followed Pansy hesitated. “What about these potions? Should we just throw them away?”
The bottles held failed Pimple Potion. Malfoy’s potion-making skills were solid, but Neville’s disastrous first-class brew had left a lasting impression on him. To Malfoy, such a potion was far more useful than any scab remedy.
This time, to take down Wade Gray, he’d secretly brewed a batch of Pimple Potion—adding a Hedgehog Quill before removing the cauldron from the fire. The result? A thick, green, corrosive toxin capable of melting a cauldron.
But the potion was volatile. It evaporated quickly, turning from a deadly acid into an ordinary, stinking liquid within hours—harmless except for its foul smell.
Malfoy waved dismissively. “Throw them out… wait, give them to me, Daphne.”
A wicked idea struck him. He snatched the bottle from Daphne’s hands and carefully tucked each one into a corner cabinet—the one where Wade Gray often sat.
“I’ve got more, Draco!” Pansy shoved Daphne aside and eagerly handed over her own vial.
Daphne hesitated. “What if someone gets hurt?”
“Let them suffer,” Malfoy shrugged. “Bad luck for them. Professor Snape might even give Gray detention! Wade Gray, why do you keep dangerous substances in the cabinet? Intentional harm to a fellow student—Ravenclaw loses fifty points!”
He mimicked Professor Snape’s icy tone, and the others burst into laughter. Theo Nott even made a ridiculous face, squeaking in a high-pitched voice: “I didn’t, Professor—I don’t know how it happened—”
“Hahaha—” they roared, slapping the table, gasping for breath.
“He’s here! He’s here!” A boy burst through the door, breathless with excitement. “Draco, he’s coming this way!”
“Who?” Malfoy blinked, still dazed.
“Who else?” Mileson Borthed jumped up and down. “—Wade Gray!”
“How could he—” Zabini frowned. “He must’ve thought we’d be scared of a Professor warning. We weren’t supposed to move!”
Malfoy leapt off his chair, snatching the bottles from the cabinet and handing them out. “Hurry! Do it like we planned!”
The others scrambled. The two girls retreated, but Pansy couldn’t resist lingering near Malfoy, practically standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him—fighting side by side. The boys pulled out their wands, unlocked the classroom window, and prepared to cast. Crabbe and Crabbe held the Pimple Potion bottles like grenades, ready to hurl. Theo Nott fished two hidden Dung Bombs from beneath the ingredient cabinet.
Daphne crouched by the window, hidden in the shadows, watching carefully—trying not to be seen.
“Definitely Wade Gray,” the blonde girl whispered. “He’s alone.”
“No one with him?” Zabini asked, frowning.
“No.”
“Strange…” Zabini frowned. Was he really that careless? No caution at all?
“Hmph. Typical Ravenclaw bookworm,” Malfoy sneered. “Remember the plan—throw the Dung Bombs first, then the Pimple Potion. I’ll lock his legs with a Leg-Lock Spell. Crabbe, Crabbe—you two grab him. Theo Nott, you take his wand!”
Crabbe and Crabbe grunted in agreement. Theo Nott stared at the Dung Bomb in his hand, his face suddenly turning pale.
What if I get covered in it when I grab the wand?
He glanced at the narrow entrance. Maybe he could—
Just as Theo hesitated, a soft whisper cut through the air:
“Expulso!”
“What—?”
A sudden gust of wind howled through the room, swirling sand and pebbles in a violent spiral. Theo Nott barely had time to react before grit filled his mouth.
The entire class screamed in agony, hands flying to their eyes.
“He’s at the entrance!” Malfoy shouted, clutching his sleeve over his mouth. “Throw the Dung Bombs! Now!”
The voice from the entrance was indistinct, but Theo didn’t hesitate—he hurled the bomb forward.
Boom!
The Dung Bomb struck a grotesque, oversized head—exploding in a foul, spreading mess that coated the entire classroom.
A Giant Cockroach crawled through the doorway.
The moment Theo locked eyes with it—the creature’s monstrous, mind-erasing face—he realized too late what he’d heard.
The whisper hadn’t been a warning.
It had been: “Engorgio!”
Terrified and paralyzed, Theo Nott was powerless as the Giant Cockroach pinned him to the floor.
Then, from behind it, more shapes emerged—crawling, inching forward. One. Two. Three… up to five or six.
All now the size of dogs, swollen with magic.
“Aaaahhhh—!”
The Potions Classroom erupted in frenzied screams. Students scrambled in blind panic, fleeing in all directions.
Malfoy leapt onto the table, reaching for the window—only to find it magically locked.
They must’ve done it themselves.
“Alohom—” He began his unlocking charm, but before he could finish, a claw hooked into his robes from behind—yanking him backward with brutal force.
“No—no—let go—”
“Mom—”
“Help—!”
The classroom was filled with the terrified cries of students. The insects, though not physically harming them, were so close, so intimate in their proximity, that the sheer terror made them wet themselves in fear.
“Petrificus Totalus!”
(End of Chapter)
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