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Chapter 922: The Blasted Bridge and the Biting Cabbage
Chapter 922: The Blasted Bridge and the Biting Cabbage
Aberforth was indeed a Dumbledore, and although Kyle had an easier time beating him up than a dog back in 1899, that was a hundred years ago.
Aberforth today, even if he couldn't measure up to his brother, was still much stronger than most wizards. At the very least, he could hold his own against Voldemort.
The two exchanged spells mid-air, various colored beams of light exploding around them like fireworks. Without hesitation, Kyle turned and ran.
Some of the Death Eaters nearby, those with quicker reactions, made the same choice as Kyle. As for the slower ones, they no longer needed to run.
Aberforth was different from Professor Dumbledore; he mostly used spells with devastating power, occasionally mixing in Killing Curses.
And as for Voldemort, their magic was not something ordinary Death Eaters could withstand.
It was only because Kyle ran fast that he wasn't affected.
Kyle remembered what Aberforth had said to him earlier...
"Go and do what you should do."
Kyle scratched his head. Aberforth was different from his brother; he had a straightforward personality and mind, and his words didn't require much thought. They were mostly to be taken at face value.
In the current situation, the thing to do seemed to be dealing with those Death Eaters.
That was easy.
Kyle opened his trunk, reached in, and after rummaging around for a while, pulled out a giant, furry dog's head.
Then, a fully grown Three-Headed Dog, at least ten feet tall, was forcibly yanked out of the trunk by Kyle.
"Whap!"
"Fluffy, wake up and get to work!"
Kyle slapped the still-dazed Three-Headed Dog, finally rousing it.
Behind the Three-Headed Dog were two smaller shadows. Kyle, quick as a flash, grabbed one of the shadows and stuffed it back into the trunk.
There were not only Death Eaters here but also students and professors, not to mention the Venomous Panthers... They wanted victory, not mutual destruction.
"Boom, boom, boom!"
A series of explosions sounded in the distance.
Kyle turned to look... It was a bridge on the north side of the school that had been blown up. The bridge connected to another cliff and was, in a sense, a back entrance to Hogwarts.
But now, it was destroyed... Such cruel Death Eaters—they would pay the price! From Kyle's vantage point, he could still see many Death Eaters on the bridge.
However, as the bridge collapsed, the Death Eaters on it tumbled into the valley below.
...Hmm... Such cruel Death Eaters, killing their own! Kyle shook his head and slapped Fluffy again, saying, "Go! Not a single one of those evil, black-robed wizards should be spared."
Fluffy's three pairs of eyes lit up, and he charged out, still grumpy from being woken up.
The massive Three-Headed Dog was like a rapidly moving castle. The surrounding Death Eaters didn't dare block its path, let alone look in its direction.
But Fluffy didn't care about any of that. If they wouldn't come to him, he'd go to them.
The adult Three-Headed Dog's fur had thickened, and ordinary spells bounced off it like tickles. For a moment, the air was filled with the Death Eaters' shrill, miserable screams.
Kyle couldn't bear to listen, so he headed to the back of the castle, where the explosions had just come from.
There were no professors here, only a group of students. Perhaps because they had just witnessed a large number of Death Eaters falling into the valley, they all looked delighted.
Neville, his face as dirty as Jordan's, stood at the front, his face so dark that only his white teeth were visible. Behind him were Seamus, Justin, and...
"Ginny?" Kyle exclaimed in surprise. "Did Mrs. Weasley allow you to stay?"
"She didn't agree," Ginny said proudly, having also spotted Kyle. "But I sneaked back. She doesn't have time to keep an eye on me right now."
"Well done," Kyle said, giving her a thumbs up. "Remember not to mention seeing me."
"Don't worry, I understand," Ginny nodded.
"Hey, Kyle!"
"Haha, I knew you'd be here too!"
Two more familiar voices called out from the crowd, and Kyle looked up. The firelight from a nearby distance illuminated their faces.
"Michael... Ryan?" Kyle was indeed surprised.
He hadn't expected his two roommates to be here, and he hadn't noticed them earlier.
"Why are you here?"
"Of course, we're here to help!" Michael said with a smile. "Ryan's father works at the Ministry of Magic, and he told Ryan that something big was happening at Hogwarts tonight, so we came."
"Don't mention him," Ryan said, looking a bit unhappy. "He wanted to run away with me. What a coward! Even my mom knows that this is the time to come and help!"
"Maybe your mom doesn't know how scary Voldemort is," Kyle said, clicking his tongue. He remembered that Ryan had said he was a half-blood, and his father was a wizard, when school started.
But Kyle hadn't expected his father to work at the Ministry of Magic.
As for why Ryan had defied his father's wishes and appeared at Hogwarts instead of running away, Kyle didn't ask.
But he knew there must be a complicated story of filial piety behind it.
"Ah!"
Suddenly, a scream interrupted the reunion of the three.
"Look!" A witch shrieked. "They're coming! They're coming!"
Kyle looked up and noticed the dense crowd of Death Eaters on the opposite side.
There were so many people, like moss covering the opposite mountain, and this was only a part of the Death Eaters. There were even more in other places... It was truly baffling where Voldemort had found so many people.
At this moment, the Death Eaters were frantically building bridges.
Bridge construction... it sounded like a tedious task, but for these magically adept Death Eaters, it wasn't much of a challenge.
With their large numbers, they quickly completed a passageway connecting to the castle.
Several students tried to stop them, but the Death Eaters weren't going to stand idly by. They specifically assigned a group to protect the progress of the passageway.
Ginny and Neville's spells barely landed on the passage before they were blocked.
"I'll go!" Michael drew his wand and stepped forward.
"Hold on," Kyle stopped him and turned to look at the flat, open space around the castle.
"Retreat, back to the castle!"
"What?" Neville was taken aback, "But they'll rush in!"
"It's fine, listen to me." Kyle said, "The younger students have been evacuated. Even if they get in, it doesn't matter."
Kyle waved his hand.
As a professor, even though he had only taught a few lessons, he still had some authority.
Neville didn't say anything further and chose to retreat with a clenched jaw. The others followed him back into the castle.
Kyle stood at the forefront, calmly watching the Death Eaters construct the passages and gather together, their faces filled with madness, as they charged towards Hogwarts Castle.
Behind him, Neville was sweating profusely, eager to rush out with his wand and fight them, but Kyle remained motionless, as if he couldn't see the overwhelming number of Death Eaters before him.
It wasn't until they had all left the passage and the leading Death Eaters were about to rush into the castle that Kyle slowly opened his trunk and shook it.
A round object rolled out of the trunk, dropped to the ground, and bounced playfully a couple of times.
Then a second one, a third one... countless cabbages continuously spilled out of the trunk, covering the ground in the blink of an eye.
"These are... cabbages." Neville squinted, momentarily thinking that the Kyle before him was an imposter.
The Death Eaters had already been hit, and throwing a bunch of cabbages at them would only add to their meal... wait a minute...
Neville blinked rapidly, and with his excellent Herbology grades, he keenly noticed that the pile of cabbages on the ground seemed a bit off.
After all, vegetables eaten by ordinary wizards wouldn't normally have teeth.
"Biting Cabbages!" In an instant, Neville's voice changed, as if someone had grabbed his neck.
Even when facing the advancing Death Eaters, he hadn't lost his composure like this.
"Impossible..." Looking at the nearly overwhelming pile of cabbages, Neville's legs began to tremble.
Biting Cabbages were restricted plants by the Ministry of Magic, and it only took two to easily kill an adult wizard. Their danger level was second only to Tentacula, and they were the only dangerous plant without poison.
"So many... it can't all be Biting Cabbages, right?" Neville pursed his lips, his eyes slightly unfocused.
But the next second, the Death Eaters' screams brought him back to reality.
Bang! Just as he was about to take a closer look, Kyle shut the door, "The following scenes are not suitable for children."
"We're already adults..." Michael's dissatisfied voice echoed from the crowd.
He had just seen that those cabbages had mouths as big as plates, and their teeth were so sharp they reflected light. He had just gotten excited, but Kyle closed the door. How could he bear it?
"Not suitable for adults either." Kyle glanced at him and said irritably, "And this isn't the time to talk about this. Hogwarts needs you, so go help out elsewhere!"
With just a few words, Kyle persuaded most of the students to leave.
However, Michael and Neville didn't move.
"Hey, Kyle, what did you do?" Michael asked curiously.
"Biting Cabbages." Kyle replied, "I saw them in my first year. Didn't you?"
"I don't remember anything I learned in my seventh year, and you want me to remember first-year lessons?" Michael said, full of righteousness.
But after learning that it was something taught in Herbology class, his curiosity diminished significantly. He turned and followed Ryan, running towards the tower.
"Kyle..." Neville's shock hadn't completely faded from his eyes as he stammered, "Are those all Biting Cabbages?"
"They should be." Kyle thought for a moment, "There might be a few Tentacula or Devil's Snare mixed in, but most of them are Biting Cabbages."
"How many are there?"
"I don't know that either." Kyle spread his hands.
He genuinely didn't know. Ever since he transferred the Biting Cabbages from the Room of Requirement to his trunk, he hadn't paid much attention to them, mainly because he didn't need to.
When Dumbledore expanded his trunk, he largely referenced Newt's, and not only did the trunk perfectly replicate the terrain and environment, but it also simulated weather changes. It rained when it was supposed to, and it blew wind when it was supposed to.
There were also the Mooncalves, their neighbors. After a few years of development, their population had increased several times, and they produced a considerable amount of manure daily.
When the wind blew, it would carry the manure to the lower-lying Biting Cabbages, and Norbert occasionally provided them with fresh, high-quality dragon manure.
Additionally, the Biting Cabbages had the ability to self-propagate by spitting out seeds, so Kyle didn't need to take extra care of them. Naturally, he wasn't aware of their current quantity.
However, he had been growing Biting Cabbages since his first year, and with the perfect soil and the best fertilizers, it was only natural that their numbers would have increased significantly over the years.
Just now, Kyle had thrown out at least a hundred, if not a thousand, of those. Kyle felt there was more, and if he searched carefully, he'd find them.
The commotion outside grew louder, and Kyle patted Neville's shoulder.
"Alright, we shouldn't need anyone here for a while. Let's go check out other places."
Neville's legs felt numb, and as he looked at Kyle, fear occasionally flashed in his eyes.
As an excellent student in Herbology, he was well aware of how dangerous the biting cabbage was.
It was precisely because he knew this that he found Kyle terrifying.
Those Death Eaters... those Death Eaters... Neville thought of the Death Eaters' frenzied and hideous expressions, and the memory flashed, and this expression appeared on someone else's face.
It was a witch who looked a bit like Bellatrix, but younger and not as disheveled as in the newspaper.
There were others around her...
Who were they? Neville's memories flashed faster, like a TV with poor signal, making everything unclear.
"They deserve it!"
"What?"
"Nothing, nothing." Neville lowered his head. His reaction was purely instinctive, and he didn't even know why he said that.
But Kyle didn't mind.
"Where are you going?" Neville asked.
"To find Fred and George." Kyle said as he walked towards the castle. "They should be at the location of the secret passage."
Neville didn't know where he was going, so he simply followed Kyle.
The two arrived at the castle's main entrance and met Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who were rushing down from the upper floors.
"Don't worry, Ron, Fred can handle those troubles." Harry said, "We need to find a way to kill that snake now. I can feel the connection between it and Voldemort. It must be a Horcrux too!"
The three of them were injured to varying degrees. Harry covered his head, Hermione's clothes were scorched, and Ron's arm was bleeding.
"Are you okay?" Neville hurried over, taking out a bottle filled with powder and handing it to Ron.
"Your arm is bleeding. This is Galantamine."
"Thanks, Neville." Hermione said, taking the Galantamine and applying it to Ron's shoulder, causing him to shiver from the pain.
"This should do it." Hermione breathed a sigh of relief.
"I heard you mention Fred just now." Kyle walked over and asked, "Where is he? What happened?"
"Oh, Kyle." Hermione seemed to notice Kyle's presence for the first time, "It's nothing. A Death Eater broke into the third floor of the castle, and Fred happened to be there and got injured."
"That damn Death Eater, he attacked by surprise!" Ron became angry again, struggling to rush back upstairs, "He almost killed Fred, the bastard!"
"Almost?" Kyle keenly sensed the key point in Ron's words.
"It was Cedric." Hermione struggled to hold Ron back while explaining, "Cedric discovered the Death Eater and attacked, but the Death Eater's curse missed."
Cedric... Kyle stood in place, laughed once, and then came down the stairs.
"Kyle." Neville looked at him in confusion, "Aren't you going to look for the Weasley brothers? Hermione just said they were on the third floor?"
"Oh, never mind." Kyle said, "I'm more interested in the snake you mentioned. Can you tell me more about it?"
"It's a snake with... three heads." Harry covered his forehead. Since a few hours ago, his scar had been throbbing.
Sometimes he would see the owner of the Goblet of Fire Pub, and sometimes he would see a messy floor. Harry guessed it was the snake's perspective.
As it happened, there was a massive three-headed snake beside Voldemort, which Harry had seen.
"A three-headed snake..." Neville's face turned pale. Just as Ron was afraid of spiders, he feared snakes second only to his grandmother and Professor Snape.
"It's just an Erumpent, a magical creature." Kyle said, also remembering the snake.
When Aberforth blocked Voldemort, the Erumpent was right there, but it disappeared in the blink of an eye, and Kyle didn't bother to look for it carefully.
"Go on, what happened to it?"
"It should be a Horcrux." Harry said, and perhaps fearing Neville wouldn't understand, he explained, "It's something very important to Voldemort. We must kill it!"
"That's easy. Leave it to me." Kyle said.
He had never intended to let the Erumpent go, but the explosion on the bridge had distracted him, so he hadn't gone to find it right away. Now he had some free time.
"That's a twenty-foot-long giant snake." Harry kindly reminded him, "Its head stands taller than an adult wizard. It's better if we go together."
"Don't worry about that." Kyle waved his hand, "Not just a twenty-foot-long Erumpent, even a fifty-foot one, I can handle it."
"Trust me, it's fine." Kyle looked at Harry, "You just need to tell me where the snake is... if you know."
"Wait a moment." Harry said, then closed his eyes.
He was confident he could find the snake's location.
Perhaps the reason was that he had never been so close to Voldemort before. Since the Death Eaters launched their attack on the castle, his scar had been throbbing, as if yearning to show him Voldemort's thoughts.
They seemed to have become one, indistinguishable from each other.
...
(End of Chapter)
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