Along with that loud explosion, the train began to shake violently, then suddenly came to a halt.
Poor Belby had already realized he'd been excluded from the gathering and had turned his frustration into appetite, stuffing himself.
With that sudden jolt, another bone got stuck in his throat.
This time, Link had no time to help him.
At the same time, the already dim light around the train began to fade rapidly.
What replaced it was an extreme, bone-chilling darkness and cold.
"These are Dementors!", Harry shouted, a bit agitated.
His sensitivity to Dementors was unmatched in all of Hogwarts. They had left too deep a psychological shadow on him.
Link glanced at him, then silently pulled out his wand and said to Emily and John, "Emily, go coordinate with the prefects of each house to maintain order on the train and rescue the injured."
"John, gather the D.A. members and use the Patronus Charm to protect the Hogwarts Express."
"Link!" Emily said anxiously, "Then what about you?"
"Me?"
Link paused, then turned back with a smile. "I'll do what I'm supposed to do."
As soon as he finished speaking, a terrifying aura surged upward, blasting through the roof of compartment C.
The next moment, Link turned into a blur and shot out through the opening.
Only after reaching the outside did Link clearly see the condition of the entire train.
At the front of the train, thick black smoke was pouring out.
That earlier explosion had directly destroyed the railway tracks the Hogwarts Express ran on, and the steam engine at the front had been blown to pieces.
Now the steam inside mixed with coal smoke, forming a dark gray smoke dragon.
And beneath that smoke dragon, hundreds of ragged Dementors were howling as they surged toward the Hogwarts Express.
The thin metal shell of the train offered no resistance at all. They easily slipped inside and began to feast.
Screams and roars echoed continuously from within the compartments.
From time to time, bursts of bright white light flashed, that was members of the D.A. fighting back on their own.
However, it was all useless effort.
There were simply too many Dementors.
Even strong Patronus Charms, scattered like this, were like a drop in the ocean against the overwhelming darkness formed by so many Dementors gathered together.
Seeing this, Link frowned.
Because as early as when Azkaban had just fallen, he had already ordered Scrimgeour through Barty and Percy to lead the Aurors to eliminate the rampaging Dementors.
But looking at the current situation, did this look like they had ever been cleared out?
"Scrimgeour, Scrimgeour… I was just praising you, and now look at this. Truly beyond saving."
Link shook his head and muttered, then slowly raised his wand.
BOOM!
A massive surge of cursed power erupted from the tip of his wand, transforming into countless fierce, writhing fire bats that flew toward the Dementors gathered on the train's surface.
As the flames danced, the Fiendfyre bats Link released wrapped around the Dementors almost instantly.
The Dementors paid no attention to Link's attack at all.
Partly because their focus was entirely on the "food" inside the train.
And partly because they didn't believe Link's attack could harm them much.
As Dementors, they were among the strangest creatures in the world.
Like Voldemort's shadow bats, they had no physical bodies and were entirely composed of magical energy.
This structure allowed them to be immune to all physical damage and most magical attacks.
The only thing that could deal especially effective damage to them was the Patronus Charm, made entirely of positive magical energy.
But that didn't mean other forms of magic couldn't harm them.
Link's Fiendfyre, compressed to an extreme degree, was clearly one such exception.
The raging Fiendfyre instantly ignited the Dementors. The faint black mist drifting around their bodies, even their most concentrated cursed energy, things that should have protected them, had now become fuel for the flames.
Under the savage licking of Fiendfyre, that black mist ignited rapidly, turning each Dementor into a blazing torch.
The agony of their souls being scorched forced them to abandon the prey in front of them.
They flailed wildly, even throwing themselves at their companions, hoping to use the black mist on others to smother the flames.
But that only dragged their companions into the same hell.
One flaming Dementor after another was torn away from the Hogwarts Express. Driven by intense pain, they struggled and writhed in the air, looking at a glance like floating lanterns.
"This… this is…"
Inside the compartment, Harry stared at everything in horror.
What he was seeing had gone far beyond his understanding.
He had never even imagined, not even in his dreams, that someone could defeat Dementors in such a way.
What made him even more uneasy was that, at the same time, a resentful, terrifying, silent wail echoed continuously under the glow of the sunset.
It sounded like the screams of the Dementors.
But the problem was, Dementors didn't even have vocal organs.
Thud!
While Harry was still thinking, a Dementor completely engulfed in semi-transparent Fiendfyre suddenly slammed against the window.
It clawed desperately at the glass, as if trying to bring the flames into the compartment and burn Harry and the others to ashes.
But strangely, the glass it could normally pass through with ease now seemed like an insurmountable barrier, blocking it completely outside.
Even though it couldn't get in, its actions still frightened everyone inside.
A Slytherin girl even fell to the ground in panic.
The Slytherin students around her, who had seemed so composed before, now treated her like something dangerous.
Not only did they not help her, Zabini even stepped on her hard in the chaos.
She was on the verge of despair.
At that moment, a sturdy figure pushed through the crowd and helped her up.
"Don't worry, it can't get in!"
The sudden change left the girl a bit dazed.
Hearing the somewhat familiar voice, she instinctively clung tightly to the person.
But when she finally saw who it was, she froze.
Because the one who helped her up in the chaos was Neville.
"Everyone, be quiet!"
Professor Slughorn's roar echoed through the entire compartment.
Under that overwhelming sound, everyone clutched their ears in pain.
Only after everyone calmed down did Slughorn look at the Dementor outside, now burning more and more intensely and rapidly turning to ash, and say, "Don't worry, it won't get in no matter what."
"W-why do you say that? They were just entering the compartments freely!", Zabini stammered.
He was trembling, hiding among the crowd.
His tall body, compared to the smaller figures of younger students around him, looked almost ridiculous.
Seeing this, Slughorn frowned.
He didn't like being contradicted or questioned.
Especially by someone far beneath him in knowledge and status.
Under normal circumstances, such a fool would have been thrown out of his class.
But now, since classes hadn't officially started, Slughorn still answered coldly, "Yes, that's right. Dementors can indeed slip into compartments easily."
"But the flames on them now are different. If you look closely, you'll see those flames are preventing them from truly entering."
"What kind of flames are those? They can kill Dementors? That's not what we learned!"
Another voice questioned.
Compared to Zabini, this one sounded even more blunt.
Slughorn was displeased.
But when he turned to scold them, his expression softened.
Because the one asking was Harry.
"Oh! It seems our savior star hasn't fully mastered his knowledge yet. But that's fine. Dementors are quite obscure."
"It's already good enough that you know they fear the Patronus Charm," Slughorn said animatedly.
"But in fact, they're not completely immune to other magic. As long as the attack is strong enough and has special properties, even spells other than the Patronus can harm them."
"And the Fiendfyre currently clinging to them is exactly that kind of damage."
"These terrifying flames continuously devour the Dementors' own power, turning it into fire, then using it to burn and absorb more energy. The wailing we just heard is actually the sound of them being scorched."
"With this cycle, the Dementors are naturally burned away."
"Or rather than burned to death, it's more accurate to say, they're drained to death!"
"Fiendfyre?" Harry's face was full of disbelief. "That's dark magic! One of the most dangerous kinds. How can Link dare use it here? Isn't he afraid of hurting us?"
Slughorn laughed loudly.
"My dear boy, that's exactly why I say Link Flamel is the most talented wizard of this century. His control over Fiendfyre has reached the point where he can command it freely."
"Under his control, it will only harm Dementors and won't burn anything else. Not even the window. I'd say even if you touched it directly, you wouldn't be harmed."
Then Slughorn changed his tone.
"Of course, I don't recommend you try that. Fiendfyre is still Fiendfyre. There's always risk!"
As he finished speaking, the atmosphere in the compartment relaxed.
Everyone looked at Slughorn with even more admiration.
This old professor truly had real knowledge.
Slughorn enjoyed it, feeling quite pleased.
This feeling of being admired by students, he hadn't experienced it for a long time since retiring.
And now, it was all back.
Just as Slughorn, stirred with emotion, was about to say more, he glanced out the window, and his expression changed instantly.
Because as the burning Dementor turned to ash, the sky behind it came into view.
And in that sunset sky, a sinister skull hung in the air.
The Dark Mark.
Seeing the giant serpent slithering out of the skull's mouth, Slughorn felt his blood run cold.
He hurriedly pulled the curtains shut, as if trying to block it out, but forced himself to stay where he was, protecting the uneasy students.
As a professor, enjoying admiration also meant bearing responsibility.
At the same time, Link, floating above the Hogwarts Express, also saw the Dark Mark rising in the sky.
As it spread out, shouts of battle began to echo from the distance.
Dozens of black-robed, masked Death Eaters charged forward recklessly.
From the look of it, they had been lying in ambush for a long time.
That made everything make sense.
Dementors alone couldn't have stopped the Hogwarts Express so suddenly.
Which meant this attack had been entirely planned by the Death Eaters.
But the problem was, this was too insane.
Even when Voldemort was still wreaking havoc in Britain, he had never ordered an attack on Hogwarts, or on a train full of students like the Hogwarts Express.
In his view, these students were the future of magic, forces he needed to win over.
Attacking Hogwarts was basically destroying his own foundation.
Unless… they had truly gone mad.
Or someone had given them this order.
As Link was thinking, the Death Eaters had already reached the train.
The Dementors, still wrapped in Fiendfyre, saw allies arrive and rushed toward them, hoping they would extinguish the flames.
But what awaited them was a barrage of Killing Curses.
The Killing Curse was also one of the spells that could harm Dementors.
Under flashes of green light, the Dementors retreated.
At that moment, John had already organized the D.A. members, who began attacking the Death Eaters from the train windows.
The Dementors, caught between both sides, instantly became like a sandwich.
Under the near-equal clash between the D.A. and the Death Eaters, they wailed in agony.
Seeing this, Link, floating in the sky, nodded in satisfaction.
Although the Hogwarts D.A. wasn't yet on the level of the hunter corps or the Aurors, after the battle at the Ministry, they had begun to take shape.
At least in terms of formation and coordination, they were already comparable to Hit Wizards.
With some more training, they could basically be sent to the Auror force for further training and become real Aurors.
A true army should be like this.
Constant fighting, constantly learning from battle, and eventually growing into a powerful force.
The Auror force was the most typical example.
Back when Scrimgeour expanded recruitment, he led new Aurors to constantly hunt Death Eaters, combined with strict training, allowing them to become capable soldiers in a short time.
And now, that same Auror force was the backbone of Link's power.
Compared to them, Hit Wizards were more like reserves.
They existed to absorb those eliminated from the Auror force and let them continue contributing.
As for the hunter corps, in Link's forces, they were like special troops.
Compared to the Aurors, their constant hunting of dangerous magical creatures made them better at small-team combat and stronger individually.
In large-scale battles, they might not match the Aurors.
But in guerrilla warfare, even an Auror force ten times their number might not be their match.
As for the D.A., it was the reserve Link had prepared for both the hunter corps and the Aurors.
Outstanding members would become fresh blood for those forces.
So if possible, Link actually wanted the D.A. to keep fighting these Death Eaters, to train through battle.
But unfortunately, in the current situation, he had more important matters to deal with.
This had to end quickly.
Sighing, Link moved his mind, and the Fiendfyre below, previously controlled to only target Dementors, suddenly erupted wildly out of control.
In an instant, it swallowed the Dementors it clung to, dragging the half-dead creatures as it surged toward the Death Eaters.
Fiendfyre wasn't afraid of the Killing Curse.
The green flashes fired by the Death Eaters were like refreshing treats to it.
The raging flames easily broke through their defenses and spread out toward them.
In the flickering firelight, one Death Eater after another turned to ash amid screams.
Those luckier ones, faced with death, no longer dared charge recklessly.
They began to flee in fear.
But what they didn't know was that the Fiendfyre had already formed an encirclement under Link's control.
Their escape was nothing more than being herded like sheep, driven toward the center.
And once they were fully gathered, Link, floating in the air, finally raised his wand.
As the air compressed violently, a sharp and eerie wind sound rang out from the tip of his wand.
The next moment, with a surge of magic, the air cannon was fired.
BOOM!
The terrifying shockwave tore through the land like a hot knife through butter, carving an enormous oval trench across the ground.
The trench extended forward with a thunderous roar, only stopping when it reached distant mountains.
The struggling, howling Dementors were gone.
The resisting Death Eaters were gone.
In their place remained pools of blazing orange-red magma, spreading across the massive trench, still steaming.
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