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Calling that Lumos would actually be inaccurate. What Dudley had used was a lighting spell.
Maybe Dudley's magical power wasn't especially high, but... after stacking six meditation states, his offensive magical output had already reached a simply unbelievable level.
To the point that even a basic lighting spell could produce the effect of an artificial sun.
"You bastard!"
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
The young wizards who had been hit raised their wands on pure reflex and started firing off spells.
But with their vision temporarily blinded, they simply couldn't locate Dudley. They were just throwing magic everywhere in complete disarray.
As for Dudley, he had already leaped out of the attack zone with Hermione and was now watching the scene unfold with mild interest.
The Gryffindors had formed a circle around them. So whenever they raised their wands and fired spells, most of the time they were hitting their own classmates.
Cries of pain, sobbing, and curses blended into one chaotic chorus.
The entire scene was absolute chaos.
Fortunately, none of them knew any truly dangerous jinxes or particularly powerful spells. At most, they only knew a few more prank spells than Harry and Malfoy had known back then. A few Slytherins standing too close also ended up getting hit by accident.
Dudley moved through the Gryffindors as leisurely as if he were strolling through a garden. With a casual flick of his hand, he tore their wands away. Then he stretched out a finger and flicked each one on the forehead as they came close. Anyone hit was sent flying backward on the spot. Dudley had excellent control over his strength. No one was going to die. At worst, they would end up with a mild concussion.
Before long, Dudley had gathered a pile of wands in his hands.
And those kids had each received a nice little gift.
Especially the original group of five.
They got special attention from Dudley. The lumps on their heads were practically the size of golf balls already. And that wasn't all. Dudley had also injected a few of them with Hamon. Not to help them train, of course. Flicks packed with malice were anything but pleasant. Every so often, the pain would flare back up.
Dudley gathered all the wands together, grabbed them at both ends, and snapped them in half.
Now they were nothing more than a pile of useless sticks.
People always have to pay the price for their choices.
"What happened here?"
Professor McGonagall came rushing over, led by one of the students. When she saw young wizards sprawled all over the floor, she let out a shocked cry.
"Can someone tell me! What exactly happened here?!"
The student who had brought her there was Neville.
"Mr. Dursley, can you tell me what happened?"
The scene was utter chaos, but Dudley's tall frame stood out in the middle of it all like a tiger among housecats. McGonagall spotted him immediately.
At that moment, the effect of the lighting spell began to fade, and the affected students gradually started regaining their sight. One of the members of the five-person group, after seeing the pitiful state of his classmates and then looking at Dudley, who was still completely unharmed, felt the pain from the lumps on his head stimulating his nerves as a surge of anger rose straight to his brain.
Courage was something only a few people truly possessed.
Most of the time, what people had was recklessness.
Fear didn't just make people panic. It could also turn into anger.
And anger made people lose their reason.
Recklessness, meanwhile, turned them into idiots.
That young wizard didn't even realize that in his impulse, he had completely ignored the fact that Professor McGonagall was standing right next to Dudley.
"Levicorpus!"
Not everyone was like Harry and Malfoy, who only knew the handful of spells the professors had taught. Among the Gryffindor first-years, there were still a few who, like Hermione, had studied spells on their own.
That boy was one of them.
And precisely because his grades weren't bad, he disliked Hermione even more for always coming out on top.
After all, who does second place hate most?
Obviously, first place.
Unfortunately, the spell hit Dudley and produced absolutely no effect. Not only was he not hung upside down, not even the sole of his shoe left the ground.
Dudley had left that wand there on purpose.
He had also deliberately given him the chance to cast that spell.
The only unexpected variable had been Professor McGonagall's arrival...
But that didn't matter.
Because what Dudley had really been waiting for was... the next line.
'Gryffindor...'
"Gryffindor, how dare you!"
A calm but deeply penetrating voice echoed through the corridor. Led by Malfoy, Professor Snape came hurrying in from the other side and arrived just in time to see the boy cast that spell at Dudley.
Snape raised his wand on instinct, ready to fire off a countercurse.
But someone was faster than he was.
A red spell struck the boy's wrist, and his wand flew out of his hand.
Professor McGonagall shouted sharply,
"Hansel!"
"Attacking a fellow student, for Merlin's sake! Fifty points from Gryffindor!"
She was trembling with fury over what the boy had done. At that moment, she truly looked like an enraged lioness. It was the first time Dudley had ever seen McGonagall like that. In fact, even Snape seemed to be seeing this side of her for the first time.
Although McGonagall often gave off the impression of being stern, rigid, and difficult to approach, her real personality was actually quite gentle. If any of the students had questions about Transfiguration, they could approach her anytime, and she would always explain everything with enormous patience.
If someone showed exceptional talent, they might even end up bothering her during breaks.
"Those of you who are uninjured, help the injured students get to Madam Pomfrey for treatment."
McGonagall first organized the students who were still fine and had them escort the injured away.
Fortunately, these had only been spells cast by first-year students. Even the ones who had been especially unlucky and taken several hits in a row weren't worse off than the ones Dudley had flicked.
Then McGonagall spoke in a grave tone.
"Now tell me, what happened here?"
The cold pressure radiating from her was enough to make even Snape keep unusually quiet.
"Who can explain this to me?"
What she hated most was seeing students attack one another, especially when the aggressors were from her own House, and especially when it had happened right under her nose.
Her gaze finally settled on Dudley.
"Mr. Dursley..."
Before Dudley could even open his mouth, one of the girls from the earlier group let out a shrill scream.
"Professor McGonagall, he attacked us first! It was Dursley! He used some evil spell against us, it had to be horrible Dark Magic! Just look at us, our wands were broken, and we're hurt too!"
As she spoke, she pointed to the huge lumps on her head.
A classic accusation from someone who was clearly in the wrong.
A classic case of leaving out all the context and talking only about the outcome.
Even worse, several of the Gryffindors around them immediately started echoing her.
"Mr. Dursley..."
McGonagall's gaze fell on Dudley once more. At the same time, Snape's eyes were fixed on him as well.
"Professor McGonagall, I'm the one who broke the wands."
The moment Dudley admitted it, the students who had just been backing that girl up lit up with excitement.
The evil Slytherin was finally going to face justice.
"Professor, do you hear that? He admitted it! You have to punish him!"
Another boy, the one with a face full of freckles, pointed at Dudley and shouted.
"Interrupting someone while they're speaking is extremely rude."
Snape shot him a cold look.
"I know perfectly well what I'm doing, Mr. Austo. I am the professor here!"
McGonagall also glared at the boy before turning her attention back to Dudley.
Then Dudley continued, completely unhurried.
"But I believe I'm the true victim here. The Reverse Spell can prove that."
The Reverse Spell was an investigative spell used to determine who a wand had cast magic on.
"You can examine their wands and mine."
Dudley wore an innocent, wronged look, but there was also a trace of resentment there, as though he had been wrongly accused and was barely holding back his indignation.
Professor McGonagall examined Dudley's wand, then checked several of the broken wands as well.
Under the expectant eyes of the Gryffindor students...
she reached her conclusion.
"Mr. Dursley did not cast a single spell at anyone..."
Then McGonagall swept a severe look over the Gryffindors.
"Then why were you the ones casting spells at a fellow student?"
When it came to proving guilt or innocence in the wizarding world, Dudley understood it far better than those little wizards did.
You like accusing first when you're the one in the wrong?
And you... do you have proof?
He remembered that in the books, not everyone in the school took part in the final battle.
Only half of Gryffindor joined the fight. A few younger students sneaked in on their own, but in the end... Hufflepuff kept only a small portion of its students there, Ravenclaw kept the older ones, and Slytherin almost entirely left.
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