“What do you really want? I told you that there is a risk in my treatment!” The man’s voice exclaimed.
“But you guaranteed and assured me that you would treat them! What did you say then? Everything would be fine – and in the end, Frank and Alice already went into a coma for two weeks, with coughing up blood.” Grandma’s voice stated.
“What can I do? You put yourself in my shoes, those experts in the papers held me by my throat, and I had to produce test data urgently-”
“Test data? That’s two lives! They’re my son and daughter-in-law, or that Neville child’s parents!… Felix Hap, you’re Neville’s teacher!”
Neville’s heart felt like it had been soaked in cold water, without a trace of warmth, and his stomach kept churning. He couldn’t help but clench his fists.
The nasty man then said, “I also hoped that everything would go smoothly, but there are bound to be unexpected situations in everything. On second thought, if you think about it, they just went from moving corpses to motionless corpses, not much difference, right?”
Neville’s eyes went red, his teeth clacked, how dare he say that about his parents … how dare he!
But the grandmother’s sad voice sounded, “I beg you, recheck them, you’re the only one who knows best since you made it all happen …”
The malicious man said, “Sorry, precisely because I know it most well, I do not want to waste my time.”
The grandmother’s voice became tough: “I was wrong, I shouldn’t have begged you, I will reveal what happened, expose what you did-”
The man snorted, “Ma’am, I should remind you that your son and daughter-in-law were already sentenced to death by St. Mungo’s, I only gave it a try with the idea that if it worked, there would be a large number of people who would thank me.”
“Is that so?” The grandmother’s voice said sarcastically: “You care about reputation, that’s your weakness, but soon the public will see you for what you are, and you will lose everything.”
The man’s voice became hesitant: ” If you put it that way … it’s true, reputation is a fine wine and a tempting poison, and I am always attracted by its fragrance. So, what should I do with you?”
“An Obliviate? That’s too easy, I’ve thought of a better idea, and to be honest, you’ve been pestering me for so long that I’m rather bored. There are some curses that I’ve been wanting to try for a long time … Crucio!”
“No, no …” Neville’s eyes widened, his knuckles whitened, and his face filled with fear. He heard the sound of his grandmother falling to the ground with a “thud” and a “ho~ho~” groan of pain.
“No!”
Anger destroyed all his reason, and the door of the room blew open.
He saw two people in the ward, the man with a surprised expression on his face, his hand with his wand outstretched stopped in midair, and an old woman fell to the floor, her pointed hat falling lifelessly to the ground.
“Grandmother!” Neville ran over and tried to pick up his grandmother’s head, but she immediately showed an expression of pain. Overwhelmed, he paused and looked at the culprit of everything before him, as his wand still pointing at her: “Stop it! Professor.”
“Stop?” The man’s face is hidden in the shadows, making it impossible to read his expression, “Why?”
Neville looked at him incredulously, his eyes filled with a great absurdity that made him feel unreal, like a dream, “What are you talking about? You, you’re a professor … Why are you using that curse?”
“Cruciatus?” The man’s voice stated, Neville shuddered, and the man laughed lowly, “Or an Obliviate? Or … the other two Unforgivable Curses?”
He said calmly, seemingly like a lesson: “Neville, I still have a deep connection with the Unforgivable Curses, having learned all three of them when I was in school – the Cruciatus Curse, the Imperius Curse, and the Killing Curse.”
“I always wanted to try it on someone, but I was too soft-hearted, and now that I think about it, what spell can’t kill someone? Aguamenti Charm can do that too.”
Neville looked at him with a shudder, as if recognizing his face for the first time.
“Don’t look at me like that, learn to respect the professor, don’t you?” The man said.
“You’re not my professor!” Neville yelled, pulling his wand out of his pocket and aiming it at him, but the next second, his wand is jerked away.
“Silent Disarming Charm, I taught you that, Neville. Maybe you could try to get a little angrier?”
Neville immediately pulled a second wand out from behind him – he had always carried two wands, his father’s, and his own. The anger caused him to silently make a Stunning Spell, but it got blocked by a wave of an arm, and the man said, “It’s too weak, Neville. You are not angry enough-”
A thin layer of a magic barrier flew toward Neville, knocking him straight off his feet.
Neville got up from the ground and looked at him unyieldingly.
“I don’t like the look in your eyes … So, Crucio! Crucio!”
Grandmother let out a painful scream, Neville’s eyes widened in horror, desperately trying his best to get in front of her, the expected pain did not appear, he had no time to discern, he had to do something, stall for time? That’s right, stall for time!
He is going to watch this man get arrested, just like those Death Eaters.
Neville fired up his brain as hard as he could, his mind had never worked so fast: “I believed in you so much … I looked up to you as a role model …”
And he recited what he knew best in recent times – a short story, which itself originated from this man – regardless
“Nall is an awkward child. He was told by others that he is dumb, and over time, he came to believe so himself.
Nall likes to fiddle with clay dolls, he has a natural sensitivity to the properties of different kinds of clay, he likes to watch black, red, brown, white, gray, various colours of clay in his hands moulding a little into a delicate, lovely shape.
This kind of enjoyment without pressure, in Nall’s sad times, can bring him comfort in turn.
His parents are very busy, usually do not spend much time with him, even the most important Christmas is only a hurried meeting, his biggest wish, is that they can spend more time with him.”
Neville recited regardless until he noticed the wand lowered from that man’s hand, and his grandmother’s low voice came from beside him, “Forget it, Mr. Hap, let’s just leave it …”
Neville watched in disbelief as his grandmother rose from the ground and the professor stepped out of the shadows.
Ten minutes later–
Neville sulked quietly as old Lady Longbottom coaxed him, and Felix looked at him awkwardly, “Neville–”
Neville looked away and didn’t look at him, clutching the corner of his coat in his hand with a death grip.
“Why did you trick me?” He said angrily.
“It was part of the plan,” said old Lady Longbottom, “to-”
“It’s better if I speak, Lady Longbottom.” Felix spoke up, looking over at Neville: “It came from a ridiculous idea I had when I was in school; I had experienced several accidental magic riots, which had brought me great benefits, and I had envisioned whether I could artificially facilitate them …”
“But I had never seen an actual case of it in anyone else until a few months ago, in Diagon Alley, when I met Potter.”
“Harry?” Neville suddenly asked.
“Yes, he was going through something very painful and exploded with a burst of magic, and I convinced him at that time to test … with me until I found you again, and I presumed that your magic was not very active when you were young, in other words – There is a little tolerance for magic, which is why you struggled so much to learn magic …”
“You’re the same, aren’t you?” Neville blurted out stiffly.
“What’s the same?” Felix looked at him.
“The one you mentioned, the accidental magic riot.” Neville said, frighteningly calm at this point: “Sounds like it needs to be hugely stimulated, and you’ve just tried to provoke me over and over again. So I asked you, did you go through the same process?”
Felix looked at him calmly, “You’re right, it is the same for me.”
Neville stood up with a stern face, “So, what Aunt Miriam said was also arranged by you? Everything was an act?”
“No, Neville-” said old Lady Longbottom.
Neville looked at Felix stubbornly, “I want you to tell me that by yourself.”
“I didn’t make that arrangement, but-” Felix said, “I was right next to them when they talked about it.”
Neville said abruptly, “I’m going back to the ward, to be alone for a while.” He picked up his book bag from the floor, pushed the door, and walked out of the room.
A dead silence fell over the room.
After a long time, Felix confessed, “The moment he blew the door open, I thought for a moment that we had succeeded.”
Old Lady Longbottom said wearily: “Perhaps from the beginning, we should not …” she pursed her lips, “I asked too much from him in the past, I hope the boy can be like his father, become an Auror, but in fact, ordinary life is fine.”
“I don’t think so, ma’am. Dumbledore once warned me not to play with hearts.” Felix said, “But who can avoid playing with hearts? I do not accept this failure, we are so close, and if it could have been done better-”
Old Lady Longbottom looked at him and said hesitantly, “Mr. Hap?”
“I do not feel that my thinking is wrong, from the very beginning of the project, to–” Felix suddenly stopped, his eyes bulging out, incredulously turned his head to the side to look at the air, the sight seemed to penetrate the space. Then he ran out of the room with a jerk and turned to the corner, his eyes fixed dead on the ward at the end of the corridor on the other side.
Felix tapped his forehead, and in black and white perspective, a powerful, soft tide of magic spread from within, a pure white glow without a trace of impurity that continued to storm his inherent perceptions.
“What’s – what’s going on?” Old Lady Longbottom said in a panic as she followed behind.
Felix did not answer, he took a step towards the ward where the Longbottoms were, and as soon as he pulled open the curtain, he saw Neville bawling in the arms of a woman, and a man with a soft expression holding the woman and Neville, they could not hide their weary faces, still in their patient gowns, but the love in their eyes almost overflowed.
The room’s assorted with scattered small ornaments floated in the air, emitting a “buzzing” sound, and several patients in the bed next to them were bathed in a warm glow, which became the best footnote to answer Felix’s questions.
“Accidental Magic Riot …” he said in a one breath.
———-
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