Harry thought of the forbidden spell in his mind, slowly stretched out his hand and raised his wand.
He thought of Professor Dracula's demonstration in the Defense Against the Dark Arts open class, and the image of the giant rat that lost all life in an instant appeared in his eyes.
He also thought about the time when he was still with Tom Riddle in the form of a diary, and how the words on the pages of the diary had seduced him, trying to make him let go of the shackles in his heart and embark on the path of dark magic.
Harry's lips trembled as he looked at the gray-white fire dragon rushing towards him. The spell almost came to his lips but he swallowed it back.
He remembered what Professor Dracula had told him when he first discovered Riddle's diary -
Riddle has always wanted Harry to learn the dark arts, especially the worst Unforgivable Curses, because this curse will greatly affect Harry's emotions and will also have a significant change in his mental state and psychology.
After Harry actually uses the Unforgivable Curse for the first time, he slowly discovers the usefulness of this dark magic that violates the regulations of the Ministry of Magic.
Gradually, he will become dependent on it, slowly becoming unrestrained and unable to escape the vortex of black magic...
Finally, Harry gritted his teeth, and the spell on his lips changed the moment it came out -
"Expelliarmus!"
he shouted.
Using a disarming spell that had no lethality and little offensive power to attack a stone fire dragon covered with scales would undoubtedly seem a bit funny and ridiculous.
But there seemed to be a voice in Harry's heart telling him to do this, as if he knew that he could repel the dragon without the dangerous Killing Curse.
So he recited the disarming spell without any hesitation.
The next moment, a dazzling red light suddenly gushed out from the tip of Harry's wand, and hit the dragon's gray-white scales just before the dragon's fangs touched him.
With a "bang", the fire dragon seemed to have suffered a serious blow. Its brutal eyes turned into astonishment and disbelief. Then it flew backwards like an arrow and fell heavily on the ground in front of the palace.
Seeing this, Rolf quickly ran to the fire dragon, pointed his wand at its most vulnerable eye, and quickly recited a spell to remove the transformation.
The dragon was knocked away by Harry's Disarming Charm, and it took a long time for it to recover. Then, Rolf seized the opportunity and cast a spell on it, hitting one of its fragile eyes hard. The dragon was no longer blocked by its hard skin.
Under the effect of the spell to remove the transformation, the huge fire dragon immediately changed its appearance—
The pair of wings behind it retracted, and the four sharp claws under its abdomen also retracted into its body; at the same time, its entire abdomen became thinner and longer, gradually becoming the same thickness as the tail behind it.
The fire dragon transformed back into a giant snake again.
"It turns out that it has integrated the magic of transformation. Fortunately, my bet was right..." Seeing the changes in the fire dragon, Rolf breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, he turned his head and looked at Harry urgently, "Hurry, Harry! I don't know if it will change into another form again. Let it go back while it is still in snake form!"
Harry nodded, switched his language to Snake's accent, and made a hissing sound:
"Go back to where you came from and don't come down again!"
The giant snake's eyes, which were flashing green light, moved, as if it was thinking for a moment.
Then, its long snake body swung, winding along the ground and climbing up another stone pillar in front of the palace gate, tightly wrapping around the pillar.
Finally, it returned to its original position, and the green light in the snake boy quietly went out.
The entire stone pillar was transformed into the most plain appearance, and the giant snake wrapped around it seemed to be just a relief, without any danger...
"We... succeeded?" Harry glanced at the wand in his hand in disbelief, still feeling a bit dreamy.
"Yes, we succeeded!" Rolf jumped up, shouting excitedly, and put his arm around Harry's shoulders. "By the way, Harry, I didn't hear the spell clearly just now. What was the spell you used to repel the dragon? Teach me quickly, it's so cool!"
"Um... I don't know how to explain it." Harry glanced at Rolf's excited expression, reluctant to disturb his enthusiasm. "Anyway, ahem... Actually, it's just a disarming spell."
He smiled awkwardly at Rove with an innocent expression.
Rove's excited expression froze on his face immediately.
"So, that was really a disarming spell?" He widened his eyes in disbelief. "I thought I heard it wrong just now. I didn't expect it to be a disarming spell..."
"Harry, you may be the first wizard who can use the Disarming Charm as a highly lethal black magic." Rolf patted Harry's shoulder and said meaningfully.
At this time, Ginny also came over and checked Harry's body from top to bottom, fearing that he might be hurt because of his risky action of saving her from the dragon's mouth.
"What you did just now was too dangerous, Harry. You didn't have to do that." She sobbed with red eyes, "You are the savior of the wizarding world. If something goes wrong while saving me, I will never be able to take responsibility for it in my life..."
"Ginny, the reason you worship me is not because I am the savior, but because of my character. Didn't you tell me this?" He smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'm fine, don't worry about me."
Ginny then turned her gaze away from Harry, but her eyes were still red and there was a blush on her face.
"Okay, you two, stop hanging around here..." Rolf couldn't stand their boring behavior anymore, so he reminded them, "Let's go find Luna first."
"She was trapped here alone for a whole day, and I don't know how she is doing now."
Harry and Ginny nodded with a slight blush, and the three of them walked into the palace gates together.
After the fierce battle just now, the three little wizards were all messy and dirty, but their eyes were bright, and they walked with confident steps and high morale on their faces.
…
"Did you let in a little too much water, Dumbledore?"
In a room in Dracula's castle, Dracula looked at the parchment of the Hogwarts title deed pasted on the opposite wall and looked at Dumbledore with a somewhat unhappy expression.
He felt that this good show should have lasted a little longer. It ended a little too quickly and he didn't enjoy it enough.
"You can't say that, Professor Dracula?" Dumbledore said with a smile, "Don't slander me. I have been doing my best to contribute to this good show!"
"Are you going to tell me that as a great wizard, the former professor of Transfiguration at Hogwarts, and the pillar of the wizarding world, your Transfiguration skills can be so bad?" Dracula said gritting his teeth.
"It was first knocked away by a second-year wizard with a Disarming Charm, and then another second-year wizard removed the Transfiguration spell on it! If this is your level, then your future in the wizarding world is probably bleak."
Dracula looked into Dumbledore's eyes, looking at him maliciously.
"You really misunderstood me this time, Professor Dracula." Dumbledore said innocently, "I thought that facing two second-year and one first-year wizards, this level of Transfiguration would be quite difficult for them."
"But I didn't expect that these two little guys would give me such a big surprise."
He smiled and stroked his waist-length white beard. He couldn't hide the smile in his eyes, and it was obvious that he was very satisfied with the performance of the little wizards.
"Is it really a surprise?" Dracula curled his lips and sneered, "You were the most nervous when Potter stood in front of Weiss just now. I saw that you wanted to stop the fire dragon that the snake turned into at any time."
"And you should have figured it out, right? Potter was originally going to use the Killing Curse... He has a fragment of Voldemort's soul in his body. I guess his Killing Curse shouldn't be too bad. Maybe he can get rid of the dragon you turned into without you having to let him go."
Dracula looked at Dumbledore with interest and teased him jokingly,
"I really want to see how you would react if he really used the Unforgivable Curse because of the pressure you put on him, and thus became obsessed with the Dark Arts, and eventually followed Voldemort's path of learning the Dark Arts?"
"I won't let that happen." Dumbledore's expression turned serious. "When Tom embarked on the path of studying the Dark Arts, it was actually my fault that I didn't guide him well."
"So I have learned some lessons and will pay attention to Harry's mental health. If he really has the tendency to learn the dark arts, I will pull him back myself!" he said.
"It seems that Potter won't need those dark magics anymore." Dracula raised his lips slightly. "Although the disarming spell he cast temporarily did look a bit weird, its attack power is indeed not inferior to ordinary dark magic."
"It's really interesting. I'm thinking of training him in this area during the Defense Against the Dark Arts class next school year. Maybe I can create a new style of disarmament!"
"Then I'll leave it to you, Professor Dracula." Dumbledore smiled gently.
The two of them looked at the picture shown on the parchment of the title deed at the same time. The three little wizards had successfully entered the interior of the Slytherin palace...
Harry was the first to step onto the tiles inside the palace.
He raised the wand in his hand and looked around vigilantly under the light of the wand illumination spell. He saw only empty space and did not find any danger around. He breathed a sigh of relief.
Rolf and Ginny also stepped into the palace and looked around curiously.
Unlike the luxury, grandeur and magnificence they imagined, the once magnificent palace has actually become dilapidated after being eroded by thousands of years.
The dome was pierced, and moonlight leaked in. The illumination spell and the dim light of the moon clearly reflected the fine dust floating in the air. Looking around, I saw dense spider webs in every corner, and mottled and peeling wall paint on the inner walls.
As the cold wind blew, the spider webs between the broken walls fluttered in the wind. Occasionally, you could see rubble scattered on the ground, creating a desolate and bleak scene.
Time is the most ruthless. Nothing in this world can defeat time.
All the glory, splendor, humiliation, sadness... are all integrated into the vicissitudes of life. Time will erase everything. Even the powerful wizards like the Big Four cannot escape the scouring and baptism of time and eventually disappear in the long river of history.
Dracula was accustomed to the passage of time and the death of his friends, and was deeply touched by this. As a result, he later lost interest in life and could only look for interesting things to kill his endless time.
However, at this moment, the three little wizards in the Slytherin ruins palace were still too young to feel anything about this bleak scene.
They first felt that the situation here was too different from what they had imagined, and then they quickly lost interest and devoted themselves to finding Luna.
Actually, Luna wasn't hiding that deep. Harry, Rolf, and Ginny bypassed the main hall and only went to two or three rooms in the side hall before they spotted Luna.
Next to a side wall, an oil lamp was placed on a small stone platform. A little witch was sitting on a small stone next to the platform, holding a copy of "The Quibbler" upside down, and "reading" it with great interest in the light of the oil lamp.
The little witch had messy, waist-length dirty golden hair, light eyebrows, and a pair of bulging gray eyes that looked dreamy and hidden under a pair of strange glasses made up of two colorful five-pointed stars.
She was wearing a pair of fluffy rabbit slippers on one foot, and the other foot was bare, hanging and swinging on the side of the stone platform.
When she saw Harry, Rolf and Ginny coming in from the main hall, she looked up happily and greeted them warmly:
"Rolf, Harry, and Ginny, you're here?"
"Ah, uh... yes, we're here." Rolf had been thinking for a long time about what he wanted to say to comfort Luna as soon as he found her, but the words got stuck in his throat and he could only utter these words in the end.
Harry and Ginny also looked at Luna with strange expressions.
Luna gave people a feeling of being too stable and leisurely, and she seemed to be taking it easy. It felt like she was just staying at home and the three of them came to visit her without bringing any gifts.
"Luna, have you been here since last night?" Ginny hesitated for a moment, but decided to ask.
"I sneaked out after curfew last night. It took me a long time to find this place." Luna tilted her head and thought for a moment. "It wasn't last night. I should have been here since this morning."
"Are you really not being abused or kidnapped here, Luna?" Harry asked from the side, "And staying here for a whole day without eating, don't you feel hungry?"
"No one else is here, I came here alone!" Luna said excitedly, "And I also stocked up a lot of snacks in advance that I haven't fed to the animals yet. These are enough for me to eat for several days."
She patted a small cross-body bag on her side.
"But... how did you find such a hidden relic?" At this time, Rolf couldn't help but ask, "How could you find such a relic that has not been discovered by so many generations of Hogwarts so carelessly?"
He really didn't want to believe that Luna, such an unreliable little witch, could just walk a few steps in the Forbidden Forest and accurately find the way to enter the magic maze, and come to the palace that they had fought desperately for half a day to enter without any harm.
"Because someone taught me to come here!" Luna said as a matter of course, "Ever since I entered the Forbidden Forest, there has been a voice in my ear guiding me in a certain direction, and letting me jump into this place according to his method!"
"Just because an unknown voice told you to leave, you left like this?" Rolf glared at her with lingering feelings. "If you ran into some dark wizard with ill intentions, he would sell you out and we wouldn't even know about it."
"No, I can tell he has no ill intentions." Luna shook her hair and continued to smile, "And I always feel that this voice is a bit like Professor Dracula's."
"I think you might be hallucinating, Luna." Harry shook his head. "Professor Dracula is having a dinner with all the professors. How come he's in the Forbidden Forest?"
"But I really think it's Professor Dracula's." Luna's eyes rolled around. "Although the timbre, pitch and tone are nothing alike, I just think it's Professor Dracula's voice."
Harry opened his mouth to speak, but Ginny tugged on his sleeve from behind, interrupting his thoughts of further argument.
"Okay, Harry, there's no need to argue with Luna. You can't beat her." Ginny said, "It's good that we can find Luna. We should go back now. If we're any later, we'll have to compete with Mr. Filch again."
"Ginny, you seem to have forgotten that Mr. Filch is also attending Professor Dracula's dinner tonight. We don't need to hide from him tonight." Rolf said with a smile, "But it is indeed a bit late now. We should go back."
"Come with us, Luna?"
Luna nodded happily and put the Quibbler away.
The four little wizards walked out of the palace gate together and left the ruins built by Slytherin from the huge tree trunk.
But what they didn't know was that after they left, two other people came to the palace seamlessly -
"Miss Lovegood is quite clever," Dumbledore chuckled.
He took out a silver lighter and pressed the button of the lighter with a "click".
A bright ball of light rose from the lighter into the sky above the palace, illuminating the entire palace with a bright light, which was countless times better than the effect of a magic wand lighting spell.
"Yes, Miss Lovegood is indeed a magical little witch." Dracula glanced at the Deluminator in Dumbledore's hand and nodded in agreement. "I thought I had disguised myself well, but I didn't expect that she could still associate me with it intuitively."
"Come to think of it, this is the first time I know that after Slytherin split from the other three founders, they actually built such a magnificent palace around Hogwarts." Dumbledore looked around in amazement. "This is a lot of work. How come the other three founders didn't find out?"
"Yes, at that time, Salazar's magical attainments were actually slightly higher than the other three founders." Dracula sighed deeply, and his tone became silent.
"Oh? Is there some story I don't know?" asked Dumbledore.
"Yes, if you want to hear it."
…
…