Chapter 197
All that was revealed was an empty bed.
Slughorn breathed a sigh of relief, twitching the corners of his mouth with a self-deprecating smile.
"I'm really scaring myself."
He stood up straight, glanced at the other bed, hesitated for a moment, and finally did not go there.
Then he walked back to Sprout and started looking through the potion bottles on the table.
"This is the water of life and death. It seems to be barely usable, but it has been stored for too long. The love potion, it is of no use. Ah, this is... it looks like a confusion potion. Well, keep it. It may be intentional. Unexpected uses.”
Sprout was still busy loading the potion and asked without raising his head.
"Are you ready? We have to get back to the team as soon as possible."
"Don't worry, don't worry."
Slughorn grinned, as if he felt no sense of urgency.
"Do you know why Potions classes are underground?"
"Horace, I don't care about this." Sprout's tone was impatient.
Slughorn was unmoved, patting the stone wall of the laboratory and talking like a tour guide.
"Because the temperature and humidity underground are more stable and less susceptible to external interference. If it were my laboratory, I would never leave this door open so wide."
He said, pointing specifically to the open laboratory door.
Sprout resisted the urge to roll his eyes and concentrated on sorting out the potions.
Just then, click——
A small but harsh sound broke the silence of the laboratory.
Slughorn froze, his hand stopped in mid-air, and his eyes quickly locked on Sprout.
"Pomona, did you hear that?"
Sprout slowly straightened up, his eyes nervous, and nodded.
"It's like broken glass."
The two subconsciously pulled out their wands and looked around.
Slughorn's eyes quickly scanned the experimental table, medicine racks, and corners - nothing was out of the ordinary.
However, just behind the bed he had just avoided, the fabric slowly bulged, as if something was expanding and breaking free.
"Pomona, what is that?"
His voice was low and shaky.
"Don't move!"
Sprout whispered a warning, pointing his wand directly at the bed, his eyes fixed on the expanding fabric.
——
On the path leading to Hogsmeade, the night was dark, and the wind in the woods made people uneasy.
"Harris, have all the first-year students arrived safely?"
There was a hint of anxiety in Professor Flitwick's voice, his eyes never leaving the back of the group.
Harris, who had just rushed back, nodded and took a breath.
"Yes, Professor. All the first-year students have been sent to Hogsmeade Village. Now only our group of seventh-year students are left."
In the team, in addition to Harris and several senior students, there were three tall stone pier knights guarding both sides of the team with heavy steps.
Their armor reflected cold light in the moonlight, making a low metallic friction sound.
Flitwick nodded slightly, but his eyes quickly turned to the distance, locking the direction of the underground classroom.
His brows were furrowed, and there was a flash of uneasiness in his eyes.
"Why haven't you come out yet?" He murmured softly.
"Professor, are you waiting for Sprouni to teach them?" Harris asked tentatively.
Flitwick didn't answer. He stood there and thought for a moment, then shook his head and said decisively.
"We can't wait any longer. I'm going to find them. You must lead the team immediately and move forward without delay!"
Harris was startled, hesitated for a moment, and nodded in response.
"I understand, professor. Be careful!" He immediately turned around to organize the team and directed the students to speed up.
At this moment, there was a loud bang from the direction of the underground classroom!
The sound tore through the night sky and made the ground seem to tremble.
The students in the team stopped and looked back in horror.
Even the experienced Professor Flitwick's expression suddenly changed.
"Oops!"
Flitwick cursed under his breath.
Without saying anything, he quickly climbed onto the horse of a stone pier knight and patted the knight's cold shoulder armor.
"Let's go! Follow me!"
The Knight of Shidun moved upon hearing the order, the iron hooves of his war horse broke through the soil, and ran wildly in the direction of the explosion.
Flitwick bowed slightly, holding on to the reins tightly, his eyes serious as never before.
——
"Pomona, come flying!"
"Thunderbolt explosion!"
boom!
A loud bang echoed outside the underground classroom, and dust and gravel poured down like rain.
Slughorn gasped and sat leaning against the buried entrance, his face covered in blood.
His eyes were full of fear and anger, and in his arms was the seriously injured Sprouni.
A large piece of flesh was torn off her shoulder, her clothes were soaked with blood, and she fell into a coma.
"Pomona, you can't fall..."
Slughorn gritted his teeth and rummaged through her invisible bag for the potion with trembling hands.
His hand finally touched a familiar glass bottle.
"Bai Xian! Thank you Merlin..."
Trembling, he poured the entire bottle of potion onto Sprouni's wound.
The potion glowed with a faint silver light and penetrated into the torn muscles. The blood flow in the wound slowed down slightly, but it was far from healed.
"Damn werewolf..."
Slughorn wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve, held the wand in his hand, and looked around warily.
At this moment, a low clicking sound came from the entrance behind him.
Slughorn turned his head suddenly, his pupils shrank suddenly.
He saw that the huge rocks that buried the entrance began to move slowly, as if some invisible force was forcibly moving them away.
The friction between the gravel made a harsh sound, and the rocks loosened and sank one by one, as if some huge monster was trying to break free from it.
"Oh no..." He swallowed his saliva, his fingers trembled slightly, and he tightly grasped the wand.
The next moment, a vague figure suddenly jumped out of the rubble!
Slughorn subconsciously raised his wand, his heartbeat was like thunder, but the pressure coming at him almost made him unable to even shout out the spell.
"Oh no!"
However, just as the figure was about to pounce in front of him——
"Super Armor Protection! Super Ejection!"
Accompanied by Flitwick's loud shout, a huge and dazzling ball of light whizzed from the air and accurately hit the figure, knocking it away more than ten meters away, falling to the ground and rolling several times, knocking down a dry tree before it barely stopped.
The air was still filled with the afterglow of the spell. Flitwick landed steadily, his wand pointed directly at the target he had knocked away, his eyes alert.
"Sorry, Horace, I'm late!"
