In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter
Chapter 36: Second Night Attack

Jon panicked and helped Slughorn, who was covered in blood, to his feet from the ground.

"Teacher!"

The old walrus' face was bloodless, visibly pale from blood loss, and he fumbled out a vial of potion from the pocket of his robe while waving his hand at Jon.

"Don't worry, I won't die."

At the last moment when the exploding charm started to work, due to the need to protect the student in front of him, Slughorn only had time to use a non-verbal shield charm at the final moment.

The effect of a spell that was cast silently and hurriedly was bound to be diminished, and although that spell saved the life of both him and the student, it also deprived Slughorn of the ability to fight back, and he could only escape to the wagon under the cover of the magic cast by Dumbledore using Apparition.

Lily and McGonagall, who had originally entered the wagon to settle the students heard the commotion and ran out of the wagon.

They saw Slughorn who was covered in blood and drinking a Blood-Replenishing Potion and also saw one after another black-robed wizards with metal masks holding a wand emerging from the woods at the edge of the crimson flames.

These people obviously are not Aurors, even the current Ministry of Magic which is under Voldemort's control, will never let the Aurors who maintain order in the wizarding community confront the public with this ghastly appearance.

On the left sleeve of their robes, there's a tattoo of a serpent shrouded in green poisonous gas passing through a skull, which had revealed the identity of these people.

There is only one organization in the entire wizarding world that is entitled to embroider this symbol called Dark Mark on their clothes -

Death Eaters!

Once that man's die-hard zealots, and now under his personal command alone, with far more power than the wizard escorts known as Auror office.

When they saw the metal masks, it became clear to every Hogwarts professor that this attack differed from the last skirmish.

Lily's hands were trembling.

She looked at all the Death Eaters shrouded in darkness, her eyes filled with bloodshot hatred.

McGonagall who sensed her emotional shift, could not help but frown and speak.

"Lily, you take Horace inside and look after ..."

"Professor!" But she interrupted McGonagall's words with clenched teeth.

Lily and McGonagall's eyes locked, and there was simply no way for her to ignore the emotions that were nearly overflowing out of her.

McGonagall sighed as she held Slughorn's arm with Jon.

"I know you could never let go of it in your heart, I'll go keep an eye on the students, you stay here and be careful."

Lily without the slightest hesitation jumped down from the wagon, the cold night wind with snowflakes blowing on the hem of her robe.

Looking at the masked Death Eaters not far away, she spoke in a sharp, resentful voice that pierced the night sky.

"Severus! Snape! Where is he?!"

All the Death Eaters were silent, no one responded to her, but the tips of everyone's wands glowed red!

"Petrificus Totalus!"

No one used the Killing Curse, or spell-like Exploding Charm, which had a chance of causing death, but the sight of dozens of Full Body-Bind Curses shooting out in unison was still horrifying!

The unextinguished crimson flame rose up, and when the dense Full Body-Bind Curses came into contact with the flame, it was like snow meeting in fire, instantly melted away!

Lily did not care if they replied, Snape is just one of her biggest enemies, and his absence does not mean that she will turn a blind eye to the rest of Voldemort's men.

These people did not dare to kill her, but Lily dared to send deadly blows at them!

"Bombarda!"

This is almost certainly the most powerful and wide-range lethal spell among all magic spells that a normal wizard could perform.

The first Death Eater did not use the Killing Curse and chose the Exploding Charm, hoping to harvest two lives with one spell.

She was originally a Gryffindor genius during her school days at Hogwarts, and although she is from a Muggle upbringing, she was favoured by Slytherin's Head Slughorn due to her exceptional magic talent.

And in these years of exile, hatred and successive clashes with the Ministry of Magic, allowed her strength to increase at a rate beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

The range and power of the Exploding Charm was far greater than the previous exploding charm, the blast exploded amidst the crowd of Death Eaters!

Numerous transparent light shields tinged by the light of fire turned into a blazing golden red, the sound like glass being broken rang out, and more than a dozen death eaters who had been covered in shield charm were blown away!

The Death Eaters began to quickly scatter, they raised their wands to deal with the crimson flames conjured by Dumbledore, while shooting spells back at Lily and Flitwick.

Instantly, red and green light shone in this originally black-and-white forest!

Inside the wagon.

When McGonagall and Jon were helping to support Slughorn into the wagon, Hagrid immediately pulled up the reins of the wagon horses, which had been stagnant for almost a day, once again began to run.

After bringing Slughorn into the wagon's hospital room, they all made their way back to the great hall.

The old walrus is not in such a bad state, he has enough means to take care of his injuries as long as he remains conscious, and there is no need to keep someone to look after him.

McGonagall did not forget that there might be someone from the enemy side lurking inside the wagon, and tonight's attack carried out by the Death Eaters confirmed her previous suspicions.

Hogwarts wagon's movements are completely devoid of any sort of pattern, and it would randomly appear anywhere, even Hagrid, who is driving, would not necessarily know ahead of time, where they are actually going this day, so it would not be possible to know its location unless someone had been delivering the route in real-time from inside the wagon!

If the last night attack could be explained as coincidence and luck, then the second attack just three months later, could never possibly be a coincidence.

As a precaution, she once again gathered all the students together inside the great hall, where she personally stood guard.

The happy mood the students originally had at Christmas turned to fear and dread at this moment, everyone huddled inside their sleeping bags, very few people fell asleep, but no one made a sound, only the occasional sobs of a few timid girls rang out.

After entering the great hall, Jon chose a position close to the door to sleep, Neville and the rest of them were confused by his behaviour, because the temperature near the door is the lowest in the whole hall, so no student chose to sleep there.

But Jon did not give them much of an explanation, after burrowing into the sleeping bag distributed by Professor McGonagall, he kept his face towards the door side and waited quietly.

The cold wind from the door crack blew the bangs in front of Jon's forehead, his face felt a little numb, but he did not have the slightest intention of changing the place to sleep peacefully.

He felt that it might be possible that the purpose of those Death Eaters outside was not actually to hold or kill them, but rather it was to ensure that the wagon would be in the present state. Sᴇaʀᴄh the NʘvᴇlFɪre.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

The vast majority of the professors are not present, the students are gathered together, and the whole wagon could be described as completely empty except for the great hall and the hospital room!

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