Chapter 426: Darkness Re-emerges

"My potion-making technique was something I learned back in my fifth year, during private tutoring with Snape," Harry said slowly. "I was studying Occlumency with him, and I took the opportunity to learn a bit more about potions. I'd been trapped in a logical fallacy before, but in reality, professors and textbooks aren't one and the same."

"Ah! You mean the old bat is the Half-Blood Prince?" Ron couldn't help but exclaim, drawing curious gazes from many in the pub.

"You're too loud," Hermione said, making a shushing gesture.

"Sorry, but this is just..."

"As for Sectumsempra, we all know Snape was a Death Eater for a time, right?" Harry continued, ignoring their interruption. "After he invented the spell, he used it multiple times as a Death Eater. Later, the Ministry of Magic learned it, and we know it's not exactly difficult to master."

"True. From the perspective of spellcraft, the logic behind the Prince's invention is quite clever—meaning as long as one understands it, it's easy to learn," Hermione commented.

"Regarding how the textbook circulated, we originally found the old book where Snape hid his things, and then Ron accidentally brought it out—I think it's easy to understand why Snape wanted to hide it. He didn't actually want us to know that he called himself the 'Half-Blood Prince' in his youth."

Ron recalled the journey of the textbook and began to stifle a laugh behind his hand.

"Especially since the origin of 'Prince' wasn't some royal bloodline, but his mother's maiden name, Prince. As a word, it means royalty, but as a surname, it has no special meaning. So, the term actually means 'someone with half-Prince blood,' using a pun to lead people into misunderstanding it as 'Half-Blood Prince.' That way, without actually lying, he made himself seem impressive. That's about what young Snape was thinking."

"I can't take it, Harry, I'm dying of laughter." Ron covered his face, which was twisted with hysterical mirth. "You've practically stripped Snape down to his underwear."

"Although I still respect Professor Snape," Harry couldn't help but laugh too, "just imagine, I mean, imagine if Sirius—who never got along with him in their youth—walked into the Headmaster's office, knocked on the desk, and asked, 'Hello, Prince, how are things going with the vampire lady?' How would he even answer that?"

"He'd probably cast Avada Kedavra, pfft-hahaha."

"And what is this 'vampire lady'?" Hermione asked with a curious expression.

"Let me explain it to you, the old bat is having a second spring this year..." Ron launched into the story excitedly.

For the rest of the afternoon, after a brief discussion of actual business, they spent the whole time gossiping. To Harry, time flew by. When they noticed the students in the pub leaving one by one, the regular residents of Hogsmeade beginning to enter, and the landlady lighting the lanterns—Harry, Ron, and Hermione knew it was time to head back.

The three of them walked out of the Three Broomsticks, laughing and chatting, and began to head toward the castle against the setting sun. As they passed a patch of woods, Ron said cheerfully, "Do you remember? We met that Crimson Knight here last time."

"Yeah, and then Zhang Qiu said... wait!" Harry had been chatting with Ron absentmindedly, but a figure suddenly appearing before him gave him a huge fright.

An armored figure in black and green suddenly emerged from behind a tree. He had spiky hair and massive shoulder pads, with a pair of fierce eyes painted on his visor, and a red cape that exuded an intense sense of oppression.

"A new enemy?" Ron took a deep breath and quickly transformed into the Elemental Dragon.

However, before he could engage the black and green enemy, another red figure appeared, punching the Elemental Dragon and forcing him to stumble back several steps.

The newly appeared enemy was different from the knights they had seen before; he had various strange accessories on his body, his colors were more vibrant, and, if Harry had to say, this knight shared many similarities with Cross.

Ron looked very anxious; he wanted to repel the red knight immediately because the green knight was walking step by step toward Harry and Hermione.

Hermione might have been encountering this for the first time; she looked flustered, hurriedly taking out her driver, but before she could even buckle it to her waist, she tried to insert a fullbottle.

"You can't insert it directly like that, run first." Harry pulled on her robe, while his other hand reached into his inner pocket. He quickly felt the soft Invisibility Cloak, but now wasn't the time to use it—pressed beneath the cloak was a revolver, already loaded with bullets.

As Hermione followed Harry away from the battlefield, she tried to buckle the driver to her waist, but just as Harry had experienced the first time, the belt did not respond to her.

"What's going on!" Hermione tapped the driver anxiously. "Is it still not working?"

"Your resolve to fight isn't firm enough." Harry prompted, "You need to stir your emotions."

"Forget it then." Hermione seemed to calm down quite a bit; she stuffed the transformation item back into her pocket and pulled out her wand again.

Seeing that the Elemental Dragon and the red knight were evenly matched and neither could break away, Harry decisively pulled out the revolver.

"Fine, then let's give it a try," he said in a tone that refused to admit defeat, "and see if ordinary wizards really can't do anything about these armored men."

Hermione had already quickly fired two or three spells, but clearly, the Disarming Charm and Stunner were effortlessly deflected by the armor; only the Impediment Jinx provided some obstruction to the green knight.

"Need to use Transfiguration." No sooner had Harry said this than he conjured a furry hound, which quickly pounced on the knight.

"But this little dog is definitely useless, isn't it?" Hermione questioned while employing her own method; she tried to animate a large boulder, using the strength of a stone giant to deal with the knight.

The green knight grabbed casually, and a pink sword formed out of thin air in his hand. He easily slashed the hound Harry had conjured into ashes, then cut the stone giant Hermione had struggled to animate in half.

Fortunately, Harry's intent in casting had always been to attract his attention, and now was the moment for a counterattack. He fired quickly, two bullets striking the knight's chest plate, sparking violently.

This move worked; the enemy clutched his chest and stopped. It seemed the Blood Queen bullets were indeed effective against the knight. Harry didn't hesitate to fire two more shots, but this time the green knight was clearly prepared; he covered his head and chest, and the bullets only struck his arms.

The fifth and sixth bullets used heads made of Queen's Blood. Harry believed this would definitely work, perhaps even piercing the armor. Thus, out of the kindness inherent in his nature, he aimed for the opponent's thighs and abdomen.

However, the scene that followed made him panic—the green knight pressed both hands to his waist, and an invisible shockwave enveloped him. The two deep-blue bullets were suspended just dozens of centimeters in front of him, unable to strike his body.

"You reload." Hermione, having also regained her composure, waved her wand again, preparing to conjure more stone giants to buy Harry time. But as Harry mechanically fished for bullets from his pocket, he worriedly wondered: with the enemy clearly prepared, what other means did he have at his disposal?

"Pause!"

With an unexpected, low voice, the green knight suddenly froze in place.

Then, on the other side of the woods, an identical knight appeared. He ran toward them quickly, and while running, pulled out a colorful bow, continuously firing light arrows—these attacks landed solidly on the previous green knight.

"Even if you stole the original cassette, you couldn't possibly use Cronus well." A voice very familiar to Harry came from the armor of the new knight. "Only by truly clearing all the games can you unleash the full power of a hidden character—you medieval bumpkins who haven't even seen a television wouldn't understand~"

After a stylish counter-clockwise roundhouse kick, both green knights simultaneously deactivated their transformations. Standing before Harry, gently removing her driver, the victor was none other than Zhang Qiu—judging by her words, this knight named Cronus was related to the games she had played. Clearly, she had been preparing for a long time.

But what shocked Harry was that the other Cronus, who had rolled three times after hitting the ground and deactivated his transformation in a sorry state, was someone he recognized—and someone he really didn't want to see: Bellatrix Lestrange.

Bellatrix said nothing, simply waving her wand to transform into a cloud of black mist and leaving the battlefield. Then, the red knight, who had been locked in a stalemate with the Elemental Dragon, also turned into a cloud of red mist and dissipated.

"What is going on?" Harry couldn't help but ask.

"Let's go back and talk about it slowly." Zhang Qiu's gaze lingered on Hermione for a long time before she let out a long sigh. "I didn't expect them to bring out Evolt after all, and if I'm not mistaken, the raw material is probably... Voldemort."

As soon as she returned, she brought such explosive news that the three local wizards present showed expressions of disbelief, and a sense of ominous dread grew in their hearts. ===== CHAPTER 427 =====