Chapter 378: Emperor's Curse
Hearing that, Percy, Cedric, and the others all paled slightly.
What they were seeing really did look a bit like the Imperius Curse. If not, how else could those two Slytherin students have suddenly gone against their own will, dropping to their knees to apologise to Dudley?
Yet a moment ago, no one had seen any sign of Dudley casting a spell.
Was it silent, wandless magic?
Several people looked at Dudley with worry in their eyes. If this truly was the Imperius Curse, then everything changed. This would no longer be a conflict between students, but a case of Dudley breaking the law. The consequences would be severe.
"Don't talk nonsense when you don't understand," Harry said coldly. "Did you see him cast the Imperius Curse?"
"Exactly," Ron stepped in. "They apologised of their own free will."
"I'm going to tell a professor," Crabbe said, his face deathly pale, turning to flee the classroom.
"Distort!"
Without any visible movement, Dudley triggered his Distortion ability.
Bang.
Crabbe mistook the wall for the back door and smashed headfirst into the stone. He screamed and collapsed to the floor.
"What… what is that?" Goyle stared around in terror.
Malfoy's face turned ghastly. He had only come to see what was happening, but he had not expected to witness something like this. It was too eerie, too unsettling.
He could tell Dudley probably had not used the Imperius Curse. Flint and Nott really had knelt on their own.
That made it even more frightening.
Inside this classroom, Malfoy felt cold all over. His thoughts were twisting, sliding towards a kind of frantic distortion, as if something dreadful were sprouting in his chest and growing without restraint.
"Reducto!"
A Slytherin student finally snapped. Like a madman, he hurled a curse at Dudley.
A harsh beam of light shot straight towards Dudley.
Dudley only lifted a hand slightly. The spell rebounded instantly and struck its caster instead.
Bang! The boy was blasted backwards by his own curse, crashing into several other Slytherins and knocking them down like pins.
The only mercy was that the curse had not been especially powerful. Otherwise, he might truly have been reduced to pieces.
Even so, his clothes were quickly soaked with blood. He was badly hurt.
"You… you actually cursed us?!" a seventh-year Slytherin gasped, eyes wide and voice shaking.
"Are you blind?" Ron spat. "That was your own spell!"
"Dudley…" Percy's voice was tight, uneasy.
The situation was clearly spiralling. If it kept going, none of them would escape punishment.
"Relax," Dudley said. "Everything that just happened has been recorded with magic."
Then his tone cooled.
"You came here today to disrupt the Kingdom of Order's gathering. Do not expect to leave unscathed."
"Here's how it's going to be. In half a month, the Kingdom of Order and Slytherin will hold a public wizard's duel. I'll invite the entire school to watch."
"Try not to disappoint me."
As he spoke, a sheet of parchment appeared in Dudley's right hand.
He began writing in mid-air. Glowing words formed one after another, then stamped themselves onto the parchment, turning into an official document.
It stated, in brief, the cause of the duel between the Kingdom of Order and Slytherin, and that both sides were willingly entering into a contract.
Dudley signed his name.
"Now," he said, holding it out, "you can sign."
He sent the parchment floating to Flint.
Flint was still on his knees. Both cheeks were swollen red, so puffed up he was almost unrecognisable.
Flint did not hesitate. He signed at once.
Nott signed next.
Then the parchment drifted towards the others behind them.
Some of them did not want to sign, but in the next instant, that dreadful pressure of authority descended upon them. Their hands shook as they were forced to sign their names.
Malfoy stood at the very back, watching. Seeing that no one could refuse, he understood that he had no choice.
When the parchment reached him, he signed immediately. He knew that even if he resisted, he would sign the next second anyway. Better to do it himself than be made to.
Then came Goyle and Crabbe.
Just like that, everyone had signed the document stating they would willingly participate in the wizard's duel.
"All right," Dudley said. "Now get out."
The Slytherins did not hesitate. They scrambled towards the back door in a near panic, tumbling over themselves to escape the classroom.
Once they were outside, free of Dudley's oppressive authority, Flint, Nott, and the rest recalled what had just happened and felt so ashamed they wanted to crawl into a crack in the ground.
They had come to cause trouble, only to end up humiliated.
Worse, they had done it while fully conscious.
"We'll go tell Professor Snape that Dudley used the Imperius Curse on us!" someone suggested immediately.
Flint and Nott exchanged a look.
They both knew it had not been the Imperius Curse, but that shameful scene was something they could not bring themselves to admit. They refused to admit they had bowed under Dudley's tyranny.
Without another word, they ran straight for Snape's office.
Even if it was not true, they would still smear Dudley with it.
Back in the classroom, Cedric looked at Dudley, unsure how to begin.
"Don't worry," Dudley said directly. "I didn't use the Imperius Curse."
"Good," Cedric let out a breath, relief plain on his face. "As long as it wasn't that."
"They won't let this go," Percy warned. "Be careful. Flint might have been kneeling here, slapping himself a moment ago, but once he's out of this room, he'll go find help."
"It doesn't matter," Dudley said. "There are plenty of ways to deal with them."
A glowing sphere of magic appeared in his hand, like a blown bubble, giving off a faint light.
Then the sphere began to split. One became two, two became four.
In the blink of an eye, there were dozens.
"As long as you feed them magic, these spheres will automatically replay what they recorded earlier," Dudley explained. "And you can choose to show only part of it, like this."
His voice fell, and he activated the sphere in his hand.
A phantom image sprang into being above the classroom floor.
The scene it showed was unmistakable: Flint kneeling, apologising again and again, slapping his own face without stopping.