McGonagall kicked away the smoking head. It was wrapped completely in ominous white bandages. As the black smoke dissipated, the bandages loosened, revealing a dry, shrunken skull.
"Merlin... what is this?"
McGonagall looked in surprise at the headless Voldemort not far away, bewildered.
Originally she, Vitam, and Snape had rushed to the Forbidden Corridor attempting to stop Voldemort, but no one expected him to act with such reckless speed. Even Snape was unfamiliar with this decisiveness.
By the time they'd assembled at the forbidden area, only ruins remained before them.
Fluffy, having been previously injured, no longer bore the gatekeeper's responsibility. He'd been replaced by an alchemical machine provided by Vitam—a mechanical troll only comparable to Fluffy in size, now beaten by Voldemort into scattered pieces, parts and red sand strewn across the ground.
The obstacles Voldemort had cleared once naturally couldn't stop him a second time. He'd broken through to the final challenge—the potion and puzzle game thoughtfully provided by Snape.
This was where McGonagall and the others had blocked Voldemort again.
Of course, more likely they'd been deliberately lured here by him. While being oppressed by those vicious Dark Magic spells, struggling in the cramped chamber, McGonagall regretted not first suppressing those rioting students before arranging their departure. After all, their three combined forces seemed powerless to match this weakened Dark Lord.
Yes, weakened.
McGonagall had witnessed battles between Dumbledore and Voldemort before. She didn't know what restriction prevented him from using the Killing Curse, but fortunately he couldn't. Otherwise, with their aging bodies and combat abilities worn away by years of academic life, they'd probably have been struck down long ago.
After Snape was somehow knocked down by a mere Stunning Spell just a few exchanges in, Vitam also had a leg blasted away after exhausting all her alchemical items. Finally McGonagall herself became powerless to continue such high-intensity dueling due to bodily aging.
At this critical moment... someone had actually managed to sever Voldemort's head?
Though it involved sneak attack factors... successfully ambushing a Dark Magic master, the technical difficulty wasn't much better than defeating him head-on.
Professor McGonagall was awakening Vitam when a surging wave of fire drilled through the wall's breach. McGonagall vigilantly raised her wand, then sensed that familiar magic signature.
Her face, tense all day, finally showed some relief.
"Albus, you've finally returned..."
"I'm glad to see you all safe. Now, we must consider how to handle these unruly children."
Dumbledore emerging from the flames radiated exhaustion throughout his body. He'd Apparated and then transformed into flames, rushing from Britain's border. Despite having transcended ordinary wizardhood and possessing an extraordinary constitution, even he was thoroughly worn by this journey.
A dark gleam flashed beneath his half-moon spectacles. Originally he could have relied on Fawkes's Apparition to appear directly inside Hogwarts, but unexpectedly, a force from Hogwarts itself had completely sealed the castle—even including the surrounding Forbidden Forest and Black Lake area.
This was far more tyrannical than the original anti-Apparition magic. Fawkes and the house-elves' teleportation abilities all couldn't function.
He didn't even know what could have higher authority over Hogwarts manipulation than him as Headmaster.
These thoughts only quickly rolled through Dumbledore's mind. Soon, those dueling young wizards and the burning Hogwarts he'd seen while hurrying over filled his thoughts completely.
Hogwarts had never been this chaotic.
Though compared to this trip's gains, it wasn't unacceptable... but this chaos should and must end.
Dumbledore gathered his breath, raising high that Elder Wand. Nearly materialized magic power slapped against the chamber walls like tides. Deep blue light ignited in his eyes like suddenly burning torches.
"Finite Incantatem—"
Dumbledore's wand chopped down powerfully like swinging a sword. A golden beam of magic shot into the chamber floor, then starting from the release point, it spread outward in ring-shaped golden ripples.
The moment the first ring expanded to encompass all of Hogwarts, the entire castle lost sound.
Brilliant golden light particles appeared at every young wizard's wand tip, interrupting their brewing or casting spells. Magic already airborne scattered back into raw power. Flames produced by magic were instantly quelled. Chaotic Hogwarts suddenly fell silent. The dim red light occupying the young wizards' eyes also dissipated like morning mist.
McGonagall looked at this scene with undisguised admiration.
This was this century's most powerful wizard, Albus Dumbledore.
No matter how terrible the situation, seeing him seemed to bring peace of mind.
Dumbledore put away his wand. Such magic didn't even make him breathe harder—compared to Voldemort's storm of Dark Magic, these student-level spells, even doubled, required only a slightly more effortful Finite Incantatem.
He quickly walked to Voldemort's corpse. His half-moon glasses flashed with light, then he regretfully shook his head.
"He's still not dead."
Dumbledore said with genuine regret: "He's indeed walked too far on the path to immortality... First sacrificing his body to obtain a temporary form converted to barely surviving as an Inferius, then abandoning that body again to parasitize others as a specter, returning to an Inferius body today, even forcibly binding soul and flesh together using Egyptian mummy magic to stimulate spellcasting ability..."
"Even so... his soul can still separate from flesh again—a soul even mummies can't contain."
"What?" Professor McGonagall stopped pouring potion into Vitam's mouth, looking up in shock.
The Sphinx was the product of failed Animagus transformation. Egyptian magical society had researched Transfiguration extremely deeply, so McGonagall understood some Egyptian magic—including this particular curse.
This was a Dark Magic curse comparable to the Unforgivable Curses, only castable on oneself, establishing an unbreakable relationship between soul and flesh... In this state, even Cruciatus and Imperius couldn't work, because the soul had merged with the flesh, no longer vulnerable from the soul's angle.
The drawbacks were obvious too. Destroying the flesh would destroy the soul, or using the Killing Curse—it being ranked first among Unforgivable Curses wasn't undeserved.
Being able to escape such a curse...
Suddenly, a robin with somewhat scorched brown feather edges flew in through the breach, landing on prone Snape's head. It brought Dumbledore the first genuinely good news he'd heard all day.
The bird chirped excitedly. "Sterling brought Harry back—they're in Professor Snape's office right now!"