George dodged another sword strike and asked Fred with a laugh, "Fred, I get the feeling this armor is serious. What do you think?"
Fred had already drawn his wand and thrown a Disarming Charm.
"No! George, this thing is covered in a Shield Charm, and a very powerful one at that!"
George ducked under a sword. "You mean there's a wizard inside this armor?"
"Impedimenta!" Fred delayed the armor's movements as much as possible, his expression grave. "Yes, George! And it's the kind we can't beat!"
"Well, Fred," George said regretfully, "tonight's celebration feast is going to be ruined."
Fred suddenly broke into a grin. "Yes, ruined!"
The brothers glanced at each other and simultaneously threw their bags of food at the armor.
The armor split the bags with a single sword stroke, and soup and liquid splashed out, meat flying everywhere, obscuring its vision.
"Expelliarmus!"
"Confringo!"
Helpless, the armor was forced to drop its longsword and reveal the wand hidden in its hand.
It very deftly flicked away the twins' spells and countered with a flash of green light.
"Avada Kedavra!!"
The voice didn't sound very old, perhaps someone in their thirties, but it reeked of madness.
Fred quickly performed a dive; by the time he stood up, his back was already soaked with sweat!
"Fred, are you okay?"
"I'm fine!"
The armor gave the twins no chance to catch their breath, firing spells like a machine gun.
They couldn't block them, and dodging constantly meant they were bound to be hit sooner or later.
They were being driven into a corner, their situation precarious!
"Lumos Maxima!!"
Their minds were in perfect sync as they suddenly unleashed an enhanced version of the Light-Starting Charm, causing the armor's offensive to falter for a moment.
In the next instant, two spherical objects were thrown at the armor from different angles.
Two red lights struck the spherical objects squarely—it had to be said that the wizard inside the armor was highly experienced in battle and possessed superb magical skill, far beyond what the twins could currently oppose.
Just the ability to hit high-speed flying objects was enough to be breathtaking!
However...
Those two spherical objects were Dungbombs that the twins had modified.
Brown smoke exploded, and a foul stench quickly permeated the area. The twins spun around and fled for their lives, not just to escape the Dark wizard, but also to escape the stench.
The twins knew their own creation best; if that smell got on you, it wouldn't wash off for at least a week!
"Damn brats!"
The armor was clearly enraged, waving its wand violently.
Two chains formed of magic lashed out, binding the twins tightly.
Both fell simultaneously, landing face-down.
Then they heard the armor's "clank, clank" as it walked over.
"George, this is bad!"
"Yes, Fred. Are we going to die?"
"Maybe he'll torture us first?"
"I hope he uses a goose feather to tickle the bottoms of my feet,"
"Then we can die laughing!"
"Hahaha!"
The armor slowly walked up behind the two, its cold voice filled with murderous intent and madness. "You actually dared to humiliate me with dung! You little pests!"
"Crucio—"
"Flipendo!!"
The armor was hit by the Knockback Jinx and sent flying backward, toppling a statue of an unknown wizard.
"Are you alright, children?"
Fred laughed. "We're fine."
George also laughed. "Based on that voice, it's Professor Lupin!"
The newcomer was indeed Lupin, who quickly removed the twins' restraints. "Run! Go notify Dumbledore! I'll hold him off here!"
The twins turned and ran.
Fred shouted, "I'll go notify Dumbledore! George, you go get Snape!"
Lupin was already clashing with the armor. He said urgently, "Don't get Snape! I don't trust him!"
George, who had already started running toward the Potions Master's office, stopped in his tracks.
He exchanged a look with his brother, and they immediately sprinted toward the Headmaster's office on the eighth floor together.
As they ran, they spoke to the portraits along the way:
"If any of you can move fast, go to the Headmaster's office and notify Professor Dumbledore! A Dark wizard has sneaked into Hogwarts! He's at the staircase next to the Potions classroom!"
...
...
Voldemort's curse on the Defense Against the Dark Arts position seemed to still be in effect; Audrey's tenure last year might have just been an anomaly.
Remus Lupin was seriously injured by the intruding Dark wizard and required two weeks of rest.
This news shocked the entire school, and the young students fell into a state of severe anxiety.
Wasn't Hogwarts supposed to be the safest place?
The identity of the Dark wizard was also confirmed: it was Barty Crouch Jr., the son of the Minister of Magic who was claimed to have died in Azkaban—a famous father-betraying Death Eater and a loyal follower of Voldemort.
And for the Gryffindor students, bad news followed one after another.
First, the Weasley twins were caught out at night and docked a hundred points; then, the lower-year Defense Against the Dark Arts classes were taken over by Snape as a substitute...
Nothing could be worse than this.
Audrey only paid a little attention to the matter.
To her, school matters were trivial. As the owner of the castle, she could arbitrarily evict even someone as powerful as Dumbledore. What kind of wave could a mere Barty Crouch Jr. really kick up?
What truly troubled her was that Old Barty was in a bind.
Barty Jr. truly was a master at screwing over his father—screwing him once wasn't enough; he had to do it a second time.
Old Barty's position as Minister of Magic was under fire, and she needed to quickly find a new representative.
Amelia Bones, as the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, was the most likely candidate to succeed Old Barty.
If it were her, Audrey could accept it. After all, the Bones family had accepted her gift of a hundred million, so they were effectively on the same boat.
Well, from a familial perspective, she might even be more suitable than Old Barty, because Amelia Bones was very likely to be Audrey's future aunt-in-law.
However, Old Barty's iron-fisted tactics exceeded Audrey's expectations.
He pushed all the blame for assisting Barty Jr.'s escape onto his deceased wife, even digging up her remains from her grave to prove his story.
He claimed his wife had left him after 'their son died' and had not been heard from for years; at the time, he had suspected his terminally ill wife had replaced their son.
First, he cleared himself of the suspicion of using his power for personal gain and favoring his son.
Then, Old Barty took a stance of placing righteousness above family, launching a massive search for Barty Crouch Jr. He even stubbornly ignored Dumbledore's protests and had Dementors surround Hogwarts.
"Audrey, what do you think of Minister Crouch's measures?"
Audrey picked up a soup dumpling and popped it into her mouth. The scalding juice did no damage to her mouth, and the fresh, sweet flavor made her eyebrows rise involuntarily.
"What else is there to think? He is a man with a very strong desire for power. It's only normal that he would do something like this."
Isaline shook her head. "This semester is so different. Miss Kamo Tsuruko went back to her country; the gamekeeper became the Care of Magical Creatures professor; a Dark wizard broke in and injured a professor; and Dementors are surrounding the castle!"
"I really don't know what's going to happen next!"
Isaline imitated Audrey by stuffing a soup dumpling into her mouth, only to be left huffing and puffing from the heat.
"Hiss... Why don't we go back to Ukraine, Audrey? You're the one in charge there anyway. It wouldn't matter even if we didn't have Hogwarts diplomas, would it?"
Audrey looked at her best friend in surprise.
"My goodness, girl—your thoughts are written all over your face, and the sound of your scheming is deafening!"
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]