Hogwarts: Voldemort, don't stop me from studying

Chapter 960 Fall
"what!"

Brolin gave a bitter laugh: "You think this is the end?"

He endured the excruciating pain and pulled back, clutching the bloody hole in his chest with his hand. He glared at the person opposite him with intense resentment, gritting his teeth as he said:
"Don't think this is the end, William Stonefield! I'll be back sooner or later, and I'll kill you all!"

As soon as he finished speaking, his body suddenly began to twist and deform!
"puff--"

A strange burst of air was heard, and Brolin vanished from his spot in an instant, leaving only his blood-soaked robes, which lost their support, drifting down.

Chris exclaimed in astonishment, "He Apparated? He's a wizard?!"

He glanced around anxiously, worried that Brolin might suddenly appear from some nearby corner.

Sir William also felt a chill run down his spine and his fingers tighten, but he quickly regained his composure.

“Don’t worry,” he told Chris. “I’ve spent a lot of money to have wizards cast anti-apparition spells on everything inside and outside this mansion…and I’ve never heard of a wizard leaving their clothes behind when they teleport.”

“But he’s disappeared.” Chris couldn’t shake the feeling of relief at all: “It’s said that some magical creatures are unaffected by the Anti-Apparition Charm…”

Sir William also thought of these fragmented pieces of knowledge, the truth of which was uncertain, but looking at the pile of clothes on the ground, he still felt that something was amiss.

"You two—"

He extended his eagle-claw-like fingers and pointed at the two vampire puppets.

"Pick up those clothes and examine them carefully."

As the vampire puppet bent down to pick up the clothes, Sir William pressed a button on the armrest of his wheelchair, and another transparent circular barrier rose up around them.

He worried that Brolin might have left behind some dangerous weapon before he disappeared—such as poison gas or some kind of invisible creature that could kill without leaving a trace.

The circular barrier is not as tough as the outer glass layer, but it provides more comprehensive protection.

The vampire puppet lifted its clothes and shook them twice, causing several Galleons, along with rolled-up banknotes and a lighter, to fall out with a clatter.

"Something's not right!" Assistant Paul suddenly exclaimed, "There seems to be something inside the sleeve!"

He saw something hidden inside, clinging tightly to the fabric and pushing it into an undulating arc.

The vampire puppet stretched out its other hand and reached into its sleeve from its collar—

Suddenly, something detached from the cuff and plummeted downwards. Just before hitting the ground, it abruptly opened its wing membrane, like a black silk scarf billowing in the wind, and slid rapidly toward the ceiling.

It turned out to be a small bat, covered in blood. It appeared panicked after bursting out of the sleeve, darting around in the air twice before finding its way and rushing towards a tiny stained-glass window high up!
That window was only as wide as a palm; a normal person might not even be able to stretch their arm out through it, but for the tiny bat, it was a wide enough escape route!

"Stop him!"

Chris screamed, "We can't let him get away!"

The surrounding puppets reacted immediately—

Several werewolf puppets suddenly leaped up, their sharp claws reaching towards the air;
The vampire puppet sprang up and blocked the window first!

The bat was incredibly fast, sometimes making sharp turns, sometimes hovering, sometimes diving, as if it could ignore inertia and gravity, turning its flight trajectory into an ever-changing zigzag, dodging attacks by the smallest of margins several times.

It was about to crash into another small window—

"Bang bang bang bang bang-!!!"

A dense and abrupt sound suddenly exploded!
It wasn't the roar of a magical explosion, but the crisp, continuous, metallic crackling of a Muggle gun!

—At least a dozen of the bodyguards who had been standing silently at that moment drew their weapons.

The gun muzzle spat fire, and the bullets wove a deadly metal storm in the air.

Unlike the puppets who futilely chased the bats' flight paths, they worked together seamlessly to block all possible escape routes, even if it meant firing into thin air.

The bat frantically dodged the bullets, and for a moment Chris thought it was about to succeed.

however--

"Thud!" A muffled sound.

A bullet pierced the bat's left wing membrane! Dark red blood mist exploded, and the bat let out a sharp screech, its flight instantly spiraling out of control.

It spun and plummeted like a kite with a broken string, struggling to flap its intact right wing in an attempt to rise again, but the fall was irreversible.

"boom!"

The bat crashed heavily onto the marble floor.

With a "bang," he transformed back into human form, curled up on the ground, letting out a hoarse wail. There was a shocking penetrating wound on his left shoulder blade, but the punctured area in his chest was almost no longer bleeding.

He tried to get up, but after several attempts, he could only support himself on the ground with one hand, breathing heavily, his face ashen.

Sir William's eyes widened slightly, and he said in surprise, "So that's how it is... You're a vampire! No wonder you joined the Purifiers... You've been hiding it well, Brolin."

William gestured for the puppets to bring him over. The two vampire puppets dragged Brolin to the wheelchair like a dead dog.

"You...you'll regret this..."

Brolin struggled, his scarlet eyes fixed on William, and hissed:

“William Stonefield…if I die, who will cover up your crimes? The wizarding world will not let you get away with this…”

The old man looked down at his former collaborator, now a prisoner, and said coldly:

"The magical world? Now you're starting to expect the magical world to avenge you?"

A mocking smile played on his lips. He didn't even bother to speak to Brolindo anymore, simply waving his hand and saying:
"Give him anesthesia, throw him into the cage we prepared for vampires, and don't let him die."

Brolin tried to say something, but the puppet covered his mouth and dragged him out of the venue, leaving a long trail of blood on the floor.

The vampire puppet restraining him didn't deliberately avoid the wound; in the sharp pain, Brolin was completely powerless to struggle.

In his drowsy state, he vaguely heard William's words behind him:

“Contact Ms. Lyra Picqueli. Tell her that the Stonefield family has prepared a special gift for her—to congratulate her on becoming the new president of the Magical Congress.”

Sir William paused for a moment, then smiled and said:

"I think, whether she's a Purgatory leader who slipped through the net, or a hidden vampire... this gift is enough to add a considerable luster to her new position."

Paul bowed respectfully: "Yes, Sir. Lady Leila will be very grateful, and our future cooperation will be even smoother."

Chris looked in the direction Brolin had disappeared, then glanced at the puppets around him who had returned to silence as if nothing had happened. The turmoil in his heart caused by Brolin's intrusion gradually subsided.

Just then, Chris heard his grandfather's voice again—but this time, a completely different, cold weight seeped into that hoarse voice:

"Yes...of course she'll be grateful. After all, Leila Picqueli is a smart woman who understands the principle of equivalent exchange."

William's wheelchair slowly turned to face Mark Paul, who was still bowing to the side.

The light in the room shone from his side and behind, casting heavy shadows on the old man's sunken eye sockets and bony cheekbones, making his expression indistinct for a moment.

Chris suddenly realized that at this moment, Paul's expression was extremely similar to the old man's, so similar that it was as if they were a copy.

"But Mark..."

William's tone slowed, like a dull knife slowly cutting through leather:

"What about you?"

Chris's heart clenched, and his breath caught in his throat.

He heard his grandfather ask slowly, "Do you want to take my place?"

(End of this chapter)