Hogwarts: Voldemort, don't stop me from studying

Chapter 987 Apparition
"Puff puff!"

Several soft, muffled thuds rang out in quick succession.

Leila felt a slight bump in her abdomen, as if someone had poked her a few times with their fingers.

She stared in astonishment at the cleaning lady who had suddenly intervened. The cleaning lady blinked, her previously blank expression now filled with surprise.

Their eyes met for only a fleeting moment, and Lyra suddenly realized she had almost died. The terror of surviving the ordeal instantly transformed into murderous intent. Without hesitation, she swung her wand and shouted:
"Thunderbolt explosion!"

"boom!"

The cleaner was sent flying backward, crashing heavily into the wall behind him. Black smoke and flames billowed from his head as he lay motionless on the ground.

—She's dead!
Lyra put down her wand with a sense of relief, then touched the vest she was wearing underneath her clothes, still feeling a lingering fear.

She knew how powerful Muggle guns were; if it weren't for this vest, she would have been dead already.

This is the anti-curse vest she got from Soren Minden's house—that cowardly guy, because of that fake video at the dinner party, mistakenly thought the wizarding world was about to be exposed, and immediately bought himself a vest to protect himself.

Fortunately, Mingdeng pretended to care deeply about his wife and children and begged for forgiveness. When he handed over his disguise, his wife's expression clearly showed that she knew nothing about the matter.

Because the curse vest was very expensive, Minden could only afford to buy one.

After obtaining the vest, Fontana, confident in his magical prowess, disdained such a thing and generously gave it to her.

And at that moment, this thing saved her life!
Laila swallowed hard, looked at the attacker lying motionless on the ground not far away, focused her mind, and immediately began to Apparate!
This place is no longer safe; she needs to move to another place immediately… or even abroad if the opportunity arises!
Without Fontana, all plans have to be scrapped and started over. The most important thing right now is to escape this city and survive!

Just as she began to spin, the "dead" janitor on the ground suddenly sprang up, and Leila looked over in disbelief.

The cleaner's head was still smoking; half of his head had been blown flat, and one of his eyeballs was missing.

But the woman seemed completely oblivious to the pain, staring coldly at Lyra with her remaining eye, and with a flick of her arm, she tossed out a fist-sized, dark green metal sphere.

—A hand grenade!

And just as she fell to the ground, she had already quietly pulled the safety pin, and the death iron ball she threw at the perfect moment exploded in mid-air!

"Boom-boom!"

With a sharp, deafening roar, the air seemed to be torn open, and scorching air currents and sharp shrapnel instantly shot out in all directions. The walls were blasted into craters, and the violent shockwave instantly engulfed the area where Lyra was!

However, before that, Lyra's figure had completely disappeared into the smoke and dust!

Despite being some distance from the blast, Vera, disguised as a cleaner, was pierced in seven or eight places by the flying shrapnel. One of her arms was bent backward, and her legs were almost entirely covered with embedded small fragments.

She casually pulled her arm back, removing the metal plate embedded in her body as she pressed her ear and calmly said:
"I failed, she got away..."

Her gaze swept over the mangled, bloody, and strangely smooth cut of a lower leg on the ground, and she added:

"...However, not all of them escaped."

……

A particularly dull sound rang out in a dark back alley.

Lyra's figure fell heavily from mid-air, crashing onto the cold asphalt ground. Intense pain swept over her, especially in her left leg, which felt an unbearable throbbing and burning sensation!

She screamed and curled up, instinctively reaching out to touch her left leg, only to find a bloody, severed wound.

"Aaaaah—" The extreme pain and fear caused Leila to let out an inhuman wail, with tears and snot flowing uncontrollably from her nose.

She struggled to lift her head and saw that she was surrounded by Times Square, which was both familiar and unfamiliar. The neon lights shone through the alleyway and reflected the colorful light from the oil stains on the ground, making everything look bizarre and surreal.

She failed to escape New York as she had hoped, and didn't even get far; the failed Apparition only left her a few kilometers away.

The screams attracted the attention of passersby. One person who had been walking by ran into the alley and asked with concern:

"Hey, what's wrong? Do you need help?"

As he spoke, he saw the horrific wound on Lyra's leg, and he recoiled in horror, crying out, "My God! Your leg... your leg..."

Just then, Lyra, in excruciating pain, raised her head, her disheveled hair stuck to her forehead with cold sweat, and waved her wand without hesitation.

She didn't even recite the incantation, but the pressure of her life hanging by a thread made her Soul-Stealing Curse work on the first try.

The man's gaze suddenly glazed over, and he muttered the instructions in his mind:

“This is…this is my wife, Mary…we were in a car accident…I have to get her to the hospital immediately…the nearest hospital…”

He bent down, picked up Lyra, and sprinted towards the alley entrance, his body bursting with strength and speed far exceeding his usual limits.

During the bumpy ride, Lyra convulsed in pain, but she bit her lip tightly to stop screaming. Instead, she pressed her wand against the wound to try and stop the bleeding.

At this moment, she deeply regretted that she had spent so much time on political affairs in the past, resulting in her once excellent magical abilities during her student days degenerating to a mediocre level. She only dared to use Apparition when she was in a relatively calm mood, and her Healing Charm was not even at the beginner level.

Her consciousness gradually blurred amidst the excruciating pain and blood loss, and her vision blurred intermittently. Leila clenched her palms tightly, using the pain to keep herself awake.

She barely opened her eyes and saw a scaffold in front of her. Two maintenance workers were working there, but when they heard footsteps, they both turned to look.

The instant their eyes met, Lyra felt as if she had been stabbed with a needle, and her previously drowsy consciousness suddenly cleared!
That look in his eyes... seemed familiar.

The way they looked at her, that indifferent, inorganic gaze, was almost exactly the same as the previous cleaner's!
The Muggle man holding him was still panting as he said, "Hang in there, Mary, we're almost at the hospital..."

Just as the two were close together, Lyra suddenly used all her strength to push hard!
Caught off guard, the Muggle man was pushed towards the two repairmen, while Lyra used the recoil to fall straight to the ground. The moment her body hit the ground, she rolled awkwardly and desperately activated Apparition!
Vito quickly twisted his wrist, avoiding the man's direction with the sharp dagger, and caught the confused Muggle who turned to pounce on his "wife".

"You've been exposed?" he asked Victor.

“I haven’t even taken out my gun yet.” Victor rolled his eyes at him and said, “That woman probably awakened something like ‘spider-sense’ in a desperate situation, right?”

……

The night wind howled across the river, passing through the gaps in the steel bridge, making a sound like a sob.

Leila was lucky enough not to land on the road where the vehicles were traveling, and the hasty move prevented her from being torn apart, but her luck seemed to have come to an end.

She lay on the wooden plank sidewalk, breathing heavily, and saw the cold steel cables overhead stretching out towards the vast sky like the ribs of some ancient behemoth.

Warm blood kept draining from her body, taking away all the heat and making her shiver with cold.

She turned her head and saw the dark river flowing under the bridge, while in the distance, the brilliant lights of New York seemed to never sleep.

"Tap, tap, tap!"

The soles of the leather boots were tapping against the wooden planks, and they were getting closer to her.

(End of this chapter)