Hogwarts Wasteland: The Witch from the Borderlands

"Pyroxene Meteor!"

Thanks to her powerful energy source, Hermione didn't even need to charge up; the dazzling light blasts were unleashed like a torrential downpour.

Lucius, unlike during the practical training, was not overconfident. His body was covered in a dazzling array of alchemical artifacts, and he unleashed layers of armor and spells to create numerous obstacles. He didn't even need to make any movements to block the powerful magical rain.

"What, has this stone given you confidence?" Lucius laughed arrogantly. "You don't really think you can defeat me, do you?"

Instead of using magic to retaliate, he strolled forward leisurely.

At the same time, the defensive measures activated by Hagrid were fully deployed.

Around the hall, the plants whose vitality had been suppressed by magic suddenly awoke, their vines and tendrils meandering as they sniffed for the scent of living things in the air.

The wizard chess statues standing around also came to life. According to their different identities, the knights and chariots locked their eyes on Lucius and charged over with unparalleled momentum, while the kings and bishops behind them raised their scepters, instantly activating spells.

"Ha, the little toys that McGonagall and Flitwick made together, and these..." He looked at the magical plants that surrounded him with disdain.

"Sprout's silly bonsai..."

The defenses set up by the three deans together included: wizard chess statues capable of casting spells, possessing considerable combat intelligence and understanding how to coordinate between close and long range attacks, with spells and knight charges providing overlapping cover; and various kinds of magical plants that were fearless, extremely resilient, and full of vitality.

Any intruder trapped in such a situation would find it difficult to resist, and even with strong defenses, they would eventually be worn down and killed.

Lucius waved his cane, creating an even stronger barrier that blocked the incoming attack. Several of his ornaments lost their luster and shattered, but new ones flew out of his pouch to replace them. He turned to Hagrid, who was full of expectation: "You don't think that among the four heads, I'm the only one who didn't set up a defense, do you?"

As the head of Slytherin, he naturally participated in the defenses here; at least in the early stages, the professors had not excluded him.

As Hagrid's expression changed drastically, Hermione appeared out of thin air, a bright blue blade of light shining from the tip of her staff, which pierced straight at Lucius.

"Kalia's Swift Sword!"

This time, however, the magic that had nearly cleaved old Malfoy failed. A small brass device, resembling a bird, hovered beside Lucius, and a dark barrier firmly held the tip of Hermione's lightsaber. The sparks flying everywhere were enough to demonstrate the strength of the Cagliari Blade, but this special magical artifact seemed to be designed specifically to counter energy cutting, and it steadily withstood the attack.

Hermione's gaze remained unchanged. With the release of energy, the magical light blades shifted several times in an instant, colliding violently with the black barrier like cold water hitting hot oil.

"As expected, it's similar to the effect of Divine Strike Without Shadow, and it doesn't even have the feel of dark magic, making it seem a bit weaker." Lucius's face was filled with an expression of victory.

"It was worth spending a lot of money to get one."

He slammed his cane down, and suddenly countless black gun barrels emerged from the surrounding walls.

"Let me show you the power of Muggle weapons!" Lucius shouted, spreading his arms wide.

Hermione knew something was wrong and quickly rolled over to pounce on Hagrid.

The next second, the roar of steam rifles echoed throughout the hall, and the explosive flashes were like a torrential downpour that left no blind spots. The flying bullets shattered all the stone statues and magical plants into dust.

As taught in the Anti-Witchcraft Technology Defense class, every five ordinary bullets are interspersed with one fairy metal armor-piercing bullet, whose superior anti-magic effect leaves magical plants and statues defenseless.

It wasn't until much later that the roar of the rifles stopped. There wasn't a single intact stone left in the hall. Plant debris and sap flowed down the broken stones, forming winding streams on the uneven floor tiles.

Hermione stood up from Hagrid's embrace. The giant spider's body was riddled with bullet holes, but thanks to its massive size, the bullets barely pierced its thick carapace, unable to cause any real damage.

Hermione kicked away the magic orb she had smashed, and the basilisk's cries faded away completely after a few final struggles.

Hagrid struggled to his feet, shaking his head and body to fling away the chaotic noise, bullets, and nets.

"Very clever, no wonder he's a genius from Gryffindor." Lucius stood in the smoke, not afraid of Hagrid regaining his fighting ability. After clearing away the other professors' defenses, this place had become his home turf.

"Guess what else I designed besides the air rifle?"

He waved his cane like an actor in a grand musical, and then a clanging sound came from inside the wall. Suddenly, some dark holes opened up, just like the fragmentation grenades he had talked about in class!

"Damn it!" Hermione frowned. How much Muggle weaponry had smuggled in by Lucius under the guise of teaching and setting up magical traps?

Hagrid's expression was grave. If the bullets from the pneumatic rifle meant nothing to him, then the Muggle grenades exploding simultaneously in the confined space were his nemesis. He took a deep breath and whispered to Hermione, "Hide under me and run away when he's not looking!"

He was prepared to sacrifice himself to cover Hermione's escape!

Besides Muggle weapons, Lucius also possesses a considerable number of alchemical bombs. As the owner of Malfoy Castle, his wealth is sufficient to arm a child into a killing fortress, making it unwise to try to withstand his firepower head-on.

But before they could make up their minds, flames suddenly burst into flames all around the hall. The next moment, they heard Lucius's prized bombs exploding inside the walls. The walls of the entire hall exploded, and all the pneumatic rifles and Lucius's other setups were destroyed in an instant.

"Boom..." The explosions continued.

A thick cloud of smoke enveloped everything, and the flying stones were even more terrifying than the bullets from before. The ceiling collapsed, but was blasted to pieces in mid-air. Hermione was unharmed thanks to Hagrid's protection.

When she looked up again and around, the entire hall had become a suspended platform, floating alone inside a larger cave. It was surrounded by a huge underground space, and dazzling firewalls enclosed the hall. The door that used to be separated by a wall from the room on the fourth floor was now nearly a hundred meters away, completely isolating the platform from the outside world.

"Is it a trap?" It was all clearly set up, just waiting for Lucius to detonate his bomb.

Only then did she realize that the floor of the hall was slightly concave towards the center, and the sap and remains left by the broken magical plants were slowly and steadily gathering in the low-lying area in the center of the hall.

"This scene...it looks like a potion cauldron?"

She thought to herself that the slightly sunken floor and the broken walls were like the edge of a large pot, and the flames burning around them were like the furnace fire under the crucible.

Lucius, however, realized the truth even faster than she did. He angrily cursed, "You stupid woman from the Potter family! When did you set this trap?!"

Hermione suddenly realized. She glanced around. Since Professor McGonagall knew that Lucius had ill intentions, she obviously wouldn't have left such a big flaw. Professor Potter was the last line of defense. She had secretly set up a defensive measure after Lucius!

This might be a magic potion ritual!

Professor Sprout's plants were carefully selected. In Lily's "cauldron ritual," they served as guardians of the sapphire while alive, and after death, they became ingredients for Professor Potter's potions. If she's not mistaken, Professor McGonagall's stone statue powder should also contain corresponding potion ingredients!

Sure enough, some shimmering powder gradually rose from the remains of the stone statue, mixing with the gas that had evaporated after being heated by the fire. Even Lucius's gun barrels, gunpowder, and goblin metal were part of the potion ingredients chosen by Professor Potter!

The air was heating up at an extremely high speed. Hagrid picked up Hermione, squatted down slightly, and in the next moment, he jumped dozens of meters away, landing on the stalactite pillars hanging in the cave.

Spiders have terrifying jumping ability and extremely strong adhesion. Hermione sat steadily in Hagrid's arms, the two of them hanging above the cave, watching Lucius look around in the center of the hall.

Everything around was distorted; gun barrels and stone statues were slowly melting under the influence of a strange potion ritual.

Lucius knew he couldn't stay any longer; if he did, Lily Potter's magic would turn him into a pot of top-tier potion with unknown effects.

But it seemed that magic had been forbidden around them at some point. He didn't have Hagrid's jumping ability, and without magic, he couldn't escape the suspended cauldron burning with flames.

"What a brilliant design! This isn't some kind of magic that cancels magic, but rather a naturally occurring anti-magic effect that occurs during the potion-making process!" Hermione stared intently at everything before her, fascinated by Professor Potter's research in the field of potions.

Just like some potions require wizards to brew them while imitating wild boar calls, or doing some strange and bizarre actions, such as carrying a blood-red bull's head on their head and running in circles.

Such highly idealistic and irrational rituals are usually accompanied by specific strange effects. Lily used the effects of a certain extremely rare potion to modify its brewing process, turning a forbidden potion that required living wizards as ingredients into an exceptionally deadly and terrifying trap.

She even thoughtfully modified the ingredients in the potion recipe according to the Muggle rifles and grenades Lucius had provided; what's even more amazing is that the potion was brewed without a potion master's on-site control, but rather everything was pre-programmed and waiting to be triggered, which was simply showing off her skills!

"Aren't you...aren't you afraid of me?" Hagrid asked hesitantly, holding the girl in his arms. His lower body, with its huge and ferocious eight-eyed spider, seemed to be looking at him with its turbid white eyes.

"Aren't you Hagrid? What are you afraid of?" Hermione stared intently at the "cauldron" below, not wanting to miss a single detail.

"But...but this is what I look like," Hagrid said in a voice barely audible. "Nobody likes a monster like this..."

"Do you still have rock pancakes? I'm a little hungry." She hadn't eaten a single bite of food since before dinner.

Hermione skillfully rummaged through Hagrid's thick coat and pulled out a small piece of rock biscuit, then happily began to nibble on it.

Hagrid couldn't help but laugh. Aragog beneath him made a "click-clack" sound, and all around, countless tiny moving sounds came as a dense swarm of spiders of all sizes crawled out from the cave's hiding places.

As the spiders gathered, Hagrid and she looked together at Lucius in the "cauldron".

"Will he die here?" The air was distorted by the burning flames, and the figures in the fire seemed to become strangely shaped.

"I don't think so. Although Professor Potter's trap is deadly, Lucius is too rich, and Voldemort is behind him," Hermione pondered.

"I think we should prepare for the second round of the battle." She swallowed the last bite of the rock-skin cake, brushed the crumbs off her body, and gripped her staff tightly.