The Black Bloodline of Hogwarts

The October night sky hangs low, cloud shadows slowly drift across the table, and the warm orange light of the pumpkin lantern ripples across the surface.

The long tables were filled with the sweet aroma of roasted pumpkin and cinnamon, and the students' plates were piled high with syrup pies.

All around, people were imitating owls, others were tossing Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans into their mouths, and laughter filled the air. Dumbledore sat in the center of the faculty seating area, his half-moon mirror reflecting the flickering candlelight.

Suddenly, the Halloween dinner was abruptly cut short by Professor Quirrell's piercing scream.

"A giant—a troll! In the underground classroom!"

The auditorium erupted in chaos. Younger students, in particular, panicked and scattered towards the exits. The professors shouted orders to maintain order.

"Silence!" Dumbledore shouted, and everyone stopped in their tracks.

Dumbledore quickly stood up, his gaze sweeping across the room like a hawk's. He then instructed the prefects to lead the students to evacuate in an orderly manner, while the professors hurried towards the underground classrooms. Only one "Black Bat" hesitated for a moment before running upstairs.

Julien sat at the Ravenclaw table, and even though he knew the plot, he was startled by Quirrell's shrill shout, spilling a lot of pumpkin juice from his hand.

That utterly terrified look was such a failure—the trembling, the evasive eyes, it all seemed like a meticulously rehearsed performance.

Quirrell's real purpose, of course, was to use the troll to create chaos and distract everyone so that he could sneak into the forbidden zone alone, try to break through the final barrier, and steal the magic stone!

But what does all this have to do with Julien? Harry and his crew will handle it.

Julien's gaze involuntarily drifted toward the Gryffindor group. He had already seen Harry and Ron sneak out of the group and run toward the girls' restroom (in fact).

It seems Hermione still has trouble getting along with her classmates, Julien said with a smile and a shake of his head.

However, just as he was hesitating whether to evacuate with the crowd or go with Harry to see what was going on, a completely different feeling suddenly came from his chest.

This tremor felt like an instinctive warning from the blood, not from underground, but from... the fourth floor! The north corridor!

Although the troll was foolish, the primal and violent magic contained within it was like a red-hot iron, indiscriminately scorching the land it passed through.

Meanwhile, on the north side of the fourth floor, in the room where the Mirror of Eris was kept and the stone tablet was sealed, Julien was now feeling uneasy.

If the troll rampages through the castle, will it damage the magic mirror? Why do I feel a sense of panic about this?

"Damn it!" Julien cursed under his breath. He couldn't ignore it, so he decided to go check it out.

Instead of following Harry and the others, he turned around and rushed against the chaotic flow of people to the fourth floor as fast as he could.

"Hey, where are you going?" Edgar called out from behind him.

"The women's restroom!" Julien replied casually, and then disappeared in the blink of an eye.

"Could he have an upset stomach?" Kayson asked doubtfully. "I just saw him eat a lot of pumpkin pies."

"Is the main issue food poisoning?" Edgar was speechless at his roommate.

"Oh right, why did he go to the women's restroom?"

"The point is, we have a toilet in our dorm room, why would he go there!"

"..."

When Yu Lian arrived at the north corridor on the fourth floor, panting heavily, he could already hear muffled impacts and the booming sound of walls shattering in the distance.

The giant gray figure loomed in and out of sight around the corner of the corridor. It seemed to be attracted by some sound and was clumsily moving in this direction!

Julien's heart leaped into his throat. He couldn't let the troll get near that door!

There was no time to hesitate. He quickly slipped into an empty classroom and pulled a small bottle of Thestral Dust—a rare material that could briefly distort light and sound—from the inner pocket of his robe.

He sprinkled powder on the tip of his wand and whispered a Silence Barrier spell passed down in the Black family.

An almost invisible, semi-transparent magical barrier silently unfolded, enveloping the room where the Mirror of Eris was kept and the area within ten feet around it.

This barrier cannot block physical attacks, but it can absorb and eliminate most magical fluctuations, and minimize the presence of the room, as if "erasing" this space in the troll's chaotic perception.

After doing all this, Julien held his breath and hid behind the door.

The giant's heavy footsteps grew closer. Its massive body squeezed through the narrow corridor, its single eye scanning the surroundings blankly. When it was just a few steps away from the door, its steps strangely stopped, as if it had lost its target.

It sniffed the air in confusion, let out a low growl, then turned and staggered off in the opposite direction of the louder noise—the underground passage.

Julien's tense nerves finally relaxed for a moment. It was done; they were safe for now.

But he didn't have time to leave. He vaguely heard Hermione screaming downstairs. They had met!

Julien immediately turned around and silently ran down another staircase.

When he arrived at the corridor outside the women's restroom, he witnessed a terrifying scene: the troll raised his spiked club, which weighed hundreds of pounds, high and brought it down hard on Hermione, who was trapped in a stall!

Harry and Ron jumped and shouted below, trying to attract its attention, but they seemed so small and powerless.

It has to be said, Gryffindor is really reckless! In the blink of an eye, the two young wizards picked up stones and clods of dirt from the ground and smashed them at the troll's head.

If you were to ask which would hurt more, a rock or a clod of dirt hitting your head at the same time, the answer would still be your head! The troll slowly turned its enormous head to look at Ron.

Why didn't he look at Harry? Because Harry had already quietly touched its back and jumped over to ride on its neck.

Having already gained the upper hand, Harry didn't even think about using magic to attack. His Muggle mind was still at play, and he directly used his wand as a dagger to stab the troll's face from behind.

As luck would have it, the wand was pierced directly into the troll's nostril, causing it severe, painful damage.

Enraged, the troll reached behind Harry and touched his ankle, lifting him upside down and swinging his massive spiked club at him.

Harry, relying on the core strength he'd developed from enduring beatings, ducked like a shrimp to dodge the troll's attack and calmly shouted, "Help! Something quick!"

Expecting Ron to come up with a solution was out of the question, but fortunately, Hermione, the brains of the group, thought of the only magic she was proficient in. Since she didn't have her wand, she could only gesture her name at Ron, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

"Wingardium Leviosa!!!" Ron shouted the Levitation Charm with all his might. Due to the tension, his wand trembled violently, which perfectly matched what Professor Flitwick had said: first a wave, then a tremor.

Logically, given Ron's level of magic, it would be impossible for him to even budge such a heavy weapon. The spiked club only wobbled very slightly.

In the nick of time, Julien hid in the shadows around the corner of the corridor, his wand already raised. His lips moved slightly, silently uttering the same incantation, but the magical output far exceeded that of an ordinary student.

The two magical forces converged in mid-air. Ron's spell became the fuse, while Julien's magic became the true engine.

The spiked club suddenly froze, then incredibly flew upwards, as if pulled up from thin air by an invisible force. It rose higher and higher, completely escaping the giant's control!

Just as the stick reached its highest point, Julien slashed his wand downwards with a sudden, silent incantation.

"Deprimo Profundis!"