Hogwarts: Even Voldemort Can't Stop Me From Studying

Chapter 835 206: Pincer Attack

Clementine swallowed with difficulty, her throat so dry it hurt, fear snaking up around her ankles like an icy serpent, making her whole body shake.

She didn't care that she was soaked through; using both hands and feet she scrambled up onto the bank and staggered off, fleeing deeper into the dense forest.

Not far behind her, a branch jutting over the stream suddenly bent downward, letting out an overloaded "creak."

"Plop!"

Water splashed everywhere as the lizard crashed heavily into the stream. It shook its head, then started crawling forward; its whole body sank beneath the surface, leaving only ripples spreading across the water.

A few minutes later, on the clearing where the two of them had rested earlier, a figure appeared without a sound.

Hope patted the dust off herself, bent down to pick up her own canteen and backpack, then grabbed Clementine's abandoned bag. From it she pulled out a pointer shaped like a sword and combined it with the Compass and bearing in her own hand.

"Click!"

At the soft sound, the girl's lips curled up slightly.

...

"Quick, quick! The footage just now—pull up the footage from just now!"

The Flow Mirror director, who was in charge of the broadcast, had sharply noticed a change in one corner of the image and immediately bellowed orders at his staff:

"Move it! We can't afford to miss a single key moment!"

A few seconds later, the spectators on the stands saw the picture on the Flow Mirror flicker. Instead of finding out whether Clementine would be caught by the lizard, they watched Hope walk out of the trees.

After a brief daze, the stands erupted—

"What? The girl didn't get taken out by the Poppet?"

"When did she disappear? How did I not notice?"

"Merlin's beard! I thought she was already eliminated—I didn't expect a twist."

"Who bet on this Champion?"

"Which school is she from?"

When they saw Hope assemble a complete Compass, the buzz in the stands grew even louder.

They had all seen how the two girls had been working together: Hope had the Compass and the bearing, Clementine only had the pointer. Each kept their own component, and only put them together when they needed to check direction.

By rights, with Hope holding two-thirds of the pieces, she should have had more say—but in practice, it was Clementine who'd been making all the decisions. Hope, the black-haired girl from Salem Academy, had always been as silent and unobtrusive as a shadow.

No one had expected this duo to flip in such a way.

Seeing the girl holding the complete Compass and correcting her course, Ms. Owens from Salem Academy finally allowed herself a slight smile, while Abby and Samuel (the other two Champions from Salem) exchanged a look and chuckled, as if not at all surprised.

Agilbert of Ilvermorny asked curiously, "Does this child of yours… have some kind of special ability?"

Ms. Owens replied with a polite smile, "She's just a kid who's very good at the Disillusionment Charm, that's all."

Agilbert raised a brow. "A Disillusionment Charm… that can even fool a Poppet's sense of smell?"

Ms. Owens countered, "Are you sure that lizard even has a sense of smell?"

Agilbert: "…"

That thing looked no different from a real lizard, its nostrils even flaring. And you're telling me it can't actually smell someone hiding right next to it?

—I feel like you're not underestimating Vid Gray's Alchemy skills, you're underestimating my IQ…

...

At one corner of the stands, Antoine was also quietly explaining to the people next to him:

"Doesn't the British Ministry of Magic have that natural-born Metamorphmagus? This little girl Hope is about the same, except she comes with her own Masking Spell. I heard even her parents often forget they have another child; when she was little she'd frequently be left hungry and crying."

He pointed at the Flow Mirror that was broadcasting. Just then the image cut away from Hope to Vid hurrying along for two seconds, then switched again to Clementine fleeing at full speed.

Antoine glanced at the Flow Mirror and said, "Ever since she learned the Disillusionment Charm, Hope's practically no different from a human-shaped Invisible Beast. From the looks of it, even Poppets unconsciously ignore her—that's a new discovery."

Delaine's brows knit tightly. "You didn't warn Vid about this girl's ability?"

Before Antoine could speak, Grindelwald let out a cold chuckle, his fingers tapping lightly on his knee.

"If he can't handle an opponent because of a Masking Spell, he might as well drop out of Hogwarts and spend a few years training properly at Gray Castle… save him from playing make-believe with a bunch of children all day and then embarrassing himself out in the real world."

Delaine's face froze. He straightened unconsciously, once again surprised that he had misread his leader's attitude.

He had thought Grindelwald would say—"Then he isn't worthy of inheriting my cause!"

And instead the man just wanted to pull the boy out of Hogwarts and keep him close to teach personally?

If that happened… Dumbledore would definitely come storming over again, wouldn't he?

Delaine licked his lips, his Adam's apple bobbing slightly. In the end, he only nodded silently.

Antoine, however, didn't seem to be thinking that far ahead. His gaze stayed fixed on the Flow Mirror screen, fingers rubbing his chin as if he were considering something. Suddenly he let out a short laugh and sighed:

"They still managed to run into each other? Those two really are fated."

...

Clementine stumbled out of the bushes and suddenly saw Natalia resting against a rock.

For an instant, as their eyes met, it was like a replay of the scene from before.

"You…?"

Natalia straightened up warily, Magic Wand already in hand. Her eyes darted quickly around and failed to find any trace of Hope nearby.

"The lizard… there's a lizard Poppet chasing me!" Clementine, gasping for breath, jabbed a finger behind her and said urgently, "Hope might already have been… oh God! That thing is absolutely terrifying! It's nothing like something a student could make!"

Natalia's pupils shrank sharply. She hurriedly slung her backpack over one shoulder and was just about to say something when she suddenly sensed that something was off—

It was too quiet around them. Even the usual insect and bird calls had vanished, leaving only the rustle of leaves in the wind.

"Swish!"

The sound of branches shifting made her whip her head around. A massive gorilla was hanging from the tree by one arm, its lips peeling back to reveal an especially savage "smile."

Beside her, Clementine sucked in a sharp breath, a sound rising from her throat that was somewhere between a moan and a sob.

Natalia stiffly turned her head back to see the lizard Poppet crawling out through waist-high weeds, its pair of yellow eyes icy and pitiless.

"Thump!"

The gorilla dropped to the ground and lumbered toward them, swinging its arms. The lizard lifted its head and met the gorilla's gaze.

They were both artificial constructs, and yet in that moment there seemed to be a strange, sinister understanding flowing between the two monsters, making the scalp crawl and the whole body tremble.

"Back to back!"

Natalia rasped.

Clementine quickly pressed up against her. The two stood back to back, each feeling the other's pounding heartbeat.

Thud!

Thud!

Thud-thud!

"Roooar—"

The gorilla let out a furious roar, pounding its chest twice with force before lunging; the lizard's tail snapped like a whip, driving its body forward in a sudden burst of speed!