分卷阅读28（1 / 2）

Two things happened simultaneously after that.

A purple bolt erupted out of Bertrice’s chest and struck the kneazle, followed by a red bolt going from the animal to the girl. The force of the energies ripped the creature from Lovegood’s hands and sent both her and it flying. Lovegood rolled across the grass.

At the same time, there was a loud POP and a man appeared in the middle of the field. Igora squinted in the dim light and was sure she had seen him somewhere before. She recognized his black-ops robes. He was from the Department of Mysteries ops-team.

When the bolts between the kneazle and Bertrice disappeared, everyone out on the field looked stunned and stared around at each other.

Then Granger screamed something at the man who’d just appeared and Bertrice threw herself at Pansy Parkinson’s feet. The young girl rolled around feeling for something on the ground until she picked up one of the discarded wands and turned back toward her captors.

“You killed my father!” she screamed and cast, “IMPEDIMENTA!” at the leader of the group who had made her drink from the vial. Lovegood looked up from the grass, grabbed a large silver bell from her pocket and rang it repeatedly.

To the side of Igora, Felix shouted, “Expelliarmus!” and one of the two figures that had hung back from the exchange lost their wand. Felix added, “Stupefy!” and the figure fell to the ground. Before Igora could get a spell out, the other figure immediately disapparated.

She didn’t have time to dwell on it because as soon as she looked back to the center of the field, she dropped her wand in shock. Hundreds of shining, silvery lights ascended from the grass and began swarming anyone who wasn’t wearing a holiday jumper. Parkinson had thrown herself to the ground and pulled Bertrice inside the oversized jumper.

Igora watched in horror as the other figures tried to swat the Fae, listened as they screamed in agony. After only a few seconds, the three kidnappers had fallen to the floor, writhing, while the man who’d apparated into the scene late screamed at Hermione Granger for help.

“You said you knew what you were doing!” she replied. Granger motioned to Lovegood after that and the blonde rang the bell again. The Fae pulled back and united in a swirl of tiny lights sinking back into the ground.

Igora and Felix rushed down to the field and took stock of everyone. Hermione Granger was binding the kidnappers and taking their wands, Luna Lovegood had gone after the kneazle, and Pansy Parkinson still had Bertrice Zivantus in a tight embrace, rocking back and forth and whispering in the young girl’s ear.

“Everyone’s alright?” Igora approached. Felix went to help Granger with the kidnappers. Igora gazed around in case the figure who had disapparated might come back.

The black-ops man rolled around in the grass and groaned. “I am not alright.”

“Everything will be fine,” Granger nodded, ignoring the man.

A few feet away, the large green plant burst into flames.

Granger continued nodding, “This is fine.”

“Malfoy,” Harry looked around the alley as the sun filtered in over the buildings surrounding it. “It’s daylight.”

Malfoy took a step back from him and looked at the Timepiece in his hand. He blinked, shook it, and then scowled. “I don’t believe this!”

“What is it? Where—I mean when are we?” Harry’s heart pounded.

“Thursday morning,” Malfoy’s voice cracked. “Quarter to seven.” Thursday morning? That was a few hours before the penthouse massacre. Suddenly Harry was winded, sick to his stomach but riveted with the sudden understanding that they were supposed to be there. He had been there, he reminded himself. It wasn’t someone on Polyjuice, it wasn’t someone soul-swapped with him, it was him and it always had been. He turned around and made for the street. “Where are you going?” Malfoy called after him.