"Bang!"
The sound of a collision between a heavy object and a body echoed in the History of Magic classroom.
"Accio desk," Hermione whispered as she lowered her wand, relieved that she had succeeded. The spell she had just used was the pinnacle of her magical ability and the best she could achieve so far.
Hermione adjusted her position slightly to align herself, Tom, and the desk in a straight line, then used the Summoning Charm along with Non-Verbal magic to "summon" the desk toward her. The flying desk wouldn't avoid people in its path, and with Hermione's intent, the desk crashed directly into Tom.
The combination of the Summoning Charm and Non-Verbal Charm dealt Tom a heavy blow.
Lupin's eyes lit up as he watched Hermione's actions, and he whispered to Harry, "In wizard duels, sometimes the spells aren't the key to winning. Finding the right way to use common spells can have surprising effects."
For example, the Summoning Charm is commonly used by wizards to effortlessly retrieve objects, but who would have thought of the way Hermione used it? If it weren't for the Protego Charm that Tom had used earlier, the impact of the desk would have been enough to incapacitate him. Now he was dazed, and with every breath, he felt a sharp pain in his back.
The Protego Charm could withstand and repel most spells, but its ability to absorb impacts wasn't ideal. Moreover, the worst part for Tom was that the desk struck him from behind, while his defense was focused on the front. His front defense was as solid as the Maginot Line, but in the end, his fate was the same as the Maginot Line.
After achieving the surprise attack, Hermione didn't just stand there waiting for Tom to recover. She quickly waved her wand and cast the Reductor Curse.
"Reducto!" Her spell hit Tom's Protego Diabolica, and while he was distracted, it shattered the spell into pieces.
The flames fell in different corners of the classroom, and even a spark caught on Professor Lupin's robe. He hastily took out his wand and sprayed a stream of water to extinguish the flames on his robe.
At that moment, Tom no longer had any defense.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
"Mimble Wimble!"
Hermione's two consecutive spells weren't offensive but controlling. One was the Full Body-Bind Curse, and the other was the Silencing Charm.
She wasn't sure she could defeat Tom using offensive spells without hurting him, so she decided to render him unable to fight, securing her victory.
While Hermione dispelled the fire barrier, Tom finally recovered enough to move with effort. He managed to dodge the first Full Body-Bind Curse, but he couldn't avoid Hermione's second spell, which left him with a sealed mouth.
The moment he was affected, Tom felt his tongue moving uncontrollably inside his mouth, finally forming a very skillful knot.
"Ha... ri... me... ni... e... te...ne..." The surprise in his mouth caught Tom off guard, and the tangled tongue caused a twisting sensation and a searing pain. He tried to say something by opening his mouth, but the words that came out were incomprehensible even to himself.
Normally, any interruption in the spell would result in it not being cast correctly, let alone in his current state. That knot had made him lose the ability to pronounce spells.
"It's over, Tom," Hermione said, a flush of excitement appearing on her face as a feeling of euphoria washed over her, from head to toe, sending shivers down her spine.
She had finally defeated Tom! If it came down to just spells, she was better than him.
Hermione also understood that Tom's power was limited in the eyes of Lupin and Harry. He hadn't used any of his transformation forms, as if he were tied hand and foot in his confrontation with her. Hermione honestly wondered how many of Tom's forms she could safely beat. Surely, she couldn't defeat a basilisk or Cerberus, but perhaps she could handle a phoenix and a unicorn.
But so what? When it came to spellcasting, in the end, he couldn't surpass her.
Hermione whispered softly, and from the tip of her wand, a black rope emerged, twisting like a snake as it approached Tom. If she managed to bind him, the confrontation would be over.
At that moment, Lupin felt it was an inevitable conclusion, that Tom had been careless after all, that the classic "villain" had died from talking too much. If he had kept the fire barrier while paying attention to his surroundings and fighting against Granger's spells, the outcome might have been different. But now it was too late; Tom had lost the ability to counterattack.
Granger was good! Lupin gave Hermione an approving look; her use of the Summoning Charm was so astonishing that Lupin couldn't believe he would ever think of using it himself.
Harry, by his side, was bewildered. The spells they were using in their duel, he hadn't even heard of many of them, let alone used them. Like the fire barrier Tom had created and the non-verbal spell Hermione had released.
The duel between the two was clearly beyond the curriculum. Those spells were not what a third-year student should use!
The rope Hermione had created quickly entangled around Tom's legs. Just as she was about to advance further, Tom raised his head and looked at Hermione, with the snake-like pupil appearing in his right eye.
Ding!
Hermione's face changed as the bell on her ankle rang, and she tried to pull the rope and trip Tom, but it was already too late.
She saw those snake-like eyes of Tom's. The next moment, she felt her brain losing control, countless memories rising from the depths of her mind, and it seemed like she was about to plunge into those memories.
Hermione couldn't afford to worry about Tom at that moment. She struggled to empty her mind of all chaotic thoughts, trying to suppress them and return to normal.
The rope she had created exploded and turned into a cloud of black smoke.
Tom regained his freedom of movement in one step and ran toward Hermione, snatching her wand. Tom's action disrupted the mind-altering spell he had cast, and Hermione felt those chaotic thoughts flooding her mind like a receding tide.
When she came to her senses, she realized that Tom was standing in front of her, holding two wands in his hands.
Instinctively, she reached out to try to snatch the wand from him, but Tom grabbed her hand halfway. He shoved his wand into the palm of her hand and then opened his mouth wide.
Tom struggled to move his tangled tongue. Hermione couldn't help but let out a chuckle at the red mess.
"I'm sorry, I didn't learn the counter-spell to untangle tongues..." she said weakly, her eyes filled with apologies.
Tom: ?!!
"Wu! Wu! Wu!" (Hermione, do something!)