Despite knowing there were two of them, despite knowing the entire Gryffindor team was nearby, when Amorsta's chilling gaze fixed on them, Priam and Filioa shivered in unison, as if an adult Hungarian Horntail was opening its terrifying maw at them, ready to devour them whole.
"Priam~"
Filioa tightly grasped her boyfriend's wrist, her voice trembling,
"Are you sure he's just a strange bookworm from Slytherin, Priam? Why…why does his gaze scare me so much? It's like that crazed Hippogriff Professor Kettleburn showed us last week."
"Don't talk nonsense, Filioa. We're Gryffindors—wizards of the House of Courage!"
Priam inwardly agreed with Filioa. In that split second of eye contact with Blaine, if Filioa hadn't been hiding in his arms, he might have already turned and fled.
But his male pride forced him to toughen up,
"Hey, nasty boy Blaine, don't look at us like that. You brought this on yourself. Who told you to sneak into the Forbidden Forest at midnight and curse a…you…what are you doing?!"
Whoosh!
Magic was surging. The flames scattered on the ground, tree trunks, and stones gathered into a substantial golden fireball at Amorsta's wand tip, like a blazing sun rising on the sea horizon under the night sky.
The terrifying heat quickly evaporated the moisture in the cold air and spread outward. A pine tree near Amorsta spontaneously ignited, and the two young wizards dozens of feet away started sweating profusely, as if standing on the brink of an erupting volcano!
"Don't do this, Amorsta, we were just thoughtless…"
Terror brought tears to Filioa's pretty face. She had no idea what she was saying, only instinctively pleading for mercy.
Priam also raised his wand, but he knew very well that his Shield Charm, which he wasn't even sure he could successfully cast, wouldn't block the violent golden fireball at Amorsta's wand tip.
"Get on your broom and flee!"
As the iron-faced Amorsta swung his wand, Priam finally found a bit of courage. He used all his strength to throw Filioa and her Nimbus 1700 backwards, screaming at the top of his lungs,
"Go find Professor McGonagall, don't look back!"
Priam might never know that the glimmer of humanity he displayed at the brink of death saved his own life.
Seeing this, the anger in Amorsta's eyes flickered for a moment. In the next second, his steady wrist suddenly lowered slightly, and the fireball that would have landed at his feet instead crashed into the ground ten feet away!
Boom!
Like a supernova reaching the end of its life, the fireball, filled with terrifying magic, turned the cracked ground to lava upon impact.
The superheated air was explosively expelled, sounding like a high-pressure cooker suddenly opened. Priam's Shield Charm shattered instantly. He didn't even have time to scream before being blown away by the force, crashing through a wrist-thick tree and rolling on the ground for dozens of feet before finally stopping. His back was already a bloody mess.
Filioa suffered relatively less damage, as Priam shielded her from much of the impact. Even so, she was blown away for a dozen feet by the surging air.
Standing behind the milky white magical barrier, unscathed, Amorsta watched coldly as the battered Filioa climbed onto her broom, ignoring the flames on her robe, and flew toward the castle without looking back. He didn't strike again.
The surroundings were a mess, with the special magical fire still stubbornly devouring the chaotic world, even after losing its magical support.
Crunch, crunch~
Amorsta walked across the scorched earth, step by step, until he reached Priam. He looked down at Priam's shocking back wounds with an impassive expression.
Priam wasn't dead. Of course not. Amorsta didn't want to end up in Azkaban, at least not yet.
"I was going to let you feel the pain of losing a limb,"
Amorsta said expressionlessly, "so you'd learn your lesson. But your final act of bravery earned you some dignity."
Amorsta took out a bottle of Dittany and several colourful, mysterious potions from his bag. He mixed them in the correct proportions and poured the mixture onto Priam's back. With the help of his wand, the torn flesh started to regenerate rapidly.
Priam's pale face regained some colour, but a few of his ribs were still unnaturally bent. Amorsta didn't bother fixing his broken bones; Madam Pomfrey could easily handle those.
"I should also learn a lesson from this. Thinking I'd be safe just because I'm at school—"
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Suddenly, sharp, whistling sounds came from deep within the Forbidden Forest. As they approached, they split into multiple directions, surrounding Amorsta from all sides. Through the swirling mist, five figures gradually appeared.
Amorsta wasn't surprised. He knew the moment he saw Priam and Filioa in their Gryffindor Quidditch uniforms that they wouldn't be alone.
However, when a stocky figure became clear, Amorsta's mouth twitched uncontrollably.
Charlie Weasley—Bill Weasley's younger brother, the second eldest in the Weasley family, and Gryffindor's talented Seeker. His broomstick was carrying an Acromantula the size of a car, paralyzed by at least three Stunning Spells!
Amorsta had no idea there were Acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest. These Gryffindor lions sure knew how to have fun!
With his keen eyes, Charlie immediately spotted Priam at Amorsta's feet. Mature beyond his years, Charlie didn't rush to question Amorsta. Instead, he hovered high on his broomstick, carefully surveying the intimidating scene. When he saw the three-foot-deep, smoking crater in front of Amorsta, he sucked in a breath.
"Where is Filioa, Blaine?" Charlie's voice was as rough as his appearance.
"Maybe she's mixed with the dirt by now,"
Amorsta said calmly. "You can look for yourself. You might find some fingernails or something."
"You killed Filioa?!"
One of the Gryffindor players shouted in disbelief.
Angry shouts erupted, and they all raised their wands at Amorsta. Someone yelled they would send Amorsta to Azkaban.
Charlie Weasley had a unique leader's charisma. Despite being the youngest among them, he was also the calmest. He believed Amorsta couldn't have actually killed Filioa unless he truly wanted to go to wizard prison. But Priam's serious injuries were undeniable. The top priority was ensuring Priam's safety.
Charlie cut the rope holding the Acromantula with his wand. He hovered on his broomstick and said in a stern voice,
"Give us Priam, Blaine, or you might have to suffer a bit."