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*****
"NO!!!"
A deafening roar echoed as the terrifying creature appeared.
The classroom erupted into chaos, with wizards covering their ears, their bodies buckling under the force of Hagrid's thunderous shout. His roar affected everyone within a ten-meter radius, except Grindelwald, who sat unmoved. Even powerful wizards like Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, and Snape were visibly shaken.
The professors' spells were abruptly cut off by Hagrid's forceful interruption.
"That mad dog of yours has a person in its mouth! Who's to say it wasn't the one that did the biting?"
Snape, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth, spat out a bit of bloody saliva and gave Hagrid a kick. However, without taking his strength potion, Snape's kick barely bothered Hagrid.
But Snape had a point. The massive three-headed dog, now towering over five meters tall, was holding a person in its central mouth—or more accurately, a blood-soaked rag doll of a person. The deep tears in the body clearly resembled bites from the three-headed beast, making Snape's accusation hard to refute.
"Fluffy wouldn't harm a child. At most, he'd just give someone a fright, I swear—"
"Enough, big guy."
Grindelwald, who had remained calmly seated until now, slowly rose and cut Hagrid off. "Tell your dog to put the person down."
"Snape," Grindelwald continued, "that child is on the brink of death. Give him some medicine to keep him alive. As long as he lives, that's enough."
"Minerva, take a few professors and escort the students back—" Grindelwald paused, then waved his hand. "No, let them see what blood looks like."
"NOW!"
Though Grindelwald hadn't raised his voice, his words rang clearly in everyone's ears.
"Everyone, open your eyes and watch. Any student who cries will lose ten points. Hold those tears back—that's an order."
"But some of them are girls..." Professor McGonagall whispered, concerned.
"And girls can't see blood? More than half of battlefield medics are witches. Any girl who cries loses twenty points."
Grindelwald shot McGonagall a sharp look and added with a sneer, "And if any of those crybabies are in Gryffindor, double the penalty. You're supposed to be the house of champions, right?"
"Prefects, listen up. Lead your housemates and line up. Students in fourth year and above to the front. You're old enough to start learning battlefield first aid and survival. You'll find this is a perfect opportunity to practice."
As Grindelwald coldly watched both students and professors begin to move, he raised his hand. A pure black phoenix Patronus emerged from the wall, flying over to land on his arm before dissolving into a mist.
"It's him. The magical trace on the fourth floor is clean."
Grindelwald shared his findings with the professors as he walked toward the center of the Great Hall.
Hagrid was cradling Fluffy's drooping head. The thick stench of blood in the hall wasn't coming from the ragdoll-like body, but from Fluffy himself.
The massive three-headed dog, usually as strong as a small house, was in terrible condition. As Hagrid moved closer, a gaping wound large enough for a person to crawl through was visible on Fluffy's side.
The ribs supporting its body were shattered, its internal organs severely damaged. Even without peering inside, one could see its three pumpkin-sized hearts, two still beating weakly while one had ruptured completely, no longer able to function.
"Give it to your dog."
Snape coolly tossed a potion to Hagrid. If Fluffy wasn't treated immediately, even its formidable life force wouldn't save it from death that night.
But just as Hagrid opened the potion, Fluffy, now barely hanging on to life, suddenly turned its head away. Its large eyes, filled with tears, gazed pitifully at its master, and the pitiful whines it made tugged at everyone's heart.
Faced with a choice between the potion and death, Fluffy chose death.
"Good dog, good dog, just drink it, and everything will be fine. Just think of it as eating something gross. After all, you ate worse when you were a pup."
Under Hagrid's forceful insistence, Fluffy's mouth was pried open, and the massive dog, whimpering in distress, was forced to swallow an entire bottle of potion. Almost immediately, Fluffy collapsed, foaming at the mouth. His muscles twitched uncontrollably, but at the same time, the horrifying wound began to heal, visible to the naked eye.
"You idiots!"
A wheezing, angry voice interrupted. Professor Kettleburn, missing three of his limbs and hobbling on a wooden prosthetic, staggered over. Having fainted earlier from Hagrid's earth-shattering roar, the elderly professor had only just been revived by Madam Pomfrey.
"Do neither of you have a shred of common sense? You think a potion alone can heal a three-headed dog's heart? Are you mad, Snape, or just arrogantly overconfident?"
"Did you even think to clean out the filth inside? You're asking for it to fester and rot!"
Professor Kettleburn, clearly frustrated, shoved Hagrid aside and pulled out a double-barreled shotgun. "If that external wound closes before the real damage is dealt with, you'll be in big trouble!"
"I have a neutralizer."
Snape calmly jabbed Fluffy with a syringe, halting the rapid healing process. The enormous blood-soaked hole, now the size of a washbasin, gave Kettleburn the space needed to clean out the internal damage properly.
While Fluffy's condition was grim, the ragdoll-like figure the dog had carried into the Great Hall looked no better.
The lower half of the body was almost entirely reduced to pulp, with only a thin layer of skin holding the two parts together. If this had been the Muggle world, a doctor would likely have taken one look at the patient and sighed, "There's no hope. Let them go peacefully."
But in the magical world, with a skilled healer like Madam Pomfrey and a master potioneer like Snape on hand, even if a heart stopped beating, as long as the soul remained within the body, they could pull someone back from death's door.
"Stabilizing the injuries is up to you now, Pomfrey. I've given him three drops of life essence and a slow-acting agent. As long as his condition doesn't worsen, he won't die for at least half an hour."
Snape straightened up and stepped back. His part was done, and there was no more need for him here. Before leaving, however, he quietly added, "A highly concentrated Type IV explosive potion was used. No student could brew something of this caliber. I need to check my inventory."
"Go," Grindelwald waved dismissively without turning around.
Grindelwald then pulled out his Browning M1935, aimed it at the blood-covered face of the ragdoll-like figure, and pulled the trigger. The spell blasted away the coagulated blood, revealing the person's true face to everyone in the hall.
"How can this be?!"
"Percy!!!"
A voice of disbelief erupted from the Gryffindor section, as two red-haired figures dashed forward, only to be stopped by a single outstretched hand.
"I understand how you feel. He's your brother, isn't he, Weasleys?"
"If you want to uncover the truth—why your brother ventured into the Forbidden Corridor on the fourth floor and how he ended up in this state—fall back and stand at attention."
Under Grindelwald's stern command, the twins, their lips bitten bloody, silently retreated. Their tear-filled, bloodshot eyes burned as brightly as their fiery red hair.
(End of chapter)