great-warnovel Chapter 174 The Holy Grail Bottle
Chapter 174 The Holy Grail Bottle
Chapter 174 The Holy Grail Bottle
Amicus said in a muffled voice, "I don't know the details either. Voldemort won't let us go down and find out."
Upon hearing this, Hermione narrowed her eyes, and a blue light flashed from her staff.
Amicus quickly added, "But he told us part of it! And shared this power with those who had contributed!"
"Stop beating around the bush! Just tell me!"
"It is the Well of Immortality. We made a pact with that well, in order to—" Before he could finish speaking, Amicus's expression suddenly turned horrified.
In the instant everyone was puzzled, he swelled up as if he had been inflated, and a strong green light emanated from his body. The next moment, he burst open like a balloon stretched to its limit, and the green light within him shot out like bolts of lightning, striking everyone around him.
But Dumbledore reacted faster, and a silver iron wall, like a dome, covered Amicus's position. The green lightning bolts, which resembled the Killing Curse, all struck the dome, crackling loudly.
Fortunately, Amicus himself wasn't very strong, and the green light from the explosion dissipated in just one wave. Unfortunately, the male Death Eater wasn't even left with a trace.
"It's a contract similar to an unbreakable curse—" McGonagall frowned. Those who break such contracts die, but Amicus himself clearly didn't know that.
But before she could finish speaking, another scream rang out.
This time, it was Alecto who was immobilized by the petrification curse. No one expected that even though she was not involved in the leak, she would also undergo a strange change because of her brother's explosion.
McGonagall's petrification curse was destroyed by a wilder death force, and the ugly female Death Eater also rapidly expanded and exploded.
All of this happened in the blink of an eye. Dumbledore was focused on gathering his silver shield and didn't have time to react. McGonagall quickly waved her wand and pulled everyone back, but there were too many children, and Lockhart was unable to protect himself, so she couldn't take care of everyone at once.
Fortunately, Flitwick was also there. He quickly released a flock of birds, using their numbers to stop the lightning.
But Draco was already outside the crowd and closest to Alecto, and now no one could protect him.
Faced with the oncoming lightning bolt, he didn't even have time to react and was about to be struck.
Suddenly, with a snap, a small figure appeared in front of him, shoving him away while also being struck by green lightning.
It's Dobby!
This little sprite actually followed me here!
The green light vanished, and the two Death Eaters were completely disintegrated as if they had never been there. They were utterly destroyed without leaving a trace. Only Dobby, who had been struck by the green lightning, lay on the ground, his life hanging in the balance.
"Oh no," McGonagall whispered, as she quickly walked over to Dobby and gently turned him over.
"He's still breathing a little. This lightning isn't as strong as the Killing Curse!" She immediately pulled out various potions from her bosom and fed them to the elf.
But it seemed to have no effect at all. Whether it was vitality tonic, blood tonic, white cinnamon, antidote, or any other healing or curse-removing potion, there was no reaction whatsoever.
It seemed that the body was slowly sinking towards death.
Dumbledore approached, glanced at it, and said in a somber voice, "It is essentially the same as the Death Curse, only without the incantation or the initiator. It takes effect more slowly, but it is still unstoppable."
Voldemort's mastery of the Killing Curse seems to have reached an extremely high level; even when his subordinates betrayed him and he detonated them remotely, the resulting explosion possessed power comparable to the Killing Curse.
Draco was stunned when he was pushed down. It took him a while to react. He scrambled over and looked at Dobby in McGonagall's arms.
"He's not dead! He can still be saved! Isn't he!" He gripped Dobby's hand tightly, looking at Dumbledore with hopeful self-assurance.
Fox flew over and dripped his tears into Dobby's mouth, but Dobby showed no reaction.
Dobby's chest rose and fell slightly, but life was slipping away at a steady pace, seemingly unstoppable by any means.
Feeling Draco's body temperature, he struggled to open his eyes: "Master~ ah, no, you shouldn't fight anymore—" he murmured weakly.
Draco's tears streamed down his face as he roared, "I don't want you anymore! Why did you take the killing curse for me?!"
He pounded the ground in anger, his skin scraped by the stones: "You've been free for a long time! You don't have to work for the Malfoys anymore!"
The crowd gathered around, looking at the dying Dobby, who was still wearing the pointed hat Draco had given him; he was clearly free.
"Freedom! Dobby is free!" The little elf smiled weakly, looking at Draco with his big eyes.
"Miss Granger said that freedom is not just about doing whatever you want, but about being able to say no to anything you don't want to do."
He looked at Draco intently: "Dobby doesn't want Master Draco to die. Dobby says no to this future. This doesn't come from the contract—it's Dobby's own idea."
A warmth he had never felt before emanated from that small, soon-to-be-cold body, and Draco burst into tears. His snot and tears mingled together, and he no longer cared about being a nobleman or being tidy. He hugged the filthy Dobbyhowt and cried his heart out.
"Dobby has the young master's hat, Dobby lives freely in the wasteland." The little elf seemed to be hallucinating, and in a moment of lucidity, he raised his hand and touched Draco's face.
"Dobby could sense the young master's danger, but something was blocking Dobby's way. It took Dobby a lot of effort to get over..."
"Dobby doesn't want the young master to die because the young master is kind—" His voice grew softer and softer until it was barely audible.
"I'm not worth you doing this for me! The Malfoys aren't worth you doing this for me!" Draco buried his head in Dobby's arms. This little guy, whom he had never looked up to, made him feel a heart-wrenching pain.
Everyone fell silent. This little elf had earned everyone's respect; he was free, and he was great.
The hot air currents swept through the canyon, their howling sound like weeping.
"Perhaps only the elixir from the borderlands can save him," Hermione thought to herself.
The dew crystals from the golden tree carry the lingering echoes of the law, capable of healing any form of injury except for the destined death that has been stripped away.
Unfortunately, this world has no golden tree, no dewdrops, and no holy elixir flask.
But suddenly, she remembered the Cup of Rebirth that she had taken from the basilisk's belly, and a flash of lightning struck her mind.
"Wait! Snape's potion cup, though it borrowed Voldemort's power, might not be able to save Dobby!"
A bold hypothesis struck her, and she immediately turned around; there was no time to think about it anymore.
Picking up the rusty gold cup from the ground—which the professors had proven to be harmless—she took out her own phoenix tear crystal from her bosom.
"If we mix the two types of dew in the form of a elixir, could we create a potion that reverses life and death?"
This didn't make sense, and she didn't understand what kind of magic Snape had cast on the Golden Cup.
But at this point, she had no choice but to try anything, so she hurried on: "Besides Phoenix Tears, we also need a liquid. Pure life force alone cannot reverse the death curse; the elixir must be prepared by combining both!"
"Death! Death!"
She looked at the Cup of Reversal of Life and Death in her hand, and then at the basilisk's enormous head.
"Got it! The basilisk's venom! This thing is soaked in death! It's a product of death reborn!"
She rushed into the basilisk's gaping mouth and found the long fangs connected to the venom glands.
"There's no way to calculate the proportions precisely anymore; we have to rely on intuition!"
She gritted her teeth, scooped up a drop of snake venom of roughly the same weight in a golden cup, and then tossed in the phoenix tears.
"The wizard's resolve! This is all we can rely on now!"
She didn't want Dobi to die, and this strong determination at that moment might just turn the impossible into the possible!