Chapter 75: Second Magical Riot
Peeves suddenly appeared in front of Draco. "Little brat, out of bed and wandering the halls at night."
"Go away! Peeves! Or I'll call the Bloody Baron!" Draco threatened, sprinting away.
"Filch! Filch! There's a first-year brat breaking curfew! Come quick!"
Peeves bellowed at the top of his voice, constantly blocking his path, yanking at his sleeves, and slowing him down.
"Get lost!" Draco shouted, anxious and struggling to break free from Peeves' grip.
"Thump thump thump," a burst of rapid footsteps sounded from the stairs.
"Meow!" Mrs. Norris, whom Draco hadn't noticed, let out a sound as well, leading Filch toward them.
"I'm looking for Professor Snape!" Draco began to shout, hoping Snape could hear and come out to save him.
"Looking for Professor Snape? Very well, then I'll take you to find him." Filch, who had successfully caught a student wandering the halls at night, was quite proud of himself.
He grabbed Draco's arm and half-dragged him to Snape's office door.
"Bang bang bang!" Filch stared coldly at Draco's face, hoping to see fear, hammering his fist against the door.
"Who!" Snape's annoyed voice came from within.
Through the door, Filch called out loudly, "Professor, it's Filch. I've caught a freshman wandering after curfew. He says he came to find you."
"Professor, it's me. Something's happened to Ethan!" Draco shouted as well.
The door flew open with a bang. Snape was wearing his usual black robes, but they were disheveled from having been roused in a hurry.
"Draco, what is it?" Snape asked, clearly irritated, gesturing for Filch to hold back before he could speak.
He quickly described what he had witnessed. "Professor, Ethan suddenly floated up into the air. Some kind of invisible force was swirling around him. The bed got crushed, and the curtains were torn to pieces."
"Filch, leave him to me. You go patrol first." Snape said one sentence and hurriedly pulled Draco away from Filch, walking towards the Slytherin dormitory.
"This... alright." Filch opened his mouth but only managed to spit out these few words.
Watching the two leave quickly, "Pah!" Filch spat on the ground angrily, then took out a handkerchief in annoyance and wiped the saliva from his lip.
"Glory!" Snape said the password and, led by Draco, arrived at their dormitory door.
"Professor Snape."
Goyle and Crabbe greeted.
Draco asked the two who had been guarding the door: "How is Ethan? Nothing else happened, right?"
"The airflow is picking up, and red light is flashing every now and then. Nothing else." Goyle recounted what he had seen when Draco left just now.
"What about you, Crabbe?"
"Same, but I thought I saw a small flame for a moment. It disappeared quickly." Crabbe added.
"Professor, look?" Draco turned to Snape.
"Step back. I'll move your things out first." Snape's eyes narrowed.
Then he used the Levitation Charm to lift everything out of their dormitory, including Little Black, who was huddled in the corner, shrinking smaller and smaller without any flame to sustain its life.
Seeing this salamander, Snape first lit Ethan's portable fire bottle to keep it alive before continuing to examine the anomaly in the dormitory.
The sound of Snape moving things woke up students in other dormitories who had not been sleeping deeply.
They stuck their heads out of the dormitories. The first thing they saw was beds, tables, and chairs piled up in the corridor, and then they saw Snape standing at the door of Ethan's dormitory.
Everyone's reaction was surprisingly consistent.
The moment they saw Snape, the heads sticking out shrank back, and the dormitory doors closed.
Snape stopped his movements after moving most of the items out.
He tried to move the collapsed bed out to see if Ethan would wake up, but the airflow was a bit strong, and his Levitation Charm didn't quite manage it.
At this point, he already had an idea in mind, but it needed further verification.
He waited at the door for a while, and the anomaly verifying his conjecture occurred.
Black fire began to ignite around Ethan. The flame enveloped his body and instantly ignited his bed.
Draco exclaimed, "What is that? Ethan's bloodline talent?"
He turned to Snape. "Professor, could this be a magic surge?"
Snape nodded without speaking, his eyes fixed on Ethan in the dormitory.
Because Snape had already moved most of the things away, the flame went out after igniting the bed and his leather trunk beneath it, having consumed all the available fuel.
But the flame around Ethan didn't go out; instead, it grew stronger and stronger. However, perhaps by some instinct, his clothes were preserved well and didn't burn along with it.
The black flame on his body had begun to scorch the magically protected bricks on the ceiling.
Snape quickly cast a reinforcing charm to prevent the roof from being burned through.
But the power of the flame exceeded Snape's expectations. The reinforcing charm only held for less than half a minute before being destroyed by the flame.
He could only continue casting spells and cast Protego Totalum to protect the castle.
The airflow around Ethan gradually dissipated after the flames intensified, but the flames were slowly filling the entire dormitory.
Snape struggled to maintain the spell. Just as he was thinking about whether to ask Draco to find another professor for help, Ethan woke up.
The flames filling the room instantly retracted into his body. He floated down slowly from the air and fell into the ashes of the bed.
"Mm." Ethan opened his eyes slowly. What he saw was not the familiar silver-green curtains, but a stone ceiling.
He sat up with the fog of sleep still clinging to him and looked around the room.
"Where's my bed?! My bed, so big, where is it?! Why is the room empty?! Where are the people, the things? Where did they all go?!"
Ethan finally saw his roommates and Snape standing at the door. "Hm? Professor?! Why are you here!"
"Stand up, brush the ashes off yourself, and then follow me to the office." Snape moved the furniture in the corridor back to its original position one by one and restored the torn curtains to their original state.
Ethan's wand was sent to him by Snape using the Levitation Charm.
He cast a Tergeo to clean the ashes stained on his body and used a Scourgify to clean the floor before following Snape into his office barefoot.
The remaining few people in the dormitory couldn't sleep either. They discussed the anomaly that had happened to Ethan—whether it was a magic surge. If so, why would he experience a second one?
Sleepless tonight.
========================================