The green light rushed toward Hermione. In that moment of absolute crisis, everything before her seemed to slow down.
Hermione's finger instinctively tightened around the missile launcher's trigger, only to release it at the final instant.
It was useless. She knew very clearly that a missile could not harm Voldemort in the slightest. He existed on an entirely different level from other wizards.
And that green light would pass through her skin and bones as easily as thin gauze, finally stopping her heart in agony.
Despair pierced her temples like an icicle. She could even hear her own teeth chattering.
The air seemed to freeze, and the green light illuminated Hermione's suddenly widening pupils.
Just as the green light was about to lick against her eyelashes, a beam of golden light more blazing than sunlight tore through the darkness.
The instant the green light ripped through the smoke, a dark figure abruptly appeared in front of Hermione.
The moment he appeared, the wand in his hand swept out with a rush of wind, and golden flames burst from its tip like unfurled wings, striking the deadly green light with perfect precision.
The two lights collided violently in midair, letting out a shriek like shattering glass.
The golden flames instantly climbed over the green beam. Amid a sizzling burn, the green light of the Killing Curse faded at a visible speed, until it finally turned into sparks three inches from Hermione's nose and vanished in the draft passing through the hall.
Although under the protection of the array, Hermione would not die even if she were hit by the Killing Curse and would only enter suspended animation, Harry still did not want his girl to be struck by the Killing Curse.
So he appeared.
Hermione staggered half a step back, still shaken, her finger still resting on the missile launcher's button.
The moment she saw Harry, wild joy appeared in her eyes. Her fingers trembled. She wanted to throw herself into Harry's arms, but she was afraid of interrupting the confrontation between Harry and Voldemort, so she forced herself to endure it.
But at that moment, Harry had already pulled Hermione into his arms and gently stroked her head.
"Don't be afraid. I'm here."
An incomparable sense of safety wrapped around Hermione. At that moment, she was afraid of nothing.
Voldemort's pupils suddenly shrank into two vertical slits, and blazing fury exploded in his eyes.
He looked at the black-robed figure who had suddenly appeared, watched him protect Hermione in his arms, and the corners of his mouth slowly curled into an almost ferocious arc.
"Potter." His voice was like rusted iron grinding together, every syllable steeped in poison. "You are always like this, crawling out like an eyesore of a cockroach at the very moment you should least appear."
The sickly green light at the tip of his wand had not faded. Instead, it grew even denser because of its master's rage, like a bubbling toxic swamp.
He stared at Harry's arm around Hermione's waist, then swept his eyes over the top of Hermione's head buried against Harry's chest. A low sneer escaped his throat.
"Protecting a Mudblood? Your stupidity is exactly the same as that filthy father of yours.
"You think blocking one curse can change anything?
"Today, I will snap her neck first, then kill you, you damned little nuisance. You and this troublesome ant can crawl back into the grave together."
The tip of his wand suddenly rose, and the green light gathered again. This time, it was even more blazing than before, and the air itself seemed to carry the sickly sweetness of death.
There was no expression on Voldemort's face. Only his scarlet eyes churned with almost deranged killing intent.
Harry stared at him expressionlessly, completely unintimidated.
Perhaps when he had been in his first or second year, Voldemort had still been able to place considerable pressure on him. But as his strength continued to rise, even though the wizarding world's suppression of him had also increased greatly, his strength was still more than enough to defeat Voldemort easily.
Facing the increasingly vivid green glow at the tip of Voldemort's wand, Harry likewise waved his own wand and pointed it at Voldemort. Yet his wand showed no magical light at all. It looked completely ordinary.
Just as Voldemort prepared to cast his strongest Killing Curse at Harry, he heard Harry say calmly, "I say there is no Voldemort before me."
The words were like an absolute command, suddenly appearing in Voldemort's ears.
Immediately afterward, his outline began to blur at a visible speed, as if he were a drop of ink cast into water.
The edges of his black robes rippled with translucent waves. His exposed pale skin gradually faded as though rubbed away by an eraser. Even those iconic snake-like eyes rapidly lost focus, turning into two hazy outlines.
"No!" Even Voldemort felt terror in the face of such a strange attack, but no matter how he struggled, it had no effect whatsoever.
His hiss became distorted, like a voice coming from behind thick glass.
He swung his wand madly. Green light, black mist, and all kinds of lethal Dark magic surged from the tip, but they collapsed on their own before they came within three steps of Harry.
Those powers depended on his existence in order to exist. Once that premise was denied, they became rootless bubbles.
His body was dissolving in an eerie way.
It was not burning. It was not shattering. It was like lines that had never been drawn were being gently erased from reality by an invisible hand.
His shoulders became transparent first, revealing the broken stone pillar behind him.
Then came his arms. The fingers gripping his wand faded one by one, until even the wand that had been stained with countless lives turned into specks of faint light and scattered into the air.
Hermione covered her mouth and stared at the scene in disbelief.
She watched Voldemort's face rapidly melt away. The twisted rage froze on his translucent skin like a cheap oil painting losing its color.
She had once seen this kind of power from Harry, but this was the first time she learned that this power could even affect a wizard on Voldemort's level.
The Voldemort before her was still roaring, trying to gather power, but only leaking gasps came from his throat. He could not even form the most basic syllable.
When existence itself was completely denied, even sound became unnecessary.
In the end, all that remained was a blurry dark red shadow, like the last embers left behind by the Dark magic he had loved most in life. Then even that tiny ember was erased by an unimaginable force.
Harry's gaze immediately fell on the panicked, collapsing Death Eaters in the distance, and he repeated himself. His voice was as light as a sigh, yet it carried unquestionable weight.
"There are no Death Eaters before my eyes."
The instant his words fell, those Death Eaters slowly vanished, until they too disappeared without a trace just like Voldemort had moments earlier.
When Voldemort and the Death Eaters disappeared completely, the oppressive weight in the air vanished at once, and even the wind seemed to grow lighter.
Ron staggered as he lowered the machine gun, staring blankly at the empty ground as he muttered, "Just... like that? Voldemort, the one the Ministry could do nothing against, was solved that easily?"
Fred's finger was still hooked around the trigger. Only when the cold metal of the machine gun soaked into his palm did he abruptly come back to his senses.
He whistled, his voice trembling slightly with disbelief.
"Merlin's beard... Did I just see that wrong? That guy looked like words wiped clean off a blackboard. Not even a bit of chalk dust left."
As he spoke, he kicked the ground where Voldemort had disappeared with the tip of his boot. Broken stones clacked crisply against each other. Every trace of Voldemort had disappeared completely, leaving nothing behind.
George was using a strip of cloth to hastily bandage the wound on his arm. When he heard that, he looked up, and his normally teasing eyebrows twisted into a knot.
"Easily? You call that easy?"
He raised his chin toward Harry and lowered his voice a little. "Did you not see Potter's face when he cast that spell? He looked like he'd just run a hundred miles. But that said, it was way cooler than blowing him up with a bomb, wasn't it?"
Harry shook his head, closed his eyes, then opened them again. A faint ripple of exhaustion finally appeared beneath the calm in his eyes.
Using this power to deal with Voldemort was quite tiring even for him.
It required him to use the power of rules to erase a person. The greater the weight of that person's existence, the more power it consumed.
But because Voldemort only had one-seventh of his soul left, Harry could spend less power to kill a powerhouse of Voldemort's level.
If he wanted to use the power of rules to erase Dumbledore from existence, Harry estimated that he would probably have to unseal the chaos magic inside his body.
The smoke had not yet fully dispersed when a wave of orderly footsteps suddenly rang out among the ruins of the Ministry.
Lucius Malfoy was dressed in neat, dark green ministerial robes. His silver-blond hair was combed meticulously back, and the serpent-headed cane in his hand tapped lightly against the broken stones with a crisp sound.
Behind him followed Kingsley, Avery, and several other senior officials. Their robes were still stained with the dust of battle, but that could not hide the complicated expressions on their faces. There was relief at surviving a disaster, and even more than that, admiration for the young people before them.
"Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley, Mr. Weasley." Lucius's voice rang out. He stopped and inclined his head slightly. "On behalf of the Ministry, and on behalf of the entire wizarding world, I offer you my sincerest thanks."
He turned slightly in indication, and the officials behind him stepped forward one after another. Kingsley was the first to speak, his voice loud and sincere.
"You ended this nightmare. We all saw everything that happened just now. You saved all of us."
Harry and the others naturally would not be deceived by these pleasant words from the Ministry members. The twins stepped forward without needing Harry to signal them.
They raised the guns and cannons in their hands and spoke to Lucius and the others as though demonstrating their power.
"Do you know what we used to defeat Voldemort?
"It was Muggle technological creations. The technological creations you used to look down on. The technological creations you refused to introduce into the wizarding world.
"Are you still going to oppose technological creations entering the wizarding world now?"
Lucius looked as though he were very dejected. The corners of his mouth pulled into an ugly smile, and then he solemnly promised, "Rest assured, Mr. Potter. After this incident, I have come to my senses. I now understand that wizards cannot shut themselves away and refuse to move forward.
"Therefore, next, I will propose a bill to promote technological creations within the wizarding world.
"You may rest assured. We are absolutely not the sort of people who cling to the past and refuse progress. We also hope the wizarding world can become better."
The many Ministry officials behind Lucius looked as though they wanted to speak but stopped themselves. However, since even Minister for Magic Lucius had agreed to introduce technological creations into the wizarding world, it was naturally not appropriate for them to object.
And so, Harry's plan was completed perfectly. Technological creations would gradually be introduced into the wizarding world in the future.
At that time, the state of the wizarding world would certainly undergo a massive transformation. At the very least, it would change from a run-down medieval town into a modern city.
After that, a proposal that shocked the entire wizarding world spread wildly through magical society.
Minister for Magic Lucius Malfoy proposed that from this day forward, the wizarding world would begin introducing technological creations from the Muggle world, allowing wizards to keep pace with Muggle development.
From now on, any wizard would be free to enter and leave the Muggle world, though for the time being, they were not allowed to reveal their identities in front of Muggles.
Harry Potter and Dumbledore would arrange a magic array covering all of Britain. The function of this magic array was to make Muggles completely ignore supernatural phenomena.
Therefore, no one needed to worry about the wizarding world being immediately exposed.
Of course, as contact with Muggles increased, the wizarding world would eventually have to integrate with the Muggle world.
But by then, that integration would be purposeful, orderly, and prepared, rather than a direct merging under completely unprepared circumstances.
Only this way could peaceful coexistence between Muggles and wizards be guaranteed. Only this way could a war affecting the entire world be avoided.
At the same time, with both technological equipment and magic, the extremely small population of wizards would not be underestimated by Muggles and would have the right to negotiate with them.
Otherwise, if Muggles suddenly launched a war, even if wizards placed the top leadership under the Imperius Curse, they might still be completely defeated by Muggles who had already gathered clear intelligence.
In any case, this proposal was like a bomb enchanted with a Blasting Curse, stirring up unprecedented waves across the wizarding world. The reactions of different factions of wizards were like fire and ice.
In the back alley of Diagon Alley, several pure-blood wizards wearing refined robes were crumpling the Daily Prophet into paper balls and hurling them viciously to the ground.
"Lucius Malfoy has gone mad!" a bearded man growled. The family crest on his chest gleamed coldly in his rage. "He wants us to learn how to fiddle with those Muggle lumps of iron? Has he forgotten that he is the head of House Malfoy?"
Another man sneered, his voice edged with ice. "Isn't it because that Potter boy scared him out of his wits? Magic is obviously the supreme power, so why should we bow our heads to Muggles? That magic array is even more of a joke.
"We need to hide from Muggles? They cannot even resist a Muggle-Repelling Charm!"
They gathered beside an ancient fireplace, cursing the proposal in the most vicious language. Some even secretly took out their wands and declared that they would correct this defilement of wizarding blood.
Inside the Ministry's offices, officials surrounded the proposal parchment and argued endlessly.
A witch from the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office pushed up her glasses.
"Allowing wizards to freely enter the Muggle world? We do not even understand their traffic laws.
"Last time, there was a wizard who used Apparition on a London street and was almost caught by a Muggle camera!"
Her colleague comforted her.
"Don't worry. Although that is what the wording says, in reality, any wizard who wants to enter the Muggle world will need to pass an examination. Only after a wizard understands the basic logic and rules of the Muggle world will they be allowed through.
"So in practice, the difficulty for wizards who want to go to the Muggle world has actually increased. The difference is that we will be able to use technological creations openly instead of sneaking around with them in private."
That was right. These wizards from the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office all knew the benefits of technological creations. Many wizards were already using them in private.
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