HP: The Duelist of Hogwarts - 477

Chapter 477: The Pursuit

“Sean Bulstrode? How could he be here?”

“Lucius, what is this? How did he get in?”

Lucius was sitting right in front of Sean, and one of Sean’s hands was resting casually on his shoulder. Lucius did not dare say a single word. He was terrified that if Sean applied even a little pressure, his neck would snap, so there was no chance he would answer Bellatrix either.

When Bellatrix saw Lucius had no intention of speaking, she drew her wand and prepared to strike at Sean.

But a newly recruited Death Eater was faster than her. He whipped out his wand and tried to curse Sean, only for Sean’s wand to twitch lightly. The Killing Curses he and Voldemort were locked together in suddenly slipped out of control and shot sideways, striking that Death Eater squarely.

He dropped dead on the spot, a cold corpse collapsing to the floor.

Sean stepped away from Lucius and walked slowly over to Snape. He looked towards Voldemort not far ahead and bared his teeth in a grin.

“Tom, if you want me dead so badly, why don’t you do it yourself? Or can’t you?”

“Sean Bulstrode, spare me your tongue,” Voldemort said coldly. “There is no Dumbledore here. No Order of the Phoenix. Since you came, don’t even think about leaving.”

“Tom, putting you aside for a moment, these riffraff can’t stop me if I want to go.”

“Arrogant, Sean Bulstrode!”

“I’d like to see whether you’ll cry and beg when you die.”

Sean flicked a glance at Barty Crouch Junior and Bellatrix as they rose.

He chuckled. “Two slightly bigger pieces of riffraff. One is Tom’s lover, the other is Tom’s bastard son. I expected you two to start jumping.”

Voldemort turned his gaze back to Snape and spoke again.

“Severus, you have done well. You lured Sean Bulstrode here. Now, you only need to kill him. Do that, and you can still be my most loyal servant and most trusted subordinate.”

His voice sharpened into a command.

“Choose, Severus.”

Snape stood up slowly. He looked at Sean, drew his wand, and pointed it at him.

A faint smile tugged at Voldemort’s snake-like face. Before it could fully spread, Snape suddenly spun on his heel. His wand moved like a sword, slashing upwards towards Voldemort.

“Sectumsempra!”

An invisible blade shot out in an instant. Everything along the path of Snape’s wand was cut cleanly in two. That included the table between them and one of the old-guard Death Eaters, Crabbe’s father, the elder Crabbe.

In front of Voldemort, a shield floated in the air, shaped like a mirror. A deep sword-mark ran across it, almost splitting it in half, and cracks spread outwards from the cut.

Voldemort glanced at the mirror-shield, then back at Snape.

He was shocked. Shocked by Snape’s betrayal, and shocked by the true force of Snape’s Sectumsempra. It was beyond what Voldemort thought he knew.

“Severus. You chose to betray me.”

Snape’s eyelids lowered, then lifted again, his gaze heavy with pain and resolve. He took a step back, placing himself firmly between Sean and Voldemort, shielding the younger wizard.

“Since that day,” he said, voice thick with bitterness and regret, “I have no longer been loyal to you. I let my hatred blind me, my pride deceive me, and my weakness betray everyone I should have protected. I have lived with that mistake every day since. But I will not let it define me forever.”

Voldemort immediately understood which day Snape meant.

He stared at Snape, and when he spoke again his voice was quiet—so quiet it carried more threat than shouting ever could.

“Severus.”

The name landed like a verdict.

“You chose a Mudblood over me.” His lip curled, as if the word itself tasted foul. “You threw away everything I gave you—for her.”

His eyes narrowed to slits. “Then you will die like the traitor you are.”

The last syllable had barely left his mouth when the Killing Curse flashed from his wand.

Sean reacted instantly, stepping in front of Snape and raising his wand with his other hand, casting the same curse straight back at Voldemort.

“Avada Kedavra!”

“Avada Kedavra!”

Two streams of sickly green power collided between them, throwing off crackling green arcs. Everything the stray energy touched shattered into nothing.

Behind Sean, Snape turned with perfect timing and swept his wand. A blue-white ripple expanded around him, blocking the curses fired by the other Death Eaters. At the same time, Snape finally revealed his true strength. While maintaining his Shield Charm, he kept carving his wand through the air.

Each slash forced a Death Eater to dodge, or else lose a limb, or be cut clean in two and killed outright.

Sectumsempra.

In Snape’s hands, its power was even more terrifying than Sean’s own Sectumsempra, even though Sean’s had been raised to LV5MAX. With every movement of his wand, anything within the arc of that motion was split in two.

Hummm.

Whoosh.
Boom.

With a deep, vibrating hum, the locked Killing Curses between Sean and Voldemort shot upwards and tore a huge hole in the ceiling of Malfoy Manor’s concealed chamber.

Sean took half a step back until his spine met Snape’s. Black smoke surged up around them. He carried Snape straight through the breach, bursting out of the chamber. As they rose, both of them swung their wands to block Voldemort and the Death Eaters, successfully breaking free of the net closing around them.

“Don’t let them escape, kill them!”

At Voldemort’s order, the Death Eaters in the chamber transformed into trails of black smoke and chased after Sean and Snape. That included Yaxley and Avery. Voldemort himself erupted into thick smoke and shot up through the gap, forming a gigantic Dark Mark above Malfoy Manor.

The serpent of the Dark Mark lifted its head high and spat a blazing torrent of magical fire at Sean and Snape as they fled under pursuit.

Fiendfyre!

“Sean, it’s Fiendfyre, dodge!”

“No need to dodge!”

Within the roiling smoke, Sean turned back and pointed his wand at the ground. Thick trees and vines exploded upward at terrifying speed, twisting together into a massive half-giant made of tangled wood and creepers.

At the same time, bitter cold fell. A gigantic shield of ice formed in the vine giant’s hands. It swung the shield up, batting a group of pursuing Death Eaters out of the air, then planted itself squarely in the path of the incoming Fiendfyre.

Boom!