Chapter 74: Front Teeth

Hearing Harry's voice, Malfoy frantically turned but wasn't quick enough. Harry directly crashed into him, sending Malfoy flying. Malfoy then collided with the Goyle beside him, and the two tumbled to the ground.

"Harry Potter!" Malfoy shrieked furiously.

Ron also ran to stand by Harry, confronting the others. His mind raced—the Slytherins outnumbered them; perhaps they should run towards the library...

"Harry, don't—oh, Neville!"

Hermione's lips turned white with anger when she saw Neville. She rushed over to undo the spell on Neville.

Neville finally stood up with Hermione's help, trembling all over, glaring intensely at the Slytherin student who was stepping on his wand—Theodore Nott.

Under his fierce and angry gaze, Nott's foot quietly retreated a little.

"This is too much! You—" Hermione glared furiously at everyone, shouting, "How could you do this to him?"

"What's it to you?" Malfoy said, brushing dirt off himself as he stood up, exasperated. "You filthy Mudblood!"

Harry didn't even understand what had happened when he heard Ron and Neville roar and charge forward!

"You'll pay for that, Malfoy!" Ron shouted loudly.

"Don't say that word, don't!" Neville also displayed unprecedented courage and fury.

Two fists landed on Malfoy's face, one after the other.

The refined-looking Malfoy heir shrieked, and his nose immediately began to bleed.

"How dare you!" Pansy Parkinson shrieked, reaching out and grabbing Ron's robes, her nails directly tearing his neck.

The surrounding Slytherins didn't stand idly by either. Goyle kicked Neville in the stomach, while Nott shoved Ron away.

Harry only paused for a moment before reacting immediately. When Crabbe tried to punch Neville's head, he lunged forward without hesitation.

Slytherins and Gryffindors instantly erupted into a brawl. They had no leisure to use spells, relying entirely on their fists and feet. After a brief advantage, the three Gryffindor boys quickly fell into a disadvantage.

Although Hermione didn't understand what Malfoy had cursed, she unhesitatingly used her most familiar spell—

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Her wand vigorously waved. The Slytherins present suddenly felt as if their robes were strangling them. They were involuntarily yanked up by their own clothes, suspended in the air for two or three seconds, then "thudded" to the ground.

Harry and the other two, who were being beaten on the ground, stared at her in astonishment.

"Ah!"

Pansy hit her nose and groaned in pain, cursing, "You damn Mudblood—"

Malfoy, his face covered in blood, scrambled up from the ground, drew his wand, and bellowed at Hermione, "Densaugeo!"

"Stop!" Harry also quickly drew his wand, rapidly recalling a spell he had seen in a book before—

"Tarantallegra!"

Their spells flew past each other in the air. Malfoy's spell hit Hermione. The girl whimpered, quickly reaching up to cover her face, but her front teeth had already begun to grow at an alarming rate, extending past her lips and down towards her chin in the blink of an eye. Harry's spell hit Malfoy, but due to his inexperience, the spell's power only caused Malfoy to fall backward.

For a moment, spells flew everywhere in the corridor, and passing students quickly got out of the way. But everyone soon realized that most of their spells were less effective than their own fists and feet, so the young wizards started punching and kicking again.

Hermione's teeth had already grown to her chin. She wanted to leave, but Pansy Parkinson blocked her, so the brown-haired girl decisively crashed into her, delivering a harsh headbutt. Both of them screamed simultaneously.

"Immobulus! (Full Body-Bind!)"

A voice suddenly rang out in the corridor. Everyone's movements were frozen, looking somewhat comical at first glance.

—A professor?

The students all had this thought at the same time, and their hearts immediately panicked.

Only Neville shouted happily, "Wade!"

Harry was still pushing Malfoy's face with one hand while entangled with Nott. He was frozen in an exceptionally contorted posture, his eyes straining to look sideways. He only saw a tall, slender silhouette stretched by the sunlight from the window.

"Neville?" Wade Grey's surprised voice rang out. "And—um, Hermione—what are you doing?"

Before Neville could answer, he cast two spells in quick succession: "Finite Incantatem! Relashio!"

The group finally unfroze from their awkward positions, but their limbs were weak, and they felt drained. Harry almost hugged Malfoy. He quickly broke free and looked at the newcomers.

It wasn't just Wade Grey who had arrived, but also Michael Corner and Padma Patil from Ravenclaw, and Theo Mancini and Ryan Carrow from Hufflepuff.

With classes crossing between the four houses, students in the same year weren't complete strangers to each other, but they weren't very familiar either, mostly just acquaintances who hadn't spoken much.

But even so, Harry and Ron knew that the people before them were all excellent students in class. They often received praise, earned points for their houses, and had never been heard of having any misdeeds, nor did they break school rules like the Weasley twins. Especially Wade Grey; it seemed no professor disliked him, and he was also the inventor of the Book of Friends...

Facing peers like these naturally created a sense of distance mixed with inferiority and powerlessness, like an invisible shackles binding their limbs and tempers.

The Slytherins also scrambled to their feet. Under the wary gaze of Michael and the others, they looked at each other and did not continue to attack.

Wade ignored these students. He leaned down, helped the disheveled Hermione up from the ground, and examined her long front teeth. Hermione tried to cover her face with her hand, but it was difficult because the teeth were still growing and were almost reaching her shoulder.

The long, slender, white teeth gleamed, looking both terrifying and comical.

The girl whimpered, touching her teeth with a mix of shock and fear, tears welling up in her eyes.

"It's alright, Madam Pomfrey can fix it in two minutes," Wade comforted her, then took off his outer robe and covered Hermione's head with it. "Padma, could you please accompany Hermione to the hospital wing?"

"Of course, leave it to me," Padma replied resolutely, helping Hermione leave and also pulling down her robe to shield those increasingly monstrous teeth, as well as the glances and mockery of others.

With the girls gone, Wade turned to the others, smiled, and said gently, "So—who can tell me what exactly happened here?"

His face was calm, but there was no hint of a smile in his eyes.