Seeing Hermione’s legs trembling slightly, Evan approached her.

  Hermione turned her head and looked back at Evan uneasily. Panic showed in her brown eyes, as if she was to say something, but she opened her mouth and nothing came out.

  Evan knew that she should be nervous to the extreme.

  Compared to the rest of them, she was the only girl present, facing monsters like the Inferi. The pressure put upon her must be immense.

  Without hesitation, Evan gently held Hermione’s little hand, her palm was all sweaty.

  Hermione, like a frightened fawn, subconsciously wanted to pull her hand back.

  Evan didn’t let go, then she seemed to realize that it was him holding her hand and her face turned red.

  “Evan…”


  “Don’t be afraid, Hermione” Evan comforted her and said, “We’ll be all right, believe me, no matter what dangers may come, I will protect you.”


  “I know, I believe you,” Hermione nodded stiffly. With a reassuring smile, she took Evan’s hand and said in a firm voice,” I said it before; I’ll always believe in you.”


  Looking at Evan and Hermione whispering, Harry hesitated for a moment and quietly moved forward to Sirius.

  He also had something to say to Sirius, his godfather.

  “Harry, are you scared?” Sirius did not look back. He looked gloomy as he looked at the lake in front of him.

  “I’m not scared,” Harry shook his head, unsure, “But I’m a bit nervous. I never thought that things would turn out like this…”


  “Yeah, I didn’t think things would develop like this.” Sirius was silent for a moment, and said with a complicated look: “I thought my brother Regulus was a stupid weak fool, but he was braver than I thought. In order to stop Voldemort’s plot, he paid with his life. I thought that Pettigrew was trustworthy, and suggested that he should be James and Lily’s Secret Keeper, but he was a despicable traitor. It was me who killed James and Lily.”


  Harry heard Sirius speaking about his parents, and didn’t know what to say.

  He didn’t know how to comfort Sirius. In his opinion, Black didn’t have to blame himself for the death of his parents.

  “Sirius…”


  “I have been looking at the wrong person, I didn’t think about it, and I never thought of it…” Sirius’s mouth showed a bitter smile, frustrated, “It’s all my fault. I screwed up everything, that was the case with James, and the same goes with Regulus. If I could have talked to him that year, he probably wouldn’t have died… ”


  “He is a hero, Sirius.”


  “Yes, he is.” Sirius wiped his eyes and said with relief, “Harry, although I have been always misreading people, there’s one thing I’m sure about: you’re very much like your father, James. This is something that that I can’t be wrong about. I am proud of you.”


  Harry looked at Sirius. Although he had always heard others say that about him, said by Sirius, it was especially meaningful.

  “Well, this is not the right place for such a pleasant chat.” Sirius regained his usual regard and continued. “Come on, you can stand in front and let me see your dueling skills.”


  When everyone signaled that they were ready, Dumbledore tapped the stone basin with his wand and made a faint echo.

  In the stone basin, the center of the green liquid, which could not be touched by anyway, suddenly appeared a ripple, spreading from the inside to the outside.

  It was like a signal. The surface of the lake was no longer mirror-smooth; it was churning.

  Evan looked up and saw a large herd of Inferius appearing in the dark lake.

  White heads and hands were emerging from the dark water, men and women and children with sunken, sightless eyes were moving toward the rock.

  “Petrificus Totalus!” yelled Harry in panic.

  He pointed his wand at the nearest Inferius, and a red light hit him. He fell backward into the water with a splash; but immediately scrambled to his feet.

  His withered hands crawled across the lake. His hollow, misty eyes stared at Harry. He was dragging his waterlogged rags behind him, and his sunken face looked grim and disdainful.

  “Don’t worry, Harry, it shouldn’t be done like that,” Sirius said. “The Full Body-Bind Curse does not have such range. You have to wait until they get into the right range to attack.”


  Harry nodded, held his wand in his hand and kept an eye on the Inferius.

  Two seconds later, the Inferius climbed onto the rock, holding up his white hands by the lake and crawled forward as if to pounce on Harry.

  “Petrificus Totalus!” Harry bellowed again, swiping his wand through the air.

  The red light flashed, the Inferius stumbled and fell down to the ground without scrambling to his feet.

  “A good attack, that’s what it’s like, aiming at their heads.” Sirius waved his wand and screamed a few spells. At the same time, he knocked down the three or four Inferi and shouted excitedly. “Good, Harry. Let’s try the Impedimenta and the Incarcerous Spells. You have learned these two spells I believe.”


  On the other side, Evan and Hermione were also fighting.

  It could be seen that Hermione’s theoretical knowledge was very strong. She knew a lot of curses, and she mastered the specific skills of their casting. However, she was weak in actual combat ability, and she always shot off or pissed the critical hit.

  Evan knew that this was mainly due to a psychological factor.

  Although Hermione didn’t say anything, and she didn’t want Evan to worry about her, deep down she was afraid of those Inferi.

  For this, the others had no way to help. Only Hermione could overcome it.

  Evan looked at Hermione while knocking down a few Inferi.

  He turned his head and looked at Dumbledore. The Headmaster held his wand and didn’t attack. He kept watching them all the time. There was no emotion in his blue eyes.

  Evan thought about it and understood that Dumbledore was protecting them. He began to try stronger magic.

  A white light flew out from the end of his wand. But though gashes appeared in their sodden rags and their icy skin, they had no blood to spill. They walked on, unfeeling, their shrunken hands outstretched toward him.

  Evan nodded. As he had imagined, a spell like Sectumsempra, which had a greater damage to the body surface, was of little use against the Inferi.

  They didn’t feel pain, they were not afraid of such injuries. That didn’t even slow them down.

  With such enemies, this powerful magic wasn’t as useful as the Full Body-Bind Curse, Impedimenta and other magic of that kind.

  Evan tried to attack a few more times. Dumbledore had just said that the best way to deal with the Inferi was to use fire, but Regulus had not yet been found, and it couldn’t be done. He was not in a hurry, but instead treated those Inferi as experimental subjects, ready to try Transfiguration and several other powerful spells.

  A few days ago, he had a duel with Snape, which gave Evan a great inspiration. He had never thought that magic could be used in that way before.

  He was going to practice with these Inferi, which was a rare opportunity, not only without danger but also to improve his spell-casting skills.