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When Voldemort lowered his head and placed his hands on the wounded unicorn, Glenn knew his moment had arrived.
Without hesitation, his right index finger squeezed the trigger.
In an instant, the sniper rifle drained most of Glenn's magical power. The entire weapon began to glow, mysterious black and red patterns materializing on its surface, shrouding it in an ethereal veil. Dark mist billowed outward, enveloping Glenn's figure.
The armor-piercing bullet, enhanced by both alchemy and magic, spiraled through the rifle barrel's grooves before erupting from the muzzle.
The violent recoil transferred through the stock to the exoskeleton on Glenn's right side. The exoskeleton couldn't maintain its form for even half a second before shattering completely. The rifle stock slammed into his shoulder, the kinetic energy transferring through to the tree trunk behind him.
The tree snapped in half instantly as Glenn's small frame was thrown backward.
Thanks to the Silencing and Light-Concealing Charms Glenn had cast beforehand, the bullet's discharge made surprisingly little noise. Propelled by both gunpowder and magic, it spiraled through the air as if traversing space itself, covering over 800 meters in an instant to appear behind Voldemort's head.
Danger!!!!
Though already crouched low with his head down, Voldemort sensed the lethal threat from behind the moment Glenn fired, but it was too late to dodge completely.
True to his reputation as the Dark Lord, even in his weakened state, Voldemort's combat instincts remained terrifying.
Since complete evasion was impossible, he would have to minimize the damage to ensure his survival.
His eyes turned blood-red as he shifted his body left while blindly flicking Quirrell's wand behind him.
"Protego Maxima!" The nonverbal spell instantly created a powerful shield charm, forming an invisible barrier at the wand tip.
While Shield Charms could easily stop Muggle bullets, what about bullets carrying mystical power?
The invisible barrier only delayed the bullet for a moment. When the bullet struck the barrier, its inscribed magical circuits activated, instantly shattering the enhanced Shield Charm.
Glenn's bullet, carrying its remaining momentum, shattered Quirrell's wand and tore through Voldemort-Quirrell's right hand before violently exploding.
"AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"
More like a bomb than a bullet, the tremendous explosion mixed with Voldemort's hateful, agonized scream echoed throughout the Forbidden Forest. The reverberations lingered, startling all the birds from their perches in the treetops.
...
Leaving aside Voldemort's fate for now, let us return our focus to Glenn.
Though spinning through the air after crashing through the tree trunk, Glenn remained conscious despite the intense pain radiating through his right side.
"Arresto Momentum." With his right arm useless, Glenn's pre-prepared wand slipped from his left sleeve. He cast the charm on himself, significantly reducing his falling speed.
Glenn hit the ground and rolled, tumbling five or six meters.
He could feel that all the bones in the right side of his body were shattered. His right arm hung limply at his side, and beneath his tactical suit, his right shoulder was a mess of mangled flesh, with glimpses of stark white bone fragments protruding through the fabric.
He had wrapped his entire body in bandages beforehand - as long as he could leave the scene quickly enough, he wouldn't need to worry about blood trails giving him away.
Still, he was puzzled - his injuries were significantly less severe than he had anticipated.
"Perhaps it's due to that black mist from the wand enhancing my physical constitution," Glenn concluded after brief analysis.
"Ferula." Rolling to his feet, Glenn cast the splinting charm. The pre-prepared bandages and splints beneath his cloak floated up, instantly immobilizing the injuries on his right side.
Without pausing, Glenn maintained his enhancement charms and swiftly retreated along his planned escape route.
The bullet had been fired, and in the moment before the recoil threw him back, Glenn had seen it strike Voldemort. At minimum, Voldemort would be severely wounded. There was no need for concern now - the most important thing was to conceal himself. Who knew if that monster could still pursue revenge with his grievous injuries and half-destroyed soul?
Pushing his concealment charms to their limits, Glenn made it back to the Room of Requirement in less than two minutes. By then, his inner layers of clothing were completely soaked with blood, and his face beneath the hood had grown increasingly pale.
He could vaguely hear increasing commotion throughout Hogwarts - no doubt everyone had been awakened by Voldemort's screams.
After setting the Room's entry permissions, Glenn prepared to treat his wounds.
Ignoring the discomfort and pain coursing through his body, Glenn knew his physical limits well. This level of injury, with magical treatment, wouldn't be fatal.
Drawing a dagger with his left hand, Glenn removed the bandages and splints from his right side. Using the blade, he made a deep incision from shoulder to back of hand, cutting to the bone as the flesh split open.
He made similar cuts from his armpit to his right ribs.
After downing several vials of Blood-Replenishing and Magic-Restoring Potions to replace his rapidly depleting blood and nearly exhausted magic, Glenn steadily raised his wand with his left hand, pointing it at his exposed flesh.
"Accio Fragments," Glenn calmly incanted. White light flowed into his right side as embedded bone fragments were extracted, falling into a pile on the floor.
Pulling out needle and thread, he pointed his wand: "Sutura." The needle and thread came alive, swiftly stitching closed the gaping wounds on his right side.
These two spells were ones Glenn had discovered in "The Complete Book of Household Spells" and modified for emergency medical use.
He caught his breath, his left hand searching his waist pouch, pulling out vial after vial of potions.
Essence of Dittany, Skele-Gro, Quick-Heal, magically enhanced wound-healing paste...
Glenn applied them according to their properties, either pouring them over his wounds or consuming them, not concerned about waste as excess potions dripped to the floor to mix with the pool of blood already there.
After using the final potion, Glenn lightly touched his wand: "Episkey." After healing the most basic surface wounds, he reapplied splints and wrapped himself in bandages.
By now Glenn was covered in blood, lying in a pool of it.
The wound treatment was complete, Glenn thought calmly. He could already feel new bones growing within his body, as tissue between flesh and blood continuously divided, differentiated and reconnected.
The existence of magic and potions greatly increased the margin for error in surviving injuries.
Now all he needed was rest. After using "Incendio" to burn the extracted bone fragments to ash, and "Scourgify" to clean away the blood and ash from the floor as well as the blood and its scent from himself, Glenn willed a pure white bed to appear in the Room of Requirement.
Glenn lay down and, for the first time in a while, fell into sleep.
...He slept for an entire day...
Glenn woke naturally, the previous night's exhaustion gone. He felt vitality flowing through his body once again.
A fluffy head was resting beside him.
It was Hermione.
She sat in a chair, her small face resting on the empty space beside Glenn on the bed, apparently asleep.
Sensing Glenn's awakening movement, the young girl startled awake. Her head shot up, showing slight red marks on her forehead, her eyes unfocused - she clearly hadn't gotten enough sleep.
Seeing Glenn awake, she patted her face to wake herself up more fully before anxiously asking, "Glenn, are you alright? Was last night's commotion related to you?"
The previous night, Voldemort's piercing scream had echoed to the heavens, awakening everyone in Hogwarts. Dumbledore had quickly ordered the Heads of Houses to gather their students in the Great Hall.
When the prefects were counting their house members, Hermione had already noticed Glenn's absence from the Slytherin ranks. She quickly ran to inform Snape and Dumbledore.
All three suspected Glenn might be connected to the night's events, but Hermione was certain the sound that woke them couldn't have come from Glenn. If Glenn wasn't in Slytherin and had encountered danger before escaping, then the most likely place he would be was the Room of Requirement.
Hermione led the two professors to the Room of Requirement, and sure enough, someone was already using it.
Full of anxiety and hope, Hermione tried opening the Room's door and succeeded - whenever Glenn was in the Room of Requirement, he always habitually set an access list, and Hermione's name had never been removed from it.
Rushing in, Hermione immediately spotted Glenn sleeping on the white bed. He appeared unharmed externally, just somewhat pale. Checking his breathing found it steady, and the young girl's worried heart finally settled.
Turning to leave, she indicated to Snape and Dumbledore that Glenn was indeed inside. Dumbledore asked Hermione to help look after Glenn while he and Snape returned to the Great Hall to reassure the young witches and wizards, joining the other professors to investigate what had happened in the Forbidden Forest.
Among the professors, Quirrell's turbaned figure was notably absent. Dumbledore sighed - he had a good idea of what had transpired.
Since Glenn was safe, the source of that agonized scream became clear.
After hearing Hermione recount the previous night's events from her perspective, Glenn admitted, "You guessed correctly - last night's scream was indeed related to me. I found an opportunity to ambush Voldemort." He concisely related what had happened, while Hermione's expression grew worried.
"Were you hurt?" She hadn't dared touch Glenn as he lay in bed yesterday, knowing that carelessly handling an injured person could worsen their injuries. Though uncertain if Glenn was actually hurt, since he was safely sleeping here, she chose not to consider that possibility to avoid causing unnecessary harm.
Thus, Hermione remained unaware of Glenn's injuries.
As for Voldemort?
Why should he matter?
Was he more important than Glenn?
It was only due to her excellent upbringing that Hermione hadn't cursed Voldemort for exhausting Glenn so.
Glenn smiled and patted the young girl's fluffy head. "I'm fine, just tired yesterday."
He wasn't deceiving Hermione - during his self-examination just now, he was surprised to find that after sleeping, his injuries from yesterday had already healed seventy to eighty percent.
Even with potions, such rapid recovery shouldn't have been possible.
But it was a good thing, and Glenn couldn't be bothered to think too deeply about it now.
Looking at the young girl before him, who was already growing drowsy now that her worry had been relieved, Glenn pulled her into his embrace despite her startled exclamation.
The young girl hadn't dared sleep on the bed yesterday, afraid she might accidentally kick Glenn off in her sleep, so she had only managed shallow rest while leaning against the bedside, hardly getting proper sleep at all.
Now that Glenn was awake, how could he ignore the sleepy young girl?
Feeling her warmth in his arms, Glenn once again felt that being alive was wonderful.
"You had a tough time yesterday, but now you should get some proper rest."