Chapter 422 Snake, Curse, Dagger
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Quinn’s magic flowed in his veins with the beating of his heart. His interests were blaring sirens about the danger he was in. The ward felt like a wall behind his back, and even though he was off the ground with all other directions open for him to traverse, it felt like he was backed up in the corner.
“You could’ve left the body as it was and still be alive by the end of the day,” Voldemort looked down at him as he hovered over him, “but you had to interfere foolishly. . . now you have made this the last day of your pathetic life.”
“I can say the same for you,” countered Quinn. “Today, because of all of this, could be your last day on the mortal plane. . . an appropriate end to a life that ended up being bookended with failure.”
Voldemort snorted derisively, “You don’t have Dumbledore to occupy me this time, pest.” He looked past Quinn toward Dumbledore, who had already flown back into the castle. “I will end your life as you regret ever thinking of comparing magic with me.”
Voldemort raised his wand that had just ‘killed’ Harry Potter. Quinn sucked in a cold breath as magic rose. It wasn’t the sheer quantity that jittered; it was the speed and smoothness of response that made Quinn bring his magic to the literal tip of his fingers.
There was a bare twitch from Voldemort’s wand — “Avada Kedavra!” — before the killing green ripped towards Quinn. As expected of the Dark Lord, he wasn’t playing around as the travel speed of the spell made literally everyone Quinn had ever faced look like they were casting in slow motion. Quinn’s response wasn’t any slower as a bear head made from ice appeared in front of him and gobbled up the Killing curse.-.
Quinn flexed his fingers, and his magic complied in the form of rings of winds around him, grinding against each other, creating a sharp edge with every rotation. The bear head couldn’t even melt into water for dozens of chakra-shaped discs to fly towards him. Every single one of them could match industrial-grade saws in terms of human shredding power— but all Voldemort had to do was wave his wand like an orchestra conductor for the winds to distort and turn into orbs of battering gales that he sent back to Quinn.
The wind orbs crashed into an array of hexagonal force fields that shook back and forth as the energy dissipated through the edges in the form of thrumming waves.
“Trivial resistance,” scoffed Voldemort and slashed his wand for dark energy to materialize— it looked like the blackish-silver energy had formed a gash in the fabric of space with the way it looked like a knife slash against a taut cloth. Arrows made from the same blackish silver shot out from the gash towards Quinn.
Quinn brought his hands together, and the various individual hexagons came together to form one large hexagon that took in beating from Voldemort’s arrows. Both duelists stared at each other as the hexagonal shield turned a brighter red with every hit.
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When the arrows stopped, Quinn spoke, “You can have that back” — a blazing red tractor beam screeched towards Voldemort, who crossed his wand to conjure a shield of his own, but the counter made from Voldemort’s own energy was strong enough to push back Voldemort a couple feet and make him furrow his hairless brows. He tweaked his wand, and the shield stopped being pushed back and took in the red force like a mountain. When the attack was over, Voldemort de-spelled his smoking shied, but when he gazed at Quinn, he was nowhere to be seen.
“Running already?” Voldemort said, magic amplifying his voice. The ink-black smoke still covered the entirety of Hogsmeade other than the line that Voldemort had cleared. “You can only delay the inevitable this way; you might as well give up now!” He turned to look at Hogwarts for a moment. “I should end this before he comes back. . .”
. . . . .
Quinn had already ducked into Hogsmeade after returning Voldemort’s magic to him in another form. He had to get away from Voldemort because of the ringing in his head. The various snake scouts he had sent to find Nagini had begun to converge on the giant serpent, making the ringing louder and louder.
He needed to hurry and kill Nagini before Voldemort could find him. It was going to be tight, but he was confident he could pull it off. He flew just above the buildings so that he wouldn’t collide with something because the black smoke impaired his vision all the same. He stuck to an altitude and closed in on the location where the snakes were calling him.
‘This is it,’ he stopped but didn’t get down to the ground. He pursed his lips and thought for a moment before raising his hand and shooting a dozen wind orbs in different directions around the village. And that started the clock— Voldemort would detect the wind magic parting smoke as they were big enough magics and head towards them, so he sent a dozen decoys to buy time. The moment the wind orbs reached where he wanted, he stuck one hand down, created another wand, and snapped his finger for the thirteen wind orbs to expand and push the black smoke away.
“Now. . . where are you?” he narrowed his eyes and began looking for the exact location in the general he knew Nagini was. Spotting a giant serpent couldn’t be so hard. He gently spread his magic into the air, and as it wafted over, he gained another sense that worked as a radar.
He lowered his altitude and slowly moved above the streets, trying to sense Nagini, keeping his ears peeled for a slither. That’s when he heard a deep hiss and turned his body to see the snake he was looking for jumping from the edge of the video with her two fangs barred, showing the red of her mouth towards him. Quinn raised his arm, and Nagini dug her massive fangs into him.
“Not so fast.” A wave of magic burst forth and whipped Nagini back. Quinn frowned; his sleeve disappeared to reveal his arm, and he looked at two pin holes in his arm. He put his hand over the holes and pulled it up for dark blood to release from the bite marks. “I’m going to feel this later,” he clicked his tongue.
He dipped into his pocket and pulled out a curved dagger. Nagini, who had been blasted into a wall, collected herself and began to flee in a hurry, which surprised him because he was expecting the giant snake to come at him again. He raised his hand, and an Emperyean chain with a cuff manifested out of his palm and clamped around Nagini’s neck.
“Got you,” he grinned. Quinn got down to the ground and pumped magic into the chain, and Empyrean expanded to pin half of Nagini’s body to the ground. He touched the flat of the dagger blade with his finger, and runes glowed on the steel. The dagger was specially made just for killing Nagini; there was a hollow part in the center of the pipe filled with Basilisk venom, and the runes would pull it out towards the surface and inject it out when he stabbed the snake.
“That’s another one down,” he muttered as he walked towards the snake that was a few feet away from him.
Boom!
Quinn snatched his head up and saw all the black smoke disappear at once to reveal Voldemort flying towards him at full speed.
‘Shit! He’s early!’
He had a choice to make. He could prepare himself for the attack that was about to come and be safe no matter what it could be— or he could kill Nagini and take a chance with Voldemort’s attack, taking a risk with his safety. Many scenarios passed through his mind in a split-second until he made a firm resolution and a plan to go along with it.
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He pulled the dagger into his sleeve and faced his now empty palm towards Nagini.
“Found you, pest!” announced Voldemort as he arrived flying.
Then Quinn chanted — “Avada Kedava!” — and the green struck Nagini’s head, and the giant snake Horcrux passed away without even managing to get a last hiss or twitch. Quinn looked up at Voldemort and raised his arm, “Your snake bit me— it had it coming,” he scoffed, “I hope you don’t mind.”
Voldemort’s mouth was open in a scream of fury that could be heard across the Hogsmeade. “I WILL KILL YOU!” he raged in hatred.
“No longer pest, eh,” Quinn prepared his magic. The shock of seeing his Horcrux being killed gave Quinn enough time to prepare his magic. In the last second, he decided to switch from dagger to Killing curse because he didn’t want Voldemort to be suspicious of why he was stabbing Nagini instead of using a spell.
Voldemort pointed his wand at Quinn and cast a dark curse with a chant full of fury. The horrendous spell burnt the air itself as it raged towards Quinn, filling the area with a foul burning smell. Quinn pulled up a shield, and it took mere two seconds for Voldemort to break it; Quinn quickly pulled two more shields— the first one was shattered again, but the third one stopped the curse, although it crumbled the very next second.
Quinn stretched his arms wide and sent two spells into the buildings on either side. The next moment, the buildings blew up into pieces, but the dismantled material didn’t fly apart hazardously; the materials slowed down as they blew out— and then every piece turned a neon maroon and then rushed towards Voldemort. Every single piece had been turned into an explosive, and the moment they got near Voldemort, they exploded in full bloom.
Quinn took the chance and immediately took to the air. He made a mad fly dash toward Hogwarts, and to his luck, he saw Dumbledore flying on his broom behind the Hogwarts ward. And bless the old Headmaster, as he opened up a part of the ward so that he could enter.
Quinn headed straight towards the red spot in the golden ward.
But then there was a loud pop, and Voldemort apparated between him and Dumbledore. The Dark Lord floated with an ominous presence pouring out of him.
Everything slowed down for Quinn as he tried to change direction. For that moment, everything seemed clear as a diamond, and it was like the world was being with one of the slow-motion cameras.
Voldemort cast a dark curse, and Quinn saw a dirty mustard yellow curse flow toward him. With his flying speed and no previous thought of pushing the breaks, he moved towards the curse as it moved towards him.
Crack!
Voldemort’s spell hit him. Then came the pain. His entire body burned as if someone had thrown a tub of acid over him.
The curse, however, didn’t stop Quinn’s flight forward. He continued to fly towards Voldemort. Quinn had experienced regular pains during the summer when he had lost his magic, so as Voldemort’s magic tormented his body, his mind remained clear. The desperation for survival kicked in, and the response appeared in his mind.
The dagger that he had slipped into his sleeve appeared back in his hand, and with all his momentum, he rammed the venomous blade into Voldemort’s chest.
“Aargh!” Voldemort screamed.
Both of them collided and were sent in different directions.
Quinn had his eyes on the red spot in the gold ward and Dumbledore behind it. He grunted and pushed his magic so he could fly into safety behind the ward— the pain spiked, and he faltered. But then, a rope around his waist, and he was pulled into Hogwarts.
He blacked out but then woke up immediately when he hit the ground. The shock overrode the pain, and Quinn saw Voldemort on the ground outside the ward and yelled, “How do you like that?! You snake fuck!!!” He then coughed up blood.
“Quinn. . . .”
Quinn instinctively turned towards his name being called and saw Dumbledore, along with the other Hogwarts professors standing behind him. Quinn was about to reply with— “What?” — when he realized Dumbledore had called him.
“Dumbledore! How dare you?!” he yelled furiously.
Dumbledore looked unapologetic; instead, there was a look of worry on his face.
“Quinn—”
“Shut up!”
“— your mask. . .”
Quinn froze up. His heart began to beat harder and harder. He reached up to his face, and what he felt was not the hard mask he was expecting; instead, his fingers felt the supple texture of the skin.