Boom!
Shattered specks of magical light drifted through the air.
It was a beautiful sight, yet it was filled with danger enough to make one tremble.
Because the malicious surge of magic, and the magical light from the wand pointed their way, both made one thing clear.
The one who had come meant them harm!
...
Familiar dark magic.
An undisguised cold laugh.
But compared with the shock and wariness of being attacked, the attacker's true identity was what really stunned Draco and Hermione.
Seeing Snape emerge from the darkness, Hermione murmured doubtfully, "Was that to confirm our identities...?"
"..."
"..."
Clearly, what Hermione really wanted to say was this.
Perhaps Snape had used this method to confirm that the people who had appeared here were not the Death Eaters secretly following him, but Draco and Hermione.
In Snape's eyes, only a wizard who could react in time and counterattack with the same dark magic would be the Draco he was waiting for.
Mm... That was the only explanation Hermione could come up with.
Only.
Perhaps even Hermione herself did not believe it.
Otherwise, her expression would not have been so tense, and she would not still have her wand raised at Snape across from them...
As for suspecting that Snape was someone else in disguise?
If the dark magic just now had not been Sectumsempra, perhaps Hermione would have used that reason to convince herself.
In fact, Draco did not offer any excuse for his godfather, nor did he say anything to justify what had just happened.
A misunderstanding?
A slip of the hand?
Or had Snape mistaken them for someone else?
No matter what the reason was, Draco only believed what he had seen with his own eyes.
At least for now, he had no intention of lowering his weapon first...
...
Boom!
His robes billowed violently.
A terrifying surge of magic erupted from Draco's body.
Facing a powerful wizard like Snape, Draco naturally had no intention of hiding his strength or holding back.
Or rather, he had no room to hold back at all...
Was this worthy of the Chamber of Secrets secretly built by Slytherin?
This place seemed able to block all detection, and it could even violate the various restrictions set by Hogwarts.
Because of that, no matter what kind of magic was used here, it was possible, and the wizards in Hogwarts Castle would not notice anything unusual at all.
Just like the battle between Norberta and the Basilisk back then. No one had noticed it, not even Dumbledore.
In a sense, perhaps this Chamber of Secrets beneath Hogwarts Castle was the true inheritance of Slytherin.
In other words, even if Draco and Hermione were killed here, no one would ever find out!
Crack!
"Hermione!"
"I know!"
The instant space twisted and Snape vanished, Draco shouted to Hermione.
Hermione, understanding what Draco meant, answered with a clear cry.
Destination, determination, and deliberation!
Crack!
Crack!
The three of them appeared from the air again and again, attacked, then vanished once more.
The scene unfolded inside the Chamber of Secrets like a feast of magic...
In that short span of time, every side of the Chamber of Secrets was blasted by all kinds of scattered magic.
Those magical marks had all been left by missed spells and Jinxes.
Just when it seemed that the magic was about to strike one of them, that figure would vanish into the distorted air.
That was Apparition.
And what Draco, Hermione, and Snape were displaying now was an extremely advanced technique in wizard dueling.
Continuous Apparition!
...
This attacking technique required more than mastery of Apparition and precise magical control. During the process, one also had to cast offensive magic at the enemy.
If it were only using Apparition to avoid attacks, that would indeed not be too difficult. With some time and practice, it was not impossible to master.
But once Apparition and attacking were combined, the difficulty rose by an enormous degree, far beyond what an ordinary wizard could use.
The true threshold for this technique lay in the application and perception of space, as well as the ability to divide one's attention and cast offensive spells while appearing.
Aside from talent, it also required a certain amount of effort...
In fact, even Hermione, with her exceptional learning ability, had not truly mastered this technique yet.
At this moment, she was only using Apparition to dodge.
The one truly fighting Snape, exchanging attacks back and forth with him, was Draco...