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"No, you can't do this!"
The young wizard let out a miserable, piercing scream.
"No, I can. You provoked me, so you'll have to accept punishment my way."
Dudley smiled cruelly as his hands came down without mercy, producing repeated sounds of 'pap! pap! pap!'.
Annoying kids deserved a good spanking.
Fortunately, Dudley controlled his strength. It hurt a lot, but it wouldn't cause any serious injuries. At most, they would be stuck in bed for a day or two. Otherwise, a few slaps would be enough to turn it into a complete disaster.
In any case, there were magical things like potions. They would probably be back on their feet the next day.
After finishing with one, he moved on to the next.
One after another.
No one escaped.
Anyone who tried to run was immediately grabbed and beaten again by Dudley.
Before long, all the Slytherin young wizards present only had the strength left to lie on the floor and groan softly.
In this round, Dudley was truly the ultimate butt destroyer.
After finishing with all the young wizards, Dudley turned his gaze toward Malfoy, who had already collapsed to the ground in fear.
His light footsteps sounded like heavy hammers, pounding repeatedly against Malfoy's heart.
"Don't come any closer!"
...
Inside a secret room within the Slytherin common room, several older Slytherin students sat around a round table.
Slytherin didn't just have private lounges reserved for prefects. It also had many empty rooms.
On one hand, that was because Slytherin had almost the smallest number of students among the four houses.
On the other hand, the Slytherin common room had been converted from a dungeon.
And that dungeon was far larger than anyone would expect.
It could be said that among the four houses, Slytherin occupied the largest area.
In terms of the number of rooms, it even surpassed Gryffindor and Hufflepuff combined.
It was worth remembering that Hufflepuff had the largest number of students in Hogwarts.
Most of these empty rooms had been turned into meeting rooms by the Slytherins.
Secret gathering places.
And the older Slytherin students had taken over one of them.
Malfoy's desperate scream echoed through the room, causing one of the Slytherins to stand up abruptly.
He was tall, had a buzz cut, and an ordinary face that would easily disappear in a crowd.
The only noticeable feature was his large protruding teeth.
"Marcus, what are you planning to do?"
As soon as Marcus stood up, he heard a cold reprimand from behind him.
The one who spoke was the young man seated at the head of the table.
He was the seventh-year prefect of Slytherin.
The student called Marcus was the current captain and Chaser of the Slytherin Quidditch team.
"I want to go take a look."
Marcus lowered his head, not daring to meet the other's gaze.
The prefect simply waved his hand.
His tone resembled the way Malfoy spoke, but without that forced arrogance. It sounded much more natural.
"It's just a conflict between younger students. Nothing serious. We don't need to get involved."
"But it's Draco. Lucius Malfoy's only son."
Marcus emphasized.
The Flint family had good relations with the Malfoy family. There was even some distant kinship between them.
"So what?"
The prefect replied calmly.
There wasn't a trace of emotion in his voice.
He simply looked at Marcus quietly.
Under that gaze, the little courage Marcus had gathered vanished instantly.
He spoke weakly.
"He's being bullied right now!"
"So?"
"What does that have to do with us? What does it have to do with you?"
The prefect questioned.
"I…"
Marcus flushed red, stammering for a long time before finally managing to say something.
"I think we should help him…"
Before the prefect could respond, another Slytherin sitting on his left spoke up.
"Haven't we helped him enough already?"
"We didn't stop the second- and third-years. And if you include the first-years, do you know how many people that was?"
"The entire common room was covered with a Silencing Charm to keep anyone outside from hearing. That way he could make as much trouble as he wanted."
"And what was the result?"
Even without knowing exactly what had happened in the common room, Malfoy's miserable scream made it obvious.
"Malfoy is still a Slytherin."
Marcus insisted again.
This time his voice was even weaker.
"The other boy is a Slytherin too."
The prefect seemed irritated by those words, his tone suddenly rising.
"Listen, Marcus. Malfoy gathered those people. Malfoy started the trouble."
"If he can't win on his own, what does that have to do with us?"
"We're not the families of Vincent and Gregory. And we're certainly not the Malfoy family's dogs. We don't need to clean up his mess."
"And besides, the other one is that Potter's cousin. You know who I'm talking about."
In the British wizarding world, nearly all pure-blood families were related to one another in some way.
Even the Potter family could trace connections to almost all of them.
And the name Harry Potter was practically a taboo among pure-blood wizards.
Especially among those who had once been Death Eaters.
Just as Voldemort inspired fear among ordinary wizards, Harry Potter carried a certain intimidating weight as well.
Before figuring out how he had defeated the Dark Lord—and whether he himself was some powerful and sinister dark wizard—pure-bloods would always treat him with caution, respect, and sometimes even friendliness.
Of course, that didn't mean they would stop others from testing him first.
"Malfoy has so many resources at his disposal. If he can't even handle something this small, why should we help him?"
"Just because his family is rich? Or because his father is important?"
Malfoy's childish habit of constantly flaunting his father's name easily irritated others.
Especially those whose families were no less prestigious than the Malfoys.
What, is he the only one in the world with a father?
"Remember. We are Slytherins, not kindergarten babysitters."
"We don't have time to play childish games like that."
The prefect's voice gradually softened as he spoke earnestly to Marcus.
"Do you still remember Slytherin's principle?"
The question left Marcus speechless.
He thought for a long moment before answering hesitantly.
"Pure-blood supremacy?"
"Wrong."
"Interest above all. Ability above all."
"The winner is king. The loser is trash."
"How many times have I told you that, you idiot?"
The prefect's voice was already full of impatience.
In his heart, he kept cursing silently.
'That idiot from the Flint family.'
After a while, he calmed down and spoke seriously to Marcus again.
"Marcus, you're already in your fifth year."
"We'll be graduating in the next year or two."
"We don't have the time or energy to keep teaching you."
"From now on, you'll have to rely on yourself."
"You already failed in the competition to become a prefect."
"Don't make me regret choosing you as the captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team."
"And don't disgrace your family name."
Marcus still glanced toward the door from time to time.
It was clear he hadn't really absorbed those words.
The prefect was starting to lose his patience.
In the end, he simply shook his head and sighed.
'They were the ones who chose him. Even if he's useless, what can we do?'
"If you really want to help Malfoy, go inform Professor Snape."
"But if I were you, I wouldn't do that."
"Anyone capable of defeating that many people can't be simple."
"At the very least, you couldn't do it, Marcus."
"If I were you, I'd try to befriend him."
The prefect felt he had already done everything he could.
If Marcus still insisted, then it had nothing to do with them.
After all, they would graduate soon anyway.
...
In the common room, Dudley had already walked up to Malfoy, who was sitting on the floor curled into a ball.
Ignoring the repeated cries of "Don't come any closer!", Dudley grabbed Draco's head with one hand and forcibly turned him toward himself.
Then he leaned forward.
His face slowly drew closer, growing larger and larger in Malfoy's desperate eyes.
Until the two of them were face to face.
Malfoy could clearly hear Dudley's heavy breathing.
At that moment, he once again remembered the terror he had felt in Madam Malkin's shop.
The feeling that he was about to be devoured.
Dudley slowly opened his mouth.
Two rows of white teeth appeared under the dim green light.
They looked terrifying.
Faced with that scene, Malfoy let out a dry sound.
"Glk."
His eyes rolled back.
And he fainted.
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