I, Hogwarts Second Time Around.

Chapter 368 Goddess Under the Stars

Harry called out and then immediately rushed out as well.

On the deck, Hermione took out the flying skateboard invented by the twins. Although it was June, the cold sea breeze still made her wear thick clothes.

She wore a black cloak over her head, and a simple, long dress covered her legs.

Black stockings encased in brown traveler's thigh-high boots, her feet on a skateboard, as she surged off the deck, just like she had done with a surfboard in the water.

The sea breeze howled through the air, blowing her shawl and making her long, flower-like dress disheveled in the wind.

Her hood was blown off by the wind almost immediately.

Hermione simply stopped wearing a hood, as it would obstruct her vision.

"That's—Hermione Granger!"

In less than a minute, she reached the wound on the battlefield.

Many of the wizards present recognized her.

It wasn't just because Sirius Black and Professor Lupin were here, nor were all the professors from the two great magic schools present; it was because of the reports on the tournament that wizards throughout Europe remembered this powerful little witch from Hogwarts.

"Hermione!"

Professor Lu Ping's voice could be heard from the water.

He was the first wizard to notice a familiar figure flying across the sky.

This is related to his beast-like alertness.

He heard it.

In the wind and rain, Miss Granger's gaze pierced through the layers of veil and landed on Professor Lupin.

But she did not reply.

She has just drunk the ultimate magic potion.

The magical surge brought about by the potion made her body feel as if it were on fire.

Yes—she has that kind of magic too.

She has the potions that Owen possesses. She also has the magic that Owen doesn't have.

This does not mean that Hermione's magical talent surpassed Owen's, and that she invented many potions.

Instead—Owen gave most of his magic to Hermione.

Because he doesn't use it often.

His magic, compared to that of a normal young wizard, was like the difference between a stream and a lake, and this difference only increased with age.

In addition, the ancient magic allows him to unleash more powerful spells with less magic power, so Owen rarely uses potions.

In this world, he basically doesn't need magic to fight against human wizards. It's only when he encounters non-human beings and needs to unleash a large amount of Origin Magic or War Magic that his magic might be depleted.

So most of the potions he brewed were in Hermione's pocket.

Carry only essential items with you, such as white pepper.

Irving had a premonition about this trip, which is why he brought extra supplies.

Professor Lupin's voice drew the attention of most wizards to the sky above China, where a young girl was parting the clouds.

They looked up—up high in the sky, where the dark clouds were gradually being obscured by a silky black mist.

Then the same stars flowed from the tip of Hermione's Grapevine Wand.

The sky was dark, but the stars shone brightly.

This scene resembles a lakeside in the mountains, slowly enveloped by mist.

This is very common at Hogwarts. Even outside of winter, in the spring and autumn, frosty fog would slowly roll down from the mountains and gradually cover the Black Lake.

The only difference is that, at this moment, it is the sky that is being obscured.

What obscured the sky was not fog, but stars.

The stars in the sky are reflected on the turbulent sea.

The wizard's ship sailed slowly on it—they were having a sweet dream, and they met a witch under the stars.

"Creation—Star—Rain!"

A resolute yet crisp sound rang out from high above.

The next second, the Milky Way scattered brilliant points of light.

This time, it's not star amber rising from the sea, but a real shooting star falling from the sky.

What wonderful magic!

All the wizards couldn't help but sigh.

Inside the curtain, the sea and sky were reversed, and star amber rose from the sea. They could not see the full view of the Milky Way, so they were very impressed by the star amber, but not so much by the Milky Way on the sea.

This time—the dazzling light overhead forced them to look up.

The sky is depicted through the pupils.

The moment a meteor streaks across the sky, humans unconsciously think of 370,000 years ago.

The human ancestor, with his high brow and cheekbones, long, thin lips, and dark skin, was gazing at the night sky with his deep eyes. Silver light reflected in his black pupils. Perhaps the curiosity to look up at the stars has always been rooted in the human heart and has never ceased.

However, the starry sky before modern humans is always obscured by various kinds of dark clouds, making it impossible for them to see the magnificence behind those clouds.

"boom!"

It trailed a long tail of flame.

In the brilliance, the star-shaped amber fell into the sea.

The bubbles imprisoned by the wizard were also within the range of the star shower.

At this moment, the watching wizards were astonished to see that the ominous signs that had been swallowed by the meteors, died in the air, and turned into fireworks, were indeed dead.

They will not come back to life.

The writhing limbs turned into some kind of ashes and scattered on the sea surface.

For a time, the sea was covered with this ash.

And that girl who still perseveres, scattering stars across the sky!

He still held the magic wand aloft.

Slowly descend.

Take the sky with you.

For a moment, people were stunned.

What a girl she was—her whole body shone with the brilliance of stars, her messy brown hair danced in the air, strands of it reaching the sky.

Her handsome face exuded seriousness, calmness, and aloofness, like a goddess under the starlight.

She wasn't particularly beautiful.

Compared to Hibiscus, Gabrielle, and Koyatl, the Mediterranean wizards, accustomed to the beauty of sirens, would only rank that girl's appearance at the very bottom of their list.

But if in the future, there is a vote to select the most beautiful witch in the world, then today, the unforgettable memories of this life will be revived in their consciousness, and they will cast their vote without hesitation, dedicating it to the goddess under the starlight.

"roar!"

A roar came from the sea.

The fallen star attracted elusive creatures from miles away—and even further—who converged on this place without warning, quickly gathering around Miss Granger.

And that's exactly what she wanted.

Hermione once used this method to capture Rita Skeeter; although the method was different, the principle was the same.

You need to create a big spectacle first.

This is how you lure those fools into walking into your trap.

"Origin - Extreme-Cold-Wind-Storm!"

When Hermione landed a dozen feet above the sea, she unleashed the next spell that she had been holding in her wand for a long time without saying a word.

This time, it was a cloud of white mist.

It is purer and whiter than the mountain fog that sweeps across the land in black mist.

In an instant, it was as if someone had poured liquid nitrogen into the surrounding area.

The sea was visibly frozen over.

Then it spread rapidly to even more distant places.

Hermione hadn't been learning this spell for long; she'd only started practicing it in the last month or so, but with the potion's enhancement, it was still spectacular.

The entire sea area, about half a nautical mile long, was affected by her wand, and the ice crystals even spread to more distant places, but they no longer had any practical effect there.

"Oh my God!"

"I can't even describe it in words."

"I heard she's a junior wizard at Hogwarts, only in her fifth year. A fifteen-year-old girl."

"Fifteen years old! Merlin's beard, I feel like I'm a Muggle, she's the real wizard, I've wasted over thirty years of my life."

Amidst the surrounding, resounding whispers.

Hermione landed on the ice.

Just a few feet away from her, there was a group of frozen figures, holding sharp knives and assuming an attack stance.

He was wearing a familiar human cloak.

Through the cloak, she could see those handsome faces.

They are all sea sirens of this sea area.

However, due to bad luck, their entire tribe was coerced by an external god and thus became the god's flag.

The cloaks they wore, draped with human faces, were likely made from their own relatives—what a heinous crime!

Even the most evil dark wizard couldn't have done something so horrific.

"Death may be a kind of freedom for them."

Hermione no longer hesitated.

She focused the Milky Way overhead, reducing its area to the surroundings. This would increase the density of the star amber.

Then she began to cast another stargazing spell.

That was a powerful magic created by an ancient wizard who glimpsed the moment a massive star cluster was destroyed.

"Origin Stream - Destruction Meteor!"

Unlike the Creation Meteor Shower, the Destruction Meteor releases twelve darker, sharper, and larger meteors.

The biggest difference is that wizards can control these meteors, unlike the Creation Star Rain which can only control star clusters and has no way to control the star amber.

For the Godskin Messenger, a better option would actually be a continuous spell like Soul Torrent, but there were too many enemies around. She could only control the twelve meteorites of Destruction Meteor, rotating around herself and then slowly pushing outwards, like a meat grinder. The rapidly spinning meteors ensured that they could rotate several times in a second, killing monsters seven times in two seconds.

Miss Granger held up her wand.

His face showed pity and sadness.

If her deduction is correct, these creatures are sirens, and what she is doing is annihilating a race.

Although this race had been destroyed by the Outer Gods, all she did was to liberate them, but—when meteors struck the sirens again and again, when their cloaks lit up with the blue light representing their souls, it meant that the soul of a siren had vanished.

This feeling is terrible, absolutely terrible.

But she couldn't close her eyes, because there might be unexpected situations, so she had to pay attention to everything around her at all times.

This was undoubtedly torture for Hermione.

The torment of body and mind.

Perhaps in the dead of night, she will still hear the piercing screams of the sirens.

The process of cleaning up the divine skin messenger went very smoothly.

Source magic is even more powerful than Hermione believed.

Those frozen messengers never broke free. Perhaps this was all a casual act by the gods, weaker than those they encountered on Giant Island, and certainly not comparable to the ancient messengers Owen met at the core of the World Tree.

From them, one can clearly see a decline; the gods are becoming weak.

————————————————————

"Garona!"

At this time, the battlefield was on the western front.

The ministers of magic from various countries along the Mediterranean coast are gathered on a ship.

Tonks was also present, carrying a Muggle machine that wizards couldn't understand—a metal box with a glass side, like a photograph taken by a magical camera, in which a figure appeared.

"Don't you have a way to deal with that curtain yet?" The speaker was none other than the Italian Magic Chairman.

His tone sounded somewhat displeased, and his face was terribly gloomy.

Unlike the arduous battles fought by wizards on the eastern front.

On the western front, they were completely relegated to a supporting role; the combined fleet's vitality required no wizard's help, not even the later-appearing Godskin Messenger.

Using thermal imaging and infrared sensing technologies, Muggles can fire almost openly, rendering their stealth useless.

Before they could accomplish much, these messengers were killed by the barrage of fire.

Resurrected seven times?

A certain 100mm caliber twin-barreled automatic naval gun stated that it can fire 2500 rounds per minute and has a maximum range of 20 kilometers.

Even if you resurrect seven hundred times, it won't help.

This—made the Magic Chairman very embarrassed.

The Muggle fleet commanders were quite rude to them.

They were practically pointing their fingers at them and yelling – "Damn it, you've caused so much trouble, and now we have to clean up your mess!"

In actual combat, they also had to cooperate with Muggles—after all, the price of not cooperating was that they would be covered by artillery fire as well.

The so-called "joint operation" lasting several hours.

It gave the Chairman the feeling that they were Muggles' servants, that all the orders came from that damned Combined Fleet, and what about them?

This works!

Combination!

They're still fucking cooperative!

When has a wizard ever been so powerless and cowardly?

"Mr. Chairman—" Garona Norton stepped forward, "This veil is a very ancient form of magic, and the giant inside is constantly replenishing its magic. We've had a very difficult time cracking it."

"Don't complain to me!" The president of the Italian Magic Association shouted as he stood up. "Just tell me now, can our people go in or not, and what about that wizard inside?" He paused noticeably as he said this, because he wasn't sure if the wizard fighting inside could even be called a wizard.

"He's about to be defeated—do you know how badly things will go if we lose his harassment and unleash that monster who calls himself a god?"

"I understand perfectly, Mr. Chairman," Garona said humbly, then waved her wand, and a phantom globe immediately appeared in the center of the circular desk.

Next, zoom in—zoom in on the Mediterranean region.

"This veil has its limits," she said, pointing to the illusory image in front of her.

"If our people can reach the upper atmosphere above 60 kilometers, that would be the limit of the curtain."

"60 kilometers?" The Greek female minister tilted her head to look at her. "Can we do that?"

“Absolutely no problem,” Garona said. “With the necessary breathing equipment, a wizard can reach that height.”

"Then let's get started," the Greek female minister said in a deep voice.

"it is good."

"Wait—" Just as Garona turned around to prepare to launch the wizard from the sky in a magical hot air balloon.

Tonks, who had been acting as a Muggle liaison, suddenly spoke up.

She squeezed through the crowd.

He was holding his right ear, where a small earphone was attached.

"Message has come from Brussels (NATO headquarters). We are to evacuate immediately."

"Evacuate?" Upon hearing this, the Italian president immediately roared, "I'm not a Muggle watchdog! I've heard far too many Muggle 'instructions' today. What? Do they want to control the magical world?"

He didn't speak to Tonks.

Instead, he was aiming at the television on the table.

The Muggle generals inside the glass suddenly became busy, constantly answering phone calls to verify something.

"They said," Tonks continued, "it doesn't matter whether we evacuate or not, they're just informing us out of humanitarian spirit. Five more minutes—their attack will be here."

"attack?"

"Five minutes?"

Everyone was puzzled.

Muggle weapons—aren't they just bombs?

What else could it be?

The cargo ship was several nautical miles away from the curtain; what kind of explosion could have affected this area?

"Wait—they wouldn't be...?"

Garona, who was about to leave, immediately realized what was happening.

As a member of the saints, she certainly knew what the so-called Muggle attack was.

More than seventy years ago—before that weapon was even invented—Grindelwald revealed his prophecy to aspiring wizards in Europe. The prophecy included a depiction of that weapon.

Over the years, some of the saints had also learned about that weapon and watched a documentary film from inside a Muggle.

How could they not want to learn about a weapon that can kill hundreds of thousands of people in an instant?

However, the organization's research direction has changed dramatically in recent decades, and the surveillance of Muggles has been greatly reduced.

"Then we really should leave here, quick—" Garona said anxiously.

Ten minutes earlier, on the other side, in Brooklyn.

An emergency NATO summit is being convened.

Inside the huge circular conference hall.

Representatives from various countries are engaged in heated debate at the meeting, with Italians even pointing fingers at the Americans and hurling insults.

The Mediterranean is their most important shipping route, yet they are going to use that kind of weapon on their own doorstep.

It would be strange if Italians didn't curse.

And it wasn't just the Italians; the Greeks were also using foul language.

It's a pity this is a NATO summit, not a UN meeting; otherwise, the countries along the Mediterranean coast could have gathered together in fear and spat on each other to the point of drowning the Americans.

Unfortunately, Germany, France, and the UK, as the de facto leaders of the EU, have tacitly rejected this plan.

Other countries simply cannot get a word in edgewise.

Aside from venting their anger—and spouting words that the translators simply couldn't translate—they had no other options.

They knew that conventional bombardment would have easily torn a hole in the curtain, but those guys still chose that method without hesitation.

As the order from Brussels was passed on.

A submarine silently surfaced in the Atlantic Ocean.

Then, a dazzling tail flame rose, accompanied by plumes of smoke and dust, and the weapon gradually ascended into the air.

There's no time to revise it. I only wrote 5,000 words today; I'll finish it tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)