Malfoy emerged slowly and unsteadily from the shadows between the trees, his movements were lacking their usual confident swagger.
What immediately puzzled Harry was that this time Malfoy hadn't brought his usual bodyguards Goyle and Crabbe with him for backup.
This was highly unusual and completely out of character, as Harry had clearly seen both of them sitting completely intact in the spectator stands just yesterday during the second task, stuffing their faces with snacks.
Malfoy always traveled with his bodyguards. Always.
Hermione had obviously noticed this suspicious problem as well, her mind immediately recognized the anomaly.
"Malfoy," She said coldly, her tone sharp as ice, "where are your two lackeys? Finally tired of dragging them everywhere?"
"My business has nothing to do with them, Mudblood," Malfoy spat out the venomous slur without any emotion or hesitation, his voice was flat and mechanical.
Ron immediately flushed red that spread from his neck to his ears, his entire body began tensing. His fists clenched tightly as his knuckles turned white, and he took an aggressive step forward. But Hermione quickly reached out and grabbed his arm, stopping him with a firm grip.
Her gaze remained remarkably calm despite the insult, only narrowing her eyes slightly in calculation rather than in being offended.
"Malfoy's not in good shape," She said softly to Harry beside her. "Look at him carefully."
Harry nodded slowly in agreement, his own eyes were observing their opponent. The current Malfoy seemed somewhat... thoroughly depleted? Exhausted beyond normal tiredness.
His complexion was even paler than his usual paleness which was saying something, even faintly showing an unhealthy grayish-blue tinge around his eyes and mouth, like someone suffering from long time illness.
Dark circles shaded his eyes, and his cheekbones seemed more bulging than usual.
In short, he looked thoroughly drained of vitality and life force, like a plant that hadn't seen sunlight in weeks.
He looked strangely like Ron after pulling two consecutive all-nighters desperately finishing homework, or perhaps someone recovering from a serious illness.
"Let's get this started, Weasley," Malfoy's voice came out somewhat hoarse and strained, his tone lacking its usual intolerable arrogance and instead carrying a distinct touch of impatient exhaustion. "I don't have time to waste standing here listening to your pathetic drivel."
Even the typically dense Ron could now clearly see that Malfoy wasn't in good condition at all.
'Wait a minute! This was important!'
'Didn't this mean my chances of really winning had increased greatly from Harry's pessimistic thirty percent?'
Ron's eyes lit up with sudden hope, the corners of his mouth lifting into an eager, predatory smile.
For Malfoy, after all the years of insults and slurs, he wouldn't have any compassion or mercy at all.
He turned deliberately to look at Colin Creevey standing nervously beside him and said loudly with emphasis, making sure Malfoy heard every word: "Colin, make absolutely sure you record this properly. Today's a rare golden opportunity—I want everyone in the entire school to see exactly how I beat Malfoy into the ground."
Colin fumbled frantically with the crystal sphere in his trembling hands, nearly dropping it in his nervousness.
When the crystal sphere finally began to glow with a steady red light, indicating successful activation, he nodded enthusiastically at Ron. "It's ready now. Everything that happens here will be recorded in perfect detail."
"Let's begin then." Ron turned his head back, staring hard at Malfoy with newborn confidence, practically brimming with fighting spirit and determination.
Malfoy gripped his wand tightly in his hand, Harry noticed the grip was slightly unsteady and said without any courtesy or traditional dueling formality: "No matter how many times we do this pathetic dance, the result will always be the same, Weasley. You're just making a complete fool of yourself."
In his eyes, even exhausted, Ron was utterly beneath contempt and consideration.
How could he possibly lose to a mere Weasley? The very idea was absurd.
...….
"You lost, Malfoy."
About ten intense minutes later, Ron stood victorious, mercilessly pointing his wand right at Malfoy, who now lay sprawling on the cold ground having lost his wand in the final exchange.
At this moment, both their school robes were thoroughly tattered from each other's various spells with burn marks, tears, and scorch patterns covering the cloth. But Malfoy was clearly in much worse physical shape overall.
After a fierce bout of magical fighting with spells flying, shields raised and broken, both participants dodging and evading, Malfoy had finally been knocked completely away by one of Ron's surprisingly well-aimed Disarming charm, losing the duel decisively.
"Brilliant, Ron! Absolutely brilliant!"
Harry cheered enthusiastically from the sidelines, pumping his fist, watching his best friend defeat their longtime bully felt even more personally satisfying than winning himself.
From his perspective, Ron's performance just now, while certainly not exceptional, showed tremendous measurable improvement compared to their last encounter weeks ago.
His spell accuracy had improved, his defensive timing was better, and he'd shown actual strategic thinking.
And while Malfoy's mouth had been as vicious as ever throughout the duel, spitting insults between spells, he was clearly not in proper form tonight. He'd even appeared somewhat dazed and slow, his usual sharp reflexes were noticeably dulled.
Ron had keenly seized one of Malfoy's more obvious openings in a moment when Malfoy had stumbled slightly and ultimately won the duel through a combination of improved skill and his opponent's weakness.
"Colin, did you get it all recorded properly?" Ron turned eagerly to ask Colin, his face bearing a triumphant victorious smile that stretched from ear to ear. "Tell me you got that final spell!"
"Got it all! Every single moment!" Colin exclaimed excitedly, practically vibrating with enthusiasm as he held up the glowing crystal sphere in his hands like a trophy. "Including that absolutely brilliant Disarming Charm at the very end that sent his wand flying! You just need to put your eyes close to the surface of the sphere and you can see everything in perfect detail—"
"Reducto!"
Malfoy suddenly lunged up from the ground with desperate speed, clearly having been conscious and aware the entire time. A red light shot explosively from the tip of a spare wand he'd been concealing.
The powerful Reductor Curse struck accurately.
The crystal sphere shattered spectacularly into countless glittering fragments in Colin's shocked hands, the crystalline debris scattering across the ground like fallen stars, each piece still faintly glowing before fading to darkness.
Colin stared in absolute horror at the remains of his precious, painstakingly repaired crystal sphere, watching pieces fall through his fingers.
A shrill and desperate cry of anguish echoed through the night sky, startling birds from nearby trees.
"MALFOY!"
Ron roared furiously as he raised his wand again with shaking hands, but Malfoy had already scrambled with surprising agility back toward the relative safety of the Forbidden Forest's edge.
His breathing turned in heavy, ragged gasps, yet his wand remained steadily pointed at all three of them in warning, keeping them at bay.
"You think... I'd let you... parade that around?" Malfoy's voice came in broken fragments between gasps for air, yet still carried a ruthless, vindictive edge. "Weasley... that was dumb luck. Nothing more."
Seeing Malfoy preparing to flee into the forest, Harry and Hermione behind Ron both reacted simultaneously.
Hermione's Disarming Charm flew past Malfoy's pale cheek by inches, missing him but blasting a charred, smoking mark on the thick tree trunk directly behind him.
Splinters exploded.
Harry's Severing Charm struck its intended mark more precisely, but unfortunately the cutting spell only managed to tear through Malfoy's outer clothing as that expensive dress seemed to carry some kind of sophisticated defensive enchantment woven into the threads, probably placed there by his parents.
However, what happened next as the cut cloth fell away froze everyone completely in place, their hearts nearly stopped beating.
As the torn cloth dropped to reveal pale skin beneath, a sinister mark on Malfoy's exposed left forearm suddenly began emitting an eerie, pulsing green glow in the darkness, it was unmistakable, terrible, impossible to misidentify.
The Dark Mark!
Harry felt the scar on his forehead immediately begin to throb with dull, persistent pain, this was absolutely no psychological illusion or trick of the light.
Ron sucked in a sharp, shocked breath, his face going pale as he became flustered and stammering. "You... you... the Mark... you have the Mark..."
He couldn't even organize his fragmented, horrified words into a complete clear sentence. His mind was spinning with implications.
Seeing his Dark Mark now exposed to eyewitnesses, Malfoy's pupils contracted aggressively. He scrambled back defensively, his back pressing hard against a thick oak tree as if seeking protection.
His breathing had become even more ragged and panicked.
"You don't understand anything at all!" He forced out the words with difficulty, his voice cracking. His left hand gripped his marked right arm tightly, as though trying to cover or suppress it. "None of you understand!"
"Take him down! Now!"
Harry made a spontaneous decision and shouted the order.
All three moved as one, wands rising.
Naturally, Malfoy, exhausted, outnumbered, and now exposed couldn't possibly fight three determined opponents at once in his current condition.
(Colin, particularly, had been kneeling on the ground the entire time, still staring blankly at the scattered remains of his beloved crystal sphere, continuously muttering "My crystal sphere..." in shocked disbelief.)
Malfoy threw himself sideways with desperate speed, and before Harry and the others' hastily aimed spells could reach him, he vanished completely into the deep darkness of the Forbidden Forest.
Watching Malfoy disappear between the trees, Ron looked helplessly at Harry with wide, frightened eyes.
"What should we do?" He asked frantically, his voice climbing toward panic. His face was completely devoid of his earlier triumphant joy of victory. "Harry, what do we do?"
Now the duel's outcome no longer mattered at all, it seemed utterly trivial.
The shocking revelation of the Dark Mark on Malfoy's arm far exceeded anything else in importance. Draco Malfoy was a Death Eater. Or had been marked as one.
Harry stared hard at the direction where Malfoy had disappeared into the forest's darkness, his voice came out as hoarse with stress. "We must tell Dumbledore immediately. Right now."
Hermione quickly walked to the scattered crystal sphere fragments and crouched down, tapping them hopefully with her wand: "Reparo!"
The standard repair charm spread.
But the fragments only trembled slightly, vibrating with magic, before completely and irreversibly turning to fine ash that blew away in the night breeze.
"It's useless," Colin said with utter despair, his voice breaking. "It can't be fixed with normal magic, and all the contents recorded inside are permanently gone too."
"I'll replace it for you, I promise," Harry consoled quickly, placing a hand on Colin's shoulder.
Then he turned his determined gaze to the other two. "You two go immediately to notify Dumbledore or Professor Westeros, whichever you can find faster. Malfoy is apparently a Death Eater! I'll go into the Forbidden Forest to track and find him before he can escape or hurt someone."
Ron opened his mouth, clearly wanting to object to this dangerous plan, but was interrupted by Hermione before he could speak.
"Be careful, Harry," She said seriously, her eyes meeting his with understanding and trust. "We'll probably need about fifteen minutes to find a professor and bring them back here. Don't do anything stupid."
Harry nodded briefly in acknowledgment, then like Malfoy moments before, quickly disappeared into the Forbidden Forest's threatening darkness, his wand lit and ready.
Hermione understood that having Harry pursue Malfoy was actually the most tactically reasonable choice among limited options.
His magical prowess and combat skills were the strongest of their group by far, even if he encountered some dangerous monster in the Forbidden Forest's depths, it most likely wouldn't be able to seriously harm him.
As for subduing Malfoy, Harry could definitely manage that relatively easily, especially given Malfoy's exhausted state.
"Let's go! Move!" Hermione made a decisive command. "Find Professor Westeros!"
"Why not Dumbledore?" Ron asked, already running but confused about the choice.
Hermione shot him an exasperated look while sprinting. "There's no time to climb eight full flights of stairs and figure out the password! Professor Westeros's office is much closer!"
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