298 age, black market, werewolf

298 age, black market, werewolf

That's Albus Dumbledore's sister - Ariana Dumbledore?

The reason why the Hog's Head canceled hotel services was because Aberforth wanted to conceal Ariana's existence - because she was an Obscurus who was not bound by the Statute of Secrecy?

And Dumbledore is actually reunited with them tonight on this special day of Christmas?

Karan was still thinking about these speculations until he returned to Gobstone's shop.

Mrs. Prince showed a warm welcome to Karan's stay. She kindly helped Karan tidy up the guest room - it didn't take long. Mrs. Prince had already made preparations for it. .

"I rarely see the principal be so anxious."

In the guest room prepared for Callan, Snape carefully locked all the windows to prevent them from being easily opened by uninvited guests.

He looked at Karan and continued: "I guess it must be related to the mysterious person. This is the only thing that can make the principal so concerned."

Karan sat on the soft bed and nodded silently, but his mind was still thinking about the little figure from before.

"Good night."

The door was closed by Snape from the outside, leaving Karan alone in the guest room.

He frowned and murmured again: "The age... doesn't match up."

Although the figure was blurry, Karan could at least tell that it was not an old woman, but more like a young girl.

But if Ariana really survived until now, her age should not be so young.Not to mention her identity as an Obscurus - after so many years, the Obscurus within her will continue to grow and become more terrifying.

Generally speaking, it is impossible for an Obscurus to live beyond the age of ten. This is what Mr. Newt himself said, and it is also the consensus of the entire magical world.

There are only two special examples that Callan knows about - Credence, whose real surname is unknown, and Ariana Dumbledore.

As the sister of Principal Dumbledore, Ariana was accidentally seen by three Muggle boys when she was performing magic as a child. They did terrible things to her, most likely intense persecution.

This is just like the Salem Witch Trials that prompted the introduction of the International Statute of Secrecy. Muggles are afraid of the unknown and are afraid of wizards who can use magic.

The horrific experience made Ariana hate magic and she lost control of it. The magic in her body drove her crazy, making her an Obscurial, and she never returned to normal.

Dumbledore's father taught those Muggles a lesson and was imprisoned in Azkaban, but he did not reveal the reason why he did this: because if the Ministry of Magic knew about Ariana's condition, she would be imprisoned for life. At St. Mungo's Hospital.They will see her as a serious threat to the International Statute of Secrecy because she is insane and her inner magic explodes when she cannot control it.

So the Dumbledore family moved to hide Ariana's existence, and their mother, Kandra Dumbledore, took them to Godric's Hollow, a place famous for the birthplace of Godric Gryffindor.

They kept their names anonymous and rarely interacted with their neighbors, claiming Ariana was in poor health and unable to attend school.

Ariana grew up in the care of her family, which miraculously allowed her to break through the ten-year-old limit and survive successfully.

Until Albus Dumbledore graduated.

When Ariana was 14 years old, the Obscurus inside her exploded again and killed her mother, Kandra Dumbledore.

As a result, Dumbledore had no choice but to give up his plan to travel around the world. In order for Aberforth to complete his studies, as the elder brother, he had to suppress his inner ideals and ambitions, return to Godric's Hollow alone, and shoulder his responsibility as his elder brother. responsibility to take care of Ariana.

But in the same summer, Gellert Grindelwald also came to Godric's Hollow, attracted by the grave of Ignotus Peverell, the third of the three brothers. he.

Two people with the same ideals met each other, and the Deathly Hallows became a means for them to achieve their ideals. Ariana was ignored by Dumbledore, who was obsessed with ambition and power. Aberforth felt strongly dissatisfied with this, and once again Asking myself to drop out of school and take care of Ariana.

An argument breaks out, and soon escalates into a duel. Grindelwald loses control, reveals his inner inhumanity, and casts the Cruciatus Curse on Aberforth.

Ariana rushed to the scene of the duel - perhaps to break up the quarrel, but a spell - cast by someone unknown - struck her.

She is dead.

Grindelwald escapes.

Aberforth never forgave Dumbledore. At Ariana's funeral, he broke Dumbledore's nose with a punch, making the nose always look crooked.

This was also what Callan had seen. He remembered that Dumbledore's nose was broken and had not become intact.

He didn't know whether that little figure was Ariana herself.

But before falling asleep, he once again thought about the Room of Requirement.

and a relic of the school's founder - Ravenclaw's diadem.

Legend has it that it can increase the wearer's [wisdom]...

=========

Early the next morning, Callan was awakened from his sleep by Snape.

"Wake up, Karan!"

Karan rubbed his eyes and sat up.

"Can you still have a good night's sleep?" He muttered dissatisfiedly: "When I was in the dormitory, I was often woken up by the two guys, Guspard and Steve, and most recently, Weier. , and now it’s you again..."

But before he could finish his words, Snape handed over a copy of the Daily Prophet.

After seeing the headline on the front page, Karan immediately sobered up.

"Werewolf Riot!" 》

[It is said that as one of the most unstable factors in the magical world, werewolves have behaved strangely in recent days, and then they attacked a shop in the black market together, causing the death and injury of many wizards.The injured have been sent to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Magical Maladies for treatment, but their mental state is extremely abnormal - which is not surprising, no one wants to become a werewolf. 】

The photo accompanying the text is of a strange-looking shop. There are corpses of various large dark creatures hanging outside, including inferi and zombies. However, those corpses have been damaged, and the shop has become broken, with scattered bricks and tiles. It fell all over the streets, and even a big hole was broken in the roof, revealing the empty shelves inside. Many people were rolling on the ground in pain, and some even stopped breathing and remained motionless.

Judging from the time, this photo was taken at night. The area not illuminated by the flash was just dark, revealing a few sneaky figures, who seemed to want to take advantage of the opportunity.

Karan looked at the photo carefully.

"This is the black market..."

He remembered that Mundungus Fletcher was responsible for the Order's black market sources.

"This is the first time I have seen a black market. It looks a bit like Knockturn Alley, only it looks more broken...and more evil."

Snape gave him a strange look. This was not the purpose of his hurry to bring the newspaper.

"Look at the time." Snape could only point to the newspaper and said, "The attack happened last night, almost the same time as when we met Principal Dumbledore. Don't you think there is any relationship between this?"

"Of course it does!"

The third voice in the guest room startled Snape, and the two of them quickly looked toward the door.

Dorcas Meadows appeared here at some unknown time. Her hair was messy, and the blue witch robe she often wore was stained with a lot of blood. Her sleepy eyes revealed a serious meaning.

"I was at the scene at the time, and Principal Dumbledore was the first person I notified."

She closed the door without anyone noticing, blocking the sight of Mrs. Prince who was looking in curiously.

After pulling up a chair and sitting on it, Meadows cast a few spells on the door, and then said to Snape, who was still in a daze: "I have already said hello to Mrs. Prince. My identity is the school." A former professor came to visit his students.”

"And you probably don't want her to hear what you say next. After all, you don't even want to tell her about the secret room."

Snape opened his mouth. He hadn't completely recovered yet and didn't know what to say.

But Meadows' tough attitude made Snape vaguely feel that the werewolf riot seemed to have something to do with him, and was very likely to be detrimental to him - because this was exactly what he didn't want to say to Mrs. Prince. ——Prince had endured enough, and Snape didn't want her to worry about him.

"I worked all night last night and finally found some clues."

Although this was not a suitable conversation occasion. Snape was wearing pajamas and Karan was still half under the quilt, but Meadows still said quickly: "The attack by the werewolves must have been premeditated, and it can There are not many people gathered together, and they know that the Ministry of Magic has always disliked werewolves, and if they make a mistake, they are likely to be punished more severely, or even directly imprisoned in Azkaban."

"But like I said, there aren't many people who can bring them together, let alone those who are willing to risk offending the Ministry of Magic..."

"Mysterious man." Karan suddenly said: "Only a mysterious man has such a powerful appeal."

After saying this, Karan suddenly thought of something.

Professor Kettleburn had been manipulated by Voldemort since his appearance in Knockturn Alley last holiday.What he met at that time was actually Voldemort, and it was Voldemort himself who rescued him from the siege of werewolves.

Karan thought of what the werewolf leader Fenrir Greyback said at that time.

[This won't last long, you know what I mean. 】

He was obviously threatening Professor Kettleburn (Voldemort), and later Professor Kettleburn (Voldemort) said something to himself.

[If you want to deal with these beasts, you have to be more ruthless than them. 】

It seems that even though Voldemort looked down on werewolves, he finally conquered them.

This is not something that Karan can prevent in advance, because even if the werewolf does not surrender to Voldemort, he is not welcomed by others because of his identity, and is even ostracized by the entire magical world.

I believe that Dumbledore should have anticipated this situation - because werewolves are dark creatures, this is Voldemort's first choice to conquer them.

"That's right." Meadows didn't know what Karan was thinking, but still looked directly into his brown pupils and said, "This is exactly what I saw with my own eyes after following him."

Upon hearing this, Snape and Karan's eyes suddenly changed. They did not expect that Meadows would be so bold, not only being at the scene of the attack, but even daring to take risks.

Although the specific number of werewolves was not mentioned in the report, judging from the extent of the destruction of the tunnel, it was definitely a fierce battle.

Meadows seemed to know what the two of them were thinking. She chuckled and fiddled with her wand with her fingers.

She did not explain the stalking, nor did she describe the unavoidably frightening process. Instead, she directly stated the result: "I saw the werewolf with my own eyes - Fenrir Greyback and an unknown person. The wizard in black robes is definitely a Death Eater, and this attack was most likely planned by Voldemort himself."

"I wanted to catch them and torture them for some information, but unfortunately they managed to escape."

The fierce battle was ignored by her with understatement, leaving only the blood-stained witch robe silently describing how dangerous the experience last night was.

"It's all that coward Mundungus' fault!"

Meadows suddenly said with disgust: "If he hadn't wanted to escape, I might have really caught them, and I could also know who the sneaky Death Eater is - these damn guys are very hidden. Deep, it’s very difficult to catch one, they don’t even know who the other Death Eaters are, they all just follow the orders of the mysterious man!”

[Mundungus?An Order member responsible for black market information? 】

Karan was stunned for a moment. Judging from Mundungus's desire to escape, it seemed that he didn't know about the werewolf attack on the store. This also meant that he had other purposes for taking Meadows to the black market.

After asking, Meadows explained: "That's true. We just happened to encounter that group of werewolves. Our original purpose was to go to the black market to buy things."

"To buy mature mandrakes," she said.

"It will take several months for the Adelaide in the school greenhouse to mature. Mundungus got the news that there was mature Mandrake in the black market. Only then did Principal Dumbledore lift the ban on me and let me Protect him all the way.”

"I guess you will be able to see the cured Regulus and Mrs. Norris by the time school starts again."

While she was drinking tea, Snape whispered to Karan: "I would rather they didn't buy enough mandrakes and could only cure Regulus."

Karan nodded quietly: "I would also like to see Mrs. Norris continue to lie down."

Mrs. Norris had caused him a lot of trouble during his secret night walks in the first half of the semester, which made it difficult for him to count the number of stairs in the castle.

"what are you guys saying?"

Meadows suddenly asked: "Are you talking about Mrs. Norris? I hope she gets better soon?"

The two looked at each other silently, neither of them answered.

Meadows continued: "I didn't expect that Mrs. Norris would be so popular among the students. It was me who suggested that Filch raise a cat."

Now, the two of them became even more speechless.

After the silent embarrassment, Karan asked: "Then why did you come today? Just to tell us these things?"

"Or...a curse?" Snape couldn't help but asked in a low voice. He had been thinking about those mysterious black magic marks. This was probably a black magic that had existed for thousands of years. It was very rare, so He couldn't help but wonder what results Meadows had achieved.

"Your method is feasible." Meadows said first. She stared at Snape with strange eyes. She didn't expect that a second-year student would bring such a big surprise to her.

"Studying these black magic by creating spells is a feasible way. After all, the curse is on me now, and no one knows them better than me. It just takes a while to get results."

Snape smiled as if he was relaxed, but the way he smiled was a bit weird, and the slightly twisted corners of his mouth made Meadows think he had contracted some disease and was frozen.

After staring at Snape weirdly for a while, Meadows raised her beautiful eyebrows. She turned to look at Callan and also showed a smile.

This looked much prettier than Snape's smile, but the words she spoke next made both of them feel less beautiful.

"The rioting werewolves will most likely target you."

There was silence in the guest room.

Outside the guest room, Mrs. Prince was holding a plate of cut fruits and was standing in front of the door, hesitating whether to knock on the door.She didn't know Meadows and had even been out of touch with the wizarding world for a long time.Only after hearing her say that she was a professor at Hogwarts did she agree to let her in, intending to see the reactions of Callan and Snape before making a decision.

Obviously, these two children also knew Meadows, but the door had been closed for a long time, and no sound came from inside, which made Mrs. Prince couldn't help but feel worried.

At this time, the door was suddenly opened. Meadows had a beautiful smile on her face. She was "surprised" to see Mrs. Prince. After a brief exchange, she took the fruit plate and then Close the door.

Callan and Snape were shocked to see the expressionless Meadows suddenly become friendly, then turned around expressionlessly and put the fruit plate on the table, as if nothing had happened. Same, he can be called a face-changing master.

But Snape's face was still a little pale from the news about werewolves.

"But... why?" Snape asked hesitantly: "How could a werewolf deal with us?"

Callan replied for Meadows: "It's not just us."

"To be precise, it's all the students who participated in the secret room incident."

Snape's eyes widened, and he murmured in a low voice: "Then there is Lily, but...why?"

"What else could it be because of?" Meadows said calmly: "You have destroyed the mysterious man's plan in disguise, especially you——"

She pointed at Karan and said: "You even killed all the basilisks through transformation, completely destroying Voldemort's ambition to purify Hogwarts."

"Although there is no definite information yet, both I and Principal Dumbledore believe that Voldemort is very likely to regard you as a target of attack - just like the shop in the black market."

She paused, and then added with some disgust: "And now Fenrir Greyback, the leader of the werewolves, likes to attack children the most. He has a criminal record a long time ago."

Not only that, Karan himself knew more.

Among the many wizards Fenrir Greyback attacked was a child.

That was Remus Lupin.