“Seven, Seven!”
McCarthy patted the mirror, attracting Seven’s attention.
After a tremor in the mirror, Gobert’s flat, round head appeared in the glass.
“What’s wrong? Pig’s Head Pub is just starting to get crowded…”
“We’ve been tracking the footprints, and now we’ve found that the culprits might be headed near Lake Marenweim.”
McCarthy briefly explained to him:
“There’s news that there’s a Goblin ruin over there, and combined with signs of Goblin metal being used at the scene, we’re worried there might be danger.”
“There won’t be any danger.” Gobert looked extremely confident. “The Pig’s Head Pub owner’s information is very reliable. He said that today, the Principal of Hogwarts, Dumbledore, will be inspecting that Goblin ruin at Lake Marenweim.”
“Oh, is that reliable?”
“Absolutely reliable, the owner said a Professor teaching at Hogwarts told him—hey! A few Goblins just came into the pub, I’m going to go ask them, talk to you later.”
The communication on the two-way mirror was cut off.
“Who is the owner of the Pig’s Head Pub?” Ron looked at Weilan blankly.
Weilan, of course, knew that the Pig’s Head Pub was run by Albus Dumbledore’s brother, Aberforth Dumbledore.
Although Weilan was sure Aberforth could be trusted, he remembered that the relationship between the two brothers seemed strained.
So he could only vaguely tell Ron:
“I don’t know, but I think we can trust the owner’s information.”
“Do I remember? Dumbledore wrote to us and said he would be visiting the Goblin ruins for inspection soon.”
Overhearing this, McCarthy’s hand, which was writing and scribbling in his notebook, suddenly paused, then he wrote in the blank space:
“Weilan Costa, possibly on good terms with the Principal of Hogwarts?”
…
The air grew increasingly humid.
After walking up a slope, the view suddenly opened up.
Under the clear blue sky, two greenish-yellow peaks stood tall, and nestled between them was the rippling Lake Marenweim.
The path they were on ultimately led to the pier at the edge of Lake Marenweim.
Weilan expended his last bit of magic, using 【Subtle Observation】 to observe the whereabouts of the 5 culprits.
In the reconstructed scene, those 5 men did not cross the lake.
They turned their steps and actually headed towards the mountain on the left side of Lake Marenweim.
“Tsk, they fled into the mountains.”
“Chase them.”
Weilan could feel he was getting closer to the truth.
Although 【Subtle Observation】 shut down after 10 minutes.
But the small path it indicated was winding and climbed up the mountain. As Weilan walked, abandoned tents, extinguished bonfires, rags, and paper scraps—traces of human activity—appeared intermittently along both sides of the path.
What was chilling was that beside these traces of human activity, there were also many small mounds resembling graves.
They had been walking for a long time, and when they encountered another abandoned tent, Hermione suggested sitting by the path to rest for a moment.
Ron still seemed to have energy.
While everyone else was resting, he interestedly poked and prodded near the collapsed tent fabric, trying to find useful clues.
【Magic: 4/50】
Weilan still couldn’t use 【Subtle Observation】. But by observing with his naked eye, he still found useful clues in the abandoned tent.
“Ron, bring me that tin can by the bonfire.”
Weilan originally thought it was a copper can because parts of it were green.
But squinting closely, he realized it wasn’t quite that.
Weilan took the tin can, casually picked up a twig from the ground, rubbed it inside a few times, and scraped the green flakes onto the end of the twig, bringing them out.
The four of them gathered in a circle, observing the object under the sun.
“This looks like…”
Ron covered his mouth, almost gagging:
“The ‘Power Pill’ I saw in Croft County, then ground into powder…”
“Oh?”
Weilan immediately became alert, shaking the dry twig with the green residue at the end in front of everyone:
“Do you feel anything?”
Hermione pinched her nose: “I just feel like throwing up.”
Weilan frowned—
He still couldn't understand why, in the poisoning case on the first day of school, those devil’s powder would actively tempt living beings to consume them.
He dug a pit in the overgrown ground and buried the twig.
Afterward, everyone continued forward.
The number of footprints on the ground suddenly increased at some point, and the traces of the footprints became increasingly clear and fresh.
Everyone held their breath.
McCarthy pulled out his wand and held it in front of him.
Weilan pulled Ron and Hermione, shielding Mr. McCarthy in front of them.
The path suddenly turned sharply ahead, and a new, still inhabited camp appeared in front.
Many ragged men and women with greenish skin were curled up in tents, by bonfires, and along the roadside.
Various tin containers were set over the bonfires, boiling a thick, dark green solution. A woman was feeding Potion to a person lying on the ground; the Potion bottle still had Pippin’s Potions label on it.
When they appeared, these emaciated men and women, like starving ghosts, all looked their way.
Their two eyeballs, set in their skeletal green faces, were like a dozen large light bulbs, staring at them in unison, making Weilan’s heart involuntarily pound.
McCarthy tensed his body nervously, but did not retreat:
“Who are you all? Which village are you from?”
“…”
No one answered him.
McCarthy asked again.
“Who are you?” a man with entirely green skin retorted.
“Magical Enforcement Team, here to handle the robbery that occurred at Pippin’s Potions in Hogsmeade, early this morning!”
“I see.”
The man approached them with a smile, spreading his arms and revealing his uneven, yellowed teeth:
“It’s like this, officer, there must be some misunderstanding between us.”
McCarthy mistakenly thought he was going to reason, and his right hand, holding his wand, was about to relax when the man suddenly let out a loud shout:
“Grab your weapons, the Wizards are here to cause trouble for us—”
Various glittering metal weapons appeared on the fingers of this group of people.
McCarthy didn’t even think:
“Depulso! (All fly away)”
This group of people, as thin as skeletons, were scattered instantly like dandelions. The sharp weapons in their hands also flew down the cliff under the effect of the spell.
Ron took water and Fizzing Whizbees fireworks from Weilan’s backpack.
After lighting the fireworks at the enemy, these fireworks, spewing sparks from their tails, shot into the crowd, exploding and startling many people into immediately dropping their weapons and not daring to move.
Hermione seized the opportunity to throw Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder at several specific locations.
The white smoke surrounded everyone, like a white curtain, forming a circle around them. While preventing the enemies from discerning their escape direction, the teammates’ vision inside the circular smoke was unaffected.
Weilan put on his Invisibility Cloak, approaching several men who were wildly hacking and slashing as silently as a ghost, and unexpectedly kicked them in the backside.
This game quickly turned into a one-sided crushing by the four Wizards.
Before long, the outer smoke dispersed.
Some of these people fled, some fainted, and a few others who were hit by Petrificus Totalus were deliberately left behind for questioning.
“I’m asking you again.”
McCarthy raised his voice, pointing his wand at a young man.
Weilan clearly saw the man tremble with fear when the wand was pointed at him:
“Who are you? Which village are you from?”