#444 - Always at the cost of sacrifice

Before Sirius could finish speaking, the cloak suddenly unfurled, completely covering Mabel. Beside him, Peter Pettigrew II also tugged at his mask, ensuring it wouldn't suddenly fall off his face.

Sirius didn't notice their small movements, but Lupin suddenly glanced in their direction.

The person being pointed at by the wand was a young wizard with a slightly dark complexion and a panicked expression. He looked blankly at the cold-faced Sirius and asked, "Vede Grey is...?"

He was about to ask who it was when he suddenly remembered that he had seen the name in the newspaper; it was that alchemical genius who had recently become quite famous.

"...Is he the inventor of the Communication Pea? Are you looking for him?"

Another older witch beside him quickly explained, "We haven't seen the person you're talking about—he's in England, and should be at Hogwarts right now... isn't he?"

In the crowd, a witch with her hair in a bun had a slight change in expression, wanting to say something, but she held back.

Not long ago, she had made a cloak for Vede, and was one of the few who knew Vede Grey was in this castle.

But thinking of the order to keep it a secret, the witch swallowed the words in her heart and hid in the shadows of the wall.

"Nonsense!" Sirius said angrily, "If he were at school, would we need to look for him? It seems you don't plan to hand him over..."

"Then we'll go in and find him ourselves!" A long-haired witch flew over and continued, drawing her wand and decisively saying, "Don't waste time, while Dumbledore holds back the other Wizengamot members, we must rescue that child as soon as possible!"

During their conversation, the Order of the Phoenix members had already subdued the Muggle soldiers, throwing their weapons and vehicles into the fire. Now, only two wizards were left to guard them, while the others flew over on their brooms.

The two sides confronted each other across the windows, the situation on the verge of eruption.

Although the Order of the Phoenix had fewer members, they were highly skilled, with proficient spells. Most of the Wizengamot's remaining members were injured, and some didn't even have their wands, still wearing their pajamas.

"Wait! Wait! Hear me out!"

Wovilett, seeing that a battle was about to break out, quickly stepped forward, spreading his arms to block everyone.

After all, the Wizengamot had the advantage in numbers, and might not necessarily lose to the Order of the Phoenix, but...

Wovilett glanced warily at the silent little girl beside him, and the increasingly bright firebird.

If these two guys started fighting, few of the young people behind him might survive.

Most importantly, Wovilett didn't think they were enemies with Vede. They had gotten along well before, and it would be too stupid to cause deaths because of a lack of communication.

Wovilett looked directly at Sirius, his eyes sincere, and said, "Listen to me, Vede Grey is indeed not in the castle, he..."

"Really? Vede has been found!"

Lupin's voice interrupted Wovilett. He pressed a hand to his ear, a look of surprise and joy on his face, while nodding to Sirius and the others, mouthing: 'Dumbledore's message.'

Sirius's eyes also lit up, his tense嘴角 relaxed, his shoulders slightly lowered, and he asked with concern, "Found him? Is he okay? Is he hurt?"

Lupin nodded with a smile, while talking to Dumbledore, "Yes... there was a Muggle attack here, but it's not a big problem... no, we didn't start a war... yes, we will return immediately... also we have... uh... we have something else, we'll report to you when we get back."

He glanced at Mabel and the others, and ultimately didn't say the words "an Obscurial is also here."

Ending the call, Lupin told everyone, "Dumbledore wants us to return immediately."

"What about those Muggles?" The long-haired witch asked.

"That... I hope to leave them here..." Wovilett interjected with a stiff scalp, "After all, it was our Wizengamot who was attacked..."

His tone was a little weak, after all, capturing those soldiers had nothing to do with them. They were saved by the two groups in front of them.

In the Order of the Phoenix, some people showed disapproval, but before they could refuse, they heard the little girl's voice.

"It's okay," Mabel said courageously, "I've heard about what you've been doing recently... I myself am a victim of that organization's magical research."

After a pause, the little girl added with a clear distinction between gratitude and resentment, "But if you try to hurt my friends again, then we can only be enemies."

Although she looked like a thin girl, no one could ignore the weight of her words, considering how the Muggle trucks had been thrown into the sky and torn apart.

Or rather, precisely because she was young, she was more likely to do things that adults couldn't even imagine—whether good or evil.

The Order of the Phoenix members also shut their mouths.

They had been hiding nearby, and they had seen how strong these strange guys were. If a conflict really broke out, the Order of the Phoenix would definitely suffer casualties.

Not to mention, although they followed Dumbledore, as wizards—or rather, as humans with normal morals—they were equally disgusted by the organization's evil deeds.

They had reunited under Dumbledore's call because of the Ministry of Magic's inaction, worried that the organization targeting wizards would harm more magical children, and also worried that the Wizengamot, making a comeback, would deceive the world and disrupt the peace of the magical world under the banner of justice.

But if these two sides fought, the Order of the Phoenix members would only secretly cheer for the Wizengamot.

The group didn't say anything more, turned around, called the two companions who were guarding the Muggle soldiers, and all used portkeys to return to England.

Before leaving, Lupin turned his head, just in time to meet Peter Pettigrew II's eyes.

The masked man's eye shape looked very familiar, and his figure was also... but his eyes were calm and gentle, like a deep starry sky or a clear lake, making people feel that the person with these eyes must also have a warm soul.

Lupin nodded to the other party, shattering the extremely absurd idea that had suddenly popped into his mind.

Maybe he had been looking for Peter Pettigrew for too long, and seeing someone with a similar figure, he subconsciously suspected that this person was Wormtail.

But Lupin was very clear that even if Wormtail was broken and reorganized, even if Voldemort stuffed his own soul into Wormtail's body, that rat could not have such eyes.

He laughed self-deprecatingly, shook his head, and chased after Sirius, who was flying slowly in front.

Before using the portkey, Sirius also looked back, lowering his voice and asking, "Are we just leaving like this? That Obscurial named Mabel is right there!"

"But you heard, they came to find Vede just like us," Lupin said in a whisper, "If I'm not mistaken, the few beside him should all be Vede's magical constructs."

"Vede's magical constructs... mixed with an Obscurial?" Sirius said in surprise, "How did they get involved?"

Lupin shook his head, "Before figuring out the reason and Vede's attitude, it's best not to let others know about this... I think Dumbledore knows everything."

After a moment, Sirius said in a low voice, "I heard that Dumbledore wanted to let an Obscurial go to Hogwarts, but Fudge firmly disagreed, so she ran away and became a wanted criminal..."

Thinking of the Minister of Magic who insisted on world peace and pretended that nothing had happened as long as she didn't acknowledge it, the two sighed helplessly at the same time.

...

Mabel held her breath, turned her head and saw that those British wizards had all left, and in the end, they didn't try to arrest her, and then she secretly relaxed.

"Let's go back too," the Cube Construct said happily, "Fly faster, maybe we can see our master tonight!"

"No problem!" The Broom shook its body, "I will use the fastest speed!"

"Wait a moment! I have something I want you to give to Vede Grey!" Wovilett hurriedly stopped them.

The Broom, which had already turned to leave, stopped, made a turn, and returned to the window.

"What is it? Do you know my master?" The Broom asked.

"I warn you, old man, Mr. Cloak is very smart! If you want to deceive us, then you have made a wrong calculation!"

The Cloak also said, taking advantage of the situation.

Wovilett waved his hand, sending the surrounding young people to take care of the wounded, repair the shattered parts of the castle, and send the bound Muggle soldiers in the distance into the dungeon.

When there was no one else around, Wovilett carefully approached a few steps, until he was about to fall out of the window, then he stopped.

"You..." His gaze ignored Mabel and the masked man, looking at the Broom, Cube, Cloak, and asked, "Are you all magical constructs made by Vede?"

"Of course," the Cube Construct said, "Obviously."

"Then..." Wovilett looked at the firebird Mihail, his eyes shining, and asked, "Is it too?"

The old man's gaze was fixed on Mihail, his palms unconsciously stretching forward, as if wanting to touch it.

Mihail immediately jumped back in disgust, suspecting that this old man wanted to scam him.

The Cube Construct did not answer, but asked, "Do you have anything you need to give to the master? If it's just an excuse to delay time..."

Its left metal arm flicked, revealing a shining pair of scissors.

Wovilett suddenly came back to his senses, he quickly said, "Of course! Of course! Wait a moment."

He rummaged in his pocket for a moment, and took out a thick notebook that he had bound himself.

Wovilett fondly touched the cover of the notebook, handed it over and said, "This is my alchemy notebook, give it to Vede, and say... I hope to have the opportunity to study alchemy together in the future."

—It would be best if he could also borrow the Time-Turner, and this strange firebird, for him to study.

"Understood, I will tell him."

The Cube Construct stuffed the notebook into its stomach, patted the Broom, and quickly disappeared into the sky.

Wovilett looked obsessively at the place where they flew away, his eyes revealing a kind of almost pious focus.

—If he had not seen it wrong, although the bird that looked like Fiendfyre and a phoenix had traces of alchemy, it was more like a real life.

In fact, several talking constructs, whether in speech or thought, behaved more like humans. The firebird had not made a sound, and its movements were like real birds.

But only it... only it not only had "thought", but also seemed to have a "soul".

—A real soul.

The taboo in alchemy... life alchemy? Morina, that bastard, actually taught this dangerous thing to his students?

More importantly... Vede actually refined it? How did he do it... even Morina should only have mastered some ancient and incomplete theories...

Wovilett's brows were sometimes tightly locked, sometimes stretched, his mind rapidly thinking about various alchemical formulas and ancient runes, his whole person completely immersed in the sea of thought, forgetting everything around him.

I don't know how long it took, but a golden light erupted in the castle's hall.

Grindelwald returned with the Wizengamot.

...

The last few black-robed wizards pointed their wands, and the entire manor was completely swallowed by raging fire.

This time, they did not leave the mess to the local Ministry of Magic, but burned everything to ashes with Fiendfyre.

The ground around the manor was either covered with snow or turned into ruins in the battle, with no combustibles, so there was no need to worry that the Fiendfyre would spread uncontrollably.

Of course, the Ministry of Magic would definitely come to investigate, so even if there were any hidden dangers, they could be left to them to deal with.

More importantly, many Wizengamot members left bloodstains here, and Muggle videos may have recorded the appearance of some of them. In order to avoid future troubles, it was easiest to burn everything to ashes.

After the Wizengamot members all left, Voldemort said in a good mood, "Let's go back."

Judging from the battle just now, Dumbledore was still so difficult to deal with, and did not seem to be affected by age at all, that terrible old man... but Grindelwald did not seem as powerful as he had imagined.

—In any case, neither of these two people is his opponent.

Voldemort thought confidently.

He firmly believed that he possessed spells that Dumbledore could not even imagine, and that his magical knowledge was more extensive than Dumbledore's, making him the most powerful wizard in the world, even surpassing everyone in history.

He had originally thought that Grindelwald, who had once ruled Europe, would be a formidable enemy, but seeing that person almost killed by Dumbledore in less than a quarter of an hour, Voldemort almost laughed out loud.

—When I am resurrected... I will become more powerful than before... whether it is the Order of the Phoenix or the Wizengamot, whether it is Dumbledore or Grindelwald... they are just stepping stones on the road to eternal life.

An evil smile appeared on the baby's snake face.

Barty Crouch Jr. picked up the baby, shielded him from the wind with his cloak, and then reached out to grab Nagini's tail.

The big snake hissed and bared its teeth, but knowing that this was for apparition, it endured and did not turn around to bite him.

They also disappeared from the hillside.

Behind them, only the once-large manor collapsed in flames, and thick smoke billowed into the sky.

In the distant Muggle cities, the sharp and rapid sound of fire alarms rang out, forcing people to wake up from their peaceful dreams.