#463 - Vampire Coven
The long-haired vampire standing behind Lockhart revealed slender fangs, leaning down to bite his neck.
“Wait! You can’t do that!” Gar连忙 hurriedly stopped him.
“That’s right, Artemis.” The brown-haired man beside Gar said, “That’s this brother’s prey, he should be the first to taste it.”
“Alright.” The long-haired vampire regretfully released Lockhart, saying, “I’m really hungry.”
His gaze, like that of a venomous snake, swept over Lockhart’s neck, causing Lockhart to stiffen, looking at Gar for help.
“Listen to me—” Gar’s brain worked at lightning speed, trying to use a “vampiric” tone of extreme hunger, “This blood source is very rare, he’s a wizard… so I thought, after everything is over, we can invite everyone to slowly enjoy him.”
Lockhart was so frightened that he could barely think, and upon hearing this, he looked at Gar in horror, with an expression that said, “I didn’t expect you to be this kind of person.”
“A wizard?” The long-haired vampire immediately became alert, searching Lockhart and taking out his wand, breaking it in half before revealing a salivating smile, “I’m looking forward to it… By the way, what’s your name?”
“Oliver!” Gar’s heart skipped a beat, and he blurted out a common name, “I’m Oliver Williams!”
“Oliver? Haha, you’re the third Oliver I’ve met! I’m Jack Roberts.”
The brown-haired man patted him forcefully on the shoulder, saying happily, “Although the previous two didn’t taste very good, I think we’ll get along very well!”
Gar forced a smile and nodded, “Definitely! Definitely!”
At the same time, he looked at the sky with longing, hoping that the owl delivering packages would notice his situation and bring his uncle to save him.
But the owl had already flown far away, and he saw two more bats flying in the distance.
—What’s going on? A vampire convention? So close to Hogwarts? Are they crazy?
Gar had a reason to come, but he couldn’t understand why these vampires who weren’t being hunted by Dementors had also run to this place.
He wanted to inquire about it, but he was afraid of revealing that he wasn’t one of them, so he didn’t dare to say much, only vaguely agreeing a few times before shutting his mouth, observing with a hint of fear.
Afterward, the group walked towards the edge of the village, Lockhart’s hands and feet were tied, his mouth was gagged, and two vampires supported him as they walked, making him look like a drunkard.
Besides the central commercial district, Hogsmeade was no different from an ordinary village, most places were very quiet, and houses were scattered sparsely along both sides of the road, with some people who liked to live in seclusion living very remotely.
But the place the vampires were going to was somewhere even Lockhart, who had studied at Hogwarts for seven years and had been a professor for more than half a year, had never been, almost at the furthest point west of the village.
It was an old wooden house, two stories high, with seven or eight windows, and even some thin branches growing up from the ground near the foundation.
Lockhart didn’t have a chance to see more, as soon as he entered, he was thrown into a dirty storage room, swallowing a mouthful of dirt.
He barely raised his head and saw that another person was tied up in the storage room.
A young woman, wearing a gray robe, sat in the corner, covering her face and crying softly, seemingly very scared.
“Be careful.” Lockhart heard someone say, “Didn’t the newcomer say that this person is a wizard?”
“Got it.” Another person came over with duct tape and quickly wrapped Lockhart’s mouth and fingers, then left them behind and left.
Hearing the sound of the door closing, Lockhart’s face was filled with despair.
Even if he mastered wandless and nonverbal magic, it wouldn’t be easy to remove this very sticky duct tape from his body… moreover, he didn’t know how.
Lockhart lay on the ground, shedding tears of regret.
If he had seriously learned wandless and nonverbal magic when he was at school… or hadn’t abused the Memory Charm to pursue fame…
Even if she wasn’t a fan, at least her hands seemed to be free, and she could find a way to remove the tape from his body.
The long-haired woman was still crying, as if her tears were endless. Lockhart tried to hum a few times, reminding her of his existence.
The crying stopped slightly, and the woman slowly raised her head, revealing a pair of blood-red eyes and a face with only one nostril.
…
Gar could also hear the crying that sounded like the hooting of an owl, he watched the door close and asked uneasily, “Who else is in there?”
“The owner of the house.” A red-haired vampire said.
“What?” Gar said in surprise, “This is her house? If… if someone comes to look for her and finds us, what do we do?”
“Don’t worry, that’s a banshee, no one wants to get close to them.” The red-haired vampire pushed him in, saying, “Let’s go, almost everyone’s here.”
Gar staggered a step and entered the living room, seeing that there were twenty or thirty vampires in this small house. The living room was dimly lit and filled with smoke, dozens of faintly reflecting eyes looking at him together.
Gar couldn’t help but take a step back.
Then he was bumped back by Roberts, who was walking behind him.
“What’s wrong?” Roberts asked strangely.
“I… I’m a little worried about the blood source I brought…” Gar casually made up an excuse, “He’s staying with a banshee, won’t he be killed?”
“Read more books, buddy.” Roberts said mockingly, “Banshees are harmless, those guys just like to cry under the windows of people who are about to die.”
Gar had no choice but to walk in uneasily, and then someone shoved a goblet into his hand.
He lowered his head and smelled it, discovering that it was fresh human blood, mixed with a strange, cedar-like smell.
“Special Banshee flavor.” The vampire who gave him the glass winked and smiled, “You’ll like it, brother.”
Gar took two sips, feeling that every cell from his throat to his stomach was satisfied.
During this time on the run, he had few opportunities to drink human blood. Moreover, the refrigerated blood in the hospital was mixed with things, and the taste was far worse than fresh blood.
If his life wasn’t still threatened, Gar would have almost shouted excitedly, “Another cup!”
Even more fortunately, after listening for a while, he discovered that the others weren’t familiar with each other either, they were just vampires and in bad situations, and someone had “mass-mailed” them an invitation.
"Hi, hello." A young-looking vampire girl walked over, smiled, and clinked glasses with him, saying, "I'm Sophia."
Garr hurriedly said, "I am... I am Oliver."
He almost forgot what his casually made-up alias was.
Sophia took a sip of blood, leaned closer, and asked, "Do you think what the invitation said is true?"
"Ah? This..." Garr had no idea what the invitation said, and vaguely said, "It should be, right? Do you think it's unbelievable?"
He threw the question back at her.
"Who knows?" The girl leaned against the cabinet, looked at the vampires with dark circles under their eyes in the room, and said, "Saying that everyone can get at least 30,000 Galleons after success, I wouldn't even dare to dream of such a good thing..."
—How much? How much did you say?
Garr was so shocked that he almost spat out the blood in his mouth. He craned his neck and swallowed it all in one gulp, finally understanding why the vampires in the room all had that expression.
That kind of greed... that kind of desire... wasn't because they, like him, rarely drank blood, but because they were looking forward to a more realistic and glittering benefit.
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—Near Hogwarts, can there still be such a good thing? What operation can earn hundreds of thousands of Galleons?
Although he didn't know the inside story yet, Garr had a very strong sense of crisis and couldn't wait to escape.
He drank the blood in his glass in one gulp, put down the glass, chatted a few words, then clutched his stomach and cried out, "Sophia, I think I'm allergic to banshee blood, can you tell me where the toilet is..."
But Sophia's gaze suddenly turned to the upper left and said, "Look! That's probably our inviter."
Garr turned his head and saw a man and a woman walking down from upstairs. The man had a gloomy temperament, and his whole body revealed a "Dark Wizard" feeling; the woman was like an ordinary housewife, but her eyes gave people a dangerous feeling.
"Welcome, welcome, fellow compatriots."
The man raised a smile and said, "Thank you for accepting my invitation. I really miss the days when we worked together. It's a pity that since the organization's bases have been destroyed one after another, we all seem to have become lonely ghosts. I heard that many people's lives have become very difficult recently..."
"Enough nonsense, Baird."
A vampire with a scar on his face said, "We are just cannon fodder who were thrown into the battlefield by the organization and luckily survived, unlike you, a favorite in front of the boss."
"That's right, we just want to hear what you said about the big business." Another vampire with terrible burns showed a hideous smile: "If you lie to me, I swear I will tear you to pieces!"
Garr could see that most of the people here didn't actually believe that there was such a thing as a "big business" worth hundreds of thousands of Galleons, but they were driven by greed and decided to come and see.
And for most of them, even if they didn't get 20,000 Galleons, being able to get a few thousand... or even a few hundred Galleons, would be worth doing some dirty work.
"After you hear it, you'll know why you can get so much money. In fact... the real number may be even more."
Baird showed a mysterious smile.
...
"Are you kidding me? Kidnapping a Hogwarts student? And it's Wade Greyson?" Roberts roared, "Do you want to die? Don't drag me down with you!"
He turned to leave, but was stopped at the door by the scarred vampire.
"Considering the sales of several of his works, Wade Greyson's vault could indeed have hundreds of thousands, or even millions of Galleons, but with Dumbledore around, no one can touch him."
The scarred vampire calmly asked:
"Baird, I guess you don't want to commit suicide either, so what's the plan?"
"I received news that Dumbledore needs to meet with the headmaster of Beauxbatons this weekend."
Baird smiled and said, "Hogsmeade weekend, everyone, the wizarding brats are all running around in this village, no one will notice if one or two disappear."
"You don't want to rush into the crowd and kidnap such a conspicuous wizard, do you?" Roberts sneered, "I bet if you do that, Dumbledore will appear immediately in less than three seconds!"
"Yes, so someone needs to lure him here, even if they get caught, no one will notice." Baird said, "I have already arranged this most difficult step. Someone will bring Wade Greyson here. Do you have any other questions?"
"Even so..." Artemis said nervously, "It can't be guaranteed to be foolproof. Maybe he will bring friends, maybe Hogwarts professors will suddenly appear..."
"That's why I invited you, guys! If there really was such a foolproof good thing, I would have done it myself!" Baird said bluntly, "But if all goes well, this will be as easy as picking money off the ground!"
"What if it doesn't go well? Besides Dumbledore, there are still many powerful professors at Hogwarts, and even this village is full of wizards..." Artemis said worriedly.
"If you get caught, of course you might die." Baird shrugged and smiled: "—Then the others can divide even more money."
Thinking of the glittering mountain of gold, the vampires' eyes suddenly became more greedy.
The burned vampire licked his lips and said, "It's indeed worth doing. Baird, how will the profits be split then?"
"I only want the person, alive." Baird said, "All the assets in that kid's vault belong to you."
"After you catch the person, how do you plan to escape?" the scarred vampire asked, "Is there a Portkey?"
"There's no such good thing. The wizard in the organization who could make Portkeys has already been killed by Grindelwald." Baird said regretfully, "We can only use Floo Powder, fortunately there is a fireplace in this house."
Everyone was silent for a moment.
The fireplace in this house can only squeeze in two people at a time at most, which means that it will take a long time to transfer everyone to a safe location.
Because they can't clearly and accurately say the location of the Floo while transforming into bats.
If the capture operation is exposed in advance, then the vampires left behind can be said to be dead. At that time, they might immediately start killing each other to compete for the chance to escape.
But correspondingly, as long as it is not exposed within half an hour... or even twenty minutes, then this is indeed an easy money-picking operation.
No one thinks that dozens of vampires can't catch a teenager. They only worry that they will become the cannon fodder left behind.
After a moment of silence, everyone tacitly suppressed their worries and fears and began to discuss the details of the operation.
