#164 - Karkaroff

So, when Karkaroff was dragged into the bathroom and the silencing charm was removed, he immediately begged for mercy.

"No, don't torture me anymore, I surrender, I surrender! I'm not with them, please!" Karkaroff said, his face covered in tears and snot, his voice trembling.

Looking at this burly fellow with a full beard, so utterly pathetic, Anduin couldn't help but find it amusing.

"Surrender isn't out of the question, but I don't accept people who are worthless. Tell me, what use are you?" Anduin asked with a teasing expression.

Seeing the boy, who had always been as cold as ice, finally speak, Karkaroff eagerly replied, "I, I'm useful! I can do anything for you, including killing. Although I've never done it myself before, I will if you need me to. And I know a lot of things, I can also help you strategize."

"Oh? What do you know?" Anduin raised an eyebrow, obviously more interested in the information he possessed, and asked softly.

"Whatever you want to know, I'll tell you everything in detail," Karkaroff said with a fawning smile.

"Let's talk about the Death Eaters, tell me something I don't know." Anduin took out a notepad and said calmly.

"Okay, I know the identities of many Death Eaters." Karkaroff swallowed, and said tremulously, "Including some with hidden identities, like Severus Snape, he's a Death Eater. He's still at Hogwarts as a professor, he's an important figure, a confidant of the Dark Lord."

Is that it? Anduin glanced at Karkaroff with some dissatisfaction. I've even fought him, how could I not know he's a Death Eater?

Karkaroff also noticed Anduin's dissatisfaction and quickly said, "Also, also Barty Crouch Jr., he's the son of the current Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, his identity is very well hidden, I only found out by chance."

Hearing this, Anduin's expression became even more displeased. He's just spouting nonsense. It seems this guy is useless. With that thought, he grabbed the other's collar, preparing to cast Legilimency.

"No!" Seeing that Anduin was still not satisfied, Karkaroff shouted quickly, "I know, I know Tokier Travers's secret!"

"Hmm?" Anduin stopped his movements. "Continue."

"Yes." Karkaroff gasped for air, his voice trembling, "In this house, Tokier, he, has a basement. I once secretly peeked at it. There are strict protections, there must be some secret inside."

Listening to Karkaroff's incoherent expression, Anduin couldn't help but feel a headache, but he understood more or less.

"You mean to say, you found a basement in this house, and you suspect there's a secret hidden inside?" Anduin asked, smoothing out his words for him.

"Yes." Karkaroff swallowed and nodded.

That's strange. I didn't see any related clips in Tokier's memory. Could it also be hidden under a protection charm? Then there might really be something good hidden.

"Okay, then let's go take a look together, but before that, eat this." Anduin took out a small, fingertip-sized sphere, which looked a bit like metal, but also had a wooden texture.

"What is this?" Karkaroff looked at the small pill in front of him with fear.

"Don't talk nonsense." Anduin didn't explain to him, pinched his mouth, and forced it in.

After swallowing the pill, Karkaroff only felt a burst of nausea, and at the same time, he felt that the pill seemed to be alive. After entering his stomach, it seemed to grow long legs and crawled step by step onto the stomach wall, and then seemed to take root, extending something and deeply inserting it into his stomach wall. Immediately, a sharp stabbing pain came from his abdomen.

For a time, Karkaroff rolled on the ground in pain, sweating profusely.

"If you dare to betray me, or disobey me." Anduin stretched out his right fist and made a spreading motion, "I just need to snap my fingers, and you'll be like being hit by a 'Bombarda Maxima' spell, BOOM, understand?"

Karkaroff looked at Anduin pitifully, humbly nodding. Now he really couldn't get away, his life and death were in the hands of this demon.

Seeing that the other party was completely controlled, Anduin generously released the binding curse on Karkaroff.

Regaining the ability to move, Karkaroff tremblingly climbed up, holding his stomach with one hand, and stood very humbly beside Anduin.

"Take me to the basement entrance." He planned to follow Karkaroff to see the situation first. If he couldn't open the basement entrance, he would come back up, wake Tokier up, and force him to release the protection.

"Yes, Master."

Karkaroff quickly embraced his new identity, then led the way, taking Anduin to the first floor.

"Is it here?" Anduin, with a light sphere above his head, asked, looking at the smooth wall on the side of the first-floor stairs.

"Yes, I secretly saw Tokier open a mechanism here before, opening a small door on the stairwell wall, and then sneaking in," Karkaroff said, pointing to the stone wall below the stairs.

"Okay, you wait on the side."

With that said, Anduin took out the 'Unbreakable Hammer' from his body, and then smashed it against the triangular wall with a series of bangs.

Karkaroff on the side looked very puzzled. What was this little devil doing, preparing to smash the wall open?

But before he could figure it out, the wall reacted. Where the small hammer had hit, magical patterns began to slowly emerge, flickering with a faint light in the darkness.

After smashing for a while, when all the magic patterns on the wall were revealed, Anduin held the wall and studied it intently.

"The main body is the 'Protego Maxima' charm, which also includes 'Anti-Apparition', 'Fidelius Charm', 'Disillusionment Charm', 'Password Charm' and other charms. It's quite a comprehensive arrangement. If it were another wizard who hadn't studied charms, they really wouldn't be able to solve it." Anduin nodded in approval of this set of runes.

But this was not a difficult problem for him. Anduin drew out his wand and gently tapped a few magic nodes on the magic pattern, and the entire set of magic patterns quickly dimmed. Then the stone wall, like the entrance to Diagon Alley, quickly flipped and moved, revealing a small door more than a meter high.

Anduin summoned a light sphere, and then controlled the light sphere to float into the dark doorway. Visually, there was a downward stone staircase, but what exactly was in the basement further down could not be seen.