The Prisoners of Hogwarts

Chapter 8 Raven

"Things in Paris are going according to plan," Reggie said. "Now, I need to deal with the Chamber of Commerce first. Some evidence of them profiting at the expense of the public is not enough to kick those guys out; their shamelessness goes far beyond that."

"I have a suggestion," Lynch said enthusiastically.

Facing his longtime friend, coupled with the joy of soon escaping from prison, he became somewhat excited and his thoughts became a bit unconventional.

"If anyone doesn't cooperate, cut off a horse's head, then put it in his bed while he's asleep. When he wakes up, he'll obey you without question."

"What kind of method is this? Some kind of dark magic ritual?" Reggie asked, somewhat puzzled.

"...No." Lynch's emotions calmed down a bit. "It was an idea from a Muggle movie plot."

Reggie: "...You're basically the most feared being by dark wizards for the last decade or so, the embodiment of terror on earth. Sometimes, just uttering your name is enough to send Death Eaters running for their lives with their tails between their legs. Cutting off a horse's head and stuffing it under the covers—that was your idea? How did you manage to instill such fear in those dark wizards?"

"I was just kidding, Reggie. Sometimes we need to loosen up our nerves." Lynch's lips curled slightly. "As for your second question, it's simple. Just summon a large cloud of mist under the cover of darkness, then quietly kill them within the mist. Finally, use the Reaper's Curse to summon invisible ropes around their necks, hanging their corpses in mid-air, leaving them to be discovered. Repeat this process hundreds of times."

Reggie gave Lynch a deep look and said the last words of the meeting, "What you needed has been found, at a high price. It will be delivered at 18:00 PM sharp tonight. Remember to check it."

Reggie turned around, transformed back into a gray wolf, and then disappeared into the bushes.

As he watched Reggie's grey form disappear into the depths of the Forbidden Forest, the expression on Lynch's face gradually faded.

His gaze swept calmly over the invisible opening left by Dumbledore, then he turned and walked into the stone house, the heavy oak door closing behind him.

Inside the stone house, the fire in the fireplace had gone out, but the air still held the faint scent of green tea.

Lynch walked to the middle of the room and saw two single sofas facing each other in front of the fireplace.

He stretched out his left hand, his fingers slightly spread, covering the sofa left by Dumbledore, and then, maintaining this gesture, swung his left arm to the right.

As he moved, the sofa on the left quickly flew to the sofa on the right. During the flight, the golden-red patterns on the sofa faded, and the backrest returned to its original height.

The two sofas collided without making a sound; they simply overlapped as if they were phantoms.

The next instant, only the original sofa remained standing in place, as if nothing had ever changed.

With a flick of his right hand at the teacup left on the table, the tea leaves flew to the sink and began to clean themselves.

Lynch walked to the dining table, sat down, and rang the brass bell. A dish of honey mustard roasted pork tenderloin and a dish of seasonal vegetable salad appeared on the table.

After lunch, Lin Qi sat down on the sofa, with a freshly brewed cup of tea on the square table next to him.

Lynch held a book in his hands, the title of which was drawn on the cover with intricate patterns: "The Essentials of Vagado Gesture Magic".

He turned the pages of the book with one hand, while occasionally raising the other hand to gesture in the air.

Time passed quietly, and the light and shadow outside the window shifted subtly. When the afterglow of the setting sun pierced through the treetops of the Forbidden Forest and gilded a corner of the desk, Lin Qi looked up.

He closed the book and then stood up.

Lynch walked toward the desk, pushing the books in the air with one hand as he went, causing them to slowly float back to the shelf.

He stopped beside the desk, reached out and pulled open the middle drawer, which was empty. Then he stared at the hourglass on the corner of the desk, watching the sand fall like a tiny waterfall.

When the sand in the hourglass had all run out, Lin Qi reached out and opened the drawer of his desk.

In the previously empty drawer, there appeared a dark gray fabric bag, about the size of a child's head, with a black rope tightly tied around the opening.

Lynch gently hooked the bag with his index finger.

The bag seemed to be pulled by invisible threads, rising steadily and hanging two feet in front of him.

The desk drawers closed automatically.

Lynch turned and headed for the stairs, the bag keeping its distance, swaying leisurely behind him.

Reaching the back of the stairs, Lin Qi stretched out his toes and gently tapped three times on a slightly darker-colored floor tile.

"Thump" "Thump thump"

As three rhythmic knocks sounded, one inverted step after another emerged from behind the staircase.

Lin Qi lifted his leg and took a step. The next moment, it seemed as if the Earth's gravity had been reversed, and Lin Qi stood on the steps that appeared on the other side of the stairs.

He stood straight on the steps, or rather, at the bottom of the steps, and there was nothing wrong with him at all.

But when viewed from the ground, he appears to be upside down.

Lin Qi took a step and walked upside down from the steps behind the stairs to the second floor.

When he reached the top of the stairs, he gently pushed it open and entered a small room.

The room was small, only half the size of Lynch's bedroom.

In the very center of the room was a huge black stone table, which occupied nearly half of the room's space.

A close examination of this black stone table reveals some well-hidden seams on its surface, proving that the table is pieced together from many stones.

At this moment, at the center of the stone table stood the source of Lynch's confidence in promising Dumbledore that he would never leave Hogwarts.

A jet-black wooden raven carving.

This is a lifelike sculpted raven. The texture of every feather, the curved lines of the huge, thick beak, and the division of the scales on the legs and claws all seem to be a real raven frozen in the wood grain.

Lin Qi walked to the table, and the floating bag fell silently. The black drawstring was pulled away, revealing the contents of the bag.

A transparent bottle containing half a bottle of silvery-gray metallic liquid.

Three fiery red bird tail feathers, their surfaces occasionally shimmering with golden light.

Shaking the bottle, Lin Qi sighed, "Just this half-bottle of mithril essence requires the smelting of mithril ingots from three entire fairy forges to extract. It's certainly not cheap."

He put down the bottle, extended three fingers, picked up the three tail feathers, and examined them closely.

"I wonder if any of these three phoenix feathers belong to Fawkes, the phoenix that Dumbledore kept."

He shook his head, dispelling the sudden urge to think.

Lin Qi took a deep breath, his eyes becoming sharp as knives.

With a light tap of his left fingertip, the bottle cap opened, and the silvery-gray mithril essence floated out, flowing in the air before being poured over the raven wood carving's head.

With his left hand transformed into a claw, Lin Qi spread his five fingers and made a grasping motion in the air.

The silvery-gray mithril essence was then evenly applied to the surface of the wood carving.

He held the three phoenix tail feathers between his right fingers and pointed them at the wooden carving.

A burst of flame erupted from its tail feathers, scorching the wooden carving on the stone table.

The flames spewing from the tail feathers were incredibly hot, drying out the air in the room and causing the temperature to rise rapidly.

Soon, large beads of sweat began to slide down Lynch's chin.

But Lynch's gaze remained sharp and unwavering, and he kept muttering obscure incantations.

Time passed second by second. The wooden carving, which was covered by mithril essence, remained unharmed in the flames, but the original silver-gray mithril essence on its surface began to turn fiery red.

The moment the mithril essence turned completely red, the entire wooden raven seemed to glow in the flames.

Lin Qi's gaze sharpened. He kept his right hand still, quickly clenched his left fist, extended his thumb, and slammed it onto his chest, right in front of his heart.

Then, forcefully pull your thumb away, open your palm, and aim it at the glowing wooden carving in the flames.

Lin Qi felt a sudden darkness before his eyes, and a sharp pain suddenly gripped his heart, as if an invisible hand had torn his heart in two.

A drop of crimson blood emerged from where Lynch's heart was, shooting towards the wood carving through the gap between his left index finger and thumb.

The drop of blood struck the wooden carving like an arrow released from a bow, completely unaffected by the phoenix flames.

The next instant, the flames spewed from the phoenix's tail feathers disappeared, and the fiery red metallic liquid on the surface of the wood carving seeped into its interior.

Lin Qi stumbled and reached out his right hand to cover his chest, specifically his heart.

Ignoring the sweat on his face, he looked at the raven wood carving on the table.

Within a second or two, the raven wood carving returned to its previous pitch-black color, as if the fiery red glow from before was just an illusion.

Then, Lynch saw the raven turn its head slightly, its eyes snap open, and look at Lynch.