The Prisoners of Hogwarts

Chapter 26 Battle and Probing

A gray fog enveloped everything beneath our feet.

A gentle breeze carried a few suppressed gasps of surprise.

Lin Qi's figure floated in the air and slowly descended.

He stopped when his feet touched the upper surface of the gray fog, and stood there in the air.

A few wisps of mist wrapped around his feet like tentacles and gradually extended upwards, as if trying to entangle and devour him.

Lynch held his cane in his left hand and met the gray mist reaching towards him with his right.

A wisp of mist clung to his hand, and he gently played with it.

"Let's see who our guests are tonight..."

Lin Qi muttered to himself, his voice so soft that it dissipated into the mist after only a few steps.

"The person has been identified!"

He closed his eyes and softly uttered a spell.

In that instant, the misty space beneath his feet transformed into a detailed miniature model and appeared in his mind.

Lynch saw everything in the gray fog.

All the streets and buildings were meticulously outlined by the fog, and then reflected in his mind.

Naturally, this also includes the people who are involved in it.

All Muggles in the vicinity had been driven away during the day, and all life shrouded in the gray fog came from the magical world.

He saw the house-elves in the factory gathered together, shouting at each other and waving their arms and legs excitedly.

They also saw twelve wizards lined up inside the factory walls, carefully guarding the perimeter.

Outside the factory walls, at varying distances, stood... thirty-three wizards.

There's one more thing than what Reggie mentioned...

Lin Qi's lips curled up, and his mind focused on the street corner opposite the factory gate.

There, a person stood alone under the streetlight.

Apart from him, all the wizards surrounding the factory were in pairs.

"interesting..."

Lin Qi muttered something softly.

But we don't need to worry about him for now; there are other guys who need urgent attention.

He devoted a portion of his attention to this extra person.

Lynch focused his attention on the west and northwest of the factory.

At this moment, four wizards are fleeing rapidly in these two directions, heading away from the factory.

The remaining twenty-eight people were still in the stage of staring at the fog around them with suspicion.

The four people began to flee the moment the gray fog rose up against all reason.

"It seems the pure-blood families didn't tell these people who they might be facing tonight."

Lin Qi had a sudden realization.

He picked up his cane and pointed the handle toward the four men.

"This is misleading!"

So the four people veered off course and started going around in circles.

They began to scream in terror, calling out to their companions.

But their voices were swallowed by the fog, and they received no response.

The twenty-eight wizards who did not immediately flee also took out their wands and began casting their spells on the gray mist.

A wizard pointed his wand in front of him, and endless gales spewed from the tip of the wand, trying to disperse the gray mist.

Even though his hand holding the wand was almost unsteady, the gale that could usually blow away boulders could only disperse the gray mist seven or eight meters in front of him.

And within a few breaths of him ceasing his incantation, the gray mist silently filled the gap created by the gale.

The other wizard started spinning rapidly in place, trying to Apparate away from the spot.

Several wisps of gray mist gathered together, transforming into a physical tentacle that hooked his foot, tripping him to the ground, before dissipating back into mist.

Another wizard had a brilliant idea: he pointed the tip of his wand at his mouth, and turned the wand handle into the shape of a large trumpet.

Lynch calmly watched their actions, then, just before the wizard was about to shout,...

Far away in the stone house in the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts, Lynch drank another mouthful of potion with a blank expression.

At the top of the gray fog, the tip of the cane suddenly stopped in mid-air.

"Silence!"

The wizard's mouth was wide open, veins bulging on his neck, and saliva spurting from his mouth.

But no sound came from the end of his wand.

In the area shrouded in gray fog, sound was silenced.

House-elves dancing and gesturing inside the factory, wizards whispering uneasily to each other outside.

At this moment, they all became actors in a pantomime.

A wizard used his wand to write several glowing letters in the mist, but before the letters could be pieced together into a word, the gray mist surged and swallowed them up.

For a moment, they could only stand there helplessly, seeing each other's lips moving, but no sound reaching their ears.

Do not!

There's another voice!

In this silent world, a voice, neither too loud nor too soft, with a steady rhythm, reached everyone's ears.

"Da...da...da..."

The metal tip of the staff struck the asphalt road in the industrial area of ​​northwest England, the sound reaching the ears of every living being deep in the gray fog, regardless of distance.

Gradually, the sound became clearer and closer.

......

Antoine Walker leaned against a lamppost, maintaining steady breathing, standing motionless.

He had been standing here for a long time.

He stood there from day to night, showing great patience.

He was always exceptionally patient when hunting.

Patience is one of his two most powerful weapons besides his magic wand.

Another thing is to remain calm.

Stay patient and calm, then use your wand; you will be invincible.

This is a life philosophy that his father, Walker Sr., taught him.

My more than forty years of life experience have proven the value of my father's words.

So at this moment, he is trying his best to stay calm.

Old Nott hired him as insurance for a raid.

The target of the operation, in Old Nott's own words, was a powerful wizard who had been brought in to impersonate the hangman.

Anthony agrees that the newcomer is incredibly strong; the sheer amount of skill demonstrated by the fog of war that enveloped the entire arena speaks volumes about their ability.

But, impersonating a hangman?

Anthony wanted to tear old Nott's mouth apart.

An 80-year-old mother is on top... This looks like an original, authentic product!

Putting everything else aside, at the edge of my line of sight, that idiot who was just running around while releasing fireballs to try and blast the fog away has disappeared after releasing a fireball with an astonishing range.

It disappeared silently into the mist.

Although he was a fool, Anthony admitted that he was still very strong. After all, someone who could silently cast such an amazing explosive fireball spell should not be an unknown person.

He might even be someone famous in the dark wizarding world.

But he just disappeared like that.

It didn't cause the slightest ripple.

One second they were unleashing incredibly powerful magic.

He disappeared from this world in the next second.

Like those legendary figures who vanished into the fog of the hangman.

I estimate that the next time I'll see it, it will be the body hanging in the air in some open space.

I sincerely hope I won't be one of those corpses.

But that hope is becoming increasingly slim.

He had a feeling, a very strong feeling.

The surrounding gray fog seemed to have a life of its own.

It's likely that my existence was exposed from the very beginning.

But he remained motionless, striving to maintain the illusion spell and eliminate his own presence.

I hope that the legendary hangman will spare a passerby like myself.

Suddenly, Anthony noticed that the rhythmic clicking sound had stopped.

Anthony's heart sank to the bottom.

He sensed a terrifying presence watching him from within the gray fog.

Like a mouse being targeted by a cat, or a frog crouching under the nose of a venomous snake.

An uncontrollable panic rose from the bottom of my heart.

It grows stronger over time.

"I... I don't deserve to die!"

Unable to utter a sound, Anthony roared inwardly.

He gripped the wand tightly and swung it around himself forcefully.

A fierce wind raged around him, clearing a radius of more than twenty meters in the gray fog, revealing a section of street and the outer wall of the Muggle factory behind him.

Anthony quickly turned his head and looked around.

Within the area free of fog, he was the only one present; no other person or object appeared in his sight.

The gray fog surged back, seemingly slowly but actually quite quickly.

He spat and then sprinted down the street.

He ran while waving his magic wand.

A strong wind kept spraying out from the tip of the staff, clearing away the fog in front of him.

Anthony ran quite a distance.

But gradually, he began to realize that something was wrong.

I've walked this road before, and the straight-line distance isn't this far. If I had been running along the road, I should have seen the turn much earlier!

Anthony stopped and stood still.

He realized he couldn't escape.

He was ready to accept his fate.

But he was still unwilling to give up, gripping his wand tightly and constantly turning his head to look around.

If he's going to die, he'll definitely bite off a piece of bloody flesh from the bastard who took his life!

"Looking for me?" a hollow voice whispered in Anthony's ear.

"Ahhhhh!!!"

......

The gray fog thinned out a bit.

A figure emerged from the mist and approached Lin Qi.

He stopped in front of Lynch, glanced at the middle-aged wizard lying on the ground, and said in a flat, hoarse voice, "Anthony Walker, the famous wizard hunter, must be a servant of a pure-blood family. My negligence in not discovering his presence."

Lynch poked the middle-aged wizard on the ground with his cane, causing him to fall into a deeper coma.

"There's no need to blame yourself. His illusion spell is very profound. If the fog hadn't enveloped the entire area, I probably wouldn't have been able to spot him either."

Reggie glanced at the middle-aged wizard on the ground again: "Do you have any other plans for him? I noticed you didn't hang him up like the others."

As he spoke, his gaze swept over the sky behind Lin Qi.

Thirty-two wizards were suspended in the air, their heads drooping, all in a deep coma.

"He's not the kind of evil black wizard, just a wizard who lives in the gray area and has flexible bottom lines."

He's quite skilled, but his mastery of Occlumency is too superficial. I just checked his memories, and his hands aren't stained with the blood of innocent people.

I think we can admit him into the rally.

Reggie's answer was concise and clear: "You are the leader, you are in charge."

Then he looked at the thirty-two wizards floating in the air: "What do you intend to do with them? Because of the unbreakable oath, even if I kill them, you will probably lose your life as well."

Lynch also raised his head, his gaze passing through the glass lenses of his mask as he looked at the wizards: "Isn't it amazing? Their lives are in my hands."

The staff in his hand tapped the ground, and with a slight turn of the handle, invisible ropes were looped around the necks of each wizard in the air, pulling their drooping heads up.

The cane continued to spin, and the rope tightened slightly.

"But at the same time, when I put the noose around their necks, I also put the noose around their necks."

The noose continued to tighten, and several obese wizards could no longer breathe, but were suppressed into a coma by the spell and could not wake up.

"Some dead waste that purifies the air decides my life and death."

All the wizards floating in the air began to turn bluish-purple due to lack of oxygen, and their eyeballs began to bulge.

"Lynch!" Reggie's voice suddenly rose, and he couldn't help but take a step toward Lynch.

Lynch glanced at Reggie and tightened his grip on his cane.

The invisible ropes disappeared, and the wizards' heads that had been floating in the air fell down again.

A cracking sound came from Lynch's cane, accompanied by a piercing shattering sound, as a deep crack ran through the cane.

Lynch glanced down at the wand: "What a pity, this wand can't hold my magic power either."

"What are you thinking?!"

Reggie stood in front of Lynch, his back straight, his voice much louder than usual.

Lynch's voice remained calm as he replied, "I want to strangle them, deprive their brains of oxygen, turn them all into idiots, and see if that triggers the Unbreakable Oath."

"You are our leader! You are the head of the Stone Pagoda Chamber of Commerce! All our plans depend on you! Without you, everything would be in vain! You should pay more attention to your safety! An unbreakable oath is not something to be tested lightly!"

Reggie, unusually, snapped at Lynch.

"I understand. I realized it when the ropes started to tighten. If someone takes their lives after I turn them into idiots, it will be because I made them lose their ability to act independently that I indirectly killed them. The Unbreakable Oath will take my life."

"You figured it out, yet you waited until the very last moment to dispel the spell. Aren't you afraid someone might not be able to hold on?"

Reggie's voice lowered slightly, but it was still a bit higher than usual, and Lynch knew he was still angry.

"I must test the limits, Reggie. Our plan requires me to find clear boundaries to the unbreakable oath so that I can make decisions more flexibly."

If I hold myself back because of this vow hanging over my head, then our plan will never come to fruition!

Reggie was silent for a moment, then sighed and looked at the thirty-two wizards who were still hanging in the air.

"What will they do?"

Beneath the mask, Lynch smiled: "Call the police! Contact the Ministry of Magic's Department of Law Enforcement in the name of the Chamber of Commerce. Tell them we've caught a group of thugs attempting to attack the factory and disrupt the production of precious magical items. The evidence is conclusive, and they're all tied up."

"Call the police?"

"That's right. We are law-abiding businessmen, and these are bandits who came to rob our factory. It's perfectly reasonable to call the police, let the Ministry of Magic arrest them, and lock them up in Azkaban."

"Okay, so what are you planning to do next?"