harry potter book of crimes

In the West End of Jackson Trade Plaza, in a seemingly inconspicuous shed.

Probably to prevent others from seeing the light, the only two windows in the house were tightly covered with curtains. Even so, only an oil lamp with a weak flame was lit in the shack.

The dim light could not dispel the darkness, making the room look eerie.

Sitting next to a small round table slightly illuminated by an oil lamp were two ordinary-looking men and a woman. They looked to be in their early twenties, and could not be more than thirty years old at most. Logically speaking, they should be stable and transparent.

active age.

But for some reason, even though they were having a conversation, their tone was vaguely gloomy and inexplicable.

"...What should we do? We can't find the target anywhere. Should we...go home and report the situation to the owner?" the woman said softly, looking a little uneasy.

"No, we can't just go back... and look again... and look again..." Although the man seems to be older, he appears to be more timid and fearful than the woman, "Otherwise, the master will definitely whip us again.

Of… no… absolutely don’t…”

As soon as the woman heard the word "whip", she was shocked all over and chewed her nails out of habit. Suddenly, there was an unpleasant "rattling" sound in the quiet shack.

"... Where should we... look for it?" After a while, the woman retracted her finger and said to herself, "Mike and the others haven't come back yet... Did they also encounter that scary spider?"

"No, it won't be... Didn't we also escape?" The man shook his head vigorously and said, "Although the big spider is very powerful, it can't make us completely unable to move... we can still escape even if we give up part of our strength.

.”

"Then why...why haven't they come over yet?" The woman took a deep breath, and then started biting her nails again.

Because of her habit of relieving mental stress, her nails have been chewed into pits. Not only that, the tips of almost every finger have new wounds covering the old ones, which looks quite scary.

"Let's go look for it again... We can go anywhere..." the man said, shrinking his neck, "We can't stay here and wait any longer. As soon as noon arrives tomorrow, we have to go back... and we can look for it again...

Look for it again..."

"Wait a little longer..." The woman suddenly covered her chest, and a little cold sweat broke out on her forehead, "The time is almost up..."

"Ah... um..." Following her words, the man subconsciously touched his chest, and then nodded silently.

In the darkness of the shack, the man and woman became quiet again. Only the sound of the woman biting her nails from time to time was still echoing inside.

Time is passing by bit by bit, and they have not completed the task yet, but now they can only huddle on the stool and tremble slightly as if they are waiting to die.

It's three o'clock in the morning, New York time.

The two of them, who had been waiting silently with their eyes closed, suddenly tightened their muscles and held their chests tightly at almost the same time.

Their faces gradually became distorted, they clenched their teeth and let out one after another suppressed roars, and their breathing became short and heavy.

If you look carefully, you may be able to see that under the dim light, blue veins protrude on their foreheads, the backs of their hands, and every exposed part of their necks. Their sweat slides down their cheeks to their chins, and then a drop of

Drops of water fell to the ground.

They seemed to be enduring extremely severe pain!

But even so, they still didn't dare to scream too loudly. They were constantly suppressing themselves, just to avoid exposing their hiding place.

Because they know that if they are accidentally exposed, there will be endless punishment waiting for them. For them, the master's whip is ten thousand times more terrifying than the pain that occurs at regular intervals!

Ten minutes later, the two of them collapsed weakly on the dusty and dirty ground, but they didn't care. They were just thinking - there are only nine hours left before noon tomorrow!

After just a slight pause, they immediately got up and took off their respective hoods from the rack nearby. After tying their cloaks, they blew out the oil lamps and walked quickly towards the door of the shack.

go.

"I'm going to the North District and the East District. You finish searching here first, and then go to the South District -" The woman roughly allocated the search range, and then they started to separate.

…

On the other side, Maka, who was also searching for Sirius, had sent out all the alienated Acromantulas left around.

And he himself was not idle, but he and the little guys were conducting door-to-door searches.

However, when he transformed into the Animagus form of a hummingbird and jumped out of the chimney of a house, he did not continue to fly to another house as before, but stayed in mid-air for a few seconds.

.

Then, he rushed straight in a certain direction without hesitation.

In an alley not far from the house just now, he saw a figure covered in a cloak, running furtively to the other end of the alley.

He was very familiar with the magical reaction of that figure, but even though he was familiar with it, he almost missed it.

That weirdly weak magic wave was too hidden! If he hadn't been paying attention from the beginning, he might have actually let the other party slip by under his nose.

After following him in his Animagus form for a while, Maka quietly landed on the roof of a house and transformed into a human form again. Then he put a disguise spell on himself and quickly chased after him.

Go up.

He still didn't know how to turn the Obscurial in the form of black mist back into human form, so he could only use a sneak attack to take advantage of the other party before they noticed it.

The man didn't run very fast. He quickly caught up with him after a few steps, and decisively threw a very powerful full-body binding spell at the man.

The spell took effect, and the other party immediately stiffened and fell into the dark alley without saying a word, without any time to react.

"... Before turning into black mist, is the resistance to magic spells no different from ordinary people?" Maka walked forward quickly, turned the man lying on the ground over, and opened it up

The other party's hood, "...female?"

The woman couldn't even move a finger under the effect of the whole body binding spell, and only her eyes could still move around. Maka didn't hesitate anymore, just stared into the other person's eyes and cast a Legilimency spell.

But just for a moment, he immediately frowned and shook his head subconsciously.

"What the hell is this?" Maka frowned and whispered to herself.

This woman did not practice Occlumency, and his Legilimency worked smoothly - probably.

That's right, Maka could only use the word "probably" to describe it, because when he read the other party's memory, what he felt was a large area of ​​chaos and unspeakable pain and fear.

Legilimency is not just about reading other people's memories, it also allows the caster to empathize with the emotions and emotions of the subject.

But what Maka felt from the mind of the woman who was lying on the ground in front of her was a vague and twisted chaos, and a fear that penetrated into her bones.

That feeling almost occupied most of this woman's heart, making it difficult for Maka to read clearer memories.

The clearest picture Maka obtained through this Legilimency was a dark dungeon full of wails, and the outline of a figure whose upper body was hidden in the darkness.

"...I see, is it really like this?" Maka narrowed her eyes and said thoughtfully, "But who could that person be? Greenwald's remnants? Firm supporters? Excellent researchers.

?”

He lowered his head again, took out the Veritaserum, poured some into the woman's mouth, and then stretched out his staff and waved it lightly towards the woman's face.

"Answer me, where is Sirius Black?"

"……have no idea."

"what are you doing here?"

"The search for Sirius Black."

"Do you have any companions in this operation? Where are they?"

"There are four people in this operation. Joshua is currently searching in the West District. Mike and Andrew are missing."

"Why are you hunting Sirius Black?"

"This is an order."

"Where is your base?"

Maka kept asking questions, but when he asked about their stronghold, the woman actually froze under the effect of the veritaserum.

Although she kept opening and closing her mouth, there was only a vague "gurgling" sound in her throat, as if there was some kind of fear originating from the depths of her soul that was trying to prevent her from telling the truth.

"I ask again, where is your stronghold?"

"exist--"

Maka frowned and repeated the question, but she never thought that as soon as the other person barely managed to squeeze out a word, her eyes widened and a hoarse growl came out of her throat.

And her face became distorted again, as if she was enduring great pain.

At the moment when this abnormality suddenly occurred, Maka suddenly sensed some kind of magic wave coming from black magic. And the source of the strange wave was——

"...chest."

There was no time for him to avoid anything. He quickly untied the other party's cloak ties and the buttons of his outer robe, and then forcefully pulled down the collar of the shirt underneath.

On the scarred skin on the opponent's chest, a deep brand pattern is emitting a dark black-purple light. And around the brand, a large number of dark red veins extend from it, faintly revealing an evil spirit.

breath.

"The mark of the Deathly Hallows," Maka stared at the branding pattern, secretly wondering, "...what exactly is Grindelwald planning?"