Chapter 13: 13- Not every magic school is Hogwarts
Snapp!
The transparent string was tightly tied around Rhys's neck, but Rhys didn't even blink, because an extremely thin but extremely strong mini-shield appeared on his neck, supporting him where the rope was tied up.
At the same time as the wizard hiding in the dark took action, the other four wizards each took out their wands and attacked Lupet.
In their plan, Rhys would definitely be killed instantly by the hidden boss, and he only needed to deal with Lupet.
But it happened that something went wrong with the strongest member of the gang, and their previously invincible tactics failed, which also led to their defeat.
Facing the enemy's attack, Lupet, who was experienced in combat, jumped to the side astutely and avoided all the incoming magic spells.
Lupet, who had dodged the attack, pulled out her newly acquired wand, but before she could fight back, a blinding flash of light accompanied by a loud explosion exploded in the dead end.
The four people on the opposite side rolled their eyes and all fainted.
After easily knocking out the four people, Rhys shook his wand again, and a stream of black smoke spurted out from the tip of the wand and drifted towards the corner of the alley.
"Stupefy!"
A figure wrapped in a black robe instantly appeared from under the wall, raised his hand and cast a stun spell on Rhys. After casting the stun spell, he didn't even look at the impact of the spell, and directly began to imagine the place where he wanted to apparate in his mind.
In the brief confrontation just now, he had realized how powerful his opponent was.
Now he had no intention of continuing to fight with Rhys and Lupet like the others. He just wanted to escape from this ghost place.
The teleportation spell Apparition requires you to focus on conceiving the destination in your mind, and then you can teleport to the place you want in your mind.
This process is very short, and a skilled wizard doesn't even need a second.
'Give me a second, just one second! As long as we can reach that place!' the black-robed wizard roared hysterically in his heart. Fortunately, the Apparition was performed very smoothly this time. He could feel strong squeezing force from all directions, and the scene in front of him gradually dimmed.
The black-robed wizard knew that his Apparition was successful, and his inner uneasiness began to subside little by little...
Suddenly, a different feeling appeared. The surrounding air seemed to have solidified, "locking" him in mid-air.
His Apparition failed!
h..how..?
The black-robed wizard raised his head at a loss, and then met the young man's deep, cold eyes.
The young man looked at him without any emotion in his eyes, just like a tourist looking at a fish stranded on the beach generally.
The wizard couldn't help but shuddered, and his intuition told him that he was finished this time.
After casting the anti-Apparition spell, Rhys slowly put down his wand and patiently untied the string around his neck.
The black mist condensed and formed little by little as it flew toward the black-robed wizard, turning from a cloud of mist into a piece of black gauze. By the time it flew in front of the wizard, it had become as tight as a steel needle.
Soon, the black mist bound him tightly, making him unable to move.
Lupet ran to the place where he had been hiding and found a transparent cloak there. The cloak is transparent and almost blends into the ground. It can't be noticed without bending down and taking a closer look.
"This guy actually has an invisibility cloak!" Lupet felt incredible. Why do these down-and-out wandering wizards have such expensive things as invisibility cloaks? How can they afford it?
"Just keep it."
For wizards who can use the Disillusionment Charm, things like invisibility cloaks are very useless, and only half-empty guys like Lupet will regard them as treasures. Therefore, Rhys was not interested in the invisibility cloak. He was more curious about the condition of the string.
After studying the rope in his hand, Rhys discovered that it was a delicate prop with a steel wire as its inner core and an invisible beast's hair wrapped on the outside.
After seeing this, Rhys couldn't help but applaud this wonderful idea in his heart.
The hair of invisible beasts is usually used by wizards to weave invisibility cloaks. This is the first time that Rhys has seen the operation of wrapping steel wires. It can be said that it is very creative.
It is indeed miraculous when used for sneak attacks. If it weren't for the magic power fluctuations attached to the rope, Rhys might not be able to detect it.
For an ordinary wizard, there is a high probability of being attacked by a sneak attack.
After taking away the most valuable magic items, Lupet searched the bodies of the four unconscious people.
However, she was greatly disappointed with the results of this 'battle'.
She couldn't even collect a single gold Galleon from the four of them, and it seemed that they spent all their money to buy cheap invisibility cloak.
Of course, not all was lost. The wands worn by the four of them could also be sold for a few bucks, which was naturally accepted by Lupet with an unceremonious smile.
"Wizards after a thousand years are really too weak." Rhys walked up to the black-robed wizard unhurriedly, stretched out his hand, and pinched the other party's cheek.
In his opinion, there was no need to interrogate the remaining four soldiers. The core leader of this group was only the guy in front of him, and all the intelligence was focused on him.
After hearing what Rhys said, the black-robed wizard was startled at first, and then realized: How can anyone live for a thousand years? Nicolas Flamel, the oldest wizard in the magical world, only lived for more than six hundred years. The guy in front of him was just bluffing and talking nonsense.
However, even if the other party is talking nonsense, it does not prevent him from having the upper hand, so the black-robed wizard thought for a moment and decided to surrender for the time being.
"I believe this is just a misunderstanding..." The black-robed wizard's voice was muffled because his face was pinched.
"Shh-" Rhys had no desire to talk to him. He forced the other person to look into his eyes until the other person's eyes became distracted.
Rhys is proficient in Legilimency. Although many of the magic spells cannot be used to their full strength because of his current weak body, Legilimency, a magic that relies on the strength of the soul, has not been greatly restricted. He still Can easily read the memories of a wizard under his control.
"Who ordered you to do such a thing?"
"..Anthony MacMillan! H-he offered us forty galleons to teach you a lesson."
"If you succeed in capturing Lupet and I, what will you do to us?"
"Play with the girl for a while, and then get rid of you - John said you have a lot of money with you, we can divide the money, and then pass the blame to Anthony. Anyway, he asked us to teach you a lesson." The Black-Robed wizard confessed his feelings frankly, which made Lupet resentful and she kicked him several times.
During the questioning and answering, Rhys had already made it clear about the intentions and origins of this group of people: MacMillan hired thugs to attack people, and the hired thugs became interested in making money and fleshy desires and wanted to simply use the MacMillan family's tiger skin to kill them afterwords.
The situation is not complicated.
"Are you or were you a student of Hogwarts?" After struggling for two seconds, Rhys asked a question that he was very concerned about. He was afraid that the other party would say that he was a student of Slytherin House.
"No, it was the magic taught to me by the monks of the Secret Order."
"The Secret Order?"
It was the name of a magical organization that Rhys had never heard of. There are many Muggle organizations with this name, but Rhys thinks that it is most likely just the same name as what the black-robed wizard said.
"Have you heard of it?" Rhys looked at Lupet and asked her.
Lupet frowned and said with some uncertainty: "It seems to be a magic organization active in Europe that teaches magic to those young wizards who have not learned. I have met a wizard from Montenegro before. He said he is a member of the Secret Order—I just don't know if it's the Secret Order he's talking about."
"Like Hogwarts?"
"That's incomparable." Lupet shook his head: "Hogwarts is the best magic school in the UK and even the world. It has a complete monopoly on the wizarding students in the British Isles. How can the Secret Order compare with others? Can it compare with Hogwarts? There are only a few magic schools that can compare to Hogwarts."
Rhys was very excited when she said this. If the situation wasn't right, he would have asked Lupet to give a good introduction to today's magic school.
In fact, it is very rare for a magic school to admit all young wizards born in the British Isles as Hogwarts is.
Other magic schools will draw a general sphere of influence and then recruit young wizards with sufficiently outstanding talents. Different schools have different preferences: students in Durmstrang must be able to accept black magic; students in Wagadu cannot rely too much on magic wands; students who do not know French will never be able to enter Beauxbatons, etc.
Hogwarts is what it is now thanks to Helga Hufflepuff, one of the Big Four. It was her insistence on accepting all the students that made Hogwarts unique. Without Hufflepuff's efforts, some young wizards might have faced a very tragic situation - receiving the admission notice, rushing to Hogwarts excitedly, and then being informed that they had failed. How hopeless it is for a child!
There is no concept of repetition in magic schools, so their lives will undoubtedly be ruined.
After learning from Lupet that the "Secret Order" was actually similar to a magic school, most of Rhys's interest in this organization disappeared.
Out of habit, he asked casually: "So are you still in contact with the Secret Order?"
"Well, we have an alumni directory. If there is anything someone needs my help with, a message will automatically appear on the alumni directory, and you will be rewarded when things are done well."
"Oh?" Now Rhys became interested.
Even when Hogwarts was founded, it would not control the students after graduation like the Secret Order. This "alumni record" sounds like the bulletin board used to publish bounty missions in the mercenary guild.
After asking for a while, Rhys learned that the invisibility cloak of the guy in front of him was earned through "helping" and saving points. And what he does is very simple: intelligence gathering. He wanted all kinds of information about the Secret Order, so he subscribed to several newspapers and submitted them every day after refining the news in the newspapers and the news he heard in Knockturn Alley.
The rewards given by the Secret Order are not bad either. In addition to magic props such as invisibility cloaks, there are also rewards of varying values such as potion materials, potion formulas, and magic spells.
After prying everything out from the black-robed wizard, Rhys's understanding of the Secret Order has undergone earth-shaking changes.
His experience told him that this organization was anything but simple. So he decided to strengthen his connection with this organization, and it would be best to break into this organization and figure out their purpose.
And the key to joining the organization is right in front of me.
Rhys easily obtained a book from the black-robed wizard. It was a small booklet with a black leather cover. The name of the black-robed wizard was written on the title page: Serge. The booklet looked inconspicuous, no different from the ten diaries in the stationery shop in Diagon Alley.
As for how to use it...
Serge's authority was surprisingly low. He didn't even have the means to actively contact the Secret Order, and could only passively wait for contact from his superiors.
This made Rhys a little speechless, but he soon felt relieved: it was precisely because Serge was insignificant that he could easily extract information from him.
After squeezing out the last drop of information, Serge lost all use value. Rhys took away his wand and belongings, loosened his restraints, and let him leave.
"Are you too lenient with them? After all, they-" Lupet was about to persuade Rhys to be more cruel and not to be too lenient, but Rhys' next move blocked her mouth.
The transparent rope was tied around the necks of the four people one after another, and then tied to the bulges on the walls on both sides of the alley, one on the left and one on the right, just like a clothesline.
"Have you ever killed a mouse?" After dealing with the four wandering mages like hanging a few pieces of laundry, Rhys asked Lupet a question.
"I should have caught it when I transformed."
Rhys: "…"
He almost forgot her identity as a werewolf, but that didn't matter.
"Swatting the rats to death directly is not the most effective method of eradicating rats. Experienced Muggles will seal the back door of the captured rat with thread and then put it back. The rats that return to the nest will eventually fall into the trap because they are unable to defecate. That rat will go crazy and kill all the rats in his nest."
Rhys said meaningfully.
.
.
.
MacMillan met Serge again.
"How's it going? Is everything done?" As soon as he saw Serge, he couldn't wait to ask.
"Yeah, it's done." Serge responded with a dull expression.
"That's great—ugh!!?" Before MacMillan could finish speaking, Serge slapped him in the face.
Miraculously, this slap did not make any crisp sound. Serge's palm seemed to have melted and stuck to MacMillan's face.
The next moment, his whole body except that hand turned into a piece of fresh mud. The mud on the beach merged with the dirt on the ground in Knockturn Alley, and no one could tell that a living person had ever stood there.
The hand he left behind also quickly softened, sealing MacMillan's eyes and ears like dough, taking away his hearing and vision.
What happened in the corner of Knockturn Alley had nothing to do with Rhys and Lupet. The two had returned to Diagon Alley and bought books worth some galleons from Flourish and Blotts Bookstore and the second-hand bookstore next door.
According to Rhys's original plan, he had to spend at least two hundred galleons to buy other books, but he gave up after Lupet told him that most of the books could be borrowed from the Hogwarts library.
Next, he and Lupet opened two rooms in the Leaky Cauldron and lived in Diagon Alley for a long time.
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