Chapter 131. The Girl Olivia
"Stop struggling.
Even if Dumbledore were bound like this, he wouldn't be able to use magic to break free."
Duncan cautiously moved along the side and yanked the wand from the man's hand.
"How about we have a proper chat?
If your answers satisfy me, I might consider not smashing your skull."
In under two minutes the situation had reversed, and Duncan threw the man's earlier words back at him.
After waiting a moment with no reply, Duncan raised his hand and knocked on the wall of the cage.
"Don't play deaf.
I left you an air hole.
You can definitely hear me."
"Fine.
Since you don't want to cooperate, I can only help you choose the other path."
He lifted his wand.
The air vents he had deliberately left began to close, pressing in with a strong sense of suffocation.
"Wait!"
At the last moment, a dull voice came from inside the cage.
"Aren't you with those people?"
Duncan halted the closing apertures.
"Who are the people you mean?"
There was a brief silence, then: "Those bastards in the gorge.
They usually wear black wizard robes!"
Duncan's brows rose.
There was hatred in the man's tone; the person before him might be a friend rather than a foe.
"I don't know them," Duncan said after thinking for a moment.
"But they crossed me.
I need to settle accounts with them.
So we're connected that much, at least."
The caged man audibly relaxed.
"Our goals are the same.
I'm going after them too.
We can be friends.
We shouldn't fight each other here and let those damned bastards profit!"
"Is that so?" Duncan said.
"Please, you have to believe me!" the man went on, anxious now.
"You've already taken my wand and bound my hands and feet.
I can't cast anything.
Uncover my head a little and I'll prove we're absolutely not enemies!"
"All right.
Don't let me down."
Duncan soundlessly stepped back to a safe distance, then flicked his wand.
The hard rock seemed to melt like an iceberg.
The upper layer turned liquid and slowly ran down the cage wall to the floor.
A girl's head gradually emerged.
Her features were delicate beneath grime, and her dishevelled golden hair was coiled at the back of her head.
Seeing light again, the girl lifted her head and gulped several breaths of fresh air, then hurriedly looked around.
But she saw no one, and could only call out, "Hey, are you still there?
Don't tell me you've left me here!"
"How did you spot me just now?" Duncan asked, wand still raised as he stayed alert for anything unusual.
"Those bastards have recently figured out I'm hiding here," the girl said to the empty air.
"They sometimes come looking, so I set up alarm devices around.
I can tell when someone comes.
This time I thought there was only one of you, so I wanted to try my luck and take one down, but I ended up getting caught by you instead."
"Why are they looking for you?"
She pressed her lips together and fell silent.
After a moment she said, "I can't tell you that for now.
But don't worry—so long as you're their enemy, I'll always be your friend.
I won't harm you."
"And how am I meant to believe you?" Duncan asked flatly.
It was a technique he had learned from Severus Snape—very effective when pressing someone whose nerves weren't made of steel.
The girl's lips moved as she tried to think of something that would convince the invisible speaker.
Mori, who was keeping watch in the distance, suddenly hurried back.
"Duncan, there are seven or eight wizards coming from over there!
And they're all in black!"
"Seven or eight?"
After a quick assessment of both sides' strength, Duncan looked toward the girl.
"Where do you usually hide?"
She froze, instantly understanding: people were coming.
"Take five big steps to my right," she said quickly, "then four steps back.
You'll see a stone on the ground with a crack in it.
Knock on it six times and a passage will appear in front of you!"
Duncan gave a slight nod and strode off according to her directions.
"Hey, don't leave me!
Untie me first!"
Hearing the receding footsteps, the girl shouted in a panic.
Duncan didn't reply.
He found the stone she had mentioned and knocked six times.
A passage slanting downward opened before him.
As he stepped onto the stone stairs he waved his wand.
The stone cage holding the girl rose into the air and entered the passage ahead of him.
He went down several steps and the exit behind them closed.
Torches set in the side walls lit one after another, illuminating the way ahead.
At the bottom, in the corridor, Duncan waved his wand and freed the girl from the stone cage.
"Terribly sorry to have kept you bound so long," he said.
"I'm not that strong, so I have to be cautious when I'm out and about."
"You're not that strong?
Then what does that make me—rubbish?"
Now that her hands and feet could move, the girl climbed up.
Hearing Duncan's words, she rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath.
Duncan pretended not to hear.
He peered toward the far end of the corridor.
"What's your name?"
"Olivia Jones," she answered honestly.
She glanced left and right.
"Are you planning to stay invisible and talk to me like this the whole time?"
"What's wrong with doing that?" Duncan shot back, moving down the corridor toward the inner end.
"No… nothing," Olivia said helplessly.
"You're stronger than me.
You're right about everything."
"Didn't expect you to have such a good sense of the situation.
Clever," Duncan replied.
He stopped at a doorway on the left side of the corridor.
Inside stood a bed with a heap of bedding.
Apart from that there was only a brown wooden table and a chair missing one leg, wobbling constantly yet never quite falling over.
"You live here normally?
All by yourself?" Duncan asked.
His words touched a sore spot.
Olivia's reply was soft and low.
Duncan turned his head, looking at the girl in the dim torchlight.
"What about the others in the town?
Did they run?"
"No!" Olivia ground her teeth, eyes full of hatred.
"Most of them were killed or taken by those bastards in the gorge.
Now I'm the only one left in the whole town!"
"What do they take the townsfolk for?" Duncan asked.
"I heard they're doing some horrible experiment, trying to dig out a wizard's potential," Olivia said.
Duncan frowned and nodded, then glanced at Olivia.
"So that's why you're still hiding here?
Your family was taken by them too, and you want to rescue them?"
Olivia was stunned for a moment, then silently nodded.
"They took my little sister," she said bitterly.
Seeing nothing false in her eyes, Duncan thought for a bit, ended his invisibility, walked up, and held out his hand.
"Maybe you're right.
We can be friends.
Hello, I'm Duncan Scamander."
"You're actually that young?"
Olivia's eyes went wide.
Then something else occurred to her, and her pitch rose into a near-shriek.
"Scamander—your surname is Scamander?"
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