Read 20+ Chapter's Ahead in Patreon
The remaining seven quickly decided on the spells they wished to study. Their choices ranged from ancient magic to the study of runes, from specific counter-curses to advanced transfiguration charms, and finally to the dangerous art of Fiendfyre control.
With his mastery over "Memory Divergence" and "Mechanical Mind," Sargeras completed the lessons with remarkable speed, his teaching method precise and efficient.
At that moment, Swift, who had been quietly listening until now, finally spoke in a slow and deliberate tone.
"Gringotts has discovered a mysterious new magical ruin lying on the seabed near the Isle of Drear. What makes this discovery especially noteworthy is the series of wizard eyewitness reports claiming that, on that very island… a Quintaped was seen."
"Quintaped?!"
"Is that information reliable?!"
The group instantly grew animated, their earlier composure broken.
Quintapeds were creatures of extreme rarity. None of those gathered here had ever laid eyes on one with their own sight. Records of wizards encountering such creatures and living to tell the tale were exceedingly few. As a result, research on them was extremely scarce, their existence preserved mostly in fragments of old legend or locked away within the Ministry's most restricted archives.
"The credibility is high," Swift confirmed with a firm nod. "In fact, three Muggles have already lost their lives because of it."
"Muggles?" Sargeras' brows drew together in a deep frown. "But isn't Isle of Drear under a strong Muggle-Repelling Charm cast by the Ministry? How could they possibly appear there?"
"The exact reason is still unclear," Swift explained patiently. "But from a few curse-breakers inside Gringotts I am acquainted with, I heard that on the Muggles' fishing vessel they discovered a piece of parchment — a map — along with a considerable amount of specialized fishing gear. It seems they had followed the map, thinking to fish in those waters."
"A map?" Sargeras fell silent for a long moment before replying. "Yet as far as I know, Isle of Drear has also been placed under an Unplottable Charm. It should be impossible for it to appear on any map."
The others frowned at once upon hearing this.
Only Kestrel and Robin looked lost, the name of the Quintaped clearly unfamiliar to them. They exchanged a bewildered glance, eyes wide with confusion.
"Quintaped? What kind of thing is that? A giant monster with five legs?" Kestrel could not restrain herself but blurt out.
Swift glanced at the two of them, his voice steady and carrying a clear, ringing quality as he began to explain. "The Quintapeds traces its origins back to a blood feud between two ancient wizarding families in Scotland, the McClivors and the McBoons. It is said that the head of the McClivor family used a sinister spell to transform the entire McBoon clan into monstrous five-legged beasts. After their transformation, the McBoons, filled with rage, turned upon the McClivors and slaughtered them without mercy. But because their minds had deteriorated during the transformation, they could never return to human form. From that day onward, their descendants were cursed to remain as Five-Legged Beasts for all generations to come."
Robin swallowed hard, his voice trembling slightly as he asked, "That thing… it's dangerous, isn't it?"
"Extremely dangerous," Swift replied with unshakable certainty, his words carrying the weight of final judgment.
"The Ministry's Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures has classified it as a five-X level beast, the highest danger rating there is, and one of the most closely monitored species. Though they are exceedingly rare, every time one has appeared, its presence has been accompanied by bloodshed."
"Does the Ministry of Magic know about this?" Thunderbird's deep voice rumbled from across the table, his tone grave.
"As of now, there hasn't been any official announcement," Swift answered thoughtfully. "But even if the Ministry is aware, they are most unlikely to interfere directly. So long as no one stumbles onto Isle of Drear again by mistake, their most probable choice will be to let the matter quietly fade away."
He paused, then added in a softer but weighty tone, "Unless, of course, the creature itself decides to leave the island."
"What if there are others," Stork asked, expressing concern, "people like those three Muggles, who somehow manage to find the island while out fishing?"
"The possibility is slim," Swift said after a brief consideration. "Those three Muggles only managed to found their way there because they had that strange parchment map, whose origin remains unknown. Without such a guide, the Muggle-Repelling Charms, combined with the island's natural concealment, should be more than enough to keep outsiders away."
All the while, Sargeras had remained silent, his sharp eyes fixed intently on Swift as though measuring the weight of his every word. At last he spoke, his voice low and deliberate. "Swift, that magical ruin you mentioned earlier… does Gringotts have any specific information about it? Its age, its nature, anything at all?"
"Gringotts hasn't yet carried out any substantial exploration," Swift replied, shaking his head. "The Isle of Drear itself is already considered a sensitive location, and with the newly discovered ruin and the rumors of Quintapeds, the Ministry has placed extremely strict surveillance over the area. Why? Do you have some special interest in that ruin?"
His gaze sharpened slightly, his words cutting straight to the heart of his question. He had clearly sensed the deeper implication hidden in Sargeras's tone.
Sargeras lightly tapped his fingertips against the wooden table, the faint sound echoing in the silence. "It is just that… not long ago, Gringotts caused the deaths of so many Muggles through what they called an 'accident in development.' In the end, they brushed it aside as if it were a trivial matter, without a proper investigation, without anyone held to account. That makes me… want to do something about it."
"Then should we perhaps…?" The eyes of Lady Snowy Owl brightened as she looked at him, her tone probing, as though testing the waters.
Sargeras, however, gave a firm shake of his head. His emotions, which had briefly flared, were quickly reined back in. "No. For now, let things take their natural course. The ruin is there, and the Quintaped is there. Sooner or later, either the Ministry or Gringotts will be forced to act. We'll wait and watch from the sidelines."
Her gaze wandered as if idly, but there was a sharpness hidden in it. Lady Snowy Owl let her eyes drift across Kestrel, Nightingale, and Robin before speaking in an almost casual tone. "The three of you… you've been staying at Hogwarts lately, haven't you?"
Kestrel and Nightingale both nodded.
"I'll be leaving tomorrow to return to Beauxbatons," Nightingale added.
"Oh…" Lady Snowy Owl let out a soft sound of acknowledgment. Her long, pale fingers began to trace the rim of her teacup unconsciously, turning it slowly as though her mind were elsewhere. She seemed about to speak again but hesitated, the words caught in her throat.
"Is there something on your mind?" Sargeras, ever quick to notice the slightest hesitation, asked calmly, his gaze fixed upon her.
"Ah, no, nothing, nothing at all." Lady Snowy Owl waved her hand quickly, a bit too quickly, her attempt to cover up obvious. "It's just… I heard some gossip from the guild. They say Professor Kettleburn of Hogwarts, once he retires next year, will be joining our Magical Creatures Trade Association as a special consultant."
"And so?" Sargeras' expression did not shift in the slightest, waiting for her to continue.
"Well, just think about it." Lady Snowy Owl searched for the right words, her eyes flickering slightly as she spoke. "Professor Kettleburn has been Hogwarts's Care of Magical Creatures professor for so many years. Once he leaves next year, a new professor will take over the post. And when that happens… it's very likely that the textbooks will be changed as well, isn't it? I was wondering… perhaps our guild might have the chance to secure the supply order for those new textbooks."
Her voice trailed lower and lower as she spoke, laced with the calculating tone of a merchant caught between ambition and guilt, her confidence shrinking with every word.
Sargeras studied her for a long moment in silence, watching her thinly veiled scheming with unreadable eyes. Then, quite suddenly, he asked a question that made every single person present straighten in their seats.
"So tell me, Snowy Owl… what exactly was it that caused you, back in the day, to be placed on the Ministry of Magic's blacklist, forbidden from setting foot in Britain?"
The question landed upon the room like an unseen spell. In an instant, the safehouse fell into absolute silence. Even Dobby, who had been quietly scrubbing at a patch of wall in the corner with a rag, froze mid-motion, his large ears twitching as he strained to catch every word.
All eyes turned toward Lady Snowy Owl at once, each gaze openly probing, stripped of any pretense of politeness. The weight of attention bore down on her like a physical force.
Her cheeks flushed visibly, embarrassment spreading across her face in real time. She let out two awkward little laughs, her eyes flickering about as though desperately searching for an escape route. "It wasn't anything serious… *cough*… really, nothing at all. Just that, some years back, the Department of Magical Education of the British Ministry… well, they placed an order for a batch of The Invisible Book of Invisibility to use as Hogwarts textbooks. And those books… you all know what they are like, don't you? They are invisible, after all. So… well, the problem was…"
At once, Sargeras recalled the infamous fiasco that had once swept through Hogwarts. His lips twitched, the corner of his mouth betraying the faintest struggle against a smile.
"You can't mean…" Kestrel's eyes widened, her voice breaking in disbelief. "You actually took that order, but in the end… didn't deliver anything to the Ministry at all?!"
The notion was absurd, almost beyond belief, and yet her tone carried a nervous suspicion that it might somehow be true.
"How could you even say that!" Lady Snowy Owl's voice shot up at once, indignant and defensive. "I am a legitimate businesswoman! How could I possibly deliver nothing? I did provide the books. I really did. It's just… well…"
Her confidence faltered mid-sentence. Her voice shrank lower and lower until it was barely more than the faint whine of a mosquito. "…The number I delivered was just a little less than what the order had specified…"
"How much less?" Nightingale's voice cut in, sharp and precise.
Sargeras answered before she could, his tone calm but carrying the weight of absolute certainty, peeling back her flimsy cover. "Over a thousand copies short. And the worst part was that the Ministry of Magic didn't realize it right away. Those batch of books were urgently needed by Hogwarts students that year."
He let out a dry laugh as the memory resurfaced, colored with faint irony. "Haha! Because of your so-called 'little shortfall,' the book ended up being resold on the secondhand market for over a hundred Galleons apiece. For the entire term, half the school was practically losing their minds, scrambling to find even one 'visible copy' to use in class."
"Ha… ha…" Lady Snowy Owl forced out a laugh so dry it rasped in the air, the sound brittle and painful. Her expression was that of someone desperate to dig a hole in the floor and bury herself alive. "Yes… yes, that did happen… But in the end, I was punished for it. I had to pay a hefty fine… a very hefty fine…"
Her voice dwindled to a mutter, a feeble attempt to draw a line under a shameful piece of her past… at least, that was how she wanted it to appear.
**
**
[IMAGE]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Chapter End's]
🖤 Night_FrOst/ Patreon 🤍
Visit my Patreon for Early Chapter:
Extra Content Already Available