Chapter 338: Awakening

"You deceived us last time; do you still expect us to follow your lead?" Grindelwald snorted with disdain.

"That was not deception, merely adapting to circumstances," the black-robed priest said. "I pointed out his location to you, but I did not anticipate that you would be unable to kill him. I discovered another opportunity to exploit and proceeded to other battlefields. Murphy Darkholm is not my only enemy."

"Who exactly are you?" Dumbledore asked. "If you want to cooperate, we should at least know the identity of our partner."

"I am not your partner," the black-robed priest said. "I am merely providing a reminder."

"Then we should at least know who your enemies are," Grindelwald said. "If we assist you in stopping Murphy, what comes next? How can we be sure that you and the wizards are on the same side?"

"In this world, I have three enemies. They are all individuals capable of breaking the effectiveness of the oath and must be eliminated," the black-robed priest said. "My interests are entirely aligned with the highest interests of wizards; I exist for this very purpose."

"What evidence do you have to prove this? How can we trust you?" Grindelwald asked.

"Trust is not the foundation of this matter. I share a common goal with you. But if the route to eliminate Murphy Darkholm fails, I will continue to take other measures. Preventing the breaking of the oath is my entire mission."

"Other measures—do you mean something like the witch hunts from hundreds of years ago?" Dumbledore asked.

"If necessary, reducing the number of wizards is also a form of protection," the black-robed priest said.

"You said there are three individuals capable of breaking the effectiveness of the oath. Murphy is clearly one of them. Who are the other two?" Dumbledore asked.

"The Oath-Breaker Miriam, the Rule-Violator Riddle, and the Anomaly Murphy," the black-robed priest said, looking at the two opposite him. "All wizards who reach this level are under the surveillance of the mechanism. Gellert Grindelwald was also once one of the most dangerous subjects of surveillance, but the wizarding world internally corrected this error."

"Originally, the errors of Riddle and Miriam would also have been internally corrected by the wizarding world. But the appearance of the Anomaly broke all of this. He is the source of everything and is leading the wizarding world to the brink of destruction."

"One final reminder," the black-robed priest said. "Destroy the antenna."

"This will be the last chance for internal correction by the wizarding world."

……

The black-robed priest left them an address and then departed.

"Albus, you aren't actually planning to do as he says, are you?" Grindelwald asked, looking at the contemplative Dumbledore.

"We don't have a better choice, do we?" Dumbledore said. "We were already prepared to do this; he merely provided us with some clues."

"I don't trust that fellow," Grindelwald said. "What appeared before us was merely a puppet; its true form is hidden somewhere we cannot reach, and we don't know its true purpose."

"Regarding that, I do have some guesses," Dumbledore said. "The reason the witch hunts hundreds of years ago facilitated the formation of the Statute of Secrecy was, of course, not just relying on those Muggle zealots; wizards had too many ways to avoid being killed by Muggles."

"Some trivial actions could not have made all wizards unanimously agree to pass such a law—especially since the passage of this law cut off many people's livelihoods."

"I once saw the reason in the fragments of some documents: the witch hunts had indeed dealt a massive blow to wizarding society."

"At that time, some very powerful 'knights' appeared in the church. They not only possessed ways to identify wizards but could also resist the vast majority of spells. Some priests also possessed special abilities; they could even use a type of magic known as Divine Art, which was stronger than wizard magic."

"It was precisely because of their continuous hunting that the number of British wizards once dropped to fewer than two thousand."

"The priest we just saw is that kind of figure. You should have felt the sense of danger from him as well."

"So, the other party was once an enemy who hunted us," Grindelwald said. "And we are actually going to unite with an enemy to deal with a fellow wizard?"

"You are right," Dumbledore smiled bitterly. "This is what we must do. Because we must ensure that wizards abide by that oath; the consequences of the secret being exposed are something none of us can bear."

"For the greater good," Grindelwald laughed sarcastically. "Then what do you intend to do? Murphy shouldn't let us destroy his 'antenna' obediently."

"I will go to pin him down; the work of destroying the antenna can be left to the members of the Phoenix Society," Dumbledore said.

"By yourself?"

"If it's just pinning him down, I should be enough. Gellert, I know you aren't happy about targeting Murphy; this is not your responsibility. You have already wasted a lot of time; go do what you want to do."

"That sounds like a last will and testament."

Dumbledore was silent; he was indeed prepared to die.

"If it were forty years ago, no, even twenty years ago, I would have turned and left. But now... it's too late, Albus. Time is no longer enough for us to do too many things. The only future left, I want to leave for the most important people and things, even if it means dying together."

……

White Ferret Mountain.

Sirius was cleaning the room; he used magic to fly things like quilts and bedsheets out of the window and hung them on the clothesline outside.

It was late May, and Hogwarts was about to go on break; he had to prepare for Harry to come home.

It was now the early summer of '94; Harry was already a third-year student, about to enter his fourth year.

Since Lukas's death, Harry had changed significantly; he had become much more taciturn, to the point that sometimes Sirius felt as if an extra, gray personality had emerged within him. He practiced magic desperately and had begun to develop a certain interest in Black Magic.

Sirius often saw advanced Black Magic content in the books he read that far exceeded what an ordinary third-year student should be exposed to.

However, although this made Sirius somewhat uneasy, he wasn't overly worried; after all, who hadn't dabbled in a Black Magic spell or two when they were young, and Harry was also reaching his rebellious phase.

Just as he was doing chores, suddenly, his chest felt scorching hot.

Sirius was startled and reached out to take an orange-red feather from his inner chest pocket.

The feather vibrated, and suddenly flames emerged from it, forming a line of text in the air.

"At dusk, battle, extremely dangerous." The text appeared for a moment and then vanished; subsequently, the feather turned into a Portkey.

This was an emergency notification from the Phoenix Society. This sentence indicated the time and general type of mission, but for the sake of secrecy, it would not contain specific mission targets or locations. Those who wanted to participate in the mission could reach the place directly through the Portkey made from the Phoenix feather.

Sirius frowned. Since Kingsley's visit, he would pass some information to the Phoenix Society from time to time, returning to the Phoenix Society to a certain extent.

But this was the first time he had been notified of a combat mission through this emergency contact method.

He hadn't participated in a battle for a long time; the moment he saw this mission, the adventurous factor in his heart was almost stirring.

But after glancing at the "extremely dangerous" marked at the end, he sighed.

Forget it, let's leave this kind of mission to others first; he didn't want Harry to come back and find him missing an arm or a leg.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 339 =====