Chapter 413: Queen's Legacy

The Christmas dance is just around the corner, but everything Harry wants to do is not going well, so his mood is not very good.

After finally summoning the courage, Ron chose to retreat because of a ridiculous reason like "didn't wash his hair yesterday," watching Hermione hand in a leave request on the 21st and leave school directly. Finally, Harry could only follow the backup plan provided by Zhang Qiu, instructing him to invite the exchange student who was going to board at Ginny's house. Sure enough, Miss White agreed to be Ron's dance partner very easily, and even enthusiastically.

Lucine White is a typical American high school student. Leaving aside her academic performance, everything else about her can be called perfect. Not only does she have fiery beauty, but her speech and behavior are also impeccable. She is generous and tells everyone clearly that she is a social butterfly who can be friends with anyone.

Originally, Ron was quite enthusiastic about Lucine, but when he saw that bubble-sleeved, large round-necked, large-skirted waist-cinching dress, and those trivial fine diamonds on it, he suddenly revealed a relieved smile.

"She is too vulgar, just another Marietta," Ron said conceitedly. "She also keeps sticking to me, I don't like this kind of girl."

Harry retorted: "You let Hermione go, so you bear the consequences yourself."

There are two other things that make Harry's mood bad. Zhang Qiu has been worrying about Rider-related matters, always muttering about going back to ask clearly, which makes her very perfunctory about the dance; and, on such an important occasion as the Christmas dance, Headmaster Snape never appeared, which shows that something must have happened at the Ministry of Magic, causing him to be delayed.

After hurriedly dealing with the dance, Zhang Qiu simply said goodbye and left immediately—she didn't even pack her luggage much, only took a handbag, and Apparated as soon as she reached the school gate.

Ron also looked listless. Harry reminded him not to forget to train swordsmanship and develop Rider power. Although he agreed on his mouth, he didn't show much energy in his actions, which accumulated a lot of dissatisfaction in Harry's heart.

Finally, the only good news finally boosted Harry's spirit, coming from the always reliable Mr. Severus Snape. He told Harry via owl that the experiment had ended, but the Department of Mysteries must be completely sealed. He would choose a day after Christmas to visit Downton with Donna, and some experiment-related results needed to be discussed with Harry in secret.

When Harry returned to Downton, and Sirius came up to hug him with a smile, Harry suddenly remembered one thing: there is an outsider at home this year.

"It's okay, I'll just take another fake name," Sirius said happily. "The Downton family all have the surname Crawley, right?"

"Mr. Padfoot, let me introduce you," Ivy obviously realized this problem too. Her choice was to skip the real name. "This is Miss Kathy Field, an exchange student who will spend Christmas with us."

"Nice to meet you, Miss Field," Sirius shook hands with her solemnly. "I am Raphael Crawley, and also Harry's godfather."

"Is he your father?" Kathy turned her head and asked.

"Just a distant relative," Ivy answered slightly awkwardly.

Harry felt that Kathy's look at Sirius seemed a bit wrong, but he didn't take it to heart.

The Christmas holiday officially began, and Christmas had not yet arrived. The whole Downton was bustling with various arrangements, while Sirius was used to being idle—he was either watching TV or chatting with Harry holding a teacup, without any intention of participating in housework.

Ivy and Kathy seemed to be getting along well. This was the conclusion Harry observed in these two days. As the two girls became more and more intimate, Harry gradually began to talk to Kathy a few more words, chatting about some interesting things on the surface at Hogwarts.

Until Christmas Day, after they had a lively holiday and returned to their rooms to rest, Harry heard a series of fine knocking sounds. However, Harry was already lying in a comfortable quilt at this moment, and didn't want to climb up. So, he took out a magic eye from the small box on the bedside table—this was a Christmas gift just sent by Moody.

When he looked through the magic eye, he was stunned by the scene outside the door: Kathy used a huge gift box to cover her body, and apart from that, she wore nothing, only holding a large ribbon to cover her chest—and it was tied with a bow. Another bright red ribbon wrapped around her smooth and round thighs, coming up from some unspeakable part, held in her petite left hand painted with red nail polish.

Harry put down the magic eye, thought for a moment, took out his wand to lock the door, and then raised the magic eye again, preparing to take a few more looks.

Kathy knocked on the door and didn't get a response, so she left with disappointment. After Harry gradually recovered his thoughts, he immediately began to suspect that there was some kind of vicious trick hidden behind this. What is certain is that since these two exchange students are so beautiful, they must have been carefully selected. Therefore, since the person behind the scenes is willing to sacrifice some other elements to pick out two beauties, it shows that this must be some kind of beauty trap. Of course, the disadvantage is that their methods are a bit too low-level. Lucine is playing cards openly on the table, while Kathy is in a hurry to All-in before the cards are dealt. Harry deeply suspects that they themselves didn't expect much success.

Judging from past combat experience, no matter whether Donald wants to set a trap or win over, he can't play so wildly. Harry easily began to suspect whether the two exchange students sent home this time were actually from another faction of the Magical Congress? But it is also possible that Donald deliberately did it roughly, leading things to that side, or it is another faction of the Magical Congress deliberately creating the illusion that Donald did it deliberately...

Harry shook his head and continued to do these recursive analyses, which would not be of any help. Donald's real move must have been implemented the moment Hermione got leave and left school. Moreover, before figuring out how much Rider power Donald has mastered and what kind of role he is prepared to play, he really doesn't dare to offend this unscrupulous guy too much.

The next day, at the breakfast table, Kathy was still calm and chatting with Ivy, while Harry felt a bit unnatural. Sirius was holding a large newspaper, his eyes dodging and glancing around.

Harry wanted to find Ivy alone several times to let her suggest living in the same room with Kathy, but Kathy seemed to have anticipated his countermeasure and always stuck to Ivy's side.

At ten o'clock, the arrival of two visitors interrupted their weirdness and completely shifted Harry's attention.

Snape was wearing a suit and trench coat often worn by Muggles, and following him was Donna, wearing a women's suit. She was carrying a small aluminum suitcase with a solemn expression.

"Ivy, you take Kathy to the town to turn around, see what little things to buy," Harry made a suggestion that didn't look like a trace, but even Ivy heard the subtext and rolled her eyes at him.

On the contrary, Kathy took the initiative to say that she was very interested in going out, which made Harry's view of her improve a lot.

"The results came out very early, the experiment failed," Snape said in a slightly depressed tone in the parlor. "The reason it took so long is because we were cleaning up the scene."

"Cleaning up the scene? Do you have to be there too?"

"The main reason Professor Snape must be present is that the out-of-control Queen has extremely strong regenerative ability, and can even be resurrected with just a mist of blood," Donna explained. "We killed her many times in the Department of Mysteries, and finally gathered all the red mist before we finally cleaned it up."

Harry didn't say a word. He felt it was really suffocating—both the result and the process.

"This is the legacy left by the Queen," Donna opened the aluminum suitcase. Inside was a revolver and two rows of bullets.

"The condensed Queen's blood is very hard, and the magic content is extremely high. Its nature is already quite close to the Sorcerer's Stone. Theoretically, bullets with this as the warhead already have the ability to penetrate Kamen Rider armor," Donna pointed to the row of bullets above. "Because we still have to supply research, we only made six special bullets."

"The row below is imitating the Queen's blood, using ordinary vampire Hades Blood to refine Blood Essence to make warheads. The power will be much worse, but the assessment believes it is still enough to threaten Kamen Riders. I have prepared twenty-four rounds for you."

"Preparing these things is hoping you have the power to protect yourself," Snape said softly. "I heard about your hospitalization, and I probably guessed a little. It's too dangerous for you who can't transform to face other Riders directly. These means are necessary."

Harry picked up a special bullet and looked at the glowing blue warhead carefully. His mood was a bit low, and he asked as if he had nothing to say: "Can you tell me the detailed situation?"

"Then I'll start from the beginning." With Snape's tacit consent, Donna told Harry the whole story of the experiment as an observer.

Originally, to ensure that the experimental process risk was controllable, they decided to perform continuous blood transfusion on Cruz with wizard blood. Theoretically, as long as the transfusion speed was controlled well, even if there was a sudden situation, it could be stopped at any time.

During the blood transfusion process, Cruz always maintained a quite clear cognition, and also confirmed orally that she felt good. But just after exceeding a certain threshold, Cruz immediately started to go crazy. She attacked everyone present in an indiscriminate way. For wizards, she wanted to suck fresh blood, and for vampires present, she also wanted to suck Hades Blood.

At first, Snape tried to subdue her and awaken her sanity, but the crazy Queen, after being hit by a spell, immediately started to release various Blood Magic indiscriminately—some that Cruz originally knew, and some she learned on the spot by following wizard spells, which caused quite a lot of chaos and casualties.

Finally killing the Queen, she reshaped her body with some corpse pieces and came back to life, making a second big scene in the Department of Mysteries. This time the casualties caused were even greater, but as Snape led the Aurors to repeatedly kill her, the Queen's power became weaker and weaker, and finally lost all vitality, becoming research material.

The whole story is not complicated. It is reasonable for vampires to go crazy because of thirst for blood. The only place that exceeds common sense is that the Queen has the ability to resurrect. Harry also barely accepted this magical fact.

He didn't hear many doubts, nor did he feel that Donna and Snape had anything to hide from him. At this moment, he was just mourning for Cruz. A girl who might also be in her prime just... sacrificed her life for her tribe, and in such an undignified way.