A ruined Hogwarts

The setting sun has quietly set behind the horizon. The dark sky is dotted with a few bright stars, and the mountains on the horizon still have a golden edge outlined by the last afterglow.

At night, the Shafiq Manor is quiet and solemn. The tall Gothic spiers of the mansion stand straight into the sky, and a crescent moon hangs between the spiers, as if it is struggling to break free from the black jungle. Orange light shines from several arched windows, like the eyes of a crawling beast, but most of the windows are still dark, adding a bit of eerie color to the place.

The white rose bushes surrounding the manor are still blooming quietly. The lush branches and vines show a deep black color in the night, but the clusters of white roses seem to be filled with moonlight, reflecting a faint silvery white glow. The branches swayed with the breeze.

Owen had just stepped out of the fire in the fireplace, smelling the delicious fragrance of flowers in the air, and carefully cleaning the ashes from his body. There was no figure of the Shafiq couple in the gorgeous and exquisite living room, and even the lights were not turned on. The decorations hidden in the shadows reflected a faint light, and the surroundings were dark and silent.

After cleaning up the ashes that fell on the carpet, Owen squinted his eyes and looked around, playing with his wand with both hands.

He felt a little weird. In the past, by this time, the Shafiqs would usually have been waiting for dinner. Even if they don't come over because of something else, the house elves will do their best to light every lamp in the living room and make the whole room brightly lit.

But now the house elf who maintained the lights was nowhere to be seen, and it was so eerily quiet that even the smallest footsteps and voices could not be heard. Only the whirring of the flames in the fireplace and the movement of the hands on the wall clock next to it were left. ticking sound.

Owen frowned and called softly: "Melete? Nyx?"

There was silence. The catnives didn't pounce on him as affectionately as before, and the phoenix didn't flap its wings and respond with a sweet cry.

Owen snapped his fingers and called "Wendy" in a low voice. He waited for a moment, but did not hear the apparition of the house elf, nor the sound of small and rapid footsteps nearby.

He tried calling another house elf's name, but still got no response. Owen fell silent, his expression instantly becoming cold and indifferent.

In the darkness, which was so silent that he could clearly hear his heartbeat and breathing, Owen became a little confused. He carefully recalled the scene before going to Knockturn Alley during the day, and found nothing unusual. He just remembered that his father mentioned during breakfast that he would hold a banquet at home tonight.

"Did something happen?" Owen was reluctant to think about this. Because once he started, some terrible thoughts would keep popping up in his mind, stirring up the coldness and evil thoughts in his heart.

"But something is wrong..." He took a deep breath to suppress the black wave rising in his heart. His dark and deep eyes scanned the surroundings and overlooked the courtyard outside through the window, taking in all the details.

Everything was arranged in an orderly manner, the floor was clean, and there were no signs of damage in the room or courtyard. If someone broke into the manor and launched an attack, it would be impossible not to leave traces.

You know, Shafiq Manor has a long history, and a lot of magic has been added by generations of family members. It was unlikely that Mr. Shafiq would be quietly taken care of in his family home, not to mention that the Shafiqs themselves were skilled wizards. Even if there was an accident and they were attacked by friends, the cats and the phoenix who stayed in the manor should not disappear quietly.

Owen pondered for a moment, skillfully waved his wand and recited the Disappearance Charm, Silent Breathing Charm and Breath Concealing Charm to himself, and then walked straight towards the exquisite wall clock. The sculptures hanging on the wall silently lowered their eyelids and looked down condescendingly, as if they were secretly peeping at something.

Owen stopped in front of the table against the wall next to the wall clock and looked at a beautifully carved snake-grained wood box placed on it. There is a golden bell hanging on the top of the box, with portraits of a family of three embedded below. There is a rectangular display frame at the bottom of each portrait, and now the words "At Home" are written in gold in all three frames.

He raised his hand and patted the top of the wooden box. The letters in the three display boxes scrolled rapidly and turned into a blurry afterimage. Soon, the change of letters slowed down, and with a slight "click" sound, the three boxes once again settled on the word "at home".

"Are you all at home?" Owen narrowed his eyes and muttered to himself, and then moved away quietly.

He quickly came to the restaurant on the other side, which also had no lights. The long dining table lay there quietly, with the portraits hanging on the walls on both sides casting a glimmer of light from time to time.

The table has been carefully placed with plates, knives, forks, spoons, goblets and napkins, as well as small bottles of salt and black pepper. It seems that guests are about to enter.

Owen reached out and touched the white candle on the table. The wax tears on it seemed not to have completely solidified. He sniffed slightly, and there was still a faint smell of burning candles in the air.

"The candles on the dining table had just been blown out... We had made preparations for the banquet, but we left because of some unexpected situation?" Owen pursed his lips, "Why are there only tableware for three people? Are you having a party?"

He walked quickly out of the restaurant, intending to walk through the foyer and look out into the courtyard. When he came to the dark foyer, he saw a line of gleaming writing written on the ground, which stood out like a burning flame in the darkness: "Owen, leave the manor immediately and come back tomorrow morning!"

"It's dad's handwriting..." Owen relaxed slightly, but his expression did not relax. The wording of this line of handwriting is very severe, as if something very serious has happened, and the possibility of others imitating the handwriting is not ruled out, although it seems meaningless.

"But they both seem to be still in the manor." Owen thought of the snake-grained wood box in the living room again. It is a family "alarm bell" that can show the status of family members at any time, but it is not impossible to be deceived.

Just as he was analyzing the current situation in his mind, a loud "crunching" sound interrupted his thinking. The sound was like a saw cutting back and forth on steel, which was particularly harsh in the dead silence and gave people goosebumps.

Owen suddenly turned his head and looked in a certain direction: "The location where the sound came from is...the basement!"

"The basement of the manor has two floors. The bottom floor is the dungeon, which is almost abandoned. The basement floor has the kitchen and several storage rooms, as well as a room where the house elves live. One of my mother's laboratories is also there... "With the overall layout of the basement flashing through his mind, Owen carefully walked towards the stairs leading to the basement.

"The sound seems to be coming from the underground floor..." He stood at the top of the stairs and looked down. The basement was so dark that the air blowing from below was a bit cold and humid. The exquisite escalators snaked downwards, seemingly leading to a bottomless abyss.

Squeak - snore - bang -

Another strange noise came, like the opening and closing of a door that had been in disrepair, or the sound of a huge thing breathing. The sound became louder and louder, and it became more and more violent, as if some terrifying monster was wreaking havoc in the basement.

A burst of golden light suddenly lit up in the dark underground, illuminating the originally dark area. In just a blink of an eye, the place was invaded by darkness again, and the light of that moment still remained on the retina.

"What happened?" The situation in the basement made Owen's heart skip a beat.

"Leave the manor, or go down and take a look?" He stood at the top of the stairs and took a few steps with some itching. The constant noises and strange flashes of light in the basement were like a cat's teasing stick jumping in front of a cat, accurately arousing his curiosity.

If he hadn't considered that his parents were most likely in the basement of the manor, he would have summoned the black devil guards and sneaked down to take a look.

"Well, it won't be too dangerous, otherwise dad wouldn't just leave a message in the hall." Owen's eyes moved around flexibly, and finally decided to go down and take a look. With his ability, he should return the favor. Can help.

He waved his wand to strengthen the three-piece night travel spell on his body, slowly went down the escalator, stepped on the basement floor, and walked along the long corridor.

Another flash of light came from the front. Owen narrowed his eyes due to the dazzling light, but he could see the source of the light clearly: "There was a magic experiment accident in mother's laboratory...?"

His expression became serious, and there was a hint of worry in his heart.

Magic experiments sometimes cause weird accidents, and sometimes they are just funny things, but it is not ruled out that there will be very serious consequences. Owen's grandparents died in a magic experiment accident. Owen's usual experiments in the wall space also went wrong, especially the research on soul magic, which was extremely dangerous.

He couldn't help but quicken his pace, and stood in front of the laboratory door quickly and yet vigilantly. The heavy black metal door was open, and the sound from inside echoed and rumbled in the corridor.

Owen recited several protective spells for himself, including the Iron Armor Charm, carefully hid his body behind the door frame, and slowly poked half of his head out to look into the room, holding the wand in his hand and preparing to attack.

At this time, another flash of light erupted from the room, and the intense light made him close his eyes. After the light dissipated, all the noise stopped instantly, and the surroundings suddenly returned to deathly silence.

The sudden transition from hustle and bustle to silence left Owen feeling a little ringing in his ears. He opened his eyes and looked into the room with confusion and curiosity. He first focused his eyes on the floor, then slowly raised his eyelids and moved his eyes upward to expand his field of vision little by little. This was what he would do when targeting the basilisk. The preventive measures are now used to be prepared.

The laboratory was not completely dark. The stones inlaid on the walls emitted a glimmering green light, making the layout of the room vaguely discernible. After the eyes stimulated by the bright light completely adapt to the darkness, the furnishings in the laboratory will be able to be seen more clearly.

Owen took a general glance and did not see the Shafiqs in the room, nor did he find the source of the noise or bright light. He observed the overall layout of the laboratory, and finally looked at a locker that blocked his view. The huge cabinet blocked almost half of the laboratory area.

He walked into the laboratory with light steps, used the cabinet as a cover, and carefully looked at the other side of the laboratory.

Just like that, a sudden scene appeared in front of him.

On the dark black floor, two figures were lying quietly. They were Mr. and Mrs. Shafiq. Their pale faces were cold and stiff, and their eyes were staring blankly. They all had hideous wounds caused by the explosion, and blood was slowly flowing along the floor...

Owen felt his head buzzing and his pupils narrowed tightly. He took a step back with a pale face, and his brain suddenly started operating at full power like the most sophisticated machinery. He instinctively began to analyze the cause of this scene and the solution to the matter, and took all the details around him into consideration.

Suddenly thinking of the problem, Owen narrowed his eyes, kicked the ground with his heels, and quickly retreated out of the door. At the same time, he raised his wand and fired a wide range of sparks upwards.

A big silver net fell from the sky with a "hoo" sound, covering his head and face where he was standing just now, but it did not tie up anyone, and finally hung empty and dangling in the air. Several sprays of water spewed out from all directions with a "puff" sound, making the big net wet.

The curse released by Owen hit the ceiling, and a figure fell down with a "plop" and fell to the ground with an "ouch". He covered his lower back and hissed, and then he was sprayed with water and turned into a drowned rat.

"Good evening, Dad, your preferences are really unique." Owen stood outside the door and hugged his shoulders, looking down at him with disgust.

The person who fell from the ceiling was none other than Mr. Shafiq. He pushed aside his soaked hair in embarrassment, raised his head with some embarrassment, coughed lightly and said calmly: "Oh, good evening. Owen. Didn’t I ask you to leave the manor tonight? Well, we suspect there is a thief in the house, and your mother and I are planning to catch him..."

The water spray from the surrounding water pipes gradually stopped, and a wall on the other side of the laboratory slowly moved away. Mrs. Shafiq walked out gracefully, her dark blue clothes swaying like water waves, with a smile on her face. smile. Behind her came Melete and Nyx.

"Good job, Owen." She looked at Owen with a very pleased look.

"Prank?" Owen twirled the wand in his hand with a half-smile, feeling a little annoyed and a little amused. He looked again at the place where his parents' "bodies" were found before: "Boggart?"

Mrs. Shafik nodded with a smile, bent down and took her hand to pull Mr. Shafik up.

"We didn't expect it to become like this..." Mr. Shafiq grinned, not sure if it was because of pain or embarrassment. He then asked curiously: "How did you find out?"

The Boggart would transform into their corpses in front of Owen, which was indeed something they didn't expect. But no matter what the Boggart becomes, in his opinion, Owen will be frightened and stunned for a while, which is enough time for subsequent traps to catch him.

But he never expected Owen to react so quickly.

Owen rubbed his brows and said angrily: "Boggarts will become the most feared thing in people's hearts, but when people are already worried about something, it will take priority and become the thing that people are most afraid of at the moment. "

The death of Mr. and Mrs. Shafiq may not be the thing that scares Owen the most, but it is indeed the worst situation that he has been worried about just now, especially when he speculates that something went wrong with their magic experiment. This worry once reached the point of peak.

"However, what I saw was exactly the same as what I was vaguely worried about." He said, "The most important thing is that there are too many flaws. The corpse was lying in the wrong direction, and the wounds were caused by explosion or splash damage, but the experiment There are no signs of damage to the utensils or arrangements in the room, and there are no traces of blood..."

"I'm not going to be fooled by something full of loopholes like this." Owen said tiredly. Although he was really shocked at first, as a magician, he instinctively observed the details in all directions and looked for flaws.

Melete walked over the puddles on the floor to his feet, shaking her feet and rubbing her head on his calf affectionately, her golden eyes shining with pride.

"But it's impossible for a normal person to react in an instant." Mr. Shafik breathed a sigh of relief and ran over to drive the Boggart into the cabinet.

"So I'm not a normal person." Owen said casually, and then asked with a smile: "So, can I ask, what are you trying to do?"

"Let you know what 'curiosity killed the cat' means." Mr. Shafiq said trying to keep a straight face. Although it was a lesson in tone and gesture, the wretched look of a drowned rat was not intimidating, and even a little funny.

"You have been involved in too many dangerous things at Hogwarts in the past two years, which makes us very worried, Owen." Mrs. Shafik bent down and looked directly into Owen's eyes, her dark green eyes in the dim light. Like gentle water ripples.

"So you want me to teach you a lesson?" Owen was dumbfounded. Well, he knew this would come sooner or later.

"That's right! Look, if you are willing to listen to us and leave the manor but come to join in the fun, you won't be scared, right?" Mr. Shafik spread his hands and took out his wand to clean the water on his body. " We originally planned to hang you here all night to let you know the seriousness of the matter... This is the special 'dinner' I have prepared just for you tonight."

He twitched the corner of his mouth and muttered in a low voice: "Since I didn't catch it, forget it."

"But I'm really scared, mom." Owen raised his delicate face with an aggrieved look, and his beautiful eyes became watery.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Owen. I didn't expect it to be like this." Although Mrs. Shafik saw through Owen's dramatic nature at a glance, she couldn't help but soften under the pitiful eyes.

She gave Owen a gentle hug, then looked at Mr. Shafiq with a smile and said, "Albert, I also think your idea is a bit too much. I hope you can pack up my laboratory here and put things away." Put everything back in place, I'll take Owen up to eat first."

With that said, she took Owen's reluctant hand and led him out of the door.

"You didn't object to this plan when I proposed it," Mr. Shafiq said to himself. He blinked innocently as he watched the two people's backs disappear behind the door, then looked at the big net beside him and the water on the ground and crossed his arms.

"How was your day?" Mrs. Shafiq asked warmly in the corridor.

"It's very pleasant." Owen smiled and said in a naughty and excited tone.

Under the deep night, the arched windows lit up one after another, and the mansion sleeping in the sea of ​​white roses woke up, looking into the distance with orange eyes. (End of chapter)