Hogwarts in the shadows

Time flies.

In the blink of an eye, Christmas is coming again.

The Great Hall of Hogwarts is once again brand new and filled with festive atmosphere.

There are more than a dozen Christmas trees covered with silver frost dotted among them, and the trees are hung with twinkling magic lights.

Thick ribbons of mistletoe and holly crisscross the ceiling.

And the enchanted snowflakes fell softly from the ceiling.

It adds a touch of winter romance to the entire auditorium.

This year, an unusually large number of students chose to stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas holidays.

Almost all the fifth and seventh graders stayed.

This is mainly because the professors are too crazy and the homework assignments are piling up.

The little wizards had so much work to do that they had no time to think about going home for Christmas.

Of course, Hephis and Hermione were not among them.

Although they will take two important exams this year, OWL and NEWT.

But with their abilities, these exams are no problem at all.

So the two of them left Hogwarts early.

Although Hermione had already mastered the technique of Apparition, she still liked to have Hephis take her with him.

At Mrs. Granger's enthusiastic invitation, Heffies had a delicious lunch at their home.

Then he returned to the Blaine house.

At this time, Lucius was already waiting in the house.

When he saw Hephes, he immediately bowed respectfully: "Master."

"Sit down." Hephis said lightly.

Lucius sat down, his body straight.

"How is your cooperation with Will?" Hephis asked.

Lucius' heart skipped a beat. Could it be that the idiot Will had complained to Hephis?

He answered stubbornly, "We cooperated well, but we had some differences in philosophy."

Hefeth took a sip of his tea.

He saw the Pensieve at Dumbledore's place some time ago, and an idea came to his mind.

If a person's memory is recorded through a photo stone.

After some editing and supplementation, it can be made into a movie or TV series.

Released to the Muggle market.

So he ordered Lucius to ask Borgin and Burke to modify the Pensieve or the Photo Stone.

And Bock is indeed a very skilled alchemist.

The task was completed in just over a month.

Hephis then arranged for Lucius to work with Will.

Movies about wizards are being made in large numbers and rushed to market quickly.

However, the two have different concepts about the film market, and Lucius has an arrogant personality.

This caused a lot of friction between them.

Hephaestus summoned Lucius today precisely to solve this problem.

"Lucius, don't be nervous. I don't mean to be weird."

Hephaestus's face was very calm.

"You and Will both work for me, and we have the same goal, which is to make Muggles accept the concept of wizards as soon as possible.

But you are certainly not as familiar with the Muggle film market as Weir.

So for some things, you still have to listen to Will's opinion."

Lucius secretly breathed a sigh of relief, "Yes, Master."

Hefeth did not dwell on this issue too much.

He knew very well that there didn't need to be too harmonious among his men, as long as they could complete their mission.

So he brought up another matter, "Regarding the matter of recruiting alchemists, how is the progress?"

Lucius bowed his head slightly, "Master, except for Borgin and Burke,

We also recruited several alchemists, but their level..."

"It doesn't matter at all." Hephis interrupted him.

“As long as they are loyal, that’s enough.

Go talk to Bock, we need to use his shadow.

As for the conditions, he can set them as he pleases."

Lucius seemed a little hesitant:

"That Borgin Burke man... I'm afraid he'll ask for too much. Why don't we just..."

Hephis waved his hand, “Anyone who can survive in Knockturn Alley is not a fool.

He’ll understand the stakes.”

"Yes, master." Lucius responded and walked out.

After Lucius left, Hephis went to the basement alone.

The basement was very different at this point.

The space, which was originally only a few hundred square meters, has now been expanded dozens of times.

The original prison cells no longer exist, replaced by thousands of shadow warriors.

They were divided into several groups, some were reading books quietly,

Some are practicing magic, some are practicing old farming skills,

There are even some fierce battles taking place in an independently divided area.

The appearance of Hephis caused all the shadow warriors to immediately stop what they were doing.

They turned into wisps of black shadows and merged into Hephes' body.

Hephis experienced the feeling of being filled again.

His body seemed to swell a bit.

The magic power that was originally invisible to the naked eye seemed to be condensed and wrapped around his body.

He sat cross-legged, quietly absorbing the knowledge brought by the shadow soldiers.

This state lasted for seven days before he digested and absorbed all the knowledge.

So he released the shadow soldiers again.

Although the magic power in his body increased, it was not much, only about three times.

And he seemed to have touched the ceiling of magic.

It seemed as if his soul could no longer hold any more magic power.

But his qi has made great progress.

Even the increase in Qi led to his stagnant physical fitness improving by almost double.

Hephis whispered to himself: "I am becoming less and less like a human being!"

Ever since he turned into a dragon, his physical fitness has made a qualitative leap.

It can be said that it is twenty times that of an ordinary adult male.

As he further developed his Animagus, his physical fitness nearly tripled.

Now, the practice of Old Farmer's Kung Fu has doubled his strength.

He threw a punch casually, with a force that was enough to exceed 10,000 kilograms.

It can beat an ordinary person into pieces.

Moreover, the old farming skills seem to be merging with magic power.

This subtle change gave him a premonition.

If these two forces can really be perfectly integrated.

Then his strength will not just be doubled, but a qualitative leap.

He reassigned tasks to the shadow soldiers and ordered them to practice the Old Farmer's Skill with all their strength.

He had a feeling that when Qi and magic power reached the same level, that would be the key to fusion.

Then he adapted to this newly strengthened body at home.

So he set out for Vanasa.

Ever since Vanasa became the magic warriors' instructor, she seemed like a different person.

In the process of training these warriors, she seemed to have found another unprecedented pleasure in her life.

Therefore, Vanassa no longer relies on Hephes as much as she did in the past.

She seemed to have put all her passion and emotion into this new career.