Every time the Dark Lord and his men kill someone, they display the Dark Mark in the air. Thirteen years ago, this mark could have scarried ordinary people more than the Dark Lord. If, if you come home at night, the Dark Mark hovers over your house, you'll know what you're seeing before you walk in the door.

The flames surrounding him disappeared, and the officials of the ministry appeared.

"It's fast. Phoenix said sarcastically to the overwhelmed group.

"It's—you—" Crouch lowered his wand and said in one pause.

"Look your heads back. Phoenix ignored them and walked in the direction of the tent.

"Wait, we haven't said you're - oops-" A man came to stop Phoenix, but before his hand could touch his body, he was knocked to the ground by an invisible whip. Everyone else was stunned by the sight high behind them.

"Rufus, I'll leave it to you - the others come with me. Crouch shouted, and many of them apparitioned with him.

After the Mystics lost power, many of the Death Eaters tried to avoid being imprisoned in Azkaban, and made up all sorts of lies that the Mysteries had forced them to kill and torture others in the first place. They were more afraid than the average person to see the Dark Lord return. After the fall of the Dark Lord, they denied that they had anything to do with him, and went back to living a normal life - the Dark Lord would not be very happy with them.

Who was the person who could release the mark? Why? Was it also planned? On the way back, he ran into little Watson and was relieved to see that Phoenix was okay.

"It's okay, let's go back. Phoenix didn't say much. The others looked at him curiously, but didn't dare say anything. A small group of people returned to the tent in silence.

Hermione sat in the living room with a panicked look on her face, and she pounced on Phoenix as soon as she returned. After the commotion, she hurried back to the tent, but the tent was empty and the scene was chaotic. She could only sit here and wait for Phoenix to come back.

"Are you alright, not hurt?" Hermione hugged him tightly and let it go, her hand stroking him with a little trembling.

"It's okay, everything is fine. Briefly, deliberately omitting a lot of things, Phoenix told Hermione what had happened. By the time he was trapped by the Death Eater's flames, Hermione didn't realize that she had pulled out several red marks from Phoenix's hand, and her nails were embedded in the flesh, bleeding red.

"It's too dangerous—" Hermione said as soon as Phoenix finished speaking.

"So—the one who conjured the Dark Mark of—" Hermione said slowly, "is this to show support for the Death Eaters, or to scare them away?"

"It's hard to say. Phoenix said. "But you're going to pinch—"

"Alright," Hermione sucked Phoenix's wound into her mouth a little embarrassed, completely stunned as to what was going on.

"Oh, saliva is antibacterial-is--a Muggle treatment for minor wounds, anyway. Hermione had prepared a few words, but Phoenix didn't know what Muggle words meant. In the end, she could only helplessly explain vaguely.

"That's amazing. Phoenix wanted her to suck for a while, but Hermione simply refused.

"Alright, go to sleep. ”

He slept until almost noon, when Phoenix woke up. They packed their things slowly, Phoenix and Hermione went to the castle first, and Watson put away his tent before leaving.

The Ministry of Magic was so busy with last night's events that all the pages of the newspaper were talking about the riots at the Quidditch World Cup. The Ministry of Magic panicked - Muggles were killed and wounded - bringing shame on the country. Phoenix was also very good at climbing the pole, and immediately borrowed the influence of the Greengrass family in the Daily Prophet to report a lot of praise for Phoenix's fight against the Death Eaters.

Fudge reacted quickly and immediately announced the killing of the two Death Eaters. This made his crumbling position a little more stable.

For a whole week, people kept sending the yelling letter, and of course, if you didn't open it right away, it would explode. Complaining about the safety of the World Cup has become a hot topic lately, and they want compensation for their damaged property. In fact, many people want to fool the Ministry of Magic out of the way.

Phoenix would take Hermione on a tour around the castle. A statue on the shore kept waving its weapon at Phoenix, shouting to put him back in place: 'I'm defending Istanbul, you idiot -- hear me -- ' and they drifted away on the carpet -- the statue was mad and was put in the library, it was mad.

"Look where. Phoenix gestured to the three figures by the lake, sitting on the Axminster velvet carpet that had been turned out of the storage room, old but still usable but flying very slowly. "Merfolk. ”

"I heard that there are also mermaids in the black lake of the school. Hermione looked curiously.

"No, they're the sirens of the merfolk. Compared to the Serki of the school, they can be on the shore for a short time, and they are very aggressive. Usually in Northern Europe. Let's not go over, they always strike at strangers first. ”

A black object floated beside them, like a large, thick piece of wood. Suddenly, a giant tentacle reached out from the surface of the lake, and Hermione screamed.

The suction cups of the Phoenix and the octopus tentacles patted each other, and it was a handshake.

"It's okay, they're not very hostile to strangers," Phoenix twisted his robe, "but it's dangerous to mess them off." ”

"Is the whole forest your home?"

"Of course, they used to be guards," Phoenix explained, "like the Sphinx and Kemeramon, who are on the outskirts of the forest, they are the first and strongest of the defensive circles. If the invaders can break through them, nothing will stop them from behind, and all the defenses behind them are to give the people in the castle time to escape. ”

Phoenix didn't hesitate to tell Hermione everything, because the defenses were useless now. As magic advanced, all sorts of defensive magic were invented, and now a single Loyalty Charm can do it all.

"You had a lot of enemies in the past?" Hermione wondered why she had set up so many defenses.

"It was a chaotic time, and no one cared about killing. If you have a crush on someone's stuff, it's best to grab it directly, or scare the Muggles into following your instructions-"

"You don't have a basilisk in your house, do you?" Hermione suddenly remembered that the Pefrills were famous, and glanced worriedly at the forest by the lake.

"You see, the basilisk actually has a fatal flaw," Phoenix shrugged, "they were afraid of roosters, and it wasn't much in Europe at that time." Because there was no school at that time, everyone either learned from their parents, or they did not study on their own, and if they were lucky, they could find a teacher to teach. Therefore, everyone is very biased, and many of the great wizards of that period may only have one spell, such as black magic or potions. ”

"But with the establishment of Hogwarts schools and the popularization of magical education, people's magical qualities have greatly improved. Those who graduated from school can easily conjure a rooster, and the practicality of the basilisk is greatly low, and it is gradually eliminated by history. I suspect that the one in the school may be the last one in Europe. ”

"You don't feel sorry for it. Hermione made a joke.

"No, there's a way to make a basilisk in the book, isn't there? I can get you one if you want. Hermione slapped him angrily.

"Of course, basilisks have not been very popular in Asia and South America, because they have established systematic magical education very early-"

"They're older than Hogwarts?"

"Much earlier, there was a magic school about the first millennium BC, probably the earliest magic school-"

In the evening, they dine on the flying carpet in the middle of the lake. The sunset shone on his body as if he was wearing a red cloak. Hermione looked at the house-elves who were busy fiddling the table.

"Are they house-elves?"