Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the people of Eternal Night have been declining, and there has been more humiliation here, both openly and covertly, and overnight, no one is afraid of this once dominant behemoth.

How unwilling was Lermontov?

But form is stronger than man, and Lermontov had to accept the status quo.

He used the Flashback Charm on William's wand, the Obstacle Curse, the Thunderbolt Curse, the Guardian of Peace, and the Petrified ......

It looks like a reaction to the beast after encountering it, and there are no flaws.

Lermontov gritted his teeth and said: "I have one condition, as long as you agree, this disappearance case will be treated as if nothing happened!" ”

Dumbledore looked at Amelia Bones, this was a matter for the Ministry of Magic, and it had nothing to do with him, the Headmaster of Hogwarts.

“…… Mr. Lermontov, please. She hesitated to respond, but in her heart she didn't think Lermontov had any capital to negotiate terms with her.

Lermontov seemed to see what she was thinking, snorted coldly, and took out a black suede cloth bag from the pocket of his robe, and then took out a suitcase from the cloth bag like a nesting doll.

It was Joel's, who had left his suitcase in the Norwegian forest in order to escape William's pursuit.

Lermontov's eyes stared at Joel, "This suitcase has a traceless stretching charm, I just need to go to the shops in the UK that legally sell this space container to find out who the owner of this suitcase is." ”

"What's in there?" He opened his suitcase and pulled out two sets of Hogwarts house robes, with the Ravenclaw coat of arms on his chest.

Dumbledore pursed his lips.

"Is this my capital for negotiations with your country?" Lermontovpi smiled, "If we put pressure on the International Wizarding Court, this matter must not be so simple to be closed. ”

Director Bones did not speak again, and listened to Lermontov's opening of the condition, "I will bring this tiger back to Moscow." ”

In his mind, William lost his wand after casting a bunch of spells, and nine times out of ten he died, proving that this tiger was not an idle person, and in this case, it was not impossible to bring this tiger back to Moscow to study it carefully, and maybe even discover some novel theories.

"No way," Hagrid vetoed before Director Bones could speak, "the Forbidden Forest is its home, and it certainly doesn't want to leave here." ”

Tiger Tom had a pitiful expression, but he didn't look harmless under his immense body.

Joel stood up at this point, "Mr. Lermontov, if I'm not mistaken, this suitcase in your hand is mine. ”

"Aha!" Lermontov suddenly became excited, "You little cub confessed, didn't you?" ”

"What do I admit?" Joel blinked and pretended to be innocent, "Don't spew blood!" ”

"This box is too big for me to throw away, and the robe inside has to be discarded because I can't wear it in the past two years." Joel sometimes admires his ability to keep his face and heart beating, and when he opens his eyes, he says nonsense, "I don't even know where you found these items, maybe I have to reevaluate the Russians' ability to rummage through the dumpsters." ”

"Besides, the wizard named William you mentioned in your mouth, could it be that he himself died in the tiger's mouth and still wanted to blackmail us for British compensation?" Joel's words were sonorous and powerful, "The entrance to the Forbidden Forest is clearly written, 'Unrelated personnel are not allowed to enter'. ”

"You, you ......" Lermontov was speechless, he held his stomach and wanted to speak, but English was not his mother tongue after all, and he had to go through a lap in his head to speak English when he used it, and he looked at Joel's teeth itching.

Joel duly shut up and give up the stage to Lermontov, or the old guy might throw a curse on himself.

"The box with the Traceless Stretching Spell, don't say you don't want it?" Lermontov's face flushed, "Are you kidding me?" You should know how much this thing is worth......"

"It's only 150 Galleons," Joel chuckled, "and you think I'm going to put it in my eyes?" If you throw it away, you throw it away. ”

The words are full of disdain.

He was simulating Helis's mentality, if this little rich woman was present, what tone would she use to say such a thing?

Joel pulled out the blue satin pouch and opened it to reveal the black Gringotts vault key inside.

"Black Gold Key!"

Lermontov's eyes widened, and combined with his overly old countenance and bloodshot eyes, it looked like he had hyperthyroidism.

In Russia, the monthly salary of a Ministry of Magic employee is only 30 Galleons, and 150 Galleons is a huge expense for many wizarding families, he had investigated Joel before he came, and knew that he had obtained the Order of Merlin of the third level by relying on a set of teaching materials, and it was estimated that he had also made some money, but he never thought that this 14-year-old boy actually had a black gold key.

Manufactured by Gringotts, the Black Gold Key symbolizes wealth – only available if you deposit more than 3W Galleons at Gringotts, and each Black Gold Key comes with a dedicated customer service one-on-one service, and the owner is Gringotts' most valued customer base.

Not only Lermontov's expression was surprised, but the palms of the other blowers were also sour.

A hitter plus field allowance, overtime pay, holiday benefits, and a full month is 100 gold galleons, 3W gold galleons need them to save 300 months without eating or drinking, this key appears in the hands of a 14-year-old boy is really a bit dreamy.

"Mr. Lermontov, does this box prove anything for you?" Joel clasped his hands to his chest, "Could it be that the International Wizarding Court will convict me when it sees this box?" There is not a single strong evidence of this! ”

"All we can know now is that a wizard from Russia trespassed into England and came to the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts, a prestigious school of witchcraft and wizardry, and didn't know what sneaky things he was doing, and then he probably was...... He's dead. ”

"It's as simple as that," Joel's words turned into a sharp blade at Lermontov, "and there is no second person in all the clues we have found, no murderer, no suspect in me, only William himself, and he is most likely an intelligence or espionage officer sent to England by the Russian Ministry of Magic." ”

Lermontov finally fell silent.

"Will the International Wizarding Court believe your chaser or the exact evidence we have?" Joel sneered, "Director Bones, we must have a mature set of laws to deal with foreign wizards who enter the country without permission, right?" ”

"The Legend of the Fairy Tree"

Director Bones nodded in agreement, and Lermontov's face was dead.

Joel retrieved the broken wand from Lermontov's hand, and the wand was held together by a single unicorn hair, and it looked miserable.

"Tom," Joel said, turning his head to the big tiger and showing it his wand, "you killed its master, didn't you?" ”

Tom stared at Joel who was crouching in front of him with a pair of eyes, and saw that the erect ape was showing a fierce light and a faint threat, knowing that he was dissatisfied with his unauthorized actions, he quickly leaned down and shook his head twice to fight the thunder on his head.

"Okay, good ......," Lermontov could not think of any more rebuttals, and the tiger had already admitted to the murder, "I remember you, stinky boy." ”

"That's a real pleasure for me." Joel bowed slightly, his palm gently caressing Tiger Tom's back, allowing the big cat to purr comfortably under his hands.

Now that the Russian Ministry of Magic no longer pursued the wizard's disappearance, the group returned to the castle under Hagrid's guidance.

After a sumptuous dinner in the Great Hall, Dumbledore and Hagrid sent them out of Hogwarts.

"Regarding this disappearance, our Legal Enforcement Department will continue to follow up," Miss Crawford did not humility or arrogance in the face of Lermontov and fulfilled her duties, "Mr. Lermontov can go to the ministry at any time to consult the case file, and we will sort out the results as soon as possible and give a satisfactory answer to the Russian Ministry of Magic." ”

A sentence blocked Lermontov's words that were about to come out, and he looked at Amelia Bones, who had not spoken silently, knowing that the British Ministry of Magic would not say anything about this matter, and the cause of William's death would also be closed - accidental death.

He was silent for a long time before following Miss Crawford to the hotel where he had stayed tonight.

Lermontov was very aggrieved, he didn't care about William's death, he just wanted to take back the set of Nordic slate in Joel Taylor's hands and give it to Andrei Ulyanov, the coercion had just failed, and the idea of lure was left behind by him as soon as it was generated.

Joke, how much does it cost to lure a person with the Black Gold Key to Gringotts? The last time Lermontov came to England was thirty years ago, and when he came here again, he really saw the current level of development in the United Kingdom, and the travel expenses he applied for were not enough at all, and if it wasn't for the British Ministry of Magic to help him solve the accommodation problem, he would probably not have to sleep on the streets.

How can you get the Nordic Slate back from Joel Taylor? Lermontov was puzzled, but he didn't want to give up.

On the other side, Joel shook hands with Director Bones and said goodbye.

"If there's nothing to do, I'll go back first," Joel smiled shyly, "and I still have a few papers to read." ”

"No problem," Director Bones responded, "and we can do the rest for the Ministry, so rest assured, this has nothing to do with you." ”

Joel returned to his home in Godric's Valley with a full body of exhaustion, he sat on the recliner on the balcony on the second floor, watching a few children outside playing among the flowers, the sun was a little dazzling, and the side of his face was slightly hot, Joel simply went to the study to find a book and read it slowly.

It is the book "Analysis of the Methods and Mysterious Spells of the Eighth Century Norse Wizards", which describes the study of Norse wizards in the field of wandless and silent spells.

In the modern wizarding system, there are three elements of magic - swinging the staff, chanting the incantation, and concentrating.

Silent magic eliminates the need for chanting spells, wandless magic eliminates the need for waving the staff, and these two advanced spell casting actions are very demanding for mental concentration, and many excellent wizards in modern times have no way to completely master silent spellcasting, let alone require more top-notch wandless magic.

Joel has eaten the entire book in the past few months, and in his opinion, the medieval wizarding system is very different from the modern one.

In terms of the current Hogwarts education system, it ensures that children living in the United Kingdom can enter the school as long as they show some magical talent, and the threshold cannot be lower, in other words, if Hogwarts is unwilling to accept the child into school, it means that he must be Muggle/Squib.

The advantage of this low-threshold education is that the number of young wizards receiving magic education is increasing, the population of the wizarding world is rapidly expanding, and the disadvantages are also obvious, the wizarding world only provides students with 7 years of education, regardless of whether you have been exposed to magic before, you have to learn charms, transfiguration, defense against the dark arts, potions, astronomy, herbology, etc., etc., how complex the subject knowledge is.

For this reason, the world of magic education can only try to make the subject content as easy to understand as possible, as is the case with Charms, where textbook knowledge is getting simpler and simpler, and the sound spellcasting system that relies on magic wands is valued and enjoyed by students.

In the 8th century, in northern Europe, there was no complete system of entrance education, and the means of judging whether children were wizards were more stringent, they were dismissive of the degree of dependence on wands, and many prestigious wizards believed that only the lowly magicians used wands as a tool, and that they could cast spells without wands and silently make them look cool, and they could also deceive unsuspecting Muggles into claiming that they were protected by the gods, and taking advantage of the opportunity to develop believers to collect money.

To get back to the point, if you want to get rid of the wand and chant spells, you need to improve your mental power, and the book doesn't mention how to practice it.

Joel looked at the blank writer's column and closed the book.

Mental power...... This thing was ethereal, and Joel had to wave his wand and cast a fluorescent flash, recalling the changes in his body when he cast the spell as he cast it, but unfortunately, this feeling flashed by and he didn't have time to capture it.

I guess the magic extracted by the fluorescent flicker spell is not enough.

Joel stood up and looked into the distance, where hundreds of families lived in the small mountain village of Godric's Hollow, where wizards and Muggles were at peace, and that was the reason he had cast his spell.

Tracer couldn't tell if it was he, the underage wizard, who cast the spell, as there were hundreds of wizards living in Godric's Hollow, even in Hogsmeade, and the British Ministry of Magic's oversight in this area was crude and inefficient.

"Clear water is like a spring!"

It's a sixth-year spell, and Joel hasn't been able to redeem the proficiency of this spell in the system before, but he does use it decently.

Joel closed his eyes, he sank down to feel it with his heart, a wisp of magic in his body was mobilized and flowed to his fingertips, and at the same time, an unknown energy diverted from his brain and converged at his arm, and the unknown energy wrapped in magic flowed down his fingertips to the wand.

After the wand was activated, the tip of the wand burst into a torrent and landed on the balcony tiles.

Joel took a deep breath, I see!

The unknown energy that flows out of the brain is the spiritual power, which carries the magic power into the wand, and the wand fuses the magic power with the mental power to form the external manifestation of the spell.

If you cast the Clear Water Spell, the mana will turn into water when it leaves the tip of the staff, and if you cast Transfiguration, it will change the appearance of the target......

In short, waving a wand acts as a mediator in the casting of the spell, helping the wizard mix the two forces (psychic and magical) together, like a point-and-shoot camera with autofocus.

He made himself a pot of black tea, leaned on the chaise longue and thought slowly, the owl Bobby cooed, it hadn't gone out for two days, and it couldn't be aggrieved.

Joel was annoyed by the noise, and when he got up, he suddenly remembered that there was one more thing to do, so he ran back to his desk and wrote a letter.

"This address," said Joel, pulling out a copy of "Contrarian Songs" with the address of the editor-in-chief, Mr. Xenophilius Lovegood, "and sent the letter." ”

Bobby was a little angry, pecked his master twice on the head, and straightened Joel's neat hair into a bird's nest before grabbing the letter and leaving Godric's Hollow.

The black tea was also brewed, and Qiao Erfu added a spoonful of sugar and orange slices, and the taste was moderately sweet and sour, and the tea leaves had a sporadic grape aroma, and the taste was delicate and soft.

The warm tea soothed Joel's mood as he looked at the clear blue sky and slowly closed his eyes.

In this way, the difficulty of casting spells without wands is mainly whether or not mental power can replace the effect of the wand, and the magic power can be visualized as an external manifestation, while silent casting seems to be easier, it does not require mental power to be strong enough to replace the wand, as long as it can replace the role of incantation chanting.

Mental power......

Is Occlumency related to mental power?

Joel thought about it for a while, and felt that this idea was very reliable, in this way, his mental power should be very strong, after all, he had a perfect-level brain occlusion.

Joel recalls how it felt to cast a wandless spell in place of Odin in the Norse Slate, and opens "Analyzing the Spellcasting Methods and Mysterious Spells of the 8th Century Norse Wizards" and finds several simple wandless spells on it.

He gently raised his palm, then his palm was parallel to the ground, pressed downward, and softly recited the incantation, mobilizing the magic in his body and the spiritual power in his brain, gathering at his right arm, and then flowing out of his fingertips.

Joel tries to make the two energies merge and tries to let the psychic power take the lead, so that the magic can completely obey his command and play its due role.

He had never tried to cast spells without a wand, and at this point he relied entirely on his own habits and inferences from Norse mythology to cross the river by feeling the stones, and the process was extremely difficult.

The magic in the body is not obedient, every time it is fused with the mental power in the brain, the magic is always restless and scurrying around, and it seems to prefer to obey the wand.

In the process of deduction, Joel discovered a paradox of wandless spell casting: this kind of spell casting that does not rely on the movement of the wand is extremely testing the magic capacity, so that he can more easily feel the existence of magic in the body, but the magic capacity is not easy to control, if there is no magic wand, these magic powers are their own in the body and do not obey the command at all.

He was a little distressed, when he finished his research on the wandless spell, the sky was already full of stars, the children who were playing in the flowers were probably taken home by their parents to rest, the cicadas ruled the quiet world, the black tea in his hand was already cold, the sound of cooing sounded around him, Bobby's eyes widened, and there was a reply letter on the table.

Joel reached out to smooth Poppy's fur, walked back to the study with the teapot and envelope, and took out two handfuls of owl food from the side bag and stuffed them for Poppy.

He sat down in the chair behind his desk, poured out the cold water from the teapot and boiled it again, and while he waited for the hot black tea, Joel opened the envelope and found inside a reply from Mr. Lovegood.

Joel read it carefully, and there were only two lines of scribbled words on it, and there was no objection to his suggestion of visiting.

Joel was not surprised by the perfunctory attitude, and if the parents of the original owner of the body had always maintained a good relationship with Mr. Lovegood, there was no reason why he should not search for the Meadows after their disappearance.

Despite his thoughts, he still had to buy the gifts that should be prepared.

Two days later, in the early morning, Joel went to the village of Autry-St. Cachpole with the prepared gifts, and the Lovegood family lived on top of a small hill, on which a huge black cylindrical house stood like a huge stone.

The garden in the courtyard was clearly well tended and looked bright and tidy, and when you approached the courtyard door, you could smell the rich fragrance, and Joel saw a bush covered with small orange radish shaped fruits, which looked small and cute.

Three hand-painted signs were nailed to the courtyard gate, the first: Editor-in-Chief of "Singing and Singing" - Xenophilius Lovegood; The second piece: Please pick a bunch of mistletoe yourself; The third piece: Don't touch the airship Lee.

Joel didn't understand what the last two wooden cards meant, but he did, and if he did, your last name was Lovegood.

The courtyard door didn't close, and Joel gently pushed it open and walked inside.

Two begonias were planted on either side of the front door, small red fruits and a large canopy of mistletoe corollas adorned with white beads were scattered all over it, and two palm-sized goblins emerged from the soil and looked at the visitor with curious eyes.

Joel knocked softly on Lovegood's door, which was embedded with round iron nails and an eagle-shaped knocker similar to the one leading to the common room of Ravenclaw College.

After a while, the door opened, revealing a man dressed in white hair and white pajamas, sleepy-eyed, his hair was very messy, and his eyes seemed to be out of focus, and Joel felt that the man's gaze had passed over him, into the distance, and there was no emotion in his eyes.

The man was stunned for two seconds before he reacted, he took a deep look at Joel before giving up the doorway and turning around and walking back into the house.

Joel was only then convinced that Mr. Lovegood's eyes were born like this, making people feel like they were in a daze all the time.

He followed Mr. Lovegood into the room, and the house was a standard circle, with everything curved to match the walls: the stove, the sink, and the cupboards, and they were all painted in bright primary colors with flowers, insects, and birds, in a rather uninhibited style.

In the center of the room, a cast-iron spiral staircase leads upstairs, and Lovegood chats with him as he walks up.

"Where did you find out about my relationship with your parents?"

"Professor Lockhart, sir," Joel replied decently, "Gilderoy Lockhart." ”

He clearly heard Mr. Lovegood sneer, "The guy who sells his reputation, I asked him to endorse "Singing and Singing", he actually thought that the money he gave was too small, and he was really blind back then......"

He muttered disapprement.

Upstairs was the living room—or rather the operation room—a very standard circular space filled with books and papers, and a bunch of bizarre animal models hanging from the ceiling, some of which looked very terrifying, including a monster with dozens of tentacles resembling a squid, and several small boats drawn next to it, with lone leaf boats to set off the monster's vast expansiveness.

On the living room table were old-fashioned printing presses that looked like obsolete editions of the Daily Prophet—and Joel was sure he saw the Daily Prophet logo underneath the press, and they clicked and threw out copies of the color edition of "Contradiction."

Mr. Lovegood strode up to the machine, pulled out a colored tablecloth from under a large pile of books and paper, and rolled the books and paper to the floor.

He covered the cloth on the printing press, masking some ping-pong and clattering sounds.

"All right, come over here," he led Joel to the table, where there were two wooden chairs, and he set up a neat set of tea sets on those old-fashioned printing presses, "what do you want to drink?" Is black tea OK? ”

"No problem," Joel readily agreed, handing the gift he was carrying to Mr. Lovegood, "these are some of the knick-knacks I bought in Diagon Alley, and I hope you and Luna enjoy it." ”

Mr. Lovegood stared at Joel for a long time with his unfocused white eyes, and his heart fluttered when he saw it, before he took the gift and went downstairs to make tea.

"Joel?" The girl's crisp voice sounded upstairs, and Joel had just immersed himself in the animal model on the ceiling, and then he realized that Lovegood's house had three floors, and the top floor was probably the room where Luna and Xenophilius rested.

"Why are you here?" Luna jumped down the stairs, she was wearing bunny pajamas, her long brilliant blonde hair was draped over the white pajamas, she looked particularly bright and dazzling.

It was the first time Joel had taken a closer look at Luna, and found that she, like Mr. Lovegood, had unfocused eyes, and she was beautiful, but she couldn't see any emotion.

Joel stood up, he and Luna didn't know each other very well at school, after all, the age difference was a bit big, and it was not easy to communicate.

"Good morning Luna," he smiled, "I've come here with some questions for Mr. Lovegood. ”

Luna thought about it for a moment and didn't ask anything more, in some ways her senses were different from ordinary people.

"Are you interested in this sea monster?" Luna shifted the subject, "I see you've been staring at it before. ”

Joel saw that Lovegood hadn't come up for a while, so he chatted with Luna.

"This is the Kraken, the giant of the North Sea," Luna said with her chubby little hand to smooth the hair behind her ear, "it's huge, hundreds of meters long, and when it comes to the surface, sailors mistake its body for a crimson island......"

"Wait, doesn't Kraken exist in Norse mythology?" Joel politely interrupted Luna.

"There are records of it in Norse mythology, but it is only a few strokes," Luna said seriously on the subject, "but it is not enough to highlight its power and power, and it is really bigger and more terrifying than it is described in the text." ”

"Have you seen it with your own eyes, and that's what you said?" Joel asked again.

"Of course, I often see it in my dreams," said Luna, who had only finished her first grade, at the age of innocence and cuteness, "and it wasn't a monster, the Kraken was just a giant squid, very cute, and it wasn't its fault that it was big." ”

Joel didn't take Luna's words to heart, there is a big squid with a length of hundreds of meters under the North Sea? Just a little angel like Luna would believe it, which is even more ridiculous than the statement that Odin is a wizard.

"Luna, don't be stunned here," said Mr. Lovegood, and told his daughter, "go wash up, and then go get some potatoes from the Weasleys, I can't go out to buy groceries today, and you bring them two copies of the new Contrarian Songs." ”

Luna glanced at her father, then at Joel, and left with a puff of hands, before she could tell Joel about the cute big squid.

Joel looked sideways, and through the window on the second floor of Lovegood's house, he could see that in the distance there was a tall building that had risen crookedly, the Burrow, the Weasley family's mansion.

Mr. Lovegood poured the black tea from the teapot into the cup and pushed it to Joel.

This time, there was no sugar in the black tea, and there were no orange slices, Joel took a sip, only to feel that it was full of bitterness and sweetness, and it was really not delicious.

"Tell me," said Mr. Lovegood, who sat in his chair and shook his teacup, his eyes fixed on Joel, "what do you want to know from me?" ”

“…… "I heard Mr. Lockhart say that you had a good relationship with my parents when you were in school?" ”

Mr. Lovegood seemed to have expected Joel to ask this question, and without much thought he replied, "The years at school were good. ”

Is this sentence implying that the relationship has cooled down after graduation?

Joel was scornful, with a smile still on his face, and he didn't give up the last bit of hope, "Then do you know why my parents suddenly disappeared because of their mission?" Professor Dumbledore only said that it was because of a mission from the Department of Mysteries of the Ministry of Magic......"

"Of course you do," Lovegood said an answer Joel didn't expect, "but do you really want to know the truth?" ”

Joel stared at Lovegood, meeting his unsentimental white eyes, and Joel took two deep breaths, "Of course I want to know the truth, I've been waiting hundreds of days and nights to find it. ”

Lovegood's fingers rubbed lightly over the rim of the teacup, as if weighing something, and Luna had just finished washing up and was ready to go out, and it seemed that there was still plenty of time.

"It's a long story, you have to be patient......" he sighed.