Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

Chapter 502: The Scary Shadows of the Vampires

As for Bertha Jorkins’s disappearance, it was really horrible. No accident, people might never find her.

After Sirius joined the Ministry of Magic, he was responsible for the Fallen Centaurs’ Remains.

However, it happened in Albany and beyond the reach of the British Ministry of Magic.

The Special Investigation Team of the International Confederation of Wizards had been working on the matter for more than a week, but little substantial progress had been made.

The specific list of dead wizards and witches had not been determined, and the purpose behind the vampires’ action was still unclear.

Everything was a mystery, and the vampire terror shadowed throughout the wizarding world.

Caresius and his people had become wanted all over the world, but they simply didn’t care. On the contrary, ordinary people were the ones panicking, fearing another attack by vampires.

They didn’t even dare to go to crowded places, and things that were supposed to restrain vampires quickly went out of stock.

Even the toy crosses made by Fred and George were in short supply. God knew what use they had besides changing colors.

On top of that, vampires were not afraid of crosses at all. Those were just muggle myths.

“Send someone to find Bertha Jorkins! Mr. Crouch has been saying it for weeks and weeks,” said Percy swiftly.

“Crouch is very lucky Rita hasn’t found out about Winky.” Said Mr. Weasley irritably, “There would be a week’s worth of headlines on his house-elf being caught holding the wand that conjured the Dark Mark.”

“I thought we all agreed that that elf, while irresponsible, did not conjure the Mark?” said Percy hotly.

“If you ask me, Mr. Crouch is very lucky no one at the Daily Prophet knows how mean he is to elves!” said Hermione angrily. “I really want to put this on the Hogwarts Magic.”

“Now look here, Hermione!” Percy immediately turned around and argued. “A high-ranking Ministry official like Mr. Crouch deserves unswerving obedience from his servants…”

“His slave, you mean!” said Hermione, her voice rising passionately, “because he didn’t pay Winky, did he?”

“All right, Hermione!” Evan hurriedly said, “You know Percy didn’t mean that.”

The topic had Winky had recently become a hotspot for Hermione.

During this time, she did not give up persuading people to be kind to house-elves, and accused Crouch of being cruel.

This led her to quarrel with Percy, who strongly supported Crouch, and they both refused to give in every time they met.

The relationship between the two had dropped from best friend to freezing point.

If Evan’s relationship turned that sour with anyone, he would just not speak with them anymore. But Hermione and Percy were not like that. They argued every time they met, trying to convince each other.

They never grew tired of it, but the people around them did.

“I think you’d all better go upstairs and check that you’ve packed properly!” said Mrs. Weasley, breaking up the argument. “Come on now, all of you…”

Evan stuffed the parchment full of ancient scripts into his arm, and pulled Hermione, who was still glaring at Percy, to go upstairs.

Harry also repacked his broomstick servicing kit, put his Firebolt over his shoulder, and followed Ron and Ginny.

Hermione and Ginny returned to their room, and Evan and the others continued upward.

The rain sounded even louder at the top of the house, accompanied by the loud whistling and moaning wind, not to mention sporadic howls from the ghoul who lived in the attic.

In the room, Pigwidgeon began hooting and zooming around his cage when they entered. The sight of the half-packed trunks seemed to have sent him into a frenzy of excitement.

Hedwig stared at him angrily, her big amber eyes full of reproach.

“Bung him some Owl Treats,” said Ron, throwing a packet across to Evan. “It might shut him up.”

“I wish Hermione and Percy would stop quarreling and that Hermione would give up on the idea of defending house-elves!” Harry sighed and said, putting his Firebolt on his cot, “What are these things?”

“It’s the stuff Mum got for us in Diagon Alley, and will be used in the new term,” Ron replied.

He heaved a pile of parcels onto the bed and dropped the money bag and a load of socks next to it.

After giving Pig and Hedwig a little more Owl Treat, Evan started unwrapping what Mrs. Weasley had bought for him.

Apart from a handful of new quills, he had a dozen rolls of parchment, and refills for his potion-making kit. The rest were all books Evan planned to read. They were more than Harry’s and Ron’s books combined.

He used his wand to make his books shrink to the size of a palm. Then he stuffed them into the cloth bag he carried with him. He didn’t need a trunk at all.

“How convenient it is!” Harry stared at Evan’s cloth bag and said, “How much could that hold?”

“Undetectable Extension Charm!” Evan explained, “Depending on the power used to cast it, the range of the extended space also changes. This is a very deep magic, and very troublesome, it takes a long time to complete.”

“I saw it in Diagon Alley last time. It needed too many Gold-Galleons to buy one!” Ron said, while stuffing his books into his trunk, “It’s very convenient, isn’t it?! I wish I could be stronger and learn this Charm as soon as possible.”

“You’ll learn this magic in the seventh year, but you can try to study it earlier than that.” Evan untied the cloth bag and handed it to Harry who was curious. “It involves a lot of advanced curse theories. There are a lot of things you need to learn.”

“I guess there’s no hope!” Ron wrinkled his nose and said, “Can you cast this magic now with the help of the Philosopher’s Stone?”

“There should be no problem!” Evan replied.

In fact, he didn’t need to use the Philosopher’s Stone to do it, but this magic was too troublesome. Evan didn’t have time to waste, not to mention the bag that Flamel gave him was better than any others. Many of the above alchemy techniques were beyond Evan’s imagination at the moment.

“That’s really cool. The Philosopher’s Stone is really amazing! I wish I had one too, so I can become strong.” Ron sighed, staring at Slytherin’s Locket hanging on Evan’s chest. Then as if he had an epiphany, he added: “Oh! You said that the Four Founders have left treasure keys, then three more are still out there…”

In fact, Evan had always been thinking about it, and had to find the Philosopher’s Stones left by the three other Founders as soon as possible.

As for their specific whereabouts, he already had ideas, and when he would return to Hogwarts, he could proceed with his search.