Hogwarts Raven's Claw

Chapter 263 Wolf Den
Mike actually already had a full understanding of this world.

On the surface, the supernatural beings represented by wizards in this world have always been respectful to Muggles, and the two sides are like existences from two different worlds.

But in fact, in the little corners that people cannot see, where the two worlds blend with each other, those extraordinary beings have never stopped harming ordinary people.

Just like those giants and eight-eyed giant spiders, these extraordinary creatures with extremely low intelligence, ordinary humans are nothing more than food and ants in their eyes.

This often leads to conflicts between them and Muggles, and even causes deaths.

The reason why the supernatural beings are still unknown to the public after so many accidents is because of the existence of international confidentiality laws.

It is precisely because of this law that wizards will do their best to clean up the mess for those who have committed crimes and erase the impact they have caused.

Of course, murderers cannot escape, Azkaban or death is the final destination for most of them.

From this point of view, the people who formulated the International Statute of Secrecy seem stupid, right? Because this will lead to a lot of financial and material resources being wasted on such seemingly meaningless things. And it is not fair to Muggles.

But in fact it is not like this.

The International Statute of Secrecy prevents the possibility of an all-out war between the supernatural world and Muggle society.

Just imagine if everyone knew that there is such a group of people in this world.

They possess powerful forces that ordinary people dare not even imagine, and they treat ordinary people as ants and act recklessly.

So there is no need to say more about what the result will be, right?

Whether it is the fear of these beings or the greed for supernatural powers, the unstoppable public opinion will cause all countries in the world to declare war on supernatural creatures.

Once the war starts, it will be a fight to the death, which is not good for wizards.

Because even if they win, without the huge Muggle base to provide them with fresh blood, the wizards will inevitably fall into decline.

Therefore, precisely because of the existence of this bill, this kind of thing has been postponed as much as possible, and those extraordinary creatures with sufficient intelligence will try their best to avoid showing their abilities in front of Muggles, let alone harming Muggles.

You must know that the power and majesty of wizards are no joke. Once those non-wizard supernatural creatures violate this decree, or even harm Muggles and are discovered, only death will await them.

From this point of view, wizards are domineering. For a long time, they had only two attitudes towards other supernatural species: enslavement or killing.

Just like werewolves, before Newt opened the Werewolf Registry, if a wizard met a werewolf, he would not care how you became a werewolf. He would just take out his wand and 'mercifully' grant the werewolf eternal peace.

That is why these creatures try to stay away from big cities and live in remote places or small villages in the countryside.

The twelve people selected by Mike naturally knew this, so many of them did not even plan to go home and left London by bus that day.

Victor is one of them.

Compared with the other eleven companions, he did not have much desire for money, nor did he have much idea about knowledge such as potions and alchemy. What he pursued was powerful strength.

The reason he joined the mutual aid society was not only because of his admiration for Mike, but also because he wanted to learn his superb fire spell.

Mike did not disappoint him. He did not hide the power allowed by these rules and generously gave the complete set of "Master of Flame" and his own notes to the twelve people.

After learning these things, not only did his admiration for Mike reach a new level, but he also yearned for even stronger power.

Therefore, he must win this competition!
It must be an overwhelming victory!

That's why he rejected Benjamin's request.

Only in this way can they prove to their leader, Mike, that he, Victor, is the one most worthy of training!
There are many people with great ambitions, but most of them do not have the abilities to match their great ambitions.

Victor is obviously not one of them, but his abilities are outstanding. Long before the vacation began, he collected a lot of reports about the supernatural from his father, who was an editor in a newspaper, and confirmed the targets he needed to investigate during this period.

The first of these was a small village called Hatch.

According to reports, this remote village in southern England has seen many cases of missing and murdered travelers, and the few victims whose bodies were found all showed signs of being bitten by large wild beasts.

But strangely, there is no record of large wild animals appearing near Hatch Village.

Victor guessed that there must be a werewolf hiding there!

Due to the long journey, Victor arrived at Hatch Village in the afternoon of the next day.

When he arrived at Hatch Village dragging his huge suitcase, the first thing he felt was backwardness.

Compared with bustling London, both the buildings in the village and the villagers' clothing are still stuck in the last century. Except for a few areas in the center of the village that are made of cement, the roads elsewhere are all made of earth without exception.

Since most people here work on farms, large livestock such as cows and horses can often be seen passing by on the roads.

After these large livestock pass by, some feces will inevitably be left on the road.

It was not until he saw the feces produced by these large livestock with his own eyes that Victor realized that the cartoons on TV were not fake. The feces of these livestock really were thick at the bottom and pointed at the top, in clumps.

Fortunately, the temperature is not too hot now. If it were midsummer, the village would definitely be stinking.

Victor thought so and walked deeper into the village with his suitcase.

He didn't meet many people along the way, which was not surprising, because according to his investigation, the vast majority of the more than 300 people in the village were engaged in farm work.

These farms are located far away from the village, so except during festivals and markets, there shouldn't be many residents in this village.

But what surprised Victor was that the villagers had never taken their eyes off him since he entered the village.

Especially those women with children, their behavior is even more strange.

They actually took their children and ran away as soon as they saw Victor!

This made Victor nervous.

He began to observe these village names in reverse.

It would have been fine if he hadn't observed it. As soon as he observed it, Victor felt a chill rising from his heart and quickly spreading throughout his body. At the same time, his heartbeat quickened, his breathing became heavier, and cold sweat kept coming out of every pore on his body, quickly soaking his thin clothes. All the people here were actually werewolves!
Victor coughed violently and put his hand to cover his mouth to hide his nervousness.

He did very well in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and he had studied the part about werewolves repeatedly, so he was confident that he would not make a mistake.

The pupils of each of these villagers are different from those of ordinary people, and their nails and teeth are also particularly sharp, and their hair is also a bit thick...

Each of these small features alone is not enough to prove their identity, but when combined together, their identity is self-evident.

"This is actually a wolf's den!"

As Victor thought this, his body began to tremble slightly uncontrollably.

Now he understood why the women with young children had run away when they saw him.

Because the characteristics of a young werewolf are particularly obvious!

"Sir, why are you shaking all the time? Are you feeling unwell?"

A sweet and tender female voice was heard. Victor was startled and turned his head suddenly. He saw a little girl in old-fashioned clothes looking at him with her beautiful blue eyes.

If Victor had met such a lovely girl in the past, he might have teased her, but at this moment, Victor had no interest at all and even subconsciously took two steps back.

Because she's a werewolf too.

"No...Nothing. I just didn't expect you guys to be so cold right now."

Victor tried his best to make his voice sound normal, but in this situation where he was surrounded by werewolves, his voice was inevitably distorted.

"You must have caught a cold! Look at your voice, it's hoarse!" The little girl put her hands on her hips and pouted, "This won't work. My mom said that summer colds are the hardest to cure. You have to take medicine and get injections and not be willful."

After that, he took Victor's hand and started walking towards a three-story wooden house with a sign of 'Hatch Tavern', saying like a little adult as he walked:
"I really can't help you. Come to my hotel. Once you get there, you can take a hot bath and have a good sleep. Hey! You said you didn't have a cold, but your hands are so cold! Come quickly!"

"Little girl, I..."

Victor instinctively tried to break free from the little girl's hand, but the words got stuck in his throat halfway through.

Because he noticed that since he started to interact with the little girl, the villagers who had been staring at him suddenly became nervous. Victor even found that several elderly ladies had taken out kitchen knives from the kitchen, as if they were going to pounce on him and chop him if he didn't do what the little girl told him to do.

There are so many werewolves here. We must have seen dozens of them today alone.

Although most of them are elderly people, women and children, the elderly people, women and children of werewolves are not ordinary. With so many werewolves rushing forward, even if today is not a full moon night and they cannot transform into werewolves, they can tear themselves into pieces with the power of their human form.

Victor didn't dare to move for a moment and could only be dragged into the tavern by the little girl.

It was afternoon and the pub was empty. In the not-too-spacious space, there were only a few empty tables and chairs besides a wine cabinet and bar filled with all kinds of low-quality liquors.

After the little girl entered the room, she let go of Victor's hand, and walked to the entrance of the corridor with a smile, shouting:

"Mama Lily! I've brought guests!"

Victor was hesitating whether to take this opportunity to escape when he heard a female voice respond from the depths, and at the same time a fat woman appeared in front of him.

The middle-aged woman was very tall, almost 1.9 meters tall, and Victor estimated that her weight was about the same as her height.

(Well, the conversion units are cm and kg)

The woman was wearing an apron, which should have been white, but now it was covered with stains and the original color was almost unrecognizable.

At the same time, she was holding a heavy boning knife in her hand, and there were even some blood and flesh residues left on the blade.

This woman must have been chopping meat in the kitchen just now.

Victor came to the conclusion instantly.

After thinking about this being a werewolf village, Victor began to doubt the origin of the residue on the boning knife and took two steps back.

The middle-aged woman was stunned for a moment when she saw Victor, then she quickly put on a smile and hid the boning knife behind her.

"Oh, this guest looks unfamiliar. Is he from out of town?"

Before Victor could answer, the little girl tugged at the middle-aged woman's apron and said:
"This uncle is a guest I brought here. He has a cold. If it weren't for me, he would have to get an injection! Injections are painful. I hate injections the most!"

Seeing the little girl looking up with a cute expression as if to say "come and praise me", the middle-aged woman smiled more sincerely. She wanted to reach out and touch the little girl's head, but then she remembered that her hands were still dirty, so she quickly took them back and praised her:

"Wow! Betty is amazing! She is truly a mother's baby!"

"Humph! Of course!"

The mother and daughter were intimate for a while, and then the fat woman with the same name as Snape's dream lover stood up and said to Victor who had been standing at the door:
"Since you are Betty's guest, please come in. I have been taking care of the guest rooms upstairs, and they will come in handy when you come. The fee is 50 pounds per night, and hot water and three meals are free. How long will you like to stay? By the way, this is the only hotel in this village."

The corner of Victor's mouth twitched. This fat woman was obviously trying to rip him off. How could a shabby tavern in such a shabby place cost 50 pounds?

But thinking that this was probably the only place willing to let him stay, Victor did not hesitate and reached into the inner pocket of his coat. Out of sight of others, he counted ten ten-pound notes from a stack of them, then took them out and handed them to the fat woman.

"Two days, I think I really have a cold."

"Thank you for coming back!" The fat woman counted the bills excitedly and quickly stuffed them into the small bag on her chest. She said, "Then the guest needs a good hot bath. I will go and boil some water for you. Betty, help the guest carry the luggage upstairs."

"I know! Mommy Lily!"

Betty cheered and grabbed Victor's luggage. Victor was shocked and just as he was about to reach out to stop her, he saw Betty had already picked up his suitcase with one hand.

At the same time, the expression on her face froze, and she asked blankly:

"Uncle, why is your suitcase so light? It's like... it's empty inside."

(End of this chapter)