Hogwarts Raven's Claw

Chapter 540 Public Trial Begins

What is it like to be thrown into solitary confinement in a small dark room?
Mike had thought about this question before and asked many people, but the answers he got were all despair, pain, and warnings telling him not to try it.

Mike is a smart man, a smart man who knows how important it is to listen to other people's advice, so he didn't lock himself in a small dark room like his best friend Trevor in his previous life to experience that feeling.

Especially after seeing the miserable state of Trevor when he walked out of the small dark room, he put this incident on his life blacklist.

But even though Mike had imagined that feeling in the most horrifying way, when he was actually in the small dark room, he realized how naive his original imagination was.

No wonder Trevor strongly recommended that I give it a try after he came out. People who have not experienced it personally will never understand the feeling.

Thinking of this, Mike couldn't help but let out a bitter smile.

It had been a long, long time since he first woke up, perhaps a day, or maybe a week. In any case, Mike had no idea how many days it had been, because it was pitch black here and there was no time reference at all.

But during this period of time, his body and mind were severely damaged.

At first he just felt very bored. After all, he couldn't move here, couldn't see anything, couldn't feel the flow of time, and all he could hear was his own heartbeat and breathing.

But soon, this feeling of almost complete visual deprivation made Mike instinctively irritated.

He began to struggle, roar, and curse!
But no matter how hard he tried, the environment he was in remained unchanged. It was always dark and dead silent!

The most important thing is that my inner irritability has not been alleviated at all by these venting behaviors.

It was not until this moment that Mike realized that his efforts were completely in vain.

So he began to try to make himself fall asleep, which was a very natural idea. After all, time would pass faster when asleep.

But unfortunately, being in a silent environment for a long time made Mike's hearing particularly sharp. The originally slight heartbeat gradually became like a rumble like thunder, and the rapid breathing became as harsh as the whistling wind!
With such a loud noise, even though he was very sleepy, he just couldn't fall asleep!

Under this horrible torture, the fire of resentment in Mike's heart was growing stronger. He hated everything and imagined in his mind cutting Dumbledore into pieces to kill the painful time.

The dry magic power in his body was running wildly under the stimulation of such extreme emotions, and it actually broke through the restrictions and forcibly recovered a little.

It’s a pity that this amount of magic power is still too little.

Under the forced suppression of unknown external energy, Mike still couldn't release any magic.

Perhaps it was because Mike's hatred was too strong, or simply because he had been deprived of his vision for a long time. In short, a Dumbledore actually appeared in front of Mike at some point.

He floated in front of Mike, looking at Mike quietly. His eyes were as calm as water and his expression was kind, but in Mike's eyes he looked so ugly, so ugly that Mike's body couldn't help but lean forward, opening his mouth wide and wanting to bite the other person hard!
The strange thing was that they were not far apart, but no matter how hard Mike tried he could never touch him.

In fact, Mike knew very well in his heart that this was completely an illusion.

Maybe he is really crazy.

However, just when Mike was almost going completely crazy, a white light came from right in front of him.

It was like a sharp sword, tearing through the darkness and the illusory Dumbledore floating in front of Mike's eyes, and shining straight on Mike's face.

Mike's eyes, which had been in darkness for a long time, could not adapt to the sudden light at all, and he instinctively wanted to close his eyes, but Mike forcibly suppressed this instinct, and stared greedily at the light in front of him with his bloodshot eyes.

This! This is the only change that has occurred in his world in such a long time!

So even though his pupils had already shrunk into a small dot, even though his eyes were feeling stinging and tears were constantly flowing from his eyes under the stimulation of the strong light and he was unable to see at all, he still refused to close his eyes!
I don't know how long it took, but Mike's eyes finally slowly adapted to the strong light.

The dazzling white light in front of his eyes began to gradually dim, and the surrounding scenes began to slowly come into his eyes.

Mike finally saw the prison where he had been imprisoned for who knows how long!

This is a huge sealed space. The walls and ceiling at the edges are connected into one piece, presenting a perfect snow-white semicircle, as if someone had turned a huge white porcelain bowl upside down.

However, at the bottom of the entire space, there was no snow-white substance like the walls, but an entire bottomless pool.

It's not accurate to call it a pool of water. Strictly speaking, it should be considered a pool of mercury because the liquid was shining with a metallic luster. If it weren't for the fact that it was flowing slowly, Mike would have thought it was a large piece of smooth metal plate.

As for Mike himself, he was tied to a huge silver-white cross floating above the mercury pool.

Mike looked at all this with a dull expression, his bloodshot eyes filled with disbelief.

He knew this place.

This... is the 'Dead Sea Prison'!
The so-called Dead Sea naturally refers to the large area of ​​slowly flowing mercury-like liquid below Mike.

It is an extremely mysterious liquid with a very high density and no buoyancy in any sense. Any creature that sinks into it will drown in despair. Like mercury, it can evaporate a poisonous vapor.

But unlike mercury vapor, the function of this Dead Sea steam is to suppress all energy in the body, including magic, physical strength, and mental strength.

This makes it like the legendary Dead Lake, where no living creature, not even birds or wizards, can fly over it.

This mysterious liquid comes from a special secret realm. There is no life or land in that secret realm. There is only an ocean composed entirely of mysterious liquid. Therefore, that secret realm is also called the Dead Sea.

Such a secret realm originally had no development value, but its characteristics just happened to meet some of the needs of the Ministry of Magic, so the liquid inside was brought out, and the Dead Sea Prison in front of Mike was created.

The reason why Mike knew about this 'Dead Sea Prison' was because there was also such a prison in the Magical Congress of the United States, and the reason why that prison was famous was because it once imprisoned the first Dark Lord - Grindelwald!
He really didn't expect that he would be imprisoned in such a famous special prison! 'So, I am in the United States?'

Mike couldn't help but think so, but he quickly overturned his thoughts, because Dumbledore had no reason at all to hand himself over to the Magical Congress of the United States.

Just as he was puzzled, a small hole suddenly appeared on the white outer wall of the cell, and then a man walked out and stepped onto the small floating platform at the door.

Mike recognized the man almost instantly, and the anger that had just eased a little surged in his heart again. He gritted his teeth and roared:
"Chris Flint!"

"Mike Townley, long time no see."

Chris bowed to Mike and spoke slowly with an elegant gesture.

At the same time, there was a faint smile on the corner of his mouth, with a strong sense of sarcasm.

But after seeing this smile, Mike calmed down. He looked Chris up and down, and soon his attention was focused on the robe he was wearing.

It was a very fine thick robe, a bit like the Hogwarts school uniform robe, but much more refined. Its surface also exuded a special luster, and you could tell at a glance that it was made of special materials.

The robe was purple-red in color with an exquisite silver W embroidered on the left chest, but on the sleeves and collar there were special shield-shaped symbols sewn with gold thread, which was the emblem of the Ministry of Magic!

Mike had seen this robe before. It was during the last trial of Harry Potter by the Wizengamot Council. At that time, except for Dumbledore, all the members of the Wizengamot Council wore robes of this style, but their robes did not have those gold threads on them. The only guy at the scene who had gold thread patterns sewn on his body was Fudge, who was the Minister of Magic at the time!
Mike's eyes narrowed into slits. He looked at Chris coldly and said slowly:
"So, you are Minister for Magic now?"

"Oh? You figured it out? That's really rare. I thought a Muggle-born wizard like you wouldn't be familiar with such cryptic symbols."

Chris looked very happy as he pointed at the golden pattern on his collar.

But in response to his words, Mike didn't have any intention of responding.

"Mike, do you know what the biggest difference between you and me is?" Chris didn't care about Mike's silence, raised his eyebrows and continued, "That is, I know when I will win! To be honest, even if Dumbledore didn't intervene, you would definitely lose, because the power in my hands is far beyond your imagination! You have always been like a brainless reckless man, rushing forward without knowing that your every move is under my control! Sometimes, in order to make your progress smoother, I even have to help you! I am really anxious about your IQ!"

Chris let out a long breath, a look of satisfaction on his face, as if he had been holding these words in his heart for a long time.

"Do you think you've won? You know I'm not dead yet."

Mike's cold voice came slowly. Chris curled his lips, looked at Mike with a sarcastic expression and said:

"Don't worry, you'll be dead soon."

After saying that, Chris waved his hand, and the giant cross that tied Mike floated behind him and followed him out of the prison.

Outside the cell, dozens of Aurors were on high alert. As soon as Mike appeared, they all took out their wands and pointed them at the cross.

Chris did not stop. He just walked slowly in front, carrying the bound Mike and the Aurors who were escorting him through the long corridor, got on the magic elevator, and finally arrived at a place Mike was quite familiar with - the Magic Tribunal Hall!

During this period, Mike kept his eyes closed and said nothing, looking like he was resting.

But in fact, Mike was looking for an opportunity to escape. You know, as soon as he left the Dead Sea Prison, the magic power and mental power in his body began to recover slowly, and along with it the return of his magic perception ability.

Unfortunately, the Aurors around him were too vigilant, and Mike never found any opportunity.

Helplessly, Mike gave up the idea of ​​escaping and opened his eyes.

They have entered the courtroom.

Unlike the courtroom where Harry Potter was tried last time, the courtroom they were in now was a stepped semicircular structure similar to a university classroom. The long table for the presiding judge and the other judges was located at the lowest point of the entire courtroom, and the remaining rows of seats extending upward along the stairs were public seats.

As for the jury, which was composed entirely of Wizengamot members, they were located on a high platform on the far right of the courtroom, looking up at everyone present.

The public seats were full at this moment. Thanks to Michael's deeds of killing Voldemort, this public trial was highly anticipated. Almost everyone wanted to see with their own eyes this young wizard who protected the entire British wizarding world but committed heinous crimes.

Unfortunately, due to limited seating, not everyone can sit here and watch this public trial up close.

Now, only a small number of people sitting in the crowded public seats were celebrities who came to watch the trial out of curiosity, and the rest of the audience were almost all reporters invited by the Ministry of Magic.

They will record the entire process of the public trial and convert it into text and publish it in tomorrow's newspaper for other people who cannot attend the trial in person to watch.

There was no doubt that the entire courtroom was shaken when Michael appeared tied to the cross.

The reporters stood up immediately, and the magic cameras in their hands kept flashing. Some excited reporters even rushed down the stands to take a close-up photo of Mike.

Of course, they were eventually forced back by the Aurors.

Compared to them, those celebrities were much more quiet. Although they were stretching their heads and trying their best to look around, their buttocks were still firmly glued to their seats, maintaining their last bit of elegance.

As the temporary manager of Los Santos Group, Penelope is naturally also a celebrity.

So she appeared on the stands.

But unlike the others around her who were still trying their best to remain elegant, she had already stood up at this moment, trembling all over as she looked at the familiar figure who was being escorted in from the stage!

(End of this chapter)