The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 348: Shadow of War (Please subscribe, please bookmark, please vote)
"So what should we do--" Ryan inquired, but before he could finish Dumbledore made a hushing gesture.

"Of course I don't need you to be on the front line, at least not until all of us old people are dead." Dumbledore said these cruel words in a calm tone. "But as a party involved in this matter, I think you need to know about this and be mentally prepared."

After saying this, Dumbledore changed his tone and said, "Of course, we still have to live on even in the most brutal war. Enjoying a happy life is also a good way to fight back against those evil forces. At least on this day of winning the championship, I think you still need to celebrate with your classmates. You should hurry back to the common room now."

After sending Ryan and the other two away, Dumbledore went to the office with McGonagall, Moody and Snape. It seemed that he was going to discuss the next course of action with the members of the Order of the Phoenix.

On the way back to the common room, Harry seemed a little confused. Of course, he was tricked into participating in the competition, not voluntarily. So this confusion was not because he lost the game, but because he was thinking about Voldemort.

"Lion, what do you think Voldemort will do next?" Harry asked courageously.

"I don't know." Ryan shook his head. He was telling the truth. With the plot changing dramatically, the future was once again shrouded in mystery. He really didn't know what Voldemort's next move would be. "It's nothing more than gaining power, winning over lackeys, and finally gaining power to dominate the world. All villains are like this."

Here Ryan stopped and looked into Harry's green eyes and said, "But what is coming will come, and when it comes we should accept it. Harry, just work hard to improve yourself and be prepared. Don't let the You-Know-Who take over your entire life."

"Oh, every time I hear you speak, I always feel like you are an elder—" After listening to Ryan's advice, Harry seemed to be better. He even started to joke. "But you are right. There is no point in worrying too much now. I will try my best to adjust myself."

As expected, a grand party was prepared in the common room, and everyone stayed up until 1 or 2 in the morning before going to bed. Fortunately, the exams were over, so everyone had enough time to sleep in the next day.

However, this joyful atmosphere was broken the next day. During breakfast, an owl threw newspapers on everyone's heads, and the expressions of everyone who opened the newspaper became serious.

Ryan unfolded the newspaper he subscribed to and saw that the front page of the Daily Prophet was filled with ten black and white photos, nine wizards and one witch, some of whom were laughing silently, and some of whom were arrogantly tapping the borders with their fingers. Each photo was annotated with a name and the crime for which they were imprisoned in Azkaban.

"Neville, are you okay?" Ryan suddenly found that Neville, who was sitting next to him, began to tremble. Following his gaze, Ryan turned his eyes to the photo of the only witch in the newspaper.

The witch in this photo has long messy black hair and a proud, contemptuous smile on her thin lips. It can be seen that she inherited the beautiful looks of the Black family, but the long life in Azkaban and the mental problems caused by the almost crazy worship of Voldemort have taken away most of her beauty.

There is a line below: Bellatrix Lestrange tortured Frank and Alice Longbottom, causing them to be permanently disabled.

Ryan just patted Neville on the shoulder at this time. He knew that it would be useless to say anything at this time. He could only hope that Neville could get out of here smoothly.

After finishing his meal, Ryan ran to the garbage warehouse in the Room of Requirement, where Hermione was waiting for him. As soon as he entered the door, Hermione asked with today's newspaper, "Did that person do this?"

"Yes, but this is also good news." Ryan told Hermione the results of his thoughts on the way, which made her feel incomprehensible.

"Good news? You actually think it's good news that ten dangerous Death Eaters escaped from prison?" "Of course." Ryan analyzed, "We all know that there were quite a few Death Eaters back then, but probably less than 1/3 of them were imprisoned in Azkaban. If that person wanted to find help, it would be more convenient to contact the Death Eaters outside. I suspect that the reason why he risked his life to go to Azkaban to rescue people is that he hasn't solved his own problems yet, so he doesn't dare to look for those men who are left outside and may not be reliable. This also indirectly shows that he will be lurking for a while during this period, and will not appear in people's sight until he is completely ready."

"This analysis seems to make sense. Well, why did you ask me to come here today?" Hermione felt a little strange that Ryan asked her to come to this place.

"I'll get you a bodyguard." Ryan pulled Hermione to the specimen of the troll. "I saw this troll before and found that the person who made it did a very good job of it. Besides, it has been piled here for one or two hundred years and no one has used it. So I want to transform it into an alchemical puppet, so that when you fight, you will have something that can help you block spells."

"Do you have an alchemical puppet?" Hermione asked the troll.

"Yes, I made it from a monster I found." Ryan took out the two palm-sized basalt death claw puppets and threw them on the ground. Soon, two monsters with a metallic luster appeared in front of him.

"How ugly..." Hermione commented after taking a look. "But I can see that this is prepared for war, whether it looks good or not is not important. I really look forward to seeing the gift you will give me later."

"This puppet is definitely different from mine. My puppet is more inclined to attack, while if the puppet is made of a giant monster, it is more inclined to defense."

"This really suits me." Hermione nodded with a smile. "With this, I won't be a drag on you next time we fight."

"I look forward to fighting alongside you." Ryan said with a smile, and then he started the renovation project.

After laying the entire specimen down, Ryan carefully examined it. Because the troll's internal organs had been hollowed out when the specimen was made, Ryan simply filled the gap in the specimen with a tall nut and combined the two things with runes, bringing some plant characteristics to the troll.

Afterwards, Ryan used magic ink made from branches and leaves of several plants to draw runes on the troll's body. At the same time, he inlaid some sunlight gems engraved with runes into various parts of the troll's body and used the modified monument-eating vine to link these rune gems to form an overall magic cycle.

At each step, Ryan asked Hermione to input magic power into these things, making these energy circulation structures easier for her to operate.

Finally, half an hour before dinner, the new golem was made. After dripping a drop of blood into a sunstone, Hermione set the gem into the golem's left chest and closed the Valyrian steel lid with silver runes.

"Recycle." Hermione read out the codeword in High Valyrian, and the puppet quickly shrank and finally turned into a palm-sized gray giant stone sculpture. The stone sculpture looked very abstract, like a defective product carved by a novice.

"Thank you," Hermione said after she put the stone sculpture into her bracelet. "I think it will come in handy soon, during this time of shadow."

(End of this chapter)