From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 154 Appearance
"I have fallen back into my dark and hopeless dungeon, into the dark prison of my soul, and together we have sunk into a darkness as deep as hell!"

A song containing deep chill and complacency suddenly rang out in the dark secret passage, startling Furong who was beside Ivy, and she grabbed his arm tightly.

"The Phantom of the Opera!" Fleur whispered the name, "It turns out he really lives underground in the opera house!"

Ivy was not scared by the singing. He continued to move forward. In this maze full of uneven stone pillars, the only thing that could guide them was the fleeting white shadow. He had already smelled the scent of adventure and was very curious about how things would end.

"I've heard this before in this opera house!" Fleur had calmed down and whispered her discovery, "This is the opening solo of Act 8 of The Phantom of the Opera. The Phantom kidnapped Christine in this underground maze! And... he sang it in French!"

"So the guy walking in front of us, hiding his head and showing his tail, is just an imitator of The Phantom of the Opera?" Ivy did not cover his voice, but raised his tone. Even though this underground maze was layered, it could not stop Ivy's voice from spreading.

"How dare you? You ignorant coward, stupid profiteer! Who do you think you are?"

Angry voices came from all directions, making it difficult to tell where the speaker was.

This usually happens either because the architectural design of the underground maze is very conducive to the propagation of sound, or there are some special mechanisms hidden in the walls to transmit sound; or because the person speaking uses some kind of natural force to amplify his words.

Ivy wasn't sure which one it was, but as a wizard with rich adventure experience, he knew very well that no matter what the situation was, he must not be led by the enemy, otherwise he would easily fall into their trap, or be pulled to the same level by them, and then be defeated by them using their rich experience.

Therefore, Ivy's strategy is very simple, which is to try to interrupt the opponent's rhythm, whether it is deliberately deviating from the opponent's expectations or making things develop ahead of time, as long as it makes the enemy lose his composure.

"I'm just an audience member who comes to watch the musical." Ivy answered loudly, and at the same time used a 3rd-level spell slot to activate the 1st-level divination spell Detect Magic. "But you? Could it be the famous Phantom of the Opera?"

The effect of detecting magic is very simple and clear. For a duration of up to 10 minutes, Ivy can detect all magic within 30 feet. As long as there are magical creatures, items, or some ongoing magical effects within the casting range, Ivy can immediately see the magic aura of varying strengths and weaknesses, and distinguish their intensity by brightness.

Under the influence of the ring-raising spellcasting effect, the spell's continuous range became 90 feet. As long as he found the guy who called himself "The Phantom of the Theater", Ivy would have plenty of ways to deal with him.

If the effect of detecting magic fails to work, it will be even simpler. Ivy only needs to defend against the firearms that are most likely to cause damage next time. For a wizard who can use 6th-level spells, this is not difficult.

"Oh? Maybe you are indeed stupid and vulgar, but at least you are not blind."

The voice of the Phantom of the Opera came from all directions again. Apparently, he was not so angry anymore, so he planned to continue his performance: "Say that you will share your life with me and grow old together...please lead me out of the lonely city...Say that you want me to accompany you and never leave you...No matter where you go, let me follow you...Christina, I have nothing else to ask for..."

There is no doubt that the "Phantom of the Opera"'s sentimental singing was directed at Furong.

"Is he talking about me?" Fleur tugged at Ivy's sleeve and asked in a low voice.

"Be more confident, girl, your charm is irresistible." Ivy joked, "You might as well ask your sister."

Fleur rolled her eyes, she had never been troubled by her Veela bloodline, this was the first time she had encountered such an over the top suitor.

"Sorry! Mr. Phantom! I'm not Christina!" Fleur looked around, trying to figure out where the Phantom of the Opera was hiding, but she saw nothing except the walls illuminated by the fluorescent balls floating around them. "I'm here to look for my sister! She's lost. Do you know where she is?"

"Of course! Of course!" The guy who called himself "The Phantom of the Opera" laughed, "You are not a qualified soprano yet, but with my training, your singing voice will soon be famous and passed down through the ages!"

According to his plan, he would train Fleur to be a soprano! This is what happened in The Phantom of the Opera. It was under the intentional training of the Phantom of the Opera that the heroine Christina became the top star of the opera house.

It seems that this "Phantom of the Opera" is an avid fan of the original work and a complete imitator.

"I'm sorry if I've offended you, but we can leave here right away as long as we find my sister!" Fleur said loudly, trying to negotiate terms with the Phantom of the Opera imitator.

However, the "Phantom of the Opera" had no intention of negotiating terms and just sang a cheesy love song.

"That's not right!" Furong whispered, "The Phantom of the Opera doesn't live in a crooked secret passage like this, but next to the lake we passed by before. He even took Christina on a boat and drifted on the lake!"

"So he is not the Phantom of the Opera. We must be prepared for a conflict that may break out at any time." Ivy had also seen that the magical aura of this "Phantom of the Opera" was always erratic. He was behind the wall on the left in the last second, and appeared behind the two of them in the next second. Apart from "Apparition", Ivy could not think of any other magic that could achieve this effect.

It seems that his erratic singing voice is entirely due to the effect of changing physical position. Although it is magical, it is really not elegant at all. I don’t know how he keeps his singing stable during frequent transmissions. Maybe he has spent a lot of time practicing privately for this kind of show effect?

You should know that Apparition is a very dangerous magic. If you are not careful, it will cause a "separation accident", that is, you cannot reach the destination completely during the teleportation, and a part of yourself is left behind. Therefore, for wizards, the first thing to do when performing Apparition is to maintain absolute concentration. Singing in the interval between teleportations, this person must be crazy.

When they reached a Y-shaped intersection, the two stopped for a while. A corny song came from one side, as if guiding the direction to go.

Even while singing and casting spells at a high frequency, "Phantom of the Opera" still had enough energy to pay attention to the movements of Ivy and Fleur.

This was the first time that Ivy encountered such a strange opponent. Even Voldemort couldn't chant the Killing Curse and dance on a pole at the same time.

Guided by the cheesy love song of "The Phantom of the Opera", the two passed several intersections and finally came to a secret room blocked by iron fences.

Ivy looked up and saw a rotten knot hanging on the fence. Maybe someone had been hung by it before.

Before the two could cast a spell, the iron fence lifted up with a click, revealing a doorway large enough for one person to pass through.

Just as Ivy was about to go in, he heard the Phantom of the Opera speaking to them again.

"Don't you understand what ladies first means?" Ivy ignored him and walked into the door first.

"You are a third-rate actor who doesn't perform according to the script! You can't even be a backup dancer! You should play the role of a deaf, dumb and smelly servant all your life, and live with horse manure and straw all day long!" The Phantom of the Theater cursed viciously, while Ivy pulled Fleur over without changing his expression.

"Is that your sister Gabrielle?" Ivy pointed to a small boat in the center of the secret room. The boat was covered with flower petals and white gauze. A little girl who looked very much like Fleur was lying quietly in the boat, like a princess who was soundly asleep. A beam of moonlight shone in from a hole in the wall of the secret room and hit her peaceful little face.

Fleur recognized her sister at once. She rushed to the side of the boat and angrily demanded, "Gabrielle! What did you do to her?"

"Crack!"

An iron fence rose from the ground, blocking Furong out. Ivy looked back and saw that the way she came was also blocked.

"Too impatient, you are too impatient, Christina!" The Phantom of the Opera appeared triumphantly, his whole body was almost milky white, and he was floating in the air against common sense.

"Ah——" Furong screamed, "You...you are a ghost!"

"Of course I am a ghost!" The Phantom of the Opera took off his non-existent air hat and saluted the two audience members. "How could the Phantom of the Opera not be a ghost?"

Turns out this is the truth.

He was a ghost who could walk through walls, not a wizard who was good at Apparition.

This discovery disappointed Ivy greatly, he had been counting on finding the tricks of the Disapparition spell from the Phantom of the Theater's memory. Now all was in vain.

The milky white Phantom of the Theater was wearing an exaggerated costume with strange buttons everywhere and a cape on his shoulders. Judging from the edge of the mask on his face, this person did have an ugly face like the rumored Phantom of the Theater, because Ivy could see the scars sticking out from under the mask.

"No matter what you want to do." Furong forced herself to calm down, with a little fear trembling in her voice, "Please let my sister go, she is just a child who knows nothing."

"How touching, what true love!" The Phantom of the Opera circled around the boat where Gabrielle was lying, and exclaimed.

Ivy gently waved the magic wand in her hand, and the iron fence separating Fleur and Gabrielle suddenly broke, and then turned into a winding monster snake, which immediately rolled up the boat carrying Gabrielle and swam towards the door.

"Ivy!" Fleur screamed, and after seeing the strange snake succeed, she quickly stepped back, putting some distance between herself and the stunned Phantom of the Theater floating in the air.

"You damn bug! You're a fly that ruins my fun!" When the Phantom of the Opera came to his senses, he immediately cursed Ivy viciously, "Can't you just be an audience member? There's no role for you here!"

The giant snake placed the boat carrying Gabrielle next to Ivy and Fleur, and then returned to its lifeless iron fence form.

Ever since he saw that the Phantom of the Opera's true form was just a ghost, Ivy lost the desire to continue talking nonsense with him.

Because in the magical world of Harry Potter, ghosts exist by relying on the marks they left in the world during their lifetime. When wizards die, some of them can choose to stay in the places they have been to, but only a very small number of wizards choose to do so.

When wizards lose the courage to continue on after death, they return to the mortal world and stay in the places where they left their marks until these ghosts are ready to set off again.

Although they retain their memories from their previous lives, they have no possibility of changing them and can only wander aimlessly, unable to even cast spells.

Ivy didn't think he could gain any benefit from a mark, so he immediately prepared to end the farce.

"Gabrielle! Gabrielle!" Fleur had already rushed to the boat carrying Gabrielle and was gently patting her sister's cheek, hoping to wake her up from her sleep.

"Hahahaha..." The Phantom of the Theater laughed wildly, "Your actions are in vain! I have cursed her. Unless she gets a kiss of true love, she will have to sleep forever!"

Fleur kissed Gabrielle's forehead gently without thinking. In her opinion, the love between family members is also true love.

"You're lying!" Gabrielle was still sleeping soundly, and Fleur immediately turned her attention to the Phantom of the Opera.

"Hahaha..." The Phantom of the Opera laughed sharply and piercingly, "That was indeed a true love's kiss, but you kissed the wrong person!"

Furong was stunned, then turned her gaze to Ivy.

"You shameless little devil!" The Phantom of the Opera noticed Fleur's gaze and immediately jumped up as if he had been electrocuted. "Do you think I would let you kiss a villain, a bug, or a toad? I am the one who deserves true love's kiss!"

Fleur turned her eyes to the face of the Phantom of the Opera hidden under the mask and immediately shrank back. Judging from her reaction, perhaps the Phantom of the Opera, who died and no one buried him, was the real "villain, bug, toad".

"Please me! Woman!" The Phantom of the Theater disappeared abruptly, "Please me! Christina! Otherwise I will never appear in front of you again, and you will completely lose that lovely little girl!"

"Don't be like this!" Fleur held Gabrielle and stood up slightly. "You are the Phantom of the Opera... but you have already received true love's kiss, right? Do you still remember your Christina?"

"Yes... yes..." The Phantom of the Opera's voice was full of nostalgia, "I miss that wet, cold and resolute kiss so much... If I could have it again, I think I would have the courage to go on... Can you help me, Christina?"

"Stop pretending." Ivy said disdainfully, "You are definitely not the Phantom of the Opera, you are just a crappy imitator!"

(End of this chapter)