Hogwarts: From Luna's House to Godhood Through Intense Competition

Another flash of red light appeared, and when he woke up again, he was in a dimly lit cell.

Bound to the corner in shackles, and with even his wand confiscated, the wizard was in a truly desperate situation.

He tried shouting loudly, attempting to summon a wizard or similar figure to identify himself, but to no avail; no guards came to answer.

The dark prison was larger than he had imagined. Faint snoring and cursing could be heard from all directions, indicating that there were other prisoners, but their exact locations were uncertain.

“Narcissa and Draco must be very worried about me right now…” Lucius hunched his shoulders, revealing an undeniable sense of dejection.

Looking at the dimly lit cell, he felt a sense of unease and fear, unsure of what he was about to face.

After all that commotion, his robe was filthy, and there were burn marks on his sleeves.

“Why did this happen…” He raised his right hand to examine the marks on his sleeve. “When we get back… Narcissa will probably scold me for being so undignified…”

He seemed to remember something else, and slowly pulled open his left sleeve. "The Dark Lord seems to be in New York too... attending some kind of seminar... if..."

"Forget it! Forget it!" He shook his head again, trying to banish the absurd thought from his mind. "If this is the Magic Congress's prison..."

"I doubt even the Dark Lord can get in...and even if he does...getting out will be very difficult...unless he gives up all the members of the Magic Council..."

……

A burst of light appeared in mid-air, so bright that Lucius was caught off guard and all he could see was a white blur.

When the light faded and he could see his surroundings again, Vizette's figure appeared before him.

At the same time, a burning sensation came from his left arm, as if his skin was being scorched by a raging fire, leaving behind a jet-black black magic mark pattern.

"Black...Black Lord!" Lucius was terrified and tried to kneel down, but he was bound by shackles and could not take another step forward.

"To make a long story short," Vizet said, raising his wand and gently pressing it against the parchment, transforming it into a beetle. The beetle flapped its wings twice and then flew silently out of the cell.

“I think I know what happened to you. You had an accident in Appaloosa, right? So think back to what happened last night until now, and I'll see what happens next.”

“That’s right… okay…” Lucius opened his mouth, then quickly followed Vizet’s instructions, trying hard to recall anything related to it.

Vizette drew his wand and pressed the tip against Lucius's temple, intending to use the name "Appaloosa" as a "fulcrum" to cast the memory-extracting spell.

Lucius was filled with fear. He instinctively shrank into the corner, but dared not move his head, for fear that something unexpected might happen.

His eyes were fixed on the silent Vizette, creating an indescribable sense of oppression.

Those buried memories welled up in his heart without him realizing it, and he felt as if he had returned to more than ten years ago, watching Voldemort interrogate wizards and strip them of their memories.

"Concentrate!" Vizette frowned slightly. "I only need your memories from last night until now!"

"Okay! Okay!" Lucius shuddered, not daring to think any further, and desperately tried to recall what happened last night.

……

"Transferring the spirit to the memory!"

Vizette chanted a spell, slowly raised her wand, and drew out a silver thread of memory.

He inserted the memory threads into his temples and, with the help of ancient magical power, quickly browsed through the related content.

A dark and dilapidated alley...

Lucius stepped through the wall, and a beautifully decorated room appeared before him...

Appaloosa, looking gloomy, appeared, and the two began a meal together, discussing business-related matters...

A maid had just placed the meal on the table when she casually raised her wand, and Lucius was immediately engulfed in red light, plunging the scene into darkness...

The scene lights up again; it's daytime now. A large hole has been smashed in the wall, and several homeless men are peeking out cautiously...

Lucius paid no heed to any of that; his attention was entirely on Appaloosa, whose face was deathly pale, as if he were already dead…

He reached out to check Appaloosa's breath, and when his sleeve touched the corner of Appaloosa's mouth, wisps of black smoke rose up, as if it had been corroded by something...

With a few "snap" sounds, the snipers of the Magical Law Enforcement Reconnaissance Team appeared, Lucius was once again stunned by the Stunning Charm, and the scene completely disappeared...

……

Extracting the memory threads and then reading and experiencing them through the Pensieve is the normal procedure, which can minimize the possibility of accidents.

The method adopted by Wizette is obviously much riskier. Such a simple and direct acceptance of memories makes it easy to be influenced by the subjectivity of those memories.

In Lucius's memory, only Voldemort would read memories in this way;

Once he gets a satisfactory answer, Voldemort will raise his wand, point it at the wizard whose memories have been extracted, and smile as he recites the Killing Curse.

If he doesn't get a satisfactory answer, Voldemort will also raise his wand, first torturing the victim with the Crucifixion Curse, and then reciting the Killing Curse...

Thinking of this, Lucius became even more uneasy, straining his eyes to stare intently at Vizet, who was frowning slightly.

Lucius prayed silently, hoping that the memories wouldn't disappoint Vizet; he didn't want to be tormented by the Cruciatus Curse.

……

“It doesn’t seem to be poisoning…” Vizette’s brow relaxed. “For wizards, the only reliable way to kill someone is the Killing Curse…”

"The Killing Curse?" Lucius shrank back even further, feeling that what Vizet was saying was truly terrifying.

Vizette instinctively explained simply, "That's right! Wizards aren't that easy to kill. To be sure of killing a wizard, you'd have to use a killing curse..."

"As for the so-called poison, if it does not have a fatal effect on the soul, it can still save the person. At most, the process will be a bit more complicated, depending on the specific type of poison."

"Hmm..." Lucius was covered in sweat and could only give a dry reply.

He recalled the Death Eater gatherings where Voldemort would talk to them about death, how to cast the Killing Curse, and how he was powerful and fearless of it...

Looking at Vizette, who was analyzing the details with a serious expression, Lucius felt that it was an expression of indifference to life...

Chapter 82 Third-Party Forces?

“Your sleeves…” Vizet looked at Lucius’s right hand, “I need to check your sleeves, numb… now raise your hands.”

"Okay! Okay!" Lucius hurriedly replied, quickly pulling his head back and extending his right hand.

“The burn marks…we still need to extract the specific components…” Vizet raised her wand and pressed it against Lucius’s right sleeve.

Lucius rubbed his eyes with his left hand. He saw Vizzet retract her wand, and something seemed to be drawn out from the tip of the wand...

Just as he was wondering, Vizet had already given the answer, "Living Hell Potion... it really is this..."

This is a powerful sleeping pill that can put the user into a deep sleep, even temporarily stopping their breathing and other physiological functions, making them appear as if they are dead.

If the effects of the invigorating potion are not reversed after the person falls into a deep sleep, then the person who has been taking the Living Hell Soup for too long will face real death.

The Living Hell Soup is primarily designed for humans, and when it comes into contact with other substances, it often produces a strong corrosive effect.

For example, in "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," both the Judgment Chair and the wand can be corroded by the Living Hell Soup.

Vizet took out a piece of parchment, turned it into a glass bottle, and put the drop of the living hell potion into it.

"The Living Hell Potion?" Lucius swallowed hard, as if he understood something. "Could it be that Appaloosa isn't dead? Were they trying to frame me?"

……

“There must be a third-party force at play.” Vizet continued his investigation and found that Lucius’s body indeed only contained remnants of the Living Hell Potion.

"Rather than framing you, it was more like going with the flow... The main purpose was to get rid of a third party, or to put it another way... to cause trouble for the third party... That's why I kept you at the scene."

"Merlin's beard!" Lucius sighed in utter frustration. "Perhaps I shouldn't have listened to that prophet. I thought coming here would help me escape disaster, but I'm still so unlucky!"

"A prophet?" Vizette frowned slightly. "You heard an accurate prophecy? What was it?"

Lucius quickly replied, "I met a prophet at the Leaky Cauldron. She's Cassandra Trelawney's great-great-granddaughter. I know her name! A true prophet with 'the eye of heaven'!"

“Trelawney…” Vizette’s mind conjured up an image of a professor who was always drunk and utterly unreliable. “That prophet’s name is Sybil Trelawney?”

“Yes!” Lucius nodded repeatedly. “She hasn’t shown up for a long time. I happened to run into her at the Leaky Cauldron recently, so I asked her to do a divination for me.”

"She gave me a cup of tea, and then I saw an open umbrella in the teacup... an upside-down horseshoe... these are all symbols of bad luck, even threatening my family..."

“A lot has happened recently… Those pure-blood families were deceived by imposters and instead blamed me, cutting off all contact with me…”

"So I took my family out and tried to find a new supplier here. I contacted Appaloosa, but I didn't expect to encounter this kind of situation again!"

Vizette raised an eyebrow. "As far as I know, the Appaloosa family... seems to only sell alchemical pets. It seems they also have a black market?"

Lucius immediately replied, "Looking at the whole of North America, they should be the third largest supplier of magical creatures, whether it's the Neanderthal eggs I need..."

"Or dragon eggs, eight-eyed giant spider eggs, chimera eggs... even unicorn cubs can be bought from the Appaloza family... This place is too big, and the regulations are not as strict as in England."

Vizette continued, "Do you know the exact location of the black market?"

“I didn’t originally plan to go through the black market…” Lucius shook his head. “If we could cooperate directly with the Appaloosa family, we could avoid the black market’s cut and it would be much cheaper.”

"So, so far, you've only met with Appaloosa once, right?"

"Yes! Because we just arrived here and haven't had time to visit many places yet."

……

Just then, the beetle flew back and landed on Vizette's hand.

His expression changed, and he chanted a spell over Lucius: "Forget everything!"

As Lucius's eyes glazed over, Vizet stood up and pointed his wand at himself, shouting, "Concealment! Water-based Qi Gathering! Night Stalking!"

Vizette's figure disappeared completely, and slightly hurried footsteps could be heard outside the cell.

A wizard dressed as a member of the Magical Congress approached, and before Lucius could say anything, the wizard had already raised his wand and said, "Faint!"