Hogwarts: Lacus doesn't want to be a witch who destroys nations.

Malena Rozier led Lux ​​through the manor's corridors, her steps stiff, her dark brown curly hair swinging in a certain arc with each movement.

Lux, like a curious tourist, held the wicker basket containing lumps in her arms, looking around and occasionally commenting on the stitching of the tapestry on the wall.

"Wow, this tapestry is so finely embroidered, much finer than the ones at Hogwarts... Hey, Malena, is the entrance to your secret chamber hidden behind this 'Unicorn Eating Grass' tapestry? It's too easy to guess!" Lux pointed to a huge, softly colored tapestry at the end of the corridor, which indeed depicted a gentle unicorn nibbling on roses.

Malena paused, then turned abruptly: "Miss Crown Guard, please watch your words! The manor doesn't usually receive outsiders..."

She seemed to want to explain herself, but in the end she just bit her lower lip, glared at Lux, and waved her wand at the unicorn.

The unicorn on the tapestry ate the rose and then leaped away.

Then the tapestry silently slid open to both sides, revealing a heavy, enchanted magic door behind it.

"Lady Iris is here..." Malena's voice pushed open the door.

The interior of the secret chamber was not large, and the four walls were made of cold black stone bricks, engraved with defensive and warning runes, but most of them were now dark and dull, obviously having been forcibly damaged.

In the center was an empty crystal pedestal, surrounded by broken crystal bottles and overturned shelves. Although the floor had been cleaned, Lux could keenly sense an extremely faint yet unsettling magical fluctuation in the air.

Lux didn't speak. She held her breath, and her wand silently slid into her hand. A faint golden light gathered at the tip of the wand, and she whispered, "Reveal your true form!"

Soft golden light swept across the entire secret chamber like ripples on water.

In an instant, the invisible magical remnants in the air were outlined.

Before the empty crystal pedestal, a blindingly bright, eerie green light suddenly shone.

The shape of the light resembled the trajectory of a deadly spell, with the end of the trajectory pointing to a corner near the door, where another magical glow, carrying the meaning of painful struggle, remained—clearly the last place of Lady Iris.

"Hiss—" Lux gasped. Although she was mentally prepared, she was still surprised to see the traces of the giant melon being eaten. "Avada Kedavra, your brother is really ruthless. I bet even Lady Iris didn't expect this."

Malena's expression changed instantly. She stared intently at the eerie green afterimage, her lips moving but no sound coming out. She had seen infighting within her family before, but to directly use the Unforgivable Curse... this was beyond her comprehension.

Lux ignored Malena's lapse in composure and carefully searched the secret room. Besides the conspicuous magical afterimage, her nose also detected a faint, peculiar sweet scent that was almost completely obscured by dust.

"What does this taste like?" Lux sniffed, trying to make out the flavor. "It's a bit like... Honeydukes' lucky candy, but it's also a bit different. It's richer and has a metallic sheen."

Upon hearing this, Malena replied in a dry voice, "...It was Felix Felicis, high-quality Felix Felicis. Armand...he took all the raw materials and finished products of Felix Felicis from the warehouse."

"Felix Felicis?" Lux's eyes lit up. "That's great stuff! It makes your wishes come true. Is your brother planning to rely on luck to force his way through Paris?"

Malena ignored Lux's teasing. She took a deep breath and looked at Lux with a complicated expression: "Armand... he's been acting very strangely these past few months. He used to be so composed and excellent as the family heir. He would never... he would never do such a thing. He's come to me privately a few times, saying that the family is being controlled by an invisible force, and everyone is following that 'Pale Witch' like they've been brainwashed. He's terrified... he says he has to find a way to break free from this control."

"I told him that the Pale Witch had been on good terms with the family for many years. I suspected that he might have been subjected to some kind of memory-altering magic, but that shouldn't be the case. As the family heir, Armand had received professional training in defense against the dark arts."

Lux had a sudden realization; she seemed to know why Armand had run away.

"Break free from control? Did he explain exactly how to do it? Or has he learned any magic like Occlumency?"

Malena frowned, struggling to recall: "Occlumency? Armand, as the heir, received private instruction from a master. Long ago, he was taught a magic that could protect his thoughts from being spied on, but it's extremely difficult. How do you know?"

"Just guessing." Lux shrugged, but rolled her eyes inwardly.

LeBlanc's mind control magic was all-pervasive; the entire Rosier family was silently "marked" by her. Armand was able to sense the anomaly and try to resist, and may even have actually become a master of Occlumency, which is why he was not completely controlled by LeBlanc. In the end, he killed LeBlanc's clone and left with the small rune.

This guy's got some skills!

No wonder he was able to turn the tables and give LeBlanc's clone a big bite.

"Looks like your brother's not only ruthless, but also a genius," Lux concluded. "He's got brains, guts, and he even took Felix Felicis... Tsk, this is going to be tough. There must be other witnesses, right?"

"He avoided his family members, but some house-elves saw him; after all, we employ nearly a hundred elves in the manor."

"How much?" Lux was genuinely surprised this time.

It's worth noting that Hogwarts has nearly a thousand people with only eighty-odd elves serving them, while she has only seen fewer than thirty members of the Rosier family so far.

On average, each family member has three house-elves serving them.

"Country bumpkin, the Rozier family owns seventy percent of France's potion supply and is a noble pure-blood family." Malena's tone was filled with arrogance and a sense of pride in her family.

Lux roughly understood what the Rozier family was all about.

It turns out to be Malfoy from France.

Leaving the oppressive confinement room, Lux and Malena began questioning the witnesses within the manor.

Although it was called an inquiry, the process was more like an interrogation.

Facing a house-elf who was trembling with fear and almost buried her head in the carpet, Malena asked coldly, "When you last saw Master Armand, was there anything unusual about him?"

"Sip...Sip doesn't know! Sip doesn't know anything!" Sip trembled, his pointed ears pressed tightly against his head. "Master Armand...he...he took Sip's key! Sip didn't do it on purpose! Sip was just wiping the crucibles in the storeroom..."

"Compound Elixir?" Lux immediately grasped the key point. "He used Compound Elixir? Who did he become?"

"Sip...Sip only smelled the kitchen helper Pierre...and the gardener old George...and...and the butler Durand's new perfume!" Sip stammered, clearly terrified.

Lux nudged Malena with her elbow. "Your brother's pretty cautious. He's even switching between different compound potions. Now it'll be even harder to find them."

"This shows that Armand didn't waste the family's education. He did a great job with counter-tracking. The family's tracking spells couldn't find him at all. I just can't figure out why he did it..."

"The reason is right next to you," Lux thought to herself. "LeBlanc is such a villain."

They brainwashed the entire family to find the rune, and the only one who is still conscious is now being hunted down as a traitor to the family.

LeBlanc has done so many bad things... Wait a minute...

Lux suddenly realized that LeBlanc was now her clone, and she seemed to have become the real mastermind behind everything.

Realizing this, Lux's tone softened a bit, "Armand must have his reasons, and I believe the Pale Witch will forgive her."

"Let's hope so... We'll go check out his room next."