From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

William felt that the person who hid the treasure didn't even need to know about wizards searching for buried treasures; they only needed to listen to how the goblins of Gringotts collected their treasures to understand how sophisticated their methods were…

'Superb magic, clumsy design…'

William's viewpoint was quickly agreed upon by Lupin and Sirius, who had been brought down.

"Let's go, try not to scatter. The opponent may be clumsy, but their magical power is truly terrifying..."

William gently waved his wand, pointing it lightly at the sea surface, and a huge ice floe immediately appeared between them and the crack.

When they arrived at the location of the crevice, a passageway filled with seawater appeared before them.

"Okay, it seems I have to retract some of my accusations, but there are so many things that don't quite add up, and this attempt to cover things up only makes it seem more like an attempt to conceal the truth..."

William drew his wand, cast a head-bubbling spell on himself, and submerged into the water.

Next came Lupin, Sirius, and Moody, who brought up the rear. The four of them, under the influence of the Bubble Head Curse, easily navigated the waterways that William had parted, turning left and right as they entered the innermost waterway.

"There isn't even a maze-like body of water."

Sirius, soaking wet, emerged from the water and stood on a slightly drier spot on the inner side. "What's even more outrageous is that there are steps—are they afraid we won't know this place has been modified?"

Lupin laughed—he felt that Sirius was somewhat imitating William, much like his behavior when he was still a student, but considering Sirius's pride, he said nothing as always.

"Get ready, I want to set some fire to test it out—theoretically, a wizard who has just crossed the water will be eager to dry off, so there should be a fire trap here. Once we find the trap's storage location, we can get a general idea of ​​our opponent's skill level."

William looked around and reminded his three teammates—but this was clearly unnecessary, as everyone was fully protected.

'With this setup, I think we could even empty the bottom floor of Gringotts without anyone noticing…'

For some reason, William looked at his teammates and remembered a joke Azkaban often told. After carefully checking and finding no magic that could affect his mind, he cautiously conjured a flame out of thin air.

After trying seven or eight testing methods, including igniting objects and attracting magical creatures, William had to admit that there seemed to be no magic against fire. He shook his head, slapped himself with his left hand to freeze all the water, then shaped the ice into a small ice ball and threw it back into the water he had come from.

"This is strange, I'm finding the scent of dark magic growing stronger..."

Moody muttered to himself, then casually wiped the moisture off his body.

"No normal wizard would hide it so secretly, so it's normal for black magic to do so as well."

Sirius Black waved his wand to help Lupin dry his clothes while curiously looking around. "I'm getting more and more curious about who did this. Such a remote place, yet they built such a spacious passageway. It feels like a pureblood..."

"Maybe they're Death Eaters..."

William surveyed his surroundings; there was no obvious entrance, but he sensed that it was hidden by magic.

He strode forward with Moody, their eyes quickly converging on a single point after a brief search—but here's the problem: William didn't recognize this dark magic.

This made him look up at Moody, only to find that Moody's gaze also held a questioning quality.

Sirius and Lupin soon joined in, but no one knew anything about it.

The other three quickly began a discussion, while William pulled out a bunch of random things, told them to take full precautions and stay away, and then started experimenting on them one by one.

"The dagger that blocked the shield was useless..."

"The venom that corrodes protective magic... it's useless..."

"The powder used to detect magical runes... has failed..."

After trying more than a dozen unorthodox methods, he had no choice but to abandon his shortcuts and start taking out his wand to determine the types of possible curses himself—a tough job indeed.

“Shortcuts won’t work, Professor William.”

Moody glanced at the things on the ground, then laughed heartily. He picked up his wand and began to torment the magical power that sealed the gate.

"Found it, a curse that forces self-harm—it's pretty obscure..."

Moody's demonic eyes darted around, staring at the stone wall. "We need to weaken ourselves to enter... we can't force our way through..."

"That's easy... I remember I have enough herbs in my pocket to make half a dose of vampire bait, and that's a potent blood-simulating potion..."

Light the fire, brew the potion, and fifteen minutes later, half a pot of dark potion, guided by Moody, was poured onto the hidden door.

But—there was no response.

It doesn't want blood, but the power of a wizard to harm himself.

"This is simply... utterly unreasonable..."

William put away the crucible, his eyes turning hostile. "Professor Moody, where exactly is the specific center of the spell's reaction?"

Moody's smile didn't fade, but he still pointed out the location to William.

The next moment, a ball of fierce fire ignited directly on the stone wall. The flames quickly grew stronger, and within the burning blue flames, the outline of an archway became fully visible, but the door was firmly blocked.

With a flick of his wand, William sent Fiendfire directly to the door. A minute later, he extinguished the flames, and then with another flick of his wand—the door, now completely unprotected, instantly transformed into a pool of liquid, spreading across the ground and flowing to one side. Once the transformation spell was lifted, it had already left its post.

"A defensive mechanism that couldn't even coordinate properly... Do you really think I can't detect it?"

He glanced irritably at the stone wall that had revealed the entrance, upgraded the security, and was the first to step inside.

Moody smiled and shook his head, checked the surroundings again, and then called the other two to follow him inside—he knew very well why William couldn't help but use dark magic to forcefully demolish the structure, because the almost suffocating aura of dark magic here was so strong that it made him feel his fighting spirit soar, not to mention William, a wizard who had been to Azkaban and was extremely disgusted by abnormal auras.

Not to mention, before they even arrived, everyone had already suspected something was amiss, and they had been deliberately diverting attention from the speculation about the whereabouts of the missing persons with various kinds of talk. That might be the darkest place in the world, and everyone was under immense pressure…

'New recruits who have never been on the battlefield always need to experience it. You've already shown great composure, but…'

Moody, harboring some ill intentions, slowed down a bit and called Lupin and Sirius to go together.

-

"This is…"

William stood before a vast lake, and his breath involuntarily stopped.

The lake in front of him was so vast that it seemed to stretch to the horizon, and the cave or mountain cave that contained the lake was so high that he wondered if it was tens or even hundreds of meters high.

He tried placing several light spheres for illumination, but it didn't work; the light couldn't reach the top at all, and...

"That is…"

Just as he was about to ride his flying broomstick to investigate, he couldn't help but gasp—on the lake's surface, there was a deathly pale...

He made a decision instantly, then stared at the lake in disbelief…

Are you kidding me...?

It was said to be just one village...

He found it hard to accept the fact—in the vast expanse of the lake, stark white floating objects were everywhere, and William, as a professor of self-defense, knew exactly what they were…

The Black Wizard refers to them as consumables... the Shadow Corpse.

He considered himself to have witnessed enough human cruelty in Azkaban. Occasionally, he would see wizards who couldn't hold on any longer being dragged out by Dementors or lightly convicted criminals and buried on the island of Azkaban. He also saw prisoners torturing each other, and occasionally, there were thugs taking their anger out on each other...

But after the initial wave of nausea subsided, he looked up at the lake—now there was no doubt that he had almost pinpointed the Dark Lord to him.

The reason the Dark Lord is the Dark Lord is not because his dark magic is the best in the world, but because he genuinely does things that only a demon king would do.

'A lake full of corpses…'

'I really want to... burn this place to the ground with a raging fire...'

He looked at the lake—it was better to be burned clean by the Fiery Blaze than to continue being that butcher's puppet. He believed those people would support his choice.

But not yet... If the Fiendfire were to burn this place, the information the Dark Lord was hiding would also be destroyed. Although that was necessary, before destroying it, William felt he had to figure out why the Dark Lord had built such a treasure trove and what he had hidden there.

"sky!!!"

Lupin's scream rang out—William's sphere of light, combined with his keen senses, made him quickly realize what was in the lake.

"Voldemort?"

Sirius walked quickly to William's side, looked at the pale white lake, and couldn't help but ask the question, then nodded to himself.

"Keep a close watch on it for me..."

William didn't answer Sirius. He took out several packets of precious materials from his pocket and, without a second thought, scattered them into the lake. The next moment, his wand pointed directly at the lake, and a layer of pale purple ice began to spread rapidly.

A lake full of corpses... the deterrent effect is indeed powerful...

Unfortunately, the lake was much larger, and given enough natural medium, William's magic could freeze the entire surface...

Let's go...

As the lake surface reflected an eerie purple light, William said softly.

He pulled a chocolate from his pocket, popped it into his mouth, and then stood up—this was the first time since he gained the ability to fight Dementors that he felt so down that he needed chocolate to cheer himself up…

Now... it's time to see what lies buried beneath this cowardly and despicable trap...

Chapter 485 The Switched Horcrux

Out of basic respect for the victims beneath his feet, William reached out and pulled a bridge of ice from the frozen lake, and walked across it with Moody and the others.

"Professor William, what are you going to do with all these corpses in the lake later?"

To William's surprise, Moody didn't try to calm him down; instead, he caught up with him and asked him other questions.

As he strode each step with great force, the ice emitted a faint crackling sound, then quickly repaired itself, reflecting back and forth in the empty cavern, creating a chilling sound.

“Use Fiendfire to deal with it… I think they will accept this choice. Compared to the humiliation of guarding the Dark Lord’s things, I think they would rather end everything. Consider this a choice I made for them without their consent.”

William spoke while taking deep breaths, trying to keep himself calm.

"Firestorm..."

Even as he walked on the ice bridge, Sirius, who was slightly behind, still couldn't help but stare at the horrific scene below. Compared to the others, although he had witnessed more torment, his understanding of the killing and bloodshed of dark magic was still insufficient. In his eyes, the killings caused by Peter Pettigrew were already unforgivable, and the scene before him had already exceeded his understanding of the word "cruelty."

"Yes, Fiery Blaze... No matter what kind of backup plan they have, a single Fiery Blaze will reduce them all to dust..."

William sighed, responding to Sirius while trying to calm himself down—he had been unable to determine the limits of Fiendfire before, but he had learned something from the book Dumbledore had given him: even the most intricately crafted and heavily protected Horcruxes could be destroyed by Fiendfire.

If even Horcruxes couldn't stop Fiendfire's destruction, then he couldn't imagine what kind of dark magic could possibly stop it.

The four fell silent again, and the only sound in the space was the soft crunching of ice underfoot.

About ten minutes later, a small island shimmering with green light appeared in front of William and his companions. As William lowered his wand, the ice bridge began to bend downwards and merged with the lake surface just before reaching the island.

"This is it—I dare not venture onto the island without authorization; there might be another layer of mechanisms up there..."

"Why can't we just destroy this damn mechanism?"

Sirius asked questions with near-hysteria, but William simply handed him a large piece of chocolate—the aura of the shadows here was too strong, making him inexplicably think of that horrible place, Azkaban, not to mention the negative emotions brought by the overflowing dark magic, which he was finding hard to bear.

William then distributed the chocolates to the remaining people, and as everyone was swallowing them, Lupin quietly explained.