HP: Azkaban's Outstanding Graduate

"Why?" Hermione suddenly realized. "What's wrong with Professor Lockhart? Why are you making things up about him like this?"

“Merlin, Hermione, you’ve been fooled,” Ron said, waving his arms dramatically. “You’re so smart, haven’t you figured it out yet? School’s been going on for so long, everyone knows—he practically has ‘I’m a liar’ written all over his face!”

The little witch pursed her lips, looking somewhat unhappy. "It's too early to draw conclusions now; it's only been a week since school started!"

She clutched the hardcover of "Walking with Trolls" tightly, but she also had some doubts in her heart.

Harry and Ron exchanged a knowing glance and wisely chose to remain silent.

……

……

After sending the two little witches back to Hogwarts, Sargeras went alone to the edge of the Black Lake.

As night fell, the lake shimmered with silver light under the moonlight. Suddenly, the bronze feather badge in his pocket radiated a scorching heat.

He quickly took out the badge, and saw flashing words appearing in the bronze bird's eyes: "Mount Kusi (Africa), the venomous leopard has appeared, urgent help needed."

Sagres's fingers tightened immediately, and the magical runes on the door key glowed with a ghostly blue light in his palm.

The next second, space around him distorted, pulling him into the vortex.

When the dizziness subsided, he found himself standing in a dilapidated wooden hut.

The rotten wooden planks groaned underfoot, and moonlight seeped in through the cracks, illuminating several familiar figures inside the room.

A hummingbird crouched in a corner, examining a blackened corpse with its wand; a robin and a nightingale argued quietly by the window, their wands glowing with a defensive light.

The Thunderbird and the Common Kestrel, one old and one young, unusually refrained from bickering, while the Information Broker Stork sat obediently at the table, discussing countermeasures with Ms. Snowy Owl.

"Raven!" Swift rushed over, his robes stained with mud and blood. "The situation is out of control."

Sagres noticed that the tip of his wand was charred, a first for him since he had known this anti-curse expert.

“Gringotts discovered ancient magical ruins in the desert not far away,” Swift’s voice was taut like a fully drawn bowstring. “I was transferred here to break the curse, but as soon as I arrived at the scene, the monster burst out of the ground.”

As he spoke, he pointed out the window, where a loud crash of falling trees could be heard in the distance.

Even through the walls, Sagres could smell the sweet, deathly aura in the air—the poisonous mist of the venomous leopard was spreading.

“More than seventy wizards have already fallen into a coma due to poisoning,” Swift said, her nails digging deep into her palms. “What’s worse, the poisonous fog has spread to three Muggle villages, affecting approximately two thousand Muggles…”

He didn't finish his sentence, but Sagles understood what it meant. More than two thousand innocent lives had been lost because of a botched excavation at Gringotts.

Sagres stared at the blurry giant shadow in the distance, his fingers unconsciously tightening around his wand.

Although I had read descriptions of this animal in books more than once, this was the first time I had ever seen a venomous leopard in person—this XXXXX-level creature that inhabits the African desert was even more terrifying than described in textbooks.

Under the moonlight, the outline of the enormous creature gradually became clear: its streamlined body was nearly ten times larger than that of an ordinary cheetah, and its amber eyes gleamed eerily in the darkness. Most deadly of all was the poisonous mist it exhaled with each breath, which now spread through the night sky as if it were alive.

Sagrath recalled Newt Scamander's warning, highlighted in red ink: "Deadlied more than a dragon, more ferocious than a basilisk, and only once in history has it been subdued by a hundred elite wizards working together..."

"Boom!"

The wooden house suddenly shook violently, accompanied by a roar that tore through the night sky.

The tip of Sagres' wand emitted a blinding red light, casting a sharp shadow on the wall.

“You’re in charge of evacuating the survivors,” he said calmly. “I’ll deal with this beast.”

"Watch out!" Thunderbird warned hastily, "Attacks will only cause it to release an even more intense poisonous mist!"

Sagres nodded and lightly tapped his wand to cast the Bubble Head Charm on himself.

He reached out and took the emerald-colored potion from the nightingale, stuffing it directly into his pocket. It was a top-grade antidote made primarily from mandrake and phoenix tears.

Pushing open the door, a wave of desert heat hit us. Fortunately, the incident occurred in a desolate area; otherwise, the casualties would likely have been ten times higher.

Sagres discerned the direction of the monster, and with a swift movement, transformed into a massive raven shadow and charged toward its target.

Chapter 65 Alchemy Laboratory

Upon seeing the enormous raven shadow that Sargeras had transformed into, the venomous leopard unexpectedly turned and fled.

Its massive body swept across the sand dunes at an astonishing speed, leaving an almost blurry afterimage in the moonlight.

"Trying to escape?" Sagres frowned, his wand tracing complex paths through the air: "Sandstorm Bind!"

In an instant, the ground shook violently, and a sand wall a hundred meters high rose from the ground, closing in rapidly as if it were alive, trapping the giant beast inside.

Sagrass descended from the sky, his black robes fluttering in the moonlight, and the second spell followed immediately: "Quicksand Trap!"

The sand, a mile in diameter, liquefied instantly, forming a massive vortex that swallowed everything.

The venomous leopard struggled frantically in the quicksand, letting out deafening roars, its venomous breath distorting the surrounding air.

Sargeras hovered in mid-air, the tip of his wand glowing with ancient runes: "Eternal Ice Coffin!"

Extreme cold swept out from him, freezing sand grains into ice wherever it passed.

The entire quicksand area froze into a crystal-clear glacier within seconds, shimmering with a ghostly blue light under the moonlight. Through the ice, the frozen moment of the giant beast's roar could still be clearly seen.

This ancient runic magic was being used in actual combat for the first time, and the effect was unexpectedly good.

Sagres put away his wand, then took out a crystal bottle and tossed it into the air, beginning to absorb the poisonous mist that permeated the air.

To ensure everything went smoothly, he threw out more than a dozen spare containers in succession. Only when the night sky became clear again and the starlight shone down once more did he slowly put away the crystal bottle and turn to walk towards the village.

The surroundings were eerily quiet; apart from the faint crunching sound of footsteps on the sand, there was no other sound.

Under the moonlight, the neatly arranged houses looked particularly eerie—there were no cries, no calls for help, and even the chirping of insects and birds had vanished without a trace.

Pushing open the door to the nearest house, I saw a family of five lying quietly in bed, their faces serene as if they were still asleep.

Sagres removed the head-bubbling curse, and the hot desert wind brushed against his taut face, bringing a faint, almost imperceptible, putrid smell.

The death toll from this accident will likely break records for the past century. As for who will be held responsible? The Ministry of Magic? The local government? Or the greedy Gringotts goblins?

Sagres didn't know the answer. But one thing he was certain of—these innocent villagers lying in their beds would never wake up again.

Sagles went straight back to the cabin.

As soon as he pushed open the door, a pungent odor mixed with the smell of antidote and charred flesh hit him. The Unseen Stretching Charm had transformed the originally simple hut into a makeshift field hospital, with dozens of beds filled with unconscious wounded.

He walked through the narrow corridor, the sound of his footsteps drowned out by the rising and falling groans of pain. Members of the Bronze Feathers moved among them, the tips of their wands flashing with the glow of healing spells.

The identities of the wounded were quite complex: there were several Gringotts goblins, human wizards employed by Gringotts, graduates of Vagaddu ​​wearing star-moon robes, and official members of the Sahel Sorcerers' League, whose distinctive desert robes made them easily recognizable.

"More than thirty didn't make it." Hummingbird's voice came from behind, as she used a levitation spell to carry a box of freshly brewed antidote. "The poisonous fog spread faster than expected; many didn't even have time to—"

"I know."

Sargeras also joined the rescue operation. As a wizard who had "studied" in the library of the Vagadou Magical School, this rescue was both a responsibility and an obligation for him.

……

Once the last injured person's condition stabilized, Sagles immediately gathered all the members.

“Let them stay here,” he said, looking around at everyone. “Let’s talk somewhere else.”

His gaze fell on the robin, who immediately understood: "The nearest safe house is in Egypt."

“We’ll go to Egypt.” Sagres nodded slightly, then added, “This safe house will be permanently abandoned; I will erase all traces.”

As he spoke, he snapped his fingers.

All nine badges lit up simultaneously, and everyone's figures vanished instantly.

In the desolate Gobi Desert, a small house made of stone bricks stands alone.

The figures of the Bronze Feather members suddenly appeared, and the thick dust inside the stone house was suddenly stirred up. With a light wave of Sagres' wand, the dust was condensed into large tables and chairs.

"Who will deal with the Poison Leopard?" He placed a crystal bottle on the table, inside which the magical creature had been shrunk to a miniature size and was still wriggling restlessly.

“I’ll do it. I have some connections with Newt Scamander,” Thunderbird said, raising his hand.

Sagres nodded. "I've cast a dream confusion spell on all the survivors, so they'll believe that the International Wizarding Federation's standard rescue team saved them. The memory weaving spell is also complete; all memories related to us have been replaced with unfamiliar faces."

Sagres's voice was quite calm, "Even if clues are discovered later, they will never point to us."

However, to prevent Gringotts from shirking responsibility and covering up the truth, he continued to assign tasks to the group:

"Robin, go and transform the cabin into the appearance of a standard curse treatment station."

"Swift, destroy as many security protocols and fairy warnings as possible at the entrance to the ruins, but leave enough clues pointing to Gringotts."

“Ms. Snow Owl, deploy African Bewildering Bugs around the ruins and cabins to create false magical fluctuations—remember to retrieve them after the mission is complete.”

"Stork, start spreading the word first thing tomorrow morning. Make sure all the media know that this disaster was caused by Gringotts' development of the ruins. And prevent Swift from becoming a scapegoat."

……

……

The flickering candlelight reflected the cold light in his eyes: "We want more than just to get away unscathed; we want Gringotts to pay the price for their greed."

“Let’s get started.” Sagres stood up. “I still need to head to the ruins and see if there are any other ‘surprises’ hidden inside…”

……

……

Back at the foot of Mount Kushi, Sagres pushed through the twisted bushes and a violently torn cave entrance appeared before him—damaged protective runes remained on the jagged rocks, but further in, there were obvious claw marks.

It seems like a two-way journey, but the ending wasn't very pleasant.

He raised his wand, and the glow of the fluorescent spell illuminated the deep passageway.

The rock face was covered with claw marks of varying depths, and the deeper one went, the denser and more terrifying the claw marks became.

Finally, at the end of the passage appeared a dusty alchemy laboratory.

In the center of the laboratory, a huge, shattered glass dome stood out. Sagres crouched down, his fingertips lightly touching the dim protective runes on the glass shards.

“It was damaged three months ago,” he squinted. “It seems this venomous leopard has been kept here for a long time.”

The top of the glass dome is connected to a complex system of brass pipes, and some strange green crystals remain on the outer walls of the pipes.

With a light tap of his wand, Sagres unleashed a fragmented flashback of magical images: the poisonous mist was precisely extracted and purified, eventually flowing into a silver cauldron in the corner.

On the other side of the laboratory, another runic glass dome caught his attention.

Floating inside the shroud was a mass of grayish-black chaotic energy—the remains of the dead Obscurus, which was still slowly wriggling.