allendalepharm Chapter 324 Wolf Poison Crisis
Chapter 324 Wolf Poison Crisis
Chapter 324 Wolf Poison Crisis
"Remember your strengths!"
Lucius Malfoy arrived at Beauxbaton's temporary camp with a batch of fire crossbows. Seeing the frustrated look on everyone's faces as they racked their brains for a solution, he couldn't help but offer some advice.
As a Death Eater who had experienced the Wizarding World War, he easily grasped the key to the battle.
"Strictly speaking, what you're doing isn't Quidditch at all, but a squad competition between wizarding armies!"
'
His knuckles tapped lightly on the table as he gazed at everyone present. "In my eyes, only Beauxbatons' team truly embodies the spirit of a wizarding army!"
"The Hogwarts Team is more like an adventure party composed of a large number of warriors."
"Although the Durmstrang team has a school spirit of superiors and subordinates, it relies heavily on the captain's command, making it more like a Muggle army. This makes it easy for them to be targeted and eventually become leaderless."
"And you—"
"It emphasizes order while also yearning for freedom, and it values the development of individual talents while also providing opportunities for collective training."
He gently raised a finger. "This is your advantage: crush them like a wizarding army!"
'
Seeing that the young wizards were all focusing their attention on him.
He said with admiration, "Your use of the Fog of War in the last match was excellent; everyone could see the Hogwarts team was in complete disarray."
This is encouraging news; they do have an advantage.
The amplification of magical power brought about by a group casting the same spell together is enough to erase the differences in individual strength.
"But your previous captain, Evie Lestrange, was incredibly stupid!"
Lucius criticized the former captain without any restraint, whether because the former was hostile to the Malfoy family or because he wanted to build up his son Draco's reputation within the team.
"She was unable to effectively command and lead you to expand your gains, instead allowing the people of Hogwarts to defeat you one by one."
"The fog of war is good, but she relies on it too much!"
"Ultimately, this led to you all seemingly becoming part of the fog of war, thrown into complete chaos!"
"So now you only need to accomplish two things!"
He held up two fingers. "First, establish a communication method for the captain's wartime command. Second, find intelligence on every member of the Durmstrang team we'll be facing tomorrow, and develop a tactical strategy for prioritizing concentrated fire attacks."
The first point is easy to understand: Beauxbatons must make full use of their advantages, work together under the captain's command to cast spells and stack effects, and then focus their attacks on key targets.
Naturally, the authority of the new captain, Draco Malfoy, needed to be established.
As for the second one—
Draco pulled out a piece of parchment. "I have informants who know every single Durmstrang inside and out!"
Actually, the information was provided to him by Gore, who had transferred there.
Durmstrang has a strong political atmosphere, and Goyle, a student personally brought from Hogwarts by Grindelwald, easily gains everyone's respect and is very easy to get information from.
Draco only needed a few simple words to extract the most comprehensive information from Goyle. Well, the main problem was that Goyle simply didn't have the brains to gather information and would give it to him voluntarily.
He unfolded the parchment and showed it to everyone, saying, "We can leverage the power of the team and focus on dealing with their most important target! Let's finish it off quickly and decisively, without giving them a chance to maneuver!"
"This is cheating!" Fleur Delacour was not in a good position to accept this.
"No!" Draco stood up, taking over Lucius's speech. He already knew what to do; now it was his turn. "This is war, madam!"
As he spoke, he turned to look at those around him, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is war!"
"We are an army, an army fighting for the honor of Beauxbatons. The first Triwizard Tournament in over a century will decide who is the best school!"
He waved the parchment in his hand, "Intelligence, an extremely important part of war! An indispensable part!"
""
Many people got excited.
Draco looked down at Fleur, who was beginning to hesitate. "We can't afford to lose to Durmstrang again tomorrow, or people will get the stereotype that Beauxbatons is the worst of the three schools!"
"Tell me, can you accept this?" he shouted passionately.
"cannot!"
"cannot!"
First, a few young wizards shouted it out, their faces flushed, and then it became a torrent of shouts from all sides.
"For Beauxbatons!"
Draco continued shouting.
"For Beauxbatons!" everyone shouted in unison.
The sound was deafening, and many people's eyes welled up with tears.
At the doorway, Lucius Malfoy, leaning against the doorframe, looked at his child with great satisfaction. Indeed, transferring schools was the right decision.
An ambitious person who struggles to grow at Hogwarts finds ample room to develop at Beauxbatons in Lockhart.
Having stepped away from the focus on Harry Potter, Draco truly began his own fairytale adventure.
Worth it!
The anxiety that came with switching from Voldemort's camp to Lockhart's camp was suddenly filled with happiness. It was worth it. What could be better than this?
Inside, Draco began using marking magic to project the contents of the parchment into the air, proudly and confidently recounting his strategy, while humbly listening to the older students in the group to see if they had any suitable war magic strategies.
Everything before my eyes is simply too wonderful.
Lucius walked out with a smile.
Fudge was almost in tears.
He knocked on Dumbledore's office door and beckoned to Scrimgeour, the Auror's chief of staff, and Kingsley, who were carefully guarding the trunk behind him.
"Dumbledore, something's happened!"
While calling out Dumbledore's name, he first turned his gaze, seeking help, to Lockhart.
Then he was startled by Voldemort sitting in the corner.
-
Hmm, the fact that the Dark Lord has been resurrected seems to be more terrifying than what he's about to say.
"What happened, Cornelius (Fudge's name)?"
Lockhart was waving his arms excitedly in his office, talking about something, when he saw them come in and became curious.
Fudge didn't speak, but just frowned deeply as he looked at the two people behind him.
Scrimgeour and Kingsley together placed the box on the ground and opened it, revealing bottles of green liquid emitting a crystalline, eerie glow.
"what?"
Lockhart quickly approached, crouched down to examine it, and raised an eyebrow. "Wolfsbane? And refined wolfsbane at that?"
If all these wolfsbane were to explode, they would easily turn nearly half the population of the wizarding world into werewolves.
"We found these in their labs while we were searching for the Purifiers!" Scrimgeour's eyes were filled with rage.
This has deeply crossed the wizards' bottom line and cannot be tolerated!
We must strike hard!
Seeing Dumbledore stand up warily, Kingsley quickly added, "We've used some methods to find out who's involved and confirmed that the goblins weren't involved."
This is a stroke of luck amidst misfortune.
If the fairy race were involved, that would be a truly earth-shattering event that would shake the entire wizarding world.
The group approached the box to examine it, only to see Lockhart pick up a jar from inside, open it with a spell using his wand, dip his finger into the green liquid, and even taste it.
"!!!" Kingsley's eyes widened, speechless with shock.
Scrimgeour yelled, "Watch out! This is wolfsbane! Even a tiny bit will kill a wizard—"
Okay, it's already in my mouth.
Fudge was so frightened that he took a step back.
In fact, even Voldemort was startled. Wolfsbane was something he dared not touch, let alone the fact that he had once touched it. No one knew how he spent every full moon night; it was clearly a very unforgettable and profound memory.
"Not pure enough!"
Lockhart smacked his lips. "I made a mistake. This stuff looks like it's been purified, but the purification was done in the wrong direction, causing some of the wolfsbane's toxicity to dissipate."
As he spoke, he looked at Scrimgeour with some excitement, "The experimental records should have been brought back, right? The Purifiers actually have a way to reduce wolfsbane. Whether it was just a lucky guess or not, it's definitely a great discovery!"
Scrimgeour swallowed hard, looking at him with some panic. "You—you've been infected with wolfsbane!"
Lockhart shrugged. "Please ignore these minor issues and tell me what I want to know!"
"I brought it back. I'll have someone make a copy and send it to you," Scrimgeour said hastily. It took him a while to recover from the mental confusion brought on by the scene before him, and he quickly recounted the Purifiers' conspiracy.
"They somehow learned that wizards are most afraid of being infected with wolfsbane, and that becoming a werewolf makes one an outcast among wizards, the enemy of the enemy of Muggles," they stated, listing wizards, Muggles, and werewolves side-by-side in their materials.
"So they thought it necessary to expand the ranks of wizards and werewolves, turning the conflict between wizards and Muggles into a conflict between wizards, Muggles, and werewolves."
Grindelwald chuckled. "The Muggles have really found a way to deal with wizards. Everyone knows that mad werewolves will only attack wizards, not Muggles."
"Go further!" Scrimgeour's expression was serious as he gestured to the wolfsbane blood potion in the box. "Muggles know that wolfsbane only infects wizards and has no effect on Muggles!"
"So they don't need to find wizards to poison them. They just need to poison all the great rivers, lakes, and even all water sources, and wizards will continue to turn into werewolves, while Muggles can still drink this water containing wolfsbane without being affected."
wow~
Lockhart exclaimed in surprise, looking down at the wolfsbane in the jar. "How ingenious!"
He smacked his lips, raised an eyebrow, and said, "Have they been researching the blood of magical creatures? Exploring ways to infect a magical bloodline like wolfsbane, perhaps that way they could become another kind of wizard, or possess the powerful magical resistance of magical creatures?"
"Mr. Lockhart!" Dumbledore interrupted him sternly. "I think it's best to keep these ideas to yourself!"
Lockhart chuckled, gently shook the glass bottle, and the cap automatically flew off and closed. He then stepped aside to let Dumbledore handle it.
"Is this the kind of mental spellcasting you described before, the one using anti-spells?" Voldemort was very interested in the effect of the lid flying back and closing automatically.
That wasn't Lockhart manipulating things; it was a reversal of time or events, like a counter-curse being cast when opening a bottle.
Voldemort would never forget that he tried to escape Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Lockhart's pursuit by using death, only to be pulled back from the brink of death by Lockhart in a similar manner.
That terrifying spell, "Time Reversal," even though Lockhart declared he would never again cast this spell, which he himself could not fully control.
"Isn't that interesting?"
Lockhart said smugly in a low voice, "When we delve deeper into time magic and discover that the concept of time doesn't actually exist," we'll be able to clearly grasp the essence of the magic I invented.
Huh~
Voldemort sneered, thinking it was all nonsense.
He admitted that Lockhart was indeed very powerful, but the most important factor was Lockhart's talent. Just like how he himself embarked on a path of manipulating magical bloodlines that no one else could do, ability was crucial, but talent was also indispensable.
Lockhart must possess some kind of "time-related" quality, Voldemort just didn't know it. (In fact, he was a time traveler.)
The two were discussing quietly in a corner, while Dumbledore and Grindelwald had their attention completely drawn to Wolfsbane.
They are having a serious discussion.
"Let me interject," Lockhart said, suddenly remembering something. "The Purifiers must have used Muggle werewolves in their experiments, and because they couldn't sense the wolfsbane, they purified it in the wrong direction."
"Oh, don't look at me like that. Actually, many Muggles have magical bloodlines, such as Muggle family members of Muggle wizards. Some of them have ancient magical bloodlines that, due to certain circumstances, become a state of no magic, even more special than a Squib, and have been passed down from generation to generation. Others are born due to magical environmental factors. You can think of them as magical creatures and dark magic creatures."
"Also, don't ask me how I know it's a Muggle-infected werewolf, because I've been in contact with it, but I won't tell you where I was in contact with it."
It's actually Lupin's father, Lyle Lupin. He illegally brought many death row inmates from the Muggle world and infected them with wolfsbane. Lockhart later helped out at Lyle's lab for a while, and now those Muggle werewolves are still adventuring in his fairy tale books.
Seeing everyone's reaction, Lockhart shrugged. "It's obvious that the Purifiers' intelligence was wrong, or rather, they didn't find any wizards who had studied this area. They just foolishly thought that only wizards could be infected with wolfsbane, but many Muggles can be too."
"Of course, I haven't done the experiment, so I don't know if Muggle werewolves will attack Muggles on their own initiative."
As he spoke, Lockhart stroked his chin, lost in thought. He murmured, "Interesting! If Muggle werewolves attack Muggles, will they differentiate between Muggles with magical bloodlines and those without?"
"If that's the case, could this method be used to identify which Muggles possess potential magical bloodlines?"
A series of coughing sounds interrupted his train of thought.
It's Dumbledore.
He looked at Lockhart with such seriousness, "The world of magic is so vast, perhaps we should choose a path more beneficial to wizards?"
In other words, don't keep thinking about these dangerous areas, lest Voldemort end up being redeemed while Lockhart becomes a universally hated evil villain.
"This was just a thought; I didn't do anything about it!"
Lockhart pursed his lips and decided to get out of the matter altogether.
Voldemort, on the other hand, smiled slightly and whispered to him, "I have a way to remove wolfsbane from a wizard's body, but only I can cast the spell, and there will be some necessary price to pay."
After all, wolfsbane is essentially a magical bloodline.
Unlike Lockhart, who was a show-off, he said this mainly so that the wizards present could come to him for help in some urgent situation in the future, at which time he could propose some ideas for exchange of benefits.
Lockhart exclaimed in surprise and began to discuss it with him in a low voice.