Hogwarts Wasteland: The Witch from the Borderlands

Chapter 559 Ice Breaks, Light Emerges

Once something like this happens, the nature of the situation changes.

If the Aurora faction in the past could be considered a petty, thieving wizard organization within the same faction, though disliked and hated by others, there was no real evidence of their crimes.

But now that they've targeted the Hogwarts professors, it's a blatant declaration of war.

Hermione touched the broken crystal with her soul fingers, hoping to find Trelawney by relying on the afterimage.

But all that met the eye was a blurry cloud of light, its shimmering and shifting colors accompanied by weeping and lamentation, and the yellow sand that was stirred up from time to time was like Trelawney's tears.

"Her trail has been disrupted," the translucent, ethereal deity whispered.

However, this is reasonable. Everyone is a prophet, so they know exactly what methods the other party will use and how to deal with them.

But why did they kidnap Trelawney? She was a prophet with little ability and a mostly unreliable third eye, while the Arctic Occultist had a very stable field of vision.

Since we can't find them, we might as well go directly to their headquarters.

She looked up at the Earth; Greenland was at a high latitude, and even though it wasn't night, its entirety was visible at a glance.

Even now, when the thick clouds have cleared and the sun shines brightly, the area remains a desolate, white expanse year-round.

The witch opened her eyes, activating both after-sight and foresight simultaneously. Even from hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, she could thoroughly examine every inch of Greenland.

If she weren't afraid of frightening people on Earth, she could even open her enormous flesh-and-blood eye on the moon to see more clearly.

But when the divine eye swept across the desolate land, there was nothing there.

There is no pure land, no paradise, and no trace of human habitation.

The fifty years of nuclear winter have long since wiped out the human population on this island.

"Could Greenland be just a cover? Is their base somewhere else?" Hermione frowned, but the werewolves Maria sent out to sea were indeed taken north.

Unconvinced, Hermione expanded the scope of her clairvoyance once again. This time, she finally spotted rows of small sailboats in the waters near Iceland.

The boats were so small that they looked like they could only float on inland waterways. Some Muggles wrapped themselves up tightly and hid in the cabins, praying to some unknown god.

Only a few wizards and aurora messengers draped in bearskins were outside the cabin, casting spells to stabilize the ship and increase its speed.

The cold wind howled and the giant waves rolled. If it weren't for the protection of magic, they would have been swallowed by the fish long ago.

Even now, they look to be in grave danger. Beneath the sea, giant sea creatures, bloated by the accumulation of radioactive organisms, are still thrashing about, as if trying to taste the wooden shells on the surface.

The werewolves sent by Maria were on one of the ships. They were well disguised, looking like Muggles fleeing famine, wearing tattered coats stuffed with dry grass. Some were thin and timid, hiding in the cabins, while others were burly and strong, full of leadership, and even though they didn't know magic, they still bravely stood on the deck and shouted for help.

However, no one noticed that hidden beneath their clothes were miniature silver moon-shaped holy marks, which allowed them to transform into dangerous and deadly moon priests and launch powerful prayers at crucial moments.

"Judging from their course, are they heading to Iceland?" Hermione wondered. Could the real base be there?

She turned her gaze once again to the frozen islands in the ocean.

Finally, outside a secluded and desolate port, she saw some ships that had finally arrived after going through countless hardships, and she also saw a person wearing a cloak welcoming the refugees who were disembarking from the ships.

"Is that the Aurora Prophet? The Arctic Oddity Man?" She sharpened her eyesight, intending to peer through the cloak to see the man's true face.

Just then, as the person under the cloak looked up, their eyes met.

"Lockhart!?"

A familiar face appeared before her; the man looked even more haggard and listless.

Before Hermione could continue observing, suddenly, a streak of aurora burst forth from Lockhart's eyes, sweeping across her field of vision.

"Hmm~"

A flurry of illusions assaulted her brain, and before she knew it, Hermione was dragged into an infinite vision of the future.

Seemingly having noticed the moon's spying in the sky, the Aurora Prophet, following Lockhart's gaze, countered Hermione's attack.

Not only that, seemingly realizing that he had been discovered, he simply stopped hiding.

At the same time, from within the Arctic Circle, beneath the earth of Greenland, an even more powerful and colorful aurora emerged.

The entire Arctic sky was enveloped in intense and dazzling hallucinogenic auroras.

As if in response, the natural aurora borealis in Antarctica also seemed to come alive under the influence of unknown forces.

From outer space, the entire Earth appears to be dressed in a colorful dome and socks, and this color is spreading rapidly from top to bottom across the globe.

Hermione, from the infinite future branch, is trying to pull her even deeper.

Just like the cosmic spectacle she witnessed last year at the Department of Mysteries, only this time, she was lured into a trap by another prophet.

But she was no ordinary person, not even a common prophet. Although the Arctic Occultist's methods were unexpected, they could only make her momentarily dazed.

The hindsight, originating from her soul, was about to activate, bringing her back to the real world.

But suddenly, from beyond the ever-split, endless timeline, a huge, dark blue eye looked over.

No, that wasn't an eye, but another enormous, deep, and eerie dark moon!

The moon exists independently of the timeline, independent of space and time, rotating in solitude, yet constantly radiating its influence outward.

"Dark Moon!"

Hermione was startled by the sight of Greenland's frozen ground, the aurora borealis filling the sky, and a huge, dark blue moon!

Grindelwald's predictions have never failed him; it seems this is the moment they've come true!

Right now, Hermione doesn't dare use her ability to see back to reality. She doesn't know what Darkmoon is up to, or what his purpose is in watching her.

"I have already broken through the barrier. If He wants to, He should be able to descend at any time, right?" she pondered.

At that moment, a spiritual vibration emanated from the dark moon: "You've grown up."

It felt like a mother's comforting care, and also like the joy of seeing the fish fry in the tank grow plump and healthy.

Unlike the previous meeting where he disguised himself as Lani, this time the Dark Moon did not take on the appearance of anyone. However, his attitude was equally ambiguous, showing neither hostility nor demands, as if he were simply there for entertainment.

In the twisting and changing gaps of time and space, even light is solidified into a tangible entity. Countless eras, an ancient microcosm, flow like water between the moon and man, leaving only two spirits gazing at each other.

"Ah~ Go back quickly, you can't watch anymore, and neither can I—" It seemed like a long time had passed, yet it also seemed like only a moment, when Dark Moon suddenly issued such a warning.

Immediately afterwards, Hermione felt an invisible force pushing her mind back to reality at an extremely fast speed.

In that final, fleeting glimpse, she saw beyond the chaotic spacetime, different colors swirling and churning, even the dark moon submerged within them—