Hogwarts Wasteland: The Witch from the Borderlands

Chapter 77 The Reclusive Ghost (Third Update Since Launch)

"It seems like I used too much force."

Hermione rubbed her bottom. It was her first time using the Exploding Rock Disc, and her original purpose was to dig a hole. She inevitably used more magic than she should. It was pitch black all around, and she couldn't see anything. Only some dim light from the hole above her head shone through. She estimated the height to be about two meters from the ground, but strangely, the fall didn't hurt much.

She suddenly remembered that when she fell, Dobby was trampled under her feet!

She quickly got up, and a starlight rose up. Sure enough, Dobby beneath her was already breathing but not taking in any more breaths.

Without thinking too much, she silently apologized to the unfortunate little elf, then waved her wand to move the pebbles around her.

He cleared a relatively clean, flat area and then rummaged through his treasure bag.

This was specially given to her by Madam Lily before she left. It contained various emergency supplies and a large quantity of all kinds of magical potions.

She took out anti-radiation potion and various healing potions, feeding him some while using the rest to cover his entire body with an inducing spray. Recently, in addition to learning potion recipes from Lady Lily, she had also learned a lot about first aid.

Then, fearing that the crazy little sprite would come to her senses and kill her again, she used Polymorph to transform the surrounding rocks into a pair, locking the still unconscious sprite in place. Only then did she have time to survey her surroundings.

This is a stone underground room, surrounded by some dilapidated wooden barrels, which may have originally contained wine, but have long since evaporated.

Seeing that Dobby was still unconscious but his condition had stabilized, she stood up and decided to explore the surroundings. Perhaps because it was a wizard's cellar, the radiation concentration was much lower, and the elves who had been given the potion wouldn't die, so there was no need to worry.

The underground room was small, and it seemed to be used only for storing wine. After violently blasting open a rusted wooden door, another room connected to it appeared to be a craft workshop. Judging from the furnishings and objects, the owner of the house was undoubtedly a wizard, and living in the heart of Godric Valley, he must have been of considerable status and wealth.

Hermione saw a small mountain of paper rolls, but they were so fragile that they would probably break at the slightest touch. There were also some intricate metal instruments that gleamed with gold, but the light was too dim for her to touch them, so she couldn't tell whether they were gold or brass. However, these should be very valuable to the pioneers, and they might even be the ancestral home of someone in Cliff Street.

There were traces of enchantment in the room, which remained stable even after decades. The previous owner of the house must have been quite skilled in magic. For the average wizard in the wizarding world, being able to create an enchanted artifact that could be used stably for more than ten years would be considered a qualified level of magic.

After passing through another wooden door, the room in front of them was filled with various molds and rusted ironware. There were no traces of the spell here. It looked like the basement of an ordinary blacksmith's house. It was probably used by the original owner to disguise himself for Muggles. His apparent identity was probably that of a blacksmith.

Unfortunately, no portrait was found. Perhaps most people wouldn't hang their ancestors' portraits in the cellar, which meant Hermione couldn't tell whose house it was.

The basement wasn't large, and she quickly found the stairs leading to the ground. After carefully reinforcing them, she opened the wooden door above her head, and thick dust and irritating radiation fell down together.

She quickly closed the door; finding the exit was enough, there was no need to rush up there to suffer now.

Back in the room where she had fallen, she found that Dobby was awake and weakly turning his head to look around.

"They woke up so quickly. House-elves are really resilient."

"Hermione Granger!" Dobby's face was covered in festering sores, oozing a disgusting pus. He was weak, but he still screamed, "Dobby has to kill you! Please, let Dobby kill you!"

Hermione stood warily in the doorway, her staff subtly held across her chest; she had no way to control Dobby's magic.

This guy might even launch a sneak attack.

"Who is your master? Why did you try to kill me?"

Dobby remained silent, and even though he was very weak, he still wriggled restlessly, trying to break free of his chains.

"You're very weak. If you struggle any longer, you'll die. Once you're dead, you won't be able to kill me," Hermione said. Sure enough, Dobby stopped struggling, but his ears drooped limply.

"Dobby is a useless little elf! Dobby can't complete his master's tasks! Dobby deserves to die! Dobby deserves to die!" he said.

He started writhing again, as if he wanted to harm himself.

Hermione thought for a moment: "Is your master Lucius Malfoy?"

Dobby paused, stopped moving, and turned to look at her: "How do you know who the master is?"

"That's not hard to guess," Hermione shrugged.

In the post-war world, there are not many places where house-elves are kept. Apart from Hogwarts, they can only be found in the homes of noble families such as Malfoy Castle.

Even in the historic Godric Valley, for various reasons, there are still no elves in Cliff Street.

The elves in the school are bound by a contract and cannot harm students, yet they specifically name and want to kill Hermione. After thinking about it, the only one with such a deep grudge is probably Lucius. Only he has both the motive and the means.

"Wasn't he imprisoned indefinitely? Why is he still giving you orders? When did you see him?" Hermione continued to interrogate.

But Dobby stopped talking.

"Alright, since that's the case, we'll just have to wait until you recover a bit before taking you back to use the truth serum." Lily hadn't packed it in her bag because she genuinely hadn't expected that exploring the ruins would involve an interrogation process.

With a crisp crack, Hermione's transfiguration creation was destroyed by Dobby, and a beam of red light shot out.

But the girl was prepared, and with a gentle swing of her staff, she deflected the stun spell.

"Ouch!" A cry of pain came from inside the wall, from the spot where the stun spell had hit.

"What is that!" Hermione exclaimed in surprise, turning her head to look immediately.

A milky-white ghost emerged from the wall, rubbing its head and looking embarrassed: "Um, I'm sorry..."

I didn't mean to eavesdrop on your conversation, but you fell from my ceiling.

"Is this your home?" Hermione asked in surprise. In this village that had been abandoned for decades, in this deadly place with terrifyingly high radiation levels, there was actually a ghost living here?

With a "snap," Dobby Apparated and disappeared while Hermione turned her head.

"Damn it, he got away." Hermione frowned, but she really didn't have any good way to stop Apparition.

The goblin's magic is stronger than that of wizards. Even the anti-apparition spell requires a very strong person to truly restrain them. Even the protective barrier of Hogwarts was only strengthened after the war to the point that goblins cannot freely enter or leave.

With things having come to this, Hermione had no choice but to turn her gaze to the ghost that had suddenly appeared: "Alright, unknown ghost, you made me lose my captive, so now tell me, who are you?"

The ghost was wearing a loose robe from decades ago, with a small hammer and other tools at his waist, but it was impossible to tell how he died. He floated out of the wall: "My name is Jimmy Wright, and I am the great-grandson of the famous wizard goldsmith Bowman Wright."

Bowman Wright, Hermione knew this guy; he was the one she encountered most often in Chocolate Frog, the wizard goldsmith.

The creator of the world's first Golden Snitch is a well-known figure in the Quidditch world.

Unfortunately, according to Madam Bashat's "Death Note," the Wright family line also ended.