Hogwarts: Lacus doesn't want to be a witch who destroys nations.

The final exam week ended in a tense and busy atmosphere. As the Hogwarts Express whistle sounded again, Lux and Tom, dragging their suitcases, embarked on their journey home.

"I heard you've been learning spells from Dumbledore lately?" Tom sat in the private box, seemingly flipping through a book casually, but his eyes never left Lux out of the corner of his eye.

"Yeah," Lux said, struggling to stuff a booger-flavored Bean into Lumi's mouth. "I've learned some self-defense tips. After all, there are a lot of bad people out there, unlike some people who are safe just by hiding in the Slytherin basement and talking to snakes."

Tom's face darkened: "At least I know my own blood and belonging, unlike you, who cares so much about a Muggle's holiday plans."

Their conversations always ended in a tit-for-tat exchange.

The tacit understanding that existed between rivals and friends in the orphanage is being gradually eroded by the Hogwarts school's stance and their vastly different worldviews.

Back at the Wu family orphanage, everything was still the same.

Lux easily found Mrs. Cole and used the convenient excuse of "a winter study abroad program organized by the school" to brush it off. Mrs. Cole believed her without a doubt, only reminding her to be careful.

That night, after making sure everyone was asleep, Lux, carrying Lumi, tiptoed to the abandoned fireplace on the first floor. She took a small cloth bag out of her pocket, grabbed a handful of shimmering Floo Powder, took a deep breath, and suddenly sprinkled it into the fireplace.

Green flames roared up, carrying a peculiar pulling force.

Without hesitation, Lark stepped inside.

In an instant, the world spun around.

This feels completely different from a short trip within the UK.

She felt as if she had been stuffed into a high-speed spinning washing machine. Images of countless fireplaces flashed before her eyes, too fast to see clearly. Immense pressure squeezed her body, and a deafening roar exploded in her ears, almost making her vomit.

"Bang!"

Lux felt like a cannonball that had been launched, tumbling awkwardly out of the fireplace and crashing headfirst into the cold wooden floor, leaving her dizzy and disoriented.

The ash and smoke filling the air made her cough violently.

"Cough cough cough... Damn FlooNet, the user experience is terrible... Is LeBlanc not under maintenance?" Lux complained as she struggled to get up.

However, the moment she looked up and saw her surroundings, all her complaints got stuck in her throat.

A strong, nauseating smell of blood mixed with a burnt smell and ozone instantly filled her nostrils.

She was in a simple wooden cabin, the fireplace fire long since extinguished, leaving only lingering warmth.

The entire room, from the walls to the floor, was covered in dark red, semi-congealed bloodstains, as if someone had detonated a blood-filled bomb there.

The biting cold wind blew in through the cracks in the broken window, making her shiver.

Lux's gaze finally settled on the floor in the center of the room.

There were two corpses lying there.

No, that can no longer be called a corpse.

They looked more like two dried corpses, completely drained of all moisture and life force. Their skin clung tightly to their bones, giving them an eerie grayish-white color. Their eye sockets were sunken, their mouths were wide open, and their faces were frozen with expressions of extreme fear and pain. Their bodies were shriveled and twisted, as if they had endured unimaginable torture before their death.

This was not a killing curse, nor was it caused by any dark magic she knew of.

This is a more evil, more cruel magic that seems capable of absorbing life itself.

Lux felt as if her blood was about to freeze, a chill ran through her, and she instinctively gripped her wand tighter.

Just then, a very faint sound came from outside the door, as if the floor was being stepped on.

There are people outside!

Lux didn't want to get caught up in a murder scene right after arriving, so she quickly used the Disillusionment Charm to hide herself and leave through the back window.

The dilapidated front door of the cabin was kicked open violently, and a biting wind carrying snowflakes rushed in, causing the two mummified corpses on the ground to sway.

Several Soviet soldiers, dressed in heavy coats and wearing leather hats, rushed in.

The leading soldier immediately saw the horrific scene on the ground, and even with his experience of war, his stomach churned.

"What the hell is this thing?" He instinctively pointed his rifle at the two muzzle-covered corpses, as if they might suddenly jump up.

Another young soldier, his face ashen, swallowed hard, nearly vomiting. "Sir, they...they've been drained..."

"Search the house! Now! Find the survivors... or the guy who did it!" The corporal ordered sharply, trying to remain calm, and the soldiers immediately scattered nervously.

Bayonets gleamed coldly in the dim light as they nervously inspected the fireplace, under the bed, and every corner.

Meanwhile, Lux was trudging through knee-deep snow.

The Siberian wind lashed at her face like knives, and the Disillusionment spell was unstable in the snowy environment, making her look like a semi-transparent mosaic stumbling and falling in the snow.

"Lumi! Navigate! Which way to the nearest village?!" Lux roared in her mind, her teeth chattering from the cold.

"Boom boom boom! Little sister! To the left! I smell potatoes and wood smoke," Lumi directed from inside the wicker basket.

Lux immediately turned around and used her Polymorph spell to turn a tree branch into a patched scarf, which she haphazardly wrapped tightly around her overly conspicuous blonde hair.

She then found a pair of silver earrings and put them on. These were made by Lacus from powdered Meva hair that she had taken from Borginborough, mixed with molten silver. They could make people understand other languages, but they could not replace a person's voice.

At this moment, the earrings were slightly warm, and the patrol team's shouts were clearly echoing in her mind. Lux then confirmed that she could really understand them.

"Pop... Is this where we go back to our hometown?" Lumi shivered in the wicker basket, her little nose red from the cold.

Lux untied her cloak, wrapped the wicker basket around her, and pulled out a cream mint she had bought in Hogsmeade, stuffing it into Lumi's mouth: "Bear with it, let's find a place to stay first."

She walked along the snowy road toward the center of the village, where the atmosphere was more oppressive than she had imagined.

The number of Soviet soldiers in the village had increased significantly.

They were patrolling, carrying supplies, or scolding the villagers. The drum magazines of their submachine guns reflected a cold, hard luster in the snow, and an invisible, suffocating tension and fear permeated the air.

Lux took a deep breath, pulled her tattered headscarf to hide most of her face, leaving only her eyes visible. She hunched her shoulders, trying to look more like a panicked villager affected by the war. With her head down, she mingled behind a few villagers hurrying by and cautiously entered the village.

The illusion spell is too ineffective in this rainy and snowy weather; it actually makes the target more obvious after use. Otherwise, Lux could have easily sneaked in without being seen.

Lux needs to know what happened in that cabin and the bizarre way the death occurred.

She pretended to wander aimlessly through the village, listening intently to every translated conversation.

Most of the conversations were filled with fear of war and complaints about the lack of supplies.