Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 227 Christmas and the Prisoners of Azkaban

In contrast to the lively and warm Greengrass Manor, the wizarding prison of Azkaban, located on a remote island in the North Sea, is desolate and bleak even at Christmas.

In other parts of the world, even prisoners are happier during holidays than usual, as guards provide more lavish meals and supervision is slightly less strict. But this is not the case in Azkaban, even though prisoners are sometimes offered some Christmas specials.

However, the prison guards here do these things not out of humanitarian considerations.

The guards of Azkaban, the wizarding prison, are not human, but a group of dark creatures called Dementors. No one knows how they are born, whether they die, or how they reproduce. They simply burst into the wizards' sight.

The Dementors were first known to wizards in the 15th century. At that time, Azkaban was still a private territory. A man named Extis occupied the island, built a fortress on it, and brought Muggles there to be tortured to death.

After Extis died, the island's concealment magic failed, and the wizards discovered the demon's lair. By then, the island was teeming with Dementors.

After several clashes with the Dementors, the wizards had to admit that they were powerless against them. Fortunately, they also found a special spell to deal with the Dementors, which led to a delicate balance between the wizards and the Dementors: the wizards did not disturb the Dementors or destroy the fortresses they inhabited, and the Dementors did not attack the wizards on their own initiative.

As for the Muggle fishing boats that accidentally wandered into this area and the Muggle towns that settled by the sea, they became victims. The Dementors would run out and suck the joy from their souls.

Azkaban was transformed into a wizarding prison in 1718. After the Statute of Secrecy was passed, wizards did not want Dementors to continue to "prey" on Muggle territory, and at the same time, there was a need to centrally detain wizarding criminals. The two sides hit it off, and under the impetus of the then Minister of Magic, Damocles Roll, Azkaban was transformed into a wizarding prison.

No prisoner has ever escaped from here. The Dementors will drain the last bit of joy from the prisoners' souls, leaving them to await death in despair.

The Dementors provide food for the prisoners here, even distributing different kinds of food according to festivals, with only one purpose: to stimulate the joy in the prisoners' souls so that they can have a feast. But there is a limit to how much joy can be stimulated in the human soul, and the prisoners now locked in Azkaban are as difficult to squeeze out of joy as sugarcane pulp—this can be seen from the fact that most of the food plates outside the cell doors have not been touched.

A small boat cut through the waves and headed toward the island where Azkaban was located.

Four hooded men stood on the ship, washed ashore by the waves, only to be silently repelled as they approached. Despite being in the middle of the ocean, the four remained dry and warm around them.

"It is said that a thousand years ago, Salazar Slytherin fought a deadly battle with Jormungandr in the North Sea. The sky was blocked by Jormungandr's body, and the sea was torn apart by Slytherin's spell. The sound could be heard even on Isle of Arlay to the south." A hooded man's thoughts drifted back a thousand years with the waves.

"Gemini, can't you concentrate on steering the boat?" an impatient female voice came from another hood. "Hurry up and finish the task. I'm so unlucky to be working on Christmas Eve!"

The woman's words resonated with the other two: no one wanted to come out to handle the task on Christmas Eve, but there was nothing they could do, since the four of them had such bad luck and had drawn the lots.

Moreover, this was indeed a good opportunity for the Secret Order. The grand banquet hosted by the Greengrass family had attracted too much attention, and they could take this opportunity to do something sneaky.

For the Secret Order, Hogwarts had become a thorn in their side. They had lost too much power there and left too many treasures behind, and they had to find a way to get them back.

Every force hostile to Hogwarts should be used for their own purposes. Who is more suitable than Voldemort?

The higher-ups of the Secret Order have reached a consensus that they must find a way to resurrect Voldemort.

After conducting an investigation through their intelligence network, the Secret Order monks determined that Voldemort had achieved "immortality" through Horcruxes. Resurrecting a wizard who had created Horcruxes was not difficult; the only challenge was finding their location. The Secret Order found a suitable entry point: to search for clues about the whereabouts of Voldemort's Horcruxes from his followers.

All intelligence now points to two people: Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange. The former's cult members are unwilling to make contact for the time being, but the latter is much easier to deal with, as she is imprisoned in Azkaban.

The four's purpose in coming here was to pry Bella into revealing the whereabouts of Voldemort's Horcruxes.

After a brief exchange of complaints, the four fell silent again.

After a while, Gemini spoke up again: "Since that Dumbledore is so troublesome, why don't we wait until he dies of old age before plotting against Hogwarts? He's over a hundred years old."

Pisces, Aries, Taurus: ...

No one responded, and an awkward silence fell over the small boat.

Gemini: ?

Finally, Taurus spoke up, slightly easing the awkward atmosphere on the ship: "When do you think he will die? This year? Next year? Five years from now? Ten years from now? The organization cannot accept this uncertainty; the remains must be recovered as soon as possible."

Most importantly, they couldn't be sure if Dumbledore had used some means to prolong his life. For wizards of his level, extending their lifespan wasn't particularly difficult, especially since he had a friend named Nicolas Flamel.

Soon after, the small boat arrived in Azkaban.

"The environment is terrible." After stepping onto the island, Aries frowned: she really disliked the atmosphere here.

"Quiet down." Pisces, who had been silent all along, scolded her, squinting at Azkaban Castle not far away.

Meanwhile, Dementors, sensing the fresh scent of souls, began to gather here. The already chilling air became even colder with their arrival, the water vapor in the air almost freezing into ice crystals.

Soon, a large number of Dementors wearing tattered robes surrounded the four. However, to their surprise, they were completely unable to extract any emotion from the four, which was quite strange.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The second update is here!

I have to work overtime on Thursday, so I might not be able to update on time on Friday...

(End of this chapter)