Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 230 Harry: Did you really not hear anything? (Two Chapters Combined)

"How's it going? How's it going? Did you find out where the Horcrux is?" Gemini, who was waiting in the distance, couldn't wait to get closer to Taurus and Pisces as they walked towards him, hoping to get the answer from them.

"I got the information, let's go." Taurus was in a good mood after completing the mission and prepared to take his companions to Gringotts in London to retrieve Bellatrix's Horcrux hidden in his own vault.

"So where exactly did she hide the Horcrux?"

Taurus, Pisces, Aries: ...

Realizing he had asked a really stupid question, Gemini shut his mouth and quietly walked behind Taurus.

After carefully observing Gemini for a while and confirming that he didn't intend to kill himself, Taurus announced the departure.

The small boat sailed away from Azkaban, and apart from the Dementors on the island, no one knew they had ever been there.

Soon, the four monks of the Secret Order arrived at Diagon Alley in London.

The usually bustling Diagon Alley was now deserted, with only some Christmas decorations fluttering in the cold wind.

With a clear goal in mind, the four Taureans headed straight for Gringotts, located in the heart of Diagon Alley.

Compared to the daytime, Gringotts' defenses were much more relaxed at night. The four of them rushed up the empty white stone steps and arrived at the tightly closed bronze door.

Aries took the lead, drawing her wand and pressing it against the door. A few seconds later, she shook her head, but judging from her expression, she wasn't surprised: it would be strange if the door hadn't been enchanted with a reverse-locking spell.

But it's not a big problem, as long as they achieve the goal of "getting through here".

She drew a circle on the door with her wand, and the next second, a large enough hole appeared in the door for a person to step through. Through the hole, a silver door could be seen behind the bronze door.

"Bronze door, silver door, is there a golden door behind it?" Gemini muttered, making his three companions laugh.

"Impossible, fairies wouldn't be so extravagant." Aries glanced at the size of the gate and quickly calculated its approximate volume. If it were made of pure gold, it would probably require hundreds of tons of gold.

As the four talked, they crossed the first gate and then passed through the second gate in the same way.

"The fairies didn't use pure silver for the door." When passing through the silver door, Gemini noticed a detail: the middle of this door was made of bronze, the same material as the first door, with only the outer few inches being silver.

"It fits my stereotype of fairies perfectly." Even the usually taciturn Pisces couldn't help but complain: "Did you know that Galleons aren't made of pure gold? They're mixed with other metals."

"The value of a gram of gold made into a coin is higher than that of a gram of gold itself; this is the secret to making money through minting coins."

While complaining about the fairies' greed, the group invaded Gringotts.

As a bank, Gringotts has staff on duty at night. Aries, who was walking in front, was spotted by the fairy security guards who were on duty there as soon as he entered the bank lobby.

"Who goes there—" He jumped up from his seat, knocking over the coffee pot beside him.

But before his hand could even touch the alarm button under the table, his head exploded, like a smashed watermelon.

"The renowned Gringotts has such poor security; it's ridiculous that they chose to trigger the alarm with a siren." Aries frowned. "I thought the alarm would have been triggered when we broke into the gate."

"They've been complacent for too long."

"Someone also successfully hacked Gringotts last year."

"This is a good thing for us." Taurus avoided the blood on the ground, walked to the center of the hall, and then looked at the countless doors in the hall with a puzzled expression: Which door leads to the Lestrange vault?

He hesitated for two seconds before giving up and randomly chose the door closest to them and pushed it. The alarm went off the moment his hand touched the door.

"Only fairies should be able to touch the door here." Taurus's face showed a smile as if he had solved a math problem.

A few seconds later, a cacophony of footsteps echoed outside the hall. Several doors were then pushed open, but the esoteric monks were prepared; they launched spells at whichever door made a sound.

"Remember to leave a few survivors!"

Seeing his companions' ruthless and deadly attacks, Taurus became restless. He hurriedly reminded the other three not to forget the purpose of their trip. At the same time, he personally selected an old, white-haired demon who had just rushed out from behind a door.

He locked eyes with the fairy, and the fairy's gaze became unfocused. Then he picked up his longsword and, with a backhand motion, beheaded a younger fairy who was following behind him.

Taurus smiled with satisfaction, pointed to the counter, and gestured for the old witch to hide first.

The older fairy obediently picked up the blood-stained longsword and shrank under the counter.

With their intentions aligned with the enemy's, and given that the four were all elites within the secret order, the guarding fairies alerted by the alarm were quickly wiped out, and the entire marble floor of the hall was stained red with the fairies' blood.

Several trembling fairies were herded to the counter.

With a gentle smile, Taurus told the fairies that he wanted to go to the Lestrange family's underground vault.

The fairies shrank back, their bodies trembling even more violently, but none of them uttered a word.

Taurus's patience was wearing thin. He picked up a longsword from the ground, then grabbed the leftmost goblin and asked if he could take him to the Lestrange vault.

The fairy closed her eyes.

Taurus chopped off his head and tossed it aside, then picked up the second fairy.

"Take me to the Lestrange family's underground vault."

This time, the captured fairy yielded, but he claimed he did not have permission to open the vault.

"And what about him?" Taurus pulled out the older fairy who had been hiding.

"have."

"Very good." Taurus finally showed a satisfied smile.

Four esoteric monks, along with two fairies, one large and one small, entered the underground vault. The remaining prisoners were disposed of by Aries.

Watching the wizards around him slaughter each other so swiftly and decisively, the young goblin turned ashen-faced. He first summoned a small cart with a whistle, then cautiously indicated that there might not be enough space on the cart for four wizards and two goblins.

"He needs to open the vault..." The young fairy, fearing the wizards would think him useless, quickly added, "I need to operate the cart!"

Taurus understood the fairy's little scheme, and as usual, he left Gemini and Aries behind while he and Pisces went deep into the vault.

He wouldn't do anything to the goblin who was guiding him until he obtained Voldemort's Horcrux, because he couldn't guarantee that the older goblin would cooperate. It would be terrible if, after killing the guide and freeing the older goblin from his control, the goblin refused to cooperate.

Under the control of the young fairy, the cart started moving and sped up faster and faster. With a tremendous roar, they raced along the labyrinthine, winding tunnels, the paths so complex that no human brain could possibly remember them.

The two humans and two demons traveled downwards, and the long journey once gave Taurus the illusion that they were heading towards the Earth's core.

Suddenly, after rounding a bend, a waterfall appeared on the track ahead.

"Thief-proof waterfall!" The fairy leading the way only managed to shout its name before the cart rushed into the waterfall.

Icy water poured down from above, soaking Taurus and the passengers in the car. Water got into Taurus's eyes and mouth, making it impossible for him to open his eyes and making it difficult for him to breathe.

To make matters worse, the thief-proof waterfall caused the cart to slip and overturn, throwing Taurus, Pisces, and the two fairies out of the cart.

The speeding cart veered off the track and crashed into the wall of the passageway, shattering into pieces. Taurus, with his eyes closed, instinctively cast a shock-absorbing spell on everyone, and they floated down to the stone ground like feathers, unharmed.

The young fairy quickly got up from the ground and, as if atoning for her sins, began to introduce the anti-thief waterfall to Taurus.

"That waterfall washes away all spells and magical disguises. Someone activated the defense system when the alarm went off."

"Oh?" Upon hearing that the curse would be washed away, Taurus immediately looked at the old demon he had been controlling. Sure enough, the old demon was now swaying as it stood up, its eyes filled with confusion.

Taurus immediately cast a control spell, subduing him once again. After doing this, he also used a spell to dry everyone's wet clothes.

His gaze then fell upon the young fairy.

The cart had been reduced to pieces, its whereabouts unknown; it seemed the journey ahead would have to be traversed on foot. Did the fairy before them even know the way?

News of the break-in at Gringotts has probably already spread, and reinforcements from the bank could arrive at any moment. I must act quickly.

"It's alright, we're almost underground now. We can walk there. We're not far from the end." The young fairy took the initiative to lead the way, guiding the two deeper into the ground.

As they rounded a corner, the goblin's expression changed drastically: outside one of Gringotts' deepest vaults, a massive fire dragon lay tethered to the ground. Its eyes were a murky pink, and its scales had turned pale and were loose. Its condition was visibly poor; clearly, the goblins of Gringotts wouldn't care for the dragon as well as Hagrid had.

Despite this state, the dragon still suffocated the fairies and humans standing before it: its spiked wings, if spread, would fill the entire basement; if it roared, the entire cave would tremble; if it chose to breathe fire, any creature in the passage would be reduced to charcoal.

"Oh no, oh no, we didn't bring any Doraemon..." The young fairy's face turned ashen, whether from fear of being bitten by a dragon or from the wizards' fear of being punished for his negligence.

Although they didn't know what the jingle pieces were, Taurus could probably guess that they were tools to make dragons obey.

"Leave it to me, I'm an expert at regulating emotions." He shoved the terrified fairy behind him and pulled out a crystal ball filled with emotions. As he spoke, a wisp of smoke drifted toward the dragon's nostrils, but this time Taurus chose the emotions of "calmness" and "peace."

He dared not let a half-mad fire dragon "have fun" in a confined space; heaven knows what would happen.

After inhaling the emotions concocted by Taurus, the fire dragon gradually calmed down. It lay down on the ground and fell asleep, only occasionally exhaling a string of smoke with sparks from its nostrils.

"Let's go." At Taurus's command, they rushed to the Lestrange family's vault. After the old goblin placed his hand on the vault door, the rather weathered wooden door vanished, revealing an opening. The opening was filled from floor to ceiling with gold coins and gold and silver wine vessels, precious metal armor inlaid with jewels, the fur and bones of various strange animals, and magical potions sealed in jars.

"As expected of Lestrange!" Taurus and Pisces exclaimed in unison.

"Many treasures are adorned with fire spells and replication spells. Anything you touch will self-replicate and become scorching hot. The replicas will also be imbued with fire spells and replication spells," the young fairy reminded the two.

The Taurus glanced at him, grinned, and said, "Thanks!"

He and Aries began searching for Voldemort's Horcruxes based on the description Bella had left them. Eventually, Taurus found a golden cup that matched the description at the top of a shelf near the ceiling.

Taurus simply had Pisces climb onto his back, then used the long sword the old demon was holding to pick up the cup.

"So how are we going to get back? Walk up the tracks? This place must be under some kind of anti-Apparition spell." After getting the Golden Cup, Pisces had a question: how were they going to get back?

"It's simple, isn't it?" Taurus's gaze fell on the fire dragon not far away.

After casually dealing with the two fairies beside him, Taurus severed the chains binding the dragon's hind legs and then awakened the sleeping dragon.

Amidst the dragon's earth-shattering roar, the two rode on its back and flew towards the ground—even the dragon's roar could not drown out Taurus's triumphant laughter.

They succeeded; the Dark Lord's return is now a foregone conclusion!

"Hogwarts, Dumbledore, we'll go visit!" Taurus clenched the golden cup in his hand and made a silent vow.

……

As the Secret Order members wreaked havoc on Gringotts with their fire-breathing dragons, the Christmas dinner at Greengrass Manor reached its climax. One musical piece after another played, and dozens of long tables were piled high with a dazzling array of food.

Guests are free to choose to dance on the dance floor or enjoy a meal at the table. Many guests are not interested in the food or music, but rather take this opportunity to chat with someone they like.

Rice was a stickler for simple meals. He picked out a few of his favorite dishes from the dazzling array of delicacies, then retreated to a corner of the banquet hall to enjoy his meal.

He noticed that Minister of Magic Fudge was having a pleasant conversation with Mr. Henry, while Lucius Malfoy stood beside them with a glass of champagne, seemingly trying to find a topic to join the conversation.

Daphne and Astoria were surrounded by several elegantly dressed witches, including Narcissa Malfoy. It was clear that Daphne's smile had become somewhat stiff.

"I should cover up my scars." A slightly tired voice sounded in Rice's ear. He turned his head and saw Harry sitting down next to him with a plate of roast beef.

"The boy who survived," Rice teased Harry in a joking tone.

Harry gave a wry smile, shook his head helplessly, and enjoyed the food provided by the Greengrass family with Rice.

When the two were both getting into the swing of things, Harry suddenly asked Rice, "Rice, that night... did you really not hear anything?"

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.

A combined 4.3K chapter is presented here~

The next update will be at midnight.

(End of this chapter)