Hogwarts: Undercover Death Eater Replaces the Dark Lord

After all, this is the magical world, a place where any supernatural phenomena are not surprising.

The disappearance of the Volley family does not necessarily mean that there is no hope for their return, because this may just be an uncommon magical phenomenon and there is still a possibility of recovery through magic.

Thinking of this, Lycos looked at Dumbledore tentatively.

"Professor, perhaps you can discern...what kind of magic caused the disappearance of Worley Manor?"

"As much as I hate to admit it, I really don't know what kind of magic this is." Dumbledore laughed self-deprecatingly. "Even when I saw the area myself, I didn't see any signs of any spell being cast."

Lycos's eyebrows knitted together.

"If even a great wizard like you can't do it, doesn't that mean that no one in the entire wizarding world can find the Volley family?"

"Don't overestimate my power, Lycos." Dumbledore shook his head slightly, "And don't underestimate others... There are always things I can't do, and there are always people who can do things I can't do."

He finally withdrew his distant gaze and looked deeply into Lycos's eyes.

"If you want to try, I won't stop you. But you have to be prepared to never come back."

"You won't blame me for delaying the fight against Voldemort like Professor Snape did?" Lycos asked softly, "You should be very clear that the information I have..."

"But how can I place all my hopes on an underage child?" Dumbledore asked before Lycos could finish.

He looked at Lycos and slowly revealed a gentle smile. "Besides, you've already done enough... Let's not even mention your contributions over the past two years. Let's just talk about the past two days—finding Barty Jr. hiding in Crouch Manor and helping Sirius overturn his case."

"Lex, you didn't have to take this risk, but you did it anyway... just so I could let you do what you wanted."

"Now that things have come to this, how can I still stubbornly let you stagnate in Hogwarts?"

After speaking these words earnestly, Dumbledore reached into his pocket, pulled out a sparkling accessory, and placed it in Lycos's hand.

Lycos subconsciously looked down and saw a delicate light gold hourglass hanging on a gold necklace, lying quietly in his palm.

"This is..." Lycos was shocked when he saw this classic ornament image.

But, doesn't this magical world have time-turners?!

"Don't be too surprised." Dumbledore raised his index finger and made a silencing gesture. "It's just a shell without any energy. It has no effect..."

"...However, whether it will be effective in the future is still unclear."

……

Chapter 235: Asking for Leave and Taking Buckbeak Away

Lycos looked at the "time converter" in his hand and felt a little uncomfortable.

He always felt that Dumbledore seemed to know something, but due to certain concerns, he did not say it clearly.

And more importantly, the conclusion he and Cassandra had reached before was overturned just like that—

In other words, it's not that there are no time-turners in the wizarding world, they're just more hidden and less known... Even Professor McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, doesn't know about their existence.

"Okay, go if you want to."

Dumbledore waved gently.

"I can ask for leave for you... Although it doesn't seem to make any difference whether I ask for leave or not. You're too lazy to go to class anyway, right?"

The old principal smiled teasingly.

Lycos froze to the side, smiling awkwardly.

……

After saying goodbye to Dumbledore, Lycos returned to his dormitory and packed some necessary items for the trip.

Lycos also left a letter for Draco, telling him that he would be away for a few days and asking him to tell Lucius that he would be borrowing Dobby for a longer period of time.

After doing these things, Lycos went straight to Hagrid's hut.

The autumn wind blew across the empty Hogwarts grounds. The branches of the pitch pine trees in the distance swayed gently, and clouds drifted quietly in the sky and in the waters of the Black Lake.

In the distance, bursts of sobbing could be heard from the wind.

The sobbing sound was very dull, yet very loud. It was obvious that it was not a sound that a human of ordinary size could make.

"Bang bang bang!"

Lycos knocked on the wooden door of Hagrid's hut.

The sobbing stopped abruptly.

There were sounds of falling metal and hurried tidying up in the house. After a long time, the wooden door in front of Lycos was finally opened.

"Oh!" Hagrid's eyes were still a little red, and he looked down at Lecos in embarrassment, "You... why are you here, Lecos? Shouldn't you be in class now?"

"I don't have classes right now." Lycos shook his head and walked into Hagrid's hut. "You don't seem very happy... Um, can you close the door?"

He found a small stool in Hagrid's hut and sat down with ease - it was called a small stool, but it was actually bigger than Lycos's chair.

Hagrid didn't understand why, but he closed the door obediently and sat in the chair opposite Lex.

He picked up a dirty handkerchief from the table, whose original color was unclear, and blew his nose hard. The sound of blowing his nose was so loud that Lycos thought there was an elephant in front of him.

"I... I'm fine." Hagrid threw his handkerchief aside, his voice thick with nasal sounds.

"Is it because of Buckbeak?" Lycos asked suddenly.

Hagrid became visibly flustered, his eyes were evasive, and his eyes became even redder.

"How...how did you know?" His voice trembled. "I haven't had time to tell anyone else the bad news..."

Lycos didn't say anything, just looked at him quietly.

Under Lycos's gaze, Hagrid seemed to open up and began to pour out his bad emotions to the little wizard in front of him.

"Lex, you know, someone from the Ministry of Magic told me... they're going to sentence Buckbeak to death... Poor Buckbeak, that's just his nature, he's already a gentleman enough..."

"I've been thinking about this for a while now. I want to let Buckbeak go, I want him to fly away... But how can you explain to a hippogriff that he should hide? He will definitely fly back to his own territory, and then the Ministry of Magic will be able to find him easily..."

Having said this, Hagrid's expression became even more painful.

"And... and, I'm afraid of breaking the law..." He hunched his back and looked at Lycos with red eyes. Tears began to flow from the corners of his eyes and flowed into his thick beard. "I don't want to go back to Azkaban."

"Lex, you may not know that the Dementors around Hogwarts have been causing me a lot of trouble lately. Every time I want to go to the Three Broomsticks for a drink, I have to pass by them. Every time, I am reminded of my experience in Azkaban..."

"You can't imagine, there is no place as horrible as that place... I felt like I was going crazy every day, and I kept thinking about terrible things in my mind - the day I was expelled from Hogwarts, the day my father died, the day James died..."

Hagrid sobbed a few times, then picked up a handkerchief from the table beside him and wiped his face roughly.

"If you stay there for a few days, you won't know who you are anymore, and you won't know what the meaning of life is. I often wish I could just fall asleep and die..."

"When they let me out, it was like I was reborn. I remembered everything. It was the best feeling in the world..."

Lycos watched Hagrid crying quietly and sighed softly.

"You don't have to worry about this anymore, Hagrid," he said softly. "There's been progress in Sirius's case, and the Dementors will be withdrawn from Hogwarts soon and returned to where they belong..."

"As for Buckbeak, that's why I came here."

Lycos suddenly stood up from the bench and walked over to Hagrid.

"I'm going to leave Hogwarts for a while... Don't worry, this is with Dumbledore's consent. I've already asked him for leave... It just so happens that I need Buckbeak to do me a favor."

"During this time, I often came to see Buckbeak just for this day - after I took Buckbeak away, you just need to tell the Ministry of Magic that the criminal Hippogriff was secretly ridden away by a student on leave."

Hagrid was stunned by Lekos's idea and stared at him in a daze.

"But... aren't you breaking the law?" Hagrid hesitated. "I'm worried that those people in the Ministry of Magic might do something bad to you. They're not good people."

"Hagrid, have you forgotten that I'm just a third-year student?" Lycos chuckled. "How can you convict a minor for an unintentional mistake?"

"Then I'll say I was in a hurry to get on with my journey, and I happened to have learned a little bit in Care of Magical Creatures, so I just found a Hippogriff to ride off on."

"Who knew that the monster I rode away would be the one the Ministry of Magic wanted to execute?"

Having said this, Lecos pushed open the door and walked straight to the backyard of Hagrid's hut.

At this time, Buckbeak was tied to a fence with a chain, eating food from a wooden barrel boredly.

Lycos walked to Buckbeak, and it just glanced at Lycos casually, without even bowing, and let the little wizard, who had become familiar with it, ride on its back.

……

Chapter 236 The Potential Dangers of the Magical World

"Alohomora."

Lycos took out his wand and tapped it lightly on the chains that bound Buckbeak.

With a "clang" sound, the locked chain broke.

The next moment, Buckbeak, who had been chained for over a month and unable to fly, suddenly spread his twelve-foot wings and flapped them vigorously.

The strong wind blew the weeds in the paddock violently, and Hagrid's mink hat was blown up, but he seemed not to notice and just stared blankly at Buckbeak who took off into the air.

"That's great, Buckbeak should...should belong to the sky..." Hagrid wiped the corners of his eyes with his sleeve and said sadly.

"Don't stand there, Hagrid!" Lycos rode on Buckbeak's back and threw his school uniform jacket down with force, "Catch it--"

"My name is on it. If the Ministry of Magic asks you about it, you can use my clothes as evidence to prove that I took Buckbeak away... Remember, don't tell us anything honestly. Just say that you saw me ride Buckbeak away and my coat was blown away by the wind, okay?"

Hagrid raised his hand and grabbed the Slytherin cloak that was falling in the wind. He looked at Lycos in the sky, still a little confused.

And Lycos obviously didn't have the patience to let him recover.

"That's all I have to say, Hagrid." He waved to Hagrid from Buckbeak's back. "See you soon!"

After saying that, Lycos patted Buckbeak on the back.

Buckbeak nodded his eagle head knowingly, gave Hagrid a last reluctant look, then flapped his broad wings and flew away into the distance of the Forbidden Forest.

As a AAA-level magical beast, the Hippogriff can fly several miles with a flap of its wings, and the trees on the ground are stretched into dark green lines.

However, compared with the lightning speed, Lycos's experience was not very pleasant.

The broad wings kept flapping on both sides of Lycos, occasionally touching his legs, which did not feel very comfortable. In order to avoid falling from the sky, he did not dare to cross his legs.

In addition, the smooth feathers slid under Lycos's fingers, and he couldn't hold on too tightly for fear of hurting Buckbeak; Buckbeak's back also rose and fell with the wings, which was very similar to the feeling of riding a horse on land.

Now Lekos could understand why Harry preferred the broomstick.

To make a simple analogy, the difference between a hippogriff and a broomstick is roughly the difference between riding a horse and riding a motorcycle - after all, broomsticks are a mature industrial product in the wizarding world, and brooms are equipped with cushioning spells to increase comfort.