HP: The Root of Everything - The Magician

With the magic circuit successfully completed the first time, the rest became relatively simple.

While Teach Carr is excitedly catching ball birds every day in the swamps of the Dark Forbidden Forest, his foster mother Machi's small monastery attracts a group of uninvited guests.

The five people, dressed in retro style, exuded a mysterious aura. They all wore black hats and stood in front of Ma Qi's door.

Meanwhile, Ma Qi was trying to stop them from forcibly breaking into her house. She was only forced to open the door when the leader produced a fake police badge.

When the group of plainclothes "police officers" entered, the leader stood inside the house staring at Ma Qi, while the other four subordinates began to search the house in an extremely offensive manner.

This ignited a surge of anger within Ma Qi, but due to her status as a 'police officer,' she dared not intervene: 'Officer, you who have broken into my home, please tell your men to stop invading my personal privacy.'

"Otherwise, I will go to the police station and report your rude behavior to your superiors."

'Confusing Spell'

The leader did not respond to Maggie's warning, but instead took out a wand and cast a confusing spell on her, blurring Maggie's senses.

After a search, four men came to their superior with some personal belongings and clothing, saying, "Mr. Nickel, these are the items used by the suspect, Teach Carl."

Nicol nodded, took the garment, then pointed his wand and chanted the spell: "Traces of the Source".

As the spell was cast, a yarn floated up from the clothes, and after spinning for a while, it locked onto Teach Carl's current location.

Nickel looked in that direction and his brows furrowed instantly, because it was the direction of England.

The other four were also somewhat surprised.

Nicol then gave the four orders: "Tracking him, finding him, torturing him, killing him. Make him pay with his life for killing two of our Auror wizards."

The four accepted the order and, after receiving the trace yarn, each used their Phantom Shift abilities.

After the person left, Nicol waved his wand, instantly dispelling the Confusion Charm. When Maggie regained her senses, she instantly became alert and kept the greatest possible distance from Nicol in front of her.

Although Ma Qi didn't understand why she had just been in a daze, as a mercenary assassin for over a decade, she couldn't have been mentally confused for no reason, so it must have been the person in front of her who was behind it.

Without further hesitation, Ma Qi retreated to the wall, immediately pulled out a hidden pistol, aimed at Nicole, and opened fire.

'Armor Protection'

'Ironclad Curse'

The moment he saw Machi pull out her pistol, Nicole immediately waved her wand and cast two defensive spells on herself.

The pistol bullets struck the defensive spell as if they had hit a wall.

This made Maggie, who had never seen a wizard before, open her eyes wide in disbelief, but she did not lose her composure because she had been a veteran of mercenary battlefields for many years. Instead, she raised her gun and continued to fire.

Ma Qi, known as the "Wolf Hunter," is quite skilled at shooting. After her first shot failed, she used all her remaining bullets to aim at a single point and fire.

Finally, after emptying a magazine, the armor's protective shield was breached.

The moment the first layer of defensive magic was shattered, Nicol was shocked. Although he knew that firearms existed in the human world, he did not know that they were so powerful.

Seeing that Maggie had already changed the magazine and was only left with one layer of 'Iron Armor Charm' for defense, Nicol felt a great sense of danger. For safety, he pointed his wand at Maggie and recited the spell.

'Heart-piercing wrist bone'

The invisible magic was precisely projected through the wand.

Just as Ma Qi raised her gun again, ready to unleash a barrage of bullets on this 'policeman' who possessed a strange defense, instantly... a pain that went straight to her soul swept through her entire body.

The pain caused Ma Qi to collapse to the ground, unable to even utter a cry of relief, only able to endure it with veins bulging on her face.

Nicole sat on the sofa, smiling broadly, watching Maggie's painful convulsions with an air of superiority.

In his mind, Muggles in the real world were trash, garbage. And they, the wizards, were the masters.

Margie endured excruciating pain, each day feeling like an eternity. Five minutes later, the soul-crushing agony finally ended. But before she could even catch her breath, Nicole unleashed the Heart-Piercing Bone Surge once more.

And so, in the monastery, Nickel relentlessly tortured Machi again and again.

Nicol stopped just as Maggie's mind and reason were about to be destroyed by the groin piercing. Then, with a flick of his wand, he conjured a rope to bind Maggie tightly before beginning his interrogation: "Answer my questions, you lowly Muggle Maggie."

“Teach Carl…when did your adopted son leave this dilapidated monastery?”

Floating out of the abyss of pain, Machi struggled to open her eyes, looked weakly at Nicole, and then forced a mocking smile onto her lips.

Seeing Maggie's appearance, Nickel felt a surge of contemptuous anger rising within him.

He flicked his wand again, and a flame appeared out of thin air and landed on Machi, burning her limbs.

This time, the pain of being burned made Ma Qi cry out.

Six seconds later, Nicole manipulated the flames to disappear, while Machi's hands and feet were burned to a crisp.

Even so, Machi still didn't reveal a single piece of information about Teach.

After failing to elicit any information through torture, Nicol finally lost all patience and used Legilimency to forcibly read the memories from Machi's mind.

Nicol's Legilimency was extremely brutal, relentlessly digging into March's mind without any regard for the consequences. This caused March's psyche to suffer irreversible damage once again.

A dozen minutes later, Nicol put away his wand. He had accessed all the information and memories about Teach Carl, and after glancing at Machi, who was now like a soulless doll, he Apparated away.

He didn't want to kill Machi with Avada Kedavra, but due to the Wizarding Secrecy Act and the balance between the wizarding world and the human world, he had no choice but to spare Machi's life.

After Nicole left, the bound Maggie lay motionless on the ground.

Although she was still breathing faintly with her chest heaving, the light in her eyes had completely disappeared.

It turned to ashes.

(PS: Pain and suffering make people grow and become more resolute)

(The tragic elements in this chapter are designed to justify the protagonist's goals and the rationale behind the antagonists.)

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 other side.

Based on the memories in Maggie's mind, Nicole teleported to the Baker Street area of ​​London. Corey Bab, his next target for interrogation and revenge.

Simply because he was Teach Carl's 'uncle'.

Furthermore, according to the 'trace manifestation' imagery displayed in Croton's grave, Corey Bab assisted Teach Carl in carrying out murder-for-debt missions.

Therefore, Nicol had good reason to suspect that the deaths of their two Aurors, who were left without a trace, were also related to Corey Bab.

To his surprise, when he arrived at Corey Bab's residence, it was already deserted.

The room was completely empty and spotless.

Since Corey didn't have anything to use for 'Tracing Source', Nicole could only use 'Tracing Manifestation' to rewind the scene.

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 taxi was slowly driving along a country road.

Corey Bab was in the driver's seat.

After Teach Carl destroyed Rumen Duns' gang headquarters, Corey feared retaliation from the remaining gang members, so he presciently packed his things and planned to go to the countryside to seek refuge with the woman he loved but could not have—Match.

马琪

It was a perfect coincidence; Corey Bab's move perfectly avoided Nickel.

After a day of stop-and-go travel, Corey Bab arrived at the monastery. As he tidied himself up outside the courtyard and was about to knock on the door, he suddenly felt a strange, inexplicable unease.

A person's sixth sense isn't just accurate for women; men are just as accurate.

Although Corey Bab didn't understand what this panic was, his sudden appearance at the entrance of Maggie's monastery made him feel that it must be related to Maggie.

So, without bothering to knock, Corey rushed anxiously into the yard.

When Corey Bab burst through the familiar door, his world collapsed instantly.

The scene before him stunned him, leaving his mind blank.

He looked as if he were questioning the meaning of life, and stumbled toward Ma Qi, who was lying on the ground, clearly tortured and in a state of life or death uncertainty.

Then, silently and heartbrokenly, he embraced Ma Qi.

When his hand accidentally touched the scorched wounds on Ma Qi's limbs, he felt a tremor in his heart as if he were experiencing the same pain.

Looking into the darkness and emptiness in the eyes of the person he loved, Corey Bab felt a pain in his heart as if it were piercing his wrist.

“This…this…this isn’t real,” Corey opened his mouth, trembling as he tried to deceive himself, then turned to look at the 'main statue' on the cross in the monastery and asked, “Lord, please tell me, this isn’t real, this isn’t real.”

For a long time, Corey Bab received no answer.

After the initial grief, there was an endless rage and hatred towards the murderer.

All that could be heard was his hellish scream: "Teach...where are you?"

"Do you know that your mother has been tortured like this?"