Hogwarts: I graduated before the system came

Without casting any spells, he pulled a pair of thin dragonhide gloves from his pocket.

Douglas carefully picked up a handful of almost invisible gray dust from an almost imperceptible gap where the rock wall connected to the ground.

The dust is extremely fine, and no one would care unless they specifically look for it.

He held the dust in front of Lu Ping and said, "Smell it."

Lupin leaned closer and could smell nothing but the dry smell of chalk dust.

Douglas rubbed it gently with his fingers, making a rustling, almost inaudible sound.

"It's not the Holy Silver Powder from the Vatican. That stuff feels like it's burning to the touch."

"It's not the corpse dust commonly used by dark wizards. That stuff carries a lingering stench of decay."

The corners of his mouth slowly curled up into a cold arc.

"This is volcanic ash enchanting powder."

He blew the powder off his fingertips, stood up, and patted his robes.

"Standard equipment in the Italian Ministry of Magic Auror's office, not really classified material.

It is not offensive in itself, and its only use is to sprinkle it on a predetermined area when casting a blasting spell or a fire spell. It can extremely effectively stabilize the output of magic power, accurately control the power and range of the explosion, and avoid causing unnecessary damage.

It seems that the one who cleaned up the place and made it as meticulous as Dobi... is one of us."

"One of our own..."

Lupin's face instantly darkened, his mind racing.

"Why are the people from the Ministry of Magic cleaning up this place? Did they reach some kind of agreement with the Church and are cleaning up the mess for them?"

There was cold anger in his voice.

This conclusion is too absurd, but it perfectly explains everything in front of us.

"Clean it up for them?"

Douglas's eyes became deep, as if he could penetrate the layers of rock walls and see the intricate network behind them.

"People from the Vatican did come, and they came for me. But they are the result, not the cause."

He began to pace in the mine tunnel, and every step seemed to measure a huge conspiracy.

"Let's think about it from another angle. Remus, why would the Ash Claws, a werewolf tribe struggling to survive in Italy, come to me? A Hogwarts professor far away in England."

"Because of your new wolfsbane potion?" Lupin answered automatically.

"That's just a perfect excuse, a reason that allows me to intervene in this matter." Douglas shook his head. "The real answer may be the opposite."

He stopped, turned to look at Lupin, and said word by word: "They came to me not because they wanted to fight against the Church. But because they had been attacked by the Italian Ministry of Magic, and the Ministry of Magic cleverly put the blame on the Church."

Lupin reacted immediately:

"What would a werewolf tribe, cornered and convinced they were under attack by the Vatican, do? Find a powerful foreign aid... one that's capable of fighting the Vatican and will never cooperate with it!"

"Completely correct."

Douglas snapped his fingers.

"Who will they turn to for help? Appeal to the International Confederation of Wizards? It's too slow, and the bureaucrats will just kick them around like a ball. They need a powerful external force that is truly willing to help them."

Douglas' eyes sparkled with wisdom as he connected all the clues into a clear logical chain.

"This foreign aid must meet several conditions."

"First, he can't be from the Italian Ministry of Magic, because they don't fully trust the Ministry. Second, he must be powerful and intelligent enough. Third, and most importantly, he must be a sworn enemy of the Vatican. There's no way he could be bribed by the Vatican, and he'll naturally be suspicious of any evidence pointing to the Vatican."

He spread his hands and a helpless smile appeared on his face.

"Look, is there anyone more suitable than me? A heretic who brought disgrace to the Vatican in Rome and was blacklisted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Especially, my bottle of new wolfsbane potion, which has not yet been released to the market, is like the sweetest bait."

"Someone used this bait, so they naturally found me."

"Everything was so coincidental, like a carefully choreographed play. I wasn't even a part of the original plan. It was my potion that turned me from an outsider into the most crucial piece on this chessboard."

Lupin was completely stunned by this reasoning. He felt like his mind was a tangled mess that Douglas had straightened out in an instant with a sharp knife.

A figure with long dark brown hair tied into a neat ponytail instantly appeared in his mind.

"Miss Rossi... Isalabe... It was she who notified the Ash Claw..."

Chapter 391 Douglas: I never like to act according to other people’s scripts!

Douglas shook his head, his eyes becoming meaningful:

"To be able to plan and execute an operation of this magnitude requires both a thorough understanding of the Vatican and strong enough execution capabilities to ensure the cleanup is foolproof... Piero's skills are still lacking.

This requires a decisive, tough, and even somewhat unscrupulous elite..."

Lupin nodded and said:

"Isabella, a young, passionate, and righteous person, at least considering how much she cares about the Ember Claw, it's unlikely she would do such a thing."

"Maybe she's just a chess piece, a chess piece she didn't even know was put on the chessboard."

Douglas sighed, and the breath turned into a white mist in the cold air.

"Think about it. Almost the day after I announced my new wolfsbane potion, a werewolf tribe in Italy came to me. Do you think an ordinary Auror has such a fast international information channel?"

Lupin's pupils shrank suddenly, and the name of a department came out from between his teeth:

"International Affairs Department!"

"Completely correct."

Douglas gave him an approving look.

“Isabella has a werewolf heirloom in her hand, which shows that she has a special relationship with werewolves.

She learned about the new wolfsbane potion, and then, filled with a sense of justice, told the Ember Claws. Then, through the channels she was familiar with in the Department of International Affairs, she asked them to contact me. Everything seemed so reasonable and natural.

Lupin's brows knitted into a knot: "She was the first to recommend this place, which means she has been here before."

"That's right," Douglas paused. "This just proves that when she first contacted the Ember Claws and asked them to come to me, this tribe was still safe. They lived here without suffering any attacks. Then, just as we were about to leave, or just as we were leaving, the attack happened."

He turned and looked at Lupin, a cold, knowing gleam in his eyes.

“So, it was only natural that we came here—the first place Miss Rossi recommended, a perfect crime scene.

If she was really the mastermind behind this, the map she gave me would never be so detailed. I compared it with the map given by Master Antonio, and there is almost no difference.

This suggests that someone expected us to find this exact spot, this… cleared stage.”

There was a subtle hint of sarcasm in Douglas' voice:

"That person cleverly leaked the news of my impending arrival to the Holy See, and then the Holy Shield arrived. It was a perfect ambush and a wonderful performance."

He spread out his hands as if displaying a crude work of art:

"Now, all the lines of evidence are closed—the Ash Claw tribe was silenced by the Church. And I, Douglas Holmes, became a witness who witnessed the tragedy and narrowly escaped."

Lupin's face was so gloomy that it could drip water. He stood up suddenly, his fists clenched and cracked:

"International Affairs Department... Lorenzo Dino! It's him! He's the only one with the authority, and the only one with the motivation to do this! That old fox!"

"Haha, what a quick reaction."

Douglas shrugged, his expression relaxed, as if they were discussing not an elaborate conspiracy but a poorly played game of wizard chess.

“Almost the moment the news of my potion got out, Isabella’s first move began, and everything was calculated.

He was worried that I wouldn't wholeheartedly fight the Church. After all, they invited me here under the pretext of helping the werewolf tribe. So, he further deepened the conflict between me and the Church, putting an inescapable shackle on me.

Douglas shrugged, his expression relaxed, as if they were discussing not an elaborate conspiracy but a poorly played game of wizard chess.

"Don't be fooled by his usual sweet-talking demeanor. Remus, you have to remember that for someone who can sit in that position and deal directly with those old foxes in the Ministry of Doctrine every day, how could he not have some bloody tricks on his hands?"

He stopped and ignored the cleaned rock walls. Instead, he took out a magic radar from his pocket and the radar probe extended automatically.

"Lorenzo Dino... He's not blaming others. Blaming others is a child's trick."

Douglas's voice echoed in the silent mine, and every word was as clear as knocking on ice.

"He was presenting evidence. He packaged the actions of the Holy See into a beautiful gift, and then, through me, delivered it to the tables of the entire European wizarding community."

Lupin's throat was dry.

He could feel the complexity of this chess game. Beneath the chessboard lay the blood and tears of countless werewolves.

"He wants to start a war?"

"No, he wants to end the war." The tip of Douglas's staff suddenly lit up with a faint, almost invisible silver light.

"A cold war that has lasted for hundreds of years. Dino is a gambler. He used the Ash Claw, Isabella, and us as his chips, and then pushed them to the center of the gambling table."

All the fragments, at this moment, formed a complete and cold picture.

Lorenzo Dino, the deputy director who always looks exhausted and struggling in piles of documents, is the most sober hunter in this land.

"What do we do now?"

Lupin asked, feeling as if he had fallen into a web of spider silk and lies, and the more he struggled, the tighter he got.

"How to do?"

Douglas suddenly laughed, and in that smile there was a hint of the pleasure of meeting a worthy opponent.

"Mr. Dino has set up the stage, and the spotlight is on us..."

He turned toward the depths of the mine, where the darkness seemed to have substance, so thick it could not be dissolved.

"He wanted me to uncover Adam's plan, but he might have miscalculated one thing..."

Douglas's eyes flashed with a cunning gleam.

"I never like to act according to other people's scripts. More importantly, I am no longer the young man who just graduated a few years ago..."

"Just don't forget our original purpose. It's enough to collect some interest for what happened back then. The Ministry of Magic should handle the rest. Our own Voldemort is still hiding."

A beam of pale blue light shot out from the central radar screen, projecting a three-dimensional map of the mine structure composed of countless light points in the air in front of them.

He flipped a gear and the radar mode switched.

The light spots on the map changed color instantly. Most areas appeared gray, representing death, but there was a narrow, winding fork in the road that flickered with a faint green light, representing a sign of life.

Chapter 392: Fingerstyle Magic

Deep in the abandoned mine, the narrow fork in the road marked by the magic radar was like a crack that suddenly opened, dragging the two people from the dead silence into a completely different world.

The air was no longer that nauseatingly dry, but was replaced by an ancient, damp scent of earth mixed with a faint smell of sulfur, the unique breath of the mineral veins buried deep underground.

Drops of water seeped out from the rock wall, reflecting faint light in the dim light, dripping onto the ground, making a crisp and lingering echo, as if it was the only heartbeat of this forgotten land.

The mine tunnel is winding and twisting, sometimes so narrow that only one person can pass through sideways, and sometimes it is suddenly open, revealing the rough traces left by the miners.

The radar light in Douglas's hand firmly pointed the direction, and the green life trajectory was particularly eye-catching in the darkness.

They walked for a long time, passing through low arches and around rugged stone pillars. The gravel under their feet made a rustling sound, which seemed particularly abrupt in the dead silence.

Lupin followed closely behind. He could feel the suppressed, weak breath of life in the air getting closer and closer, like a flickering candle that could go out at any time.

Finally, the green light on the radar stopped right above their heads.

"We kept circling right above it."

Lupin whispered, looking at the three-dimensional map projected by the radar, the green dot like a thumbtack stuck in the floor.

Douglas did not move forward, nor did he climb upward.

He just stood there, his eyes fixed on the mine floor beneath his feet. His deep eyes seemed to be able to penetrate the rocks and see the secrets underground.

He stepped back, raised his wand, and in a clear and steady voice, uttered a spell that Lupin had never heard of before. It was not Latin, but sounded more like some ancient oriental language, with short and powerful syllables.

"Tunnel into a well."

As the spell fell, the hard rock ground did not explode or shatter, but melted and retreated silently to both sides like warm butter.

A perfect, straight downward circular passage appeared at their feet, the walls of the cave smooth as a mirror, as if it were formed naturally.

At the same time, on the radar screen in Douglas's hand, the mine that originally showed signs of green life also extended downward with the formation of the channel, and finally perfectly overlapped with the newly appeared vertical shaft.