254 Chapter 54, Freshmen

If you want to leave the dungeon, you must go to the exit at the top of those buildings and leave this false sky made of magic.

At this moment, the dungeon where the demons danced wildly had been completely controlled by the wizard, and some low-level blood slaves who were addicted to blood were tied up by the wizard with ropes and transported to the exit in clusters.

After reaching an agreement with Hoffa, Tom didn't care whether Hoffa would apparate, he disappeared directly in place with a puff of black smoke.

If it was the past, Hoffa might have a confused face, not even knowing where this guy went.

But now his eyes seemed to be turned on, and he accurately located Riddle at the exit of the dungeon hundreds of meters away.

He planned to turn into a Thunderbird and fly up, but just as he exerted force on his feet, it was accompanied by a gust of wind. He disappeared directly in place, and when he realized it, he found that he had jumped directly from the ground to the top of the church in one step. The span was at least fifty meters away, and he couldn't believe it at such a fast speed.

He touched the hideous three-ring scar on his chest in some confusion. He didn't pay attention at first, but now he realized that in the night, his body seemed to have infinite vitality. That is not magical power, but pure physical power.

To test it, he bent down, looked at the sky at the top, and stretched his legs.

boom! !

A hole was blown through the top of the building.

When he saw his position again, he was already standing at the exit.

Tom Riddle looked at Hoffa, who suddenly appeared beside him, and asked with a frown, "Why doesn't your apparition have magic power fluctuations?"

"I" Hoffa rolled his eyes and said with a smile, "Energy saving and environmental protection, do you understand?"

"ill."

Tom Riddle made a brief judgment and turned away.

"Where are you going after that, continue to apparate?" Hoffa followed behind him.

"No, there is a secret cooperation between Muggles and wizards in Germany, and they will bombard all the places where magic fluctuations are produced. I don't want to be shot when I reach my destination."

"Then you didn't Apparate just now?"

"Bournemouth has been casted by the Ministry of Magic with a concealment spell. The Germans can't detect it here, but if you go outside, you should keep your tail between your legs." He also laughed: "I don't know, how did you survive so long?" From here?"

Hoffa didn't answer, but he remembered that when the woman from the Ministry of Magic asked him to send Chloe, she seemed to have mentioned this issue, but that was a long time ago.

Tom brought Hoffa outside the abandoned station, he raised his head and whistled, and several black hairless beasts circled down from the sky, silently. They are skinny, with wings on their backs, like wings on a black horse that has been hungry for months.

It's thestrals.

A magical creature that can only be seen with the naked eye after witnessing death.

Tom jumped on one of the thestrals, and the thestrals lifted their front hooves and flew straight up. Hoffa also climbed into a thestral and followed him.

This black creature looked really cool, but it was uncomfortable to ride on rows of raised steel nails. If he didn't follow the Romans, Hoffa would rather fly behind Riddle himself.

"Who are those people?" Hoffa asked Tom as he mounted the Thestrals. "Those guys in chains."

"White robe wizard of the church."

Tom answered briefly.

"Church? When did Hogwarts cooperate with the Muggle church?"

"How do I know? Don't ask me. In short, you just remember that they are a group of paranoid, stubborn, and stubborn ascetics." Tom said impatiently while walking, with a very bad attitude.

Hoffa: "."

After a while, he asked curiously again, "Why didn't anyone from the Ministry of Magic come over?"

"Ministry of Magic? Hahaha"

Tom laughed loudly. After laughing, he looked at Hoffa sarcastically, "Since your father-in-law came to power, the entire Ministry of Magic has become a concentration camp where people eat and die. God knows what they are doing every day."

As he said that, he squinted his eyes and sneered: "Why, you are quite concerned, maybe you want to marry into a pure-blood family and change your surname, oh, I'm sorry, that little girl is dead, what's her name?"

"I don't want to talk about it, Tom."

Hoffa said calmly, seeing no expression.

"I really don't understand why you came back. Isn't the outside world much more exciting than a little Hogwarts."

Tom didn't mean to shut up at all. This guy probably pretended to be a student in school and suppressed it for a long time. When he was in front of him, his mean nature was unscrupulously exposed, "Hey, let me ask you, you are reselling Weapons, earned a lot of Galleons, right?"

"You killed your father."

Hoffa cut him off blankly.

Tom's face immediately became ugly as if he had eaten shit, and the two of them didn't speak any more during the whole journey. Thestrals rode the updraft at night, all the way up.

When the time was close to three o'clock in the morning, they passed through the thin air and arrived at an altitude of at least five kilometers above the ground. This was the world of clouds. Clouds of various shapes towered like mountains in the night, and they were very dangerous.

Flying here, the thestrals did not move. From their thick nostrils they spewed clouds of white mist, and their huge chests heaved like bellows.

Hoffa looked at Tom, wondering why he brought him here, but Tom pushed the Thestral away, crawled down several thousand meters above the ground, and stepped on a thin cloud, which was just After shaking it up and down, it firmly supported him.

"Let's go, don't go beyond the clouds." He suddenly showed annoyance, "Damn, why should I remind a birdman."

Hoffa rolled his eyes, pushed the Thestrals away and stepped on the clouds. The touch of the soles of the feet is as soft as cotton, as if they will be stepped on in the next second and let themselves fall. But it didn't wear it, and after a little flick, it lifted him up.

Tom went all the way, into the clouds like mountains. It was dark clouds outside, but inside was brightly lit construction work.

Taking a closer look, they are mostly composed of various wooden boxes, and there are a lot of them. Wooden boxes are piled together to form corridors and buildings.

Many students in Slytherin's green robes came and went here, some of them were carrying supplies, some were feeding thestrals, some were waving wands and practicing spells.

At Hoffa's feet, there were some house elves carrying big boxes, and they dexterously shuttled among the crowd, stacking the boxes neatly together to form a new corridor.

Their movements are reminiscent of ants, and the cloud fortress looks at first glance like a giant ant nest floating in the air.

Even though he was worried about Chloe's safety and his own fate, he was still surprised by the sight in front of him.

Maybe this is the essence of Hogwarts, Hoffa thought, this flying fortress can take wizards where they want to go without being discovered by other hostile wizards or Muggles.

After entering the cloud base, the viper-like meanness and viciousness on Tom's face disappeared without a trace. He greeted the surrounding students with a smile, even if the elf accidentally touched him with a box, he Will also smile and say it's okay.

And Hoffa pulled up the hood of the dead man's clothes from behind and put it on his head. For various reasons, he doesn't want to be recognized by the people in the school for the time being, which makes him feel like going back in time, and he just doesn't want to go back to the past, let alone recall the past.

Not far away, he saw a group of house elves carrying steel bars instead of wooden boxes on their shoulders. They ran over one by one, and methodically formed the steel bars into a cage.

Further on, all kinds of creatures were imprisoned in iron cages, screaming or whimpering.

In it, he saw the ghouls crawling on the ground, the werewolves whining and screaming while grabbing the railings, the Grindylow wriggling as sticky as jelly, and the mermaids locked in the water tank, smashing into the glass frantically, It has sharp teeth and porous gills. Every time it hits, it will be stabbed by the blue magic spell on the glass and bounce back, but it will not give up and hits again and again.

These iron cages were covered with dangerous spells, which sealed these abnormal creatures firmly. When he walked into the front iron cage, he also saw a familiar guy.

The number 19 that I and Ryan caught, the female vampire named Ji Liya, was also locked in the cage at the moment, with a haggard, pale face and yellow hair, paralyzed in a corner and motionless.

Sensing that the two were coming, she glanced at Hoffa and curled up into a ball with her knees in her arms.

Riddle looked at the cage in disgust, "These are monsters we caught from all over the UK. If you ask me, these things that have no experimental value should have been disposed of long ago. It is a waste of resources to be locked up here."

"Then why don't you deal with it?"

"Hogwarts doesn't have only one house. Your red-bearded dean is very interested in these rare things."

His tone was harsh and sarcastic, revealing deep disdain and arrogance.

Hoffa understood Riddle's disgust. Perhaps in his eyes, only pure-blood wizards were considered human beings. As for Muggles or their magical creatures, they were no different from two-legged sheep or mules in his eyes.

"Where's Ryan?"

Seeing the vampire, Hoffa remembered his cheap friend who never came back after delivering the letter.

"You mean that Hufflepuff?"

"yes."

"It's locked up and under inspection. I still have something to ask him." Tom Riddle said lightly as he stood in front of the vampire's cage.

The woman in the cage suddenly got up and struggled, and rushed towards Tom, but was shocked by an electric current the moment she got close to the steel bar, and her whole body trembled like chaff.

Tom glanced at her uninterestedly, then turned his head and pressed Hoffa: "Let's say it first, I don't care where you heard the previous rumors, but you have to dare to say a word in front of Slughorn , I will kill you, understand, I will do what I say."

Hoffa nodded, "If you can."

Throwing his robes up, Tom stepped forward and pushed open the half-open iron door at the end of the corridor. The room was filled with smog. In the lingering smoke, Hoffa saw his former Potions tutor, Horace Slughorn, lying on a recliner. He was as fat as ever, and the buttons on his chest seemed to be It's like being stretched by the fat of the belly. But he should be sick, with a transparent catheter inserted in his arm and being infused. He was pale and lifeless looking at the ceiling. Like a big elephant that has become melancholy because of decadence.

A few young Slytherin girls were preparing some potions next to him, and the cauldron was bubbling with steam, which was the source of the surrounding smoke.

"Professor, who do I see?"

Tom Riddle bent over one knee by the recliner, his expression became natural and elegant.

Slughorn turned his head sickly. When he saw the boy standing face to face, he was taken aback for a moment, and then he sat up vigorously. His stubby fingers grabbed a pair of glasses and buckled them on his face. He was very surprised. looking at him.

"You!? Bach?"

He threw away his glasses, "Why are you back!? Come here, come here quickly, let me see you."

Hoffa's eyes were a little sore. This old guy was a bit snobbish when he was in school, but he was still good to himself. Although he left school, it didn't mean that he hated the people in this school. In fact, he still missed them a lot. People and things in the school.

He came to the recliner, and all eyes were on him in the smoky interior. Slughorn's eyes were shining, and he sat up from the recliner restlessly wriggling his buttocks, his pale face turned red with excitement. Watching Hoffa is like looking at some rare treasure.

"Yulie, Julie, where is my pipe?"

A pretty senior Slytherin girl who was stirring the cauldron turned her head and said coldly, "You can't smoke yet, professor."

"Oh, damn it, look who is here, Yuli, can't you make me happy at this time?"

The Slytherin girl glanced at Hoffa, took out a plate of candy from the drawer, placed it between Hoffa and Slughorn, and said coldly, "Use it slowly."

Slughorn smashed his mouth, leaned on the recliner like a discouraged ball, and said with a face full of despair: "Get out, Yuri, if I can, I really want to get an F on your final grade. "

The Slytherin girl gracefully took off her mask, packed her things, and bent over to kiss Tom Riddle on the face before going out. Her indifferent and gentle appearance was enviable.

After there were only three people left in the room, Tom Riddle took out a beautiful meerschaum pipe from his pocket with a smile and handed it over.

"Don't tell Yuli, professor." He smiled naturally and funny.

Slughorn's eyes were shining, he took the pipe, pointed at Tom Riddle with his stubby finger, and said dotingly: "You, you, if every Slytherin student is like you, I should Take it easy."

After finishing speaking, he took a puff of cigarette intoxicatedly, and exhaled a puff of smoke with extreme comfort, finally turning around from the excitement. He leaned back in the chair and became the head of Slytherin again,

"Tom, get two more chairs," Slughorn ordered.

With a graceful flick of his wand, Tom Riddle conjures two upholstered sofas. He sat down by himself, crossed his fingers, and smiled: "I want to know that Bach is here, and maybe he will take over the task of searching Bournemouth. You know, we have been good friends since we wore crotch pants. friends."

Regardless of Riddle's nonsense, he came to the recliner and supported the chubby professor's arm, "What's going on, professor? Are you injured?"

"Oh, damned gargoyle, last time in Birmingham, a bloody dark witch jinxed a leg and broke it." He let out a puff of smoke and lifted his robes to reveal the bandages underneath them. , was wrapped tightly around his thighs, "But that guy didn't get any good, I turned him into a frog and locked him in a bottle."

After finishing speaking, he looked Hoffa up and down quite imposingly, "What have you been doing lately? Not even a single letter. Albus often mentioned you to me, and his tone was always full of self-blame."

"I'm running outside, and I usually do some private work. Due to the strict blockade, it is difficult for me to contact the school." Hoffa said with a little apology: "This time I took the initiative to meet the professor, I have very important information to tell you .”

Seeing Hoffa's serious face, Slughorn couldn't help sitting up straight. The smile on Tom Riddle's face faded and his eyes drooped.

Slughorn has no intention of letting Tom go, Hoffa

He didn't mind the absurd and treacherous stories the future Dark Lord heard about his encounters.

So, by the fireplace, he told Slughorn what happened in short, only slightly modified the ending of the story, he didn't say that Mance stabbed his chest, only that he was raped by him. Knocked out. It saves the later encounter in the pool of blood.

After finishing speaking, there was silence in the room, even the sound of smoking stopped. It took a while for Slughorn to exhale a smoke ring.

Puff!

Tom suddenly couldn't help laughing out loud, and blew away the smoke ring:

"You mean, there was a Muggle officer who poisoned all the wizards and vampires in Germany, and that officer was also from Germany?"

"That's right."

"Impossible, that's ridiculous," said Tom, shaking his head like a rattle.

"You take us for idiots, Bach, please use snacks when you make up stories, vampires were poisoned to death, how could such a thing happen?"

As he spoke, he stood up and poured himself a cup of black tea: "No one will do anything to you, Bach, those are heinous sinners, kill them if you kill them, and the Ministry of Magic will probably give you a Knight of the Order of Merlin. "

Hoffa ignored Tom, just looked at the potions professor.

Slughorn had a solemn expression on his face. After thinking for a while, he said slowly:

"It's not impossible. Vampires are not completely immortal. If the poison exceeds a certain dose, they will indeed die. However, you said that the Muggle officer was fine when you pierced his chest with a knife. Some can't understand."

"I don't understand either."

Hoffa lowered his head, touched the glass bottle on his waist with his palm, and didn't say anything about the ancient gods. He didn't want to be thought of as a lunatic, and this is not the purpose of his coming here, "Anyway, I I don't want to be identified as the culprit of this underground murder, I really am not. I would like to ask Professor Slughorn to temporarily block the news of this city."

"That's why you came to see me."

Slughorn took a deep look at him, "Are you afraid of being targeted by those German wizards?"

"yes."

"Actually, it doesn't matter if you admit it. Hoffa, have you considered this possibility? When you go back to school, we will protect you and no one can threaten you."

Slughorn twisted his stomach, his eyes sparkled: "It doesn't matter if you don't like some of Albus' strategies, I can use my relationship to transfer you to our academy"

"Ahem!"

Tom, who was drinking tea, turned green and coughed violently. Hoffa stood up quickly and interrupted Slughorn.

"No, professor, I have many other things to do, and I have to be outside to complete them."

"What is more important than life."

Slughorn took a puff of cigarette, and said dissatisfiedly: "With all due respect, you are indeed a very good wizard, perhaps one of the best among all the students I have taught, but, these days, even if you are a genius All wizards are in danger of falling, you need protection, Hoffa."

"Is that all right, Professor?"

Hoffa didn't answer his question, just looked at him expectantly.

The chubby head Slytherin leaned against the fire and looked at the gray-haired boy in front of him. After realizing that he could not convince him, he put down his pipe and let out a long sigh.

"It's difficult, Bach. If only a bunch of corpses are found, but the real culprit is not revealed, then the reporters of the Daily Prophet, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Magic, and the public will not be satisfied."

After a pause, he said again: "Ten thousand steps back, even if what you said is true, I will help you suppress the matter. But that officer, he is not without a long mouth, he can also publicize everywhere, saying yes The person you killed. This kind of thing, once spread to ten, ten to hundreds, and finally no one can tell whether it is true or not."

"Unless... I catch him back." Hoffa said slowly.

"Catch him back?"

Slughorn looked at him in surprise.

"Could it be possible that everything you said is true!? There really was a person who poisoned all wizards and vampires to death?"

"That's right, he's not a wizard, he can't apparate, he can enter the dungeon, but he can't leave the dungeon without being seen. So, he must still be in the vampire's lair, just hiding. As long as I find him, everything will be fine." It worked out."

Huofa said quickly: "Give me a few days, help me, professor."

"I'm afraid you want to find a Muggle to take the blame for you."

Tom Riddle said coldly from the side: "This kind of thing is very despicable."

"I will capture him alive in front of you, and when the time comes, you will stab him in the chest with a knife, and you will know that what I said is true."

Seeing Hoffa's swearing appearance, Slughorn slowly leaned back on the chair, touched his triple chin and fell into thought. After the tobacco in the meerschaum pipe burned out, he finally raised his head:

"Okay, I'll give you a week. Within a week, I won't tell anyone what happened in Bournemouth, but if I still can't find the murderer after a week, I have to at least report the incident to the school. How the people of Hogwarts will judge at that time is beyond my discretion."