"It's really hell, there's a cold fog all over the UK right now... It's not normal, it feels like something is happening that we don't know about."
At this moment, a truck loaded with cement was driving cautiously on a road covered in thick fog. The middle-aged truck driver stared at the road ahead, but he was talking to the middle-aged man next to him in a mumbling voice, "Since July, all kinds of strange things have frequently occurred all over the UK, as if..."
"Those oddities are indeed very odd!"
The middle-aged man frowned at the thick fog ahead and interrupted the truck driver directly, "The fog is too thick now. Should we find a place to wait for the fog to dissipate before we set off?"
"you're right!"
The middle-aged truck driver hesitated for a moment, but was finally persuaded by the people next to him. After all, his life was his own, and driving in such thick fog was indeed prone to accidents.
"you… "
After the middle-aged truck driver found a place to park the truck, he suddenly fainted in the driver's seat before he could say anything.
The middle-aged man in the passenger seat lowered his arms, reached out to open the truck door, jumped off the truck, walked around to the back of the truck where cement was stored, took out a "small wooden stick" from the bag, and waved it around the truck, releasing a barrier to repel Muggles. He then sprayed mist from the tip of the wand, making the surrounding mist thicker and completely blocking people's sight.
With the help of the cover of thick fog, the middle-aged man took out a suitcase from the bag, opened it and put it on the ground. He raised the "small wooden stick" and waved it at the cement on the truck bed. The neatly stacked bags of cement seemed to have grown legs and jumped off the truck, one by one into the seemingly bottomless suitcase. A large truck of cement was emptied in the blink of an eye.
"Next..."
The middle-aged man grunted, closed the suitcase, walked to the driver's seat of the truck, and raised the "little wooden stick" to tamper with part of the truck driver's memory.
The lucky person will soon wake up and be confident that he or she has delivered the goods to its destination.
As for the pounds used to purchase cement, they have naturally been paid, but the price has been slightly lowered, being pushed down to close to the cost price.
After doing all this, the middle-aged man lifted the spell around him and disappeared into thin air carrying a suitcase full of cement trucks.
When the middle-aged man regained his sight, he was standing at the edge of an abandoned village. He was holding a suitcase in one hand and a magic wand in the other, and he gently waved the magic wand on his cheek. The middle-aged man's face began to move, and was soon replaced by a young face. His body shape also changed. The clothes that were originally just right became loose, and after being gently tapped by the magic wand, they turned into a fitted casual autumn outfit again.
Even without using the compound potion, Albert can still easily disguise his appearance through Transfiguration. As long as he does not encounter an extremely powerful wizard, his flaws will not be easily discovered.
In fact, most wizards simply cannot understand such profound things as "magic traces".
Albert walked to a dilapidated house on the edge of the deserted village, muttered something, raised his wand and flicked it lightly, just like pulling away a veil covering his true face. He walked straight in and disappeared from the deserted village.
"I guess it must be you!"
When Fred saw that the person coming was Albert, he appeared out of thin air, obviously using the Disillusionment Charm to hide his whereabouts.
"Well, it's always better to be careful. The protective magic on the outside is not very reliable."
Albert turned his head to look at where George and Lee Jordan were hiding.
"You really can't hide anything from you. I've always been curious about how you can see through the Disillusionment Curse?" George asked his doubts, and appeared with Lee Jordan, greeting Albert with a smile.
"It seems that you have already got everything."
"Well, it took me a lot of time and pounds to get those building materials."
Albert put the suitcase on the ground and waved his wand. With a crackling sound, he summoned several similar suitcases out of thin air, which contained steel bars, sand and gravel.
"Actually, I still don't quite understand why you are doing these things?" Lee Jordan really didn't understand why Albert was bothering with these things.
"We will continue to build several secret safe houses in the future. Although we can also use abandoned Muggle facilities as temporary bases, we still have to tidy them up before we can temporarily live in them." Albert made up an excuse.
If Albert had not considered turning this place into a wizard village in the future, he would never have set up the secret meeting place here, let alone gone to so much trouble to get these building materials to prepare for the big job.
The three of them looked at each other and shrugged helplessly. They believed that there must be a reason why Albert did this.
As for the reason, Albert didn't say, so they didn't ask.
"Where's Shanna?" Albert changed the subject.
"Sanna is helping you organize the information." Lee Jordan seemed to remember something and said softly, "We also want to see the new edition of the "Guide to Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"What's taught in the Self-Defense Guide is just the basics, and at most it can help you protect yourself." Fred added, "I feel less and less safe now."
“Even if there are ‘more’, it’s useless. The Ministry of Magic won’t allow it.” When Albert wrote the Self-Defense Guide, it was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. Many things were actually stuck in the tolerance level of the Ministry of Magic. Only then could most of the contents of the Self-Defense Guide be preserved.
"Will the new book be published?" George asked suddenly.
"Probably not. I don't think the Ministry of Magic will allow it. Even if it is published, it will probably be changed beyond recognition." Albert didn't care.
"I look forward to your new book more and more."
George suddenly felt a little excited. The content of the books that were allowed to be published was actually just like that, and was definitely restricted by the Ministry of Magic.
"There's nothing to look forward to. Your current level of defense against the dark arts is already higher than most people. As long as you are careful and cautious, there will basically be no problem."
Fred, George and Lee Jordan were taught Defense Against the Dark Arts by Albert. The three of them will never be at a disadvantage when dealing with dark wizards. At worst, they can take the Felicity Potion to become stronger.
"We'd be embarrassed if you said that." Fred pretended to be embarrassed.
"Okay, take me to see what you have achieved in the past few days." Albert interrupted the chat and walked towards the newly renovated house.
The entrance to the secret base was hidden under the blanket beside the fireplace in the living room. After opening the hidden trap door, a secret staircase passage that could accommodate one person appeared in front of the four people.
"The air down there is bad, it's best to use the Bubble Head Charm," George reminded.
After the four of them cast a funny cannon head spell on themselves, they walked down the stairs into the corridor.
The stairs sloped downward and were located approximately ten meters underground. The space inside was very narrow and the surrounding walls were as smooth as if they had been cut by a sharp blade.
Below the stairs is the lobby, which has enough space for four people. Entering further, there are two tunnels on the left and right, which contain several narrow rooms that can barely accommodate two people. If you don't use the Bubble Head Charm, the stuffy air is impossible to breathe.
"It's too depressing in there. I suspect we'll all have to bear the bubble head curse from now on, otherwise we'll be suffocated to death." Li Qiaodan didn't like the crowded environment inside and couldn't help but complain.
"You don't need to worry about this. It will be fine after a slight renovation." Albert comforted them. He was very experienced in how to renovate this place.
"Well, we also need a hidden exit to avoid being blocked by others." Albert said to the three people after returning to the ground, "I remember there is a steep slope on the west side, which is very suitable for a hidden exit.
"Like Hogwarts?" Fred asked curiously.
"You can think of it that way." Albert did learn from the Hogwarts way of hiding.
"If that's the case, I guess no one will be able to find the exact location!" George said with a smile, "If someone doesn't know, they would think you were planning to learn the secret passages of Hogwarts."
"If it's possible, it's not bad, but unfortunately I don't have that much energy to deal with these things." Albert handed the map to George, "Besides, we only need a rough base at the moment. If there is a real need, we can slowly improve it."
"I always feel like you want to get other people to help." Fred couldn't help but complain.
"By the way, Kings told me that Kenneth is being targeted." George changed the subject. He felt that if he continued to follow Albert's words, he might have a lot more work to do.
"That guy should be okay!" Albert asked.
"It's okay. Kings came and rescued him in time, but that guy seems to have a grudge against us."
"It can't be helped. Someone has to step up to the front to attract the attention," Albert said heartlessly. "But if he acts as bait a few more times, no one will target him anymore."
If it weren't for his father's troubles, Albert wouldn't have bothered Kenneth. After all, the two sides still have some friendship. But Kenneth has to pay a price if he wants to join now, otherwise he might sell them out because of some things in the future.
The expressions on the three people's faces were quite interesting, and they observed three seconds of silence for Kenneth in their hearts.
"As for your matter, I've already told Bill where you plan to meet." George talked about another matter.
"Find a Muggle coffee shop and have him use the compound potion. I'll give you the address then. Hmm..." Albert paused, as if thinking of something, and suddenly said, "In fact, we can let the Ministry of Magic disguise itself as me and meet Kenneth. It's a fishing expedition, and maybe we can really catch some fish."
"Don't bother him anymore." Lee Jordan said with a wry smile.
"We can ask the Ministry of Magic to disguise it!" Albert nodded vigorously. "It doesn't matter if they are all fake. As long as the Death Eaters mistakenly think they have found our hiding place, it will be fine."
"This method is really hard to guard against."
George felt that it was extremely unlucky for the Death Eaters to target Albert. The Ministry of Magic would definitely be willing to spend time setting up this trap, which would be more reliable than searching for Death Eaters everywhere.
"Next time they want to kill me, they have to consider whether their target is a real person." Albert thought this was a good idea. If he let the Death Eaters suffer a few more times, that group of people would not want to cause trouble for him all day long.
"You are the only one who has bad intentions."
"Okay, we'd better get this done quickly." Albert walked outside.
Fred, George and Lee Jordan saw Albert conjure up a crucible out of thin air, then put the cement, water, river sand and gravel in the suitcase into the small crucible in a certain proportion, and then tapped it lightly with the magic wand, and the things inside quickly spun and stirred.
"Are all Muggle buildings built like this?" George looked into the crucible and saw that it was indeed cast with a Traceless Extension Charm.
"Not entirely, but it's more solid this way. Don't forget, we're going to be staying underground from now on, so it's always a good idea to make it sturdier. If the base collapses when we practice spells that day, we might be buried alive." While Albert was chatting with the three people, he waved his wand and conjured up a pile of wooden boards out of thin air. They were stuck together with a sticking spell and quickly formed the model that Albert needed.
The whole process went smoothly, and Albert completed it easily just by moving the magic wand in his hand.
Then, the steel bars are connected tightly together and placed on the mold. The mixed cement is poured in. After it is tightly combined with the steel bars, the surface is smoothed again. The water marks on the cement are directly evaporated using spells, and a wall is easily completed.
“It looks good.”
“Is this a wall?”
Albert's actions obviously subverted the three people's cognition.
"Yes, four walls, plus a cement cover, wouldn't it become a house?"
"Are you sure that's a house? And how should this thing..." Li Jordan didn't know how to complain.
"You can move in by using the shrinking spell. You should put the spells you learned in school to good use."
Albert waved his wand to demold the concrete wall and moved it to the side. If an ordinary wizard wanted to shrink the wall, it would probably take several people to chant spells together, but Albert had no problem in this regard.
Next, in less than a quarter of an hour, a cement box was formed. Although it looked like a simple mortise and tenon structure wooden box without nails, this thing was undoubtedly quite strong.
"Is this how all Muggle houses are built?" The three stared in amazement at the "house" that Albert had made.
"Almost. They usually use cement to pour the structure of the house. I am being lazy and using magic. Although it does look a bit ugly, this thing is definitely sturdy." Albert was quite satisfied with his results. "Next, you need to expand the space inside. I will shrink this thing and put it in, and then fill the gap.
Albert had already thought about it. He planned to use cement boards similar to building blocks to piece together the underground base.
The thick reinforced concrete structure with mortise and tenon joints and permanent adhesive spells can ensure that the secret base will not have any safety hazards.
After all, the space inside was expanded using the Traceless Extension Spell, so there was no need to worry about collapse due to being unable to withstand heavy pressure.