"McLean, you're finally back! You know what? The owl can't find you - we're all freaking out!"
"I'd better rush back as quickly as possible. Hagrid and the others are still moving the giant tribe in the deep mountains and forests!"
"Transfer the giant tribe? Oh, no... Let's not talk about this for now. Come upstairs with me! Go and see Kingsley!"
"Ah, yes... Kingsley, what happened to him? What exactly happened while I was away from England... "
Two full days have passed since the night when he fooled those giants.
When the giants with well-developed limbs and simple minds all regarded Hagrid as the messenger of their ancestors, Maca observed it for a while.
After he explained clearly to Hagrid and Mrs. Maxim what to do, he immediately seized the time and hurried back with the portkey.
But after he fled back to Hogwarts for a walk, before he could take a breath, he learned that something seemed to have happened to the Order of the Phoenix.
Since the situation seemed to be urgent, he went to Black's old house without stopping. Immediately afterwards, he was grabbed by the wrist by Mrs. Weasley, who was staying at home, and staggered upstairs.
"... At first he was just sluggish, but within two days, he also showed a desire to attack without purpose. We had no choice but to use magic to control him first -" Mrs. Weasley rambled on. As she spoke, her face was full of worry from just now.
"…right in this room."
The two stopped at the door of a small bedroom in the corner of the third floor, and then Mrs. Weasley motioned towards the closed door.
"Yeah." Maka nodded slightly, and then turned the doorknob without hesitation.
After he opened the door of the small bedroom, he saw a tall figure tightly locked with magic handcuffs and shackles. And when Mrs. Weasley lit the magic lamp in the room, the darkness in the room was completely dispelled in an instant.
Controlled by both magic and physics, it was Kingsley Shacklebolt, whom Maka was already familiar with.
However, although his appearance had not changed at all, Kingsley's eyes were completely different. In those eyes that were supposed to be soft and tolerant, all Maka could see was madness.
The dark-skinned wizard in front of him immediately tried to stand up as soon as he saw someone coming in. At the same time, with the chain clattering and tightening, he was pulled to sit on the floor again.
"Kingsley!" Maka shouted as she walked forward, staring into the other person's eyes, and then frowned slightly, "... Well, no response?"
His eyes did not leave Kingsley's eyes, and his hands never stopped. He touched his waist, took out a syringe, pulled out the needle cap, and then gently pricked Kingsley's fixed hand.
"...I can't feel pain," as he said, he stretched out his hand and waved it in front of Kingsley's eyes, "I can't see either... hmm? Then why is he 'staring' at me?"
While Maka was examining Kingsley, Mrs. Weasley was constantly describing the recent situation.
Maka listened distractedly for a moment, and then realized that all this was caused by the unusual case about the "mad wizard" last time.
In fact, there have been several similar incidents in the past few days since Maca left British soil.
For unknown reasons, five wizards from different regions have fallen into intermittent madness. And the original wizard even got to the point where he would only be quiet for a little bit every ten hours or so.
Because this series of cases was most likely a conspiracy being planned by Voldemort, urgent matters followed. When Maka could not be contacted immediately, Kingsley, who was already responsible for tracking the case, went out for several nights to investigate.
However, at dawn just over two days ago, the members of the Order of the Phoenix sitting around the kitchen having breakfast only saw an elite Auror who looked lost.
After that day, Kingsley's condition deteriorated rapidly.
Although he was no longer able to communicate with people normally as soon as he came back, he could at least react to people in some ways, such as staring at people walking around, or babbling some syllables of unknown meaning.
But before long, he completely turned into a fool who could only lie on the ground and drool in a daze.
And just the day before Maka came back, Kingsley finally behaved without purpose. Just because his symptoms were very similar to those of the crazy wizards in that series of cases, no one was injured as long as everyone was prepared.
"...It's just that Kingsley's appearance gave everyone a big blow," Mrs. Weasley had long lost her original enthusiasm. She was now telling the story seriously, "Especially... last night, Sirius sneaked away. out… "
"...Really?" Maka heard this and looked back at her subconsciously, "It's okay, I have a way to find him, but the most important thing right now is to find out Kingsley's physical condition first."
After saying this, he took out a dark brown potion bottle from his waist, but did not remove the cork immediately.
"Mrs. Weasley, please cover your nose and hold your breath." After the other party complied with some confusion, Maka also took a deep breath, pinched her nose with one hand, and then pushed the cork open a little with one hand.
After that, he immediately shook the bottle mouth under Kingsley's nose, and then pressed the cork firmly.
"That's it."
After hearing this, Mrs. Weasley gently put down the hand covering her nose, but she immediately discovered that a rather pungent smell had spread to the entire room.
"Oh - Merlin, what does this smell like?" She couldn't help but cover her nose again.
"... Has the sense of smell also been lost? Or..." Maka, who was talking to himself, did not look back. He just explained casually, "This is a type of mixed odorant that can be used to repel creatures with a sensitive sense of smell... Of course , I guess you won’t want to know the specific ingredients…”
"Well..." Mrs. Weasley paused and then asked, "How is Kingsley's situation?"
"It's hard to tell yet, but it shouldn't be caused by black magic... at least it won't be ordinary black magic."
After a lot of trouble, Maka wiped off the temporary rune pattern drawn on the ground, then left the bedroom with two syringes of Kingsley's blood samples, and quickly headed to the potion preparation room in the basement. Go.
"Mr. MacLean? You're back..."
"Eh? What a bastard Maka?"
At the stairs on the first floor, he happened to meet the two sisters Lenilena.
Putting aside everything else, at least the status of the werewolf sisters didn't seem to have changed much: the older sister Lena was still calm and composed, while the younger sister Leni still called him "big ass" open and closed.
"Oh, Ryan?" Maka just started, but when he saw the figure walking out of the corner behind them, he was suddenly stunned, "...Ah, Miss Tia? Are you finally willing to come out from there? ?”
"M... Ma... Mr. MacLean, I... um... good afternoon."
When Tia appeared in Maka's sight from that corner, she was wearing a new set of female wizard robes. Her long black hair was hung loosely on her shoulders, which added to her ordinary appearance.
But her timid appearance was the same as before, not much changed.
"Well, good afternoon." Maka smiled slightly, and then turned to Lena, "Is there anyone else at home? Help me look around, and then bring it to the potion room - if no one is there, just you Come here by yourself! I need a more attentive potion assistant..."
"OK."
Lena nodded slightly as always and responded submissively. But just as she was about to turn around, she heard Tia's voice somewhat unexpectedly.
"Mr. McLean... I... can I...?"
"Um?"
Hearing this, Maka stopped walking downstairs and stood on the steps and glanced at Tia.
"Oh... Really? Of course..." He thought for a moment, then nodded, "Lena, it seems that's not necessary... Miss Tia, come with me!"
After that, he said no more and took the lead to continue walking towards the steps leading to the basement. Seeing this, Tia folded her hands and squeezed them slightly uneasily, and then followed them together.
The entire Blake old house has been renovated by everyone and has become a lot brighter and warmer. Even the living room on the second floor, which had not been touched some time ago, has now been completely cleaned.
But in this basement, it was still dark and cold, with only bunches of faint blue flames twisting and jumping in the magic lampshades on the walls, emitting a cold light without any warmth.
But this is natural, because there is a potion preparation room and a magic material storage room that Maka has remodeled below.
In order to eliminate all environmental interference as much as possible, not only the interior is equipped with constant magic, but even the corridors will not slack off at all.
Maka was walking quickly in front, with steady and powerful steps; but Tia, who was following him slowly and hurriedly, seemed to be deeply resistant to the environment here. She shrunk her hands and feet as she walked, and pursed her lips subconsciously. .
"Huh? Oh... don't be afraid, it's okay." Maka heard the messy footsteps behind her, "By the way, is Miss Tia familiar with potions?"
"... It's okay, I can't learn other subjects well... I'm just potions... I'm quite interested in it." Tia paused for a moment, then took a few steps to catch up with Maka.
"Is that so... Oh, is it because of this that you want to meet Professor Snape?"
As Maka spoke, she stopped at the second last door in the underground corridor, then took out her wand and lightly tapped the door without a keyhole or handle.
With a soft "pop" sound, the door suddenly twisted, then burst like a soap bubble pricked by a needle, and disappeared between the door frames.