The sky was bright in the distance, most of the vampires in Dracula's Castle had fallen into a deep sleep, and the air nearby was quiet.
Under the influence of the dark aura of many vampires, the surroundings of the castle were gloomy, like a dawn where the sun would never rise.
Dracula and Selina each held a parasol, jumped from the towering city wall, and then landed lightly on the ground.
If someone hadn't personally experienced this battle between vampires and werewolves, they might not have been able to tell that a very large-scale war was taking place here just based on the traces on the ground.
If other people passed by this place, they might just think that there was a heavy snow in June.
There was no trace of blood on the ground below the city wall. Instead, there was a large expanse of fine dust as pure as snow, evenly covering the entire battlefield.
Occasionally a breeze blows, setting off a gray haze.
Dracula and Selina quietly stepped on the ashes of the Inferi, leaving two lines of shallow footprints.
"I still remember that there were so many Inferi under the city wall last night that we couldn't even count them." Serena suddenly spoke, breaking the silence, "But you can actually control countless bats to burn every Inferi. Gray?"
"Of course." Dracula raised the corners of his lips and nodded to her, "Not one of the Inferi within my range of perception has been left behind."
Serena puffed her mouth and seemed a little depressed.
"Keep working hard, maybe you can reach this level in a few hundred years." Dracula said with a chuckle.
However, the next moment, Serena's expression showed a hint of surprise, and she stretched out her hand and pointed to the other side of the battlefield.
"What do you think that is? It's definitely an Inferi, don't lie!" She glanced at Dracula excitedly and said loudly, "Admit it, even if you take action, something will slip through the net! "
Dracula looked doubtfully in the direction of Serena's finger, and found that there seemed to be a pale body with cloudy eyes, stiff and slow movements, wandering aimlessly.
He frowned and disappeared instantly.
When he appeared again, he had already arrived next to the corpse.
Unlike most other Inferi, the body of this Inferi is completely preserved, its limbs are sound, and its skin has few ulcers. It just seems to have some edema, as if it has been soaked in an unknown liquid for a long time.
Dracula immediately looked at the back of his neck and found a piece of burnt black skin.
"Selena, look here." Dracula waved to Serena who had just flown over, pointing to the position behind the neck of the Inferi. "Actually, I did not miss this Inferi. The flaming bat has fallen. on the back of his neck, but somehow it wasn't set on fire."
Serena looked thoughtful.
"Could it be that your flame failed?" she asked. "Look at him, it's obviously been soaked in water for a long time. Maybe the fire you asked the bat to carry was too small and was extinguished by the water. ?”
“…”
Dracula looked at Selina and was silent for a long time.
"You...why are you looking at me like that?" Serena asked weakly, "Is there anything wrong with what I said?"
"I just suspect that you didn't have any brains when you went out this time." Dracula said speechlessly, "Tell me, when did the flame of our talent become so fragile that it can be extinguished by water? Not to mention the inherent nature in him. There’s not much water left!”
"What's the point? I'm just providing a guess..." Serena said without confidence, "After all, I've never seen such a confusing situation..."
Dracula was also a little confused about this, so he began to carefully look at the appearance of the Inferi.
This is a somewhat thin Inferi. He has long and thick black hair. Even after being soaked for a long time, it has not fallen off. Because it has not been taken care of, it covers half of his face.
Dracula waved his hand gently, and a gust of breeze blew his hair behind his ears, revealing a face that was still very handsome even if it was swollen. From the expression on his face, he could even vaguely tell I can see a hint of arrogance in life.
"He must not have been an ordinary person during his lifetime. I don't know how he ended up in this situation." Dracula sighed softly.
His gaze continued to move downwards, looking at the body of the Inferi.
Although the long-term soaking made the robes on the Infernal Corpse look a little faded, the preciousness of its material could still be vaguely discerned.
"Wait a minute, look here!" Serena's voice suddenly sounded, "This mark seems familiar!"
She stood next to the Inferi, raised his left arm, and pulled his sleeve up a little, showing the inner side of his forearm in front of Dracula's eyes.
Just on the inside of his forearm, there was a bright red mark—
It's a skull with a snake sticking out of its mouth!
"Is this...the Dark Mark?" Dracula looked at the mark in surprise, becoming even more confused.
As the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts, Dracula was of course inevitably exposed to information about the Dark Lord. Not only that, he even personally annihilated the Dark Lord's soul once.
So he knew exactly what this mark was.
This is the Dark Mark that only high-status Death Eaters possess. Death Eaters of Fenrir's level do not have this mark.
But why does the Dark Mark appear on an Inferi summoned by Voldemort
Could it be that Voldemort was so insane that he even wanted to kill his own people mercilessly, and even made them into inferi that would not let them die well
"If he is a former Death Eater, then it should not be difficult to find the identity of this wizard during his lifetime."
Dracula suppressed his doubts and pointed with his finger to the left breast of the robe worn by the Inferi.
“Reparo.”
A flash of light flashed, and a bright color appeared on the left chest of the clothes, as if it had returned to a brand new piece of fabric.
There is an exquisite family crest -
The coat of arms is decorated with a mountain symbol, two five-pointed stars and a shield with a short sword, flanked by two leaping greyhounds.
If we use heraldry terms, it is "black, with a mountain shape between two stars as the main body, a sword as the base, silver..."
…
On the other side, No. 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey, England.
Early in the morning, this disharmonious family had a dispute at the dinner table -
"This is the third time this week!" A man who was as fat as a fat pig growled across the table. "If you can't control that owl, let it go!"
On the other side of the table, a thin boy wearing glasses tried to explain.
"It's bored. It's used to flying outside. If I could let it out at night..." Before he could finish, he was interrupted by his uncle, Vernon Dursley.
"Do you think I'm a fool?" Uncle Vernon yelled, a piece of fried egg that he had not yet swallowed dangling from his thick beard. "I know what will happen if you let an owl out!"
The skinny boy hurriedly finished his breakfast angrily, then rushed back to his room upstairs, locked the door, and lay quietly on the old bed.
This boy with glasses is the famous savior in the wizarding world, Harry Potter.
However, the boy who survived, the hero who won the Academy Cup for Gryffindor, and the savior of the wizarding world, was locked in a small room and did not communicate with his friends for most of the holiday.
Ever since Harry came home for the summer, Uncle Vernon had been treating him like a time bomb because Harry was not a normal child.
To a Muggle like Vernon Dursley, he was indeed quite abnormal.
Harry is a wizard, a freak in the eyes of these Muggles. He had just finished his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and had to return to such a disharmonious family during the summer vacation.
If the Dursleys were unhappy with him coming home for the summer, their unhappiness was nothing compared to Harry's feelings.
He missed Hogwarts so much now that it made his insides ache.
He missed the castle, the secret passages and ghosts, and his magic classes. And when he thought of the many subjects in school, he thought of Professor Dracula, the stern Professor McGonagall, the amiable Professor Sprout, whom he admired, and even thought of Professor Snape, who was once extremely disgusted but now has complicated emotions. .
Harry clearly remembered that he had a big fight with Professor Snape before going home, which once again ruined the relationship that had just eased.
Lying on the bed, he felt very awake now. However, when he recalled the quarrel with Snape more than a month ago, he always felt that his memory was not clear.
Harry knew very well that he had lived in a difficult environment since he was a child and had been bullied by his cousin Dudley and his friends. However, he could still find a way to enjoy himself under such conditions and bring happiness to himself. Come for spiritual comfort.
A teenager who grows up in such an environment rarely grows up to be an irritable person.
Thinking about it now, the quarrel with Professor Snape at that time was probably due to my impulsiveness and my failure to control my eagerness to restore the relationship with him.
"Maybe I should write a letter of apology to Professor Snape." Harry thought silently as he looked at the yellowed ceiling in the room.
But he couldn't write a letter.
As soon as Harry arrived home, Uncle Vernon locked his spell book, wand, robes, cauldron and the most advanced Nimbus 2000 into the small, dark cabinet under the stairs.
As for whether Harry will be expelled from the college Quidditch team because he didn't practice during the summer, the Dursleys don't care! Harry didn't finish any of his homework and couldn't hand it in when he returned to school. What did this have to do with them
The Dursleys are the most conformist Muggles who hate change. In their opinion, having a "wizard" in the family is a great shame!
Uncle Vernon even locked Harry's owl Hedwig in its cage, preventing it from delivering messages to anyone in the wizarding world.
"Ron, Hermione... Neville, why didn't you send me a letter?" Harry lay on the bed in pain, missing his friends, "If you can remember to send your owl, then I will It’s not like I can’t even send a letter…”
Just when Harry was about to burst into tears, the sound of turning pages in a book came from the window.
Harry subconsciously turned around and saw a blank diary with a black cover, turning its pages automatically without wind.
"Tom?!" Harry walked to the window in surprise and looked at the blank diary with tears in his eyes. "How did you get out of the cupboard under the stairs?"
Then he realized that the diary could not hear his voice directly, so he found a secretly hidden quill from the seam of the bed, dipped some saliva in his mouth, and wrote what he had just said in the diary. The problem.
Two lines of beautiful handwriting emerged from the blank pages of the diary:
"Harry, I told you that I can use a small amount of magic."
"Then can you take me away from this hateful place?" Harry wrote, "I don't want to stay here anymore, but I lost my wand again, and I can't deal with them without the ability to use magic. "
"Be patient, Harry." The diary wrote, "Although I don't have the power to take you out of here, I can give you a good idea."
"First of all, we must avenge you for all the suffering you have suffered!"
Seeing the scrawled writing on the diary, Harry hesitated.
"Isn't this bad?" he wrote. "I can't use magic outside of school. I'll be expelled."
"Don't worry, I will take revenge on them for you." The diary wrote seductively, "There will be no flaws. On the day when school starts, you can still take the express train to Hogwarts as usual."
"Now tell me, does this family have anything important to do recently? I will destroy their affairs for you, and when the revenge is completed, I will get your wand back for you."
Harry thought for a long time, but finally the idea of getting his wand back prevailed, so he gritted his teeth and wrote in his diary:
"Tonight, Uncle Vernon will receive a wealthy builder and his wife. They are very important guests. This is related to the sales of his drill bits this year."
"I see."
Such writing appeared on the page of the diary, and then there was no movement.
Harry carefully placed the diary under the mattress, fearing that it would be discovered by Uncle Vernon and the others.
…
At night, in the restaurant at No. 4 Privet Drive.
Vernon Dursley was talking to the rich builder, and Mr. Mason and his wife were chatting awkwardly.
"...Mrs. Mason, tell Petunia those American plumber jokes, she's always wanted to hear them..." Vernon Dursley said to the builder's wife with what he thought was a kind smile.
At this moment, the diary quietly appeared on top of the cupboard in the corner of the dining room.
"Finite."
The incantation of a universal breaking spell appeared on the blank page of the diary.
The unplottable spell and avoidance spell originally placed on this house by the diary were instantly lifted. The next moment, an owl that had been wandering nearby for several hours rushed into the house like a whirlwind.
It was hovering near the ceiling in the living room, looking for direction, as if it had not yet reacted to the perception that it had just been blocked.
After a while, it spread its wings and flew towards Harry's room.
When Mrs. Mason saw the owl, she immediately let out a shrill scream and fled the house, shouting "madman, madman".
Mr. Mason stayed for a moment longer. He told the Dursleys that his wife was terribly afraid of birds of all kinds, big and small, and asked if this was a deliberate joke on their part.
Vernon Dursley smiled awkwardly and watched Mr. Mason leave.
After Mr. Mason left, he immediately rushed up the stairs with a vigorous step that was not commensurate with his size.
"What the hell! What are you doing! What! Ghost?!" Uncle Vernon said through gritted teeth, and put his face in front of Harry, so close that it was terrifying.
"I stayed in the room the whole time and didn't do anything!" Harry glanced at the place under the mattress in a panic and said through gritted teeth.
He really didn't do anything, he was just waiting for good news from Diary Tom.
"Owl! Owl again!
Vernon's face turned red, and he was furious, "Last year it was this hateful bird that made our family homeless, and this year it's the one that ruined a big deal of my business!"
"
He pressed down on Harry like a big bulldog, teeth all exposed.
"Owl?" Vernon said with a crazy expression, "Ah, I have news for you, boy... I'm going to lock you up... No owl can get close to you! And you can never go back to that school! Never. !
"
Uncle Vernon was true to his word and had someone put bars on Harry's window the next day.
He personally installed a trap door in the bedroom door and sent a small amount of food through it three times a day. They let Harry out to use the toilet every morning and evening and locked him in the house the rest of the time.
"Tom, look at the good things you have done." Harry sat by the window, watching the sun set behind the window grille, thinking sadly about his future fate, and wrote in his diary, "Destroyed Uncle Vernon's The good thing did make me happy, but I couldn’t get out again.”
A line of writing appeared on the diary, which was particularly dazzling in the strip of sunlight in front of the window grille.
"Harry, don't forget that you are a wizard." The diary wrote, "A wizard will not be imprisoned and free by a group of Muggles."
"But underage wizards cannot use magic outside of school." Harry wrote, "If I really use magic, I will be expelled from Hogwarts."
"Don't worry, Harry, the Ministry of Magic will only issue a warning to young wizards who violate the rules for the first time." The diary slyly wrote, "Would you rather be locked up in this small room for the rest of your life, or would you rather fight and leave?" Where is this place of suffering?”
"Think of the spell I taught you earlier, Harry."
The diary turned again on its own, and finally closed it, leaving only the black cover hidden in the receding sunlight.
Under the original cover of the diary, a holly wand lay quietly.
…
…