Chapter 185: Melee And A Traitor
If someone could have observed this wealthy district from a bird’s-eye view, they would have seen that at the moment Kingsley and Lupin’s street was enveloped by a sudden Explosion Charm.
A mêlée also spread across the area at the same time.
No one knew how any of this had happened, including Donald Graves, and including Jacob Graves.
The two brothers’ eyes swept in shock over the houses standing in the darkness, the screams constantly echoing, striking their consciousness like some kind of curse.
What in the world is going on?
Crackle!
The sound of spatial distortion caused the two of them and the Aurors around them to instinctively point their wands, and then they saw a figure covered in blood squeeze out of the air, his body severely dismembered, his lower half already gone.
But the wizard’s strong life force kept him alive!
Seeing Donald and Jacob, this wizard, while spitting blood, struggled and shouted, “Deputy Minister, it was Jack… Captain Jack betrayed us! I saw him kill Gerard, Maria… Merlin, oh…”
Betrayal?
What a foreign word!
Such a thing had never happened among Aurors. The reason was simple: their surnames were all Graves, they came from the same family. Under the clan politics system, the Graves family ruling the Department of Magical Security wasn’t just for show.
But now was clearly not the time for an in-depth investigation.
“Healer! Come quickly and tend to Daniel’s injuries!”
While running over with two Aurors, he cast a simple healing spell, managing to stop the bleeding for the Auror named Daniel.
Donald, while suppressing the panic that arose within him due to the situation clearly spiraling out of control, tried to manage his emotions.
As the Auror commander, he had extensive experience in handling sudden combat missions, and this attempt quickly proved effective.
By the time the accompanying healer arrived and took over Daniel’s care, Donald had calmed down and made a preliminary assessment.
Without a doubt, their current location was precarious.
When they had initially made their tactical arrangements, their target was to surround William’s residence. But now, with Jack Graves’ betrayal, those tactical arrangements had instead become a siege against them!
Glancing at the open street where everyone was located, Donald quickly made a judgment: “It’s too open. Once those traitors complete their first wave of attack, they can strike from all sides at will. We can’t stay here… Tom, gather all Aurors who know the Mist Charm and create enough mist to cover a fifty-foot radius as quickly as possible!”
“Yes!”
An Auror Captain acknowledged and soon, leading over a dozen Aurors, began casting. Dense mist sprayed from the tips of their wands.
As the mist spread, the traitors in the distant houses noticed the anomaly here. Some, having already dealt with their targets, fired spells towards them.
But Donald had already made arrangements; Jacob was leading the remaining Aurors, keeping a constant vigil around them.
They conjured a Protego Maxima, a thin, faintly glowing shield that blocked the sporadic spells.
Meanwhile, Donald quickly unfolded a piece of parchment, on which words refreshed like a waterfall:
【 Detected large amounts of magical fluctuation 】
【 Detected offensive magic 】
【 Significant Auror casualties, Team 3 all silent, Team 4 abnormal status, Team 5… 】
【 Deputy Minister Donald, what happened? 】
On the other side of the parchment was the intelligence aggregation agency of the Department of Magical Security. They had been the ones transmitting information about this area to him, and they were also the direct contact agency for the Dreamcatcher Administration.
Donald stared at the parchment, looking at the last continuously refreshing query, hesitating slightly.
The Dreamcatcher could meticulously detect all information within an area, but at least before that Bombarda Maxima struck Lupin and Kingsley, he had seen no abnormal reports on the parchment regarding Jack’s betrayal.
Of course, he knew the Dreamcatcher wasn’t omnipotent; it clearly couldn’t see into people’s hearts.
But Donald, having just experienced betrayal, had to consider something more terrifying: if Jack could betray them, what about the intelligence agency on the other side of the parchment?
Even more serious was the Dreamcatcher Administration…
Shaking his head, Donald dispelled the unease and doubt in his heart, conjured a quill, and wrote on the parchment:
“Jack Graves has betrayed us. Immediately transfer this information to Congress, and I, in the name of the Deputy Minister of the Department of Magical Security, authorize you to temporarily command the Dreamcatcher Administration to activate the Dreamcatcher Spatial Lockdown Protocol: Boston Apparition Ban!”
As he wrote this order, sweat beaded on Donald’s forehead.
It was a mixture of concern that the intelligence agency might also contain traitors, and because this order essentially placed his own fate and that of all surviving Aurors around him on the line!
But he had to do it.
The faint sounds of battle around them had not ceased. He had to find a way to rescue those Aurors, but before rescuing them, he first had to ensure that the enemy could not use Apparition to easily infiltrate the battlefield—
This would both prevent those traitors from sending people into this street to cause chaos,
and also prevent the forces supporting their betrayal from sending reinforcements!
Yes, Donald was certain that Jack’s betrayal was a conspiracy orchestrated by a third party.
Jacob’s concerns had become reality; William and the leaked classified documents were a lure.
It was meant to lure Aurors from Congress and the WAC, and the Federation, to all appear here to contend for the classified documents.
“In the mastermind’s plan, they wanted to see us, the WAC, and the Federation clash fiercely over the classified documents, perhaps even resulting in casualties and animosity. One could say their plan almost succeeded; the guy behind the scenes knew Michael very well.”
“But they didn’t expect that I would give up using force first after Jacob’s persuasion. Of course, more importantly, the WAC and the Federation didn’t fall for it either… Vaughn Weasley…”
Thinking of the fragmented intelligence inadvertently revealed by Nymphadora Tonks not long ago, Donald felt a complex mix of emotions.
When had this twelve-year-old wizard, whom he had never met, seen through the conspiracy?
…
“Just as you predicted, there was indeed a hidden rat.”
In the distance, neon lights illuminated the rooftop of a hotel.
Ajinbad stood beneath a massive sign, the light casting him in a dark red glow as he gazed at the district that had completely fallen into darkness deep within the city.
It was not peaceful in the darkness; flashes representing various spells suddenly lit up and quickly extinguished.
Intense magical fluctuations, like chaotic ripples, continuously spread and expanded, sweeping across the night sky.
“A fierce battle. It seems the Magical Congress has been heavily infiltrated; there are quite a few traitorous Aurors.”
“Yes, I didn’t expect that either.”
Ajinbad turned around, seeing a fluctuation in the shadow beneath a water tower behind him. Vaughn, clad in robes, emerged, a Guardian Spirit at his feet.
It seemed to have expended a significant amount of power, appearing somewhat faint. Ajinbad glanced at it: “Just called it back from over there?”
“Mmm.”
“Any news?”
“It’s alright. Lupin and Kingsley reacted quickly and weren’t seriously injured.”
Ajinbad shook his head: “You’re too merciful. Sometimes sacrifices are necessary for certain objectives. If you’re always so concerned about the lives of those below, how will you be able to act freely in the future?”
Vaughn looked at him and said nothing.
They had different philosophies, so there was nothing more to say. Ajinbad, having operated for decades, in his homeland, among countless subordinates in the Federation, truly considered human lives to be “insignificant” compared to his political ambitions.
“Are your people ready?” he changed the subject and asked.
Ajinbad nodded: “They have already rendezvoused with your people at the location you specified.”
“Mmm, inform them, tell them to…”
The words suddenly stopped. Vaughn looked up, gazing at the sky, which appeared empty to Ajinbad.
In Vaughn’s eyes, it was not a dark sky, nor was it just drifting clouds. The entire sky was a riot of color, with translucent “ribbons” hanging down from the clouds, swaying and writhing, as if an invisible giant beast were hidden within the stacked layers of clouds.
It was extending its tentacles to touch the city!
For the past few days, these tentacles had tightly wrapped around the hotel where he was staying, investigating every minute movement within the hotel, not missing a single piece of information.
However, at this moment, they were finally leaving.
The “ribbons” swept across the city sky, soft and continuous, like curtains drifting in the wind. The field of vision was filled with their semi-transparent light, yet even so, more were still hanging down from the horizon.
The colorful lights grew brighter.
Vaughn saw some ribbons suddenly vanish into the air… no, they were merging with space!
The research into dimensional gates had significantly improved Vaughn’s Apparition proficiency:
【 Apparition （ Form LV3（22/24）】
The improvement in spell proficiency, coupled with the experience gained from researching dimensional gates, made him increasingly sensitive to spatial changes. He could feel that as more and more ribbons disappeared, the space of the city was undergoing some peculiar transformation.
It was becoming more “stubborn,” more difficult to distort or reverse, and less responsive to a wizard’s will!
“Spatial lockdown…?” Vaughn murmured.
“Wh…” Ajinbad was about to ask, but then he too froze, and looked at Vaughn with a strange expression: “How exactly do you practice magic? I’ve spent my entire life practicing Apparition, and I still don’t understand it as well as you do?”
“Just messing around a bit.”
Vaughn replied perfunctorily, ignoring Ajinbad’s twitching expression, and muttered, “The Auror commander over there is even more decisive than I anticipated!”
“Heh, I’d say more soft-hearted than you. A truly qualified commander, in the current situation, should prioritize leading the Aurors around them to escape the battlefield and preserve their strength, which should take precedence over blind rescue!”
Ajinbad retorted instinctively.
Both were shrewd individuals. The moment they sensed the spatial lockdown, they understood the Auror commander’s intention in ordering the Dreamcatcher to prohibit Apparition.
Vaughn paid no attention to his wild assertion. While rationally speaking, Ajinbad’s point did hold some truth.
After sensing for a moment, Vaughn twisted his wand fingers, lightly stirring the air.
As he moved, Ajinbad sensed invisible ripples caused by the disturbance of space. He knew Vaughn was attempting to restore spatial magic.
But he was not optimistic.
Ajinbad laboriously pulled out a brick-like mobile phone and grumbled, “I need to notify them to fly over quickly. Damn Yankees, always causing trouble. Apparition is so convenient… Hello? Can you hear me?”
The signal seemed poor. The old wizard patted his phone a few times and complained to Vaughn, “Stop wasting your effort. The Dreamcatcher’s lockdown is equivalent to an enhanced Anti-Apparition Charm. Unless you know Goblin magic, you won’t be able to break through it. Your fiddling is just interfering with my signal.”
However, his complaint received no response from Vaughn. Only upon hearing the word “signal” did Vaughn nod and mutter, “Hmm, signal, an interesting metaphor… Normal Apparition is like a signal transmission mechanism, isn’t it? Wizards communicate with space using strong intent and magic power, causing space to respond and change. The principle of the Anti-Apparition Charm is to interfere with this transmission mechanism, preventing space from responding to the wizard’s will… This method is very much like frequency jamming. Goblins, house-elves, and magical creatures are unaffected because they use a different ‘frequency band’ than wizards…”
“…”
Ajinbad thought Vaughn had gone mad.
Just as he was shaking his head and preparing to move further away to make a call, he heard Vaughn’s whisper in the wind: “By making a few modifications to the original parameters, this problem can be temporarily bypassed. Ordinary wizards can’t do it, but I happen to be able to…”
“Science, or rather the scientific method, is indeed the primary productive force!”
What blasphemy!
As an eighty-something-year-old wizard who had even dabbled in Muggle studies, hearing such “heretical” words, Ajinbad instinctively wanted to retort.
But the next second, his eyes widened.
In the hazy neon light, he clearly saw that as Vaughn’s wand swept across again, a smooth, peculiar vortex appeared abruptly.
It was so strange, looking like a vortex, like a circle, like a sphere, but upon closer inspection, it resembled more a cylindrical passage with only its cross-section exposed!
A passage leading to another space.
It wasn’t an illusion, because he genuinely felt a breeze, much more humid than that on the rooftop, blowing out from that sphere, from that passage.
Swish!
Swish!
He heard the sound of the tide!
…
“Apparition has been banned!”
“Damn it!”
“Hahaha, cowardly Donald, only capable of such petty tricks. Has anyone seen where he is?”
“Still near that house, but he’s already hidden in the Mist Charm. Coward!”
As the mist spread, the jeers from the surroundings kept coming, but Donald turned a deaf ear, continuing to read the updated intelligence on his parchment.
He was forcing himself to concentrate and not be distracted, because rather than responding to the traitors, he wanted to use intelligence analysis to figure out how to rescue more Aurors.
However, time and the enemy did not give him much opportunity.
Suddenly, an explosion sounded in the distance. Amidst the booming rumble, a woman’s voice laughed heartily: “Marcus, you poor thing, why are you still struggling? Donald has already abandoned you, why not consider surrendering? As long as you swear to betray the Graves family, Jack and we might consider accepting you… Of course!”
The person’s voice suddenly became loud, as if an Amplifying Charm had been cast: “And for others, perhaps in your current view, Jack and we are traitors, but that’s just because your thinking hasn’t opened up. You’re accustomed to thinking within the confines of conventional thought patterns, accustomed to seeing yourselves as part of the Graves family and viewing things from the family’s perspective.”
“But my brothers and sisters, are habits always correct? When you considered yourselves part of the Graves family, vowing to share its glory and never leave, how did the family treat us?”
“The family… oh no, the esteemed Lords of the main branch, how do they usually order you around? Tart from Team 2, do you remember how you got injured two months ago? In such a short time, I’m sure you haven’t forgotten. It was dear Madam Adela who sent you to hunt Thunderbirds in Arizona, simply because dear Adela wanted Thunderbird tail feathers to decorate her newly purchased hat!”
“Jacob, my dear, are you there? I noticed you were injured before we left, your chest still not healed, right? I heard Michael beat you badly and broke your ribs. My heavens, what a tragic life. Michael wasn’t even that rough with the dog he kept!”
“Oh, and of course, there’s you, Marcus, the story of your father and mother…”
“Enough!”
Boom!
Another roar came from over there.
The hand clutching the parchment trembled, not from the sound, but because he suddenly realized the true danger of these traitors!
Marcus, don’t be affected!
No!
Sweat trickled down his forehead, but unfortunately, fate did not turn in the direction of his prayer. From the place where the roar came, after a few hurried whistles of spells slicing through the air.
Marcus’s angry roar was replaced by a scream.
The woman’s voice let out a high-pitched, triumphant laugh.
A few breaths later, a dark shadow was flung from afar. Through the disturbed mist, one could vaguely discern it was a human body.
It landed about twenty feet from Donald and the others, convulsing violently. Some kind of high-pressure liquid sprayed from the body’s surface, and a strong smell of rust filled the air.
Simultaneously, the crisp sound of high heels on the ground grew closer, until it reached the side of the convulsing body.
One could vaguely see that it was a tall, slender woman.
She kicked the body at her feet and sighed, “Poor Marcus. When we were playing together as children, I worried his mentality wasn’t suited for being an Auror. See, I was right. He was too influenced by his Squib mother; self-conscious, timid, sensitive… Don’t you agree, Deputy Minister Donald?”
“Evelyn, you damned venomous woman—”
The wizard named Tom, who had been guarding Donald since the Mist Charm spread, couldn’t help but draw his wand.
Jacob quickly pulled him back.
In the distance, Evelyn, hearing the curse, shook her head: “Tsk, Tom, my dear cousin, it truly hurts me that you would slander me like this. Shall we talk about your family and experiences instead, okay…”
Her voice abruptly stopped.
A red light passed through the mist. She deflected it with her wand, but it also interrupted her words.
It was Donald who made the move!
He knew he couldn’t let her continue. His thinking had been too limited before; he hadn’t realized the impact of Jack and the others’ betrayal.
He didn’t know the true reason for their betrayal, but they could package a “reason.” And based on their shared surname and origin, they could easily find the pain points of their former colleagues and evoke empathy.
Donald noticed that while Evelyn was speaking, most of the Aurors around him were instinctively listening.
“They might just want to know why Evelyn betrayed them, but when Evelyn spoke of Tart’s experience, of Jacob’s and Marcus’s experiences, empathy began to build… because their experiences were true, and the betrayal gradually took on the guise of class struggle!”
Thinking this, Donald let out a wry smile.
Did Evelyn’s words have any validity?
Yes.
Let alone ordinary Aurors, Donald asked himself, when he heard that Michael had hit Jacob, did he not feel resentment and anger?
Over hundreds of years, how much anger had accumulated from the main branch’s control and oppression of the collateral branches?
It was just that this anger couldn’t be vented normally. And today, regardless of the reason for betrayal, Jack and Evelyn had indeed demonstrated to the Graves what “resistance” meant!
“Alas…”
With a sigh, Donald flicked his wand, casting a silent spell that rained down on Evelyn.
At the same time, he cast an Amplifying Charm on himself: “I am Donald Graves. All Aurors who hear my voice, do not believe Evelyn’s incitement. Preserve yourselves as much as possible, mark your positions when you have the opportunity, and I will personally lead a team to rescue you. I mean what I say!”
As he spoke, he waved his hand, summoning a gust of wind towards the spreading fog, both to determine the location of the survivors and to allow them to see him and maintain their confidence.
This would undoubtedly expose him.
But he had no other choice!
The wind howled, sweeping over the shattered concrete on the ground, billowing his trench coat. The mist was stripped away strand by strand, and his vision gradually cleared.
Finally, casting a Disarming Charm, he forced Evelyn, who was in a sorry state under his continuous attacks, to retreat. Donald sighed, adjusted his top hat, and said to Tom, Jacob, and the Aurors looking at him:
“I apologize, everyone. I didn’t consult you. We can discuss everything after the rescue!”
The wind swept through, and as the fog dissipated, the street and the Aurors were completely exposed.
In the darkness, countless complex, malicious, fanatical, and indifferent gazes were cast upon him. Facing those gazes, Donald straightened up, not shrinking back into the protection of the Aurors, but standing alone at the forefront of the formation.
As he had said, whether it was to stay and rescue people, or to respond to Evelyn’s provocative words and bolster the confidence of others,
these were all his own decisions, made without consulting anyone in the team.
Naturally, he should be the first to bear the consequences!
Donald raised his wand, not stopping the wind, but casting two short spells to make the wind even more fierce and violent.
Countless cement, soil, and gravel were whipped into the air by the raging wind. Amidst the flying sand and stones, Donald subtly flicked his wand, sending a wisp of sand along the wind’s trajectory towards Evelyn, with several cold glints hidden within.
Having just recovered from the impact of the Disarming Charm, Evelyn saw a wind carrying sand rushing towards her and, without hesitation, dragged over a piece of rubble, instantly turning it into a shield to block in front of herself.
Clang clang clang!
A series of crisp metal impacts. Evelyn’s face turned pale, but she still chuckled, “Deputy Minister, you’re living up to your reputation. Your fighting style is still as insidious as it was ten years ago when we first became Aurors.”
Donald’s face was stern, and he said nothing, but his wand movements became even more intense, blasting Evelyn back with two consecutive Blast-Ended Skrewts.
At the same time, his intuition sensed an unusual movement approaching him from the left.
Donald stopped his pursuit, sidestepped sharply, and the invisible object that sliced through the air brushed past him. The next moment, in his peripheral vision, he saw the cement road behind him tremble violently, shattering like a piece of white paper struck by a whip swung at high speed.
Dust billowed!
“Cutting Curse…”
Donald, who had narrowly avoided being cut into pieces, showed no panic. While murmuring the name of the spell he had just encountered, he flipped through his memory, analyzing which traitor could wield the Cutting Curse with such effect.
Soon, a name surfaced in his mind.
His hand gripping the wand moved instinctively, rotating and pulling, complex movements completed in an instant. A wisp of the constantly blowing wind, following his call, swirled in his palm.
A powerful suction force instantly drew the surrounding dust and smoke towards him.
Transfiguration was cast silently.
Donald waved his hand, scattering the dust gathered in his palm towards the direction of the attack. The white dust dispersed in the wind, and the countless particles forming the dust rapidly enlarged at a visible speed.
In just one second, they had transformed into a “meteor shower” of giant rocks, crashing down.
Screams came from over there. A shadow distorted, and a person scrambled out frantically, trying to escape the range of the meteor shower.
Reflecting the fleeing figure in his pupils, Donald’s expression was blank. His wand lit up with a fiery red glow, the Bombarda Maxima was about to form, and he prepared to blow the opponent to death!
Then, he suddenly coughed.
“Cough, cough, cough—”
The sudden, violent coughing interrupted his spell. Donald felt as if his lungs were suddenly covered in downy hair, an unbearable itchiness spreading, and a foul, putrid smell sprayed from his trachea, mouth, and nose, as if his body were aging and rotting at that very instant.
“Curse!”
A new enemy!
As this thought arose, Donald reversed his wand and tapped himself. The widely applicable Spell-Stopping Charm was cast on himself.
Spell-Stopping Charm could not remove curses, but in intense combat, it could suppress the intensity of the curse’s onset.
The moment the itching sensation disappeared, Donald’s fingers spun, and his wand moved back. He sharply pointed to his right, and since he was unable to maintain the silent spell technique due to the curse, he loudly uttered the incantation:
” *Revelio*! “
A dazzling light exploded!
The light ripples expanded abruptly, darkness dissipated, and invisibility magic was also dispelled.
The same shadow, the same wizard hiding in the shadow. The moment he materialized, a Blast-Ended Skrewt had already been flung at him by Donald.
The burning giant fireball roared down. The person hastily conjured a shield charm. Another spell was already forming in Donald’s hand. Regardless of whether the wizard could block the Blast-Ended Skrewt, his demise seemed inevitable.
However, Evelyn, having regrouped, arrived!
The witch dragged over a pile of rubble. The faint glow of Transfiguration flickered continuously, and the various weapons and animals transformed from the debris swarmed towards Donald, forcing him to abandon the spell he had formed and defend himself instead.
The battle situation immediately reversed.
Donald’s expression finally changed, but it was one of bitterness. Three wizards, three different attack methods, cooperating and complementing each other, trapping the enemy in a constantly changing combination of spells, forcing him to focus all his efforts on defensive countermeasures, and leaving him exhausted.
This triangular tactic was all too familiar to him.
Members of the Graves family, from the moment they awakened their magic, had been trained in this tactic, and their past achievements proved it to be extremely reasonable and efficient!
It was just that he had never imagined he would be trapped by this tactic one day.
All of this actually happened very quickly, in less than ten seconds, but even upon realizing that Donald was being surrounded and in a dire situation, Jacob and the Aurors could not provide assistance for a time, as they too were under attack by traitors.
Ordinary Aurors were not as powerful as Donald and did not enjoy the “triangle tactic package.” However, because the enemies were their own compatriots with whom they had trained and grown up, the two sides were not only evenly matched in strength but also very familiar with each other’s routines and casting habits.
For a time, they fought to a standstill, unable to disengage.
However, this meant that three people seemed to be subconsciously overlooked…
Beside the road, in the corner of a house that had become a ruin.
Tonks stared at the battlefield outside, quite excited, which was evident from her constantly changing hair color.
“Wow, these Aurors are all so strong!”
“What is that spell? Is it a unique American magic? So colorful and… so smelly. It’s an evil curse…”
“Cruciatus Curse! Cruciatus Curse! Merlin’s socks, the witch who got hit looks so miserable, her face contorted in pain!”
“Ahem!” Kingsley coughed helplessly and said, “With all that energy for shouting, can you perhaps take care of us two wounded?”
“Oh…”
Tonks reluctantly left the half-broken window and hurried over to the two of them, blinking her eyes: “What should I do?”
“My ribs and leg bones are fractured. Help me reset them. Lupin’s ribs are fractured and also need resetting and fixing. The items are in my bag… Don’t rummage through it randomly, there’s also a gilded box, take it out…”
Under Kingsley’s direction, Tonks clumsily found the tools for resetting and fixing.
