Hogwarts: Bourne Returns from Warhammer

At this time, the suite of Umberto Hotel seemed to have become a besieged city - people inside wanted to get out, and people outside wanted to come in...

Time goes back ten minutes to before.

With a soft "pop" sound, seven or eight old wizards and witches headed by Horace appeared in the back alley of the Umberto Hotel.

They had arrived in Palermo from London's Knockturn Alley with a portkey in the shape of a torn boot, which had a strange smell of raw leather soaked in vinegar.

However, because time was urgent, most of these wizards who had been pampered for a long time did not care about anything more. At most, they could only rub the few fingers that had touched the door key on their clothes.

They walked non-stop through the passage reserved by the Italian Ministry of Magic in the back alley and entered the hotel named after the last Italian king.

Following the pungent smell of gun smoke, they quickly found the suite where a fierce battle was taking place. At this time, some people had gathered around the door of the suite. They all heard the noise and ran out to watch the excitement. Among them were ordinary Muggle hotel guests and wizards who came up from the Ministry of Magic downstairs to see the excitement.

Horace and the others were all powerful wizards, and magic gave them extremely keen intuition, so they immediately confirmed that this blocked suite should be the place they were looking for.

"What happened?" Babajide Akinbad frowned and complained as he saw that some of the people around him included Muggle hotel guests.

Without saying hello to the people from the local Ministry of Magic in Italy, the most famous wizarding world in Africa directly used a "Muggle Expelling Curse" on the crowd.

The spell had an effect, and the Muggle hotel guests who were watching the excitement recalled that they seemed to have something important to do, so they hurriedly left here.

The only ones present were wizards.

Unlike the British Ministry of Magic, which has several important departments like the Department of Mysteries that operate year-round. The only employees of the Italian Ministry of Magic who will be staying on Christmas Eve are some Aurors who maintain minimum security throughout the territory.

These people did not know these old men and women who were "dressed very differently from Sicilian people", but fortunately the director of the Auror Office was also on duty at the Ministry of Magic tonight.

Although he was enjoying a sumptuous dinner consisting of thick macaroni with tomato sauce, roasted lamb, olives, red and green salad made with virgin olive oil, and bottled wine in bamboo baskets, after receiving the news, he promptly came from He ran from his underground office to the hotel lobby.

The director is a pure-blood wizard.

Therefore, he knew the social circle of wizards better than his subordinates, and he naturally recognized who those old men and women were.

After considering whether he should renounce wizard society or become an "unqualified person" (note), whichever was the lesser of the two evils, he first spoke to the "Shadow Minister of Magic" Don Marlowe in his heart. He apologized and planned to visit during the Christmas holiday, and then gave orders to his subordinates.

"Open the door to this suite."

However, what he didn't expect was that the few Aurors who stayed on duty could not find the gatekeeper of Don Malo's exclusive suite no matter how hard they searched.

Someone at the front desk of the Ministry of Magic told them that old Vescovo, who was supposed to be on duty tonight, had taken a temporary leave not long ago and left the Umberto Hotel.

This abnormal situation gave the director of the Italian Auror Office some bad premonitions. And when a young Auror tried to use violent means to break down the door, he actually triggered a few booby traps and triggered an explosion. It was obviously the middle of winter, but he broke out in a cold sweat.

Horace, who was eager to find his grandson, couldn't wait any longer. The chubby old man used his walrus-like body to squeeze through several Italian Aurors blocking his way, and used a freezing spell on the door of the suite.

(Although it is called "freezing spell", it not only freezes objects or creatures, but is more like a more powerful "petrification of everything". Potion makers and alchemists tried it hundreds of years ago. , used the "Freezing Curse" to deal with erroneous potions and failed magic experiments, and found that it could effectively avoid explosions. Until more than a hundred years ago, another wizard discovered that the "Freezing Curse" could also deal with explosions made by Muggles. It’s still very useful.)

Then, Horace faced the chained door and cast several spells specially used to unlock locks, such as "Open the Alaho", "Open the Door", "Open Sesame" and so on.

As a result, the chains tied to the hinges were untied, but the thick door was still closed.

Horace, who did not believe in evil, used the "blasting spell" on the door and the wall next to it. However, he found that after his spell hit the target, it was like a mud cow sinking into the sea, and the magic wave disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.

"This won't work." Babajide Akinbad hurriedly stopped Horace. It could be seen from the shape of his mouth that this anxious old friend was ready to summon the black magic fire spell to break the door.

In addition to Horace, Professor Newt Scamander also took out his good friend Pickett from his coat pocket, trying to get the Bowtruckle to use its retractable fingers to get into the door lock and pry open the lock core. .

As a result, the Bowtruckle's fingers reached in, but he was unable to pry the mechanical lock cylinder that had been welded tightly before a certain gatekeeper left.

Professor Hicks from Ilvermorny opened the magic book she carried with her. After using special "book magic" to detect the walls and doors, she came to a not-so-splendid conclusion.

"The walls and gates were built with goblin magic silver, or a large amount of goblin iron - this is similar to Gringotts's vault - even using extremely powerful spells can't help it for a while. Destroy them."

"Why did you build such a strong room when you have nothing to do?" Babajide Akinbad asked the director of the Auror Office in confusion.

The latter groaned and was speechless.

In fact, this room was indeed built by the Italian Ministry of Magic, but it was used as a private residence.

It belonged to Don Marlowe.

The "Shadow Minister of Magic" rarely goes home and spends most of the night in this extremely secure suite. Living here is also more convenient for him to learn about what is going on or about to happen within the Italian Ministry of Magic. Everything that happens.

"The vault of Gringotts?" Professor Hicks's comment made Horace think of a solution to the problem: "So, the craftsman who built this room is probably a goblin? Find them here, right? Can you open this door?"

His idea is correct, but it is not entirely correct - these old wizards and old witches want to enter the suite, but they are blocked by solid doors and walls. The inertia of their thinking makes them keep trying to use Magic to solve problems. And I didn't think about it at all. If I couldn't break through the door and the wall, couldn't I try to break the window from the outside and enter the room?

This is the limitation of wizard thinking.

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Although the earliest banks for Muggles appeared in Italy in the 16th century, wizards living in Italy today have almost no way to enjoy Gringotts' services in the country.