Torquil Travers remained there without moving, but everyone else, including Lucius Malfoy, followed Burke and descended the stairs.
The dim light in the basement illuminated the faces of the wizards as they entered, displaying intriguing and unreadable expressions. They were all secretly calculating, many murmuring to themselves: What if those treasures really are still in Burke's possession? It would be embarrassing to back down now.
Burke led them to a corner of the basement where a painting hung. If someone were familiar with non-magical paintings, they might recognize it as an imitation of Jacques-Louis David's canvas, the founder of French neoclassicism, titled "The Death of Marat" from 1793, with the difference that the background had been changed to a brick wall.
Burke drew his wand and counted the bricks on the wall, tapping the seventh brick in the thirteenth row. The painting opened silently, revealing a dark room behind.
"This is the secret chamber where I stored all your treasures," Burke said as he bowed slightly to the wizards behind him, gesturing for them to enter before him.
The creditors looked at each other, speechless, and followed him into the room behind the painting.
The room was small, with only a few square meters, and was crammed with shelves. Once inside, there was barely room to move.
The room had no source of light, and being in the basement, it was completely dark. However, Mr. Burke was kind and cast a lighting spell to provide visibility for his customers. Not only did Mr. Burke use the lighting spell, but others also instinctively pulled out their wands to provide light.
"Mr. Malfoy, here is your property..." Burke's voice echoed from deep within the room as he, with some effort, brought down a box from the top of a shelf and handed it to Lucius.
"Oh, well... This is wonderful!" Lucius had a happy smile on his face as he instinctively reached out to receive the box. He didn't expect that Burke really hadn't lost his possessions.
Lucius now regretted underestimating the situation. He didn't realize that since they entered this room, Mr. Burke seemed a bit distracted. In fact, since he used that lighting spell, he had been silently counting numbers in his mind.
When Lucius took the box, Burke suddenly shouted, "Don't touch that handrail!" This startled Lucius, who trembled and dropped the box to the ground. The box opened as it fell, revealing a pile of sand scattered on the floor.
The wizard at the end of the line looked puzzled at Burke, his hand resting on a shelf's handrail.
The other wizards also instinctively directed their gaze there.
At that moment, something happened that sent shivers down their spines: the room's door slammed shut.
They all had a sense of imminent danger, and the next moment, the entire room was engulfed in flames. The interior of the room turned into a sea of all-consuming fire.
For an ordinary person, being trapped in a room like this would mean certain death, but these wizards were different. They all knew magic and were experts in Apparition Charms. Before the sea of fire consumed them, the pure-blood wizards began to glow with various colors, followed by a series of explosions. They used the Apparition Charm to escape from this deadly place.
This secret room was protected by a powerful spell activated by Burke: if someone attempted to release illumination magic or light a candle within the room, the door would close one minute later, and fire would engulf the entire room, reducing it to ashes.
To safely enter the secret room, there were only two options: either enter in complete darkness or use one of Borgin and Burke's treasures, the "Owl's Eye." It was an object similar to a contact lens that, when worn, greatly enhanced night vision. With this treasure on, the dim external light would be enough to see everything clearly.
After Mr. Burke entered, he silently counted, and when he deemed it the right moment, he shouted loudly, diverting Lucius and the others' attention, making them believe that someone had triggered the secret chamber's mechanism. When the fire erupted, he used the Apparition Charm to escape the room. He didn't care at all about the fate of the people left trapped in the room; it was best if they died.
Burke's purpose in shouting was to create the illusion that they hadn't been brought to this place by him and that he had no intention of harming them. Burke orchestrated such a complex operation to make Lucius and the others believe that Burke had perished in the fire, so they would stop searching for him.
After the commotion subsided, he would return and retrieve his hidden items. Yes, Burke's belongings were not lost in the fire. This secret room protected by a defensive spell was not Mr. Burke's vault, but rather a trap he intentionally left. The treasure room was beneath this chamber, a chamber within another chamber.
Who would have thought there was a secret room within another secret room?
At that moment, Burke stood in a dusty room. He remained steady and calm as a stream of water gushed from the tip of his wand, extinguishing the flames on his wizarding robes.
After dealing with those matters, Burke shaved off his beard and changed his clothes, putting on sunglasses. At that moment, Burke looked completely different. He took a box from under the bed and, in the blink of an eye, disappeared using the Apparition Charm.
Meanwhile, Lucius Malfoy fell heavily to the floor of his own house. The flames quickly spread across his body, turning him into a man on fire.
"Dobby! Water!" Lucius roared in pain. The next moment, a house-elf appeared by his side, extinguishing the flames.
Lucius got up with rage on his face and kicked the house-elf. "Damn you, what are you wasting time for! Do you want to see me burnt to death?"
Dobby trembled in place, muttering quietly, "Dobby dares not, Dobby..."
"Shut up!" Lucius shouted. Dobby didn't dare delay for even a second because his contract didn't allow it, but that didn't stop Lucius from venting his anger on Dobby.
...
In the White Dolphin Prison, Borgin maliciously rejoiced while imagining the fate of his former associate. He could almost hear Burke's screams of rage and humble pleas. He felt not an ounce of sympathy for what had happened to his partner because, without a doubt, Burke was also a despicable person. Borgin had long felt a strong dislike for him.
The reason Borgin didn't like Burke wasn't that Burke was a bad person. Borgin, being honest with himself, knew that he wasn't a good guy either. What really bothered him about Burke was that, in his opinion, Burke's professional ability was genuinely mediocre.