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Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 266: The Strange Castle
Dolohov refused to show his fear to this boy.
"Ahh!" He shifted his weight to move sideways while throwing more curses at Harry.
Harry moved around, avoiding them, and then tapped his wand against one of the wooden walls.
"Let's end this."
The numerous bookshelves next to Dolohov exploded in a rain of sharp shards that stabbed his entire left side.
The man grunted in pain and lost his balance, eventually falling onto his broken hand.
"Ahhh! Fuck!"
"That looks like it hurts a lot." Harry approached him slowly.
The older man glanced at Harry with pure hatred in his eyes and was somehow able to push through the pain just long enough to pull a small object from his robes.
Harry reacted immediately.
"Dismembra!"
Dolohov let out a bloodcurdling scream as half his arm became detached from his body, along with the small object.
"You bloody monster! Argh!!" Dolohov clutched his stump against his chest.
Harry scoffed. "You hired an entire pack of werewolves to massacre a school filled with children. But I am the monster… sure."
"T-they were… they were only there to kill Longbottom… and you." Dolohov was starting to have trouble speaking. The light in his eyes was becoming dimmer.
"And anyone else who was present at the time… but that is not the only reason for my presence here. I want Parkinson… I know he is the one behind all of this."
"Hahha… argh!" Dolohov tried his best to laugh.
"You want Lord Parkinson?… and you think I can take you to him… keep dreaming, boy."
Harry didn't really expect this man to know the location of Parkinson's main house, just to point him in the right direction.
"What about Lord Nott? He is the one who is closest to him."
Dolohov remained silent for a moment. His eyes were starting to close as he had already lost too much blood.
"I… I'm not going to tell you… a… any… ah…" His eyes closed, and his chest stopped moving.
"Great…" Harry rolled his eyes.
"It's a good thing I have this… speak to me, Anthony Dolohov."
Green smoke started to emerge from the corpse.
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Harry got off his broom and took a better look at the house in front of him.
The place was massive, with a main building surrounded by five tall towers, all made of grey stone.
"This is a bloody castle… I didn't know the Rookwood family was this rich." Harry commented.
It was around midnight, and he could not see any light coming from any of the windows, indicating that everyone was likely asleep at the moment.
'It seems like waiting for the cover of night was the right decision.'
He did not know much about this wizard family, only that its Lord, Augustus Rookwood, had been in Azkaban for a very long time. He was one of the few followers of the Dark Lord who got out recently. This was also the only location that Harry was able to get out of Dolohov.
It was unfortunate, but the man did not have much useful information.
Parkinson must have had little trust in him because he was not told much.
Harry could now only hope that Rookwood would have something more to offer.
He anticipated for the wards on the castle to be many times more powerful than what he found at Dolohov's place, as it was expected from the home of an old noble pureblood family of wizards.
But when he scanned the surroundings, Harry could not detect any kind of active protection.
'What is going on?...' This made him more worried than encountering powerful wards.
This either meant that the protections were different than anything he had encountered before and he would not be able to break them or… something unexpected had happened here.
He was being cautious in his approach. First, he threw some rocks and other physical objects but was able to reach the wall of the castle with no issue.
Then he tried some spells, but once again… he encountered no resistance at all. It was like there was nothing at all protecting the home.
'This should not be… did they disable the wards? I cannot think of a single reason Rookwood would want to do that.' He tried to think of more ways to test this, but he had run out of options… the only thing he could do now was to try and enter in person.
'Okay… let's do this.'
"Magna Custodia!" Harry then created a layer of his most powerful defense around him and began to walk forward towards the main entrance.
He advanced very slowly while making sure he scanned the surroundings for any change.
But after five minutes, he arrived in front of the door, and nothing had happened. No changes, no movements, and no magical reactions.
He gave his wand a flick and the door opened.
'Nothing…' Once more, nothing had happened, so he stepped inside. The entrance hall was completely dark. Not a single candle or chandelier was lit.
Usually, you would keep some lights here, just in case someone had to leave or you had an unexpected visit.
Everything seemed to indicate that this ancient castle had no active magical wards.
And that could only suggest one thing… that someone got here before him.
He did not find it odd before, but now that he found this out…
'I can't detect a single presence in this castle…' He was now able to pick up magical signatures in a very large radius. But he did not feel anything while standing at the entrance of this house.
It was like… the place was completely deserted.
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