Chapter 398 A Chance Encounter with Miss Beetle
There is still one week before the International Federation of Wizards. In the next few days, Loren and the others casually wandered around this international metropolis.
To be honest, the impression of public transportation in New York is not good. If the dense lines and always crowded carriages in the subway stations are bearable, the damp and old platforms lie on the steps. The sleepy homeless man and the strong smell of urine that wafted from time to time broke through Wendel's psychological defense, and he rented a five-seater car through the hotel manager the next day.
Grandpa Bates held his breath and said in a muffled voice: "Even the sheepfold in my pasture is cleaner than here."
The high-rise buildings in Manhattan have lived up to the steel jungle. Most of the pedestrians on the road are in suits and leather shoes, walking in a hurry.
But Manhattan is probably the place where they have seen the most homeless people. The homeless people with blurred eyes are sitting in a dirty corner dragging large and small boxes with a cup in front of them, waiting for charity from passers-by on the road.
Although it is only separated from Manhattan by a river, Roosevelt Island shows a completely opposite state. It does not have the skyscrapers, feasting, dirty streets and pigeons that are too fat to fly on the Isle of Man. Instead, there are only apartment buildings in the architectural style of the last century, simple shops, and wild geese that are a little afraid of people.
Loren also saw several wizards in the crowd, with relaxed expressions, and they seemed to be traveling.
There are still two days before the International Confederation of Wizards. On this day they saw Van Gogh's "Starry Night", Monet's "Water Lilies" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and some others that were only seen in books and TV Oil paintings seen on.
Wendell and Monica stood in front of the oil painting for a long time. Even Bates was admiring the oil painting, nodding and pondering from time to time. The vicissitudes of his face and the deep expression seemed to tell a story.
Hermione and Loren walked together and talked to him about the birth, connotation and role of these oil paintings in art history...
"Vincent Van Gogh used exaggeration to vividly It depicts a starry sky full of movement and change..."
"The entire picture is swallowed up by a turbulent and turbulent blue-green torrent. The rotating, restless, and curling nebulae make the night sky extremely active and divorced from reality. The scene reflects Van Gogh's restless emotions and crazy world of hallucinations..."
The little witch is like an emotionless memorization machine, reciting information from nowhere.
"Shhh…"
Loren suddenly raised his index finger. He stopped in front of a framed abstract oil painting and made a quiet listening gesture: "Don't talk, just quietly appreciate the touch brought by the artwork."
Hermione After a moment of silence, he couldn't help but remind him: "But this is just a schematic diagram of the escape route."
"No, you don't understand..." Loren said meaningfully, "A person's identity lies in his location. , so is the work of art. Since this painting is framed and hung on the wall of the art gallery, it means that it is a work of art like Starry Moon Night and Water Lily."
"Nonsense. "Hermione rolled her eyes nicely.
"Isn't that what you were talking about just now..." Loren suddenly relaxed, stretched and walked forward, "I admit that those oil paintings are very beautiful and have unique beauty, but those long paragraphs Forget about long paragraphs of interpretation..."
"Speaking of which, I think the oil paintings in Hogwarts Castle are more interesting, especially Silly Barnabas——"
Loren's voice paused, and his eyes locked on a blond reporter in the crowd who was taking pictures. .
Hermione followed his gaze and exclaimed in surprise: "Miss Rita Skeeter?"
...
Next to the art gallery He found a booth facing the street in a coffee shop. Under the guidance of the waiter, Loren ordered a mocha for himself and a macchiato for Hermione. Finally, he glanced at Rita and ordered an iced Americano for her. .
"Loren Morgan, Hermione Granger?"
Rita looked a little nervous. She was very impressed by the two little wizards, especially the boy with black hair and eyes on the right.
A year ago, she sneaked into Hogwarts to find out the inside story of some secret room incidents. She was discovered on the spot by Loren Morgan. Once they met, she was put into a glass bottle and then sent to Professor McGonagall. After going through Professor Snape's interrogation, she revealed some secrets that could ruin her reputation and ruin her family.
In the following months, he was detained in the school as an assistant teacher in the Animagus teaching class. It was not until the holidays that he reached an agreement with Dumbledore. He would come here to find out some information for him in exchange for Hogwart I will keep her secret.
Recalling the agreement reached with Dumbledore and the news she had learned since the holidays, Rita gradually calmed down and raised her chin towards the two of them and snorted:
"Don't try to blackmail me with the Animagus thing again. My friend at the publishing house told me that your Professor McGonagall has registered Animagus for several students. I have also completed it at MACUSA." Animagus registration...and I have completed the agreement with Dumbledore."
Loren and Hermione looked at the reporter, compared to when they were teaching assistants in the teaching class last year. , Miss Beetle seems to be a little fatter, her long blond hair is styled into delicate curls, she is very stiff and looks weird, she wears narrow glasses, and her bright red nails are eye-catching.
Loren said gently: "We have no intention of blackmailing you, Ms. Skeeter. Meeting here is just a coincidence. We are just curious about why you appear here. You know, after all, this is Muggle art. "
As far as he knew, Rita was a pure-blood and had expressed her dislike of Muggles in many articles in the past.
"I'm doing a feature story for the New York Times…"
Rita pretended to admire her red nails casually, but her high-pitched tone showed a bit of pride.
"Sorry to interrupt, Ms. Skeeter, this should be a Muggle newspaper, right?" Loren asked curiously.
While talking, the waiter in the coffee shop has already brought the drinks and desserts from their shop.
Rita glanced at the iced American in front of her, then naturally picked up the coffee and took a sip. Her expression was calm, as if she had long been accustomed to this taste: "In the words of the wizards here, it's numb." Chicken."
Rita put down the iced American coffee: "Oh, the New York Times is indeed a non-wizard newspaper. Millions of people read it every day. Their editor thinks that my perspective is very novel, and the compensation given is very high. It's also rich enough…"
Loren and Hermione drank coffee in silence, feeling a little complicated. An arrogant pure-blood wizard seemed to have integrated into Muggle society and seemed to enjoy it all.
Miss Skeeter, who did not hear the praise or exclamation, waited for a few seconds, then silently put away her nails, picked up the iced American and took another sip. Rita frowned slightly and cleared her throat: "There is something else. Well, if nothing happens, I'll leave first."
Loren and Hermione wanted to hear the information Dumbledore asked her to inquire, but they were just ordinary students and couldn't ask questions, so they could only shake their heads.
Rita smiled happily: "For the sake of Hogwarts, I'll give you a piece of advice. Leave New York as soon as possible. Don't think about attending the International Federation of Wizards."
"What do you mean?" Loren and Hermione looked at her doubtfully.
"I don't know the details..."
Rita shrugged: "But last winter, many werewolves froze to death in Brooklyn, and many homeless people froze to death in Central Park. To be honest, every year The werewolves and tramps froze to death. But strangely, their bodies were missing."
"Bodies... missing..." Loren and Hermione repeated in a low voice.
"Yes, the bodies awaiting cremation in the funeral home and the bodies buried in the cemetery are missing."
Rita continued, "The No-Maj government suspects that someone is selling organs, or that some institution is using homeless people for human experiments, and the corpses have been disposed of. The werewolf leader suspects that someone is selling werewolf corpses as magic materials... But with the gold medal reporter's Intuitively, these two things may be related."
Loren looked thoughtful, the werewolf and the Muggle, which reminded him of Grandpa Bates.
"In addition, MACUSA has recorded multiple sightings. Some people have seen the corpse of a werewolf in the underground pipes in Brooklyn. They also purchased a batch of the venom of the Twisted Demon..."
Rita stared at the two of them and said matter-of-factly: "New York is going to be uneasy!"
Loren and Hermione were shocked by the news and curled up. The demon's venom has the effect of clearing short-term memory. The Magical Congress of the United States purchased the venom of the Curled-wing Demon, which means that officials believe that a large-scale magic exposure incident may occur in New York.
Today is not the era in the history books where cars and horses were slow and letters were far away. Electromagnetic waves have closely connected the whole world. There are countless cameras and tape recorders in the city, as well as dozens of news media that can broadcast live around the world. Such a large-scale magic exposure incident in an international metropolis with nearly 10 million people can almost be regarded as the magic world being exposed to ordinary people.
If magical remedies are adopted, Aurors in the Ministry of Magic all over the world will have to switch to memory cancellers, and the Oblivion Curse will become a must-learn spell for wizards.
Rita ignored what the two little wizards were thinking, picked up the Louis Vuitton limited edition handbag and stood up: "I will leave after taking today's information. I suggest again, either leave this city as soon as possible, Or seek refuge with Principal Dumbledore."
"Well, see you at Hogwarts next year!"
After that, Rita Shiran walked to the front desk of the coffee shop and swiped her card to pay. Neat and crisp, with familiar movements.
He looked like a Muggle expert.
...
"Loren, will there be a disaster in New York?"
Hermione asked worriedly.
Loren watched the reporter disappear into the crowded streets and shook his head: "Almost all the Ministry of Magic around the world will attend the joint conference, accompanied by a large number of Aurors, and Dumbledore is in charge. , I don't think there will be an irreversible mess..."
Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, but her heart started to pound again because of his next words.
"But I am worried that the possible confrontation will affect ordinary people."
"…"
July 1994, outside the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The carriages and horses are like dragons, and people are coming and going.
...
Back at the hotel that night, Hermione couldn't wait to enter the Book of Fantasy. After consulting with Flamel, she began to search for major magical events that had occurred in New York in the past hundred years in the history-categorized bookshelf.
In the bright library, the girl reads quietly on the desk.
Separated by a bookshelf, Loren simulated two corpses in mid-air.
The appearance of both corpses is that of middle-aged men. The corpse floating on the upper floor simulates an ordinary person who has frozen to death. The facial expression is half-smiling, the skin all over the body is pale or pink, and the exposed limbs are like chicken skin. The parts of the limbs that were not covered by clothes were purple and swollen, and there was a clear boundary with the parts covered by clothes.
The lower level is the corpse of a werewolf after death. The alien magic power in the body begins to dissipate due to the loss of life and soul. The werewolf characteristics will fade within a few minutes. The duration of the transformation will be extended on a full moon night, but it will eventually return. Looks like a normal person.
The dry and standing hairs are constantly growing and retracting under the skin, the sharp teeth are growing and retracting into the gums, and the werewolf corpse is constantly repeating the process of returning to its original shape after death.
According to Rita, there have been many sightings of werewolf corpses recently, and it is obvious that someone has preserved the characteristics of werewolf corpses.
"By what means..."
Loren's eyes wandered to the werewolf's body, and he waved his hand to turn the body over from time to time, with a glimmer of thought flashing in his eyes.
Combining the knowledge of anatomy and alchemy that I have learned, if the alien magic power can form a channel for circulation in the corpse, just like the magic circle engraved with magic text, it can slow down the process of dissipation of magic power.
Loren waved his wand, and a dim light circulated under the skin of the werewolf corpse, extending along the aorta of the limbs, eventually forming a magic text array connected from end to end.
With a gentle tap on the heart, weak magic power was pumped into the magic array, and the body stabilized in the werewolf form.
It's just that Loren still sensed the slow flow of magic power. Judging from the speed of the flow, the corpse's werewolf form can only last for half a month. However, more than half a year has passed since last winter. In those sewer pipes, Why can the werewolf corpse be kept for so long?
...
On the other side, Hermione easily found the records for December 1926.
Fantastic beast expert Newt Scamander traveled around the world under the commission of Obscurus Books to write the first edition of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". He arrived in New York in 1926 and lost his suitcase due to a series of coincidences. , leading to the loss of several magical animals, so he embarked on a journey to recover magical animals with the female Auror of the United States Ministry of Magic.
It happened that the first generation of Dark Lord Gellert Grindelwald was dealing with the United States Ministry of Magic and the Purifiers, using them to find the Obscurus with terrifying power. With the help of Gertler Grindelwald, half of New York was destroyed by the violent magic of Obscurus.
In the end, the United States Ministry of Magic united to defeat Grindelwald, but this also exposed the wizarding world to the residents of New York. In the end, Newt Scamander mixed the venom of the Winged Demon into the heavy rain, eliminating the exposure. crisis.
As a witness to history, Nico Flamel is also a good friend of Newt Scamander. His notes contain more detailed descriptions of events. Hermione keenly noticed a strange person among them. noun.
"The Purifier?" Hermione whispered, "What is that?"
(End of Chapter)