Hyperion, on the bridge.

"Well, that's roughly the content... There's no further analysis or intelligence."

The goblin Griphook wiped his sweat, looking cautiously at Dumbledore, and said tentatively.

Unlike the gentle old wizard of the past, the old man now seemed to radiate some kind of energy that was difficult to look directly at, and what made Griphook even more nervous was that, not far from Dumbledore, leaned an even more terrifying and dangerous Dark Lord.

If the two had chosen to cooperate rather than oppose each other decades ago, the magical world might have long since succumbed to their thrones.

"Hmph, sounds like the situation is quite severe—"

Dumbledore sighed softly, turning to look at the old Dark Lord beside him, his voice somewhat relaxed.

"It seems that after Hermione returns, we'll have to have a good discussion about how to respond. After all, it involves so many Aurors and werewolves..."

"You're so sure Hermione will be back in a moment?"

Grindelwald grinned, looking at Dumbledore with a smile that wasn't quite a smile.

"Don't forget, that child lives in a fairy tale."

"Ideals and objectivity are not opposites, old friend. Hermione may seem willful, but she knows exactly what she wants."

Dumbledore glanced at Grindelwald, unmoved, shaking his head gently, and said with a kind smile.

"In terms of rationality and planning execution, she is no less than you or I - that child has her own set of behavioral rules, more precisely, she is calmer and more principled than most people in the world. You know better than I what an idealist is like."

"Based on what she knows now, she can easily conclude that the werewolves don't need her to save them."

Dumbledore put down the few parchment reports in his hand, neatly stacking them on the command table, and said unhurriedly.

"Without the subsequent inferences and Auror movements, this is just a 'false alarm' triggered by making a mountain out of a molehill."

"But..."

"We'll know what comes after 'but' when she 'rescues' Lockhart, won't we?"

Dumbledore adjusted his half-moon spectacles, and said calmly, tapping lightly on the reports with his fingers.

"As the Chief Warlock of the International Confederation of Wizards, I will negotiate with the Aurors of various Ministries of Magic before dawn. They can arrest those werewolves in their weakened state, but they cannot carry out slaughter - just like the British Ministry of Magic, this is the response we discussed beforehand."

"Of course, if she intends to disrupt the Auror's plan and shelter the werewolves after hearing this news on the way back, I will also respect her—"

"You're lying! Do you think I'm a brainless idiot like Newt, Albus?"

Grindelwald sneered, interrupting Dumbledore's words without hesitation.

"Wait for them to come back? Not to mention that white-haired puffball's poor sense of direction, even Lockhart can't find those werewolves again."

"What's more, the moon is about to rise, you shouldn't forget that today is a full moon, right? The werewolves after transformation run around in all directions, it's impossible to gather them together to accept shelter. And at that time, the great, righteous, kind Professor Dumbledore will naturally say:"

A hint of sarcasm flashed across Grindelwald's face, imitating Dumbledore's voice in a pinched tone.

"Oh, yes, perhaps we should do something, but there's nothing we can do now."

"Perhaps that's life, sometimes things like this happen."

Dumbledore spread his hands, looking at Grindelwald with a helpless expression, a strange light flashing in his blue eyes.

"If Mr. 'Tower' agrees with Mr. 'Hanged Man's' approach and wants to become a savior who rescues werewolves, then go ahead - but out of decades of old friendship, I have to remind you that that child is probably in a bad mood right now. Oh, didn't you say that before?"

"No, I just want to maintain fairness - it's a game, or rather, life, I think at least we have to abide by the rules."

Grindelwald shrugged his shoulders, leaning against the command table, without any intention of moving.

He glanced at the dark forest not far away, turned his head to look at Dumbledore again, and said seriously.

"In terms of information efficiency, I think Miss 'Fool' has the right to be quickly synchronized with the information she should know. Under these fair and just circumstances, the choice she makes is objective, and not interfered with by you or me. Right? It's not hard to send a message, is it?"

"A message? It might not be too difficult normally, but..."

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows, shaking his head with some regret.

"Not to mention that Fawkes is still in the remote village of Quibble, the phoenix alert is too eye-catching - there aren't many phoenixes in the magical world."

"Well, don't worry, I didn't plan to send a phoenix to deliver a message to a moody Veela."

Grindelwald replied easily, taking out his Tarot cards from his pocket.

"Times have changed, Albus. This is much more useful than a phoenix."

The old man pulled out his wand, gently tapping the exclusive Tarot card crafted by Nicolas Flamel himself twice.

"In the name of 'Tower', urgently initiate a remote meeting of the Major Arcana Council—"

…………

A little earlier, a few minutes before Grindelwald took out his wand.

Armenian forest, the werewolves' temporary resting place, that secluded forest clearing.

Just as a group of werewolves were struggling to digest the information in the conversation between the "mysterious girl" and Lockhart, many people suddenly felt an inexplicable palpitation, and they subconsciously looked towards the source of that palpitation, only to see magical words emerging around the mysterious girl at some point.

Even if they didn't understand what it was, they felt every cell in their body screaming and describing the danger.

A large number of magic runes are engraved on the Valkyrie, and when they are activated one by one, even a blind person can feel the pressure.

However, compared to Lockhart, the pressure felt by the surrounding audience was less than a tenth.

"I've answered your question, Mr. Lockhart," Hermione said. "Now, it's your turn to answer some small questions for me."

Hermione took out a small bottle of clear liquid from the chest armor storage compartment - this was Professor Slughorn's most effective Veritaserum, perhaps not as good as Professor Snape's, but it was definitely one of the best master-level potions in the field of potion-making today.

Immediately afterwards, Hermione waved her right hand, using the wand hidden in it to summon a small ball of clear water.

She carefully poured three drops of potion into the ball of clear water, and then manipulated the small water ball to float to Gilderoy Lockhart's mouth.

"Drink it - or, take the time to tell me what your last wishes are..."

"Your question, um... should be very ladylike, right?"

Lockhart smiled wryly, without hesitation, directly drinking the small ball of floating liquid.

As the head of the black-robed wizards, he certainly knew the steps for intelligence personnel who were lost, especially after being captured. The result of this checkpoint directly meant what identity he would accept the follow-up investigation in, and the treatment of not drinking it was much simpler - direct execution on the spot.

Hermione glanced at Lockhart's throat, and asked calmly in a low voice.

"Where did your most recent sexual encounter take place?"

"On the Hyperion."

Lockhart's cheeks twitched a few times, and he said in a low voice, the remaining wry smile making him look a little comical.

"Well, don't worry, I won't ask too many questions about that - not interested."

Hermione raised her eyebrows indifferently, and continued in a gentle tone, "When you were still studying at Hogwarts, you received many love letters one Valentine's Day, so that breakfast was forced to end early that day. Just say the names of the senders of three of those letters."

Lockhart trembled and took a deep breath, then spoke in a flat tone without emotion.

"G... Gilderoy Lockhart, Gilderoy Lockhart, Gilderoy Lockhart."

"I'm telling the truth, I'm not resisting Veritaserum, because..."

After the three names were read out, Lockhart's voice returned to its original tone with ups and downs, explaining anxiously.

"Um, I know, all eight hundred Valentine's Day cards were sent to yourself by yourself."

Before Lockhart could finish speaking, Hermione nodded calmly, without any surprise or accident.

Some wizards have some secrets that they "believe" only they themselves know, but Hermione's "vision" can overcome all the fog to capture content, especially for "important figures" like Lockhart, which is also one of her reliance on detecting whether Veritaserum is truly effective.

However, in Gilderoy Lockhart's eyes, this obviously suddenly became a little terrifying.

"Wait, that's impossible! I didn't tell anyone about this, why would you—"

"hogwartsknowseverything..."

Hermione smiled inscrutably, without explaining, and continued to ask.

"After the werewolves 'kidnapped' you from the Aghasyan family, what happened? Why didn't you just evacuate?"

Along with the girl's question, before Lockhart's confusion and panic could dissipate, he took another deep breath, his voice returning to the previous flat, unwavering tone, as if a radio suddenly switched channels.

"Organized werewolf operations are rare in Europe, I wanted to see what was going on."

"On the other hand, I owe the Aghasyan family a lot - since the problem came from the books I wrote, it should also be solved by me. Ordinary wizards can't cope with Muggles holding guns, because they don't know the principles behind them. As long as the wand is still in my hand, I can escape from their 'kidnapping' at any time, and it wouldn't be too difficult to defeat them with a little effort and time... I can also summon members."

"But when I arrived here, I found that there were more werewolf wizards here than I imagined - they are very likely to use magical means to extract the secrets in my mind, I was afraid that I couldn't withstand the torture, so... I directly destroyed the Major Arcana badge to ask for help."

"How did they torture you? And what content did you tell them?" Hermione asked.

"Cruciatus Curse," Lockhart said, his body shaking unconsciously, "At first it was beatings, and some people suggested burning, but in the end they chose to use magic to deal with magic. I told them that there really is a way to turn werewolves back into humans, but in exchange, they must go to Gringotts to pay a 500 galleon treatment deposit. Of course, what I wrote in my books is all lies."

"Treatment... deposit? 500 galleons? This amount of money is not even enough for the treatment cost. Why?"

So far, there is only one successful way for werewolves to turn back into humans: using the Philosopher's Stone to completely reshape their bodies and be reborn.

And the cost of each use of the Philosopher's Stone cannot be calculated in galleons.

As one of the Major Arcana, Gilderoy Lockhart would naturally know this - he is the core technical consultant responsible for the soul link.

Lockhart's eyelids trembled violently, and he still answered emotionlessly in that monotonous voice.

"If they don't pay the galleons, then their identity is not much different from 'that containment item'. But if they pay the consultation fee, then they are considered patients of fate, even if the consultation fee is extremely expensive, at least they will be treated as 'patients' from beginning to end..."

"Wait, stop for a moment, that's not what I asked just now."

Hermione said insincerely, her gaze hidden behind the magical aura, deeply looked at Lockhart.

"I mean, you could have run away the first moment you saw the werewolf wizards. And later you should have had many opportunities to leave at any time. But you chose to stay here, gambling with your own life - gambling on whether we would arrive in time. Why did you do this? Why did you bother to tell so many lies to save a group of werewolves who had nothing to do with you, and even tried their best to torture you? Why?"

"For no reason, because... this is what I want to do."

Gilderoy Lockhart's eyelids trembled, and he took another deep breath.

"I haven't done anything admirable from childhood to adulthood, almost all the honors and achievements are exaggerated and false."

"No matter how people see me, I know that I am just an ordinary wizard."

"Whether it's novels, or those jobs I participated in later, those were all choices made by other noble people... you are the ones who influence the future of the world, the crucial heroes and story protagonists, I am just the one who presents them."

"But this time is different, I think I have encountered an opportunity - I think this is my opportunity."

"Perhaps, I can rely on my own wisdom, and the growth in this period of time, to perfectly solve the werewolf problem in the magical world."

"At that time, I will use this to prove my identity as the Major Arcana, and see admiration and admiration in your eyes..."

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Yay!