"Woo... woo..."
Rita Skeeter bit down on a piece of wood and trembled as she curled up on the small bed.
For the past few days, she had been hiding in this cell, enduring this cruel torment time and again.
Sometimes it happened every half an hour; other times, there were gaps of two or three hours. The people on the island seemed convinced that she was still here, so they launched sudden attacks now and then. The searches never stopped.
At first, Rita had hoped they might believe she had already escaped, giving her a chance to flee for real.
But later, she realized the truth—perhaps the message I passed to Wade Grey exposed my predicament.
She regretted a thousand times over that she hadn't brought all her Book of Friends with her.
Luckily, the children in this cell had been helping her. They shared their food with her, let her sleep on the only bed in the room, and when she couldn't hold back her cries of pain, they would scream along with her to cover up her voice.
When patrols passed outside, Rita would transform into a beetle and avoid the sight of the black-clad guards.
After spending several days here, Rita had noticed something—some of the children in this prison cell are also wizards, or at least possess magical abilities.
Every time that ominous humming sound filled the air, they would curl up on the ground and their faces would twist in pain. But they never made a sound, as if they had long grown used to it.
Yet Rita knew—no matter how many times she experienced it, she could never get used to this kind of torment.
Once the pain had subsided, she would repeat the same words over and over again, telling the children, and telling herself—
"Just a little longer… They're coming soon… We will be saved…"
"Who are they?"
A girl named Haley asked in a soft voice.
She had light golden hair and skin so pale it was almost translucent. Her green eyes were pure and innocent.
Unfortunately, her features were far from attractive—her teeth were misaligned, her chin jutted forward, giving her an odd and awkward appearance.
In this prison cell, aside from a girl named Mabel, there were no conventionally beautiful children. None of them fit society's typical standards of beauty.
At first, Rita had secretly mocked their looks in her mind and instinctively composed sarcastic descriptions about them.
But after spending days with them, she finally learned that appearances meant nothing—these were the ugliest children she had ever seen, yet they were also the kindest.
After thinking for a moment, Rita replied seriously, "The most powerful wizard in the world… and the future greatest alchemist."
"Wizard?" Haley tilted her head and said softly, "Wizards are powerless against them… Magic is useless here."
"It's different this time… They are different."
Even Rita Skeeter felt her words sounded weak and unconvincing, so she added, "A powerful wizard can burn this entire island down with a single spell."
"And wouldn't we all be burned to death too?" Mabel, an older girl with brown hair, said coldly. "I hate magic. If not for magic, would I have ended up like this?"
She rolled up her sleeve and revealed layers of scars and countless needle marks on her arm.
Rita fell silent.
She had already figured out that the children here were roughly divided into two groups—those like Haley, who had no magical abilities, and those like Mabel, who did.
The latter had it far worse.
Haley and the others were mostly just imprisoned, except for occasional blood extractions and medical checkups. Their daily food wasn't delicious, but at least it was sufficient—they didn't have to worry about starving.
But Mabel and another boy named Luke suffered terribly. They were taken away almost every day, and when they were brought back, they would be weak, covered in new wounds.
Sometimes, in the middle of the night, they would suddenly vomit, convulse, or develop high fevers.
The other children had long become accustomed to cleaning up the mess and taking care of them, while the guards would occasionally provide some medication to ease their symptoms.
Luke was visibly terrified of being taken away. Rita worried every day that he might betray her to improve his situation.
But to her surprise, no matter how scared he was, he gritted his teeth and never said a single word.
Mabel seemed to read Rita's thoughts. One day, after tending to her wounds, she suddenly said, "You're worrying for nothing."
Rita looked at her in surprise.
"Our value lies in the magic inside us, which we can never get rid of." Leaning against the wall with a blank expression, Mabel continued, "Even if we betrayed you, it would just mean one more test subject. It wouldn't change anything for us."
"Test subjects?" Rita processed the words for a moment before angrily demanding, "These Muggles are trying to steal your magic?"
Mabel didn't confirm or deny it. She just stared blankly at the tiny window and muttered, "If only it really could be stolen."
"That's impossible!" Rita instinctively refuted. "If you lost your magic… Without magic…"
—Without magic, wouldn't it be like suddenly becoming disabled?
But then, thinking about what Mabel had endured, she couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence.
Suddenly, the sound of jingling bells echoed from outside the cell. It accompanied someone's footsteps, like a bundle of metal keys and bells clashing together as they moved.
Rita quickly transformed into a beetle, preparing to burrow into the filthy pillow.
But before she could, all the children in the cell jumped up and rushed toward the side facing the corridor.
They gripped the iron bars tightly and desperately pressed their faces against them, struggling to see outside.
Hesitating for a moment, Rita's curiosity got the better of her. She flew over and landed on Mabel's hair.
Mabel shook her head in irritation but didn't brush her off.
From her vantage point, Rita saw a group of imposing, broad-shouldered men walking through the corridor.
The leader wore a mask, and a bundle of shiny silver keys hung from his waist. He held a stack of documents in his hands, and with every step, the metallic jingling sound filled the air.
The men walked past.
Not just this cell—every child in the prison clung to the bars, silent and motionless, their eyes were fixed on the group as they passed.
Rita didn't understand why they reacted this way. She wanted to poke Mabel's face with her antennae to get an explanation, but before she could, the jingling sound grew louder again.
The group had already turned back.
But this time, they had an extra person with them—a teenage boy.
The boy was painfully thin, his eyes were filled with deep despair and helplessness, as if he had lost all awareness, his body was merely moving forward mechanically.
The jingling sound grew closer and then suddenly stopped.
The masked man halted in front of Mabel's cell, lowered his head to glance at the list in his hands, and announced, "Haley Caucus."
Haley's face turned deathly pale. She froze in place, unable to move.
The surrounding children stared at her in shock.
Mabel instinctively shouted, "No—! Not Haley! She's just a child!"
The masked man glanced up at her and smiled. "Ah, Mabel… Give her a lesson."
The moment he finished speaking, one of the men behind him suddenly pulled out a short, round, stubby gun and aimed it directly at Mabel.
Mabel's eyes widened in horror.
Beside her, Luke lunged forward. "Mabel!"
He tackled her to the ground. Rita felt her world flip upside down. She instinctively tried to fly away, but Luke's hand pressed her down.
With a trembling, terrified voice, the boy whispered, "Don't move!"
Rita froze—then lost her chance to escape.
Luke's palm pinned her against the floor, then Mabel's body pressed over his hand, and on top of both of them—Luke himself.
The two children convulsed violently and their bodies wracked with pain as they let out hoarse, agonized screams—like wounded, cornered animals.
Rita was stunned.
She could faintly feel that same sensation—that unbearable pain, like the magic within her was rebelling—but with the two children shielding her, all she felt was a faint stinging.
Mabel and Luke, who normally endured the buzzing torture in complete silence, were now wailing uncontrollably.
Rita strained to see through the gaps between Luke's fingers. She saw the cell door open, and Haley stood there, frozen in place, before one of the men grabbed her like a helpless chick and dragged her out.
The jingling sound faded into the distance, followed by the click of a lock turning. Only then did the children in the cell seem to break free from an invisible spell, and slowly begin to move again.
In the other cells, where no one had been taken, the children breathed sighs of relief, whispering and moving about. But in this cell, the others rushed forward to help Mabel and Luke onto the bed.
"You were too reckless, Mabel. And you too, Luke," one child said with lingering fear. "I thought they were going to take you as well."
"They won't," Mabel said, staring blankly at the ceiling, her voice was laced with sarcasm. "We're precious test subjects."
Luke remained silent with his head lowered, and his body was still trembling.
"Rita, are you okay?" Another child turned to Rita Skeeter with concern, whispering, "I was so afraid you'd change back just now."
They all knew that whenever the buzzing sound came, Rita Skeeter would lose control and revert to her human form.
Rita transformed back and shook her head. "I'm fine… They shielded me."
She looked at the children's silent, sorrowful faces and hesitated before asking, "Haley… what will happen to her?"
"I don't know," Mabel murmured, her eyes vacant. "But no child who has ever been taken by them… has ever come back."
No one believed that these monsters would simply let anyone go. The answer was painfully obvious.
Rita Skeeter clenched the parchment in her hands tightly and felt a deep sense of despair rise within her.
She knew that not much time had passed since she last contacted Wade, but still, she silently urged in her heart—
Please… hurry….hurry up.…
Find this place quickly…
—
At the edge of the forest, Wade suddenly looked up and noticed a spider weaving its web among the leaves.
Unlike the usual symmetrical and structured design of a spiderweb, this one was incomplete, as if part of it had been missing from the start.
Even insects, it seemed, were affected by the strange negative forces in this place.
Wade lowered his gaze and turned forward—Dumbledore was waving his wand, silver threads and copper wires intertwined like a spiderweb and weaved into a metallic cloak.
He had always known that magic could interfere with electromagnetic signals. That was why no electronic devices worked properly at Hogwarts.
Even a wizard with powerful magic power experiencing strong emotions could accidentally disrupt nearby lights, televisions, or radios.
But Wade hadn't expected ordinary, non-magical people to have already figured out a way to counter wizards.
If magic could interfere with electromagnetic signals, then, in turn, a strong enough electromagnetic signal could disrupt magic.
A wizard, completely cut off from the Muggle world, would have no idea how to handle such an attack. Even someone like Dumbledore might be caught off guard.
But Wade knew how to shield against such interference.
The technology of this world hadn't advanced beyond his understanding yet.
As an alchemist, Wade always carried various alchemical materials in his pencil case.
And as a master of Transfiguration, Dumbledore could easily shape raw materials into whatever they needed.
Before long, two electromagnetic-shielding metal cloaks were complete, with Dumbledore adding a special touch—embroidering the Hogwarts crest onto them.
—To the headmaster, perhaps this is simply the natural manifestation of his thoughts.
Wade draped the cloak over his shoulders—it fit perfectly.
"Even your weaving spells are this proficient—Headmaster, is there anything you can't do?" Wade couldn't help but ask.
"I just happen to have a keen interest in knitting," Dumbledore replied casually. "It's quite a pleasant pastime—you should try it sometime."
Dumbledore also put on his metallic cloak and walked ahead of Wade with an air of ease, completely ignoring the surveillance cameras along the roadside.
"If I live as long as you have, I might also find interesting ways to pass the time," Wade politely declined.
"There will always be work to do," Dumbledore said. "You push yourself too hard, Wade."
"After seeing what happened to Skeeter, I feel like there's still too much I need to improve," Wade replied.
Dumbledore pondered for a moment, then unexpectedly nodded in agreement. "You're right—one must first ensure their own survival before considering anything else."
The two walked along a narrow concrete path winding through the forest. They appeared aimless, but in reality, they were following the traces of lingering magic.
The surveillance cameras on both sides stood silently like black stones, their lenses reflecting nothing—no trace of the two men passing by.
"So this is enough to shield against that… electromagnetic field?" Dumbledore asked.
"Completely blocking it is impossible, but this should weaken it to a level we can withstand," Wade explained.
"Both copper and silver have high conductivity, making them effective against high-frequency magnetic fields. But to fully block it, we'd likely need superconducting materials—so the best approach is still to cut the power source."
"Superconducting materials?" Dumbledore asked with curiosity. "What are those? How are they made?"
Wade was speechless. "That's beyond my knowledge, Professor. I'm still just a student, after all."
Dumbledore chuckled. "Wade, I believe the knowledge you possess already surpasses most ordinary people. I know some Muggle university professors who probably don't know as much as you do—
Ah, we're here."
Before them stood an impossibly tall wall.
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⭐Harry Potter: Becoming a Study God (HP:BSG)- +235 Chapters
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