Under the perfect invisibility provided by the Deathly Hallow, Aurelian and Stinky began to move methodically through the various rooms on the lower level.
The plan went off without a hitch. While Aurelian kept an eye on the scientists' movements, Stinky slipped away unnoticed. The little house elf moved his hands quickly, barely touching the thick file folders, data storage devices, prototypes, and blueprints scattered across the tables with the tips of his long fingers. At the slightest touch and with a faint pulse of his magic, the objects vanished without making the slightest sound, teleporting directly to the safety of the Gaunt mansion in Europe.
Aurelian didn't have the slightest idea exactly what kind of things he was taking, and to be honest, he didn't care in the least. He wasn't going to make the same stupid mistake he'd made at the Pentagon. Clearly, he couldn't stand around in the heart of a military base for hours, going through every document page by page to see if it was worth taking. But with Stinky by his side acting like a black hole, he'd take all the information from Area 51 with him to review it later at home, with much more peace of mind, at his leisure, and with a good glass of wine.
They passed through four huge rooms acting that way, but they didn't manage to hear or see anything truly revealing. They were, for the most part, engineering and design departments where the staff were experimenting with improvements for fighter jets, missile propulsion systems, and other advanced weaponry for the U.S. military. It was exactly the kind of thing they were supposed to be doing at a secret military base.
They continued down the hallways until they reached the end of the corridor. Before them stood a heavy, reinforced steel door topped by red lights and a huge sign painted in black letters that read: NO ENTRY—BIOLOGICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL HAZARD ZONE—NO ENTRY.
But luck, which always seemed to favor Aurelian in his moments of greatest need, was smiling on him once again. Just then, a gaunt-looking scientist in a white lab coat swiped a card through the scanner, and the heavy door began to open. Aurelian grabbed Stinky by the shoulder, and the two of them slipped into the restricted area just a few centimeters behind the Muggle, seconds before the door sealed shut behind them.
At first glance at this new section of Area 51, the previous atmosphere vanished completely, replaced by horror in its purest form.
Aurelian had to react with surprising speed to drop to his knees and cover Stinky's mouth with his hand, pressing the house elf tightly against his chest to prevent the creature's scream from alerting all the guards.
The place was indescribably grotesque. As far as Aurelian could see through the thick containment glass, these were laboratories designed entirely for physical experimentation on humans and animals—essentially, to obtain results at any cost.
The depths of this secret area were a torture factory disguised as science. In one of the observation cells, he saw humans in a critical state of malnutrition, clearly disfigured, pleading through tears and heart-wrenching screams, strapped to electric chairs, begging their captors in white lab coats to simply let them die. In the adjoining room, the horror was even more visceral. A man, still conscious, was tightly restrained to a steel table, while a group of scientists made deep, precise cuts into his exposed flesh, taking methodical notes on their clipboards as blood dripped onto the floor.
They were monsters. These Muggles, who boasted of being the leaders of the free world, were worse than the most sadistic Death Eaters Aurelian had ever known.
When Stinky finally managed to calm down, trembling uncontrollably under his master's arm, Aurelian loosened his grip and motioned for him to keep his composure. They continued on their way.
After a far from pleasant walk through the horrors of Muggle science, they reached the far end of the complex. Aurelian stopped dead in his tracks. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Despite the steel and lead in the walls, he could feel it… magic… there was magic in that place.
They approached the large gate to the final laboratory. They slipped in behind two heavily armed guards, and when he saw the interior, Aurelian's eyes widened in surprise.
There were no aliens, no creatures from deep space. What was there was hell for his own people.
The room was filled with cages reinforced with thick glass and electrified bars. Inside, emaciated and wounded, were magical beings. Werewolves in their human form, cowering in the corners in terror; some beautiful Veelas with dull hair and skin covered in bruises; and a host of lesser magical creatures, ranging from Ghouls to tiny Crups—all locked up and being ruthlessly studied by American scientists, who were extracting samples of magical blood without the slightest mercy.
Aurelian clenched his jaw so hard he nearly broke a tooth. The government did know of their existence. They were hunting and experimenting on magical beings.
Despite the terror he felt, Stinky swallowed hard and, proving why he had lived so long, bravely continued his work. He slipped through the lab and began touching the notebooks, sample vials, and files on the scientists' desks.
Gone. Gone. Gone.
The Muggles around him—too absorbed in their sadistic experiments or blindly trusting their safety protocols—were completely oblivious to the things vanishing into thin air behind their backs.
But the magical creatures were not.
Their senses, sharpened by suffering, picked up the faint fluctuations in the air. The leader of the Werewolves, a burly man with multiple scars across his chest, lifted his weary face. In the cage across from him, the leader of the Veelas, a woman whose beauty had long since faded, opened her eyes, noticing how the file containing her pain tolerance data simply vanished from the table of the Muggle who was torturing her.
The two leaders exchanged glances and nodded almost imperceptibly.
They couldn't see it, but their instincts were screaming it at them. Something—or someone—was in there, hidden in the shadows. And for the first time since they'd been dragged into that hole, the captives felt something they hadn't experienced in a very long time. A desperate, burning hope that someone would finally rescue them from that torture.
Aurelian and Stinky continued onward, leaving the main corridor of cages behind to venture into an even deeper, more secluded section of the laboratory. As they crossed the threshold of a door that had been left ajar, they came upon a scene that made their blood boil.
In the center of an interrogation room, a wizard was brutally chained to the ceiling by thick iron chains that immobilized his wrists, suspended in the air with his feet barely touching the floor. In front of him, a scientist was monitoring his vital signs on a screen. But what was truly curious—what made Aurelian narrow his eyes—was the torturer's unmistakable energy signature. The scientist was also a wizard.
Aurelian and Stinky stood right behind the scientist, watching his every move in silence.
Despite his wounds and being hung up like a piece of meat, the chained wizard flashed a crooked smile, revealing his bloodstained teeth, and let out a hoarse laugh.
"Tell me one thing… Do you really enjoy having me hanging here this much?" the prisoner asked in a mocking tone. "I totally get it if you're into men—I'm not judging you—but I'd ask you, as a favor, not to drag me into your twisted fantasies."
The scientist tensed from head to toe. He spun around abruptly, knocking over a tray of medical instruments, and shouted at him, his face flushed with anger.
"Shut your damn mouth and be quiet if you don't want us to go back to the way things used to be!"
The chained wizard laughed again, completely ignoring the threat and the pain in his joints.
"You've always been the same," he remarked, looking at him with pity. "Back in school, you were just as irritable and pathetic. Despite all these years, you're still exactly the same… a mere non-magician with magic. A coward incapable of accepting his own nature and being who he truly is."
Driven by blind rage, the scientist stepped forward until he was just a few centimeters from the prisoner.
"Shut up, Van Droombeeld," hissed the traitor, spitting out the surname with disgust. "You're a fool, a conceited, pure-blooded bastard who thinks he's better than the rest of the world."
Without the slightest mercy, the scientist raised his fist and landed a brutal blow to his face. Van Droombeeld's head spun from the impact, but the scientist grabbed him by the hair, forcing him to look him in the eyes, and whispered fanatically.
"I know exactly who I am, and I know what I must do… My duty is to put an end to magic. It is a disease that must be eradicated."
Van Droombeeld coughed, spitting a thick clot of blood directly onto the scientist's white lab coat.
"You're a coward," he replied with a defiant smile.
As the scientist raised his fist again to strike him, Van Droombeeld narrowed his eyes. Over his torturer's shoulder. Out of nowhere, Aurelian's hand emerged from the shadows, holding his wand, aimed directly at the back of the traitor's neck.
The chained wizard realized what was about to happen and burst out laughing.
The scientist frowned, disgusted and confused.
"What the hell is so funny?" he asked, just a second before the magic struck him.
Splat!
The scientist's eyes burst from their sockets. The traitor didn't even have time to scream. His brain was instantly shattered by the violent magical implosion, and his body fell to the ground like a dead weight.
Aurelian removed his Cloak of Invisibility. He looked down and addressed his house elf.
"Stinky… Can you get them all out of this hole?"
The elf nodded resolutely.
"Then get ready to act fast," Aurelian ordered.
Van Droombeeld, still suspended by the chains, looked at his savior with a mixture of amazement and respect.
"Thank you, young friend," he murmured, breathing heavily.
With a wave of his wand, Aurelian shattered the iron chains that bound him, allowing the wizard to land on his own feet.
"Save your thanks for when we get out of here alive," Aurelian replied coldly, turning away.
He left the interrogation room and walked toward the main hallway, where dozens of scientists and guards were watching over the cages containing magical creatures. Without hesitation, Aurelian raised his hand and snapped his fingers.
A shockwave of his magic swept through the entire laboratory.
It was a massacre. In perfect unison, each and every Muggle guard and scientist in the room met the exact same horrific fate as the traitorous Muggle-born. Their eyes burst. Weapons fell from their hands, and a moment later, dozens of corpses collapsed to the floor, staining Area 51 with their blood.
Taking advantage of the clear path, Stinky unleashed his full elven power. With multiple snaps of his fingers, he blew the locks open and disabled the electricity in the bars. He opened all the cages, freeing the werewolves, the Veelas, and the terrified magical creatures.
All the prisoners rushed out, surrounding their saviors with tears in their eyes. Van Droombeeld, limping, approached Stinky. He reached his trembling hand into the torn pocket of his pants and pulled out an ancient silver brooch that he had managed to hide from the Muggles.
"Take this, little one. It's a Portkey anchored to the barriers of my home. Take us all to my mansion in New York—we'll be safe there."
Stinky took the brooch, nodded, and closed his eyes, focusing his magic to expand the Apparition network over everyone present, linking their magical signatures for the jump.
Just before the magic activated, Aurelian turned toward the hallway. His eyes locked onto a thick yellow gas pipe that fed the generators on that underground level.
He flashed a smile, pointed his finger, and unleashed a powerful blast of concentrated fire directly at the metal.
Seconds after the last trace of them vanished, the gas pipe gave way under the extreme heat, and Area 51's secret human experimentation laboratory was blown to smithereens in a colossal, devastating explosion, consuming all evidence of its existence and burying the monsters under tons of concrete and steel.
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