Raven's Claw at Hogwarts

In the magnificent Gringotts, Mike came to a stone door under the guidance of Griphook.

When Griphook opened the stone door, what appeared in front of Mike was not the majestic and luxurious scene like the Gringotts hall, but a narrow stone corridor. Torches were hung on the left and right walls of the stone corridor, and they were burning and crackling. .

This stone corridor is a steep drop-off, which is not surprising, as Gringotts' vault is located directly below Gringotts. In fact, according to the description of the Gringotts vaults in the original book, the entire Diagon Alley underground should be empty.

Mike and Griphook walked down cautiously while holding on to the wall. After a while, a winding railway appeared in front of them.

Griphook easily got on a small mine cart that could only accommodate two adults, and waved for Mike to get on as well.

Looking at the minecart without any protective measures in front of him, Mike hesitated in his heart, so he asked:

"Don't you have any other better means of transportation?"

"I'm sorry Mr. Townley, even if Mr. Fudge (the current Minister of Magic) comes, he can only sit here." Griphook spread his hands and made a helpless gesture.

At this point, Mike had no other choice. He could only reluctantly step onto the small mine cart, but in his heart he had already scolded the goblins bloody.

Damn Fake! As the only bank in the entire British wizarding world with the right to mint coins, the means of transport that transport customers to the vault to withdraw money is so backward! If you were not a monopoly company, your service attitude would have gone bankrupt long ago.

Although he was turbulent in his heart, Mike still looked calm and calm on the surface. However, before driving, he took out his wand and put on an armor to protect himself just in case.

That's right, he only put it on himself, even without the pull tab.

Griphook didn't pay attention to Mike's petty behavior, and he still had the respectful look on his face.

"Are you ready? Mr. Townley."

"drive……."

Before Mike even uttered the last word, Griphook had already started the mine cart. The moment the mine cart started, Mike felt a strong push on his back, directly pressing his whole body against the mine cart. on the mine bucket.

Fortunately, with the protection of the armor, Mike did not feel any discomfort except for the pushing feeling on his back. Even the hurricane caused by high-speed movement was perfectly resisted by the transparent shield of the armor.

Mike originally wanted to criticize Griphook for his bad behavior of driving early, but when he saw Griphook's face sitting in front of Mike, which was not protected by armor, his face was distorted by the wind. Much better.

This underground passage with railways is like a maze. The mine cart that Mike and Griphook are riding is speeding, sometimes turning right, sometimes turning left, and sometimes crossing a fork in the road. This small mine cart seems to be like its own. It seemed like it knew the road, and it was driving at extremely fast speeds, without the need for a pull ring to control it.

This series of turns made Mike couldn't help but grab the handle of the mine car, but even so, Mike was still thrown around in a daze.

He didn't know how long it took, but it suddenly dawned on Mike that they had finally driven out of the narrow underground passage and arrived at a wide underground space.

From the corner of his eye, Mike saw fire coming from under him, so he instinctively looked towards the source of the fire.

It's okay not to look at it, but when I look at Mike's arm, I instantly get goosebumps.

They saw an abyss beneath them. At this moment, they were driving on a steep rock wall. The constantly trembling track in front of them made Mike very worried whether the mine car they were on would suddenly fall.

And the source of the fire turned out to be a fire dragon, a skinny fire dragon with pale scales all over its body.

This unnamed fire dragon is currently being chained by six thick chains. One end of the chain is connected to the rock wall, while the other end is tied to the limbs, tail and neck of the fire dragon.

These chains should have been tied to it when it was a child, so they have now grown directly into its flesh.

In addition, Mike also noticed that the eyes of this fire dragon also showed an extremely unhealthy pale color like its body. This was obviously a sign of eye degeneration caused by staying in a dark environment for too long.

Perhaps due to the deterioration of his eyesight, this fire dragon's hearing is very developed. The fire dragon reacted immediately after hearing the sound of the minecart that Mike and Griphook were riding on driving rapidly on the track. He roared angrily and opened his mouth to spit out a large ball of flame in the direction of Mike.

Because the distance was too far and the fire dragon was very weak, the flames dissipated not long after they erupted.

"These damn beasts!"

Pulling the ring in front also discovered that the underground fire dragon was trying to attack them. He cursed and with difficulty took out two pieces of iron from his arms against the wind, and shook them crazily at the fire dragon below.

These two iron pieces should also be magic props. The sound they make when they are shaken is very penetrating, and it reaches the ears of the fire dragon below even though it is far away.

After hearing this crisp sound, the fire dragon seemed to have a seizure, and roared and struggled hard, looking like it was in great pain.

The six thick iron chains were driven by the fire dragon into the air, twitching wildly for a while, and then pulled straight again, making a dull sound.

After a while, blood stains appeared on the fire dragon's body where it was tied with iron chains. Large streams of dragon blood flowed down its limbs, gradually forming a stream under its body. But this fire dragon seemed to feel no pain and was still struggling crazily.

It wasn't until Griphook stopped what he was doing and put away the iron piece that the fire dragon became quiet.

"I'm going to make you laugh, Mr. Townley. These fire dragons are always rebellious."

Griphook forced out a smile despite the strong wind and explained to Mike, but Mike did not reply. The methods used by the Gringotts goblins to deal with the fire dragon were really shocking, leaving him speechless.

Seeing that Mike didn't reply, Griphook didn't get angry and turned his head to continue looking ahead.

After a while, the pull ring pulled a switch on the mine car. The mine car suddenly slowed down, and the metal wheels wiped out fireworks on the rails.

Finally, the mine cart stopped on a small platform, and Mike and Griphook got out of the car and stepped onto the platform.

"Mr. Townley, this vault numbered 688 is currently our best-located secondary vault." Pulling the ring said enthusiastically as soon as he got off the car, "Look, the fire dragon as the guard is right below this vault. , I believe you have just seen how powerful the fire dragon is. Once an intruder wants to harm your treasury, the fire dragon will burn him to ashes."

The thrilling journey just now made Mike feel the desire to vomit in his throat. He waved his hand to signal Griphook to stop talking. Mike stood there and calmed down for a while before suppressing this feeling.

"How often do you check the vault?"

"About 10 years!"

Hearing this, Mike nodded. Due to occupational diseases, he had been paying attention to the security arrangements of this wizard bank. Now it seems that except for the goblins who are the staff, they are lazy and only come to check every 10 years. Outside of the vault, this vault is simply impeccable.

However, these goblins are not lazy for no reason. With such excellent security measures, it is completely meaningless for them to artificially check the vault.

"Okay, that's it." Mike said with a long sigh of relief, "Hurry up and let's get out of here. I don't want to stay here any longer."

"As you wish, sir!"

Griphook bowed again, turned around, took out a golden key and came to the only vault door on this small platform.

The golden key was inserted into the keyhole on the door and twisted slightly. Suddenly, a dense sound of triggering the mechanism came from the door. As the sound stopped suddenly, the vault door opened automatically.

What appeared in front of Mike was a cave of about 50 cubic meters in size. The cave was very dry and the air was very fresh, unlike the pungent sulfur smell outside.

"This vault is equipped with constant temperature magic and various protection magics. No matter what you put here, it will be well protected. Even fragile parchment can be kept intact for tens of thousands of years. Year."

Griphook once again introduced the situation of the vault to Mike, but Mike ignored him. He directly opened the box and dumped the gold coins in the Traceless Stretch Spell bag onto the floor of the vault.

As the clear sound of gold coins colliding continued to sound, a hill made entirely of gold coins was piled up in the vault.

After doing all this, Mike put all the Seamless Stretch Spell bags away again and turned around to leave.

However, when he turned around, he found that Griphook was staring straight at the pile of gold coins, almost drooling.

"Gripphook, Griphook!"

Mike called out to Griphook several times before he woke up. After wiping away the non-existent saliva, Griphook took Mike directly out of the underground vault.

Mike finally breathed a sigh of relief after finally arriving in the Gringotts hall again.

"Mr. Mike, please follow me. You still have some documents to sign."

Griphook disappeared after taking Mike into the hall, but then another goblin came up to him, holding a document and asking Mike to sign it.

Mike sat down on the counter, picked up the file and started looking at it.

In fact, there is nothing interesting here, except for some procedures and precautions for withdrawing money.

If you want to withdraw money after making a deposit at Gringotts, you will need proof. These certificates can be your own face, keys, or exclusive magic signatures. Even if you have a family, a family crest pattern with a special magic mark can also serve as a certificate.

Of course, Mike didn't have a family, so he left a magic signature to serve as a voucher when using checks later. In the end, Mike cashed the check Lockhart gave him and put the 1,500 gold galleons back into his box as pocket money.

After doing all this, Mike finally completed his mission for today and walked out of Gringotts with the goblins sending him off.

In the corner of the Gringotts hall, two middle-aged wizards saw Mike leaving Gringotts. They looked at each other and followed him silently.

Because Mike's previous actions were too ostentatious, many people in the hall noticed this little wizard who was carrying a huge sum of money. And these two people had just watched Mike cash a check for 1,500 gold galleons, so they became greedy.

After the two people left, the Muggle-born wizard in tatters also gritted his teeth and followed silently after hesitating again and again.

It was already dusk when Mike walked out of Gringotts, and he actually stayed in Gringotts for a whole afternoon.

At this time, Diagon Alley seemed very deserted. Most of the shops along the street had been closed. Only a few shopkeepers who lived in the shops were still open. Feeling the hunger in his belly, Mike quickened his pace.

He made an appointment with Professor Flitwick to attend the meeting at Raven's Nest tomorrow morning, so he had to go to Professor Flitwick's house tonight.

As he imagined the various delicacies prepared by the house elf Lolo in his mind, Mike's saliva was secreting rapidly. He couldn't wait to return to Professor Flitwick's house.

However, at this moment, a strange voice belonging to Papi the Raven suddenly sounded in Mike's mind.

‘There were three people following us, two at 100 meters at seven o’clock and one at 150 meters at 4 o’clock. ’

Mike's movements suddenly froze when he heard the sound, but soon returned to normal.

"There are really some people who are not afraid of death." Mike thought to himself, "You think I'm a little wizard, so you think I'm easy to bully?"

Mike continued walking calmly, but his walking direction deviated from the main road and started walking towards Knockturn Alley.

The two middle-aged wizards behind him were delighted when they saw this. They didn't expect Mike, a young wizard, to be so stupid. If Mike went directly to the Leaky Cauldron and used the fireplace to leave, there was really nothing they could do to him. Now that Mike was running into Knockturn Alley, he was simply looking for death.

The young Muggle wizard who was at the back felt his heart twitch.

Knockturn Alley is a dangerous and dark place. He and Diagon Alley are like light and shadow. Diagon Alley specializes in all kinds of ordinary magic props, while Knockturn Alley is full of various black magic shops.

It is the place with the highest density of dark wizards in the entire wizarding world, and even the Aurors dare not enter it rashly. Death is the norm here, and those without strength are looking for death if they enter here without authorization.

As time passed, Mike had entered Knockturn Alley, and the two middle-aged wizards also quickened their pace. The young wizards following them could see clearly that they had taken out their wands.

"Before it's too late, they will take action on that child!"

The young man clenched his fists, and the image of Mike being killed by the two middle-aged wizards kept flashing in his mind. Finally, he finally made a decision.

I saw him put his hands together in front of his mouth to make a trumpet shape, and shouted with all his strength:

"That boy in front, run quickly!"