The Ancient Wizards of Hogwarts

"Tsk, it's a classic that's reproduced."

Ash looked at the two wizards not far away who were holding wands and alerting the surroundings with a somewhat subtle expression.

For the wizarding world, although poaching is despised, upon closer inspection, the vast majority of wizards can be regarded as poachers.

The most classic example is Hogsmeade.

The reason why this village was built near the Forbidden Forest was so that wizards could 'obtain' magic materials from the Forbidden Forest.

Even today, there is still an endless stream of wizards coming to Hogsmeade Village through floo powder or portkeys, using this place as a base to 'explore' the Forbidden Forest, that is, poaching.

What if the Ministry of Magic takes care of it?

That's probably not the case.

The main task of Aurors is to capture dark wizards, and poachers can only be considered petty thefts.

As long as no one is killed, they won't even ask, let alone care.

The only people who are truly committed to protecting the Forbidden Forest have always been the centaurs.

More than a hundred years ago, poaching was even more serious than it is now.

At that time, the conflict between humans and fairies intensified. The fairies headed by Lanlock tried to overthrow the rule of wizards and restore the glory of fairies.

Among humans, there were also dark wizards headed by Victor Rookwood who supported Lanlock. The alliance formed by the two was almost the most powerful evil force in the wizarding world at that time, and its scale was even larger than the Death Eaters in their heyday. Be huge!

Lanlock's goal is to make the goblins great again, while Victor Lockwood's goal is to overthrow the rule of the Ministry of Magic. They all have lofty ideals and ambitions, and they have been putting their ambitions into practice.

Compared with them, there is a group of people whose purpose is very pure from beginning to end, but they are also more down-to-earth. This is the Fire Ash Snake Party!

The main job of the Fire Ash Snake Party is poaching, and they occasionally work part-time as tomb robbers, but in the final analysis, whether it is poaching or tomb robbing, their purpose is to make money!

For Ash, who has always been committed to protecting magical animals and archeology, the Fire Ash Serpent Party is also his enemy. Ash has even dealt with the Fire Ash Serpent Party more times than Lanlock and Rookwood combined.

In order to facilitate poaching, the Fire Ash Snake Party established more than a dozen camps of various sizes in the Forbidden Forest, and they often clashed with the centaurs.

It was precisely thanks to the selfless dedication of these Fire Ash Snakes that Ash was able to obtain a large number of high-quality experimental products in a short period of time, and his experiments were able to make progress so quickly.

It is no exaggeration to say that the contribution made by the Fire Ash Snake Party to Ash is even higher than that of Lanlock and Rookwood!

So when Ash saw the two poachers, his eyes even looked a little nostalgic.

Hello poacher!

Poachers, of course, are breaking the law by poaching themselves, so they operate without revealing their whereabouts to anyone, not even their families.

But since it is poaching, it becomes very reasonable to disappear due to accidents during the poaching process.

Even if the disappearance of these wizards 'accidentally' aroused the suspicion of the Ministry of Magic, the Aurors would have no way of tracing them because they don't even know where these poachers disappeared.

Aren't these people in front of Ash the most ideal experimental materials?

"Charles, do you think the legend of the phoenix is ​​true?"

"Whatever! Anyway, we have already got the money we should get. Even if we don't catch the phoenix, it won't be a loss!"

The two wizards guarding the intersection were still communicating as if no one was watching, and knew nothing about Ash who was planning to kill them, even though Ash was standing in front of them.

It's not that they are blind, it's mainly that their strength is not enough to see through the illusion spell cast by Ash.

"Petrificus Totalus."

With a flick of Ash's wand, the two wizards were instantly petrified, literally petrified.

Their thinking was still clear, but their bodies became as stiff as stone statues, completely inoperable. They couldn't even make a sound, only two eyes were still moving, looking at the young girl who suddenly appeared in front of them in horror.

Ash skillfully took out the bag, opened the bag, and sucked the two wizards into it.

A set of movements flowed smoothly, obviously this was not the first time he had done this.

Lapland sniffed his nose and lowered his voice:

"Master, there are people ahead."

Ash's expression moved slightly as he walked up the path and came to the location of the Phoenix Mountain Cave.

A small camp consisting of three tents has been set up on the flat land outside the cave entrance. A bonfire is burning in the center of the camp, and five wizards are sitting around the campfire chatting.

"To be honest, I don't understand. Isn't it just catching a few wild beasts? What's the fuss about the Ministry of Magic?"

"That's right, what's there to worry about? The Forbidden Forest is so big, can we still catch these beasts to extinction?"

"But this time is different. It is a phoenix after all! Before this, Dumbledore was the only one in the wizarding world! If we can catch the phoenix, we can eat and drink without worries for the rest of our lives!"

"I still don't think it's reliable, let's not say whether there is a phoenix here. Even if there is, how do you catch it? Phoenix can fly!"

"Whatever, we are still using money to do things anyway..."

While they were discussing, a voice chanting a curse suddenly came from their ears:

"Aresto Momentum."

"not good!"

Upon hearing this strange voice, a wizard immediately raised his wand alertly.

But before they could see the enemy clearly, their bodies were already floating in the air uncontrollably, unable to move at all!

Ash waved his wand gently, disarming the wands in their hands one by one.

But this failed to explain Ash's doubts, but made him even more confused.

There are seven wizards guarding the door alone, and there will only be more people inside. I am afraid there are at least forty or fifty people inside.

This is not surprising. Since we are here to poach phoenixes, it is simply unrealistic to not have dozens of people.

But the question is, where did they come from? And why has it not shown the mountains and rivers before this?

You must know that the poacher gang of forty or fifty people was a large-scale poaching group even a hundred years ago. It should have formed a strict organizational structure internally and had a unique organizational culture.

The most common one is to wear some kind of badge on the chest, or a mask of the same style.

The higher-end ones will use some kind of special magic mark like the Death Eaters.

And such an organization is not only famous in the wizarding world, it can at least be said to be a household name. But Ash couldn't find any characteristics on them, no badges, no tattoos, not even any symbols that could prove their identities!

Not only was Ash puzzled, a wizard floating in mid-air stared at Ash with his head down, gritting his teeth and asking:

"Who are you? How did you find yourself here? Where are Charles and Eddie? What did you do to them?!"

Ash did not answer his question, but looked at him quietly and slowly raised his wand:

"Legilimency."

A picture was presented in front of Ash without reservation, allowing him to easily 'read' the wizard's life.

He knew that this wizard was named Anderson, and he had a wife and a pair of children, both of whom were studying at Hogwarts. Although he has a happy family, he still chooses to be a poacher. Because the pay for this job is generous enough, far more than ordinary employees of the Ministry of Magic, and even more than Aurors.

There were seven people in his team, namely the five in the camp and the two at the intersection.

That's all the members of his poacher team!

There were only seven wizards, so trying to hunt the phoenix was nothing more than a dream, and it was completely inconsistent with the forty or fifty people Ash had originally guessed.

But that's the most interesting part of the whole thing -

Anderson and his team were hired by others, and their employer paid a large sum of Galleons to hire a total of five poacher teams to hunt the phoenix. Each poacher team had at least five people. There are thirty-four wizards in total.

And these are not the point.

The point is, the person who recruited Anderson was his brother-in-law, a serious employee of the Ministry of Magic!

But Anderson's brother-in-law is just an ordinary employee of the Ministry of Magic, and his monthly salary is not as high as Anderson's. Even if you think about it, you know that such a person cannot have the money to hire a poacher team, let alone hire seven poacher teams at the same time, so there must be a higher-level official behind this matter secretly controlling it!

This is very interesting. The Ministry of Magic, which openly cracks down on poaching, actually has senior officials secretly hiring a team of poachers to poach phoenixes. Once this kind of thing is exposed, it will definitely be big news that will shock the wizarding world all over the world!

By then, the wizarding world will definitely demand a thorough investigation of the corrupt elements in the Ministry of Magic. But once an internal review is launched, the carrot will be pulled out and the mud will be pulled out, and a lot of officials from the Ministry of Magic will be implicated.

Once the Ministry of Magic's purge begins, losing your job is a trivial matter. In serious cases, you may even be sent to Azkaban!

And no matter who did it, Fudge, as the Minister of Magic, would inevitably be implicated. He would be labeled as "lax in his duties" and "neglect of duty". Taking the blame and resigning would be the best result. .

However, as the Minister of Magic, Fudge is now in full swing.

Although Fudge was only elected a few years ago, on the one hand, he was elected by Dumbledore, and the two parties have always maintained a good relationship. On the other hand, Fudge has a good relationship with the pure-blood family and frequently attends dinners and parties held by the pure-blood family.

Fudge may not be the best Minister of Magic, but his ability to maneuver both sides is definitely good enough. With the support of Dumbledore and the pure-blood family, it is almost inevitable that Fudge will be re-elected in the next election.

And at this critical moment when Fudge is in the spotlight, who would take the risk of offending the Minister of Magic and take the risk of hiring a poacher?

This is actually not difficult to guess.

This person is either Fudge's political enemy and is eager to cause trouble for Fudge, even if it means dying together.

Or, it can only be Fudge himself.

"interesting."

Ash raised his eyebrows, waved his wand to petrify several wizards floating in the air, and collected them one by one with a bag.

According to Anderson's memory, his brother-in-law was a middleman, and the kind that was not taken seriously.

That's why his team was arranged to watch the gate at the entrance of the cave, which was equivalent to being kicked out of the core of this operation. The senior official from the Ministry of Magic who is actually responsible for leading these poacher teams is currently deep in the cave, responsible for commanding several other teams.

Ash frowned slightly and warned seriously:

"Lapland, the passage in the cave is very complicated, follow me closely, do you understand?"

"Uh-huh!"

Lapland nodded obediently, his furry tail wagging excitedly.

The girl even took the initiative to grab Ash's hand to ensure that she wouldn't get lost along the way - although with the werewolf's sense of smell, she could still find Ash by following the scent even if she got lost.

Ash was a little dumbfounded, but he did not refuse the girl's intimacy and led her to explore deeper into the dark cave.

It is said to be a cave, but there are very obvious traces of artificial excavation inside, because this is actually an abandoned mine left by goblins.

And those passages that extend in all directions and make it easy for people to get lost are all left by the goblins when they were mining.

The middle of the mine is bottomless, which was once the main working area for excavation, and the passages dug on the cliffs on both sides were only for the convenience of excavation and transportation. They can even find a large number of mining and smelting facilities left by goblins deep in the mines. These facilities are in fairly good condition and can be reused with minor repairs.

From the size of the mine, it is not difficult to deduce how brilliant the goblin civilization was in the past.

No, it should be said that even to this day, goblins still have the strength to compete with wizards.

Otherwise, goblins would not have opened Gringotts all over the world, but would have become slaves to humans like house elves.

There is no doubt that goblins' magic is so powerful that wizards are afraid of it, so they are prohibited from using wands. But the problem is that even when the use of wands is prohibited, goblins can still compete with wizards, which speaks volumes.

It's like Ash can still see a huge gear deep in the mine that is still running, even if the machine it needs to drive has stopped.

As they went deeper, although there were traces of excavation, the still extremely rough passages were replaced by smoother stone slabs and tunnels. However, these buildings were covered with gravel, and those tunnels and bridges also had large areas of fractures. It was simply repaired using long strips of wood.

Around the tunnel, you can still see the corpses of many eight-eyed spiders - these ferocious wild magical creatures have long regarded this place as their nest, and they are also a natural obstacle on the path of poachers.

But they obviously couldn't stop the wizards, and instead turned into corpses under the attack of the curse.

And since the poachers can come here, it means that they are very close to the Phoenix's habitat!

Ash looked stern, the progress of these poachers obviously exceeded his expectations.

Just as he was about to speed up his pace, he suddenly heard the angry roar of a man coming from the passage ahead.