Chapter 270: Analysis
The next scene was Alexander Smith watching Harry and the others rescue Regulus, who had become an Inferius. Kate sat beside him, also "watching" everything unfold.
Before they knew it, two hours had passed.
"Harry Potter and the others just brought back Regulus, Sirius's younger brother, so easily?" Kate said.
She even felt that this was not as difficult as dealing with those zombies on the Zombie Trail.
"Voldemort's level isn't that impressive to begin with. He even forgot to guard against the magic of the house-elves."
Just as Alexander was complaining about Voldemort from midair, he failed to notice one thing.
"Alexander, I just linked to your vision, and I think— it seems— probably— maybe I can read your mind." Kate, whose brown eyes had returned to normal, said with a teasing smile.
"Read my mind? Is that true?"
"I think this might be a distortion caused by the combination of my power and yours. It may relate to an area that the current magical world hasn't yet explored." Alexander looked a bit puzzled.
"Oh, even if you can read minds, I won't be angry about it," he said lightly. "I'd actually be happy. That way, you won't have to act jealous between Penelope and me like before."
"Oh, and that Hermione Granger," Kate added pointedly.
"Maybe Fleur? When we were in the vampire castle in Romania three years ago, I remember you spent a lot of time reading Penelope's letter," Kate said, puffing her cheeks.
"I just remembered that Fleur was in Penelope's photo."
Alexander cleared his throat. "Fleur? Do I know her?"
"Fleur and I are pen pals too," Kate pressed.
"She once praised you, said you were a gentleman."
Kate had always suspected there was something between Alexander and Fleur. She could understand why — Alexander was handsome, perhaps even more so after seeing his photos.
But when it came to being a gentleman, Kate felt confident she'd met enough of them to judge.
"I remember now. It was last summer vacation. Weren't you busy then?"
"Penelope and I went to France to study alchemy," Alexander said, pretending to recall.
"But Penelope and you went to the wizarding village around the Pyrenees in southern France — and Fleur's home is in Paris." Kate wrinkled her nose.
Typical womanly instinct — noticing details and digging up the past.
"Isn't Fleur a student at Beauxbatons? Beauxbatons is in the Pyrenees."
"By the way, Penelope was taking a nap in the hotel then. I met Fleur nearby. She wanted to ask her headmistress, Madame Olympe Maxime, about her sister Gabrielle's admission to school."
"You know, she's a half-Veela, so it's a little harder for them to enroll." Alexander's eyes flickered with memory.
"Although I don't know Gabrielle's exact birthday, she's at least five now, maybe six," Kate said, frowning.
"I remember that Beauxbatons students start at eleven."
"Did I remember wrong?"
"You remembered correctly," Alexander replied.
"Gabrielle is very attached to her sister and wants to go to school early to accompany her." His voice softened, his eyes distant.
He wasn't lying — Gabrielle truly was that clingy.
Even in the original timeline, she accompanied Fleur to Hogwarts as part of Beauxbatons' delegation when she was only eight and not yet officially enrolled.
"Okay," Kate said, pretending to look unimpressed.
"By the way, is Mr. Delacour's gift ready? It's Fleur's father's birthday soon."
"I think a pair of height-enhancing boots would be perfect," Kate said casually.
"Yeah, that sounds right," Alexander agreed.
Kate gave him a look that said she'd just caught him on the hook. But then Alexander tilted his head, confused.
"But why height-enhancing boots? Is Mr. Delacour short?"
"Okay, I'll just pretend you don't know," Kate said flatly.
She really did pretend not to know that Alexander had met Fleur in Paris — and even met her family "by chance."
That was exactly what she complained about the most — Alexander hadn't even met her or Penelope's families yet!
"By the way," she added, "you almost made me forget about today's test."
"The first question — what magical traps were in Voldemort's cave?" Alexander said suddenly, realizing something.
He wondered why Kate was deliberately teasing him today. Normally, this sort of thing was Penelope's job.
The reason he'd asked Kate to link to his vision in the first place was to use Voldemort's Horcrux cave as a teaching exercise.
As for Harry and the others' images inside — those were just for entertainment.
"I forgot. How about next time?" Kate said blankly.
"You should have seen all the scenes — from when Harry and his group destroyed the Horcruxes to when they retrieved Regulus as an Inferius," Alexander suggested.
With Kate's level of understanding, and aided by Alexander's magical vision, she should have been able to analyze the traps clearly.
Even though the main focus was on Harry and his friends' adventure, their conversation had already given everything away.
"Okay, let me think."
"I'll divide the cave into four parts for now — the entrance, the lake, the island, and the stone basin."
"First, the entrance. It's physically hard to reach. Without magic, entering that cave would require skilled rock climbing because the boat can't get close to the cliff. From a magical perspective, let me recall… it's Transfiguration, I think? When I 'looked' at it, it seemed that the cave required blood to reveal itself."
"I see. The challenge of that cave is that it's hard to find, and once found, you have to sacrifice blood to enter," Kate said thoughtfully.
"Yes. And then?" Alexander urged, his tone serious — though not out of irritation toward Kate.
"Second, the lake," she continued.
"There are Inferi hiding in the lake. I could see invisible threads connecting the dense mass of Inferi to whatever's inside the stone basin. I think any attempt to grab the locket would make the Inferi attack."
"And the only way to cross the lake is by using that invisible boat," Kate said after thinking for a moment.
"Oh? Why not fly over with a broomstick?" Alexander asked curiously.
Kate clenched her fists. "That lake is filled with a dark, oppressive kind of magic."
"Anything above that lake — except that boat — would be forced down by that magic, and the Inferi would react," she said.
"Yes. Even if you were riding the latest Nimbus 2001, you'd only float over at a snail's pace," Alexander added.
"With the magic of that lake, the Inferi could even leap up and drag you down."
"As for the boat, it seems it can sense the passenger's magic," Kate analyzed.
"Not exactly. To be precise, it was enchanted so that only one wizard could ride it at a time," Alexander corrected.
"But if someone brought a weaker magical creature — or a Muggle — it wouldn't break the spell."
"That's why Voldemort needed a house-elf," Kate realized.
"Although he could've used an underage wizard, in Voldemort's eyes, wizard lives were far too precious," Alexander said.
"Muggle-borns too?" Kate asked, puzzled.
"Yes," Alexander said dryly. "Without the Muggle-borns he despised, who would he — this so-called noble wizard — have left to rule over?"
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(End of Chapter 270)
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