Harry Potter: The Golden Viper

0369 Not Simple

Boom——

A massive explosion rocked the center of the once-grand villa, sending shockwaves across the disintegrating remains. A fractured wooden pillar, its surface burned and splintered, fell, filling the immense space with a torrent of shattered bricks and billowing clouds of dust.

"Heh, interesting--" Bryan muttered, a hint of coldness glinting in his piercing gaze as he surveyed the peculiar, post-apocalyptic surroundings. Confirming with a calculated sweep that no other souls were present, he let out a chilled gloomy chuckle that reverberated ominously through the ruined space.

From the moment the warning spell had been triggered, alerting him to the intrusion, to the instant he swiftly left the banquet hall and took the elevator up to the seventh floor, the entire process had taken no more than two fleeting minutes. Yet after ascending to the upper levels, while the ambient magic levels on the nearby floors were all well within his monitoring range, the intruder who had brazenly barged in and caused this devastating disturbance had vanished without a trace, as if they had never existed.

Like Hogwarts and many other magical venues, this Parisian hotel was layered with intricately woven anti-apparition jinxes and an array of teleportation prevention spells, meticulously crafted to render any means a wizard could use for instantaneous movement utterly ineffective within its boundaries. In theory, such spells should have made it impossible for the intruder to simply disappear. However, the undeniable fact remained that this had somehow occurred, defying all given logical explanation.

Bryan tightened his fist, huffing deeply as a wand fell into his palm of hand. Lifting it up, he swept it horizontally in a well-practiced arc, conjuring up a strong gust of wind from above that smothered all the floating particles, sending them whirling back down to the earth. The landscape in front of him became clear again in an instant, the foggy layer of dust lifting to show the full scope of the destruction.

Bryan's body shook slightly as it hung there, momentarily suspended in the surrounding wind, then he launched himself at the crumbling Villa.

'Who could have done this?'

The name Vipor Dreghorn immediately sprang to Bryan's mind. It was unsurprising to have such a suspicion, was it not? The resentful, venomous look Dreghorn had cast just tens of minutes earlier when Bryan had left the hotel remained etched in his memory.

However, Bryan would not jump to the hasty conclusion that the culprit was definitively Vipor Dreghorn, infuriated by the insult to his honor and acting out in a fit of rage. Could Durmstrang or Beauxbatons not also be suspected to some degree? One could never be too sure!

Logically speaking, neither of the two schools would commit such a foolish, brazen act, because the people who had secretly orchestrated this trouble must have surely known that Hogwarts and the British Ministry of Magic would undoubtedly investigate the matter thoroughly. If any shred of evidence implicated them, let alone hosting the Triwizard Tournament, this ancient event symbolizing cultural exchange and friendship could be outright cancelled.

But... if some crazy people were truly willing to gamble everything on the assumption that they could leave no trail behind...

Gazing down at the heap of scattered debris and fractured masonry, Bryan's eyes darkened with brooding thoughts.

Igor Karkaroff... That man did not seem like an upright wizard and his mind did not appear particularly sharp either. Previously, he had also left the banquet hall hastily after Dreghorn's dramatic exit.

Tap--

Bryan lightly floated back down to the rubble-scattered ground, his expression blank.

How intriguing... The two men who stayed with him in the hotel rooms, Barty Crouch and Ludo Bagman, had also departed the banquet hall early. Had they really gone back to their rooms as planned, the burglar would never have been able to cause as much damage as he did. However, it so happened that one had claimed to have to put in extra hours at the Ministry, and the other had ventured out in search of "thrills" in the thriving Parisian nightlife; none of them had been in their rooms at the critical moment when the incident had occurred.

Hum--

Under the influence of magic, broken wooden beams and shattered marble bricks levitated from the ground, hovering suspended in mid-air.

Holding an eggshell-white magical wand, Bryan strode through the ruins with uneven steps. After a cursory sweep of the decimated space, he pinpointed the location of his own room, or what remained of it amidst the sea of devastation.

Every furnishing inside had been reduced to an unrecognizable state; the place had been utterly decimated, as if a raging firestorm had torn through it, consuming all in its path. According to the lingering magical traces in the air, numerous sources of powerful magic had manifested here. They had used a powerful explosive curse to obliterate the Villa before abruptly vanishing.

Amidst the powdery debris scattered across the floor, not a single scrap of paper could be found– the interior had been scoured clean, leaving not a single clue as to the identities of the perpetrators. However, Bryan did discover some blackened ashes.

His penetrating gaze swept the surroundings once more. Several minutes later, after a meticulous examination of the ashen remains, Bryan could finally confirm that the black ashes were likely the remnants of his own security protocols.

This was no personal grudge, it seemed. The opponent's objective was clear: to prevent Hogwarts from hosting the Triwizard Tournament. Moreover, the perpetrators were experienced, their violent demolition of the VIlla not intended as an insult to Bryan, but rather as a calculated effort to conceal any evidence of their presence here.

Under Bryan's control, an irregularly shaped brick shifted position, revealing his self-designed alchemical device -- a Monitoring Lens/Mirror buried beneath it.

Bryan approached and crouched down, nudging the now-unrecognizable monitoring Lens with his finger, his expression somber.

Out of habitual caution, although Bryan did not expect anyone to launch a surprise attack while he was away, he had still placed a Monitoring mirror with video storage capabilities in the bedroom. However, precisely because this mirror had been positioned in his room which was the epicenter of the explosion, that the mirror enhanced with concealment and basic defensive spells had been utterly obliterated.

Bryan briefly inspected the mirror's internal magical pathways before dismissing his idea of repairing it.

Perhaps the only part of the room that remained mostly undamaged after the incident was the illusion magic that created the false sky overhead. This magical canopy, which looked a lot like the enchantment above Hogwarts' Great Hall, was made to detect when someone entered the home and to reflect the night sky outside by creating a fleeting, shimmering dance of light and shadow across its shimmering breadth.

As an international metropolis, the bright neon lights of Paris outshone nature's grandeur, obscuring any glimpse of the stars for both Muggles and wizards alike, leaving this as the only means to appreciate the dreamlike, dazzling constellations.

Bathed in this soft starlight that opposed the devastation surrounding him, Bryan silently gazed at the now utterly destroyed monitoring mirror in his hands for a long time, before an amused smile crept onto the corners of his lips.

After carefully collecting the mirror's scattered remnants, Bryan cast one final glance at the surrounding ruins. However, he had no intention of wasting his precious time and energy on attempting to repair the once luxurious villa that had been his temporary residence. 

"Leave it as is for now--" Bryan murmured softly. "I'm rather curious to see what explanations you all have to offer for this...delightful turn of events."

The guest room was certainly uninhabitable in its current state. Although Bryan's luggage contained a travel tent capable of providing basic accommodations, he had no interest in spending the night amidst this ash-choked pile of debris reeking of char. Turning towards the exit, he prepared to seek out the hotel staff and find another room. The bill, after all, would be forwarded to the Ministry of Magic.

"Mr. Watson?"

The lavish banquet had just concluded, and many hotel guests still lingered in the dimly lit corridors of the seventh and sixth floors. 

Madame Maxime and Fleur were engaged in hushed conversation wwhen Bryan appeared out of nowhere, his trouser cuffs covered with ash. That startled them both.

Have you encountered some problems?" Madam Maxime raised her eyebrows and asked in a calm voice, "Do you need any help, Mr. Watson?"

"Oh, Madame Maxime, and Miss Delacour--"

In that unexpected moment of encounter, numerous thoughts flashed through Bryan's mind. He reined in the traces of astonishment on his features, offering a mellow smile instead.

Bryan met Madame Maxime's gaze, his smile tinged with remorseful amusement as he replied, "Ah yes, I've run into some trouble, you see... The house collapsed."

"The house collapsed?!"

Madame Maxime and Fleur exchanged bewildered glances laden with unspoken meaning, clearly unsure how to interpret Bryan's words.

'Not Beauxbatons.'

Bryan immediately arrived at this conclusion after scrutinizing their reactions. Whether judging experience and instincts honed over decades, or relying on innate magical auras that he could perceive with his heightened senses, the confusion and astonishment displayed by the two from Beauxbatons was not feigned – their innocence in this matter was undeniable.

"Indeed--" Bryan's smile became more genuine as he shrugged in a display of dramatic resignation. "I was experimenting with magic in my room, dabbling in some new theoretical applications, and unfortunately, there was an incident that left the interior in quite a mess, as you can see. Oh, what a misfortune! It seems we may have to pay a rather hefty sum to reimburse the hotel for the damages incurred."

Experimenting with potentially volatile magic while still dressed in such formal attire?

Rejecting her invitation... This was an unprecedented occurrence, so he immediately had such bad luck?

Fleur's long eyelashes fluttered, her lips pursing as if suppressing a smile. However, a thought quickly occurred to her, and her blue eyes danced in their sockets before she said sympathetically, "Oh, how unfortunate, Mr. Watson. So, where are you going to stay?"

"I planned to ask the hotel staff for another room," Bryan brushed off the ash from his trouser cuffs and said. "Hopefully Barty won't throw a fit over this in the morning."

"I'm afraid your plan won't work, Mr. Watson--" Madame Maxime's voice was serious. "You may not be fully aware, but this Famous Goblin-owned hotel's business is absolutely booming at present. All guest rooms require advance booking well in advance, so they are highly unlikely to be able to provide you with any additional accommodations outside of their previously arranged allotments."

"Er--" This point had indeed escaped Bryan's consideration.

"Why not invite Mr. Watson to stay with us?" Fleur's lips curved into a smile as she spoke lightly, meeting Madame Maxime's surprised and Bryan's somewhat uneasy gazes. "The villa is quite spacious, with numerous rooms available, is it not, Madame?"

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