"The only way you can help is by not causing any trouble for our rescue operation!" Moody said coldly.
"We're involved too!" Michael tried to stay calm, but his voice still trembled slightly: "Vid... Vid disappeared right next to us, maybe we can provide some clues!"
Moody's blue Magic Eye spun around and suddenly fixed on Michael. He gruffly asked, "Oh... did you find any clues, sir?"
Michael gritted his teeth, unable to speak.
"This is entirely my fault," Lupin suddenly said. "I took them out, but I... I was too careless and didn't pay attention in time..."
"It's useless to find out whose fault it is now. The most important thing is to find Vid as soon as possible."
Dumbledore spoke up, looking calm, as if the extreme anger Harry and the others saw earlier was just an illusion.
Even though Harry was in a terrible mood, he couldn't help but feel a bit puzzled — if Dumbledore wasn't angry at Lupin, who was he so angry at?
Just as he was thinking this, he saw the headmaster looking over: "Harry, Michael, this place might not be safe anymore. You need to temporarily stay at the Weasley Family. Arthur, take the children away."
"Okay, Dumbledore." Arthur Weasley said hastily.
"We want to stay!"
"I can help!"
"We're not children anymore!"
Everyone started clamoring, some adult wizards frowned, showing an annoyed look as if they were looking at misbehaving kids.
"I know." Dumbledore seemed very calm, and he said, "When we need help, I will also seek your assistance. But right now, we need to handle this matter as quickly as possible. I hope you can cooperate, okay?"
The headmaster's voice seemed to have a kind of magic, calming down the restless, worried, and angry crowd.
His tone was gentle, but his attitude was unmistakable. Harry felt that if they continued to argue, wouldn't it prove even more that keeping them out of it was the right decision?
Michael clenched his fist and was the first to stand up: "Let's go, Harry. They're right, we shouldn't cause trouble at this time."
Arthur Weasley breathed a sigh of relief, quickly spilling the Floo Powder into the fireplace while saying to Michael: "—the Burrow, kids, that's your destination."
The green flames took the kids away one by one, leaving the room in silence.
"Tell us what happened, Remus." Dumbledore said.
"Yes." Lupin said in a somber voice: "This morning, I accompanied them to a Muggle supermarket to buy Christmas gifts..."
Transport modes, travel routes, addresses and times, the situation around Vid's disappearance...
Lupin tried to quickly explain everything.
"I heard a child went missing at the Muggle's supermarket, they're also offering some help. Fortunately, the supermarket we went to had recently installed surveillance cameras..."
"Surveillance cameras?" Sirius asked, puzzled: "What are those things?"
"Muggle's Flow Mirror, it can record images." Tonks enthusiastically explained to him.
Lupin paused, seeing that no one else had further questions, then said: "We checked the surveillance footage and found an old man very suspicious."
He pondered how to describe the man, but considering the appearance and height might be unreliable, he heard Dumbledore say:
"Let me see your memory."
The elderly man pointed his finger at the table, and an ancient Stone Basin instantly appeared.
He said, "I've brought the Pensieve."
Lupin didn't hesitate, inserting the tip of his Magic Wand into his hair, pointing at his temple.
A moment later, he withdrew his wand, its tip connected to strands of silver-white substance, ethereal like fluffy clouds.
Lupin placed the memory into the Pensieve. Dumbledore stirred it twice with his Magic Wand, and a miniaturized supermarket scene floated above the Pensieve. Vid was pushing a cart, selecting items, and a bald old man seemed to naturally approach him...
Dumbledore's expression turned completely cold.
...
Vid suddenly found himself hearing strange wind sounds in his sleep. He opened his eyes groggily and, after seeing the objects in front of him, his heart almost stopped—
A monster with a head as big as a house was staring down at him, then stretched out a giant tongue, like a bedsheet, to lick him, its white barbs standing like a forest of spears, trembling and thrusting toward him.
Vid's hair stood on end, and he leapt up like a carp, drawing his Magic Wand and slashing fiercely!
Sparks flew from the wand's tip. Though harmless, the monster was startled, let out a "meow," and leaped dozens of meters high, disappearing instantly.
Vid looked at his useless Magic Wand in shock, then at the "monster" that leaped away, only realizing it was just a long-haired cat.
He used the Enlargement Spell to challenge others' nerve limits, but now someone used it on him?
No, that's not it...
Vid suddenly remembered the cat's jump height, paused silently, and slowly looked up.
The ceiling seemed high and distant, far beyond the height he remembered it should be. The chandelier also appeared alarmingly large.
Looking at his surroundings—
What he thought was a white floor was actually white woven cloth, the texture of the interwoven fibers clearly visible.
A true 800-square-meter bed.
A rabbit-sized spotted skin beetle crawled past, its yellowish-brown shell glistening, its feather-like antennae swaying twice as if greeting him, or possibly assessing whether this strange creature was edible.
Vid finally realized it wasn't someone using the Enlargement Spell on him, he himself had been shrunk.
—It's okay, Shrinking Potion was just covered by Professor Snape last term. Vid had both the potion and its antidote...
He reached to his pocket but froze.
—Of course, he hadn't brought the wardrobe space this time.
But perhaps it's a good thing... Although he couldn't resolve this predicament immediately, if he had brought the wardrobe space, that Magic Item painstakingly made might not belong to him now.
Vid forced himself to calm down quickly, lightly waved his Magic Wand, looking for other methods.
As expected... this place had the Anti-Disapparition Charm cast, the enemy wasn't as careless as he thought...
Wide-ranging Repelling Curse, Masking Spell... now even owls couldn't find him, nor could any wizard or Muggle accidentally stumble in...
The room had only a few small windows, positioned high and unable to open. But near the ceiling, there were ventilation openings...
Vid glanced at the dark grills, feeling the call of freedom towards him.
Transforming into an eagle could let him fly up there.
But now he was in an abnormal state, unsure if Animagus transformation could proceed normally... and it's his last card. If he impulsively exposed this to the enemy without escaping successfully, there's no second chance to use it.
Vid wasn't sure if anyone was observing him secretly at this moment, but he restrained the urge to transform and fly out, trying conventional methods to probe.
"Defodio!"
The spell's light hit the glass, only leaving a shallow crack on it.
Moreover, perhaps due to the magic power dissipating, using the spell caused a gold powder-like glow around the wand's tip, reminding Vid of those fairies Professor Flitwick used to decorate the classroom each Christmas.
Those little creatures created such a spectacle whenever they used magic.
He looked at the toy-like Magic Wand in his hand, unable to resist a sigh.
Not far away, the cat that had earlier been startled off the bed looked at the small person on the bed, then at the sparkling fine gold lights, its round black pupils enlarging a bit.
It bared its teeth, crouched down, its paw silently landing on the floor, taking two slow steps forward...