Polyjuice fumes clung to the air before Dean even saw the wand. Moody's impostor—some rat-faced Death Eater with a twitchy trigger finger—had telegraphed the curse before his lips finished forming the words. Dean's NZT-enhanced synapses fired faster than Avada Kedavra's green light. He pivoted, feeling the heat of the killing curse graze his jacket sleeve as he lunged forward and drove his elbow into the man's trachea.
The wand clattered to the mud. Loki kicked it into the Black Lake without breaking stride.
**STATUS SCREEN**
**Combat Log Updated**
**Enemy Neutralized: [Barty Crouch Jr.]**
**SP Awarded: +200 (Covert Elimination Bonus)**
**Current SP: 3000**
Dean wiped his hands on his pants. "Hogwarts security's shit."
Loki peered at the castle through the downpour. "You want the stick or the stone first?"
Dean's mind unfolded the castle blueprints—Filch's patrol routes, the shifting staircases' patterns, Dumbledore's evening sherry habit. The Elder Wand rested in a tomb. The Resurrection Stone hid in a snitch. Both were trivial.
The **STATUS SCREEN** pulsed:
**Recommended Purchase: [Magical Resonance - 1500 SP]**
**Effect: [Temporary Spell Immunity]**
Dean scoffed. "Waste of points." He tossed the Tesseract fragment to Loki. "You're the distraction."
Loki's grin was all teeth. "How loud?"
"Portkey loud."
—
The Dark Mark over Hogsmeade burned emerald against the thunderheads. Dean walked straight through the Hogwarts gates as aurors scrambled, his steps synced to the chaos. The **STATUS SCREEN** tracked Dumbledore's frantic apparition toward the village.
**STATUS SCREEN**
**Objective Proximity: [Elder Wand - 200m]**
**Time Until Detection: 00:04:12**
The tomb was unguarded. Dean pried open Dumbledore's resting place with the edge of his boot. The wand hummed in his grip—not power, but recognition.
**STATUS SCREEN**
**Item Acquired: [Elder Wand (True Owner)]**
**SP Awarded: +2000**
**New Ability Unlocked: [Wandless Casting]**
A whisper of movement behind him. Dean didn't turn. "Took you long enough."
Voldemort's red eyes narrowed. "You are not Harry Potter."
Dean spun the wand between his fingers once before snapping it over his knee. "And you're not the main character."
The **STATUS SCREEN** flashed crimson as the Resurrection Stone rolled from the broken wand's core.
**WARNING: [Horcrux Detected]**
Dean crushed it underfoot.
Voldemort screamed.
So did the earth.
—
The castle trembled as revenants clawed from the cracked stone. Dean vaulted a collapsing archway, his NZT calculating trajectories through the debris. The **STATUS SCREEN** blared:
**Secondary Objective Complete: [Avoid Ministry Detection]**
**SP Awarded: +500**
**Total SP: 5500**
Loki materialized beside him, tossing the Tesseract fragment like a coin. "They're summoning something."
Dean watched the sky split. "Dementors. Fifty thousand of them."
Loki sighed. "I hate this planet."
The **STATUS SCREEN** updated:
**Available Worlds: [Hunter x Hunter - 3000 SP]**
Dean grabbed Loki's arm as the first dementor descended. "Next stop—"
Reality shredded.