"Otherwise, do you want to ride a broomstick or phantom?" Old Kurt glanced at his nephew and said angrily.
"I mean, you should at least cast a magic spell or something, after all..."
The young wizard replied. He looked around. They were standing on a country road. There were tall bushes with tangled branches and leaves on both sides. A wooden signpost protruded from the thorn bushes on the left side of the road, pointing to the road ahead of them.
The arrow read: Little Hangleton, 1 mile.
Following the direction of the road sign, you can vaguely see a quiet small village shrouded in the night.
"According to the information, there are 131 permanent residents in Little Hangleton Village. If there are Muggles who can't sleep and look out the window, it will be very troublesome, right?"
"That's right." Old Kurt nodded, "But it's hard to see clearly through the glass, so I have to let him come out -"
"Oh, he?"
Frank blinked and looked at his uncle in confusion.
"Frank, Frank Bryce, a Muggle who lives in a wooden house on the edge of town. His name is the same as yours."
Kurt Meyer said calmly, and glanced sternly at the careless boy next to him.
"He has been the gardener of Riddle House for most of his life and plays a very important role. As for more details, that is not what you should know. Your task tonight is to walk into Riddle House, light the fireplace, and put away the door key.
, and then wait for the evacuation order at the end of the mission."
"Also, if you ask one more question, this will be your last field operation. Do you understand?"
"Okay, boss." Frank shrugged his shoulders and replied seriously.
Old Kurt stared at Frank for a few seconds, then turned around and walked quickly in the direction of Little Hangleton.
The two walked for a while, and no one else could be seen around them. Then, the path turned left and went steeply down the hillside. They soon saw their destination. Little Hangleton Village lay quietly.
Between the two steep hillsides, you can see the church, the cemetery, and the Sheriff's Hall. On the hillside across the valley, there is a gloomy and dilapidated mansion, with gravel and weeds spreading unchecked beside it.
"Now, take out your wand. Don't you think it's a little too dark?"
Kurt lowered his voice and whispered to Frank, "Don't worry about the bullshit confidentiality laws. One of your tasks today is to "happen" to be seen by others. If you accidentally hear any noise, just treat it as if a wild dog is digging."
Shitou. I'm going to 'wake up' the Muggle first..."
As Kurt's voice became lower and lower, his figure unknowingly faded and disappeared into the darkness.
"Phew, okay -"
Frank looked around and shrugged helplessly.
As an ordinary operator of the Tianming Group, his authority is obviously not enough to unlock the complete mission description.
"Fluorescence."
A white halo lit up from the tip of his wand, instantly dispelling a large area of darkness.
…………
Old Frank woke up from the pain in his bad leg. Now that he is getting older, the pain in his leg is getting worse.
The bedroom window was blown open by the wind at some point, and a biting chill lingered in the room, stinging his bad leg like a needle.
He got up from the bed and found that the hot water bottle placed next to his knees had become cold, so he limped out of the bedroom, trying to refill the hot water bottle to warm his stiff knees. He stood by the stove, filling the kettle with
Filling the bottle with water, he subconsciously looked out the window at the hillside.
The generous, generous and mysterious "Mr. Riddle" kept his promise and got him a house on the edge of the village.
In addition to the spacious and clean living room, what satisfied Frank the most was that he could just see Riddle House on the hillside outside the window.
"Huh?" Old Frank couldn't help but frown.
He saw a figure wrapped in a dark robe crossing the long street and walking towards Riddle House.
The man seemed to be holding an unusually bright candle in his hand, but judging from the bright white halo, it looked more like a light bulb in his hand.
Within a few minutes, he arrived at the front door of Riddle House, and the sound of pig iron chains falling to the ground could be faintly heard in the distance.
Logically speaking, as the "former" gardener who was "fired", no matter who he was, he had nothing to do with Frank, but he just couldn't convince himself to put down the kettle and go back to sleep. The old man stood in the cold living room, watching the halo gradually disappear in the
Behind the front door of the Riddle Mansion, just as he was hesitating whether to go over and take a look, the Riddle Mansion suddenly lit up, accompanied by a muffled explosion.
In just a moment, the flickering firelight shone from every window in the house.
Frank was stunned for half a second, and then immediately understood what was going on.
Those fireplaces! Those mantelpieces that they thought were useless, were all set on fire!
Although he didn't know how the mysterious man did it, Frank knew what he had to do - there were no chimneys connected to the fake fireplaces. If a fire was lit in those places, it wouldn't take long for the flames to spread around. He had to
Take a closer look.
If he doesn't take care of it, when he wakes up tomorrow morning, Riddle Mansion may be nothing but a ruin engulfed by fire.
Frank's "new home" still doesn't have a telephone.
Ever since the police took him for interrogation over the sudden death of the Riddle family, he had a deep sense of distrust towards the police.
He quickly put down the kettle, dragged his bad leg back to the bedroom, put on his clothes, then went back to the living room and took out a rusty key from the hook beside the door - this was the key to the back door. He planned to wait for the person
When Mr. "Tom Riddle" came, he handed over the other party with his own hands - now it comes in handy, Frank thought, hurriedly picked up the crutch leaning against the wall and walked into the night.
The front door of Riddle House was ajar, and the chains lay on the overgrown gravel.
What's even weirder is that Frank noticed a lot of figures moving around there, but apart from the sound of dragging robes and footsteps, he barely heard a few words of conversation. After hesitating for a few seconds,
, Frank limped around to the back of the house, stopped at a door that was almost completely covered by the ivy, took out the old key, and was about to insert it into the keyhole to open the door leading to the large kitchen of Riddle House.
's back door.
At this moment, Frank's hand shook suddenly, and the key stopped two or three centimeters away from the keyhole.
Suddenly, orange light and shadow flickered in the dark keyhole.
Although he hadn't been in for many years, he could still clearly imagine the scene on the other side of the door:
The two dark fireplaces in the large kitchen must have been lit at this time.
Noisy footsteps and voices came through the wooden door that smelled of rot and mold.
Frank pricked up his ears, held his breath, and tried to catch every sound of voices on the other side of the wooden door. There was a voice he was very familiar with, a cold, arrogant voice that sounded vaguely hoarse, the one who previously called himself Barty Crow.
The strange and eccentric "butler".
However, compared to before, Mr. Crouch's voice was a little more flattering and crazy.
"Most of the Aurors have left the UK. Master, when will we set off?"
"Wait a little longer," another voice said.
It was also a man's voice - but it was strangely high-pitched and as cold as the cold wind. Frank noticed that when the man spoke, all the chatter in the room stopped, as if everyone was like him
The hair all over his body stood on end.
"Your father is still there, right? Crouch. Can you do it——"