With the groundwork id, Alex summoned several ravens. Each bird clutched bundles of thin tubing ialons or beaks, fluttering silently into the third floor through the ey. Upon arrival, the ravens sprang into a. Two of them adjusted the thick tube, pulling it carefully out of the firepce, while the others busied themselves eg the thin tubes to the diverter. The ectors were secured with metal nuts, f the ravens to tighten them one by one using their beaks.

  By the time the setup was plete, Alex was drenched i. trolling multiple ravens simultaneously while remaining pletely silent was no easy feat. He allowed himself a moment to catch his breath, his chest rising and falling heavily.

  Ohe tools were ready, Alex directed the ravens to carry the thin tubes to the doors of each bedroom. With painstaking care, he guided the tubes through the cracks uhe doors, one room at a time, ensuring not to disturb the doors and risk triggering an arm. His hands trembled slightly from the strain, but he kept his focus sharp.

  When all the preparations were plete, Alex opehe valve on the gas der. Asphodel vapan to flow through the main pipe, the diverter, and the thin tubes, seeping into ea. He g his pocket watch, mentally calg. "Inhaling this at a tration of 3% for more than two milliliters will cause unsciousness," he murmured under his breath. "Judging by the size of these rooms, they should be out cold in three minutes. Just to be safe, I'll wait four. ’t afford any mistakes." His gaze darkened. "Let’s hope none of them have heart ditions. If they do... well, that’s their bad luck."

  *Asphodel is main material fht of Livih. Its properties are associated with sleep, death-like states, and potent magical effects.

  Alex recalled his earlier reaissance of the house. The rooms had beeructured with temporary magic, creating five uniform spaces that didn’t quite fit properly within the frame of the house. This made the doors loose, with wider gaps at the bottom—perfect for his pn. The windows, sealed tightly, made ether the ideal choice to incapacitate his targets.

  When four minutes epsed, Alex quickly shut the valve a a raven to peck lightly at one of the doors, testing the rea. No movement. He repeated the test twice more, but the house remained eerily silent. A small grin broke across his face. "Looks like it worked," he muttered, wasting no time as he disassembled the gas setup. After seg the der and putting on a gas mask, Alex prepared to move in.

  Using a floating spell, Alex hovered up to a window overlooking the third-floor living room. A quilog spell opehe tch, and he slipped inside. Warning magic flickered faintly, indig that the house’s defenses were still active, but Alex wasn’t worried. Their masters were already unscious.

  The magical surveilnce device—a spinning gss orb suspended in the living room—emitted bright fshes and sharp whirring noises, alerting anyone nearby of a breach. Alex froze it effortlessly with a spell, its frantients halting instantly.

  Moving quickly and effitly, Alex bypassed the flickering lights of warning spells and unlocked the bedroom door. Inside, a Death Eater y unscious. Without hesitation, Alex snatched the wand from the sleeping figure’s side and bound him with a spell. A flick of his wrist opehe windows, allowing fresh air to rush in and disperse the lingeriher. The votile fumes made him uneasy; any spark could ighem.

  He repeated this process in each of the five bedrooms, taking wands, binding the unscious Death Eaters, aing the rooms. Ohe task was done, Alex moved the incapacitated individuals to the sed floor, ensuring they were out of sight, and closed the curtains. Only then did he begin dismantling the house’s security spells.

  The Death Eaters appeared to have inhaled an overdose of Asphodel, remaining deeply unscious. Alex checked their vitals—no signs of life-threatening harm. Satisfied, he turned his attention to the house itself, yering it with sileng and shielding spells to prevent any noise from leaking out during the phase of his pn. By the time he finished, his pocket watch read midnight. "Six hours until dawn," he muttered, steeling himself for what came . "I’d better get moving."

  Alex approached the unscious Death Eaters, his face calm but his movements brisk. From his pocket, he retrieved an ented hammer he jokingly called the "No Damage Hammer." Without hesitation, he delivered a smash to each of them, jolting them awake.

  "Ahhh!" The room erupted in screams and panicked cries as the Death Eaters stirred, their eyes wide with fear and fusion. Alex stood over them, his face illuminated by the dim light of the room, a sly grin spreading across his lips. "Good m," he said casually. "Let’s have a little chat, shall we?"

  Everyone was jolted awake by a sharp, searing pain. In the dim light, they could barely make out one another’s faces, but no one could figure out what had happened. Just moments ago, they had been sleeping. How were they now lying on the cold, hard floor of the sed floor? Struggling to rise, one of them realized he was restrained by thick, glowing s of magiatter how much he squirmed ged, he couldn’t move an inch.

  Suddenly, the room was bathed in light. A glowing orb of magic hovered above them, illuminating the space like daylight. The sudden brightness stung their eyes, f them to squint and shield their faces before they could adjust. The light revealed a sparsely furnished room with a single shelf on one wall, filled with strange and ominous tools.

  The sound of metal king together broke the tense silence. A calm yet uling voice followed, dripping with mock courtesy. "Oh, sorry about that," the voice said. "I fot you all ’t see in the dark. Let me fix that for you."

  As their vision adjusted, they saw a young man standing casually he shelf. He had dark hair and a handsome but cold face. The tools on the shelf beside him were far from ordinary—pliers, loal picks, a device resembling a clock, s, a thick syringe, ay potion bottles lined up ly. Each item seemed more uling tha.

  “Who are you? What do you think you’re doing here? Let us go! Someone, help!” Karkaroff shouted, panic rising in his voice as he struggled against his s. His eyes darted around the room, looking for any sign of escape.

  The young man, Alex, didn’t even flinch. He tie the tools in his hand, his tone calm and almost amused. “Help?” he echoed with a small chuckle. “You think help is ing? That’s cute.”

  Yaxley, his face red with anger, snarled, “You filthy little worm! Do you even realize where you are? How dare you barge into the Travers family’s private estate! You must have a death wish!”

  But before Yaxley could tinue his tirade, another voice cut through his rant. “Enough, Yaxley.” Torquil, calm and calg, spoke up. “You’re just wasting your breath. This boy clearly pnned all of this. Barking at him won’t do us any good.” Turning his gaze to Alex, he added with a smirk, “We’ve met before, haven’t we? King’s Cross Station, wasn’t it? What’s yoal here?”