The Aurors and my men were moving rather slowly — and understandably so — who wants to be hit by something deadly coming from around a corner or an unknown niche in the wall? People for this operation were selected exclusively from experienced veteran fighters or young specialists with real experience.
Only Angelina and Alicia are newcomers here now, and no one will let them in even when it's over — the background is too heavy, literally every pebble is saturated with pain, suffering, despair. I don't think that what I felt in the U.S. at a government research lab and now here will have a positive effect on the girls.
If we forget that psychology is very serious, especially for a magician, whose mental sphere influences his gift no less than his innate abilities, then there is still such a thing as a natural perception of the world around a magician. What is there to say when even an ordinary person can sense a "bad" place? If underage girls who have not yet established their abilities and their psyches fall into this black vortex, they will not come out the same as when they went in.
They'll be literally corrupted. Even now, not hiding very much, following the groups closely, supporting the people in case of any surprise, I feel and see how this darkness is circling around the people, how it is trying to seep into them, like an intelligent being looking for weaknesses. No one could have foreseen this, but it's still very good that only "experienced" people were chosen, otherwise, I'm afraid, only a few would have been able to work effectively inside.
And not only the "atmosphere" is appropriate here, but also the surroundings: the walls are made of old stone, with traces of moss, the complete absence of windows, as if you were in a dungeon, and the ceilings are covered with a thick layer of soot from torches and oil lamps.
It was as if the local staff did not know magic at all, they could not take a banal transparent glass bottle and conjure up a magic light in it, which had to be renewed every two or three days. And I'm not talking about the simplest rune chains, because just a few symbols on the same bottle will "catch" the most ordinary "lumos" and feed it as long as necessary, without the participation of a magician.
And then there's the smell. Oh yes, the smell of the enclosed space of stone buildings where torches and oil lamps burn all day long! This mixture of gases can't even be called "air," and you can't breathe it, which was confirmed by the four guards who were wrapped up in a few moments. So these stupid "bulls" had primitive bandages on their faces so that they would not be poisoned by the fumes.
Unfortunately, a quick interrogation was not possible: as soon as we started asking questions, using Confundus on some of them and even Imperius on others, all four of them died instantly. Only later did we learn that each of the local employees did not even have an oath, but a full-fledged tattoo, practically a slave tattoo. Now we just took the impossibility of explicit interrogation to heart and moved on.
On the way we met some single and double of the same stupid thugs, waiting for the right moment to activate insidious traps in the walls, floor and ceiling. But we are cautious people, we are suspicious of the enemy's words, so we tested the effect of dangerous mechanisms on the same boogeymen whenever they got in our way.
I can't say that it was "funny" or "curious" to see how genuinely surprised these thugs were when they did to them what they were about to do to themselves. It was a mixture of naive childish resentment and incomprehension: how come, why? Even though I did not send these "non-persons" to a certain and cruel death, I did not prevent them from doing so, so the blame is on everyone, and I do not deny it. Somehow I don't want to see my people pierced by spikes coming out of walls/floors/ceilings, or cut by disks, or shot by iron arrows — and that's not the whole list of "nice surprises".
I don't want to go into too much detail or dwell on every single trap, but I will note separately that some psychotic but brilliant mechanical engineer created all of this, as all mechanisms worked exclusively on mechanical principles.
Corridor after corridor, turn after turn, but time passed and we could not find even a hint of a "working" zone, or rather, it was not there. Since there were enough people gathered, we divided into four powerful groups that scanned the building simultaneously, but after twenty minutes everyone clearly realized that this place was either a hoax, or the main premises were in another place, most likely — underground. I, on the other hand, remained silent during this time.
In fact, I could have revealed all the information I knew, which would have shortened both my stay here and speeded up the operation, but there is always a chance of finding a spy among my people who "snitches" to someone, and besides, the groups were mixed, so if I start talking, and outsiders will find out everything even without betrayal.
Basically, in situations like this, it's really the speed that makes the difference; you can't delay, stall, and so on, so my men and the Aurors hurried, using their experience wisely, but they were in a hurry — it was noticeable. And it is understandable and logical from all sides, because the main purpose of this plan — to save the underage witch, as well as to catch the intruders in the act.
Without the Chinese barriers, as well as my spiritual dome, and here would have been really "hot", of course, there was no doubt, in addition, an additional confirmation for those who do not know that the main culprits, or at least actors here — "Patronus", which saw everything.
Not everyone is able to summon a physical "Patronus", which not only requires a long enough time to learn how to summon it, then additionally learn how to send messages with it, so some may not have enough strength. In general, not even the smartest Auror knew: somewhere in there were a few not the weakest, quite skillful wizards, with wands, so they were definitely not prisoners.
Fifteen minutes later, when the absence of anything important or interesting in the above-ground rooms had already been established, the wizards began to look for a way down into the dungeons. Why am I not in a hurry? Why don't I help?
Because Hermione is in no danger now, no more harm will be done to her than has already been done, the perpetrators have nowhere to go because the apparatus and the Portkey don't work, and four underground passages have been collapsed by my spirits. The enemies are trapped, cut off, and now they only have to defend themselves or kill themselves, but the Angles are cowards and egoists, so such a result is not to be expected from them, and especially from those who consider themselves superior to others. My purpose in delaying is to test the strength and knowledge of the fighters.
I need to know what they are really capable of, what they can do, whether there are any weak-willed people with a "rotten core" of personality among those present. It's a kind of spontaneous test, and we'll start working more seriously with those who pass it, because I need loyal, strong, and skilled fighters, not what an "average" Auror of the local variety is.