Trap?

"As you instructed, I sent someone to secretly investigate—"

Remus Lupin looked somewhat tired at his desk; his suit was wrinkled and he hadn't had time to shave.

"The addresses of those missing children haven't changed, but their original families have all undergone tremendous changes—" Lupin sighed. "The parents who still live in the same places have almost all been cursed with Memory Charm. They and their friends and relatives have forgotten the existence of their children. Even worse, some families have complicated interpersonal relationships, requiring too many people to be cursed with Memory Charm. They... they have been cursed with Imperius Curse ..."

Upon hearing Lupin's report, Sean's brow furrowed even more. It was roughly as he'd expected; with so many children suddenly disappearing, if the parents had reported it to the police or engaged in other activities, he should have received some information long ago. But if it weren't for that night's journey through the ship's cabin, Sean would still be completely in the dark.

The Returners cast a spell on the children's parents...

However, what puzzled Sean was that Lupin's report did not mention anything similar to the Lloyd Couple; it seemed that only that poor couple was affected by the Sloth spell.

Was Lloyd's child special, or was it merely an attempt by the Returners?

Sean leaned more towards the former, suspecting that the boy named Lonte Lloyd might have something special about him, perhaps a trait that met the requirements of a "Sin Vessel."

However, we'll have to wait until they rescue those poor children to see the specifics.

After thinking for a moment, Sean said, "Withdraw all our people. We can't alert them. Also, we need to carefully check everyone who comes back to prevent them from using Polyjuice Potion, Imperius Curse, Memory Weaving, and other such methods. Although the chances of being discovered are not high, we still need to be careful."

Lupin nodded. "Don't worry, I've already given the instructions."

"Yes, thank you for your hard work, Remus."

After exchanging pleasantries with Lupin for a while, Sean returned to Hogwarts. After leaving the Room of Requirement, he headed towards the Great Hall.

Mealtime was the only opportunity for him to see Durmstrang students. Ever since he beat Reinhardt Nott up, all the Durmstrang students had been avoiding him.

Sean had originally planned to find another opportunity to test Leon Schneider, but the other party didn't give him a chance at all. That guy never showed up in Hogwarts Castle except to eat.

Upon arriving at the Great Hall, Sean waved to Daisy and Hermione at the Ravenclaw Table, Sean habitually looked towards the Durmstrang students' dining table.

Then, a chilling gaze fell upon him without any attempt to conceal it; it was Reinhardt Nott.

A slight smile appeared on Sean's lips. This guy's been discharged...

He waved to the other person in a friendly manner, with a warm smile on his face, as if he were greeting an old friend.

Reinhardt Nott's eyes were filled with undisguised hatred and coldness. He even made his usual gesture to Sean, swiping his right hand across his neck.

Interesting, remembering whether he'll eat or not... Sean smiled indifferently; this guy's stubbornness had surprised him.

However, he is not as interested in Reinhardt Nott now. During that test, the other party did not seem to have mastered any unconventional powers, whether it was the Obscurus or the [Sin].

Sean's focus has now shifted to Leon Schneider, who is sitting next to Reinhardt Nott.

He ignored the other person and walked straight toward Daisy and Hermione.

"It seems that Wallerup doesn't take you seriously at all," Leon Schneider chuckled.

Reinhardt Nott forked a medium-rare steak, and myoglobin dripped onto the plate, slowly spreading out.

He tore into the steak without any regard for his image, even licking his fingers.

"He'll regret it..." Reinhardt Nott glanced at the latter. "However, isn't your plan a little too obvious? That kid isn't stupid. When everything is too straightforward, he'll definitely become suspicious and find the flaws."

Leon Schneider shrugged indifferently. "Just do it. My promise to you is that as long as you complete this task, you can join us, no matter what the final result is—as a classmate, I've fought for the best rights for you."

Reinhardt just gave a cold laugh and said nothing.

What is the best right?

Following their plan, regardless of the final outcome, I will inevitably face Sean Wallerup. And given that kid's personality, it's unlikely that a month in the Hospital Wing will be enough to resolve this...

However, as long as I don't die, everything is acceptable...

After Sean sat down at the Ravenclaw table, Hermione leaned over and whispered, "After Nott came back, he sat with Leon Schneider and they seemed to be discussing something."

Sean didn't look in that direction, but just pursed his lips. "It's some kind of plan to deal with me..."

"I don't know why, but I always have a bad feeling..." Hermione hesitated for a moment before finally expressing her feelings.

Sean didn't hide anything about his Durmstrang of Durmstrang that day; Hermione and the others already knew his thoughts and plans. Now that they had brought up the issue, Sean asked, "Why do you say that?"

Hermione looked troubled. "That's why I'm troubled, because I can't figure out the specific reason... Logically speaking, they haven't discovered that you already know their secrets, and their current arrangements are to deal with your investigation of the secrets on the ship, but I have a bad feeling... What they want is something else that we haven't noticed..."

"We didn't notice..." Sean unconsciously chewed the food in his mouth, then fell into deep thought.

He wasn't arrogant enough to think his plan was foolproof; Hermione's sixth sense might remind him of things he hadn't noticed before.

Normally, the Returners wouldn't know that their secret had been discovered by Sean. What they were worried about was Sean sneaking into the ship... At the time, Strong Hartman, whom he controlled, had been wandering on the deck for a long time without being caught, which meant that the other side was setting a trap. This was something Sean could guess.

The trap was likely set for him, the inhabitant of Pride. Considering the other party's research on the magic of Sin, Sean had ample reason to suspect that the other party might have designs on the Pride within him.

Directly stripping away Pride is unrealistic, but perhaps the other party has some method to extract a portion of the magic originating from Pride...

Sean glanced at Hermione; the girl's face still held a look of distress and confusion as she pondered which important piece of information she had missed.

"I should find an opportunity to subtly reveal some of my situation to them... "Sean thought.

That day, Grindelwald had hinted to himself that he could tell his close friends about his Sin through subtle hints, but Sean had been hesitant.

He couldn't quite grasp the line between the hints and the prophecy. If there were too few hints, Hermione and Hermione others would be completely confused, while if there were too many, they would be drawn into the Prophecy, which would not only make it more difficult for Sean to deal with Pride later, but would also put Hermione and the others in danger.

After all, once you're involved in Sin, which is born from the World Will, you can't escape it.

Currently, even Professor McGonagall and others only know about the Prophecy and the Returners; they do not know what Sean's position is in the Prophecy.

Dumbledore, Grindelwald, Stephanie, and himself are the four people on the friendly side who are currently aware of the situation, while on the Returners ' side, Sean has always assumed that everyone on the other side knows.

The number of Returners has never been clear, but Sean estimates there must be at least several dozen. Strangely, despite so many people knowing the Prophecy, the awakening of [Pride] within Sean has not accelerated.

Either the other party already knew, and the current awakening of the Sin is happening while the Returners is aware of it, or the other party's form is special, and the Returners's half-human, half-ghost state does not cause any additional impact when participating in the Prophecy.

There's not much to say about the former, and it's unlikely, since the Returners haven't been in the mortal world for very long. If it's the latter, then that would be interesting.

Sean suddenly had an impulse to enter the Realm of Illusion and take a look.

Instead of entering the Sky Island where one's own "Pride" exists, one should go in through the entrance between the Realm of Illusion and the real world.

He never forgot one thing: when he was in his early years, Dumbledore had mentioned that the key to the Realm of Illusion, which was kept in the Ministry of Magic, had been stolen.

In other words, the entrance to the Realm of Illusion and the real world is currently open.

However, he didn't know where the entrance was—he couldn't fake his death like Harry did in the original story and enter the mysterious environment in a strange way, that wasn't realistic.

Coming to his senses, Sean reassured Hermione, "Don't worry, they've been lurking in the shadows. Now that we're going to deal with them, I won't let my guard down."

Hermione glanced at him worriedly, and finally just told him to be extra careful.

After dinner, the group headed toward the Ravenclaw Common Room. Halfway there, the Shadow Bug in Sean's arms suddenly twitched.

Malfoy messaged him?

Sean told Hermione something, then quietly slipped past the crowd and headed toward the place where he usually contacted Malfoy.

When they arrived at the empty classroom, Malfoy was already waiting inside.

"What's wrong, Draco? What happened?"

"There's something going on with Nott— " Malfoy said bluntly.

"Reinhardt Nott? Oh, no, Theodore Nott?" Sean paused for a moment before realizing what he meant.

To everyone's surprise, Malfoy frowned and said, "It's related to both of them."

"All of them are related?" Sean immediately became interested.

Although both men share the surname Nott, according to previous research, Reinhardt Nott and the Nott family in England are not related by blood; they simply share the same surname.

"I've been trying to get in touch with Theodore Nott, but that guy is completely unyielding and always does things by himself—" Malfoy said with some dissatisfaction. He had already lowered his stance considerably, but Theodore Nott's mouth was harder than the stone walls of Hogwarts Castle, and he hadn't managed to get a single word out of him.

This made Malfoy, who had accepted Sean's mission, feel somewhat embarrassed. However, his continued close attention led him to discover the strange situation that night.

"Theodore Nott and Reinhardt Nott clearly don't know each other and are not related by blood, but I just discovered something: they are secretly communicating."

"Contacting secretly?" Sean blinked. These two had secretly contacted each other?

Malfoy nodded. "They did it very discreetly. I wouldn't have found out if I hadn't been keeping a close eye on Theodore."

"When did it start? In the last couple of days? Or did it start before?" Sean asked.

"It must have started in the last couple of days, after Reinhardt Nott was discharged from the hospital—" Malfoy said uncertainly, "If the two of them had been in contact before, I couldn't have missed it..."

Sean nodded thoughtfully, then asked, "What are the specifics?"

"After dinner, Theodore Nott went back to his room alone as usual. I was going to follow him to invite him to join the Pureblood Society, but I lost sight of him before I could catch up. I was a little confused, so I hid in the shadows. A while later, Theodore Nott suddenly reappeared from somewhere. After he left, Reinhardt Nott also appeared from where he had just appeared. And I saw what that guy was holding in his hand— the Nott family Crest."

"The Family Crest ..." Sean narrowed his eyes; this was something he hadn't expected.

Could it be that Reinhardt Nott is really related to the Nott family in England, and that he is some kind of lost branch of their bloodline, and now he wants to return to his ancestral home?

Something's a bit strange...

"Sean, what do we do?" Malfoy asked.

After thinking for a moment, Sean said, "You stay the same. I'll find an opportunity to 'meet' with Theodore Nott."

Malfoy seemed somewhat unwilling, as if it was a loss of face for him to have Sean personally take charge, but in the end he still followed Sean's plan.

After separating from his opponent, Sean took out the Marauder's Map and began to examine it.

The map eventually had its limitations. After students from the other three schools flooded into Hogwarts Castle, the Marauder's Map only showed Hogwarts students and staff. People from the other three schools were not shown at all, and even some ghosts were not fully displayed.

Now, Sean mainly uses it to check whether Dumbledore is in the Headmaster's Office.

Open the map, and Theodore Nott's footprints are in a corner of the Slytherin Common Room. The footprints are motionless, as if the person is resting.

"Tsk, this feels a bit like a trap..." Sean stroked his chin.