More than ten minutes later, Murphy stood before a dilapidated wooden shack overgrown with moss. At his feet lay the corpse of an ugly humanoid monster, riddled with holes by spells.
"Th-this looks like a swamp hag," said a magical disaster response officer. "But these things disappeared centuries ago. We thought they had gone extinct."
"Many similar things have been happening lately," another officer said. "Last time, we even spotted a Quintaped over in Wales. It shouldn't have been there."
"We found them!" a wizard shouted. Murphy looked over to see the officers carrying unconscious wizards out of the ruined shack.
"Most of them are merely unconscious, but two appear to have been struck by an extremely severe illusion curse. They need to be taken to Jishi Hospital."
Murphy spotted a familiar face among the unconscious wizards. He walked over and cast Finite Incantatem on Draco Malfoy. Draco slowly woke up. At first, he only let out terrified screams, but he soon recognized Murphy. "Professor, it's you. Is it really you? Not some hallucination the monster created to torment me?"
"Is seeing me that tormenting for you?" Murphy asked.
"No, no, Professor, it really is you. Did you come to save us?" Draco crawled to his feet, his face pale. "There was a monster, an incredibly powerful one. It had magic that could control minds and make us see illusions. My teammates all..."
"Don't worry. They're safe now," Murphy said, offering him a few reassuring words. "I didn't even know you had joined the Special Training Group. You haven't graduated yet, have you?"
"No, but I'm quite capable in combat, so I was exceptionally admitted," Draco said.
The Malfoy family's influence had probably played a part in it as well, but Murphy did not point that out.
"The Special Training