great-warnovel Chapter 247 The Witcher
Chapter 247 The Witcher
Chapter 247 The Witcher
The huge emblem hanging high above the room prominently features a silver-throated long-tailed tit.
These small birds, which have not gone extinct even in such a harsh wasteland, are small, delicate and inconspicuous, but they are good at forming groups and can be surprisingly aggressive when protecting their nests and chicks.
"A Squib is someone born into a magical family but who doesn't possess any talent. Regardless of their origins, we are no different from Muggles." Even though it was late at night, Filch still maintained his dignified butler's uniform, standing ramrod straight, unlike Professor Figg, who was wearing a soft robe and cloth shoes. If it weren't for his signature hairnet, Hermione wouldn't have recognized him.
"But why are you here? Are you training?" Hermione couldn't help but ask.
Why would Dumbledore gather a group of Squibs and train them in combat skills at Hogwarts late at night? Was this his hidden army?
Having just read quite a few books on dark magic, Hermione couldn't help but think in a darker direction. Could it be that Dumbledore's sinister ambition was to rule the world, just like Grindelwald?
"Have you heard of the Inquisition and the Witcher?" Professor Figg asked, walking over in his soft shoes.
"Oh, you haven't learned it yet. It will be covered in this year's Muggle Studies class later on," she said to the girl with a kind smile.
Hermione became interested and found a chair to sit down: "I suppose you wouldn't mind giving me some extra lessons late at night?"
"Go back to training, everyone." Filch shooed the others away and then brought Hermione some cockroach milk.
Mrs. Figg sat down next to Hermione and said slowly, "The Inquisition is a product of the Middle Ages. It was originally an organization used by the Church to persecute wizards, but of course, they hurt Muggles more than anything else."
"The lack of discernment allowed those fanatical judges to send anyone they deemed suspicious to the stake, even though true wizards were difficult to catch."
"After the war, although the social structure of Muggles was completely broken, religious groups became more and more active. They could not contact each other, but their fanatical faith and hatred of wizards led to the emergence of fanatical groups in various places that hated wizards and aimed to hunt them down."
Mrs. Figg was somewhat lost in thought as she watched the young people training hard in front of her.
"But how could Muggles possibly harm wizards with their fighting power? Especially those wizards who survived the war?"
"Hermione asked, puzzled.
She hadn't met many old wizards, but judging from McGonagall and Moody, these wizards, who had been through countless battles, were quite formidable in combat.
"Ambushes and assassinations—they won't openly clash with wizards," she explained.
"As Grindelwald exposed wizards to the world, and as Malfoy Castle began to recruit Muggles on a large scale, many of them could become servants of wizards under the guise of submission, thus infiltrating our settlements."
"Then, there's poisoning and assassination. Some of them are organized and can develop extremely potent poisons. Even wizards can die a horrible death if they don't receive timely treatment."
The two people practicing weren't very focused; they kept glancing in Hermione's direction.
"Of course, even if it's organized and premeditated, they rarely succeed. Wizards have Legilimency, Felix Felicis, the universal antidote, and Apparition. Only the particularly stupid or slow-witted unlucky ones get killed." Professor Figg said this with a hint of envy in his eyes.
"However, these people were originally suicide squads. They acted with the idea that killing even one person was a bonus. Under the brainwashing of religious fanaticism, they did not cherish their own lives."
"Would Grindelwald allow such an organization to exist?" Hermione couldn't help but ask.
Compared to the British Isles across the Channel, mainland Europe is perhaps easier for these organizations to infiltrate. The territory controlled by the UMNO is quite large, and its control over its settlements is loose on the surface but tight on the inside. Only in core areas like New Paris are the checks more rigorous. In other places, there may not be many wizards stationed.
"So he launched a major crackdown many years ago."
Professor Figg nodded: "They used the Imperius Curse to find the hideouts of many of these organizations, and Legilimency to find all the related Muggles and wipe them out to ensure that such ideas could not continue to spread."
"But how could the extinctionists' goblins let him have his way? The Muggle regime in the east also sensed the value of this religious power."
"They rescued one of the largest fanatical organizations at the time—the Tribunal."
Filch calmly added, "And in the many years that followed, it was forged into a blade hidden in the shadows, always pointed at the wizard's head."
"They crafted the best equipment for these people: brain-sealing helmets, lightweight power armor, and anti-voodoo poison—"
"Provide them with the most professional training courses, including stealth, makeup, various dialects, old-fashioned etiquette and customs, performance, and rhetoric."
"They are physically strengthened through the most brutal and rigorous training: assassination, hand-to-hand combat, mastery of both cold and firearms, as well as explosives and chemistry—."
As Filch spoke, Hermione couldn't help but look at him; these descriptions seemed quite similar to him.
The old gentleman nodded calmly: "You guessed right, I am a witch hunter from the Inquisition, or you could call me a witch hunter."
Hermione's eyes widened immediately.
"Compared to newly grown Muggles who have little real understanding of wizards, Squibs born into magical families but lacking talent are more likely to choose to join the Inquisition due to jealousy and a twisted mindset."
"The Inquisition was more willing to absorb these people who were rejected and discriminated against by the wizarding society because of their lack of talent. They were more ruthless when they attacked wizards. Most of the witch traitors came from the Squib group. In fact, later on, the most core and powerful witch hunters of the Inquisition were all from the Squib group."
"And how did you—" She wanted to ask Filch how he ended up at Hogwarts. She didn't think Dumbledore would let a Squib, who could kill a young wizard at any moment, live in the school for more than ten years.
"As the strongest of my generation in the Inquisition, my mission back then was to assassinate Dumbledore," he said calmly.
But Hermione couldn't help but want to laugh out loud. These Muggles, whose minds had been corrupted by religious fanaticism, were actually trying to send someone to assassinate Dumbledore.
"The other person who received the mission with me is responsible for assassinating Grindelwald." As he said this, even Filch wanted to laugh, and Figg next to him couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"Obviously, my colleague and I both failed, but I was luckier and didn't turn to ashes like him."
Hermione can basically imagine what happened next. Under Dumbledore's powerful personal charisma, this Squirrel, who was once filled with hatred for wizards, finally let go of her resentment and became a silent guardian of Hogwarts, using her meager strength...
They are protecting these children.
"There must be a lot of stories behind this." She couldn't imagine how much Filch had changed, let alone how he could suppress his murderous intent when facing those annoying purebloods of Slytherin.
"Dumbledore wanted to find a way for ordinary people and wizards to live in harmony, and we Squibs, who have been bred with hatred, are a rather troublesome problem."
"Whether it was to weaken the Inquisition or to gather the Squibs who had been excluded from wizarding society, he believed it was necessary to create an organization to deal with the endless harassment of the witch hunters."
"Therefore, the titmouse came into being."