Chapter 166: The Burning Sky (Edited)

Kingsley Shacklebolt has the confidence of the Minister of Magic, Fudge.

He is a senior auror in the Ministry of Magic and a secret member of the Order of the Phoenix. Yesterday he was suddenly informed by Dumbledore that he had been given the task of clearing the trail of trace inducing reports from the Ministry of Magic over the next two days.

Kingsley was still a bit confused, he was a bit puzzled, because Dumbledore had given a very strange order, an order that seemed to him the same as "Little X, go to so-and-so's office and take out the garbage."

But the members of the Order of the Phoenix trusted Dumbledore absolutely, and would do their best to carry out any order he gave them, no matter how unreasonable it seemed. So Kingsley went every day to destroy the tracking reports. There was nothing unusual in this behavior, because for the Ministry of Magic, the trail reports after the start of Hogwarts were a huge pile of useless information, and even if Kingsley hadn't gone, they would have sent someone to clean them regularly.

There is a big difference in the Ministry of Magic's attitude towards the reports from before and after the start of Hogwarts, and it has to do with the nature of the reports.

All underage wizards have "traces" on their wands, which act as a detector to detect magical fluctuations within a given area. This means that if a minor wizard is near someone or a magical creature that has cast a spell within a certain range, the Ministry of Magic will detect it. However, due to technical problems, it is not possible to determine precisely who is doing the magic, only the type of spell. For example, if Harry inflates his aunt without using his wand, it is still possible to detect that the spell used by Dobby was also placed on Harry's head.

From the Ministry of Magic's point of view, this is what happened: a levitation spell was detected at No. 4 Privet Drive, and the only wizard at No. 4 Privet Drive, Harry Potter, was warned once for using magic outside of school.

Since it was a first offense, and because it was a harmless Levitation Charm, the Ministry of Magic didn't bother to check, so they only gave him a warning. Had Harry been more familiar with the process and gone directly to the Ministry of Magic, the warning would have been 100% nullified, as the Ministry of Magic would have used the inspection spell on Harry's wand, so they would have found out immediately that Harry had not cast the spell outside the school.

The warning didn't alert Dumbledore either, Dumbledore must have known about it, but he didn't bother, after all it wasn't really serious, like being pulled over by a traffic cop for running a red light. When Harry was convicted of using the Patronus Charm, Dumbledore acted immediately to defend Harry.

Here's the problem, the "trace" is a range detection, so what if there are a bunch of wizards living in range? The Ministry's strategy was to "ignore" it, ignoring reports of wizard settlement traces. Because there are so few Muggles in wizarding areas like Godric's Hollow and The Burrow, and even if there is a problem, it can be dealt with by adult wizards in time, the Ministry does not regulate them.

When the school year started, all the young wizards left for Hogwarts, and the places reported by the "trail" were completely out of commission, so the Ministry of Magic was even less concerned. In theory, they should have carefully checked every report for reports outside Hogwarts, but those at the Ministry of Magic were too lazy to do so: there had been no problem before, so they could get rid of everything to save themselves the trouble. Misuse of magic only happens during the summer vacations and Christmas, and now that Hogwarts is in session, do little wizards misuse magic? There isn't.

They just burned the tracking reports.

Neither Harry nor Ron knew about the workings of the Ministry of Magic, and at this point they were confused: why hadn't the warning letter from the Ministry of Magic arrived yet?

"It's a long way from London to here, maybe the owls are on their way, it just takes time." said Ron with great uncertainty, but his suspicions were dismissed by Harry: that elf Dobby had used magic at Aunt Vernon's house, and had received a warning letter immediately.

With Harry telling it like it is, Ron couldn't understand it. The two got out of the car a little confused, and were at a loss: even if they had rushed back to London and sent a letter to Dumbledore, three hours would have passed, and Professor Lockhart would already be "in the mud."

"Ron, look!" exclaimed Harry, pointing to the sky, and Ron followed his fingertips to see the swirl of funnel-shaped clouds in the sky.

As the cloud swirled, it took on a reddish tinge, and a suffocating pressure emanated from within it. Harry also felt a wave of heat come over him.

"It's Professor Lockhart!" The two men rushed toward the mansion, and were greeted by a scene they would never forget: A sea of fire.

The entire mansion was in flames. The fire engulfed everything: the lawn, the mansion, the shrubbery, the fence.... The water in the European-style fountain evaporated, and the back hill that was originally filled with fruit trees was also engulfed by the raging fire, just a little closer, you can feel the hair curling slightly and there is a smell of barbecue.

The air was distorted by the heat, and smoke shot up into the sky, only to join the clouds and form a new tornado of smoke and dust.

Through the smoke, Harry and Ron could faintly see two figures standing on the roof of the mansion, one of them with a "slender" fire dragon appearing on one arm and attached to the sea of fire, which moved slowly as its arm swirled. Next to it sat a man who must have been Professor Lockhart.

"Is that Professor Lockhart?" wondered Harry, "He doesn't look the right size."

"He's so powerful!" Ron was shocked beyond words, "This spell is so powerful, it's a natural disaster! Did you see that, Harry? I'm going to learn this spell with Professor Lockhart from now on, we'll learn it together, we'll do this powerful spell together!"

Harry swallowed saliva and nodded at the power of the spell: is this the true power of Professor Lockhart? Is this the legendary adventurer? Can Professor Dumbledore cast such a terrifying spell?

At this point, Tom, who premiered his big move, already showed his prototype.

Tom's big move of now was too fierce, he drained the magic power in [Sister]'s magic core, and also drained his own magic power, so he didn't even have the magic power to maintain Lockhart's form.

Worse, he felt like he was being smoked into jerky. The temperature around him was so high that even the air was scorching, and with every breath Tom could feel the heat returning to his airways.

Not daring to linger, he took control of the [Sister], and fully cast the powerful spell.

"Vulcan..."