Antoine and Delaine were both elite among wizards—their magical ability surpassed that of most Aurors. Yet, when they cast detection spells on the trees, they still couldn't sense any traces of magic.
Wade knew exactly why.
Every time they cast a detection charm, a ring of magical runes would briefly glow about as high as a person near the base of the tree. The spells were like moths drawn to a flame, immediately absorbed and dispersed by the runes.
This was something only Wade could see. To Delaine and Antoine, everything looked perfectly normal.
Wade was still considering how to convince the two of them when he suddenly heard Antoine say again, "Come on, this forest clearly hasn't been touched by magic. It's just an ordinary forest."
The moment the words left his mouth, Wade's eyes lit up—while Delaine's brows furrowed deeply.
"No traces of magic? How is that possible!"
Delaine spoke with a serious tone: "Over the past year, how many Muggle-repelling charms has the Ministry placed around here? And in just the past few days, how many people have Apparated in and out of this forest?"
Antoine suddenly came to a realization. "...You're right!"
Wade touched the spot on the spruce tree where the magical runes were drawn—his fingertips brushed against the rough bark.
He said, "Maybe the person who cast the spell originally only intended to conceal the anomalies in these trees. But because the same spell was layered so heavily throughout the forest, it created a strange field that blocked even the usual magical traces from being detected."
"So basically," Antoine laughed, "the guy's efforts to ensure success ended up exposing him instead?"
"I wouldn't say his preparations were a mistake," Delaine replied. "Because if not for Wade's dream, no one would have thought to examine a place like this."
"Let's check everything again."
The three of them spread out, and searched ahead while maintaining several meters of distance from one another. To guard against an ambush from the dark wizard who had enchanted the forest, Wade remained in the center.
On both sides, detection spells lit up from time to time. Wade, however, cast far fewer spells.
After all, he only needed to look to tell which trees had been enchanted.
Suddenly, Wade stopped walking. He was staring at a particularly massive oak tree up ahead.
Oak trees are among the largest and longest-living tree species in the world. Some of the oaks in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts were over a thousand years old. Their immense crowns sprawled like plazas, with trunks that spanned over a dozen meters in circumference.
When Wade turned into his Animagus form of a peregrine falcon back at Hogwarts, he had often admired such spectacular crowns from above, marveling at their grandeur.
The oak in front of him wasn't quite that massive, but it was still visually striking—it would take at least three or four people to wrap their arms around the trunk.
More importantly, the magical runes around it were broken—as if someone ran out of breath mid-drawing and did not fix it properly, instead they patched it up clumsily.
Wade's brow twitched. Strangely, he felt no joy—only annoyance.
That dark wizard had been so thorough, so precise, so cautious, so utterly deranged in his obsessive preparation that Wade had started to hallucinate the image of Gotham's Joker.
But now, such a glaring mistake was like a blob of sauce dropped on a perfect masterpiece—or a lavish silk robe stomped on by filthy feet.
The illusion of Gotham's Joker instantly shattered, replaced by the image of a struggling high schooler forced by his parents to do homework—knowing it was wrong but pretending not to see it.
Still, no matter how you look at it, the enemy's mistake was good news for their side.
Wade cast a detection spell at the oak tree. As before, the spell's glow was drawn in by the ring of magical runes, and after a moment, a faint silver light began to radiate from the break in the runes.
Like a breached dam, the silver light flowed up and down along the tree trunk, causing the entire tree to start glowing.
Seconds later, the silver glow darkened rapidly, turning into thick, black smoke that spread outward. It even emitted faint creaking sounds—like something chewing.
Two more seconds passed. The detection spell dissipated, and all the abnormal signs vanished.
Antoine and Delaine had already been drawn over by the commotion and were now standing beneath the massive tree, watching the sequence of changes unfold.
The moon remained hidden tonight. To avoid drawing unwanted attention, only the dim light at the tip of Antoine's wand illuminated their faces, casting shifting shadows across them.
"It's definitely a powerful and deeply evil form of Dark Magic," Delaine concluded after a brief pause.
"No kidding—we can all see that," Antoine rolled his eyes. "The point is… is this really that curse that can corrupt and transform trees?"
"How would I know? I've never seen that curse before—just like you haven't," Delaine replied. "I need to notify Mr. Grindelwald."
"I'll contact Dumbledore then…" Wade began.
"No need. We can handle it ourselves." Delaine cut him off, then after a pause, added, "Didn't you say Dumbledore and his Order of the Phoenix are busy handling another group of Death Eaters? If they redirect people here, there's a chance someone slips through the net over there."
"But if a large number of trees have been cursed…" Wade said with concern.
"That's Grindelwald," Delaine replied flatly.
Somehow, those words were oddly convincing.
To deal with trees—even cursed, magically transformed ones—the most effective spell is still fire. And who would doubt Grindelwald's ability to start a fire?
"Besides, what if Dumbledore and Mr. Grindelwald run into each other and start fighting again?" Antoine said nervously. "We were lucky to survive the last battlefield."
Wade couldn't help but laugh at that.
While Delaine went off to contact Grindelwald, Wade stood gazing up at the enormous oak tree before him—at least ten stories tall—and felt a sinking weight in his chest.
A being this massive and majestic—even if it couldn't move—would not be easy to destroy. Even using Fiendfyre, it would take time to completely burn it down.
And in that time, if the tree were awakened, it could charge into the stadium engulfed in flames, spreading fire to everything in sight and causing catastrophic casualties.
What's worse, it wasn't just this one tree. Trees like this covered the entire forest.
And they didn't have much time left to act—over 100,000 spectators were already seated inside the stadium. If the dark wizard intended to maximize the damage, he could awaken the forest at any moment.
The dark wizard was likely nearby, watching and waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
So if they began cutting down or destroying the trees without being fully prepared, the enemy would probably detect it immediately and awaken the forest prematurely—sending it charging into the stadium to begin a massacre.
At that point, it wouldn't be about how to prevent a tragedy, but about how to survive one.
—Can we really entrust the lives of everyone here to Grindelwald alone?
Wade didn't think so.
The tip of his wand glowed faintly with silver light—then vanished in an instant.
--------------------------------
🙏🙏Please consider supporting this translation project by becoming a P@treon member!!!
Your support is greatly appreciated!
Available on my P@treon page for just $4!!
Early access to the following translations:-
⭐Harry Potter: Becoming a Study God (HP:BSG)- 200+ Chapters
⭐MCU: Druid's Adventures (MCUDA)(⭐COMPLETE⭐) - Total Chapter 460
⭐Famous Police Detective in Detective World (FPDDW)- +165 advance chapters
⭐Marvel: Little Genius (MLG) (⭐COMPLETE⭐) - Total Chapter 450
[email protected]/Lightreaper457
--------------------------------