"Does it hurt?" Wade asked the Dementor with a smile.
The Dementor did not respond, but the way it kept writhing in agony through the air was answer enough.
As it twisted in pain, it "stared" at the boy before it in terror.
Though its intelligence was limited, it now understood that it had fallen into this boy's trap.
But even knowing that, what could it do with such meagre wit?
All it could feel now was pain, a kind of pain so pure it pierced straight into the soul.
At this moment, the Dementor had only one thought: to end this pain as quickly as possible, even if it meant giving up everything it had.
"Keh~ Obey me, and I will make your pain disappear~"
At that moment, Wade's voice sounded again.
Without the slightest hesitation, the Dementor floated down, its body trembling as it awkwardly prostrated itself before Wade.
Wade nodded and used a specific incantation to stop the Dementor's suffering.
The Dementor's body stopped shaking. At the instant the pain vanished completely, it felt better than it ever had before.
However, with the pain gone, the simple-minded Dementor immediately began harboring improper thoughts once more.
However, Wade seemed to see straight through its thoughts.
"If you try to remove the collar around your neck, or if you disobey my orders, then the pain will come immediately. For example… right now."
"Cree—" The Dementor curled in on itself again, writhing on the ground in agony, even letting out what could be called a scream.
This time, Wade waited a full five minutes before ending its suffering.
"Have you thought it through now? My patience is very limited~" Wade said softly.
The Dementor prostrated itself on the ground once more. Even though the pain had completely vanished, its body still trembled uncontrollably.
And when Wade's voice reached its ears, it was indistinguishable from a devil's whisper.
Because Wade truly could send it to hell.
"Very good. Get back in the case. And behave."
The moment Wade finished speaking, the Dementor crawled into the suitcase on its own, even stretching out a withered, ugly hand to pull the lid shut behind it…
…
Even though Grindelwald had witnessed countless bizarre scenes in his life, he was still left dumbfounded by what he had just seen.
Wade hadn't used a Patronus Charm, nor had he even drawn his wand or used any magic Grindelwald had anticipated before.
With just a look and a single ring, that Dementor had been subdued.
Grindelwald didn't recognize whatever Wade had done to restrain the Dementor at first, but he did recognize the ring that came afterward.
He had seen goblins use similar rings to tame dragons.
But Wade's ring was clearly not the same as the goblins'.
Having once cooperated closely with goblins, Grindelwald knew perfectly well that goblin beast-taming rings could never be used on Dementors, let alone directly subdue one.
Dementors were not creatures that could be tamed at all.
The Ministry of Magic only managed to have these simple-minded monsters act as guards of Azkaban through deals and exchanges.
As for taming them, that was completely out of the question.
And yet now, Grindelwald had witnessed this impossibility become reality with his own eyes.
Grindelwald looked at the suitcase. "To be honest, when you said it was for an experiment, I didn't really believe you. But now… I can only say, splendid. Truly splendid."
"You flatter me. Thank you very much for your help, Director. If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving now," Wade said politely.
"Uh… you're just leaving like that?"
Wade's eagerness to make a quick exit caught Grindelwald completely off guard.
He had assumed Wade would stay and chat a while longer. After all, there was no one else around, and it wouldn't have been a bad idea to talk about future plans.
Yet Wade clearly couldn't wait to leave.
"Oh, sorry, I almost forgot…" Wade pulled out a bamboo back scratcher he had made himself and handed it over. "Merry Christmas, Director. This is my Christmas present for you."
"Uh… what is this?" Grindelwald took it as if it were a wand.
"It's a back scratcher… it helps you reach places on your back you can't scratch yourself. Ah… sorry, this doesn't really look like a gift."
Wade took the back scratcher back from him, then pulled out a strip of red gift ribbon and tied a neat bow around it.
"There. Now it looks like a Christmas present. Goodbye, Director."
After placing the back scratcher back into Grindelwald's hand, Wade picked up the suitcase and turned into a swirl of white mist, rising into the air.
Moments later, he vanished into the distance.
Grindelwald stood there holding the back scratcher, staring at where Wade had disappeared, completely bewildered.
After quite a while, he looked down at the back scratcher again and cautiously used it to scratch his back.
"Hmm? Sigh… well, I'll be damned…"
…
Wade didn't return to the safe house. After putting enough distance between himself and the area, he checked again to make sure Grindelwald wasn't following him.
Only then did he Apparate back to the wizard tower from a hidden spot.
The moment he entered the laboratory on the first floor of the tower, Wade couldn't wait to release the unlucky Dementor.
Holding the converter in his hand, Wade looked at the Dementor with a ferocious grin.
"Come on, let me see!"
Dementor: ???
That night, the Dementor experienced a level of misery it had never encountered in its entire existence…
Early the next morning, Wade calmly put the converter away.
He had to admit, the upgraded version of the converter was indeed very useful.
The converted residue truly had no side effects at all.
Unfortunately, the conversion speed was still a bit slow, and the amount of negative emotion a single Dementor could produce was simply too limited.
It didn't quite satisfy Wade as much as he'd hoped.
Still, an entire night of conversion did strengthen him.
The effect was roughly equivalent to the benign residues his senior had given him before.
Wade fell into thought.
At the moment, his senior was continuing to improve the converter. Perhaps he should help her research a container for storing the residues.
Creating a container capable of holding larger amounts of benign residue would definitely be much simpler than researching the converter itself.
That way, once his senior succeeded in creating a fast-conversion model, even if his body couldn't hold so much residue at once, he could temporarily transfer it into the container.
Having made up his mind, Wade prepared to leave.
But when he turned and looked at the Dementor, now reduced to barely half its original size, Wade felt a wave of worry.
This thing… really couldn't be drained recklessly.
At this rate, it would take days of "feeding" before it could recover to its previous state.
Sigh. Life was hard. Not only did he need merit points, he also needed a massive supply of emotional energy…
Seeing this, Wade couldn't help thinking… was the position of warden of Azkaban actually the job best suited for him?
When the Dementor felt Wade's gaze, its body immediately began to tremble like a leaf in the wind.
Terrifying. As a Dementor, it had always been the one draining others. When had it ever been drained itself?
Now it finally understood what those prisoners whose happiness it had devoured must have felt.
In the end, Wade put the Dementor back into the suitcase once more.
After all, the suitcase had been specially reinforced with magic by Grindelwald. Once the Dementor was locked inside, it couldn't affect the outside world at all.
"Looks like I'm going to need to feed this Dementor properly… as for how to feed a Dementor…" Wade thought for a moment, then picked up the suitcase and left the wizard tower.
…
Riddle Manor.
Tom was currently in his wooden cabin, studying the fourth syllabic variation of the Disarming Charm.
He raised his wand and pointed it at the wooden target in front of him.
"Expelliar—"
"Tom! I came to see you!"
Wade's noisy voice from outside the cabin interrupted Tom, making him break off his incantation halfway.
"Pfft!"
A cloud of red mist burst from the tip of Tom's wand, and an indescribable stench instantly filled the entire cabin.
Creak!
The door on the upper floor was pushed open. Wade strode in, then turned right around and walked straight back out the next second.
"Tom! Did you crap in the room?! The toilet's downstairs!" Wade shouted loudly from below.
"I bloody—"
Tom was furious, and also nearly choked by the smell.
He ran out of the room like a madman and pointed at Wade's face, yelling, "Wade! Have you lost your mind?!"
"Sorry, Tom…" Wade said apologetically. "I shouldn't have come in and disturbed you while you were taking a dump."
"I! WAS! NOT! TAKING! A! DUMP!" Tom roared, stressing every single word.
"Uh… really? Then… you wouldn't happen to be playing with shit, would you? That's a bad habit… and your tastes might be a bit too extreme!"
"You bastard! Forget it…" Tom gave up on explaining, realizing it would only make things worse. "Why are you here?"
"Tom, that's so cold! This is just a friendly visit!" Wade said cheerfully.
Tom frowned. "Cut the nonsense. You wouldn't visit a bathroom if it weren't fulfilling a part of your future plans. We just went back to our own homes yesterday. If you didn't have something going on, would you really come 'visiting' this soon?"
Wade stared at Tom in shock. "Merlin's pants! Tom! Is that why you didn't wanna visit the bathroom just now?"
"Fuck! Don't change the subject! What are you really here for?" Tom asked warily.
"You're far too cold, Tom. Actually, I'm here today with a really good thing. At least for you."
The moment Wade spoke, Tom felt alarm bells blaring in his head.
"A good thing… forget it, don't bother. I don't need any benefits. See yourself out."
This guy was definitely here to screw him over again.
So the best course of action was simple: don't listen to a single word Wade said. Not even the punctuation.
"No, really, this is genuinely a good thing for you!"
Tom ignored Wade's nonsense completely and focused on shoving him out of the door.
_________
o(*￣▽￣*)ブSupport and read 12 Chapters ahead of WN at-
Patreon/Captain69