"Mr. Burke!" Mr. Parkinson immediately rushed over upon hearing this, bringing with him several Aurors who were actively monitoring Lucius.
"..."
Lucius pursed his lips, instinctively wanting to leave, but Mr. Parkinson seemed to realize something and turned his head. "Mr. Malfoy... you had best not do anything suspicious."
His words made Lucius take a deep breath. Though his pale face was grim, he did momentarily stop his boots from moving.
"Miss Hamier, did you say he just tried to destroy this magic array?" Mr. Parkinson walked to Lyla's side, holding his wand and staring intently at the frozen Mr. Burke.
"Ye...yes," Lyla said, nervously pursing her lips behind her mask.
Lyla hadn't expected Mr. Burke to be so audacious... directly destroying criminal evidence right in front of an Auror. Lyla couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of admiration. But unfortunately, admiration couldn't let Lyla condone his reckless actions. Whether it was casually destroying a magic array or trying to evade a Ministry inspection, both were very serious crimes.
Especially destroying a magic array. Lyla firmly felt that such an academic crime should be met with the Cruciatus Curse. Moreover, she hadn't even properly studied this composite array yet.
Lyla pursed her lips, lowered her body slightly, and walked back to the counter. As her custom ebony wand was raised, a faint glow lit up the wood.
"What kind of magic array is this?" Mr. Parkinson glared at the immobilized Mr. Burke, then asked, "Can you safely activate it?"
"Ye...yes," Lyla said softly.
This was also a complex combination of various magic arrays, including a core Secret Lock Array ... though this specific Secret Lock Array was of a very simple, outdated type.
Lyla took out her newly created Spatial Expansion Book from her embrace and slowly opened the cover.
She slowly took out a small glass bottle from the expanded space inside, under the astonished gaze of the surrounding Aurors.
"This is Acromantula blood; it can effectively nullify simple Secret Lock Arrays without violently damaging the other auxiliary support spells. It's usually used by scholars to correct incorrectly drawn arrays..."
Lyla instinctively began to excitedly explain her Magic Array Studies, but she immediately realized that the Aurors around her were not Miss Lovegood.
Even the usually talkative Mr. Parkinson looked utterly bewildered.
Lyla quickly lowered her head awkwardly, hiding her flushed face in the deep shadows of her hood.
'I really need to correct this bad habit... I can't discuss these unpopular academic things in front of others anymore...' She reminded herself again and again in her heart, then raised the small bottle of potent magical material and flicked it gently.
"Hiss!"
A piercing sound came from the core runes of the magic array, making the Aurors instinctively frown and cover their ears.
But Lyla nodded gently. That was right... just as she had seen in her research fifty years ago... a sound like a train whistle indicated that the Acromantula blood had taken effect.
Immediately after, she raised her wand and carefully drew a sword-shaped symbol over the runic array.
"Buzz!" The sword-shaped symbol glowed faintly, and then the wooden floor beneath Lyla's feet let out a loud bang.
"Step back!" Mr. Parkinson realized something was happening and quickly retreated a few steps. He reached out, pulling up the dazed Lyla who was still squatting there.
"Ugh!" Lyla was pulled off balance, hitting her head hard against Mr. Parkinson's leg.
"Miss Hamier... you should be more careful," Mr. Parkinson said in a low voice, extending a hand to help her up.
"Tha...thank you..." Lyla pursed her lips, choosing to firmly stand up by holding onto the counter instead of taking his hand.
If Mr. Parkinson hadn't pulled her, she might have actually rolled down into the dark, downward-leading staircase that had just opened up.
'I seem to have caused trouble for others again.' Mr. Parkinson smiled faintly. "It's nothing... you've really been a great help." He said, glancing down into the hidden staircase leading underground. "There must be a lot of illegal magic items here."
"Mm... probably... pro..." Looking at the unexpectedly helpful Mr. Parkinson, Lyla subconsciously recalled her earlier murmuring about him in her heart. This seemed a bit embarrassing.
She hunched her shoulders, watching the Aurors follow Mr. Parkinson down the dark passage one by one.
'Wait, should I go down and look too? But wasn't Mr. Parkinson's friend still here...?' She nervously glanced at Lucius, who stood rigidly by the door with a strange expression.
Just as she was catastrophizing, Mr. Parkinson's voice echoed up from below. "Miss Hamier... there seem to be quite a few things down here..."
"O...okay!" Lyla responded at the top of her voice, but Mr. Parkinson still didn't seem to hear her.
"Are you up there, Miss Hamier?"
Hearing Mr. Parkinson's voice again, Lyla quickened her pace and hurriedly followed him down.
As Lyla went down into the dark, Borgin and Burkes' shop suddenly fell dead silent.
Only Lucius Malfoy and the immobilized Mr. Burke remained in the room.
"Tsk..." Lucius confidently walked to Mr. Burke's side, glanced at the old man who still couldn't move an inch, and shook his head. "What a pitiful fellow..."
'Old Mr. Burke is definitely finished...' Lucius thought, slowly taking out a small, ornate box from his embrace.
"I'm sure you wouldn't mind having a few more dark items in your hidden collection, would you?" He said smoothly, placing the box directly on the table. Meanwhile, his other hand casually took out Galleon after Galleon from a lockbox under the counter.
"Consider it officially sold to you," he said, casually shrugging. "I'll sell it to you for 50 Galleons total..."
"And the box is yours too." Lucius curled his lips, slowly standing up. His silver snake-head cane lightly tapped Mr. Burke's chest as he suddenly thought of something.
"A Hogwarts Professor?" he muttered to himself, looking at the open Spatial Expansion Book left momentarily forgotten on the table.
"Incidentally, I can also do you a favor." He raised an aristocratic eyebrow at Mr. Burke, then slowly took out a worn black notebook from his inner embrace.
It looked grubby, seemingly not something a respectable, pure-blood person like him should even possess.
He weighed the dark notebook in his hand, then showed a deeply meaningful smile...
...
"Mr. Burke, all these items explicitly violate Ministry of Magic regulations," Mr. Parkinson said much later, pointing to the heavily loaded boxes the Aurors behind him were carrying. "We must officially confiscate them."
"And..." He coughed lightly, "you have numerous Dark Arts items in your private possession down there."
"We will conduct a thorough, ongoing investigation of your entire shop," he said, nodding to the surrounding Aurors.
These Aurors swiftly waved their wands, magically sealing off the entire shop's exits.
As for Mr. Burke... with his mouth still sealed by a spell, he seemed to have absolutely no rebuttal.
"Will he be... be sent to Azkaban?" Lyla asked softly, following closely behind Mr. Parkinson, looking at Mr. Burke's furious appearance.
"Of course not," Mr. Parkinson smiled faintly. "His crimes are far from warranting a stay in Azkaban. It will probably be a hefty fine, and a forced rectification, wouldn't it?"
"Of course, if Miss Hamier has any other discoveries, we will also strongly consider adding to his sentence accordingly."
"Ah... no... no." Lyla quickly and violently shook her head. She had just clearly seen Mr. Burke's expression. He looked as if he wanted to devour her alive.
"It seems today's mission was completely over-fulfilled," Mr. Parkinson said, nodding in deep satisfaction. "It's just a pity about Lucius..."
Lyla, who distinctly heard his muttering, subconsciously paused.
'Aren't you two friends?'
Hmm... Lyla hadn't actually paid attention to Mr. Parkinson and Lucius's previous conversation. Her pointed ears automatically filtered out anything related to Ministry politics.
"Ah, Miss Hamier heard nothing just now." Mr. Parkinson shrugged and then said, "I suddenly remembered something about Hagrid... Do you still remember him?"
"The Giant we just met... He's a good person..."
The rest of the content was also automatically filtered out by Lyla's ears. Although not related to politics, it was pure white noise.