Harry Potter: The Golden Viper

0704 Mysterious Visitors

The dim, melancholy world, saturated with the monotonous beating of falling rain was suddenly and violently pierced by two crisp, sharp bangs that echoed like gunshots through the deserted street.

Among the disturbed, chaotic trajectories of raindrops, two men wearing black woolen coats and hats, their faces in expressions of cold indifference, suddenly appeared in front of the postman.

Suddenly appeared—yes, truly, in the most literal and impossible sense of suddenly appearing out of thin air.

Splat—

The confused postman was stunned into stillness, his rain-soaked body was frozen not by magic but by sheer terror. He stared with horror at the two menacing men who had materialized in front of him. His face contorted into an expression of such shock that he resembled someone who had witnessed a ghost appearing!

Lawrence furrowed his brow in confusion and growing uneasiness. He had only looked over instinctively after hearing the unsettling noise, so he hadn't witnessed the entire supernatural process of these mysterious men appearing from nothingness.

Therefore, he wasn't experiencing the same level of mind-numbing shock as the petrified postman, but this comparative composure didn't mean he failed to realize with dread that something unpleasant, perhaps even deadly was about to happen.

Due to his angle, jammed uncomfortably in the narrow crevice between buildings, Lawrence, hidden in the shadow of the tight space, could clearly see the two grim-faced men positioned directly opposite the terrified postman, while these men couldn't easily spot him.

When the two strangers vigilantly scanned their surroundings, Lawrence quickly pulled his head back into the shadows of his accidental hiding place. The unmistakable murderous aura permeating the rain-saturated air like a deadly miasma made the blood in Lawrence's body flow frantically through his veins!

"You—you—" The postman stared in utter disbelief, his rain-soaked cheeks bulging enormously with unreleased air, as if each side of his mouth contained a large, invisible egg that prevented him from speaking.

"Ghost spirits," He finally managed to whisper through trembling lips.

No matter how foolish he might be, the thoroughly drenched postman instantly recognized with certainty that these two men standing in front of him in the rainstorm meant him harm. The calculating way they looked at him plainly revealed contempt and something far more disturbing—

The postman immediately dropped the bicycle he had just managed to prop up, abandoning it without a second thought as he turned desperately to flee down the rain-soaked street.

Pure instinct screamed within his mind that he must escape immediately from these dangerous men if he didn't wish to meet a terrible end. But surely, he desperately reassured himself as his feet splashed through gathering puddles, that they wouldn't dare commit murder in broad daylight on a public street, regardless of how deserted it appeared!

"Stupefy—"

From among the two newly arrived men, the taller one smoothly produced a brown stick from within his sleeve. His softly muttered incantation was weakened by the heavy rainfall, and was completely inaudible to the ears of Lawrence, but this merciful inaudibility didn't prevent his heart from violently constricting with terror at the incomprehensible scene in front of his eyes.

Lawrence had anticipated, based on his life experience, that these mysterious men would pull silenced guns from their coats. Then, amid lingering gunsmoke and the metallic scent of blood, this unfortunate postman who had somehow offended some important powerful figure would collapse to the wet pavement and lie in a pool of blood.

Such disturbing scenes weren't uncommon in certain circles; Lawrence, having loyally accompanied two successive Watson masters through the brutal business world for most of his life had personally witnessed similar events on at least four or five separate occasions.

But the unfolding reality proved to be vastly more bizarre and terrifying than anything he could possibly have anticipated!

Lawrence, wearing his reading glasses, strained his eyes through the curtain of falling rain and barely managed to discern that one of the suddenly appearing men had produced what appeared to be a small wooden stick from within his sleeve.

Then, the falling rain was visibly disturbed by a sudden, powerful air current. The exact moment this unnatural wind rustled the postman's raincoat, the desperately fleeing postman's body went completely rigid!

Completely motionless!

The paralyzed postman maintained his awkward running posture, which looked almost comically absurd—one foot firmly on the ground, the other raised ridiculously in midair, both arms frozen in mid-swing at his sides.

Such an unnatural posture clearly couldn't possibly maintain physical balance for more than an instant. Under Lawrence's increasingly horrified gaze, the immobilized postman toppled sideways like a chopped tree onto the wet ground, falling heavily with a thud but still mysteriously unable to move a single muscle to break his fall or cry out in pain.

The fallen postman was now facing directly toward the narrow gap across the rain-soaked street. His eyes, the only part of him that seemed capable of movement, widened in recognition as he immediately recalled that an elderly gentleman was hiding in that gap.

He desperately tried to call out for help, his mind was screaming silently, but no matter how frantically he tried, he couldn't produce even the slightest sound. He couldn't even blink to clear the rainwater from his burning eyes, and was only able to lie there helplessly allowing the cold rainwater to wash mercilessly over his increasingly pale, desperate face.

Tap, tap, tap—

Both men stepped forward simultaneously, their leather shoes splashing softly in the gathering puddles. They contemptuously passed by the fallen, paralyzed postman without even sparing him the briefest glance, focusing instead on the scattered packages spilled from the basket of the toppled bicycle.

Lawrence wouldn't consider himself a particularly important or influential figure in society, but having faithfully followed two Watson masters through decades of complex business dealings and social intrigues, he considered himself reasonably worldly and difficult to surprise. However, what happened next completely overturned his understanding of the world!

One of the mysterious men once again produced the wooden stick, and pointed it at the scattered parcels. To Lawrence's astonishment, the various packages lying on the ground trembled slightly as if possessed by some invisible force, then slowly, levitated from the ground without any visible means of support.

These bewitched packages floated through the air like bizarre aquatic creatures, rotating gradually to display the sides with sender and recipient addresses.

Bang, bang, bang.

The cardboard box with the dented corner once again emitted those strange, noises of movement, the sounds were somehow more frantic and desperate than before.

The taller man waved his wooden stick with an almost casual gesture, and the banging box obediently opened its covers without being touched. Several colorfully packaged smaller boxes and bags immediately flew out as if propelled by invisible hands—but these floating containers weren't the focus of Lawrence's horrified attention.

He stared with his bleary, disbelieving eyes at several strange creatures that were somehow magically fixed in midair yet still struggling restlessly against their invisible binding. In that moment, he finally understood what had been making the mysterious noises within the damaged package!

Frogs—they looked like ordinary frogs, but... unusually black?

So, these two men with such incredible, impossible abilities were specifically targeting the postman's packages rather than the man himself. Were they robbing him?

"These packages match the information registered at the Hogsmeade Post Office—" muttered the shorter man in a tone of satisfaction, checking what appeared to be a small scroll of parchment that he had produced from an inner pocket.

"Clear violation of the 'Statute of Wizarding Secrecy'... there'll be significant trouble for someone—" responded his companion, shaking his head in disapproval.

"The higher-ups require more than just routine trouble, it must be serious. Those two at Hogwarts...…. problems they can't solve!"

Lawrence finally managed to control his overwhelming astonishment, no longer pondering the impossible question of how those strange frogs were suspended in midair without visible support. His attention shifted to the two mysterious men, who were now facing each other and conversing in low tones.

At this considerable distance, with the continuous sound of rainfall further muffling their words, he couldn't possibly hear clearly what they were plotting.

Two minutes later, these men finally reached some form of consensus. They turned in unison toward the postman, now thoroughly soaked by the relentless rain and beginning to shiver despite his paralysis.

In his increasingly pessimistic heart, Lawrence had already marked a death sentence on this unfortunate postman, but when these mysterious, dangerous men turned their gaze toward their victim, Lawrence still felt his scalp tingle with fear.

Of the strange black frogs floating eerily in the air, all but one were released from their invisible bindings.

These frogs immediately escaped the troublesome scene. They hopped away quickly, successively slipping through an iron drainage grille in the roadside, disappearing into the city's drainage system.

And the remaining only frog—

Under Lawrence's horrified gaze, it floated toward the paralyzed postman lying helplessly on the ground, facing the street opposite Lawrence's hiding place.

Controlled by some mysterious force, this large black frog floated into the motionless postman's open mouth, forcibly pushing its way down his throat!

Mmph!

The postman's terrified gaze instantly went rigid with suffering. His previously immobilized body suddenly began to shake violently, as if experiencing a seizure.

An intense and painful sensation of suffocation continuously tormented his overwhelmed nervous system. His bulging eyes, filled with absolute despair of his fate, began to roll upward in their sockets, the exposed whites rapidly becoming disturbingly bloodshot!

The two men in black coats remained completely motionless, their faces expressionless as they coldly observed this horrific scene, silently waiting for the Muggle's inevitable death.

The postman's desperate struggle against the invading creature didn't last particularly long, but for Lawrence watching this nightmarish scene, each agonizing second felt like an excruciating century passing.

In the cold, continuously drizzling weather, despite being thoroughly soaked by the rain, beads of sweat seeped from his back and forehead, running down to mingle with the rainwater on his face!

When the violently convulsing postman finally stopped moving, his body going completely limp in death, Lawrence, who had unconsciously been holding his breath throughout the entire ordeal, gently exhaled a trembling breath.

An overwhelming feeling of lightheaded faintness crept into his mind as the full implications of what he had witnessed began to penetrate his consciousness!

"Should we clean up the scene more thoroughly?" inquired the shorter man, gesturing vaguely at the scattered packages and overturned bicycle.

"It already looks convincingly like an accident scene, no need to tamper with anything further—" replied the man who seemed to be clearly in charge.

"We should notify the appropriate Muggle police authority immediately. The Ministry will receive the news... I believe those important figures have already made detailed arrangements for how to properly utilize—"

After conversing quietly for several more minutes about matters that Lawrence couldn't possibly fully hear and understand, the two mysterious men carefully scanned their surroundings once more.

The man in charge did indeed notice the narrow gap directly across street, but dismissed it after brief consideration as it wasn't a passageway that ordinary people could reasonably cross but just an anomaly creating a small crevice between two very close buildings.

After glancing at it a couple of times and concluding with satisfied certainty that it was extremely unlikely that any rational Muggle would be foolish enough to deliberately squeeze into such a dangerous, restrictive space during a rainstorm, he casually withdrew his gaze.

"Let's go—" He said straightening his wet hat.

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