Chapter 385: Rita Skeeter's Escape, Part 2

Chapter 385: Rita Skeeter's Escape, Part 2

Rita Skeeter had never been more grateful for learning the Animagus spell.

She rested on the ground for a few minutes, hearing the chaotic footsteps and barks in the distance. Rita grabbed her wand, but it still wasn't functioning properly. In the last moment, the world in her vision suddenly expanded hundreds of times.

She had transformed into a beetle.

The Animagus spell, a special form of magic that didn't require a wand for transformation, was something Rita had once thought useless except for eavesdropping. Yet, it had saved her life once again.

She hid under a leaf, trembling, as a pack of hunting dogs sniffed around the jungle, their throats emitting low growls, but they couldn't find her trail.

The black-cloaked soldiers held dangerous Muggle weapons, searching through the trees for a while. Then, one of them said to himself, "The woman has disappeared."

After a moment, he said to the others, "Continue the search. In half an hour, the electromagnetic field will be activated again."

"Understood!"

The group responded and dispersed.

They searched everywhere, from the treetops to the bushes beneath their feet, but no one noticed the tiny beetle.

Rita was terrified, but no one noticed the tiny beetle.

Rita was terrified, her heart pounding. She forced herself to move along the grass with her soft six legs, then took flight with all her might.

Suddenly, a black hunting dog looked up, gazing at the plump beetle, and sniffed.

Rita was so scared she almost fell from the sky. She barely stabilized herself, flapping her wings desperately to fly forward, but she could only manage about two meters per second, an easy catch for the hunting dog.

Every moment, she felt like she could sense the presence of death.

Fortunately, the dog's owner said, "Come this way, boy. That woman is gone."

The dog turned to look at the beetle, then followed its owner in another direction. Rita breathed a sigh of relief and continued her escape with renewed effort.

She knew she had only half an hour at most.

However, when she saw the massive white building, which appeared sacred in the sunlight, she realized in despair that she had taken the wrong direction.

It was too late to turn back now. Rita gritted her teeth and flew over the wall.

No matter where she was, there would always be water pipes and ventilation ducts.

The beetle crawled through the dark gaps, ignoring the foul smell around her. She found a place to hide.

Even in her Animagus form, such intense movement had exhausted a lot of her energy.

Half an hour later, the buzzing sound arrived as expected. Her usually calm magical power suddenly stirred, and Rita screamed as she transformed back into her human form, then she bit her lip and endured the pain.

She tasted the bloody flavor.

This time, the buzzing sound lasted longer than before, but perhaps due to the protection of the pipe, the pain was slightly less intense.

Then, it was time for another escape.

She stumbled forward along the pipe, the enclosed environment around her was quiet and dark, giving her a sense of security.

Rita drew her wand and whispered, "Lumos."

A faint light illuminated the pipe, shining on the woman's disheveled body.

Rita breathed a sigh of relief—thankfully, she could still use such a simple spell.

She bit her wand and continued forward along the pipe—being a beetle was indeed discreet, but she was tired and hungry. In beetle form, she only wanted to follow her instincts and stay still. Her human body, however, could still move under her willpower.

The ground was covered in dust, and there were some insect and rat corpses.

Ordinary women might have been scared by the rats, but for a witch who used frog brains and leeches to brew potions, these things didn't distract her.

She crawled through the dirty pipe, not knowing where she could escape to, but the sense of danger kept her going.

Rita, who knew almost nothing about Muggle technology, didn't realize that as she crawled, a row of green lights lit up in the research room. An area on the screen began to sound an alarm.

"The pressure sensor in the ventilation pipe is sending signals—the intensity suggests it's not a rat," someone said in a formal tone.

"Send in a scorpion vehicle," said the Tailman with a smile. "In movies, the protagonist always escapes through the ventilation pipe, so we installed sensors. Before, we could only kill a few stupid rats, but today, it seems we have a catch."

"Did you catch a magical rat?" asked Glassesman.

"Yeah, a brave rat."

...

When the strange buzzing sound rang out, Rita Skeeter's hair stood on end, almost triggering a stress response.

But then she realized it wasn't one of those weird things that made magic go haywire, but a toy car.

The scorpion-shaped toy car, with a cylindrical device on top, approached her, emitting a blinding light from the front.

Rita was stunned for a moment, then pointed her wand, "Disintegrate!"

The toy car exploded with a 'bang', its parts flying everywhere. The cylinder rolled to Rita's feet and started spraying white gas.

Rita took a deep breath and felt dizzy.

She quickly held her breath and moved away from the area, her hands trembling slightly as she rummaged through her crocodile-skin handbag.

When she escaped from Britain, she had brought many necessities, including the antidote potion.

The woman uncorked the bottle and drank the potion in one gulp, instantly clearing her mind, and then she took out an invisibility cloak from her bag and draped it over herself.

Rita believed that with Muggle technology, they wouldn't be able to see through a wizard's invisibility.

But she was too exhausted to escape to a more distant location. She took out a few pieces of chocolate from her bag and devoured them, then drank a bottle of mead, only then did she feel like she had come back to life.

—How long has it been since that half-hour? Rita was about to check the time when she suddenly heard a buzzing sound again.

This time, the sound came from both ends of the pipe, and a dozen vehicles with clear targets began to surround her, some of them with gun barrels adjusting their angles—that was the only Muggle weapon Rita recognized.

Rita was startled—she was wearing an invisibility cloak, how could these things find her?

"Boom—"

The explosion followed the pipe and traveled far, far away, so far that even the people in the underground cells heard the commotion and looked up in confusion, not knowing what had happened.

...

A few minutes later, several items appeared in front of Tailman—

A bloodstained, torn leather jacket.

A pair of Lady Dragon's skin boots with broken heels.

And a damaged invisibility cloak.

After the invisibility cloak was damaged, its effect also disappeared, and now it looked like a crude cloak made of gray animal skin.

On the large screen, a short video was playing—

Scorpion cars surrounded an empty space, and as they waited for the attack command, a bright light suddenly burst from the center of the encirclement, tearing apart several Scorpion cars in an instant. The image then turned into a flickering snowstorm.

The technician adjusted the video, freezing the frame on the last moment, where a faint green figure could be seen.

Tailman was amused by anger: "Why can't these wizards give up directly? Do they have to struggle until the end?"

No one around him responded.

"Turn on the magnetic field," Tailman said coldly: "I don't believe she can hold on much longer."

"The water-cooled magnet hasn't finished cooling yet," Glassesman whispered: "It'll probably take another ten minutes or so, or else it might burn out the equipment."

Tailman, angry, said: "I've told them to change the video clip, but those guys upstairs would rather spend money on women than increase investment in the Eternal Life project. They'll eventually pay the price for this."

"Don't be angry," the woman in the red outfit said nonchalantly: "That little mouse can't escape. You can use this as an excuse to apply for more funds."

"You're right," the man's anger came and went quickly, and he calmed down. "It's more interesting if she suddenly suffers a heavy blow when she thinks she's safe, isn't it?"

...

Rita waited anxiously in the pipe, but the expected invisible torment did not come.

She waited another minute and finally couldn't hold back, running out from her hiding spot.

Rita, having regained some of her strength, had transformed back into a beetle. This was the only way she felt safe.

She crawled along the pipe for a while, occasionally peeking through the fence to see where she had reached.

She saw various strange instruments, caged owls being studied, busy researchers, cluttered storage rooms, and densely packed warehouses.

After seeing the stack of Companion Ledgers on the shelves in the warehouse, Rita suddenly stopped in her tracks, pacing back and forth several times, unable to shake the thought in her mind.

If there was one thing Rita Skeeter regretted the most about this perilous situation, it was leaving her Companion Ledger with Wade Grey back in Britain.

Previously, Rita's thoughts had been simple—she couldn't complete Wade Grey's commission, and she was worried he would take back the invisibility cloak, so she unilaterally cut off contact with Wade Grey.

She knew that some Companion Ledgers had a positioning function, and she was concerned that the one Wade Grey had given her was a positioning Companion Ledger. Therefore, when she left, she had left it at home.

Actually, Rita Skeeter also had a stack of Companion Ledgers in her bag, but she had no friends. Those contacts were either people she had caught by the tail or mere work colleagues.

She was well aware that these 'friends' were capable of gathering information for her, and some could even help smooth out relationships, but no one was willing or able to rescue her.

Wade Grey was still a child, and perhaps he couldn't do it either, but he had Albus Dumbledore backing him.

No matter how much Rita Skeeter criticized and belittled Albus Dumbledore as a muddled old lunatic, deep down she knew that the only one who could reach out to a stranger, even an enemy, and save her in such a situation was Albus Dumbledore.

But she had lost the only possible way to contact Albus Dumbledore.

Regret gnawed at her like a worm, and after a moment of hesitation, Rita Skeeter suddenly took out a very precious potion from her handbag, only a small sip.

Its color was like melted gold, shimmering and glittering as it flowed, incredibly captivating.

This was Felix Felicis, a luck potion that could bring good fortune to the drinker, very peculiar and very expensive.

Rita had obtained this small amount by chance, and its effects would only last for about an hour. She had always been hesitant to drink it.

Now, Rita tilted her head back and drank the potion. Then, she closed her eyes, feeling an overwhelming sense of exhilaration spread through her body, making her feel incredibly clear-headed and powerful, as if she could accomplish anything.

No... Not everything...

Rita opened her eyes, her gaze calm and composed, without any panic or fatigue.

She was acutely aware that she couldn't escape from this place within an hour—she didn't even know the surrounding environment or if there were any ordinary homes nearby.

—But there was a plan.

A strange confidence and intuition urged her to act immediately.

She immediately transformed into a beetle, squeezed through the fence, and dropped into the warehouse.

The warehouse manager happened to turn his head and walked away to organize items on the shelves, completely unaware that an uninvited guest had entered his domain.

Rita quickly stole two counterfeit Companion Ledgers and then hid her crocodile-skin handbag in the corner of the bottom shelf, only stuffing a few potions into her pocket.

—The remaining items in the handbag were currently of little use to her, but the interview notes inside were a precious wealth accumulated over many years. If they were lost, she would be heartbroken.

Next, Rita cast a small Levitation Charm to send the counterfeit Companion Ledgers through the fence and into the ventilation duct. Before the manager turned back, she transformed back into a beetle and flew away.

This time, she carried the Companion Ledger and returned to the room where the owls were imprisoned.

Fortunately, there was no one inside.

"Of course not," Rita thought confidently. "Luck is on my side right now!"

The management of these animals was much more relaxed. The owls were kept in ordinary cages, and a simple Unlocking Charm could easily release them.

Her intuition led Rita to choose the most emaciated owl, roll up the Companion Ledger, and tie it to its leg. The owl watched her calmly.

Rita wrote down Wade Grey's name and address, then bent down and touched the owl's head with her forehead.

"Please... You must succeed..."

Rita wrote Wade Grey's name and address, then bent down and touched the owl's head with her forehead.

"Please... You must succeed..."

The owls fluttered up and flew out of the room through a narrow window, returning to the free sky.

The sound of commotion immediately erupted outside.

Rita Skeeter transformed into a beetle and landed on the back of a Barn Owl, flying through the window with it.

"Bang!"

A gunshot rang out, and the Barn Owl let out a mournful cry, plummeting to the ground with a splash of blood and feathers. A beetle quickly crawled towards a crack in the corner.

Just as it found a hiding place, the buzzing sound resumed.

Struggling silently, Rita opened her eyes wide and saw the scattered owls being hit by bullets, falling like rain.

But the most emaciated owl darted around skillfully, carrying Rita Skeeter's hope for survival, flying into the distance.

The buzzing sound had little effect on it, but if Rita had tried to escape by clinging to its back, both of them would have fallen like a kite with a broken string.

In her agony, she managed a twisted smile.

When the difficult time passed, Rita didn't hesitate to jump up again and follow the potion's guidance, crawling deeper underground.

The air gradually became murky, and she saw narrow prison cells, with many children who looked very young inside...

To explain a bit:

—The water being discharged was not from boiling the sea, but from cooling pipes, as mentioned in the text.

—Water-cooled magnets are one of the earliest types of magnets used by scientists. In 1996, the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in the United States increased the magnetic field strength of water-cooled magnets to 33T, but the text doesn't require such a strong field.

—The magnetic field is not a large, continuous field covering the entire island, but rather distributed in a point array, like sesame seeds sprinkled on a pancake, resonating at the same frequency.

—Additionally, water-cooled magnetic fields can be maintained at high intensity for a long time, but to increase the coverage area, the duration was shortened to one to three minutes each time.

—The author's knowledge of physics is insufficient to provide more detailed settings, so any inaccuracies should be considered as part of the magical world's rules.

—Did the Muggle government participate in this? If the Muggle government was fully aware, why didn't the Ministry of Magic know?

—First, in peacetime, the Ministry of Magic and the Muggle government do not have close ties; they only occasionally communicate, like when Fudge says, "We have a dragon entering the country, so prepare yourselves."

—Second, not every Muggle government has a strong control over its country. Don't assume the situation in China applies to other countries.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end