"Valkyria? Valkyrie Armor, huh..."

Grindelwald pondered for a few seconds, his gaze sweeping over Hermione's determined expression.

Undeniably, according to the previous experimental data, Hermione's battle prowess in the "Valkyrie" state was no less than that of any top wizard.

The emergence of magical flight armor completely subverted the original wizarding power system. It abandoned those complicated academic accumulations, and every design presented violent aesthetics—just like the birth of Dementors, its only goal from birth was combat.

Even Grindelwald and Dumbledore, wielding wands, found such modern magical weaponry extremely troublesome.

Perhaps more precisely, it was an ultimate blade that could truly threaten their lives.

The foundation of the Armenian magical world may be substantial, but it is more reflected in its history.

Hermione, after all, was no harmless little white rabbit. Grindelwald would not forget that, with just two half-magic spells, this little witch had set a trap in Salzburg and consecutively defeated and captured several Ministry of Magic employees, a little secret that Dumbledore still didn't know.

However, on closer inspection, Hermione's hands didn't seem to have been stained with heavy blood.

In Grindelwald's expectation, if this expedition could complete the girl's Dark Lord adulthood ceremony ahead of schedule, it would be a good thing.

The old Dark Lord's serious expression relaxed, and he shrugged.

"If that's the case... then I think it's not impossible—"

"I object!"

This time, it was Dumbledore's turn to become nervous.

He glanced at the two large and small dark wizards, pushed up his glasses, and said solemnly.

"In my opinion, our primary task now is to find out the truth, not to blindly provoke and escalate conflicts—Miss Kaslana's secret infiltration and the establishment of the safe house plan are generally fine, but there are two details you may not have considered."

"Age, and the limitations of the Armenian region."

Dumbledore pointed to the map in mid-air, analyzing it with particular seriousness.

This was Hermione's ship, after all, and those around were either Hermione's people or Grindelwald's.

If he wanted to reverse or reduce the uncertainty of these two dangerous elements' next actions, then Dumbledore had to find sufficiently appropriate reasons to persuade them. Fortunately, in terms of verbal skills, Dumbledore believed he was quite convincing this time.

"From any point of view, it would be very strange for a twelve-year-old girl with a Scottish accent and a European appearance to appear in Armenia. Besides, when you are asking about the situation and investigating the surrounding environment, language and literacy barriers must also be taken into account, right?"

"If you really intend to go to Armenia for rescue, then you must at least find a suitable guide first—"

Dumbledore glanced at the small witch princess again, his eyebrows slightly raised.

"I don't think you've learned Russian and the Russian script in advance, have you?"

"Hmm, that is a pertinent question… I was thinking of finding a local guide directly…"

Hermione paused for half a second, frowning slightly.

In fact, the news of Lockhart's disappearance was temporarily under lockdown.

At least until the situation was clear, neither Hermione, Grindelwald, nor Dumbledore wanted to rashly spread the panic.

Therefore, according to Hermione's initial idea, it would be best to "grab" a few strong laborers locally to serve as temporary guides.

After all, when she was in Salzburg, she had relied on the universal art of the human world to communicate friendly and smoothly with the doctors and nurses of the Solke Hospital, successfully saving the life of an old Dark Lord with pyruvic acid poisoning, so this could be considered "coercion" experience.

"So, Professor Dumbledore, do you have any better suggestions? The Hyperion must depart within half an hour—"

"Well, I do have a suitable candidate here, but I still have to seek the other party's opinion…"

Dumbledore waved his wand, projecting a charming Russian woman's face in mid-air.

Former Deputy Director of the Landau Institute in the Soviet Union, Head of the Hogwarts Magitech Project, newly promoted quasi-A level member, Arkhipovna.

…………

The soft moonlight pierced through the clouds, evenly scattered on the slightly muddy and tranquil streets.

From the dark and dense mountains in the distance, a gust of forest wind blew from time to time. The unique fragrance of the forest after the rain lingered in the air, making people feel an irresistible urge to greedily take a few more breaths. The sparse streetlights in the town reflected yellow and hazy water mist light clusters, with a bit of dreamy leisure.

This is a town located on the edge of Armenia, named Tsaghkadzor.

Tsaghkadzor literally means "Valley of Flowers" in Armenian.

As the surrounding hot springs and ski resorts are gradually developed, in more than twenty years, Tsaghkadzor will become a famous sanatorium in Armenia that attracts foreign tourists. Hermione even spent a whole day here in her "previous life."

However, at this time node, just over a year after the end of the Cold War, this is still just a remote town.

Arkhipovna held Hermione's hand, slowly walking along the streets of the town, looking around.

The light yellow streetlights stretched the shadows of the two people long. The rattling sound of the suitcase wheels on the gravel road echoed on the quiet streets of the town. Thick coats wrapped their bodies, making them look like a pair of mothers and daughters anxiously looking for temporary lodging in the night.

Gilderoy Lockhart's last transmitted coordinates were here, but the specific location could not be further refined.

Helpless, Hermione and Arkhipovna could only slowly search along the street to see if they could find more clues.

"Starting from this street light, all the way to the next one, there are three houses on the left and two houses on the right, with no forks in the road."

Arkhipovna lowered her voice and whispered. She forced herself not to look up behind her—in the boundless sky, a dark cloud was floating there. If they were attacked with high intensity in the street, the Hyperion would immediately launch high-intensity fire cover.

As a former Soviet expert, she knew very well what would happen when ten Ruby missiles landed.

Of course, that was only the last, most extreme measure.

"Only two on the right?"

Hermione frowned slightly, the corner of her eye inadvertently scanning the street on the right.

In her vision, there were clearly three houses standing—all of them were products of the planned economy era of the former Soviet Union without exception. The gray three-story buildings looked no different. The curtains of the houses were all tightly drawn, with no lights, and the specific appearance inside could not be seen.

"It's too dark, I can't see the location of the doors, Mommy, are we lost?"

Hermione said softly, shivering just right. "I'm so sleepy, when can we go to a hotel to sleep—"

"Well, there should be a hotel ahead, hold on a little longer—"

Arkhipovna squatted down, tightened Hermione's coat collar, and comforted her gently and patiently.

Then, the two continued to walk forward along the deserted road.

Neither Hermione nor Arkhipovna stopped to look around. Two women, one large and one small, dragged their suitcases and quickly crossed the quiet street, continuing to walk towards the northwest direction of the town, searching everywhere for the location of the town's only hotel.

Whenever they passed a house, Arkhipovna would gently pinch Hermione's left hand.

"Once, twice—um? This is the place."

Hermione silently counted the number of times Arkhipovna gently pinched her palm, paying attention to the houses around her at all times.

However, when they passed the last gray mud-brick house, Arkhipovna seemed not to see it, and walked straight ahead without stopping. At this moment, Hermione pinched Arkhipovna back.

In the records of the former Soviet Ministry of Magic and the Armenian Ministry of Magic, Tsaghkadzor is a pure Muggle town with no wizards living there.

But in Gilderoy Lockhart's description, there is actually an unremarkable old wizard living in seclusion here.

Just like the way the Leaky Cauldron is hidden in Charing Cross Road in London, most wizards who live in seclusion in the non-magical world will use spells to confuse the surrounding environment, making their houses "disappear out of thin air." And when the employees of the Ministry of Magic investigate the living conditions of wizards, those Muggle houses in a row that look extremely normal in the perspective will naturally not become content worth recording in their workbooks.

Unless…

A wizard and a Muggle hold hands and check the differences in their perspectives one by one on the street.

Compared to Lockhart, who bitterly squatted in this town for several months, Hermione only walked along the street once and successfully located the residence of the prototype of the protagonist in the book *Wanderings with Werewolves*, which was much smoother progress than she had imagined.

However, what made Hermione a little uncomfortable was that she could always vaguely feel the occasional peeping gaze around her.

This town is clearly not the harmless resort she remembered…at least, not now.

————

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Hooray!