Chapter 160 - 160 Tina’s howler letter to Newt.
Chapter 160: Chapter 160 Tina's howler letter to Newt.
This was a big favor to Newt, who with one hand holding Sniffy Teddy's fleshy body and the other carrying his old suitcase, didn't have any extra free hands left to open and close the doors.
Tesla then bent down and stretched one arm out at his side to gesture to Newt, ready to lead him toward the VIP guest room in the castle's central tower.
"Mr. Scamander, this way." Tesla said, "Castle Dracula's most honored guests have separate rooms and courtyards located in the very center of the entire castle."
"Eh, there's actually no need to go through that much trouble." Newt hesitated for a moment and called out to Tesla, "I came here to this castle mainly because I want to observe the featured magical animals here, so feel free to arrange me in an edge area close to the natural environment."
What Newt didn't expect, however, was that what he had thought to be a simple demand was causing Tesla some difficulty.
"Mr. Scamander, I understand where you're coming from, but the featured magical animals in this place are not all located in the same area." Tesla explained, "Common species such as vampire bats are fine, they are found all over the castle and are common pets of the Blood Clan ..."
"But rarer species like the Bloody Crow, they mainly live in the dead trees at the top of the mountain on the north side; if you want to find aquatic creatures like the Decaying Goldfish, you have to go to the Blood Lake behind the castle; on top of that, there are also species scattered all around the neighborhood ... "
Tesla said somewhat helplessly, while carefully turning his head to look at Dracula.
Dracula's brows furrowed slightly.
He hadn't invited Newt to the castle as a guest just so he could study the magical animals here on the edge of the castle.
Dracula was mainly there to listen to Newt's perspective as a first-hand witness, telling himself what interesting things had happened during the Global Wizarding War period back then, that is, when he was asleep.
If Newt was allowed to live in a location far away from himself, what other reason would there be to seek him out to rub his nose in the story?
"Arranging it on the fringes would certainly be inappropriate, that would be poor hospitality on our part." Dracula said.
He decisively rejected this need of Newt's.
But simply placing Newt in the center of the castle away from the magical creatures would make it very inconvenient for him to observe the magical creatures in action, and would be equally inconsistent with hospitality.
"Tell you what, Tesla." Dracula thought for a moment and came up with an idea, "What about the Runic Teleportation Magic Array you normally use when you're out on duty? Install a few for Mr. Scamander's room, and try to involve as many as possible for each location."
He then turned to Newt, "That way you'll always be able to make observations in the areas where all types of magical creatures are active around here, Mr. Scamander."
Of course, the more important point was still the fact that Dracula himself could string along to dabble in stories whenever he wanted.
"Would that be too much trouble for you guys?" Newt asked a little hesitantly.
"It's no trouble at all, Mr. Scamander." Tesla said hurriedly, "It just so happens that the henchmen who specialize in setting up teleportation magic arrays haven't been assigned this type of task for quite some time, so we can let them practice their skills in the meantime."
He once again extended his hand to the side of his body, gesturing for Newt to join him in heading to the castle's central tower.
This issue regarding guest accommodations was successfully resolved, and Dracula nodded in satisfaction.
He then tried to secretly butch away before he was tripped up again by the various chores inside Dracula's castle.
However, things were always not to his liking.
In the very next moment, a girl with a heroic aura landed from the sky.
Her hair was half black and half white, and the pair of small and delicate wings flapping behind her were the same color, only reversed from the direction of her hair color.
As soon as the girl saw Dracula she flapped her wings and flew straight over, landing lightly in front of Dracula.
"Great, sneaking back without telling me!" She stared at her big red eyes and huffed, "If it wasn't for the fact that Tesla had just informed me of your return, shouldn't you have taken the opportunity to escape again?!"
"Ahem, I wasn't preparing to escape ah ...," Dracula blushed and coughed dryly, his mouth hardened, "I wasn't just preparing to go back to the central tower to look for you?"
At the same time, he was secretly angry in his heart.
This guy, Tesla, clearly had his own permitted leave to be able to become friends with his Robert again. Yet this fellow had actually betrayed his Count Lord in order to improve Serena's impression of him!
And Dracula's sophistry obviously didn't help.
"Do you think I'm still a child less than a hundred years old?!" Serena dismantled his claim with a single glance, "Then tell me, if you're going to look for me in the central tower, why are you spreading your wings facing the direction outside the city?"
She took a look at the wall of the city that Dracula was facing, then turned her head and began to point at Dracula's wings leaping behind him.
Dracula: "..."
There was really no way he could argue with that.
Dracula had indeed just tried to butterfly out of the city for a while, lest Serena find out, and then maybe get dragged along to deal with the backlog of various incidents in the castle ...
"Since you're here, come over here and help me see how these two things are handled."
As expected of Dracula, Serena said that while tugging his arm and flew in the direction of the large meeting room.
"Also, how long you're planning to stay this time give me a clear explanation in advance, lest you sneak off again in the middle of the trip!" Serena said furiously.
...
The change of seasons was almost indistinguishable within Castle Dracula.
The days passed quickly, but even when the temperature was a few degrees colder, the scenery inside and outside of the castle didn't change in the slightest.
The castle's Yin Qi was so heavy that all the plants and animals on the nearby mountains and forests had mutated.
The plants that roamed the mountains were all dead trees without a few leaves, trees covered in strange sarcomas, vines stained with blood, and bushes with charred black leaves ....
No matter what season it was, these plants seemed to look the same, as they had long since developed a special ability to withstand drought, cold, wind, and rainstorms under the darkness of the atmosphere.
These plants never relied on the outside weather to survive, but instead sucked the blood qi deep underground to live.
And the surrounding animals were all mutated varieties, such as flesh-eating rabbits with bright red bodies, corrupted goldfish that lived in blood water, and crows that lived by sucking blood.
Newt expressed great satisfaction.
His time living in Dracula Castle could be said to have opened his eyes to the fact that the magical animals here were almost impossible to see a single one of them in the outside world, and it was only in this area that these species existed.
Newt was out early and late every day, and ran out of several of the cowhide books he used to keep track of the magical animals.
It was rumored that the world's most prestigious Pokémonologist was going to start another book in the Where the Pokémon Are series, to be called Pokémon in Vampire Territory.
It would feature all the magical animals featured in and around Castle Dracula.
Not only was Newt pleased, but Dracula was equally pleased.
The vicinity of Dracula's Castle was ultimately not without its dangers, and both the magical animals and the various strange plants were significantly more aggressive and destructive than the flora and fauna of the outside world.
Therefore, Newt often encounters species that cannot be solved by one person.
At this time, he would need to turn to Dracula for help.
And Dracula was more than happy to help Newt solve these problems.
After all, to him, these were the plants and animals in the vampire territory, they all relied on the blood and Yin Qi brought by the many vampires to become what they are now, and each of them was very sensitive to the powerful aura of the Lord Vampire Count.
Whenever they sensed Dracula's arrival, these rather aggressive flora and fauna would seem to wilt, docilely allowing Newt to study them repeatedly and cooperate with his shorthand quill drawing.
Dracula would also ask Newt about the Global Wizarding War during the time he was studying the new plants and animals.
During this period of time, he had basically become conversant with all the major events that had occurred in the first half of this century, and also had a slight understanding of the trivial details of those individual events that Newt had known about.
It could be said that in the future, even if he was asked to communicate with older wizards like Dumbledore and Professor Kettleburne about the past decades, he would not be as double-minded as he was when he first woke up!
Of course, there was also a point of beauty for Dracula during this time.
Serena, as the de facto manager of Dracula's castle now, always disliked Dracula's behavior of being a shirker, and every once in a while, she had to find a way to find something for him to do.
And Dracula for the huge castle to their own cheap daughter to manage also have a little bit of weakness, always can not bear to directly refute her face, so most of the things that are arranged to end up or casually disposed of.
After all, Serena is now considered to hold Dracula's concern.
If this cheap daughter also follow their own appearance as a shirking cabinet, then the whole castle is afraid to completely mess up ...
...
Without realizing it, November and December quietly passed.
For both the muggle world and the magic world are very important holiday - Christmas, will soon come!
However, vampires have never had the tradition of celebrating Christmas, and the connotation of this holiday is in conflict with their identity.
In contrast, it was Halloween two months ago that could still create some waves in Dracula Castle.
Therefore, the Dracula Castle on the eve of Christmas did not have any atmosphere about Christmas, and the vampire clan was still doing their own things in an organized and unperturbed manner.
And Newt, who is deeply immersed in this atmosphere, gradually forgets the time and is completely immersed in the life of exploring new and strange magical animals ...
Until one day, a magical animal out of place in Dracula's castle breaks this harmonious atmosphere-
Early in the morning, just as the vampire clan is about to start resting.
Dracula had slept long enough in the previous hundred years to have basically nothing to sleep about nowadays.
So he once again walked out of his big luxurious room and headed towards Newt's room where seven Ruinivan teleportation magic arrays were placed.
He was ready to listen to Newt's rumors about the past of Dumbledore and Grindelwald.
Just then, a golden-red flame suddenly appeared out of nowhere and burned violently in Dracula's doorway.
In the midst of the flames, a large golden-red bird burrowed out and walked towards Dracula with a lofty step.
"Fox?" Dracula looked at the large bird with some confusion, "What's the matter, did Headmaster Dumbledore finally think of letting me go back to teaching the students?"
He secretly tittered, and wondered what mistake Tom Riddle had made with that Horcrux diary that had caused Dumbledore to send Fox over to him ...
Phoenix Fox walked over to Dracula with a condescending stride and gently raised his sharp claws.
Dracula looked down and saw a rolled up piece of parchment and a delicate package tied to Fox's foot.
He gently beckoned, and the rope used to bind the parchment and the delicate package came off on its own.
The two items flew up lightly and landed in Dracula's hands.
Fox gave Dracula a condescending look, seemingly a little uncomfortable with the overly eerie surroundings of the neighborhood, so after delivering the items, he turned into a ball of golden-red fire and left the place.
Dracula first looked at the delicate package in his hand and found that it was a packet of the latest tasting version of the blood-flavored jelly produced by the Honey Duke, and he couldn't help but nod his head in satisfaction.
"Headmaster Dumbledore is quite good at what he does!"
He smiled as he opened another item in his hand, the rolled up piece of parchment.
Written on the parchment in very elegant handwriting was a message-
"To dear Professor Dracula:
Without realizing it, it has been close to two months since we have seen each other, and I miss it now.
First of all, I would like to wish you an early Merry Christmas! I have asked Fox to bring me my Christmas gift as a token of my sincere affection.
Also, I would like to remind you of two things, Professor Dracula:
Firstly, I'm sorry to inform you that just in the past two days, the teaching assistant you arranged for, Tom Riddle, had some teaching accidents and now has to spend some time recuperating.
So as a last resort, I can only ask you to end this unannounced vacation early and return to Hogwarts to continue teaching the young wizards;
Secondly, it is my understanding that Mr. Newt Scamander should stay with you. The Castle Dracula unmarkable and evasion spells are too powerful for an ordinary owl to find the exact location, so his family has not been able to contact him for some time.
If you read this letter, please also trouble yourself to find an owl that has been wandering back for a long time on the outskirts of Castle Brown and give the letter in its hand to Newt.
I hope we can meet again soon.
Sincerely yours.
A-D"
Dracula read Dumbledore's letter and froze slightly.
Something had happened to Tom Riddle's Horcrux journal? It actually took a while to recuperate?
Dracula knew very well that Riddle, as a Horcrux who had received most of Voldemort's memories before the age of sixteen, and also possessed his own unique physical body, his strength and magical knowledge was actually not that weak, and was still growing rapidly.
So what the hell had he done that he could have gotten himself to the point where he had to undergo recuperation?
Also, he realized that Newt had been here for quite some time now, and during that time had even completely forgotten to contact his family ...
The protective spells of Castle Dracula were to blame for this.
No owl could find this place, and only a powerful and spiritual magical animal like the Phoenix could break through the heavy protective spells and successfully find Dracula's face with Dumbledore's help.
Dracula lightly snapped his fingers.
A vampire bat silently flew out from under the shadowy eaves and landed at his fingertips.
"Go to Castle Brown and bring in one of the owls from the neighborhood. When it comes in escort it around for a while so that no other bats get at its blood."
The vampire bat nodded rather humanely and flew out of the castle along the shadows of the successive buildings.
Dracula, on the other hand, was still walking to Newt's room as planned.
"Professor Dracula?" Newt pulled open the door, and his expression became somewhat helpless after seeing Dracula, "I really don't have anything left to tell. As for the past events of Dumbledore and Grindelwald that you're interested in, I've mostly just heard about them from hearsay ..."
"Don't worry, there's no rush to hear your stories today." Dracula laughed softly and shook his head.
Newt couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
During this period of time this Count Lord was really about to dig his brain out, but on the contrary, he also had a request and wanted to record the magical animals here with Dracula's help, so he was also too embarrassed not to tell ...
"A little something else came up today," Dracula said, "Do you realize that it's almost Christmas already?"
"It's almost Christmas?!" Newt froze for a moment, then gasped, "Oh crap, I have to go! I already promised Tina that I'd be back home for Christmas this year!"
He then began to pack his bags on his hands and knees.
Listening to Newt's tone, it might have been several years since he had promised Tina to come home for Christmas.
But it just so happened that each year he was so engrossed in being out watching magical creatures that he lost track of time, so that he missed the holidays ...
"Mr. Scamander, you don't have to rush yet, take your time packing." Dracula advised, "It's still not too late to go back, big deal, I'll just teleport you home!"
"There's another owl outside the castle right now that was going to deliver a message to you, but it never found a location. I just had a vampire bat pick it up."
"Oh yeah, and I forgot to write to Tina again!" Newt covered his face in chagrin.
Not much later, a starved and skinny owl flew over carrying a red letter.
The vampire bat that had just followed beside it carefully escorting it, afraid that this frail bird would fall out of the air in the middle of the journey and delay the task that Lord Earl had sent it.
"Why does this envelope look a bit familiar?" Looking at the red envelope in the owl's hand, Dracula murmured.
At the same time, Newt's face changed drastically.
"This is the ... Howl Letter!"