CHAPTER 40: THE WRATH OF THE OWL

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YOU THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH KILLING TWO MUGGLES UNCLE?

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Ed looked at Daphne who was looking at him like he was some sort of a madman, and asked the blonde girl, "You want to come? Or do you want to wait here?"

The girl shook her head, "No, I'll wait here, you're really scary right now, you know that?" she commented.

Ed chuckled, "Hatred will make everyone like this Daph, even me." Said Ed, disappearing form Daphne's side, leaving her alone in front of the gate. She looked around and feel this haunting sensation around her that creeped her out.

"I should've came with him…" she regretted, "It's scary here."

Meanwhile Ed appeared in front of Lucius's office's door. He took a deep breath, and checked once again, whether Lucius is in a relaxed position or not using his space magic, and opened the door slowly, so it won't alert the pale man. He used a Disillusionment Charm on himself, so he won't be seen at first, he closed the door behind his slowly, and continued to walk to Lucius's desk.

He looked at the man, he was reading a letter, he took a sneak peek of the letter and saw that it was from Draco, warning his father about what Ed said at the corridor, 'The boy's quite fast I'll tell him that.' Ed thought. He then pulled out his wand and casted a Muffliato charm silently on the room, and spoke to Lucius, startling the man.

"Hello uncle," said Ed calmly, Lucius instantly pulled out his wand and pointed it at Ed.

Ed shook his head amusedly, "Pointing your own wand at your nephew, you really are a scum uncle." Ed commented, earning a frown from Lucius.

"Why are you here?" he asked, his face was a bit pale.

"You know why uncle." Ed vaguely said while looking at the windows.

Lucius snorted, "I don't know why you're here nephew, so I suggest you leave before-"

"Before what?" cut Ed off, "before you call you death eater friend? before you called the aurors?"

"Before I call the aurors, yes."

Ed chuckled, "Will they got here on time though? This place has anti apparating ward right? So, they need someone to open the gate first to be able to get in." asked Ed, "So at that time, you and I will be long gone…"

"You can't escape here!" Lucius mocked, "Like you said, you can't apparate here."

"Who said that I apparated uncle?" asked Ed while looking at Lucius strangely, "If I did, someone has to open the gate for me, but clearly, no one did." Ed explained, making Lucius a think a little.

Ed then moved his wand silently and casted an Incarcerous spell at the man, tying him up tightly. Ed walked closer to the struggling man, and the man shouted at Ed.

"What are you doing?! Release me at once! You're going to go to Azkaban for this nephew!" He roared angrily.

Ed looked at Lucius strangely, "What am I doing uncle? Oh, well, I'm currently in the process of capturing the man who hired an assassin to kill two innocent muggles because of a petty argument." Said Ed coldly, making Lucius paled.

"H-How…" the man stuttered.

"How did I know? Well, I accidentally heard your conversation with the assassin in that shabby bar at Jakarta uncle," said Ed, making Lucius paled even more, "Funny isn't it? You came so far there just to hire a foreign assassin so that I won't trace you, but your luck is quite bad, making me know all your plots."

"I was supposed to be at France that day, so I couldn't do anything, if only I studied at Hogwarts last term, you would've die quicker uncle." Continued Ed, he looked at the man coldly and explained everything to the man, "I thought it was my foster parents at first, because it makes sense, you want to get back at me because I insulted you in that bookstore."

Ed then chuckled dangerously, making Lucius flinch a little bit, "But no, you didn't target them, instead you went as low as possible to target an innocent muggle family…" Ed hissed angrily.

Lucius laughed, "Of course, those muggles are easy targets, so weak, so defenceless, and you made them seem higher than I am, while the truth is they're just a bunch of pigs, waiting to be slau-"

Before he finished his sentenced, Ed punched the man so hard, it broke a few teeth, making the man groaned in pain. The man then suddenly broke free of the Incarcerous spell, and aimed at Ed, he shouted an incantation with full of hatred.

"Avada Kedavra!"

a beam of green light shot through the room, the beam was moving towards Ed quickly, but Ed was still calm, he silently casted Aegis, making the beam stopped and disappeared. Lucius seeing this went pale and was scared a little bit.

"H-How?" he stuttered a word.

"Oh, uncle…" Ed said while smiling dangerously, "You think you could get away just like that? You think you could get away from the crimes of killing two muggles? A close friend of my family as well."

Lucius gulped, and he just continued to release a barrage of single target spell, but all of them was blocked with Aegis, making him fear for his life more.

"You underestimate my family again uncle, just like your 'friends' did when you were a death eater." Ed said coldly, then he conjured a small ice needle and curse it, he shot it to Lucius, the needle hit his arm, making him groaned in pain, the ice then started to spread around his body slowly, making the man frantically trying to get the ice off.

Ed then walked closer to the man, now half encased in cursed ice, and whispered to the man, "Don't worry uncle, you won't die just yet, we still need you to safe an innocent girl's life."

The ice then fully encased Lucius, Ed can saw the horrified expression of Lucius frozen, not moving at all. Ed sighed deeply while looking at the encased man, he walked to the table and burned the letter that Draco wrote, he then used his space magic scan and saw that Narcissa was still sleeping, and Daphne was waiting nervously in front of the gate, he also saw the Hunters watching him, now they pulled out their weapons, probably alarmed by Ed's actions.

Ed sighed heavily and walked back to Lucius, he took Lucius's wand and snapped it in half, then burned it to ashes, he checked if he left anything in the place and erased it, he pulled a piece of cloth out of his pocket and put in on Lucius's frozen hand and called someone.

"Dobby!" he shouted, then a couple of seconds later, a pop sound can be heard behind him.

"Y-You called Dobby sir?" the elf stuttered, looking at Lucius's frozen body with fear.

"Yes Dobby." Ed said, then he floated the body to the elf, as if Lucius was offering Dobby the cloth he put in Lucius's hand. "Take it Dobby, you're free now."

Dobby was surprised and stood looked at Ed with admiration, but he didn't do anything, he just stare at Ed.

"What's wrong Dobby? This is what you want right?"

"Sir had freed Dobby! Sir had made master give Dobby a cloth! Dobby is free!" he said excitedly.

"It's nothing Dobby, he'll die before sunrise anyway." Said Ed coldly while looking at the body, "You want to work that has a wage right? Maybe you could talk to Dumbledore about it, he'll probably took you in."

Dobby nodded vigorously, "Dobby shall do just that sir! Thank you Sir Ed for freeing Dobby! Farewell sir Ed!" said the elf while apparating away from the place.

Ed sighed at the place where Dobby stood, then he blinked to Daphne with Lucius's frozen body, startling the girl.

"Merlin's beard! You scared me!" she hissed quietly, then she looked at the frozen body and gasped, "You did it? You actually did it?"

Ed looked at Daphne as if she just said something stupid, "Of course I did it, it's the point of coming here."

Daphne pulled herself together, and calmed down, "Okay, let's go to my home now, here, read this." Said the girl while giving a piece of paper and a map.

Ed read it intently and nodded, "Okay, come closer Daph." Ordered Ed, which Daphne just compelled.

All of them then were suddenly encased in black matter, and disappeared from the place, leaving it quite once more.

The two and the body appeared in front of another mansion, this time a bit smaller than before, Ed then floated the body behind him, and walked.

"Right, notify your family Daph, I'll wait in front to set the place up." Said Ed.

"We will do it outside?" asked Daph in confusion.

"Yeah, that way if Lucius suddenly broke free it won't destroy any furniture, and I need to kill the man, so you don't want sheds of blood in your house do you?"

Daphne shook her head weakly and entered her home, then Ed conjured some sort of platform so that Astoria can lay on it, and he put the frozen Lucius beside it.

He waited for a couple of minutes before the entire family went out of the house. He looked at the family, he saw Daphne's father looked at Ed with fear, hatred, and hope. While the others just looked at Ed with worry and have hopeful eyes.

"Right, Edgart Aldrich, at your service." Ed introduced himself quickly before looking at Astoria, "Astoria is it? Can you lay on the block? Just relax." Said Ed softly, which Astoria just nodded weakly and lay on the block.

"How are you going to do this?" asked the mother while looking at Lucius's frozen body.

"It's complicated," answered Ed quickly, "It'll take a long time to explain it, but the short story is, I need to search for the source of the curse in her body, then once I found it I need to stop her heart and transfer the curse to that piece of shit over there, then bound it to him."

"S-Stop her heart?" stuttered the mother, worried about the situation.

"Don't worry Mrs. Greengrass, she won't die, well, I mean, she will die, but only for a couple of seconds." Reassured Ed, he understood the concern of Vanessa, but it is the only way.

The mother just nodded worriedly, then Adonis spoke up in a hostile tone, "Care to explain why the head of the Malfoy family is here boy?"

Ed glanced at Adonis and raised his eyebrow, "Why should I explain?"

Adonis stared at Ed angrily, but still a bit mindful to not cross the line, "Because it is a major crime to kidnap a pureblood family member?!"

Ed sighed, "Listen, I'm trying to save your daughter here, either we'll do it my way or we're not doing it at all."

Adonis smirked a little, "You think the ministry won't do anything if I reported that you kidnapped Lucius Malfoy?"

Ed chuckled, "You're right, I should get rid of the witness." Said Ed while pointing his wand at Astoria, the tip of the wand glowed green, instantly scaring the family.

"Ed, what are you doing!" shouted Daphne, nervous because of the wand pointing.

"Your father wants to blackmail me Daph, so I threatened back." Ed simply said. "You think I won't do the things my family did years ago Mr. Greengrass? Dead wrong."

Ed sighed in annoyance, "This is why I hate supremacists, they think of themselves as superior to others, so they ignore the little things around them, like this for example, blackmailing a man so blatantly, who has his defenceless daughter in his hands." Ed pulled away his wand and warned the family coldly, "Try something stupid again and I won't hesitate any further to kill her."

Adonis nodded nervously while the family stepped back to give Ed some space. He then got closer to Astoria who was scared of him and whispered to the girl, "Sorry about that, need to make some reassurance for myself."

The girl nodded weakly, and Ed continued, "Ready?"

"Y-yes…" Astoria mumbled.

Ed then point his wand at Astoria's heart, the top glowed red, and Ed closed his eyes, he slowly searched for the source of the curse in the body, the Greengrass family looked at the process nervously, the mother especially. Then he found it, a mass of black goo running around her blood vessel, Ed took a deep breath, and changed the spell he was casting to a freezing spell,

"Close your eyes Astoria, it will only feel like you fell asleep." Comforted Ed, which the girl just nodded and closed her eyes.

Ed then tapped her heart with his wand, and the heart froze, making it stop, Ed then quickly changed the spell again, and started to pull the black goo from her body. The goo sipped through her skin, making the family gasped in surprise and disgust, Ed then quickly gathered the goo and started the transfer process to the frozen Lucius, the goo slipped through the ice and into his body, then Ed 'bound' it to Lucius, making Astoria fully recovered from the curse, but there was one last trial, Ed walked to the girl again and unfroze her heart, but the heart didn't move, so Ed send a couple of jolting spells to restart her heart, the Family looked anxious at the scene, but a couple of seconds later, Astoria suddenly gasped for air, waking up from her temporary death.

Ed sighed in relief, "You all right?" asked Ed in worry, the girl nodded, "Y-Yeah, I'm fine."

Ed gave a thumbs up to the family and said to Astoria, "Right, you should go back to your bedroom and rest." Ed advised while tapping her shoulder, the girl just nodded meekly, she stood up from the conjured block, and walked to her family, her mother instantly hugged her and asked Ed, "Did it work?"

Ed nodded in confirmation, "It should, you should check on St. Mungo's, but don't talk about how she recovered."

The mother nodded, and Daphne rushed to hug Ed, "Thank you Ed. Truly…" said the girl in relief. Ed looked at the head of the family, who just nods at him in appreciation, and said to him, "Don't forget about the deal Mr. Greengrass." Reminded Ed.

"I will." Said the man, "Don't worry, our family will not break a promise, and about before, I apologize, we will not say anything about what happened tonight."

Ed nodded in affirmation, then Daphne released the hug and ran to her sister to hug her.

"Right, I should go, you can go to Hogwarts on your own right?" questioned Ed, which the family just nodded, "Then I'll see you at Hogwarts Daphne, and hopefully Astoria too."

Ed then walked to the frozen body and blinked silently, leaving the celebrating family behind.

Ed then appeared on a deserted cottage in the middle of nowhere, the place was dark and quite foggy, Ed then placed the frozen Lucius in a room and started to unfroze him. The ice slowly melt except the one at his hands, revealing a shiver Lucius.

"W-What h-have y-you d-done t-to m-me…" Lucius spoke weakly as he was still shivering.

"You saw all of that right?" said Ed flatly, "How do you feel? You should have the blood curse now in your veins."

"Y-You…"

Ed hummed, "At least you saved an innocent person in the edge of your life…" Ed commented, which made Lucius scared.

"F-Forgive m-me…" Lucius spoke weakly, begging for his life.

"Forgive?" Ed chuckled madly, "After you sent an assassin to a little girl's family? Not a chance." Said Ed while punching the man so hard that it made a bone crushing noise.

"You spoke of pureblood supremacy uncle, how it is noble, and yet you stoop so low to kill two innocent muggles because of a petty argument." Continued Ed while punching the man again, making the Malfoy head groaned in pain.

"You put a terrible item in Ginny Weasley's cauldron that day that can potentially kill her, do you have no remorse whatsoever?" said Ed while kicking the man's groin.

The man just wailed in pain, "P-Please…" he begged.

"Did you watch my aunt getting raped and tortured too uncle? Or did you join them?" continued Ed coldly while casting a Severing Charm to the man's leg, making him scream.

Ed sighed tiredly, "The only thing I will regret after I'm doing this, is making Aunt Narcissa a widow." Commented Ed, "And let's hope that my cousin will become a better person after your death."

Ed then summoned an ice sword, floating beside him, he then pointed his wand at Lucius, ignoring his beg, and launched the sword to his throat, making him choke in his own blood. Ed saw all of this happened, not closing his eyes at all, trying to soak the image in his head, but he couldn't do it, he threw up after a couple of seconds, it was his first after all, his first time taking a life of another.

"Merlin, this feels worse than I thought." He groaned while sitting down on the floor, leaning on the wall.

Ed rested for a while, the image will probably be stuck in his head for a couple of days and will disturb his sleep. He sighed and stood up once more, he walked to the now dead Lucius Malfoy, and searched for something that is distinguishable, and found the head ring of the Malfoy family, he took it and put it in his pockets, he grabbed some of the blood of Lucius and put it in a bottle, then he used a cleaning charm on himself to clean up the dirt and blood, then he blinked back to the Malfoy Manor, to Lucius's office.

He appeared in the place and started working, he put the ring in the middle of the room and used the blood to write a message.

"THE FIRST OF MANY"

It said, and Ed cleaned himself again, then he blinked, disappearing from the place, not leaving any trace of his existence there.