Chapter 436: Chapter 436: Then There's Only One Answer! (Edited)
The Vanishing Cabinet is one of the most mysterious magics in the wizarding world, or rather, no magic related to time and space is straightforward. Given the current state of the magical world, this pair of Vanishing Cabinets is likely the last pair left in the wizarding world. If he destroyed them, this wonderful spatial magic could be lost forever.
That would make him a sinner in the wizarding world.
Tom couldn't do something like that, destroy the legacy of magical civilization for reasons as abstract as "security." He felt that he should at least study the cabinet's magic before finding a solution to manage them. And he could seek an alternative solution! The existence of the Vanishing Cabinet affected Hogwarts' security, so he could simply remove the cabinet from the Room of Requirement and solve the problem! Plus, he could harness this marvelous magical tool for himself.
Tom extended his hand and gently rested it on the Vanishing Cabinet's door, reading its description.
[Vanishing Cabinet (intact) - unparalleled: a magical alchemical artifact that can jump through space. Needs to be used with another Vanishing Cabinet]
"You can't escape them. They'll chase me to the ends of the earth, like sharks smelling blood." In response to Tom's suggestion of escape, Borgin shook his head. "Unless they imprison me in Azkaban, it's only a matter of time before they catch me."
Saying that, Mr. Borgin smiled maliciously. "Those who operate in the gray area between good and evil have a much keener sense of smell than others. We, people like us, are much better than the incompetents at the Ministry of Magic at finding people. If they give us enough information, even if it's Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew, we can somehow find them."
Tom believed Mr. Borgin's words. As for escaping, after his escape, Sirius managed to hide for a long time, but Igor Karkaroff was caught and killed by the Death Eaters. What's the difference? One was sought by the Ministry of Magic, while the other was pursued by the Death Eaters. So Sirius survived, but Igor Karkaroff was caught and died in a cabin in Siberia.
As for tracking people down, these wizards who operate on the edge of the law are a bit more skilled.
"So why don't you go into hiding in Azkaban?" Tom withdrew his hand from the Vanishing Cabinet and looked at Mr. Borgin, who was standing to the side. Due to Mr. Borgin's hunched posture, Tom, who wasn't known for his height, suddenly felt a sense of superiority.
Upon hearing Tom's words, Mr. Borgin raised his head in surprise. "Go to Azkaban... this..." He was speechless for a moment. Saying that was like hiding in the bear's den to escape from the wolves.
But then he looked at Tom and the unpleasant smell of Dementors surrounding him, and Borgin suddenly had a bold idea.
"What if the Dementors don't affect you?" Tom smiled and spoke words that excited Mr. Borgin. "You, watch the store's door and don't let anyone in." Tom ordered the Dementors in the store.
The Dementors obediently headed to the store's door.
"Can... can you really do that?" Mr. Borgin quickly corrected his posture and became more humble and flattering. Seeing that Tom could control the Dementors, Mr. Borgin already believed 99% of what Tom said. He understood that the time had come to change his fate.
Burke, a pure-blood noble? Go to hell! If you dare to come see me, I'll be waiting for you in Azkaban, and if you dare to enter, I'll give you credit.
For wizards, Azkaban was a forbidden land, whether you were a dark wizard or a white wizard, a common Muggle, or a Ministry of Magic official. In front of Dementors, everyone was equal. Wizards who could conjure the Patronus Charm were few, and wizards who could drive away hundreds of Dementors at once were extremely rare. If they didn't let their emotions get the best of them, these hundreds of Dementors would be the best guardians for Borgin.
However, Mr. Borgin, after so many years as a merchant, also understood that free things were the most expensive.
So he asked cautiously, "And what can I do for you, noble sir?"
Tom appreciated Borgin's attitude; this man was obedient, and that pleased him.
"I need you to run a business on my behalf, but you'll have to deal with Muggles. Can you do that?" Tom had come to see Borgin today on a whim, but there was also a practical need: he needed someone to help him with the White Dolphin Prison. Often, the people Yuri left behind couldn't solve magical problems, and it was better to have Borgin deal with them than to send a letter every time there was an issue.
"Of course, no problem. I've had this shop for decades; you'll be pleased with it. Besides, I'm not a follower of blood purity, so dealing with Muggles is no problem at all." When Mr. Borgin heard this, he realized it was that kind of business. For him, management and trade were his specialties, so there was no issue. He promised with determination that he would make Tom's business thrive in the Muggle world.
Trade and business management were Borgin's field of expertise. He had been running the Borgin and Burke magical items store since before Voldemort's birth. He was confident that, as long as he had a little time to adapt, there would be no problem in growing Tom's industry in the Muggle world.
After learning Tom's objectives, there was only one response from Mr. Borgin.
"And there's one more thing," Tom said as he looked at Borgin and Burke's cluttered shop. He felt that he could still uncover a bit more of the store's potential. "Hurry and tidy up the shop, take everything you can carry, and also attend to your personal affairs. We're preparing to depart."
"I appreciate your kindness. The defensive protections of the store have already been deactivated. You can have them start moving things." Borgin pointed to the idle Dementors at the door and then bowed to Tom before quickly heading to the back of the shop to pack his belongings.
While Borgin packed his things to flee, Tom didn't remain idle. He ordered the Dementors to collect all the items they could carry, including the Vanishing Cabinet.
"By the way, have I told you that you're not going to Azkaban? You're going to the New Azkaban, the White Dolphin Prison."
These words provoked a massive surge in Mr. Borgin's mind.
Chapter 437: Chapter 437: Lockhart's Colleagues (Edited)
"The new Azkaban? Although the word 'New' has been added to Azkaban, the meaning is completely different. It means that Azkaban, which hasn't expanded for centuries, is expanding, and the Dementors are leaving the place where they have lived for centuries to live and even... reproduce in a new land.
What wizards in the magical world had always feared has finally happened.
The magical world's attitude towards Dementors started with pure fear as there was no magic that could harm them. Until they discovered that the Patronus Charm could drive away Dementors, wizards' attitude changed to using them while also being cautious. They used Dementors to imprison prisoners and, in the process, kept them confined to the small island of Azkaban for hundreds of years. Now, the birth of the new Azkaban, the White Dolphin Prison, will indeed break the magical world's captivity of Dementors.
But what does this have to do with me, Borgin? I only know that I'm safe, that's enough. Borgin isn't interested in the meaning behind the new Azkaban; he just wants to quickly go to his new workplace and start working.
Borgin's reaction didn't surprise Tom. In theory, when wizards hear the news that Dementors want to expand their territory, they should be very afraid and gather all their forces to go to Azkaban and strike the Dementors, making them remember the fear that wizards instilled in them in the past, and then eliminate Tom, the mastermind behind all this.
But that's only what should theoretically happen. In reality, are there so many bored wizards with nothing better to do that they would undertake such a task without payment? Most wizards don't even know about the creation of the White Dolphin Prison, and if they do, they don't understand its significance.
In the current magical world, it is extremely difficult to unite and fight together for a common goal. Perhaps a level of threat like Grindelwald's is needed to bring wizards from different countries together. Dumbledore's International Confederation of Wizards only nominally unites all wizards but has managed to strengthen communication among wizards by issuing tasks. If this association continues to function for several decades, its influence may become evident.
"Let's go," Tom instructed. He gestured for Mr. Borgin to leave Borgin and Burke between the Dementors.
Mr. Borgin left Knockturn Alley carrying a box, surrounded by Dementors. The passive aura emanating from the Dementors made him shiver constantly, and unsettling thoughts and unpleasant memories flooded his mind without cease. But his longing for a new life propelled him forward without even slowing his pace.
Tom, who was by his side, was amazed by Borgin's behavior. After all, he was now surrounded by five Dementors. Even if the Dementors didn't have active intentions to feed on emotions, their mere presence was enough to make an ordinary person faint. How could Borgin walk briskly without slowing down? Was his previous life so unfortunate, or is he simply a person with tremendous willpower?
Thanks to Madam Bones's masterful move, Knockturn Alley was thrown into chaos, and no one noticed Borgin's departure. In addition to Tom, more than ten Dementors also left with him.
They soon arrived at the White Dolphin Prison.
"This will be your new workplace. I'll control the range of Dementors' activity, as long as you stay away from where they are, you won't be affected," Tom instructed Borgin and then assigned him a room and an office at the White Dolphin.
"By the way, what identity would you like to have here? There's already someone in charge of the company on the surface," Tom asked.
Although the White Dolphin Prison is a prison, it's also a processing factory where the "workers" are somewhat special. The White Dolphin Prison has two lines of business: rudimentary clothing processing and cotton swab manufacturing. In addition to that, it also has a chapel, a infirmary, a cafeteria, a library, a shop, and various other establishments.
"The shop owner?" Borgin hesitated for a moment and finally chose between the identities of librarian and shop owner. Because he could store his transferred items from Borgin and Burke in the shop's storeroom.
"No problem, your regular job isn't complicated. Find an obedient prisoner to watch over the shop for you, and keep an eye on the prison to prevent trouble. If there are Muggle journalists or officials coming to investigate here, you must find a way to deceive them, and if it doesn't work, go and get the priest. He's someone skilled in the Memory Charm, and I'll leave a wand here for him; he just has to request it when he needs to use the spell," Tom instructed, then nodded at Mr. Borgin this time. The job turned out to be easier than Borgin had imagined, though a bit solitary. Because he would be completely isolated from the magical world, aside from the Dementors and the priest who was skilled in the Memory Charm, there would be no trace of the magical world.
"By the way, those things you brought from Borgin and Burke, would you like to tell me what they do?" Tom remembered that he had brought many things, so he could ask the original owners to tell him about them and see if there was anything worth studying for himself.
"Of course, let me organize things first," Borgin bowed to Tom.
They both headed to an empty storage room. The room was spacious, about a hundred square meters, more like a warehouse than a storage room.
Tom placed all the things that Borgin and Burke had brought him in the storage room, including that huge vanishing cabinet.
Tom knocked on the door of the vanishing cabinet, making a dull sound. "Where did you get this vanishing cabinet?"
Perhaps behind every antique, there's a story. The vanishing cabinet was no exception, and Mr. Borgin looked at the large cabinet, lost in memories.
"That was a long time ago when Professor Dippet was the headmaster of Hogwarts, and Borgin and Burke had just been established. Both Burke and I were young and had just started our businesses, so our daily task was to wander around the secondhand area in Diagon Alley. Back then, Diagon Alley was different, you could really find good things there. This cabinet was something I found there; it was cheap and came with many antique furnishings..."
Just as Mr. Borgin was getting lost in the memories of his lucky collecting experience in Diagon Alley, the storage room door opened, and a bald man hurried in.
"Oh, Father, you've come! This is the new owner of the prison shop," Tom wasn't bothered by the interruption in the conversation and was pleased to introduce Lockhart, the intruder, to Mr. Borgin.
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