Upon hearing those words, not only was Bill Weasley stunned, but the rest of the Gringotts curse-breakers also froze in place.
Before Bill could ask anything, a wizard who had previously seemed rather disgruntled spoke up first:
"Can't come back? What do you mean by that? Is he dead?"
The wizard with the bulbous, red-veined nose shrugged nonchalantly and replied:
"Who knows? Even if he's not dead, he's probably locked away in some dark, windowless vault deep beneath Gringotts, left to rot by those goblins! After all, with so many vaults down there, they wouldn't even need to make modifications—it's already the best prison in the world! Ha!"
Hearing this, the other wizards immediately pressed him for more details, but the red-nosed wizard simply sipped his drink and fell silent.
Seeing this, Bill quickly waved over a waiter and said:
"A glass of your finest drink—the kind best suited for storytelling!"
At this, the red-nosed wizard smirked and chuckled. "Bill, Bill... I have a story, and you have the drink. Looks like we're the perfect pair!"
Once the waiter arrived with the drink, the red-nosed wizard took a sip, and his eyes immediately lit up. The other wizards, unable to contain their curiosity, began urging him to continue.
After taking a large gulp, the red-nosed wizard finally spoke again:
"Bill, don't think you've lost out just because you bought me this drink. Trust me, you've struck a bargain! And as for the rest of you, don't assume I'm just being difficult. The information I'm about to share... even gold couldn't buy it!"
He set his glass down, glanced around at the eager faces, and continued:
"What I'm about to tell you is a Gringotts secret—how they select their supervisors!"
The moment he said this, Bill noticed a few of the wizards take a sharp breath.
The red-nosed wizard didn't drag it out any longer and began his tale:
"That day, a goblin suddenly summoned me to a room inside Gringotts that I had never seen before. It was massive, and at the far end, ten or so elderly goblins were seated."
"I wasn't alone. Two others had been brought there as well—Alterta and another wizard. That was when one of the elder goblins stood up and announced that they were going to select one of us to become the head curse-breaker of Gringotts' Hogsmeade branch!"
"The moment we heard that, the three of us were thrilled. But then, the elder goblin took out three masks and told us that each had been cursed—hexes, poisons, even deadly jinxes. The selection process was simple: whoever could lift all the curses from their mask the fastest would win."
The red-nosed wizard paused, as if lost in thought, then took another sip before continuing:
"It took me half an hour to break all the curses. The other wizard took at least an hour!"
At this, someone couldn't help but ask, "What about Alterta?"
The red-nosed wizard fell silent for a moment, then let out a bitter laugh. "A few minutes? Maybe ten? I don't know! We were tested separately, but by the time I walked out with my fully purified mask, Alterta was already sitting there, drinking tea!"
A collective gasp swept across the table. Everyone there was a seasoned curse-breaker, and from the story alone, they could tell just how difficult the test had been.
Half an hour was impressive enough—none of them could have done better. Otherwise, they would have been the ones chosen for the selection in the first place!
After a brief silence, someone finally asked, as if waking from a dream:
"What happened next? What became of Alterta?"
The red-nosed wizard took another sip of his drink before continuing:
"The goblins prepared a short ceremony to officially appoint Alterta as the head curse-breaker of Hogsmeade's Gringotts branch. They even allowed me and the other wizard to stay and witness it—mostly as motivation to work harder for them, I suppose."
"However, before the ceremony could begin, there was one final step—an identity verification process. They had to ensure no one was using Polyjuice Potion to hide their true self."
"Alterta passed all the previous tests, but this last one... something went terribly wrong."
At this point, the red-nosed wizard visibly shuddered, as if recalling something terrifying. He drained the rest of his drink in one go before finally steadying himself.
"What was the last test?" Bill asked, unable to contain his curiosity any longer.
The red-nosed wizard enunciated each word carefully:
"The Prior Incantato spell."
"Prior Incantato?"
Everyone looked shocked.
The red-nosed wizard nodded solemnly before explaining:
"Yes, the Prior Incantato spell! This last verification was performed by one of the elder goblins himself. And let me tell you, if goblins had wands—or if they could perform wandless magic—we wizards might not stand a chance against them!"
"That elder goblin didn't use a wand. With just a wave of his hand, he cast an incredibly powerful Prior Incantato! At first, Alterta's wand showed ordinary spells, nothing out of the ordinary."
"But then... the spell lasted longer than I had ever seen before. Even Alterta hadn't expected it."
"In the final moments of the spell..."
The red-nosed wizard's voice dropped to a whisper, his expression grave.
"Alterta's wand started revealing Dark Magic—Unforgivable Curses! The Killing Curse kept appearing over and over. Realizing the danger, Alterta immediately tried to flee."
"But this was Gringotts' underground! He managed to take down a few goblins and even blasted the other wizard across the room. But in the end, he couldn't escape the swarm of goblins that surrounded him. He was subdued."
"The goblins warned me repeatedly not to speak of what happened that day. But from that moment on, I never saw Alterta again."
Silence fell over the table. Everyone was utterly stunned by what they had just heard. No one had expected such a monumental event to have taken place in Gringotts, completely unnoticed by the outside world.
Bill, sitting nearby, finally understood the full story.
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