Thus, Harvey revealed a smile that looked incredibly strange to Steve.
He gently flicked his wand.
"Stupefy!"
A burst of tangerine-red magic shot from the tip of his wand, instantly hitting the defenseless Steve.
Watching the old popsicle hit the ground with a heavy thud, Harvey nodded in satisfaction.
Just as he was preparing to take his "loot" back for slow and thorough research.
"Ring, ring~ Ring, ring~"
The sudden ringing of a telephone seemed extremely jarring in the quiet room.
It startled Harvey, who was in the middle of doing something bad, making his hand twitch. He tightened his grip on his wand and looked warily toward the source of the ringing.
"Ring, ring~"
The landline on the cluttered table in the corner of the living room was still ringing incessantly.
After hesitating for a moment, Harvey decided to ignore it. He opened a portal, planning to grab the unconscious Steve and leave directly.
But before he could make his next move.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
Someone started knocking on the door.
"Steve? Are you in there?"
An anxious female voice came from outside.
Harvey quickly sped up his escape, first opening a portal leading back to the villa.
Then he cast a Levitation Charm on the downed Steve, hurrying through the portal with his hovering "loot" trailing behind him.
Just a few seconds after Harvey left.
The apartment door was kicked open with a loud "Bang!"
After bursting through the door, Sharon Carter raised a black SIG Sauer P226 pistol, vigilantly scanning the room.
Only to find the room completely empty.
"Impossible. Steve disappeared?"
Sharon Carter was the beautiful agent dispatched by S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury to stay by Steve's side and monitor the Captain.
And now the target of her surveillance had magically vanished?
She hurriedly pulled out her radio communicator to contact the agent teams stationed around the apartment building.
"Unit One, Unit Two, please respond if you copy. Did you see the target leave the apartment building?"
"No, ma'am!"
"Damn it! The target is missing! Pull up the surveillance footage from the room immediately, I need to know where Steve went right now!"
"Understood!"
While Sharon Carter was frantically starting to search for Captain America's whereabouts.
Harvey had already brought Steve back to the villa.
In the living room, Hermione was on the sofa, holding a copy of 'Secrets of the Darkest Art' and reading it intently.
Hearing the familiar sizzling sound of a portal opening, Hermione looked up and was surprised to see Harvey bringing back an unconscious man.
"Why did you bring a Muggle back here?"
Harvey didn't want to explain that he was about to use Captain America as a test subject for his research; this kind of thing, usually done by Dark Wizards, was more or less immoral.
He didn't want the kind-hearted Hermione ruining his research plans.
"Miss Know-It-All, Professor Snape's words actually make a lot of sense. Knowing too much won't do you any good."
Hermione's face turned cold, and she let out a soft hmph.
"So you're too lazy to even make up lies now?"
Harvey shook his head, explaining as he controlled the Levitation Charm to move Steve down to his secret base in the basement:
"All along, I've only been telling white lies. How can you call that making things up?"
"Besides, why have you started reading magical books about the Dark Arts?"
Long accustomed to Harvey's shamelessness, Hermione shifted her gaze back to the book in front of her.
"To deal with Voldemort, of course I need to understand the effects of Dark Magic and the methods to defend against it."
"And don't change the subject. Who exactly is this Muggle you brought back?"
With Hermione becoming increasingly difficult to fool and insisting on getting to the bottom of it, Harvey had no choice but to start making things up on the spot.
"I recently developed a new type of potion, and I plan to find a Muggle to test its effects."
Before Hermione could object, Harvey added, "I got this Muggle from a prison. He's an inmate sentenced to death."
"So I brought him back to test the potion's effects. You could consider it recycling waste."
Hearing this explanation, Hermione was half-convinced, half-doubtful.
"Even if he is a prisoner, you can't just arbitrarily deprive someone of their life! This is about basic respect for life!"
Oh? You dare to lecture me now.
Isn't this turning the natural order upside down?
Harvey was genuinely a little annoyed.
"This prisoner has committed over a dozen felonies, including robbing an armored truck, kidnapping for ransom, human trafficking, and raping children. Are you sure you still want to speak up for him?"
Hermione fell silent.
Seeing she had nothing left to say, Harvey shook his head lightly and walked down the villa's secret passage into the basement.
The villa's basement had been modified.
The walls were covered in dark green Devil's Snare vines to prevent thieves from entering.
In the corners, two skeletal frames leaned against the walls, their hollow eye sockets staring straight toward the entrance, looking incredibly creepy.
These two skeletons were actually alchemical items created by Harvey, functioning similarly to the suits of armor in Hogwarts Castle.
They possessed simple intelligence and an alert function.
And he only made them in the shape of skeletons to make them scarier.
In the center of the laboratory sat a two-meter-long lab bench, upon which rested a pewter cauldron bubbling and emitting a weird green mist.
Next to it was a potion preparation station.
It was covered with various bottles and jars; many potion ingredients were sealed inside transparent glass vials.
For example, insects emitting a blue fluorescent glow, Merperson scales, bat spleens soaking in green liquid, Boomslang skin, and so on.
Due to the environmental needs of the Devil's Snare, the entire laboratory was dark and damp.
Even the chandelier hanging from the ceiling emitted a gloomy blue light.
Harvey flicked his wand, using Transfiguration to create a rudimentary examination bed, and transferred the unconscious Steve onto it.
Before beginning his research, Harvey took a bottle of golden Felix Felicis from his potion storage cabinet.
After drinking two drops.
Harvey instantly felt refreshed and clear-headed, brimming with confidence for the upcoming research.
Subsequently, he began to take his lab tools, collecting various samples from the test subject, including blood, flesh, and bone marrow.
...
In the dimly lit laboratory, the gloomy blue light shone on Harvey's fully concentrated face.
This scene looked exactly like some evil wizard brewing a potion with sinister effects.
Based on his improved ancient potion recipe, Harvey began adding various ingredients to the cauldron on the bench.
Attempting his first brew of a physique-enhancing potion.
"Philosopher's Stone powder. It's too precious, so five grams will have to do."
"Then add two petals of Asphodel, three drops of Salamander blood, and one ounce of Unicorn blood to neutralize it."
"Next, add one drop of the test subject's blood, two milliliters of bone marrow fluid, and a third of a heart extract..."
"Finally, add two pounds of Dragon blood. Perfect!"
Looking at the cauldron filled to the brim with various ingredients, Harvey was very satisfied.
The next step was to heat the cauldron and stir continuously.
As time passed.
The various ingredients in the cauldron gradually fused, bubbling and popping with green bubbles.
But the semi-finished liquid potion in the cauldron slowly shifted to a dark purple hue that made Harvey uneasy.
"Merlin's beard, did the brewing fail?"