Chapter 48: Eight Tracking Spells

"I-I don't know what you're talking about. How would I know where Tony is? If I knew, I'd have sent someone to rescue him already.

You must know, his disappearance caused the company's stock to plummet."

Obadiah explained in a panic, his expression and tone betraying no flaws.

If George hadn't been simultaneously using Legilimency and telepathy to read Obadiah's thoughts, he might have actually been deceived by him.

To act so convincingly under the threat of death—this guy was no ordinary crook.

It made sense; someone soft-hearted wouldn't have been able to manipulate Tony so thoroughly or wipe out the entire Ten Rings gang.

"In the desert near Baghlan Province, Afghanistan. It seems even you don't know the exact location."

George stopped using Legilimency and telepathy, furrowing his brows.

He had thought Obadiah would know the Ten Rings' headquarters, but it turned out Obadiah had only managed to pinpoint a general area.

"How... how do you know that?"

Hearing George's words, Obadiah was dumbfounded.

George, however, didn't bother explaining further. He raised his hand and cast a spell on Obadiah:

"Obliviate!"

This was the only spell George had learned from Lockhart in the past three months. While he couldn't use it as masterfully as Lockhart, he could manage to erase a small portion of a Muggle's memory.

After casting the Obliviate spell on Obadiah, George did the same to the unconscious bodyguard.

With everything taken care of, George hopped onto his motorbike, parked nearby, and sped off.

Not long after George left, the bodyguard and Obadiah slowly regained consciousness. However, their memories of George were gone; they only remembered their car flipping over and passing out.

"Damn it! You useless idiot, you're fired! Call someone to rescue us immediately. And lock this information down—no one can find out I was in a car accident!"

The next day, news of Obadiah's car accident and injuries was reported by the ever-resourceful New York journalists.

Of course, these journalists had a certain "kind-hearted" individual to thank for leaving the scoop on their desks.

With CEO Tony Stark missing and Obadiah injured in a car accident, Stark Industries' stock hit rock bottom.

Still, as the largest company in the world, this was damaging but not catastrophic—it only meant the difference between making more or less profit.

...

"A desert that big... finding someone won't be easy!"

Standing at the entrance of Hogwarts Castle, George watched the snowflakes falling outside. After a moment of thought, he turned and walked toward the Defense Against the Dark Arts office.

"Looks like I'll need to check the Restricted Section."

Finding Tony Stark's whereabouts in the desert, even if it wasn't an enormous area, was no easy task.

George needed a spell to locate people, but he hadn't found anything like that in the main library. His only option was to search the Restricted Section.

Many wizarding spells were inspired by the abilities of magical creatures. For example, Legilimency was derived from the natural abilities of Kneazles.

He didn't believe that no wizard had ever studied the tracking abilities of owls. George remembered that Newt Scamander excelled at tracking magic and could even recreate past events.

Tonks had also once mentioned during dinner that she was practicing a tracking spell specifically designed for capturing dark wizards.

Of course, where there are tracking spells, there are counter-tracking spells. George recalled that Sirius Black was a master of these, making it impossible for Aurors to locate him—not even owls could bypass his defenses.

However, people in the Marvel world wouldn't know counter-tracking spells. As long as George mastered a basic tracking spell, he could quickly locate Tony Stark in the desert.

To access the Restricted Section, George needed a teacher's note. None of the other professors, not even Snape, who favored him the most, would give him one.

The Restricted Section contained too many dangerous dark spells and forbidden magical knowledge. A moment of greed could lead one astray or even cause harm.

So George approached Lockhart. A few flattering words were all it took to get the permission slip from this teacher.

As expected, thanks to the relationship he'd cultivated over the past few months, George obtained the note with little effort.

"Go ahead, but don't mess up any of the precious books in there, or I won't let you off lightly."

Madam Pince glanced at the note in George's hand, frowned, and issued a warning before letting him into the Restricted Section.

Compared to the thousands of books in the main library, the Restricted Section contained far fewer. The books were arranged neatly, indicating they were seldom read.

George ignored the books on tempting dark magic and began searching for tomes on tracking spells.

He refrained from exploring the dark magic books because, the moment he stepped into the Restricted Section, his telepathy alerted him to someone secretly observing him.

It was likely Dumbledore using some unknown spell or magical artifact.

After Voldemort found information about Horcruxes in the Restricted Section, Dumbledore had tightened its security measures to prevent a repeat incident.

As long as George didn't touch the dangerous dark magic books, there would be no problem. If questioned later, he could explain he was looking for ways to find his biological parents.

Once Dumbledore was away from the school, George could revisit the Restricted Section to study dark magic.

"Found it!"

After a thorough search, George finally discovered a book titled Eight Ways to Find Lost People. A quick skim revealed eight different tracking spells.

There were spells that created directional arrows, spells that generated footprints, and even advanced spells like Newt's, which could manifest shadowy images of the person being tracked.

The most impressive spell involved time magic, allowing the user to rewind time and see everything the tracked individual had done.

However, no wizard had ever successfully mastered this spell since its creation.

At his current skill level, George wasn't capable of learning advanced tracking spells. He only needed the simplest one: a tracking spell that created arrows pointing the way.

In the open desert, such a spell would be more than sufficient to locate Tony Stark.

Taking the book on tracking spells, George left the Restricted Section, recorded the book with Madam Pince, and returned to the Slytherin common room to study the simplest tracking spell.

Meanwhile, George's main body in the Marvel universe began taking action to eliminate the higher-ups of the Carlson family.