Harry Potter: The Golden Viper

0690 The Investigation

"You still went ahead and mailed the package, didn't you?" Kingsley's deep voice filled with anger thundered across the silent tavern, his eyes were narrowing as he overlooked over the trembling Tom. "Even when you already noticed and intuitively felt that this person was behaving in a suspicious manner that was unusual and more than a bit off?"

Tom's wrinkled face crumpled further with distress, his bloodshot eyes were darting frantically between Kingsley's imposing figure and the other stern-faced Aurors surrounding him. His hands trembled as they clutched at his apron.

"Will I - will I be locked up in Azkaban?" Tom asked in a pitiful trembling voice.

"That particular decision is not for me to determine, Tom," Kingsley replied with cold professionalism, "but I can tell you with absolute certainty that a substantial fine is definitely unavoidable at the very minimum!"

Kingsley gave Tom an intense resentful glare, frightening him into shrinking back even further, trembling against the liquor shelf behind him. Then Kingsley narrowed his eyes thoughtfully and looked at Bryan Watson, who had fallen into deep contemplation.

"I don't quite understand one aspect of this situation, Mr. Watson,"

Kingsley said in a low voice, leaning slightly toward Bryan. "Why did that person specifically choose to send the package to Hogsmeade rather than directly to Hogwarts?

He even specifically instructed Tom to wait until after the Christmas holiday ended to send the package, which logically means that Hogwarts was already back in session by that point, doesn't it? Why take such a roundabout approach?"

Bryan's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Generally speaking, as I'm sure you're aware, the post owls traditionally gather on Monday mornings to deliver letters and packages to students while they are having breakfast in the Great Hall. Everyone, both students and staff, will be present during this time. Perhaps the sender was concerned about being spotted by a vigilant staff member who might recognize something amiss with the package," Bryan thought aloud, his voice was soft but sounded clearly in the tense silence of the tavern.

"Additionally, we must consider that there are hundreds of students at the school. If the package had been sent directly to the school, after it was opened, maybe some other young wizard nearby would find the problematic magical rose inside visually appealing or amusing and impulsively grab it first.

Or, more sinisterly, the sender specifically didn't want Hermione to receive timely treatment from the school's medical staff. It's just fortunate that when the incident happened, I and several other professors happened to be not far from Miss Granger. In any case," Bryan concluded, coming out of his thoughts, "these evidences imply that we're dealing with a very cautious and methodical fellow."

Bryan jumped down from the high stool. Surprisingly, he did not direct any blame toward the frightened Tom, and his expression remained gentle and understanding. "Well then, Tom, may I see precisely what that mysterious person looked like?"

"Of course, absolutely no problem, Mr. Watson!" Tom nodded vigorously. He began struggling awkwardly to pull his wand out of his deep pocket, ready to attempt sketching the person's appearance on a scrap of parchment, but Bryan had already prepared a far more efficient and reliable method.

Before Tom could fully pull out his wand, the tip of Bryan's wand was already pressed against Tom's temple. In the breathless moment that Tom's eyes widened with startled surprise, Bryan Watson had already expertly pulled a few, silvery strands of memory from his mind.

Observing this unauthorized procedure, Kingsley and many of the Aurors scattered throughout the bar hall exchanged glances and showed unnatural expressions

According to the strict Ministry protocol that had been drilled into every Auror during their rigorous training, without clear prior authorization from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Aurors were absolutely not permitted to privately examine a suspect's memories. Furthermore, Bryan Watson was not even an Auror, so technically speaking, he had even less legal right to do so.

However, none of the Ministry personnel present, including the normally by-the-book Kingsley Shacklebolt, made any move to interfere with or stop Watson's actions. They had all heard through Ministry channels about how Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic himself, had personally given their top superior, Amelia Bones, orders in a thunderous rage after returning from an emergency trip to Hogwarts following the incident.

A silver thread of memory curled around the tip of Bryan's wand. As the wand rotated with, these few silver memory threads quickly swirled around with the wand as the central axis, accelerating so rapidly that they soon formed what appeared to be a glowing silver bracelet of pure thought.

Immediately afterwards, radiant silver light unexpectedly enveloped the entire dimly-lit bar in its glow, causing several Aurors to shield their eyes momentarily. In the midst of this dazzling display of magical brilliance, an illusory figure suddenly materialized near the front door of the Leaky Cauldron, drawing every eye in the room.

Judging from the skin tone visible on the lower portion of the chin, which was all that could be clearly seen of his face, this appeared to be a young man in his early twenties.

He was wearing a pair of Muggle sneakers, well-fitted black denim pants that bore no signs of wear, and a fashionable short-style gray coat on his upper body. Just as Tom had previously described in his anxious testimony, this mysterious person was indeed wearing a pair of dark sunglasses that completely obscured his eyes and much of his facial features, making identification nearly impossible.

The elaborate disguise of the person who had delivered the dangerous package did not stop there at simple eyewear. He wore a pair of black leather gloves on his hands. A thick, dark green scarf was wrapped multiple times around his neck and lower face, further concealing his identity. From head to toe, only the smallest amount of skin on his face remained visible to potential witnesses.

This strange style of dress would definitely attract frequent, unwanted attention in other parts of the traditional wizarding world where such Muggle attire would stand out vividly. However, this encounter had taken place in the Leaky Cauldron, the prime gateway between magical and Muggle London.

Here, customers showing all manner of strange and eccentric styles appeared with consistency every day, so Tom's understandable carelessness in not reporting this suspicious individual could not be completely blamed on the him alone.

The young man in the memory held a package in his arms. After entering the Leaky Cauldron through the Muggle-side door, the smoky, dimly-lit and stuffy bar environment with its peculiar mixture of cooking smells, spilled ale, and magical residue did not cause the slightest hesitation or curiosity in the man's movements. His objective seemed clear – he moved with focus toward the direction of the bar where Tom stood polishing glasses.

The vigilant Aurors who had been sitting casually throughout the bar all stood up simultaneously. They strategically positioned themselves around the person's projection, using their respective angles to carefully capture and memorize the physical characteristics of the phantom figure walking towards the bar from all possible aspects.

Their eyes narrowed in assessment as they noted bearing, posture, approximate height, and any other potentially identifying features. Then, after several moments of silent observation, they quickly reached a disturbing consensus that passed between them in glances.

"This person was almost certainly being magically controlled," Kingsley said in a serious, low voice.

Making this judgment was not particularly difficult for Aurors who had witnessed the signs before. In the process of walking towards the bar, this man's walking posture was noticeably abnormal in subtle but significant ways.

His feet seemed capable of leaving the ground only a very small distance with each step, as if invisible chains were weighing them down. His hips directed his legs to move forward in an unnatural sequence, but his overall posture remained slightly stiff and mechanical.

Although he clearly attempted to imitate a normal human walking pattern, this clumsy, artificial intention could not be successfully hidden from the eyes of the group of experienced Aurors who had seen the effects of the Imperius Curse countless times during their careers.

This was definitely not an abnormal walking posture caused by natural physical disability or injury. Bryan neither nodded in agreement nor shook his head in denial at Kingsley's assessment, his face was blank as he only steadily observed the phantom man with intense concentration.

After arriving at the bar, the young controlled man first carefully placed the package on the scratched surface of the bar, and then his partially visible lips moved, saying something inaudible to Tom who stood expectantly behind the bar in the memory.

After approximately two minutes of what appeared to be routine negotiation about postal services, the mysterious man casually threw out two gleaming gold Galleons from his coat pocket. He then turned abruptly and stepped with that same mechanical posture towards the front door leading back to Muggle London. After only a few steps, the phantom memory figure dissipated without any warning.

The extracted memory ended abruptly at this point. Tom had obviously been busy occupied with serving his numerous other customers that evening and never paid any further attention to this particular person again, considering it just another routine transaction in a day filled with dozens of similar interactions.

The Aurors present in the bar were all now in a heavy, contemplative mood. Some exchanged questioning glances while others stared into space, mentally reviewing the scene for any details they might have missed.

If this man was indeed being magically controlled, as his unnatural movements strongly suggested, then it seemed to logically imply that, like Tom, he was most likely also an innocent victim, just unluckily involved in this matter through no fault of his own.

Several of the more experienced Aurors even privately theorized that this unfortunate man might just be a random Muggle who was placed under the Imperius Curse and controlled like a puppet to walk into the Leaky Cauldron, and from beginning to end, it was actually the hidden dark wizard pulling the strings who had indirectly negotiated with Tom through this human proxy.

"This man is probably already dead," Bryan said softly, breaking the tense silence with words that fell like lead weights into the quiet room.

Hearing this, Kingsley was stunned for a moment, and then his expression turned unpleasant as he clenched his teeth in frustration.

As a senior Auror who had dealt with countless dark wizards over many years in the field, Kingsley knew the signature style and predictable patterns of those villains all too well.

Memory charms, even powerful ones, were not completely foolproof – they could be broken by skilled Legilimens or fade over time, revealing crucial information. In order to avoid exposing any implicating flaws in their plans, dark wizards typically never hesitated to kill to silence potential witnesses.

What to do next?

This was a pressing question that did not require long discussion to reach an obvious answer.

The clear next step was to find this mysterious man who had delivered the package, whether he was an ordinary Muggle or a wizard, whether he was tragically dead or miraculously still alive, it was absolutely necessary to find him and extract whatever information he might possess.

But how to find him?

As mentioned earlier, they were not even certain whether this person was a member of the wizarding community or an oblivious Muggle placed under magical control. Furthermore, because he had been wearing large sunglasses throughout the entire encounter, combined with the scarf, his appearance was also blurry and incomplete, and had few distinctive features for identification.

More than half a month had already passed since the delivery which was a very long delay of time that complicated matters further. The bustling environment of the Leaky Cauldron was notoriously a mixed carrier of magical and Muggle influences, with hundreds of customers passing through daily.

No immediately useful information about this mysterious man could be easily extracted from the limited memory they had viewed, and some of the more powerful magical tracking spells would be useless without personal items or magical signatures to lock onto.

The experienced Aurors frowned one after another and began to struggle with this matter.

In the gloomy, tense atmosphere, Bryan calmly turned his gaze toward Kingsley.

As expected of an elite among Aurors, Kingsley immediately recognized the meaning of Bryan Watson's expression, instantly feeling that he probably had some specific instructions or insights to share that might break their current stalemate.

"Madam Bones has given us orders to follow your command without question," Kingsley said formally, "and you are, after all, a senior Advisor to the Ministry with special privilege, Mr. Watson. If there is anything particular you need us to do to advance this investigation—"

He left the sentence hanging.

In response to Kingsley's words, the dozen or so Aurors scattered throughout the hall silently gathered around in a loose semicircle with their eyes expectantly falling on Bryan Watson, waiting for instructions.

"Thank you," Bryan nodded with a smile, "there is indeed a promising way to investigate this person's whereabouts, Kingsley."

He paused momentarily, ensuring he had everyone's complete attention before continuing. "He entered the Leaky Cauldron from the Muggle side, as the memory clearly showed. There are many Muggle shops and businesses on both sides of the Muggle street where the Leaky Cauldron's entrance is located. I believe there must be quite a few Muggle shop owners who potentially saw this person that night, unless he is indeed a wizard who immediately Apparated away after leaving the Leaky Cauldron, which I doubt given his careful approach."

"You mean," Kingsley raised his eyebrows in realization, "we should examine the memories of all the Muggle shop owners on this entire street, Mr. Watson?"

Bryan nodded. "This approach will certainly require considerable effort and manpower, but fortunately we appear to have enough trained personnel at our disposal."

He gestured toward the gathered Aurors who stood around them. "Of course, I'm well aware that checking the memories of so many Muggles without prior notification may not strictly conform to the current Ministry regulations. If special authorization is required for such an operation, I can personally approach Amelia Bones or Minister Fudge himself to apply for the necessary permits immediately."

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