Snape, the Sunshine of Hogwarts.

Chapter 123 Alchemy Ritual
At 10 a.m., Severus and Lupin left the French Ministry of Magic together with Yuma.

The weather in Paris was quite nice, and they went directly to Rozier's apartment building through the fireplace in the Auror headquarters.

After the incident was investigated, the apartment was completely sealed off by the Aurors in the name of the Muggle police, which has left the young couple unable to return home.

Yuma led them to the room where the Lemaîtres had been taken, a room that had been witnessed by eyewitnesses.

“I have reported your findings to Gilal, and she will try to verify whether the man in the portrait is indeed Shafik,” Yuma said to Severus. “From now on, I will be working under you. Whatever you need, whatever clues you want to investigate, or whatever people you want to see, I can arrange it.”

Clearly, Severus's provision of such important information on the very first day made Gilard pay more attention to him.

He has now made Yuma his full-time assistant, just so that Severus can focus all his attention on this case.

Let's take a look at the scene first.

Before anyone knew it, Severus had a pipe in his hand, and his holly wand had turned into a cane.

The sudden change of clothes left Yuma somewhat bewildered, while Lupin, who had heard Sherlock Holmes stories from his mother since childhood, covered his forehead with one hand.

"Elementary deduction, Watson!"

He uttered a word, and Lupin said, somewhat speechless.

"Are you calling me?"

“Dullie doesn’t like being Watson, nor does he like being called Conan,” Severus Holmes shrugged. “I think you might like him.”

"I probably won't either," Lu Ping muttered as he followed him into the room.

Two Aurors were guarding the room. When they saw Severus and his two companions enter, they quickly stood up. Just as they were about to greet Yuma, the African wizard waved them off, indicating that they didn't need to speak and could go outside and wait.

After the two unrelated Aurors left, Severus, with his pipe in his mouth, began to formally examine the room.

As Yuma said, all the furniture and appliances in the house had been removed, making the small room look empty. The floor was covered with messy papers and pieces of cloth, with some drawings that looked like clothing designs on the papers.

Those must have been the work of Mrs. Rozier, who works at a custom tailor shop.

This is a two-bedroom apartment. The other two bedrooms are nothing special, except for some alchemical symbols and runes remaining on the floor in the middle of the living room.

Severus crouched down to examine the faint, not-yet-completely-destroyed clues more closely.

"No wonder you guessed that the bandits' goal wasn't just the Philosopher's Stone, but more likely the knowledge to create it. These runes should be the original text recorded in the Book of Abraham."

Lupin frowned.

"The Book of Abraham?"

“Your knowledge is not worthy of all the books you read in school, Watson.” Severus stood up again after touching the symbols that were clearly written in the blood of a dragon.

“It was only after obtaining the Book of Abraham in his youth that Nicolas Flamel discovered the ultimate secrets of alchemy, created the Philosopher's Stone, and obtained endless wealth and eternal life from it.”

"A portion of the original text in that book was once published. The text and illustrations in the book were not written on, but branded and pressed in with metal, and the recessed areas were painted with color. The content has a total of twenty-one pages, but the page numbers are marked as three sevens. Some of the illustrations that have been circulated are also puzzling, and it is hard to imagine how Nicolas Flamel became a great alchemist with it."

Lupin looked puzzled.

"I have never seen this book in the Hogwarts library."

"Of course you can't see it; it's a banned book in the restricted section."

"You only discovered it after you became the dean?" Lupin asked in surprise.

Severus, however, said it casually.

"I stumbled upon it when I was in fifth grade and was stealing books from the restricted section in order to create a spell."

Lupin: "."

Yuma simply stood by the door, pretending to be deaf unless Severus called him. And if Severus needed him to speak, he was happy to offer a few words of praise. After all, how could a wizard's business be considered stealing?
“These runes can serve as clues, but we shouldn’t take them too seriously,” Severus commented. “Given the ample time they had to abduct the Lemaîtres, they could have easily cleaned up the traces before you found this place, but they left some clues. It’s more likely that they wanted to use these to mislead your investigation.”

As he spoke, he toured the two empty bedrooms again, checking to make sure the Aurors hadn't missed anything.

At this moment, Yuma, who had been standing in front of the door, also came up.

“We also know that we can’t completely trust those symbols on the surface, but they’ve handled it too cleanly. Not only those things on the surface, but we also sent a large number of spell experts here yesterday to conduct a comprehensive spell test, just to try to capture some residual magic.”

"But they searched inside and out three times and found nothing, not even a trace of Apparition. It was as if the two men had vanished into thin air after bringing the Lemaîtres here."

As Severus listened to his story, he rested his chin on his finger and gazed absently at the view outside his apartment bedroom window.

Looking out from here, you can overlook most of the buildings in the 16th ward, but a good view doesn't necessarily mean that this apartment is a good place to live.

"The building we're in now seems to be the tallest of all the buildings around here?"

he asked suddenly.

This question stumped Yuma. He frantically rummaged through his folders, pulling out a jumble of random materials before finally finding the document that could answer Severus's question.

"Yes! The building we're in is a historic apartment building in Muggle, the oldest building in the area, and it even has fireplaces in the rooms! It's an Ottoman-style apartment built in 1934, and including the roof structure, it's about 42 meters tall!"

“42 meters,” Severus repeated the figure. He opened the bedroom window, leaned out, and looked to the left and right. “Are we in the middle of the top floor of this building now?”

"Yes, this is the smallest room in the apartment, and because it's on the top floor, it's the cheapest room of all."

After receiving this answer, Severus nodded and muttered something.

"That does fit Rozier's economic situation."

Yuma looked at Severus with anticipation. "Have you made another discovery, Mr. Snape?"

“Let’s go down first,” Severus said. “Don’t rush, Yuma. Let’s leave this room and go down to the first floor to take a look.”

With that, he took the lead and walked towards the apartment building.

This behavior not only baffled Yuma, but also left Lupin wondering what he wanted to go downstairs to see.

Neither of them hesitated. As soon as Severus went out, they followed him downstairs together.

Once downstairs, Severus led them directly out of the foyer and onto the empty street outside the apartment building.

Finally, after crossing the road and reaching the other side of the street, Severus stopped and turned back to look at the building again.

Yuma and Lupin followed his movements, turning back to look at the apartment building again, and couldn't help but be a little surprised.

Because it wasn't until they stepped out of the apartment building that they realized just how big the building they had been in really was!
This is arguably the largest building in District 16. Its gray, mottled stone walls, full of historical traces, stand out incongruously like the walls of a castle, as if obscuring the originally clear sky and turning it gloomy.

“Aurors’ investigative methods cannot be limited to the realm of wizards and magic. Sometimes, you must break free from the shackles that restrict your thinking and look at the problem.”

Severus squinted, staring at the apartment building.

"This building is unique. The bandits who kidnapped the Lemaîtres and Rozier didn't necessarily take over his house because they were after Rozier's identity. Rather, the location of his house itself is significant. His status as a pure-blood Squib might just be a coincidence."

Lupin also held his breath. Although he was not an alchemy master, he had read a lot of books since childhood, so he understood some basic things.

"They were drawn to this building, and the Rozier family's location within it, which is why they brought the Lemaîtres here!"

“An alchemical ritual!” Yuma murmured. Severus had already said so much; if he still couldn't figure out the key point, he'd be a waste of his brain. “They want to use that room to perform some kind of secret alchemical ritual!”

He jumped up excitedly at first, but quickly came to his senses again!
"No! No! Yesterday we not only brought in the department's alchemy experts, but also many professional wizards from the Alchemist's Guild. They all came to this room to look, but they didn't find any signs that any alchemical ritual had been activated!"

Severus slowly took the pipe out of his mouth and said softly.

"Then we need more clues to prove it."

"What he said is definitely not true!"

At the French Ministry of Magic, Harry finally found Draco in the Auror Headquarters' restroom.

The eldest son of the Malfoy family continued to angrily emphasize this.

"That liar is so wicked! He's told so many lies that he's even fooled himself! You didn't actually believe all those lies he told, did you?"

Suddenly, he stared intently at Harry and asked a question.

Harry finally understood just how valuable Severus's words, "Treat him as a younger, immature child than you," truly were.

I can indeed understand what Rozier meant when he said that if he hadn't been a Squib and hadn't been abandoned by his father, he would have become like Draco now, completely skeptical of any pure-blood theories, given that kind of upbringing.

Under Draco's watchful gaze, Harry could only try his best to choose his words carefully.

"Of course, I didn't say that everything he said was true. After all, we just heard him say it, and we don't have any evidence to prove it, right?"

Hearing Harry's words, Draco's expression softened considerably. Now, he no longer found this peer who had once beaten him so badly that he cried for his mother so displeasing.

"However, we also have no evidence to prove that what he said is false," Harry added at the end.

This made Draco's expression turn rather unpleasant!

"There will definitely be a way to prove this liar is full of lies!"

"Why don't we go and talk to his wife?"

Harry offered his suggestion at the opportune moment.

He was quite pleased with himself for using a little trick. If he had directly told Draco to go find Rosier's Muggle wife, given the young master's contempt for Muggles, he certainly wouldn't have agreed.

"If he really is a liar, his wife knows him best and would never forgive him!"

Draco was intrigued by Harry's offer and took the bait.

Do you know where his wife has been assigned?

“In one of the rooms in the corridor we just came from,” Harry said, having asked the witch in front of Rosier’s door before they came out. “She’s been put in there and isn’t allowed to move around the Ministry of Magic freely because she’s a Muggle.”

“Then let’s go take a look!” Draco straightened his collar, as if he wasn’t the one who had just broken his guard, and now he had regained his aristocratic demeanor.

"Please, then, Master Malfoy." Harry had now figured out Draco's temper; this stubborn mule was easy to coax if you stroked his hair.

Draco was becoming increasingly satisfied with Harry's attitude.

“When we get back to England, you can be my follower,” he said mercifully.

Harry didn't say anything, but just followed behind him and made a face at the back of his head.

The two quickly returned to the corridor they had just passed through and found the cell where Mrs. Rozier was being held.

There was no one guarding it, and the door was still closed.

But after Harry went to the witch guarding the cell and pleaded with her for a while, she finally gave in to his persistent pleas and allowed them a 20-minute visit.

“The department’s decision not to let her out is actually to protect her,” the witch said as she opened the door. “Magic and wizards are things that some Muggles simply cannot accept. Some of them are mentally fragile and have had a complete mental breakdown after discovering that these things really exist in this world.”

(End of this chapter)