Snape, the Sunshine of Hogwarts.

Chapter 131 Top Secret

Harry carefully got out of bed, not wanting to disturb Draco, and quietly opened the door.

"Who? Who's there?"

However, there wasn't a single person in the empty corridor.

Only a few little black cats that were running and playing noticed him.

The guards from the French Ministry of Magic glanced at Harry disdainfully, then strode away with their heads held high.

Harry stood behind the door for a moment, convinced he hadn't misheard; he had been awakened by that strange voice, not by sleep-talking in his dream.

Wearing his pajamas, Harry continued to peer into the hallway. He glanced up at the ceiling and, in a dark corner, could vaguely see a faint watermark reflecting a dim light on one of the pipes.

The mark was very faint; if Harry hadn't glanced at it, he would never have noticed it.

Harry followed the trail, surrounded by a group of Ministry of Magic guards who tilted their heads and looked at him strangely. Clearly, these black cats understood his identity and did not regard him as an intruder.

He followed the trail all the way to the main hall of the Ministry of Magic, where the watermarks disappeared!
To be precise, the water pipes were buried inside the wall, and apart from the pipes, there was nothing else like them anywhere else.

It wasn't until Harry got here that he realized what was happening.

He looked around; the silent, deserted hall was filled only with countless little black cats blinking their glowing eyes, watching him silently.

He couldn't help but shiver, and the next second he suddenly turned around and ran wildly in the direction he came from!
Harry ran all the way back to the corridor of the Auror Headquarters, rushed into his bedroom, and slammed the door shut again before curling up in bed.

His return was quite loud, waking up the still-drowsy Draco.

"what are you doing?"

Harry ignored him, simply closing his eyes and trying to calm his breathing.

Draco didn't hear a response, only mumbled a few words, turned over, and fell asleep again.

In the latter half of the night, Harry remained in a semi-conscious state, trying to fall back asleep, but his mind kept replaying the sounds he had heard when he was startled awake.

He tossed and turned in bed until dawn.

In the early morning, Lupin and Severus would come to their bedroom and eat breakfast with them.

Taking this opportunity, Harry told Severus and Lupin about what had happened to him the previous night.

"Strange noise?"

Severus frowned.

Draco, standing to the side, scoffed.

"You're making such a fuss over a nightmare? You're still just a kid!"

Severus asked seriously.

"Are you sure that voice was real, right next to your ear, and not just something you heard in your head?"

Clearly, he began to suspect the Voldemort soul fragment in Harry's possession.

However, in the original storyline, Harry only had this premonition when Voldemort began preparing for his resurrection.

Logically speaking, Voldemort should still be wandering the forests of Albania, so how could Harry sense anything about him?
Lupin also sensed Severus's seriousness and earnestness in his words.

Severus's gaze remained fixed on Harry. Harry hesitated for a moment, carefully recalling the scene when he first heard that voice last night, before finally speaking with certainty.

“I’m sure I really heard his voice, and it came from outside the room. I even went out to look for it, and then I saw the water stains on the pipes. I followed the water stains all the way out of the Auror Command area and walked to the main hall of the Ministry of Magic before I realized what was happening and ran back.”

Because Draco was nearby, he didn't dare say that he ran back because he was a coward.

These words made Severus thoughtful. If it wasn't something he heard in his mind or dreamed about, but something he actually heard, what other sound could Harry hear in the middle of the night without Draco reacting?
By this point, Severus already had the answer in his heart, and he said to Harry.

"If you hear similar noises again at night, come to my bedroom directly."

Harry nodded, but Draco thought they were making a fuss over nothing, grimacing as he ate his fried egg.

After breakfast, Severus asked Lupin to go to the archives to continue yesterday's comparisons, while he went to find Yuma.

Yuma was clearly very busy. Ever since the Aurors intensified their investigations and made a constant stream of arrests yesterday afternoon, almost all of their schedules had been packed. They had to continuously screen and interrogate the people they had brought back. "I'm almost going crazy with work! Those idiots have arrested almost every drug dealer in France. These people usually only deal in illegal potions! How could they possibly be involved in this!"

He couldn't help but complain as soon as he saw Severus.

Severus coughed lightly and got straight to the point.

"Is there any department within the Ministry of Magic that keeps snakes?"

This strange question stumped Yuma. After hesitating for a moment, he shook his head and said...

"Apart from the guards, no other animals or magical creatures are allowed to enter the premises without permission."

Upon hearing this answer, Severus seemed to have confirmed something. He nodded and, before leaving, gave Yuma a reminder.

"I suggest you remind your colleagues that even if you're eager to arrest people, you can't focus all your attention on the outside. Be careful, while you're arresting them, they might have already infiltrated your headquarters."

After saying that, Severus turned and went to the archives. Yesterday afternoon, he, Lupin, and three Aurors from the archives had completed the comparison of 7% of the architectural archives within the French wizarding world. The rest should be finished by noon today.

Watching his departing figure, Yuma frowned slightly. He had taken the matter to heart and turned to report to Gilar.

When Severus arrived at the archives, he found Lupin comparing a yellowed parchment with a photograph in his hand, his expression clearly grave.

"What did you find?" Severus asked.

Lupin handed the parchment to Severus, on which was pasted a black and white photograph of a corner of a building.

This photograph is clearly one of a series of photos, but even the one remaining on the parchment has been torn in half, indicating that someone deliberately damaged its contents.

There was also a line of text on the parchment.

[August 13, 1944, Austria]

"How is this going?"

Severus took the parchment to the three Aurors in the archives, and one of them, after looking at it, explained it to Severus.

"The archives in the Auror Command do not contain all the files of the Ministry of Magic. A very small number of the most classified files were once compiled separately and stored in the safe in the Minister's office."

"The document you are holding should be a high-level classified file related to Austria."

"Can Gilard request access to the higher-ranking documents?" Severus asked.

Upon hearing this question, the Auror hesitated for a moment before offering a subtle reminder.

“Director Girard may have that authority, but the Minister would likely have concerns, as all highly classified documents are related to the security of the French Ministry of Magic.”

To put it bluntly, Severus and his companions were, after all, British wizards.

On French territory, it's impossible to be completely unrestrained. When it comes to the safety of the French Ministry of Magic, this kind of thing can't possibly be shown to a British wizard.

But Severus didn't need to see these things himself. He could just give the photos he took to Girard and let her decide for herself whether there was a problem. That would be enough.

While Severus and his men were conducting their final search in the archives, the French Aurors, during their extensive search and arrests, finally found some unexpected clues!

The house-elf of the Nicolas Flamel family was brought to the Ministry of Magic, where it identified the Aurors' discovery.

"Yes! That's the necklace the mistress wore!" The Lemaître house elf burst into tears after seeing the opal necklace. "The master gave it to the mistress on their 300th wedding anniversary! And ever since then, she's worn it almost every day!!"

Its identification invigorated all the Aurors present, and their eyes turned to the source of the opal necklace they had discovered—a small vendor who usually sold illegal items on some shady streets!
The young-looking wizard was terrified and screamed.

“Someone sold these to me a few days ago! They weren’t mine! There was a man wearing a black robe and a hood who said the source of these things wasn’t clean! So I lowered the price and bought them!”

The eyes of the leading Auror commander were shining!

"It wasn't just this necklace? What else did that person sell you?"

"There were only three items! An old opal necklace! A crystal ball containing an undecipherable prophecy! And a Muggle item! I bought the first two for 23 Galleons and 7 Sikor, and the third was a gift from him!"

The wizard screamed that he dared not tell a single lie. Any wizard living in France knew just how much trouble it would cause to be involved in the kidnapping of Nicolas Lemaître!
The Auror chieftains exchanged glances, and soon, one of their subordinates found the three items the wizard had mentioned and displayed them before them.

(End of this chapter)