Snape, the Sunshine of Hogwarts.

Chapter 135 A One-Man Prison

Upon hearing Severus's words, Lupin immediately understood.

They came to see Nick Flamel with a letter of introduction from Dumbledore. Dumbledore and Flamel were friends; they had studied alchemy together and their achievements were world-renowned.

Severus has now found a crucial clue, but the French Ministry of Magic is unwilling to pursue it further. Dumbledore, however, is a different story.

As a key figure who was involved in almost every major and minor event in the European magical world throughout the 20th century, Dumbledore certainly knew more secrets than the French Ministry of Magic.

“You stay here and look after Harry and Draco. I’m going back to Hogwarts to find Dumbledore,” Severus said to Lupin.

Since Lupin joined him for help, Severus has had it much easier at times.

After giving Lupin some instructions, Severus did not use the French Ministry of Magic's fireplace for cross-border travel.

Instead, he left the Ministry of Magic, found a wizarding tavern in Paris, used the fireplace there to first use FlooNet to get to Calais, and then used Apparition twice in succession from there, finally arriving at Hogsmeade.

After some twists and turns, Severus arrived at Dumbledore's office.

"I'm sure you've already heard about your friend being kidnapped and going missing."

Dumbledore, who was processing documents related to the International Confederation of Wizards, stopped what he was doing when Severus arrived. He nodded and then replied.

"Around the day you arrived in Paris, I received news from France that something had happened. Later, they even wrote to me privately, telling me that you had joined their investigation?"

Without hesitation, Severus placed the photos of the apartment buildings he had taken on Dumbledore's desk.

“I did offer them some help, but just when I felt I was getting closer to the truth and about to reveal the answer, they rejected me based on these photos and tried to stop me from continuing my investigation.”

Dumbledore listened attentively to Severus's words, adjusted his glasses, and took the photographs.

His expression became somewhat subtle the moment he saw the building in the photo.

"Can I hear where you took these photos and how you did it?"

Severus recounted to Dumbledore his experiences after arriving in Paris, including recognizing Shafiq, noticing something amiss with the apartment building, stopping the murderer's original plan to attack the monastery, and finally deciding to use the apartment building as a starting point to investigate further, only to be threatened by Girard and forbidden from continuing the investigation, among other things.

After hearing all this, Dumbledore's initially subtle expression turned into a wry smile.

He shook his head and spoke.

"Your final assessment of Girard was absolutely correct. After obtaining these photos from you, she must have found information about the Austrian prison in the top secrets of the French Ministry of Magic."

Severus frowned slightly. He had already found records related to this country in the archives of the Auror Command, and it was from that incomplete file that he learned about the top secret.

"Is it a prison like Azkaban?" "No, unlike Azkaban, that prison once imprisoned and tortured many innocent wizards. Now, it is only responsible for imprisoning one person, the one who once had that prison built, the original owner of that building."

As Dumbledore was speaking, a book flew out of the bookshelf next to the headmaster's office.

It spanned half of the principal's office before finally landing steadily on the desk. Then, with a "whoosh," it opened as if blown open by the wind, turning page after page, before finally stopping at one of the pages after four or five seconds.

That page had no text, only a black and white illustration of a tower-like building hidden in the forest.

Apart from the most prominent tower that emerges from a gray-black wall, the low-rise buildings near the ground are almost identical to the apartment building that Severus photographed!
Below this illustration is the name of the building in the picture – [Niumengard]!
Upon seeing this name, even without recalling his memories of the Harry Potter series from his previous life, Severus understood, based solely on Snape's own recollections, what the French Ministry of Magic feared was the very thing they had finally uncovered.

"Grindelwald. Those who kidnapped Nicolas Lemaître are Mujahideen!"

Just as Severus had initially guessed, once the secret of the apartment building was figured out, it was no surprise who the killers were.

"They are remnants of the former Musikverein party. They plotted to kidnap Nick Lemaître, intending to get him to help them free Grindelwald from Nurmengard!"

"That apartment building was chosen by them for an experiment! They were so similar that Nicolas Flamel was kidnapped there and forced to conduct experiments there!"

As Severus continued speaking to himself, he suddenly realized there was something he couldn't explain.

If this was a prison break plan organized by Grindelwald, then why wasn't it mentioned in the original book?

Or is it that in the untold history, Dumbledore himself intervened and resolved the matter before it caused any major trouble?

Dumbledore clearly couldn't figure out what Severus was thinking, and he simply shook his head and said...

“This was definitely done by those people from the Basilisk Party, his former subordinates. The prisoners in Nurmengard must not know that these people kidnapped Nick.”

Severus was not familiar with some of the stories outside the main Harry Potter storyline; he had only seen the original eight films, so he didn't quite understand Dumbledore's words.

Why are you so sure?

“Because what truly imprisoned him was never any physical prison,” Dumbledore said softly, “but himself, though his men clearly did not understand this.”

At this point, Dumbledore suddenly asked a question.

"How far do you think the killers who kidnapped Nicolas Flamel have gone?"

Many thoughts flashed through Severus's mind. After the murderer's true identity was revealed, some things that originally seemed coincidental and unrelated could now be connected.

"If the French Ministry of Magic is unwilling to accept this reality, then they are now only one step away from success."

(End of this chapter)