The Return to Hogwarts

Kingsley pursed his lips, waved to his men, and then the silent Aurors exchanged glances, their shrugged shoulders slightly lowered, and each found a seat, but their eyes remained fixed on the bar owner and the bar's front and back entrances.

"Does that make you feel better, Tom?" Amosta chuckled, glancing at the tearful Tom, before asking again.

"By the way, Kingsley, have you told Tom why you're here?"

"Not yet, Mr. Blaine—"

Kingsley was stern and never smiled.

"After tracing the package's origin, we immediately sealed off this area and then sent you a message. I thought you might be curious about the interrogation process—"

During the interrogation—Old Tom, who had just calmed down a bit, suddenly started trembling like a sieve again, and a terrifying creature wearing a black cloak involuntarily flashed before his eyes, a creature that could absorb the beautiful memories of life.

pack?!

Then, the word popped into old Tom's mind again. He paused, as if he had found the crux of the problem. He looked at Amosta Blaine, and then heard the young big man give him a peaceful smile and speak to him.

"I don't want to create a commotion in the wizarding world, nor do I want to disturb your business, Tom, so let's get straight to the point—"

Amosta pulled out a high stool next to the bar, placed his hands on the bar for support, and sat down.

"Do you offer package pickup and delivery services here, Tom?"

Sure enough, it was related to the package! Old Tom exclaimed inwardly, and he also realized that there must be a big problem with one of the packages he had sent!

"You know, Mr. Blaine—"

Old Tom, his eyes brimming with tears, spoke in a choking voice, "I—I have many people passing by here every day. Some wizards are in a hurry, and they—they ask Old Tom to help deliver packages to the post office. Oh, some people also mail things directly here, and customers come to pick them up—"

“Where are those packages?” Kingsley asked immediately. “I need to check them—”

Old Tom pointed to an inconspicuous little room next to the kitchen. Then, the two Aurors in the hall stood up without a word, took out a spyglass and a dark magic detector from their pockets, and strode towards the little room.

"I think you've probably already guessed it, Tom—"

Amosta took a few silver scissors out of his pocket and placed them on the bar. Then, a dark-colored bottle of liquor flew smoothly down from the liquor rack behind Old Tom and poured sherry into a glass that Amosta had picked up.

Taking a sip of the light and sweet sherry, Amosta said gently,

"To prevent panic from spreading, the Ministry of Magic ordered the Daily Prophet not to report on this matter—just yesterday, a fourth-year witch at Hogwarts received a package from the Hogsmeade post office containing a powerful Dark Magic artifact. This directly resulted in the student who received the package being sent to St. Mungo's, and she is still not completely out of danger. Meanwhile, several villagers from Hogsmeade and many young wizards have suffered injuries of varying degrees in this incident—"

Amosta paused for a moment, then spoke to the stunned old Tom.

"Now, the Ministry of Magic has investigated and found that this package originated from you, Tom. Do you have anything to say to us about this?"

The silence in the bar lasted for several seconds, and then, under the gaze of Amosta and the many Aurors, Old Tom suddenly jumped up.

Over the next few minutes, old Tom, enraged, kept spitting out saliva. He cursed the person who left the package with the most vicious curses and 'kindly' greeted each of that person's blood relatives.

The Aurors' mouths twitched at the sight of this comical scene.

"Is there a problem with Miss Hermione Granger's package, Mr. Blaine?"

Old Tom abruptly stopped yelling and cursing. He suddenly looked at Amoy and asked cautiously.

Kingsley's brow furrowed immediately, while Amosta straightened his posture and asked with interest,

"You remember that package, Tom?"

"It really is that package!"

Old Tom gritted his teeth and said,

“Of course I remember, Mr. Blaine—”

After taking a few deep breaths, Tom swallowed and said,

“That happened more than two weeks ago, Mr. Blaine. One night, a strange fellow walked in through the front door of the bar—”

"Weird guy?"

“Yes, that’s right, Mr. Blaine—”

Old Tom fell into reminiscence, "He was a scruffy young man, dressed very much like a Muggle. You know, a lot of people around here aren't very knowledgeable about Muggle fashion, but that guy dressed like one—I mean, like a Muggle—"

Old Tom turned around, poured himself a glass of whiskey, downed it in one gulp, and then, panting heavily, continued,

"--Of course, not only is he dressed like one, he's also wearing Muggle sunglasses. You know what sunglasses are, Mr. Blaine?"

Amosta nodded thoughtfully.

"You mean, he showed up at your bar at night, but he was wearing sunglasses?"

"Yes, that's it!"

Old Tom was pleased that Amosta Blaine understood him so quickly, and he smacked his lips as he continued.

"That man gave me two Galleons and asked me to mail a package for him. He said he was a fan of Hermione Granger and it was a gift for her. It's not a big deal, similar things have happened before, but he made one request—"

"What is it?" Kingsley asked immediately.

"--He wanted me to leave the package at the bar for a few days, he explained, because it was the Christmas holidays and Miss Hermione Granger might be home, and he wanted to send it to her when school started."

Oh, and also, he wouldn't leave his address and name with me. You know, Mr. Blaine, if mail isn't received, the post office returns it. I usually keep the customer's address so I can return the package, but that person told me that if the package is returned, I should just throw it away.”

Chapter 756 A Clumsy Solution (First Update of the New Year!)

2024-02-12

"You still sent the package, didn't you?"

Kingsley's voice was filled with anger.

"After you'd already sensed that something was off about that person?"

"Will I—will I be locked up in Azkaban?" old Tom asked pitifully.

“This isn’t my decision, Tom, but I’m telling you, a fine is definitely unavoidable!” Kingsley glared at Tom, making the old man shrink back to the liquor shelf, trembling. Then he narrowed his eyes and looked at Amosta, who was deep in thought.

“I don’t quite understand, Mr. Blaine—”

Kingsley whispered,

"Why would that person send the package to Hogsmeade? He told Tom to wait until after the Christmas holidays to send it out, by which time Hogwarts would have already started, wouldn't it?"

"Generally, the owls will be concentrated on Monday mornings, when students are having breakfast and delivering packages to the auditorium where everyone is. Perhaps the person sending the package is worried about being discovered by a faculty member—"

Amosta pondered.

"There are many students at the school. If it were sent there, after the package was opened, some other young wizards might find it amusing and snatch the problematic rose from the package first. Or perhaps the sender didn't want Hermione to receive timely treatment. But Hermione was lucky; when she had the accident, I and several professors were not far from her. Anyway—"

Amosta, having regained his composure, presented his own conclusion.

"He's a very cautious guy."

Amosta jumped down from the high stool, showing no anger towards Tom, his expression remaining gentle.

"So, Tom, may I see what that person looks like?"

"Of course, no problem, Mr. Blaine!"

Old Tom nodded vigorously. He was struggling to pull his wand from his pocket, preparing to draw the man's appearance on paper, but Amosta had a simpler way.

Before Tom could even draw his wand, Amostra's wand tip was already pressed against Tom's temple. In the short time it took for Tom to react, Amostra Blaine had already pulled several strands of silver thread from his temple. Seeing this, Kingsley and many Aurors in the pub hall looked uneasy.

According to the charter, Aurors are not allowed to examine the memories of criminal suspects without authorization, and Amosta Blaine is not an Auror, so he has no such right.

However, none of the Ministry of Magic personnel, including Kingsley, stopped Blaine's actions. They had already heard about the Minister of Magic's furious outburst when he returned from Hogwarts and personally gave orders to his superiors.

A strand of silver thread wrapped around the tip of Amostella's wand. As the wand swirled, the strands rapidly spun around the wand, quickly forming a silver bracelet. Then, a burst of silver light enveloped the entire bar, and in the dazzling brilliance, a phantom figure suddenly appeared at the front door of the Leaky Cauldron.

Judging from the skin tone of his chin, he was a young man in his early twenties. He was wearing Muggle sneakers, black pants, and a short gray coat. As Old Tom had said, he was also wearing sunglasses.

The person who sent the package didn't stop concealing himself; he wore black leather gloves and a dark green scarf around his neck, with only his face showing any skin.

Such an outfit would certainly attract attention elsewhere in the wizarding world, but this is the Leaky Cauldron, where eccentric guests appear every day, so we can't take Old Tom's carelessness too lightly or be overly critical.

The young man, carrying a package, entered the Leaky Cauldron bar. The smoky and chaotic environment of the bar did not move him in the slightest. He had a clear purpose and faced the bar counter.

The Aurors who were seated in the bar all stood up, capturing the various features of the phantom walking towards the bar from their own perspectives. Then, they quickly reached a consensus.

"This person is probably being controlled—"

Kingsley said in a low voice.

Making this judgment was not difficult. As the man walked toward the bar, his gait was slightly odd. His feet seemed to lift very little off the ground. His hips directed his legs forward, but his posture was somewhat stiff. Although he was trying to imitate a normal gait, this clumsy attempt could not be hidden from the experienced Aurors.

This unusual gait is not caused by a disability.

Amosta neither nodded nor shook her head, but simply followed the man steadily.

After arriving at the bar, the young man placed the package on the bar, and then spoke to Old Tom behind the bar.

After two minutes of negotiation, the man tossed two gold coins from his pocket, then turned and walked toward the front door. Just a few steps later, the phantom vanished without warning.

That's where my memory ends. With his business booming, Old Tom was busy taking care of his customers and never paid any more attention to this person.

All the Aurors present were heavy-hearted.

If this man was indeed being manipulated, then it seems to mean that, like Old Tom, he was likely innocent and simply unlucky enough to be dragged into this mess. They even considered the possibility that this unfortunate man might be a Muggle, manipulated into entering the Leaky Cauldron, and that Old Tom had been dealing with the hidden dark wizard all along.

"This man is probably dead--"

Amosta said softly.

Upon hearing this, Kingsley was stunned for a moment, and then his expression turned ugly.