The mastermind behind Hogwarts

Chapter 128 The Daily Prophet, Fanning the Flames

The young wizards who received the newspapers also saw this shocking news.

A heated discussion erupted, interspersed with prayers and subtle sarcasm.

"This person is dead? And there's a bright green leaf on their head! This seems to be a sign of something, haha, how interesting!"

The few little lions who didn't go to the school hospital huddled together, laughing and joking.

They quickly sensed that something was wrong with the atmosphere around them, and that many resentful gazes were being cast at them.

"Don't talk nonsense, this person is a Hogwarts school board member!" The Weasley twins walked over, each extending a hand and pressing their heads onto the table. "Show some respect."

Even Weasley, who was at odds with the Malfoy family, expressed great sympathy for this matter.

Percy led the two of them to a safe spot, glancing frequently at the Slytherin table. Knowing Moriarty as he did, he knew something big was about to happen…

The young wizards at the Slytherin table were utterly shocked.

"Merlin! Lucius Malfoy??? That foremost pure-blood patriarch?"

"He's dead! Dead! His head has been cut off and is placed next to his body..."

"By Merlin..."

"Damn Frenchmen! This is provocation! Provocation!!! Whoever the murderer is, it's a provocation against the British wizards! That bastard is challenging the dignity of purebloods!"

They didn't bother with breakfast—Leon dropped the golden croissant he was holding and it hit the back of his foot, but he stared blankly at the newspaper, not even thinking about picking up the bread.

The group of purebloods around him stared wide-eyed, furious, and slammed their fists on the table with loud bangs!

Jericho stared wide-eyed at the magical photograph of Lucius's death, oblivious to the fact that a mixture of cereal and chocolate was already dripping from his mouth.

Marcus's hands were trembling so badly that Muggles might think he had Parkinson's disease.

Lilith covered her mouth with one hand and straightened the newspaper with the other. Her face was pale, not as pale as Lucius's severed head, but still terrifying enough.

Lilith, with her extraordinary political acumen, had a premonition that a war seemed inevitable...

She glanced at Moriarty with concern, noticing his piercing gaze, as if the newspaper were the murderer of Lucius. Even though they were several seats apart, Lilith could feel the murderous aura emanating from him.

Moriarty read every word of the Daily Prophet carefully.

The Daily Prophet's headlines were all bolded and changed to a bright blood red.

The magical ink, resembling blood plasma, hadn't even dried yet, and it was clear that the Daily Prophet had rushed to produce it.

Front-page headline: "Lucius Malfoy, the current head of the Malfoy family, has been confirmed murdered in Marseille, France!"

Version 2: "Preliminary investigation indicates that Lucius Malfoy was killed by a vampire!"

Version 3: "The Ministries of Magic of England and France jointly issue a warrant for the arrest of a vampire killer!"

Page 4: "Exclusive report: The reason Lucius went to France!"

Fifth edition, sixth edition, seventh edition...

More than ten pages of the newspaper were all about Lucius!

"Ding-dong~ Detected that Lucius Malfoy completed the mission to uncover the secrets of the progenitor of vampires, but failed to return safely. Therefore, half of the reward for this mission has been deducted, and the host is awarded 40,000 points!"

The system's notification gradually calmed Moriarty's anger; it turned out that Lucius had uncovered the secret.

In other words, some vampires didn't want Lucius to bring the secret back to England, so they intercepted and killed him on his way back!

To verify his idea, Moriarty opened the report.

The text reads: On the evening of September 11, 1989, the body of Lucius Malfoy was discovered by three French Aurors on a country road in the old port of Marseille, France.

Although Lucius was accompanied by three Malfoy wizards and two French Aurors (Note 1), he was still attacked by the enemy.

French Minister of Magic Fonteyn Capet said, "Mr. Lucius arrived at the French Ministry of Magic on the morning of September 10th. He requested two Aurors to assist him in visiting the Marquess of Judah."

Upon seeing this, Moriarty calculated the date and concluded that Lucius had arrived in France on September 10th, meaning that Lucius had found the Jewish Marquis's address in less than a day.

Is it that easy to investigate? Or is it a trap?

Moriarty looked on.

Fonte Capet said he sent two Aurors to Lucius—ostensibly because Lucius had given him a lot of Galleons.

The real reason was that he wanted to know exactly what Lucius and the Jewish Marquis discussed.

Just when he was looking for an excuse to go to the scene to listen in person, Lucius made a request, so he naturally sent out Aurors, ostensibly to protect Lucius, but in reality to monitor him.

The Aurors reported to von Wee Capet that late on the night of September 10th, Lucius formally visited the Marquess of Judah. ​​(Note 2)

From then on, the Aurors never reported any more information to Feng Wei.

On the morning of September 11, Minister Feng Wei, unable to sit still, dispatched three teams of Aurors to search for Lucius, but to no avail.

Dramatically, on the morning of September 11, two Muggles (a man and a woman) accidentally discovered Lucius's body and head while engaging in unspeakable activities in the woods near the Old Port of Marseille.

The female Muggle was scared to death on the spot, the male Muggle called the police, and when the police were dispatched, they were discovered by the French Aurors and thus found Mr. Lucius!

Minister Feng Wei said regretfully, "When we arrived, Mr. Lucius was already dead! There wasn't a drop of blood left in his body, and his head was shriveled up like a deflated balloon. I'm sorry... I can't go on."

When announcing the news to the public, von Wee Capet repeatedly shed tears. He described the manner of Mr. Lucius's death with great difficulty, seemingly in an attempt to prove that the murderer of Mr. Lucius was a vampire!

"Our Aurors and the British Ministry of Magic's Aurors have been mobilized together. Through the signs of battle at the scene and the two small, round holes on the right side of Lucius's neck, we have confirmed that the murderer is a vampire!"

His three wizards and two brave French Aurors, though their whereabouts are unknown, left traces of their battle spells at the scene, so we have reason to suspect they have been murdered…”

Fonteyn Capet, representing the French Ministry of Magic, issued a statement and then rushed to the Marquis of Judea. (Note 3)

According to Minister Feng Wei, the Jewish Marquis and his family's vampires were not the murderers of Lucius.

Note 1: It has been confirmed that the two Aurors became bodyguards for extremely dirty reasons, involving deals and politics among the powerful.

Note 2: As we all know, vampires do not like sunlight, and Lucius visited them on the very day he arrived in Marseille. Although this is somewhat unusual, he may have been in such a hurry because he was eager to get home.

This speculation is not without basis; Mr. Lucius’s presence in the old port of Marseille undoubtedly indicates that he is preparing to return to England by cruise ship.

Note 3: Fonteyn Capet refused to disclose the specific address of the Jewish Marquis. After making numerous inquiries, our reporter only confirmed that the Jewish Marquis lived in a castle, which we can only refer to as "Jewish Marquis Castle".

The above is the complete content of the front and second pages.

Moriarty tossed the four newspapers aside.

Newspapers were full of sarcasm and ridicule of French wizards and the French people, but they still adopted von Wee Capet's version that Lucius was killed by a vampire!

The prime suspect is undoubtedly the Jewish Marquis, but if not Jewish, then who could it be?

Moriarty flipped through the rest of the newspaper.

Having looked at the French wizards' claims, let's now examine the investigations of the British wizards.

The British Ministry of Magic stated that Minister von Way's first action upon receiving news of Lucius's death was to notify the Ministry of Magic.

Milison Bagnore, dragging her aged body, arrived in France with a Portkey. After entering the French Ministry of Magic, she vomited for a long time.

The scene of Lucius's death was carried out jointly by the two Aurors, Rufus Scrinker, then head of the British Auror office, confirmed von Wee Capet's account.

Subsequently, the British Ministry of Magic released an official statement confirming that Lucius had died at the hands of a vampire.

After von Wee Capet emerged from the Marquess of Judea, the British and French Ministries of Magic jointly issued a warrant for the arrest of the unknown vampire assassin! (Note 1)

Note: Minister Milison Bagno expressed strong dissatisfaction with von Wee Capet's secret meeting with the Jewish Marquess.

She said that if Feng Wei did not reveal the Jewish Marquis's address, British wizards would have reason to believe that the Jewish Marquis conspired with the French Ministry of Magic to murder Mr. Lucius!

However, our Minister Bagno is getting old after all. Although Mr. Moriarty's victory in the bet with the alchemist Nicolas Flamel has brought her much glory, she is still about to step down—Feng Wei knows this too.

Therefore, Feng Wei acted very tough.

Similarly, the ever-hardline Director Rufus Scrimgeour—who roared at Feng Wei like a lion—demanded that the British Aurors enter the Marquess of Judea to investigate and gather evidence.

Currently, the two countries' ministries of magic are deadlocked over this issue.

Page 4, the seventh issue of the newspaper.

Moriarty saw the official confirmation of Lucius's supposed reason for going to Marseille.

It is reported that two days ago, the Malfoy family inquired about the address of the Jewish Marquis in the wizarding world and the Muggle world.

Through the family business, the mixed-race vampires in France made contact with Lucius.

We have reason to suspect that Lucius found the Jewish Marquis's address through those half-blood vampires and then submitted a request to visit him.

However, when the British Aurors asked the French Aurors where the half-blood vampires were, they claimed they didn't know!

(End of this chapter)