I'm the King of Curry at Hogwarts

Chapter 236 The Know-It-All PTSD

To be honest, not only did Catherine dislike Hagrid's lectures, but even Harry, who was very close to Hagrid, didn't really listen to much of them.

It's not that Hagrid's teaching ability is problematic, it's just that kids this age are only interested in playing.

Louis wasn't just obsessed with playing, but... but he had absolutely no interest in magical creatures, he swore to the lamp.

Catherine crouched down, her hand, clad in white lace gloves, gently pressing around the wound on the corpse. She frowned slightly, then looked up and asked, "Do other animals die like this too?"

"Yes," the female agent nodded in confirmation, then added, seemingly casually, "Sigh, Sterling Farm is the biggest farm around here. The Sterlings usually have a good reputation; they often donate to the town's school. It's such a pity about these two good people... Sigh..."

"Sigh." Louis sighed as well.

Catherine stood up, pinched Louis's shoulder, and whispered, "Come on, let's go take a look at the crime scene and then go see the rancher's body."

The female agent immediately and attentively led the way for them. The agent who had put up a cordon at the door of the house wanted to stop them, but was stopped by the female agent.

"These two are MI5 agents," she said succinctly. The agents immediately made way for them, preferring to avoid trouble and no one wanted to cause any conflict with MI5.

Because the crime scene was well preserved, the interior furnishings remained exactly as they were at the time of the incident. Two white circles on the ground marked the original locations of the farm owner and his wife's bodies. Unlike the cattle pen, where there was no blood, here the blood was flowing like a small river.

"The bleeding is quite heavy," Louis commented, shaking his head. Just then, the chair behind them suddenly moved. Louis turned around and saw that there was no one there. It was probably one of the trio who had accidentally bumped into it.

Fortunately, the female agent wasn't thinking about that, and the matter was covered up.

"It seems the murderer broke in through the window," Catherine said, pointing to the shotgun circled in white by the window. "It appears that Mr. Sterling, the farmer, noticed what was happening outside. He stood by the window, holding this shotgun, and shouted at the mysterious murderer to stop him. However, he angered the murderer by startling him and was killed. Even his wife was not spared."

"I don't think the killer was targeting the two of them..." Catherine added.

"Why do you say that?" Louis asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No rush, let's take a look at the farmer's body before drawing any conclusions," Catherine said with a smirk.

The agents readily complied with the MI5 agents' requests, and the female agent drove Louis and his companion to the police station's morgue. The morgue in Britain these days was quite well-equipped, with sliding refrigerated cabinets on both sides of the walls, where the bodies of the Sterling couple, the farmers, were kept.

"Looks like they were neighbors even after they died," Louis said with a nonchalant, dry joke.

Catherine glanced at him, said nothing, but opened two freezers, glanced at them briefly, and then went back inside.

"Just as I suspected, Agent Mountbatten." Catherine pushed up her glasses with her index finger, looking quite like Conan—but more like his mother-in-law, Eri Kisaki. "The victim had heavy scratches, and no bite marks like those found on farm animals... So my deduction is correct; the killer was most likely after the farm animals."

"Hmm." Louis nodded, agreeing with Catherine's statement.

After exchanging contact information, the two left the police station and drove to a hotel in town. The three children ripped off their cloaks and began fanning themselves.

"It's so hot, this cloak is suffocating," Hermione complained, then excitedly asked, "Catherine, how did you deduce so much information from such limited data?"

"Ah, I was just guessing." Catherine chuckled irresponsibly. "So, Miss Know-It-All—"

"I'm not an expert, stop talking!" Hermione used to be quite proud of this title, but now, whenever she hears this nickname, she feels like someone is mocking her.

It seems she's developed some kind of PTSD from being a know-it-all; it looks like Catherine dealt her quite a blow this afternoon.

It's understandable that Hermione, who has always been very confident in her knowledge, was completely outmatched by a pure-blood wizard in terms of knowledge within the Muggle world.

"Are you really not a know-it-all?" Catherine leaned down, her face level with Hermione's. The two were so close that Hermione could even feel Catherine's breath. For a moment, Hermione was flustered and at a loss.

"I...I...I really didn't..." Hermione sobbed, "Please, let me go, Catherine...I've been pitiful enough."

"Hmph." Catherine chuckled and said, "Alright, I'll let you off the hook for now. Let's go to the hotel and get a few rooms."

With that, she took Louis's arm and turned to walk towards the hotel.

"Tell me, what could be causing this?" Louis asked the three little ones in a low voice inside the room.

The three little ones looked at each other, but none of them could give a clear answer.

"Could...could it be some kind of giant bat?" Ron asked cautiously.

Hermione immediately dismissed his statement: "No, that's unlikely. First of all, those scratches don't look like something a bat would have. Besides... if it were a bat, Mr. Sterling, the farmer, would have fired his gun first, instead of shouting to scare it away..."

"You mean werewolves?" Harry asked tentatively. "But werewolves...werewolves don't drink blood, do they?"

"Could it be a vampire?" Ron raised another terrifying possibility.

"Probably not," Catherine said hesitantly. "What Ron said about vampires seems to fit somewhat. After all, if it were a humanoid creature, it would make sense for the farmer to drive them away first—but if it's a vampire, why wouldn't it feed on the farmers instead of the animals? That doesn't make sense..."

"Could it be that they've switched to vegetarianism?" Louis chuckled. "Aren't vampires supposed to seize every opportunity to drink human blood? They're not exactly benevolent..."

"I don't know about that." Catherine shrugged, rubbing her forehead in exasperation. "There are just too many inconsistencies in this case... Good heavens..."

"If this case were easy to handle, Sister Lian wouldn't be so troubled," Louis said with a smile, pulling out his new Nokia 2110 from his pocket and dialing Solan Lian's number.

Solanlian's cell phone was a gift from Louis when they parted. After teaching her how to use it, he told her to keep it on and wait for his call.

The call was answered quickly.

"Feed? Sister Lian?" Louis asked.

"It's me." A static-heavy voice came from the other end of the phone, but it was still faintly recognizable as Solanlian's voice.

Louis briefly outlined the suspicious points of the Muggle case, then asked pointedly, "Sister Lian, does the case in Hippogryph Village basically match the Muggle case?"

"Yes, mostly, except for one person who's missing." Solarian's voice sounded tired. "Any leads over there?"

"Not for now, but I'll let you know if I do," Louis said a couple more times before hanging up.

Catherine sat on the edge of the bed and asked softly, "How did it go? What did Mom say?"

"The case in Hippogryph Village is basically the same as the case in the Muggle world." Louis shrugged. "It's all about poultry and livestock being drained of their blood, except the wizarding world has an additional missing girl."

"Then it seems the perpetrators are the same kind of people... the same kind of creatures," Hermione said quickly.

Then, the four of them fell into an awkward silence.

None of us here are professional detectives. Besides, even if we were professional detectives, we wouldn't seem to be of much use in dealing with magical cases that are outside our area of ​​expertise.

"So what do we do now?" Ron asked.

"Wait, let's go out for a bite to eat first, then we'll wait here." Louis squinted and sighed. "We can only wait for them to strike again, and then look for commonalities in the cases."

"No, Little Deer," Catherine suddenly said, "I remember the female operator once told me that Sterling Farm is the largest farm in the area. Do you think it's possible...?"

"You mean...?" Louis quickly understood: "The criminals will raid the next farm before anyone can react?"

"Very likely!" Catherine immediately stood up and said to Louis, "Come on, let's go down and ask around to see if there are any other farms nearby!"

Louis nodded and followed Catherine out of the room, with the three little ones following closely behind.

The hotel owner was a talkative middle-aged man. Seeing Louis strike up a conversation with him, he immediately seized the opportunity and began to talk at length about everything that could be discussed.

After much searching, Louis finally got the answer he wanted: Ramsay Farm, located more than ten kilometers away, was one of only two farms around the town.

The other one is Sterling's farm.

The five of them set off by car and finally arrived at Ramsey Farm before sunset.

To make it look more realistic, Louis even added two lightweight, shattered tires to his car.

It wasn't far from the main house on the farm; after walking for about seven or eight minutes, the five of them arrived at the door.

Louis knocked on the door, and after a while, the door opened, revealing a sprightly old man.

"Hello, sir," Louis said politely, his manners impeccable. "I'm sorry to bother you at this hour, but my family's tire went flat on the road, and we don't have enough spare tires. So, I was wondering if you could kindly allow us to bother you for the night?"

Louis's elegant demeanor instantly dispelled the old man's doubts. He smiled, extended his hand to shake Louis's hand, and readily agreed, "No problem, of course no problem. I am James Ramsey, the owner of this farm. Welcome to the five of you."

"Hello, Mr. Ramsey," Louis said with a smile. "I am Louis Mountbatten."

The old man's expression changed, and he asked with some surprise, "Louis Mountbatten? What is your relationship with Lord Mountbatten of Windsor Castle...?"

"That's my grandfather," Louis said honestly, nodding.

"Ah...ah..." Mr. Ramsey shook Louis's hand again, excitedly saying, "You're actually the Commander's grandson? Good heavens...I was fortunate enough to serve in Burma during the last war, and near the end of the war, I was promoted to staff officer at headquarters for my meritorious service. I had the honor of working with the Commander..."

"Ah...you are Grandpa's comrade-in-arms?" Louis also showed great respect. After all, the person in front of him was an old soldier who had fought against the Japanese, and he should be treated with the respect due to him.

"Of course, of course." Mr. Ramsey glanced at the four people behind him and quickly invited them inside to sit down.

He immediately summoned the servants and told them to quickly prepare dinner for the old official's young master.

"Since you're Grandpa's comrade-in-arms, I'll be frank." Louis, who never beat around the bush like the British, preferred to get straight to the point. "Have you heard about the case at the other farm in town... that Sterling Farm?"

"Old Sterling?" Mr. Ramsay nodded. "I heard about it. Just this morning, Lisa... oh, the maid who works in my household, she told me about Ramsay Farm. Sigh... to be honest, we were friends. The old couple were praised by everyone in town for their kindness. It's a pity that such a thing happened to them in their old age."

As he spoke, Mr. Ramsey began to make the sign of the cross on his chest, praying for the Sterlings.

Seemingly influenced by Mr. Ramsey's tone, Louis also said somewhat dejectedly, "We came here for this case."

"You... came for this case?" Old Ramsey seemed a little taken aback.

"Of course, through some connections, I got a nominal position in MI5. So... I happened to come across this while on vacation, which is within our jurisdiction, so I came to take a look," Louis said, half-jokingly—but he was indeed recorded in MI5's files, just not as an ordinary agent.

"I see." Old Ramsey nodded, then asked hesitantly, "I heard the case at Sterling Farm is rather strange. Have you found any clues?"

"A little, but not much," Louis sighed softly. "It seems the killer wasn't targeting the Sterlings, but rather their livestock. And what ultimately drove the killer to murder them was simply that the couple discovered the killer."

"This..." Mr. Ramsey frowned, somewhat puzzled, and asked, "Excuse me, Mr. Louis, but I don't quite understand the killers' motive. Why was their primary objective the slaughter of the livestock on Sterling Farm?"

(End of this chapter)