The Butcher of Hogsmeade

Chapter 134: Speculations Not Yet Included in the Report

Shen Hou heard the word "you," but after waiting for a long time without any further explanation, he felt completely bewildered.

"Me? What do you mean, 'me'?"

"Everything." Professor Krock said one more word this time, and then fell silent.

"Sorry, my English isn't very good, so I can't do your reading comprehension questions," Shen Hou said sarcastically in a self-deprecating tone.

Professor Crocker nodded, then suddenly said, "Madam Minister, could you please order these two Mr. Prewitts to escort Lukewood to the Auror's office?"

Gideon and Fabian had been spectators for a while, initially waiting for what would happen next, just like Shen Hou. However, the Silent Man dismissed them with a single sentence: Gideon was fine, but Fabian was indignant, muttering, "We still don't know what happened!"

Unlike the two Aurors, the seasoned politician, the Minister, understood the Silent Ones' words perfectly, replying, "Of course, they will carry out this task well. Gentlemen of the Prewitt, please do as Professor Crocker says; also—aside from the fact that Lukewood is the traitor, everything you saw and heard in the Department of Mysteries today is highly classified. I don't think I need to remind you of the Ministry's secrecy rules, do I?"

"Keep it a secret?" Fabian's dissatisfaction grew stronger. "If you're going to keep it a secret from us, you shouldn't have called us up in the first place. With Professor Dumbledore here, catching a traitor is easy enough. What do you need us to do?"

Professor Kroc looked at the two Aurors, an embarrassed expression on his face, and stammered, "Actually, when I first opened..."

Initially, I only wanted to call Mr. Shen Hou, since the whole thing started because of him, but—if the Minister of Magic specifically requested someone from the Auror's office but only summoned a striker, it would be too easy to arouse suspicion, so—”

"So we were just there to make up the numbers from the beginning?" Fabian laughed angrily.

Seeing the atmosphere getting a bit tense, Millison had no choice but to speak up: "You should say you're covering for Mr. Shen Hou. Mr. Pewter, isn't he your friend? Professor Dumbledore trusts you, and I hope you deserve the trust of the Ministry of Magic and Professor Crocker as well."

The Minister's words were unvarnished, pointing out the fact that Dumbledore was cultivating a small circle within the Ministry of Magic, and indirectly indicating that she would not hinder it, and even welcome it.

Having said that, Dumbledore had to make his stance clear: "Fabian, you will carry out the Minister's orders for now; if you have any questions, you can come to me after get off work." With that, the old wizard opened the door to the Rotunda and gestured to Gideon to reassure his brother.

To the Prewitt brothers, Professor Crocker was essentially a stranger and could be ignored; however, they still had to obey the Minister of Magic's orders and give Dumbledore face. So, although Ping and Fabian angrily expressed their dissatisfaction with phrases like "I was doing this to help Shen," they ultimately followed their brother and escorted Lukwood away from the Department of Mysteries.

Then Dumbledore locked the room again.

"Thank you so much for sowing the seeds of discontent between me and my friends. Now, can you tell me what exactly this whole thing is all about?" Not only Fabian, but Shen Hou also felt dissatisfied with Professor Crocker's actions.

The secret has already been leaked to the Death Eaters through the report, so why are they still keeping such a tight rein on the members of the Order of the Phoenix?

Professor Crocker seemed completely oblivious to Shen Hou's dissatisfaction. Perhaps this was a common ailment among most technical personnel engrossed in research; spending too much time in the ivory tower made them rusty in social interactions—not to mention the Department of Mysteries was even more closed off than a typical ivory tower. He stated methodically, "Everything is everything. When you appeared, your account of your experiences, the Ministry of Magic's attitude towards you, and the Department of Mysteries' research findings on you, including all sorts of possible speculations—and so on and so forth, are all in that report. It was supposed to be archived after the research was completed, permanently sealed within the Department of Mysteries, and remain hidden from view for a foreseeable long time."

"The secrets you want to keep are all in those so-called 'research findings,' right?" Shen Hou asked.

"In fact, all the results can be reduced to speculation. To date, I have not been able to draw any definitive conclusions, nor do I believe I will be able to do so in my lifetime." Professor Kroc's wording was very precise.

"Of those speculations, what is worth our attention?" Dumbledore asked cautiously. "Or rather, what information is worth the Death Eaters risking an attack on the Department of Mysteries, and what information could affect Mr. Shen Hou's situation?"

Professor Crocker sighed. "I don't know. I don't even understand why the Death Eaters would be interested in this report, or why they would be interested in Mr. Shen Hou. If I hadn't heard them explicitly mention time travelers during the attack, I might not have even noticed the report was missing immediately."

"Do you have any news to share?" Millicent suddenly asked Dumbledore, while also looking at Shen Hou. "Why do you think the Death Eaters would suddenly become interested in Mr. Shen Hou?"

Dumbledore shook his head slightly: "Aside from the underground gambling incident a while ago, I can't think of any other reason; but this reason alone is clearly not enough to make the Death Eaters take such a big risk to attack the Department of Mysteries of the Ministry of Magic."

Shen Hou thought to himself that the old wizard wasn't telling the truth; but likewise, he himself had no intention of telling the truth.

"What is an underground gambling operation?" Professor Krock was completely baffled, which made Shen Hou realize that this taciturn man was indeed very unfamiliar with the outside world.

"It's just some fighting between the Ministry of Magic, the Auror offices, and the Death Eaters." Dumbledore didn't elaborate. "You must remember the contents of the report; could you make a copy?"

That will take a little time.

"I hope you can do it as soon as possible. The Minister and I need to know as many details as possible in order to make an accurate judgment on the situation; we can't be too much later than Voldemort." Dumbledore looked at Millison, who nodded in agreement.

"It seems the matter has been resolved, so I'll be going now?" Shen Hou still didn't understand why Professor Crocker insisted on making him come all this way: Dumbledore could have relayed those messages, so why call him here and make it known to everyone?

Unexpectedly, Professor Crocker called him back: "Please wait a moment, Mr. Shen. I've invited you here not just for the attack, but because I have a completely new theory about your experience, and I want to let you—and of course, Professor Dumbledore and the Minister—know about it as soon as possible."

"The conjecture written in the report?"

"No, or rather, I should say I'm very lucky. This conjecture has been gradually refined as my experiments with the time converter have progressed, and I haven't had time to write it into the report yet."

Upon hearing this, Shen Hou's interest was immediately piqued: "What conjecture?"

"I think you might not have come to 1980 from 2026, but rather—how should I put it—more likely you went to 2026 from here and came back?"