Next, Alex wrote another letter to Azalea, this time requesting her to return to the club as a Silver Wand to help with internal matters.
Of course, Alex had a plausible reason for her return; he told her she was needed to help care for some magical creatures under his care, specifically to look after some pigs.
At the same time, he sent a letter to the black dragon in North America, using the contact information Thunderbird had given him, asking the dragon to gather the magical animals and have them ready for transport at any time.
The last letter was addressed to Karkaroff, a professor at Durmstrang with whom Alex had maintained contact for many years.
Karkaroff had been collecting materials for him, and Alex had always supported him generously, providing substantial funds for local development.
Thanks to Alex's backing and Karkaroff's own efforts, Karkaroff's status at Durmstrang had steadily risen, and he was now the vice principal.
However, despite his talents, Karkaroff was overly cautious and timid.
Many British Death Eaters had fled to Durmstrang, and since Karkaroff feared retaliation, he rarely ventured outside the school freely.
Alex instructed him to find a way to train some subordinates in Northern Europe and to acquire a piece of land in the wizarding area to prepare for opening a branch in the future.
But Karkaroff had yet to make any progress on this, which frustrated Alex greatly.
After sending out all these letters, Alex took out a specially prepared map of Germany that showed the locations of his trackers.
At a recent party, he had managed to make contact with Golden Snidget and secretly attached a soft-needle tracker to his clothing.
Now, Alex intended to keep an eye on Golden Snidget to see what kind of medicines he was selling from his gourd.
But when Alex checked the tracker's location, he frowned.
'What's going on? This guy is at the Ministry of Magic? And it's exactly the same spot as Pete's location?'
He paused, realization dawning.
'So, Pete really is the Golden Snidget? But why wasn't Pete wearing a mask when the Golden Snidget appeared? And what about the two silver wand masks hidden on his body? Could it be that he has other masks in the club, hiding another identity?'
'It's still impossible to explain how the Golden Snidget shows up in different places at the same time.'
'The masks they wear are different, which suggests this isn't just an effect of the time converter.'
'If the two Golden Snidgets were the same person, there would only be one of them.'
'The mask I tracked before should have appeared on him by now.'
'But the truth is, when the Golden Snidget showed up, he wasn't wearing the mask I had been tracking, that mask was still on Pete.'
'This means he must have another silver wand costume somewhere.'
'When one of them appears, he puts on that costume and acts as the Golden Snidget.'
'The Golden Snidget is becoming more and more mysterious, but I will definitely find its weakness!'
Alex looked down at the map before him, his eyes burning with determination.
A week had passed since the meeting, and during that time, the warehouse prison continued to operate smoothly.
Although tensions between the civilian wizards, Muggles, and patrols simmered beneath the surface, Moody's strict management kept any incidents from breaking out.
Nathan and Bob spent their days discussing escape plans, but despite daily talks, they hadn't committed to action and were still only preparing.
Moody noted that their wandless spellcasting skills had improved dramatically, perhaps the dire situation was pushing them to unlock new potential.
Still, the two remained cautious to the point of hesitation.
Moody often yelled at everyone, calling Nathan and Bob cowards for leaving the door wide open yet not making a move.
But Alex and the others understood this wasn't something to rush.
To Nathan and Bob, escaping was a life-or-death gamble, so their careful approach was natural.
While the prison situation hadn't advanced much, Andre had made significant progress elsewhere.
Thanks to his efforts, the Schmidt family had come to an agreement with him.
For these wizarding families, honor and dignity were paramount, being deceived was worse than death.
The Schmidt patriarch agreed to cooperate with Andre, but only on one condition: Phoenix had to be completely captured or eliminated first.
Phoenix was the one who had framed the Schmidt family, and without dealing with her, they couldn't fully trust Andre.
Alex asked Andre to honor this request, but said now wasn't the right time.
Phoenix hadn't been in Germany lately, and it wouldn't be wise to chase her into France.
However, Alex didn't let the opportunity go to waste.
Taking advantage of Phoenix's absence, he infiltrated her German stronghold and installed extensive monitoring equipment.
That way, if she showed up again, they'd be ready to ambush her.
As for the silver wand, thanks to a tracker Alex had secretly placed, along with the monitoring within their headquarters and Azalea's inside information, they had a solid grasp on the club's recent activities.
It's now clear that the Golden Snidget and Pete are actually the same person.
Whenever the Golden Snidget takes action, he wears a silver wand costume and leaves the Ministry of Magic, while Pete remains behind, as if they've somehow separated.
During this time, Snidget organized a group of short wardings and, under the guidance of a deformed lizard, launched a covert investigation in Germany.
They checked every official magical zoo, wizard gathering spot, and black market, but the stolen magical creatures and people seemed to have vanished without a trace.
No one had bought large amounts of food, nor were there reports of big shipments of magical animals.
They even looked into the families of the staff involved and discovered only one notable clue: an evacuated basement in Claremont's residence.
When Golden Snidget got this lead, it felt like a lifeline, so he immediately followed Claremont's trail.
Soon, he found a fireplace in Claremont's secret black market hideout that had been cut off from the floo network.
All the evidence pointed to Claremont as the inside traitor.
This realization broke Golden Snidget's heart.
Claremont had known him since they were young and had been by his side for years, only to suddenly betray him.
Despite this, Golden Snidget wasn't overly worried about Claremont revealing club secrets after his rebellion.
Claremont's mind had been sealed with the strongest Occlumency, and as long as he knew the person in front of him wasn't the one with the silver wand, He wouldn't be able to betray the club or Golden Snidget, even if he wanted to.
During many conversations between Golden Snidget and Ashwinder, Alex learned that they were also investigating Andre and others.
They discovered that Andre had disappeared for several days along with more than a dozen Aurors, shortly before Golden Snidget and his team noticed the park had been emptied.
This raised suspicion for Golden Snidget and Ashwinder, but Andre had a perfectly legitimate reason for being with the Aurors, and they were only gone for three days.
Is it really possible to evacuate the three breeding parks in just three days with such a small team?
Besides Golden Snidget, no one would trust other wizards, so Andre's actions naturally raised suspicion.
Still, Golden Snidget didn't see him as the prime suspect.