"So Fenrir Greyback was found just like that…"
Even as he left the headmistress's office, Avada still felt a little dazed.
He had already prepared himself for the worst, mentally placing this matter on the same level of danger as the Chamber of Secrets crisis caused by the diary.
And yet… that was it?
It wasn't that he was being overly paranoid, either. The werewolf issue itself was already a massive landmine within wizarding society, one with enormous latent danger. And this large-scale series of werewolf attacks had indeed seemed suspicious in every possible way—their intelligence, manpower, technology, funding, resources, why they had chosen to act at this particular moment, and how they had managed to organize such a large operation without letting even the slightest hint leak into wizarding society…
With so many questions piled together, it was hard not to wonder whether there might be some greater mastermind hidden behind it all, plotting something even deeper.
So, in Avada's original line of thinking, Greyback should have been under extremely tight protection from the backers behind him. He might have been hiding in some great noble family's manor, or in a house protected by something like the Fidelius Charm, issuing orders to his core subordinates through the most expensive and secure communication methods imaginable.
But in the end, Sirius Black—someone who had only joined the game halfway through—had just dug up the man's entire foundation?
Other people might not know better, but Avada did.
Sirius had no secretive, sinister intelligence network at all. After all, the entire Black family had been reduced to him alone. His only real way of gathering information was to turn into a dog and have other dogs help him sniff out news. While that method really was difficult to guard against, any information obtained that way could not possibly have been protected at a particularly high level. At the very least, it had to be the kind of thing people would discuss in front of stray dogs.
And if Greyback could be tracked down through information gathered like that, then his protective measures were probably nowhere near as airtight as Avada had imagined. He was likely hiding in some deserted forest with a tent, much like the state Voldemort's wraith had been in years ago in Albania.
But that only made it even stranger.
He had such abundant intelligence, money, resources, manpower, and technology, with a powerful supporter behind him… yet he still couldn't secure even a decent layer of protection for himself?
Why?
"They poured an enormous amount of effort and resources into one thing, yet in other respects they gave off this attitude of not caring at all… Why such a contradiction?"
His focused train of thought unconsciously slowed his pace, and by the time he finally made it back to his office and sat down, quite a while had passed. Only then did he notice that at some point a stack of documents had appeared on his desk—the collected questions students had submitted in advance for the next Q&A class.
"Good grief."
A tidal wave of exhaustion surged out of his mind once more and washed over his entire body.
He had wanted to drink a dose of Invigoration Draught on the side where his real body was, to improve his mental state a little, but things were still in the middle of intense research over there, and he didn't even have time to drink anything. So he could only force himself to keep going.
"When would someone devote enormous effort to something they don't actually care much about?"
Avada pulled out his schedule. Under tomorrow's date, he added another note—"Go to Professor Baker's office to discuss a joint experiment"—before leaning back in his chair.
"Maybe because the most important part has already been completed, and the rest is actually irrelevant?"
"Or maybe the success or failure of the matter itself doesn't really matter. What matters is doing it, not achieving a result?"
"Hmm… If that's the case, does that mean this entire werewolf attack was actually just one giant smokescreen, used to hide the movements of the people lurking behind the scenes?"
"After all, whether this attack succeeds or fails, wizarding society is definitely going to be thrown into another round of turmoil. And turmoil means chaos, and chaos means plenty of chances to muddy the waters…"
"So who exactly is creating this chaos? And what fish are they trying to catch in it?"
"Haaah, forget it. Thinking about it now is just blind speculation anyway. Better to focus on developing the shielding device first."
Using the puppet body, he took a long breath in, then slowly let it out.
"Once the Order of the Phoenix or the university pries everything out of Greyback's head, there'll naturally be more clues…"
"First, I should deal with the students' questions."
...
"Ken, give me a hand—look over here, I think we might have a chance…"
"Wait a second, I'm coming… Bloody hell! Wait! What's going on here?! Don't move!"
Avada shot over to Percy in a flash, staring nervously at his wand.
"Don't move! Absolutely do not move! Yes, just like that—keep that spell exactly as it is…"
"?"
Percy froze for a moment. He had been about to ask outright, but after quickly realizing what Avada meant, he immediately swallowed the question and focused on maintaining the spell in his hands.
Over the past few days, Avada had already built up considerable authority when it came to cracking the great door. Time and again, he had either settled key disputes with a single decisive judgment or produced an unexpected winning move for the team.
At this point, no one still regarded him as merely a fourth-year student. Instead, he was seen as one of Hogwarts' top elites, someone qualified to discuss magic with them on equal footing—or even guide them.
"Good, don't move… I see it now. If we're lucky…"
Avada carefully raised his wand toward the stone wall, which had been slightly shaken by Percy's magic and was now rippling across its surface like disturbed water. After murmuring a low incantation, he sent out a fine thread of white light, delicate and precise, that pierced into a certain point on the wall.
Boom!
It was as though a violent explosion had erupted behind the rock face. The outline of an archway appeared across it once more, but this time the light it emitted was stronger than at any previous attempt. Even within the shape of the arch itself, more cracks were spreading, as though the entire wall were already on the verge of collapse...
"Everyone!"
Seeing this, Percy immediately twisted around and shouted, "Stop working on the other sections! Get back here at once! This is the final step!"
His voice, magnified by the Amplifying Charm, spread outward at once. Barely a few seconds later, five figures came sprinting out of the maze of tunnels surrounding them. They froze briefly when they saw the stone wall now covered in cracks, then drew their wands in wild delight and began chanting complex spells, sending streak after streak of white light crashing into the wall.
Crack... crack...
Those white beams seemed to be feeding the light already pouring out from the cracks, making it grow ever more brilliant and dazzling. As for the stone wall itself, it was actually melting under that scorching radiance like a sheet of ice...
At last, the white light gradually faded.
And the stone wall that had blocked them for days was gone without a trace.
In its place remained only a tall, spacious entrance.
(End of Chapter)