Meanwhile, at Malfoy Manor.
The firelight from the room's fireplace cast Lucius's smooth golden hair in an unnaturally pale shade.
In his hands was a secret report concerning the Ministry of Magic—or, more precisely, Rufus Scrimgeour's recent movements.
This costly report contained little useful intelligence. It merely listed the public places Scrimgeour had visited, the people he had recently met, and the specifics of his work at the Ministry.
Ever since Scrimgeour, the Head of the Auror Office known for his ruthlessness and hard-line methods, had returned to his post and begun operating with unusual secrecy, Lucius had suspected that this "lion" was targeting him, the Malfoy Family, or even the Death Eaters.
To obtain such a secret report, he had spent vast quantities of Gold Galleons and called upon nearly every connection he had.
Fortunately, it had been worth it. Scrimgeour's investigation had not reached into the gray-market dealings of Knockturn Alley or the manor's secrets. Instead, it pointed to a name that had been silent for years: Aiden Selwyn.
The discovery first left Lucius stunned, then deeply relieved.
He remembered that name—a genius of the Selwyn Family who had been crippled by an accident.
But it reminded him of something else, something that seemed entirely unrelated.
About three years earlier, a distant Selwyn relative on the verge of bankruptcy had tried to sell a remote parcel of land.
The land had belonged to a dark wizard who had died accidentally in a magical experiment decades ago. Though it held no apparent profit at the time, its secluded location meant that buying it would not have been a loss.
However, by the time the Malfoy Family made its move, it was already too late. That distant Selwyn relative had unexpectedly withdrawn the land from sale and somehow produced a