That evening, the Patrol Auror team leaders waiting in the Leaky Cauldron never saw their superior arrive. After some time had passed beyond the appointed hour, and empty beer bottles and plates had piled up across the table, the subordinates decided to search for their director based on the location of his Badge.
When they found the Badge abandoned by the sea, the Patrol Aurors realized something was wrong. After they went to knock on Scrimgeour's door and received no response, they broke in. The signs of a struggle Penelope had deliberately added inside, along with the portraits that had been put under a Sleeping Charm, convinced the Patrol Aurors that Scrimgeour had most likely been attacked.
Shocked and furious, the Patrol Aurors quickly took action. Aside from reporting it to the Ministry of Magic, they mobilized everyone to comb through streets and alleys, investigating their superior's movements—quite a few of them also inferred from where the Badge had been left that the attacker had probably fled by Apparition to a country across the sea.
The subsequent actions of the Patrol Aurors and the Ministry of Magic soon spread the news throughout the Magical World—Auror Office director Rufus Scrimgeour was likely in grave danger. He became the focus of attention not only in the Floating City, but also for foreign magazines such as the New York Ghost Gazette, and the director's whereabouts became the hottest topic around.
Unlike overseas, in the United Kingdom, apart from official Ministry of Magic media such as the Daily Prophet and The Quibbler, other outlets, constrained by the Censorship Act that had only recently been passed, no longer dared publish baseless, malicious speculation. And the ruthlessness the Ministry of Magic had shown when arresting the Pureblood families earlier had even made them too afraid to