Revealing the Truth and Inaction!

"Thank you for your honesty!"

Dudley praised Dumbledore without a trace of emotion, then turned to his cousin Harry. "Harry, write down that name!"

Harry did not answer, responding with his actions instead.

Dumbledore watched with an extremely complicated expression as Harry took out a brand-new black notebook, placed it on the table, and began writing.

Thanks to his still reasonably healthy spine and his naturally tall frame, Dumbledore could clearly see what Harry was writing in the notebook even while seated:

"Severus Snape, a shameful informant and a bastard with improper designs on my mother. In view of his voluntary confession, he may be spared death but not punishment. He must be subjected to focused torture and revenge!"

"Ah..."

Dumbledore let out another long sigh. He was grieving for Snape's future fate.

"Stop sighing. Where is this Snape now? Is he alive or dead?"

Dudley ignored Dumbledore's melancholy entirely and launched straight into his criminal search inquiry.

"He is alive. He is currently the Potions professor at Hogwarts," Dumbledore answered honestly.

"Your kindness really is overflowing, Mr. Dumbledore! You actually let a criminal live so comfortably!"

Dudley delivered another merciless jab.

Dumbledore felt rather helpless. When he saw Harry add Snape's location and position to the notebook without needing Dudley's reminder, that helplessness instantly grew even stronger.

"No need to fret over someone else, Mr. Dumbledore. Next, it's your turn!"

Dudley's cold, merciless words dragged Dumbledore out of the mire of his emotions, only to press him into an even deeper abyss.

"Tell me! After receiving an advance warning from an undercover agent, and after making your guarantee, how did you manage to protect my Aunt Lily and Uncle James right into their deaths?"

At Dudley's questioning, Dumbledore's face filled with sorrow. "I suggested that the Potters place a Fidelius Charm on their home in Godric's Hollow, and they did so. It was a powerful and secret protective spell.

"A building protected by this spell disappears from people's sight. Neither wizards nor Muggles can perceive it. So long as the location of the house is not revealed by the Secret Keeper, even if Voldemort stands right next to it, he cannot find the Potter home."

"So which idiot did you give the crucial position of Secret Keeper to, resulting in yet another informant who defected to Voldemort?" Dudley demanded harshly.

"Lily and James originally wanted me to serve as Secret Keeper, but in the end, they chose their mutual friend—Sirius Black."

Dumbledore gave the answer with a sigh.

"So this idiot Mr. Black was the one who led Voldemort into Harry's home?" Dudley kept up his steady barrage, his sharp little mouth dripping with honey.

"I am not entirely sure. Sirius Black is an intelligent and powerful wizard, and he was very close to the Potters. Logically speaking, he should never have revealed the secret to Voldemort.

"But the fact remains that Voldemort passed through the Fidelius Charm's protection and entered the Potter home."

Dumbledore also harbored doubts about the matter and could only tell Dudley everything he knew.

"Is that man alive or dead now? After it happened, did you never ask him?" Dudley was utterly speechless at Dumbledore's lack of initiative.

"After the incident, Sirius grieved in the ruins of Harry's home for a long time and could not take in anyone's questions.

"Later, he left. On a Muggle street, he caused a massive explosion that killed twelve Muggles. It also killed the Potters' other friend, Mr. Peter Pettigrew.

"The Ministry of Magic believed that Peter Pettigrew had been killed by Sirius while pursuing him, so they imprisoned Sirius in Azkaban and awarded the dead Peter a medal of honor."

Dumbledore gave a detailed account of what had happened.

"Alive, I want to see the person. Dead, I want to see the body. Was Peter Pettigrew really dead? That Minister of Magic yesterday kept insisting Voldemort was dead too! But what were the facts? Did you see Peter's corpse?"

"Only one of Peter's fingers remained at the scene. The explosion was too devastating; none of Peter's other body parts or remains were found."

"Do you know how large an explosion has to be to blow someone apart so thoroughly that not even flesh and blood remains? Was Peter carrying several dozen kilograms of TNT when he exploded?"

Dudley's face was full of contempt for those who were ignorant and willingly remained so. "I've noticed that you wizards all lack even the most basic spirit of scientific inquiry, you included!

"Harry and I saw the Exploding Curse yesterday in the underground vaults of Gringotts. Its power absolutely could not blow someone up so completely that no flesh or blood remained.

"Unless Sirius was more than ten times stronger than that wizard called Quirrell, there was no way he could have blown someone to nothing but a single finger!

"And aren't you curious? Don't you suspect anything? Peter's entire body, every bone in it, was supposedly blown away. So why did that one finger remain? Was Merlin protecting it?

"Were the twelve Muggles who died at the scene the same way? Did each of them leave behind only one finger? Fine, perhaps those Muggles were farther from the blast center, so their injuries were less severe.

"But what about the building at the center of the explosion? Was the extent of its damage calculated? How much energy would be needed to damage the building like that, and could an explosion of that magnitude really blow a person apart without leaving any flesh or blood behind?

"This concerned human lives. Did you wizards investigate it properly?

"You hastily closed the case and handled it perfunctorily. The Muggles near that street must have had their memories altered by the Ministry of Magic afterward, right?

"You wizards would not investigate, nor would you let Muggle authorities investigate. Twelve ordinary people died in such a muddled fashion. I'm guessing the official cause of death was probably 'a gas explosion,' wasn't it? How ridiculous!"

Dudley's rapid-fire questions, each one logically airtight, left even Dumbledore stunned.

This was an investigative process that the great wizard, who had lived for more than a hundred years, had never imagined. Muggles had advanced too quickly. They could now see through people's hearts and discern the truth without using magic.

By comparison, wizards seemed truly backward, arrogant, and ignorant.

"Your analysis makes a great deal of sense, Dudley. It now appears that Peter Pettigrew likely faked his death to escape. At that time, Peter was not hunting Sirius because Sirius had betrayed the Potters and caused their deaths. The truth may have been the exact opposite!

"Peter created the explosion, and Peter revealed the secret protected by the Fidelius Charm. Sirius was not the Secret Keeper at all—he gave that position to Peter!

"After the tragedy that befell Harry's family, Sirius went to seek revenge on Peter!"

Having sorted out his thoughts, Dumbledore analyzed the situation and immediately arrived at the truth.

This renowned great wizard was indeed intelligent and quick to understand, but clearly, he had not used his brain this way in the past.

"Seriously? Seriously, Mr. Dumbledore!

"You're still following my line of thought to analyze this? I read in Complete Potions that the Wizarding World has a potion called Veritaserum. It has been ten years! Sirius has been locked in Azkaban for nearly ten years, and he isn't dead. Did you really never go ask him?

"If he refused to talk, force Veritaserum down his throat! Use some methods on him!

"I don't think you care at all about the truth behind Aunt Lily and Uncle James's murder! All these years, were you only thinking about scheming and arranging for Harry to kill Voldemort?"

Dudley was genuinely speechless.

In his previous life, when he read the books and watched the films, he had viewed everything from a godlike perspective and had not thought too deeply about these plot details. But now that he had entered this real world and taken on the role of someone involved, he truly could not accept Dumbledore's inaction—or his blind actions!