Trouble Behind the Runespoor

Although Slughorn said he was in no hurry for the money, Manus still wrote home directly and had his family withdraw twenty thousand Galleons from his account to deliver to Slughorn.

After all, it was neither a small sum nor an enormous one. He could not exactly keep owing it until winter break.

Manus carried the glass case straight back to his dormitory. In theory, Runespoors were not allowed to be kept at school, but Slughorn said nothing about it and showed no concern whatsoever about any potential accidents.

And Manus had not actually broken any school rules by keeping Runespoors on campus. He had merely carried an empty glass case back to his dormitory; the Runespoors had already been placed in his spiritual world.

"Hiss~ hisss~"

Though he had not used it in a long time, Manus's Parseltongue had not deteriorated. While examining the two Runespoors and communicating with them, he learned why old Borgin had sold them at what was practically a discount.

It turned out these two Runespoors had not come through legitimate channels... Well, that was hardly surprising. The issue was that they had both been placed under some powerful tracking charm.

Their original owner had come all the way from Africa. The two Runespoors had already encountered their former owner in Britain, but the first attempt to take them back by force had failed.

Now, for some reason, old Borgin had not considered fleeing or fighting back. Instead, he had attended that gathering—and even sold the two Runespoors to him...

"So that was it?"

He had only thought old Borgin had some ulterior motive, but he had not expected the matter to be even more complicated than he imagined.

Manus frowned and thought for a moment before saying,

"Then I'll write to your owner and