"So, can you tell me now?"
Gerald looked at the woman before him, her face flushed with shame and anger, and spoke unhurriedly.
"At a farmer's home ten miles west of Hogsmeade. We agreed to meet there-I was to hand you over to them, and they would take you and Cedric out of Britain." Winslet's voice was low, every word seeming to squeeze through her clenched teeth.
The Blood Contract's hold on her left her unable to refuse to answer.
"So, if you hadn't decided at the last minute to take me along too, Cedric would already have been sent back to your headquarters?" Gerald's tone betrayed no emotion.
Winslet nodded.
She bitterly regretted that last-minute decision now.
According to the original plan, she should have gone straight to Cedric after the Defence Against Dark Magic exam. She had already slipped a sufficient dose of Draught of Living Death into his water during the exam. Then all she had to do was carry the unconscious Cedric away, and her job would have been done.
But she had taken a liking to Gerald's performance during the exam and remembered all the rumors about him. Naturally, she could not bear to pass up someone with such talent.
And this was how it had ended.
If she had simply followed the original plan and taken Cedric alone...
She would already have successfully handed him over to the Rosier family and been on her way back to headquarters, celebrating a mission accomplished.
Instead, a twelve-year-old student had bound her tight and planted a blood-red contract in her soul that she could not begin to understand.
Lila, you absolute idiot.
She cursed herself bitterly.
"You said 'them' just now. So how many people did the Rosier family send?"
"Two... two." Winslet did not want to