Douglas shook his head, his gaze turning meaningful.
"To plan and carry out an operation on this scale, someone would need both an intimate knowledge of the Church and enough operational strength to ensure the cleanup went without a hitch... Piero wasn't quite capable enough.
"It would take someone... decisive, tough, an elite who was even a little unscrupulous..."
Lupin nodded and said,
"Isabella is young, passionate, and full of a sense of justice. At least, given how much she cared about the Ashen Claw, this really doesn't seem like something she could have done."
"She might just be a pawn, perhaps even one who doesn't know she's been placed on the board."
Douglas sighed, his breath turning into a cloud of white mist in the cold air.
"Think about it. Almost the very next day after I announced my New Wolfsbane Potion, a down-and-out Werewolf tribe all the way in Italy approached me. Do you think an ordinary Auror has international information channels that fast?"
Lupin's pupils contracted sharply, and the name of a department slipped through his clenched teeth.
"The Department of International Magical Cooperation!"
"Exactly right."
Douglas gave him an approving look.
"Isabella has an heirloom of the Werewolf race, which means her relationship with the Werewolves is far from ordinary.
"She heard about the New Wolfsbane Potion, then, full of a sense of justice, told the Ashen Claw about it. Then she used the channels she knew at the Department of International Magical Cooperation to have them apply to contact me. Everything seems perfectly reasonable, perfectly natural."
Lupin's brows knotted together. "She recommended this place first, which means she's been here."
"Exactly." Douglas stopped walking. "That tells us precisely that when she first contacted the Ashen Claw and told them to come to me, this tribe