Early the next morning, Lin Ze was woken by the sound of a woodpecker pecking at a tree trunk outside his window.
With his eyes closed, he felt for the wand beside his pillow and flicked it toward the window. The window flew open, slamming against the wall with a tremendous bang.
The startled woodpecker flapped its wings and flew away.
The room was quiet for a while, then an old wizard roared from next door, "Are you tearing the place down at this hour?! Do young people these days have no consideration for others?!"
Lin Ze ducked his head, crept out of bed, and began washing up.
As he brushed his teeth, he stared blankly at the young face in the mirror.
It was an eighteen-year-old face that looked a little younger than its actual age, with a faint layer of dark stubble sprouting on the chin.
He rubbed his chin, hesitated for a long time over whether to shave, then finally picked up the razor.
He was going to see Crouch, after all. Appearances mattered.
Once he had finished washing up, he dug his newly bought coat out of the wardrobe and checked himself in the mirror from the front and back.
Satisfied.
Those Galleons weren't wasted. Clothes really do make the man.
He picked up the silver Auror badge from the table, carefully pinned it to his left breast, then saluted his reflection.
"Handsome."
It was still early when he left. London's gray sky hung overhead, looking as though it might rain at any moment.
Lin Ze bought a bacon sandwich from a breakfast stall on the street corner and ate as he walked.
The bacon was a little overcooked and crunched when he bit into it, but at least it was cheap.
He already knew the route from the Ministry Atrium to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement very well, but today he deliberately took a detour.
He did not want anyone seeing him heading for the department head's office first thing in the morning.
One of the most dangerous things in the workplace was letting your colleagues know that your boss had called you in for a private talk.
They would not care what the conversation was about. They would just embellish it in the break room, making up seventeen or eighteen different versions, each ten times more exciting than what you had actually experienced.
Lin Ze went around through the Department of Magical Transportation on the second floor, then took another turn through the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes on the third floor. Only after confirming that he had encountered no familiar faces from the Auror Office did he amble into the Department of Magical Law Enforcement's corridor.
Five to nine.
The timing was just right.
The door to Crouch's office was firmly shut, and the bench outside was empty.
Lin Ze knocked three times.
"Come in." Crouch's voice came through the heavy wooden door.
Lin Ze pushed the door open and entered.
The office looked exactly as it had on his last visit. Legal volumes stood neatly arranged on the bookshelves, and documents were stacked half a person's height on the desk, but every stack was impeccably aligned.
The brass nameplate at the corner of the desk still gleamed, as though it had only been polished yesterday.
Crouch sat behind the desk in a dark gray, high-collared robe, his hair meticulously combed.
A thick case file lay open before him, with a freshly brewed cup of black tea on his right.
"Sit." Crouch pointed to the chair opposite him and went straight to the point without any pleasantries.
Lin Ze sat down, maintaining a textbook workplace posture.
His body leaned slightly forward, his hands rested on his knees, and his eyes stayed on his superior, making him look attentive without seeming aggressive.
This was the "optimal posture for taking a dressing-down" he had developed through countless meetings in his previous life.
"The interrogation results for those three Death Eaters you caught last week are in." Crouch tapped the case file, his tone betraying no emotion.
"Two were low-level members with little intelligence value. But the one named Selwyn..."
"He revealed a few things concerning you."
Lin Ze blinked. "He... wasn't cursing me in the interrogation room, was he?"
The corner of Crouch's mouth moved almost imperceptibly. Clearly, he had no intention of taking that bait.
He opened the file, pulled out a sheet of parchment, and pushed it toward Lin Ze.
"He wants to file a complaint against you for excessive force." Crouch's face remained completely expressionless as he spoke.
Lin Ze froze for a long time, then leaned back in his chair and let out an extraordinarily loud "Hah?!"
"File a complaint against me? He's a Death Eater! He pointed his wand at Ministry staff! And he wants to complain about me?"
"He says you gave him no opportunity to argue his case, and that you attacked him immediately without even following the most basic warning procedures. Under chapter three, article seventeen of the Auror code of conduct, Aurors must issue a verbal warning before taking enforcement action, unless the other party has already attacked first. Otherwise..."
"Wait." Lin Ze raised a hand, looking as though he had swallowed a fly.
"Sir, you're not actually planning to accept this complaint, are you? A complaint from a Death Eater?"
Crouch leaned back in his chair, picked up his black tea, and took a sip.
He drank very slowly, as though deliberately keeping Lin Ze in suspense, then set down the cup. "Do you think I would?"
Looking at that face whose emotions were always impossible to read, Lin Ze suddenly felt he had been played.
Crouch had never intended to discuss any complaint. He was simply teasing him.
More precisely, he was telling Lin Ze something in an extremely cold, stiff manner.
Look, even Death Eaters know to file complaints against you now.
"Sir, you didn't call me here first thing in the morning just to scare me, did you?"
Crouch set the parchment aside, then drew several documents from another stack and laid them on the desk one by one.
His movements were unhurried, as though he were setting up a chessboard.
The first document was a red arrest warrant bearing the seal of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
The second was a personnel transfer form.
The third was a letter, its envelope blank except for a name.
"I've already had that Death Eater's complaint dismissed." Crouch said this as calmly as if he had dealt with some trivial matter.
"But I want to remind you of something. You've been drawing attention far too often lately. Catching Death Eaters, collecting bounties, dating a French diplomat's daughter... you've become a topic of conversation in the Ministry."
"That is not a good thing."
"Thank you for the reminder. I'll be more careful from now on." This time, Lin Ze's nod was sincere.
Crouch continued, "Simply keeping a low profile won't keep you alive in this place."
He pushed the three documents on the desk toward Lin Ze, one after another.
"So I've prepared three choices for you."
Looking at the three documents laid out in order on the desk, Lin Ze felt a faint throbbing in his temple.
This again?
The memory of that dinner with Mr Delacour was still vivid. By now, anything involving "choose one of two" or "choose one of three" had left him with psychological scars.
He did not say it aloud, though. He merely blinked and adopted an attentive expression.
Crouch paid no heed to the fleeting, subtle change in his expression and tapped the first document.
The red arrest warrant.
"Your first choice is to stay in the Auror Office and continue working as an Auror. Your performance last time has already proved your ability in actual combat, and Scrimgeour has praised you to me more than once."
"If you want to stay in your current position, I can assign you two assistants."
His gaze shifted to the second document.
A personnel transfer form.
"The second choice." Crouch tapped the heading on the form.
"Transfer to the Records Management Office in the Department of Administrative Affairs."
Lin Ze frowned instinctively, but his brow quickly smoothed.
He did not rush to speak, instead waiting for Crouch to continue.
"Don't be so quick to refuse." Crouch seemed to have anticipated his reaction.
"The Records Management Office is the least conspicuous place in the entire Ministry, and the easiest to overlook. But if you give it a little thought, you'll understand what it represents. Every document, personnel record, financial transaction, disciplinary action, and internal investigation file since the Ministry's founding is in that building."
"Right now, no one in the Ministry cares about those files. Everyone is busy choosing sides, staying alive, and finding themselves a way out. No one cares how many secrets lie hidden in those dust-covered cabinets."
He leaned forward slightly, his gray eyes fixed firmly on Lin Ze.
"But I care, and I think you should care too."
Lin Ze felt his breathing pause for a moment.
Crouch was pointing him toward a path.
This was not merely a transfer, but a shortcut up the ranks.
The Records Management Office. He had already tasted the benefits of intelligence. Those scraps of information Harper had given him were only the tip of the iceberg.
If I could openly take over the entire Records Office, how much could I dig up before Voldemort fell?
But the question is, why is Crouch suddenly treating me so well?
First a private meeting in his office, then three options to choose from, and even an analysis of their pros and cons.
Unsolicited kindness meant ulterior motives. He was not that naive, and Crouch was not the sort to promote a junior for no reason.
His gaze fell on the third document.
Only a name was written on the envelope, with no heading or signature.
"And this one?"
Crouch did not answer immediately. He leaned back in his chair, his gaze settling on the envelope, as though he could see through that thin parchment to somewhere he very much did not want to go.
"The International Auror Joint Training Program." He spoke the words at half his usual speed.
"Every December, the International Confederation of Wizards selects a group of young Aurors from various countries for three months of closed training. This year, it's Northern Europe's turn. I can't disclose the exact location, because it's classified."