Scrimgeour felt he had seen plenty of outrageous things in his life.
In all his years as Head of the Auror Office, he had personally arrested eleven Death Eaters and taken a Dark Magic hit to his left shoulder during an ambush. It still ached faintly on rainy days.
But he had never seen anything like the scene before him.
Barty Crouch.
Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
The Ministry of Magic's universally acknowledged iron-faced judge.
A cold-faced man who seemed to need to submit an application to Merlin just to smile.
At that moment, he was leaning against the counter in the break room, holding a steaming cup of black tea and discussing confidential internal intelligence from the French Ministry of Magic with Lin Ze in his usual emotionless tone.
"Wait." Scrimgeour instinctively stepped back, hiding half his body behind the doorframe and leaving only one eye exposed.
"Mr. Crouch... is chatting with Lin Ze?"
He thought he must have seen wrong.
A man like Crouch never chatted.
He was supposed to issue orders, interrogate suspects, and demolish his opponents with logic at meetings.
Simply putting him and the word "chatting" in the same sentence already felt wrong.
Yet there Crouch stood in the break room, and he even seemed quite relaxed.
"Death Eater infiltration is less extensive in France than it is here, but their bureaucracy is more troublesome," Crouch said, stirring his black tea with a teaspoon.
"That shipment of smuggled magical weapons at the Port of Marseille you mentioned last time turned out to be connected to a senior secretary in the French Ministry of Magic's Department of International Magical Cooperation. That person even visited Britain last year."
"Was that the Durand case?" Lin Ze asked as he added sugar to his cup.
"I seem to remember it never ended in a conviction? I heard they dealt with it internally."
"It wasn't that they failed to secure a conviction. It never even went to trial. The French Ministry of Magic sealed the entire case file on the grounds that it 'involved international secrets,'" Crouch said.
"But that secretary was transferred to Martinique Island two months later, which amounted to exile in disguise. The French don't like making a fuss. They prefer to resolve judicial issues through administrative measures."
"The exact opposite of us," Lin Ze chimed in with a smile.
"We arrest people first, then question them. If questioning reveals we've arrested the wrong person, we release them. If we discover afterward that we had the right person after all, we go after them again. After all that running around, we still end up settling it administratively."
Crouch raised his eyebrows.
"Did you come up with that summary yourself?"
"I've spent half a month in the Auror Office. I haven't learned anything else, but I've figured out that procedure."
Crouch fell silent for two seconds, then did something that nearly made Scrimgeour's eyes pop out.
He smiled.
It was not a polite, formal smile.
It was a genuine smile, tinged with helplessness.
"Your summary is somewhat exaggerated, but you have the right idea. That is precisely what I want to reform."
Scrimgeour leaned against the corridor wall and took three deep breaths.
Lin Ze had only joined the Auror Office a little over half a month ago.
A month ago, he had still been a rookie who could not even get the patrol report format straight.
Now he was standing in the break room discussing international judicial cooperation with the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and he could even make Crouch smile.
Did that make any sense?
What exactly had happened over the past two weeks or so that he knew nothing about?
He was wondering whether to slip away quietly and pretend he had seen nothing when Lin Ze's voice drifted out of the break room.
"By the way, about that training program we discussed last time... I've thought it over, and I think I'd be better off staying at the Ministry for now."
"Are you sure?" Crouch's voice returned to its usual cold firmness, though something in it could have been either disappointment or satisfaction.
"There are only a handful of places in the international joint Auror training program each year. If you miss this opportunity, you might not get a turn next year."
"I've thought it through. The Ministry is so short-staffed right now that if I leave, Director Scrimgeour probably won't even be able to fill the duty roster. Besides... I'm more interested in that job."
"You mean the Records Management Office?"
"That's right."
Outside, Scrimgeour's brow slowly furrowed.
The Records Management Office?
Lin Ze wanted to go to the Records Management Office?
"Everyone has things they excel at." Crouch set down his teacup, its base meeting the saucer with a light, clear clink.
"If you've made your decision, I can arrange the transfer order. But you need to discuss this with Scrimgeour first. He's your immediate superior, and I don't want him to feel I'm going over his head to transfer his people."
Hearing his own name, Scrimgeour immediately darted out from behind the doorframe, retreated a few steps, then deliberately walked toward the break room with heavy footsteps.
"Oh, Mr. Crouch, you're here too," he said, doing his best to keep his expression natural.
"Yes. I happened to run into Lin Ze, so we had a few words." Crouch picked up his teacup, his face returning to its eternally unchanging cold expression.
"I have a meeting. I'll be going." He reached the doorway, then paused and glanced back at Lin Ze.
"That fellow named Crabbe-has he been giving you any trouble lately?"
"No. He's been very well behaved lately. He even takes a detour whenever he sees me."
"Good." Crouch nodded and strode toward the end of the corridor.
Once his retreating figure had vanished completely around the corner, Scrimgeour grabbed Lin Ze by the arm and dragged him into a corner of the break room.
"You. Explain. Now."
"Explain what?" Lin Ze blinked.
"When did you get so friendly with Mr. Crouch?"
"Well..." Lin Ze tilted his head and thought for a moment.
"We're not that close. We just chat a little when we happen to meet in the break room. Mr. Crouch looks cold, but he's actually quite nice."
"Quite nice?" Scrimgeour looked as though he had swallowed a fly.
"The last person before you who said Mr. Crouch was quite nice is in Azkaban now."
"That's different. That person must have been a Death Eater."
"So you think you can be friends with Mr. Crouch because you're not a Death Eater?"
"No." Holding his coffee cup, Lin Ze considered it for a moment.
"I actually think it's because I make a decent cup of tea."
Scrimgeour: "..."
He felt his blood pressure rising a little.
Meanwhile, at the entrance to Knockturn Alley, Dorcas Meadowes was leaning against a wall, looking through the patrol log.
The Hit Wizards around her appeared to be busy with their own tasks, but their eyes kept drifting toward the northern side of Diagon Alley.
They had all just received word that Lin Ze had made a fool of Bodo Crabbe at the entrance to Knockturn Alley.
"Boss." A young Auror sidled up to Meadows and lowered his voice.
"That Lin Ze... what's his background, exactly? Crabbe may not be much of a person, but he's still spent seven or eight years in the Auror Office. And Lin Ze just got the better of him like that?"
"He has no special background. He's just an ordinary wizard," Meadows said without looking up.
"An ordinary wizard?" The young Auror clearly did not believe her.
"Everyone at the Ministry is saying he's actually the illegitimate son of some pure-blood family who's been living away from them. Some say he's a spy Dumbledore planted in the Ministry. There are even people saying he's Dumbledore's illegitimate son."
Meadows rolled her eyes.
He closed the patrol log and looked off toward the Leaky Cauldron.
Scrimgeour had previously mentioned to her that he wanted Lin Ze to serve as deputy leader of the newly formed Auror Special Response Team.
At the time, she had not thought much of the arrangement.
It was not that she doubted Lin Ze's abilities-anyone who could take down three Death Eaters single-handedly was unquestionably capable.
What worried her was that Lin Ze was simply too young. The old hands in the Auror Office might not accept him.
But now it seemed that Scrimgeour really did have a better eye than she did.
The kid not only had enough fighting strength, but a sharp mind too.
Crabbe might be stupid, but the fact that he had lasted so many years in the Auror Office without anyone bringing him down showed that he was not entirely without means.
Yet Lin Ze had only been on the job for a month, and he had already dealt with Crabbe so thoroughly that Crabbe went out of his way to avoid him.
That could not be put down to luck alone.