October 27.
Lin Ze did not plunge into the piles of files as usual that day.
He sat at his desk, his densely filled notebook spread out before him, twirling a quill in his hand. After two turns, it slipped from his fingers and fell onto the desk, splashing a few drops of ink onto the paper.
"Fuck," he swore in Chinese, picking up the quill and continuing to twirl it.
He was weighing something up.
After Voldemort fell, the Ministry of Magic would undergo an unprecedented purge.
Those connected to the Death Eaters would be rooted out one by one, tried, convicted, and sent to Azkaban.
In the original timeline, Barty Crouch had led this purge.
He tried the Death Eaters with an iron fist, and his reputation had soared so high that he was even hailed as the undisputed choice for the next Minister for Magic.
But Lin Ze knew Crouch's glory would not last long.
Because he had a fatal weakness.
His son, Barty Crouch Jr.
In the original timeline, shortly after Voldemort's fall, Barty Crouch Jr. would be accused of being a Death Eater.
Crouch had sent his own son to Azkaban, but in doing so, he had also lost his chance to run for Minister.
How could someone who could not even keep his own son in line be fit to govern the entire wizarding world?
So Lin Ze could not stake everything on Crouch alone.
He needed to find another powerful patron.
Someone who could still shelter him after Crouch fell.
"Amelia Bones." Lin Ze wrote the name in his notebook.
Dorcas Meadowes's younger cousin, deputy head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement's Regulation Review Office, in her early thirties, and known throughout the Ministry for being fair and strict.
According to the original timeline, she would become Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and one of the opponents Voldemort feared most during the Second Wizarding War.
But that was more than a decade away.
For now, Amelia Bones was only a mid-level official who had just suffered the devastating loss of her older cousin at Voldemort's hands and was searching for any opportunity to avenge her.
"You're the one." Lin Ze drew a line beneath Amelia's name with his quill.
He decided to find a way to establish contact with Amelia before Voldemort fell.
But the problem was that he did not know Amelia. He could hardly go straight to her office, knock on the door, and say, "Hello, I think you have a lot of potential. Would you like to work with me?"
If he did that, she would most likely have someone throw him straight out of her office.
He needed an opening.
An opening that would make Amelia trust him.
Lin Ze flipped back a few pages in his notebook and stopped at Dorcas Meadowes's patrol log.
He had picked up this log from the Records Management Office after Meadowes was killed last week.
Harper had happened to be handling Meadowes's belongings at the time, and Lin Ze had asked for a copy of her patrol log, saying it was "to remember her by."
In truth, he had wanted to check the record of Meadowes's final patrol before her death to see whether it contained any valuable information.
He read through the patrol log, then read it again.
He spotted a line he had not noticed before.
"October 19, east of Hogsmeade. Discovered signs of a suspected Death Eater gathering. Report submitted."
October 19.
She had reported signs of Death Eaters gathering in Hogsmeade.
But Lin Ze distinctly remembered that, after Meadowes's death, no one had mentioned this report.
Twenty Death Eaters had gathered in Hogsmeade, along with Voldemort himself. An operation that large could not possibly have left no trace.
Unless... someone had suppressed the report.
Lin Ze's finger rested on that line, his fingertip pressing down slightly.
Whoever had suppressed the report had done so either out of negligence or for some purpose they could not reveal.
Either way, this was an opening that would be enough to interest Amelia Bones.
After a moment's thought, he took a blank sheet of parchment from his drawer and began writing an anonymous letter.
He tried to use an official, unemotional tone, simply stating a fact.
Once he finished, he folded the parchment and slipped it into an unmarked envelope.
He did not sign his name. It was not yet time to reveal his identity. He would first draw the recipient's attention to the matter; once he had investigated far enough, he would naturally find a way to contact the letter's author.
When that time came, revealing his true identity would be far more effective than turning up unannounced now.
After work that evening, Lin Ze did not return straight to his shabby attic.
He made a detour to Diagon Alley, planning to buy an ice cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour.
Although the old man had said on his last visit that there were few customers now that the weather had turned cold, Lin Ze did not think he would actually close up shop.
Halloween was an occasion worth celebrating even for ordinary people, and this year's Halloween was destined to be anything but ordinary.
When he reached the ice cream parlour, Lin Ze found the door open.
A circle of people had gathered inside, and the tables and chairs had been pushed against the walls to clear a space.
Several young wizards stood gathered around a wizard with dishevelled hair and thick glasses, who stood in their midst with his wand raised, demonstrating something.
"No ice cream today?" Lin Ze walked into the shop and asked the old man wiping glasses behind the counter.
The old man looked up and jerked his chin toward the corner. "There's a lecture today. Didn't you see the notice by the door?"
"What kind of lecture?"
"Practical Defence Against Dark Magic techniques. Free of charge." The old man put the glass he had wiped onto a shelf.
"These kids are all shop assistants and apprentices from around Diagon Alley. Ever since that Auror named Meadows died, everyone's been on edge. This young man named Kingsley volunteered to teach them. Said that every extra person he could teach would mean one less person coming to harm."
Kingsley.
Lin Ze turned his head and took a closer look at the young wizard demonstrating defensive spells.
He was tall and dark-skinned, dressed in deep purple robes, his movements concise and forceful.
As he demonstrated a Shield Charm, the spell surged from his wand tip, and a transparent magical barrier struck the floor with a low boom.
Lin Ze leaned against the doorframe and watched Kingsley explain the key points of casting the Shield Charm.
"The key to the Shield Charm isn't how far you swing your wand, but your intent. You must picture an impassable wall in your mind, not a thin curtain."
An apprentice raised his hand. "Sir, are you saying we have to rely on our imagination? But what if I can't picture it in an emergency?"
Kingsley glanced at him, his tone still gentle. "Then practise more. Practise until your body is faster than your mind. Fear won't wait until you're ready."
"If you ask me, practising all this now is a complete waste of time. If you really run into the Dark Lord, nothing you imagine will do you any good!"
A jarring voice rang out from the corner. A middle-aged wizard in dark grey robes, his face heavy with flesh, leaned against the wall.
"Even an Auror couldn't hold off twenty Death Eaters. What the hell do you shop boys amount to?"