The interrogation room was on the Ministry of Magic's second basement level.
It was a small room, its four walls lined with cold gray stone slabs. A magical lamp hung from the ceiling, casting a pallid light that made everyone's face look as though they had just been released from Azkaban.
An iron table stood in the center of the room, its surface densely scored by the fingernails of countless people before them. Its legs were welded to the floor.
Kingsley pressed Rookwood into a chair and casually lifted the Binding Charm on him, only to immediately fix his ankles to the chair legs with a Leg-Locker Curse.
"You can't do this! I'm with the Department of Mysteries! You're overstepping your authority!" Rookwood had finally found his voice again.
Moody pulled out the chair opposite him and sat down, training his magical eye directly on Rookwood while his normal eye studied a stack of documents on the table.
"Rookwood, I'd advise you to save your breath. Crouch signed the arrest warrant, and the Minister personally endorsed it. Even if you were the head of the Department of Mysteries, you'd still be sitting here today."
Rookwood's face went from white to ashen.
He opened his mouth, but Moody gave him no chance to speak.
"Did you think you'd covered your tracks well?"
Moody pulled a sheet of parchment from the stack of documents. "These are the deposit records for your private vault at Gringotts."
"April 1978, eight hundred Galleons deposited; September 1978, nine hundred Galleons deposited; July 1979, twelve hundred Galleons deposited..."
"You're a fucking clerk earning two hundred Galleons a year. Where did all this money come from?" Moody slapped the parchment onto the table.
Rookwood's fingers tightened around the chair's armrests.
Just then, the interrogation room door swung open.
Lin Ze walked in carrying two steaming cups of black tea. He sat down beside Moody and placed one cup in front of him.
Then he took several densely covered sheets of parchment from his briefcase and spread them across the table.
"Mr. Rookwood, these are all Department of Mysteries documents, aren't they?"
He picked up the leftmost sheet and waved it at Rookwood.
"If I remember correctly, the Department of Mysteries doesn't allow these documents to be taken out without authorization."
"What's more... there's even a classified document here listing the location of a prophecy orb."
"How do you explain that?"
"I..." Rookwood's forehead was covered in sweat.
Lin Ze gave him no chance to catch his breath, taking a blank sheet of paper from his briefcase.
"I don't like beating around the bush. This sheet is blank. If you come clean, what goes on it will be your voluntary confession. When you're tried before the Wizengamot, it can help take a good deal off your sentence."
"If you don't, this sheet becomes an interrogation record, and your offenses will probably be dealt with more severely."
"Don't forget, the Dark Lord has already fallen. The Death Eaters are nothing but scattered sand now."
A trace of hesitation entered Rookwood's eyes.
Lin Ze leaned back in his chair and took a leisurely sip of tea.
Rookwood's fingers trembled slightly against the tabletop, clenching and unclenching.
His breathing grew increasingly rapid. Sweat ran down the bridge of his nose and dripped onto the iron table, leaving a small wet mark.
"I..."
He spoke, his voice hoarse. "I can talk. But you have to guarantee..."
"You're in no position to set conditions."
"All you can do now is confess. The more you tell us, and the clearer you make it, the greater the reduction in your sentence we can help you secure. Anything else is out of the question."
Only Rookwood's heavy breathing remained in the interrogation room.
After a long internal struggle, Rookwood looked as though all his strength had been drained away.
"I'll talk."
Over the next forty minutes, Rookwood confessed to everything he had done since joining the Death Eaters in 1978.
Amycus Carrow had initially recruited him.
Carrow had promised him power and status once the Dark Lord ruled the wizarding world.
All he had to do was pass the Department of Mysteries' confidential information to the Death Eaters, including the locations of the Ministry's secret outposts and the deployment of their defenses.
In return, Carrow deposited money in his little Gringotts vault each time.
Kingsley took rapid notes beside them, his quill scratching across the parchment.
"Who else in the Ministry is doing this besides you?" Moody asked gruffly.
Rookwood stared blankly at the ceiling and gave two more names. Both belonged to fellow Department of Mysteries employees.
Moody glanced at Lin Ze, who gave a slight nod.
Neither of these two was in his notebook. They were an unexpected gain.
"Anything else?"
Rookwood remained silent for a long time.
"Yes."
"Two days before Voldemort fell, Carrow came to see me. He said the Dark Lord was looking for something... something connected to Slytherin..."
"Something connected to Slytherin?" Moody's magical eye suddenly swiveled around and locked onto Rookwood.
"Be specific. What exactly was it?"
Rookwood shook his head. "I don't know exactly what it was. Carrow only said the Dark Lord had personally ordered the search, and all the Death Eaters were looking. Supposedly, it could grant immortality..."
"Immortality?" Moody scoffed.
"The Dark Lord's stone cold, and you're still talking about immortality."
Lin Ze, however, did not laugh.
He knew what Rookwood was talking about.
Horcruxes.
Voldemort had made quite a few Horcruxes over the years.
And the "something connected to Slytherin" Rookwood had mentioned was most likely Slytherin's Locket.
In the original timeline, that locket would eventually be hidden in a cave in a seaside cliff, guarded by Inferi. Later, Sirius's younger brother discovered the secret of the Horcruxes and swapped out the locket.
"Did Carrow say roughly where it was?"
"No." Rookwood shook his head.
"He only told me to watch for any relevant clues in the Department of Mysteries. After that, he never came to see me again."
Lin Ze nodded. "Anything else to confess? Or any other Death Eaters within the Ministry that you know of?"
Rookwood thought for a moment, then gave three more names.
Two were in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, and one was in the International Magical Trading Department.
"Very good." Lin Ze stood up, picked up the densely written parchment, and placed it before Rookwood.
"Take a look. See if anything's missing or incorrect."
Rookwood lowered his head and read it through, then slowly shook his head.
"No."
"Then sign it."
Rookwood accepted the quill Lin Ze handed him, his fingers shaking badly.
But in the end, he scrawled his name at the very bottom of the parchment.
Moody stood up, walked to the interrogation room door, and called outside, "Someone come and take the suspect away."
Two wizards in Auror uniforms entered and hauled Rookwood up, one on either side.
As they lifted him, Rookwood suddenly raised his head and looked at Lin Ze with bloodshot eyes.
"Mr. Lin."
Lin Ze stopped.
"Do you think the Dark Lord... has really fallen?"
Lin Ze looked at him without speaking. He knew Rookwood had more to say.
"When I joined the Death Eaters, he said he would rule the entire wizarding world. He said the age of pure-bloods was coming. He said no one could stop him..."
"Even Dumbledore couldn't do anything about the Dark Lord back then. He had the Ministry at its wits' end..."
"How could a wizard that powerful be defeated by a baby?"
"Heh heh..."
"I don't believe it... I don't believe it..."
Lin Ze shook his head. "Some things are already established facts. Whether you believe them or not, they've already happened. As for whether your Dark Lord has truly fallen..."
"Believe me, with me here, he'll fall whether he likes it or not."
"Take him away!"
The two Aurors nodded and led Rookwood away, leaving only his deranged laughter echoing through the corridor...