Moody leaned back in his chair, his magical eye turned who knew where, while his normal eye stayed fixed on the signed confession on the table.
"Something belonging to Slytherin?"
"Have these people got nothing better to do? Their master's gone, and they're still hunting for some Slytherin relic?" Moody said gruffly.
"I think there's something strange about the Dark Lord's downfall. Even Merlin reincarnated couldn't have defeated the Dark Lord as a baby, could he?" Kingsley said with a frown.
"Yes, no one knows what really happened that night..."
"But... since Dumbledore was the one who announced the Dark Lord's downfall, it should be true."
"..."
Silence settled over the interrogation room.
"Lin, what do you think that Slytherin relic the Death Eaters are looking for could be?" Moody asked.
"Whatever it is, it must have something to do with the Dark Lord. Perhaps... as Rookwood said, the Dark Lord hasn't really disappeared..." Although Lin Ze knew what happened in the future, he said nothing about it.
After all, saving the future was the Chosen One's job.
Moody slapped the confession down on the table.
"All right, we got plenty done today. We caught Rookwood and got him to name a few accomplices into the bargain." He stood and rolled his stiff shoulders.
"Everyone go home and get some rest. We'll carry on first thing tomorrow."
Kingsley put the records in order, slipped them into a file envelope, and tapped the seal with his wand, leaving the faint tracery of an anti-tampering charm.
By the time Lin Ze left the interrogation room, the magical lights in the corridor had automatically dimmed.
He rubbed his neck and headed up the stairs.
The marble floor in the main hall reflected the dim light.
A few night-shift employees moved back and forth through the corridors.
Lin Ze was about to head toward the Floo Network hall when he suddenly heard a cat meow behind him.
He turned around.
A ginger cat sat on the edge of the fountain, staring at him with round amber eyes.
A silver name tag hung around the cat's neck, but the light was too dim to make out the engraving.
"Where did you come from?" Lin Ze crouched down and held out a hand to the cat.
The cat tilted its head and watched him for a while, then haughtily turned away, jumped off the edge of the fountain, and disappeared around the corner by the escalator.
"All right, quite the proud one." Lin Ze smiled.
It was almost ten at night when he returned to his little attic room.
He took off his coat, threw himself onto the bed, and stared blankly at the ceiling.
His mind kept returning to Voldemort's Horcruxes.
The reason Voldemort could remain "immortal" was the existence of those Horcruxes.
The locket, the cup, the Diadem, the diary, the ring, Nagini, and Harry Potter himself.
Seven Horcruxes, seven anchors. As long as even one remained, Voldemort was not truly dead.
But none of that was something he needed to worry about now.
He pulled the covers up to his chin and closed his eyes.
The old wizard next door was brewing potions again, and the bubbling carried through the thin wall.
At seven in the morning, Moody's voice exploded in his ear.
"Stop sleeping! Get up, all of you!"
Moody's voice came through the communication badge, startling Lin Ze into springing out of bed.
"Urgent summons from the Minister. Report to her office in half an hour. Squeak if you've got the message."
Then all sorts of replies came through the communication badge.
"Got it..."
"Oh..."
"Be right there..."
"Another meeting..."
Lin Ze yawned, picked up the communication badge, brought it to his mouth, and actually gave a squeak.
A light rain had begun falling outside the window again.
By the time Lin Ze reached the door to the Minister's Office, everyone else was already there.
Ben had finally forgone his fluorescent yellow tie today, replacing it with a dark blue one, but it was covered in Golden Snitch patterns and still looked very conspicuous.
Kingsley looked as energetic as ever.
Everett adjusted his glasses as he read a document.
Reed was using his wand to remove the wrinkles from his robes.
Amelia stood in the corner with her arms folded, her face expressionless.
"Everyone's here," Moody said gruffly, raising his hand to knock on the Minister's door.
The office door opened, but instead of the rigidly formal male secretary from last time, a young witch in purple robes answered. She looked to be in her early twenties at most, and wore the nervous expression peculiar to someone who had only recently started a job.
"Special Operations Team reporting," Moody said.
"Please come in. The Minister is waiting for you."
Bagnold sat behind her desk, several documents spread out before her, including an open copy of the Daily Prophet and a handwritten report.
She did not look pleased.
"Sit down." Bagnold gestured at the chairs opposite her.
They sat in a row before the desk. Lin Ze, the smallest, took the seat at the end, and Ben sat beside him.
"Have you seen today's paper?" Bagnold pushed the Daily Prophet toward the edge of the desk.
Lin Ze glanced at the headline.
"Special Operations Team's secret operation! Former senior Auror arrested, Death Eater mole uncovered in the Department of Mysteries!"
The accompanying photograph showed two Aurors escorting Rookwood out of the Floo Network hall, his head hanging low.
"Who took this photograph?" Bagnold tapped the newspaper with a finger.
"The Wizengamot called first thing this morning, asking me why news of Rookwood's arrest had appeared in the morning paper."
Lin Ze leaned closer to examine the angle of the photograph.
"This was taken... from the corner by the east wall of the Floo Network hall. There were quite a few people gathered there at the time, probably Ministry employees as well as ordinary wizards passing through. It could have been anyone."
"The question is, how did the newspaper know Rookwood was a Death Eater mole? This news leaked far too quickly..." Bagnold frowned.
Lin Ze remembered Quinn waving at him from the crowd yesterday, and something stirred in his mind.
Then he shook his head. The fellow had been carrying two plant seedlings at the time; he hardly looked like someone who would tip off a newspaper.
"Minister, yesterday's arrest was carried out in public. There were at least several dozen witnesses," Kingsley said.
"Some of those present may well have deduced Rookwood's identity and the reason for his arrest, then passed it on to the newspaper."
Bagnold fell silent for a moment, then sighed.
"We'll leave that for now. The main reason I called you here today is another matter."
She picked up the handwritten report from the desk and pushed it toward Lin Ze.
"Crouch sent this over this morning. It concerns your Special Operations Team's next operation."
"Our next operation?" Moody took the report, swept his magical eye over it, then handed it to Lin Ze.
"Crouch wants us to dig deeper into the Malfoy family's connections to the Death Eaters. Also..."
"There's something else. The Department of International Magical Cooperation has received a request from the French Ministry of Magic. They want our assistance investigating a shipment of contraband that entered France from Britain."
"France?" Lin Ze looked up.
"Yes," Bagnold took over.
"The French recently broke up a smuggling ring and seized a shipment of magical objects bearing the Dark Mark. Preliminary investigations indicate that these objects came from Britain, and that they were shipped in the days around the Dark Lord's downfall."
"You suspect someone was taking advantage of the chaos to move their assets?" Kingsley asked.
"Exactly." Bagnold nodded.
"The French would like us to send someone over as a liaison to assist with their investigation. It won't be long, about a week."
Moody leaned back in his chair, swept his normal eye around the office, and finally settled it on Lin Ze.
"Lin, I remember you speak French?"
"A little," Lin Ze said modestly.
"Then you're going. I hear you've also got yourself a French girl as a girlfriend?"
"Team leader, since when did you become such a gossip?" Lin Ze was rather at a loss for words.
Moody gave a noncommittal grunt.