The instant the case opened, Lin Ze froze.
There were indeed documents inside.
But only if that pile of paper, torn to shreds and soaked all wrinkly in some unknown liquid, could still be called documents...
"So I spent all that time looking for a case full of... this stuff?"
He picked up a scrap and tried to make out the writing, but it had been soaked so soft that the slightest pressure turned it into a lump of pulp between his fingers.
Great. With the paper in this state, even Merlin couldn't piece it back together.
Still, Crouch had offered fifty Galleons for this case, which meant either the case itself or whatever had once been inside mattered a great deal to him.
Only now, someone had clearly damaged it on purpose.
Lin Ze closed the case and hefted it in his hand, his mind racing.
He'd found the case, but its contents were ruined.
Did that count as completing the job?
Would Crouch still pay the fifty Galleons?
At least the case itself was something to show for it.
More importantly, this was the perfect excuse to legitimately enter the office of the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
"Oh, whatever. Might as well give it a shot."
Lin Ze tucked the case under his arm and headed toward the Ministry of Magic.
Green flames kept bursting from the fireplaces in the Ministry Atrium as witches and wizards came and went through the Floo Network, some hurrying along with documents under their arms, others talking quietly in small groups.
Lin Ze crossed the atrium and headed toward the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
Come to think of it, he had been working at the Ministry of Magic for ten days or so, but he had never visited his immediate superior's office area.
"Excuse me, which way is Director Crouch's office?" Lin Ze stopped a young witch passing by and gave her as proper a smile as he could manage.
The witch pushed up her gold-rimmed glasses and looked him up and down, her gaze lingering briefly on the filthy leather case under his arm.
"Turn right at the end of the corridor, third door. But Mr. Crouch is in a meeting right now. You may have to wait a while."
"How long?"
"Hard to say. Half an hour if it's quick. If not..." The witch shrugged.
Lin Ze thanked her, walked down the corridor to Crouch's office, and sat on a hardwood bench against the wall.
He ended up waiting nearly two hours.
During that time, bored out of his mind, he read every wanted poster on the corridor walls from beginning to end.
He discovered that three of the top ten Death Eaters looked as though they had just woken up in their photographs, their hair sticking out wildly and their expressions bewildered, without the slightest hint of menace.
"Can't the Death Eaters take standardized ID photos when they recruit people? Their image management is terrible," Lin Ze muttered.
"What?"
A deep, stern voice suddenly came from behind him.
Lin Ze looked up to see a middle-aged man standing before him in dark robes, his hair impeccably combed.
Barty Crouch.
Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, universally acknowledged at the Ministry of Magic as a man of iron.
His face wore the cold, hard expression peculiar to those who had held power for years, his brow slightly furrowed.
"Ah, Mr. Crouch. This is your missing briefcase. I found it in the back alley behind Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions."
Crouch's gaze fell on the filthy leather case.
He did not reach for it immediately. Instead, he studied it before looking back at Lin Ze's face.
"What's your name?"
"Lin Ze, Auror Office."
"Lin Ze..." Crouch repeated the name.
"You're the one who subdued three Death Eaters single-handedly in Knockturn Alley a few days ago?"
"That's me. I just got lucky."
"Not bad. Scrimgeour mentions you often, too," Crouch said briefly, then reached out and pushed open his office door.
"Come in."
Lin Ze followed him into the office.
It was not a large room, but it was exceptionally tidy.
The bookshelves lining the wall were filled with legal texts and case files. Documents were stacked half a person's height on the desk, but every pile was perfectly neat, and the brass nameplate at the corner gleamed.
A calendar hung on the wall, clearly displaying October 7.
There was not much time left before the end of October.
Crouch went around behind his desk before finally reaching out to take the case Lin Ze offered him.
He opened it, and his expression did not change in the slightest when he saw the pile of shredded, sodden paper inside.
But Lin Ze noticed his fingers tightening slightly on the edge of the case.
"Where did you find it?"
"In the back alley behind Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. It was covered by half a tarpaulin, under a few empty liquor bottles and moldy cardboard boxes," Lin Ze answered truthfully.
Crouch nodded. "Have you looked at what was inside?"
"Yes. It's all in pieces. The case wasn't locked, and I didn't read what the documents originally said."
Crouch's gaze lingered on his face. After a moment, he closed the case and set it at the corner of his desk.
"Someone will deliver the fifty-Galleon reward to your office tomorrow. You may go."
"Thank you, Mr. Crouch." Lin Ze stood and headed for the door.
His hand had just touched the doorknob when Crouch's voice came from behind him again.
"Wait."
Lin Ze turned around.
Crouch was lightly tapping the edge of the leather case with one finger, his gaze resting on the reward notice in the Daily Prophet on his desk.
"This notice ran in the paper for three days. There are hundreds of people throughout the Ministry of Magic, and who knows how many pass through Diagon Alley every day, yet you were the only one who found this case."
He raised his head, his gray eyes fixed on Lin Ze.
"Was it luck?"
Lin Ze met his gaze, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
"Probably luck. Or perhaps the others weren't quite as short of money."
Crouch did not smile. He merely nodded in silence, then lowered his head and began leafing through a case file on his desk.
"You may go."
"All right."
Lin Ze left the office and gently closed the door behind him.
He walked back down the corridor, keeping his expression calm until he rounded the corner and confirmed that no one was behind him. Only then did he let out a long breath.
This old Crouch really wasn't easy to fool.
Still, although Crouch's tone had been cold and hard when he said those things, he had not sounded as though he was calling him to account.
It had seemed more like scrutiny instead.
A kind of scrutiny that was not particularly unpleasant.
"Whatever. Who cares?" Lin Ze rolled his shoulders, stiff from sitting, and headed toward the Auror Office.
Fifty Galleons secured.
As for exactly what documents Crouch had lost and what shady business lay behind them, Lin Ze had no intention of digging into it for now.
Curiosity killed the cat.
At a time like this, the fewer complications, the better.
Besides, in less than a month, Voldemort would fall, and everything would be turned upside down.
When that happened, he'd have plenty of ways to find out whatever he wanted to know.
The priority was still to follow his original plan.
He counted the glass vials in his pocket.
Only two so far.
Still far short of his goal.
"I need to pick up the pace," Lin Ze said to himself.
That afternoon, he ran into Aideli Badun from the Department of International Magical Cooperation in the break room.
The veteran translator, a man in his forties, was adding sugar to his cup with a worried expression while the secretary beside him complained about the recent proceedings in a smuggling case involving foreigners in Diagon Alley.
Lin Ze walked over with his cup and chatted with Badun for a full fifteen minutes, on the pretext of "learning about the background of the case to make cooperation easier."
By the time he left the break room, there was a third little glass vial in his pocket.
It contained the entire process of Badun secretly helping a merchant suspected of being a Death Eater forge customs clearance documents.
"Number three."
Lin Ze put the glass vial away, a textbook fake workplace smile appearing on his face.
He decided to buy himself some chocolate nut ice cream that evening as a reward.