After leaving the Potions office, Alan carried the box Snape had given him, lost in thought. Besides being surprised that Snape was generous enough to give him a bottle of Felix Felicis, Alan had discovered another intriguing detail. Through the crystal bottle, he recognized the design; it was identical to the unique bottle he had received in his first year, which contained Baruffio's Brain Elixir.
*It must be true. Snape was the one who sent me the potion through Headmaster Dumbledore years ago. The Headmaster did say he had an informant near You-Know-Who at that time.*
*But why would he send me potions? Just because I saved Harry once? Is his relationship with the Potter family special?*
*No, that's not right. Judging by Sirius's attitude, James and Snape certainly weren't on good terms. Could it be… he had a special relationship with Lily?*
Alan was somewhat touched to learn that Snape was the one who had helped him. That bottle of Brain Elixir had provided him with groundbreaking assistance. The better one's foundation, the greater the benefit from such a potion, and he had always kept his unknown benefactor in mind. He just never expected it to be the man who was consistently rude to him.
"It seems you hide many secrets, Professor Snape. Why do you always put on such a cynical facade? What exactly are you disguising?" Alan muttered to himself, sighing softly. Now was not the time to dwell on it.
When Alan returned to his dormitory, he found Kiki had appeared in his room. She looked disheveled; her combat uniform and tactical vest were covered in grass and dirt.
"What's wrong? Did something happen?" Seeing Kiki in such an unusual state, Alan immediately went to her.
"Master." Kiki let out a long sigh of relief when she finally saw him. "Something happened at the Ministry of Magic. Today, I followed Aseria Roar and discovered something unusual. I believe this intelligence is quite important, so I came to report it immediately."
"Good. Come, sit down and tell me everything." Alan led Kiki to a chair and poured her a glass of water. Kiki was clearly parched; she grabbed the glass and drank thirstily. She had been waiting for a while, but she never dared to touch anything in his room without permission.
"It's like this: last night, Aseria didn't return to her home in Godric's Hollow on time. I noticed something was off, so I followed the tracker's signal." Kiki put down the glass and reported eagerly, though she choked slightly in her haste.
"It's alright, Kiki, don't rush. Explain in detail what happened next. Did she make any unusual moves?" Alan went to Kiki's side and gently patted her back, waiting for her to calm down.
"No." Kiki shook her head. "Aseria didn't make any unusual moves herself; instead, something happened involving the Ministry."
"What happened?" Alan raised an eyebrow. This was different from what he had expected.
"Dragons, Master! It's dragons! I saw dragons!" Kiki was clearly excited and somewhat incoherent.
"Slow down. Do you remember what I taught you? Time, person, location, and the sequence of events. Sort it out in your mind first." Alan corrected her immediately as she fell back into her old habits.
"Sorry, Master, I'm a bit nervous." Kiki swallowed, then thought carefully before continuing. "I tracked her around 11 PM last night, but the tracker indicated she was still at the Ministry. She didn't leave work on time, which I considered an abnormal situation, so I staked out the building."
Alan nodded, gesturing for her to continue.
"After over an hour, her location changed. She left the Ministry directly. I guessed she either used the Floo Network or Apparated. To confirm her direction, I checked the tracker and found she was not heading home, so I used Apparition to follow her. The target moved a very long distance, heading west. I had a hard time keeping up. By the time I got close, I found the location was already west of the island of Ireland."
The jurisdiction of the British Ministry of Magic didn't just cover Northern Ireland; the entire island fell under their authority.
"You chased her that far? Was your magic sufficient?" Alan asked, concerned about the strain of such a distance.
"Don't worry, Master. The magical power source in the tactical vest was a great help, and I stayed hidden the whole time to avoid wasting energy."
"That's good. In the future, you must act within your capabilities. Don't put yourself in danger needlessly."
"Yes, Master." Kiki nodded seriously. "When I got close to the target, it was already past midnight. I was somewhere on the west coast of Ireland. When I finally saw Aseria from a distance, she was with a group of Ministry wizards—mostly Aurors in long trench coats. The female Auror who shopped at our store on opening day was also there."
"Approximately how many people were on site?"
"There were about a few dozen Aurors and a dozen other Ministry staff." Kiki recalled carefully. "But I can confirm that Aseria and her group arrived later. She was with someone who looked like a high-ranking official. The staff with him were all panting and looked exhausted. I think they had only just arrived."