A week had passed since the Longspear Meeting.
During this time, the warehouse prison continued to operate stably; although the conflict between the civilian wizards and Muggles and the patrol team was still escalating, nothing major happened under Moody's iron-fisted management. Jason and Bob discussed their escape plan daily but still hadn't made a final decision, only continuing their preparations. Anyway, according to Moody, the two of them had made rapid progress in wandless magic; perhaps the current desperate situation had stimulated their potential. However, these two guys were still very cautious about officially starting the escape, even hesitant.
This indecisive behavior made Moody unable to help but curse them out at every gathering, calling them cowards, saying that the door was wide open, but these two idiots just wouldn't run. But Alan and the others knew that such things couldn't be rushed; in Jason and Bob's eyes, this was a life-threatening endeavor, so being careful was only natural.
However, while there was no significant progress in the prison, Andre had a very fruitful outcome. After Andre's public relations efforts, the Schmidt family had reached a consensus with him; what these wizard families valued most were honor and dignity, and being deceived was more hateful than being killed. Therefore, the head of the Schmidt family had agreed to cooperate with Andre in subsequent actions, but there was one prerequisite: the Phoenix!
Only by completely eliminating or capturing the Phoenix, the culprit who harmed the Schmidt family, would they be willing to trust Andre unreservedly. In response, Alan told Andre to agree to their request, but it was not the right time yet; the Phoenix had not been in Germany recently, and it would be unwise to ambush her in France. But Alan did not waste this opportunity; taking advantage of the Phoenix's absence from Germany, he risked sneaking into her stronghold in Germany and installed a large number of surveillance devices inside. As long as the opponent appeared again, Alan would let her know what it meant to be surrounded on all sides.
As for the Silver Spears, thanks to the tracker Alan secretly hid, coupled with the surveillance deployed inside the headquarters and Aseria's inside help, he had a good grasp of the club's recent movements. What could be confirmed now was that Golden Knight and Peter were indeed the same person; whenever Golden Knight acted, he would put on another set of Silver Spear attire and leave the Ministry of Magic. But Peter remained inside the Ministry of Magic, as if he had suddenly split himself.
During this period, Golden Knight organized many Short Spears, who, led by the Deformation Lizard, conducted secret investigations within Germany. They investigated various official magical animal parks, wizard gathering areas, and black markets within the country, but the stolen magical animals and personnel seemed to have vanished into thin air, and they could not find any clues. No one had purchased large quantities of food, nor had anyone seen or heard of large-scale transportation of magical animals. They also investigated the families of those staff members; the only discovery was an empty basement found at Clement's residence.
After getting this clue, Golden Knight seemed to have grasped a life-saving straw and immediately followed Clement's lead to investigate. Soon, Golden Knight found the fireplace with a severed Floo Network in Clement's secret black market chamber. When all the evidence pointed to Clement, proving that he was the insider, Golden Knight was somewhat distraught; the other party had known him since he was young and had followed him for so many years, and now suddenly becoming a traitor was truly incomprehensible to him.
As for whether Clement would expose Peter's secrets after his betrayal, Golden Knight was not particularly afraid, because Clement's brain had long been sealed with the highest-strength contracts and secrecy magic. As long as Clement realized that the person he was facing was not from the Silver Spears, even if it was a subconscious certainty, he would not be able to reveal the secrets of the club and Golden Knight.
And in Golden Knight's many back-and-forth conversations with Ashwinder at the headquarters, Alan learned that he had also launched probes and investigations into Andre and others. He had even found out that Andre had disappeared for a few days with more than a dozen Aurors, which was shortly before Golden Knight and others discovered the parks had been emptied. This indeed aroused the suspicion of Golden Knight and Ashwinder, but Andre and these Aurors had a very legitimate reason, and they only left for three days.
Was it possible for such a small number of people to empty three breeding parks in just three days? Not to mention Golden Knight, no other wizard would believe it, so Andre's movements could only be said to have aroused his suspicion, but Golden Knight did not consider him the primary suspect.
And for the sake of investigation, the usually low-key Silver Spears had been frequently appearing in various wizard gathering places during this period, which had attracted a lot of attention, even making it into the newspapers; Andre even proposed launching an investigation and arrest operation, but Peter rejected them all for various reasons. Although Golden Knight appeared very calm whenever he showed up at the headquarters, Alan could feel that his mood was becoming increasingly irritable. There was no trace of the missing magical animals, which even affected the Ministry of Magic's decentralization process, and the most terrifying thing was that the enemy hidden in the dark did not know when they would strike again. Coupled with the leaders in the club, each with their own intentions, it would truly be strange if he could maintain a calm mind.
...
Finnmark County, Norway, could be said to be the northernmost tip of the European continent, and also the location of Durmstrang Institute. Durmstrang has existed since at least 1294, making it a very old magic school, and also one of the three largest magic schools in Europe, on par with Hogwarts and Beauxbatons. However, due to the widespread discrimination against Muggle-born wizards in the Nordic wizarding world, Durmstrang Institute does not admit Muggle-born students and is notorious for emphasizing the Dark Arts in its curriculum.
Around Durmstrang, there is also a wizard gathering place similar to Hogsmeade.
On this night, in a corner of the Snowmelt Pub in the wizard gathering place, a wizard dressed in a black robe was sitting there; after casually ordering a butterbeer, he quietly waited, as if expecting someone. The other wizards around him did not find him strange; such furtive people were either black market merchants or had their faces ruined by their own haphazardly brewed potions, so they were used to it.
Not long after, another person, also dressed in a black robe, sat down opposite the mysterious wizard and said in a low voice after sitting down, "I apologize, master, for making you wait."