Chapter 17: The First Operation
"Mm..."
The masked witch nodded lightly, which counted as a greeting to the Aurors.
"..."
The Aurors all looked to their Director, Scrimgeour. He, however, wasn't angry. Instead, he sized up the witch with keen interest before finally nodding.
"Since Miss Hamil is here, let's begin today's operation." He spoke slowly, walking to the steps of the Ministry office. Looking at the dozen or so Aurors below, he said, "Today is our Auror Office's first Dark artifact inspection operation. The primary objective is to investigate whether the major pure-blood families and magical item shops are engaged in any private hoarding."
As he spoke, he glanced at the masked witch. Through the silver mask, he couldn't tell what she was thinking.
Of course... she was thinking absolutely nothing at all!
Head down, the masked Lyra was thinking nothing. She hadn't heard a word Scrimgeour was saying. She was just nervously muttering facts about Magic Formations.
"Engraving an Energy Storage formation requires magical materials, or the blood of a magical creature... Although a Veela isn't technically a magical creature, their blood can also be used..."
It was no wonder she was nervous. She was surrounded by Aurors! Aurors! The very people who loved to meddle and were always causing trouble for her!
It was all thanks... all thanks to the idea Dumbledore had come up with. Behind the mask, even if she was so nervous she had to review Magic Formation facts, they would never find out.
If Dumbledore knew what Lyra was thinking, he probably would have been speechless...
Soon, Scrimgeour's speech seemed to conclude, and the Aurors moved out.
Lyra quickly followed behind them, though she looked less like a special consultant and more like a captured Dark wizard.
"..."
A formidable contingent of Aurors marched through the streets of Diagon Alley. Every passing wizard stopped to stare curiously.
"Are they arresting some high-profile criminal?" a red-haired Arthur Weasley wondered, curiously eyeing his colleagues. He remembered there was, in fact, a Dark artifact inspection scheduled... Is that a captured wizard from one of the families?
Other people's guesses were even wilder. Some even suspected that one of You-Know-Who's accomplices had finally been caught.
Lyra, of course, knew none of this. She was focused entirely on reviewing the great knowledge of Magic Formations... until the Auror beside her, seemingly unable to stand the curiosity, spoke up.
"Hello... Professor." A young man with short brown hair suddenly lowered his voice. "I'm Gester Parkinson... It's nice to meet you."
"Ah..." Lyra, startled at being spoken to, instinctively sped up. This only made Gester speed up to keep pace with her.
"You must be the new Hogwarts professor, right?" Gester seemed to be a total chatterbox. Even with Lyra remaining silent, he carried on talking to himself. "I'm a Hogwarts graduate, too. Ah... I suppose all of us here are."
I... I don't know you... Don't be so... so friendly!
The identity Lyra feared most was 'Auror'. The personality she feared most was 'overly familiar'. This Mr. Gester Parkinson had to be the most overly familiar person Lyra had ever met.
After all... who just strikes up a conversation with a total stranger like that?
Lyra had no idea how to respond to him. Luckily, she was wearing a mask, so even though her face had gone pale, he couldn't see.
Gester, oblivious, continued to chat. "You can try and guess which house I graduated from..."
"..." Lyra silently pressed her lips together. She figured this Mr. Parkinson must have been in Gryffindor... After all, wasn't that house known for being... enthusiastic?
"I guess that was a stupid question," Gester said, not seeming at all angry that she hadn't responded. He just scratched his head and answered himself. "The Parkinsons are all in Slytherin, of course."
"We're members of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, after all," he said, though his tone held a hint of sarcasm.
But in her mind, Lyra had already slapped a "TERRIFYING" label on Slytherin House.
So Slytherin students are all this... chatty... When I get to Hogwarts, I must stay far, far away from them!
Gester, completely unaware that he had just ruined Slytherin's reputation in her mind, kept on talking, jumping from the Sacred Twenty-Eight families, to whether Hogwarts was enrolling magical creatures this year, all the way to what color socks Director Scrimgeour was wearing.
In the short, ten-minute walk, he had jumped between at least seven or eight different topics.
Lyra couldn't keep up with his train of thought at all. Sometimes she'd feel she should say something, but by then, he had already leaped to the next topic.
Scrimgeour, walking up ahead, would occasionally turn to glance back at them, nodding thoughtfully.
This Miss Hamil seems far more cautious than I imagined... He had deliberately assigned the Auror Office's biggest chatterbox to her side, precisely to see if he could dig up any information on this strange young woman.
Scrimgeour was an exceptionally sharp man. He had spent the previous night checking every British wizarding family registry... and had not found a single mention of a 'Lyra Hamil'.
He couldn't help but be curious: What was Dumbledore's objective in forcing this mysterious consultant upon them?
If Lyra knew this was the reason she was being subjected to such "torture"... she would probably burst into tears and tell Scrimgeour she was just a simple witch trying to revive the Zauberpartei.
"Ah... I almost forgot." Gester, beside her, seemed to remember something, jumping from the topic of the male-to-female ratio of house-elves to a new one.
"Looks like we're heading to a pure-blood family for today's inspection," he said casually. "As the consultant, you probably haven't been briefed."
"No need to be nervous, though."
I wouldn't be nervous if you'd just stop talking to me! Lyra pressed her lips together and shook her head slightly. Gester's incessant chatter was making it impossible for her to even recite Magic Formation facts to calm herself.
Gester, of course, was oblivious. He said casually, "Director Scrimgeour is with us today, so there's nothing to worry about. Even if we were investigating the Malfoys."
"But the family we're investigating today isn't one of the troublesome ones. They're from France, after all... and they've always been very supportive of the Ministry's work."
"Ah... Have I not told you which family it is?"
"It's the Rosier family."
Th-Th-Th-Th-The Rosier family?!
Lyra stopped dead in her tracks. Gester, beside her, couldn't stop in time and stumbled a few steps forward.
"Do you know someone from the Rosier family?" Gester asked, pausing.
"No..." Lyra stammered, shaking her head. She forced her stiff legs to move... but if one looked closely, they would have seen that she was trembling.
Lyra was terrified... even more terrified than when she had to face Dumbledore.
The reason was very simple.
The Rosier family!
It was... It was Lady Vinda's family!