Chapter 117: Invitation, Interrogation, and Twins talk (1/2)

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The link is also in the synopsis.

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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

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Quinn walked back to the hospital wing. He was stretching his limbs while thinking about his conversation with Dumbledore.

'It went well. I was pulled out at an appropriate time. I need to thank grandfather for that.'

Quinn looked at his bandaged hands. They were almost healed, which was the reason he had been able to do a sleight-of-hand card swap in front of Dumbledore.

'I'll write him a letter after Madam Pomfrey gives me her consent.'

The matron had asked Quinn to return after his talk with the Headmaster. Quinn knew that if he didn't return Poppy would come to his dorms and drag him to the hospital wing.

'I'll probably have the reply waiting for me at the workshop,' thought Quinn as he entered the hospital wing.

”Madam Pomfrey, I'm back!” called out Quinn as he began to remove the bandages so as to make it easier for Poppy to cast the spells and get his hands healed.

Quinn's attention was on the bandages wrapped around his hands. As such, he wasn't looking to his front but, then, he sensed something in his front. He stopped.

He looked up and saw Lily Potter standing in front of him. Suddenly, she walked to Quinn and hugged him.

Quinn's arm immediately went up in the air as Lily Potter embraced him.

'What? What's this? What's she doing?' thought Quinn while being hugged tighter.

He could look over her shoulder and saw Ivy Potter standing at a distance. After spotting her, Quinn mouthed out some words.

'What's happening?'

Ivy didn't say anything and simply gestured to Quinn to allow Lily to do whatever she was doing.

”Thank you. Thank you for saving Harry. Thank you so much.” Lily finally spoke as she continued to hug Quinn.

Quinn gingerly patted the lady with one arm on the back to soothe her. ”It's alright, Professor Potter. I simply did what seemed right at that moment.”

Lily finally let go of Quinn. She thanked him for the last time before stepping away from him.

But it seemed this wasn't over as James Potter stepped forward after his wife. He heavily padded Quinn on both his shoulders.

”You did well out there, son,” praised James with an approving smile on his face. ”Damn good quick thinking. You saved the day.”

”Thank you for the compliment. It means a lot when it comes from the mouth of an Auror of your calibre,” replied Quinn humbly.

James, too, was done thanking him and stepped back.

This time Quinn was sure it was over and was about to go find Poppy, but he was wrong once again.

He couldn't move as Ivy Potter walked near and stood in front of him.

The two students stared at each other as Quinn waited for Ivy to say something.

”...k y...” said Ivy, not looking at Quinn. She seemed very interested in the floor between her and Quinn's feet.

”Pardon, I didn't catch that,” said Quinn, not able to hear Ivy's words.

Ivy bit her lower lip before looking up at Quinn and spoke again, this time loud enough for Quinn to hear.

”Thank you.”

Quinn was surprised for a moment. Not because of her words, but because of the expression the redhead had and the look in her eyes.

Except for their first meeting, Ivy had always looked at Quinn with a guarded and cautious look. The way she looked at him worsened after Quinn slammed her into a wall as he threatened and blackmailed her.

Right now, however, there was a true and honest thankfulness in her eyes. There wasn't any caution. There were no worries. It could be seen that her face truly reflected how she felt.

”... You're welcome,” replied Quinn. He had to recover from the surprise of seeing someone he was used to seeing explicitly angry with him in another way.

Ivy wordlessly nodded and stepped away. She walked towards Harry's bed and disappeared behind the curtains that framed the beds.

With his eyes following Ivy, Quinn didn't notice Lily step forward once again.

”Quinn, I would like to invite you for dinner at our house during the summer break,” invited Lily.

Quinn, who was watching Ivy, abruptly turned to Lily when her words landed on his ears.

”That won't be -”

He politely tried to decline the invitation, but the mother of the twins cut him off before he could even finish his sentence.

”I insist, Quinn,” pressed Lily. ”You saved my son today. Please give me the chance to thank you for it.”

Quinn opened his mouth to once again refuse, but Lily's expression stopped him. He nodded.

”I would be delighted, Professor Potter.”

A beautiful smile bloomed on Lily's face when Quinn accepted her offer.

”I'll send an invitation to your house for your parents,” smiled Lily.

”That would be helpful, Professor,” nodded Quinn in reply. He then looked up and spoke. ”Please excuse me, Professor. I need to meet Madam Pomfrey so that she can complete the healing.”

Saying that, Quinn raised his unbandaged hands.

”Oh my, yes. Sorry for making you wait. These must hurt,” said Lily hurriedly.

Quinn politely nodded and walked past both the Potter parents towards the matron's office, who saw Quinn and noticed that his hands weren't bandaged.

”Quinn! Didn't I tell you not to remove the bandages! Why did you remove them?” scolded the Matron. ”This is why children are foolish. They don't know what's good for them.”

Quinn blinked his eyes and opened and closed his mouth a few times before saying.

”... I didn't!”

”Liar! I can see from your hands that the bandages weren't removed right now.”

”But, but, but...”

”Don't make excuses. Now sit down and let me heal them!”

Quinn, who had been stopped because of the Potter family, sat down as Poppy focused on healing his hands while she lectured him about the importance of following the proper recuperation practices.

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- (Scene Break) -

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Sirius Black and his direct senior, Captain Auror Gawain Robards, sat inside an interrogation room. In front of them sat Rivers Lock.

The two Aurors had the leader of the Novellus Accionites, but neither of them knew this crucial piece of information. With no one actually knowing Rivers' true identity, they had no idea that they were sitting in front of the kingpin.

”Talk, Rivers,” asked Gawain as he stared at the prisoner in front of him. ”You were caught trying to kidnap the Boy-Who-Lived. Something that the court won't look lightly at.”

”You're screwed, Lock,” cackled Sirius at Gawain's side. ”A long stay awaits you in Azkaban.”

Rivers didn't say a single word. Not a peep could be heard from him ever since he came here. His face still wasn't fully healed. The Aurors had healed him enough to not feel pain, but if Rivers moved his face and expression too much, he'd feel the burning sting of his injuries.

To Rivers, the pain was a reminder that he had failed.

”As Black here says, you'll be in Azkaban for a long time, Rivers. You tried to kidnap Harry Potter and, to boot directly from Hogwarts. That isn't something the heads will look lightly at,” said Gawain and then leaned forward. ”But if you help us out. Provide us with some information, and we will help you out. We'll ask the Chief Warlock to reduce your sentence based on your cooperation.”

”Forget it, Captain,” scoffed Sirius. ”This shrimp doesn't look like he knows something. We should just chuck him in Azkaban, and the world would be better for it.”

Gawain and Sirius had interrogated many Accionite members in the past few months. The aggressive raids had brought in many people through their doors. As such, they had tried to get information about them.

Nonetheless, even if they had tried to get information about the internal structure of Novellus Accionite. The problem was that when they tried to build a clear view of the structure, there were blanks and misses one after another.

After interrogating hundreds, they couldn't tell who was in the inner circle of the Novellus Accionites. There were some who led muggle and muggleborn hunts, so many people pointed at them when asked about the inner circle.

But when the Aurors interrogated those people, they found that the people who had multiple leads under their belts knew absolutely nothing.

Those people simply received detailed instructions about the hunts and were asked to complete them for people who had a higher position in the Novellus Accionites. Successful people would be granted titles and positions that would let them show superiority over others, but other than that, they had no control over the actual organization.

It stunned the Aurors that such a big operation was built solely via communication through letters. Letters from an unknown source.

The Auror department hadn't been able to find who was sending the letters. They wanted to get their hands on the people who planned everything because those were the true inner circle and not the people with bogus titles.

Unfortunately, despite their rigorous attempts, they failed to locate the person or people who sent these letters.

When Gawain heard about the attempted kidnapping while enjoying an early dinner with his wife, he immediately had to come to the Auror office because he thought something of this level would reveal something about the inner circle of the Novellus Accionites.

”Rivers, if you tell us about the people who write the mission plans. We won't not only try to reduce your sentence, but we will also make sure that you aren't in the area of Azkaban frequented by Dementors.”

But Rivers didn't even look at them. He kept staring at the table between the two parties. It looked like he wasn't going to cooperate.

The thing was that even if Rivers wanted to cooperate, he couldn't. He was the person in the inner circle they were looking for. No other person drafted the mission plans. Rivers curated and created everything himself, so there was no one that Rivers could point at.

And giving himself away was the last thing he would do. If they found that he was the person behind Novellus Accionites, the Aurors wouldn't bat an eye before chucking him into the deepest hells of Azkaban.

This was the biggest failure of Rivers' life. In an attempt to become the sole controlling force hidden in the shadows, he had isolated himself from any friends or scapegoats. In his arrogance, Rivers had dug a hole to himself, and now there was no way to climb out of it.

After seeing there wasn't any response from Rivers, Gawain and Rivers looked at each other and nodded to move onto the next stage.

The Bad Auror and Good Auror tactic wasn't working, so they had to try something more aggressive to see it achieved something.

Sirius slid a file to Gawain, who opened it and started reading it out loud.