Published 5th of November 2020
Ministry of Magic, Level Two
After 4pm
As she walked rapidly down the corridor to Headquarters, Hermione recognized it and in the same time she felt as though she was seeing it for the first time. The familiar floor and walls, the aeroplanes that flew past her head, the familiar scrapping of the elevator grille and the woman's voice seemed to be the same ... but different at the same time.
She entered Headquarters, where she had been several times, when she visited Harry and an elderly man leaned out of one of the cubicles.
"How can I help you? He asked instinctively and then smiled broadly. "Miss Granger?"
"Good afternoon" Hermione nodded. "I'm looking for Gawain Robards."
"I know. He's in the meeting room. Please follow me..."
The meeting room turned out to be a gloomy little room in the same corridor. The Auror opened the door for her and gestured for her to enter.
Hermione thought that only Gawain Robards and Harry were waiting for her, so she was surprised to see Ginny and Kingsley at the round table. At the sound of the door closing, the long-haired man next to Harry paused and turned towards her, the rest did the same.
"Miss Granger! Finally" the man got up and walked over to her. "Gawain Robards. And this is Bernard Moore." He indicated the gray-haired gentleman near Kingsley.
Hermione pursed her lips and greeted everyone briefly, then looked at Gawain and Kingsley.
"Has Harry told you everything already?"
„Please sit down..."
"I want to know if everything is clear to you" she shook her head impatiently, standing stubbornly. "Can we go to free him?"
"We need to clear things up first" Gawain objected. "That's why..."
„What's there to explain?!" Hermione cut him off and turned to Harry. "But you told them everything?!"
Harry sent Kingsley a "Didn't I warn you?" look, but didn't have time to speak when Moore cleared his throat and smoothed his hair.
"Miss Granger, we must not make hasty decisions on such an important matter. You must understand ..."
Hasty decisions? They must not?! Something exploded in Hermione and this time it was impossible to stop it. A haze of rage obscured her eyes and she thought she was blind.
„You must not?! Or you DON'T WANT?!" she screamed, clutching her wand. "You could have made a completely idiotic decision to suspend my rights to practice and you cannot decide to release an innocent man?!"
"Hermione ..." she heard the shuffle of the chair and Harry's voice as if in the distance.
"Tell me, did you manage to decide that we are allowed to cast Imperius?!"
"Hermione!" Harry grabbed her shoulders and she suddenly saw that she was standing right in front of Moore.
Next to him, Kingsley stood up, placed a warm, wide hand on her shoulder and with the other one he loosened her grip on her wand.
"Yes" he said gently. "I already sent owl to Sergius Carpenter."
His deep voice calmed her down a bit, but the madness was still boiling inside her and she wanted to scream and protest and make them suffer too!
"Good" she snapped. "So I can hope you don't sentence me to Azkaban forever, because I cast eleven Imperials BEFORE you made a decision!"
Someone inhaled deeply, but at the same time Kingsley smiled kindly at her.
"Very well, my dear." He squeezed her shoulder lightly. "I wouldn't expect anything else from you."
Both the warm gesture that everyone in the Clinic was making today and the memory of sitting on the trestral, cuddling against the man's back as they fled from the horde of Death Eaters, made her realize who was standing in front of her and she felt a terrible shame.
It also reminded her of Severus Snape.
„Then tell me why...?!" Something tightened in her throat.
"You know perfectly well why. Because I cannot make such a decision solely on the basis of Harry and Roger White's testimony. Cause I need to know what only you can tell me."
"Besides, we'll need a very special Regalium to free Severus Snape" added Gawain, standing next to her. "We'll take care of it right after we talk with you. Meanwhile, we need some information."
The girl felt someone helping her to sit down, so she nodded and wiped her eyes.
"Should I start from the beginning?" She asked. "Well, I think it everything started the day I came to Powell's Laboratory for Inspection..."
Gawain listened to her with a serious, severe face. When it came to an investigation by both Aurors, he raised his hand to interrupt her.
„Roger White turned out to be innocent. Only Paul Bryant is involved in this case."
"Are you sure?" The girl looked at him closely, then glanced at Harry.
"Completely. Harry and I recently finished questioning Roger."
Hermione looked unconvinced. After all, she had met people who could play convincingly several times. One of them was just waiting for her help ...
"He's innocent" Harry added. "He agreed to the Veritaserum, so questioning him was simple. And Ginny was there."
"And Bryant?" He escaped from the Headquarters before noon.
"Shit" Hermione muttered and continued to explain.
When she got to the point where she promised Snape she would turn a blind eye to stealing ingredients from the Lab, Moore pursed his lips and shook his head in obvious disgust.
"You just mentioned something about the idiotic decision of suspension..."
Hermione sprang up in her chair and jerked her head toward him, but before she could say anything, Gawain pressed her wand against the table.
„Bernard, let her finish."
"WHAT, THE..." she began.
"Miss Granger, please continue."
Hermione sent the old man an enraged glare and, after taking a few breaths to calm herself, continued to speak.
"So Severus Snape stole some ingredients from the Lab and we were able to brew exactly the same poison" she drawled, looking at the center of the table. "He also invented an antidote to it that we tested. It works, there is only one problem, to wit, the most important ingredient is missing at the moment and it will not be available before a month and a half yet. He has searched everywhere in Europe but is nowhere to be found."
"Why a month and a half and what is this ingredient?" Gawain asked.
„Moon water. It is made by exposing the pure spring water to moonlight just before and after a full eclipse" Hermione explained. "And the next full eclipse is not until May 23."
"In a week" Ginny said. "Then why not next week?"
"Because after that, the water must rest for a full lunar month. But maybe it's not that important anymore." Hermione turned to Kingsley. "Immediately after that this someone administered poison en masse in some Muggle school and those doctors found a way to treat it and cured sick people. The Muggle Prime Minister was there, maybe you can talk to him and find out if this method can be applied to us as well?"
Kingsley looked at her clearly surprised.
"Muggle doctors found a way to combat magic poison?" He asked incredulously. „Are you sure?"
„I saw it on television!"
Kingsley waved his wand and suddenly a luminous lynx appeared at the table.
"Mrs. Rogers, Miss Brown, please have Gordian arrange an urgent meeting with the Prime Minister of Muggle. For quarter."
He flicked his wand a second time and the lynx jumped towards the door and disappeared.
"I don't understand how this is possible, but ... let's hope it works for us" Kingsley said. "Go on, Hermione."
"There isn't much more to say" the girl shrugged. "We've made a list of the suspects, that is, English graduates of the Potion Academy, apprentices to Potions Masters, our native potion makers... There are about twenty of them, so to narrow it down, I asked Carcassonne for last quarter's orders by Octavia Banks. I don't know if the list is here, but I don't have access to it, because some moron trumped up and reported to Octavia that I was dating one of Powell's lab technicians and I was suspended from practicing!"
"It won't be a problem" Gawain reassured her. "I'm going to ask Mrs. Banks for this list and give it to you immediately. What did you expect to find on it?"
Hermione chose not to mention that she just chose to steal it.
"Orders for bloodroot and bundimun secretions. Both belong to substances of class A and are very rarely used, not to mention the fact that they can be ordered by those who have at least three drops." "We'll deal with this investigation later" added Kingsley. "Now let's focus on the most important. What's next?"
"To get the Aurors to open an investigation, we mixed the poison with the chocolate and Severus Snape made a large stain in the studio. He then summoned the Aurors and was kidnapped and thrown into Azkaban."
"He couldn't just let the Aurors know about his discoveries, instead of playing false leads?" Moore asked reluctantly. "That way he would have avoided problems."
„I'm not so sure" Hermione snapped. "He notified the Aurors one way or another. And no matter what he said, Bryant would do exactly the same - try to kill him. But the problem is not that Severus Snape was playing false leads, but that there was a traitor and a murderer among the Aurors!"
"I will agree with Miss Granger" Gawain added reluctantly. "The case would certainly go to Bryant and White, because they were in charge of the discontinued investigation."
Moore smiled apologetically at Gawain and rubbed his chin.
"From what Harry told us, you turned to him for help, right?" he ashed Hermione. "And he of course didn't refused?"
The girl froze, surprised. There was something about his tone of voice that she didn't like.
"Harry has access to information that I don't have" she said carefully. "At first he suspected Severus Snape was the killer, so he made sure Snape was innocent before helping me. And he arranged for me to visit Azkaban because we were hoping Severus Snape would tell us who caught him and who the murderer was."
"And did he say who?" Pressed Moore.
„Yes. That it was Bryant." Hermione looked at her watch and realized that she had been sitting here for almost half an hour. "You already know everything. WHAT are we doing?" It didn't sound like a question at all.
Kingsley checked the time as well and stood up.
"For me, the matter is completely clear. Bernard? Any questions?" Moore shook his head and Kingsley nodded in satisfaction. "Perfect. Gawain, you have a free hand. Go on without me, I will be back as soon as I have finished talking to the Prime Minister of the Muggle."
Hermione looked at him with gratitude and turned to Robards.
"Well?"
"We'll release him tomorrow morning" he promised immediately and part of Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, but the other part remained tense. "This is the fastest date I can propose you."
„What time?"
Gawain hesitated and looked at Harry, who was leaning towards them.
"Hermione can help us make the Regalium. Ginny too" he suggested.
"Of course" Redheaded nodded, getting up hastily from her seat and standing between Hermione and Gawain. "And if that's not enough, we can ask Kingsley as well."
„Miss Weasley, I would like to remind you that you are talking about the Minister" said Moore dryly.
"Of course" Ginny said politely, though her gaze was saying something else. "So at what time?" Gawain looked somewhere else at the table.
"At nine in the morning, Miss Granger."
The girl leaned back against the chair. Finally! But suddenly nine o'clock in the morning seemed to be very far. As she remembered in what condition had she seen Severus Snape yesterday, it raised her hair on end.
Bring him some potions and something to drink today. And food. As soon as possible. By the way, tell him he'll be free tomorrow morning!
"Thank you very much" she said firmly. "When do you want to make Regalium? Now?"
"No, we still have a lot to discuss" Gawain said. "The Minister should be back soon and the Regalium will take an hour to complete."
"Harry, do you have Regalium for me today?"
"In my bag" Harry nodded.
"Perfect" Hermione said, getting to her feet. "I should be back soon..."
Daily Prophet's Office
London, Diagon Alley
After four p.m.
Gratus ruffled his red hair and pushed the door to the Prophet's office. The bell rang and at the same time the poorly fitted glass clinked against the bars and the old wizard, apparently dozing in a deep armchair, jumped up abruptly and stared at him.
"Good afternoon" Gratus said politely. "Can I enter?"
"Of course, my dear boy, come in, of course you can" the old man muttered, blinking his eyes. "How can I help you?"
"I'm looking for one article. You know, I need some information for my exam. And the Prophet always wrote such cool pieces..."
The old man grinned and got up awkwardly from his armchair.
"Perfect choice, my dear boy. Come on, let me show you our archives. There is EVERYTHING there" he said, beaming with pride, as if he had at least written all the articles for the Prophet himself, or was personally responsible for the entire history of the wizarding world.
Gratus followed old man and, disgusted with his slow shuffling, glanced at his watch. Hurry up, old coot, if not I'll help you with a decent kick in a moment.
The old man let him into a spacious windowless room, lined with a row of filing cabinets and waved his hand to the left.
"Here you have all editions, from the 18th century. It's best to sit there at the table and call them by date. But don't forget to send it back. Because if I find a mess here…" he shook his finger at him and scuffed into the corridor.
Gratus didn't remember exactly the date of the edition he was looking for, but he was sure it was after mid-May '98. So he started recalling the numbers from May 15th, checked the front page and sent them back.
After the end of the Second War, the Prophet wrote long articles about the Golden Trio every day. At first they were about their participation in the war and hiding from Death Eaters, but as time went by, the topic was less and less interesting. In the same time, Snape's trial began, Hermione Granger launched a campaign for his release and so the Prophet picked up another topic which could be exploited for days.
He remembered it perfectly well. In one issue of the Prophet there was a large photo of the girl in front of her parents' house. She had her hair down, a tight T-shirt and was waving a banner over her head. He didn't care what was written on it, what interested him, was the charming outline of her breast under the thin material.
For several days he imagined what he could do with her and even managed to decipher the name of the street, but before he decided to go to it, a hot, busty brunette had caught his attention and he had lost interest in Granger.
Now he just had to find that Prophet.
When he picked up the number from May, 29th, he grinned broadly and stared at the girl's breasts for a moment. He ran his finger over them, the girl looked indignant and disappeared from the photo and suddenly he regretted that Tylor had told him to poison her. He would have liked to do it on his way – to HAVE his way with her.
He leaned over the newspaper and looked for the street name.
"Sycamore Gardens" he muttered.
He didn't need a house number. He remembered the two large chimneys on the outside walls of the house, a birch tree growing on the sidewalk just in front of the white fence, a triple window on the first floor and a red brick, sent the newspaper back to its place and went outside.
He focused on the remembered image and turned on his heel. When he opened his eyes a second later, he was standing on the sidewalk in front of a white, low gate marked "Do not block." He glanced at the house and immediately recognized the two chimneys, a birch on the sidewalk, triple windows upstairs, and red brick.
There was no one on the street, so without hesitating, he cast Disillusionment Charm, carefully adjusted the bag on his shoulder and walked to the other side of the gate.
Alohomora didn't work, so he took the picklock out of his pocket and, blessing the days when he was wandering the streets with a band of Muggle thieves on vacation, tried to open the lock. Several seconds later, he forced last pin down, looked around and pushed the door open.
"Good morning, Miss Granger."
Howden Dam
5:00 p.m.
Peter poured the remnants of healing potion into glass vials, put down the pipette and corked them carefully. Sometimes it happened that by pushing the stopper too hard the vial was broken, but in this case he couldn't afford it. Previously he had suspected and after talking to Tylor this morning, he was quite sure that the Old Man would want to eliminate him in exactly the same way as the Minister, Moor, Robards and Potter and Granger. It was in fact the cleanest and surest way.
He reached for the stickers and a quill and at that moment Bryant's wife came into the Lab with a cloth in her hand.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't think anyone is here" she called and froze in the doorway.
"So someone IS" Peter snapped, because he didn't want anyone to see what he was doing. He was already glad that Gratus-Crapus is not there and now he had to deal with this woman! "Want something?"
Mia looked offended.
"You are so rude!" she snorted. "I wanted to help you and clean up."
That was the last thing he needed – that this woman starts to rummaging through his ingredients, potions and broke the vials with the healing potion!
„Go clean elsewhere you like. But you have no right to come in here. The potions here are… too important that anyone should touch them" he invented on the stop, adapting it to the story Bryant had sold her and found that he wasn't lying that much. "They can save thousands of lives, so I'm the only one allowed to enter here. Excuse me."
Mia immediately went meekly and nodded.
"I didn't know, sorry!" and quietly closed the door on the other side.
"Clean up ... she's crazy" muttered Peter and began to write " Jawbind Potion " on the strips of paper. On several others, he wrote " Deflating Draught ", "Potion No. 86 " and " Scintillation Solution " and placed them in buckets with other vials. There were about fifty of them, but he could mix them with the others at will, because he was sure he would recognize them. Neither of them was of any use here.
Ministry of Magic
Level Two
Gawain grabbed the girl's hand gently.
"Not so fast, Miss Granger" he stopped her.
"It won't take long" Hermione assured him. "I'll just go home for a moment..."
„No way. I want you to go into hiding from now on. Which means no more work and no more coming home. I will appoint three Aurors from the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol who..."
„Pardon?" Hermione asked incredulously, leaning over the table because Gawain was still holding her. "Exactly. They will escort you home, where you will pack your essentials and move somewhere until the matter is resolved. I think Harry and Ginny will be glad to see you."
Hermione looked instinctively at her friends and back at Robards.
"But ... I have to ... they need me in the Clinic..."
"We certainly all need you alive. And it won't take long for the murderer to figure out that you're involved in this."
The girl froze as it hit her. She absolutely had no time to think about it until now; whenever she tried to stop thinking for a moment about the nightmare in the Clinic, she immediately remembered the dying of thirst man in Azkaban, but now it suddenly seemed obvious to her. Severus Snape told her the same thing. Or, to be precise, that was why he got mad at her when he discovered that her home was not protected.
"Already at the beginning Severus Snape told me to secure the house" she said, looking at everyone in turn. "So I cast a lot of protection spells and he checked that they worked. Apart from Fidelius, I used everything I could. You cannot Apparate, nor enter through the fireplace, nor..."
"I'm not going to take any chances" Gawain said firmly. "It's visible, that's enough. Somebody can cast a Fiendfyre on it when you're inside. Muggles have their own ways of killing, too. I will only accept the place that is protected by the Fidelius Spell.
"You can always stay with us, you know that" Ginny said.
Hermione sat slowly on the edge of the chair. She thought that when she managed to get Severus Snape out of Azkaban, she would take him home to look after him, because she had no doubts that in his present state he would not be able to get along alone. Now she imagined the Fiendfyre while they were locked inside and she shook. But since she couldn't live at home ...
She looked at Harry and Ginny and tried to imagine where they could install him on Grimmauld Place. Back in the days of the Order's Headquarters, Severus Snape only came to report, but never stayed any longer and something told her that he would be furious if he got there. So maybe ... just at his house?
It's probably for the best. Certainly the best.
"I know, Ginny" she squeezed her friend's hand. "But then I will move to Spinner's End."
Harry widened his eyes in shock but Ginny returned the hug and just smiled slightly.
"To Severus Snape's house?" Gawain asked.
"Yes" Hermione nodded and added to reassure Harry. "He will need a Healer for a while. Something tells me that neither of you would be delighted if he came to you."
"If I recall correctly, his house is protected by Fidelius? How many Secret Keepers are there?"
"There isn't any. It was Albus Dumbledore" Hermione explained. "At the moment, only Severus Snape and me know this place. And since I am not a Secret Keeper, I cannot reveal the Secret even if I am caught at Apparition."
"Then it may be" said Gawain.
"But I'm not just going to hide" she pointed out. "I want to help catch the murderer. We can both help, please remember that."
„We'll see."
"You probably want to get Mr. Bryant" Moore cleared his throat. "For catching Snape, right? You must be very close to each other. You are visiting him in Azkaban, you are the only person in the world who can enter his house..."
Hermione narrowed her eyes dangerously and wondered frantically at some cut replica but Ginny was faster.
"I'll help you prepare everything you need for your love nest" she said sweetly and added in her now normal voice. "And remember, you always have a place with us when Professor Snape recovers and kicks you off his house."
They both giggled softly and Hermione pretended not to see Moor's disgusted expression.
"I would like to go to Azkaban as soon as possible. Can you find someone to accompany me?" she asked Gawain. "I don't want to wait. Yesterday he was really in a very bad state."
Gawain wiped the shadow of a smile from his face.
„We'll do like this. Harry, take two guys from the Patrol and escort Miss Granger home. And then the three of you go to Azkaban. There is a danger that the killer will want to check if the sentence on Snape is already carried out. If we need any of you, I will call you."
Harry nodded and headed for the door, but Hermione froze.
„Sentence on…?" She gasped. "What sentence?"
"According to the falsified sentence, Snape was sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss" replied Gawain in surprise. "Harry didn't tell you...?"
Hermione covered her mouth with a groan, glanced at her watch and jumped up from the table, knocking her chair over when Harry grabbed her.
"I postponed the sentence" he said emphatically. "He's alive. Hermione, can you hear me? He. Is. Alive."
The girl stared at him for a moment with her huge eyes, then finally jerked her head and pulled him to the door.
„Let's go! NOW!"
After the Damn Trio left, Moore breathed a sigh of relief. It felt like a moment more and he would start killing. Certainly Potter and probably his girlfriend. Perhaps Granger as well.
He could clearly see Granger tried to… push her nose into the investigation and suddenly he felt un urge to push her away.
Besides, it was clearly a dangerous case, so if he could push Potter into it instead of her... For a moment he wondered how to play it right.
"That boy of yours indulged in too much" he said to Gawain at last. "Neither he nor Miss Granger clearly said the full story, but what we already know is enough for a disciplinary trial."
The Head of Aurors shrugged.
„Considering the importance of the case, I see nothing in his conduct that deserves it."
"Nothing?" Moore snorted. "Good joke! Auror, who searches the Archive with secret data without the consent of his superior, arrests his colleague without initiating an investigation and arranges daily meetings in Azkaban for his friend!" He shook his head indignantly.
Gawain looked at him reluctantly, relieved at the same time. Bernard didn't seem to understand the worst. That Harry had passed himself of as Head of Aurors and postponed Snape's execution. Only the Head of the Auror Office had the right to do this and only with the consent of the Minister of Magic.
"Bernard, did you listen to what Harry said? First, he didn't take his friend's word for it, but made sure of Snape's innocence. What he found indicated that someone highly placed was behind the whole thing. Either me, or you, or even the Minister. So, first of all, he took care of the safety of the only witness and checked that neither of us was the murderer and only then he decided to contact us. He did exactly what we teach at the Auror school. He considered all the possibilities and chose the best solution."
Moore got up and walked casually to the window. Streams of rain trickled down the thick glass. Someone must have been in very bad mood today to set just this kind of weather.
"Didn't you feel... offended that your Auror did not have trust in you an inch?"
"On the contrary, I am very pleased with his reaction" Gawain objected. "What did ... hurt me was that another Auror might have sold his position for a handful of Galleons."
"In another word, you are proud of him."
"Call it as you like. Although of course I didn't tell him that because it's not my style. And if anyone has any objections concerning Harry, I take full responsibility for his actions."
Moore turned to the window and forced his jaws and tense shoulders to relax.
"If so, it's okay. I will not pick on because that's not what what's important. The main thing is to solve the problem" he pretended to play with his fingers following the drop on the other side of the glass. "The killer rampages in Muggle and wizarding world and we have no idea who is he or what his motives are."
Gawain glanced at his watch and began play with his robe button.
"Kingsley will be back in a moment, maybe we can at least know how to save them."
"And if this Muggle method will not... work in our world?" Moore turned from the window and walked over to the table. „Do you understand what I mean. Or if it was just a coincidence?"
Gawain nodded. He also found it strange that the Muggles had defeated magic.
"We'll have to ask Severus Snape and Miss Granger for help."
„It's not too risky?"
„What do you mean?" Gawain frowned.
Moore leaned forward, propping him against the table with both hands.
„As you rightly noticed, the murderer will look for them and try to eliminate them. And then we lose the witnesses and the only people who can brew the antidote in a month and a half. I propose to set them back from this case, consult them of course if necessary, but let trained Aurors catch the murderer." Gawain had some strange feeling that Moore wasn't entirely honest, but he couldn't tell what was behind it. He himself thought Snape and Hermione Granger should be protected, so they both agreed on that.
It occurred to him that if it was revealed that he had engaged ordinary citizens, not his Aurors, the Prophet would hammer him and people would have concluded that the Aurors could no longer be trusted. And the Ministry as well.
"I'll try" he replied. "In add, they're both going to heal for a good few days. This girl is dead tired."
Moore kept his face serious with the greatest difficulty.
"I noticed that, too" he didn't notice, but it didn't matter. "She was barely holding up."
At that moment Kingsley Shacklebolt entered the room and almost slammed the door.
„What are the news?" Moore asked immediately.
The minister sat down heavily in his seat and placed his wand in front of him.
„The Muggle prime minister confirmed that they had managed to find some way to cure five hundred people, but they were all in the Clinics. I asked him to find out how they did it and to get me notified through Gordian. Besides, I heard that he would pray to God that magic would cease to exist. As for him, we can die and he will not regret it."
Gawain sighed heavily.
"It is sure that last years we've been coming to Muggles a little too often to tell them their world is in danger because of some crazy wizard."
Kingsley nodded and rubbed his tired eyes.
„Where they are?"
„Hermione went to Azkaban to give Snape some potions, then I told her to pack and hide. At the moment, she has Harry and two guys from Patrol."
„Will she be at Grimmauld Place?"
„No, in Spinner's End."
Kingsley looked at Gawain in amazement.
"Will she be at Snape's instead of Harry's?"
"Don't ask me" replied Gawain.
"The most important thing is that they will be safe there" Moore said soothingly. "Let's not waste time and get back to the matter."
Kingsley nodded and summoned his writing instruments.
"The most important thing right now is to warn all wizards that we are dealing not with a disease but with poison. I think it's best if I enforce a Critical State."
'It will cause panic' said Moore. "We can't even say what the poison is in. It can be in anything. Should we tell them to stop eating and drinking?"
"Certainly not everything" Gawain objected. "Since the murderer is a wizard, he has to add it only to certain ingredients so as not to poison himself. So basic foods should be safe. Then call an urgent press conference to announce it. And let Redactor in Chief of Prophet to write it in the Evening Prophet. Or better, let him release an Extra."
Kingsley wrote "Critical State" on parchment and Moore tapped it with his finger.
"Since we don't know if this Muggle invention will work, I suggest contacting all potion makers and telling them to try to find some antidote. I know they're on the suspect list because they can brew, but that's exaggeration. Snape may think that some water is needed for this, but maybe there is something else?"
Gawain nodded his approval.
„We're not risking anything. The killer knows we know about the poison, so assuming it's one of them, he won't be surprised if we're looking for an antidote. Let's give them the exact composition of the poison, maybe they'll find it."
"There is no 'maybe'. We have to motivate them so that they stop whatever they are doing and start to work on antidote." Moore protested. "We can offer a thousand galleons of reward to the one who finds the antidote."
Kingsley looked at his deputy.
"I will agree with you, Bernard. But let's not offer them gold, for them even ten thousand galleons is not so much."
"What for example?"
"Judging by Powell, they care more about opinion and authority than money" Gawain said. "So, why don't we propose to them the simplified and quick procedure of the fifth or even the sixth Drop."
"Very good" Kingsley muttered, writing quickly.
"I think it would be a good idea to find out if any of them have Moonwater" continued Gawain. "Maybe by chance someone still has some and it would be enough for the people in the Clinic?"
"Good idea, but don't tell them why we're looking for it" said Moore.
"You mean to hide from the murderer that we know how to make an antidote? In case it was one of them?" Kingsley dipped his quill in the ink bottle, rubbed it on the edge and continued writing.
Moore shook his head.
"No. After all, the murder doesn't know how to make the antidote so we don't risk anything. My point is that this water is probably the most obvious solution and I don't want them to get stuck on it and stop looking further."
"All right" Kingsley added 'secretly' at the end of the sentence. "Anything else? Are we going to plan an investigation?"