8mi Chapter 233 Two Steel Nails
Chapter 233 Two Steel Nails
Chapter 233 Two Steel Nails
Lynch looked at Reggie with a hint of helplessness. He could feel Reggie resisting his words with all his might.
"The past cannot be changed, Reggie, but it has shaped us. To deny it is to deny a part of yourself." Lynch tried to make his voice sound calm and persuasive.
"I didn't deny it!" Reggie retorted almost instinctively, his hoarse voice becoming even more broken, to the point of being somewhat shrill.
After he blurted out those words, even he was stunned for a moment, as if he was startled by his own intense reaction.
He suddenly raised his head, only to be met with Lin Qiping's gaze, a gaze so clear it seemed to see through all his unspoken struggles.
Reggie was stung by that gentle gaze and awkwardly looked away, staring at the leaping flames in the fireplace.
"And what about you?" he suddenly asked, his question becoming sharp. "Have you fully accepted your past?"
Is this your reason for wanting to help the murderer who killed your best friend?
Lynch smiled, as if Reggie's problem was a gentle breeze brushing against his cheek. He understood why Reggie had lost control and wouldn't hold a grudge against his friend over such a small matter.
"You know me," Lynch said calmly. "If Sirius Black is confirmed to be the one directly responsible for the Potters' deaths, I will not let him go. I will personally hang him at Lily and James' graves."
He paused briefly to make sure Reggie's attention was on before continuing: "But I have received confidential information that Sirius may very well be innocent."
"What!?"
Reggie's body visibly stiffened for a moment. He looked at Lynch with a mixture of shock and disbelief that he couldn't quite process.
"impossible."
"The Ministry of Magic's conclusion is clear. He killed Peter Pettigrew and some Muggles! He also blew up a street, and he confessed!"
Lynch held up a finger, his gaze calmly fixed on Reggie: "Strictly speaking, he never formally confessed. He just kept repeating one sentence after his arrest: 'I killed them.'"
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Lynch tapped his finger lightly in the air, as if dividing two completely different concepts: "There are at least two possible interpretations to this statement. First, he is admitting that he was the direct perpetrator; second, he may be blaming himself for some wrong decision—perhaps one of his actions indirectly led to their deaths."
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His voice was steady and calm: "The difference between these two things determines whether he is a sinner or a pitiful person overwhelmed by guilt."
"Based on the information I have, Sirius is very likely the latter."
Reggie fell silent, his fingers unconsciously tightening around the armrests of the chair.
This information was so astonishing that it almost overturned his understanding of the past ten years.
He needs time to process this.
"Where did you get this intelligence?" he finally asked, his gaze fixed on Lin Qi.
Lynch walked up to him, sat down, and brought his line of sight to Reggie, who was sitting down.
"That's not important," he said calmly. "What's important is that once we find Sirius, the truth will naturally come to light."
"But we need to act quickly and find him before the Ministry of Magic does."
Lynch leaned forward slightly: "You've dealt with the Ministry of Magic more times than I have over the years, and you've witnessed their bureaucratic ways. You know better than I what the consequences would be if those people in the Ministry, who only care about closing cases quickly and maintaining a facade of peace, and who don't care what dirty secrets are hidden beneath, found him first!"
"A chaotic arrest would not give him a chance to explain! He might even be shot dead if he resists arrest!"
By then, the bloodstains will be easily wiped away, the files will be quickly sealed, and a "perfectly closed" report will cover up all the doubts! We will never know the truth of what happened back then, and you," he looked deeply into Reggie's eyes, "will never be able to confirm whether your brother, Sirius Black, was truly a..."
The Death Eaters who willingly followed Voldemort, or—victims of another tragedy.
Lynch's words were like a sharp dagger, precisely piercing Reggie's deepest and most vulnerable spot.
Reggie's lips were pressed into a pale line, and his heart was pounding heavily and erratically against his ribs.
Lynch's words stirred up a storm in his mind, churning up fragments of memories he had deliberately frozen for over a decade—Sirius's cheerful laughter as a child, the opposition within his family when he learned he had been sorted into Gryffindor, and the image of a criminal laughing maniacally in the middle of ruins that he had seen in the newspaper after becoming Reggie.
"Death Eaters who voluntarily followed Voldemort—" he repeated the word silently, his throat tightening.
The Black family has produced far too many madmen like this, who worship pure blood, are obsessed with dark magic, and ultimately grovel at the feet of the Dark Lord.
He once firmly believed that his brother was an outcast, a degenerate who had abandoned the glory of pure blood.
But later news told him that Sirius was the one who had fallen the most completely, and that he had used his best friend's life as a pledge to the darkness.
This once made him feel disgusted by the blood of the Black family.
But what if—if not?
What if that explosion, those deaths, concealed another cruel truth?
If Sirius Black's words, "I killed them," were not repentance, but rather a self-curse born of endless regret?
This "if" is like a pebble thrown into stagnant water, stirring up ripples that never cease.
He felt a wave of dizziness, as if the solid ground beneath his feet, which had been firm for years, was cracking. He gripped the handrail tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force, trying to grasp at some tangible reality.
"—A tragic victim." He finally murmured, his voice dry like sandpaper rubbing against wood.
He raised his head and met Lynch's gaze again. This time, he did not look away, but his eyes were filled with exhaustion and confusion after the struggle. "You have thrown a devilish possibility at me, Lynch. You have made me start to doubt—whether one of the foundations of the hatred I have relied on for the past ten years was built on quicksand from the very beginning."
He took a deep breath; the firelight from the fireplace danced in his eyes, but it couldn't dispel the deep chill within.
"This is too cruel."
Lin Qi didn't speak, but waited quietly.
He knew that Reggie's inner fortress had cracked, and now it was up to him to either tear it down or repair it.
After a brief silence, Reggie spoke again, his voice flat and heavy: "What do you need me to do?"
Lynch sat up straight; he knew that Reggie had overcome the most difficult hurdle.
"Put aside all your chamber of commerce affairs. Now, you have only one goal—to find Sirius Black."
He raised his eyes, his gaze sharp: "Using our informants within the Ministry of Magic, they will help you define a search area. Your mission is to personally go and bring him back alive."
Reggie's gaze hardened: "I will bring him back!"
Lynch cautioned, "Be careful. Not only do you need to avoid the Ministry of Magic's watchful eye, but you also need to be wary of Sirius Black. After all, he was the first wizard to escape from Azkaban, so don't underestimate him."
Just then, a slight "click" sound, like a clockwork mechanism turning, suddenly came from one of Reggie's desk drawers.
It attracted their attention.
Reggie opened the drawer, inside was an old, wind-up tin woodpecker toy, pecking rhythmically at the wooden shelf.
Underneath the toy was a small roll of parchment.
Reggie picked up the parchment and quickly glanced at the markings on the outside.
"It's intelligence about Barty Crouch."
Reggie handed the parchment to Lynch.
Lynch unfolded the parchment, his expression gradually turning to surprise.
He paused for a moment, seemingly processing the information, before turning to Reggie, who was still deep in thought, and waving the parchment in his hand: "It seems I spoke too confidently before. Sirius may not be the first prisoner to escape from Azkaban."
Reggie looked up: "What do you mean?"
Lynch handed the parchment to Reggie: "The intelligence agents have discovered a very interesting point in time."
"Our dear Mr. Crouch did not shut himself off from the beginning. Rather, it was only after his wife became seriously ill and his son was sent to Azkaban that he began to gradually cut off contact with the outside world."
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He rubbed his chin with his fingertips: "And after his wife passed away, he completely refused all requests for visits. The coincidence of this time is intriguing."
Reggie looked up from the parchment: "What do you mean?"
Lynch met Reggie's gaze: "Considering Mr. Crouch's well-known deep affection for his late wife, we can basically rule out the possibility of him keeping a mistress. Besides, even if he were to remarry, it would be perfectly normal in the wizarding world, and there's absolutely no need to hide it to such an isolated degree."
He began to unravel the mystery in a low voice: "Let's look at another key time point—the time of Mrs. Crouch's death coincides perfectly with the time when news of the deaths of his sons arrived from Azkaban. On the surface, this seems reasonable: a seriously ill wife, upon hearing the tragic news of her beloved sons, could not bear the blow and passed away."
"But why were there no healers present at the time? Was it because the powerful Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement couldn't afford a healer? Even more suspicious is that his wife's funeral was held in an unusually rushed manner, almost as if to avoid all condolences."
He leaned forward slightly: "Barty Crouch is a man who would sacrifice everything for order and honor. Especially in such an embarrassing situation, he cannot run away. He should have a proper funeral be befitting his status and that of his family, so as to demonstrate his strength to the outside world!"
"So I have to ask myself—was it really his wife who died at Crouch's mansion?"
Reggie's pupils constricted sharply, and he paused for a moment, looking at Lynch with even greater horror in his eyes than when he heard that Sirius might be innocent.
"This—this is insane, Lynch." Reggie's hoarse voice betrayed his horror. "You mean—Mrs. Crouch died in Azkaban? And Barty Crouch Jr.—he's still alive? And he's been secretly kept locked up at home by his father!?"
Lin Qi lowered his hand: "This is just a bold guess based on all the current clues."
But it makes sense, doesn't it?
He stood up and took a few steps around the room, the firelight casting a long, distorted shadow on the wall.
"Just as all strong fortresses are breached from within, as the head of the Enforcement Division, Batty Crouch is far more familiar with Azkaban than the average person, and is better able to take effective action against its vulnerabilities."
"Think about it, Reggie. If Barty Crouch Jr. is still alive, imprisoned under his father's close watch, then theoretically he did leave Azkaban before Sirius. Only in a more secretive and cruel way."
Lynch looked at Reggie with a sharp gaze: "We need to verify who exactly is the person hiding in his house!"
If my guess is correct, then we can probably hold this director's fate in our hands!
Reggie took a deep breath: "I'll prepare for the intrusion verification right away!"
"No!" Lynch shook his head. "We need to proceed on two fronts. You, as planned, use all available resources to find Sirius Black. As for me, I will personally verify the information about the Crouch family."
"Don't forget, when Sirius Black was imprisoned in Azkaban, he didn't actually go through a formal trial; he was simply ordered to be imprisoned by Batty Crouch."
Lin Qi stood in front of the table, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.
"If we can prove that Sirius Black was innocent, it will be a fatal blow to Barty Crouch."
This is not merely questioning his original verdict, but shaking the very foundation of his entire political career.
He began to pace slowly around the room: "Add to that his crime of secretly switching his son out of Azkaban... These two things together are like two of the strongest steel nails, enough to completely nail his political coffin shut, leaving him with no chance of ever rising again."
Lynch finally concluded: "At that time, this once all-powerful Director of the Magic Law Enforcement Division will forever exit the stage of power!"
Reggie nodded heavily, his previous hesitation and confusion completely washed away by the grim situation. He stood up, his eyes regaining their usual sharpness and competence, even showing a more resolute determination than usual.
"I understand." He walked to the desk, tapped his wand lightly, and several drawers opened automatically, releasing a few scrolls of maps and several items that shimmered with a faint magical light.
"I will begin immediately. The Chamber of Commerce's intelligence network will be fully mobilized to screen suspicious areas."
As for the spies within the Ministry of Magic—" He paused, glancing at Lynch, "I will activate them in the most discreet way."
Lynch nodded slightly as he watched Reggie quickly get into the zone.
"Stay in touch, using the highest level of encryption. Notify me immediately of any discoveries."
He walked to the fireplace, grabbed a handful of Floo Powder, and said, "Be careful, Reggie. What we're uncovering might not just be old wounds, but secrets that some people would rather kill to keep."
Green flames rose up, and Lynch's figure disappeared into them.
Reggie stood alone in the study, the night deepening outside the window.
He picked up the old woodpecker toy on the table, his fingers tracing the cold metal. His childhood memories were long gone, but the obsession, madness, and secrets hidden in the darkness of his family bloodline seemed to entangle him once again in a completely new way.
He took a deep breath, clearing his mind of distractions, and turned his gaze to the map spread out on the table, preparing to begin his solitary and dangerous quest.