"…Baron Shafiq?"
Baker stood stiffly for a long moment before gradually recovering. "Mr. Shafiq's son? The one studying at Hogwarts?"
"Yeah."
Avada nodded slowly. "You taught Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts for a year. He was your student, wasn't he? He mentioned you to me—and even showed me the crystal orb you gave him. Honestly, I was startled when I realized that thing was actually a Horcrux."
"And you're working for Johnson Shafiq? You're investigating the werewolf matter too?"
He tried to seize control of the conversation, but the other party was unmoved.
"You're lying."
Baker's gaze sharpened instantly. "We expended considerable effort investigating your background and found not even the slightest trace. Mr. Shafiq knows about that investigation. If you truly know him, why didn't he inform us? In fact, he even suggested to the Headmaster that I be assigned to monitor this place."
"Because he doesn't know I'm here—calm down, hear me out…"
Avada had to lower his wand to slightly ease Baker's rising killing intent. "I'm more familiar with Baron, not old Johnson. I didn't know you were connected to him, nor that you were investigating the werewolves. I only entered magical society this time to look into certain pure-blood families and earn a bit of money on the side—who would've expected to stumble into this!"
"We shouldn't be enemies—unless you're the ones who turned that child into a werewolf. So could the two invisible gentlemen lower their wands?"
"…"
Baker fell silent for a moment before grimly gesturing behind Avada. Two wizards materialized out of thin air, wands in hand—they had appeared under Disillusionment several minutes earlier, during Avada's conversation with Baker.
"Long time no see, Mr. Trimbell… and this unfamiliar gentleman."
Avada inclined his head slightly and greeted the two astonished wizards with a faint smile. Under Baker's signal, they withdrew from behind him and moved to stand beside Baker instead, murmuring cautiously, "Are you sure about this, Benjamin…"
"No need for excessive vigilance for now."
Baker turned his head to respond to his companions, though his peripheral vision never left Avada. "He knows about my Horcrux."
The other two wizards stiffened slightly.
"Excellent. That at least means we don't need to continue fighting for the moment."
Avada spread his hands with a small smile. "Your suspicion of me is unnecessary. You can even take me to confront old Johnson in person and see whether he recognizes me."
"But right now, what I need to know more is—what exactly have the werewolves done? Why is society clearly gripped by panic, with anyone capable scrambling to install Anti-Apparition wards, yet not a single word has leaked publicly? What has been happening lately? And what are you doing about it?"
"This matter is not a secret."
Baker nodded, though a trace of wariness still lingered in his eyes. "The werewolves—more precisely, most likely Fenrir Greyback—have been making significant moves recently."
"They somehow acquired a magical technique that, when implanted in a werewolf, can simulate the effect of a full moon and directly trigger the werewolf curse. In other words, if an infected individual has that technique planted within them, they could transform at any time, anywhere—and the right to trigger that transformation rests in someone else's hands…"
"What?"
Avada's pupils contracted sharply—he now understood what the additional magical imprint beneath the child's curse was!
"And…"
Baker continued, "Fenrir Greyback then gathered a large number of werewolves and, with funding and resources from an unknown backer, began mass-producing Wolfsbane Potion. And that led to what you've seen."
"They began secretly attacking the children of influential figures across various sectors of magical society, infecting them with lycanthropy and planting that magical trigger. Then they blackmail the parents into working for them, promising that if they cooperate, Wolfsbane Potion will be provided free before each full moon to stabilize their children's condition."
"Conversely, if anyone attempts to expose their conspiracy and they sense something amiss—if a companion loses contact, is followed, or anything similar—they will simultaneously activate the werewolf curse in all victims, forcing them into frenzy at the same moment."
"…"
"No one wants to see their child become a monster. And no one wants to bear responsibility for the suffering of countless families. So as long as the werewolves' demands aren't excessive, the threat remains highly effective. Moreover, they deliberately avoid targeting those connected to Hit Wizards and Aurors. That's why the matter hasn't reached the public yet. We only uncovered the truth after one of our members narrowly avoided an attack and we used Legilimency to learn what was happening."
Avada fell silent.
He had studied werewolves for some time and understood their current status within society. After hearing Baker lay out the conspiracy in full, he felt no surprise at how such a seemingly crude scheme could succeed.
Becoming a werewolf in magical society was an extreme misfortune. It meant near-total severance from normal life—employment, friendships, love, wealth, trust, even basic rights—all could vanish solely because of the label "werewolf."
No parent would wish that fate upon their child. Given access to Wolfsbane Potion, many would even actively cooperate with werewolves just to conceal their child's condition.
As for publicly exposing the truth and seeking help from the Ministry—was the Ministry of Magic really likely to provide free Wolfsbane Potion to large numbers of people? If it were truly so benevolent, would it have enacted so many restrictive laws limiting werewolves' rights and condemning them to their current marginalized status?
Worse still, with the technology to trigger frenzy at will, the transformation window expanded from "during the full moon" to "at any moment." Preventing that would mean taking Wolfsbane Potion every single day.
Who could possibly afford that?
(End of Chapter)