"You want to participate in my research?"
Belby only reacted after a moment of surprise. "Of course, I'd welcome an expert like you joining us, but I heard your specialty is mental studies… I thought you would spend some time adapting to the new position first, or perhaps handle matters related to Azkaban."
"In fact, I've also done some research on vitality and curse studies."
Avada smiled. "And priorities matter. I assume that even in your—well, our—schedule, dealing with the recent werewolf attacks takes precedence over infiltrating Azkaban to retrieve Lockhart's memories, doesn't it?"
"That's true, although the two matters actually fall within the same overall framework…"
Belby nodded in agreement. "However, I'm afraid there aren't any victims here right now, Professor Clarke. Nearly all of them are still children who aren't old enough to attend Hogwarts, and they usually live with their parents. But if you're willing, I can give you a list of the victim families we've been in contact with—though the number isn't very large."
"Ah, right. Speaking of that."
Avada suddenly raised a hand to interrupt him.
"There's something I've been wondering about for a while. Those werewolves periodically provide Wolfsbane Potion to the victims' families, using it to threaten them into obedience. Since you already have the names of many victim families, couldn't you simply keep them under surveillance and wait for the werewolves to show up on their own?"
"In fact, we've already done exactly that, Professor Clarke."
Belby replied in a deep voice.
"And after doing so, we discovered that the number, scale, and organizational structure of those werewolves far exceed what they were more than a decade ago—and far exceed our expectations as well. That's one of the main reasons we're treating this matter so seriously."
"The werewolves responsible for the attacks, delivering orders, and bringing the Wolfsbane Potion are all at the very bottom of the hierarchy. They know nothing about the identities, locations, or plans of the higher-ranking werewolves. We've confirmed this repeatedly using Legilimency."
"As for the orders and potions passed down from above, they're delivered by owls under Concealment Charms at completely random times. Tracking the owls is useless as well, because those owls never return to their masters. Once they complete a delivery, they simply become wild birds."
"That outrageous?"
Avada frowned.
That meant they would need a constant supply of owls—and to avoid attracting attention, they would probably have to obtain them through secret channels. That alone couldn't be solved with money.
Add to that the large-scale brewing of the expensive and complicated Wolfsbane Potion, the mysterious anytime-berserk transformation technique that even the university hadn't cracked yet, the ability to gather so many werewolves, and an organizational hierarchy that was both strict and orderly…
"These werewolves… must have found themselves a very wealthy backer."
Avada muttered thoughtfully.
"See? You think so too, don't you?"
Belby forced a smile. "That's our conclusion as well, but we're still completely in the dark. Logically speaking, werewolf attacks against magical society benefit no wizard at all—not the Ministry of Magic, not major magical companies, and not pure-blood families."
"In fact, pure-blood families should hate and fear werewolves the most. If their so-called pure and noble bloodlines were contaminated by a werewolf curse, it would be an eternal disgrace in pure-blood history… Back when Voldemort was around, he could still keep the werewolves in check. But things are very different now."
"Right now, our primary suspects are actually the goblins. In terms of financial resources, technical ability, social connections, and even motive, they lack none of those… The problem is that investigating goblins and Gringotts is extremely difficult. After all, they're an entirely different species."
"Goblins?"
Avada was reminded of that race that had fought and cooperated with humans throughout magical history, even starting several wizarding wars. Though they now lived on the fringes of society, they were still doing quite well.
"By the way—if a goblin were bitten by a werewolf, would they become infected?"
"Well… that's something we've never studied."
Belby stared at Avada with a strange expression.
"There has never been any historical record of a goblin being bitten by a werewolf. Goblins are far fewer in number, and individually they tend to be stronger. But if I had to guess—just a personal guess—I'd say goblins would still be affected by the werewolf curse. After all, there's no reproductive barrier between goblins and humans… Merlin knows what the person who discovered that must have gone through."
"Could it be the work of some rogue dark wizard?"
Seeing Belby's thoughts about to spiral off again, Avada quickly redirected the conversation with a new question—though he was admittedly curious about what exactly the person who discovered that particular biological fact had done.
"The probability is very small."
Belby also pulled his thoughts back in time.
"To mobilize that level of financial resources and social connections, even if it were a dark wizard, they would almost certainly have pure-blood families backing them. But as I said earlier, pure-blood families actually have relatively little motive in this matter."
"But it's still something to be cautious about."
Avada reminded him. "Last year, the pure-blood families were severely struck by Dumbledore, and they've fallen into a slow path toward decline. Under those circumstances, it wouldn't be surprising at all if they panicked and made decisions that completely went against their ancestors' traditions."
"You're right. We haven't stopped investigating that possibility either. After all, werewolves have a history of serving as Death Eaters…"
Belby answered seriously.
"Pure-blood families, goblins, and those major potion manufacturers… they've all been our primary targets of investigation. At the moment, our main effort in that direction is examining several owl post offices, trying to trace the destinations of retired old owls."
"We even contacted the deputy headmaster specifically for this. But his prophetic abilities didn't react to this matter at all. Still, that can be considered good news—it means the potential consequences of this incident may not be particularly severe."
'Good grief…'
Avada couldn't help but marvel inwardly.
The deputy headmaster of Leach University…
Wasn't that Gellert Grindelwald?
They had even consulted Grindelwald's prophetic abilities… It seemed he didn't need to worry too much about the investigation side of things anymore. He could simply focus on teaching and research.
"Well then, here's the list and addresses of the victim families currently in contact with us."
Belby finally took a folded piece of parchment from his drawer and handed it to Avada.
"If you intend to contact them, please confirm the situation first before sending any letters. That way we can avoid rare accidents—like running into those werewolves at the wrong moment. Oh, and if you do encounter a werewolf, please don't attack immediately…"
"They'll trigger every victim's berserk transformation at the same time. Professor Beck already told me about that."
Avada nodded and accepted the list.
(End of Chapter)