Chapter 769
White Bridge Hotel 2
Chapter 769 White Bridge Hotel 2
Wade rummaged through his clothes and saw that even the items at the bottom of the box had been searched.
—The inspection was thorough enough, and on the surface, it was perfectly restored.
Wade thought to himself: If I really did take the closet space with me, would it still be able to return to me "intact" like this?
"We've checked everything. There's no eavesdropping, no curses, and no magical items."
Lupin, who had just come out of the washroom, said that he had been in charge of checking the rooms.
"Are you sure?" Moody asked, still uneasy. "Make sure there isn't a single extra piece of paper."
“Yes, I’m sure,” Lupin said patiently.
But Moody still took his wand and searched the hotel room inside and out, even looking out the windows.
Lupin sighed: "If it were me, as long as I knew that one of the people coming was Alastor Moody, I would never have done anything to the room."
"If I held the same mindset as you, I wouldn't be alive today!"
Moody's muffled voice came from the side—he stuck his head into the closet and checked it once, then stood inside, closed the door, and checked it again, finally checking the shoe cabinet underneath.
Seeing this, Lu Ping felt ashamed of his own shortcomings and could only admit that his inspection was not thorough enough.
Then, seeing Wade's fingertips trace the clothes in the box, his brow furrowed as he fell into deep thought, he couldn't help but ask:
"What? Is there something wrong with your suitcase?"
"Hmph!" Moody said, lifting the mattress to look inside. "His things must have been ransacked!"
"It's been turned over?"
Lupin's expression turned cold. He squatted down like Wade, but found no signs of disturbance. He humbly asked for advice:
"Alastor, how did you figure that out?"
—Besides being able to see through things, does that magic eye also have powerful insight?
Lu Ping felt envious and couldn't help but touch his original glasses.
"Is there even a need to look at it?" the old Auror said casually. "If I were an Auror from America, when Wade Grey's trunk was delivered to my doorstep, I would also check it inside and out, and even take apart the outer shell to take a look!"
Lupin: "..." So this is the unified style of you Aurors?
"Stop staring at that box, kid!"
Moody said to Wade, "Some curses are hard to spot until they take effect, especially things you wear close to your body. Just to be safe, you should throw them all away! We'll buy you a new set tomorrow..."
He thought for a moment and said decisively, "No, if we buy three sets, we'll have to replace them all!"
Wade didn't object, but sighed and said regretfully as he stood up, "What a pity... this was all carefully prepared for me by my mother."
This is also why he didn't prepare a suitcase for himself before leaving—Wade knew that it would be difficult to bring the suitcase he brought back intact.
Unlike Newt Scamander, while the magical creatures in that man's box would cause a lot of trouble if they escaped, most of the magical creatures themselves were not worth risking one's life for.
Those who want it can buy it or catch it themselves; even dragon blood and dragon liver aren't that expensive.
Scamander's briefcase is the most precious thing, but the Unseen Stretch Charm is not a spell that belongs exclusively to one person.
Even stealing just a few unique puppets from Vader Grey's box could bring in considerable profits, whether for replicating or selling.
But since Fiona kindly offered to help him pack, Wade didn't refuse—because such meticulously prepared luggage would be more convincing and would also distract people from their unnecessary energy.
Otherwise, at the airport, it might not just be their suitcases that are confiscated, but they themselves would also have to undergo a body search or other inspection.
"All right."
After ensuring there were no hidden dangers in the room, Moody dusted himself off and made arrangements:
"Remus, go register your wand first, and I'll go after you return. If you're attacked and can't get back in time, then Wade and I will immediately activate the emergency port key to return to Hogwarts!" In his words, registering a wand was as if it were a matter of stealing treasure from a dragon's den, a matter of life and death the moment he stepped out.
Lupin nodded, grabbed his wand, and went out.
Seeing that Wade was looking at him, Moody asked, "What's wrong? Did you find something?"
“No, I’m just a little surprised,” Wade said. “I thought… Professor, you would try to find a way to circumvent these regulations!”
“I do hate it when people touch my wand, but I can’t start by provoking the local law enforcement, kid.”
Moody's face was grim, but his demeanor was unusually calm, and his tone carried a shrewd pragmatism:
"When you're on someone else's turf, following their silly rules can actually lower their guard and give us more room to maneuver. It's a strategy, not a compromise."
"Does the professor have a spare wand?" Vader asked.
“What do you think?” Professor Moody grinned. “Don’t tell me you didn’t, you little rascal! Compared to you, Remus is practically a greenhorn!”
Wade chuckled, “Remus is actually quite alert, but he’s good at things that are different from Professor Moody’s.”
Remus Lupin had wandered around for many years, so he was familiar with the survival rules of the underclass, knew various marginal figures in the magical world, and could survive in the harshest environments.
However, since being hired by Vader, he has mostly been in contact with businessmen like Machioni, and because of the scarcity of his products, Lupin is fawned over wherever he goes.
He had even lost some of his old survival skills, so naturally he couldn't compare to an old Auror like Moody.
However, Lupin also has his advantages. When Moody is tough, he backs down a bit; when Moody loses his temper, he can calmly and politely smooth things over. This is something that neither Wade nor Moody is good at.
……
At night, as the rain poured down, a man carrying a black umbrella hurried into a Muggle hotel near the White Bridge Hotel.
Upon entering, the hotel receptionist glanced at him, said nothing, and simply pointed upwards.
The man folded his umbrella, revealing sunken cheekbones and deep nasolabial folds. His dark chestnut hair was meticulously combed, attempting to conceal its emerging thinning.
He rode the elevator upwards, and with a "ding," the elevator doors opened, leading him directly into an exceptionally spacious hall where men and women were dancing joyfully, and the air was filled with the smells of tobacco, liquor, and perfume.
The chestnut-haired man weaved through the crowd and strode into a private room, his umbrella leaving dark water stains on the thick red carpet.
"He's arrived." The man sat down on the sofa as soon as he entered, his voice low: "He's staying at the White Bridge Hotel."
“I saw it,” said another person in the room. “A rather understated entrance. I thought… that kid would be much more flamboyant!”
The chestnut-haired man took a deep breath and said, “Our Aurors—I mean Goldstein and Grimm—conducted standard contact and search. His trunk contained only some travel necessities, books, and a wand. Nothing…remarkable was found.”
"Furthermore, there were no abnormal spatial expansion magic fluctuations detected on him, his clothes were normal, his pockets were normal, and none of the detection instruments issued any warnings."
“Surprising, isn’t it?” another person in the room laughed. “But it’s alright, I didn’t expect to succeed right away anyway… Be patient, my dear friend, hunting always requires a long wait and patience.”
“But…did you see the child?” the chestnut-haired man said. “It’s eerily calm, like a deep pool. You can’t even hear a sound if you throw a stone in. It’s easier to stir things up with that old madman Moody and Remus Lupin.”
"Even if he's as calm as a deep pool, hasn't he had obvious emotional fluctuations?"
Another person confidently said, "Let's find a way to release that reporter! We need a mad dog with no scruples to bite a hole in the shield of those British!"
(End of this chapter)