"Pop," Lupin and Sirius instantly appeared in a bare grove of trees.
The ground was originally covered with a thick layer of snow, which had been trampled into a web of overlapping footprints, some of which suddenly vanished, just as their own footprints suddenly appeared.
"This should be the place." Sirius looked around and said, "I've been near here with James before."
"Hmm, let's go check it out." Lupin tugged at his scarf, his face somber.
They walked forward on the snowy ground, towards a manor at the end of their sight, its tall walls stretching endlessly, nearly enclosing an entire mountaintop.
A nearby wanderer noticed the two men and warily approached them, one hand always in his pocket, the creases in his clothes vaguely showing the outline of a slender magic wand.
Before he could speak up, Sirius took out a piece of parchment and shook it, font in emerald green script appeared gradually.
The wanderer's expression immediately relaxed as he took the parchment and glanced at it.
"British Ministry of Magic?" The wanderer's English carried a thick Austrian accent and his voice sounded somewhat gruff. He said, "I've seen quite a few of you today... Is Dumbledore coming?"
"That I don't know." Sirius said expressionlessly, "Dumbledore has his own plans."
"Of course, of course... After all, it's Dumbledore..."
The wanderer muttered, returning the parchment to Sirius, saying, "Go on inside, but don't expect to find much, just a bunch of poor muggles."
"Has the matter here been noticed by nearby muggles?" Sirius asked, tucking the parchment into his pocket.
"What do you think? They're like cockroaches, living everywhere. The first to arrive on the scene were muggles."
The wanderer yawned, tiredly saying, "Luckily a wizard lived nearby, and he stopped the muggle before they could call the police. We tried to apply the Forgetfulness Spell on every muggle who saw this place, but... who knows?"
He shrugged helplessly, "I heard muggles' networks are quite advanced now, no one can guarantee whether the news got out."
Sirius thanked him and walked with Lupin towards the manor.
Behind them, the wanderer continued to pace back and forth, ready to drive away any intruding muggles.
After walking a certain distance, Lupin asked, "Austrian Ministry of Magic?"
"Yeah," Sirius said. "As you know, they are jointly responsible with the German Ministry of Magic for overseeing Nimongard. Ever since Grindelwald's escape, neither side has gotten any rest, the situation is extremely tense. If Kingsley hadn't helped me get this certification, I wouldn't be able to bring you inside today."
Lupin frowned while looking at the increasingly large manor ahead and the foreign wizards busy nearby.
Grindelwald's attacks actually occurred at five places not in the United Kingdom, two of which were private islands in the sea, the other three located in the United States, France, and Italy.
This manor is within the borders of Italy, close to the boundary line between Germany and Austria.
Italian wizards are famously slack and procrastinating, with extremely low work efficiency, let alone the fact that the mastermind behind this attack is the terrifying Dark Lord.
The Italian Ministry of Magic is avoiding involvement as much as possible, using "this is an international incident" as a reason to pull the German and Austrian Ministries of Magic in, while warmly inviting the British Ministry of Magic for assistance, staying out of the limelight themselves.
Thus, Lupin couldn't see any Italian wizards here, only German and Austrian ones, all speaking German to communicate, of which Lupin could only understand a part.
He didn't rashly interject, but silently listened and watched, recalling the information he received before setting off—
...
"I'll tell you the truth, Mr. Dumbledore."
FMC's person in charge grimaced, finally buckling under pressure, murmured, "There are three layers of encryption in Flow Mirror's design, even if using identical Connecting Spells, one can't easily intercept our signals."
"To achieve this, aside from Aslan's Magic Workshop's Alchemy Workshop, only Vid Gray could do it... But the Alchemy Workshop is impossible, lately everyone's been working overtime for the Communication Pea..."
"Moreover, each alchemist in the workshop only holds parts of the technology, accomplishing this would need at least three people working together, it might... might be possible... but even then it's only a possibility. Because creating doesn't equal cracking."
The manager seemed to think Vid Gray, so young, had become a henchman of Grindelwald, yet he felt sorrowful, disbelief, worried Witch Pure Party would soon master various magic items—especially the method of making Flow Mirror, impacting their business, a complex expression on his face.
"Actually, a week ago, Vid Gray went missing during an outing." Dumbledore frowned and said, "I've always suspected the person who acted was Grindelwald, now it seems... indeed it's him."
...
Having learned this, Sirius had once privately comforted:
"It's not your fault, Moonface, at least not entirely."
"If Grindelwald acted personally, who could resist him? Even if he didn't succeed then, can you keep the children confined indoors? If they resolved to take someone, you can't stop them."
"I'm actually relieved you didn't promptly notice any anomaly, otherwise I might be losing a friend now, Moonface."