Just now, when Grimmauld Place was mentioned, Tver hadn't had a clear picture in mind. But standing here in this small square, his memory gradually sharpened. This was the home of Sirius Black, the ancestral estate of the Black family.
But today's target wasn't the Blacks—it was Lupin. So was Lupin here to revisit the past, or to track down the escaped Sirius, hoping to capture an old friend and send him back to prison?
Tver looked over the surrounding houses. They were similar in style, yet every one of them carried an eerie gloom, a stark contrast to the lively Diagon Alley they had just left. Some windows were shattered, paint peeling off the doors like exposed wounds.
But Lupin's trail certainly wouldn't reveal itself so easily.
"Ha!"
Tver shot him a displeased glare.
"What's so funny! This is an emergency!"
Tver couldn't guarantee that Marvolio showing up here as an Auror wouldn't trigger a chain reaction among werewolves like Greyback. Nor could he guarantee that Lupin's fate would follow the story's version—safe and sound, returning to teach. If anything went wrong, he'd have no idea where to find another suitable Defence Against the Dark Arts professor.
Yet Marvolio ignored his anxiety entirely, laughing freely.
"My clever Tver!" he wheezed between laughs. "If Lupin and Greyback had started fighting in the street, the Aurors would've sniffed it out ages ago!"
"Sniffed it out? Are you implying that you Aurors are dogs?"
"..."
The laughter vanished from Marvolio's face. "…Let's look for signs of Lupin."
Marvolio led Tver through Grimmauld Place, moving with practiced familiarity as he searched for suspicious traces. "If they really fought, it'd either be somewhere no one could see—or they'd have dealt with any Muggle witnesses." He deliberately searched the more secluded areas.
"Don't you Aurors investigate when a wanted criminal is sighted?" Tver asked as he followed, relaxed enough to chat.
"Wanted criminals are still wizards. Apparating once or twice is normal. We only move in after confirming their main hideout multiple times. Otherwise we'd spook them, and they'd be even harder to catch."
"So you can determine a fugitive's hideout?"
"They're fugitives—how could they have a fixed hideout? They usually lie low in Muggle neighborhoods, then appear in wizard areas where they can hunt."
"Other Aurors catch one or two fugitives by sheer luck."
"But I'm different." Marvolio stopped and looked back smugly. "Dark wizards always leave traces—more or less—and those traces help me track them easily!"
Tver turned his head away, unimpressed, and looked around the alley-like space. Well, it wasn't exactly an alley. It was fairly wide, just hidden by surrounding buildings and easy to overlook. But unlike other alleys, the ground here was uneven.
"Werewolf corpses are hard to dispose of, and their Transfiguration skills are poor, so they often leave obvious signs like this." Marvolio tapped a slightly elevated mound with his toe. "There's a werewolf corpse buried here."
He pretended to sniff the air, as though detecting a scent.
"There should be a Muggle corpse too—likely an innocent bystander caught up in this."
Tver didn't answer. Instead, his expression grew solemn as he crouched before the mound, inspecting it carefully. Could this be Lupin?
As Marvolio moved his foot, the raised patch slowly split open down the middle, revealing two bodies stacked beneath. The upper one was a man dressed like a vagrant, a massive wound across his neck nearly severing his throat.
The corpse beneath was dressed little better, robes tattered and patched. The only slightly better feature was that the body was intact—no additional wounds—and the hair was thicker. But the face was smeared with the vagrant's blood, making identification impossible for now.
A werewolf!
"Struck by the Killing Curse," said Marvolio with absolute certainty, "I believe, if Dumbledore's description is accurate, that Lupin wouldn't resort to using the Killing Curse."
Hearing this, Tver's heart tightened. Lupin truly disdained using the Killing Curse. Only Greyback's pack of dark wizard werewolves would wield it so recklessly. So this was Lupin?
Damn it, had he arrived too late?!
"But he probably isn't Lupin," Marvolio remarked, amused by Tver's tense expression. "You can barely make out surprise in his expression. Probably just friendly fire from his own team."
"Don't doubt it. Werewolves rarely get proper education. Their magic is all over the place, and accidentally hurting their own is common."
"That's exactly why I've always looked down on them."
Tver slowly stood up.
"Couldn't you have told me sooner..."
"Isn't it perfectly normal for me to speak slowly?" Marvolio blinked innocently twice, hands spread wide, though the slight upturn of his lips betrayed his smug satisfaction.
"So how exactly are we supposed to track down Lupin using these two corpses?" Tver asked.
"Ahem, they're right here." Marvolio pointed triumphantly at the nearby house. "Calm down. Your sharp mind will spot the anomaly here."
Tver obediently quieted himself and soon detected magical fluctuations emanating from behind the wall. He chuckled as he drew his wand.
He had indeed panicked momentarily, failing to notice such obvious signs of combat. It seemed his lack of recent combat had dulled his sensitivity to magical fluctuations. Time to step up his training, he thought, shooting a mischievous glance at Marvolio beside him.
That look made Marvolio's heart skip a beat. He swiftly drew his wand and aimed it at the wall.
A flash of crimson light erupted.
"Boom!"
The wall instantly shattered, and the dust had not even settled when Marvolio charged through the gap.
"Aurors are here!"
...
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