Just as Selena was hesitating whether to follow Sirius's suggestion, the chime of the elevator announced another arrival.
A group of wizards burst onto the floor urgently through the corridor. Leading them was Uriel, his face flushed from what must have been a hasty sprint from the hotel. Behind him were his team members, the same ones who had been maintaining surveillance on Bryan.
"I received your message, Selena. What on earth is going on?"
After shouldering his way through the group of Aurors blocking the doorway and squeezing into the already cramped office, Uriel immediately demanded answers, his breathing was still slightly difficult.
Then, as his eyes adjusted to the lamplight and swept the room, his attention was drawn to the phoenix perched on the light fixture quietly observing the chaos below.
After a moment of open-mouthed surprise at the mythical creature's presence, Uriel's gaze dropped to the man gripping Selena's arm.
"You're... Sirius Black from the British magical community?"
Uriel said with a deepening frown, his naturally arched eyebrows climbing even higher on his forehead. "What are you doing here?"
So, Selena quickly explained everything. As her narration continued, Uriel's expression gradually transformed. His face cycled through disbelief, shock, and finally settled into something almost comical looking as if he had been struck by lightning and was still trying to process the fact that he was somehow still standing.
"So, the Muggle who delivered your food was actually Morgans, whom we had previously arrested," Uriel repeated slowly. "He disguised himself as a Muggle delivery person to poison you and tried to steal Mr. Watson's fang."
He paused, shaking his head with difficulty.
"He's also very likely kidnapped Mr. Graves. This is absurd—utterly absurd. How could he possibly escape from the detention cell and overpower Mr. Graves?"
"It's not impossible."
Unexpectedly, it was Selena who offered an explanation. With a grim expression, she said:
"We reviewed tonight's visitation records for the detention cells while Kobe was checking the situation underground. Earlier this evening, Mr. Graves went to the detention area through the fireplace in his office.
I suspect he may have wanted to interrogate the vampire privately. He was probably trying to find out what we haven't yet uncovered through standard interrogation: the vampire's true purpose in collecting those dangerous magical creatures."
She paused, her expression darkening further.
"Mr. Graves is thorough and brilliant, but he might have given the vampire an opportunity in his confidence. These dark creatures don't necessarily need a wand to cast their evil magic. The vampire could have subdued Mr. Graves through surprise, through those very dark powers. Then he hid him somewhere through some means, then brazenly left the Capitol building disguised as Mr. Graves to steal the fang from Watson's possession—"
Amelia glanced at Selena with slight surprise. She didn't like this witch who had burst into her home so aggressively. But she had to admit, that as an Auror, Selena's reasoning was very clear.
"All right, even assuming what you're saying is true—"
Uriel's frown remained etched deeply into his face. He shifted his attention to Amelia, and his eyes narrowed. "But how did you know that the vampire left the hotel and then broke into the Capitol? You were all knocked unconscious, weren't you? That potion doesn't wear off quickly, it should have kept you under for hours at minimum."
He took a step closer.
"And more importantly, why didn't you contact me when you discovered what was happening? I was right across the hall from Mr. Watson's room, wasn't I?"
Amelia's brow twitched. She finally understood, with uncomfortable clarity, the keenness and professionalism of her more experienced colleagues—the subtle flaws she'd left in her hasty explanation, born from panic and the urgency of pursuit, had been precisely identified by Uriel's scrutiny.
Her mind raced, searching for a response that wouldn't deepen their suspicion or, worse, implicate Bryan in anything that might restrict his movements further.
"That's because Bryan didn't completely lose consciousness—"
Sirius interjected smoothly. He released Selena's arm and straightened up, meeting Uriel's suspicious gaze with unflinching straightforwardness.
"Bryan resisted part of the drug's effects. He had tracking magic on his fang which he'd prepared earlier, I believe. When he sensed that the vampire had broken into the MACUSA building, he arranged for us to pursue while he maintained the appearance of being unconscious."
Sirius's gray eyes remained steady, selling the improvised explanation with confidence.
"When we entered the building, the wizards guarding below told us that the only person who entered the building before us was Graves. Combined with the tracking signal leading us here, we deduced that he had already fallen into the vampire's hands."
"But how did you know—" Uriel began, but Sirius cut him off.
"Because Bryan speculated that the vampire, taking the extraordinary risk to break into the MACUSA building again was very likely after the Nundu that he failed to obtain," Sirius said with rising impatience, his voice taking on a sharp edge.
"Now, if we continue wasting time here debating how we discovered this plot, I'm afraid the only thing we'll be able to do is collect Graves's body from wherever the vampire has stashed it."
After a brief, tense silence, Selena turned to look at the returned Alex, who had been hovering anxiously near the doorway.
"Did you find out where the vampire who just used this office's fireplace went?"
"We figured it out—"
The wizard named Alex stepped forward. He said in a deep voice with confusion and concern, "Isaac from the Department of Magical Transportation helped me check the Floo Network logs. The vampire went to a..."
He hesitated, clearly uncomfortable with what he was about to reveal, then continued. "A villa belonging to a Muggle on Manhattan Island. The address is registered to a non-magical resident, but the fireplace is somehow connected to the network."
A ripple of surprised murmurs ran through the Aurors.
A Muggle's house normally wouldn't, couldn't be allowed to connect to the Floo Network. It was against multiple regulations, violated the Statute of Secrecy. This certainly wasn't the vampire's doing. Rather, this was clearly an illegal operation by their direct superior, Mr. Graves.
However, for someone as powerful and influential as Trask Graves, this sort of thing wasn't necessarily a major problem. It seemed that Mr. Graves had incorporated an unknown Muggle house into the Floo Network to use as his "secret base,".
Experienced Aurors, especially those dealing with dangerous criminals and dark wizards, often prepared safe houses for themselves.
After committing a series of horrific crimes, the vampire would have urgently needed a safe place to hide, somewhere off the grid and unknown to authorities. So, he must have interrogated Mr. Graves to extract the location—this was the Aurors' logical conjecture.
After a brief, intense discussion with various Aurors offering opinions, Selena accepted Sirius's earlier suggestion. The final decision was made: she, Uriel, Sirius, and Amelia would go to the Muggle villa first, forming an advance reconnaissance team.
With the combined magical power of the four of them, if there was only one vampire at the house, they would be more than sufficient to handle it.
The remaining Aurors would stand by at the Security Department, maintaining a state of high alert and ready to provide backup at any moment if they encountered a large-scale attack or if the situation proved more complex than anticipated.
Fawkes could bridge the distance instantly if reinforcements became necessary.
"Fawkes—"
Sirius looked up at the phoenix still perched on the light fixture. "Stay here and don't move. If you hear my summons, bring these Aurors along with you. Can you do that?"
Fawkes stretched its wings, raised its head to emit a melodious cry, then nodded at Sirius.
After the bright emerald flames of the Floo Network faded from view, Sirius was the first to appear in Graves's safe house.
The moment his feet touched solid ground, he rolled out of the fireplace, his wand was already drawn and extended. His gaze began scanning the surroundings with precision.
After confirming the area was safe, he breathed a sigh of relief and slowly stood up from his defensive crouch. Behind him, Amelia and the others emerged from the fireplace one after another.
"Looks like we found the right place—"
Sirius gestured with his chin toward the floor, lowering his voice.
On the floor, a series of large animal footprints extended from the fireplace, following the spiral staircase up to the second floor. Apparently, these belonged to the controlled Nundu.
The first floor of the villa was clear at a glance, and listening carefully, there was no sound from the second floor either.
Apart from Amelia, everyone here was an experienced wizard who'd been through combat situations before. After Sirius and the two Aurors from MACUSA exchanged glances, they simultaneously raised their wands and cast Disillusionment Charms on themselves.
Seeing them do this, Amelia quickly followed suit.
Sirius took the lead, Amelia was sandwiched in the middle, and Selena and Uriel covered the rear—they used this formation to climb the spiral staircase and enter the second floor.
The Nundu's footprints on the floor helpfully showed them the way, eliminating the need for time-consuming room-by-room searches that might trigger alarms or alert their enemy.
The four followed the tracks down a hallway to what appeared to be the villa's study. Sirius approached the opening with extreme caution, pressed his back against the wall beside the doorframe, then quickly poked his head around for a fast visual sweep before jerking back.
After processing what he'd seen, he removed his Disillusionment Charm with a whispered counter-spell, becoming fully visible once more.
"There's another fireplace here," He announced in a low voice with disappointment. "I think they've already left, moved to another location."
This was a very ordinary study, neither grim nor excessively luxurious. Selena and Uriel, who followed Sirius in and removed their disillusionment, immediately split up—one quickly walked toward the desk, while the other toward the fireplace.
Click!
Selena pointed her wand at the desk drawer with a unlocking charm, and it immediately sprang open with a soft sound of releasing mechanisms.
Inside, neatly stacked letters were arranged in chronological order. Selena pulled out the top envelope carefully, holding it by the edges. After scanning the address written, she paused briefly, her expression shifting.
"This house does indeed belong to Mr. Graves," She said, "I found a letter Mr. Scamander wrote to him."
Selena showed Sirius the sender and recipient information on the envelope, "Newt Scamander" in the return address, "Trask Graves" as the recipient then carefully placed the letter back in the drawer exactly as she'd found it. She locked it again with a flick of her wand.
This was Mr. Graves's private letters, and despite the emergency circumstances, they had no right to read personal letters.
"I don't know if this is good news or not, but—"
After casting several small diagnostic spells on the fireplace, watching the results with increasing concern, Uriel stepped back from the hearth. He turned to face the others gathered in the study, and his voice carried an unmistakable heaviness.
"This fireplace is special. Very special, actually. It's a one-way reciprocal fireplace. It can only travel between two fixed locations, nowhere else. This means we don't need to waste time investigating where the vampire took Mr. Graves."
He gestured at the dark hearth.
"As long as we throw some Floo powder into this fireplace and step through, we'll appear at the correct location."
"Isn't that good news?" Amelia blurted out, her voice carrying genuine confusion.
But in response to her question, both Uriel and Selena remained silent, their expressions somber and somewhat gloomy.
Sirius was also confused for a moment, but he immediately understood. He explained to Amelia with a somewhat gleeful tone:
"I'm guessing this fireplace isn't actually connected to the Floo Network at all. It's completely private. Compared to privately connecting a Muggle residence's fireplace to the Floo Network, which is already quite serious, this is much, much more serious.
If this were in Britain, this charge alone would get you at least two years in Azkaban. Your Mr. Graves has been operating with quite a bit of autonomy, hasn't he?"
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