"When do you think those people will leave?"
"Don't know. I heard they came to make trouble for Professor Dumbledore, wanting to drive him away."
"Hmph, a bunch of bad people. The headmaster's so good—why do they want to drive him away?"
"If you ask me, it's 'cause Professor Dumbledore's too good and took away their opportunities..."
The next afternoon, carrying a case and walking down the corridor toward the eighth floor, Evans listened to the whispered discussions of passing students with a somewhat helpless expression.
He couldn't blame the students for wild speculation. After all, since yesterday, Aurors led by Kingsley had been running around the entire school with grim faces, frightening the students quite badly.
Although he could tell that Kingsley was obviously dragging his feet and had no real intention of conducting a proper search, the students couldn't see through such things.
Given Dumbledore's prestige in the school, having a group of Aurors planning to drive Dumbledore away meant the young wizards definitely wouldn't give them friendly faces.
However, Kingsley was surely used to such situations, and the two elite Aurors he'd brought probably wouldn't care much either. Only Tonks suffered. She'd transformed from a once very approachable senior to such a detestable Auror who faced cold stares wherever she went. She probably felt quite a sense of loss.
Hopefully she could adjust in time.
Turning around two corridors, the surrounding crowds gradually became sparse. After identifying the direction, Evans carried his case to the tapestry depicting a troll clubbing Barnabas the Barmy and looked at the blank wall opposite.
Ever since agreeing to help that Sir find his diary, he'd been coming here every few days with Nana, trying to find that book from the room full of junk. But nearly a month had passed with no results, making him somewhat frustrated.
Sir Podmore reported his inquiry progress every few days. He'd nearly questioned all the ghosts and spirits in Hogwarts. Though information related to the Chamber was scarce, he'd collected quite a pile of other intelligence about the castle, making Evans feel rather embarrassed.
So yesterday, he'd taken Nana to the Niffler habitat and packed all the Nifflers around Hogwarts into his case, just for today's operation.
He refused to believe that a mere notebook could evade discovery after more than half a month of searching!
Walking past the blank wall three times, when he opened his eyes again, the smooth door had already appeared before Evans.
Pushing the door open, the cathedral-like enormous room and those piles of junk reaching the ceiling came into view.
Half-kneeling on the ground, Evans opened the case in his hand, patted the case's edge, and spoke softly:
"Come out, all of you."
Nana's head emerged first from the case. She observed the surroundings, then jumped to the case's edge and called into it.
The next second, countless sounds of tiny claws scraping against the ground echoed forth. One Niffler after another emerged from the case, resembling small platypus-like creatures with their long snouts and dark fur, quickly filling the surrounding open space.
Nana stood in the middle of that group of Nifflers like a queen, hands on hips, looking at Evans and calling out proudly:
"Squeak!"
Where to search, how many to find!
"You certainly learnt that phrase well." Laughing as he rubbed Nana's head, Evans looked at the group of Nifflers and spoke softly:
"Just as I said yesterday, I need you to help find a notebook. It's got a light yellow cover with preservation charms applied, and its most distinctive feature is a heart-shaped gap on the cover. Should be easy to identify."
Having said this, he warned with a serious expression:
"If you want to search for treasure, I won't stop you. But there's a cursed wizard statue in this room. Absolutely, absolutely do not approach within three metres of it."
Even if he wanted to stop this group of Nifflers from treasure hunting, he couldn't. After all, seeking treasure was the Nifflers' nature. They couldn't help but want to collect valuables when they saw them, something that couldn't be suppressed by reason alone.
All he could do was ensure this group of Nifflers wouldn't touch that Horcrux spreading death curses. Beyond that, they could take whatever they wanted.
Anyway, this room had existed for thousands of years and accumulated too many ownerless treasures. Better to let the Nifflers take them back for bedding than leave them here gathering dust.
"Squeak!"
The Nifflers called out excitedly, then scattered under Nana's command, diving into the gaps between those piles of junk.
Watching the Nifflers disperse, Evans nodded with satisfaction.
Over a hundred Nifflers searching here for an entire afternoon. Surely they should find that notebook?
After all, notebooks were quite large objects. Once the target was confirmed, finding it shouldn't be too difficult.
Thinking this, Evans put his hands in his pockets and began wandering around the room, occasionally rummaging through nearby junk piles to see if there was anything interesting.
Time slowly passed. As the sun set in the west, the light in the Room of Requirement became somewhat dim, but Evans's heart gradually sank.
Could it be that over a hundred Nifflers still couldn't find that notebook?
Was that thing really still in this room? After so many years, hadn't someone else already taken it?
Just as Evans was thinking this, a somewhat thin Niffler emerged from a nearby junk pile, holding a light yellow-covered notebook in both paws. It ran to Evans's side and held up the notebook, like claiming credit, its small eyes looking at Evans expectantly.
"Found it?" Evans's face showed surprise as he took the notebook from the Niffler's hands and looked at the signature on the cover and spine.
Patrick Delaney-Podmore.
"Well done!"
Vigorously rubbing that Niffler's head, Evans pulled out ten Galleons from his pocket and handed them to the creature.
"Squeak!"
Happily stuffing the money into its pouch, the Niffler began circling around Evans as if celebrating completing its mission.
Evans clapped his hands, calling back the other Nifflers scattered throughout the room.
Small, mole-like creatures with long snouts emerged from the gaps in junk piles one by one, each with bulging pouches showing traces of golden gleam.
Clearly, each had quite a good harvest.
At the end of the group, Nana came around a corner. Her pouch was also bulging, and additionally, she held what appeared to be a manuscript made of parchment. Running to Evans's side, she extended her paw to hand over the manuscript.
"What's this?" Evans examined it curiously.
It was a manuscript decorated with gold trim. The manuscript's owner must've been very extravagant, and precisely because of these golden decorations, it'd been recognised by Nana as treasure worth bringing back.
Taking the manuscript from Nana's hands and opening it to glance at the contents, Evans frowned slightly.
The first two lines of the manuscript looked like something no decent wizard could've written.
[As far as I know, Rowena Ravenclaw died from an accidental illness, so I believe disease can also serve as one of the most powerful weapons for wizards.]
[And my years of research have successfully proven this hypothesis...]