French Ministry of Magic, Auror Office, Temporary Interrogation Room.

At this moment, nearly all the high-ranking officials of the French Auror Office had gathered here. The director of the Auror Headquarters, Laurent Girard, sat at the foremost position, with over a dozen Auror's Division Chiefs seated behind her.

On the interrogation chair in front of them sat a middle-aged wizard with a vacant expression and dull, empty eyes.

This wizard bore distinct Middle Eastern features… undoubtedly the prisoner the Aurors had finally captured in Lyon: Thomas Shafiq.

A former Death Eater, and the prime suspect in the abduction case of the Flamel couple.

Yet, his current mental state was clearly not that of someone fit for interrogation.

What's more, the Aurors had no means of extracting the information they needed from his mind… even with approval from the Wizarding Ethics Committee.

The French Aurors, who had initially been exhilarated by Shafiq's capture, now had grim expressions.

Under Girard's direction, experts in Memory Charms and mind magic, summoned from both the Ministry and wizarding hospital, had conducted thorough examinations of Shafiq.

In the end, they came to the same conclusion.

This Death Eater in front of them, who once served a certain Dark Lord but eventually escaped legal punishment, now had a mind completely hollowed out.

An excessive number of Memory Charms had erased all his thoughts, reducing him to a state of near-mindlessness. There was no hope of retrieving any useful memories from him.

Just then, Yuma entered the interrogation room, accompanied by Severus and Lupin.

Seeing Severus, Girard stood up immediately. Without any preamble, she cut straight to the point.

"I assume Yuma has already briefed you on the details, Mr. Snape. Given the current situation, do you have any solutions to offer?"

Severus did not answer immediately. Instead, he first approached Shafiq.

As an expert in Legilimency and Occlumency, he was highly skilled in mind-related magic.

But after merely observing Shafiq's condition, his brow furrowed deeply. He then drew his wand from his sleeve, pressing its tip against Shafiq's temple. Slowly rotating the wand, he murmured an incantation under his breath.

However, aside from a faint silver glow at the wand's tip, nothing was extracted from Shafiq's mind.

After a few more diagnostic spells, Severus shook his head and delivered his final verdict.

"The excessive use of Memory Charms has caused severe, irreversible damage to his cognitive functions. This isn't something that can be fixed by simply lifting the charms. Right now, aside from his heart still beating and his lungs involuntarily drawing breath, he is practically no different from a corpse."

Hearing Severus's assessment, which aligned with the other experts' conclusions, Girard pressed further, unwilling to give up.

"Is there no potion that could restore him?"

Severus turned to her and recounted an incident that had occurred in Britain.

"After You-Know-Who's disappearance, a group of his fanatical followers became desperate to bring him back. They targeted a pair of Aurors, the Longbottoms, subjecting them to repeated Cruciatus Curses. The poor couple survived but were left permanently insane. The curse had inflicted irreversible damage to their minds. They've been in St. Mungo's for eight years now. Shafiq's condition is similar."

Severus's words plunged the room into silence.

The French Aurors were filled with frustration. They had pinned their hopes on Shafiq as the key to cracking the case.

When they had first captured him, everyone had believed they were close to finding Nicolas Flamel and his wife. But now, the outcome was one they could hardly accept.

Someone slammed a fist against the table.

"This is monstrous! Those people are utterly monstrous!"

Had Shafiq simply been killed with the Killing Curse and later discovered by the Aurors, their anger might not have been so intense.

But his current state was nothing short of a taunt from the perpetrators.

The Aurors hadn't captured him… the culprits had reduced him to this state before dumping him for the Aurors to find.

If they could do this to one of their own, what did that mean for the Flamels?

Could the elderly couple possibly be safe?

This unspoken question hung heavily in the air, leaving the interrogation room in dead silence.

After a long pause, Girard finally let out a sigh and stood up, her voice icy with resolve.

"This is an insult to us."

"If we tolerate an insult of this magnitude…"

"Then the French Auror Office might as well disband."

The room remained silent, but soon, one Auror Chief rose from their seat. Then another followed.

One by one, the Auror Chiefs stood and left the interrogation room without a word.

Their faces were stern, their hearts burning with fury.

As Girard had said, this was an outright humiliation.

Not just an insult to one person, but a slap in the face to every Auror in France!

Now, they had no choice but to escalate their response.

Previously, the Aurors' nationwide search had been extensive but restrained… out of courtesy, they had avoided putting too much pressure on well-connected pure-blood families with influence and status.

But now, such considerations no longer mattered.

After everyone else had left the interrogation room, leaving only Severus, Lupin, and Yuma behind, Girard solemnly expressed her gratitude to Severus.

"I've been briefed about the incident at the orphanage. The children's safety was ensured thanks to your timely intervention. I hear you've been reviewing records in the archives?"

Severus had no reason to conceal this, so he nodded.

"There are still some leads that require further investigation."

"Yuma will assist you with anything you need. If his clearance isn't sufficient, he can bring the request to me."

Severus said nothing more. He understood that while Girard had clearly expressed her full support, certain records were likely off-limits to a British wizard like himself.

Still, he wasn't overly concerned. Cross-referencing the photographs with the archives was an important step, but not his only option.

If this avenue yielded results, excellent. If not, he would simply find another way in.

Soon after, Severus and Lupin left the interrogation room and returned to the archives, where they began the painstaking task of comparing the photograph taken outside the apartment building with Ministry's records. Three Aurors assigned to the archives assisted them.

The Ministry's internal shifts quickly rippled through the entire French wizarding world.

Aurors launched sweeping raids on black markets they had previously turned a blind eye to, making arrests en masse. Teams were also dispatched to several 'notorious' pure-blood families, subjecting them to searches and interrogations.

This provoked outrage among the high-and-mighty pure-blood wizards, who scrambled to leverage their Ministry connections and control over the press to condemn the Aurors' actions.

But to their shock, their influence within the Ministry proved useless this time.

After the afternoon's interrogation, Girard had met with the French Minister for Magic. The hour-long discussion had secured the Aurors' actions the highest political endorsement… rendering the pure-blood families powerless to interfere.

Tension gripped the French wizarding community as swathes of unregistered wizards were rounded up for questioning.

Meanwhile, Aurors maintained surveillance on the Flamels' orphanage on the outskirts of Paris, leaving no stone unturned.

While the French Aurors mobilized, Severus and Lupin spent the entire afternoon in the archives. By nightfall, however, they had yet to uncover anything significant.

As darkness fell, the bustling Ministry emptied, leaving only essential personnel on duty.

In the dim, flickering lamplight, creatures that hid in the shadows by day began to stir.

The French Ministry's black cats, the small, feline creatures that, much like the enchanted paper airplanes of the British Ministry, handled message deliveries, also served They prowled the corridors in groups, their unassuming appearances belying their vigilance.

And just in the corridor of the Auror Office, several black cats were licking their fur to clean themselves.

That evening, as several cats paused to groom themselves in the Auror Office's hallway, a faint rustling made their ears twitch.

The felines immediately froze, ears pricked, scanning for the source of the sound.

But after a moment of listening, they detected nothing further. After a few more cautious circles, they dismissed the incident as trivial and moved on.

Meanwhile, in his bedroom, Harry suddenly jolted awake, sitting bolt upright in bed.

[Find... must find it... must find the thing... This is an order…]

A strange, hissing voice slithered through his mind, wrenching him from sleep.

Blinking in the dim glow of the nightlight, Harry glanced around the room.

Apart from Draco, who is fast asleep in the other bed, the room was empty.