Harry Potter: The Golden Viper

"How did you find Fraser?" Louise asked in a trembling, grief-stricken tone, her voice sounding barely clear above the patter of rain against the balcony.

Whoosh—

A sudden gust of wind swept across the balcony, disrupting the steady trajectory of the drizzling ice rain that had been falling to the ground. The door between the bedroom and balcony shook violently, and an intense, bone-chilling cold assaulted the invisible warm barrier that Bryan had created with his magic.

Louise shivered uncontrollably from the freezing cold that seemed to penetrate her soul as her thin sweater was providing no protection.

Bryan didn't immediately answer the grief-stricken girl's question, recognizing that this was neither the time nor the place for such a difficult conversation.

"Why don't we go inside and talk properly, Louise—"

He spoke in a soft, reassuring tone as he carefully stepped forward to gently support her trembling arm with his steady hand, helping her rise from her crouched position on the cold ground.

Louise remained utterly silent, her eyes were downcast and distant, showing no resistance to his assistance.

The fireplace in the bedroom had been unnoticeably lit at some point during their absence, the flames casted a warm, golden glow throughout the space, making the elegant room as warm as a natural hot spring.

Louise's facial features, previously tightly contracted from the penetrating cold, gradually relaxed as the warmth enveloped her, and her terrible, overwhelming mood of despair seemed to ease somewhat, though the deep sadness remained in her eyes.

Bryan carefully guided the still-shivering Louise to the sofa positioned by the crackling fireplace. Then, he walked across the carpet to the bedside table, took the breakfast tray that had been prepared for Louise, and placed it gently on the coffee table in front of her. But judging by Louise's still distant expression and the stiff shoulders, she didn't seem to have much appetite.

"If you don't want some hot, freshly made pumpkin soup to warm your empty stomach, I can certainly have someone bring you a strong cup of coffee to perk you up a bit—" Bryan said with a gentle, encouraging smile.

"Oh, no need to trouble yourself, this is perfectly fine—"

Louise pursed her pale lips, her expression finally softening somewhat as she recognized his genuine attempt to comfort her. She hesitantly picked up the porcelain bowl with her trembling fingers that were still numb from the cold.

After a few hesitant sips of the steaming, fragrant soup, which unbeknownst to her contained a carefully regulated Elation Potion to ease her distress, her tense nerves immediately began to relax, as the potion's subtle magic seemed to be working through her system.

Hunger, which had been completely suppressed by her overwhelming grief, suddenly seized this unexpected opportunity to emerge with vengeance, and Louise, who had initially intended to merely humor Bryan's kindness, found her hand reaching for the golden-crusted pumpkin pie and roasted bacon arranged on the plate.

Bryan maintained his gentle, patient smile and remained tactfully quiet, showing absolutely no signs of impatience or urgency as she ate, allowing her this small comfort in the midst of her tragedy.

"I'm so sorry—"

After receiving the disturbing phone call yesterday evening, Louise had immediately abandoned her dinner and rushed frantically to Cokeworth. She hadn't eaten anything at all for well over twelve hours. Once her suppressed appetite finally awakened, she hungrily devoured the considerable breakfast on the plate like a whirlwind, barely pausing between bites.

"I should have left some for you—"

Looking down at the now clean plate with embarrassment, Louise bit her oil-slicked lips nervously, her pale cheeks flushing pink.

"Please don't worry about me, I've already eaten—"

Bryan handed Louise a napkin with a reassuring gesture. With his excellent Legilimency skills and the formidable mental powers that came naturally to a great wizard of his caliber, he sensitively perceived that the girl's turbulent emotions had stabilized considerably.

He intentionally leaned back into the soft sofa, allowing his tense muscles to relax slightly, and prepared to deliver the carefully crafted explanation he had prepared beforehand.

"The situation is like this—" Bryan said in a calm voice designed to soothe her nerves further.

"It all began two days ago, at a school in London, a gifted young girl named Hermione Granger received what appeared to be a normal package through the regular mail service.

This young girl consistently outshines her peers in both academic achievements and strength of character, and has therefore developed something of a minor celebrity status in certain specialized fields.

She frequently receives plenty of gifts and letters from admiring fans all over the country, so when she received that particular package from an unknown sender, she didn't become even the least bit suspicious of its contents. Instead, she casually took it directly from the post office and enthusiastically opened it with her friend at a little coffee shop nearby—"

Louise listened attentively to Bryan's detailed explanation, her journalistic instincts visibly awakening as she seemed to regain some of her professional composure, her back straightened slightly and her eyes became more focused.

"Inside that package was a bomb—"

"A bomb?!"

Louise, who had been relatively calm and composed until this, suddenly tensed up, her entire body went rigid with alarm as she exclaimed loudly,

"Yes, unfortunately—"

Bryan pursed his lips and continued in a solemn tone,

"The innocent girl was severely injured in the unexpected explosion and remains in critical condition at the specialized hospital where she's receiving intensive care. The devastating blast also affected several innocent Mug— I mean, innocent customers who happened to be enjoying their coffee in the shop at that unfortunate moment."

It took Louise several long seconds to fully process this shocking information. Contrary to Bryan's expectations, she didn't immediately ask the obvious question of who might have sent the deadly bomb, but instead said with a deeply confused, suspicious look,

"That's extremely strange, Mr. Watson—I haven't heard a single word about this terrible incident—"

Louise frowned deeply, her skepticism obvious in her gaze.

"Perhaps you've momentarily forgotten, Mr. Watson, that I'm a reporter for the London Daily... well, technically still an intern learning the ropes, but if such a serious and typical 'newsworthy' bombing incident had genuinely occurred anywhere in London, the newspaper would certainly have received immediate notification of it through our network of sources, but—"

Louise opened her lips, which had finally regained some healthy color from the nourishing meal, her voice became more confident as she spoke.

"I haven't heard even the slightest whispers of such an incident in the newsroom or from any of my colleagues—"

Looking intently at the increasingly confused Muggle girl with her body visibly tensed in suspicion, Bryan raised his eyebrows slightly, his breath catching subtly as he realized his oversight. He had to secretly admit that he had indeed completely forgotten that Louise was employed as a reporter for a well-known Muggle newspaper, which complicated matters considerably.

"Well, you see, Louise—"

But within a fraction of a moment, Bryan's mind had formulated a plausible explanation. He spoke in a intentionally deep, authoritative voice, his eyes flashing with intensity,

"A bombing of this nature... this isn't just an ordinary assault case by any standard. It can be completely defined as a calculated terrorist attack with potentially far-reaching consequences. If the frightening news were to get out prematurely, before we could capture those responsible, it could potentially cause widespread panic throughout the entire city. That's precisely why we were specifically ordered to intervene immediately and investigate with the utmost discretion—"

"Oh! That's absolutely outrageous!"

Louise immediately showed dissatisfaction at this explanation, her journalistic ethics seemed clearly offended, and spoke with passionate conviction, her earlier grief even seemed to be temporarily forgotten in her indignation.

"Forgive my directness, Mr. Watson, but the government's thinking is deeply wrong and dangerous. The government always does these kinds of foolish, secretive things; this certainly isn't new or surprising. But ordinary people have the undeniable right to know about dangers in their midst, Mr. Watson. This is our basic democratic right as citizens, and you and your secretive agency have absolutely no moral or legal authority to arbitrarily violate it!"

Louise's sudden, unexpectedly vehement reaction left Bryan momentarily bewildered by her passion. However, he very perceptively and smoothly interrupted what was clearly becoming an impending torrent of righteous words about freedom of the press.

"We can certainly discuss this important philosophical matter in detail later, Louise—" Bryan waved his hand, redirecting the conversation. "Right now, we're discussing the much more pressing matter of Fraser and his connection to these events."

"Oh, Fraser!"

Louise abruptly came back to her senses with a start, her expression immediately becoming restrained once more, but her eyes revealed a complex mixture of emotions—grief, confusion, and something else Bryan couldn't quite identify.

"Are you suggesting that the bomb that seriously injured that innocent girl was actually sent by Fraser?"

Bryan nodded slightly, his expression serious but compassionate.

"We've traced the package's path backward. Fraser personally handed the package containing the concealed bomb to the innocent owner of a small pub located near Charing Cross, and then specifically asked him to forward it to the girl. Based on the detailed information provided by the thoroughly questioned pub owner, we searched along the trail and finally traced the origin back to Cokeworth late last night."

Looking at the downcast girl, Bryan softened his tone further.

"But by the time we urgently arrived at the location... Fraser had already tragically lost his life. You understand what this inevitably means, don't you, Louise?"

Louise nodded slowly, her eyes filling with fresh tears. As an intern reporter with considerable experience in covering crime stories, her logical thinking abilities were stronger than the average emotional Muggle.

"—It means that Fraser was directed by someone behind the scenes... he... he was manipulated and used—"

Rational thought couldn't completely overcome her overwhelming emotional response; Louise covered her face with her trembling hands, and her voice broke into heart-wrenching sobs that shook her entire body.

But her demeanor beneath the grief caused a suspicious gleam to flash briefly in Bryan's eyes.

The grief she showed at the death of a close relative was perfectly normal and expected, but she seemed strangely too accepting of the shocking fact that Fraser had been manipulated into sending a deadly bomb to an innocent girl, almost as if she had somehow anticipated something like this happening all along!

And her spontaneous response when she initially answered the phone last night—"Are you one of those people who bewitched him"—was ultimately what had made Bryan decisively determine to meet this girl in person, sensing that she possessed crucial information.

"Where is Fraser's body now?"

A few agonizing minutes later, Louise's wracking sobs gradually subsided into occasional hiccups. She looked directly at Bryan with bloodshot, swollen eyes, her gaze was intense despite her obvious distress.

Bryan perfectly understood Louise's underlying meaning and desperate need for closing. Although he felt genuinely sorry for her loss, he still said with regret,

"I'm truly sorry, Louise, but this matter is particularly special and extremely serious. We need to... um, you understand, the relevant specialized departments are frantically looking for vital clues from him... we simply can't return him to you just yet—"

This was undoubtedly a complete fabrication. The powerful, merciless people who had orchestrated this event had cleaned up the crime scene incredibly thoroughly; absolutely nothing remained of the unfortunate Fraser, including his physical body.

"I always knew deep down that he would eventually make a terribly big mistake—" Louise said in a hoarse, resigned voice after a long moment of heavy silence, her words surprising Bryan.

Bryan's attentive eyelids trembled slightly at this unexpected statement. Maintaining a neutral posture of sympathetic listening, he calmly said,

"Can you please tell me everything you know, Louise, about Fraser... and specifically about those mysterious people you mentioned who somehow bewitched him?"

Forcing her to recall these painful memories at the traumatic time of a relative's death was indeed cruel and insensitive, but Bryan didn't want to use even more 'cruel' magical methods on the grieving Louise, so he could only gently coax the information from her through conventional questioning.

"Fraser wasn't always like this, you know—"

Undisguised hatred suddenly flashed in Louise's reddened eyes, transforming her grief-stricken face.

"Some people deliberately deceived Fraser. They told him this world has real magic."

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