Leonard listened with great interest to the reporters' questions and the Aurors' answers.
All in all, it was just a lot of wrangling. The Aurors barely answered any of the questions, and the reporters simply filled in the blanks themselves, writing who-knew-what into their articles.
Leonard even spotted that illegal Animagus, the infamous Daily Prophet reporter, Rita Skeeter.
After listening to the back-and-forth for a while, Leonard quickly lost interest. If he wanted the truth, he would probably have to go to the scene himself.
So he stood up and prepared to head upstairs.
To his surprise, there were Aurors guarding the staircase as well. When they saw him coming over, they stretched out a hand to stop him.
"No entry for now," one Auror said brusquely. "Come back later."
"My friend is still upstairs. I'm worried about them," Leonard said.
"Oh, spare me. All those reporters say the same thing." The Auror was unimpressed.
Another Auror noticed Leonard's school uniform and stopped his colleague from saying more.
"Sorry, we're still looking into the situation, so you can't go up just like that. If you really have a friend upstairs, tell me your name and I'll verify it. If everything checks out, I'll let you through." This Auror was obviously more patient.
"All right. Her name is Fleur Delacour. She's staying on the third floor," Leonard said.
"Wait, Fleur Delacour? I think I remember..." The Auror thought for a moment. "All right, wait here. I'll go ask."
The Auror went upstairs and came back down not long after.
"All right, I've confirmed your identity. Your friend and your younger sister are waiting for you. One more thing, don't touch anything at random, and whatever you see or hear, don't go spreading it around. Understood?" the Auror instructed.
Leonard nodded obediently and followed the Auror upstairs.
He quickly saw Fleur and Claudia. Neither of them was injured, and they were in the middle of being questioned by the Aurors.
Claudia, however, looked very sleepy. She was answering questions while yawning and rubbing her eyes, and the sight made Leonard's heart ache. Anger flared up in him at once.
Just as Leonard was about to lose his temper, a wizard he did not recognize spoke first.
"That's enough questions. Leave. They're tired."
"But Mr. Slughorn, we still haven't fully understood what happened..." one of the Aurors protested anxiously.
Slughorn?
Leonard's expression shifted slightly. He knew that surname. It was the surname of Hogwarts' Potions professor in sixth year.
The Slughorn name belonged to one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight pure-blood families. It seemed the wizard in front of him was no ordinary person. No wonder he dared to throw his weight around in front of the Aurors like this.
"You've asked the same question over and over several times. What, are you trying to pressure them into confessing so you can make things easier for yourselves? Get out. Go and investigate properly. If not, I'll report your harassment of children to the International Confederation of Wizards."
This wizard had a fiery temper. A couple of sentences in, and he was already laying into them.
"Sorry, Mr. Slughorn." Although the Auror was clearly full of resentment, he did not dare show it under Mr. Slughorn's threat. After asking a few token questions, he left.
The Auror who had brought Leonard upstairs looked somewhat embarrassed at the scene. He forced a smile at Leonard, then left the room with the others.
At that moment, Claudia noticed Leonard too and immediately threw herself at him.
"Leonard!"
Leonard caught Claudia and let her cling to him, then looked toward Fleur and Mr. Slughorn.
He immediately noticed the bandaged wound on Fleur's arm.
"You're hurt?" Leonard asked with concern.
Before Fleur could say anything, Mr. Slughorn cut in.
"They were ambushed by Muggles using the Draught of Living Death. Fleur burned herself to stay awake and tried to take your sister out with her."
Leonard looked at Fleur, apology written across his face.
"I'm sorry."
"The one who should apologize is me. Those people came for me. Claudia only got dragged into it because of me," Fleur said calmly.
Leonard nodded, took out a bottle of Essence of Dittany, and handed it to Fleur. Then he turned to Mr. Slughorn.
"And this is...?"
"My name is Norman Slughorn. Just call me Mr. Norman. I'm a good friend of Lehende's," Norman said.
Leonard nodded. "Mr. Norman, you just said Muggles ambushed Fleur and the others with the Draught of Living Death. Are you sure you're not mistaken?"
What were Muggles? People completely cut off from magic. They could not possibly brew potions.
"I'm not mistaken. The Muggle's corpse has already been taken away," Norman said. "Fleur heard that Muggle talking to someone outside through some kind of method. They seem to be a fairly large force, and there are wizards behind them too."
A mixed force?
This was the first time Leonard had heard of something this advanced.
Wait... had Raven not been the one who attacked Fleur?
"Where is Mr. Lehende?" Leonard was curious, but since he was not familiar with Norman, he did not bring up Raven. Instead, he asked about Lehende.
Leonard had assumed that Lehende had been following Fleur in secret all along, protecting her from the shadows. Why was he nowhere to be seen now?
Norman glanced around and lowered his voice.
"He came in illegally, so it's inconvenient for him to show his face. He's already hiding. Although the wizards who held us back got away, one of the Muggles is still alive, and Lehende wants to interrogate him."
Then Norman and Leonard simply stared at each other.
Both of them felt the other was not entirely reliable, so neither brought up Raven. But without talking about Raven, there really was not much left to say. Were they supposed to just exchange pleasantries?
The problem was, they were not close, and there was a full generation between them.
Seeing that neither side was speaking, Fleur could not help laughing.
"Leonard, Uncle Norman is one of my father's good friends. My father said you can trust him."
"Uncle Norman, this is Leonard. Don't worry, he once saved my father, so the two of you can speak openly."
"Hahaha..." Norman laughed awkwardly. "I see. So you're Leonard. I never would have expected someone this young to have saved Lehende. That man is not weak."
Leonard nodded, but did not respond to that. Instead, he looked at Fleur.
"Did Lehende tell you about Raven?"
Fleur nodded. "I was the one who insisted on coming to England this time. I wanted to help."
"It's too dangerous." Leonard shook his head and turned to Norman. "Mr. Norman, did you fight Raven's people?"