The largest banking organization in the wizarding world—Gringotts—was broken into by an unknown individual at the end of July this year. At the time, it was a huge scandal, making the front page of the Daily Prophet for an entire week.
Gringotts was supposed to be the safest place in the world, so this summer's incident was quite the bombshell for the wizarding community.
Although the goblins repeatedly emphasized that nothing had been stolen and that the vault the thief broke into was already empty—its contents removed ahead of time—they remained completely tight-lipped about what had been stored there. No matter how they were questioned, they refused to say a word.
"You're not suggesting that the treasure the thief was after is now at Hogwarts, are you?" George asked uncertainly. "Hidden beneath that trapdoor?"
"It's not out of the question," Eda replied, suddenly finding it a bit amusing. "Don't forget, Hogwarts is supposed to be the safest place in the world… though to me, it doesn't feel all that safe."
"Hold on a second, let me think this through from the top." Fred paced back and forth in front of the fireplace. After a while, he continued, "It's possible, yeah, but still kind of far-fetched. I mean, why would that thing be put in Hogwarts? Does it even belong here?"
That stumped Eda—how was she supposed to know?
After thinking for a bit, Eda said, "It's just a theory. But think about it—Quirrell was at the Leaky Cauldron that day, and so were Hagrid and Harry. Harry needed to go shopping, so of course Hagrid would take him to Gringotts. And then in the afternoon, the break-in happened, and the item was already gone. Is that really just a coincidence?"
"Since the start of term, you've seen how Quirrell's been acting—completely useless," Fred argued. "How could someone like that break into Gringotts and get out in one piece? He'd have been caught by the goblins before he even got close."
"What if Quirrell's just pretending?" Eda said, touching her earlobe thoughtfully. "What if he wants us to see him as a useless fool?"
George sucked in a breath—he felt goosebumps rising all over his skin. "Then he's terrifying," he said. "That thing must be extremely important to him—important enough for him to risk everything."
Chasing fame and fortune was only human. If the reward was big enough, nothing was off-limits. Being called a loser by a bunch of students? That was nothing.
Once Quirrell succeeded and gained the recognition he wanted, who would remember that he used to stutter? That he used to be seen as worthless? People already seemed to have forgotten that Quirrell was once a bright, sharp-minded wizard full of talent after all.
"The key now is figuring out what's under that trapdoor—whether Hagrid really brought it back, and what it is," George said.
Fred nodded. "Tomorrow, we'll try to sound Hagrid out. See if he slips up and gives anything away."
The twins were thinking the same as Eda—if they couldn't get past the three-headed dog quietly, they'd just have to take a different approach. After all, no one's ever died from holding in a full bladder.
Yes, Eda could get past the dog—just kill it outright, and there'd be no more barrier. But that would be way too noisy, and she'd have to pay a price for it. It just wasn't worth it.
"By the way," Fred suddenly said after the three of them had wished each other goodnight, "next time we go see the three-headed dog, should we bring Garlon along?"
Even though Garlon was female, was he seriously thinking of using a "honey-trap dog" strategy? The size difference alone made that seem utterly ridiculous. Eda really didn't get what Fred was thinking.
Seeing her confusion, George explained, "We'll let Garlon see how other dogs guard things. She's a dog too—so why's the difference so massive?"
That... was like asking a Labrador to guard your house when even a corgi might do a better job!
The next day was the weekend, but neither Eda nor the twins stayed in bed.
They got up early and took Garlon to Hagrid's hut. Hagrid and Fang were both very happy to see the trio and their dog—Hagrid welcomed the three students, and Fang welcomed Garlon.
Hagrid enthusiastically served them all, putting a large pot of hot tea and a plate of rock cakes on the table. He kept insisting the three of them eat more.
But Eda politely declined. She couldn't accept Hagrid's good intentions—between her front teeth and Hagrid, she'd choose her front teeth without hesitation.
In order to get the information they wanted from Hagrid, the twins started casually chatting, pulling the topic here and there instead of jumping straight in—doing that might backfire and alert him.
They chose to lead in by talking about Care of Magical Creatures.
Their acting had improved a lot since first year—if Eda hadn't known their real motive beforehand, she would've thought they genuinely liked the subject and all those magical creatures!
As long as you like magical creatures and want to raise them, you're a friend of Rubeus Hagrid. Listening to the twins go on and on about protecting magical creatures, Hagrid was all smiles—so much so that neither his teeth nor his eyes could be seen.
His eyes were squinted shut from smiling, and his teeth were hidden behind his thick beard, which normally made them hard to spot anyway.
As the sun rose higher in the sky, the conversation gradually deepened, and the twins finally brought up the topic of the three-headed dog. They expressed a desire to see the one Hagrid had raised.
But Hagrid said that Fluffy had already been lent to Dumbledore and wasn't available at the moment.
At those words, Eda and the twins exchanged glances.
So the three-headed dog on the third floor really was Hagrid's pet. The twins kept the conversation going about the dog, and from Hagrid they learned that Fluffy had a fondness for music.
But the conversation couldn't go much further.
Probably because the twins had pulled too many tricks in the past, getting anything out of Hagrid wasn't as easy anymore. He had already begun to suspect their intentions.
Hagrid, who was usually as tight-lipped as a sealed cauldron, invoked his right to remain silent. No matter how Fred and George tried to steer the conversation, he wouldn't reveal why Dumbledore had borrowed Fluffy or share any useful information with the scheming trio.
The atmosphere inside the wooden cabin started to grow awkward.
The twins kept trying to talk circles around Hagrid, while Hagrid clumsily switched topics, refusing to let them get the better of him.
While Hagrid and the twins went back and forth, Eda began to look around the hut.
She toyed with the ring on her left ring finger, wondering whether she should use it to test Hagrid's strength of will.
The ring had a passive ability called "Unshakable Resolve." It prevented Eda from being manipulated by others and could also influence people with weak willpower in return.
But before Eda could say anything, her eyes fell on a clipping from the Daily Prophet.
The date on it was from August, and the article was about the Gringotts break-in—clearly something Hagrid had deliberately kept.
In this small wooden hut, everything with writing on it was related to magical creatures, so finding an old newspaper clipping here was already odd—especially one about Gringotts.
It was obvious what an unrelated, old clipping about Gringotts signified. That was enough for today.
At Eda's subtle signal, the twins stopped trying to trick Hagrid.
Once someone was on guard, it was no longer easy to deceive them. The twins switched the topic to talking about Charlie, who was far away in Romania.
As soon as they mentioned Charlie, Hagrid finally relaxed, and the awkwardness in the cabin dissipated.
Around noon, Eda and the twins returned to the castle.
On the way, she explained to Fred and George why she had signaled them to stop.
"Hagrid was already suspicious. If we kept pushing, not only would we have gotten nothing, we'd have made things worse. It wasn't worth it. Besides, I made an important discovery. Even if he didn't say anything today, it doesn't matter."
Eda shared her thoughts and analysis of the newspaper clipping with the twins, and they agreed with her.
Now the three of them were nearly certain that whatever was hidden beneath the trapdoor was connected to Hagrid. Otherwise, why would he care so much about Gringotts?
None of the vaults there belonged to him—why would he be so concerned otherwise?
Since they now knew how to deal with the three-headed dog and had confirmed the item taken from Gringotts was linked to Hagrid, that was enough.
No need to bite off more than they could chew all at once.
Next, they just had to figure out exactly what the treasure was and where it was hidden. The school year was still long; there was no need to rush.
Even Dumbledore wasn't in a hurry—they weren't eunuchs, so why should they be?
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