Shrugging off Yaxley’s uling response, Alex turned his attention to the subject of his experiments: Crabbe. He rummaged through his bag and pulled out a ool. It looked like a small meteor hammer—a metal ball about the size of a baseball, attached to a thial .

  This wasn’t a on, though; it rototype alchemy device Alex had retly crafted. He wasirely sure how effective it would be, as it was still in its testing phase. The design was inplete—there was supposed to be a small metal su cup oher end of the , engraved with an energy-abs rune. However, Alex was still experimenting with different ruructures and had prepared seven variations to test.

  The metal ball itself timized energy ste device, capable of st magic for a limited time. While there was natural energy loss, it boasted a loe duration and greater capacity than most alchemy devices avaible on the market. Alex quickly attached one of the su cups to the and secured it onto Crabbe’s arm, preparing to collect data.

  He jotted down his findings: “No. 3, No. 1, No. 0.6, and No. 0.2 runes are iive. No. 1 absorbs 0.3 Lum of magic power every 0.3 seds, stores 2 ticks, and has an energy efficy of 1 Lum per sed. No. 0.8 absorbs 0.4 Lum per sed, stores 5 Lum, and has an efficy of 1.25 per sed. No. 7 absorbs 0.6 Lum every 0.5 seds, stores 8 Lum, and has an efficy of 1.6 per sed.”

  Alex tapped his pen against his notes, muttering to himself. “Looks like Rune No. 7 is the most effit, but Rune No. 6 has a faster absorption rate. Maybe I could biheir strengths to create a better ruructure.”

  While he pondered potential improvements, Alex decided to set aside further refi for now. His experiments were plete, and it was time to move on to the phase: information gathering.

  Without hesitation, Alex grabbed Torquil by the ned dragged him into the bathroom. Torquil winced as pain shot through his body. His injuries had left him in a numb, dazed state, but fear still flickered in his eyes as he g Alex.

  After log the door, Alex tightened his grip on Torquil’s neck, f him to look directly into his eyes. “Let’s see what you’re hiding,” he said coldly, activating Legilimency.

  To Alex’s surprise, Torquil’s memories were partially shielded. He could only access superficial memories, while the deeper ones seemed to be protected by some kind of spell. It wasn’t Occlumency—this was different, more like a specialized memory-log entment.

  “Huh, iing,” Alex mused. He smirked and delivered a sharp punch to one of Torquil’s wounds. The man’s body twisted in pain, but he was too weak to scream. Alex tried probing his mind again, but the magical barrier remained intact.

  “Well, if brute force doesn’t work…” Alex pulled a small vial of Veritaserum from his pocket. He forced the potion down Torquil’s throat and waited as the man’s eyes gzed over, his expression turning sck.

  “Name?” Alex asked, his voice calm but anding.

  “Torquil Travers,” came the dull, monotone reply.

  Satisfied that the Veritaserum was w, Alex leaned in closer. “Do you know Sirius Bck?”

  “Yes, he’s a member of the Order of the Phoenix.”

  “Did he betray the Potters? Did he give their location to the Dark Lord?”

  “Betray? I don’t know.”

  Alex frowned. He had expected more useful information. “Was Sirius in tact with Death Eaters after Christmas?”

  “After Christmas, the Dark Lord ordered us to capture Sirius. We searched everywhere but couldn’t find him. He was in hiding.”

  “You’re saying Sirius never betrayed the Potters?”

  “I don’t know. I only learned about it from the reports.”

  "It seems Torquil doesn’t know the whole story. Let’s ge the topic," Alex muttered to himself before tinuing.

  "You know the names and current locations of the Death Eaters as well, don’t you?"

  Torquil began rattling off a long list of names, spilling every detail he knew about the Death Eaters. Alex diligently recorded eaame and relevant piece of information, anizing them on a ste. Many of the names beloo individuals already arrested, while others had fled abroad or somehow avoided prosecution.

  "Barty Crouch Jr.?" Alex’s eyes stopped on a specifiame. "The son of Barty Crouch, the Head of Magical Law Enfort? A Death Eater?"

  The revetion caught Alex off guard. In his mind, Barty Crouch Sr. was known as a strid no-nonsense figure, someone who despised Dark Magid its followers. Could this be a fa?ade? Or was the man genuinely unaware of his son’s allegiance?

  Still, Alex set the thought aside. There wasn’t time to dwell on it now. He had more questions to ask. "What magic protects your memories?"

  "Slytherin Prote Charm," Torquil answered.

  Slytherin? Alex’s i iqued. Could this be some kind of legacy curse tied to Slytherin himself? "How did you learn it? Where did you learn it? And what’s the intation?"

  "I didn’t learn it. I don’t know the spell," Torquil admitted."Then where did the protective magi you e from?""After I was released on bail, Yulia cast the spell on me using a magic book to keep me from revealing family secrets.""What magic book?""It’s called the Sazar’s... Ugh!"

  Before Torquil could finish, his expression twisted in agony. It was as if an invisible force cmped down on his ability to speak. He struggled, his face t in fear, as though eveioning the book’s riggered some terrible sequence. Alex narrowed his eyes. "So this prote spell isn’t just protective—it’s a curse. A seal, even."

  It became clear that asking any deeper questions about the Travers family secrets would be futile. Torquil’s anguished screams aual colpse firmed that the curse was doing its job, rendering him incapable of spilling anything important. Even after Alex tried to revive him, Torquil remained unscious.

  With Torquil out cold, Alex turo the other captives—Goyle, Crabbe, and Yaxley—extrag information using a bination of Legilimend Veritaserum. Eaterrogation yielded useful intelligence about the Death Eaters.

  From Yaxley, Alex uncovered a critical letter. It was addressed to his brother, who had fled to Europe after Voldemort’s fall. The letter described pns troup overseas, gathering strength among the Dark Lord’s remaining loyalists. "Good thing I got to this first," Alex thought with satisfa. "These guys would’ve bolted if I waited any longer."

  Finally, it was Karkaroff’s turn. By now, the man was visibly terrified. He’d witnessed what happeo the others and clearly imagihe worst.

  When Alex dragged him into the bathroom and removed the gag, Karkaroff didn’t wait to be questioned. "Please, don’t hurt me! I’ll cooperate! I’m not with them—I swear!" Tears streamed down his face as he begged.