Chapter 154: Nagini's Clue

The tender atmosphere lingered for a long time, until Aurelius finally broke away from Aberforth's embrace upon remembering another vital matter.

With an uneasy bite of his lip, Aurelius made a request to his father and his uncle.

"You mean you want to find Nagini, is that it?" Dumbledore looked at Aurelius and asked softly.

"That's right. Ever since we parted ways at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, not a single day in the past ten years has passed without me regretting leaving Nagini behind," Aurelius said with a look of dismay. "My body is fine now, but Nagini is likely still suffering immensely under the curse of Maledictus. All I want right now is to make up for my mistake!"

"However, I suppose you must realize that after a decade, Nagini's blood curse may have already completely taken hold," Dumbledore said gravely. "Maledictus is inherently an extremely dangerous blood curse, lacking any cure and offering very few ways to alleviate it. Once it erupts fully, the wizard afflicted by it transforms entirely into a beast devoid of humanity!"

"I know, but I still want to try," Aurelius took a deep breath, his gaze resolute.

"Yet there is a problem right now; without solving it, even wishing to try is impossible," Dumbledore said, looking deeply at Aurelius. "The world is hardly small. How easy can it be to find a single, insignificant person in a vast sea of humanity?"

"Perhaps we could use divination to determine Nagini's whereabouts?" The young wizard Xiven stepped forward quietly and asked. "I remember Mr. Flamel is proficient in crystal ball divination."

"Even divination would struggle to pinpoint Nagini's exact location," Dumbledore shook his head slowly, speaking in a gentle voice. "What is more, we lack the necessary clues required for divination. Without any clues whatsoever, Nicolas cannot divine useful information either."

"No matter how slim the chances are, we have to try, don't we?" Aberforth sighed and said to Dumbledore. "I will go to France immediately and implore Flamel. I only hope that for the sake of this old face of mine, he might choose to help us."

"Father, you don't need to—" Aurelius opened his mouth, wanting to dissuade Aberforth, only to be interrupted on the spot.

"Do not try to persuade me, my mind is made up," Aberforth said. "Consider it my way of making amends for leaving you to struggle in loneliness all these past forty years."

"Aberforth, Nicolas and I are old friends; for my sake, he should be willing to help," Dumbledore sighed and said to the two of them. "Though you are right about one thing: for now, asking Flamel for assistance is probably our only option."

Just as he was about to ask Xiven to open a portal to Flamel's home, Yusuf Kama, who had remained silent all this while, suddenly stepped forward.

"If you wish to know Nagini's location, I believe I may have some clues," Kama said to Dumbledore.

Aurelius snapped his head up, asking eagerly, "What clues do you have?"

Kama glanced at him, then turned his gaze toward Newt and Theseus, and spoke, "Newt, Theseus, perhaps you still have some recollection of this."

"Ten years ago, Nagini once accompanied us to Hogwarts to search for Dumbledore, and Theseus even removed the Ministry of Magic's monitoring bracelet from Dumbledore on the bridge leading to the entrance courtyard."

"Yes, I certainly remember," Newt wore a wistful expression, instinctively glancing toward his suitcase. His gaze seemed to pierce through the leather exterior, seeing a mischievous Niffler inside busy crafting its little nest with golden trinkets. "I was holding Teddy at the time, and he played a massive part!"

"Back then, we had only just quelled Grindelwald's attempt to destroy Paris." Theseus's mood dimmed slightly, as if recalling his late fiancée. "I must say, our losses were devastatingly heavy."

"Indeed, perhaps our only achievement was that Teddy managed to steal the blood pact between Grindelwald and Albus," Newt said softly.

Tina also wore a reminiscent expression, looking at Newt with deep affection, as though remembering the time she first met Newt in France. Back then, Newt had once used a "salamander" to describe Tina's eyes...

"Hey, while I am glad you all remember what happened back then... surely this is not the time to reminisce about the past," Kama said helplessly as he watched the three of them getting lost in nostalgia.

"Yusuf, please continue," Dumbledore chuckled softly and said to Kama.

Kama nodded and went on, "I do not know if you remember, but I lent my coat to Nagini at the time."

"Are you expecting us to praise you?" Theseus clearly failed to grasp what he was getting at, and teased, "Yusuf, you truly are a gentleman. Fitting for a wizard from an ancient family!"

At Theseus's banter, the corners of Kama's eyes twitched, and his already dark complexion turned even darker.

"Theseus, let Yusuf finish!" Newt cast a reproachful glare at Theseus and said.

"Oh, apologies, Yusuf, go on." Theseus realized his jest was ill-timed, straightened his expression, and spoke earnestly.

Having been interrupted several times, Kama finally stopped keeping everyone in suspense and laid out the clues he possessed in full—

"Seeing that Nagini's attire was rather thin at the time, I lent her my coat. Later, when she was preparing to leave, she wanted to return the garment to me, but the gentleman's education I received prevented me from taking it back."

"However, it was only later that I discovered a Sneakoscope had been left behind in the pocket of that coat. That Sneakoscope was handed down by my father, who tasked me with seeking revenge against the person Corvus Lestrange loved most, and the Sneakoscope was meant to be used when tracking people down."

"At the time, I believed Credence—that is, Aurelius—was Corvus Lestrange V. And once Leta Lestrange informed me that Corvus had long since died in a shipwreck, that Sneakoscope naturally lost its purpose. Therefore, even upon discovering that Nagini had taken it with her, I did not pay it much mind."

"Later on, I even gradually forgot about the Sneakoscope altogether. Until one day a few years ago, when I suddenly sensed that the Sneakoscope had been destroyed by external force..."

"What did you say?" Aurelius turned pale with shock, asking in sheer disbelief.

Because Kama's ancestral Sneakoscope was bound to be a finely crafted piece of alchemy, it typically would not break. Unless someone had intentionally destroyed it with magic, or the person carrying the Sneakoscope had suffered a powerful magical assault!

What Aurelius feared most right now was that Nagini had encountered the latter scenario, and yet that was precisely the most probable one!

"I mean, the Sneakoscope was destroyed by an external force." Looking at Aurelius's anxious face, Kama sighed as well, repeating it with a reluctant heart.

Hearing Kama's account, Dumbledore's expression turned stern as well.

"Yusuf, do you know where the Sneakoscope was destroyed?" he asked, frowning.

"The Sneakoscope had been kept in pristine condition, and my magic remained imprinted within it," Kama nodded slightly, speaking to Dumbledore. "At the very instant it was destroyed, I was able to sense the location of the Sneakoscope through the connection of my magic."

"Where is it?" Dumbledore took a deep breath and asked gravely.

"Albania!"