Snape, the Sunshine of Hogwarts

He was stunned for a moment, but quickly came to his senses.

Back in Diagon Alley, Severus had taught him that the key to getting along with friends was sharing.

Now that Luna has given him a gift, he should reciprocate.

Harry rummaged through his clothes, but after a long time he only found a few silver shirks left over from when Severus asked him to treat the Weasley brothers to ice cream, and the blood-flavored lollipop that Bloodny had given him, but which he had never dared to try.

Offering money as a gift was definitely inappropriate, so Harry could only pull out the lollipop.

"This is for you too." Harry's voice was a little soft, and he was embarrassed that his gift was too small to carry. "A lollipop that tastes like vampires. I heard it tastes like blood."

To Harry's surprise, Luna's eyes lit up noticeably after hearing his description.

"Candy that vampires like?" She took the candy from Harry's hand, then held it up, her eyes full of inquiry and wonder. "It must have fire sprite hair in it!"

Harry couldn't follow Luna's train of thought, and he looked bewildered.

"why?"

"Because the fire sprite's hair is as red as blood, which fascinates many vampires," Luna said matter-of-factly.

Harry, who had no idea what fire sprites were or why being as red as blood would fascinate vampires, could only nod earnestly, pretending to agree.

Regardless, Luna clearly liked the gift, which made Harry feel relaxed and happy.

The reception room on the second floor was extremely quiet at this moment.

Lovegood was stunned after hearing Severus's account and seeing Patty in Henney's arms.

He glanced at Severus in front of him, then at Bloodny and Volpe, who were also staring at him expectantly.

"This, this is absolutely unbelievable."

He muttered to himself, then stood up from his chair and paced back and forth in the living room.

Severus thought he didn't believe him and was about to try to prove the truth of the matter by swearing an oath when he was stopped by Severus.

"Xenault did not suspect that we were lying."

“Why would I suspect anything?” Lovegood turned around and said after hearing Severus’s words, “This whole thing is abnormal! The so-called potion poisoning case didn’t actually involve poisoning the Muggles; it was the Living Hell Potion! And you, Severus, you were arrogant and condescending in your student days, so why would you want to harm a Muggle for no reason?”

He grabbed a copy of "The Quibbler" from the pile of messy newspapers on his desk, which happened to contain an article discussing Severus's escape.

"See? I raised this question in the very first newspaper yesterday! I wanted to remind the Ministry of Magic that there must be something going on, but those politicians, as if their heads were stuffed with troll snot, scoffed at it and even published an article in the Daily Prophet mocking me!"

"Only if it's as you say, will it be the truth!"

Lovegood looked at Bloodny.

“Severus was right. If he hadn’t run away with this girl and had instead handed you both over to the Aurors, the Ministry of Magic would never have shown you any leniency! They wouldn’t have even given you a chance for a public trial; they would have thrown you both into Azkaban and settled the matter as quickly as possible!”

"Now that you've come to me, what do you want me to do? Help me report this on the media?"

His reaction and words surprised both Henney and Volpe, who found it hard to believe that such a strange or wise person existed in the world.

Severus, however, was not surprised.

Lovegood was always like that; when he was in school, not many people could play with him, except for his wife Pandora and Snape, who wanted to study spells with a specific purpose.

"Besides wanting your help with the reporting, there's actually something else."

Severus gestured to Volpe, who then handed over his manuscript.

"Eld wrote a book. The first half tells how he lived among vampires, helping the wizarding public understand that vampires are not as evil and twisted as many people imagine. In the second half, he wrote the story of Bloodny and Patty, and of course, he also made some literary embellishments."

Lovegood took the manuscript and already guessed what Severus wanted him to do.

"You want me to help publish this book?"

"Publishing it might not be feasible in time, and Elder hasn't finished writing it yet. It would be even better if 'The Quibbler' could publish a supplementary magazine specifically for it. After it generates some buzz in the wizarding world, you can publish an article claiming that the truth of this case is hidden in the unpublished part of this story."

Before Severus could finish speaking, Lovegood's face lit up with unexpected joy!

"Then this story will sell like hotcakes! Everyone will know what happened! And they can't wait to find out how it ends! People will know the names of Vampire Bloody and Muggle Patty!"

Severus patted Volpe on the shoulder.

"And there's also a rising star author who could surpass Lockhart—Elder Wolpe!"

"Yes! Absolutely right! Severus, you're a genius at controlling public opinion! Why didn't you show how knowledgeable you are before? Being a professor at Hogwarts is a waste of your talent! You should be in charge of the Daily Prophet and kick out all those fools!"

Lovegood stared excitedly at Severus.

When would you like me to publish this magazine?

"It's best to contact the printing press now to prepare. Your home printing press definitely won't be able to handle it. And publish it as quickly as possible," Severus advised.

Lovegood said, gesturing wildly.

"Tomorrow! Give me a day. I can find the people this afternoon, and tomorrow I can print enough magazines to publish as a supplementary magazine to 'Singing the Dissent'!"

Writing books is so much fun.

I don't mean anything by it; it's just something I felt compelled to write after finishing this chapter. Writing a book is a really fun and interesting thing.

Chapter 44 is in Surrey County

In Gloucester at dusk, Kingsley is eating a hamburger and fries.

Such fast food is rarely seen in the wizarding world, but it's a different story in Muggle society.

Office workers need this kind of cheap, high-calorie, light, and delicious food.

Although Kingsley wasn't entirely used to the food, he still ate his dinner heartily, just like the other officers around him.

"Could it be that we've chosen the wrong target?"

The Bristol Police Chief questioned Kingsley.

"The informant in Bristol provided inaccurate information. The group of five driving towards Gloucester with children is not our target at all?"

“No,” Kingsley said firmly, “it must be him.”

The police chief was somewhat puzzled by his assertive words.

Do you have other crucial evidence that we are unaware of?

Kingsley didn't speak. Sometimes a wizard's intuition can't be expressed as evidence, but it exists and is usually quite reliable.

He inquired about something else.

"What do you think the Gloucester police station will take us to investigate this afternoon?"

“Electronic eyes.” The police chief clearly didn’t have much hope for this kind of thing. “But there are only a few dozen of those things in the whole of Britain right now, and they are mainly installed in big cities like Birmingham and London. Gloucester only has two, one at the intersection of the street with the highest traffic volume, and the other is out of service because nearby residents complained that it violated their privacy.”

Kingsley asked cautiously.

"what's it for?"

The police chief was not surprised that he asked the question.

Color surveillance cameras only became somewhat common in the UK in the early 80s, but due to technical limitations, their numbers were small and few people knew about them.

Even a specialist from London wouldn't understand if they weren't in the relevant field.

"A small camera that is installed outdoors and records 24 hours a day to collect all the footage that happens in a certain place for review at critical times."

Kingsley's eyes lit up noticeably when he heard this.

As a professional Auror, he clearly and keenly realized how much this thing would help with public security if it were fully popularized!

As if sensing Kingsley's expectations, the police chief had to offer a reminder.

"Perhaps it will become a major asset to the police in solving cases in the future, but right now you'd better not have too high expectations for it. That thing can store very little video data, and the picture is very unclear; you can only see a small area clearly."

“Let’s try our luck,” Kingsley nodded. “There’s only one street; the chances of making a profit are slim to none.”

They quickly finished their dinner and, led by the Gloucester Police Chief, arrived at the police station's only monitoring room.

Professional technical officers are already here, retrieving all the video footage from last night to now, and are continuously reviewing it.

When Kingsley actually saw the giant, television-like monitor with his own eyes, he understood why the director had told him not to have too high expectations.

The images shown are indeed in color, but they are very blurry and the monitoring range is extremely limited. There is only a cross-shaped street, and the edge can at most include a newsstand. It is even impossible to record the surrounding residential buildings.

Even so, Kingsley maintained enough patience, even more so than the Bristol police chief who accompanied him.

After sitting there for more than ten minutes, the bureau chief couldn't resist going out for a smoke. Kingsley kept his eyes glued to the monitor, watching the technician watch the video at four times the speed.

He sat there for a full four hours. When he arrived, the sun had just set, but today it was completely dark. Apart from drinking three cups of tea, he did not move at all.

The surveillance footage played from night until this morning. The street was bustling with people, and the technician was already getting sleepy watching it, so he put eye drops in his eyes twice.

If he hadn't known someone was watching him, he would have fallen asleep on the table long ago.

Even if he wasn't asleep, his attention was no longer on the surveillance video.

Few people thought that a traffic camera that could only monitor one intersection could make any discoveries. They brought it up only because there were so few clues, and they were just trying their luck, even if it seemed hopeless.

An hour later, the technician kept nodding, looking like he was about to fall asleep even though someone was watching him.

A voice suddenly startled him awake.

"Rewind one minute! Adjust the time to forward!"

Kingsley's sudden shout startled the technician and jolted the accompanying officers awake from their slumber.

Soon, the technician standing in front of the monitor followed his instructions and moved the video progress bar forward by one minute, then de-fast-forwarded.

The others also gathered around at this time, wanting to see what Kingsley had discovered.

It was 11:21 a.m., and pedestrians were still crossing the intersection. Their faces could only be vaguely seen when they passed directly under the camera; otherwise, they were just a blurry human-shaped mosaic.

A minute passed quickly, and none of the officers who had seen the suspect's photo noticed anything amiss in the video.

They turned to look at Kingsley, who simply continued speaking with a furrowed brow.

"Cut back to 11:21:42."

The camera cut back to that moment, and Kingsley pointed to the location of the newsstand at the edge of the surveillance screen.

"Zoom in, zoom in on this area!"

The newsstand was magnified, and at that moment, three people were standing there.

A woman who looked like she was wearing a white dress, an elderly woman walking by with her dog, and a tall man looking down at her, seemingly holding something in her hands.

Kingsley stared intently at the man.

His face was not clearly visible in the video; at most, one could make out his figure, that he was wearing all black clothes, and that he had black hair that appeared to be tied up.

But Kingsley knew exactly who it was the moment he saw him.

He is Severus Snape!

"Get to this intersection! Take me to this intersection right now and find the caretaker of this newsstand!"

The officers were somewhat bewildered as they took action, unable to comprehend how this commissioner could identify a suspect based on a video that was so blurry it was practically nonexistent.

The two chiefs who were supposed to accompany him had already gone to rest, while Kingsley himself, along with the sheriffs, quickly arrived at the busiest intersection in a police car.

The manager in charge of the newsstand lived in a nearby apartment, and he was quickly contacted.

"He wasn't very old, looked to be around thirty at most! His hair was a bit long, tied into a short ponytail, and he looked a lot like a TV star! But he was very kind, called me 'sir,' and smiled at me!"

Listening to the newsstand manager's description, Kingsley was now completely convinced that the person was Snape!

What did he buy from you? And what did he say?

"He bought a traffic map," the administrator recalled carefully. "Before taking the map, he seemed to mutter something like, 'I've taken the wrong road.'"

Kingsley picked up a traffic map and stared at the network of roads that crisscrossed the entire island of Great Britain, his brow furrowed.

They were now certain that Snape had been there, but he clearly hadn't stayed in Gloucester; instead, after realizing he'd gone the wrong way, he went somewhere else.

Where can he go?

Kingsley looked at the administrator and asked a few more questions.

"Do you remember who was with him? Like a child or a girl who was unconscious?"

The administrator shook his head.

"No, he was alone, but I saw him get out of a car."

Where was that car parked at the time?