Once inside the church, the two of them did nothing unnecessary and sat quietly in a corner.
They had tried to walk as stealthily as possible, but they still made some noise in the spacious church, causing several people to turn and look.
Tom also glanced at the two strong men and furrowed his brow; both of them were wearing the emblem of the "Scourers" on their clothes.
He squeezed Hermione's hand, warning her to be alert.
After the "sermon," or rather the strange "mass," the villagers filed out, and Tom and Hermione followed John to leave. However, before leaving, Tom pulled a long flesh-colored string from his pocket.
"What's this?" Hermione curiously looked at the thin string in Tom's hand.
"Extendable Ears, the latest invention by Fred and George," Tom said, taking out the magical device recently invented by Fred and George. It's a device similar to a Muggle hearing aid that allows discreet listening.
Once Tom and Hermione left the church, they found an excuse to temporarily separate from Yuri and Mr. John and made their way together to the edge of the church.
Tom tiptoed, placing one end of the Extendable Ear in the gap of the window, and placed the other end close to their ears and Hermione's. A clear conversation was transmitted from the Extendable Ear.
"Pastor Benjamin, we hope you can assist us; this is an order from the organization," a deep, grave voice said.
"Of course, but can you be any quicker? My girlfriend and I have a date together, or can we do it another day?" another light and coquettish voice was heard. Tom easily recognized it as the pastor.
"Can pastors have girlfriends?" Tom was surprised, as he wasn't sure about the church's rules in that regard.
"Yes, pastors are different from priests, and it's okay for them to dedicate time to girls..." Hermione quickly explained, then hushed Tom, as she wanted to hear what was happening inside the church.
Inside the church, the two men sighed in unison. Obviously, Pastor Benjamin's lazy behavior left them extremely frustrated. However, since he was a religious figure within the Scourers, his status was superior, and the two couldn't do anything about it.
"Can you tell us if there were any suspicious individuals near John yesterday?" they asked.
"I don't know that," the pastor replied with some impatience. "You can ask him directly. John is a very busy person and always has various guests around him. However, he has recently been busy trying to sell his slaughterhouse."
The two men looked at each other and felt they had found an important lead.
"Well, we don't want to bother him further. Goodbye."
"I sincerely hope he maintains his devotion to God and doesn't succumb to material desires..."
"Thank you, but we're leaving," Pastor Benjamin's mind was already elsewhere.
Seeing that the "responsible" person in the town was so useless, the two men felt that the organization's future was bleak.
However, at least they found a lead; the people who wanted to buy John's factory were suspicious.
Within the Scourers, there was a magical and mysterious artifact that could detect wizards among the crowd and alert its bearer. The headquarters of the Scourers would receive a notification and quickly send elite agents to the scene of the incident. However, this artifact was not very common; otherwise, there wouldn't be so many cases of wrongful convictions.
In the past, the Scourers had killed many innocent people. Many ordinary citizens were labeled as wizards simply because their actions were strange or didn't conform to the norm, and then they were exterminated by the Scourers. Often, it was difficult to find one wizard among ten people.
Due to its rarity, when a device that hadn't been activated for nearly a century was activated, the interior of the Scourers took it very seriously and sent two of their elites from headquarters to investigate and retrieve that magical artifact.
However, these two couldn't imagine that, while the mantis was hunting the cicada, a bird was coming from behind; they thought they were the mantis hunting, but in reality, they were the prey in the bird's beak.
After leaving the church, Tom and Hermione followed them closely. The village was sparsely populated, even during the day, there were hardly any people on the streets, offering many opportune places to act.
"Desmaius!"
Tom and Hermione launched a surprise attack with great success, and the two Scourers, who were completely unprepared, were immediately rendered unconscious.
Tom hurriedly approached and dragged them into a warehouse.
After everything was settled, it was time for interrogation.
Tom's right eye turned into a snake-like pupil, and he used Legilimency on one of the men, successfully reading his memories before parting.
"A trace of a wizard has appeared in the Texas village, so you two must investigate and, if possible, capture the wizard, but if you can't, at least recover the detection clock," ordered a man disguised as a priest in a church.
"Yes."
"Hurry, I still have to meet with Mrs. Lestrange; I really don't know what our dear allies want us to do..."
Mrs. Lestrange?
Tom was astonished, and he immediately exited the state of Legilimency.
"What did you see?" Hermione quickly approached, eager to hear Tom's findings.
Tom's expression was very complicated.
"It seems that the Death Eaters are mingling with the Scourers. This information didn't leak at all before, so Voldemort probably considered it a top-priority secret."
Hermione: ???!!!
Upon hearing that the Death Eaters and the Scourers were collaborating, Hermione's initial reaction was to think that Tom had made a mistake.
One of these parties was in favor of pure-blood supremacy, and the other had a deep hatred for wizards. How could they work together? Shouldn't they confront each other and fight to the death as soon as they met?
Tom extended his hands, reality was so absurd.
Perhaps, in the eyes of the Scourers, Voldemort, a madman who only knew how to kill, was much more efficient at killing wizards than they were, so they could use their complementary skills.
But no matter how ridiculous it was, Tom felt he had to report this information to Dumbledore. His spy within the Death Eaters hadn't uncovered this information, suggesting that the connection between the Death Eaters and the Scourers was likely directly controlled by Voldemort or a project under Bellatrix's total authority.
Whatever the possibility, this was extremely valuable information.
Tom and Hermione intended to return to Hogwarts as soon as possible after resolving the case at the slaughterhouse and discussing the cooperation between the Death Eaters and the Scourers with Dumbledore.
"How do we handle these two?" Hermione looked at the two unconscious men, anxious to take action.
"Obliviate."
Of course, Tom chose to use the Memory Charm, altering their memories.
In their minds, the wizard who triggered the alarm had fled, and the detection clock had been successfully recovered.