"He told us that since the other side always has to bring out a large sum of Galleons to buy materials each time, he must first go to Gringotts to withdraw the money, and perhaps we can find some clues through Gringotts."
"So we gave some gifts to Boggrod, and he allowed us to look at the transaction records of those days. We found that two people withdrew a large amount of Galleons on the day of purchasing potion ingredients. One person was named Stephen Comberbatch, and the other was Murphy Dackholm."
"After our investigation, we found that Comberbatch was a fake name, and there is no such person in the wizarding world. That Stephen Comberbatch is Murphy Dackholm!"
"Then we had an artist draw a portrait of Murphy Dackholm and showed it to Slag, confirming that he is indeed Peter Park!"
"Dackholm..." Lucius pondered for a moment, suddenly recalling this surname. "Sanders, Natalie... Murphy..."
"So, it's him!" Lucius understood, but he had a new question in his mind. "Where did he get so much money from?"
Sanders and Natalie borrowed hundreds of Galleons from him before they entered, and their son, where did he get tens of thousands of Galleons from?
"This is what I'm going to tell you next," the short wizard said. "Murphy Dackholm's money was all exchanged for gold. He claimed to have dug up the gold buried by his ancestors in his old mansion."
"But we all know that it's a lie. The Dackholm family has been in decline for over a hundred years, and there couldn't possibly be any gold! Later, we thought of that Muggle farm. Papade said he saw a Muggle vehicle carrying a lot of potion ingredients to the warehouse that day, and I asked him to draw the logo on that vehicle. It looks like this."
The short wizard took out a piece of parchment with a drawing of an open umbrella-like symbol on it.
"Our people worked hard to trace the meaning of this symbol. It's a Muggle company called 'Umbrella Corporation.' They are very famous in the Muggle world recently because they sell a potion that can instantly heal wounds to Muggles..."
"An elixir that can instantly heal wounds, what does that make you think of?" the short wizard asked.
"You mean... a potion?" Lucius replied.
"Yes! Fresh Bright Essence!"
"And, guess what? The most purchased material by Murphy Dackholm in our shop is Fresh Bright Essence!"
"Everything is clear now, my lord!" the short wizard exclaimed. "Murphy, he's selling potions to Muggles! He made countless pounds and then converted them into gold to buy so many of our materials! We used Veritaserum on a Muggle guy who works at a chemist's shop, and he said that the Umbrella Corporation makes at least one million pounds a month in the Muggle world, equivalent to two hundred thousand Galleons!"
Lucius took a sharp breath.
Two hundred thousand Galleons!
In one month!
All of the Malfoy family's industries combined couldn't earn that much in a month!
A poor boy without parents, why does he deserve this?!
And he dared to do it without involving him!
"Daring to sell potions to Muggles, openly defying the Wizarding Secrecy Law!" Lucius's pale face twisted in anger. "Such audacity! Such audacity!"
This used to be the glorious path of the Malfoy family until the enforcement of the Wizarding Secrecy Law became stricter, and they had to withdraw from their businesses in the Muggle world, resulting in a significant loss of income.
Now, someone wants to bypass the Malfoy family and venture into this path on their own?
Unforgivable!
Unforgivable!
"Have you found evidence!?" Lucius asked urgently.
"We found their factory. All the potions sold to Muggles are produced there. The Muggle workers and the potions being produced are all evidence!"
"Good! Good!" Lucius stood up. "Go and bring them back to me! No, I will go myself! I will personally send that scoundrel to Azkaban!"
"Also! Inform Boggrod about this, freeze his accounts!"
...
"Mandrake root, Floo powder, Horklump juice, Unicorn horn powder, dried Billywig stings, Wolfsbane...," Murphy muttered as he emptied his pockets onto a table in the Knockturn Alley.
He opened each pouch and checked the contents, then marked them off on his list.
After nearly half an hour, Murphy finally completed the inventory of all the potion ingredients. He took all the pouches containing the ingredients and placed them in an Undetectable Extension Box he had purchased from Borgin and Burkes for three thousand Galleons.
Despite not trusting Borgin's words, the box was indeed quite useful. While it couldn't compare to Newt Scamander's "small pocket dimension," it had enough space to transport various materials.
Murphy closed the box, and at that moment, his brother, Patrick, called him.
"Where are you? Come to the factory quickly; something big has happened!" Patrick's voice sounded urgent.
"What's going on? What happened?" Murphy asked.
"The factory was attacked. The security guards were frightened and said someone used magic to blow open the factory walls. They took away several of our workers and disappeared. I've already called the police, and they'll be here soon."
"They took several people?" Murphy inquired.
"Yes, five of them. It was after work, and there weren't many people left in the factory. It seems they also took a lot of materials and packaged potions. I suspect it's those pharmaceutical companies! They're really lawless! You have to be careful. They attacked the factory, so they might harm you too!"
"I understand. You deal with the police, and I'll go talk to the security guard."
Murphy found the unfortunate security guard and, after dismissing the others, used Legilimency to see the man's memories. He then cast a Memory Charm to put him to sleep.
From the security guard's memories, Murphy saw the appearance of the attackers.
With their light blond hair and an elegant yet arrogant demeanor, Murphy recognized them immediately, even though he had never met them before.
"Lucius."