Locket looked miserable.
Already unattractive, his face was now swollen and bruised, resembling a pig's head, with several sharp teeth missing.
He must have been severely tortured.
No wonder he couldn't be found after the attack – it turns out Malfoy had captured him.
"Lock!" Lucius looked at the half-blood elf, "Did you secretly open a vault for Murphy Darkholme?"
Locket lifted his swollen face, looking at Murphy with his bruised eyes.
They locked gazes for a moment.
Suddenly, Murphy said, "Locket, just tell the truth, all my assets are legally inherited, you've done nothing wrong."
Locket's pointed ears twitched, then he turned to Dumbledore, "Dumbledore, can you guarantee my safety?"
"As a witness, you will not be harmed," Dumbledore assured.
"No! I mean afterwards. If I tell the truth, can you ensure I won't face retaliation?"
Dumbledore pondered for a moment, then firmly stated, "If speaking the truth leads to revenge, then wizarding law loses all credibility. Rest assured, the Aurors will ensure your safety."
"Okay!" Locket seemed to have made a decision.
He glanced at Murphy, then at Lucius, and suddenly declared, "I'm innocent! Murphy Darkholme is innocent too! I did nothing against Gringotts' regulations! I didn't open a vault for him, everything I did was standard and legal! Mr. Darkholme's sources of funds are also perfectly clear. All of this is Lucius's conspiracy."
Lucius was stunned.
"You, you didn't say that before! You helped Murphy open a vault under the false name Stephen Comberbatch, you laundered money for him! And that money came from Muggles!"
Locket remained calm, "Those were the lines you taught me, Mr. Malfoy."
Lucius was dumbfounded.
He couldn't understand why Locket suddenly turned on him.
"It can't be! That's not it! Bogrod, bring Bogrod here, he can prove all of this!"
Scrimgeour nodded, about to send Aurors to fetch him, but then an Auror whispered something in his ear. After a brief pause, Scrimgeour announced, "Bogrod has been arrested for attempting to embezzle wizarding assets."
"Also, Gringotts just confirmed that Mr. Darkholme's funds are completely legitimate and legal," Scrimgeour added, looking at Lucius, "If your evidence was to accuse him of that, you can drop it now."
"What?! No!"
Lucius was incredulous, looking at Murphy in shock and confusion.
How did he manage this? What kind of magic does he have? "Alright, Lucius, let's end this farce for today," Scrimgeour said, motioning the Aurors to remove Lucius from the cage and take him to Azkaban.
"No! I object! I have more evidence!" Lucius struggled frantically, "Potions! I have samples of potions he sold to Muggles! I have samples and raw materials! I got them from a Muggle factory!"
He broke free from the Aurors and pulled out several items from his bottomless bag, "These! These are enough to prove he sold potions to Muggles!"
Murphy frowned, Lucius really did prepare thoroughly.
If it weren't for Murphy's sudden action, it might have been quite troublesome.
But now, after these series of maneuvers, Lucius had lost his credibility, and no one would believe him anymore.
Still, Murphy approached the materials and samples.
Indeed, they were his mixed potion ingredients, along with Yunshan White Medicine with the Umbrella Corporation logo, and several bottles of semi-finished products.
"What are these?" Murphy asked.
"You sold these potions to Muggles! Didn't expect that, did you? You thought burning down my house, taking everything in the cellar would destroy them all, but you didn't expect I had kept some myself!"
Murphy smirked, "Let's say that's true. Then what potion is this?"
"Bai Xianxiang Essence!"
"Look!" Lucius opened a bottle of Yunshan White Medicine and poured it onto a wound on his arm from the iron thorns. The wound healed in moments.
"See! This is Bai Xianxiang Essence!"
The witches and wizards on the tribunal saw the effect and murmured among themselves.
But Murphy remained indifferent, "But it says Yunshan White Medicine on this."
"That's the name you gave it. Yunshan White Medicine is Bai Xianxiang Essence!"
"Let's set aside whether these things are related to me," Murphy said, "I ask you one question: how do you prove Yunshan White Medicine is Bai Xianxiang Essence?"
"What?" Lucius was stumped, "Their effects are exactly the same!"
"Heh," Murphy chuckled, "I heard, Mr. Malfoy, you've invested in several pharmacies. But you seem to know nothing about potions."
"Because they have the same effect, they are the same thing? Professor Snape would call you a fool! Phoenix tears and Bai Xianxiang Essence both can heal wounds, are they the same thing? Feces stone and Mandrake juice both can counteract some poisons, but are they the same thing?"
"You might know how to make Bai Xianxiang Essence, but do you know how Muggles produce this Yunshan White Medicine?"
"If you don't know, how can you claim they are the same?"
"This... any master potion maker can prove..." Lucius still tried to struggle.
Murphy looked at Dumbledore again, "Professor, you discovered the twelve uses of dragon blood and have made significant contributions in Alchemy. You are a master potion maker. Can you prove these two potions are the same?"
Dumbledore's blue eyes gazed at Murphy from behind his half-moon glasses. After a while, he averted his gaze, picked up the bottle of Yunshan White Medicine, and sighed, "I'm sorry, I do not possess such technical knowledge."
Murphy smiled.
This was what he expected.
To prove two substances are the same, one needs a complete and thorough understanding of their properties. Merely "looking similar" is not enough.
Even if you list a million similarities, it's not enough until you provide a complete and rigorous logical proof. They are merely conjectures, not truths, until then.
The only way to prove they are the same substance: find the unique and irreplaceable property of the substance and prove both have it.
Do wizards have such capability? Hardly.
If wizards understood their potions to this degree, Murphy wouldn't need Muggles, technology, or British pounds. He would just stick to magic.
It's precisely because wizards lack this capability, their understanding of magic isn't this precise, that Murphy sought the power of Muggles.
Thus, the existence of Yunshan White Medicine itself proves wizards lack this capability.
It's like a woman cheating because her husband is impotent and then having a child, but the husband wants to prove the child is his.
Murphy glanced at Lucius.
You're not Lestrange, yet your thinking is so similar to a cuckolded hero?