"Thanks for your honesty!"
Dudley sneered at Dumbledore emotionlessly, then turned to his cousin Harry and said, "Harry, write down this name!"
Harry didn't answer; instead, he took action.
Dumbledore watched with a complex look as Harry took out a brand-new black leather notebook, placed it on the table, and started writing.
Thanks to his relatively healthy spine and his tall stature, even though he was sitting, Dumbledore could still see fairly clearly what Harry was writing in the notebook:
"Severus Snape, a shameful informant, a scoundrel with improper thoughts about mom. Considering his act of confessing, the death penalty can be waived, but he will surely suffer. He needs to be tormented and avenged severely!"
"Sigh——"
Dumbledore let out another long sigh. He was feeling sad for Snape's future.
"Stop sighing. Where is this Snape now? Is he alive or dead?"
Dudley didn't care about Dumbledore's feelings at all and directly started asking about tracking down the criminal.
"He's still alive. He's currently the Potions professor at Hogwarts." Dumbledore answered truthfully.
"Your kindness is really over the top, Mr. Dumbledore! Letting a criminal live such a cozy life!"
Dudley threw out another ruthless mockery.
Dumbledore was a bit helpless. When he saw that Harry, without being reminded by Dudley, directly added Snape's location and job on the notebook, this sense of helplessness instantly became even stronger.
"There's no need to get hung up over others, Mr. Dumbledore. Next, it's your turn!"
Dudley's cold and heartless words yanked Dumbledore out of the emotional mire and then shoved him into an even deeper hole.
"Come on! With an informant tipping you off in advance and your guarantee, how on earth did you fail to protect my Aunt Lily and Uncle James?"
Hearing Dudley's interrogation, Dumbledore's face was filled with grief: "I suggested to the Harry Potter family that they cast the Fidelius Charm on their home in Godric's Hollow, and they did. It's a powerful and secretive protective spell.
A building with this spell cast on it will disappear from people's sight. Neither wizards nor Muggles can detect it. As long as the location information of the house is not leaked by the Secret-Keeper, even if Voldemort is right next to it, he won't be able to find the Harry Potter family."
"So, which idiot did you give the important position of Secret-Keeper to? Resulting in another informant who defected to Voldemort?" Dudley issued a stern question.
"I originally wanted to be the Secret-Keeper, but Lily and James unanimously agreed to make their mutual friend, Sirius Black, the Secret-Keeper."
Dumbledore felt a bit wronged but still answered truthfully.
"So, was it this idiotic Mr. Black who led Voldemort into Harry's home?" Dudley continued smoothly, his mouth seemingly honeyed.
"I'm not very sure. Sirius Black is a smart and powerful wizard. He had a very good relationship with the Harry Potter family. Logically speaking, he would never leak the news to Voldemort.
But the fact is that Voldemort managed to bypass the protection of the Fidelius Charm and got into the Harry Potter family's home."
Dumbledore also had his doubts about this matter and could only share everything he knew.
"After the incident, didn't you ask him whether this guy was alive or dead?" Dudley was really speechless about Dumbledore's lack of efficiency.
"After the incident, Sirius was devastated and stayed in the ruins of the Harry Potter family's home for a long while, not listening to any questions at all.
Later, he left and set off a huge explosion on a Muggle street. Thirteen Muggles were killed, along with the Harry Potter family and another of his good friends, Peter Pettigrew.
The people at the Ministry of Magic thought that Peter Pettigrew was killed by Sirius during the chase. So, they locked Sirius up in Azkaban and awarded the deceased Peter Pettigrew a Medal of Honor."
Dumbledore recounted in detail what went on back then.
"Show me the person alive or the body dead. Is this Peter Pettigrew really dead? Yesterday, that Minister of Magic also insisted that Voldemort was dead! But what's the truth? Did you see Peter's corpse?"
"Only Peter's index finger was left at the scene. The explosion site was a total mess, and no other limbs or remains of Peter were found."
"Do you know how powerful an explosion would need to be to blow a person to bits without leaving any trace of flesh and blood? Was Peter perhaps holding dozens of kilograms of TNT when it went off?"
Dudley's face was filled with contempt for those who were ignorant and happy to stay that way. "I've noticed that you wizards lack even the most basic scientific inquiry spirit, and that includes you!"
Yesterday, Harry and I saw the power of the explosion incantations in the underground vaults of Gringotts. That kind of power could never blow a person to bits without leaving any trace of flesh and blood.
If Sirius isn't at least ten times more powerful than that wizard Quirrell, he could never have blown someone to bits, leaving only a finger!
Also, aren't you curious and skeptical? How did Peter's index finger manage to stay intact when all the bones in his body were blown to bits? Could it be that Merlin was looking out for that finger?
What about the thirteen Muggles who died at the scene? Did only an index finger remain? Okay, maybe these thirteen Muggles were further from the explosion center and didn't get hit as hard by the explosion.
What about the buildings at the explosion center? Have you calculated the extent of the damage? How much energy would it take to damage the buildings like that? Could an explosion of this size blow a person to bits without leaving any trace of flesh and blood?
This involves people's lives. Have you wizards looked into it properly?
Closing the case in a hasty and sloppy way. I bet the memories of the Muggles near that street were also tampered with by the Ministry of Magic later, right?
You wizards don't conduct investigations and don't even let Muggle sheriffs look into it. Thirteen ordinary people's lives just vanished like that, all muddled up. I bet the cause of death for these people is supposed to be a 'gas explosion', right? How absurd!"
Dudley's series of logically tight and rapid - fire questions left Dumbledore dumbfounded.
This was an investigative process that this great wizard, who had lived for over a hundred years, had never even dreamed of. The progress of Muggles was really amazing. Now, they could even see into people's hearts and figure out the truth without using magic.
In comparison, you wizards really seemed backward, arrogant, and ignorant.
"Your analysis makes a lot of sense, Dudley. Now it seems that Peter Pettigrew should have faked his death to escape. At that time, it wasn't Pettigrew who chased and attacked Sirius because Sirius informed on the Harry Potter family and caused their deaths. The real situation might be the opposite!
The explosion was caused by Pettigrew, and it was also Pettigrew who revealed the secret of the Fidelius Charm. Sirius wasn't the Secret-Keeper. Instead, he gave the position of Secret-Keeper to Pettigrew!
After the tragedy of Harry's family, Sirius went to avenge them by going after Pettigrew!"
Dumbledore sorted out his thoughts and analyzed the matter thoroughly, directly uncovering the truth.
This great and renowned wizard was indeed extremely intelligent and could understand things quickly. However, it was obvious that in the past, he hadn't used his brain like this.
"No way! No way, Mr. Dumbledore!
You're actually following my train of thought to analyze this now. I read in The Complete Book of Potions that there's a magical potion called Veritaserum in the wizarding world. It's been ten years! Sirius has been locked in Azkaban for almost ten years and he's still alive. Have you never gone to ask him?
If he doesn't talk, just give him Veritaserum and use other means on him!
I don't think you really care about the truth of how my Aunt Lily and Uncle James were killed. All these years, the only thing on your mind is probably just playing some tricks and schemes to arrange for Harry to kill Voldemort, right?"
Dudley was truly speechless.
In his previous life, when reading the books and watching the movies, from an omniscient perspective, he didn't think too much about these story details. Now that he had entered this real world and taken on the role of someone in the situation, he really couldn't accept Dumbledore's inaction and irresponsible actions!