When Karkaroff was dragged into the washroom and his Silencing Charm was lifted, he immediately fell to his knees, begging for mercy.
"No, please, don't torment me! I surrender, I surrender! I'm not truly with them, I swear!" Karkaroff stammered, his face a mess of tears and snot, his entire frame trembling with a primal dread.
Alan looked down at the burly, bearded man. The contrast between his imposing physical stature and his complete lack of a spine was almost comical.
"Surrendering is an option," Alan said, his expression teasing yet dangerous. "But I have no use for people who offer no value. Tell me, Karkaroff, what good are you to me?"
Seeing a sliver of hope in the boy's cold eyes, Karkaroff scrambled to answer. "I—I'm useful! I'll do anything! I can kill for you—I've never personally done it, but I will if you command it! I know secrets, deep secrets! I can help you strategize, I can spy!"
"Oh? And what exactly do you know?" Alan raised an eyebrow, his voice dropping to a soft, inquisitive whisper.
"Whatever you want! Anything, no matter how small, I will tell you!" Karkaroff promised with a desperate, fawning smile.
"Then start with the Death Eaters. Tell me something I don't already know," Alan said calmly, pulling a notepad from his robes.
"I know the identities of many who hide in plain sight!" Karkaroff swallowed hard, his voice shaking. "Secret members, like Severus Snape. He's a Death Eater, yet he remains at Hogwarts as a professor. He's a confidant of the Dark Lord himself!"
*Is that all?* Alan glanced at him with clear dissatisfaction. He had fought Snape personally; the man's past was hardly news.
Karkaroff sensed the shifting mood and spoke faster. "Also, Barty Crouch Jr.! He's the son of the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. His allegiance is perfectly hidden—I only discovered it by pure chance!"
Alan's expression grew even more displeased. The man was merely recycling information Alan had already gleaned or suspected. He reached for Karkaroff's collar, preparing to initiate Legilimency.
"Wait! Don't!" Karkaroff shrieked. "I know Torquil Travers's secret! A secret about this very house!"
Alan paused, his hand inches from the man's face. "Go on."
"Yes," Karkaroff gasped, lunging for the reprieve. "In this house, Torquil has a basement. I saw him enter it once, secretly. It's heavily protected—there must be something of immense value inside."
Alan straightened his thoughts, cutting through Karkaroff's incoherent rambling. "You're saying you found a hidden basement, and you suspect it contains Travers's core secrets?"
Karkaroff nodded vigorously, swallowing hard.
This was interesting. Alan hadn't seen any mention of a basement in the fragmented memories he had pulled from Torquil. If it was hidden under a secondary layer of protection, it likely held something far more significant than the gold he had already confiscated.
"Fine. We'll go see it together. But first, eat this." Alan held out a small, spherical object. It had a metallic sheen but felt strangely organic, like polished wood.
"What is it?" Karkaroff stared at the pill with wide, terrified eyes.
"Don't ask questions." Alan pinched the man's jaw open and forced the object down his throat.
As Karkaroff swallowed, he felt a wave of nausea. He could feel the object as if it were alive, sliding into his stomach and then—horrifically—extending spindly legs. It crawled along his internal lining before rooting itself deeply into his stomach wall. A sharp, white-hot flash of pain shot through his abdomen. He collapsed, writhing in the snow-dusted floor.
"If you betray me, or even think of disobeying," Alan said, making a slow opening gesture with his right fist, "I only need to snap my fingers. You'll be no different from a target hit by a Blasting Curse. Boom. Do you understand?"
Karkaroff looked up, his face twisted in a submissive, bitter mask. He nodded. His life was now entirely in the hands of this demon.
Satisfied, Alan released the binding charms. Karkaroff stood shakily, clutching his stomach, and took his place humbly at Alan's side.
"Lead the way to the entrance."
"Yes, Master."
Karkaroff adopted his new role with pathetic speed, leading Alan down to the ground floor.
"Here?" Alan asked, looking at the smooth stone wall beside the staircase.
"Yes. I saw Torquil trigger a mechanism right here. A door opened in the wall beneath the stairs," Karkaroff said, pointing to the triangular space.
"Step back."
Alan produced his 'No-Injury Hammer' and began to strike the stone with heavy, rhythmic thuds. Karkaroff watched, bewildered. Was the boy simply trying to break the house down?
But the wall reacted. Glowing magical patterns began to spiderweb across the stone where the hammer struck, flickering with a pale light in the darkness. Alan leaned in, his eyes narrowed as he studied the runes.
"Impressive. Protego Totalum, Anti-Apparition, a Peacekeeping Charm, and a Password Seal. It's a comprehensive set. Any wizard who hasn't studied ancient runes would be locked out forever." Alan nodded in professional appreciation.
To him, however, it was a puzzle he had already solved. He drew his wand and tapped several specific nodes within the glowing lattice. The patterns dimmed instantly. The stone wall groaned and flipped inward, much like the entrance to Diagon Alley, revealing a narrow doorway barely a meter high.
Alan summoned a globe of magical light and sent it floating into the dark passage. A steep set of stone stairs led down into the earth, disappearing into the shadows of the basement.