The once boisterous Quidditch pitch was now filled with a somewhat oppressive atmosphere as the hidden history was gradually unveiled.

An unsettling silence hung in the air, and all the wizards subconsciously slowed their breathing, quietly witnessing this public trial that was destined to shock the entire magical world and leave a significant mark on history.

Gradually, only Peter Pettigrew and Dumbledore remained in a question-and-answer session.

"...For a full ten years... if you include the time when the Dark Lord was still around, that would be almost eleven years... Every night, after everyone had fallen asleep, I would wander around Hogwarts... mostly in my Animagus form, occasionally returning to human form to enter certain hidden magical rooms..."

"So, you're saying that you discovered the Slytherin family's land deed during the last school year?"

"That's right. Near the end of the last school year, I found the castle deed left by Salazar Slytherin in a hidden compartment in the Slytherin common room, and I secretly transferred it to my rat hole in the Weasley's house."

"So, all of this was planned by Voldemort beforehand?"

"Yes, we originally planned to undermine your legitimacy after finding the deed, but unfortunately..."

"Now, let's talk about the transactions at Gringotts. How did you gradually mortgage Hogwarts?"

Dumbledore read out the pre-set questions on the parchment, patiently waiting for Peter Pettigrew's answers.

To ensure that no loopholes were left, this was an unscripted interrogation. Apart from some memories implanted in Peter Pettigrew's mind, all the questions had been repeatedly considered by Eileen and the other two before they were finalized.

The old wizard looked at the male wizard who resembled a puppet not far away, a hint of irony flashing in his eyes. Normally, for most ordinary wizards, replacing large segments of memory and implanting false information was an extremely complex task.

Because human memory and emotions are inherently difficult to control and describe. Even an ordinary snippet of daily life contains various subtle emotional fluctuations. Once these emotional fluctuations are modified or replaced, they form distinct fragments, making it difficult to achieve a completely seamless result.

However, Peter Pettigrew had spent almost 99% of his time in Animagus form in recent years.

This meant that his information acquisition in the human, describable, and observable dimensions was weaker than that of normal human wizards by more than one level. More importantly, he spent most of his time sleeping as a rat.

In Gilderoy Lockhart's words, Peter Pettigrew was the easiest "blank canvas" he had ever seen to modify and add memories. As long as one was careful enough, there was almost no risk of being exposed for a lifetime.

They didn't even need to painstakingly devise too much complete coherence and event logic. They only needed to intercept Peter Pettigrew's blank memory points every night and insert a similar night-time castle wandering experience. The two ends of the new memory fragment could be connected to the beginning and end of the dream.

What was truly complex was the earlier scenes about Sirius Black and some scenes involving Voldemort's specific image. However, at the suggestion of the general director Eileen Kaslana, most of Voldemort's orders were issued through "secret one-way transmissions," "burn-after-reading secret letters," and "voice recording magic."

To the point that, by the end of the surgery, Dumbledore almost had a moment of feeling that these were the "true history," if it wasn't for the fact that he had personally seen how the kid had piled gold coins at the school gate.

Compared to the directness of the *Avada Kedavra* curse, Eileen's use of the Memory Charm was, in some ways, even more terrifying and unsettling.

On this matter, Dumbledore and Grindelwald had reached a consensus. After some time, they must promote the control of memory magic in the magical world at all costs. The use of *Obliviate* must not be as casual as it is now.

Of course, this also further confirmed the principle that the two old wizards had gradually understood in recent days: no matter what magic was in Eileen's hands, it could be incredibly dangerous – it was never the magic that was dangerous, but the white-haired furball.

Fortunately, the child hadn't yet successfully mastered the *Obliviate* charm.

Just as Grindelwald was slightly distracted, Peter Pettigrew's new round of statements was coming to an end.

"...As for those gold coins, it was impossible to transport them out and hide them elsewhere... According to the Dark Lord's previous plan, I had the goblins at Gringotts deposit all the money obtained from mortgaging Hogwarts into the Lestrange vault..."

"As for the place where the name was written, the real contract of course had my name on it... However, I suggested that the goblins should also randomly find a student at Gringotts who was exchanging currency, slightly move the signature position and the document, and forge a fake contract to deceive the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts..."

Regarding this memory content, Eileen almost copied all the scenes and details from her own memory.

Therefore, compared to some of the previous rambling, the scene descriptions and the specific appearance and negotiation content of the goblins seemed more real and reliable. The Ministry of Magic and the surrounding wizards were almost immersed in the experience, re-experiencing the business negotiations that took place in the depths of Gringotts.

Everyone raised their guard against Peter Pettigrew again, feeling a little dizzy.

Such a wizard full of wisdom and scheming was able to hide his talent for decades. Just thinking about it was a bit chilling – undoubtedly, Peter Pettigrew was not just an ordinary Death Eater. He was likely the secret mastermind of the Dark Lord's forces that people had been looking for.

"What a bottomless, interlocking conspiracy... even framing students can be done..."

Cornelius Fudge snorted coldly, a look of disdain on his face.

"Heh, foolish and greedy goblins, did they really think that they could deceive everyone by randomly pushing out a Hogwarts student and forging a contract?! Even if we didn't know you were stirring up trouble behind the scenes, the wise Ministry of Magic officials would not be fooled by this absurd lie –"

Cough, cough.

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows, glancing at Fudge with a half-smile, and cleared his throat.

It was only then that Cornelius Fudge seemed to realize that he had once again inadvertently interrupted the interrogation. He skillfully bowed slightly to express his apology, and raised his left arm apologetically, signaling Dumbledore to continue the trial.

Hey, foolish and naive politician.

Dumbledore (played by Grindelwald) flashed a deeply hidden contempt in his eyes, his kind smile not changing at all. He did not continue to question Peter Pettigrew, but turned around and smiled at Fudge, raising the parchment in his hand.

"Actually, I think everything is almost clear. The trial can end."

Dumbledore looked calmly at the judging panel behind him, saying in a relaxed tone.

"As you can see, I have almost finished asking all the questions that I need to ask. Since Peter Pettigrew has deposited all his illegal gains in Gringotts, the rest of the matter is simply for the Ministry of Magic to send someone to Gringotts Wizarding Bank to retrieve the contract – as far as I know, Bellatrix Lestrange, the legal descendant of the Lestrange family, should still be imprisoned in Azkaban. Gringotts has no reason to refuse to open the vault."

"Directly... retrieve the Hogwarts contract? Why?"

Cornelius Fudge blinked, looking at Dumbledore with a puzzled expression.

In his understanding, the entire trial seemed to have just been halfway through. The verdict on Peter Pettigrew had not even been announced. Fudge was momentarily confused as to why Dumbledore would suddenly announce the end.

More importantly, Cornelius Fudge vaguely felt that there seemed to be a very important step missing.

"As long as Gringotts Wizarding Bank hasn't had the audacity to move the wealth in the wizarding vault in advance, or simply deceived the poor Peter Pettigrew from the very beginning and didn't fulfill the contents of the loan mortgage contract, we can find that huge sum of money belonging to Hogwarts in the Lestrange family's vault."

Looking at the Minister of Magic, who didn't seem to fully understand his meaning, Albus Dumbledore spread his hands, looked around at the Wizengamot members who were also somewhat puzzled, and patiently explained in a soft voice.

"Whether it's directly using part of the funds to prepay and redeem Hogwarts, or because Gringotts unilaterally breached the contract in advance, causing the contract to be invalid from the beginning... From any perspective, we can now directly retrieve the Hogwarts land deed from Gringotts, isn't that right? Minister."

"It seems... um... that's right, according to the procedure, we need to go to Gringotts to collect evidence..."

Cornelius Fudge turned his head and whispered to Amelia Bones, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and nodded somewhat uncertainly, saying slowly, "And from the current situation, in the process of collecting evidence, the legitimacy of Hogwarts' deed being mortgaged is already self-evident..."

"Then," Dumbledore blinked happily, "The real Death Eater has been caught, Sirius Black has been exonerated, and the Hogwarts mortgage incident has been resolved smoothly. Everyone, let's prepare to raise our hands to vote and retrieve the assets belonging to Hogwarts... Then, today's public trial agenda can be considered complete, right?"

Retrieve assets? End of public trial?

"Wait! It's not over yet! The trial can't end yet!"

Just then, the matter that Cornelius Fudge had been lingering on in his mind suddenly became clear. The short, stout man jumped up as if his ass was on fire and stood in front of the main trial stage.

"Professor Dumbledore, you have finished asking your questions, but the Ministry of Magic has another very serious and terrible question that Mr. Peter Pettigrew needs to answer immediately –"

Cornelius Fudge looked at Peter Pettigrew fiercely and roared loudly.

"Peter Pettigrew, what is your relationship with the American Magical Federal Reserve System scam?!"

Accompanied by Cornelius Fudge's roar, the entire Quidditch field seemed to freeze for a moment. People who were immersed in Voldemort's past suddenly realized and shifted their gaze to Peter Pettigrew.

Facing the gazes of tens of thousands of wizards, Peter Pettigrew grinned, seemingly oblivious, and answered in a calm tone.

"Oh, that's something I jointly established with the goblins. I'm the company's registrant..."

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Chapter 2! My God!!! So big, so big!