335. Best Investigator

Adrian knew very well that this was not done by some simple people who just wanted to kill Magnus. It was certainly not done by the royal family since they were the first to get their minds read. About the man who was there as a waiter was still being searched around the country. The waiter whose place the man had taken was searched in the brain for every single moment in his life and nothing was found other than him being hit by something invisible and falling down.

This left the guests, and all of them as well got their minds checked, none had anything to do with what just happened. Meanwhile, the cooks were rounded up and their minds were checked, once again, none were found to be behind it.

The reason Magnus and his family were given different plates was due to them running out of more similar plates and these were the new designs that came in just a day before.

This sent their investigation outside. They looked for the company that made the plates and checked all their people and their packages.

Yet, only the ones that were sent to the Royal Palace were found to be poisoned. What was shocking was that the other plates that were sent to Buckingham Palace didn't have any kind of poison. Only those that Magnus and his family were to be given had it.

It left the question, if no one was involved in this from the palace, then how did the specific poisoned plates reach the Grand Family?

This was by far the most complex investigation they were facing. And those behind this were surely not normal, this was given. This kind of elaborate planning takes too much money, planning and resources.

Still, for muggle investigations, it may be hard or impossible to find the culprits, but for wizards, there was always a way. Even a small clue could help them find the big clue.

And they found one in the factory that manufactured the dye that was used to make engravings on the plates. Only one small bottle of it contained poison in it, and it was found in the dump.

After this, they looked for every single employee of the company. There were 5 that had left the company just a day ago that raised their suspicion. But, sadly, they were all found dead.

"It is possible that only one of them was the lead and others were just decoys to make us waste time. Bring the Scene recreation magic experts." Adrian ordered as soon as the bodies were found.

The Scene Recreation magic was something that the company developed and also taught to the Ministry of Magic's Aurors. This involved analysing every single thing inside the crime scene and checking what moved from its original position. It's very complex and hard to master. But this was also one of the highest-earning professions in magical Britain right now.

With the help of these wizards, a crime scene could be recreated with magic to understand how things happened, from where the murderer entered and where he went afterwards. Though sadly, they could not find what the murderer looked like.

The investigation became a huge spider web, spreading so far and wide that they were having to pour a lot of their resources. Every single clue would lead them to hundreds of other clues and the chain would go on. Out of all these clues, only 1 would be the real one and all the others would be a decoy.

Whoever was behind this clearly knew that wizards would be investigating it, hence, so many fake clues were made. Sadly, Magnus' given 24 hours were not enough to end the investigation.

When Magnus found out how deep the web went behind this whole assassination attempt, he became angry. The next thing he did was make his family shift to Camelot.

...

"What happened, dear? Why are you being so agitated? Why did you suddenly bring us here?" Grace asked him.

He explained to them what had occurred in the past 24 hours and that he still didn't know who was targeting them. And honestly, this was scarier for him than even Voldemort. Because with Voldemort, he knew who his enemy was and to an extent, he knew what to expect. However, now, he had no idea if they were muggles, if they were wizards or how he should address this problem.

Thankfully, Grace and Adam accepted his worries and stayed in Camelot. They understand that with them outside they will always be in danger and that will make Magnus uneasy.

"Be careful, Magnus. Tell us whenever you find something." Grace worriedly told him.

"Don't worry mum, I will not go easy this time. I am taking this as if God himself has waged war on me. I will be armed to teeth at all times." He assured her, as he had already learnt the lesson after the Battle of Thousand Beasts.

...

Magnus left to find the real perpetrators behind all this. He asked Merlin for help in this matter since the current magic did not allow anyone to look in the past.

But even Merlin's magic didn't allow one to see the past. Hence, Magnus was in a pickle. With no major clue found, his time was up and he had to return to Hogwarts.

However, the investigation went on. Word was already spreading in the magical circle of major magical countries around the world that an assassination attempt on Magnus and his family was made. All were cooperating now.

When the queen found out about it, she too told all the people she could to cooperate with MEDA as much as they could with no questions asked.

There was an air of tension circulating around the magical community. They felt uneasy as they didn't know if it was done by Voldemort. However, most elder wizards ruled that out, Voldemort was too proud to do assassination, but, they also said that it is possible Voldemort might have changed after his last defeat.

Amidst all this, most even forgot that a referendum was taking place in the British Overseas Territory called Zimbabwe. The referendum didn't make any news and occurred silently. When it was already underway and the votes had been cast, the world was allowed to know that this had happened.

As expected, a few called it colonialism 2.0. Many called it the return of imperialism. But, these were only minor independent newspapers. All the major ones were silent on the matter, they would stay silent not because they were fed money, but because they were paid to at least wait before the results come. If the results are in favour, they should say good things and even go do ground reporting. If the result is not in favour then they can say anything they want.

Magnus was busy with finding the assassins, studying and getting stronger. By now, he didn't really have to get stronger as his last battle had proved that he was stronger than a majority of wizards. But what Magnus wanted was absolute strength. So much that none could threaten him.

By mid of January, he was given the result of the referendum held in Zimbabwe. But at the same time, Adrian made a very risky move to find the criminals responsible.

The ministry also helped in this as they allowed Adrian to use something that they had kept safe, inside the Safehouse. The instrument sanctioned to be used by Adrian was none other than a Time-Turner.

...

Adrian knew that this move was risky. But he also knew that he was not present at Buckingham Palace when the whole thing took place. Hence, he had the best chance.

However, the Time-Turner being used by him was not normal, it was a more ancient one, made by an unknown person and seized by the ministry. To get back to the night of the dinner, he will need to jump a whole 20 days in the past.

By the time he comes back, he will be a month older. But this was a trade-off he was ready to make since his honour as an investigator was on the line here.

In the controlled and safe environment of the MEDA safehouse. He jumped back into the past.

He faced the first problem, that he could not enter the party looking like this. It would alert Magnus when he calls Adrian later. So, he knocked down a MEDA staff member, disguised as kitchen staff and used his hair to add it to a polyjuice. As he was the CEO of MEDA, he created all security protocols and secret passwords. So, he easily took entrance to the premises.

Inside the Kitchen, the first thing he did was put a tracker on every single plate with the same pattern as the ones given to the Grant Family. This tracker was in the form of an invisible gel, so anyone who touches this plate will be marked. Then he put magical spy cameras in every single place he could, not leaving any kind of blindspot.

However, he still put a marker on every single guest and staff member in the entire Palace. Soon, when the food was being taken out, he noticed the plates with patterns as well. They were not the ones he had put his tracking gel on. This made it clear that someone took 6 plates from some secret place.

He noticed the waiter that was taking the plates. He had seen the man before a minute ago, but he felt wrong, as his way of walking, his expressions and manner did not match the man from before.

He deduced that this man had also used magical means to turn into this. So, he silently came in his way and touched a plate, "Do you need help? Let me carry some for you."

But, the man refused with an annoyed face. However, this was enough for Adrian to touch his hand and make contact with his skin. The tracker was placed, it was in his blood now and unless he dried it completely, he wouldn't get away.

But even now, he was wondering how the heck these plates got swapped later with the non-poisonous one. Suddenly, an idea arose in his mind, ~Could it be that it was me in the first place who stopped the plates? But... then how did this loop even start? This does not make any sense.~

Now he understood why Time-Turners were kept secret and far away from the general public. It was just too much of a headache. Still, he was scared, he had no idea if it was him or not. And if he made any wrong move, it would mess up everything.

"OYE... WHOSE PLATES ARE THOSE? BRING THEM OVER HERE, I DIDN'T FINISH COOKING YET!" The head chef suddenly shouted. This immediately alerted every single hidden Dragon Service, MEDA, Army Of Merlin, Golden Company, Kingsman members.

And boy oh boy, 60 per cent of the entire cooking and catering staff was made up of Magnus' security forces. F*ck, even the Ministry of Magic had sent 5 Aurors on permanent Mangnus' security duty and even the Janitor was a wizard from the Order of the Phoenix.

Immediately, they all pounced on the man and took away the food and the plates. Soon, they had the confirmation that the plates contained the poison. However, when they went to take the man out of the cell and interrogate him, they found that the man originally whose position the wizard took was there, the true assassin was gone. The 5 guarding wizards were on the ground, unconscious.

Adrian did not have much time left, he could not go after the assassin right now. He quickly found the MEDA agent whose position he took over, implanted new memories in his head of whatever Adrian did concerning the original job. Then, he quickly appeared back inside the Safehouse in the present time.

Immediately, he went out to look at the tracker monitor he had with him to locate the man who was in the Palace that day.

...

Magnus, in Hogwarts castle, received two good pieces of news on the same day.

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