Chapter 63: Chapter 63: The Ministry of Magic's Annoyances (Edited)
Dumbledore had experienced many things in his life, but Hagrid's situation was something new to him.
Looking at Hagrid, who was standing there like a child who had done something wrong, Dumbledore took a deep breath and then said, "All right, no problem. I'll arrange for someone to take the dragon away right now."
With that, Dumbledore immediately summoned his Patronus.
"Now, come with me to the third floor, we need to move Fluffy."
There was no time to waste, Fudge could arrive at any moment and Dumbledore had to speed up. He and Hagrid reached the third floor and opened the door.
Fluffy raised both heads warily and bared his fangs, but when he sniffed the visitor, the expression on all three heads softened, with a hint of flattery.
It squatted down and stuck its tongue out at Hagrid with all three heads, looking three times as fawning as a normal domestic dog.
Without further ado, Hagrid put the collar on him and pulled him close to the door, Dumbledore stood back, casting a cleaning spell in the room to clear it of any dirt, then casting a small spell before leaving.
He led Hagrid straight to Hagrid's hut, where an old man was already waiting for them. The old man, whose hair was completely white, wore a blue wool coat with a hedgehog-colored scarf in his breast pocket, and carried a somewhat old leather briefcase.
"Newt, it's been a long time." Dumbledore saw the old man and smiled brightly. But Newt didn't look as happy as Dumbledore: whenever Dumbledore came to him, it was usually for no good reason, like when he was sent by Dumbledore to fight Grindelwald in the twenties...
But almost seventy years had passed, and the boy back then was already old. In that long time, Dumbledore had not bothered him much and had let him live a peaceful life.
And just now, he received another message from Dumbledore and, as always, it had come just in time. Seeing Dumbledore, he did his best to sketch a smile, but his smile was instantly genuine: he had seen a great treasure!
"You've got a fine three-headed dog!" His eyes twinkled and he stared at Hagrid's three-headed dog, Fluffy, with a look that made Fluffy look a little embarrassed.
Hagrid returned a simple smile, "Ha, not worth mentioning, not worth mentioning, Fluffy is a naughty boy, sorry to bother you."
"No, no, no!" Newt was filled with glee. He hadn't expected Dumbledore to give him anything good this time, but Hagrid didn't stop there, he went back to his hut and brought out a reluctant Norbert.
"The boy will also be in your care for a few days." Hagrid brought Newt a second piece of good news.
Newt was stunned: what else could be good?
Without a word, he agreed, and then worked with Hagrid to get Norbert and Fluffy into the suitcase. Both the dragon and the three-headed dog are very intelligent animals and not easily fooled. Fluffy struggled and did not want to leave Hagrid. He smelled a lot of scary and powerful creatures in that suitcase. Plus, he had a deep relationship with Hagrid.
But in the end, Hagrid dragged him to the suitcase, Newt's suitcase was very special, it had an undetectable extension spell and a large amount of space inside. With Hagrid's promise to come back for him, Fluffy entered the suitcase, trembling.
Norbert, for his part, ran to the suitcase without hesitation. As far as he was concerned, he was finally out of danger! He was finally out of the house.
Once inside the suitcase, he raised his head and let out a few long dragon roars: "Roar... (I am the embodiment of power!)"
"Roar! (Upon entering, all will tremble at my presence!)"
"Roar! (I am magic incarnate!)"
The inside of the suitcase exploded like a bowl of ice water thrown into boiling oil, and the roar of magical creatures spread far and wide, with the weaker ones hiding and shivering, and the stronger ones roaring against Norbert.
Newt: ...
Is something wrong with this dragon?
Norbert tried to roar again, but two red lights flew behind him, striking him with precision, stunning him and interrupting his budding dragon roar. Dumbledore then walked up to him and cast a stun spell (Petrificus Totalus), knocking Norbert completely unconscious.
"Sorry for the inconvenience." said Dumbledore apologetically to Newt as he looked at the mess in the suitcase.
"Never mind, never mind, I'm used to it..." said Newt, feeling his head spinning.
After arranging them, Newt closed the clasp on the suitcase, he had used his magic to reinforce the clasp so that magical creatures like scarbato couldn't get out of it now. He stood up with the case in his hand, gave Dumbledore and Hagrid a big smile and hurried off.
When he left, Dumbledore was relieved: he was finally safe.
Despite the complexity of the process, Dumbledore moved with great speed, and by the time he and Hagrid returned to the Great Dining Hall, breakfast was not even over. By that time, the flames in the fireplace in Dumbledore's office had turned silently green.
The Ministry of Magic was hopeless.
The sooner this raid was carried out, the better, but Quirrell had written his anonymous letter the night before and Fudge only found out the next morning when he arrived at work; it was almost the end of breakfast at Hogwarts.
As soon as he found out, he took some of his cronies to Hogwarts, and in this case he sprang into action with a vigor which I fear he could only muster in the face of a special newspaper interview.
The easiest way to get to Hogwarts was to first communicate with Dumbledore and then teleport to Dumbledore's office via the Flu network. But this time Fudge did not follow that strategy, but took his men directly to Hogsmeade and entered through the front door of the school: the purpose was to take Dumbledore by surprise.
Fudge had distanced himself from Dumbledore ever since he had taken up residence at the Ministry of Magic, and in the last two years, Dumbledore had become more of an obstacle. If given the opportunity to change things at Hogwarts, Fudge would not squander it; if he could undermine Dumbledore's prestige, he would.
How many versions has Dumbledore been stronger? it's time to nerf! If Fudge had played online games, he would have roared that.
So he came, and he came with his men.
Chapter 64: Chapter 64: Law-abiding Dumbledore (Edited)
"Albus, Professor Dumbledore, as you know, I have always trusted you, without reservation."
In Dumbledore's office, the current Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, was standing in front of Dumbledore's desk, fiddling with the bowler he held. It was a scene that resembled that of a schoolboy being called into the office by his teacher.
However, there were still two people standing beside Fudge. One was tall, strong-looking, with short grayish-white hair, and serious. It was one of Fudge's bodyguards, the Ministry elite, John Dawlish, who had graduated from Hogwarts with distinctions in all his N.E.W.T. If Dawlish was a talented man, the other person Fudge had brought with him was a little hard to describe.
She was short and plump, with short curly ratty brown hair and wore a big scary pink bow tiara, and to make matters worse, she was also a middle-aged aunt wearing a pink sweater, which was only worn by women in their early twenties. With her big pancake face, rough skin, bags under her eyes and big toad mouth, she looked like a Disney princess on the run from the third dimension: the frog princess.
She was Fudge's confidante, the Under-Secretary to the Minister of Magic, Dolores Umbridge. A woman whose very sight made Professor McGonagall physically uncomfortable.
Dumbledore was not alone, as the school's Vice Principal, Professor McGonagall, was forced to be present when the Minister of Magic arrived. Of course, her presence made the atmosphere feel less like a conference and more like a negotiation.
At that point, Umbridge picked up the conversation where Fudge left off, coughed softly and cleared her throat, and Fudge stopped rambling and looked at Umbridge with a smile.
"The Ministry's approach to Hogwarts has always been to offer the most and best help possible, but the Ministry also has to serve the wider British magical community. Recently, we have received news that a three-headed dog and a Troll have appeared at Hogwarts Castle and that the lives and safety of hundreds of students are in grave danger. Of course, we consider such claims to be absurd and vile slander without any sense of honor..."
"Then why are they here?" Professor McGonagall couldn't help but sputter.
"Oh?" Umbridge seemed to have heard something strange, she looked surprised, "Answer! Minerva, answer! We are a serious and responsible organization, the Minister and many Ministry officials work day and night for the basic good of the magical community, so if someone proposes this, we have to respond. Don't worry, Minerva, it's just a 'routine inspection'..."
"So you're going to conduct a search of Hogwarts?" Professor McGonagall understood what he meant.
"In principle, yes, I find your reaction a little disconcerting," Umbridge gave a 'sweet' smile, "We have a saying out there that if people don't know what they're doing, they don't know what they're doing wrong. To be honest, the Ministry of Magic never knew what Hogwarts was doing..."
Then, ignoring Professor McGonagall's ugly face, she turned directly to Fudge.
Fudge gave a mock look of regret, then, without hesitation, pulled out a warrant and launched into a search of Hogwarts. They headed straight for Hagrid's hut. After all, Hagrid had a criminal record! He had kept a dangerous Acromantula when he was at school, and thus had caused the death of a student. After being expelled, he is said to still be at Hogwarts, and has a strange affinity for magical creatures of all kinds.
So, who else is going to be investigated? If there was a real problem with him, the Ministry could use him as an excuse to send an official to supervise the magical animals at Hogwarts.
Several people entered Hagrid's hut, however, to Fudge's dismay, there was nothing unusual about it, it looked like an ordinary hunter's hut.
"Why are there so many bottles of brandy and dead chickens?" Dawlish looked with some curiosity at the brandy bottles stuffed in the cupboards and the dead chickens hanging from the ceiling in the kitchen.
Hagrid said, "I've heard that brandy with chicken blood in it is good for replenishing the body, so I made some."
Dawlish looked at Hagrid's magnificent body and wondered, "Do you still need a tonic?".
But then he realized something, walked over and coughed twice, "Well, tonic, you mean... That kind of tonic?".
Hagrid was a little confused, but nodded his head.
Dawlish thought for a moment and grabbed a bottle of chicken-blood brandy from the kitchen, "Can I have one?" He asked expectantly, and Hagrid had no reason to stop him.
Dawlish came gaily out of the cottage with his bottle of brandy in his arms. Fudge frowned, thinking it wasn't that simple, and then took one too. It was said to be good for the body, so let's try it! If it worked, he could take another batch.
But there was no way two bottles of brandy would stop the search. As they left the house, Umbridge made another suggestion, "I heard Headmaster Dumbledore tell the students at the beginning of the year that "anyone who doesn't want to die a painful death in an accident should not enter the corridor to the right of the third floor," I don't quite understand what that means, but in that case, would you mind if we went there? With a wizard like you around, we won't have any accidents, will we?"
In his opinion, the third floor corridor was very suspicious, and if the three-headed dog was hiding there, then it all made sense. Why would anyone go in and die a horrible, painful death? Because they would be eaten by the three-headed dog, of course!
Everyone instantly filled with energy and ran up to the third floor in a flurry. As bureaucrats who spent a lot of time in an office, it was difficult for them to reach the third floor. By the time they reached the third floor, everyone's breathing was a bit labored.
Dumbledore opened the wooden door for Fudge himself with a straight face, revealing a ramshackle classroom with a rotting ceiling. There wasn't even dog shit, let alone a three-headed dog.
"The corridor needed renovation, but the school was short of money, so it was put on hold," Dumbledore said slowly, as if he were chatting, "For safety's sake, I closed this corridor."
Fudge's face immediately reddened. It was true that the Ministry of Magic had been cutting funding to Hogwarts year after year for the past two years, even scholarships for orphans and Muggle students had been deducted ...
Dawlish looked at Dumbledore quizzically, "A repair spell will take care of that." He pulled out his wand, "(Reparo)!"
There was no response, and even a piece of the ceiling came loose.
The atmosphere immediately became uncomfortable.
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