novelcrest Chapter 525 Umbridge's Methods
Chapter 525 Umbridge's Methods
Chapter 521 Umbridge's Methods
Sean told the others about Fudge.
They learned some things about the Ministry of Magic through Percy, but it was far less thorough and specific than the information revealed by Sean, this "unknown Ministry of Magic staff member."
"So, Fudge really put Professor Dumbledore in such a bad light?" Harry muttered to himself.
"Fudge is afraid of him," Lupin explained. "He's always been afraid of him."
"Afraid of Dumbledore?" the Weasley twins asked in unison, somewhat incredulously.
Sometimes they were afraid of Dumbledore, and rounding up, they were no different from Fudge.
Even so, Harry still couldn't believe that anyone would be afraid of Dumbledore—he was so kind, so gentle, that... "That's right," Sean said gravely, "Fudge thinks Dumbledore wants to overthrow him and become Minister for Magic."
"Does Dumbledore want to?" Ron asked.
"Don't you want to?" Sean asked back.
"Do you want to?" Hermione asked.
"Don't you want to?" Sean looked at Hermione and shook his head. "Whether Dumbledore wants to or not is irrelevant. What matters is that Fudge thinks he does. Even if Dumbledore doesn't want to, it doesn't matter."
"Of course he didn't want to," Arthur gave an immediate and affirmative answer. "He never even considered it! Back then..."
"5
Arthur then brought up the events of that year: when the previous Minister of Magic retired, many people wanted Dumbledore to succeed him. But Dumbledore refused, and Fudge took over instead.
If every faction has a politically correct viewpoint, then this history represents the political correctness of the Order of the Phoenix.
Not only that, Arthur mentioned many other things.
It mentions Fudge's consultation with Dumbledore, Fudge's drastic change in temperament, and so on.
If these words were spoken in the Ministry of Magic, or if Fudge heard them...
It seems Arthur has already lost his job.
Or... who knows... they might be arrested and thrown into Azkaban on some pretext?
"Enough! Go to bed!"
Sometime later, Molly came down the stairs and stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips.
"This is the final warning. If you continue, you might soon be joining the Order of the Phoenix."
"Really, Mom?" The Weasley twins' eyes lit up. "I want to join the Order of the Phoenix."
Molly glared coldly at the two of them.
The two obediently stood up and walked towards the stairs.
Soon, only Sean, Sirius Black, and... Lupin remained in the conference room.
"Shall we go to sleep too?"
To be honest, the beds in the Black family's guest room weren't as soft as I'd imagined.
Lying on it felt a bit uncomfortable; the mattress was too hard and didn't seem to provide enough support, especially in the lower back area, where it felt a bit uncomfortable. You could feel the hardness of the bed frame with the slightest movement.
The bedding didn't seem as warm as it looked.
In addition, the stuffy smell in the room made the whole sleep experience very poor.
Bang bang bang! "Who?"
"Professor, it's me."
Miss Granger's voice.
Sean got up and opened the door.
"May I come in?" Even though she said that, Hermione had already walked into the room and closed the door behind her. "Professor, are you asleep?"
"What do you think?" Sean asked her, somewhat amused.
Hermione lowered her head shyly, but then, remembering what she wanted to say, she raised her head again with a serious expression.
"Professor, I've come to see you because it's important." She said, trying to find a place to sit down, but Sean grabbed her and pulled her close, his face flushed. "Don't be silly. It's a very serious matter."
"You said—" Sean said, feeling Hermione's body heat and fragrance while ruffling her hair, "I won't bother you."
Hermione suppressed her physical reaction and turned to look at Sean behind her.
"What I wanted to say was... Ginny, um, um..."
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The next day.
Ministry of Magic.
"Understood, Minister."
Percy reached out and took the file, glanced at it with a serious expression, then quickly tidied the folder, slowly retreated, and closed the door.
Half a minute later.
His figure appeared on the floor above.
Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
"Penelope, Minister Fudge asked me to give this document to Director Phillips. Where is he?"
"Please call me Crivat, I'm afraid others might misunderstand if they hear me," Penelope said bluntly. "Director Phillips didn't come to the Ministry of Magic today; he's probably out on patrol."
"Uh...oh." Percy nodded and handed over the document.
Penelope took it, glanced through it, and made a note on a sticky note next to the part where Sean needed to sign. Then she looked up at Percy, who was still there.
"Why are you still here?"
"I..."
"Is there anything else Minister Fookieg needs to say?"
No, no.
"Then why aren't you leaving? If you have nothing else to do, then leave. I still have work to do."
The problem has returned to square one.
"I...I wanted to ask a question."
Percy paused for a moment, then finally voiced the question that had been on his mind.
Is there still a chance for us...?
"Are you crazy?"
"Does this have anything to do with Professor Phillips?" Having said what he wanted to say, Percy had given up and decided to tell everyone he'd seen these past few days. "I've seen you going in and out of Phillips's office several times outside of working hours, and..."
"You've been following me?" Penelope's eyes suddenly turned dangerous.
12 Grimmauld Place.
"get up!"
Mrs. Molly’s shouts rang out like thunder at eight o’clock sharp in the morning in every corner of the Black family home.
Only in the morning does the rule of "speaking quietly in the hallway," which usually only appears in "strange tales of rules," become invalid.
Sean woke up too and subconsciously looked at the pillow.
It feels empty.
It still had a pleasant fragrance and lingering warmth, indicating that it had been about an hour or two since it left.
The two of them talked for a long time last night. They hadn't seen each other for almost the entire summer vacation, and of course, their conversation was all serious.
Even things that could be observed—for example, Miss Granger's summer homework, which Sean graded and checked. And then there were all those strange and unusual questions.
However, some underhanded tactics inevitably continued to be employed.
Because she was studying so late, Hermione went to sleep in this room.
Upon entering the reception room, a steaming hot breakfast was already laid out on the table.
A large plate of freshly baked pancakes sat on the table, next to fresh sausages and steaming hot butter, while the air was filled with the aroma of toasted bread.
It seems that what happened last night did not cause any dissatisfaction among Chef Molly.
"After dinner, you guys come with me to clean this house. If you want to join the Order of the Phoenix, you can't even tidy up a house properly."
To paraphrase a Chinese proverb: "If you can't sweep one's own room, how can you sweep the world?"
Behind the curtains on the second floor is a honeycomb-like structure (called a vixen in the wizarding world), which is always buzzing.
After dinner, Molly, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, and George were gathered in front of the curtains, each with a cloth covering their face, nose, and mouth, making them look particularly comical.
Each of them held a bottle of black liquid with a nozzle at the top.
"Blindfold your faces and grab a spray bottle." As soon as Molly saw Harry and Ron, she pointed to two bottles of black liquid on a long-legged table. "This is vixen exterminator. I've never seen such a pest infestation—what has that house-elf been doing for the past ten years?"
Hermione's face was half-covered by a tea towel as she argued, "Kreacher is very old, he might—"
“If Kreacher were willing, he could do something that would absolutely surprise you, Hermione.” Sirius Black had just entered the room, carrying a bloodstained bag that looked like it was filled with dead rats. “I was just feeding Buckbeak,” he explained, seeing Harry’s puzzled look. “I locked it upstairs in my mother’s bedroom. Anyway—this writing desk…”
He tossed the bag of dead rats into an armchair and leaned over to examine a locked cabinet.
“Yes, Molly, I’m sure it’s a Boggart.” Sirius peered through the keyhole. “But we’d better let Phillips see it first before releasing it—think of my mother, it might be even more formidable than her.”
"You're right, Sirius," Molly replied.
They both spoke cautiously and politely.
This is the aftermath of an argument.
How can you make two people be polite again? Just have a fight—that's the principle behind the saying "no destruction, no construction."
A piercing doorbell rang from downstairs.
"How many times have I told them not to ring the doorbell!" Sirius muttered, opening the door to find an unexpected person standing there. "Miss Crevatt, what are you doing here?"
"I'm here to deliver some documents to Director Phillips. Is he here?" Penelope asked politely.
"Upstairs," Sirius replied. "He's cleaning."
Yes, Sean is cleaning.
The last time he did a thorough cleaning was... a month ago.
Did you think it would take a long time? Of course not. Every time I return to my home on Privet Road after the semester ends, I always have to clean and do a thorough cleaning. So, these things are not difficult at all; on the contrary, I handle them with ease.
Seeing Penelope suddenly appear at the door, Sean put down the broom.
"Why are you here?"
"Minister Fouché has an urgent document that requires your signature."
"What document?"
"Regarding Deputy Minister Umbridge..."
When talking about Umbridge, we have to talk about Umbridge.
This pink toad was always going against him, trying to seize the position of "Fudge's favorite." He ignored her, but she thought he was afraid of her, so she became even more aggressive, repeatedly taking advantage of his position and acting like a "senior." Furthermore, she deliberately tried to annoy him in many ways, citing her rank.
"What happened to Umbridge?"
"First, there's the matter of Umbridge being transferred to Hogwarts."
This is not surprising; Umbridge had planned this all along.
She believed that Sean was highly valued by Fudge largely because he was at Hogwarts and could keep an eye on Dumbledore for Fudge at all times. Therefore, she volunteered to be transferred to Hogwarts this semester to help Fudge "solve his problems".
Sean had no objection to Umbridge's actions.
It's actually a good thing that this stupid woman isn't interfering with the Ministry of Magic's work in the Department of Law Enforcement.
"And the second thing?"
"Umbridge wants to recall Borns to become the Deputy Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
After the Department of Magical Law Enforcement came under Sean's control, Bones was forced to step down and soon resigned.
Umbridge did this for reasons that are well-known.
"Where do I sign?" Sean asked casually as he took the documents from Penelope's hand.
Penelope was somewhat puzzled to see that Sean actually wanted to sign the document.
"Director, are you really willing to bring that woman Bones back? You know, this time she has Umbridge's help, and she's completely different from before. It's easy to invite a god in, but hard to send him away..."
"
"Does refusing to sign mean Burns won't come back?" Sean raised an eyebrow and asked rhetorically. "Even if it's not Burns today, Umbridge will find someone like Lewis or Jons tomorrow to keep me in check. Why not let Burns come back? We know her and what kind of person she is."
Penelope's eyes flashed with a sudden realization, and then she took out a quill pen from her jacket pocket.
Shortly after, Penelope left with the signed documents.
The spring cleaning is gradually coming to an end.
"Fred, what are you doing?" Molly shouted sternly. "Spray it on and then throw it away!"
Everyone turned their heads and saw Fred pinching a struggling vixen between his thumb and forefinger, his face full of interest.
"Okay—here you go." Fred readily agreed, quickly spraying the vixen with the spray, and the insect immediately fainted.
But as soon as Molly turned around, he quietly and carefully slipped the vixen into his pocket.
"We want to experiment with the vixen's venom to develop a fast-acting skip-school candy," George whispered to Fred.
"What is a quick-acting truancy candy?" Ron asked, leaning close to his ear.
"Various kinds of candy that will make you temporarily sick." George lowered his voice, glancing warily at Molly. "Don't worry, it's not the kind of illness that will land you in St. Mungo's; it's just the kind that will get you out of class. We've been working on this project all summer."
"It's a two-tone chewing gum, orange-yellow at one end and purple at the other. If you eat the orange half..."
"—You'll vomit immediately," George continued. "Once you rush out of the classroom to the infirmary, eat the purple half, and you'll be instantly back to normal, full of energy. That way, you can enjoy your leisure activities for that hour instead of sitting there listening to boring transformation lessons."
"This is how we spell GG," he said, as he quietly moved to a spot where Molly couldn't see him, gathered the several unconscious vixens on the ground together, and stuffed them into his pocket. "However, there are still some things that need improvement. The problem now is that after eating the orange half, the test subjects vomit nonstop and simply can't swallow the purple half."
"The test subject?" Harry asked.
“We,” Fred said without hesitation, “we took turns trying them. I tried the Coma Flower Candy, George tried the Deafness Lollipop, and we even tried the Nosebleed Nougat together.”
"The effect is quite amazing." George grinned. "Even Snape would be impressed."
This statement carries immense weight. Snape may not be well-liked by many, but few dare to question his professional competence.
"I want one," Ginny whispered, appearing out of nowhere behind the two of them.
"You?" George froze, nearly dropping the seductive charm from his hand. After exchanging a glance with Fred, his brotherly instincts kicked in—"Things are getting serious." "This is too dangerous. We haven't fully developed it yet. We can't..."
Before Fred could finish his refusal, Ginny followed up with her next sentence.
"If you don't give it to me, I'll go tell my mother that you're secretly hiding bugs in the house and making candy that makes people want to vomit."
"
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"May I ask you, what are you planning to do with this candy?"
"It's a secret." Ginny smiled slyly and quickly stuffed the candy Fred had taken out into her pocket.