Chapter 114: Encouraging the girl of King Juan to be a good person
Central London, Whitehall.
As the famous thoroughfare of Westminster, Whitehall connects the Houses of Parliament and Downing Street and is home to many important government departments. For example, No. 10 Downing Street, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of the Navy and many other government agencies. This is undoubtedly the administrative center of the British Muggle government.
Therefore, for a long time, people have often used Whitehall as a proxy for the British administrative department.
But few people know that Whitehall is also home to the Ministry of Magic, the administrative center of the wizarding world - underground.
"Minister Umbridge."
"Minister Umbridge."
Wearing a fluffy red cardigan and a pink ruffled skirt, with a small black velvet bow tied on her hair, the short and fat witch walked in the corridors of the Ministry of Magic. The employees passing by all bowed their heads respectfully and addressed her job—— Even though she is just a deputy minister.
Prior to this, Umbridge had been very responsive to countless other compliments and apprehensions, often showing herself to be arrogant. But this time it was different. Umbridge was not in the mood to enjoy the compliments and flattery from her subordinates and colleagues, because she was in the same panicky mood as those who complimented her!
Finally, she arrived at her destination, the door of the Minister of Magic's office.
With trepidation, Umbridge nervously opened the door to her office.
Bang bang bang!
"Please come in!"
Fudge's voice came from the office, and Umbridge pushed the door open and entered.
"Minister Fudge," she whispered.
Cornelius Fudge, who was reviewing documents, raised his head with a smile on his face:
"Oh, Dolores, do you have any good news for me?"
"Bad news, Minister."
Dolores Umbridge said with some anxiety, "We have lost contact with Elton."
The smile on Fudge's face gradually faded, and his expression looked a little gloomy:
"What do you mean by losing contact with Elton? Is he dead? Or is he missing?"
Umbridge was trembling slightly, not daring to look at Fudge, and buried her head lower:
"He disappeared, Minister, just like disappearing from the world. I can't find him, and even his family has lost contact with him."
Fudge asked in a deep voice:
"When did this happen?"
"A week ago."
"A week?"
Fudge's voice was full of anger, "You mean, you didn't think of informing me about this until he lost contact for a week?"
Umbridge hurriedly explained:
"I originally thought he just encountered some obstacles. You know, a noble magical creature like the phoenix is not that easy to catch. Maybe there was an accident along the way..."
"madness!"
Fudge interrupted her and asked angrily:
"It was you who suggested that I catch the phoenix, telling me that as long as I have the phoenix, I can completely get rid of Dumbledore's influence!
"You swore to me that you would catch the phoenix, but now not only has the phoenix not been found, but even Elton has disappeared! Is this the guarantee you gave me? Umbridge, I am very disappointed in you!"
Umbridge's mind went blank for a moment, and Fudge's words gave her a suffocating fear.
disappointment? The Minister is disappointed in her!
Everything she has now is completely based on the minister's trust in her.
What would be the consequences if she lost the minister's trust?
Umbridge couldn't even imagine it!
The reason why she became the Senior Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Magic was entirely due to the promotion of Fudge, the Minister of Magic.
The so-called Senior Deputy Minister, although it sounds worse than the Minister of Magic, actually does not have much real power at all. In fact, he is the personal adviser to the Minister of Magic.
Once she loses Fudge's trust, she is nothing! Not only will you completely lose everything you have now, and you will be far away from the core of power of the Ministry of Magic, you will even be expelled from the Ministry of Magic!
"minister……"
Umbridge hurried to the desk and explained anxiously, "Elton's disappearance may not mean that he betrayed you. Everything he had was given by you, so how could he betray you? Those damn thieves Hunters, yes, it must be them!”
Her voice became more and more excited, and in the end she adopted a certain tone of conviction:
"Elton successfully caught the phoenix, but those damn poachers betrayed their trust and attacked him from behind. They thought Elton's reward was not enough. They must want to devour the phoenix for themselves!"
"That's just speculation on your part."
Fudge did not listen easily to Umbridge, her face was still gloomy, "Also, this is the Ministry of Magic."
Umbridge said hurriedly:
"Minister Fudge, please give me some time, and I will definitely find out the truth!"
Fudge took off his glasses and said in a cold and low voice:
"Three days, I want an explanation!"
Umbridge's saggy face trembled slightly, and she gritted her teeth and said:
"Don't worry, Minister, I will definitely give you a reasonable explanation!"
The disappearance of a Ministry of Magic employee is no small matter!
Not only is his phoenix missing, but the disappearance of the Ministry of Magic employees will definitely cause uneasiness to Elton's family. They will demand an explanation from the Ministry of Magic, but Fudge cannot give one.
He can't say that Elton was sent by him to poach Phoenix, right?
If he dared to tell the truth, his political career would be completely over.
But it’s not okay if you don’t tell the truth.
Because the Ministry of Magic will definitely conduct a thorough investigation into Elton's disappearance, and Fudge will definitely be traced by then. And if Fudge cannot explain the reason, it will inevitably trigger an internal review process against him within the Ministry of Magic!
But can Fudge survive the investigation?
It’s unbearable, but not completely unbearable.
If he gets to the bottom of it, his term as Minister of Magic will be over.
But he can definitely find someone to take the blame, such as Umbridge.
Everything was arranged by Umbridge, so as long as Fudge insists that he knows nothing, he can put all the blame on Umbridge, and at best he, the Minister of Magic, will only be blamed. Say something that doesn’t recognize people.
But no matter what, this is a huge blow to his reputation.
So he must force Umbridge to give him an answer that satisfies him - it is not important whether he can find out the truth, what is important is that Umbridge must give a reasonable explanation to explain the relationship between Elton's disappearance and her Task assigned to Elton.
To put it bluntly, these three days were specially reserved by Fudge for Umbridge to make up for herself!
As long as she can give a reasonable explanation and remove Fudge from this matter, then Fudge doesn't need to push her out as a scapegoat.
But if it doesn't work, then Fudge will have no choice but to give up his car and save his handsome.
So no matter what the outcome, Fudge will pick himself clean.
This is good for everyone.
——
Hogwarts, Room of Requirement.
After returning here, Fiammetta did not soar excitedly into the sky. Instead, she always stood on Ash's shoulders, as if she would suddenly disappear as soon as Ash left her sight.
"Phoenix!"
Harley happily circled around Ash, her emerald eyes staring closely at the phoenix on his shoulder.
This is the Phoenix!
The legendary divine bird, the most noble and gorgeous magical creature, bar none!
Neither the unicorn nor the dragon can truly compare to the phoenix.
This is not only because of the scarcity of phoenixes, but also because of their power.
Just the fact of being reborn from the ashes is enough to leave other magical creatures behind. After all, among all magical creatures, goblins and house elves have an average life expectancy of 200 years, and a very small number of individuals can live as long as five or six hundred years.
But compared to the phoenix, which can be constantly reborn from the ashes, five or six hundred years is just a blink of an eye!
Ash was dumbfounded by Harley's performance, and forcefully pressed the girl's head to make her stop, with a helpless tone:
"Didn't you see the Phoenix in Dumbledore's office?"
"That's different!"
Harley struggled to break away from Ash's clutches, her face bulging with anger. Although she had often been touched by Ash before, and she enjoyed the process, being touched gently and being pressed violently were completely different things!
Ash asked back:
"Why is it different?"
"Fawkes is Dumbledore's, and Fiametta is yours!"
Looking at the confident girl, Ash felt a bit dumbfounded. For those who didn't know better, he thought the Phoenix was yours!
Ash shook his head helplessly and turned his gaze to the other girl surrounding him:
"And you, Cassandra, why are you like Harley?"
The girl with dazzling blond hair spoke extremely excitedly:
"This is a phoenix! No wizard can refuse to keep a phoenix as a pet, no!"
"But don't you like dragons?"
Cassandra's pretty face turned slightly red, but her tone was as confident as Harley's:
"I like dragons, but I also like phoenixes! Isn't that okay?"
"walk slowly."
Ash shrugged, there was nothing wrong with it, it made perfect sense.
Because he is also like this, he likes witches, dragons, phoenixes, unicorns, wolves, snakes - as long as they are cute, he likes them all.
Of course, the premise is to transform into a human form.
Because he really couldn't appreciate Furikong's 'cuteness'.
Harley asked expectantly:
"Can I touch her?"
Ash smiled and nodded:
"Of course, as long as she doesn't object."
Harry immediately asked Fiametta expectantly:
"Fiametta, can I touch you?"
The fiery red divine bird nodded reservedly, and upon receiving Phoenix's approval, Harley immediately stretched out her white and tender hands to stroke Phoenix's feathers with excitement.
Cassandra looked into Fiametta's eyes and asked softly:
"She seems to have no energy?"
"Maybe a little tired."
Ash was vaguely confused. It couldn't be said that it was because Fiametta's blood had just been drawn by him before he came, right?
But it's not a big problem. As long as he has enough magic power, the blood he drew can be completely replenished.
Harry asked excitedly while stroking the phoenix's feathers:
"Hermione, why don't you come and take a look?"
Hermione cast a somewhat envious look and her expression was a little tangled, but in the end she made up her mind and gritted her teeth and said:
"I have to finish this paper!"
Anyway, Phoenix belongs to Ash, so you can watch it anytime, but the paper must be written now.
She has already written half of it and must not give up halfway!
Ash was a little surprised, but thought it was reasonable, after all, Hermione had such a personality.
Even Ash could already imagine that when they opened the champagne, Hermione would bear the shock of not finishing the paper while biting her lip and insisting on finishing the paper.
Don't doubt it, this is Hermione.
However.
Just because Hermione doesn't come, doesn't mean Ash can't go there!
If she doesn't come to see the Phoenix, then Ash will send the Phoenix to her.
Just like the famous saying: If the mountain does not come to me, I will walk towards the mountain.
"How many did you write?"
Ash asked softly as he put his face in front of Hermione's.
He glanced down at the thesis title on the parchment:
"Muggle persecution of wizards in the Middle Ages was pointless."
"Uh~!"
Hermione failed to see through Ash's sinister intentions and whispered, "I only wrote three inches."
Ash looked down along the title, and the one-meter-long piece of parchment was densely written with words.
Harley felt dizzy just by looking at it, and Cassandra found it a little unbelievable - because their papers hadn't been written yet.
It's not that they don't like studying, it's mainly that the homework at Hogwarts is too torturous!
Unlike Muggles, who require a lot of homework, Hogwarts' homework is usually very 'simple', and homework for all courses is basically writing papers. And Hogwarts professors never set a word count for essays—only length.
For example, the length of the History of Magic paper required by Professor Binns is three feet, which is almost one meter.
For a scumbag like Harley, this paper could almost kill her.
But for Hermione.
This paper is not difficult at all, but there are too many words and my wrist hurts a bit when I write it.
And according to Hermione's character, she would never cheat on the paper.
For example, other people are eager to write as big as possible so that they can write less. But Hermione was different. Her handwriting was very small, and she wanted to write as much as possible.
For example, on the paper in front of me, her handwriting is only half the size of others.
By the time she finishes writing her three-foot-long paper, it will be at least worth ten feet of someone else's!
Ash absolutely can't bear this!
Lu Xun once said: Men have two major hobbies: pulling good women into trouble and persuading prostitutes to be good.
Ash wasn't that perverted, he just wanted Hermione to give up writing her thesis for a while.
Ash pointed to the title of the paper and softly pointed out the flaws in her paper:
"Hermione, the title of your paper is wrong."
"Huh?" Hermione was stunned for a while.
"But these are all contents in "History of Magic". The textbook can't be wrong, right?"
Hermione frowned slightly, opened "History of Magic" and pointed to one of the passages:
In the Middle Ages, non-magical people (more commonly known as 'Muggles') were particularly afraid of magic, but they were not very good at recognizing magic. Occasionally they did catch a wizard or witch, but on such occasions the burning had little effect.
When being burned, a wizard or witch would cast a basic magic that freezes the flames, enjoying the mild tickling pleasure produced by the flames while pretending to scream in pain. Wendelin the Soothsayer loved being burned, and allowed himself to be captured in various disguises as many as forty-seven times.
This is what’s in the textbook, it can’t be false, right?