Archaeologists at Hogwarts

Chapter 180 The Ministry of Magic and the Reporter

The Burrow.

In his sleep, Mr. Weasley felt something poking his arm.

"Stop making trouble, Molly Xiaoshudder."

He turned over and murmured in a half-dream, "I know today is Christmas, but I really can't have any more children. There are too many of them. Even Ron's wand is second-hand."

Molly also responded in her sleep: "And Ginny's new shoes, I have to find a way to buy her a new pair of shoes"

"No problem, my dear." Mr. Weasley said, and fell asleep slowly: "Just leave it to me."

The thing was poking at his arm again.

"Ok?"

Mr. Weasley finally opened his eyes, and for a moment he couldn't tell whether he was at home or in the office - a paper owl stood on top of him, and when Mr. Weasley woke up, it turned into an ordinary paper owl. The letter fell on Mr. Weasley's face.

"what is this?"

He subconsciously picked it up and read it—【Hurry up to Malfoy Manor, don't forget to check the basement carefully, there are things you want there. 】

basement?
The "Muggle Protection Act" was officially passed not long ago. Mr. Weasley also went to Malfoy Manor to inspect it once, but he didn't find any basement that time, but Lucius Malfoy's triumphant face vividly In the eyes, he was very angry.

He sat up all of a sudden, and his mind gradually became clear—it turned out that Lucius had hidden all the prohibited items in the basement!
"Where are you going?" Molly asked, looking at Arthur who was in a hurry to get dressed.

"It's time to work overtime, ex-love." Mr. Weasley hurriedly kissed Molly's forehead, and said excitedly: "Finally, I have a chance to take down that Malfoy guy. Let's celebrate when I come back!"
-
Early the next morning, Draco Malfoy awoke from his sleep.

He couldn't wait to laugh at Harry Potter.

Yesterday, the same announcement appeared in the college magazine in the Slytherin common room—influenced by the trio, Professor Highmore planned to change the ancient magic class for the second half of the semester.

What else could it affect?will it be good
No, of course it's bad!

Even though it heralded the return of Professor Highmore and made Draco feel a little bit worse, what could make him happier than seeing Potter unhappy?

"Boss, boss!"

Crabbe called Draco to a rare stop. He pointed to the academy magazine in a muffled voice and said, "Look at that, Mr. Malfoy seems to have had an accident!"

"What?" Draco pushed the few people in front of him away with all his strength, and walked in front of the academy magazine amidst shouts of cursing, his face suddenly became extremely pale.

There was a new report on it, and the headline was——

[The basement of Malfoy Manor]

In the photo is Lucius Malfoy in a panic, and Mr. Weasley standing aside with a look on his face.

Lucius was caught, or by Mr. Weasley himself!

This was big news. With the dissemination of the college magazine and the new version of "The Quibbler", whether it was at Hogwarts or outside the school, it became the center of everyone's discussion.

Draco also saw the photo of the basement, the shelves were full of dark magic items, and below the photo was a long list, which was dizzying.

"How is this possible?" He murmured, suddenly pushed away his classmates who were looking at him, ran back to the dormitory, and was in a hurry to write a letter to his family to ask what was going on.

Seeing the flustered Draco, the students all confirmed the authenticity of the news, otherwise he would not have become like this.

On the other side, in the Office of Ancient Magic.

Toby closed "The Quibbler" with satisfaction, and believed that this first-hand report would also make wizards in the magic world pay more attention to this magazine and help spread it.

He casually asked Al who was beside him, "How about the other newspapers?"

Al's little face was rarely solemn, and he silently handed Toby a copy of the "Daily Prophet" that had just been released this morning.

Toby flipped back and forth for a while, and finally fixed his eyes on the front page, and his eyes became heavy.

Not a single report about Lucius.

The news page occupying the front page is instead the Hogwarts Chamber of Secrets, which was deliberately exposed and attracted everyone's attention. It even mentioned that he, the professor who was attacked twice, became the target of attention, replacing Lucius Malfoy is a truly notorious guy.

That's not a good sign.

Toby noticed that Lucius' incident was indeed very topical, but once it was compared with the mysterious secret room, it was far worse.

Especially in Hogwarts, many students are not very surprised that there are a lot of dark magic items hidden in Malfoy Manor, but the Chamber of Secrets is a legend in the school, and the students are obviously more interested in this.

And Toby was silent for a while, and received a note from Principal Dumbledore. This was the first conversation they had after they broke into Malfoy Manor, but it was only one-way.

[I'm on my way to Egypt now, before I come back, I hope you won't make any drastic moves because of this.Things like attacking the Minister of Magic, for example.Let's talk again when I get back. 】
-
Meanwhile, at the end of a dimly lit, dilapidated corridor on the second floor of the Ministry of Magic, opposite the broom closet, was an office with a faded brass sign on the door: Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office.

It was dark and shabby here, and seemed to be slightly smaller than the broom room.Two desks were crammed in, and there was a row of overflowing filing cabinets along the wall, with precarious packages of papers piled on top of the cabinets, and there was little room to move around the desks.

On the walls are some favorites of the occupant of the office: several car advertisements, one of which shows a disassembled engine; two illustrations of letterboxes.

At this moment, the owner of the office—Mr. Weasley was receiving a high-level figure—Senior Undersecretary of the Ministry of Magic—Dolores Umbridge in doubt.

This is a middle-aged woman with a pale face, thick bags under the eyes, a toad-like face and a big mouth.She was stocky and wore a big, scary pink bow on her short, curly mouse-brown hair.

After surveying the office environment with a nasty look, Umbridge said in her even more nasty sharp and artificial tone: "I guess you are Mr. Weasley. Sorry, I rarely come here , it's the first time I've seen you."

Her tone didn't sound apologetic at all.

Mr. Weasley suppressed his nausea and asked, "Then why did you come here?"

"I came here on the order of the Minister." Umbridge said arrogantly, "As for the Malfoy case, someone in the Ministry will take over and handle it, so you don't need to intervene."

"Intervene?" Mr. Weasley said angrily, "This is the case I discovered first, how can it be called meddling?! What are you going to do with Malfoy, just let him go?!"

Umbridge said in a bored tone: "Of course not, everything will be handled according to the rules and procedures. But you must also know that there are many doubts in this case. Compared with Malfoy, we should find a way to find His talent is right, and that's the real scourge."

"What are you kidding?" Mr. Weasley looked at her in disbelief: "Where is there any attacker, there is obviously no clue in the manor, that is just an excuse used by Malfoy!"

But Umbridge left without even saying hello. She didn't seem to come to discuss, but she was directly informing Mr. Weasley with an orderly attitude.

On the other side, in the office of the Minister of Magic on the first floor, Cornelius Fudge smiled and shook hands with the gloomy Lucius Malfoy: "On behalf of the entire Ministry of Magic, I thank you for your donation, Malfoy." Mr. Fu, that is really a lot of money."

Lucius Malfoy didn't speak, he stared straight at Fudge.

"Of course, of course." Fudge continued: "And the large amount of black magic items that you voluntarily handed in. I believe that your attacker deliberately planted you, although it was a large amount. Doesn't look like it could be done easily in one night. But-"

"That's a donation worth tens of thousands of Galleons!" Malfoy gritted his teeth and said, "Don't tell me that even this little trouble can't be settled, you know very well that the problematic pure-blood families are not only the Malfoy family, they all Waiting to see what you do with this case. The end result will change how they treat you, Fudge."

The smile on Fudge's face narrowed a little bit: "But you should be equally aware that the lies you fabricated are too much. I understand that you are unwilling to pass the "Muggle Protection Act", and you are unwilling to have your private information checked. property. But the unknown assailant, he left no clues, we don't even know if the other party is a man or a woman. In my opinion, you must at least be tried in the presence of members of the Wizengamot Once, so that the mouths of outsiders can be blocked."

How could Lucius not know what Fudge was planning? In this way, he had to manage more property, and he had to satisfy most of the jurors.

But who let him be caught.

Not one dark magic item, not two, but an entire basement.With such a large number, it is difficult not to attract attention.

Fudge added: "I hope you understand, Mr. Malfoy, that ordering the Daily Prophet to be shut up is not a simple matter. But you are lucky, there is a big news at Hogwarts, the Chamber of Secrets Enough to get the attention of those reporters—”

"But what's going on here?!" Lucius interrupted angrily. He threw down a copy of "The Quibbler" on the table, pointed to the report against him and said, "Now the news has spread. Open it, why can't you make this magazine shut up!"

"Don't get excited." Fudge said with a headache: "This is indeed an accident, and I'm sorry for it, Mr. Malfoy. The original audience of this newspaper was very small, but for some reason, it suddenly became a free sale." , only need to pay monthly, it is a very novel way of consumption, so it has attracted a large number of readers. I have already sent someone to inquire, and I have to find a chance to have a good talk with the boss of this newspaper. Even if it is not for you I'd do the same for this case, the Ministry doesn't need a quackery newspaper. Let alone The Quibbler."

The expression on Lucius' face became less rigid, and he finally shook hands with Fudge, and then left the office.
-
A man in an Auror uniform knocked on the door of the strange house in front of him.

Xenophilius Lovegood's fluffy head was exposed, and he asked suspiciously, "Are you?"

"I'm an Auror from the Ministry of Magic," the man said. "Kingsley Shacklebolt, I've come to ask some questions."

"Auror?" Xenophilius stepped aside and said, "Oh, please come in. But why did the Auror find this place? Yesterday was Christmas. Are Christmas dinners not allowed now? Or Christmas gifts? gone?"

"Neither." Kingsley said, coming into the room. "I've come for The Quibbler—is that your daughter, sir?"

"One of them is." Xenophilius pointed to Luna who poked her head out of the stairs, and then pointed to another red-haired girl and said, "The other one is a child from a nearby family. She is my daughter's friend." , just came to visit this morning-by the way, would you like a cup of Goldigan tea?"

Seeing the fearful expression on the red-haired girl's face, Kingsley hesitated and said, "Let's forget it."

Xenophilius looked a little lost.

Next, Xenophilius took Kingsley to visit the printer on the second floor, which has now been remodeled and can be used to produce special magazines containing magic circles.

Ginny and Luna looked at Kingsley curiously, and after hearing him lamenting the magic of the magic circle, they asked Xenophilius a lot of questions, including the origin of the magic circle and the acquisition Who is the new boss of The Quibbler.

"Toby Highmore." Xenophilius felt that there was nothing to hide, and he said, "He is a good boss and made my salary higher than before. Do you have any other questions? If If you don't mind, I'm about to take my two children to buy new shoes, and the ones I bought before didn't fit well, so I was—well, I wasted a lot of money anyway."

He almost said what Pandora complained about him.Intuition told him that it was best not to reveal this, lest it be regarded as a dark magic item.

"No more." Kingsley said politely.

After he left, Xenophilius urged the two girls to finish their breakfast quickly so that they could go shopping together.

"Am I in too?" Ginny asked in surprise.

"Mom told Dad to do this." Luna pointed to the notebook in her hand and said, "If Mom didn't remind me, Dad wouldn't even remember that the shoes didn't fit. Your copy is my gift to you." Here's the Christmas present, I was going to do that."

Ginny looked at her gratefully, but Luna didn't think it was a big deal, it should be shared among good friends.

"It's about Professor Highmore." Ginny asked hesitantly, "Did he get into trouble? Otherwise, why would he be questioned by the Ministry of Magic?"

Luna opened the notebook, and she was writing something.

"You don't need to ask." She said in a matter-of-fact tone: "I'm not surprised by this at all. Professor Haimer is obviously the kind of person who will cause trouble everywhere. But he is also very interesting, just like his mother Same."

Ginny saw Pandora's notebook and responded:

[No, dear.Professor Highmore's idea is much more interesting than mine. 】

It's time to start school after the holidays.Toby was ready to go, reorganized his mood, and was ready to welcome the returning students. He taught them a good lesson, which was deeply engraved in their memory and would never be forgotten in their lifetime.

Just as he was walking out of the office, he met Professor Lockhart who came in a hurry. Behind him was a strange woman with strange curly hair, which matched her face with a big chin. She looked very special. awkward.

"Hey, Professor Highmore!" Lockhart waved happily and said, "I've found a way for you to increase sales, look who this is——Rita Skeeter, she's from the "Daily Prophet" Top reporter, with her help, you will definitely become famous."

The eyes under the hood of Toby looked at this flamboyant woman, and he remembered that Headmaster Dumbledore said that he had helped him turn down the interview with Rita Skeeter in the last semester—because Toby was in the first class of school. The reasons for those controversial remarks in class.

In addition, Toby also remembered that Skeeter had described Dumbledore as a rigid old lunatic, which was also said by the headmaster Dumbledore himself.

Al leaned to the side of the hood and whispered a few times.Remind Toby that this woman wrote the most recent story about the Chamber of Secrets in the Daily Prophet.

Toby nodded knowingly.

There was no mention of Lucius' case, only the Chamber of Secrets.

Skeeter watched this scene with interest. She had heard about this magical Nixiu, but it was only heard. It is said that the other party is the assistant of the professor in front of her.

A sniffing assistant, what a topic this can cause.

Just thinking about it made Skeeter very excited.

The quill in her hand, which automatically makes up news, is hungry and thirsty.

"I'd love to see you, Professor Toby Highmore."

Skeeter kept nagging: "Maybe you don't know, I planned to interview you last semester, but unfortunately Dumbledore rejected it. He is hindering your future. Think about it, you clearly To achieve much more than that, and I hear you're also a famous archaeologist, it's just—oh, do you have something to say?"

She couldn't wait to open the crocodile leather handbag, took out the notebook and a long, dazzling green shorthand quill, and stared at Toby who raised a palm with bright eyes.

Toby glanced at Lockhart first, and said to him, "I really hope we can work together until we graduate this term."

"What?" Lockhart was taken aback, then subconsciously took two steps back.

Under his gradually flustered eyes, Toby turned his hood towards Skeeter, and said in a cold tone: "The Daily Prophet? Wait, the Quibbler will step on you and become the wizarding world. most popular newspaper."

"Also, there's one more thing—"

As if there was a chill rising from the soles of Skeeter's feet, she heard Toby passing directly over her, saying, "Don't let me see you write anything bad about me in the newspaper, or just try it."

"Try, I am not as tolerant as Dumbledore."

(End of this chapter)