I, Hogwarts Second Week

"Oh, dear Princess, it's a great honor for you to visit my humble home."

In front of the Burrow, Fred and George made funny gestures, bent down, and bowed slightly to Hermione who had arrived, with a playful smile on their faces.

"Enough." Hermione glared at them.

But this was obviously useless. The twins were still chirping in her ears and provoking her with the words of princess knights.

In the kitchen, everyone was distributing Mrs. Weasley's Christmas gifts.

Every year it was a sweater, but the picture on the chest would be different. This year, the one he received had the Hufflepuff Holy Grail embroidered on the chest.

Miss Granger's was embroidered with a white crown.

Obviously, it was definitely Mrs. Weasley who had changed it last night.

The twins gave him a large box of products from the Magic Wheezes Shop, and Harry gave him a crystal ball with a Quidditch field in it. He could watch a Quidditch match by tapping it with a wand.

Hannah gave him a colorful headband.

Luna sent a necklace, which was made of various gemstones, quite beautiful.

When they sat down to eat Christmas lunch, everyone wore a new sweater, except Mrs. Weasley herself.

Mrs. Weasley wore a brand new witch hat, which was as deep blue as the night sky and twinkled with diamonds like little stars, and a dazzling gold necklace.

"Fred and George gave it to me! Isn't it beautiful?"

"We are more and more grateful to you, Mum, now we wash our own socks." George said, waving his hand casually. "Do you need wind hyacinth root, Hermione?"

"Oh, no, I think it's a bit bitter." Hermione shook her head and said.

"That's the flavor." George put a handful of parsnip roots that looked like some kind of vegetable salad on his plate, and then asked, "By the way, our queen, besides some titles, didn't you give me any substantial rewards?"

Hermione put some braised meat on her plate, "Yes, there are some. In addition to some useless medals, Her Majesty gave me a small fiefdom."

"Fiefdom?" Fred's eyes lit up immediately. Everyone else looked at Hermione. "How big is it? Is it as big as London?"

"How is that possible?" Miss Granger said, "The royal family today is no longer what it was hundreds of years ago. The fiefdom is actually a castle plus the forest around the castle."

"Oh my God! That means you have a castle now." Ginny looked at Hermione with a fiery face, "She is so generous."

"Generous?" Owen sneered, "That means abandoning bad assets."

"Non-performing assets?" Harry turned to look at him, "What do you mean by that?"

Owen looked around and saw everyone's fiery eyes. He couldn't help but sigh. They are still too young.

"There are castles in France that cost one euro. Do you want to buy them?"

"One euro?" Harry was startled. Although he almost wanted to say "of course", since Owen asked, there must be a conspiracy. "Is it some kind of business trick?"

"Of course, otherwise they will sell it to you for one euro?" Owen rolled his eyes at him and explained slowly, "The castle is indeed one euro, but if you really buy it, you will fall into a trap. Because these castles are all cultural relics without exception. If you buy it, you have to undertake the work of restoration. This is stipulated by national laws, and it costs millions or even tens of millions of euros to repair such a castle."

"There are such semi-abandoned castles everywhere in Europe. This is a burden for the country. The cost of maintaining it is too high."

"Yes." On the other side, Hermione affirmed. "I probably won't be able to save enough money to repair the castle in my lifetime."

"Okay." After hearing the reason, everyone lost interest, and Fred said bluntly, "Your queen is really stingy, which means she actually gave you a piece of ruins. Merlin's beard, then she might as well give you an apartment in London."

"Oh, if you give benefits, you are our queen, and if you don't, you are your queen. It's real enough." Owen teased.

The twins were about to say something, but their faces changed immediately. Harry immediately stood up from the chair and ran out in a panic.

"It's Sirius." Ron said, "And Percy."

"Percy?" Mrs. Weasley turned her head immediately after hearing the voice.

Everyone looked outside.

Outside the window, Percy and Sirius strode side by side on the snow.

The tortoise-shell framed glasses flashed in the sun, and on his other side there was a familiar wizard.

"Minister?" Mr. Arthur stood up.

"Sirius!!!" Harry's voice came from the window, and he rushed into his godfather's arms and gave him a hug.

"Merry Christmas, Harry." Sirius said with a smile, and then took out a package from his arms, "For you."

"I thought you wouldn't come back this year." Harry didn't care about the gifts at all.

"Originally there was no time." Sirius said, "Okay, go in quickly, you are still wearing single clothes."

On the other side, Percy returned home, and Mrs. Weasley immediately went up to kiss his cheek.

"Hey, the busy man is back." The twins teased in a funny way. Since Percy joined the Union, he hasn't been home for more than a year.

Especially in this situation now, it may be even rarer in the future.

Scrimgeour paused in the doorway, leaning on his cane and smiling at the touching scene.

"Excuse me for coming to visit without prior notice." He said. At this time, Mrs. Weasley turned to him and wiped her eyes with a smile. "Percy and Sirius came back to do errands, and we happened to meet each other. , I couldn’t help but come to visit you.”

Having said that, he didn't show much desire to say hello to anyone else.

His eyes stayed on Harry, Hermione, Ron and others.

"What is he doing here?" Harry whispered to Sirius beside him in a corner of the house.

"Come to win over you." Sirius's expression was gloomy and he looked at Scrimgeour with a bit of contempt.

"Win over us?"

"Watch it," he said.

On the other side, Mrs. Weasley said in a panic, "Come in, come in quickly, Minister!" while adjusting her hat, "It's our honor for you to come. Sit down quickly and eat some chicken or patch. I mean……"

"No, no, dear Molly." Scrimgeour said with a smile. Owen guessed that this guy probably asked Percy for her mother's name before entering the door. "I didn't want to disturb you, but the world is so cold. Alas!" He sighed to himself, and then added, "The situation forced me to come here rashly."

"Don't say that, we all know your difficulties," said Mrs. Weasley.

"Thank you." Scrimgeour said, and then he said to Mr. Weasley, who had a slightly stiff expression, "You don't have to entertain me specially, Arthur, just do it as usual in the Ministry."

The atmosphere at the table changed obviously, and everyone's attention was focused on Scrimgeour. His sudden appearance here was disturbing. "Oh, the little guys have finished eating. Can you take a walk with me?"

The plates on the table were empty.

Harry and Ron looked at each other with serious expressions.

"Okay." Hermione was the first to break the silence.

With that said, he walked towards the garden behind the Burrow.

Under Scrimgeour's gaze, both Harry and Ron followed.

Until then, Scrimgeour had not left.

"What? Is there anything else I have to do?" Owen raised his head and glanced at the minister in surprise.

"Of course, you are the top priority. In addition, Miss Stewart, come too." After he said this, he followed Harry and the others out of the restaurant.

Before Owen could take a step, Sirius made the first move.

He didn't take Scrimgeour seriously at all and left the restaurant together.

Owen and Coyatl walked across the yard towards the overgrown, snow-covered Weasley garden, Scrimgeour limping beside them, looking strong and battle-scarred, The two civilian ministers could not be more different.

"It's beautiful," said Scrimgeour, pausing at the garden fence. "The garden is well kept."

His eyes stayed on Sirius for a second, as if he had been mentally prepared for his arrival.

"After everything that's happened, what you've been through, I've been hoping for a chance to talk to you since I took over," he said to Hermione, "but Dumbledore stopped him. I know what he was thinking, The two of us have serious disagreements about the future of wizards."

"But these are actually not the most important things. The most important thing at the moment is to make people believe that we can defeat the devil who cannot even be named..."

"Not just you, Miss Granger, but - Harry." He looked at Potter, "People believe you are the savior. You know. They think you are the hero - you are, Harry, No matter if it’s the savior or not! How many times have you faced that big devil who can’t even be named?”

What matters is that you are a symbol of hope to many people, Harry. It's natural to feel inspired to know that someone can, or even is destined to, destroy the big bad guy. I can't help but feel that once you realize this, you may feel that you almost have an obligation to cooperate and give everyone confidence. "

"Obligation?" Sirius, who was following him, sneered. He knew this would happen. "I never knew such an obligation existed. Scrimgeour said you were exaggerating."

"Furthermore, if you are well-informed, you should know what Voldemort's current state is."

"I know, Sirius," Scrimgeour said, frowning, "but it could have been destroyed by Muggle weapons."

"That's not possible." Sirius said forcefully, "The Muggles killed him, but he can be resurrected."

"resurrection?"

"Just like more than ten years ago. In fact, Voldemort has changed his body three times. If he can be resurrected this time, then this will be his fourth body!"

"Like [Pretender]?"

"I don't think that's a thing," said Sirius.

"Okay." Scrimgeour said, "But that's not important. What's important is that the mysterious man is not dead and will come back, right?"

As he said that, he turned his attention to Hermione again, "My dear, you shouldn't get too close to Muggles."

"I don't think this is a mistake." Hermione, who was suddenly mentioned, responded calmly.

"This is a very serious matter. And -" Scrimgeour's expression became stern, no longer as gentle as before. In other words, he was used to such an expression, and he was just pretending.

"All the information about You-Know-Who, Dumbledore should tell me."

Harry was silent, looking at the footprints of the gnomes around the flowerbed, and the turned soil where Fred caught the gnome who was now standing on top of the Christmas tree in a tutu.

"Suppose the Muggle weapons really killed You-Know-Who," Scrimgeour said, "but he has died several times, and he can be resurrected every time. Why is that? What kind of magic is that, and what kind of magic is there in those lost ancient relics?"

He seemed very impatient and a little angry.

"Enough, Scrimgeour, this is none of your business." Sirius said on the side.

And this immediately ignited Scrimgeour's anger.

"Perhaps you have forgotten that I am the Minister of Magic!" He roared, and the snow on the eaves trembled and fell down.

"Dumbledore has his reasons for not telling you these things. You should talk to him." Hermione was neither humble nor arrogant, and was not affected by Scrimgeour's emotions at all.

"So, you also want to be like your hero Dumbledore - leave the Ministry of Magic?"

"I don't want to be used by others."

"You are being used by Muggles now!" Scrimgeour said fiercely. "They promote you so loudly and give you various titles, aren't they using you as a shield? If the mysterious man comes back again, who will he want to kill first? Your Highness?"

"We are mortal enemies of Voldemort, and I am never afraid of death." Hermione looked at him with a tenacious gaze. "Or do you want to use me too? But they got there first and you're angry?"

"."

Facing Hermione's gaze, Scrimgeour took a deep breath and calmed down, "I shouldn't have said that - the wording was inappropriate."

"No, it's honest." Hermione said coldly, "This is one of the few truths you've told me. You don't care about my life or death, but you care about me helping you defeat Voldemort, telling you secrets about him, and maintaining your own power. Do Muggles scare you?"

"I think it's dignity." Scrimgeour said, "Maybe some people would say that serving the Ministry of Magic is a wizard's obligation."

"The premise is that the Ministry of Magic has the ability to protect its people, and I just can't see that." Hermione said word by word.