The Admiral of Hogwarts

When Ron said that although his father's situation was bad, it couldn't get much worse, Hugo and his sister exchanged a quick and secret glance.

Clearly, Ron said this because of certain pure-blood privileges, which were effective both now and in the original timeline when Voldemort controlled the entire British magical world in their seventh year.

For example, Fudge can suppress Mr. Weasley now, but only by creating minor troubles; he can't do much more, nor can he fire Mr. Weasley.

After all, a pure-blood traitor is still a pure-blood. For those pure-blood wizarding powers that control the Ministry of Magic, they will ostracize the Weasley family's oddballs, but they will never allow them to be excessively humiliated.

Even in the darkest year, the seventh year in the original timeline, it was the same. Muggle-born wizards would be thrown directly into Azkaban because of their bloodline, but even the Weasleys, known resisters, did not suffer too much impact.

"However, Percy is much better off than Dad now, and is basically unlikely to be greatly affected," Ron said, as Hugo and his sister exchanged glances, mentioning another member of his family working at the Ministry of Magic.

The reason for this situation is simple: the Auror Office within the Ministry of Magic is a relatively independent department, so even the Minister can only significantly influence a specific individual.

That is to say, even Fudge cannot interfere with Percy's affairs. And given Scrimgeour's relationship with Fudge, he would definitely not allow the Minister to interfere with his Auror Office.

"Actually, it's not just the Ministry of Magic; Dumbledore's reputation is declining throughout the entire British wizarding world because the media controlled by the Ministry of Magic are all discrediting our headmaster," Ginny sighed.

"Besides the headmaster, those confirmed to be related to Headmaster Dumbledore have also been subjected to various criticisms. For example, Harry is criticized two to three times a week, accusing him of being an attention-seeking boy."

"Attention-seeking? Whoever wants that spotlight can have it! Voldemort killed my parents!" Harry said angrily. "I'm famous because he killed my family but couldn't kill me! Who wants to be famous for that? Don't they know I'd rather it never happened—"

"Everyone sitting here thinks the same way, Harry," Ginny gently took Harry's hand and comforted him. "But we are at a disadvantage with the Ministry of Magic controlling the propaganda channels."

A famous chicken farm owner once said that a lie repeated 1000 times becomes the truth. Although the fact is that no matter how many times a lie is repeated, it will not become the truth, but it can create a false perception for everyone.

And now the Ministry of Magic is playing this trick, after all, they have controlled almost the entire British magical world, so they can completely slander Dumbledore through propaganda.

As for the fact that false news will eventually be exposed, it is not a problem for the Ministry of Magic, because the Minister of Magic has a term of office. For Fudge, he only needs to successfully step down; the subsequent matters are the trouble of his successor.

Just as the group was discussing the Ministry of Magic's recent insane operations, footsteps came from the stairs. Upon hearing the sound, Fred and George disappeared with a bang.

A few seconds later, Mrs. Weasley appeared at the bedroom door. "The meeting is over. You can come downstairs for dinner now. All of you new guests are eager to meet you."

"Mrs. Weasley has worked hard," Hugo said with a smile as he went downstairs. "Cooking for so many people and cleaning the rooms is not an easy task."

"Fortunately, Mom is good at cooking for a crowd," Ron shrugged. "But you're right, the work is indeed more complicated now. Even if we have the opportunity to help, she still has to work all day long."

Soon, the group arrived at the dining room in the basement. It was the same place where Hugo and the others had talked with Dumbledore in the morning. Because it was too busy in the morning, Hugo only had the chance to observe the dining room at this time.

It was almost as dark here as in the entrance hall above, a cavernous, gloomy room with rough stone walls all around. Most of the light came from a large fireplace at the far end of the room.

The smoke from the pipes filled the air, like gunpowder smoke on a battlefield. Heavy iron pots and pans hung from the dark ceiling, looking ferocious and eerie in the smoke.

Because the place had been used for a meeting earlier, the room was filled with many chairs, with a long wooden table in the middle, scattered with parchment scrolls, goblets, empty wine bottles, and a pile of things that looked like rags.

Mr. Weasley and his eldest son, Bill, were sitting at the end of the table, heads together, talking quietly. Seeing this, Mrs. Weasley coughed softly, and Mr. Weasley stood up and greeted Harry warmly.

Compared to other rooms, this room was obviously much cleaner. Sure enough, for wizards, food hygiene is also very important, so in the case of insufficient manpower, what they cleaned first was naturally the dining room and kitchen.

"Put these documents away; these things should have been put away after the meeting," Mrs. Weasley shouted, looking at the parchment scrolls on the table, then quickly walked to a very old cupboard and took out dinner plates from it.

Bill drew his wand and said softly, "Evanesco!" The parchment scrolls disappeared at once.

"Good afternoon, Hugo. I heard Mom say you cleaned an entire floor this afternoon. Is that true?" Bill took the initiative to nod and greet him after putting away the parchment.

"It's true. It's a small application of alchemy," Hugo nodded with a smile. "But unlike what you think, the precision of this alchemical cleaning is not as good as manual cleaning, and the cost is also very high. It's a very cost-ineffective cleaning method."

"But it can at least save time and manpower, can't it?" Sirius Black happened to be walking in from outside after seeing off the others and said. "Especially in situations like ours now, where there aren't many people available."

"Is dinner ready?" A pile of rags on a chair moved at this time, and then revealed a pair of drooping, bloodshot eyes, looking blankly at the dining room.

"Everyone is preparing dinner," Sirius said, then shouted to Mundungus, who was taking a dirty black pipe from his pocket. "Dinner is about to be served. If you want to smoke, go outside."

"Ah," Mundungus said, then stuffed the pipe into his pocket. "Okay. Sorry, Sirius."

"If you want to have dinner before midnight, someone needs to help me," Mrs. Weasley said to everyone in the room. "I can't manage it alone."

"Coming," Hugo and the other two stood up, but Mrs. Weasley motioned for them to sit and rest. "Oh, you three take a rest. After all, you've been busy all day."

Soon, the kitchen became lively, and everyone pitched in, working together to start cooking dinner.