Hermione, join me as Minister of Magic!

He was only joking when he said that, sarcasm by the way, but Barty Crouch took it seriously.

"It's not all. For example, the Malfoy family has always wanted to let go of the free trade of dragon eggs, but Fudge has not agreed." He told Lockhart solemnly, "He is worried that Australian opaleye eggs are too fossil-like. Be careful of being discarded into the wild by wizards, which will affect the pure blood of the Welsh green dragon. The French said a few years ago that they had discovered a new species of "Gallic Golden Sun", but when we went to inspect it, we found that it was just a Peruvian venomous dragon. A hybrid with the Hungarian Horntail. "

Hearing this, Lockhart has a new understanding of how old-fashioned his new boss is - Crouch is not the same as Dumbledore, he never knows what playing is

"I see, so when can I go to Hogsmeade?"

"Wait another week. You can get acquainted with your colleagues these few days. Your office is in the fourth room straight after getting out of the elevator. The International Trade Standards Association is headed by Ms. Lufkin, who is Artemisia Olu Fukin's granddaughter, don't forget to say hello."

"I won't forget."

"Also, I heard that you took in the house elves who were expelled from the Malfoy family? Although it's not a big deal, I still suggest you go to the house elf resettlement office and make up the formalities. If no one is there , let’s leave a copy first and make an appointment for the next time, anyway, there’s usually not much work there, and everyone has gone to the ghoul processing office to help.”

"alright, thank you very much."

Crouch sent Lockhart out of the door and pointed him to the location of the Department of Magical Creature Control before returning to his office.

Seeing this scene, Bob Ogden patted his chest thankfully.

"It's a good thing I didn't bet with you," he said to Arthur Weasley.

In the next few days, Lockhart really did what Crouch said, trying to help his colleagues with their work, and at the same time getting to know as many people as possible.

This move of his saved him: because just this week, a prison break happened suddenly in Azkaban.

The notorious criminal, the traitor who betrayed the Potters, Sirius Black, escaped from Azkaban!

Fortunately, not many people watched "The Quibbler", so it can be said that there are very few people who think of Lockhart.

It just so happened that the only people who knew that Lockhart had really visited the prison were those few, and they were basically in the Ministry of Magic at this time, and Lockhart had installed 996 hardworking employees in the Ministry of Magic for another week, so This perfect alibi helped him get rid of the suspicion.

But now that he's out of suspects, some people are.

Umbridge!

It can be said that Fudge is out of anger now, and he doesn't even use his first name to address Umbridge, but directly uses his last name.

It never occurred to him that even after he had warned her, she would dare to make small moves under his nose.

After Rita Skeeter came back from Hogwarts, she scolded Dumbledore in various tabloids almost every day. Fudge just pretended not to see it, because he felt that there was nothing wrong with it, since it could subtly cause Influence, but not to let him and Dumbledore get into a stalemate.

However, it's nothing more than to sow public opinion in the newspapers, and directly release the Death Eaters to frame political opponents. This kind of thing still penetrates Fudge's bottom line.

It's not that he thinks it's immoral, but that if such a thing is revealed, then he will be ruined, not only his political career, but his entire life, so it's not worth it at all.

With a straight face, he threw the Daily Prophet in Umbridge's face.

"I need an explanation," he said.

As an excellent deputy minister, Umbridge put all his thoughts on fighting for power and profit, so he naturally didn't care so much about his job.When Sirius Black escaped, Umbridge was the last person in her department to know about it, and Fudge had told her about it.

She quickly defended herself: "I didn't do it. If it was me, I would let Dolokhov out. He is the most vicious."

"Really?" Fudge asked sarcastically, "I think Black's identity is very suitable, you really put your heart into it."

The reason why Fudge said this is of course not without reason. If you want to cause trouble for Dumbledore and Crouch at the same time, Sirius Black is undoubtedly the best candidate.

In fact, the Ministry of Magic's "Death Eater" status is not uncommon for Sirius.

Any doubts, because in the confessions of the rest of the Death Eaters, Sirius never participated in any activities of the Dark Lord's gang, and even Snape didn't know when he took refuge in Voldemort.

Although it was a bit strange, but considering that Blake was the one who "rebelled" at the last moment, and he was one of the group of people imprisoned by Barty Crouch himself, everyone didn't think much about it.

At that time, Crouch was very powerful, and the voice of becoming the Minister of Magic was even higher than that of Fudge. No one wanted to touch him at that time. If he hadn’t been exposed because his son was a Death Eater in the end, I’m afraid Fudge Neither had a chance.

Therefore, he is the only "Death Eater" who was born in the Order of the Phoenix and has a grudge against Crouch. It is more disgusting to release him than Dolohov or Lestrange. send people.

Umbridge suddenly realized that she couldn't speak clearly even if she had a mouth.

It's like a student who often doesn't do his homework and lies to the teacher "forgot to bring it".When he did write his homework one day, but didn't bring it with him for various reasons, he would find that no one would believe him at all.

Before Umbridge could continue to argue, Fudge had already made a decision for her, "You've been too busy with work recently, I think you must be too tired. Why don't you take a vacation and take a break?"

Although Fudge's tone was suggestive, there was nothing in his expression suggesting a consultation with Umbridge.

Umbridge's face suddenly paled a lot.

"If that's your decision, Fudge...I will."

Chapter 150

Although it is often said that "good things do not go out, evil things travel thousands of miles", but Umbridge used his own example to tell the world that sometimes things can be reversed.

The fact that she was "on leave" had spread throughout the Ministry of Magic through various channels in less than two hours. The news of the separation of the princess.

At that time, everyone was just watching the jokes about the Muggle royal family, and their feelings were far less real than the fact that Umbridge was on leave, but this news can make more than half of the people here happy.

Everyone believed that Fudge was looking for a scapegoat for Sirius Black's prison escape. After all, Azkaban, which was always considered to be absolutely safe, suddenly escaped from prison: this would inevitably make people doubt the Ministry of Magic's ability to control the prison .

More importantly, if Black can escape, what about the rest of the Death Eaters?He wasn't the most vicious of those people back then!

Therefore, when Fudge ordered to unify the caliber, saying that the accident happened entirely because Umbridge "dispatched the dementors privately", so that there was a loophole in Azkaban's defense, everyone just laughed Laughing, showing a tacit expression, they went their separate ways.

This was quite a new thing for Lockhart. Although Umbridge did dispatch the dementors privately, it was "two years later". It feels kind of weird to take responsibility for what you have time to do.

So the butterfly effect is really interesting. Obviously things are still going according to the "normal", but there are two or three small accidents in the middle, and the result will be completely different.

Lockhart doesn't ask i'M+ any unknown changes now. In his opinion, only

He has mastered the power of the Ministry of Magic, so no matter how Voldemort's actions change, he will not be able to escape his control.

After get off work, when Lockhart was calmly writing the report and pretending to work overtime, Fudge came to the door with an embarrassed expression on his face.

Pei Mei long!How do you have time to come here? "

Lockhart hastily moved a chair for Fudge, and used the Flying Charm to fetch wine bottles, teapots, and coffee pots from the tray in the corner of the office, and asked the minister what he wanted to drink.

Fudge didn't want to drink anything at first, but when he saw the origin label on the bottle of French Zumma wine brought over by Lockhart, he suddenly felt that drinking some wine was not a bad thing, at least it could relieve a little trouble.

"I don't drink tea and coffee after three o'clock in the afternoon, I won't be able to sleep, especially today, it is already difficult to sleep," Fudge said.

Lockhart understood and poured half a glass of wine for the minister, then moved a bench and sat beside him.

"I've been here for a few days, are you still used to work?" Fudge tried hard to put on an amiable expression.

In terms of expression management, Lockhart believed that he was no worse than Ren Ren, and anyone who looked at the flattered expression he put on would think it was true.

"Of course, it couldn't have been smoother. Everyone has been very kind to me, and the work handover has not gone wrong. It can be seen that under your governance, this place has become a vibrant and efficient place. "

Fudge has gradually become numb to this level of ordinary flattery, so he didn't react, just holding a glass of wine and talking to himself.

I believe you have seen the headlines in today's newspaper... I exchanged views with Dumbledore at noon on this matter, and he and I agreed that we should immediately start to remedy this. "

Lockhart nodded, showing that he was listening carefully.

"Dumbledore told me, are you planning to make up lessons for Harry Potter this summer?"

Lockhart pretended to remember it, and acted as if he just remembered it: "I almost forgot if you didn't tell me, it really happened. The Savior spent too much time studying to prepare for the Quidditch match. As a person who also has a house in the Muggle world, I can only give him a tutoring lesson."

Fudge took a sip of the wine, and the whole person seemed a lot lighter under the influence of alcohol.

"So, although our savior inherited his father's Quidditch talent, he didn't inherit his academic excellence...I remember that among those four people, except for Remus Lupine, the other three seemed to be Didn't study much, but they always get high marks in every exam... Except Pettigrew Peter, the world is really unfair

Lockhart doesn't see it that way, although James Potter and Sirius Black in the "Marauders" foursome don't take classes and do their homework seriously, but they are like the Weasley brothers, solving problems The abilities are all exercised in practice.

In order to help their friends spend the night of the full moon, they taught themselves Animagus, and then completed a good achievement in transfiguration; for night travel, they studied the Marauder's Map, and then learned a lot of schools There are no spells taught.

He still remembers a certain college classmate of his, who usually clubs and plays ball and doesn't study much. He didn't even graduate after graduation, but only got a diploma.But just because he is interested in the Internet, he is obviously a liberal arts major, but he taught himself a lot of mathematics and programming, and established a network information service company.

Some people regard learning as a stepping stone, and some people use what they have learned, and those who apply what they have learned are often very "biased". This is a doomed thing.

The reason why Harry Potter didn't "inherit" that kind of talent is probably because there is nothing worth doing for him yet.

"That's it... Since you are going to make up lessons for him, during this vacation, can you please temporarily put aside other work and protect Potter's safety?" Fudge finally made a coy request.

"Protecting him alone?" Lockhart asked knowingly. "So Black escaped because of him?"

"From what we have so far." Fudge said with a grimace, "For some reason, we entered Azkaban...uh... Anyway, Black got the newspaper in our hands, and saw that Potter got The news of the duel champion of the junior group that year."

"Which one is it?" Lockhart seemed to have a sense.

Fudge looked even more embarrassed, and didn't know if it was real or pretending.

Coyly he produced a copy of the Sunday Prophet and handed it to Lockhart.

According to Umbridge, she used the information posted on it to question the Death Eaters if someone had revealed the location of the Chamber of Secrets to Lockhart in order to find "things left by the Dark Lord", but she found nothing.

Although Bella was a little disturbed that she hadn't heard from the Dark Lord, she had heard Voldemort boast before that "only I can open the Hogwarts Chambers".

Now that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened, does that mean that the Dark Lord has returned?

That's right, the Dark Lord has just been revived, and he probably hasn't fully recovered his strength yet, so it's impossible for him to come to him so soon.

Bella was very excited when she thought of this, and she would naturally be more tight-lipped, so when Umbridge questioned her, she didn't say a word.

As for Blake, after scanning the photo on the newspaper, his eyes suddenly became sharp, and he changed his attitude of ignoring answers just now, and asked Umbridge for the newspaper.

Umbridge thought there was something going on, so he gave him the newspaper.

As a result, the guy stared at the photo of Harry and his friends celebrating in a circle for a long time, but returned the newspaper to her very calmly, saying that he didn't know anything, which disappointed Umbridge .

Now that I think about it, Black must have known Harry's news at that time

Although Umbridge had confessed what he had done, Fudge was afraid to tell Lockhart why.

He felt that if Dumbledore's family knew that it was his side who made a fool of himself and that Black had decided to escape from prison, Dumbledore would definitely kill him

"In short, his safety is up to you. You only need to be responsible for protecting him for two months. When Potter returns to Hogwarts, our Ministry of Magic can free up manpower to hunt down Black...I will talk to Crouch For this matter, you can go to Hogsmeade later, okay? I will find a way to help you get more of the budget for the competition."

"It's your duty, Minister," Lockhart agreed.

Chapter 150 A Home Visit

The reason why Lockhart agreed to Fudge was of course not because Fudge proposed to "increase the budget", that small amount of money has not been taken seriously by the current Lockhart.

He was thinking that since Fudge had shown a willingness to reconcile, he would still have to do as much as possible to bring the Ministry and Dumbledore together until Voldemort returned.

Instead of the original book, Dumbledore is responsible for the deadlock of the relationship with Fudge, and the three of Harry Potter are responsible for the deadlock of the relationship with Scrimgeour.

Fudge is a little shameless, but after the Ministry of Magic discovered the Death Eaters and Voldemort, his reaction was still confrontation, and Scrimgeour didn't reveal the whereabouts of the three Harry Potters until his death. He can be called a hero. It all shows that the two have no essential difference from Dumbledore and others in their general standpoint against Voldemort. Why do they do things that intensify the conflict, which hurts relatives and makes enemies happy?

Isn't political struggle about making fewer enemies and making more friends?

After getting Lockhart's affirmative answer, Fudge was satisfied, drank the wine that Lockhart had poured, and left his office, while Lockhart changed the plan that he had changed several times. The money plan was stuffed back into the belly of the table—it won't be needed anytime soon anyway.

After a thrilling school season, Harry Potter is back at 4 Privet Drive, ready to spend his summer vacation this year.

Compared with that period of campus time, which was full of excitement and fear, Harry felt that his summer vacation life was simply boring.Even Snape's meticulous "caring" in Potions class is so cute compared with Uncle Vernon's smirk.

After confirming that Harry "had a group of distinguished companions" there, the uncle's family stopped deducting Harry's food supply, and even bought Harry a new suit.

Harry knew very well that this was just Vernon's desire to have a "common language" with the rich builder for the sake of the rich builder, rather than his sudden outpouring of kindness.

It was just for obvious reasons that Harry would not take the initiative to tell Uncle Vernon that his relationship with the son of the Mason family was not that good.

Whenever he thought that such a day would last for another two months, Harry's mood became extremely bad, and he could only turn his grief and anger into strength, and bury himself in writing the summer homework left for him by the magic school.Or look out of a small attic window, hoping to spot something unusual, like an owl or something.

Take me back to school!I love learning!

While he was thinking wildly, a dilapidated British Post pickup truck stopped outside the door of No. 4 Privet Drive.

It can be said that Harry Potter has no interest in this small truck, because he knows that people in his own world will not deliver things in this way, no matter what is in this postal truck, it will Came here to deliver something to the Dursleys.

And he doesn't expect any good things to be loaded in this car—since Mrs Thatcher privatized a large number of state-owned enterprises, the British Royal Mail can be said to have gone from bad to worse. In addition, the quality of service has become more and more difficult to describe, such as lorry being robbed, the back door of the mail van being left open, and more than a dozen pieces of goods being lost during transportation are commonplace.

Most importantly, the price is not cheap.

So even the British themselves laughed at themselves and said that only terrorists send explosives through the post office.

Sure enough, after the postman got off the car, he just took a small

Box, and started calling Dursley's name outside the door.

After hearing Dursley's promise, the postman rudely stuffed the things into the mailbox of Dursley's house, and then drove away without even closing the door of the mailbox.

Vernon Dursley pushed open the door cursingly, gave a middle finger to the postal truck going away, and then took the slightly deformed small square box in the mailbox back to the house.

But then Harry heard Vernon Dursley howling in the house, the howling was very similar to the werewolf howling Harry heard in the Forbidden Forest, it was because of their joy when the hunt was successful And the sound of celebration.

"Petunia! We're really going to get rich this time! Make a fortune!" Vernon's voice came up from downstairs. We might be able to move to West London soon, and it's obvious that Maggie will be there. It’s more face-saving, I remember last time you said that the houses there are too expensive, “not expensive!”

Harry in the attic shrugged—whether he lived in what is now Surrey or moved to central London, he felt that he would be treated no differently.At most, my uncle will visit the neighbors of the so-called "upper class" more frequently, so that I can relax a bit.