Hogwarts: Bourne Returns from Warhammer

Chapter 67 The underlying rules of wizard society

There are two major factions in the Ministry of Magic: the "conservatives" represented by Barty Crouch, and the "neoliberals" represented by Cornelius Fudge.

Due to the recent attack, the main figures from both factions were basically here now, gathering in the banquet hall of Hogwarts.

In order to take care of the emotions of these big shots, the house elves in the Hogwarts kitchen worked overtime, not only preparing more exquisite dinners and desserts for them, but also lighting beeswax candles that are usually used in sorting ceremonies.

This kind of candle is very bright and has little smoke. When lit, it will emit a light honey fragrance.

"Your Excellency, Minister, we must have a frank discussion. There are some problems with the decision you proposed." Barty Crouch went straight to the point.

Not long after he arrived at Hogwarts, in front of the current Minister Fudge, he instructed his former subordinate Scrimgeour, the director of the Auror Office, to send several Aurors to bring all the people who had nothing to do with this temporary closed-door meeting. ——The reporters invited by Secretary Umbridge were all packed up and sent to Hogsmeade Village, and then he personally supervised them to board the Knight Bus back to London.

It is precisely because of this that "neoliberal" people, including Fudge, don't look very good now.

This guy simply doesn't take me as a minister seriously! Fudge was roaring inwardly. If someone used Legilimency on him, they would find that the minister was repeating all the curses he knew in his mind.

"What's the problem? Do we have enough evidence?" As he spoke, Fudge threw the evidence in his mouth on the long table.

A nameplate that says "Made in France"; three pieces of identification issued by the French Ministry of Magic confirming that it is not forged.

"Crouch, what your Department of International Magical Cooperation has to do is use this evidence to confront those French guys! Make them compensate for their losses and nail them to the pillar of shame in history! Once again!"

Faced with Fudge's anger, Barty Crouch responded: "History is always the victory of ruthlessness over brainlessness."

These words confused some people, and those who understood did not dare to stand up and loudly criticize Barty Crouch's choice of words, because no one here wanted to be called "brainless".

"Your Excellency Minister, you may be from the Department of Magical Accidents and Disasters, and you are very good at cleaning up Muggle memories, but you don't quite understand the way wizards communicate internationally."

Crouch chose to directly expose Fudge's background, the Department of Magical Accidents and Disasters, one of the fringe departments of the Ministry of Magic.

Since the Ministry of Magic was founded in 1707, only two people, including Fudge, have climbed all the way from this fringe department to the position of Minister.

Fudge's senior was named Leonard Spencer Moon. When he joined the job, he was just an unknown person serving tea and water in the Department of Magical Accidents and Disasters. Therefore, even after he became the Minister of Magic, some people still called him "Fudge" behind his back. "Tea boy".

However, it is worth mentioning that Minister Moon's greatest achievement during his tenure was to solve and quell a series of troubles caused by the "Dark Lord" Grindelwald who succeeded his predecessor.

It is said that as the Minister of Magic, he also maintained a good relationship with the Muggle Prime Minister Churchill at the time.

Moreover, there were rumors at the time that Moon became the Minister of Magic with the support of Dumbledore——

Just like Fudge now.

"Excuse me, do you know how the International Federation of Wizards operates?" Barty Crouch stood up from the table and straightened his royal blue tie.

He did not expect Fudge and his gang to answer this question, but gave his own explanation: "The International Federation of Wizards is a group of people with the organizational ability of Italians, the flexibility of Germans, the humility of Frenchmen, and the combination of A meeting of wizarding officials with Belgian imagination, Dutch generosity, and Irish intelligence.

Even the proposal to standardize weights and measures for potions has been discussed repeatedly in this meeting for more than thirty years! During the day today, I just attended the 249th meeting on the standardization of potions weights and measures!
Do you know what will happen to us if, as you say, we take this accusation to the International Confederation of Wizards and accuse the French Ministry of Magic?

The endless wrangling is just the most basic. The more critical question is, do we have that much budget to support this international lawsuit?
Once a dispute is opened, there must be a result. You know, a half-finished farce will not only weaken the authority of the British Ministry of Magic, but also cost a lot of money in the sunk costs invested before and in the aftermath!

The only people who can benefit are the goblins in Gringotts - they will be lenient when charging fees! "

Speaking of excitement, Barty Crouch clapped his hands on the long table and made a loud "pop" sound.

"Is this the result you want, Mr. Minister?"

Just like when playing wizard chess, the "queen" rushes all the way to the bottom, Barty Crouch directly ended the conversation with the "single queen kills the king" move.

"You...伱...you..." Fudge was choked and couldn't breathe. He pointed at his old rival and kept pointing.

Seeing this, Chief Secretary Umbridge hurriedly poured a glass of pumpkin juice for the Minister. She was really afraid that her supporter would suddenly be angry to death here.

"Director Crouch!"

While serving her boss a drink, the famous "Pink Lady" of the Ministry of Magic shouted at Barty Crouch with a sharp voice.

"You are the Director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. It is your job to resolve issues related to disputes with the Ministry of Magic of other countries, and even issues that are suspected to be related! You denied it so simply and neatly, do you have any other solutions? Plan? Don’t tell me that you, a dignified director, can only deny, deny, and deny again! You can only say one sentence, what is the difference between you and a magic doll? "

It can only be said that people of Fudge's group also have political wisdom consistent with their background.

Unlike conservative representatives like Barty Crouch (who is also one of the Holy Twenty-Eight pure-blood families), because people in the family have held high positions in the Ministry of Magic for generations, they have no understanding of the various operating methods of the Ministry of Magic. They are all well understood, and it is easy to find some routines to deal with problems.

However, these "neoliberals" in the Ministry of Magic are very skilled in fighting. Many times, they are more open-minded, even if they use methods that may seem embarrassing to the established wizard families, they are willing to cause some trouble for their enemies.

Umbridge is a typical example. Like a shrew, she directly labeled Barty Crouch as someone who "can only deny others and has no ability to solve practical problems."

In a sense, this is actually quite powerful, and Barty Crouch was indeed very angry with her. And for the sake of face, he couldn't say anything more to a witch, because that would look very ungentlemanly.

He can only pretend to be calm and calm, and then propose a "practical" solution to save his respect.

"When dealing with similar problems, the British Ministry of Magic actually has a long history of follow-through, and we usually adopt a 'four-step' plan.

The first stage: we claim that nothing happened; the second stage, we speculate that something may have happened, but do not recommend taking drastic action; the third stage, we say that we should probably act, but nothing can be done; the fourth stage, Acknowledge that action should have been taken, but now it is too late. "

Fudge, who was sitting across the long table, looked confused. Barty Crouch's words gave him a strong sense of unreality.

Although they were competitors before, he had to admit that he had privately wondered whether Crouch was really smarter and more capable than him.

But now...

Isn't this guy under the Imperius Curse?
Thinking of this, Fudge twisted his neck and looked at Umbridge, but he saw the chief secretary tapping his back with his wand behind his back. As she moved, a quill floating in the air kept writing on a notebook with a picture of a pink cat on the cover. She was actually taking notes carefully!
-
"Everyone seems to have drunk too much Motella rat urine. Their brains have become unclear and they cannot grasp the importance of the matter."

While watching with cold eyes what the people from the Ministry of Magic were doing, Snape made a fairly fair assessment of their performance in his mind.

As a direct party related to the vampire attack (the vampire was tortured and suspected of casting the Unforgivable Curse), and he was also the professor and dean of Hogwarts, Snape was also allowed to Sitting in the banquet hall to listen.

He didn't care at all what these people thought, nor what actions they would take next, because those were just their fantasies - it was not their turn to decide what happened at Hogwarts!
As early as more than ten years ago, whether he chose to follow Voldemort and become a Death Eater, or later turned to Dumbledore for Lily's safety, the "Ministry of Magic" had never been included in his list of choices.

He realized the fact very early on: nothing could be done with these insects.

Note, it's "any".

Although he did not have Grandpa Horace like Bourne, who would teach him orally before going to school, through learning, Snape gradually realized the underlying rules of wizard society.

Wizards rely on magic to speak and use their wands to make sounds. People with big fists speak loudly.

In fact, when Fudge came to the school today to offer condolences, he proposed to fight for more education funds for Hogwarts from the school directors, which was a complete joke.

Don't look at those school directors complaining every year about how "the school needs too many donations", but in fact we really want them to stop donating (equivalent to automatically losing their Hogwarts school director qualifications) without continuing to pay tribute. I'm afraid that person will be the first to jump out and object.

Despite their complaints, the amount of funding that should be provided every year is always more than that, and not a single KAT will be given less.

And those wealthy school directors - similarly - are basically major taxpayers in the wizarding world. Except when they want to realize certain interests, when will they actively donate to the Ministry of Magic?

Although objectively there are many reasons for this differential treatment, there is one that cannot be ignored. That is, the Minister of Magic may not necessarily be a powerful wizard; but every principal of Hogwarts is without exception, and even among wizards with powerful powers, they are all "resounding" ones.

Not to mention, Hogwarts has four deans and seven or eight professors... Each of them, taken individually, is quite powerful in the entire magical world. If you weren't teaching at Hogwarts, a millennium institution, using a team of this caliber to teach a group of underage wizards would be a huge waste of talent no matter how you look at it.

Thinking of this, the Headmaster of Slytherin House couldn't help but shook his head slightly, and he casually turned his gaze to the hourglasses symbolizing the honors of various houses in Hogwarts. There, their housemates of Slytherin House are...

Ok?
Snape was stunned for a moment.

Because the scene he saw before him made him wonder if he had also drank the urine of the Motla rat - and his mind became unclear.

I saw that the mouth of the bronze lion decoration on the hourglass belonging to Gryffindor House was always open. The red gems representing the college points were falling one after another from the mouth of the copper lion, as if a "ruby rain" was falling.

One, two, three... When the count reached forty, Snape finally couldn't sit still anymore, and he stood up. The two Aurors placed beside him by Scrimgeour quickly raised their wands.

"Dean Snape, what do you want to do?" Scrimgeour, the director of the Auror Office, hurried over, also holding a wand, and asked cautiously.

"I'm going to ask Professor McGonagall why they give so many extra points to the students in their college!"

It turned out that after seeing the sharp increase in Gryffindor's house points, Snape, who did not know the inside story, thought it was Professor McGonagall who had hurried to the hospital wing before and was currently treating Harry Potter and the other injured little wizards. Crazy extra points.

No, this is to earn points!
Everyone said that Snape favored Slytherin students, but he was not so shameless as to give so many points to several young wizards in one go!
Isn't it just a flesh injury? There are many ready-made potions in his office that can cure them!
At this moment, he seemed to have forgotten how he had concocted the three vampires of Compaoré when he saw Harry closing his green eyes and fainting.

"Damn Potter, like his damn father, likes to pretend to be innocent in front of the professors of his own college!" Snape thought viciously.

"No, you can't leave!"

Unexpectedly, the first person to stop him was not Scrimgeour, the Auror Director, but Barty Crouch, who arrived at Hogwarts Castle last.

The former director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and now the director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation was very hostile to Snape, and he had both public and private reasons for doing so.

Mr. Snape was suspected of casting the Unforgivable Curse, and we really couldn't let a suspect roam free.

Even because of the special objects and timing of casting spells (this is also a rule), when Voldemort and his henchmen were raging in Britain, many Aurors of the Ministry of Magic used the Death Curse without authorization in critical situations. and was not held accountable), so he probably won't go to Azkaban Prison.

But as the dean of Hogwarts and professor of Potions, Barty Crouch felt that he could use Snape to make a fuss and make a deal with Dumbledore. He believed that even if he could not become the boss's leg pendant like Fudge, he could still use Snape to blackmail Principal Dumbledore into reducing his support for Fudge.

Personally, Barty Crouch disliked Snape very much, and it could even be said that he had a great hatred for him.

Because, the reason why he appears here today not as the Minister of Magic, but as the bullshit Director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, is because his son, Barty Crouch Jr., was found to be a Death Eater. .

Not only was his future affected, but his son Barty Crouch Jr. was also imprisoned in Azkaban Prison.

Although...he also lost his wife because of this. He knew that Snape had once been a Death Eater, but it was only because of Dumbledore's protection that he survived, and later became the youngest professor at Hogwarts, and even became the youngest professor in the past few years. Head of Slytherin House.

"Dean Snape," Barty Crouch said polite words in a stern tone, "you have no right to leave now. Although the three of them are the criminals of the Hogwarts attack, they are also Victim and witness of your criminal behavior. You are highly suspected and must bear with it for a while."

"Yes, that's right!"

The vampire Compaore was also untied at this time. Hearing Barty Crouch, the "high official", speak like this, he quickly showed his courtesy.

Unbeknownst to them, everyone else present looked at the three vampires like they were fools.

This is a closed-door meeting, and the topic just discussed... in short, is not suitable for public disclosure.

Snape was the headmaster of Slytherin, and Principal Dumbledore intervened after the incident, so it was probably a matter of lifting him up high and letting him fall down gently.

And what level are you?
It is a waste of effort to have your memory erased afterwards. In all likelihood, you will be sent directly to Azkaban as soon as you return to the Ministry of Magic. Maybe the relevant procedures will have to wait until the dementor "kisses you deeply". Complete it all together - to avoid having to run between Azkaban and the Ministry of Magic and causing trouble to the staff handling the matter.

However, Compaore didn't know much about the working mechanism of the British Ministry of Magic. He thought that if he made a fuss like he did against the French Ministry of Magic, maybe things would turn around.

However, just when Barty Crouch used his eyes to signal Scrimgeour to take these guys out and ask the Aurors to give them a set of "Great Memory Restoration Techniques", so that he could clearly distinguish himself from these heinous criminals. The monster drew a clear line - yes, although he said he was a victim, how could he, who almost became the Minister of Magic, take his words seriously - when two people suddenly walked in like this? The banquet hall at Hogwarts.

One tall, one short, one old and one young, none of the Aurors guarding the outside dared to stop these two people.

(End of this chapter)