Chapter 1045
A Letter from the Administrative Supervisor
Chapter 1045 A Letter from the Administrative Supervisor
Mrs. Weasley's cries echoed in the ward. Harry felt as if his feet were nailed to the floor, unable to move forward or backward, his throat tightened, and his gaze frantically fell on the bedside table.
At that moment, he felt his arm being gently tugged.
Wade gave him a wink, then pulled Harry away and quickly left the suffocating space.
As they gently closed the door, they heard Sirius's puzzled voice come from behind them:
"...What's going on now? Why is Percy returning the Christmas presents?"
"That bastard!"
A voice suddenly rang out from outside the door!
Fred and George were carrying a bulging brown paper bag filled with sandwiches and pies. Just as they were about to enter the ward, they saw Wade and George coming out. Before they could even greet them, they heard Sirius's words.
Fred flew into a rage and was about to rush in, but George grabbed his neck with his arm, preventing him from going in.
"Don't pull me, George!" Fred said angrily. "I want to see what that guy has to say this time!"
"Calm down," George said, suppressing his anger. "Mom is already upset enough."
Intermittent sobbing could be heard from inside the room. Fred's face was flushed with anger, his fists were clenched tightly, but he didn't lift his foot again.
Immediately afterwards, the ward door was pushed open again, and Ron and Ginny came out.
Ron's expression was exactly the same as Fred's. As soon as he stepped outside, he grabbed Ginny's arm and said:
"Do you have to say it like that? Can't you... can't you be a little more tactful?"
“Euphemistic?” Ginny abruptly shook off his hand, retorting sharply, “Euphemistic what? To excuse Percy? While Mom was crying over the sweater?”
Her eyes were also brimming with tears, but her face burned with anger: "No, Ron, there's no need to play dumb and deceive her! The truth is the truth, even the ugly truth is the truth!"
Ron was speechless.
"What exactly happened?" Wade asked. "Did Percy have a fight with his family?"
He remembered that in the original story, Percy had also broken ties with the Weasleys at this point. But that was because Cornelius Fudge refused to believe that Voldemort had been resurrected and went to great lengths to smear Harry and Dumbledore.
Percy, blinded by his own ambition, completely believed the Minister of Magic's words to be true, concluding that Dumbledore was a madman and Harry was a liar.
However, his family failed to see this, so for the sake of his career, Percy also severed ties with his "troublesome" family.
But the one in office now is Sinkernis, a complete moderate who has never had any conflict with Dumbledore since taking office and has maintained a policy of non-interference with Hogwarts.
Why would Percy need to go this far?
After Wade finished speaking, the corridor fell silent for a moment, and the Weasleys all wore expressions of reluctance.
After a moment, Ginny spoke first.
She rubbed her eyes fiercely and said:
“There’s nothing wrong with saying this… It’s our great brother, the rising star of the Ministry of Magic, Mr. Percy Ignatius Weasley, who feels that our family is no longer worthy of his current noble status!”
“That hypocrite! That sanctimonious coward!” Fred spat out through gritted teeth, “Dad is lying here, almost dead! And he didn’t even ask a single question! Not once! Now he’s even returning the sweater Mom knitted… How could he be so heartless?”
"How can Wade and Harry understand you when you're talking like that?"
George sighed and said, "Let's not stand here. There's a tea room on the sixth floor. Let's go sit down there and talk slowly."
As they went upstairs, the Weasleys chatted amongst themselves, finally letting Wade and the other man understand the dramatic ups and downs in Percy's life over the past few months.
Last summer, Voldemort and Grindelwald made appearances during the competition. Fudge thought that the British wizarding world had become the battlefield chosen by these dark wizards, so he resigned from his ministerial position overnight, fearing that if he delayed even a second, he would become a target.
Before that, Percy had already become Fudge's assistant.
Although Minister Fouché didn't even remember his name, he was considered a close confidant of the former minister by others.
So after Sinkness was elected to office, without him saying a word, someone tacitly assigned Percy to a sinecure that nobody cared about, so they wouldn't have to see him or worry about him.
But then, during what seemed like a trivial field assignment, Percy was as if kissed on the forehead by Lady Luck, and surprisingly made an incredible contribution.
“He caught Peter Pediru, who had escaped from Azkaban and had been on the run ever since,” George said, looking at Harry. “You should remember that too.”
Harry nodded and said in a low voice, "Of course, Sirius and Remus took me to see the trial."
He still remembers the man who slumped in the dock awaiting his verdict.
He still looked like a rat, covered in dirt and looking utterly wretched. The light in his eyes, the struggle to survive, was gone, replaced by gloom and lifelessness.
At that moment, Harry even felt sympathy for his enemy, but then he condemned himself for thinking that way.
Peter Pedirou killed his parents, and everything he has now is what he deserves!
At the same time, Harry's affection for Percy reached its peak. He didn't mind the boastful words or subtle admonitions in the letters Percy sent him, and instead felt that this was how Percy should be.
George looked at Wade and said, “Percy has been on a meteoric rise ever since—he earned the Order of Merlin, Third Class, and was quickly promoted from a marginal role to the position of administrative director of the Auror Command, which, according to him, is to provide ‘orderly’ support for the work of the Aurors.”
A sarcastic smile curled at the corner of his mouth.
Fred's anger had subsided, and he said bluntly and scathingly, "His job is simply to take other people's life-and-death achievements and polish them into reports that conform to the wishes of those above him."
“He also bragged to us that he had a separate office at the Ministry of Magic,” Ron added. “It was bigger and got more sunlight than Dad’s office.”
“I’ve been there,” Ginny said. “He framed his Order of Merlin in a gilded frame and hung it in the most conspicuous place on the wall, as if afraid no one would see it! Oh, and there’s also the newspaper clipping of him catching Peter Pettigrew!”
"Back then, my mother was so proud of him!"
As she spoke, Ginny became sad.
Fred said, "Honestly, I still find it hard to believe that Peter Pedirou, after all that time on the run, ended up in Percy's hands."
“I’m not kidding—that idiot’s Stunning Spell isn’t even as good as Ginny’s! He could throw the spell off track even if a half-ton fat guy was standing in front of him!” “Percy claims he went through a life-or-death battle,” George said, “but I’d rather believe that Pediru just tripped and fell unconscious, and Percy got lucky.”
As they spoke, they arrived at the tea room upstairs. The group found a quiet corner to sit down, ordered black tea, and then Fred distributed the sandwiches from the bag to everyone.
"I just bought it, so I'll have it for lunch. I bet Mom and the others aren't in the mood to eat anything right now," he said.
“And then?” Harry asked, holding a sandwich. “Percy’s risen to prominence, and I can guess you guys don’t really like his manner of speaking. But wasn’t he always like that when he was a prefect? So why…”
"Because of this."
George took a crumpled envelope out of his pocket and placed it on the table.
Ron looked as if he had seen a spider he hated, and almost jumped off his chair:
"Merlin's beard! George, you still have that thing? I thought we all agreed to throw it in the toilet—the sewer is where it belongs!"
George said, "No! I want to frame it and hang it in the most prominent place in our joke shop, with the title 'A Model of Contemporary Bureaucratic Hypocrisy,' what do you think?"
“Good idea.” Ginny gave a short, mocking laugh. “Too bad mine burned to ashes after I read the first line!”
“Mom still keeps it, locked in her dressing table drawer.” Fred said, trying to keep his voice calm. “I saw her secretly taking it out to look at it at night, and she was crying in the attic.”
“What is this?” Harry asked.
“Percy’s masterpiece,” Ron said coldly. “It was sent two days after Dad was injured and hospitalized. It’s an official letter from the Weasley administration, addressed to ‘Mr. Arthur Weasley and his family members,’ one copy for each of them, requiring us to ‘study and reflect.’”
"Learning and reflecting?" Harry asked, puzzled. "Reflecting on what?"
Seeing that no one else objected, Wade took the letter out of the envelope, unfolded it, and Harry also leaned over to look at it.
The parchment was of excellent quality, and it was printed with the emblem of the Ministry of Magic. The handwritten characters were meticulous, just like Percy himself.
"...I have noticed with great concern that the behavior patterns of some members of the family are regrettably deviating from the spirit of 'order, responsibility, and prudence' currently advocated by the Ministry of Magic."
Out of loyalty to the Ministry of Magic and for the sake of the family's long-term reputation, I believe it is necessary to draw your attention to and prompt you to reflect on the following matters...
Harry frowned at the bureaucratic opening, confirming once again that he still couldn't understand someone like Percy.
Immediately afterwards, Percy accused everyone except his mother in the letter.
He said his father's presence on a day off in the outskirts of the Department of Mystic Affairs, which was outside his jurisdiction, was highly suspicious. Although the minister was magnanimous and did not pursue the matter, he, as the administrative head of the Auror Command, would fulfill his supervisory responsibilities.
He believed that his brother Bill's decision to go to Egypt to dig up ancient junk was an extremely foolish waste of his talent as a twelve-certified OWL holder.
As for his other brother, Charlie, he was equally talented, but his act of raising dragons in Romania was utterly rude and uncouth.
Next came Fred and George, whose tricks at the school had reached Percy's ears, and he considered the candies that made students skip class and fall into a coma to be "the most absurd and useless" invention.
Letters of condemnation from students' parents were sent to Percy's office, having an "extremely negative" impact on his work.
These products disrupt normal teaching order and pose a potential threat to the health and safety of younger students.
As your elder brother, I must solemnly warn you: continuing such borderline business activities, which may even cross legal boundaries, will ultimately lead to serious consequences.
Percy wrote this.
Then there's Ron, whom Percy warns against getting too close to certain "high-risk individuals" to avoid trouble, and instead to associate with disciplined and excellent people like Miss Granger and Cedric Diggory to learn from their strengths.
[...Although Miss Granger's background is somewhat lacking, becoming friends with her will greatly improve your academic performance and discipline, which is far more meaningful than hanging out with...those people.]
Upon seeing this, Harry felt like he was the "high-risk individual" that Percy was talking about, and his ears immediately turned red, feeling an embarrassing and absurd sting.
Ron could tell what he was thinking just by looking at his face, so he quickly said, "Don't listen to what he's saying, it's all bullshit!"
Harry nodded reluctantly, pretending he didn't care.
Next, Percy didn't even spare his youngest sister, Ginny.
During the election, Ginny once said at home, "No one is as good as Headmaster Dumbledore! I wish Dumbledore could be Minister for Magic."
Percy told her to "be careful what she says" and avoid bringing unnecessary scrutiny to the family because of her immature personal preferences.
After criticizing everyone, Percy wrote in an extremely arrogant tone:
"...The outside world may mistakenly link your private actions with my official position, which could cause me trouble in my official duties."
In consideration of maintaining the image of the Ministry of Magic and ensuring the smooth operation of its work, I, Percy Ignatius Weasley, Administrative Head of the Auror Command of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, hereby solemnly declare:
Effective immediately, I will suspend all non-essential private dealings with the Weasley family.
It seems that he felt that writing in such a cold tone would affect his career if exposed to the media, as this ruthless attitude towards his family would also have an impact on his career.
So Percy then added a hypocritical explanation:
I made this difficult decision not out of disregard for family ties, but quite the opposite, out of a deeper sense of protection. If Mr. Barty Crouch had been able to properly guide his son back then, Barty Crouch Jr. would not have gone astray.
I hope everyone can take this opportunity to conduct a thorough self-examination and adjust their behavior.
Only when the behavior of family members is more aligned with the values advocated by the Ministry of Magic and the standards of prudence required by my personal role can we reassess the necessity and appropriateness of our connection.
Until then, maintaining a healthy distance is probably the wisest and most responsible choice, both for my official duties and for all of you.
May Merlin guide you to a more suitable path forward.
—Percy Ignatius Weasley
[Administrative Director of the Auror Command, Department of Magical Law Enforcement]
One update tonight
(End of this chapter)