Chapter 1056
Hermione's Worries
Chapter 1056 Hermione's Worries
The private room was quiet for a while.
Theo forgot his previous embarrassing incident and exchanged a worried look with Ryan.
Michael winked at Wade and mouthed silently, "He's heartbroken... absolutely."
Wade, remembering Cho and Cedric who were always together whenever they had free time, silently pushed the paper bag on the table toward Harry with a sense of sympathy.
The train swayed, and the fields outside the window, gray and hazy, kept receding into the distance.
After a while, there was another knock on the door of the private room. Harry immediately sat up straight and looked towards the door with a tight smile.
This time, Ron and Hermione, wearing prefect badges, appeared outside the door. They looked tired, their hair was a little messy, and they looked like overworked office workers surrounded by countless trivial matters.
"Harry!"
Ron saw Harry as soon as he walked in and immediately began to complain:
"Didn't you promise to save us seats? We've been searching the carriage for a full twenty minutes, and here you are..."
He stared intently at the table, his words abruptly cut off.
Harry forced himself to stay awake and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Ron, I..."
"Never mind, that's not important!"
Ron interrupted him, impatiently pushing Harry inside, his eyes shining as he said, ignoring the fact that his good brother was about to be flattened.
"Anything will do! Can I have a piece of pie? I'm so hungry I'm practically gnawing on the table!"
“Of course!” Ryan said enthusiastically. “Eat up! Do you like foie gras toast?”
I love them all!
Ron practically lunged at it, grabbing a piece of toast and taking a huge bite, only to choke and frantically search for water.
Hermione sat down at Michael's invitation, took a sandwich, thanked him, and began to eat.
Ron swallowed the whole slice of toast, then let out a long sigh and said:
"This is terrible! The prefect's job is simply inhuman!"
"A younger student brought a cat, which was running all over the carriage, because several other students had brought mice, which hadn't been properly locked up yet..."
He took another beef pie and mumbled:
Two third-graders got into a fight over a window seat.
"And there's another Slytherin, he's a little devil, he almost threw his classmate out the window."
“I must say, Malfoy would definitely love him… Ah, this pie is delicious… We definitely wouldn’t have dared to do that back then…”
Ron ate in a very unrefined way, but the way he wolfed down his food made everyone hungry just watching him.
Wade also grabbed a sandwich, and after taking only two bites, Ron finally finished complaining about all the weirdos he'd encountered. Hermione then chimed in, saying:
"Wade, did you see the news on Streaming News this morning? The one that was interrupted by an emergency broadcast."
The girl frowned slightly, her expression showing a unique focus she had when facing difficult questions.
Wade nodded, swallowed the food in his mouth, and said, "I've seen it."
"What news?" Ryan looked up, somewhat bewildered. "I left home very early today and didn't have time to look."
Everyone else had the same expression.
Wade took a sip of water and said simply:
"If you've been reading the international section of The Daily Prophet recently, you should have noticed that a series of serious illegal activities have recently been exposed by high-ranking officials of the Magical Congress of the United States."
"Among them are Gilbert Fontana, the principal of Ilfamoni School of Magic, and Lyra Picqueri, the former assistant to the president of the Magical Congress."
“Especially recent investigations have revealed that the headmaster and some faculty members at Evamony have been leaking information about Muggle-born and even Muggle-born students to external forces—I mean Muggle forces.” Theo was so shocked he dropped his pie: “The headmaster himself is selling student information? Why would he do that?”
“Because they are like the Malfoys,” Hermione said, biting her lip, “who believe that wizards with Muggle blood are impure and a threat to the wizarding world, and need to be completely eliminated.”
“…Merlin!” Theo said blankly.
He himself was pureblood, but in this room, apart from him and Ron, everyone else was either half-blood or even Muggle.
According to the theories of Iphamoni and his ilk, no one else should exist?
—What a crazy idea!
For the first time in his life, Theo actually thought those Slytherins were pretty good.
Because they only look down on people, talk badly about them behind their backs, or do bad things to their faces, instead of crushing their classmates like pests.
“In short,” Wade added, “this incident has become very big, involving a wider range than expected. I’ve heard that the victims were not only from the United States, but also underage wizards from other countries.”
Hermione said seriously, "Therefore, the Ministry of Magic has pointed out that certain institutions have catastrophic loopholes in protecting students from targeted threats!"
"They also said they would track down any underage wizards who don't attend school on time!"
“This…” Theo hesitated before speaking, “Isn’t this a good thing? I mean, protecting the safety of all underage wizards is a way for the Ministry of Magic to fulfill its responsibilities!”
Harry nodded and said, "With something this serious happening, it's only right to investigate."
He didn't understand why Hermione looked so serious.
Hermione frowned and said slowly, "It is indeed necessary... but I'm worried that this might mean the Ministry of Magic is about to intervene in Hogwarts."
There was a moment of silence in the private room.
Everyone couldn't help but think of Cornelius Fudge.
Harry, in particular, had several unpleasant meetings with the former Minister of Magic, which led to a lack of trust in the Ministry of Magic as a whole.
But Harry didn't see any negative impact on them from the Ministry of Magic's vetting of underage wizards' safety.
"Don't scare yourself too much. What can the Ministry of Magic do to Hogwarts?"
Michael leaned back in his seat and said in a relaxed tone:
“My dad said that Sinkness is different from Fudge. He is a peaceful person and doesn’t like to cause trouble.”
"He preferred to maintain a calm surface rather than undertake radical reforms, especially to maintain a good relationship with Professor Dumbledore."
"So even if they really do investigate, I estimate they'll just flip through the school's records and check the students who rejected the school's admission notices and those who dropped out midway."
Theo understood and said optimistically, "So, it has nothing to do with us?"
Michael nodded: "It should have nothing to do with most of us. At most, it'll just be a few strangers wandering around the school for a couple of days!"
“After all, Hogwarts isn’t Ilfamori, and Dumbledore isn’t Fontana. So many of our students aren’t pure-bloods, yet we haven’t heard of anyone suddenly disappearing—and the Ministry of Magic is fully aware of that.”
“Perhaps,” Wade said, putting down his water glass. “But even a perfectly correct decree can have drastically different results depending on who implements it.”
He looked in the direction of Hogwarts, but all he could see was a hazy expanse of gray clouds; he couldn't see the distant mountains or the castle further away.
Michael asked, "Wade, you mean..."
“I just think we can’t make a judgment too early,” Wade said. “We need to see what kind of person is being sent.”
At this moment, Vader was only thankful that Umbridge had already been sent to Azkaban. Whoever came next, it wouldn't be that pink toad.
Ron had almost finished the pie, and there was still a little oil on the corner of his mouth.
He was so engrossed in eating that he hadn't kept up with the conversation, and now he just said blankly:
"By the way, what was the news about again?"
(End of this chapter)