Harry Potter: Charlie and the Candy Factory

"No...this is impossible, you must be crazy!"

In shock, Fudge felt something explode in his head.

His pupils suddenly shrank to the size of a pinhole due to the sudden fear. In a moment of excitement, his plump body actually pushed away the chair under him and stood up suddenly.

"Plop..."

The solid wood chair fell straight down and hit the thick carpet in the office with a muffled sound.

There was a sudden silence in the office. Except for Fudge's violent breathing, there was no unnecessary sound.

"..."

Charlie's eyelids drooped, his chin closed slightly, he changed into a rather comfortable posture, leaned calmly on the sofa, and played with the ring on his finger.

This appearance was in sharp contrast to Fudge's fierce reaction.

Soon after, Fudge finally realized that his reaction was a little too intense.

He calmed down the turmoil in his heart for a moment, turned around, picked up the chair that had fallen to the ground, and sat back down again.

Finally, he took a deep breath, licked his dry lips, and formally answered Charlie's words with a low tone and a rather determined attitude.

"What you are going to do...is to subvert our magical world!"

"What, you don't like my idea? Minister Fudge."

Charlie gently touched the dim red gemstone on the ring with his hand, and then covered it with his entire palm.

While talking to Fudge in a warm voice, when the palm was removed, an extra gold coin appeared in his hand at some point.

Fudge was a little far away from him. Although he noticed the gold coin that suddenly appeared in the other person's hand, he didn't see anything clearly. He just thought it was an ordinary gold galleung.

After listening to Charlie's words and looking at the gold Galleons in his hand, Fudge sneered.

"Believe me... Mr. Black, although I like money, I know what is more important than galleons."

Without waiting for Charlie to say anything, he continued:

"That's my position! No matter how much money you give me, I can't risk my position as Minister of Magic with you! If your target is just a squib, then I can tolerate it - but

Muggles, absolutely not!!"

Fudge's words were decisive, even impassioned, and he slapped his thick palm heavily on the table of his desk.

But he didn't know whether this move was to enhance his own momentum, or to prevent himself from being defeated in terms of momentum when facing Charlie.

"Muggles and wizards are originally from two different worlds. This is a situation that has been formed for hundreds of years. And you, Charlie Black, as a wizard from a pure-blood noble family, now want to try to destroy the existing world.

balance!"

"They're no different than Squibs."

Charlie shook his head and said in a calm and warm voice.

"They also know the existence of the magical world, have wizards as their family members, and they also have good intentions towards us..."

"But they come from a completely different social system!"

Fudge's round and rich cheeks couldn't help but tremble slightly, and his face was turning red due to congestion.

"If joining your factory and being employed by you is a signal, then in the next step, does it mean that they can consume the Galleons they earned from you in the magic world? Does it mean that they can also use it?

Gringotts!? Muggle social systems and habits will be brought in, and at that time, the thousands of years of rules in the magical world will be shattered and gone!"

Charlie had already anticipated that Fudge would have such a violent reaction after bringing up this matter before he came to the Ministry of Magic.

He is a representative of cowardice, suspicion, greed and vanity, and a qualified politician.

When he was pushed into this position by Dumbledore, the power he tasted for the first time made him feel lost and lost.

And this further distorted his spirit, forming a strange obsession. Perhaps from a certain perspective, he is an advanced copy of Umbridge.

In his eyes, nothing is important except his seat. He does not have the slightest courage and does not take any risks. When something is beyond his understanding, he will immediately take the most conservative approach. way to completely erase it, for better or for worse.

Facing such a person, even if you tell him all your reasons and explanations, he will still not be shaken at all, because he will always build a high wall with stubbornness to protect the feelings deep in his heart. Cowardice and humbleness.

Under such circumstances, communication is undoubtedly a headache... Even if you rub your tongue, there will be no significant results.

But fortunately, Charlie didn't want to communicate with him, and he didn't have the time or energy.

He stopped talking, but shook his head, stood up from the sofa, and adjusted the wizard robe he was wearing.

"Go slowly, don't send Mr. Black off."

Looking at Charlie who stood up as if he was about to leave, Fudge let out a heavy breath. Then he raised his head proudly.

In his view, this is undoubtedly a great victory for him.

With his perseverance and determination, he smashed the terrorist conspiracy of the capitalists to destroy the security of the magic world.

Everything was just like what the story books said, justice defeated evil and saved the world.

The only pity was that no one around him cheered for him with tears in his eyes and praised his heroic achievements.

Wait, maybe you can ask Umbridge to come in. And then spread this matter through her mouth intentionally or unintentionally...

Just as his mind was starting to work, thinking about how to publicize his deeds after Charlie left, the other party had already walked directly in front of him.

"You...do you have anything else to do, Mr. Black?"

Charlie did not answer him, but took out a snow lemon from his pocket and held it in his mouth. Then he threw the gold coin that had been flipping in his hand into the air.

…………………………

"Then...I'll leave first, Minister Fudge."

Charlie smiled and waved to Fudge to say goodbye.

Behind the desk, the expression on Fudge's face was no longer as angry as before.

His brows relaxed again and his expression softened.

"Walk slowly, Mr. Black..."

He nodded, narrowed his eyes again, waved his hand with a smile, and said in response.

It was as if all the unpleasantness just now had never happened.

"Squeak..."

The door hinge twisted and made a harsh sound. Charlie slowly opened the wooden door of Minister Fudge's office. He was about to step out, but he never thought that he would bump into Umbridge who was about to knock on the door.

At this moment, Umbridge was still holding two cups of steaming coffee, which seemed to be delivered to him and Fudge.

"Mr. Black! Are you leaving now?"

Looking at Charlie walking out of the office, she was stunned for a moment, and then couldn't help shouting in his sharp voice

"Yes... there are still a lot of things in the factory. I need to go back as soon as possible to prepare."

Charlie nodded and explained briefly, without intending to say too much to her.

"What a pity..."

The expression on Umbridge's face dropped subconsciously. She looked at the two cups of coffee in her hands and said with regret.

"I even made coffee specially for you and Minister Fudge. I planned to let you taste my craftsmanship..."

After listening to Umbridge's words, Charlie raised his eyebrows subconsciously, feeling something weird in his heart.

He actually wanted to ask the other party: You are also a director after all, right? Why do you act like Fudge's personal secretary... Every time I come here, I always see you. Is it possible that the work of your company is really good?

Are you so free?

But after hesitating for a moment, Charlie finally did not ask this question.

He just said a simple polite "That's a shame, I'll do it next time." After that, he walked straight past Umbridge's body like a low wall and left towards the elevator entrance.

He didn't care about what was happening behind him anymore. It wasn't until the elevator door slowly closed with a "squeaking" sound and moved downwards that he finally relaxed. He turned around and slowly faced the direction of the elevator door.

He slowly exhaled a breath, his face showing a bit of exhaustion, but his eyes were still filled with excitement.

Sure enough, just as he understood it - the effect of the gold coin was similar to the Confusion Curse, but it was several times stronger than the Confusion Curse.

It can silently reverse other people's consciousness, change other people's thoughts, and based on what you first said as a prerequisite, automatically correct the thoughts in your mind, making them smooth and reasonable.

Even after the fact, the person involved will not realize that anything is wrong at all, but firmly believes that this is his true thought.

It can be said that this is an extremely terrifying magic prop... Although the conditions and costs required to cast it are not easy, it cannot conceal its important role for Charlie.

Especially when combined with snow lemon, although it cannot achieve the powerful effect of the Spiritual Elixir, it can greatly improve the success rate of "guessing coins".

Charlie closed his eyes, soothing himself while listening to the elevators constantly shuttling between the various levels of the Ministry of Magic, opening and closing again.

Feeling the different people, they walked onto the elevator bustlingly and got off where they wanted to go, going back and forth.

During this period, no one took the initiative to pay attention to Charlie, who was standing at the end with his eyes closed.

Even if she noticed it, she just glanced at him quickly, withdrew her gaze and focused her energy on the matter at hand again.

Soon, the elevator dropped to the lobby on the bottom floor.

Charlie opened his eyes again and walked towards the elevator door.

However, just as he was thinking about the next specific matters related to expanding the scale and preparing to step on another elevator leaving the Ministry of Magic, a voice from behind suddenly stopped him.

"Charlie."

Charlie stopped walking, subconsciously stopped his thoughts, and turned his head to look in the direction of the sound.

"Headmaster Dumbledore!?"

The next moment, when he saw the figure standing in the hall not far away, the expression on his face suddenly became one of surprise, his eyes widened slightly, and his voice also contained a hint of disbelief.

Without hesitation, the steps he was about to walk to another elevator stopped abruptly, and he turned around and headed towards Dumbledore.

………………………………

Charlie and Dumbledore left the Ministry of Magic together. The two walked quietly on the sidewalk in the streets of London.

"I thought you should have returned to Hogwarts..."

Charlie's steps were always half a step behind Dumbledore, with a smile on his face, and although his voice was still as gentle as when he was talking to Fudge, it had a little more emotion that he didn't have with Fudge.

"It's not easy for me to take a leave of absence from Hogwarts." Dumbledore listened to Charlie's words, winked at him childishly, and responded jokingly.

For some reason, he seemed to have a magical power that made everyone around him feel comfortable.

Even just walking together like this and listening to the other person's words, Charlie could feel a sense of comfort in his heart.

My originally tired spirit became much more relaxed.

The smile on Charlie's face became even brighter, and instead of saying goodbye, he took a deep breath.

The breath of autumn mixed with the cool breeze blows into the lungs, refreshing for a while, and I can't help but feel relaxed and happy.

Dumbledore's eyes moved elsewhere again, looking thoughtfully at the cars passing by on the road next to him.

"Charlie..."

He spoke, and there seemed to be some emotion in his voice.

"I thought you had a car of your own, right?"

"Yes...there is indeed one."

Although he didn't understand why the principal asked this question so suddenly, he still nodded truthfully and responded.

"Which one do you think is faster or apparating?"

"Of course it's apparation." Almost thinking about it, Charlie gave the answer.

After all, there is absolutely no comparison between the two. Even the fastest car in the world cannot appear in a certain place at the speed of being like a ghost.

"How about comparing it to a broomstick?"

After listening to Charlie's answer, Dumbledore asked his second question.

"This..." This time, Charlie frowned slightly. After thinking for a while, he shook his head.

"It's hard to say...I have never thought about this problem." After a pause, he continued.

"However, a broomstick can cross obstacles. In theory, it should be much more convenient than a car."

"...I heard that Muggles had just invented this big iron thing more than a hundred years ago."

Dumbledore sighed and shook his head.

"Tell me, in the next hundred years, will everything that wizards are proud of still exist?"