This endless world

As the most famous and most powerful wizard in the world who once defeated Grindelwald, Dumbledore directly stood up and refuted the Ministry of Magic's statement in an absolutely strong manner, and announced that Voldemort would return and attack Azka The news about Ben was tantamount to causing an earthquake in the magical world.

After being doubtful, most people still chose to believe Dumbledore's words. After all, British wizards are basically from Hogwarts Academy. Compared with the Ministry of Magic and Cornelius Fudge, who have basically made no achievements, as their senior The Headmaster's Dumbledore is certainly more believable.

——A very small number of people, namely Fudge and his loyal men, fell into panic.

At the beginning, Fudge was still a self-aware wizard. He knew that he became the Minister of Magic not because of his powerful magic power or his high reputation, but because he was simply a magic executive at the time. Minister Barty Crouch broke a shocking scandal - his son, Barty Crouch Jr., has countless and sufficient evidence that this promising wizard is a Death Eater.

Sometimes a politician wins not because of how well he does, but because his few opponents are worse than him.

That's all.

Under the circumstances of the time, it was impossible for the people to allow a wizard with a dark history to become their Minister of Magic, even if this wizard had been fighting on the front line against the Death Eaters. In the excitement of the crowd, Crouch missed the position of Minister, and then Fudge took over and became Minister of Magic.

But even if Crouch loses his qualifications, the British wizarding community at that time actually had another option, which was for Dumbledore to be the Minister of Magic. This kind of public opinion has been rampant since Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald. Even though Dumbledore himself has personally declined countless times - even after Fudge finally came to power, this voice still existed.

From Fudge's point of view, with Dumbledore's prestige in the British wizarding community, he was basically the uncrowned king of the Ministry of Magic. This also made Fudge respect and fear Dumbledore for a period of time when he became minister, fearing that Dumbledore would oust him one day, even if such a thing was impossible to happen.

——The young phoenix sprouts from the South China Sea and flies to the North Sea. It will not stop unless it is a parasol tree, it will not eat unless it is made of solid food, and it will not drink unless it is a spring of sweet wine. Then the owl caught the rotten rat, and the young bird passed by it. It looked up at it and said, "Scared!"

In a mediocre mood, at first, Fudge would cautiously consult Dumbledore when encountering major problems. However, as time went by, Fudge discovered that Dumbledore had adopted a laissez-faire attitude towards the Ministry of Magic. No matter what decision he made, Dumbledore would remain silent, smile in agreement, and concentrate on being the Headmaster of Hogwarts.

Over time, Fudge lost his respect for Dumbledore. But his deep-seated inferiority complex and jealousy of Dumbledore's reputation gradually turned Fudge's dark thoughts into a persecuted paranoia... He began to regard Dumbledore as an obstacle, a possible threat. An obstacle to his ministerial throne.

As a result, Fudge began to manage his own power, gradually diluting Dumbledore's influence in the Ministry of Magic, establishing ties with various pure-blood families, ostracizing those who were capable and respecting Dumbledore in the Ministry of Magic, and stuffing them into fringe departments, and place their cronies in important departments.

It has to be said that Fudge learned a lot of political methods from his many meetings with the Muggle Prime Minister, and he gradually adapted to being active on the stage of the wizarding world as a politician rather than as a wizard.

But Dumbledore's high reputation is ultimately more effective than politics and cliques.

No matter how much preparation Fudge made and how many methods he used, when the thing he feared actually came, he was disappointed to find that only a handful of people chose to stand on his side...the pure-blood families he had once won over, Either he acted according to the circumstances, or his attitude was ambiguous, and he did not dare to confront Dumbledore head-on.

——Except, the only pure-blood family.

…

In the minister's office, several sad-looking wizards and witches were gathering together. This magnificent office was filled with an anxious atmosphere at the moment. Even though the curtains were drawn tightly, the discussion among the Ministry of Magic staff about Dumbledore's public remarks could still be heard through the crack in the door.

It was these discussions that made Fudge, who was sitting behind the large desk, increasingly anxious.

"damn it!"

Listening to the discussion outside, Fudge punched the desk hard, with such force that the teacup he placed next to him jumped, and then fell onto the seemingly valuable carpet. , the tea inside flowed all over the floor.

But Fudge didn't care about the teacup that fell to the ground at all. He was breathing heavily, his eyes were red, and his whole face looked wrinkled, like a beast that was cornered, and he roared from his throat trying to suppress himself: " How dare Dumbledore do this...how dare he do this! I am the Minister of Magic! How dare he openly defy my decision - the decision of the Ministry of Magic!"

The people sitting on the sofa at the other end exchanged helpless glances. In fact, this was the fifth time Fudge had gone mad. As time went by, more and more people agreed with Dumbledore's point of view, and Fudge's mood also changed. increasingly unstable. But other than being furious and spitting on his subordinates, he only dared to hide in this office, close the door and draw the curtains, choosing not to listen to the sounds outside, like an ostrich with his head buried in the sand.

But pretending to be dead obviously cannot go on forever. After some eye contact, a short, fat woman who looked like a big toad whispered: "Minister, please don't worry too much. Those The fools were just deceived by Dumbledore's lies, and they will eventually realize that you are right..."

"I want it now, Dolores Umbridge!"

"I need to let those idiots know now that everything Dumbledore said was a lie. No mysterious person has returned, and Azkaban is safe!" Before Umbridge could finish her words, Fudge roared again. Get up: “I don’t need to hear this crap, I want to see the solution now!”

"Well, we have contacted the Daily Prophet and asked them not to publish Dumbledore's statement and to withdraw those false reports. We are currently working on it..."

"Two days have passed, and Dumbledore's statement is still on the front page of the Daily Prophet!"

Fudge angrily slapped a pile of newspapers around him. On the newspapers, a large photo of Dumbledore kept saying something: "They are just a group of wallflowers who work in secret, just like those pure-blood families." Same!"

Fudge's spitballs kept flying out of his mouth, and his big red face made people suspect that he would suffocate due to lack of oxygen due to excessive anger: "Malfoy, Avery, Selwyn... what are the twenty-eight holy families?" , all of them are guys who can only say nice words and act according to the circumstances. They usually talk about interest alliances, but at critical moments they say nothing, and they all turn into cowards!"

Hearing Fudge's angry words, the rest of the people present all turned their attention to the man on the other side of the sofa. His surname was Yaxley, and he also belonged to the Holy Twenty-Eight Family. In other words, Fudge's words just now, whether intentional or not, also scolded this man.

Facing everyone's gaze, Yaxley did not do anything else. He just stood up slowly and said expressionlessly: "Minister, the Holy Twenty-Eight Families are not all in the same breath. We also have Weasley among us." The scum of the family exists... Of course, there are also many who are firmly on your side, such as our Yaxley family."

"What's the use of only your family! Can you solve the current situation!" Fudge was also furious: "It sounds nice, but your pure-blood family can come up with a solution!"

"In fact, Miss O'Guru has been waiting in the drawing room of the Ministry of Magic for a long time. She said there is a way to solve your dilemma."

Yaxley suddenly smiled, and what he said made Fudge even more delighted.

Augury Lestrange, the largest financial backer and political backer behind Fudge.

Shortly after Voldemort disappeared seven years ago, this member of the Lestrange family approached Fudge, who was not yet the Minister of Magic at the time, and not only provided him with a large sum of gold galleons in political funding to establish a relationship , while also connecting him with many pure-blood families. It can be said that Fudge became the Minister of Magic, and Ogurui played a major role in it.

"Then what are you waiting for? Quickly invite Miss Ogure in from the reception room!"

Fudge couldn't wait to shout to his men, as if he had finally grasped a life-saving straw. The confidants headed by Umbridge also wiped the cold sweat from their foreheads and left the minister's office as if they were fleeing. Only Yaxley remained here.

Soon, the office door was pushed open again, and a silver-haired witch walked in. She was wearing a pair of glasses, had a thin figure, coughed from time to time, and had two big smiles on her face. Dark circles under his eyes, obviously in poor health.

"Long time no see, Miss Ogurui, I hope you can pay more attention to your health and stay healthy."

Even though he was still furious with his men just now and was about to be driven to a dead end by outside public opinion, Fudge still calmed down his emotions slightly and displayed a confident ministerial demeanor in front of Ogurui.

In fact, if Fudge hadn't been married for many years, and Ogurui's health was visibly in bad shape, and he usually stayed in seclusion, rarely showing up to the outside world, he would have originally planned to have a political marriage with this witch, so that he could The interests of the pure-blood family behind her are firmly tied to the chariot to ensure that the position of Minister of Magic is as stable as a rock.

Only by sitting in this position of Minister of Magic did Fudge know how powerful the energy behind this group of pure-blood families really was. With Dumbledore as his imaginary enemy, Fudge needs to win over the support of pure-blood families, such as improving the living conditions in Azkaban and abandoning dementors, which is one of his moves to show goodwill to pure-blood families.

Although Fudge himself felt that this was a clever move, after all, most pure-blood families had members of Death Eaters who were imprisoned in Azkaban with conclusive evidence. But most pure-blood families were indifferent to his behavior, and many families were even vaguely hostile to him. This also made Fudge a little confused... No one would really want to let his family members stay in a place full of people. A haunted place for dementors, right?

Of course, this incident was just a minor episode. In the past few years when Fudge was the minister, other aspects of the pure-blood family still supported him quite a bit. At least he had never worried about Jin Gallon. All Fudge needs to pay is some policy support or the opening of some authority in the Ministry of Magic.

For example, Miss O'Guru, who contributed the most, often went to the Department of Mysteries to check the book collection and conduct magic research because of her family curse. Although Fudge didn't know why this reclusive witch didn't go to St. Mungo's for treatment or go to the Hogwarts library for advice. She would rather go to the depths of the Department of Mysteries to study the nagging prophecies, curses and the fan. The broken stone arches, but in front of Jin Gallon, these strange things were nothing more than trivial matters at best.

In response to Fudge's greetings, Miss O'Guru coughed twice first, paused for a while, and then said in a hoarse voice: "I'm sorry, Minister, I know that recent things have made you very busy, but I brought A way out of the current predicament...but before that, I want to confirm whether this office is safe and confidential."

"Ha! Safe, of course safe!"

Fudge laughed when he heard this: "On the first day I took office, I asked all the staff in the Auror Office to cast a one-way protection magic on this office. The surrounding walls, doors and windows have been reinforced countless times. Moreover, The sound transmission is also one-way, and the confidentiality performance is absolutely top-notch. Only the inside can hear the outside movement. Even if an eavesdropper puts his ear to the door, he can't even think of hearing even a single word!"

"Very good. As a fool, this is one of your few outstanding achievements."

Hearing Fudge's words, the corner of Ogurui's mouth twitched slightly, revealing a ferocious smile. This smile was out of place on her ordinary face, like a snake suddenly showing its fangs: "Then... Please complete the last task as the British Minister of Magic."

Fudge's smile froze. He didn't expect to hear such words from Ogu Rui's mouth. Just when he was wondering if the tremendous pressure during this period had caused him to hallucinate, he stood up from the corner of the room at some point. Yaxley has taken out his wand...

"The soul leaves the body."