Chapter 209 - 209 Powdered Toad Umbridge
Chapter 209: Powdered Toad Umbridge
"It's ... true that this is the sort of thing we don't want to see either." Fudge knew that he was in the wrong, and could only force his way to a defense, "But the Dementors also had a reason for having to be on the Quidditch pitch ..."
"Just yesterday morning, the Dementors suddenly delivered a message to the staff of the Ministry of Magic - they had discovered Sirius Black's trail during their patrols, near the Quidditch pitch at Hogwarts!"
As he spoke, Fudge's tone grew confident, as if he had convinced himself that the Dementors' intrusion into the school was justified.
"Oh?" Dumbledore looked over with cold eyes and said indifferently, "Mr. Minister, can I take your meaning to mean that the Dementors found criminals around a group of professors including myself?"
"In that case, may I ask if Mr. Minister is trying to say that the professors at Hogwarts are not competent enough to spot Sirius Black, who is close by, or are you trying to say that the professors are in cahoots with criminals and are harboring criminals to come and watch the Quidditch match?"
Dumbledore's sharp words caused a cold sweat to break out on Fudge's face once again.
Hogwarts served as the talent training base for the entire British magical community, and there were too many wizards who harbored warm and deep feelings for the school; as the Minister of Magic, if he dared to disparage the professors of Hogwarts without reason, major public pressure would await him!
Just when Fudge was in a dilemma, the other witch following him took a step forward, revealing an ugly and sweet to the point of being cloying smile.
"Hasn't Headmaster Dumbledore heard that different people have different skills?" She said in a whiny tone, "Apparently Dementors are a bit better at catching criminals than professors who spend all their time teaching in schools."
"You are?" Looking at the interjecting witch, Dumbledore frowned.
"Dolores Umbridge," the witch gave a pompous look of pride, "Assistant Minister of Magic and Senior Deputy Minister of Magic."
"Okay, Ms. Assistant," Dumbledore repeated with a cold look, "Am I to understand that you believe that the professors at Hogwarts are not competent, or are harboring criminals?"
"Oh! I didn't mean to deny the position, or competence, of the Hogwarts professors," Umbridge fussed, while glancing meaningfully toward Dracula on the couch, "Of course, we can't rule out that there will be some assholes among them ... "
Dracula, not knowing how the finger of blame had shifted to himself, turned his attention with interest away from the chapter house hat he was holding and looked towards the witch named Umbridge, the one next to Fudge.
However, after only one look, the Earl Lord with a thousand years of experience and powerful strength almost vomited ...
Umbridge's age should not be too young, with a wide, flabby, ugly face, but wearing a very "girly" pink suit, with a fluffy cardigan pink sweater draped over the suit, and a small black velvet bow on her short curly hair... ...
The look was like a toad with a pink bow, and one that none of Neville's rifles would care to mate with.
Even if it was easy to scare people with its ugly looks and overly contrasting attire, the key was that this female toad's voice was still a very shrill clip-clop sound, as if it was pretending to be a teenage girl, but in reality it looked like an underdeveloped old hen.
Dracula sucked in a breath of cool air, and subconsciously just waved his hand, sending a powerful thrust instantly onto the pink toad's body, pushing her through the door of the principal's office and slamming her heavily against the railing of the rotating staircase outside.
As if doing that wasn't enough, he beckoned and closed the door to his office, shutting out the image of Umbridge's hot eyes, and opened all the windows.
A gust of wind blew in through the windows, causing the books, candles, and even the tables and chairs in the principal's office to shake in fear that the Umbridge might still have any odor left in the space.
"Whew... this should be about right." The gale outside the window blew for a full minute before Dracula let out a sigh of relief and let the gale stop.
Fudge happened to be standing next to one of the windows in the Headmaster's office, and the gale that lasted for a minute blew his hair and clothes as messy as a chicken coop, and blew the Minister's mind.
He had just been glad that he had brought one of his assistants over to act as a bad-mouthing villain, or he would not have been able to deal with Dumbledore's verbal onslaught.
However, in the blink of an eye, this highly offensive assistant was thrown out the door, and nothing pre-determined could be brought into play ...
We're all civilized people, how can we just say we're going to do something?
"I need an explanation, Dumbledore!" Fudge fixed his clothes and hair while looking at Dumbledore angrily, "Attacking a senior official of the Ministry of Magic without cause, are you trying to violently defy the Ministry's investigation?!"
"Where is the unprovoked reason? I have a very clear reason here alright?" Dracula snorted, "Just now that pink-skinned toad seriously polluted my eyes, tainted my ears, and even affected my mood for the whole day! Isn't that reason clear enough?"
"What kind of reason is that, you are defying the authority of the Ministry of Magic!" Fudge's face turned red with anger.
Of course, it wasn't because of Dracula's practice of throwing Umbridge out of the door and the toad comment, he actually thought that the name was quite graphic ... He was angry because of Dracula's attitude of disregarding the rules of the Ministry of Magic.
"Insulting a Ministry of Magic official with insulting words is an act that can already be criminalized!" Fudge exclaimed, "Sure enough, only people like you would take Ministry of Magic employees captive against the Ministry of Magic's rules!"
Fudge had long known that it was Hogwarts' Defense Against the Dark Arts professor who had clashed with the Dementors, and he also knew that the only two people waiting for them in the Headmaster's office today were the Headmaster and the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.
So of course he also knew that Dracula was the same professor who had taken the Dementors captive.
"Minister Fudge, Professor Dracula was only acting in self-defense against the Dementor's intrusion, it was nowhere near as serious as you claim." Dumbledore said in Dracula's defense, "Besides, if Professor Dracula hadn't stepped in just in time, there could have been an even bigger riot on the Quidditch pitch."
"I'm more interested in knowing who actually authorized those dementors to enter Hogwarts?"
He smoothly took the conversation in another direction, staring straight into Fudge's eyes, a sharp gleam condensing from them.
"It ... was for the safety of the Savior," Fudge stumbled over his words again without Umbridge at his side, forgetting even the fact that he had just tried to take the opportunity to turn on Dracula.
"The Dementors have made a rare discovery of Sirius, and the urgency of the matter is such that I have granted their request to enter Hogwarts on a temporary basis without further notice here." He said eagerly.
"But it was because of the Dementors that the Savior almost lost his life by falling from a great height!" Dumbledore said coldly, "Harry Potter is still lying in the school infirmary to this day, all because of the effects of the Dementors."
"This ..." Fudge froze in place, a pang of fear running through his mind.
If the boy who had survived the catastrophe did not die at the hands of the wanted criminal Sirius Black, but instead had problems because of the Dementors, then he was afraid that this Minister of Magic would really be at the end of his days.
And it was not just a matter of the Minister being at the end of his days, if something really happened to Harry Potter because of his poor decision making, then he would probably become the sinner of the magic world and remain in the history of magic in such a way for future generations to spit on!
Fudge winced and froze, not knowing what he should say to salvage some of his words.
Just then, a tall, balding, dark-skinned male wizard behind Fudge stepped forward and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Leave it to me, Mr. Minister." The male wizard said in a deep, slow voice.
"Kings here? Wait, you're only here to take care of security, it's better for you to stay out of political matters ...," Fudge looked at the dark-skinned male witch beside him with a somewhat puzzled expression.
In his opinion, the male wizard named Kingsley Shackle beside him was just an Aurora captain with little political level, following along and coming here to take care of security was enough, as for the negotiations and the rest of the things should be left to the Minister of Magic and the assistant to deal with.
However, without waiting for him to finish speaking, Kingsley Shackle took the first step to open his mouth in an unassuming manner.
"Headmaster Dumbledore, we acknowledge that the Dementors may have made some lapses in their work, and the Ministry of Magic can apologize to you for those lapses." He said calmly, in stark contrast to Fudge's panicked look.
Dumbledore smiled at him and made an inviting gesture forward, signaling Kingsley to continue.
"It is true that the Ministry of Magic made a mistake in their work, but that does not mean that the professors at Hogwarts can dispose of Ministry employees on their own." Kingsley gave Dracula a look and continued, "Of course, I can understand this Professor Dracula's behavior, after all, no professor would want anything to go wrong with their students."
"So the idea on our side is that each side will take a step back - that is, Professor Dracula will return the personally captured Dementors to the Ministry of Magic, and the Ministry of Magic will not appeal Professor Dracula's assault on a Ministry of Magic official."
"Wait, that's not appropriate, is it?" Fudge subconsciously glanced at the door and whispered close to Kingsley's ear, "Is it really true that we won't prosecute such a person who doesn't take the Ministry of Magic seriously? The prestige of the Ministry of Magic will be damaged."
"Trust me, Mr. Minister, even if Professor Dracula is prosecuted we won't be able to do anything with him." Jin Si Lai also responded in a small voice, "I guess his strength is close to the level of a great wizard anyways, my personal opinion is that it's not advisable to make too much of a conflict."
Then also not waiting for Fudge's response, Kingslai continued:
"In addition to this, we agree to further restrain the behavior of the Dementors, as far as possible to prevent the occurrence of the situation like yesterday. Is that alright with you, Headmaster Dumbledore, Professor Dracula?"
"That would be a good solution." A smile appeared on Dumbledore's face and he nodded lightly.
Dracula ran his eyes back and forth between the two Dumbledore and Kingsley a few times with deep meaning in his eyes before finally settling his eyes on Dumbledore's face.
Dumbledore also noticed Dracula's gaze and tilted his head imperceptibly, nodding slightly.
Dracula understood and turned his head to Kingsley, quirking his mouth gently.
"Good, I agree."
With that, he casually pulled a piece of parchment from Dumbledore's desk and casually folded it several times into a small cardboard box.
Dracula then raised his hand and gently tapped it on the carton, an unmarked stretching spell instantly tapping down and immediately expanding the space inside the carton to the size of a cottage.
He opened his palm again, and a round of silver moon coalesced in front of his palm, and slowly pushed towards the interior of the carton.
After the silver light completely disappeared into the carton, Dracula casually threw the carton to Kingsley.
"All the Dementors you wanted are in here." He said, and waved his arm as if shooing a duck, "You two can leave now, I won't be so nice next time!"
Kingsley took the carton in a panic, and together with Fudge, they turned their eyes towards the interior of the carton, and saw that three or five groups of Dementors were floating shriveled in the carton, an unknown number of them, a lot of them anyway.
"A random cardboard box used to inflict the Traceless Stretch spell ...?" Kingsley and Fudge's faces were shocked, feeling their brains go down a bit.
Shouldn't a dangerous magic like the Traceless Stretching Spell use a sturdy enough item as a carrier? Wouldn't a piece of parchment taken so casually really break?
They also didn't even bother to hold Dracula responsible for illegally using the Traceless Stretching Spell, so they could only carefully hold the carton, say goodbye to Dumbledore and Dracula at the first opportunity, and leave the principal's office.
Both Fudge and Kingsley were afraid that a break in the fragile paper would unleash the horde of Dementors inside and expose them to their eyes.
"Kingsley, your performance today was very good." Walking on the road, Fudge complimented Kingslai, "Just letting you be an Auror Captain is condescending, Scrimgeour is short of a deputy, are you interested in coming to be the Deputy Director of the Division of Magical Law Enforcement?"
...
"That Auror Captain is one of yours?" After the officials of the Ministry of Magic had left as much as they could, Dracula looked at Dumbledore and asked with a smirk.
"Worthy of being Professor Dracula, so easily discovered by you." Dumbledore nodded helplessly, "To be precise, Kingsley is part of the Order of the Phoenix. And I hope you can keep this secret for us."
"I'm not interested in going around proclaiming such things either." Dracula laughed softly, "No wonder then, after pressing Fudge every step of the way, when it came time for that Auror captain to open his mouth, your tone suddenly eased up."