British Ministry of Magic, basement level, minister's office.
This is a spacious room that is not commensurate with its appearance. Of course, it is normal to use magic to expand the space here.
Umbridge's description is not accurate. In fact, the meeting seemed to have already begun when the two arrived at the minister's office.
The room was filled with directors from various important departments, all of whom had extremely serious expressions.
A middle-aged wizard in his fifties with a prim and serious face pointed at the parchment on the table and spoke in an indifferent tone.
"...This is the copy of the contract that Gringotts Goblins have given us so far. We have carefully sorted out the terms and conditions. There are no errors or incompleteness at all. To be precise, the text and terms of this mortgage contract are
The level of rigor far exceeds any contract I have ever seen, and the complexity of the magic constraint effects above is also the highest so far."
"This morning, the International Magical Law Office and our company's International Magical Trade Standards Association came to a completely consistent conclusion. In terms of the text, this is at least a rigorous framework that took decades of polishing to form.
, we have reason to suspect that the mastermind behind the scenes has been preparing for this moment for at least ten years - there is no doubt that this is a conspiracy that has been carefully planned and polished for many years! Our response must be cautious!"
After the middle-aged wizard finished speaking, he slowly straightened his back and raised his eyes to look at Cornelius Fudge sitting behind the desk.
Across the crowd, Arthur could see the wizard's meticulously groomed silver hair, as well as the unnaturally straight hairline in the middle. The only person in the Ministry of Magic who could speak to the minister in such a tone was the Department of International Magical Cooperation.
Mr. Barty Crouch, the Secretary-General.
"In other words, as long as we exchange enough rubles from Gringotts, everything will be fine."
Cornelius Fudge knocked on the table tiredly, waved his hand, and said feebly.
"Mr. Minister..."
The wizards standing in the front row exchanged glances. Barty Crouch took a deep breath and his expression became particularly ugly, "Gringotts..."
Next to Mr. Crouch, Amelia Bones, the current director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, continued in a stiff tone, "Gringotts claimed that it did not have enough ruble reserves and closed the store between gold galleons and rubles this morning.
exchange window.”
The square-jawed witch adjusted her monocle and tried to suppress the anger in her heart.
"The Ministry of Magical Interior of the Soviet Union is now in an indefinite state of suspension due to internal disagreements over reorganization. To put it simply, we have almost lost all channels through which we can exchange gold Galleons for those little pieces of paper worth mentioning in the Muggle kingdom.
.”
"That's really bad news."
Cornelius Fudge's cheeks trembled and he tried hard to force out a relaxed smile.
The situation is far worse than they imagined.
Perhaps the Ministry of Magic and the Hogwarts Board of Directors could raise so many gold galleons, but the payment currency on that damn mortgage contract was actually the currency of a Muggle country.
Even without bothering the staff of the Ministry of Magic's trade department, Fudge could clearly realize that it was simply impossible to slowly make up the astronomical ruble loan gap through private transactions with foreign wizards.
things.
After another uncomfortable silence.
Suddenly there was a strange coughing sound from behind the crowd.
"Herm, hem..."
As if she didn't feel the solemn atmosphere, Umbridge kept her high-pitched and thin voice and said, "Mr. Minister, Arthur Weasley from the [Department of Misuse of Muggle Items] is here. Maybe we can ask
Ask him for his opinion?"
Arthur Weasley?
Yes, if the Ministry needs to select a "Muggle-savvy" person, then Arthur Weasley will definitely be in the top three.
Fudge raised his head expectantly and looked toward the door. He knew that Weasley and Dumbledore had always had a good relationship, and Weasley was also fascinated by Muggles. Maybe he could give everyone some new perspectives.
"Eh, uh..."
Mr. Weasley, who had not fully understood the situation, walked to Fudge's desk under the gaze of a group of people, and squeezed the top hat in his hand awkwardly.
"Mr. Minister, if you are missing those colorful little pieces of paper from the Muggle world, why don't you seek help from the Muggle Prime Minister? To be honest, I just learned about this news through the newspaper. If you need my help,
Could you please explain to me what happened?"
"Sorry, Weasley, I thought you had heard about it from Dumbledore." Cornelius Fudge waved his hand with some disappointment and pointed to the parchment on the table, indicating that Arthur could pick it up and take a look.
However, after hearing Mr. Weasley's words, Amelia Bones got some hints and looked at Fudge expectantly, "Yes, Mr. Minister, what was the reply from the Muggle Prime Minister? It's just
The currency of a Muggle country, isn’t there anything we can do about it!”
"Without any valuable information, the British government was even more helpless than us in the face of the Soviets."
The person who answered her was the official in charge of the Muggle Liaison Office. The little wizard spread his hands and said, "You don't understand how powerful a Muggle country it is. To put it simply, the Soviet Union is half a non-magical country.
World, any hostile behavior is tantamount to provoking a war between the two worlds. The most important thing is that the British government does not belong to the Soviet side, and they will not reserve too many rubles..."
boom!
"Enough of the bad news, bad news, bad news, from yesterday to today. Gentlemen, I don't need you to constantly remind me how bad the situation is. I just want to ask, so far, isn't there any
Is there any progress on any matter?"
Cornelius Fudge slammed the "Daily Prophet" in his hand on the desk, hammered his right fist on the goblins' proud smiles, and roared angrily.
"Look! The entire wizarding world is asking us why Hogwarts is about to fall into the hands of goblins. This is an extremely despicable kidnapping, a shameless betrayal of the human wizarding world, and an unprecedented huge conspiracy.
! More than ten hours have passed, and our answer is that there is nothing we can do?!"
For the first time in his life, he wished that what was said in the magazine "The Quibbler" was true. He was a "goblin killer" who could turn goblins into pies and bake them without changing his expression, instead of being a goblin killer.
Forced to deal with cunning goblins, the Minister of Magic is at a loss.
"Ahem, actually, I've made some progress here."
Facing the furious Cornelius Fudge, Rufus Scrimgeour, the director of the Auror Office, cleared his throat, but his face did not look happy at all, but instead became a little more gloomy.
"We explored the files from that year and pried out the name of that person's mother and the family behind him from a damn Death Eater. His maternal grandfather was Marvolo Gaunt. In other words, the person who owned Sarah
Morfin Gaunt is not the only one who has the blood of Chaslytherin."
Following Scrimgeour's voice, there was an obvious commotion in the room. As the core officials of the Ministry of Magic, everyone knew what these names meant.
"Damn it! I knew it. Those haunting rats that only dare to hide in the shadows."
Fudge's face trembled violently, and he cursed with hatred through gritted teeth.
"Stringer, continue to investigate for me, dig deep and dig deep to find that guy. Ms. Amelia Bones, I hope you can temporarily adjust the allocation of department resources. You also heard this.
This may be our last resort to save the future of the wizarding world. Otherwise, we can only pray that the goblins of Gringotts suddenly show mercy and abandon the contract, or that the behemoth in the non-magical world takes the initiative to send mountains of rubles to us."
"I understand." Amelia Bones nodded solemnly, with a murderous look on her face, and left the minister's office first. Immediately afterwards, various departments under the Department of Magical Law Enforcement followed her.
After entering the room, the room suddenly became much emptyer.
"Of course, we still need to try again on the Gringotts Goblin side." Cornelius Fudge sighed feebly and looked around at the directors of various departments who were still in the office, "So,
Next..."
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Chapter 2!rua~rua~
You know, the feeding standard is still the same, maybe it can really be done three times~
By the way, in the middle of the night, what should the fat chicken with a round face be called?