198 Chapter 195
Draco completely ignored his first question as he tightly said, "That was old Lord Wentworth Anal Wright. He's a right bastard is what he is."
Harry choked on his own spit, "Anal?"
"Alan…I accidentally mispronounced," he flatly said.
"…No, you didn't. Why is he a right bastard?"
Draco's face turned into an ugly frown, "Hates animals, hates children, hates pretty much everything in his eyesight. He used to come over for meetings with father when I was smaller and used to hang me upside down from the chandelier if I walked into the room while they were talking. Father thought it was hilarious," he spat, before he seemed to realize that he was ranting about his childhood embarrassments to a schoolmate and tried to cover ass, "I was brave, calm and stoic through the entire ordeal of course."
"Of course," Harry nodded.
"But it's a cruel thing for someone to do to a child," Draco added.
Harry patted his back and turned to use observe on the familiar looking Lord Wright, but the man had disappeared into the crowd, nowhere to be found. Scanning the crowd one last time, and not finding the man, Harry let it go and shifted his attention to the stage, where Malfoy senior had cast a Sonorus on himself, and was starting to speak.
"Father's starting the new year countdown," Draco said from beside him, just as Lucius started speaking.
"Thank you to the Scamander Sanctuary and Mr. Scamander for bringing in their amazing creatures to join us today joining in today and bringing all these amazing creatures. Sadly, Mister Scamander could not join us today, but his deputy Mister Booplesnoot is here in his stead. We would like to thank him, and gift the Sanctuary with a donation of three thousand galleons in hopes that they will be able to continue their good work for as long as they can."
Lucius paused to let the crowd's applause subside.
"And finally, the House of Malfoy thanks you for your presence at this celebration on this evening. Let us count down the last few seconds of this year together."
A glowing clock appeared above the stage, and as one, the crowd started chanting.
"FIVE!"
Harry spread out tendrils of his mana to each one of the explosive arrowheads that were attached to the animals' glass cages.
"FOUR!"
He used Pyromancy to set off a small fire around each of the explosive arrowheads.
"THREE!"
A dozen tiny, pops sounded across the hall, barely audible over the crowd's chants.
"TWO!"
A million thin spidery cracks spread all across each of the dozen cages.
"ONE!"
And all hell broke loose.
Dolores Jane Umbridge was not having a good day.
In the morning, the Floo Network and the Drainage systems in the Ministry had been both down for maintenance, and only one main Fireplace had been left open.
Which meant that Sanitation department had to use the same fireplace as the employees coming in to work. She had Flooed in at the wrong moment and startled the worker who had been trying to levitate a large vat of…stuff that had been clogging up the ministry drains...through the Floo to dispose, and as a result, had been completely drenched in what she had later found out was a fermented mixture of human excrement.
She had raged at the worker continuously for an hour before firing him from his job at the spot.
Much to her extreme annoyance and displeasure, she learned later that day that the man brought a ticket on his way home, and had won the Annual Christmas lottery. He was now the proud owner of a retirement fund of half a million galleons and luxurious home in the Bahamas.
By the time noon rolled around, she had started off to finish up her annual inspection of the departments by heading down to the only department she hadn't inspected yet.
Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.
Of course, it was one of those days, and nothing was to go right for her, which was why as soon as she had stepped out of the elevator, a toad, who had apparently been cursed by someone with a levitation curse, had come flailing at her and landed smack dab right on her face.
After being completely humiliated in front of the entire department, she had given them the lowest assessment she could have right on the spot and then headed right back into the elevator and back to her office.
Still, she considered herself a patient woman and had put on her best robes and done her hair and put on a perfume before head to the Malfoy Ball for the evening. The Minister needed her after all.
And it had all gone wonderfully for a while. By the time the New Year's countdown started, she and the minister had met and greeted anyone of any importance in the entire ball, including Gilderoy Lockhart, who had complimented her on her 'unique fashion sense'. It was all going swimmingly.
"Three! Two! One!" the crowd chanted in an undignified manner, she noted with an upturned nose from her spot beside the minister near one side of the dance floor.
A sudden crackling sound from her left suddenly grabbed her attention, and she turned around to see where it came from. The only thing to the left of her was a glass cage containing what looked like large kneazle.
It was only when a foul smell reached her nose that she looked down, and realized that the glass lay shattered into dust on the floor. Her eyes immediately snapped up to the kneazle, who seemed to have realized that it was free now.
Her eyes moved to the collar around its neck to check what its name was as she tried to soothe it in what she felt was a soothing voice, "There there little kitty. Don't you move a bit."
Fred the Nundu
She froze.
The Nundu bared its teeth and snarled.
Fred did not, apparently, find Dolores's voice soothing.
Dolores tried to stay calm and steady as she screeched at the man frozen still beside her, "Minister! Do something!"
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