Chapter 676: Visit (Edited)

Dumbledore looked helpless as he watched Fish, who had just promised him not to act without permission, run through the main lobby of the Ministry of Magic.

"We should leave now, Fish," he cautioned, frowning at the same time.

Dumbledore had noticed that there seemed to be no one else in the area besides him and Fish, which was obviously very unusual.

Even at night, the Ministry would have had a receptionist to check visitors' wands and some guards to prevent others from trespassing into restricted Ministry grounds, just like how they had caught Sturgis Podmore.

Just as Dumbledore felt that something was amiss, Fish stopped marking his territory and returned to his side.

Fish then jumped onto Dumbledore's body, latched his paws around his robes, and within seconds, climbed onto his shoulders and sat firmly on them.

The dignified Dumbledore smiled slightly, extended his fingers, lightly scratched Fish's chin, then pulled out his wand and cast an invisibility spell on himself and Fish, adding a silencing charm and another to erase their scent.

In the past, Dumbledore would have simply concealed his form and considered the task complete, but ever since he met Fish, he had started hiding his voice and scent along with becoming invisible.

Once done, Dumbledore gripped his wand and Fish and headed towards the golden door ahead. At the same time, he also contained the smile on his face, and his complexion turned serious again.

"There really is no one else..." he murmured. "Is Tom really coming? But why did he send Harry to warn me?"

Unable to decipher it for a moment, Dumbledore simply quickened his pace, leading Fish through the golden doors and into a smaller vestibule. There were at least twenty elevators placed here, delineated by elaborate golden-barred doors.

Dumbledore took two steps towards one of the elevators.

As he pressed the button, he explained to Fish over his shoulder, "From now on, at the Ministry, just like at Hogwarts, Apparition is prohibited. Although Fawkes's powers will still work, I'm not sure if it will trigger any alarms here."

The elevator descended with a clatter from above, the sound of its movement loud in the silence of the night, but there was still no Ministry security around.

He pressed the ninth button, the barred door slammed shut, and the elevator began to descend, chains jingling.

Soon, the elevator stopped, and a cold woman's voice sounded, "Department of Mysteries."

The barred door opened smoothly, and Dumbledore stepped out into the hallway. There was no movement around him, only the nearest torch swaying back and forth with the elevator's draft.

"Nya!"

∑(=ΦДΦ=)

Barely had Dumbledore stepped out of the elevator when Fish, perched on his shoulder, raised his paw, patted him, and let out an anxious meow.

Before he could understand what was happening, he heard another voice a little further ahead, "Reveal!"

The invisibility spell on Dumbledore and Fish immediately broke, and the figures of Fish and the man emerged from thin air.

Immediately after, in an otherwise empty corridor, the figures of wizards appeared in front of them, led by the current Minister of Magic, Fudge.

"I've finally caught you! What do you have to say for yourself, Dumbledore?" he asked with excitement.

"I see..." Dumbledore's face darkened as he waved his wand, dispelling the silencing charm and whispered, "A simple yet effective ruse."

"What ruse? Are you going to claim that I deceived you to come here on purpose?" Fudge, who had no idea what Dumbledore was talking about, continued to maliciously shout.

At the same time, Fish jumped off Dumbledore's shoulders and returned to his human form.

"Albus, didn't you say you were here to fight Voldemort? Why is Fudge here instead?" (?ω?)

Fish tugged at Dumbledore's robe, asking with suspicion and expressing his displeasure, "They're so weak, it's not fun to fight against them, nya."

Many of the Aurors around Fudge had been attacked by Fish with a group of cats and dogs before Christmas, leaving them defenseless and no better than members of the Order of the Cat, so Fish wasn't excited at all.

"We're not fighting against them," Dumbledore reassured Fish before turning to Fudge and explaining quietly, "I'm not talking about you, Cornelius. As Fish just said, we're here for Voldemort."

"Here we go again with that lie!" Fudge scoffed, then blushed and growled, "Again! The man whose name can't even be mentioned is dead! Stop with the alarmism and disturbing the hard-earned peace."

"Well, putting aside the reason why Fish and I are here," Dumbledore said, not wanting to continue arguing with him, "We've just chosen a less common time to visit the Ministry of Magic. What decree says that wizards cannot visit the Ministry of Magic at night?"

Fudge's expression twisted, feeling deceived, he cursed, "Do you take me for a fool, Dumbledore? Do you need to be invisible for a normal visit to the Ministry of Magic? You won't get away with your sophisms."

"Speaking of that, Cornelius," Dumbledore, in stark contrast to the furious Fudge, kept his voice low but clear, "I didn't see any receptionist up there, so considering something might go wrong in the Ministry of Magic, it made a lot of sense for me to conceal myself."

His blue eyes calmly looked at Fudge through his half-moon glasses. "So, can you tell me why you didn't have a receptionist in the main foyer tonight, instead of hiding in this place with a group of Aurors, waiting for 'someone' to arrive, Cornelius?"

Fudge's expression changed several times rapidly, and then he said maliciously, "Because we received a warning that there would be infiltrators in the Department of Mysteries tonight, attempting to steal the secrets within!"

"But that still doesn't explain why you don't have a receptionist up there," Dumbledore said with a smile. "If there was someone up there, I would have visited in the normal manner, instead of choosing to sneak in after thinking something was wrong here."

And then...

Fudge was frozen.

He was not a flexible man, and in the face of Dumbledore's well-crafted questions and arguments, Fudge couldn't come up with a refutation for even a moment.

As he stuttered, Dumbledore seized the opportunity, "I'll give you a little piece of advice, Cornelius. Even though you're the Minister of Magic, please don't change the functioning of the Ministry. It would be quite inconvenient for visitors like me and prevent others from being mistaken as 'intruders' in the future."

"I don't need you to tell me what to do!" an irritated Fudge shouted, "Don't think you can get away with this! I'll inform the Wizengamot tonight. You'll have to wait for your trial."

"What a pity." Dumbledore's voice neither rose nor fell as he gave Fudge a slight nod. "If there's nothing else, I bid you farewell."

He ignored Fudge, whose face had turned blue, and pulled Fish towards the elevator.

Fudge shuddered as he watched the iron-grilled elevator doors close automatically, sending Dumbledore and Fish back to the main foyer, and finally let out a roar, grabbing his hat and slamming it against the floor.

"Damn you, Dumbledore! I won't forgive you!"