Chapter 479 Suspicion

"Stimulate full capacity?" Snape looked at Felix with probing eyes and clasped his arms, "What do you need it for?"

"I'm a safety officer, I can't go out looking like this, it would be too humiliating."

Snape stared at him for a moment, then asked softly, "The next time I go to Diagon Alley to buy herbs, I won't see your wanted poster, right?"

Felix rubbed his chin, "It's really hard to say ... don't look at me like that, okay, I'm joking, the truth is I've been studying magic too much." He explained in a serious manner.

But Snape simply did not believe him, but the next second, a runic pattern emerged on Felix's face, and Snape looked at the scene with amazement.

"What kind of effect do you want in the potion?"

"The best one; of course, the kind that allows me to drink it and then fight with someone." Felix chuckled, "How about a 50% discount for the sake of me being your student?"

Snape frowned, "That potion has a lot of side effects."

"I can live with that," Felix said seriously, "Severus, I need it."

After a moment of silence -

"Wait!" Snape said foully, as he swung his sleeve.

"Thanks, Professor." Felix waved behind him with a grin.

...

"Hermione Jane Granger!" Mr. Granger shouted, watching in exasperation, as his daughter looked in through the door with her head peering in.

"Oh, Dad ..." Hermione came through the door as several other champions and their families in the room watched the scene with interest. She moved in, one step at a time, and looked at Mrs. Granger pleadingly.

Mrs. Granger waved her hand and looked like she wanted to watch a good show. "I'm waiting for your explanation, too."

"How about, um," Hermione whispered experimentally, "I show you around the campus?"

The Grangers' stared at her simultaneously as Hermione stammered to finish her sentence, "You guys must be curious about this place since it's your first time here, right? I've made some preparations which you will love ..."

"And by 'preparation' you mean leaving your parents alone for most of the day?"

"I'm taking an exam." Hermione argued in a small voice.

Mr. Granger looked exasperated and Mrs. Granger looked at her teasingly, "How did I hear that Champions don't have to take exams? It was that friend Harry you've been 'helping' told us personally. You're not trying to hide from us, right?"

Hermione stood speechless.

After spending a good amount of time, Hermione barely calmed her mom and dad down as they toured around the castle before strolling along the Black Lake. On the way, they ran into Harry and Sirius, who tried their best to chat with the Grangers', but it didn't work out that well, as all they could talk about were topics like Quidditch, dueling, and adventure.

When Sirius vividly described how he had solved a troll, he received a blank and wary look instead of adoring eyes and follow-up questions about the details.

Before the atmosphere dropped to a freezing point, Sirius finally found a common topic.

"Don't worry, it won't be dangerous, their team is the one that has a high chance of winning the title! And there are safety officers ... like Felix Hap, you guys know him already? Meet him at the Leaky Cauldron? Awesome! I know him very well ..."

Harry felt strange that Hermione had been staring at him with a puffed-up face while the adults were talking.

He crept over to her, "What's wrong?"

Hermione turned her head to the side and refused to talk to him.

...

"Knocked out three Unspeakables? So the man's target was actually the Department of Mysteries?" Fudge asked from behind his desk.

"That's right, he stole all the hourglass, and half of the energy in the crystal jar is lost ..." Auror, who is responsible for the investigation, said, as the three Unspeakables who have had the misfortune of being knocked out stood silently behind the Auror, bowing their heads without speaking.

Fudge twirled his quill, and after a while, he looked up.

"What do you think that man's purpose is?" He looked to the three Unspeakables, "To travel through time? To change history?"

"Don't worry, Mr. Minister, he can't do any of that." Saul Croaker said eagerly.

"Why?" The quill in Fudge's hand paused, "He took so many hourglasses ... just hourglasses?"

"That's right!" Saul Croaker is glad that he understood that, "The man only took the hourglass in his hand, not the complete time-turner."

"What if he finds a broken time-turner from outside, and fixes it-"

"Impossible, no one can do that! Every scrapped time-turner has been double-checked by the Unspeakables, and it is impossible to fix them. We have been trying for hundreds of years without success, which resulted in fewer and fewer time-turners available ... an outsider would find it even more impossible to do it."

Fudge looked at him suspiciously.

"It's true," Saul Croaker said with rising confidence, this is his area of expertise, "and one more thing, the stolen hourglass has very low energy inside, I guess the person also realized this, that's why he risked staying all night, trying to replenish the energy - -"

" So?" Fudge asked impatiently.

"Naturally, it failed." Saul Croaker spread his hands, "No one could learn the technique in one night. So the energy inside was naturally lost ..."

"But if the hourglass doesn't work, why did the man take them all away?" Fudge asked with bull-like eyes.

"Minister, figuring out the minds of criminals is not my field, I can only give judgments based on my profession." Saul Croaker said with a shrug. "The only problem is that the security system of the Department of Mysteries is not good enough, and it's time to upgrade it."

"Thanks, Croaker," Fudge interrupted, "I'll think about it, but you have to understand that the Ministry is tight on funds right now, and if there are new donations, I'll first consider you."

A silence fell in the office.

After a long time, Fudge asked with a very hesitant expression, "Did you guys see what the man looked like?"

Bode and Saul Croaker shook their heads, all they had seen was the appearance of Felix after using the Polyjuice Potion, and both of them now looked at Fudge with a bit of a weird expression, fearing that he would suddenly pull out his wand and give them a quick blow.

"What about you, you should have seen something, at that time you meet him the time limit of the Polyjuice Potion must have passed." Fudge asked sullenly.

The third victim said with an embarrassed look on his face, "I was diverted, and the man used a vile trap ..."

Fudge lowered his head to look over his testimony, "A ball of fire that fell from the sky, burning wreckage? Yeah, vile enough indeed."

"..." The Unspeakable bowed his head in silence.

Fudge continued flipping through the report, "Got sneaked up on while looking down and only saw a pair of feet ... a pair of feet?" He looked up, "Do you remember what those feet looked like? What are the characteristics?"

The Unspeakable shook his head, "I'm sorry, Minister, I can't remember very well."

"I don't think so," Fudge showed a little smile, "at least you can get a vague outline, can't you? Like whether the footsteps were brisk enough to belong to a young man?"

...

In the evening, the young wizards dined cheerfully in the great hall, waiting for the third task to begin.

"Fudge, you've brought a bit too many people with you today." Dumbledore asked mildly

"I thought it is necessary, the Ministry of Magic has just experienced an attack," Fudge whispered, "I must be prepared."

"Ah, so that's it." Dumbledore said softly, with a look of regret on his face.

"By the way," Fudge looked around, "how come I couldn't see Professor Hap?"

"Maybe something delayed him?" Dumbledore said with a smile.

Fudge looked around, everyone is eating, he wiped the sweat on his forehead and hesitated for a moment before finally making his mind up, "Dumbledore, I need to seek your help, according to the Auror's verification, that lone attacker is terribly powerful, no worse than that person - He Who Must Not Be Named!"

Dumbledore showed just the right amount of puzzled expression.

"Dumbledore, I know we have a dispute on some issues--"

" It is not a dispute." Dumbledore said.

"What do you--mean?" Fudge looked at him in confusion.

"It's not a dispute, Fudge," Dumbledore said patiently, "Your hesitation will cause us to miss a good deal of time -"

"All right! Dumbledore," Fudge said irritably, "that is the controversy, I have already backed off and sent an Auror team to check out the Albanian forest, the results will be available soon, what I want to talk about now is another thing!"

He slapped the table so hard that the forks on his dinner plate bounced around.

The Headmasters from the other schools on the table looked over in confusion, and Fudge made a curt gesture of apology. When the others turned their heads, he came close again and whispered: "Dumbledore, I am now discussing with you how to deal with a dangerous criminal, who recklessly broke into the Department of Mysteries, and stole the time-turner's hourglass and decades of accumulated energy. My God, what an evil deed!"

Dumbledore looked at him calmly, "With all due respect, Fudge, you don't seem to be in any kind of hurry."

"Of course, I'm anxious! What if he wants to tamper with history, what if he's on the side of the Dark Lord and wants to caution the Dark Lord about his death?" Fudge's temper had a tendency of being out of control again, "You should know what serious consequences it will cause!"

Dumbledore's expression got serious.

"That's it," Fudge wiped his sweat and continued, "so I'd like to ask for your help. Our purposes are the same, and I assure you that as soon as the investigation team brings back strong evidence, I will issue a warning to the public."

Dumbledore remained silent for a moment, " Do you have any leads?"

"Of course I do," Fudge said with great joy and impatience, "he spent the night in the Ministry of Magic, trying to steal energy ... he must have been exhausted, and was wounded by Auror, but unfortunately we were not able to retrieve his blood at the scene ... Anyway, this kind of injury can not be recovered in a short time, that's why I am curious about the situation of Professor Hap, I am certainly not suspicious of him, just cooperate with the investigation--"

Dumbledore's expression became more and more serious, and Fudge thought he had succeeded in his plan, and he was so happy that his eyebrows raised, but at that moment, a man came in from outside the great hall.

Fudge glared at the man, Felix's face ruddy, and radiant, without the slightest appearance of injury. He had also deliberately changed into a tuxedo and pulled out a chair to sit in an empty seat not far from them.

Fudge's face suffocated to red.

"It seems that Felix is not the person you are looking for, he is in great shape, this outfit reminds me of the ball six months ago, if there is music present, I do not doubt that he will be the most prominent one ..." Dumbledore closed his fingers and looked at Fudge with interest on his face.

"I may have gotten off on the wrong track, Dumbledore," Fudge said under his breath, his eyes dead set on Felix, as he reluctantly said, "I need to double-check."

"You're always welcome to my office, Fudge, but next time you should better bring proof." Dumbledore said, his gaze fixed on Felix as well - and unlike Fudge, his azure eyes are deep and profound.

"Time ...," he whispered.

As the enchanted ceiling turned from blue to a dark purple twilight, Dumbledore stood up at the table and the crowd quieted down.

"Ladies and gentlemen, in five minutes, I'm going to ask you all to go to the competition venue and watch the last event of the tournament. Now I would like to request the champions to depart first with Mr. Bagman."

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