Chapter 296: Crouch and Bagman

Ministry of Magic. Felix pushed open the door of the phone booth and watched it rise to the surface as the crowd made their way down to the lobby.

"Mr. Hap, hello."

"Mr. Hap, congratulations."

Felix nodded one by one in response, and after giving a speech at the Ministry of Magic, he got quite a few more acquaintances. He arrived at the third meeting room by familiarity. In the room, there is only one aged wizard. He looked up shakily, "Felix Happ..?"

"You are ... Augustus Gray? I remember you from Belby's award ceremony."

The old wizard grinned, but all his teeth were missing, "How rare that I get to meet a brilliant young man before I retire."

"You flatter me, Mr. Gray." Felix said with a smile.

The two chattered, Augustus Gray working in the Wizengamot Administration Services over seventy years prior, handling the regular paperwork. Back then, he was a reckless young man, before slowly working his way up to the head of the administration office. He knew the Ministry of Magic very well and knew many interesting stories and gossip.

"... that little girl Bertha, naive, and loves to help people. She asked me if I needed a pair of crutches ..."

Felix blinked, "Is that Bertha Jorkins? I think I've heard that name before."

A cheerful voice appeared from behind the two, "Ha~ What are you discussing?"

Felix looked back. A hulking male wizard, it looked like he must have once been tall and fit; however, now that he is starting to go downhill, his figure is more rounded and hardly reminiscent of the word stout.

He moved a lot, his arms waving constantly along with his words, and his voice filled with emotion and infectious energy.

"Hello, I'm Ludo Bagman, and are you Felix Hap? I've heard about you from the Ministry - Arthur, Arthur Weasley. I wonder if you know him, he was very impressed with your last speech." Bagman tossed his blond hair and leaned in closer to whisper, "Nice work. I mean, I hate Macnair pretty much too ..."

Felix said mildly, "Mr. Bagman, I was just giving a normal speech-"

"Yeah, yeah," Bagman interrupted impatiently, a smile piling upon his face, "Who said it wasn't, I was out of the ministry and there was a fan party, and boy those people were really enthusiastic ... God, I love them, but, um, I knew what was going on the first time I heard about it," he squeezed his eyes, "I know some purebloods pretty well, it's from my father ... they told me quite a few things."

Felix showed a smile, "I'm curious what they said."

"Ahem, I can't say. As I promised them, but," Bagman held his tongue for a moment, unable to resist himself, so he said in a mysterious tone, "You're very famous in that faction of the Purebloods, and they're all in awe of you. I think even more than they are of Barty Crouch. Oh yes, Barty! --"

He suddenly shouted into the distance, and Felix looked along to see a man in his fifties with a straight back and rigid movements, his straight slatted wizard's robes immaculate, without even a crease in the corners of his robes.

Crouch approached, as he walked in a straight line. "Bagman, hello." Crouch said politely, his short moustache looked so well-groomed as if it had been trimmed with a ruler, "I've been looking for you, work-wise."

"Let's put the bloody work aside for a moment and come over for a chat." Bagman said enthusiastically, "Let me introduce you, this is my new friend, Felix Hap. The main character of the day, he is outstanding in the field of memory healing!"

Crouch calmly extended his hand, "Hello, Mr. Hap, it's an honour to meet you, but I don't have much time, I have to see the Bulgarian minister later."

"Hello, Mr. Crouch. If there is something important, you can leave at any time."

"That's right," Bagman said with a big smile on his face, "who made you the only one who can understand their crooked and weird accent, it's really hard for you ..."

"You'll have to join me, too, Bagman. There's a lot of work over there, and someone has to keep an eye on it, or there will be two hundred loose ends, and the numbers are growing, and I'm too occupied."

"I know," Bagman said awkwardly, but he quickly found an excuse." I'm busy too, you know, communication isn't going well on the American side. They want to change the rules, but who am I to compromise on anything -"

Crouch raised his eyebrows, "We pledged to withhold all details until the public announcement."

"Oh, the details!" Bagman waved his hand, not caring much, "But the event is happening right here at Hogwarts, and we have to talk to them over the holidays - details, you see, I bet Hap knows something."

He turned his head to Felix and asked expectantly, "You must know that some things simply can't be wrapped up, Dumbledore has had several meetings and vetoed some interesting proposals."

"You guys are talking about the Triwizard Tournament?"

"The Triwizard? It's a quadruple now, maybe more," Bagman said, "Old Fudge is trying to pull more people in. Even Uagadou from Africa, if you ask me, I think he's out of his mind."

"Bagman!" Mr. Crouch said sternly, "We should change the subject."

"Oh, uh, okay." Bagman shrank back with a little loss for words, "As you wish, let's talk about the star of the day then, my good friend - Felix Hap."

He said with a twinkle in his eye, "The youngest recipient of the St. Mungo's medical badge. Well, that' not easy, I was under the impression it was mostly filled with older - I mean, older healers."

"... There's also the Order of Merlin, I don't know if he's the youngest one." He looked to Barty Crouch.

"I was under the impression it's Peter Pettigrew, who was 21 when he died." Crouch said slowly, clearly not wanting to discuss the subject.

"Admirable, he is a hero." Bagman said with a compliment, in a not so respectful tone. "But Mr. Hap is not that bad, only this year -" he glanced at Felix, who said briefly, "23 years old."

"That's right, 23, and by virtue of real ability, memory damage, I'm not too familiar in that area. I suppose it's a cure for memory weakness? I think Bertha Jorkins needs an observation, she made something simply head-scratching, amazingly she couldn't even find a venue and wandered around for a week."

Barty Crouch didn't say a word, keeping a stern face. Sᴇaʀᴄh the ɴøvᴇl_Firᴇ.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

"What do you think, Barty? She should be at the Ministry today, better get her to come over to ..."

"She's not here." Crouch said stiffly.

"What?"

"She's not here, I approved her some time off to go on holiday."

"Uh, but she's one of mine, Barty ..."

Mr. Barty Crouch suddenly lost his temper: "Then take responsibility and spend the time you use to meet with fans on maintaining the venue instead of leaving everything to me."

Bagman's momentum immediately weakened, like a punctured balloon, "I didn't mean that, well, you're right, it's good to let her take a break, there's nothing more for her ..."

Crouch left in a hurry, Bagman somewhat felt restless, unnaturally chatted a few sentences. Then he also excused himself and left, "I better talk to the Americans again, in fact, their ideas are not ... not so outrageous."

More and more people poured into the meeting room, Felix had to greet them one by one and say some nonsense devoid of sustenance, it took him a good deal of time to get rid of Cornelius Fudge. He didn't know whether Fudge had taken the wrong medicine, as he had been enthusiastic to introduce him to the high officials of the pure-blood faction of the Ministry of Magic. Fortunately, he saw some familiar faces.

" Filius, Minerva, Severus, and Damocles, you've got here together?"

"You're going to be busy today," Damocles Belby said kindly, "we'll just pass the time by ourselves, there's plenty to talk about after a long absence."

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