Chapter 478: Safe Return

Scrimgeour stood not far from the Fountain of Magical Brethren, a pair of yellow eyes fixed on the empty fireplace. The whole lobby is frighteningly quiet, and every time a new Ministry of Magic employee emerges from the fireplace, he would notice hundreds of people staring straight at him, and Arthur Weasley is taken aback. He looks around, the Ministry of Magic building looked like a place where a massive battle had taken place, the floor is in shambles, and the head of the Auror's office looked like an old lion who would pounce on him the next second.

He took a step aside from the fireplace and moved over to one of the wizards on the scene and asked in a whisper, "What's going on, Arnold?"

The wizard wiped his sweat, "It's terrible, Arthur, if you had come two minutes earlier, you might have bumped into that man ..."

"You mean there was only one enemy? And he got away?" Mr. Weasley asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I'm telling you ..."

There came a harsh clicking sound, and Mr. Weasley looked up as the gate of the elevator slid from its center to both sides with an ear-splitting clang as a large group of people rushed out of it.

Amelia Bones walked at the front, her wand held high as she strutted over. She looked around, her eyebrows knitted together, and shouted, "Healers take the wounded to the healing room and treat them."

"Recon team! Cooperate with Auror to investigate the scene."

The Aurors present and several of the Magical Law Enforcement Recon team members in the crowd responded in a low voice.

"Kingsley, Derris! "

The two Aurors who followed behind her straightened their chests.

"Take your squad and track the target," she paused for a moment and said, "Scouting is the main focus, don't take this lightly."

"Understood!"

"Accidental Magic Reversal Squad! And all members of the Magical Law Enforcement Department!"

The people in the half of the lobby stood up straight and waited for orders.

"-Clean up the debris and junk. Those who are aware of the incident come forward and register the clues, while the others do their jobs." Only when the crowd began to move did she turn her head toward Scrimgeour, "Rufus, what have you found?"

Scrimgeour rolled his eyes and said in a low voice, "I saw his face."

Ms. Bones revealed a surprised expression, "Who was it?"

"He was in disguise, I'm not sure, there's no evidence at the moment-" Scrimgeour wanted to stop.

Ms. Bones shot him a stern look, "Come with me, Rufus."

...

"I'm going to go help too, bye, Arnold." Mr. Weasley scurried off, he is also a member of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

"Goodbye, Arthur," the wizard muttered. "What a wonderful day, and I thought the war had broken out!"

"Be careful of your words, Peasegood." A cold voice said from behind him. Arnold Peasegood looked back in surprise, "Yaxley?"

"It's me," Yaxley said, "You sound like you're looking forward to war?"

The wizard's face turned red, and he retorted loudly, "What a load of bollocks!"

Yaxley laughed coldly twice, "I hope you'll be equally determined when the time comes." He turned toward the fireplace inlaid in the wall.

"Wait, where are you going?" The wizard shouted.

"Ordered to be stationed at Hogwarts," he said without looking back, "Came to pick up a few things this morning and didn't expect to see such a big show."

...

Ms. Bones and Scrimgeour made their way to the edge of the circular water pond of the Fountain of Magical Brethren, the sound of crashing water from all directions muffled their discussion, as she asked in a whisper, "You've fought him, you should have your own judgment, right?"

Scrimgeour didn't directly tell any names, he leaned on his cane and stared at the statues erected in the middle of the pond of water, a set of solid gold statues, larger than life-size. The tallest of them is a dignified male wizard, holding his wand up high. Surrounding him are a beautiful witch, a centaur, a goblin, and a house-elf.

The centaur, the goblin, and the house-elf all looked up at the two wizards with infinite respect.

"That man disguised not only his face but also his strength," Scrimgeour stared at the house-elf statue, a bubbling stream of water sprouting from its ears, "He initially displayed a strength similar to that of Alastor before he retired, I could tell he is experienced many battles and has extremely good judgment, probably he did not want to reveal his identity, so he used conventional magic ..."

He continued, "But the man's last attack was so phenomenal that I couldn't recognize what kind of magic it was."

Ms. Bones listened quietly, deep in thought, she gazed at the fountain and said slowly, "Just one blow broke thousands of pieces of glasses ... Do you think it is his normal strength or just an over-performance?"

Scrimgeour hesitated for a moment, "I think it's the former. He's very good at disguising himself."

Ms. Bones looked at him solemnly, "According to your description, the people who could meet the criteria would be very limited, I only know two of them, no ... it could be three. I'm sure there aren't many people abroad who can meet these criteria either, not to mention that it's unlikely for them to break into the British Ministry of Magic without any warning ... I need proof!"

At that moment, a stout Auror approached them together with a guard.

"Ms. Bones, Mr. Scrimge, Eric has an important lead to report!"

Both of them looked at Eric Munch at the same time, Eric's body trembled, "I, uh, I don't know if it's right ..."

"It's okay, we'll make the right call." Ms. Bones reassured him.

"Here's the thing, last night when I was on duty - I saw someone, I thought it was strange, but didn't think much of it at the time -"

"Who did you see?" Scrimgeour asked in a deep voice.

" Y-yes ..." Eric stammered, his eyes glancing over their backs to see a short, stout man approaching aggressively, his eyes widening, "Minister Fudge! "

...

"Sir, your destination is here." The driver said politely.

"Thank you." Felix said with a tired look on his face, paid the money, and got out of the cab. He took a ring from his pocket and put it on his finger, and with two flashes of light, a black wand and a brown amulet appeared in his hand.

He put the spare wand away and sat on a bench under a tree with hanging bells. A young mother pushed a stroller to enjoy a leisurely morning. The little baby looked around with two fat hands propped up, and when he saw Felix sitting on the bench, he curiously looked at him.

Felix winked at the baby, turned his hand over, and took out a vial of potion, as he gulped it into his mouth.

He stood up from the bench and walked towards a house, while donning an amulet on himself, and gently pressed it twice, the colour of his body gradually faded. Felix cheered up, "There is still one last step to go, you can definitely do it, Felix ... just need to transfer the energy, it won't take much work."

...

"I can't believe this happened?" Voldemort asked softly, as he sneered, "The Ministry of Magic has lost its status as a lord over a time."

"Master, do you need me to leak this out?" Yaxley lowered his head and knelt on the ground, his magnificent, flowing robes inlaid with gold silk just mopping the floor.

"Not yet," Voldemort said lazily, "you just need to covertly lead Fudge to turn suspicious eyes to our little friend ..."

"Why?" Yaxley asked, and the next second he trembled, " I am sorry Lord, I was not questioning you-"

Voldemort paced in front of him, Yaxley hung his head even lower, and could only see a pair of ghastly white feet, finally, the feet stopped in front of him, "My Lord?"

"I can answer that question," Voldemort said softly, "although you never reached out to me all these years Yaxley ... you've raised in the ranks and slipped into the side of my enemies after I lost power, by feigning your innocence and then continued to enjoy glory and wealth ... but when you saw me, you chose to return to my arms in the first instance, so I am willing to forgive you."

"My Lord..."

"I have a plan." Voldemort said softly: "That little friend left a deep impression on me, and when I had just gotten a little better, he suddenly rushed in and nearly ruined everything that I had. At that time, I realized that I couldn't let him grow up ..."

"Master, with your power, it would be easy to kill him."

"Oh? Is that really the case? If you really believe this strongly, why did you serve our enemies with peace of mind for so many years?"

Yaxley stopped talking.

"I have done nothing in this period of time, I have not gathered Death Eaters, I have not gathered my old troops, and before you, there is only one loyal servant by my side, so you can imagine why the great Dark Lord has to hide like a rat, right?"

"I said to that little friend, even if he and Dumbledore stand together, as long as he slightly goes against Dumbledore's ideology, their relationship will break ... I am looking forward to this scene, of course, if there is a chance, I do not mind killing him by all means."

"Yaxley, my liege," Voldemort lowered his head to stare at Yaxley, "do what you should do, I will wait for my entry..."

...

"Someone impersonated me?" In the Ministry of Magic lobby, Fudge shouted in disbelief with wide eyes. His eyes swept around quickly, as he lowered his voice, "That's impossible, I've never trusted anyone with my hair!"

"Or it could be a high level of human transfiguration skill." Ms. Bones said.

"That must be it." Fudge immediately agreed with her, stroking the button on his stomach in annoyance as his eyes moved over Bones, Scrimgeour, Auror, and the guard, "Don't spread the word about this until we find out the whole truth. Understood?"

"So ...," he stretched out his short, thick fingers and gestured haphazardly in the air, "can anyone tell me what the purpose of that man's intrusion into the Ministry of Magic was?"

"It's unclear at the moment," Scrimgeour responded.

"Not sure?" Fudge repeated, glaring at him, "Then what have you been doing all this time?"

"Waiting for news, Minister." Scrimgeour said stiffly, "There are two Auror squads currently working on it, and they are the best when it comes to investigating the whereabouts of criminals out there." He gestured around again, "Others are investigating the scene."

"Any witnesses?" Fudge asked again.

Ms. Bones, Scrimgeour, and Auror looked simultaneously at Eric Munch, the guard on duty that night, and Fudge irritably said, "I want witnesses other than him! He can't prove a thing."

"Not for now, Fudge, we need time for forensics." Ms. Bones said mildly.

"Time, time, if those reporters find out, they'll cling like flies." Fudge said with a look of disgust as he lowered his head, a strange gleam creeping into his eyes as he muttered to himself in a faintly inaudible voice: "No eyewitnesses?"

He left in a hurry, as he said before leaving, "I'll be at Hogwarts this afternoon to act as a judge, so hopefully you can come up with a good news or two before then."

...

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"Young man, your face looks worse, you'd better visit a doctor." A kind-hearted old woman looked at Felix with concern.

"Thanks, but I'm fine." Felix muttered.

"But, your face looks whiter than my hair," the old woman said, looking at him seriously, "To be honest, I have only seen this abnormal ash colour on dead people ... Oh! Sorry, I didn't mean to."

"That's okay, ma'am." Felix said patiently, "I just stayed up too much without getting a good night's sleep."

After persuading the enthusiastic old man away, Felix walked towards the open field between No. 11 and No. 13, his mind is dizzy, but he still felt that the person just now looked familiar. He seemed to have given her a card with an enchantment?

He shook his head to keep himself from falling asleep. He had already refilled the energy of the time-turner on Hermione, at the cost of a portion of the hourglass he had brought from the Ministry of Magic crumbling into cinders.

And he nearly couldn't even use a single spell on his own. With the only remaining rational thought, he could also guess that Auror is looking for him all over London, so Diagon Alley is a big no, so he chose to come all the way here by muggle means.

Felix very laboriously squeezed into a thin wall of air, and his figure disappeared from the outside world.

"Defensive magic hasn't changed yet? That's great, Sirius." Felix said softly, and the next second, 12 Grimmauld Place appeared in front of him.

"Bang!"

An ugly, old, aged house-elf suddenly appeared in the entrance, and Kreacher said in a hoarse voice, "Welcome friend of the master, the mighty Mr. Felix Hap, the master is not at home ..."

"I know," said Felix, "just wanted to borrow his fireplace for a moment."

Kreacher bowed deeply, "The master told me to try to accommodate you, and," his voice became emotional, "I have seen Young Master Regulus's biography, so well written ... Young Master's reputation has not been tarnished ..."

"It is good that you like it."

...

Felix returned to his office without any incident, a black shadow pounced on him, he subconsciously dodged, but failed to dodge, Valen clutched his clothes.

"Kiki!"

She looked at him with displeasure.

"Oh, Valen, let me catch my breath ..." Felix covered his chest, and Valen jumped down from his arms, with one hand crossed, as she pointed at Felix with the other, and kept calling him out.

"Sorry for worrying you," Felix smiled broadly, "but I also need a favour, call Severus, and be careful not to be too conspicuous."

Valen looked at him suspiciously.

"Go ahead."

After a moment-

"What have you done now?" Snape looked at him with suspicion.

"Became a thief, was found by the master, who chased me around, but I barely made it out." Felix said lazily as he slumped on the couch, his outfit is weird, he is wearing pyjamas, yet there is a bowler hat on his head.

Snape looked at him with a strange look, and for a while he could not utter a word. It took him a long time to sneer in a sarcastic manner, " Then I need to hear about it, as I can't guess who is the owner that can make you look this bad."

"A wealthy family," Felix lightly changed the subject, "Severus, do you have a potion that can stimulate a person's full capacity?"

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