Ministry of Magic, Auror Office.
Scrimgeour stood at the door, looking at the empty office, walked to his seat expressionlessly, pulled out a chair, sat down, and began to read the newspaper in his hand.
Scrimgeour gave a simple comment on the front-page headline of today's Daily Prophet: "Death Struggle."
Although Fudge tried hard to clear himself through the Daily Prophet, he was still no match for other newspapers and the strong evidence presented in them.
There were now more and more voices in the wizarding world calling for Fudge to step down. Scrimgeour was well aware that this was partly due to the targeting of Fudge's political enemies, but Fudge had indeed done a very bad job this year. Not only had he made the Ministry of Magic a laughing stock, but other wizards had also lost confidence in him.
Putting down the Daily Prophet, he continued reading other newspapers.
Most newspapers had their own focus, one of which focused on Albert single-handedly challenging the Ministry of Magic Aurors and portraying him as the next Dumbledore.
"The next Dumbledore?"
Scrimgeour put down the newspaper and looked towards the empty Auror office, falling into a brief silence.
Just at this moment, hurried footsteps were heard outside and someone knocked on the office door.
"Come in," said Scrimgeour.
"Director, St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries informed us that the professors at Hogwarts have just sent the Aurors to the hospital." The witch secretly observed the expression on Scrimgeour's face and continued in a low voice: "The Aurors are receiving rehabilitation treatment. Everyone is just a little weak and will probably recover in two days."
"I see."
Scrimgeour stood up and walked outside. He was going to visit those unfortunate people in person at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.
As soon as he arrived at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Scrimgeour was surrounded by reporters waiting in the lobby.
"Dean Scrimgeour, everyone is very suspicious of the Aurors now..."
Before the reporter could ask a question, Scrimgeour raised his hand to interrupt.
"I know what you want to ask!"
Scrimgeour guessed that he might be blocked by reporters, so he had already thought of an excuse: "An Auror trained by the Ministry of Magic actually lost to a school student?"
"Aurors are human too, they are just better trained and better at fighting." Scrimgeour motioned for everyone to wait until he finished speaking before asking questions. "They lost to the most outstanding and talented wizards in the wizarding world for hundreds or even thousands of years. Although I hate to admit it, I think Mr. Anderson is probably the most powerful dueling champion in history."
"If what I mean is not clear enough, let me say it directly. Maybe Anderson has not reached the level of Dumbledore yet, and it is just because of his age. Do you understand what I mean?"
Since all the Aurors were defeated by Anderson, the only thing left to do is to infinitely raise the level of those who defeated them. As long as Anderson is strong enough, being defeated by him will not be a shameful thing.
Just as the Death Eaters were afraid of Dumbledore, why would it be shameful for the Aurors to lose to a wizard as powerful as Dumbledore
Is Scrimgeour flattering me
Not really.
Albert, with countless halos on his head, can definitely withstand such flattery.
No, it's not exaggeration, it's reality.
"Director, do you think Mr. Anderson..."
"I think Anderson's future achievements will definitely be higher than Dumbledore's." Scrimgeour interrupted again: "This is foreseeable. I am not surprised at all. It's just that the Ministry of Magic was unfortunate to run into it and become his stepping stone."
"People always instinctively ignore the countless halos on Anderson's head and only remember that he is still studying at Hogwarts School, just a child who has just reached adulthood and has not yet graduated." Scrimgeour said calmly: "This is the arrogance of adults, so they have suffered enough. Sometimes it is not shameful to admit this. It is the most shameful thing to be unwilling to admit it."
"Of course, that wasn't really a duel. Both sides held back. I can only say that it's a blessing that things didn't get out of control." Scrimgeour was beginning to build his own image if he planned to strive for the position of Minister of Magic in the future.
Part of the reason is that I was hit by the cruel reality.
"What do you think about Fudge's situation?"
"I don't have any opinion. The Aurors are just following orders." Scrimgeour raised his hand to stop the reporters from asking questions. "Okay, please move aside. I have to go visit the Aurors in the hospital."
The reporters looked at each other in bewilderment, but still made way for him. Scrimgeour's remarks were very topical.
Scrimgeour walked towards the Charmed Injuries Department on the fifth floor. The beds reserved for Aurors at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries were already full.
In fact, the vacant beds on the fifth floor were all filled by Aurors, which the therapists in the Charmed Injury Department were not very happy about, after all, emergencies might occur.
"How are they doing?" Scrimgeour asked.
"The situation is not too bad. They have just been hungry for two days and are a little weak. They can be discharged tomorrow at the latest and go home to recuperate." Mrs. MacDougal held the medical records and told Scrimgeour about the Aurors' situation. "If you want to go in, you can, but you can't stay in there for too long. They need to rest now."
To be honest, Mrs. McDougal felt extremely complicated when she heard that Albert had knocked down all the Aurors and hung them on the wall for two days. Especially after seeing this group of unlucky guys, the emotion became even stronger.
When Scrimgeour entered, he noticed that the Aurors were in low spirits and lowered their heads in shame when they saw him.
"I know very well that this is not all your fault. No one expected that Umbridge would be so stupid, so you don't have to feel ashamed of it." Scrimgeour looked at the Aurors who bowed their heads and said calmly, "I also need to take part of the responsibility."
Scrimgeour took the initiative to take responsibility, which would help win people's hearts. If he wanted to compete for the Minister of Magic, he had to do something.
These Aurors are his foundation.
"But there is one thing you have done. You should not underestimate your opponent. I know you underestimated Anderson because he was young, but you did not know that you were facing a wizard second only to Dumbledore. I hope this will not happen again."
In fact, Scrimgeour didn't take Dumbledore seriously at first. After all, no matter how powerful a person is, he can never be a match for a group of people. But Albert told him in the cruelest way that the most elite Auror of the Ministry of Magic was just like that.
…
Late at night, Everey walked expressionlessly in the long-abandoned Muggle village, and finally stopped in front of a half-collapsed house. He looked up and around to make sure that there was no one around, then he walked in, and finally bent down and crawled into the dark and dilapidated fireplace. There was actually a secret passage in the fireplace, at the end of which was an old wooden door.
Avery raised his hand and knocked on it a few times. A gap opened on the door, and a pair of eyes shone from the darkness, as if peeping at the situation outside. After seeing the person outside, the wooden door creaked open.
"You're late!" Lucius said, frowning.
"Sorry, I've been in some trouble lately and it wasted a lot of my time." Avery muttered. He looked a little tired, as if he had really run into some big trouble.
"Come in, the meeting has already started."
Lucius Malfoy took a step back, let Avery in, then looked outside before closing the wooden door again.
Inside the door was a spacious hall. A round table was filled with people, all whispering to each other.
"Where is the discussion going now?"
Avery found an empty seat and sat down, asking casually.
"Discussing how to kill that Mudblood!"
"Mudblood?" Avery's eyes were confused, as if he was wondering why the Death Eaters gathered here just to deal with a Mudblood
"Have you been paying attention to the newspapers recently?" Lucius Malfoy raised his eyebrows slightly.
"What, newspaper? No, I've been very busy lately and have no time to read the newspaper. Besides...what major news can there be in the newspaper?" Avery was even more confused.
Lucius Malfoy placed several newspapers in front of Avery. After reading the headlines, Avery looked at Malfoy with wide eyes. "So, you want to tell me that this is true? I think you should know how much water there is in newspaper news."
"Maybe it's a little exaggerated, but most of the content is true. That Mudblood did defeat dozens of Aurors." Lucius Malfoy's face was particularly gloomy when he talked about this. He remembered that he had tried to murder the Mudblood named Anderson a while ago. "Of course, the Aurors just wanted to catch him, so they didn't use any dangerous magic."
"How ridiculous! You actually believed it?"
In Bella's opinion, Scrimgeour's boasting was just an excuse for those useless Aurors. How could that Mudblood be as good as Dumbledore
Perhaps, the Mudblood did have some abilities, but he was completely vulnerable to dark magic, and an Avada Kedavra could solve the problem.
"It's difficult to get rid of him head-on. It is said that he can cast spells very quickly, and all the spells he uses are silent spells, which catch all the Aurors off guard." Lucius Malfoy said the information his son provided him, looked around at everyone with a gloomy face, and continued: "His spells are also very strange. Two Slytherin students broke their bones just by being hit by the Obstruction Curse. They are still in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. It is almost impossible to defeat him using normal means."
There were some things that Lucius Malfoy did not dare to say. He doubted that even if the Dark Lord took action himself, he might not be able to kill the other party successfully.
Albert's rise made all the pure-blood wizards present feel threatened.
"Can we use other methods?" Antonin Dolohov suggested, "Start with his friends, just like we did with Potter."
"The probability is not high. It is said that the Mudblood can predict the future. Maybe he will be aware of what we are planning to do." Avery reminded, "If we can't keep it secret enough, the plan may be difficult to succeed."
"Try again after this is done!" Malfoy interrupted the conversation. They did not gather here to discuss how to deal with the Mudblood.
"Now, the Ministry of Magic is in turmoil, and the Dark Lord believes that the time has come. The specific time is this Friday."
Lucius Malfoy brought the topic back to the topic. They gathered here to help the Dark Lord seize the prophecy and capture the famous Harry Potter, and all the wizards sitting here will participate in this conspiracy.
"Actually, I've always had a question." Avery said suddenly.
"What doubts?"
Everyone looked at Avery.
"The main objective of this mission is the prophecy, right?" Avery asked.
"Yes," said Malfoy.
"Then why didn't the Dark Lord just go get it himself?"
"He went to get it himself?" Bellatrix laughed crazily, glaring at Avery and said, "You idiot, people have completely ignored the return of the Dark Lord, why would he walk into the Ministry of Magic at this time and expose himself to the Aurors?"
Avery ignored Bella's words, but looked at Lucius and continued, "The Dark Lord has been planning for so long just to get the prophecy and confirm the contents of the prophecy. This is more important than any other mission, right?"
"What do you want to say?" Lucius asked with a frown.
"Why doesn't the Dark Lord go to the Department of Mysteries and get the prophecy himself, and then just leave? It won't take a few minutes." Avery reminded, "No one will know that the Dark Lord has taken the prophecy. Even if he is worried about others discovering the disappearance of the prophecy, he can destroy some of the nearby prophecies as a cover. Then no one will know that the prophecy is missing."
"It would be a waste of time if we lured Harry Potter to steal the prophecy and then took it back." Avery ignored the gazes of others and continued, "There are more processes in the whole plan, which means that any mistake in any link may lead to the failure of the whole plan."
"You're scared."
"I just don't want the plan to fail again. I've had enough of the Cruciatus Curse." Avery muttered.
"The plan cannot fail." Lucius Malfoy glared at Avery and said in a firm tone.
"I don't think the Order of the Phoenix will remain indifferent if Harry Potter rushes to the Ministry of Magic. They will definitely rush to reinforce him as soon as possible. Then we will need to fight with those members of the Order of the Phoenix in the Ministry of Magic. To be honest, this is not a pleasant thing, because we may also need to face the reinforcements of Dumbledore and the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic."
Without a doubt, Avery points out the biggest problem with the whole thing, which is instability.
Harry Potter himself is an uncertain variable, not to mention if the prophecy is handed over to Potter, God knows what will happen.
"You're right Avery."
Lucius Malfoy was silent for a moment, then nodded in acknowledgment.
"But there is one thing you haven't considered. Just as Bella said just now, the Dark Lord doesn't want to expose himself too early. That would unite the entire wizarding world, which would be detrimental to our control of the Ministry of Magic. I think you should not have forgotten our last experience. We are not as strong as we were then, so it is necessary to conceal ourselves well, especially since we can use Fudge to attack Dumbledore."
"By tricking Harry Potter into doing this, we can not only get the crystal ball, but also capture Harry Potter and bring him to the Dark Lord. Even if we can't capture Potter, it's Harry Potter who broke into the Ministry of Magic and stole the prophecy. I believe Fudge will be happy to cause trouble for him, and then Potter will lose his protection. Compared to other methods, I think we should use the Ministry of Magic to deal with him."
Lucius knew that some of his words were untenable, but there were some things he didn't dare say, that is, this whole thing was actually a punishment from the Dark Lord for him causing the destruction of the diary. If he completed the task, he would be lucky to escape, but if he failed, he would be punished more severely.
The Dark Lord had him backed into a corner and would not allow him to fail.
The most important thing is that the success rate of the whole plan is actually not low. As long as you get the prophecy and leave the Ministry of Magic, there will be no other problems at all.
Avery looked at Lucius deeply and said nothing more.
Of course, there was one thing Lucius didn't say, which is that since Harry Potter unexpectedly escaped from Voldemort last year, many people have doubted the prophecy and believed that Harry Potter was the one who defeated the Dark Lord.
This is actually the reason why Voldemort was determined to hear the entire content of the prophecy. Voldemort believed that he could find a way to get rid of Harry Potter in the prophecy.
After the meeting started, Lucius Malfoy began to talk about his entire planning process and accepted questions from others in order to improve the plan and formulate more countermeasures to avoid mistakes during the process. As Avery said, the longer the process, the more likely it is to have problems.
As for convincing the Dark Lord, Lucius never thought he could do it, let alone be stupid enough to try. Besides, if the Dark Lord had to do everything himself, what else could they do