Yvonne shook her head. This was a good opportunity to get rid of Fudge, and Dumbledore could use this as an excuse to get rid of him.
Unfortunately, the old professor had been plotted against by a Horcrux Ring and did not have much time left. He probably had no intention of seeking the position of Minister for Magic…
As Ivan lamented, Harry's face turned red with anger.
"How dare they!" Harry had not expected the Ministry to be so shameless as to lie through their teeth.
Ron looked as angry as Hermione.
Sirius sighed, having been told of Peter's escape from Azkaban several days earlier.
He was already annoyed by it, and when he saw the news today, he almost wanted to go to the Daily Prophet and ask what was going on!
In his spare time, Sirius wondered if he should get a job, and even considered becoming an Auror, but after this incident, he was thoroughly disappointed with the Ministry…
Sirius didn't want to upset Harry and the others about something that couldn't be changed, so he changed the subject and said to Ivan, "Let's not talk about Peter's troubles, let's talk about something happy!"
"Congratulations, Ivan! You're going to be the youngest ever recipient of the Order of Merlin!"
Yvonne was taken aback, but quickly recovered, somewhat pleasantly surprised. "They've finally agreed? That's not easy…"
Although Ivan had long known that he would definitely receive the Order of Merlin, he still felt uneasy about not confirming it.
"Oh, my God, is that true?" Hermione asked, looking at Ivan and Sirius in surprise.
"As far as I know, those who receive the Order of Merlin are well-known figures, such as Professor Dumbledore!"
'No, it's right here! According to you, Ivan's quite a celebrity now,' Sirius joked, pointing to the Daily Prophet.
Harry and the others noticed that the second page of the Daily Prophet reported news of Headmaster Dumbledore and Minister for Magic Fudge nominating Ivan for the Order of Merlin.
At the end of the report, the Head of the Order of Merlin responded, praising Ivan's outstanding contribution to the wizarding community over the years and agreeing to the nomination.
"Congratulations, Ivan!" Harry congratulated him.
"That's a First-Class Order of Merlin. I bet Percy would be jealous if he found out!" Ron said admiringly.
"This time Minister for Magic Fudge did the right thing, or else I would have wondered if he had a brain at all." Sirius's words were sharp, and the Ministry's repeated actions disgusted him.
Yvonne rolled her eyes. Fudge had only been willing to nominate him in the first place because she had offered him a compromise in Dumbledore's capacity.
This could not be explained to Sirius or the others.
However, Ivan looked at the time written at the end of the paper and found that the Order of Merlin was quite quick in handing out the medals this time. They did not dawdle like before, but chose to do it three days later, just as they were finishing their exams and summarising their studies.
Ivan's tense mood relaxed a little at the prospect of getting his hands on a bit of lore, and then he remembered something else, so he looked at Sirius and asked.
'By the way, Sirius, may I come to your house this summer?'
Ivan did not forget that one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, the Slytherin Locket, was kept in the Black family home.
In order to prevent this thing from being taken away like in the original time and space, and eventually retrieved after much difficulty, it was better to destroy it as soon as possible.
This was Voldemort's fourth Horcrux, and once destroyed, the Dark Lord would only have the Hufflepuff Cup and Harry to rely on.
If calculated correctly, it would not be impossible to destroy all the Horcruxes and send Voldemort away before he could revive!
Sirius was, of course, unaware of Ivan's schemes, but welcomed him as a guest.
'In fact, I would have invited you even if you hadn't asked, and Harry, Hermione and Ron would have welcomed you to join me for the summer,' Sirius said with a smile.
Hermione and Ron promised to come if they were free during the summer holidays!
Harry happily agreed, having realised that just because Professor Dumbledore forbade him to move did not mean he had to stay at his uncle's house all summer.
"Then it's settled!" Ivan said, suddenly feeling tired. He was only a third-year wizard, and he had to worry about the Dark Lord's resurrection.
This is too much to bear…
However, Ivan knew very well that he had destroyed two of Voldemort's Horcruxes and foiled Voldemort's plan to revive him in his first year.
The return of the Dark Lord was definitely a problem for him.
Therefore, it would be better to take the initiative and destroy the Slytherin's Locket, so that Dumbledore would not be weakened by a fake Horcrux as much as he had been weakened by time and space.
Ivan and the others spent the morning chatting happily with Sirius in the Gryffindor Lounge, and in the afternoon they returned to their intense Potions exams.
For Harry and Ron, the exam was a hellish ordeal.
Snape's constant wandering around them caused Harry to misstep in his nervousness, and Snape's lips curled into a smile as he scribbled on his notebook with a quill.
By the time the exam was over, Harry was so dizzy he thought he was doomed.
"Why does Snape keep picking on us?" Ron asked angrily as he left the examination room.
"Didn't Sirius and Professor Lupin tell us? It's a generation-old feud, they and Snape never got along well as students," Ivan explained.
"So my father got into trouble with Snape when he was a student, and that's why he remembers it?" Harry thought it was ridiculous that Snape would try to get even with him after all these years.
"That's one way to look at it…" Ivan shrugged, but not before adding a bit of wife-stealing to the mix.
(PS: The next chapter is coming up soon, so let me sort out the outline and see if I can make it more interesting.)