Rolfe smiled wryly to himself. He was only out to catch the Thunderbird. He thought it would be an ordinary capture mission, but somehow he ended up fighting Grindelwald, and now he was forced to fall out with the French Ministry of Magic. How unlucky…
"Then it seems you are determined to oppose all the wizards of France?" the Minister snapped.
Bruno waited for the Aurors to pull their wands out…
As the battle drew to a close, Iris smiled, looking on with amusement.
At that moment, however, the front door flew open.
The sudden sound of the door opening caused the smell of gunpowder in the room to die down. The French Minister turned around in annoyance and glared at the Auror who had opened the door. He had specifically instructed the Aurors not to disturb them at this time.
"Minister, Minister Pierce of Magic of Great Britain and Director Connor of the International Confederation of Wizards are here to see you… They say it's an urgent matter and they'd like to see you now!" the Auror replied cautiously.
The French Minister frowned and eyed Ivan and Rolfe suspiciously. He did not believe in coincidences, so they had to be the targets.
"Take them to the drawing room… and tell them that I have important matters to attend to!" The French Minister immediately decided, intending to force Ivan's hand until the evidence had been obtained.
But they were already outside the door… The Auror opened his mouth to speak, but the door to the office was pushed open again!
"It's been a long time, old friend!" Pierce greeted him as he hurried into the room, completely ignoring the grim look on the French Minister's face.
"It's been a long time, Director Pierce and Director Connor." The French Minister forced a smile and shook Pierce's hand with great reluctance, glaring at the Auror.
The latter was very helpless. Whether it was Pierce or Connor, they were both important people of high status, and no one dared to offend them. These two broke in under the guise of discussing important matters, and they could not be stopped.
"By the way, why didn't you tell me you were coming so that I could arrange a time? I still have something important to deal with…" the French minister said tactfully.
"That's good. We have something important to discuss with you…" Pierce took over the conversation and spoke as if he had just seen Ivan and the others.
"Minister Pearce, here's the thing," Ivan replied smoothly. "Rolfe and I stumbled across Grindelwald while we were trying to capture the Thunderbird, and followed him into our teacher's tomb. There was an incident during the battle that caused us to be transported over the city of Paris, causing quite a commotion…"
Ivan briefly explained what had happened, not worrying that Pierce would not understand.
This was because he had used his magical mark to inform Pierce of what had happened here long before he spoke to the French Minister.
"I'm sorry, Minister, but it seems that our people have caused you a little… trouble!" Pierce apologized to the French Minister, then changed the subject.
"But when it comes to Grindelwald, I think Sir Harls and Mr Scamander have done a good enough job. We can't afford to overlook their exploits because of an accident we can't control!"
"Of course, if you can't deal with the riots in Paris and need reinforcements, the wizards of Britain will be happy to lend a hand!" Pearce suggested helpfully.
"That won't be necessary. We can handle this ourselves!" The French Minister's face darkened as he stiffly rejected Piers's suggestion that they not embarrass the British wizards, no matter how difficult the task might be.
"I'm glad you can handle it. If that's the case, we'll be heading back!" Pierce waved to Ivan and the others and was about to lead them away.
"Wait!" The French Minister was not fooled by Pierce and stopped Ivan and the others. "Aside from the riot, there is one other important matter that they have not yet been able to explain. As far as we know, Grindelwald entered that chamber to obtain a treasure, which I suspect is with them."
"That's impossible! Minister, you must have misunderstood!" Pierce shook his head and looked at Ivan. "In fact, Sir Harls was the proud disciple of Master Nicolas Flamel. He had no reason to steal any treasures from the tomb."
"Really? Why didn't I know that Master Nicolas Flamel had taken on a new student? And who can prove it?" the French Minister demanded.
"I can attest to that! The late Headmaster Dumbledore and I talked about it, and I can vouch for Harls!" Pierce confirmed, then looked at Conal. "What do you think, Director?"
"Yes, I've also heard about this from the President of the Union. He's a good friend of Master Flamel," Connor replied concisely.
Yvonne looked at Connor in surprise. The fact that the Director of the North American Magical Congress was there to speak up for her was unexpected.
The others didn't know, but Yvonne knew for a fact that Nicolas Flamel had kept it a secret in case Voldemort found the safe house based on Ivan's information.
As such, no one other than the dead Dumbledore was privy to this information, which is why he did not reveal his identity earlier.
As for showing the stone to prove it, that was even more unlikely. If the French Minister were to accuse him of stealing the stone from the tomb, he would not be able to defend himself.
The French Minister's face was unreadable. He could tell that Piers and Conal were determined to defend Ivan Harris, even though he had yet to decide if they were telling the truth.
It would have been one thing if he had only been British, but with the combined pressure of North America and the International Confederation of Wizards, even Minister for Magic of France would have to think twice.
As the battle reached a stalemate, an Auror at the back of the crowd secretly raised her hand and aimed her wand at Ivan Hals…
However, before he could cast a spell, a hand reached out and stopped him.