After about a minute, the friction sound of the telephone booth sinking into the ground stopped, and the door suddenly opened.
Alaric stepped out and found himself surrounded by a group of Aurors.
Each of them held a wand, pointing it towards the direction of the telephone booth, looking as if they were facing a formidable enemy, until they saw Dumbledore.
"Oh, it's you, Professor Dumbledore," the leading Auror immediately stepped forward to greet him.
"My team and I received a notification that the Ministry of Magic has been invaded, and someone has unauthorizedly used the entrance telephone booth.
Do you know what's going on?"
"Oh, Mr. Scrimgeour, in fact, when the telephone booth was invaded, I was nearby," Dumbledore pointed to Alaric and said with a smile.
"My student believed that the Ministry of Magic's telephone booth is too outdated. Even an underage wizard can break its magic.
Then, he demonstrated how to break it in front of us. In fact, after seeing it, I agree with his opinion. It's time for the Ministry's facilities to be upgraded, just like that."
Scrimgeour couldn't believe Dumbledore's words at all. How could an underage wizard possibly do such a thing?
He glanced at the two Aurors who went to detain Alaric with him, but surprisingly, they nodded in agreement.
This made Scrimgeour furrow his brows.
It wasn't until another Auror named Kingsley leaned in and described in detail the identity of the underage wizard in front of him that he suddenly realized and nodded in understanding.
His gaze towards Alaric turned into respect.
"Oh, so it's Mr. Alaric, the youngest wizard chess champion, two-time recipient of the Order of Merlin, and the first Animagus of magical creatures," he greeted Alaric.
"I'm sorry you have to accompany us to the trial room. It's my duty."
Alaric nodded faintly and followed Scrimgeour forward, while the other Aurors left, leaving only the two accompanying them back to Hogwarts.
They were in a long, magnificent hall, with shiny dark wooden floors.
The peacock-blue ceiling was embedded with glittering golden symbols, constantly moving and changing like a huge bulletin board in the sky.
The walls on all sides were lined with glossy dark wood panels, with many gilded fireplaces embedded in them.
Every few seconds, with a "pop" sound, a wizard suddenly appeared from one of the fireplaces on the left.
On the right, there were several people queueing in front of each fireplace waiting to leave.
In the middle of the hall was a fountain.
It was a circular pool with a group of solid gold statues standing in it, larger than life.
The tallest one was a noble-looking wizard, holding his wand high, pointing it towards the sky.
Surrounding him were a beautiful witch, a centaur, a fairy, and a house-elf.
The centaur, fairy, and house-elf all looked up at the two wizards with infinite adoration.
Shiny jets of water spouted from the tip of the wizard's wand, the centaur's arrow, the fairy's hat, and the ears of the house-elf.
There were sounds of "ding dong" and "whoosh" of water, "pop" and "snap" of people's apparition, and the bustling footsteps of hundreds of wizards and witches all around.
They all had the morning's characteristic dull expression on their faces, striding towards the row of golden gates at the end of the hall.
Alaric glanced disdainfully at the statues. He knew at least centaurs wouldn't look at wizards with such eyes.
The Ministry of Magic's arrogance was evident from this statue alone.
"Follow me," Scrimgeour led Alaric through the Ministry staff towards the front, "The place for your trial is in the Tenth Courtroom on the Tenth Floor."
They left the crowd of Ministry employees heading towards the golden gates.
At a table on the left, under a sign that read "Security Check," sat a wizard in a peacock-blue robe with an unkempt beard.
"I've brought a guest," Scrimgeour said, pointing to Alaric.
"Come over here," the security check wizard said in a bored tone.
Alaric approached him, and the wizard raised a long gold rod, as thin as a car antenna, and very flexible. He used it to sweep from top to bottom across Alaric's front and back.
"Wand," the security check wizard muttered to Alaric, then put down the golden object and reached out his hand.
Alaric took out a purple wand and handed it to the wizard. It was his first wand. The two Aurors accompanying Alaric looked surprised, but said nothing.
"For safety reasons, this wand will be temporarily held by me," the security check wizard said lazily, looking at Alaric, "If there's a problem, please appeal directly to the Minister."
"That's against the rules!" one of the Aurors exclaimed.
Scrimgeour glared at him but also spoke up, "The Ministry of Magic doesn't seem to have a rule for untried wizards to surrender their wands."
"This is the Minister's order," the security check wizard replied lazily, "If there's a problem, please appeal directly to the Minister."
"I'm sorry," Scrimgeour muttered in embarrassment, feeling somewhat ashamed. He lowered his head and silently led Alaric forward.
But before they took a few steps, they were stopped by another group of Aurors, led by a short, chubby witch who looked like a pale toad.
She had a large, flabby face, with no visible neck, a large mouth hanging downward, and large, round eyes slightly bulging outward.
"Mr. Alaric," the witch said in a small, squeaky voice, sounding surprised and sharp, "Please hand over your wand."
"Wand?" Scrimgeour glared at the witch in front of him, "Dolores Umbridge!
This gentleman's wand has already been confiscated by your people just now! What else do you want?"
Then, he looked at the Aurors behind Umbridge, "Why are you here? Did I issue any other task orders?"
Those Aurors couldn't help but shrink their necks, evidently frightened.
"Well, Director..."
"We..."
The Aurors stuttered, unable to speak.
"Alright, alright, Scrimgour, don't embarrass your subordinates," Umbridge said in a falsely cheerful tone, her round eyes still as cold as before.
"This is the Minister's order. From now on, the task of detaining Alaric will be taken over by me—Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Ministry of Magic."
She let out a tinkling laugh, sending shivers down the spine.
Scrimgour shot Umbridge a sharp look with his yellow eyes behind his golden-rimmed glasses, then nodded slightly to Alaric and Dumbledore before limping away.
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