"I..."
Dawlish was ashamed. "Tonight, at around 6:30, a woman in her twenties came to my house. She said she goes to a place similar to Hogwarts and said she needed to finish some summer study."
"I opened the door for her, and she took advantage of my defencelessness and attacked me."
Although Dawlish was tempted to sugarcoat his mistake, he was indeed caught by surprise.
He didn't see through the other person's identity, and there was no battle. It was just a stunning spell, and he fell to his knees on the spot.
When the Aurors came to his house that night, he and his wife were still lying unconscious in the living room.
Scrimgeour's face was ashen, and Fudge's face looked even worse, as if he had eaten a fly.
That was too easy!
"No one would visit someone else's house at dinner time!" Fudge said angrily.
"She was alone?" Scrimgeour asked.
"Yes! Just one person," Dawlish said, bowing his head.
Scrimgeour's brow furrowed.
Fudge quickly turned to Scrimgeour, "Rufus, what have you found?"
Scrimgeour recalled his conversation with Andy in the round room and said in a deep voice, "Before we fought each other, we had a conversation."
"The other person said that if he did not leave the Ministry within forty minutes, his accomplice would kill John and his wife."
Fudge became impatient. He felt that the Auror Office was full of idiots. "Is this a clue? As it turned out, he didn't have any accomplices at all. He was alone. You all were fooled by him."
"He said that just to make you feel nervous!"
Fudge felt that even if he had been an Auror, he would be a little better than these two idiots in front of him.
Scrimgeour's brow remained furrowed.
Fudge's words were not without reason, but he always felt that the other party's intentions were not as simple as they seemed.
"No matter what the other party wants to do, the most important thing now is to catch him."
Fudge spoke as softly as possible, "Rufus, no one is leaving tonight; that person must still be hiding somewhere in the Ministry of Magic. Catch him as soon as possible! Otherwise, what do you think will be written in tomorrow's newspaper?"
"A major blunder by the Ministry of Magic? The return of the Death Eaters? Or Is the Auror that defenceless?"
"You don't want to see any of those, do you?"
At the thought of tomorrow's newspaper, Fudge wished that the sun would never rise again, or that the Daily Prophet newspaper would go bankrupt immediately.
"There is another possibility..."
Scrimgeour said with a grave expression: "That person is an employee of the Ministry, so he doesn't need to leave at all. He only needs to wait until the effect of the Polyjuice Potion wears off, and then he can mingle with the crowd like an ordinary employee."
In fact, Scrimgeour had turned the entire Ministry upside down.
He could only think of two possibilities.
First, the person had somehow managed to bypass the Ministry's Anti-Apparition charm and leave the Ministry using the Apparition spell.
Second, the person was an employee of the Ministry and was now mingling with the ordinary employees.
Fudge's face grew even more grim.
Scrimgeour's theory was possible, but there had been more than 50 employees on the night shift last night, and it would be a huge challenge to check them all.
And it could even cause panic.
Dawlish suddenly said, "If there is only one person, I think it should be easy to investigate. As long as they can testify against each other, they can be cleared of suspicion."
Fudge's eyes lit up at this, and it was indeed a good idea.
"This is what I'm most worried about,"
Scrimgeour said in a low voice. "That person kept saying he has accomplices, but there was only one person who attacked John, and we encountered only one person as well."
"If that person really is a Ministry employee, his accomplice will definitely testify on his behalf."
"So, what do you suggest?" Fudge asked impatiently.
That won't work, and this won't work.
Then come up with a solution!
Scrimgeour was silent for a moment, and then said, "I've been wondering why the other party wants to sneak into the Department of Mysteries."
Fudge was taken aback, and then his eyes widened, "You mean... the prophecy orb?"
Before tonight, the biggest mess in the wizarding world was the escape of Sirius Black. He was the craziest Death Eater who betrayed his best friend.
However, all of this began with the prophecy about the Saviour.
"Maybe he wanted to investigate how his Lord, to whom he was loyal, had failed!" Scrimgeour speculated.
Fudge shuddered.
"The Dark Lord is dead, he has been dead for twelve years!"
Fudge said sternly, "The You-Know-Who is no more! They're just delusional! Do they want to go back in time? No way! Rufus, no matter what, we must catch them as soon as possible!"
Scrimgeour nodded.
Without Fudge's saying, he would also do his best to catch the person tonight and wash away his shame.
"John!"
Calling on Dawlish, Scrimgeour walked out of the Minister of Magic's office.
***
Early the next morning, the diligent owl delivered the latest issue of the Daily Prophet.
Kyle sat on the sofa, leisurely sipping coffee while shaking the newspaper, ready to read the latest news.
Poof
Upon seeing the headline, Kyle spat out a mouthful of coffee.
"Arrogant Death Eater remnants invade the Ministry late at night"
Below the headline were two large photos.
One of them was a photo of the Department of Mysteries.
It was clear that there had been a fierce battle there, with signs of explosions and burning all over.
The other photo was of the Minister of Magic, Fudge. The photographer had done a great job, and Fudge looked utterly defeated in the photo.
"Merlin's beard!"
Kyle quickly took a sip of coffee to calm down and then continued reading the news report in the newspaper.
"Kyle, what's going on?" Helen asked curiously as she walked out of the kitchen.
"Honey, there's going to be big trouble in the wizarding world again."
Kyle handed her the newspaper, "Read for yourself! Between 6:30 and 7:30 last night, Death Eaters invaded the Department of Mysteries and had a big fight with the Aurors."
"Scrimgeour personally intervened, but they still managed to escape."
Helen took the newspaper with a look of surprise.
"Oh, Merlin. They're getting really brazen! First, they attacked Azkaban, now the Ministry of Magic, and what will they do next?"
Helen quickly leafed through the newspaper. "Hogwarts hasn't been peaceful in the past two years, either. If I remember correctly, in the previous two years, the Gringotts was also invaded..."
"Honey, don't you think we should get ready?"
----
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