Chapter 98 Centralization

Before the delegations from each school arrived, a piece of news occupied the front page of the Daily Prophet.

"What's wrong with Fudge?" Daphne crumpled the newspaper into a ball and kept it on the table. "Conduct a census registration of all wizards as a family unit."

Since receiving the latest Daily Prophet, Daphne rarely read the newspaper over and over again. . Mu Yu picked up the crumpled paper and smoothed it bit by bit: "I thought you wouldn't care about this, it has nothing to do with us."

This is indeed the case. The political infighting is too far away from the campus. Often, by the time the campus realizes the changes, the real contest on the table has long been over.

She was not surprised at all that Fudge could do such a thing. If the Ministry of Magic hadn't made any move at this point, she wouldn't mind changing to a group of people who were willing to make a move.

"Dad..." Daphne just stood up and was unwilling to say any more. She didn't even tell Astoria about her inner doubts, let alone a friend.

Mu Yu pretended not to hear and continued to fold the newspaper and put it away slowly.

"What do you think?" Daphne coughed lightly and moved closer to her, "It's just a boring chat between us."

Such words are always a bit covert. Daphne naturally understood this, and she tried her best to show that she was suddenly interested in such a thing. She pointed to a line in the report and could recite it almost without reading it: "Minister Fudge declared that it is time to change the wizarding world forever. Amelia Burns, director of the Department of Legal Enforcement, firmly opposed the move, saying it violated wizards' privacy and wasted time and resources. Minister Fudge should do this. I am solely responsible for the repercussions of making this statement. It is reported that the Burns family is indebted to Albus Dumbledore..."

She gradually lowered her voice and finally mumbled not knowing what to say. The calm eyes of the person opposite actually made her shiver subconsciously.

Is it because it has nothing to do with her and is indifferent, or is it because she has different insights into such things than ordinary people, so it's no surprise that

Daphne doesn't dare to think deeply.

"I'm a little scared, Yu. I, I always feel like this is just the beginning." She said incoherently, and she couldn't tell whether she was simply expressing panic or cautiously testing.

Mu Yu patiently listened to everything she said, and when he saw that she really had nothing to say, he said: "Don't trust the newspapers, Xiaodi." She behaved like other students, full of confusion and resistance to distant politics, "They He always likes to exaggerate and create spectacle. "

The essence hidden under the exaggeration and deliberately created opposition should be scary.

"If you are here to tell me about the upcoming census, then you can go, Dumbledore." Fudge leaned back in his chair, still recovering from Dumbledore's sudden visit.

He gritted his teeth quite a bit: "The Ministry of Magic is not Hogwarts."

The rude words failed to make Dumbledore angry. Looking at Cornelius Fudge, his eyes were calm and mixed with a bit of pity: "I thought you knew the consequences of implementing this policy at present." Cornelius stepped back a few points with every step he took. "At an inappropriate time, Centralization of power will only become a tool of the enemy."

Cornelius Fudge's face turned red, and the more calm Dumbledore became, the more uncomfortable he felt.

He scratched his neck and said, "I don't see any enemies at this time!"

"Oh, I thought we all knew," Dumbledore's eyes gradually darkened, and he sighed softly, appearing extremely sincere, "Okay. Nellie, I beg you, please let go of the Ministry of Magic's prejudices and obsession with power and cooperate. The top priority now is to carry out a necessary purge of the Ministry of Magic..."

His initiative to lower his stance failed to make Fudge relax, and instead made a harsh sound. He smiled strangely: "Ha, don't think I don't know what you are thinking. This will make it easy to replace your people, like Kingsley, Burns, Weasley..."

"I think you can understand what I am talking about, "Dumbledore interrupted him directly, "The timing of the wizard census is too coincidental. If there is someone in the ministry, Voldemort can have access to all wizard information at the first time..."

Cornelius Fudge's face grew darker when he heard that name. Turning red, he was almost hysterical: "That man is dead! He will not come back! You can't even think about destroying the Ministry of Magic's efforts over the past ten years!"

"It seems there is no need to talk between us." Dumbledore did not agree. He was angry, but what Fudge hated most was this calm tone, as if he was just a bug under Dumbledore's feet.

"I ask you to get out, in the name of the Minister of Magic!" He could only shout louder to cover up the panic and humility in his heart.

Dumbledore sighed aggravatedly, and his figure gradually disappeared into the fireplace: "Don't be blinded by power, Cornelius."

No matter what the parties did secretly, the competition was still coming as scheduled.

Everyone in the castle was extremely nervous a week before the delegation arrived, and both the portraits and armor were polished. No one wanted to pay attention to the lectures that day, and everyone was guessing in what form representatives from several colleges would come. After Potions class, almost everyone headed to their respective common rooms in unison. They couldn't wait to put on their cloaks and walked to the foyer in three steps at a time.

Snape was ordering everyone in Slytherin to line up: "I don't want anyone to do anything to embarrass Slytherin at a moment like this."

When he glanced at the crowd with sharp eyes, even Malfoy Don't dare to say another word.

Mu Yu followed everyone down the marble stairs, but in the cold night, she was thinking about the new regulations of the Ministry of Magic.

The seed in Cornelius Fudge's heart finally sprouted.

What's even more interesting is that she did nothing except let Albert Greenglass praise Dumbledore in front of him. Fudge couldn't wait to follow the trajectory she wanted.

The crowd was surprisingly quiet at this point. Everyone stood in the cold evening wind, and only a few people whispered from time to time how a few college representatives would come.

"If I'm not mistaken, the Beauxbatons representative should have already arrived." Dumbledore, standing behind the teachers, shouted.

As soon as he finished speaking, a pink-blue carriage pulled by twelve flying horses appeared in the sky and passed over the Forbidden Forest. Each horse was about the same size as an elephant. The carriage flew lower and lower, and finally landed firmly on the ground with a loud thud.

The door of the carriage opened, and a boy in a light blue robe jumped out of the carriage and opened a golden spiral staircase. He jumped back respectfully, and a very large woman got out of the carriage first. She was wrapped in clothes from head to toe. Wearing a black satin dress, her fingers sparkled with gorgeous opals.

Dumbledore was the first to applaud, followed by the rest of the students, and the woman gave an elegant smile.

"Welcome, Ms. Maxim."

"Dumbledore, I hope you are well." Maxim replied in a low voice.

"Very good, thank you."

Maxim waved back casually: "My students." About a dozen students, wrapped in silk robes and shivering in the cold wind, got off the carriage. Standing in Maxim's huge shadow, looking up at Hogwarts in front of him, his eyes were filled with awe.

"They haven't come to Karkaroff yet, Jones, oh, I almost forgot, and Kyushu..."

"They will come at any time. Do you want to wait here or go in to warm up?" Dumbledore said.

"Thank you, let's go in and warm up."

Dumbledore led Maxim and her students toward the Great Hall. As they passed, the others heard Maxim discussing with Dumbledore who would look after her horse. It was getting colder and colder now, and everyone looked up at the sky.

At this moment, a blue lightning flashed through the distant sky, followed by roaring thunder. The leaves of the Forbidden Forest rustled in the strong wind, and a black spot came from far to near. Only when I got closer did I realize that it was a bird with wings as wide as an eagle. Every time it flapped its wings, it brought about a burst of lightning and thunder. Behind this bird is a carriage with a simple shape.

"It's Thunderbird." Daphne whispered to Mu Yu.

The storm brought by the thunderbird had not stopped yet, and a clear cry suddenly came out of thin air. The originally black sky was also dyed with colorful colors, like the layers of rays of light spreading across the sky at sunset. The colorful colors complemented the thunder and lightning incited by the thunderbirds. The two completely different colors tore apart the tranquility of the starry sky. They refused to give way to each other in the gap opened by the night. From a distance, there was a strange beauty.

A bird with gorgeous feathers, a head like a peacock and a body as big as a chicken, flew towards the castle with nine tail feathers that were also gorgeous and glowing blue. At this time, its clear cry drowned out the roar of the thunderbird's wings. The tail feathers are like a delicate painting brush, dyeing everything they touch with colorful colors.

"Peacock." Someone in the team began to make random guesses.

"No, it's a chicken."

"Nonsense, that's a phoenix."

"That's Qingluan," Mu Yu leaned close to Daphne and whispered, "The bird closest to the phoenix."

Kunlun spent a lot of money for this appearance. The last male Qingluan had been kept in captivity in Kunlun. Unexpectedly, they actually brought him out.

The rest of the people on the ground soon had no time to pay attention to the sky anymore. The lake surface began to shake slightly. First, a black mast emerged from the black lake, and then a strange large ship rose out of the water. The portholes exuded a dim and hazy light. .

The ship slowly bumped along the waves of the Black Lake and drove towards the lake shore. An iron anchor was thrown into the shallow water with a thud, and a wooden plank was slapped on the shore. The people on the boat were disembarking, and each of them was wrapped in a thick gray fur cloak. Only the leader's cloak was made of silver-white soft fur.

His steps were staggering, and under the dim light of the castle, he looked more like a walking skeleton.

"Dumbledore," he forced a smile to Dumbledore as he walked up the ramp, "how are you, old man?"

His voice was hoarse, more like an old man than Dumbledore.

"Great, thank you, Professor Karkaroff."

Karkaroff confessed many people to the Ministry of Magic back then. Barty Crouch Jr. looked at Karkaroff with undisguised contempt and hatred. Karkaroff immediately shuddered when he noticed "Moody" looking at him.

He was like a prisoner who was sentenced to death but didn't know when he was going to die. The slightest disturbance was enough to make him frightened. After the competition, he will definitely die. Mu Yu looked down at the ring in his hand and thought, even if he keeps him now, it is just Tom's intention. He wants Karkaroff to suffer and die in fear, in order to Punish him for his past betrayal.

The exclamation on the side brought Mu Yu back from his thoughts: "It's Viktor Krum, Merlin, that's Krum."

Several girls in the team were frantically rummaging through their pockets: "I can make him Are you signing the hat with lipstick?"

"I don't even have a quill on."

While everyone stood on tiptoes trying to see what Krum looked like, two gusts of wind carried flying dust towards the hall. The marble stairs outside blew away the excitement and excitement caused by Krum's arrival in the crowd. Thunderbird and Qingluan landed on the ground almost at the same time. Their feet were firmly planted in front of the Forbidden Forest, and they only stirred up slight mud when they fell. At this time, the colorful rays of light produced by the passing Qingluan have become extremely clear, like a piece of gauze covering the hazy night.

A group of people also jumped off Qingluan lightly. A plump brown-haired woman with a kind face also stepped out of the carriage behind the Thunderbird. She had a pair of light yellow eyes that were extremely conspicuous in the dark night. The lights of the castle cast a warm light and shadow in her eyes, like amber flowing under the light. She was also followed by a group of men and women, who curiously looked at the magnificent castle in front of them as soon as they got off the car.

Karkaroff snorted lightly and turned to Dumbledore: "You don't mind if we go in and warm up first. Viktor has a cold."

He directly motioned for a boy to step forward and walk into the brightly lit auditorium. It seems that they are not willing to deal with the people of Ilvermorny and Kyushu at all.

When the people from Ilvermorny and Kunlun were approaching the marble steps, Dumbledore had already opened his arms. He sounded extremely happy for the arrival of people from these schools: "You have all experienced a long journey. I hope you will " Everything went well."

"Thank you for your concern, Dumbledore. It went very well. Let me think about how long it has been since we last met, forty or fifty years," the principal of Ilvermorny College said enthusiastically. After holding Dumbledore's hand, she didn't look like the principal of the college at all, but more like a kind, gentle and nagging mother.

"Forty-nine years, Jones," Dumbledore responded quickly. Before she could continue, he shook Ning Yue's hand. "Welcome, Mr. Ning."

Compared with last summer vacation, Ning Yue was completely thinner. After walking around for a while, his eyes were full of haggardness. Mu Yu originally thought that after such turmoil, Ning Yue would at least be in charge of Kunlun, but he didn't expect that he would come to England anyway.

Whether it was an internal conspiracy or whether she had to come up with a

reason due to the validity of the contract was no longer that important to her.

"Excuse me." Ning Yue was followed by about a dozen students. She could see Shen Qitong winking at her at a glance, but it was difficult to recognize them due to the scene.

"Please ask someone to take care of the mounts we brought." He was almost trying to cheer himself up. The Qingluan had been holding its head high since it landed. The thunderbird next to it glanced at Qingluan, flapped its wings, stirred up a breeze, and also raised its head high.

"Our gamekeeper will be very happy..."

"Qingluan is an ancient beast. It is picky and difficult to raise. There is only one such one left in Kyushu. I hope the gamekeeper of your school understands Qingluan's habits." A student suddenly interrupted. .

"I believe that the gamekeepers at Hogwarts have this ability."

As soon as Ning Yue opened his mouth, the student muttered and retreated into the crowd, which clearly showed his prestige among the students.

The principal of Ilvermorny had been watching quietly. Until then, she rolled her eyes slightly and said loudly and cheerfully: "Our ptarmigan has also been entrusted to your care. Although the ptarmigan is a protected animal, it He's very wild, just let your gamekeeper take care of it."

She turned to greet the students in Ilvermorny behind her: "Dear, come in quickly, don't freeze."

Mu Yu walked away. She could see all the undercurrents in the room, and the night covered up the faint smile in her eyes. These people were not as simple as they seemed on the surface.