Volume 3: A Tombstone Stained with Sin and Blood Chapter 155 The Worst Plan
"From the current situation, the French magic world is generally stable. The profit-seeking faction headed by Minister Amalric is actually very clear about their purpose. Ruling the entire French magic world by bloodline like the British will not bring them more benefits. They just want to use their current statements to win the support of those old pure-blood families. In other words, they use political inclinations to defraud money."
"Even those old pure-blood families who truly believe in the theory of pure-blood superiority know very well that without sufficient strength, they simply cannot implement the same political . They have never considered finding a master for themselves, choosing to obey Voldemort and handing over the highest power of the French Ministry of Magic."
"They are very envious of the benefits that pure-blood wizards in Britain have gained, but they can only be envious. Amalric and other profit-seeking groups are actually an attempt by them to use them to judge how great the resistance to promoting the theory of pure-blood superiority is in the magic world."
"The real threat to the current situation is actually the majority of half-blood wizards. In other words, according to the new pure-blood theory in the British Ministry of Magic's policy, these people should be classified as pure-bloods and enjoy the benefits of pure-bloods."
"They don't have as much power as the traditional pure-blood families, so they really hope that the French wizarding world can become like the UK, reorganizing the social classes and redistributing the power pie so that they can get a bigger piece than before. It's not a bad idea to even submit to the Dark Lord for this."
"These half-blood wizards are the most numerous, but generally they have no access to the real core power of the French Ministry of Magic, so they do not have much impact on the current situation for the time being."
Bill took the information in his hand and analyzed the situation to Sirius very seriously, but Sirius ate his steak without any appetite and seemed to be in no mood to listen.
"How's our contact with the woman named Roland going?"
"The Chief Wizard Justice doesn't seem to want to cooperate with us too much. She doesn't seem to want to attract the attention of the Dark Lord because of too much contact with us. She is preparing to convene an extraordinary parliamentary meeting to oust the minister who only wants to make money, and then continue to fight against the pure-blood factions in the ministry."
Sirius snorted.
"Does she think that as long as she doesn't get involved too much with us, the Dark Lord won't pay attention to them? Foolish woman."
Facing his boss, Bill seemed somewhat helpless.
In fact, the investigation work in France was mainly carried out by Arthur Molly, him and Charlie, which is equivalent to the entire Weasley family.
But because of what happened to Percy in the carriage, even if no one in the Order of the Phoenix would doubt the Weasleys' loyalty, they would take the initiative to avoid suspicion and temporarily put aside the work at hand.
So the work in France was handed over to Sirius who came from England, and Bill and Charlie remained under him to continue to be responsible for the exploration and compilation of intelligence.
It's just that Sirius's personality makes him absolutely qualified to be a thug, but if he were to be a leader, he wouldn't be so competent.
However, the Phoenix's intelligence gathering work in France has not been neglected. What Bill just reported was the results of their efforts over the past few months.
"So what are we going to do here next?" Sirius finished the last piece of steak and stared at Bill. "Just wait and waste time with that woman?"
Bill explained to him.
"According to the task assigned to us by Dumbledore, we need to stay here at least until the end of the parliamentary meeting after Halloween to see whether Roland wins or Minister Amalric stays. This is related to the future political direction of the French Ministry of Magic."
"That means we'll have to stay here for nearly a month!"
Sirius complained angrily, but he didn't say anything else afterwards. When it came to such a serious matter, even if he had some resistance in his heart at least he wouldn't cause trouble for others.
After the dinner report was over, Sirius said good night to Bill and was about to go back to his room to rest when Bill suddenly took out a letter from his pocket and handed it to him.
"When I got here, an owl delivered a letter from Hogwarts. The envelope said it was for you."
Sirius took the letter from his hand in confusion, and then opened the envelope in front of Bill.
The content of the letter was very brief, so brief that he only took a quick glance and read the entire thing.
The next second after reading the letter, he froze in place like a clay sculpture.
After delivering the letter, Bill, who was originally preparing to go back to his room to rest, stopped after seeing Sirius' reaction and asked in confusion.
"What happened?"
Sirius didn't reply, but he gripped the parchment harder and harder, until his knuckles turned white and his fingers trembled uncontrollably.
He clenched his teeth tightly, his eyes filled with uncontrollable hatred and rage.
"…He's at Hogwarts…"
Bill thought something big had happened in the carriage, and he returned to Sirius' side nervously.
"Who's at Hogwarts?"
"A lowly! shameless! dirty rat!!!"
He roared, put the letter in his hand into his pocket, and then stared at Bill with bloodshot eyes.
"Help me get the Floo back to England! Now!"
Bill frowned.
"Then what about our work here? Who should we give the information that Charlie and I compiled? The three of us are already very nervous."
Sirius spoke loudly as he paced around the living room anxiously.
"I'll ask Dumbledore to send someone else when I get back, but I have to go!"
Bill stared at Sirius in silence for a few seconds, finally avoiding his gaze, sighed and compromised.
"Okay, I'll get ready."
…
Dumbledore didn't know that Sirius had returned to England until 11 o'clock in the evening.
Although Bill informed him as soon as he was preparing to build the Floo network back to England, by the time Dumbledore received the news, Sirius had already applied to board the carriage in England.
Dumbledore was not particularly surprised by this.
He knew very well that Lily might not tell anyone about this, but Lupin, who had a close relationship with Sirius, would definitely write to tell him. Once he knew about this, there was no way he would be able to stay in France.
Nearing midnight, when all the students fell asleep, the carriage stopped in an alley in the city. Then Hagrid, who was sitting in the driver's seat, waved to a black dog on the side of the road. The black dog jumped onto the carriage and came to Hagrid's side.
The carriage started moving again, and Sirius turned back into his own person.
"Hi, Sirius, we haven't seen each other in years." Hagrid greeted him happily.
But Sirius's expression did not look good, and he responded in a hoarse voice.
"Good evening, Hagrid. I remember the last time we met was five years ago, before I went to Azkaban."
"So what are you going to do at Hogwarts this time? Visit old friends?" Hagrid obviously didn't know what Sirius was doing.
Sirius took the cup of tea handed to him, with a lingering gloom on his face. He drank the tea in one gulp and then walked into the carriage.
"Yes, I did come to visit...an old friend!"
Looking at Sirius's back as he pushed open the door and walked into the carriage, Hagrid felt a little puzzled, but he didn't think too much about it. His main responsibility was just to drive the carriage, and other things would naturally be taken care of by others.
After Sirius entered the carriage, he didn't go anywhere else, but knocked on the door of the principal's office.
Dumbledore was obviously waiting for him here.
"I want to stay and catch him myself!" Sirius didn't waste any words. He stated his demands straight away as soon as he entered the door.
What he didn't expect was that Dumbledore didn't dissuade him or say anything as , but nodded calmly.
"I have arranged a room for you. You can stay here tonight. At breakfast tomorrow, I will announce to the students that a new guard has arrived on the carriage."
This stunned Sirius, and he looked at Dumbledore and asked tentatively.
"Aren't you angry that I came back from France on my own initiative?"
"You are already here, so any other emotions I have are useless. In this case, we might as well catch the person lurking in the carriage." Dumbledore said softly.
He certainly didn't seem to be very angry, but had arranged everything before Sirius arrived.
This immediately made Sirius feel relieved. He respected Dumbledore very much and regarded the old man as his closest elder, so even if he insisted on coming back, he cared very much about Dumbledore's attitude.
"Bill said that it would be too much for him and Charlie alone to handle the situation in France, so he needs you to send another person over."
Dumbledore shook his head.
"No need. When you returned to England, I asked them to come back as well. There is no need for anyone to stay in France any longer."
Sirius looked more relaxed.
"There's really no need to waste manpower there. Bill just gave me a report five hours ago. The situation in France is stable. There's no need to keep anyone there."
Dumbledore looked puzzled and nodded calmly.
"Go back and rest. You still have to meet with the students tomorrow and let them know who you are."
"Won't the mouse be scared away if I show up at school without any disguise? "
"I will help you create an identity and change your appearance."
Sirius felt that Dumbledore was very well prepared, and soon he left the headmaster's office to find the room that had been prepared for him.
And just after he left, Dumbledore silently looked at an old blank parchment on the desk.
After a moment, he pulled out his wand and tapped the paper lightly, erasing the magic on it.
Then he called out the name of a portrait on the wall behind him.
"Dalis, please go to Durmstrang."
Among the portraits, an elderly witch with a kind face opened her eyes.
"What do you need me to say?"
"Tell Gellert that the plan has been advanced. Ask him to prepare as soon as possible."
Doris then disappeared into the picture frame, and at this moment the other headmaster portraits on the wall stopped their snoring and all turned their eyes to Dumbledore.
"Have things reached the worst point?" asked an old wizard with a goatee, looking worried.
Dumbledore leaned back in his chair, staring at the candle burning on his desk, his hands crossed in front of him, his eyes deeper than ever before.
"It's much worse than we thought. He gave me the most powerful counterattack, Phineas. And before that, I didn't even notice anything until he started to show me a mocking face. Then I realized what he had been preparing to do, but now it's too late."
The old wizard named Phineas cried out in agony.
"It's all my useless great-grandson's fault! He is a disgrace to the Black family!"
"This is not his fault. Even if he hadn't come back, things have already reached a point where they cannot be reversed." Dumbledore narrowed his eyes with a tired look. "However, facing the worst-case scenario, we are not without backup plans..."
…
On Wednesday of the second week of October, when the students on the carriage arrived at the restaurant for breakfast early in the morning, they found a strange face in the school.
During breakfast, Dumbledore introduced this tall and handsome young wizard to everyone.
"Nigellus Dippet, a brilliant wizard, will be in charge of security on the carriage for the rest of the term."
To put it bluntly, the job Dumbledore assigned him was security guard. In fact, it would not be impossible for him to serve as a professor of a course, after all, the four professors in the school basically have multiple positions.
But Sirius obviously had no mood to teach here. Moreover, the semester had already begun and each professor had clearly assigned tasks, so it was not appropriate to transfer part of the work to him.
Although the students were somewhat curious about the new "security guard", they did not ask many questions.
No one has forgotten that the school was not peaceful at all this academic year. First Percy rebelled, then the Dementors attacked, and the man hiding in the carriage has not been caught yet. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have an extra protective force.
Jon was not very surprised at the appearance of this unknown wizard. With the news about the mouse, it would be strange if there was not one more person on the carriage. He concealed his identity in this way to prevent the mouse from discovering that his identity had been exposed.
Now that the big black dog has arrived, all the Avengers have gathered together on this carriage.
