Chapter 377: Corruption

Christmas spent with the Freemasons was very happy, especially Victor, although his human transformation mecha did not even last ten minutes in the confrontation with Mike - this was when Mike did not use the high-destructive power spell.

But Victor was not discouraged. He believed that the reason why he lost so badly was largely because he could not think rationally like a machine, so he wasted too much energy.

So he once again proposed to Mike to transform his brain.

Of course, Mike did not agree.

After the Christmas holiday, the students of Hogwarts also ushered in another thorny problem - the start of school.

In the auditorium, Mike, Franklin and others were enjoying their first meal after returning to Hogwarts. Because he had "comforted" Penelope for several days during Christmas, Mike was in a good mood and hummed a little song while eating.

But the other students around him were different. They were all frowning, and they even ignored the breakfast on the plate, which was much richer than before.

In Mike's opinion, this was completely a manifestation of school phobia.

In the past, this symptom never appeared in Hogwarts students, because for many ordinary little wizards, campus life in Hogwarts is much more interesting than life in their small families.

But this year is different, because there is an annoying professor in the school-Umbridge.

"Damn it, our first class this morning is Defense Against the Dark Arts! It's so annoying!"

"Hey! Stop it! Are you more upset than me? I still have five days of detention to be executed. Now that school has started, Umbridge will definitely come to me again!"

"Hey! *2"

...

Listening to the lamentations of the students around him and looking at their desperate looks, Mike silently shook his head and retracted his gaze.

At this moment, a large group of owls suddenly flew in from the hallway. They grabbed one package after another and circled over the heads of the crowd in twos and threes, like a bomber carrying out an air raid, and would drop a package from time to time, making people want to escape from this dangerous place.

However, only the first-year students who had just joined the group put their ideas into action. The senior students were already used to this kind of scene. They were very confident in the throwing skills of these owl messengers. At most, they would smash your breakfast, but they would not smash the package on your head.

"Pop!"

With a light sound, a bundle of newspapers was thrown into the plate in front of Mike by the owls. However, the food in the plate had already been eaten by Mike, so there was no food residue or soup flying around.

The owl that threw the newspaper seemed very disappointed. It hovered over Mike's head for a long time before slowly leaving.

Mike opened the latest Daily Prophet with a calm face.

"Shock! Hogwarts Principal Dumbledore was taken away by Aurors last night, suspected of being involved in a corruption case!"

As soon as he opened the newspaper, this eye-catching headline in black and white came into Mike's eyes.

Mike was stunned at first, and then he continued to read.

At about 17:37:42 yesterday, the famous white wizard, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and the president of the International Confederation of Magicians... were taken away by Aurors in the headmaster's office of Hogwarts.

According to Mr. Rufus Scrimgeour, the head of the Auror's office, Dumbledore was reported to have embezzled public funds many times during his tenure as the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, resulting in insufficient school funds.

So they will take Dumbledore back to the Ministry of Magic for further interrogation.

Another important member of the Ministry of Magic, Ms. Umbridge, the senior examiner of Hogwarts sent by the Ministry of Magic, said that Dumbledore was the one she reported.

During her tenure at Hogwarts, she found that many senior students often encountered a shortage of materials when studying courses such as potions that required a large amount of expensive materials. This was something she could not understand, because every year the Ministry of Magic and the school directors would transport a large amount of materials and gold galleons to Hogwarts, and it stands to reason that this situation would never occur.

Therefore, she investigated the matter, but she did not expect to discover the secret of the corruption of Headmaster Dumbledore.

At present, Ms. Umbridge said that she has a lot of evidence and will definitely give justice to all the teachers and students of Hogwarts!

...

After closing the newspaper, Mike's expression was a little strange.

Because many of the words Umbridge said in the interview came from his mouth.

But this is not the point of the matter. The key now is that Dumbledore has left Hogwarts again!

Mike turned his head and looked around. Sure enough, most of the students around him were in a commotion. Obviously, they had discovered the explosive news in the Daily Prophet today.

After cleaning up the tableware, Mike walked directly out of the hall.

Dumbledore's arrest was undoubtedly Umbridge's revenge. It is estimated that Dumbledore himself did not expect Umbridge's revenge to come so quickly and with such a strong force. He actually asked the Ministry of Magic to take him away directly.

But things have already happened. Now it depends on whether Dumbledore can get out as soon as possible, otherwise Hogwarts will probably soon become Umbridge's one-man show again.

Mike's morning class was Ancient Magic Literature. The professor of this class had obviously heard about Dumbledore's arrest, so he seemed absent-minded during the class. What he taught was also scattered, and he was basically distracted the whole time.

In fact, it was not just her. The students in the class were also constantly discussing this matter, and even many girls had tears in their eyes.

After class, Mike was blocked by Harry and the other two.

"Mike! Have you heard about it?"

"You mean Dumbledore was arrested?" Mike said to Hermione, "Of course, I saw the article early this morning."

"Now Umbridge should be happy," Ron pouted, looking annoyed, "Hogwarts is hers again!"

"I don't think there is any need to worry too much."

As soon as this was said, everyone's eyes fell on Harry,

"Dumbledore should be released soon. After all, people like him would not do such a thing as corruption. This kind of false accusation will not bring Dumbledore down. So what we should be concerned about is another thing!"

"What is it?"

"They are hiding something from us!"

Harry leaned close to Mike's ear and whispered.

Mike and Ron looked puzzled.

"Remember when Mr. Weasley was attacked by a snake? I had a dream at that time. In the dream, I was the snake! It was a very wonderful experience. I could clearly sense all the feelings of the snake, including its thoughts!" Harry said, "So I know very well that the snake was not going for Mr. Weasley at all. Its target was the things in the room behind Mr. Weasley. And why did Mr. Weasley appear in that place in the middle of the night? Wouldn't it be nice to sleep at home? So, the answer is already very obvious. Mr. Weasley must have been..."

"...guarding something!"

Harry and Ron said the final answer in unison.

"That's not the scariest thing. Black and I discussed it a bit, and we all think that the python that attacked Mr. Weasley was sent by Voldemort! In other words, the person who really wants that thing is Voldemort!"

Everyone present was confused when they heard this, and Ron looked around, looking nervous, as if he was afraid that others would know that Harry called that person by name.

Suddenly, Hermione clapped her hands fiercely, and then as if she remembered something, she put this morning's Daily Prophet in front of everyone.

"Ministry of Magic Staff Dies in an Unexpected Way"

St. Mungo's Hospital promised last night to conduct a full investigation into the death of Ministry of Magic staff Broderick Bode.

Mr. Bode, 49, was strangled to death on his bed by a potted plant, and the therapist failed to rescue him. Mr. Bode

was injured in a work accident a few weeks ago.

Meliam Straw, the therapist in charge of Mr. Bode's ward at the time of the accident, was suspended with pay and did not accept an interview, but according to reliable sources, Mr. Bode died because someone gave him a devil's vine as an ordinary potted plant.

At present, we still don't know the exact source of this devil vine, but there is no doubt that the management of St. Mungo's Hospital bears an unshirkable responsibility...

After reading the whole report, Ron was full of envy and said,

"Paid suspension? That's great, I also want to find a job like this in the future."

Hermione rolled her eyes at him, poked the photo of Mr. Bode in the newspaper and said,

"Why is your focus so strange? Take a good look, we have seen this Mr. Bode before! He was in the ward next to Mr. Weasley, just lying there staring at the ceiling. We also saw the devil's snare, and the therapist said it was a Christmas gift!"

"Oh! Doesn't that mean that if we had looked more carefully at the time, Mr. Bode would not..."

"Come on, it's not our fault. After all, who could have imagined that the devil's snare would be disguised as an ordinary potted plant?" Ron refuted Harry's words, "If you want to blame someone, blame the person who gave the gift. He was so stupid that he didn't even know what he bought."

Hermione rolled her eyes again, and Mike said:

"I don't think this should be an accident. After all, no one would be stupid enough to give a Devil's Snare as a gift to someone else. So this is murder, a very clever murder!"

Harry and Ron took a breath of cold air when they heard it, and Hermione snapped her fingers and said:

"Mike is right! And I also heard some interesting things there. Mr. Bode works for the Department of Mysteries, and he is a Unspoken Man!"

Ron exclaimed again, and Mike nodded, only Harry was still confused.

"The Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic is just like its name. It is a place dedicated to mysterious experiments. The people there specialize in studying curses, prophecies, space, the universe and even time. The employees there have all signed confidentiality agreements and are not allowed to say a word about what happens inside. So the employees there are also called Unspoken." Mike said, "I understand what you mean, Hermione. You mean that what Voldemort (Ron shuddered again) wants is very likely to be placed in the Department of Mysteries, so they would find ways to torture and silence Mr. Bode, right?"

"Yes, that's it!"

"I don't think this is something we can solve on our own. We'd better tell Dumbledore and let them handle it."

"I told them!" Harry suddenly raised his voice, "but they just said they knew and didn't want to tell me anything! Especially Dumbledore, he seems to be very cold to me recently. He forced me to stay in St. Mungo's Hospital during Christmas, and now he wants me to learn some kind of brain block from Snape. I guess he thinks I'm crazy!" As soon as

these words came out, Hermione's expression immediately became very interesting, Mike's mouth corners slightly raised, and Ron was shocked.

"What? He actually let Snape teach you?" Ron said, "This is really terrible, Snape, the old bat, will definitely torture you severely."

"Who said it wasn't. Hey! I have to go to his office for the first class tonight, I really don't know what to do."

"Uh, I think you don't know what kind of spell brain block is, Harry."

Hermione asked slowly, with an embarrassed expression on her face, and Harry shook his head in confusion when he heard it.

"Occlumency can seal the user's brain, making spells that can invade the brain, such as the Legilimency spell, ineffective. This is an extremely difficult spell. To learn it, you must have sufficient magic power and extraordinary talent." Mike explained, "I have to say that although Professor Snape's character is not very good, he is indeed a very talented wizard. In the spell of Occlumency, he can be regarded as a master. So Harry, I think Dumbledore has been very kind to you. It is rare for a master wizard to teach you Occlumency in person."

Hermione on the side nodded quickly and said that if possible, she would even want to take Professor Snape's class instead of Harry. As long as she could learn Occlumency, she would accept any scolding or punishment from Professor Snape.

It was a pity that Dumbledore did not think it was necessary for her to learn this spell.

"But...but I..."

Harry looked unconvinced. It can be seen that he was racking his brains to think of reasons to refute.

"In short, Harry," Mike said, "you should try to learn it first. Although Snape and you don't get along well, it will be worth it if you can learn the brain-blocking technique. If you really can't lose weight by then, you can just make your request to Dumbledore again, right?"

"...Okay!"

Harry said gritting his teeth. Mike's words really left him speechless.