Chapter 927 Big News!
Hogwarts, Quirinus Quirrell's office.
Miss Taozi looked at the strange adult wizards who appeared in the school and mustered up the courage to speak seriously.
"This is Hogwarts, you have no right-"
"I am the Senior Under-Minister of Magic, the Ministry's Inquisitor at Hogwarts, and this is the Head of the Auror Office. Obviously, we have the right to go wherever we want, as long as we deem it necessary. Miss Tripp.”
Umbridge still had the same kind smile on her face, pointing her stubby finger towards the door.
"Now, you can go out. We have some things to talk to Professor Quirrell alone...well, maybe Professor McGonagall."
"Sorry, Professor...I'm the Head Girl of Hogwarts."
Meryl Streep shook her head, stood up, stopped in front of Umbridge, and said calmly.
"According to the regulations of the Ministry of Magic, unless black magic is used to intentionally injure people, in other cases, the Department of Legal Enforcement should first send an owl summons. If the person being summoned refuses to attend, the process of Auror arrest and forced summons will be triggered - in the past Professor Quirrell has been with all of us for an hour, and earlier in class, and we can prove that Professor Quirrell did not do anything prohibited."
The Head Boy and Head Boy is a seventh-year student at Hogwarts who has the authority to manage prefects, and is appointed annually by the then Headmaster of Hogwarts.
These two students will perform their duties and assist the school according to the instructions. They are responsible for leading the prefects and should set an example for the students. In some cases, they will lead all students-and this year, a new requirement has been added to protect Huo Huo. Gwartz.
"Oh, I don't need you to remind me of the Ministry's terms, dear Miss Streep."
Umbridge said softly, her eyebrows raised and her smile gradually disappeared.
"The real world does not operate according to rigid regulations. As a senior official of the Ministry of Magic, I know better than you and am more qualified to decide when it should be treated as an 'exception'. Besides, you don't understand at all that some illegal behaviors No need to wave a magic wand..."
"Illegal behavior? Sorry, I don't see any illegal behavior in Quirinas."
Professor McGonagall frowned heavily and interrupted Umbridge abruptly. She looked around at the five Aurors in the room and said coldly.
"As the Vice-Principal of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I believe that it is not Quirinas, nor Miss Streep and others who should leave here now. When will the Ministry of Magic directly Did you break into someone else’s house and arrest them?”
"Evidence? There is not yet, but there will be soon..."
Umbridge smiled sweetly and waved the document in her hand triumphantly.
"This is an emergency search warrant just signed by the Ministry of Magic. We suspect that Mr. Quirinus Quirrell is hiding Muggle weapons. In order to ensure the safety of teachers and students at Hogwarts, Minister Cornelius Fudge announced a few hours ago A meeting of ministers was held to approve the covert operation.”
"As the Senior Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Magic, I now order irrelevant personnel to leave here and not to interfere with the Ministry of Magic's official duties!"
As she spoke, she winked at the Aurors around her.
Except for Rufus Scrimgeour, the other four Aurors all had their wands drawn.
"Hide... Muggle weapons? Are you talking about this?"
At this time, Quirinus Quirrell nodded in realization.
He stood up, took off the pistol from his waist and put it on the table, and introduced it carefully.
"The Makarov pistol has an effective range of fifty meters. It comes from the non-magical world of the former Soviet Union. It adopts a free-action automatic mode. It has a simple structure and is easy to carry. The total gun length is 160 mm, and the barrel length is 91 mm. It does not include the magazine. The whole gun weighs 663 grams and has a magazine capacity of 8 rounds.”
"Awesome, right? Professor McGonagall, is there anything else you want to say now?"
Umbridge said, with a smile of victory on her face, "Great, I announce the immediate arrest of Quirinus Quirrell for illegal possession of a Muggle-produced 'imitation Killing Curse weapon' with intent to breach confidentiality." Law, immediately sent to the Ministry of Magic interrogation room to wait for follow-up processing——"
"Well, I'm very sorry, Professor Umbridge. I still don't understand which law I broke."
Quirinus Quirrell said calmly, looking at Umbridge with a strange expression, and took a thick Muggle book from behind.
"According to the British Bill of Rights of 1689, civilians' 'right to bear arms' was clarified on the grounds of resisting the tyranny of the king. And this law seems to still be in effect today. This is not a right, but an obligation of a British citizen - —The reason for your arrest may not be that sufficient."
"This is the magical world, not the Muggle world. As a wizard, you should abide by the laws established by the Ministry of Magic——"
Umbridge sneered and said viciously, while taking out her wand.
"If you refuse to go to the Ministry, then we may have to activate a warrant for your arrest...Professor Quirinus Quirrell."
"It seems that you are ready to conduct searches and arrests with force?"
Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows, also drew out her wand, and replied with a sneer.
"What if I say Quirrell can't go anywhere today? At least not until Professor Dumbledore arrives -"
Following Professor McGonagall's movements, Meryl Streep, George Weasley and others quickly drew out their wands and stood next to Professor Quirrell's desk, looking nervously and anxiously at the people at the door. An adult wizard holding a wand high.
After so many large-scale curse wars last year, when facing this kind of multi-person oppression, they almost subconsciously formed a defensive formation.
"Professor McGonagall, please don't embarrass me——"
At the same time, Scrimgeour, who had been silent, finally took out his wand and said hoarsely.
"This is an emergency operation approved by the Minister of Magic. We must take Quirinus Quirrell away today."
"...Wait until Professor Dumbledore shows up."
Professor McGonagall said firmly, looking around the room.
"Miss Streep, please take everyone out of the office first - as a female student representative, your first duty is to protect other students from harm. This is not an occasion where you should participate. I will leave the rest... …”
Before she could finish her words, a large number of people suddenly poured out of the door.
A bunch of flashlights lit up around him crazily, and the sound of camera shutters instantly overwhelmed Professor McGonagall's voice.
At the end of the crowd, Gilderoy Lockhart, who had failed to "stop" the reporter, leaned against the stairs with his arms folded and asked curiously.
"Hey, aren't you going to go over and take a photo? This will definitely be on the front page tomorrow."
"I warned everyone about these things in "The Quibbler" the year before last: the Ministry of Magic's ambitions are too obvious."
Xenophilius Lovegood snorted and said in a disdainful tone.
If it weren't for the mission of "Miss Fool", he wouldn't even bother to follow these short-sighted and ignorant reporters.
After pausing for a moment, he looked around the crowd and made sure he didn't see a troublesome little white-haired witch. He quickly put the magic camera in Lockhart's hand and patted Lockhart hard. shoulder and whispered solemnly.
"Then, Mr. Lockhart, just take some photos for me - I will add a special section for your novels as agreed."
"Well, no problem. By the way, remember to avoid those places..."
"Thank you so much! I'll go around the corridor stairs next to the Charms classroom later."
Xenophilius Lovegood glanced at Lockhart gratefully and hurriedly walked towards the Hogwarts library.
If nothing else, his little moon should still be studying in the library.
Time is precious, and Mr. Lovegood does not intend to waste his energy and time on watching how the Ministry of Magic makes a fool of himself. Even if he is reading with his daughter in the library, tutoring homework, or even delivering water and books, it is more valuable than the current farce. It means ten thousand times more.
…………
"What crime did Professor Quirrell commit?"
"Madam Deputy Minister, is this really a secret arrest?"
"Are the Ministry's remit too broad?"
"Muggle killing curse?"
"Why do Aurors and school teachers and students draw their wands and confront each other?"
"Were the arrest and search warrants issued together?"
"..."
At the same time, at the door of the Muggle Studies professor's office.
Umbridge and Professor McGonagall were inundated with questions and quills.
Compared to Professor McGonagall's calmness, Dolores Umbridge's face instantly turned livid.
As a senior official of the Ministry of Magic, she is very aware of the series of problems that may arise after this scene is published in newspapers. If there are only one or two newspapers, she can still use the power of the Ministry of Magic to suppress it, but now the crowd is crowded. In front of her...
Fifteen, sixteen...nineteen...
But based on a rough count, there are at least twenty or thirty magic journal practitioners of various sizes.
Maybe she could interfere with mainstream media like the Daily Prophet, but there was nothing she could do about those marginal, third-rate newspapers.
As for taking away the reporters’ magic cameras, magic quills, and magic voice-recording props and destroying them on the spot?
You know, the number of wizard reporters present is more than five times the number of Aurors!
This is not an ordinary bad wizard with no power. Any wizard who can serve as a front-line reporter or editor in a magic newspaper is at least an upper-middle-level wizard in the magic world - after all, compared to other industries, They may encounter more risks during interviews.
Of course, in terms of income, the salary of front-line editors and reporters is higher than that of Aurors in the Ministry of Magic.
All in all, tomorrow morning’s hot headlines are completely locked in.
"...Then what should we do now, Minister Umbridge? Give up the original plan?"
Looking around at the dense crowd, a young Auror asked in a low voice, he had never seen such a scene.
In front of so many reporters, the so-called secret arrest has obviously come to nothing.
If they continued to insist on arresting Quirrell, he was worried that it would trigger a violent backlash from Professor McGonagall, causing the situation to get completely out of control - no wizard can fight alone against more than five elite Aurors, which is recognized by the Auror office. Basic combat simulation.
"Give up? It's absolutely impossible -"
Umbridge said angrily, repeating venomously, "Never!"
Through the news revealed by the reporters just now, she roughly figured out the reason why these guys appeared here:
Professor McGonagall's research in the field of transfiguration has made significant academic progress. The invitations from these magazines to the school to attend academic lectures coincided with the secret arrest of Quirinus Quirrell - and the informer was The eldest son of the Weasley family, Bill Weasley.
As for the possibility of deliberately targeting her, it is not very likely, not to mention that the probability of major academic progress is extremely low.
The most important thing is that based on the speed of delivery of owl letters, inviting so many magazines from all over the country to Hogwarts at once would require sending out letters at least one day in advance. However, the decision to urgently arrest Quirrell was made by Umri It's strange that she just made the impromptu decision this afternoon.
Minerva McGonagall, Bill Weasley...
Umbridge silently wrote down these two damn names in her heart, preparing to repay them well later.
However, now that the matter was over, she had to deal with this irritating emergency situation first.
Obviously, it is certainly impossible to give up the arrest!
If she just walked away in despair, the Ministry of Magic would become a laughing stock, and her political career would be stained with an indelible stain.
The only way to break the situation now is to arrest Quirrell as soon as possible, control him in the Ministry of Magic, and find a way to control the trial process - as long as Quirinas Quirrell is proven guilty, it is best to throw him into Azka class, you can easily reverse the current unfavorable situation.
"Cough, cough——"
Umbridge glanced at the reporters in front of her, cleared her throat, and said coldly with a pale toad face.
"Quirinus Quirrell is suspected of serious violation of the International Wizarding Statute of Secrecy. According to the emergency regulations of the Statute of Secrecy, the Ministry of Magic has the right to temporarily skip some procedures and conduct surprise arrests and interrogations if it is deemed dangerous. Any behavior that obstructs the arrest , uniformly regarded as endangering the stability of the magic world.
"Mr. Rufus Scrimgeour, please make an arrest immediately! I authorize you to treat any person who resists as an accomplice of the suspect."
"Now, in my capacity as Senior Under-Minister of Magic, I give you an unequivocal order - get out of the way!"
Umbridge raised her wand high and looked around menacingly.
The Aurors behind her looked at each other, nodded with serious expressions, and raised their wands one after another.
"you--"
"Professor, please don't be impulsive. I don't want to curse you."
Rufus Scrimgeour pointed the wand firmly at McGonagall and said in a hoarse voice.
"The wand is flying—"
Umbridge moved lightly towards the office, holding Quirrell's wand in her stubby hand.
Then, she waved her wand again, and a thick metal bracelet - a magic warning ring - appeared on Quirinus Quirrell's wrist.
"From now on, any of your spellcasting intentions will be monitored. If you show any signs of escaping during the escort, then don't blame us for chanting a spell on you, Professor Quirinus Quirrell - it's time to go, Magic The Ministry’s trial court should be ready.”
Umbridge pointed in the direction of the door, glanced at Professor McGonagall with a victorious attitude, and walked out proudly.
The Aurors followed immediately, and there was a series of frequent shutter sounds all around.
Rufus Scrimgeour was the last to come to the door. He hesitated for about half a second, looked at Professor McGonagall and said softly.
"I will always watch Quirrell to ensure the fairness of the interrogation and custody process - as for more things, it may still depend on the discussion between Professor Dumbledore and the Minister. I am very sorry, Professor. But the authority of the Ministry of Magic, and the Magic The security of society must be maintained——"
"Mr. Scrimgeour?"
Umbridge's sickly sweet voice sounded outside the door.
A trace of disgust flashed across Rufus Scrimgeour's face, he nodded towards Professor McGonagall and left quickly.
…………
As Umbridge and others left, it seemed that the end of this confrontation was announced.
Some magazine reporters chose to follow along and tried to take more photos from different angles, while more reporters and editors turned their attention to the four little wizards still in the office, hoping to learn from George, Meryl and others. Learn more different information.
About half a minute later, a huge roar suddenly sounded outside.
Then, people heard Umbridge's screams mixed with anger, fear, and some more complex emotions.
A few seconds later there was another huge roar.
The noise became more and more obvious, and there were also dense footsteps coming from the stairs and corridors.
The reporters and editors of various magazines were stunned for half a second, and saw the excitement in each other's eyes——
The fight started!
Definitely a fight!
marvelous! This is big news! …………
Hogwarts foyer.
The bluestone corridor was overturned, and gravel and soil were mixed in the holes.
Beside the broken stone corridor, Umbridge and others raised their wands and looked forward as if they were facing an enemy.
Behind them, Quirinus Quirrell's expression suddenly became extremely strange - that curse was indeed true. The Dark Arts Defense Professor at Hogwarts is a very dangerous position. Every Dark Arts Defense Professor It seems that they all have to face the test of the Dark Lord.
Not far away, Grindelwald was playing with the wand in his hand carelessly, blocking the only way to the castle gate.
"I'm very sorry, but you can't leave Hogwarts for the time being——"
————
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Great!