Chapter 341 Not Good at All

Walking into the door of the bar, the steaming air mixed with the aroma of red wine hit your face. There was a large black iron bucket standing on the fireplace, with steaming red wine boiling in it.

Loren and others were surprised to find that Minister Fudge, whom they had just scolded, was here. He was wearing a pinstriped cloak and a dark yellow-green bowler hat. He was sitting in front of the bar talking to Rosmerta. The lady spoke, and next to her sat Professor McGonagall, who had taken off his hat.

Hagrid and Professor Flitwick sat a little further apart, seemingly unwilling to interfere with their conversation.

Because the minister was here, there were far fewer customers in the bar, and all the male customers who usually surrounded Ms. Rosmerta were gone. The noise was replaced by gentle and polite conversations, and the usually crowded bar actually looked spacious. a bit.

Wizards who go to the bar to get drinks will add: "May Merlin bless you, beautiful lady!"

For a few seconds, Loren thought this was not a street bar, but some upscale club.

Hermione glanced at a few boys, and everyone tacitly found a seat on the right side of the bar to sit down. Hermione moved the decorative Christmas tree to their table. The dense branches and leaves ensured that the professor would not be noticed.

"Your currant rum is ready, Minister." Ms. Rosmerta's voice was like soft mulled wine, soft and thin, making people's ears itch.

"Thank you, Rosmerta, dear." Fudge said in a disgusting voice. "I must say, it's great to see you again. Why don't you come and have a drink too, okay, come with us …”

"Oh, thank you very much, Minister." Ms. Rosmerta's smile became even brighter. "What kind of wind brought you to this remote place, Minister?"

"Logically speaking, I can't tell you, but who called you Rosmerta, my dear." Fudge smiled and took off his bowler hat and put it in his hand, then looked around, as if checking if anyone was eavesdropping around him. , then whispered,

"What else but Bellatrix Lestrange? You've heard, my dear, that mad woman and Peter Pettigrew were in poor Froome's shop. , but it scared him."

"But hasn't Peter been kissed by a dementor? And I heard that Mrs. Lestrange has been wandering around Gringotts in Diagon Alley recently." Ms. Rosmerta looked at her with pitiful eyebrows. Fudge, "Did you know that dementors patrol my bar every night? They scare all my customers away... It's bad for business, Minister."

"Rosmerta, dear, I don't like them too..." Fudge said awkwardly.

Probably because the fireplace in the bar was burning too brightly, Fudge's fat face turned a little red after drinking. He took off his pinstriped cloak and drank the rum in the glass in one breath: "My dear, I can't. The Dementor withdrew, except for some reasons that I cannot tell you, and more importantly, to relax her vigilance and not be noticed by the Death Eater woman...

"Let me tell you, dear, the Wizengamot has negotiated with the goblins of Gringotts. We can open the Lestrange family's vault during the Christmas holidays, although it will be witnessed by Dumbledore. …”

"What's more important!" Fudge raised his voice a little excitedly: "We plan to capture her during the Christmas vacation. Dumbledore promised me to let the professors at Hogwarts assist the Aurors——"

"Minister!" Professor McGonagall said sharply, "Do you have to say it here?"

Fudge's face froze for a moment, then turned redder. He looked at Professor McGonagall with some annoyance, his temples twitched a few times, but he didn't say anything.

Ms. Rosmerta duly handed over a new glass of red currant rum, smiled brightly and said a few words to Fudge, making him smile again.

After two more drinks, Fudge put on his bowler hat, tied up his cloak, and left with a satisfied smile.

Several other professors finished their drinks and left the bar.

"Did you hear that Fudge said he wanted to capture Bellatrix on Christmas..."

Hermione retracted her peeking gaze, turned around and saw that the butterbeer in several boys' cups had reached the bottom, and her expression was subtly silent.

"Do you still want to drink? I'm going to get a drink!" Ron stood up suddenly and headed towards the bar happily.

Hey, boys...

Hermione stared at Loren angrily: "Did you listen carefully just now?"

"Eavesdropping does not conflict with drinking butterbeer..." Loren muttered in a low voice, "I heard that Bellatrix Lestrange is wandering near Gringotts, and the professors from the Ministry of Magic want to catch her. Live with her..."

He felt that the interaction between Fudge and Ms. Rosmerta was more interesting. One wanted to take advantage of the power of the Minister of Magic, and the other enjoyed the praise of the beautiful female pub owner to satisfy his own vanity.

But just looking at the performance just now, Ms. Rosmerta almost played Fudge in the palm of her hand.

"Will the professors succeed?" Hermione asked.

"I don't think that Death Eater will be caught so easily. Knockturn Alley, which is next to Diagon Alley, is originally a hiding place for many dark wizards, not to mention that there are Voldemort's agents in the Ministry of Magic."

"Speaking of this, I want to know even more, since Peter Pettigrew has failed, why doesn't she return to Voldemort and is still wandering in Diagon Alley?" Hermione asked thoughtfully.

"Maybe there is something attracting her..." Harry's casual answer suddenly stopped. He remembered that in the first year, Quirrell attacked Gringotts in order to seize the Philosopher's Stone.

But the Philosopher's Stone is gone...

"It's a Horcrux! She's looking for a Horcrux!" Harry suddenly felt blessed and blurted out.

Ron came back happily holding four glasses of butterbeer, and while sharing them with several people with a smile on his face, he said: "Ms. Rosmerta talked to me, and her voice is so nice!"

No one answered him. Hermione nodded and said thoughtfully: "I think so too. The Lestranges are famous Death Eaters. If Voldemort is willing to give the Horcrux diary to Lucius... Malfoy will take care of it, and he will definitely be willing to give the other Horcruxes to the Lestranges for safekeeping."

Ron's eyes widened: "Death Eaters? Horcruxes? What are you talking about?"

"It's really surprising that Bellatrix Lestrange would put such an important thing in the underground vault of Gringotts..." Harry blew the foam on the top of the butterbeer and drank. Take a sip.

"Hey!" Ron looked at them angrily, "Can anyone explain to me what exactly you talked about during the two minutes I left?"

Hermione hadn't finished her original glass, but it had gone cold, so she took the new one.

Loren drank the foamy hops into his mouth. He felt that the salty and sweet foam was similar to the milk cap, which was quite delicious: "It's not unexpected. During the time when Voldemort fell, the Ministry of Magic was searching for Death Eaters everywhere. Lestrange’s house is certainly not safe, and it would be safer to put it in the goblins’ underground vault.”

"You! You!"

Ron finally understood that no one among these people could explain to him, so he sat down angrily and listened while analyzing and speculating on the situation.

Harry's brows knitted together and he asked doubtfully, "Why do you have to wait until Christmas vacation?"

"I mean, even if the goblins in Gringotts don't know about the Horcruxes, they should know that Lestrange's underground vault contains dark magic items that are valued by Death Eaters, and they are even willing to risk it for these things. The risk of being recaptured to Azkaban—for such a criminal, why not just open the vault and hide the contents again?"

"Because the core of our laws is that private property is inviolable, and this is related to Gringotts' business reputation." Hermione explained, "They must protect the treasures in everyone's underground vaults, even if the owner of the underground vault is a Death Eaters. Only then will people be willing to trust Gringotts and store their gold Galleons in Gringotts' underground vault instead of hiding it in their own home treasury."

"Oh, our family won't have such troubles. There are no gold galleons to save, and there is no treasure house...my father usually hides his personal money in the attic." Ron said with a smile.

Loren looked at him strangely, and she could hear inexplicable pride in his tone.

"I still don't understand, Hermione, that's a Death Eater," Harry whispered.

"For example, if Professor Black," Hermione paused and glanced at Loren before continuing, "if Professor Black's vault was raided after he was imprisoned in Azkaban, would you still receive Firebolt from the Godfather?”

"But he was wronged -" Harry was suddenly stunned. He seemed to understand something, but not very clearly, and fell into a hazy thought.

"That's the thing. Although I also think there is something wrong with such a rule, I haven't figured out the hidden relationship here yet. Maybe in the future..." Hermione said words that others could not understand, and slowly fell into thinking.

Loren sipped her piping hot butterbeer and thought about the Hufflepuff Gold Cup.

After Quirrell attacked Gringotts, the goblins strengthened the defense of the underground vault, but it shouldn't make any difference whether they strengthened it or not. After all, Harry and the others could break through.

Dumbledore must have guessed that there might be a Horcrux hidden in the Lestrange family's vault. With his ability, even if all the goblins from all over the world gathered in Gringotts, they could not stop him.

As for why he didn't use inappropriate methods to enter the treasure house and destroy the Horcrux, it was probably because of his own psychological imprisonment.

Ron's eyes moved back and forth on the faces of the three friends, looking left and right, and couldn't help but feel a little anxious:

"You are talking, you are talking, why are you not talking again?"

…

It seems like in just the blink of an eye, the holidays are right around the corner.

The fine powder-like crystal snow formed a white cap on the roof of the castle, looking like a cake with frosting. White ice crystals hung on the branches in the Forbidden Forest, and every tree was shining with silver.

In the castle, colorful Christmas decorations were put up as in previous years. Thick light strips made of holly and mistletoe were put up in the corridors, and mysterious lights flashed in each suit of armor. Hagrid dragged a dozen trees and placed them in the Great Hall, and Professor Flitwick decorated them with sparkling golden stars.

On the morning of the holiday, the boys' dormitory.

Harry and Ron didn't have any roommates in the dormitory to get in the way of packing their luggage to go home. Loren, Neville and Seamus had almost finished packing last night. They would be fine if they straightened their pajamas and bed in the morning.

Seamus asked Loren: "Have you ignored your Animagus secret medicine?"

Loren glanced out the window, where the goose-feather-like snow was fluttering, and replied: "Judging from the current temperature, storms with thunder and lightning will not appear in Hogwarts for at least a few months."

"That makes sense."

Neville suddenly turned around and asked: "Seamus, do you want mandrake blades? I can buy them in Diagon Alley and give them to you with an owl?"

"No need." Seamus smiled sheepishly, "You forgot, Dean and I are not members of the teaching class."

"Yeah, sorry."

"Don't be sorry. Animagus is too hard and difficult. We gave up after thinking about it. I'd better concentrate on studying the blasting spell."

Loren suddenly remembered something and said to Neville mysteriously: "I advise you to stay away from Diagon Alley during the holidays, especially Gringotts."

Neville was stunned: "Why?"

"In short, just stay away." Loren didn't make it too clear.

The Longbottoms are now well-known figures in the Auror community. They must have had channels to know about the arrest in Diagon Alley, especially since the target of the arrest was Bellatrix Lestrange. Time will naturally restrict the whereabouts of this silly boy.

At least they won't let him go to Diagon Alley until the arrest operation is over.

The three of them were talking as they dragged the empty box downstairs.

The little wizards in the common room were coming and going. Compared to them, the few people with the help of storage scales were much more relaxed. Seeing Hermione waiting on the sofa, Neville and Seamus left first.

Loren walked over and took out the owl from the cage, and rubbed his face with the soft and downy hair on the little spectacled owl's chest: "Hanhan, do you want to take the train with us, or do you want to fly back by yourself? "

Hanhan, the little spectacled owl, used its wings to turn away from his face, chirped a few times, flapped its wings and landed on the handle of Hermione's suitcase.

"Hanhan is so good, hehe..." Loren picked up a large, plush ginger cushion from the sofa. Ignoring the kitten's resistance, he opened Crookshanks' forelimbs and rubbed his belly. soft fur:

"Crookshanks, are you going to take the train home with us, or are you going to spend Christmas at school?"

A trace of human helplessness flashed in Crookshanks' eyes. After struggling for a while, he fell to the ground and found a place to lie down at Loren's feet.

"Crookshanks is so good!" Loren chuckled twice more, turned his gaze to Hermione, leaned over and rubbed against the girl's hair, "Hermione, are you going to--"

Before she could finish her words, she was pushed away by Hermione. She rolled her eyes and walked towards the exit of the lounge while carrying the box.

"Oh, Hermione is not good at all."