The Pacifist Necromancer of Hogwarts

Chapter 348 Not Just No

Umbridge's fingers twitched in the air a few times, as if trying to grasp something, but she finally just pulled them back to her side.

The smoke still clung to her whole hand, flowing gently around her wrist. Umbridge glanced at it quickly. As if she didn't want it to get close to her, she placed her hand on Dumbledore's desk. There was a kind of bluffing arrogance on her toad-like, pale and swollen face.

"You know, Dumbledore, you can't refuse the Department of Mysteries," said Umbridge. Her voice was no longer wrapped in that annoying coquettishness, but became a little sharp and dry, as if she couldn't breathe. "Hogwarts is not the only school that has magic like the Book of Admission. You know very well that since the Department of Mysteries has accepted his application, if his name appears on the nameplate, you still lock him up in Hogwarts, what kind of chaos it will cause."

"I didn't apply for it," Anthony interjected.

Umbridge looked at him oddly, then looked at Dumbledore, her wide mouth closed in an uncharacteristic way, like a squashed toad.

"Well, Henry, I'm afraid you did apply," said Dumbledore. "Look, here's your signature."

Anthony then realized that when he wasn't paying attention, there were a few more pieces of parchment on the table. He saw an application letter written in an unfamiliar font, and his name was indeed signed at the end of the letter, which looked like his handwriting.

The other two remained silent as he examined the signature suspiciously. Dumbledore waved his wand and the smoke vanished from Umbridge's hand. She palely removed the ring and put it in her pocket.

After a while, there was a crunching sound in the principal's office. Fox was bent over, concentrating on biting a small piece of debris that had fallen from the perch. Anthony looked at the date and suddenly remembered.

"This is the report!" he said. "It's one of the professors' teaching investigation reports that needs to be signed to confirm receipt, right? But, how..." He shook his head, thinking that now was not the time to consider the operational details. "Anyway, it's not the application I submitted, and I will not go to the Department of Mysteries, one hundred percent not."

Umbridge asked incredulously, "Why? You can't refuse the Department of Mysteries."

Anthony would have been amused if he hadn't been so fed up with her: "Oh, if 'I don't want to go' isn't strong enough, try this: My resume wouldn't look that attractive if I changed jobs too often."

"But the Ministry of Magic... not just the British Ministry of Magic, the entire wizarding world..."

"It's simple. You can fire me." Anthony suggested. "Since I was hired without your knowledge, I should be able to be fired without your knowledge. Do you have a human resources department? Personnel management? Well, I guess not. Who should I consult about the Ministry of Magic's hiring and firing policies? Maybe I can also ask them how to get you fired."

Umbridge looked a little confused. Dumbledore chuckled and explained to Anthony, "Henry, that's not how the Department of Mysteries works. The Unspeakables are different from most employees of the Ministry of Magic because they hold so many dangerous magical secrets. So I have a simpler suggestion."

"What is it, sir?"

"Well, let's just pretend that this never happened, how about that?" Dumbledore's eyes flashed with a cunning light, "I never received the letter, and Henry never signed it. Problem solved, right, Dolores?"

"But--"

"Oh, yes, I almost forgot." Dumbledore interrupted her happily and pulled out a roll of parchment from the pile of parchment beside the table. "I think, according to the agreement between Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic, the investigation by the Senior Inquisitor should be almost over."

"You must be mistaken, Dumbledore." Umbridge said vigilantly, "The investigation period is one year. Before the end of this year, you will not be able to evade our investigation and carry out any shady activities..."

Dumbledore unrolled the scroll. "No, I think it says 'end of the school year', not 'end of the year'. You either remembered it wrong, Dolores, or you didn't read it carefully."

Anthony and Umbridge looked at the parchment together. In the line that Dumbledore pointed out, the long, slanted "学" (school) was squeezed above the round "年" (year) with an additional symbol, which looked out of place.

Umbridge uttered a short syllable, as if someone had strangled her.

Dumbledore looked at it thoughtfully. "A bit conspicuous, isn't it? I wonder you didn't notice it."

Umbridge took a deep breath, her chest heaving violently, her expression changing between rage and surprise, and finally she was shaking with excitement: "Dumbledore, you tampered with the Ministry of Magic's documents? Does the Minister know? Does Cornelius know? I need..." She quickly glanced around the headmaster's office, rushed to the door, grabbed the door handle, and pulled it hard a few times.

The door didn't move.

Umbridge tried again, and then her shoulders slumped. She dropped her hand, turned away, and seemed to calm down.

"Oh, Dumbledore, you don't really want to be an enemy of the Ministry of Magic, do you?" Her voice became sweet again, "I was too impulsive. I mean, the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts are allies in many things. There is nothing that cannot be negotiated."

She turned and walked back to the table, hesitated for a moment, and sat down in her chair at Dumbledore's signal.

"Excellent," said Dumbledore.

Umbridge said with difficulty: "I think there must be some misunderstanding." Dumbledore looked at her with interest.

"I mean, there must have been some misunderstanding in our communication, so the agreement you received showed that the investigation would end at the end of the school year," said Umbridge. "In this way, the matter is very clear. There must be something wrong with the magic and owls in the mailroom. This also explains why you received a letter about Professor Anthony and the Department of Mysteries - look, there is my signature here, but I have no recollection of it at all. Professor Anthony, you have no recollection of this application, right? The Department of Mysteries...things are a bit tricky...it is indeed quite tricky, but since it is a problem with owls, as long as we talk it out and work together, I believe we can find a solution. The most important thing is to avoid misunderstandings."

"You mentioned Cornelius, I suppose?" asked Dumbledore. "Did anything happen to his letters?"

"Oh, I don't think so. I just wanted to tell him about the mailroom," said Umbridge. "The Magical Maintenance Department has been a bit sluggish recently. I hope Cornelius will remind them when he knows this."

Anthony questioned, "Could he have received a report that was wrong? Something like the Hogwarts teaching quality survey report? And the OWLs and NEWTs exam results. Can an owl get so many things wrong?"

"What investigation report?" Dumbledore asked with interest.

Anthony suddenly remembered that he had been hit with the position in the Department of Mysteries before he had the chance to tell Dumbledore about this.

Before Umbridge could interrupt him with another incident, he quickly told Dumbledore everything, from Professor Burbage's knowledge of a report received by the Ministry of Magic on the poor performance of Muggle students in magic to Umbridge's deliberate selection of Muggle-born students for detention and affecting their examination results.

After relaying Colin Creevey's words, Anthony added: "So, sir, rather than letting her stay in the castle next semester, I would rather go to the Department of Mysteries. After all, they don't seem to be very good at controlling 'dark creatures'." He glanced at the pocket where Umbridge's ring was. "However, if I can't control myself, I might get into trouble one after another until people are asking which idiot thought it was a good idea to lock up the necromancers in the Ministry of Magic."

"I do not think that is a good idea, Henry," Dumbledore said quietly. His bright blue eyes burned with anger, but not at Anthony.

"gentlemen?"

"I've changed my mind." Dumbledore stood up from behind the table, strode to the door, opened it, and said to Umbridge, "Get out!"

Umbridge stood up and asked in surprise, "Dumbledore?"

"Get out. We have nothing to discuss." Dumbledore said calmly, "Leave here, leave this castle. I won't let you hurt my students again."

"But, Dumbledore—"

"Don't make me repeat it for the third time," said Dumbledore. "Remember to say hello to Cornelius for me and tell him that Hogwarts is not a place he should be on guard against, and there is no need for any senior investigators here. In addition, Henry will not go to the Ministry of Magic."

"That Inquisitor's Agreement. There's magic on it," Umbridge shrieked. "You can't get rid of me, Dumbledore. If you tamper with it or violate it -"

"Never mind it." Dumbledore shook his wand - Anthony didn't even see when he took out the wand - and Umbridge slipped and fell. Then, she fell out of the door as quickly, quietly and accurately as a pink billiard ball and slid down the stairs.

Dumbledore peeked out of the door and said downstairs, "Good afternoon, Mr. Creevey. Ah, Filius, that's great, could you please escort Dolores out of the castle as soon as possible? It seems her term as Inquisitor has come to an end."

After a few seconds, even through the spiral staircase, Anthony could hear cheers in the corridor outside.

Dumbledore calmly closed the door, turned around and met Anthony's eyes.

"You are certainly not going to the Ministry, are you?" Dumbledore asked. "I am not hindering your future career?"

"No, sir." Anthony smiled, then asked worriedly, "Is what she said true? Is the agreement magical?"

"Perhaps," said Dumbledore thoughtfully. "Fawkes?"

Fawkes opened his eyes sleepily, looked at the parchment Dumbledore handed to him, grabbed it, stretched his wings, then flew gracefully down from his perch, landed in front of the fireplace, and threw the agreement into the fireplace.

The flames in the fireplace suddenly jumped up a lot, and then a purple-red magic spell flew out and fell into Fox's mouth. Fox raised his head, stretched his neck, shook his head, then spread his wings, flew to the top of the cabinet in the principal's office, buried his head under his wings, and began to groom his feathers.

Dumbledore watched it do all this, and then he seemed to come to his senses and looked at Anthony: "What agreement did you just say, Henry?"

"I forgot that, too," said Anthony.

(End of this chapter)