A certain Hogwarts professor of runes

Chapter 298 Crouch and Bagman

Ministry of Magic.

Felix pushed open the door of the phone booth, watched it rise to the ground, and walked into the lobby with the crowd.

"Hello, Mr. Haip."

"Congratulations, Mr. Haip."

Felix nodded in response to each one. After giving a speech at the Ministry of Magic, he had made quite a few acquaintances. He went to Drawing Room Number Three with practiced ease, where only an elderly wizard was present. He raised his head shakily: "Felix Heap?"

"You are... Augustus Gray? I remember you, at the awarding ceremony in Belby."

The old wizard grinned, revealing that all his teeth had fallen out. "It's rare to see such a remarkable young man before I retire."

"You flatter me, Mr. Gray," Felix said with a smile.

As the two chatted, Augustus Grey, who had been working in the Wizengamot Office for seventy years, handling routine paperwork, explained that he was a reckless young man back then and had gradually risen through the ranks to become the head of the office. He knew a great deal about the Ministry of Magic and was familiar with many interesting stories and gossip.

"...Bertha, that little girl, is so innocent and kind, and she loves to help others. She asked me if I needed a walking stick..."

Felix blinked. "Bertha Jorkins? I think I've heard that name before."

A cheerful voice came from behind them, "Ha~ what are you two talking about?"

Felix turned around. He was a large, imposing wizard. It was clear that he must have once been tall and strong, but now he was on the decline, his body becoming more rounded, making it hard to associate him with the word "robust."

His movements were large, his arms waving constantly as he spoke, and his voice was full of emotion and incredibly infectious.

"Hello, I'm Ludo Bagman, and you're Felix Heap? I've heard people in the department mention Arthur, Arthur Weasley, I don't know if you know him, he was really impressed with your last speech." Bagman tossed his blond hair, leaned closer, and whispered, "Well done. I mean, I hate McNeil too, really hate him..."

Felix said gently, "Mr. Bagman, I was just giving a normal speech—"

“Yes, yes,” Bagman interrupted him eagerly, his face beaming. “Who says otherwise? I wasn’t in the department at the time; there was a fan gathering, and these people were so enthusiastic… God, I love them. But, well, I knew what it was all about the first time I heard about it,” he winked. “I’m close to some pure-blood families through my father… They told me a lot.”

Felix smiled. "I'm curious about what they said."

"Ahem, I can't say. I promised them, but," Bagman hesitated for a moment, then couldn't hold back any longer. He said mysteriously, "You're very famous in the pure-blood faction. They all respect you. I think they respect you even more than they respect Barty Crouch. By the way, Barty—"

He suddenly shouted into the distance, and Felix looked in the direction of the sound and saw a man in his fifties, with a straight back and stiff movements. His wizard robe was spotless, without even a single wrinkle at the edges.

Crouch walked over, his steps perfectly straight. "Bagman, hello," Crouch said politely, his short mustache impeccably trimmed, as if he'd used a ruler. "I've been looking for you, about work."

"Let's put aside this damn work for a moment and chat," Bagman said warmly. "Let me introduce you to my new friend, Felix Heap, the star of today's show. He's a unique figure in the field of memory therapy!"

Crouch calmly extended his hand. "Hello, Mr. Heap, it's an honor to meet you, but I don't have time. I have to meet with the Bulgarian minister later to discuss official business related to the Quidditch World Cup."

"Hello, Mr. Crouch, you may leave at any time if you need to."

"That's right," Bagman said with a broad smile, "It's really kind of you that you're the only one who can understand their convoluted and strange accents..."

"You'll have to come with me, Bagman. There's a lot of work over there that needs someone to keep an eye on things, otherwise we'll just be two hundred scattered individuals, and the number keeps increasing, and I can't handle it all."

"I know," Bagman said awkwardly, but he quickly found an excuse. "I'm busy with something else, not the Quidditch World Cup, you know. Communication with the Americans isn't going smoothly. They want to change the rules, but who am I? I'm not going to compromise—"

Crouch raised his eyebrows. "We promise not to reveal any details before making an official announcement."

"Oh, the details!" Bagman waved his hand dismissively. "But the event is taking place at Hogwarts, and we'll be talking to them about the details during the holidays. You see, I bet Hyp knows something."

He turned to Felix and said expectantly, "You know, there are some things that can't be avoided. Dumbledore has held several meetings and rejected some interesting proposals."

"Are you talking about the Triwizard Tournament?" Felix asked.

He found it strange. It seemed that Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch were simultaneously in charge of the Quidditch World Cup and the Triwizard Tournament, with each having a part in the other. This was not a wise move and would only lead to more internal friction. What was Fudge thinking?

As for the Triwizard Tournament, he was familiar with it as well. It was a friendly competition between the three largest magic schools in Europe—Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang—seven hundred years ago, which lasted for many years before being discontinued due to excessive casualties. However—

"Three in a row? Now it's four, maybe even more," Bagman said. "Old Fudge wants to bring in more people, like Waggadu from Africa. To be honest, I think he's lost his mind."

"Bagman!" Mr. Crouch said sternly, "We should change the subject."

"Oh, uh, okay." Bagman seemed a little flustered, shrinking his shoulders timidly. "Okay, let's talk about today's protagonist, my good friend—Felix Heap."

His eyes lit up as he said, "The youngest recipient of the St. Mungo's Medal of Medicine, that's no easy feat. In my memory, they're all old men, I mean, older healers."

"...And the Order of Merlin, I don't know if I'm the youngest one." He looked at Barty Crouch.

"My impression is of Peter Pettigrew, who died at the age of 21," Crouch said slowly, clearly not wanting to discuss the topic.

“Admirable, he’s a hero,” Bagman said, his tone not particularly respectful. “But Mr. Heap isn’t bad either, he’s only—” He glanced at Felix, who said curtly, “23.”

"That's right, 23 years old, and she did it with real skill. Memory impairment, I'm not very familiar with that area, so it should be a weakness in treating memory? I think we need to see Bertha Jorkins. What she did was really a headache; she couldn't even find a venue and wandered around the area for a week."

Barty Crouch remained silent, his face expressionless.

"What do you think, Barty? She should be at the ministry today; it would be best to have her come over..."

"She's not here," Crouch said curtly.

"What?"

"She wasn't here, so I approved her leave and let her go on vacation."

"Uh, but she's mine, Barty..."

Mr. Barty Crouch suddenly lost his temper: "Then you should take responsibility and use the time you spend meeting with fans to maintain the venue, instead of leaving everything to me."

Bagman's momentum immediately deflated, like a punctured balloon. "That's not what I meant. Okay, you're right. It's good for her to clear her head. One more person won't make a difference..."

Crouch left in a hurry. Bagman felt uneasy and chatted awkwardly for a few moments before taking his leave as well. "I'd better talk to the Americans again. Actually, their ideas aren't... not that outrageous."

More and more people poured into the drawing room, and Felix had to greet them one by one, saying some meaningless nonsense. It took him a long time to get rid of Cornelius Fudge, who, for some reason, kept enthusiastically introducing him to high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Magic's pure-blood faction. Fortunately, he saw some familiar faces.

"Felius, Minerva, Severus, and Damocles, you've all gotten together?"

"You're going to be busy today," Damocles Belby said understandingly. "Let's just kill time ourselves. We've been apart for so long, we have so much to talk about."

(End of this chapter)