Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 234 The Non-existent Invasion

The broom, which had been limited by Rice's performance, finally became suitable for Daphne to ride.

This time, however, Daphne was smarter; she handed the broom to her sister Astoria, clearly with ill intentions.

Astoria: ...

My foolish sister, do you think I would make the same mistake as you? This broom has been adjusted by Rice, it's very steady!

She sat sideways on the broom, which then slowly floated up to about five feet off the ground, drifting along more slowly than a Muggle bicycle.

"The modification was a great success." Rice nodded with satisfaction.

It's a bit of a waste; it's a complete waste that this fire crossbow fell into Daphne's hands.

"If you want to unlock the performance limit later, it won't be difficult. I left a rune on the broom. You can destroy the rune with your wand to unleash the full performance."

Daphne nodded, making up her mind never to touch the rune.

What's wrong with flying slowly?

Perhaps feeling sorry that such an excellent broom was "unworthy of its luster," Rice gave Daphne a suggestion.

"You can lend Harry your broom a few times; he'll be very grateful."

"Wouldn't this be considered aiding the enemy?" Astoria thought about the scene after Harry got the Firebolt and suddenly felt that the Slytherin team could just give up and go to sleep; they wouldn't be a match for the strengthened Gryffindor team.

"Anyway, those guys can't beat the Gryffindor team, so it's no big deal to lend them to Harry for a while." Daphne didn't care about the so-called "house honor" at all, and she looked down on the Slytherin Quidditch team.

Although she didn't think much of Malfoy and Marcus, Daphne had no intention of lending Harry her broom: what would she do with Potter's gratitude? Could she eat his gratitude?

For her, apart from Rice, there was no one else worth her taking the initiative to befriend.

……

While Rice was playing with a broom at Greengrass's house, Diagon Alley was a mess.

The landmark building in the alley, Gringotts, had its roof half collapsed, and a colossal fire dragon, nearly seventy feet long, lay sprawled on the bank's stone steps. Its motionless body, the gruesome wounds on its flesh, and the steps stained crimson with its dragon blood clearly indicated that it was dead.

At the bottom of the stone steps, there were six rows of body bags, each half a person tall, blocking half the street.

It's clear that Gringotts paid a heavy price last night to kill the fire dragon in Diagon Alley.

Minister of Magic Fudge stood beside the dragon's corpse, his face ashen—he had been called to work overtime early Christmas morning before he could even unwrap his presents; anyone would be furious in that situation.

"I need an explanation, Elijah."

Elijah, the goblin supervisor of Gringotts, stood beside Fudge with a forced smile: "The investigation results are in. It is concluded that the fire dragon escaped due to the aging of the chains."

Fudge's breathing became a little heavier.

"You guys are smart enough to stop the fire dragon inside Gringotts, otherwise I would have punished you severely."

Hearing Fudge's words, Elijah breathed a sigh of relief: he had managed to fool the Ministry of Magic this time. At the same time, he was also somewhat annoyed by Fudge's remarks: "Can't you see all these corpses? Can't you say something nicer now? What an arrogant wizard!"

Fudge really didn't care about the fairies' sacrifices. In his view, wasn't this all mess caused by you fairies? What does it matter to me how many fairies died because of this?

In his view, it was only right for the fairies to sacrifice as much as they could to trap the dragon in Diagon Alley, as long as they didn't cause trouble for the wizard. Oh, and it would be best if they didn't all die; he still needed the fairies to settle scores for him.

The four culprits behind the incident, Elijah and other high-ranking members of Gringotts, very tacitly erased all traces of their existence.

They didn't want outsiders to know that a mere four wizards had breached their supposedly "impenetrable" defenses and stolen from the Lestrange family's vault; it would have extremely negative consequences. If a few copycats emerged, Gringotts would be in serious trouble—after all, the dark wizards didn't know the four men's true strength; they only knew that four people could break through Gringotts' defenses.

If news of Gringotts' intrusion last year resurfaces, combined with these negative news reports, it could trigger a bank run. Wizards won't put the savings of generations of their families in a bank that isn't safe enough.

Fortunately, the higher-ups of the Ministry of Magic were all at Greengrass Manor for the Christmas dinner last night, and the battle with the dragon had burned the site to a crisp, giving the goblins a chance to bury the truth.

They placed the goblin guards killed by the dark wizard onto the dragon's head. After all, they were goblins; the wizard wouldn't bother to investigate the cause of their deaths. Actually, not many goblins died last night while suppressing the dragon; nearly two-thirds of the deaths were caused by those wizards…

The fairies were furious with these uninvited guests, but they had no idea where they came from.

They have already mobilized their connections to investigate secretly, but there has been no feedback—the fairies haven't even been able to keep track of what the four people took, making it quite difficult to find the culprit.

"Write a detailed incident report, an emergency plan for similar incidents in the future, and a plan for the routine maintenance and upkeep of Gringotts' hardware. Submit these to the Ministry of Magic after you've done them; I need to give them an explanation. Perhaps the Ministry will also need to assign a few security personnel to Gringotts... but this is just an idea; I need to think about it carefully." Fudge gave a few brief instructions and then left the scene.

In his view, this was a happy scene for all: the goblins had not caused any trouble for him or the Ministry of Magic. Although there had been some mishaps, it was not incomprehensible. Most importantly, no wizards were injured and no Muggles were disturbed.

This is really great! Nearly sixty fairies died...it's not such a bad thing, is it?

After he left, the goblin master of Gringotts turned a deep shade of purplish-red with rage.

What kind of nonsense is this?! And this "security officer"? He immediately understood—Fudge was just trying to extract benefits! Once this fat pig was fed, the establishment of a security officer would only remain a "consideration" topic. Without enough incentives, Gringotts wouldn't have a single day of peace; the security checks would keep them constantly on edge!

Hmm... if Fudge and his successor get along well enough, he might even hand over this special attack tool against Gringotts to the next Minister for Magic.

Thinking about this, Elijah felt a splitting headache.

Those damned wizards!

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

This is the second update. Tomorrow's update will also be at midnight.

(End of this chapter)