Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures-Chapter 1174: Attacks and assurances

There was a moment of silence in the office. After hearing this, the Prime Minister didn’t know what to say.

He felt his head spinning, overwhelmed by too much information that he didn’t understand or that shocked him.

A wizard suddenly came out of his fireplace, and there was also a Dark wizard who couldn’t be killed and who wanted to control him to start a World War.

No one would be able to react when confronted with so many terrifying revelations all at once, right?

But a persistent habit of wishing to appear well-informed on any subject that came up made the Prime Minister cast around for any details he could remember of their previous conversations.

“Is Serious Black with — er — He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?” The Prime Minister asked.

He remembered Fudge rushing in, a few years back, in a state of considerable panic, informing him that a Dark wizard named “Serious” Black had escaped from prison.

It was said that Black was a follower of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

“Black? Black? Sirius Black, you mean? You still remember him,” said Fudge distractedly, turning his bowler rapidly in his fingers. “It’s not him. Turns out we were — er — mistaken about Black. He was innocent. With the help of Evan Mason, he cleared his name. This happened a couple of years ago. We forgot to inform you.”

There was another silence. The anger rose again in his heart. The Prime Minister stared at Fudge. How could he treat him like this? Such a matter brushed off with a mere “forgot”!

He remembered being told that Black was a notorious Muggle killer and was asked to assist in his capture.

He had done so, and now he was being told they had been wrong!

These wizards were all crazy, treating him and the British government like fools.

What kind of Ministry of Magic was it? They couldn’t even get their own wanted list right.

The Prime Minister was certain that if one of his subordinates made such an error, he would have them pack their things and go home immediately.

“But Black’s by-the-by now;” said Fudge, his bowler turning faster in his fingers. “The point is, we’re at war, Prime Minister, and steps must be taken.”

“At war?” repeated the Prime Minister nervously.”Surely that’s a little bit of an overstatement?”

“As I said just now, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named wants to control you to start wars between countries all over the world,” said Fudge, speaking more and more rapidly and twirling his bowler so fast that it was a lime-green blur.

“This is just your speculation!” The Prime Minister said firmly.

“Not only that, just take what has happened so far, he has some followers who have been wreaking havoc since they have moved into the open, and we have reason to suspect that he is planning a larger-scale attack. The Brockdale Bridge — he did it, Prime Minister, he also…”

“Good grief, so it’s your fault those people were killed and I’m having to answer questions about rusted rigging and corroded expansion joints and I don’t know what else!” said the Prime Minister furiously, standing up abruptly.

“My fault!” said Fudge, coloring up. “Are you saying you would have caved in to blackmail like that?”

“Maybe not,” said the Prime Minister, striding about the room, “but I would have put all my efforts into catching the blackmailer before he committed any such atrocity! Let alone letting him influence us!”

“Hmph, do you really think I wasn’t already making every effort?” demanded Fudge heatedly. “Since the news of the return of You-Know-Who was confirmed, every Auror in the Ministry was — and is — trying to find him and round up his followers, but we happen to be talking about one of the most powerful wizards of all time, a wizard who has eluded capture for almost thirty years!”

“I see, I see. So I suppose you’re going to tell me he caused the hurricane in the West Country too?” The Prime Minister asked slowly, his temper rising with every pace he took.

It was infuriating to discover the reason for all these terrible disasters and not be able to tell the public, almost worse than it being the government’s fault after all.

And then there was the threat Fudge mentioned, that ridiculous Dark wizard attempting to control him to start a World War.

Absurd, ludicrous, laughable!

After the initial fear, he was filled with infinite anger.

“That was no hurricane,” said Fudge miserably.

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“Excuse me!” barked the Prime Minister, now positively stamping up and down. “Big trees uprooted, roofs ripped off, lampposts bent, massive casualties and disappearances, countless horrible injuries —”

“It was the Death Eaters,” said Fudge. “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s followers. Dumbledore told us that the man might be collecting a large number of human corpses and souls — er — to perform some evil magic. That’s roughly what he said; he wasn’t very detailed…”

Fudge’s voice was obviously trembling when he talked about it. He still couldn’t believe such a thing.

But all the signs were very obvious. Dumbledore surely knew something but was unwilling to share everything with them.

“Collecting human corpses and souls for evil magic — you mean, he is carrying out a massacre!”

The Prime Minister stopped in his tracks as though he had hit an invisible wall.

“This is just our speculation, but You-Know-Who might indeed be orchestrating massacres, which is why he’s trying to control you to start a war,” said Fudge, stopping spinning his bowler hat. He took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “In fact, the Brockdale Bridge incident was similar. However, we received a warning in advance, tracked their movements, and evacuated the Muggles on the bridge, preventing greater loss.”

There was another silence. The Prime Minister had no idea what to say. The situation seemed completely out of control.

“But don’t worry. The Aurors of the Ministry are closely monitoring the entire country. We are confident that we can control the development of the situation. He doesn’t have much chance,” said Fudge, wiping the sweat from his forehead again. “In the hurricane in the West, he may have used a giant, which caught us off guard, but…”

“Did you say giant?”

“Yes, yes, only giants can create such a scene. If it were done by magic, we would have detected it beforehand,” said Fudge with a frown. “This kind of thing should not happen again. We have strengthened the management of rural areas. If this happens again, the Aurors will be there within a minute. The Office of Misinformation has been working around the clock, we’ve had teams of Obliviators out trying to modify the memories of all the Muggles who saw what really happened, we’ve got most of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures running around Somerset, where they are searching everywhere for clues about the giant…”

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