Chapter 213: Death Eaters' Movements?

Soon, Umbridge's act of manipulating John as a pawn to deliberately damage the reputation of Hogwarts teachers and interfere with the teaching autonomy of professors spread.

And in this incident, John was also packaged as an innocent victim.

The next day, it made it to the Wizarding Weekly, including the inhumane punishment method Umbridge used against Harry, which was also made public.

The publisher was naturally our legendary smear king, Rita Skeeter.

I said this reporter was still useful.

And among the students at Hogwarts, there were no lack of those from powerful families; they naturally would also worry that their children had suffered the same cruel treatment.

So that day, dozens of letters condemning Umbridge were sent to the school and the Ministry of Magic.

Umbridge instantly fell from the "pioneer of educational reform appointed by the Ministry of Magic" to the target of public criticism.

If it weren't for the Ministry of Magic personally stepping in to forcibly suppress public opinion, she would probably have become the professor with the shortest tenure at Hogwarts.

Of course, there were also people who guessed that John took the initiative to become Umbridge's lackey and abused his power to retaliate against Snape.

To be fair, the guess was quite accurate, but not entirely correct.

He was indeed deliberately reaching an agreement with Umbridge, and then deliberately going to disgust Professor Snape.

But in the end, it was still to borrow Professor Snape's hand, as well as the influence of public opinion, to curb Umbridge's erosion of Hogwarts.

Originally he didn't want to do this, but he couldn't stand Umbridge coming to his door herself; he had to do it.

That day when he was called alone by Umbridge and heard her intention to recruit him, he had already planned it.

And later after being caught up by Professor Snape, he also told Professor Snape all his plans.

So the scene in front of Umbridge later was actually all deliberately acted out.

Umbridge was really deceived and had to bear everything.

At the same time, thanks to his making a scene, Umbridge's power at Hogwarts suffered a devastating blow.

That day, Harry's detention was canceled; I heard that day was their Gryffindor Quidditch team tryouts, and he originally had no chance to participate in the integration with new team members.

As a result, because of this incident, he successfully participated.

Even more wonderfully, I heard that the titles and powers that the Ministry of Magic originally planned to add to Umbridge were also temporarily canceled.

In short, John scored big... right?

"Wrong, wrong, Sister Hermione, I won't dare next time..."

After the matter came to an end, John was caught by Hermione.

The back of his neck of fate was grabbed by her, and he seemed to have lost all means of resistance.

"You say you won't dare every time, but as a result, you make a bunch of noise again as soon as you turn around."

"I, I am also doing this for the sake of our Hogwarts' beautiful environment..."

John defended stubbornly.

As a result, Hermione stretched out her other hand and made a fist, and John shut up immediately.

"If you are not careful, you will also become the target of this public opinion, do you know that!"

"Isn't there legendary reporter Rita Skeeter to cover for me..." John muttered.

"Still talking!"

"Not talking, not talking..."

Hermione let go but didn't let him off, her fingertips poking his chest.

"Stay away from Umbridge; there are still quite a few people in school who suspect you now."

"Okay..." John responded submissively.

Just as mentioned before, there were still people who guessed that John took the initiative to be a lackey.

After all, his appearance of retaliating against Snape didn't look like acting...

It was indeed not acting... (whisper)

Of course, no one dared to discuss him to John's face, only daring to gossip or guess behind his back.

John naturally didn't care.

"Hermione! John!"

Just at this moment, Harry and Ron rushed over panting; Harry was clutching a letter in his hand, while Ron was holding a copy of the "Daily Prophet" that had just been received.

"The Death Eaters have made a move!"

Their words made Hermione forget to continue lecturing, and John also curiously leaned over.

【Sturgis Podmore, 38, recently accepted trial at the Wizengamot】

【Accused of illegal trespassing into the Ministry of Magic and committing robbery on August 31st】

【Ministry of Magic guards discovered him attempting to break through a first-level confidential door at one o'clock in the morning that day】

【After being arrested, Podmore refused to defend himself; the accusation was established, and he was sentenced to six months of imprisonment in Azkaban】

First was a piece of news in the Daily Prophet.

A seemingly ordinary illegal trespassing and robbery case didn't seem to be able to be linked to the Death Eaters.

There was also a black and white photo of this Mr. Podmore on it; in the photo, his eyes were hollow, and he looked out of his mind.

"Death Eaters want to break into the Ministry of Magic?"

After reading this news, John and Hermione both asked strangely.

"No, not, er, not entirely wrong..."

"First of all, he is not a Death Eater; you came to the Order of the Phoenix quite late, so you haven't seen him."

"He is actually a member of our Order of the Phoenix."

Harry's voice was low; when he followed Sirius to the Order of the Phoenix, he had seen this man in the newspaper in the Order of the Phoenix, and even chatted a few words.

It's just that he never saw him again later; he didn't expect that the next time he saw him, it would be the news of his imprisonment in the newspaper.

As he spoke, Harry took out the letter again.

"Then I wrote a letter back to ask Sirius."

"Now the Order of the Phoenix suspects that the Death Eaters controlled him, and then used him to break into the Ministry of Magic to find something."

This was a letter from the Order of the Phoenix, without a signature, but the handwriting looked more like Professor Lupin's.

The content of the letter was roughly this.

Podmore was previously standing guard for the Order of the Phoenix to monitor the Death Eaters, but he suddenly lost contact before the incident.

It wasn't until the next day that they received the news of his arrest at the Ministry of Magic.

Although there were people from the Order of the Phoenix at the Ministry of Magic attempting to defend him, he had been in a daze and unable to make any response, clearly his mind had been severely damaged.

This situation was very much like the typical performance after being violently controlled by the Imperius Curse.

But the Ministry of Magic turned a blind eye and threw him directly into Azkaban.

Clearly there was a mastermind pushing it.

Combined with the intelligence obtained when John and Professor Moody went out to destroy the Death Eater gathering last time.

It could be confirmed that this was an action planned by the Death Eaters.

They were indeed looking for something, and that thing was in the Ministry of Magic, and behind a certain first-level confidential door.

"First-level confidential door... the place the Death Eaters want to go should be the Department of Mysteries."

Hermione looked at the content on the letter and said with a frown.

If you want to say what place in the Ministry of Magic needs the most confidentiality, the first to bear the brunt must be the Department of Mysteries.

Most of the business in that place is kept secret from ordinary wizards, and few people know what is actually being studied inside.

At the same time, it also preserves some extremely dangerous ancient magical items and unsolved mysteries, such as the residual files of the Time-Turner, the Prophecy Orb storage area, and even the entrance to the secret room where the true face of the Veil of Death can be glimpsed in legend.

Are the Death Eaters, or Voldemort, wanting to find something inside?

Watching the few of them looking at each other, in an extremely solemn appearance, John was a little speechless.

"What are you guys guessing blindly here; if you ask me, it's simpler to just go ask Dumbledore."

"Just right, Senior Harry, you should be free now, right; we agreed before to go find Dumbledore."

Hearing John's words, the few of them were stunned.

It seemed to make quite a bit of sense... ===== CHAPTER 214 =====