Chapter 310: Good News

Ron watched as Harry and Ivy finished letter after letter sent outside the school, and his expression visibly improved.

"I'd be delighted to host Elena," he muttered.

Early Saturday morning, Ron received a letter, and as he read it, he burst into laughter. Harry leaned over curiously and asked, "What's wrong? Did Elena reply? So fast?"

"No, it's Percy's letter," Ron said gleefully. "Dad's getting promoted."

"What?" Harry hadn't expected such news before Christmas.

"He says it's a rumor he heard from a civil servant," Ron grinned. "But everyone knows a civil servant's rumor is as good as fact."

"But your dad's head of the Muggle Affairs Office—he'd have to become a Director to get promoted further," Harry said quietly.

"That's why I'm laughing so hard, mate," Ron was clearly overexcited. "Percy says Dad's about to become Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

"Then where's Lestrade?" Harry restrained himself from looking directly at Ron's private letter.

"He… Percy didn't say," Ron grew a little quieter.

"As far as I know, when Hark was Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Lestrade was Head of the Auror Office—he was Hark's old subordinate," Harry frowned. "No matter how you look at it, Hark wouldn't remove his trusted man and hand over the Ministry's largest department to your dad."

"Ah, you're right, but Percy didn't mention Lestrade at all," Ron scratched his head, slightly embarrassed. "He says it's because the Order's operations, and the Ministry wants to show goodwill."

"Goodwill isn't shown this way," Harry shook his head. He couldn't imagine what kind of operation the Order was running. Lately, these people had nothing to do, so they'd started investigating Hufa in Anansi. Sirius had checked in worriedly, only to find they spent most of their time on vacation.

"Anyway, Percy says the Ministry has greatly increased its attention toward the Order—they're even discussing assigning a political advisor to them," Ron flipped over the second page of the letter. "It's unprecedented. Percy says he's fighting for it."

"Fighting for what?" Harry's eyes widened. "He's not planning to become the political advisor himself, is he?"

"Looks like it," Ron sighed. "He says it'll help his political career, and he thinks the Order might not want a stranger inserted among them."

"Of course, Cresset has been a ten-year member of the Order," Harry sneered.

"I think Dad's promotion isn't the real point," Ron thought for a moment and noticed something odd about the letter. "Percy wants us to help him secure the advisor position from the Order's perspective."

"The advisor position…" Harry suddenly understood. "It's because the Death Eaters have hinted at negotiations—the Ministry wants to act as a bridge, so they're setting up this role."

"Ah, right—you said Snape falsely claimed Dumbledore left—" Ron stopped mid-sentence, glanced around, then whispered, "So that's it? This lie fooled the Ministry too?"

"Since they promoted your dad—it seems Snape really did fool the Ministry," Harry whispered too. "Oh right, Snape plans to include Dumbledore in the external deterrence—he wants to send a message to the Kremlin, and the easiest way is to tell the Ministry."

"So the Ministry was either tricked by Snape, or they chose to believe it anyway—either way, your dad's promotion is a straightforward good thing," Harry continued analyzing. "But the choice of advisor might not be so simple."

"The advisor will either be a mere mouthpiece who doesn't need to think," Harry concluded, "or someone with real substance who can actually make a difference."

"Clearly, Percy satisfies neither," Ron teased.

"Percy is capable," Harry said fairly. "But he may still lack experience, and he's too eager."

"Shouldn't he be eager?" Ron didn't understand.

"The holiday's coming—before the break, the Ministry does nothing, pushing everything to after the holidays," Harry spoke as if he knew the Ministry inside out. "It's easy to understand—do you feel like doing homework right before vacation?"

"You're right—I still have a week of classes left, but I don't want to open a book at all," Ron glanced at the ceiling.

"I bet the Order and the Death Eaters won't hold meetings on the weekend right before the holiday either," Harry nodded in agreement. "So the Ministry certainly isn't in a rush to name the advisor."

As long as the advisor wasn't Percy, Ron didn't care—he was more concerned about his dance partner.

Early Sunday, Elena replied—but not to Ron; she sent it to Ivy, as a formal communication between student organizations and an outside school, with highly official wording. Yet interestingly, she wrote that she would come alone and requested Torchwood to assign her a dance partner.

"Ha, Ron, Elena's letting Torchwood assign her a dance partner," Harry laughed at Ron. "I appoint you as the liaison—get your formal wear ready immediately. What do you say?"

"Ah, then I'll reluctantly accept," Ron beamed. "All thanks to you."

"Don't get too excited yet," Ivy sighed. "She's not the only one who needs a dance partner."

"Wh…what?" Harry stared at the stack of letters in her hand.

"We may have overestimated Snape's conservatism," Ivy hesitated. "In any case, all schools have decided to send only one representative—we have to assign dance partners to every guest. And this year's scale is much larger than last summer's."

"What do you mean?" Harry estimated the thickness of the letters and realized things might be worse than expected.

"Torchwood is trying to expand its influence, and through word of mouth… we sent polite invitations to every school, but they all accepted," Ivy sighed.

"Say it one by one—Beauxbatons and Durmstrang," Harry began, then realized something was off. "Oh right—they can't show off new trends in front of Snape, so they'll…"

"Exactly. Beauxbatons is sending Kate Stewart—we'd better pair her with a good-looking guy. Durmstrang is sending Krum—we need to find him a lady."

"Isn't Krum supposed to have graduated?" Ron suddenly spoke up.

"He stayed back," Ivy explained. "Rodolphus requires every student to complete a certain number of Dark Arts courses to graduate. He's now catching up on classes while secretly plotting against Rodolphus."

"Sounds like he's having a rough time," Harry remarked.

"Probably not too bad—he's got plenty of fans; it's Rodolphus who's afraid of him," Ivy nodded, then pulled out another letter. "Codovstritz replied too—good news is your least favorite Renata won't come; bad news is they're still coming, but with a boy named Shechenov."

"Then who should be his dance partner?" Harry said instinctively.

"The initial idea is that Ivy and Ginny need to be separated," Ivy nodded. "Because the Ministry of Magic will also send a single male student."

"That works—after all, you can't claim Snape is ultra-conservative in your letters while openly defying his authority," Harry felt a faint sense of disappointment for no clear reason.

"The problem now is there's also a single male from Wagaadu, a single female from Castelbroche, and many schools not on the international registry—I don't even know if we should refuse them."

"The only good news is the Chinese didn't plan to cause trouble—they claim they'll be celebrating a winter solstice festival that day, so they're unavailable," Ivy added.

"Let me think—if we pair Parvati and Padma with Krum and the Wagaadu boy," Harry said, "and split Crabbe and Goyle to pair with Stewart and the Castelbroche girl…"

"First, Crabbe and Goyle will make them feel insulted," Ivy said bluntly. "Second, as far as I know, Draco has already assigned the Greengrass sisters to them."

"This is ridiculous," Harry was deeply displeased with Draco's behavior. "Then we—no, we absolutely can't separate Cui Ge and Luna—that's out of the question…"

"I think you should dump half your headaches onto Malfoy," Ron suggested. "We still have Stewart, Krum, and two others unassigned—let's handle the ones we know well—Stewart and Krum—and let Draco pick two decent-looking people from Slytherin to assign to the Wagaadu boy and the Castelbroche girl."

"Oh, we also need to tell Snape about this," Harry said. "He'll probably agree, but we should inform him."

"No problem—Draco already told him," Ivy said. "I'll go speak to him again and ask him to arrange reception for those two international guests—one from Brazil, one from Uganda—both are people of color. I can't imagine how Slytherin's young lords and ladies will agree."

"Why not, as Zhang Qiu said, when you're drowning in debt, one more won't hurt? Pick out some of the schools not recognized by the International Confederation of Wizards—handle the easy ones ourselves, and leave the hard ones for Draco to worry about," Harry suddenly said, and Ron grinned wickedly in response.