Chapter 310: Good News

Watching Harry and Ivy finish writing letter after letter to outside schools in the common room, Luo En's complexion looked visibly better.

"I'd be very happy to host Alina," he muttered.

Early Saturday morning, Luo En received a letter, and then as he read it, he began to laugh loudly. Harry leaned over curiously and asked: "What's wrong? Did Alina write back? So fast?"

"It's not that; it's a letter from Percy," Luo En said jubilantly. "Dad is going to be promoted."

"What?" Harry didn't expect to hear such news before Christmas.

"He said this is a piece of inside information he heard from a civil servant," Luo En said happily. "But as everyone knows, inside information leaked by civil servants is set in stone."

"But your dad is the Head of the Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee; if he gets promoted again, he'll be a Department Head," Harry said in a low voice.

"That's why I'm laughing so loudly, mate," Luo En was clearly a bit too excited. "Percy said Dad is about to become the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

"Then where does Lei Sichuide go?" Harry resisted the urge to look directly at Luo En's private letter.

"He... Percy didn't say," Luo En calmed down a bit.

"As far as I know, when Hake was the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Lei Sichuide was the Head of the Auror Office. He was Hake's old subordinate," Harry frowned. "No matter how you think about it, Hake couldn't possibly transfer his confidant and just hand over the Ministry's biggest department to your dad."

"Ah, you have a point, but Percy didn't mention Lei Sichuide at all," Luo En scratched his head, looking a bit embarrassed. "He said it was because of the operation of the Order of the Phoenix, and the Ministry of Magic wanted to show some goodwill."

"That's not how you show goodwill," Harry shook his head. He couldn't think of any operation the Order of the Phoenix could have. Recently, these people really had nothing to do, to the point where they started investigating Hoffa in Annecy. Sirius looked after it with some worry, only to find that they were mostly on vacation.

"In short, Percy said that the Ministry's emphasis on the Order of the Phoenix has greatly increased now. They are even discussing sending political consultants to the Order of the Phoenix," Luo En switched the second sheet of letter paper to the top. "This is unprecedented. Percy said he is striving for it."

"Striving for what?" Harry's eyes widened. "He isn't planning to be a political consultant, is he?"

"Looks like it," Luo En sighed. "He said this would be very helpful for his political career, and he thinks the Order of the Phoenix might not want a stranger inserted among them."

"Of course, Krest has been a ten-year member of the Order of the Phoenix," Harry curled his lip.

"I'm afraid Dad's promotion isn't the point," Luo En thought for a moment, and he began to notice something wrong with the letter. "Percy should want us to help him strive for this consultant position from the perspective of the Order of the Phoenix."

"This consultant position..." Harry suddenly thought of the reason. "It's because the Death Eaters have revealed some intentions to negotiate, and the Ministry of Magic hopes to act as a bridge, so they are preparing to set up this position."

"Ah, right, you said Snape lied that Deng Buliduo left—" Luo En stopped halfway, looked around, and then whispered, "So that's how it is? This lie fooled the Ministry of Magic too?"

"Since they promoted your dad—looking at it this way, perhaps Snape did indeed fool the Ministry of Magic," Harry also whispered. "Oh, right, Snape intends to add Deng Buliduo to the external deterrence. The most convenient way for him to pass the news to the Kremlin is undoubtedly to tell the Ministry of Magic."

"So, the Ministry of Magic should have been bluffed by Snape, or they would rather believe it exists than believe it doesn't. In short, your dad's promotion should be a simple good thing," Harry continued to analyze. "But the candidate for this consultant might not be so casual."

"This consultant is either a mouthpiece who doesn't need to consider anything," Harry summarized, "or he must have some real substance and truly play a role."

"Clearly, Percy can't satisfy either," Luo En teased.

"Percy has ability," Harry said fairly, "but he might still lack experience and be a bit too eager."

"Shouldn't he be eager?" Luo En didn't quite understand.

"Christmas is coming soon. The Ministry of Magic doesn't do anything before the holidays; they push everything to after the holidays," Harry acted as if he knew the Ministry of Magic very well. "This is easy to understand. Do you have the heart to do homework before the holidays?"

"You're right. There's clearly a week of classes left, but I don't want to read at all," Luo En glanced at the ceiling.

"I guess the Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters won't insist on continuing to meet on the weekend before the holidays," Harry nodded in deep agreement. "In this way, the Ministry of Magic is naturally not in a hurry to determine the consultant candidate."

As long as the consultant candidate wasn't Percy, Luo En wouldn't take it to heart. He was more concerned about his partner candidate.

Early Sunday morning, Alina sent a reply, but it wasn't to Luo En; it was to Ivy, as a formal communication between student organizations, and the wording was quite official. But interestingly, she wrote in the letter that she would come alone and requested Torchwood to assign her a partner.

"Haha, Luo En, Alina allows Torchwood to assign her a partner," Harry said to Luo En with a smile. "Then I appoint you as the receptionist; start preparing your dress immediately. What do you think?"

"Ah, then I'll reluctantly agree," Luo En was full of spring breeze. "This is all thanks to you."

"Don't be too happy too soon, you two," Ivy sighed. "There's more than one person who needs a partner assigned."

"Wha... t?" Harry looked at the stack of letters in her hand with some surprise.

"We might have exaggerated Snape's conservatism a bit. In short, all the schools decided to send only one representative, and we have to assign partners for all the guests," Ivy said hesitantly. "And this time, the scale is much larger than that time in the summer."

"What do you mean?" Harry estimated the thickness of the letters and realized that perhaps something was wrong.

"Torchwood is working hard to expand its influence, and through word of mouth... in short, although we wrote to all the schools out of politeness, they all agreed," Ivy sighed.

"One by one, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang," Harry realized something was wrong as soon as he finished speaking. "Oh, right, they can't show off their new style in front of Snape, so they will..."

"Right, right. From Beauxbatons, it's Kate Stewart. We'd better pair her with a pretty boy," Ivy said. "From Durmstrang, it's Krum. We have to find a lady for him."

"Shouldn't Krum have graduated?" Luo En suddenly spoke up.

"He stayed," Ivy explained. "Rodolphus requires every student to complete a certain number of Dark Magic courses to graduate. He is now taking make-up classes while plotting against Rodolphus."

"Sounds like his days aren't very good," Harry sighed.

"Should be okay. Krum has many fans; instead, it's Rodolphus who is afraid of him," Ivy nodded, then took out the next letter. "Koldovstoretz also wrote back. The good news is that Renata, whom you hate the most, won't come; the bad news is that they are still coming, and they changed to a boy named Schetnov."

"Then who should we find as his partner?" Harry said subconsciously.

"The preliminary idea is that Ginny and I need to be split up," Ivy nodded, "because Mahoutokoro will also send a single boy."

"That's good too. After all, you can't say how conservative Snape is in the letter while challenging his authority yourself," Harry felt a little lost for some reason.

"The problem now is that there's also a single boy from Uagadou and a single girl from Castelobruxo, and many schools not registered internationally. I don't know if I should reject them."

"The only good news is that the Chinese don't intend to add trouble for us. They claim that they happen to be celebrating some Winter Solstice festival that day, so they have no time," Ivy added.

"Let me think, if we give Parvati and Padma to Krum and the boy from Uagadou respectively," Harry said, "and then split Crabbe and Gao Er for the girls from Stewart and Castelobruxo..."

"First of all, Crabbe and Gao Er will make them think they've been insulted," Ivy said bluntly. "Secondly, as far as I know, Draco has already found the Greengrass sisters for them."

"What a mess," Harry felt very dissatisfied with Draco's behavior. "Then, no, we can't split Cui Ge and Luna; that's for sure..."

"I think maybe you can throw half of the headache to Ma Erfu," Luo En suggested. "Now there are Stewart, Krum, and two others who haven't been settled, so we are responsible for handling Stewart and Krum, whom we are more familiar with, and let Ma Erfu pick two people who look okay from the Snake House to assign to the boy from Uagadou and the girl from Castelobruxo."

"Oh, right, we have to tell Snape about this," Harry said. "He should agree, but we have to tell him."

"That doesn't matter; Draco has already told him," Ivy said. "Then I'll go tell him again and let him find a way to host those two international friends—one from Brazil, one from Uganda, both people of color. I really don't know why the young masters and misses of the Snake House would be willing to agree."

"Or, as Zhang Qiu said, 'many debts don't weigh you down.' You pick out some magic schools that are not recognized by the International Confederation of Wizards. We handle the easy ones, and let Draco have a headache over the difficult ones," Harry suddenly said, and Luo En cooperated by revealing a treacherous, bad smile. ===== CHAPTER 311 =====