Chapter 368: Alternative Minister

For other students at Hogwarts, the summer vacation had already begun after the exams. However, for Harry, fifth-year studies were not the only thing he had been worrying about this year, and even after successfully completing the Dark Lord election, Harry still felt he couldn't relax.

Originally, Harry and Ivy planned to take the train on Monday afternoon to return to Tang Dun. But early in the morning, after seeing the new *Daily Prophet*, he could only helplessly say to his sister: "You go back first, I'm afraid I'll have to stay in the Wizarding World for a while."

"Since I'm staying for a while anyway, why don't we go to the Wei Silai family?" Ivy shrugged.

Thus, the main reason they were now sitting in the Burrow's living room, watching Mr. Wei Silai sitting restlessly on the sofa biting his nails, was the news published in the newspaper on Monday: Jim Hack announced that he would resign as Minister for Magic in the near future to fully prepare for the upcoming Muggle general election.

"I still don't quite understand," Luo En said. "Running for office is one thing, but why must Hack resign from the position of Minister for Magic?"

"Setting aside procedures and regulations, one very obvious truth is that if Hack is elected, he will definitely be Prime Minister, so there's no need to be Minister anymore," Mr. Wei Silai explained. "And if he isn't elected, his political opponents certainly won't allow him to continue sitting in the Ministry of Magic."

"But I've never heard of a Muggle Prime Minister being able to influence the Ministry of Magic." Luo En scratched his head.

"Yes, you would think that Muggle political trends have nothing to do with us, but that was in the past. If Hack uses the Ministry of Magic's resources to help him, it will be very difficult for the Ministry of Magic to maintain its independence in front of the Cabinet in the future."

Luo En still didn't seem to understand.

"Ah, let's put it this way," Harry patted him on the shoulder. "Suppose you are the Prime Minister, and you know that the Ministry of Magic can also influence the election, then would you choose to keep the Ministry of Magic in your own hands as much as possible, or would you continue to ignore the Ministry of Magic like before?"

"But the Prime Minister isn't necessarily a wizard, he might not even be able to find the way to the Ministry of Magic." Luo En blinked.

"Yes, but the Prime Minister can always know one or several wizards and reach cooperation with them, right?" Harry rubbed his cheeks. "We know Snape might have already placed his bet on Hack and the Labour Party, but no one knows if any wizards have contacted the Conservative Party privately. What's even more worrying is, what if Bella contacts the Conservative Party privately?"

"That possibility is minimal, Lestrange has always been hostile to Muggles," Mr. Wei Silai shook his head.

"Arthur, today's mail is here." Mrs. Wei Silai came down from upstairs with a stack of envelopes.

Whoosh, as if there were a spring on the sofa, Arthur Wei Silai jumped to the stairs and said anxiously: "Quick, give it to me."

He took the envelope and scanned it quickly, then suddenly stopped.

"Bill's letter? But why is it from Paris?"

Mrs. Wei Silai took the letter away, a smug smile on her face. "Let Bill explain it himself later."

"Alright, alright, let me see, this one is from the Ministry of Magic." Arthur said, tearing open the envelope directly, and then showed a look of surprise.

"This is a report card? Oh Luo En, you got an 'Outstanding', that's really good." He only looked at the first page of the letter and then returned it to Luo En.

Harry leaned forward curiously; he noticed that Luo En had failed History of Magic, but had received an 'Outstanding' in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"But, didn't the previous OWL results take about a month to come out?" Luo En said stutteringly. "I can't quite believe it, could this be Fred playing a prank?"

Then, Mr. Wei Silai handed Harry's report card to him, explaining by the way: "Maybe it's because Hack is in a hurry to step down, so everything in the Ministry of Magic has been accelerated; they've been working overtime every day for a while."

Harry nodded, then tore open the envelope and unfolded the parchment inside unhurriedly.

One, two, three, four, five, six, six 'Outstandings'. Harry felt this was somewhat beyond his expectations; he had originally thought he could only get 'Outstandings' in Defense Against the Dark Arts and Potions.

"Care of Magical Creatures, Muggle Studies, Transfiguration, Charms." Harry scratched his head. "Indeed, these subjects were quite simple."

"I really have to thank you for helping me review, I've never seen so many 'Exceeds Expectations'," Luo En said, leaning over. "Oh, sure enough, you got all 'Outstandings'."

"But I only passed History of Magic," Harry shrugged. "However, barely passing is not bad either."

"You know, Fred and George only passed six subjects combined," Mo Li rubbed Luo En's hair proudly. "You're really great."

"Ah... Ha!" Mr. Wei Silai's strange laugh made everyone's attention shift from the OWL results to him.

"When Doge told me, I didn't believe it..." Mr. Wei Silai showed a silly smile, his eyes fixed on the letter in his hand. "I should have thought of it, Doge is no small character!"

"What's wrong, Dad?" Jin Ni asked with great insight.

"Yi, haha!" Mr. Wei Silai read happily, "... The meeting decided that Arthur Wei Silai will succeed as Minister for Magic! I never thought about it, and I couldn't say that, who hasn't fantasized about it? But what I didn't expect was that this thing could really fall on me!"

Harry and Luo En looked at each other; he noticed that there was three parts confusion, three parts surprise, three parts disbelief, and a trace of indifference in Luo En's eyes.

"Minister? Dad is going to be Minister?" Jin Ni also looked a bit incredulous. "But you've been a Department Head for less than half a year, right?"

"Someone must have been exerting influence in the dark," Ivy analyzed. "Who is that Doge?"

"He's from the Order of the Phoenix, er, the current President." Harry just realized that the status of President might have some additional significance, which was that he had taken over the connections left by Dumbledore. No matter how many times those favors could be used, as long as those connections existed, Doge's influence would be quite considerable.

"That's it then," Ivy shrugged. "Congratulations to you."

"Yes, that makes sense. The Order of the Phoenix hopes the Minister is one of their own, oh, actually," Mr. Wei Silai continued to giggle, "as long as they are people who are righteous, they will support them, haha, it just so happens that I'm closer!"

"Now I know who Percy inherited it from," Luo En squinted; he wasn't very interested in these things.

"Eh eh! Everyone has fantasized about becoming Minister for Magic, right?" Mr. Wei Silai defended himself. "If there's an opportunity to become Minister, everyone would be excited... unless it's that kind of anarchist, right, except for the Dark Lord."

Harry swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

"There's a second page to the letter," Mo Li reminded him.

"Ah right, let me see... Leslie Pots transferred to Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, that's strange, I thought it would be Johnny..." As he read, Mr. Wei Silai suddenly showed an expression as if he had eaten a fly. "Appointing Sir Ma Erfu as Head of the Department of Mysteries?"

"Ma Erfu?!" Harry and Luo En couldn't help but stand up. "What's going on?"

"Who knows what's going on!" Mr. Wei Silai said indignantly. "He must have done something, some shady deal, why!"

"Relax, Arthur," Mo Li walked up and stroked his back. "Even if Ma Erfu becomes Head of Department, you are the Minister."

"Oh, yes, I almost forgot, I'm about to be Minister," the smile returned to Mr. Wei Silai's face. "But I still find it incredible. Before this, Ma Erfu had always been outside the Ministry of Magic. Guys like them who claim to be old-school nobles have never taken the Ministry of Magic seriously..."

"Ma Erfu is not the Dark Lord after all, so just as Dad said, if there's an opportunity to be an official, he'll definitely be happy," Luo En said contemptuously. "But this is interesting now, he has to be my dad's subordinate, ha, let's see how Draco can be proud now, just like Zhang Qiu said, the feng shui turns, this year it's at my house!"

While a joyful atmosphere was rising in the Wei Silai family, a question that had once made Harry feel puzzled was suddenly resolved. In the final stage of the Death Eater infighting, why did Lu Xiusi choose to defect so easily? Perhaps, one was the situation, and the other was another deal he made with Snape—using an official position in the Ministry of Magic to help Lu Xiusi completely wash himself clean.

If Hack is elected Muggle Prime Minister (which is a done deal in Harry's mind), it forms the appearance of "wizards ruling Muggles." In this case, even the most stubborn pure-blood supremacists would be willing to give such a Ministry of Magic a thumbs up, not to mention the Ma Erfu family, who already had a flexible stance; it's no surprise he would be happy to accept an official position in the Ministry of Magic.

From another perspective, the Ma Erfu family guessed that the future situation would be dominated by Harry, so in both the black and white worlds, they needed to show their stance while occupying a safe high position first. The position of Head of the Department of Mysteries is indeed a position without threat to Harry. Because he knows that after Leslie's devastation, the current Department of Mysteries is almost a large warehouse, and the few Unspeakables who have just taken office know nothing, simply acting as security guards. This also means that Lu Xiusi doesn't have much possibility of using the Department of Mysteries to make great strides; this is a position where symbolic significance is greater than actual significance—just like how he is responsible for keeping Nagini among the Death Eaters.

Harry felt a bit annoyed; he didn't want to play by the rules with Lu Xiusi, who was clearly a master of tricks. To deal with Lu Xiusi, one had to directly threaten his personal safety unreasonably.

However, at this moment, Harry suddenly noticed that while Snape was making secret deals to arrange for Lu Xiusi to become a Ministry of Magic official, he also naturally left behind that "unreasonable" means.

Saruman Riddle, as the new Dark Lord, could kill his subordinates for any reason at any time, because the Dark Lord relies on fear to make people submit. ===== CHAPTER 369 =====