Chapter 368

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, when he saw 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 we're staying for a while anyway, why don't we go to the Weasley house?" Ivy shrugged.

Thus, the main reason they were now sitting in the Burrow's living room, watching Mr. Weasley fidgeting and biting his nails on the sofa, was the news published in the newspaper on Monday: Jim Hack announced that he would resign from the position of Minister for Magic in the near future to go all out in preparing for the upcoming Muggle election.

"I still don't quite understand," Ron said, "Running is running, why must Hack resign from the position of Minister for Magic?"

"Setting aside procedures and regulations, one obvious truth is that if Hack is elected, he will definitely be Prime Minister, so there will be no need to be Minister anymore." Mr. Weasley explained, "And if he isn't elected, his political opponents definitely 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." Ron scratched his head.

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

Ron still didn't seem to understand.

"Ah, let's put it this way." Harry patted his shoulder, "Suppose you are the Prime Minister, and you know that the Ministry of Magic can also influence elections, would you choose to keep the Ministry of Magic under your control 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 know the way to the Ministry of Magic." Ron blinked.

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

"That possibility is slim; Lestrange has always been hostile to Muggles." Mr. Weasley shook his head.

"Arthur, today's mail is here." Mrs. Weasley came down from upstairs with a stack of envelopes in her hand.

Suddenly, as if there were a spring on the sofa, Arthur Weasley jumped to the stairs, saying anxiously: "Quick, give it to me."

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

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

Mrs. Weasley took the letter, a smug smile appearing 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 a look of surprise appeared on his face.

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

Harry curiously leaned forward, noticing that Ron had failed History of Magic, but had received an Outstanding in Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"But, don't OWL results usually take about a month to come out?" Ron said stammeringly, "I can't quite believe it, could this be a prank by Fred?"

Then, Mr. Weasley handed Harry his report card as well, explaining: "It might be because Hack is in a hurry to step down, so everything at 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 Defence 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." Ron said, leaning over, "Oh, sure enough, you got all Outstandings."

"But I only got a Pass in History of Magic." Harry shrugged, "However, barely passing is not bad either."

"You know, Fred and George only passed six subjects combined." Molly proudly rubbed Ron's hair, "You're really great."

"Ah... Ha!" Mr. Weasley's strange laugh shifted everyone's attention from the OWL results to him.

"When Doge told me, I didn't believe it..." Mr. Weasley 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?" Ginny asked with great insight.

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

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

"Minister? Dad is going to be Minister?" Ginny looked like she couldn't believe it either, "But you've only been a Department Head for less than half a year?"

"Someone must have been working behind the scenes." Ivy analyzed, "Who is that Doge?"

"He's from the Order of the Phoenix, uh, the current leader." Harry just realized that the identity of the leader 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 sentiments were there, Doge's influence would be quite considerable.

"That's it." Ivy shrugged, "Congratulations."

"Yes, that makes sense. The Order of the Phoenix hopes the Minister is one of their own. Oh, actually," Mr. Weasley continued to smile foolishly, "as long as it's someone who is righteous, they will support them. Haha, it just so happens that I'm relatively close!"

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

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

Harry swallowed.

"There's a second page to the letter." Molly prompted.

"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... " Reading and reading, Mr. Weasley suddenly showed an expression like he had eaten a fly, "Appointing Sir Malfoy as Head of the Department of Mysteries?"

"Malfoy?!" Harry and Ron couldn't help but stand up, "What's going on?"

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

"Relax, Arthur." Molly stepped forward, stroking his back, "Even if Malfoy became a Department Head, you're the Minister."

"Oh, yes, I almost forgot, I'll be Minister soon." The smile returned to Mr. Weasley's face, "But I still find it incredible. Before this, Malfoy had always been outside the Ministry of Magic, these guys who claim to be old aristocrats have never taken the Ministry of Magic seriously..."

"Malfoy is not the Dark Lord after all, so as Dad said, if there's a chance to be an official, he'll definitely be happy." Ron said contemptuously, "But this is interesting, 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, it's our turn this year!"

While the Weasley family was filled with a joyful atmosphere, a question that had once made Harry feel confused was suddenly resolved. In the final stage of the Death Eater infighting, why did Lucius choose to defect so easily? Perhaps, one was the situation, and the other was another deal he made with Snape—using a position in the Ministry of Magic to help Lucius completely wash his reputation.

If Hack were elected Muggle Prime Minister (which was already a certainty in Harry's mind), it would create the appearance of "wizards ruling Muggles." In this case, even the most stubborn pure-blood supremacists would be willing to praise such a Ministry of Magic, not to mention the Malfoy family, who already had a flexible stance; it was no surprise that he would be happy to accept a position in the Ministry of Magic.

From another perspective, the Malfoy family guessed that the future situation would be dominated by Harry, so they needed to show their stance on both sides of the black and white, while also occupying a safe high position. The position of Head of the Department of Mysteries was indeed a position without threat to Harry. Because he knew that after Leslie's devastation, the current Department of Mysteries was almost a large warehouse, and the few newly appointed Unspeakables didn't know anything, simply acting as security guards. This meant that Lucius didn't have much possibility of using the Department of Mysteries to show off his skills, which was a position where symbolic significance was greater than practical significance—just as he was responsible for keeping Nagini among the Death Eaters.

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

However, at this moment, Harry suddenly noticed that while Snape was trading in the dark to arrange for Lucius 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 relied on fear to make people submit.