Hogwarts Raven's Claw

Chapter 487: A cliché tragedy

Mrs. Kent, this is someone Mike is very familiar with.

Of course, the reason why Mike was familiar with her was not because they had had any contact before, but because this woman had appeared frequently in Clark's memory, and in Clark's most precious meeting at the last moment, it was almost entirely about the memory fragments of his daughter.

But in Clark's memory, Mrs. Kent was far from what she looked like in front of Mike now.

In Clark's mind, Mrs. Kent's hair was always jet black, there were never any wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, that familiar black dress was always as dark and shiny as the night sky, and her face always had a warm and happy smile.

This is normal, because in the eyes of most sons, their mothers are always perfect, as the saying goes, "a son will never dislike his mother's ugliness."

When Mike first saw this, he thought Clark and Mrs. Kent should be a mother and son with a very good relationship. But in fact, after continuing to watch, Mike realized that the relationship between the mother and son was not that good.

This is a very sad story.

Mrs. Kent was also a respectable person in Slytherin when she was in school. Although the Kent family had already declined by then, Mrs. Kent still received a very good aristocratic education thanks to the influence of the first family, and she never lacked material things.

It was obvious that Mr. Kent was planning to train Mrs. Kent as a lady from a noble family. Although he did so with the expectation of using her as a family marriage in the future and selling her for a good price to restore the family's decline, there was no doubt that Mr. Kent treated Mrs. Kent very well, better than any of his other children.

But it was Mr. Kent's favor that made Mrs. Kent's character become willful and capricious. She thought she was the center of the world and that everyone had to look up to her. However, while her character had flaws, Mrs. Kent's academic performance and even her behavioral etiquette were impeccable. This was one of the reasons why Mr. Kent loved her so much - Mrs. Kent was a genius witch and the hope for revitalizing the family.

However, such a witch who was sure to have a brilliant future fell hopelessly in love with a Muggle who was ten years older than her not long after graduating from Hogwarts.

And what was very unfortunate was that the Muggle didn't like her. He already had a happy family and it was impossible for him to abandon his wife and children and marry Mrs. Kent.

But Mrs. Kent didn't think much of it. Since she was a child, she had always had everything she wanted.

Thus, the tragedy began. Mrs. Kent, who was very good at potions, used a love potion, and a few months later, Mrs. Kent, who was only 18 years old at the time, married the Muggle man without her family knowing.

Mike is very familiar with the following plot. Under the influence of the love drug, Mrs. Kent and her husband lived a loving life for several years and gave birth to Clark, but soon her husband became resistant to the love drug.

Mrs. Kent's husband began to realize what had happened to him over the years, and due to the long-term influence of aphrodisiacs, he also had mental problems. He began to become irritable, and finally, he vented all his anger on Mrs. Kent and Clark.

This is a very typical wizard tragedy. There are many witches in the wizarding world who have the same experience as Mrs. Kent. This is why Professor Slughorn called the love potion extremely dangerous. It is indeed the culprit for countless tragedies.

According to the original plot, Mrs. Kent should have raised Clark alone and then struggled in Muggle society.

But Mrs. Kent was obviously an exception. At some point during the beating by her husband, she came to her senses and realized that they had been doing stupid things.

So she decisively took out her wand and killed Clark's father in front of him, and then took the frightened Clark to her father, old Kent.

In Mrs. Kent's mind, old Kent has always been the one who loves her the most. As long as she can go back to the Kent family, her life will definitely return to its original track, happy and fulfilling.

However, the reality is cruel. After returning home, Mrs. Kent discovered that her father, old Kent, had passed away long ago. Her brothers and sisters had been fighting over the Kent family's already little remaining property and had long since stopped talking to each other. She had become the shame of the Kent family and her brothers and sisters regarded her as an enemy.

If old Kent had not insisted on leaving the old house to her before he died, Mrs. Kent would probably have lived on the streets with Clark.

After this, Mrs. Kent became devastated. She became addicted to alcohol, ignored Clark, had ambiguous relationships with many wizards, and eventually gave birth to two daughters whose fathers were unknown.

Of course, this happened when she was still relatively young.

Now no man is willing to marry her, and having lost the support of her lovers, this spoiled young lady with very poor self-care ability has gradually fallen into the abyss of poverty.

This was something that tormented Mrs. Kent!

Mike looked at Mrs. Kent's old face, which still showed her beauty when she was young, and the corners of his mouth slowly rose. He had plenty of ways to deal with such people.

On the other side, Dumbledore seemed a little impatient. He frowned and looked at Mike deeply, then tapped the coffee table with his knuckles a few times and said:

"Okay, let's not waste any more time and sit down."

As soon as these words were spoken, Professor Flitwick, who had stood up and was about to hit Mike on the head, sat down expressionlessly, and Mike sat down opposite Mrs. Kent very naturally and continued to stare at her with a smile.

Under Mike's gaze, Mrs. Kent suddenly felt a lot of pressure. She now clearly understood how powerful Mike was, and could tell from the reactions of Dumbledore and others that Mike was extraordinary. This made her dare not look Mike in the eye, and she could only look down at her muddy shoes.

"Well, now that everyone is ready, let's get started." Seeing that everyone was seated, Kingsley took out a document from his pocket, took a deep breath and said, "First, let's confirm the topic. What we are going to deal with today is the matter of McTominay kidnapping Clark Kent as the culprit who assassinated him on the Quidditch field before."

Hearing this, Mrs. Kent started sobbing again, but the strange thing was that after crying for a long time, only her eyes turned red, and not a single tear fell.

Kingsley glanced at her, then looked at the others. Seeing that no one had any objections, he continued:

"Then next, I have to ask you a question first, Clark Kent, where is he? Or is he still alive?"

As soon as this was said, everyone in the office turned their eyes to Mike, and even the portraits of past principals hanging on the wall secretly looked over. But Mike, who was under the spotlight, looked indifferent. He shook his head slightly and asked nonchalantly:

"Does it matter?"

"This is the most important issue today, bar none! Also, please correct your attitude, Mr. Townley!" Kingsley raised his eyebrows and said sternly, "You have made a fatal mistake! Regardless of whether Clark tried to assassinate you or not, he should be handled by the Ministry of Magic. This is the law enforcement power, which only the Ministry of Magic has! It is illegal for you to take him away privately. I can prosecute you for kidnapping and premeditated murder!"

Mike glanced at Kingsley sideways, his expression still as nonchalant as ever.

"No, it's not important at all."

Hearing Mike's indifferent tone and looking at the almost sarcastic expression on his face, Kingsley's breathing became rapid. He had never seen such an arrogant prisoner in all his years of law enforcement. At this moment, he was really angry.

Kingsley opened his mouth slightly, and instinctively wanted to scold loudly, but Mike looked at Mrs. Kent first and continued:

“In my opinion, the most important question today is, how much money do you want?”

Mike's words stunned everyone present, especially Mrs. Kent. Her expression was particularly interesting, full of surprise and astonishment, as if she had never thought that Mike would ask such a question.

Then she reacted quickly and her expression became indignant, as if Mike's attempt to bribe her with money was a complete insult to her.

But Mike seemed not to have noticed her expression at all. He sat down on his own, took out a checkbook, wrote a few words on it, tore it off and placed it in front of Mrs. Kent.

"How about one thousand gold galleons?"

Mike asked slowly, but Mrs. Kent didn't hear what he said at all. At this moment, her attention was completely attracted by the thin check, and her expression became a little dull.

She instinctively wanted to reach out for the check, but before her hand touched the check, Mike snatched it back and added another zero to it.

"No, no, no! This is really too little. Clark is an outstanding person, and this price is far from worthy of him! Then... 10,000 gold galleons!"

The check was put back in front of Mrs. Kent again. This time, Mrs. Kent seized the opportunity and grabbed the check in her hand in an instant.

She first confirmed Mike's magical signature and the mark from Gringotts proving the validity of the check, then looked at the astonishing number. Then her body began to tremble violently and her eyes slowly turned red.

"Oh! By the way, I forgot to introduce myself, Mrs. Kent." Mike stood up with a smile, "My name is Mike Townley, and I'm the CEO of Los Santos Group, so don't worry, I can definitely afford it."

"Then what is your answer? Are these ten thousand gold galleons enough?"

Mrs. Kent did not answer Mike. At this moment, she was counting the numbers on the check over and over again.

Mike was not in a hurry. He sat back in his seat and slowly drank the black tea that had already gone cold.

But he was not in a hurry, but Kingsley beside him was. Kingsley frowned and said angrily:

"Are you treating me as if I don't exist, Mr. Townley? Or do you think you can get away with this?"

"I never felt that I had made any mistakes that needed to be punished." Mike said with a smile, "The reason I did this was because I knew I had to pay the money. The only question was who to give it to. Compared to giving the money to you or the lawyers, I would rather give it directly to Mrs. Kent. After all, you are the one who needs the money the most, right?"

Mike's words woke Mrs. Kent up, and then she held the check in her arms as if she had thought of something, and looked at Kingsley with a vigilant look.

"No, no, no," Kingsley said sincerely, "Please don't do this, Mrs. Kent."

"But I still have two daughters to support." Mrs. Kent forced a smile. "That's it. I deceived you. Clark is not missing. I just recommended him to work abroad. So your accusation against Mr. Townley is not valid at all."

This short sentence seemed to have drained all of Mrs. Kent's strength. After she finished speaking, she slumped down in her chair, still clutching the check tightly in her hand.

"Merlin! Mrs. Kent, you don't have to do this." Kingsley said almost desperately, "We are seeking justice for your son. Do you want your son to disappear in such an unclear way?"

Kingsley's original intention was to arouse Mrs. Kent's maternal love so that Mrs. Kent would continue to hold Mike accountable, but this seemed to have the opposite effect.

Mrs. Kent's expression suddenly became angry when she heard this. She sat up straight and glared at Kingsley and shouted:
"Please stop saying such shameless things! Do you think I don't know what's on your mind? You don't want to seek justice for Clark, you just want to take this check from me!"

"No, I never thought of it that way."

"Stop talking nonsense. I've seen enough of the dirty things you do. You always operate in this way. You arrest the criminals first, and then force them to hand over their wealth in exchange for freedom. It's always this way! Otherwise, how could there be so many Death Eaters running rampant outside now? You should know that many of them should have been arrested and executed more than a decade ago when You-Know-Who fell for the first time!"

Kingsley opened his mouth slightly, as if he wanted to explain something, but in the end, he said nothing.

Because what Mrs. Kent said was completely true. This was how the Ministry of Magic operated when the Death Eaters were first tried. The most typical example was Lucius Malfoy, who bribed the officials of the Ministry of Magic and was transformed from an evil Death Eater into a poor man controlled by Voldemort with the Imperius Curse.

(End of this chapter)