Hogwarts: Don't call me Wandmaker

Chapter 420 Fudge's Decision

"Can anyone tell me how she knew about this?!"

Inside the Ministry of Magic, Fudge slammed his fist on the table in anger.

They used every means to block the news, even shutting down the entire Ministry of Magic, all to prevent the news of Barty Crouch's voluntary assistance to the Death Eaters in escaping from being leaked.

Fudge is ready. Everyone who knows about this will have to sign a magical contract before they can leave the Ministry of Magic.

But he never expected that the magic contract wasn't even ready yet, and the news had already been published in the newspaper.

By this time, probably everyone already knows about this, right?

Fudge looked at the newspaper and felt a chill run through his body. He wanted to stand up and go outside, but he felt as if he had no strength at all, and his legs felt as heavy as lead.

He was terrified... but not of the devastation or the number of people the three Death Eaters would cause if they escaped; it was something else entirely.

Only the Minister of Magic has the authority to interrogate prisoners imprisoned in Azkaban; even Barty Crouch couldn't have taken them away so easily.

But he happened to have signed a document.

Fudge remembered that yesterday, when he was about to leave for Hogwarts, Barty Crouch chased after him into the hall, claiming that there was a document he needed to sign.

At the time, he didn't think much of it. Such things were all too common in the past, and as a workaholic at the Ministry of Magic, Barty Crouch's exceptional abilities and efficient style enabled him to always do everything perfectly.

The documents he submitted didn't need much review; there were absolutely no problems.

Fudge thought so too at the time, and with the cheating scandal in the Triwizard Tournament, he was in a hurry to get to Hogwarts, so he signed the papers without even looking at them.

Looking back now, that must have been the interrogation document demanding Azkaban release the prisoners.

“That damned Barty Crouch! How dare he… how dare he…” Fudge roared hoarsely, his voice filled with deep doubt.

Barty Crouch, once the most stern and uncompromising figure against dark wizards, has somehow joined the Death Eaters, a group that had long since fallen, more than a decade after Voldemort's downfall...

Honestly, he would never have believed it if it hadn't actually happened.

Let alone him, even a trashy magazine like "Singing the Dissent" probably wouldn't publish such an outrageous article.

"Dong dong dong..."

Someone knocked on the door, and Senior Deputy Minister Umbridge walked in from outside, carefully stepping around the shards of glass scattered on the floor.

“Minister,” she said in an uncomfortably sweet voice, “we’ve received many letters, and more owls are on their way.”

Surprisingly, after hearing her voice, Fudge, who was originally tense, relaxed a lot and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his forehead.

"Don't look at a single letter, destroy them all." After a moment, he spoke, "Have you found that person? That Rita Skeeter."

“Not yet,” Umbridge said. “But I’ve had batters staking out her house so we can catch her as soon as she shows up.”

“Never mind,” Fudge said. “Instead, contact the Daily Prophet and tell them that Barty Crouch has betrayed us. He forged my signature while I was officiating the Triwizard Tournament and went to Azkaban to rescue three Death Eaters.”

“What?” Umbridge looked up in surprise, her voice changing. Seeing Fudge frown, she quickly reverted to her previous sweet voice and said, “But Minister, why don’t we make the Daily Prophet admit its mistake and have them publish another paper saying that it was just that stupid woman Rita Skeeter talking nonsense?”

For a fleeting moment, a flicker of attraction crossed Fudge's eyes.

This is indeed a good suggestion. As long as The Daily Prophet admits its mistake, the matter can be resolved as if it never happened.

But soon, Fudge shook his head.

This would be possible if other Death Eaters were rescued, but the problem is that Bellatrix Lestrange was among those taken away this time.

That woman was a complete madwoman. When Voldemort fell, everyone else was busy fleeing for their lives, but she continued to oppose the Ministry of Magic and even used the Crucifixion Curse to drive the Longbottoms insane.

To put it bluntly, she's a ticking time bomb, ready to explode at any moment, and might just go and kill someone at any second.

Once she appears, the Daily Prophet's "clarification" will fall apart, and at that point, he will have no room for maneuver.

But now he has another option: to shift all the blame onto Barty Crouch.

Although doing so cannot completely eliminate the negative impact on him, it is better than living in constant fear.

"Just do as I say."

“You are so great. This is not your fault. The damned Daily Prophet has no gratitude at all.” Umbridge grabbed his collar, his voice trembling with tears.

“I’m partly to blame.” Fudge forced out two tears. “I trusted Barty Crouch too much. If I had discovered his plot earlier, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“This is not your fault, Minister.” Umbridge was even more moved.

“But Minister,” she paused, “would those people believe that Barty Crouch betrayed us? We all know that hypocrite has always been very good at disguising himself.”

“Yes, he is indeed very good at disguising himself.” Fudge sighed. “If Barty Crouch Jr. hadn’t died in Azkaban and made him too grief-stricken to reveal his true colors, we probably would still be being fooled by him.”

“I understand, Minister.” Umbridge’s eyes lit up.

Yes, Barty Crouch Jr. died in Azkaban recently, and his wife died from grief. Barty Crouch Sr. was so heartbroken that he decided to take revenge on the Ministry of Magic, which is why he let the other three Death Eaters go.

That makes perfect sense.

“I’ll take care of it right now, Minister,” Umbridge said, turning to leave.

“Wait a minute,” Fudge called out to her. “If possible, it would be best if this article were also published by… Rita Skeeter.”

“I understand,” Umbridge said. “But what if she doesn’t come back? Are we just going to wait?”

"It's alright." Fudge waved his wand, restoring the broken glass vases on the ground to their original state.

"All I need is for Rita Skeeter to publish this article; whether she wrote it or not is irrelevant. If I remember correctly, she herself is quite reliant on a mechanical quill pen, isn't she?"

……

(End of this chapter)