The sickly, iron-fisted beauty in Harry Potter

As for why he couldn't imagine the key to this matter—whether it was because the other party was a Slytherin witch or because she was ugly—only Harry himself knew.

Next, just as Dolly predicted, the Daily Prophet went all out, describing Dumbledore as a person with dementia.

Actually, this scene is quite hard to accept.

After all, Dumbledore was not only a senior wizard, but also the most powerful white wizard.

Yet now he's being slandered like this by a newspaper without anyone being punished, which shows that Dumbledore is indeed morally comparable to a saint.

Of course, Dumbledore's favoritism towards Harry and Gryffindor is undeniable; there's no need to shy away from this, as people are multifaceted.

Dumbledore is ultimately just a human being; he can't truly become a saint, or transform into the scales of justice for law and morality.

In the days that followed, the situation at Hogwarts became even more tense.

The Ministry of Magic also sent an inquiry to Hogwarts, and Lucius even joined forces with several school board members to try to remove Dumbledore from office.

Lucius had intended to do this all along; he was the one who arranged for the diaries to be placed in Hogwarts, and he had probably been preparing for this day for a long time.

Of course, part of it should be retaliation for the previous search of the Malfoy family by the Ministry of Magic; Lucius doesn't seem like a magnanimous person.

Those within the Ministry of Magic who disliked Dumbledore also formed a faction, with even the Minister of Magic, Fudge, playing a role in this.

Because Minister of Magic Fudge was a complete politician, he was always worried that Dumbledore would leave Hogwarts to run for Minister of Magic and steal his re-election.

Despite Dumbledore's repeated claims that he had no interest in politics, Fudge said he didn't believe such nonsense.

So, with the help of Lucius and Fudge, an investigation team arrived at Hogwarts on the day before Christmas.

Dolly was very familiar with the person leading the team.

Although she was supposed to appear a few years later, she now has the same annoying appearance as her future self.

She is Dolores Umbridge.

Umbridge serves as Senior Undersecretary of the Ministry of Magic, and is also a complete politician... no, calling her a politician would be an insult to politicians.

She was a sycophant who fawned over power, not only flattering Fudge during his tenure but also recognizing Voldemort as her master after his return, and then began to persecute Muggles.

Such a person, who has no moral or legal bottom line, naturally has every reason to be hated by everyone.

In the original books, Harry Potter believed that Umbridge's evil was so great that even being possessed by Voldemort's Horcruxes would not have any effect on her: "She's evil enough."

Dolly looked at Umbridge from afar: she had a broad, loose face, and a small black velvet bow in her short curly hair. Umbridge's voice was high-pitched and sounded like a little girl making a fuss.

She habitually speaks in an affected, girlish voice and likes to wear fluffy pink cardigans.

Even from a hundred meters away, Dolly felt nauseous.

Fortunately, Dolly didn't need to get involved in dealing with her, and the professors accepted the situation completely.

A large group of people squeezed into the bathroom on the second floor of Hogwarts, and then Dumbledore generously allowed them to inspect the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.

As a result, even though the group knew the entrance to the secret room, they still couldn't open it no matter how hard they tried.

Even after Dumbledore set up defensive and sealing magic, they couldn't break Dumbledore's spells, not even when the dozen or so wizards present joined forces.

This made Umbridge and several Aurors look very bad, and Lucius's face was as pale as paper.

Dumbledore remained smiling, seemingly without any prejudice, but others felt that he was mocking the Ministry of Magic's incompetence.

Umbridge was trembling with rage, gripping her wand tightly, but dared not point it at Dumbledore.

So many people working together couldn't break the spell of a single wizard, how could Umbridge dare to challenge Dumbledore alone?

Even now, if Dumbledore were to ask Umbridge to pledge allegiance, she might instinctively kneel down, just as she later did when she pledged allegiance to Voldemort.

Thus, this aggressive investigation ended up in a very awkward situation.

Dumbledore did make a mistake; he handled the Chamber of Secrets matter poorly.

But as it turns out, Dumbledore is already the most powerful wizard in the wizarding world, and no one can do better than him.

As for the idea of ​​a desperate, all-or-nothing approach where all the young wizards stop attending Hogwarts, that would certainly be a huge blow to Dumbledore.

But the incompetence of the Ministry of Magic will also be known to everyone, after all, the entire Ministry of Magic is no match for Dumbledore, which is not the kind of public opinion Fudge wants.

And most importantly, tomorrow is Christmas.

Apart from Umbridge, who is obsessed with power struggles, and Lucius, who is full of harmful thoughts, the rest of them are waiting to go home for Christmas.

Even though the young wizards had already packed their bags, they couldn't let the members of the Ministry of Magic continue to confront Dumbledore during the Christmas season.

Thus the investigation temporarily ended with the sunset, and Dolly still didn't know how the Ministry of Magic would evaluate the matter or how the Daily Prophet would report it.

But one thing is certain: at least they no longer dare to criticize Dumbledore.

If Dumbledore were to actually say, "If you can do it, then you do it," the Ministry of Magic would be in for a complete and utter embarrassment.

Dolly didn't sleep well that night.

In her dream, she was attacked by a basilisk and then turned into a stone statue.

Her friends all came to save her, and then they all turned into stone statues.

In the end, they were smashed to pieces by the basilisk's tail, and Dolly sprang to her feet.

The sky was just beginning to lighten; another Christmas had arrived.

Chapter 169, Part 2: Hermione's Kiss

Dolly scratched her head, saw that Hermione was still fast asleep, and then tiptoed out of bed.

They arrived at their pile of gifts and began to unwrap them.

In the blink of an eye, this is already her second Christmas here.

Dolly has fully integrated into life here, has her own family and friends, and is just missing a few lovers.

However, these things cannot be rushed.

Christmas is followed immediately by New Year's Day, and then comes 1993.

By this time of year, Dolly was bound to make a move.

Otherwise, if Dolly still hasn't made any progress by 1994, wouldn't she have to watch Hermione, Cho Chang, and Luna dance with other boys?

Dolly couldn't tolerate something like this.

Dolly found her parents' gifts first.

Unlike her birthday when she received a ton of gifts, Dolly's parents only gave her two presents for Christmas.

One item was a brand new set of boxing gear, clearly Vernon felt that Dolly had grown taller and it was time for her to get a new outfit.

Indeed, Dolly is now several centimeters taller than before.

The good news is that Dolly is indeed growing, which means that Dolly's sacrifice should not have caused her any harm.

The bad news is that her growth rate isn't fast, and it's uncertain whether she can surpass Hermione and Cho Chang.

Penny's gift was a complete set of winter gear, clearly in preparation for Dolly's upcoming journey home.

It did snow at Hogwarts these past few days, but Dolly and Hermione didn't have a snowball fight like they did last year. The first-year students were the ones having the most fun this year.

That's probably just how life is.

Last year they were still innocent little kids in other people's eyes, but this year Hermione and Dolly have unconsciously taken on the airs of senior students.

As for how much Hermione and Dolly have truly grown... Dolly hasn't had the chance to measure Hermione's development herself yet, so it's hard to say.

However, judging by scale alone, Akihara has at least seen visible growth.

Hmm... As expected of Qiu Zhang, the hidden rich woman.

Dolly then found Luna's gift.

Dolly hadn't expected Luna to send her a gift, given Luna's financial situation.

However, since Luna had sent a gift, Dolly opened it carefully and found a handmade brooch.

It is completely transparent, seemingly shaped with some kind of gel, and inside are delicate little yellow flowers, which look very cute.

Of course, in terms of value, it's probably the cheapest of Dolly's gifts.

However, Dolly didn't hesitate to put it on her chest and admired herself in the mirror for a while.

Since it was a gift from Luna, what can you do?

Next came Hermione's gift.

Hermione's gift was as simple as ever, and this time it was even a set of books.

It discusses health issues that teenagers should pay attention to, and consists of five books categorized into different areas, extending beyond just private matters.

It even includes mental health and other topics, making it a basic encyclopedia of medical knowledge.

This reminded Dolly of the little commotion she had with Hermione last time, and thinking about it made her smile.

This time, Hermione's gift obviously wouldn't cause any trouble, because she already had a set of these books on her bookshelf; they were a birthday gift from her parents.

Living in the magical world, where modern Muggle medicine is not readily available, Hermione's parents were quite worried about her health.

All they could do was tell Hermione some basic medical knowledge that she should know, so that she could decide whether or not to seek help from a Muggle hospital in certain situations.

Of course, from an overall perspective, this operation is unnecessary.

While the wizards' medical methods are too chaotic and mystical, it is undeniable that they are very effective in most cases, far surpassing the effectiveness of ordinary Muggle medical practices.

After all, even the most advanced Muggle medicine still relies on science, but magic does not.

Finally, Dolly found Cho Chang's gift.

Dolly was still somewhat looking forward to Akio's gift.

Whether it's the warm jade that Qiu Zhang gave to Dolly or the wind chimes, everything reveals Qiu Zhang's ingenuity and care.

While the sentiment behind gift-giving is more important than the gift itself, the amount of money involved can sometimes be more appealing.

To Dolly's surprise, the gift box that Akio sent this time was very small.

It was even smaller than most candy gift boxes, so small that Dolly thought there might only be a letter inside.

This, in turn, sparked Dolly's curiosity.

Because she knew that Cho Chang wouldn't just give Dolly a random gift, the unusual size of the item probably indicated the value of the present.