Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world.

Chapter 323 Lucius Malfoy's Abnormality

Harry thought Draco was joking.

In his understanding, it was more likely that these little snakes dared not offend Vaughn, so they reluctantly accepted the title of "sea view room".

But looking at Draco's serious little face, Harry hesitated a bit about his own understanding.

He had always believed that these purebloods would never truly respect or love anyone; they should be like the henchmen of the main villain in the story, forever pursuing violence, cruelty, and chaos, without any emotions that contained praise.

But at this moment, looking into Draco's bright eyes, Harry's preconceived notions began to waver.

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He shook his head, not wanting to think about it anymore, and subconsciously urged, "Come on in, we still have a long way to go!"

Draco walked over, peered inside, and hesitated before asking, "Is it only this big?"

"How much bigger do you want? This cloak has been carrying five people for the past few days, there's more than enough space, pampered Malfoy," Harry mocked.

This time Draco wasn't angry. Instead, he asked seriously, "I mean, Potter, you're not talking nonsense, are you?"

"...

—

"The space is too small, it makes me very uncomfortable, Potter. It reminds me of the first gift I received, a Muggle tent. Don't get me wrong, that wasn't bought for me by my parents. They were always against me having any contact with Muggle products, they thought they were full of dirty stuff."

"The tent was a gift from a distant Muggle relative of mine. Well, a Muggle noble relative. Maybe his ancestors were wizards who turned into Squibs. That's not important. What I want to say is that the children's tent he gave me was very uncomfortable. It was small and cramped. By the time I was 8 years old, it couldn't fit me anymore. It was difficult to even turn around. Poor Muggles don't seem to have any technology like the Seamless Stretch Charm."

"Even though your cloak is a bit bigger, I don't think it can really fit five people, or rather, I can't imagine how terrible it would be to cram five people into such a small space—haven't Longbottom and Ron Weasley ever farted?"

Harry rolled his eyes.

He never imagined that the despicable Malfoy would be such a chatterbox.

The two were walking through an empty corridor, so quiet you could hear a pin drop. So whenever Malfoy started rambling on, Harry had the illusion that his echo reverberated throughout the entire castle.

"You delicate young Master Malfoy, we're on a night stroll now, can't you control your mouth?"

"I've already lowered my voice quite a bit, Potter."

Draco, his enthusiasm dampened, spoke in a curt tone.

Harry was getting a little impatient: "But if you can shut up and stop making any noise, it will obviously be more advantageous for our operation."

Harry knew he was being hypocritical. When he came out with Ron, Dean, Seamus, and the others, he almost never cared whether they were chatting or not, as long as he didn't notice anyone else around.

He was targeting Draco.

Draco probably noticed it too; in the dim light filtering through the cloak, the other person's breathing sounded somewhat heavy.

But to Harry's surprise, after a while, Draco Malfoy actually stopped opposing him and quieted down.

The other party was so obedient—Harry was a little incredulous for a moment, so much so that he subconsciously added an explanation: "Filch often patrols the corridors."

"I know that, you don't need to remind me, Potter."

"—It's not that I'm targeting you, but we can't let him... 2"

"When someone starts a conversation with 'It's not that I'm targeting you,' it means they are targeting you." Draco interrupted Harry, his flat voice carrying a hint of sarcasm. "That's something Vaughn often said in Slytherin."

Harry was speechless, his cheeks burning with the embarrassment of having his true feelings exposed.

The two then fell silent, an awkward silence ensuing as they walked through the dimly lit castle corridors until they reached the hallway where the board of directors' meeting room was located.

Guoguocha had been waiting in front of the meeting room, which was surrounded by forest murals. These past few days, it was thanks to her help that Harry and the others were able to enter the meeting room unnoticed and "listen" to the arguments and quarrels of the school board members.

The moment Harry and Draco stepped into the corridor, Fruit Tea's round eyes looked over.

Meow~

"—It can find our location?" Draco asked in a low voice, sounding quite surprised. Fruit Tea didn't like the gloomy dungeon environment of Slytherin, and when Vaughn wasn't around, she usually preferred to go to Gryffindor or Ravenclaw.

Therefore, Draco wasn't very familiar with fruit tea.

In the dim light filtering through the meeting room, Harry glanced at Draco and whispered a reminder: "It's her," not "it," or Fruit Tea will be upset.

"Varied----"

Before Draco could voice his question, he saw the huge cat's gaze turn cold and dangerous, and Draco realized that the cat could understand human speech.

"She's very intelligent, very human, and holds grudges," Harry said gleefully. "If I were you, I'd start thinking right now about how to appease her and make her calm down."

Draco's pale face was almost transparent, yet he still stubbornly insisted, "It's just a cat—"

Harry smiled without saying a word.

On the other side, Guoguocha's gaze grew increasingly dangerous, but she didn't react in any other way. She simply called out to the two people in the invisibility cloak, then turned around, pushed open the door, and walked into the conference room.

The two quickly shut their mouths, even their breathing became soft, and they tiptoed in behind Guoguocha.

As soon as Draco stepped into the meeting room, he heard his father say loudly, "Professor McGonagall, you should probably keep an eye on that cat. It's been coming in and out of the meeting these past few days, seriously disturbing the committee members."

Draco looked in the direction of the voice and saw Professor McGonagall, the Godfather, Professor Sprout, and Professor Flitwick sitting with their backs to him at a huge round table.

Besides the four deans, the remaining members of the board of trustees were sitting at the round table. His father, a member of the board, was sitting opposite the deans, complaining to Professor McGonagall.

However, Professor McGonagall ignored her completely, as if in the eyes of the vice-principal, no one had spoken at all.

Seeing his father get the short end of the stick, Draco felt a little uncomfortable, but fortunately he remembered that he had come with important business today, so he forced himself to look away.

He first observed the three wizards sitting beside his father, whose clothes and demeanor suggested they were purebloods. Among them, the witch with a fierce-looking face and a menacing appearance was probably Alecto Caro.

A staunch anti-Vaughn Weasley and anti-werewolf committee member, as well as a die-hard who opposes the Practical Class and the Club.

The other witch beside her, compared to Carol's fierce demeanor, appeared quite elegant and graceful. She seemed to be a representative of the Greengrass family, a cursed family that Draco had rarely encountered before. Judging from her quiet demeanor, she was probably just there to make up the numbers.

As for the last one, it's obvious he represents the Parkinson's family, the father's lackey—

Having identified the pure-blood commissioners, Draco began to carefully observe the other commissioners based on the information Harry had shared over the past few days.

A prominent figure in wizarding families, the Ministry of Magic, and the magical community.

As he observed, the meeting that had been interrupted by Guoguocha's arrival at the round table resumed.

To be honest, although Draco could understand every single word those people said, when they put them into sentences, he seemed to have suddenly lost his mind and couldn't understand a single word.

He saw Caro passionately charging into battle, saw the Ministry of Magic representatives muddying the waters, and saw the old wizard who was joking with Professor McGonagall just moments before suddenly speaking out against the Practical Class and the Club, belittling them to nothing.

It seemed that everyone in the conference room, except for Carlo and the deans, was in a state of confusion regarding their positions.

So, naturally, the meeting continued for more than an hour without reaching a conclusion.

There was no good or bad outcome.

The final vote at the meeting was the same as what Harry had seen in the past few days: a tie of 4:4:4.

Draco's bewildered eyes reflected the various expressions on the scene—Carlo's fierce face was flushed red, his wolf-like eyes sweeping over everyone, while his father remained calm, as if he had expected the outcome. Professor McGonagall's expression grew increasingly grim as she and Professor Flitwick argued quietly but intensely about something.

Several members of the wizarding family committee sat upright, their faces expressionless, and no one could tell what they were thinking.

Only the two representatives from the Ministry of Magic, who were in charge of counting the votes, tapped their gavels with lighthearted expressions, announcing the adjournment of the meeting. Then, as if finally relieved of a heavy burden, they eagerly stood up: "The meeting is adjourned for now. If there are no objections, the next meeting will be held in two days. You have all been debating intensely for a week. Please relax and enjoy the rare weekend for the next two days."

Of course, according to Draco's observation, they were probably the only two people present who were genuinely prepared to enjoy the weekend.

At least Carol wasn't in the mood. She slammed her thick, calloused hand on the table and glared at the two Ministry of Magic representatives: "You two-faced cowards, just like your master Cornelius Fudge—last year I thought Fudge was someone important, but he was kicked out of the Great Inquisition by Weasley and humiliated. Now that Weasley's throwing a bone at him, he's licking his boots. If he had any backbone, he should have had you vote with me, instead of being useless like trash for a whole week!"

She used very harsh language.

But the two Ministry of Magic representatives were not angry at all. In the end, it was Fudge who was useless, so what did it have to do with them?

As for upholding the Minister's dignity—

Come on!

The Minister of Magic serves a term of only a few years, at most ten years or so, while these staff members can work for the Ministry of Magic for a lifetime.

Ministers come and go; it's understandable for them to pledge allegiance in person, but now that they're not around, you can't hear any flattery even if you try.

The two of them seemed not to have heard anything and slowly left.

Seeing this, Carlo started cursing Greengrass and Parkinson again. The two families abstained again this time, but they also didn't take Alecto Carlo seriously. They were all purebloods, so who could be more noble than whom?

Purebreds have a fairly simple social principle—they associate with whoever has power and money.

The Carroll family is clearly inferior to the Malfoy family.

Even Alecto Caro himself didn't dare to curse Lucius Malfoy, but only dared to make veiled attacks against them.

The meeting ended amidst Carol's curses. The wizarding family representatives left after the Ministry of Magic representatives, followed by two prominent figures from the magical community.

Harry and Draco, huddled in their Invisibility Cloaks, stood in a corner, nervously watching Lucius Malfoy and Snape.

The two appeared perfectly normal. Lucius Malfoy, Greengrass, and Parkinson whispered among themselves amidst Carol's curses, while Snape leisurely packed his things, nodded to McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout, and then got up and left.

In the corner, Harry and Draco looked at each other in bewilderment.

Neither of them dared to speak. Harry winked and gestured for a while before Draco understood what he meant: "Didn't you say they would meet in private? Snape's already gone!"

Draco was also a little flustered, but he didn't lose his composure. Instead, he gestured for Harry to wait a little longer.

Although the so-called meeting was just his speculation, he was familiar with his father, and to be precise, part of his own personality was learned from his father.

For example, arrogance and conceit —

As a pureblood who constantly talks about aristocratic manners, normally his father would meet with Snape openly and honestly if he wanted to see him. But today, he wrote a letter instead, not even trusting the owl, and asked his son to deliver it.

Such behavior indicates that the father was in a state of unease, an unease that even made him forget his inherent arrogance.

Although Draco couldn't see what his father wrote in the letter to his godfather because of the magical seal, he felt the thickness of the letter; it was only about a thin sheet of parchment.

A single page obviously can't hold much; letters are mostly just a means for the two to arrange a meeting!

As expected, Draco's understanding of his father was correct this time.

The two waited anxiously for a while longer, until Carlo had finished cursing and left. Lucius Malfoy suddenly said to Greengrass and Parkinson, who were about to leave with him, "You two go first. I want to go see Draco. Narcissa misses him a lot."

Upon hearing this, Parkinson nodded without giving it much thought. However, Greengrass mentioned, "My two nieces are also in Slytherin, Lucius. Perhaps you could have Draco make contact with them."

Lucius remained calm: "Yes, Mary, I'll tell him."

'

The three exchanged a few more words, and Greengrass and Parkinson soon left, while Lucius, who claimed he was going to visit his son, remained sitting blankly in front of the fireplace in the conference room.

Nearly half an hour later, he picked up his cane, tiptoed, peeked out of the door and looked around before leaving the room.

Harry and Draco exchanged a glance in the corner. Just as Harry was about to follow, Draco quickly pulled him back.

Harry blinked, looking puzzled.

Draco did not speak.

But about three minutes later, Harry realized why the door to the conference room had reopened. Lucius Malfoy, who had already left, raised his head slightly, used his cane to push the door open, and frowned as he looked at the empty conference room.

"—Really nobody's here? That's strange, I always had this feeling of being watched—"

Hearing Lucius's whisper, Harry felt a chill run down his spine. After the meeting room door closed again and a while passed, making sure Lucius was really gone, he whispered, "Your dad's really careful."

Draco shrugged. "So I think he's weird—what do we do now? Do you have a way of catching up with him?"

"certainly."

Harry answered and called towards the fireplace, "Fruittea, darling, can you help us catch up with that white-haired Malfoy?"

Guoguocha got up and lazily stretched: "Meow~"

"Sorry, I can't understand you. How about this, I'll let you play with Banban for a few more days, okay?"

Seeing Draco's confused expression, Harry explained, "Scabbers is Ron's pet mouse. Don't worry, Fruit Tea is very clean; she won't eat mice, she just likes to catch them and play with them."

Draco didn't know what to say. He felt that being toyed with by such a huge cat might be more enjoyable for a mouse than being eaten.

Harry always knew that Fruit Tea was doing very well in the castle.

I remember when he discovered the Mirror of Erised last semester, he was obsessed with it, sneaking out of the dorm every day. Several times, it was Guoguocha who helped him lure Lady Lorris away.

Today, Harry realized that he had underestimated this intelligent, enormous cat.

He and Draco followed Fruit Tea out of the meeting room. Not long after, she called out a few times, and a group of cats, ravens, and...

Owls and other animals gathered from some unknown corner of the dark castle.

They lined up and squatted down in front of her, like soldiers being inspected, then wagged their tails and chirped softly a few times before scattering in an orderly fashion.

Under the cloaks, Harry and Draco exchanged a glance.

"It—it's directing those pets to help us find people?" Draco's eye twitched. He knew the animals were pets because he recognized one of the eagle owls.

That eagle owl is his—

Harry shrugged. "Probably. This is the first time I've known there are so many animals in the castle. I just saw Hedwig and Juliet."

"What?"

"Me and the Weasleys' two owls, when did they become Fruit Tea's sidekicks?"

————I also want to know————

Draco felt a strange unease as he thought about how his pet eagle owl had been so subservient to that giant cat.

The castle at night may be full of risks for a young wizard, but to the animals, finding a two-legged creature in such a quiet place without predators is too easy.

Not long after, a raven—perhaps one of Ravenclaw's pets—flew back.

Under the bewildered gazes of Harry and Draco, the crow and the cat stared at each other for a moment, then Fruit Tea turned around, meowed at their location, and led the way.

Draco was greatly surprised: "How are they communicating? I don't think I heard them calling?"

"They definitely didn't make a sound, and even if they did, they couldn't possibly understand each other, right? They're different species," Harry retorted instinctively.