Hogwarts: My Grandmother is the Queen

Chapter 347 The Empress Dowager's Satisfaction

Henry sat in his chair, leaning slightly forward, as if trying to see the details of the gray mark at the bottom of the glass, but without getting too close.

The Queen Mother leaned back in her armchair, also looking at the cup, but her expression was much calmer than Henry's.

"Eileen suggested I keep it; she said it's better to keep it than to throw it away."

"By the way, Eileen is also a witch, and a graduate of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," the Queen Mother said with a smile. "I respected her opinion. At the time, I wasn't sure if we would need her in the future, but she felt there was no harm in keeping her."

"Does Camilla know you kept this cup?" Henry asked.

"I don't know," said the Queen Mother. "She doesn't know that I examined the cup. All she knows is that I became cold towards her afterward. She might have thought it was something Charles said, or she might have done something to upset me. But she never knew there was a layer of ash at the bottom of that cup."

Eileen stood to the side and behind the chair, smiling demurely.

Henry leaned back in his chair, shifting his gaze from the teacup to the Queen Mother: "So how did you discover there was something at the bottom of the cup back then?"

The Queen Mother glanced in Eileen's direction, as if handing over the right to answer with her gaze.

Eileen received the signal and spoke up: "After dinner that day, I went to collect the teacups. Camilla had been sitting there, and the tea was finished, but there was a very light gray powder at the bottom of the cup. The color wasn't like tea stains; it was finer than tea dust, and the traces left on the cup looked like the residue left by some kind of liquid after it had dried."

"I picked it up and looked at it. The angle of the light was a little different. The tea in the cup was finished, and the way the gray powder at the bottom of the cup adhered to the porcelain surface was different from tea stains. Tea stains are usually dark brown with irregular edges; that powder was light gray with neat edges, as if it had formed after the liquid dried at the bottom of the cup."

She paused for a moment: "I took it back to the tea room and tested it with a little water and a small piece of white paper. The powder turned into a light-colored, cloudy liquid when it came into contact with water, and left a faint oily residue on the white paper—a common residue in a potion recipe I'd seen before. To confirm, I dipped a thin glass rod into it and heated it over a candle flame for about ten seconds. The aroma was slightly sweet, not the scent of tea, not the scent of flowers, but more like a concocted fragrance. I'd encountered that scent elsewhere before. It doesn't last long, but in the instant it burns, it briefly draws your attention away, like you were thinking about something else, but for a second you suddenly don't want to look away."

Miss Farley sat beside her, listening quietly the whole time.

"So how did you later confirm what it was?" Henry asked.

"I consulted relevant books." Eileen's voice remained unchanged. "I already had some idea of ​​what was going on, but I needed to confirm if it was the formula I remembered. I went back to my room and looked through a book about potions. I found a description that matched my memory, confirming that it was a variant of the love potion formula. The dosage was small, not enough to completely impair judgment, but it would make people more susceptible to the speaker's intentions—and then I told His Majesty my findings."

Queen Mother continued, "After she told me, I didn't do anything immediately. I wanted to observe for a while to confirm whether Camilla's behavior was really related to those residues. Several more times, she came to family dinners, sat in the same spot, and brought the same cup. Each time, Eileen went to collect her cup and found the same residue several times in a row."

"So how did you handle this matter afterward?" Miss Farley asked.

“I didn’t tell Charles directly,” the Queen Mother said. “At that time, he wasn’t very confident in his judgment. If I told him directly that his girlfriend was putting a potion on him,” he would feel that I was interfering with his choices. He wouldn’t listen, and even if he did, he wouldn’t really believe it.”

Miss Farley thought for a moment: "Then how did you let him know?"

The Queen Mother glanced in Eileen's direction, and Eileen continued, "During that time, Prince Charles often went to the library to read in the afternoons. One day, when he went there, he found an open book on the desk, and the open page happened to be about love potions—it listed its common recipes and antidotes. He didn't mention it to anyone after reading it, but later, he reduced the frequency of his meetings with Camilla, and eventually, the two lost contact."

"Who put that book there?" Miss Farley asked.

“I put it there,” Eileen said. “Charles goes to the library at that time every afternoon. I put the book on the table so he would see it as soon as he came in. He looked at that page but didn’t ask who put it there, and I didn’t bring it up either.”

Miss Farley sat there, her fingers resting on her knees. She listened quietly to the description, as if taking in every detail: "The contents of that book, you checked them beforehand?"

“I checked,” Eileen said. “I turned to that page, read through it, and made sure that section did indeed contain basic information about aphrodisiacs and common neutralization methods. Then I put the book on the table, turned to that page, and made sure it was at an angle where it would be noticed.”

"Didn't he ask who put it there after he finished reading it?"

"No, he just made his own decision after that."

The Queen Mother listened quietly to the conversation without interrupting.

After Eileen finished speaking, she asked, "So, do you think doing this counts as interfering, or not interfering?"

Miss Farley thought for a moment: "It wasn't interference. Interference meant directly telling him you wanted to leave this person. You didn't tell him directly; you simply showed him what he needed to see. When he made his decision later, he used his own judgment."

"So you think this method is better than telling him directly?"

"If you tell him directly, he'll feel like someone else made the decision for him. You didn't make the decision for him; you just put the choice in front of him, and he chose the right path himself."

The Queen Mother looked at Miss Farley for a moment: "So, if you encounter a similar situation in the future and need to handle something—would you do it directly, or would you find someone to put that book away for you?"

Miss Farley thought for a moment: "I'll first assess whether it's worth walking right in. If it is, I'll walk right in; if not, I'll find someone suitable to put that page in the right place for me."

The Queen Mother nodded slightly, seemingly quite satisfied with Miss Farley's answer.

Eileen stood there for a moment, then took a small half-step forward.

"Your Majesty," Eileen's voice was low, "should that cup be put back in the cabinet?"

The Empress Dowager glanced at the cup and said, "Put it back in its original place for now, and I'll take it out when I need it."

Eileen stepped forward, picked up the tray, and silently walked back to the cabinet, opened the door, and put the teacup back.

Her movements were as light as before, almost unlike what one would expect from someone in their nineties. It was more like a rhythm her body had long since memorized, requiring no effort to perform.

Henry sat in the chair next to him, listening quietly.

He didn't know about this when he was a child. He only remembered that his father's emotions were somewhat volatile for a period of time. He would occasionally take a walk alone in the garden after dinner and sometimes come back very late.

Later, those days passed, and the father's condition gradually returned to normal. Camilla's name appeared less and less in family conversations until it was no longer mentioned.

Of course, the parents' relationship also got better and better.

He had always thought it was because of his interference, but he never expected—

It turned out to be the witch who served Great-Grandma?

"Eileen," Henry asked curiously, "how old are you this year?"

"Ninety-three." Eileen closed the cabinet door and turned around. "I don't remember the exact date, but ninety-three should be accurate."

"How much longer can you work?" Henry asked.

Eileen didn't answer immediately, as if she wasn't thinking about the answer to the question, but rather waiting for confirmation: "How long I can continue working depends on how long Her Majesty needs me. If she still needs me, I will continue."

"What if she doesn't need you anymore?"

Eileen glanced at the Queen Mother, then looked away. "Then I'll find something else to do. I don't necessarily need to leave this room, but I'll find something I can do to fill the time."

Miss Farley sat in her chair, watching Eileen walk back to her original spot, regain her steady posture, and look straight ahead.

"Eileen," the Queen Mother asked, "Miss Farley said she studied public policy and administration. Do you think she's suited for that kind of work?"

Eileen turned her gaze to Miss Farley: "I think she'd be more stable in a role that requires constant observation than in a role that requires quick reactions."

"Do you think she'd be well-suited to work between the Ministry of Magic and the Muggle government?"

“Of course,” Eileen said. “She didn’t interrupt anyone while we were talking, and she didn’t frown when others were speaking. That kind of person can stay in jobs that require building connections because she doesn’t make the other person feel like she’s in a hurry to judge them.”

The Queen Mother nodded: "Miss Farley, how long will you be staying here?"

"I currently plan to wait until two or three days after Boxing Day next year," Miss Farley said. "If His Highness has other plans, I will adjust accordingly."

"So, will you still go to church tomorrow morning?"

"Yes."

"Then you'll sit next to me tomorrow morning. That way, when the reporters take photos, they'll see me next to you, not you next to Henry." The Queen Mother's voice remained soft. "They'll need more time to reassess your position."

Miss Farley took a deep breath: "Then how will they reassess?"

"They'll see you sitting next to me first, and then they'll wonder if she's someone connected to me, not someone connected to Henry. If they write in that direction, they might spend more time confirming your location, and then they might not continue to investigate your relationship with Henry. They need to consider the information conveyed by the seating arrangement in the photo, which will force them to re-examine their own speculations."

After listening to this, Miss Farley paused for a moment, as if she were slowly untangling several seemingly independent lines and discovering that they were actually interconnected at the underlying level.

"Then tomorrow morning, I'll sit next to you. That way, you'll be in the photos they take, and they won't just be focusing on me."

Empress Dowager Wang nodded, picked up the teacup, felt it had cooled down, and then put it back on the tea table.

Eileen saw this, quietly walked to the coffee table, picked up the teapot, gently shook it, and turned to walk towards the small tea room on the other side of the room.

Her movements were very light, as if she didn't need anyone to tell her that the tea was cold and needed to be replaced; she simply noticed and did it.

Miss Farley's gaze followed Eileen's retreating figure until she disappeared behind the curtain of the tea room.

After a while, Eileen came out carrying a pot of fresh tea. She replaced the old teapot with the new one, placed it on the coffee table, and returned it to its original place.

The Queen Mother poured herself a fresh cup of tea: "Miss Farley, before you came here this afternoon, did you expect to see me?"

Miss Farley said honestly, "I've thought about it. His Highness Henry told me that you have a separate residence on the east side, which you move to every Christmas. He said he might bring me over if time allows."

"So, now that you've seen me, do you think it's the same as what you expected?"

“It’s different,” Miss Farley said. “I imagined you to be more serious than you are now. But the way you ask questions is much gentler than I imagined, like handing me a cup of tea, letting me choose whether to take it or put it back on the table.”

The Empress Dowager smiled and nodded.

"So, what color clothes will you wear to church tomorrow morning?"

Miss Farley glanced down at her dark green coat: "I'll wear this one instead."

"Then when you sit next to me tomorrow, you can unbutton your coat and show your sweater underneath. This will add another layer of color to the photos they take, and they'll have more to write about. But because they have more to write about, they'll be less able to focus on any one point."

Miss Farley was a little confused, but she nodded and said, "Okay."

Mrs. Wang picked up her tea and took a sip: "I admire that you are someone who is willing to cooperate with other people's arrangements."

"If there is a reason for that arrangement, I am willing to cooperate."

"What if you feel that arrangement is unreasonable?"

Miss Farley considered her words carefully: "Then I might first find out the reasoning behind that arrangement before deciding whether to cooperate."

The Empress Dowager looked at her for a while, then smiled and asked, "If I asked you what the benefit would be for you to sit next to me tomorrow morning, how would you answer?"

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