A certain Hogwarts professor of runes.

Ms. Burns said solemnly, “There are no outsiders here, so I will speak frankly. The ministry is in a state of panic. The news brought back by the Aurors has frustrated everyone. With today’s newspapers out, panic has spread throughout the entire wizarding community. We must stabilize the situation as soon as possible… Headmaster Dumbledore, I need your help.”

Dumbledore nodded slightly. "We must not lose our composure before the darkness has fully appeared."

“That’s right,” Ms. Burns agreed. She took out a document, put on her monocle, and then looked down at the contents. “Well, first, I must confirm whether the Mysterious Man has really returned.” Her thick eyebrows rose high. “It’s not that I don’t trust him—I’ve heard your account, and it’s remarkable that you thought of using the Ouroboros Ring for help in that situation… but I must be 100% certain before I can firmly implement wartime policies.”

“A very reasonable request,” Dumbledore said with a smile. “Amelia, I think what you need most right now is decisive evidence?”

Ms. Burns nodded seriously.

Dumbledore looked at Felix.

“Okay, but just so you know, you won’t see the whole picture…” Felix said, snapping his fingers and calling softly, “Dobby.”

Dobby, a house-elf, appears in the house.

“Great Mr. Hyp, you—good heavens, what do you see, Dobby?” Dobby blinked, startled by the sight of a room full of familiar faces. “Mr. Lupin, Mr. Harry Potter and his friend Wilbur, Ms. Granger, Mr. Black, and—Mr. Dumbledore!” he screamed.

"Hello, Dobby," Harry and Hermione greeted each other quietly.

“Dobby,” Ron couldn’t help but say, and Dobby immediately looked at him with bright eyes, “actually, the pronunciation of my name, uh—I’ll tell you later.” He really didn’t have the courage to discuss the difference between “Weasley” and “Weasley Kid” with Dobby in public.

“Alright, Dobby, I’ll get their autographs for you later,” Felix said. “Now, get me the things you asked me to keep.”

"Yes, ma'am!" Dobby said excitedly, and his figure suddenly disappeared.

Ms. Burns turned to Mr. Weasley. “Shouldn’t we be wary of the little ones’ magic? They’re completely immune to anti-Apparition—”

“Oh, Ms. Burns, I think—” Hermione said shrilly, clutching the sheets nervously, “you shouldn’t doubt Dobby, or the kitchen elves, who have always been so hardworking.”

“Yes, you’re right,” Ms. Burns said, looking down at Hermione for a moment. “But we all know that the Man of Mystic has won over a large number of pure-blood families, and they also have no shortage of house-elves.”

Hermione remained silent.

At this moment, Felix took out a piece of parchment and a quill from the cabinet next to him and started writing and drawing on it. "Excuse me, could you please sign your names?" Dumbledore readily agreed, and judging from the length of his signature, he must have written his full name.

Several people signed their names one after another. When the parchment reached Harry, he stared wide-eyed at the words: "To brave Dobby, who obtained crucial evidence right under Voldemort's nose." Below was a row of signatures.

Harry also signed his name.

After waiting a few minutes, Dobby reappeared in the school hospital ward, carrying a large bag on his back.

“It’s all here, Mr. Hyp.”

The others watched curiously as Felix rummaged through the bag, pulled out a strange-looking square object, and began pressing buttons on it. Felix fiddled with it for a moment, then handed it to Ms. Burns. "You can put it close to that glowing spot, yes, that's right..."

He actually only did two things: first, he avoided the cameras showing Hermione using the Time-Turner; second, he set the playback to after Hermione's appearance, otherwise it would be hard to explain why he had been watching for so long beforehand... and it would also be difficult to expose Lucius's presence.

Ms. Burns did as he said. She first frowned at the poor image quality on the camera, then opened her mouth wide, and stared at it quietly for a few minutes before putting down the camera with a complicated expression.

“If I’m not mistaken, this is a Muggle item?” Ms. Burns asked in a low voice.

“That’s right, you’ll find there’s not a single trace of magic on it, which is how it avoids the attention of Voldemort and the Death Eaters.” Felix put the camera away. “You can consult an expert in this field. Because of technical limitations, the footage captured by the camera cannot be modified, so it’s very convincing.”

“Then may I take it—” Ms. Burns asked tentatively.

“Oh, not for now.” Felix refused without hesitation. “I let you see a lot of things that I shouldn’t have revealed because I trust you. If it were anyone else, I would have to take precautions.”

“But you said before that it couldn’t be modified—” Ms. Burns asked in confusion.

“Madam, it’s true that it can’t be changed, but it can be covered up,” Felix emphasized. “For example, if I cast a permanent spell on the writing on the wall, you can never change it again, but you can paint a new layer of paint on the wall to cover the writing up…”

“I understand. I will arrange for someone to verify it,” Ms. Burns said calmly, without pressing the matter further. In truth, her heart was in turmoil, a near-death experience… She completely understood why Felix didn't want to release the full footage.

This was precisely the illusion Felix had given her—to cover one secret with another, and let the Time-Turner be buried in history, after all, it had already buried countless secrets.

“Well—uh—” Ms. Burns tried to rephrase her words, “the second thing, confirming the news of the mysterious man’s appearance, I think it’s best to postpone for a few days.”

"Why? How is what you're doing any different from what Fudge did?" Harry shouted.

“Completely different. At least the department knows about it, and I won’t deliberately stop the news from spreading. It’s just that… a formal admission means war is coming. A few days’ delay might give the other side a false sense of security, which will buy us some time,” Ms. Burns said calmly. “The department is urgently printing a wartime survival manual, and I also need time to persuade those in power, as I said before, to reach a consensus… In addition,” she hesitated, “I hope Connelly will step forward and announce it.”

"That good-for-nothing?" Sirius said with displeasure.

Ms. Burns gave him a stern look. "Watch your words, Sirius. He's still the Minister for Magic."

“Yes, Prefect Amelia,” Sirius said lazily.

Harry stared at his godfather in surprise, suddenly remembering Sirius's admission that he had made her cry during their school days. Harry's gaze turned strange.

Ms. Burns glared at him, but calmly explained, "Connelly... Fudge may not stay in office. I hope his last impression on the public is that he bravely stood up to announce the return of the Mysterious Man, rather than slinking off the stage before the war and disappearing from public view."

"You still intend to try and keep him?" Sirius shouted. "Look at the awful things he's done!"

Ms. Burns ignored him and continued examining the documents.

"Putting aside his personality flaws, Connelly is still very capable and more than qualified to be a consultant."

Sirius muttered something in dissatisfaction, which sounded a bit like "woman..."

Several women present glared at him at the same time. Sirius shrank back and said, "It's my fault. I hit too many people."

“Since we’re on the topic of advisors,” Ms. Burns said, tracing lines on the documents, “there’s something else important, Dumbledore. You should relaunch the Order of the Phoenix, shouldn’t you?”

The atmosphere in the ward became eerie, and everyone looked at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore nodded slightly. “You’re right, Amelia.” He explained patiently, “You should know that once the war begins, Voldemort will be planting spies in the Ministry of Magic like crazy. I must ensure that there is a resistance force independent of the Ministry of Magic.”

“I think,” Ms. Burns pursed her lips, “we should cooperate.”

"What are your thoughts?" Dumbledore asked, looking at her curiously.

"The Ministry of Magic will not interfere with any of the Order of the Phoenix's actions, but at the very least, we should exchange information, which would benefit both sides." Ms. Burns spoke fluently, as if she had prepared in advance. "And in the short term—until the situation stabilizes—someone must be stationed on the other side as a messenger."

"You mean... a two-way deployment? An exchange of personnel?" Dumbledore asked.

“That’s right,” Ms. Burns said. “I can’t and won’t order you around, but at this critical time, getting in touch with the ‘greatest white wizard’ is the best way to calm people down.”

Harry, Ron, and Hermione stared wide-eyed, finding it hard to believe that this woman could so openly and brazenly tarnish Dumbledore's reputation.

“Before I came here, I inquired with the Aurors in the department, and the number of applicants was quite high,” Ms. Burns said with a helpless expression. “If you agree, I will provide a list for you to choose from.”

“I have no objection,” Dumbledore agreed.

"Your choice is—" Ms. Burns asked with a sigh of relief.

Dumbledore pondered for a moment, then looked up at someone.

Sirius was leisurely watching the play, even crossing his legs, planning how to spend his summer vacation, until Dumbledore turned his gaze on him, at which point he looked up alertly.

“Headmaster Dumbledore, you don’t want me to go to the Ministry of Magic, do you?” He jumped up suddenly. “You promised to let me be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for the new school year! I’ve been preparing for so long, fighting wits and courage with those naughty students in Muggle schools…” He became more and more aggrieved as he spoke.

“This is only temporary,” Dumbledore said with a smile. “You only need to stay for a month or two, and it won’t affect your work in the new school year.”

"What about the others? Hagrid? Remus? And—"

“They all have their own things to do,” Dumbledore said.

“Yeah, the headmaster is right, you’re the most free here.” Felix couldn’t help but add insult to injury, the thought of the carefree Sirius Black joining the Ministry of Magic inexplicably gave him a sense of amusement.

Sirius glared at him fiercely, then looked around and saw that everyone was watching with amusement, even his godson was looking at him expectantly. Sirius was so angry that his teeth itched.

“Then—hey, Amelia, I want an advisor title too, it can’t be worse than… um… it can’t be worse than Felix and Fudge!”

"...It's only temporary."

Ms. Burns reluctantly agreed.

She also had a lot of opinions about Sirius, an impression stemming from indelible memories of her school days.

“One last thing,” she said, taking a large bag from Mr. Weasley and placing it at Harry’s feet with a rustling sound. She said briefly, “The prize money for the Tournament was originally supposed to be one thousand Galleons, but I’ll personally contribute five hundred Galleons as compensation—”

“That’s far from enough,” Sirius couldn’t help but nitpick. “They suffered so much and showed such courage in escaping from Voldemort’s clutches. The Ministry of Magic should award them a medal.”

Ms. Burns' chest began to heave violently, and she said, word by word, "That's exactly what I was about to say!"

She took a deep breath, regained her composure, and looked at Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "The ministry will discuss awarding you the Order of Merlin, Second Class, in recognition of your fearlessness in the face of Vader and your spirit of fighting to the death—and Mr. Hyp, we are considering awarding you the Order of Merlin, First Class."

Felix smiled and shook his head.

“You deserve it,” Ms. Burns said immediately. “With war raging, we need to set some examples. If I live to see the end of the war, I’ll certainly be awarded a whole bunch of medals.”

Harry was once again taken aback by Ms. Burns's "frankness" and "outspokenness," but he thought it was a good approach.

“I’ll be going now,” Ms. Burns said. “Arthur, I’ll give you a few days off to spend time with the kids, but don’t stay too long, the department will be quite busy soon…” She stopped at the door of the ward and snorted heavily through her nose.

Everyone looked at her in confusion.

“Sirius Black! Keep up!” she shouted angrily at Sirius, who was slumped in his chair, looking utterly dejected.

Sirius pointed incredulously at himself. "Now?" After receiving an affirmative answer, he stood up dejectedly and muttered under his breath, "Well, Amelia has become quite powerful; she can order people around now..." His muttering continued until the door to the ward closed behind him.

The people in the ward looked at each other in bewilderment.

“Is it really okay to send Sirius over? I don’t doubt his abilities, but his personality—” Professor McGonagall asked seriously, “I’m worried he’ll make a mess of things.”

“Don’t worry, Professor McGonagall,” Lupin said with a smile. “Sirius learned how to deal with this minister when she was in school. Perhaps we have a chance to recruit her into the Order of the Phoenix…”

Professor McGonagall seemed skeptical.

At this point, Mr. Weasley, unable to contain his intense interest, pointed to the camera in Felix's hand and asked, "It can record footage? Without any magic?" After receiving an affirmative answer, he exclaimed with admiration, "Incredible... amazing!"

The more he looked at it, the more he liked it, and finally he couldn't help but ask Felix, "Mr. Hyp, may I ask where you bought it? I'd like to collect one too."

Felix wrote him an address and warned him, "It's best not to keep this at home, it's susceptible to magical interference—by the way, you know Muggle addresses, right?"

“I can call a taxi, I know how to do it!” Mr. Weasley said happily, as if he had been looking forward to this for a long time. “I have a garage at home with many of my treasures in it… Have you heard of latches? I have several…”

"Have I ever told you guys that my dad is crazy about Muggle stuff?" Ron whispered, covering his face.

Harry and Hermione nodded slightly.

Harry reminded him, "Mr. Weasley even showed me around his garage, don't you remember? A few weeks before the start of second year..." As he spoke, he couldn't help but look at Dobby, because it was because of Dobby's well-intentioned "dissuasion" that he was misunderstood by the Ministry of Magic as performing magic outside of school and given a written warning.

To make matters worse, Uncle Vernon saw the letter.

After Harry had spent a year at Hogwarts, the Dursleys were initially cautious and indifferent towards him—they were mainly worried about him being given a pig's tail. However, the Ministry of Magic's warning letter shattered this false balance, and Harry was confined to his bedroom with iron bars nailed to the windows.

That period was a nightmare. He was worried about missing his train to school and being expelled; he was also worried about starving to death, or Hedwig starving to death. Because of this, he was always very grateful to Ron and the Weasley twins who came to his rescue.

But that was a long time ago. He's doing well now, "Dobby," he whispered.

The house-elf perked up his bat ears and looked at Harry with adoration.

"This is your signature; the professor got it for you."

Chapter 491 The Last Night of the School Year