Chapter 724: Floo network shut down

Chapter 724: Floo network shut down

 Chapter 724 The Floo Network is Closed

The next morning, the Daily Prophet indeed published an article about the attack on Amelia Bones, Director of the Department of Legal Enforcement, at the Ministry of Magic, and it took up two pages.

As expected, this incident immediately caused an uproar in Hogwarts, and the discussion in the auditorium continued during breakfast that day.

Kyle glanced around the dining table and saw that Susan had not come to have breakfast. She probably was still in the dormitory at this time.

In order to help Susan calm down better, Professor Sprout came to the common room last night and said that she did not need to attend classes for the next few days.

If it were normal times, Susan would definitely jump up with joy, but last night she couldn't laugh at all, she just lowered her head silently.

And no one had seen her anywhere else in the castle all day.

“Slughorn is such a snob!” During dinner, Mikel began to belittle a certain professor crazily.

“You know what? He had a party at his office this weekend and he didn’t invite Susan.”

"What's the point..." Some people didn't take it seriously. "Since Professor Slughorn organized it himself, he is free to invite whoever he wants."

"That's because I was right next to him and was asked to send him a message..." Mikel said angrily, "He was the one who took the invitation letter away from my hand. How could I not know."

"Excuse?"

 No, you have to find another excuse.

"It's possible, but it may not work." Kyle said, "Harry used this trick, but the next day, Slughorn formed a mutual aid bureau and called a few people to help Harry. Tutoring assignments.

Yes, solitary confinement, why didn't she think of it? This is simply the best excuse. Slughorn can't chase him into the solitary confinement room.

 So he had better find another way, and compared to being detained by Snape, it was actually nothing to go to a party once in a while.

“Okay, it doesn’t matter if you don’t want to participate or not.” Kyle took a bite of the fried pork chop, “But have you thought of an excuse?”

But this reason soon came to my door.

"I have an idea..." At this time, Kyle suddenly said: "In this way, you go to Professor Snape and ask him to find a reason to lock you up on Friday night, so that you have enough reasons to reject Silla. Ghorn's invitation."

"No, never!" Kyle quickly stopped her from this dangerous idea and warned: "Just confine yourself to your own confinement. Don't take me with you. This is very important."

“Think about it, after such a big thing happened, how could she be in the mood to attend a banquet?”

Kanna’s eyes lit up.

 Kangna was quite curious about this party at first, but now she suddenly doesn’t want to attend it that much.

“Susan also had an invitation, but when he read the newspaper, he snatched it away immediately, that stupid old slug.”

 But he is different.

On Friday afternoon, Kyle received a letter from the Ministry of Magic, written by Fudge, who wanted him to go to the Ministry of Magic as soon as possible to discuss the matter.

 Listening to Mikel's words, Connor asked curiously: "Is Professor Slughorn really such a person?"

Kyle thought for a while and said: "Although Slughorn does have a preference for students with outstanding family backgrounds and is more realistic, he has never done anything rude like asking for an invitation back. At most, he just refuses to invite."

Because she didn’t know Slughorn and had never attended the dinner party on the train, she always thought it was an academic exchange meeting about potions.

For example, without wearing gloves, picking out the unusable ones from a big bucket full of Philobic caterpillars... It is said that Harry earned this confinement for himself after his first Defense Against the Dark Arts class and stayed in the underground classroom for a whole day. night.

“I don’t think so.” Mikel curled his lips, “In case Susan wants to change her mood, there is no need for him to ask for the invitation back.”

After the man was silent for a moment, he continued: "Is it possible that Professor Slughorn wanted Susan to stay quiet for a while.

"That's right." Kyle said, "Slughorn is still a professor after all. There must be a reason for you to refuse the invitation."

Kyle believed that Snape would never mind giving him some special treatment during confinement.

“Almost the same, but I think Mikel is exaggerating.”

Kanna shuddered subconsciously. If she was surrounded by a group of people to help with her homework, she would be stupid.

 “Ah? Then I won’t go!” Kangna said immediately.

 Connor was imprisoned by Snape, why is that different from going home, going home in a literal sense.

Just like those parties that Snape took her to during the holidays... everyone gathered together to explain to each other the latest potion materials they discovered, or about the advantages and disadvantages of different types of crucibles.

“No way…” Some people still didn’t believe that Slughorn was a professor after all, so how could he do such a bad thing as snatching back the invitation.

 “Well…does it count if I do my homework?” Kangna asked tentatively.

 

 “Mikel, how did you know that he snatched the invitation away?”

"You are too naive. You don't know the inside story yet." Mikel shook his finger and began to educate others.

“You don’t know, Harry was so stupid that he didn’t recover until the next day.”

Kyle felt that Snape definitely had no shortage of Philobic caterpillars, especially when he was in solitary confinement. He might even pay to buy a new bucket of them from outside.

“I’ve heard that Professor Slughorn’s Slug Club only invites students who are excellent themselves or have prominent figures in their families.

"You can go or not." Kyle poured a glass of pumpkin juice. "To be honest, this kind of gathering is just for chatting, eating, drinking, and complimenting each other. It has no substantive meaning, and you don't need to I want to learn more about potions at the party."

"There will be a Defense Against the Dark Arts class tomorrow..." Connor said happily. "I will go to Professor Snape then and ask him to put us both in solitary confinement on Friday..."

“Then shall I still go?” Kangna lowered her head and glanced at the parchment roll in her hand.

This is the invitation that Mikel just sent, inviting Kangna to attend a small party in the potion office on Friday night.

"Oh, go quickly, go quickly..." Slughorn's eyes flashed, "The minister wrote a letter specifically, there must be something good for him."

 “That’s not necessarily true…” Kyle cursed in his heart.

 When good things happen, Fudge doesn't think of him. It's probably because Fudge wants to reverse his increasingly bad reputation, but he can't think of any good way.

Since Ms. Amelia Bones was attacked by Death Eaters at the Ministry of Magic, people's trust in the Ministry of Magic has plummeted.

 The reason is easy to understand...the Ministry of Magic can't even protect its own people, so how can it protect others.

But Kyle didn’t have a particularly good idea. The most effective way he could think of was to have Fudge resign and replace the minister with a more capable person.

 For example...Dumbledore.

  Unfortunately, neither Fudge nor Dumbledore would agree with this approach.

Kyle walked slowly to the door of the Defense Against the Dark Arts office... It was not Snape's office. He had too many things, and some potion materials also had strict environmental requirements and were difficult to move, so he was still where he was. That underground classroom.

Kyle came to Umbridge's office, where she had previously set up a dedicated line to the Ministry of Magic in the fireplace.

Although she left school long ago, there were many outstanding students admitted to Hogwarts last year by the Ministry of Magic. In order to facilitate them to go to internships on weekends, this route was retained.

It's just that Dumbledore arranged an armored guard at the door, and only those who knew the password could enter.

 “Bibi’s multi-flavor beans!”

Kyle said the password, and the armor responsible for guarding creaked and turned around and moved to the side.

　　It can only be said that they are indeed the guards arranged by Dumbledore. Even the passwords are in the same series as the principal's office. Fortunately, Honeydukes products have a wide variety of products, otherwise it would not be enough. All the fancy decorations and kitty dishes in the room were removed, leaving only a bare table and a few scattered chairs, which was much more pleasing to the eye than before.

Kyle lit the fireplace, grabbed a handful of Floo powder from the keg next to it, and threw it in.

But the strange thing is that the flame did not change color, but a head popped out of it, and Kyle could clearly see the other party's delicate beard.

Although he didn’t know what happened, Kyle was not too surprised. He just took out the letter he had received before from his pocket and said:

 “I need to go to the Ministry of Magic.”

The man in the fireplace glanced at the letter and Fudge's signature.

“Sorry, this floo network has been blocked.”

As if he hadn't seen Fudge's signature, he said businesslikely: "According to the request of Principal Albus Dumbledore, the entire Hogwarts will be on the highest alert. Except for the fireplace in the Principal's Office, all other floo networks All will be closed, including this one.

“This fireplace will be completely sealed. No one can use it.”

"Okay." Kyle said, he glanced at the letter in his hand, "What about this? The minister asked me to go there as soon as possible."

"You are still a student..." the man continued expressionlessly: "There is no need to interfere with other things."

 After saying that, the other party disappeared.

The only sound left in the room was the crackling sound of the flames burning.

Kyle looked at the letter in his hand again, threw it into the fireplace, then found a chair and sat down, watching the parchment gradually burn out in the flames.

He guessed that the Floo Network was closed probably because of the incident involving Amelia Bones...

 Although we don’t know how those Death Eaters entered the Ministry of Magic, this also shows another possibility.

 They were able to use the fireplace in the Ministry of Magic to enter Hogwarts through the floo network in front of them.

Dumbledore probably had this in mind and insisted on sealing the fireplace.

However, Kyle was quite happy with the result... he got rid of Slughorn's invitation and didn't have to go to the Ministry of Magic to face Fudge. It was perfect.

 A minute later, Kyle extinguished the flame and walked out of the classroom again.

This is a good reason. When Slughorn invites him in the future, he can just say that he is going to the Ministry of Magic. Anyway, it is impossible for him to go to the Ministry of Magic to confirm whether he is going or not.

Of course, the premise is that he cannot be caught during this period of time.

Kyle went downstairs and made his way to the Hufflepuff common room.

Conna is here too.

“Didn’t you go to the Ministry of Magic?” She looked at Kyle who walked in and asked in surprise.

"The school's floo network is closed and I can't get out." Kyle explained roughly what happened before.

 “What about you? Aren’t you being detained?”

"I'm just in confinement." Connor said seriously, "Professor Snape asked me to finish reading this book."

She picked up the "Powerful Potion" on the table, "I asked if I could come back and read it, and he agreed."

 “Um…okay…” Kyle smacked his lips.

Sure enough, Snape's confinement was no different to Connor than going home. Who else could make demands during the confinement except her?

“I remember you had finished watching “Poison” two years ago.” Kyle walked to an armchair next to her and sat down, “Why are you watching it again?”

“I only read half of it,” Conner said. "Professor Snape thought that I was not suitable to handle some of the second half of the potions at that time, so he took them away from me."

 She opened the page she was reading and pushed it to Kyle.

 There is a picture of a person whose whole body is twisted, and the proportions of his body are seriously out of balance.

 The Giant Potion... can make ordinary people become as big as giants, but they will also suffer great pain, just like inflating people.

In addition, there are blood boiling potions, crazy potions...

 Simply put, it is the black magic in potions... It is not beautiful, but some of the unique herbal combinations are necessary to learn potions.

This is also the main reason why the book "Powerful Potion" is placed in the restricted book area. As for Polyjuice Potion...that is only the most insignificant part of the content.

 The two of them were killing time in the common room.

 The next day came, the first weekend in October, and the long-awaited Hogsmeade visit day.

Because the protective measures around the school are becoming more and more strict, they thought they could not go to Hogsmeade. Now after seeing the announcement, everyone is very happy.

　　Although we know that it is very dangerous recently, we still don’t want to stay in the castle all the time.

 The professors seemed to think it would be good for everyone to go out and relax occasionally, so they arranged a Hogsmeade visit day.

 Suddenly there was a strong wind outside in the morning, and there were not too small raindrops, but this did not extinguish everyone's enthusiasm.

During breakfast, everyone seemed very excited. Mikel and Ryan were discussing what they should buy in Hogsmeade. They made a long list, which included almost all the stores. .

At this time, there was a quarrel at the door, and just by the sound, I knew it was Harry and the others.

"Hermione, haven't we already tried it? There is nothing wrong with the contents of the notes." A familiar trio walked into the auditorium.

Harry was saying excitedly: "I never thought that I would get extra points in Potions class. It's incredible."

 “But that’s not your thing!” Hermione said stiffly.

"But there must be a part of it!" Harry retorted: "Although I read the notes given by Kyle, I did all the processes myself. Aren't everyone also operating according to the contents of the book?"

 “This is different!” said Hermione.

"What's the difference?" Ron said nonchalantly, with excitement on his face. It was obvious that he had just experienced something happy.

“I see, Hermione, you must be jealous that our Potions grades are better than yours…”

"It has nothing to do with that," Hermione said, her cheeks turning red. "I just don't think you should be opportunistic."

"But our potion is perfect, isn't it?" said Ron. "Even Slughorn can't fault it. Since the results are the same, wouldn't it be better if the process was simpler?"

The three of them were so noisy that no one could convince anyone, and they didn't notice that they had become the focus of everyone.

 “What notes did you lend them?” Kangna asked curiously.

"It's just some little tricks taught by Professor Snape." Kyle shrugged, "I guess none of them noticed the process and textbooks written by Professor Snape on the blackboard during the Potions class. It’s a little different on top.”

This is not difficult to understand, Hermione must be mainly based on textbooks.

As for Harry and Ron... they could barely raise their heads when they were in Snape's Potions class, let alone compare what was in the textbook and the blackboard.

 …

 (End of this chapter)