Hogwarts: Bourne Returns from Warhammer

"She deserves it!"

Harry protested angrily.

As his emotions continued to rise, the Dursleys' lights, television, and even the gas stove with electric ignition began to turn on and off abnormally.

Aunt Petunia screamed in fear, while Cousin Harry Daly was still hiding under the table, with only his fat buttocks exposed, which kept swaying and shaking.

This accident also scared Uncle Vernon, so his reaction and actions were half a beat slower. Before he could stop Harry, Harry left the room and rushed to the cupboard under the stairs.

As he reached it the cupboard door swung open mysteriously, and within seconds he had heaved his suitcase to the door.

He ran upstairs at full speed, dove under the bed, flipped open the loose floorboards, and grabbed the pillowcase filled with his books and birthday presents.

He wriggled out from under the bed, grabbed Hedwig's empty cage, and rushed down the stairs to his trunk just as Uncle Vernon, who had just mustered up the nerve to turn off the gas, came stumbling out of the kitchen.

"Come back here!" he roared. "Come back and make it right!"

But Harry was in a frenzy of desperate rage. He kicked the trunk open, pulled out his wand, and pointed it at Uncle Vernon.

Harry said, breathing rapidly, "I repeat, she deserved it, and you . . .

Stay away from me! "

He fumbled behind him for the bolt.

"I'm leaving, I've had enough!" said Harry.

A moment later he was out into the dark, quiet street, dragging a heavy suitcase behind him and holding Hedwig's cage under his arm.

-

“Is this what you call the prisoner’s dilemma?”

In the office of the Minister of Magic, Minister Fudge put down his wine glass and looked with a complicated expression at the prisoner in front of him who was fiddling with the bandages on his body out of boredom.

He already had his wand in one hand.

His expression was filled with complex emotions: envy, surprise, suspicion, astonishment, and a hint of fear that he suppressed with all his strength but still revealed without a doubt.

"correct."

Fang Thomas snapped his fingers, then pushed the brown sunglasses on his nose with his fingers.

"This is the oracle that God has given me."

Minister Fudge sneered.

"Let me tell you, wizards are actually against superstition. Your situation, in our words, is called 'prophecy' or 'third eye', which can be explained by prophetic magic."

Fang Thomas shrugged indifferently.

"Whatever you think is what it is. Anyway, I drank so much truth serum, what I said is the truth. To me, this is an oracle."

Seeing him say this, Fudge did not object, because what this man said was true, he did drink too much truth serum, even if those things were expired, but the expired potion only damaged his brain and would not affect the truthfulness of his words.

On the contrary, because he knew more, Minister Fudge was secretly jealous of this man's talent.

That's prophetic magic!

That is one of the rarest magical talents.

Even someone as powerful as Dumbledore and the mysterious man who must not be named, without such talent, would still be unable to make correct predictions.

In history, the most recent wizard who was believed to possess this talent was the famous previous Dark Lord Grindelwald.

Many wizards speculate that the next person who can be confirmed to have the "third eye" must be a brilliant pure-blooded little wizard born in the future.

Who could have thought that the "Third Eye" would be opened on a person who could basically be said to be a sub-cannon?

This can be said to be off the mark, it is.

Therefore, when this man drank the truth serum yesterday and said in front of Fudge that he could receive oracles and make accurate predictions, the Minister of Magic actually did not believe it at all.

However, he actually told Fudge directly on the spot: "All the secrets I know are obtained through oracles. They are prophecies told to me by gods."

Fudge was skeptical when he heard this.

Logically, even if the truth serum is expired, it will affect the drinker's brain after drinking it, but it should still be able to force the drinker to tell the truth.

At that time, Thomas Fang seemed to have anticipated Fudge's thoughts, so he simply said: "If you don't believe me, give me another bottle... Oh, no, I want ten bottles. Take out all the remaining truth serum in your inventory."

The result surprised Fudge even more, because he asked the interrogator outside the interrogation room to get all the remaining truth serum in the warehouse, and the latter only brought back ten bottles.

And Fang Thomas didn't need anyone to force him. He actually picked up the expired potions and poured them all into his mouth one by one.

Fudge was no longer calm at that time.

He was not afraid that Fang Thomas would become demented, or die here from drinking too much expired potion, but he really guessed that the other party might be a prophet.

But, if a prophet becomes demented after drinking too much truth serum, wouldn’t he be useless?

However, Thomas soon proved his worth. Although he became a "madman", he was still able to communicate with Fudge normally, and more importantly, he was able to make correct predictions.

Fang Thomas told Fudge that he could send someone to politely deliver a summons from the Magic Court to the young wizard Bourne, who had handed him over to the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic.

"He will appear in court," said Thomas Fang, "and he will bring Dumbledore with him, which will give you a golden opportunity to undermine the White Lord's prestige in front of the wizarding public."

Seeing Fudge's hesitation, he had assured yesterday that today's Daily Prophet would publish an editorial specifically criticizing Bourne's "misbehavior" at the British Museum.

It was precisely because of this guarantee, and the desire to verify whether this Fang Thomas was really a prophet, that Fudge asked Umbridge, who was familiarizing himself with the future work of the Wizengamot in the Magical Court, to issue a subpoena.

It was a coincidence that if he had not intentionally watered down the Wizengamot Council, which had been "shamelessly" controlled by Dumbledore for many years, and obtained a parliamentary qualification for his confidant Umbridge through the exchange of interests, then Umbridge would not have gone to the Magic Court for "internship". And if Umbridge did not "intern" at the Magic Court, it would have been difficult for him to ask other judges to issue a subpoena to the little wizard named Bern Slughorn.

After all, almost all the staff of the Ministry of Magic now graduated from Hogwarts, and once seeing the last name "Slughorn", no one would not know that this was the family of their former professor.

Fudge thought about it and decided that apart from Umbridge, the woman who was clinging to him and trying to climb up the social ladder, most of the other inquisitors would probably not be willing to offend their former professor.

They will most likely find excuses like "insufficient evidence" or "trust the wisdom of future generations" to delay the matter until someday.

Thinking of this, Fudge felt even more that what Fang Thomas said might be true, and he really had the talent to be a prophet.

As a result, early this morning, his doubts were completely confirmed: although he did not do anything, the Daily Prophet published a critical article against the little wizard Bourne.

What’s more, surprisingly, the article was well-written.

Obviously, everyone in the Auror Office was sent to Azkaban by Fudge yesterday, but Rita Skeeter still wrote the whole thing vividly, accurately stating that the little wizard Bourne appeared in the British Museum and that a magical theft occurred there.

Apart from the people in the Auror Office, the only people in the Ministry who knew about these two things were Umbridge, Fudge himself, and Thomas Fang. I don't know where that woman got the information from.

However, her editorial does prove Fang Thomas's ability.

And this is what really moved Fudge: Thomas had predicted that as long as a subpoena was sent to Bourne, Dumbledore's prestige would be undermined.

So, Fudge asked Fang Thomas, who had received some treatment under his arrangement, applied some distilled white essential oil, and drank some invigorating potions, to come to his office.

He originally wanted to discuss it in detail, use threats and inducements, but the latter once again made a prophecy in front of him.

"There is a little wizard named Harry Potter who will be in big trouble this evening. He will violate the rules and use magic in front of ordinary people, causing a serious violation of one of your important laws. You should have a way to monitor the little wizard. He seems to be a very important person to you."

Upon hearing this, Fudge was even more surprised. He did have a way to monitor Harry Potter.

No one knew about this because he didn't tell anyone about it, not even his confidant Umbridge.

"You must explain it to me clearly later," Fudge looked at Fang Thomas seriously, staring into his eyes through his brown sunglasses, "Definitely!"

After saying this, he took out a large box from under his desk, took out something that looked like a monitor and placed it on the table.

The object was very heavy and he had a great deal of difficulty in carrying it by himself, but he had no intention of asking for help.

Then, he opened a drawer that was cast with various protective and self-destructive spells, and took out a glass reagent bottle from it.

There is nothing in this glass reagent bottle except a "hair" that is invisible unless you look carefully and emits a bright glow.

That strand of hair is the trace thread.

At the end of the 19th century, the British Ministry of Magic issued a decree: Male and female wizards under the age of seventeen who own wands, that is, little wizards in school, are not allowed to use magic outside of school except in certain specific circumstances, such as self-defense when their lives are in danger.

In order to supervise these young wizards, the Ministry of Magic required Ollivander to implant something called trace thread into every wand sold.

When the little wizard reaches his seventeenth birthday, the thread will automatically disappear.

The trace is divided into two parts, one will be implanted in the young wizard's wand, and the other will be kept in the Ministry of Magic.

Once the young wizard of Hogwarts leaves the school, the trace thread will automatically run to detect whether there is any magical reaction around it.

However, if a child wizard is from a wizard family and there are adult wizards nearby, even if he (she) casts magic, the trace will mistakenly identify it as other adult wizards casting spells and will not report it to the Ministry of Magic.

However, it must be pointed out that the reason why this loophole exists is not because "Thread" is not strong enough, but because of the inaction of the Ministry of Magic.

When the "Trace" was first invented, the wizard who invented it clearly provided a very complete system. Through a display screen made by alchemy, the Ministry of Magic staff sitting at one end of the screen can monitor the specific situation of each little wizard's wand at any time, and can even monitor the images and sounds around the little wizard.

That's right, it was the alchemical display screen that Minister Fudge took out from under the table and placed on his desk.

However, since the Ministry of Magic does not have that many staff, this "Trace Detection System" could only operate inefficiently for more than a hundred years with huge loopholes.

"This antique should still be usable." Minister Fudge blew on the screen and took out a handkerchief to wipe away the dust accumulated on it.

Then, he aimed the glass reagent bottle containing the "trace thread" at a recessed cylindrical slot and inserted it with a "click".

Although there were some flickers and snow, the alchemy display screen finally lit up.

Seeing this scene, Fang Thomas was a little surprised, but he didn't say much.

In his eyes, all of this was very magical: that thing that was somewhat similar to a TV, without any wires or antennas connected to it, could instantly display the situation in a specific place in the distance, just like a live broadcast.

Even though the picture is in black and white.

In that picture, the protagonist is a little wizard who always has a very awkward expression, and the supporting characters are his uncle, aunt, cousin's family, and a fat woman called "Aunt Maggie" by his chubby cousin.

Everything seemed normal.

Minister Fudge waited patiently from morning to noon, and from noon to evening. During this time, he watched the Muggle family on the screen eat two meals in a row, while he, the Minister of Magic, had to eat sandwiches for both meals.

Until he saw Harry Potter yelling at Aunt Marge, and like another magical riot, the little wizard turned the woman into a hot air balloon without a wand and silently.

At the same time, his confidant Umbridge also sent him a short message using magic: the T-Bo Warthog has gone berserk and the Phoenix has not made any move.

So, suppressing all the emotions in his heart, he looked at the "prophet" Fang Thomas.

Fudge carefully avoided the question he really wanted to ask. He did not ask "How to make Dumbledore lose prestige", but asked in a voice as steady as possible: "Both of your prophecies have come true, and both little wizards are in trouble. What is the connection between them? Also, what is the prisoner's dilemma you mentioned? You should understand that I can't really make these two little wizards prisoners."

"——It's a big deal." Fang Thomas took off the brown magic mirror, revealing his eyes that had turned green.

“Besides, you really should read more books.

The focus of the prisoner's dilemma is not on the prisoners, but on how a person should choose.

What you should be thinking about is what Dumbledore should do now that both little wizards have problems, and whether he should do these things at all."