Chapter 122 — The New Minister of Magic

Chapter 122: Chapter 122 — The New Minister of Magic

Chapter 122 — The New Minister of Magic

In order to cheer Vesey up, Harry and the others began telling her about everything that had happened recently.

They told her about Dobby the house-elf, the warning from the Ministry of Magic, and how Fred and George had driven the flying car to pick Harry up themselves.

They also told her how Harry had accidentally used Floo Powder to reach Knockturn Alley.

From time to time, Vesey would cooperate by showing concern or exclaiming in surprise, which made Harry and the others feel much better.

They were about to tell Vesey even more when they had to stop.

Not long after they arrived in Diagon Alley, they ran into Hermione and her parents.

In other words, they had already been in contact with each other and had planned to meet Vesey here today.

They had missed Vesey terribly.

Although Dumbledore had always told them that everything was fine, and the Daily Prophet had also reported that Vesey should be safe, they still couldn’t help worrying.

Hermione hugged Vesey and burst into tears.

Her eyes were slightly swollen, and it was obvious that she had been crying for a long time.

"I always thought I could protect you, but..."

Her tears fell heavily.

Vesey quickly hugged her.

"It’s not your fault. We’re children! Children are naturally weaker than adults.

"Besides, Hermione, you did protect me to some extent!

"When they captured me, I kept thinking about you. I kept telling myself that I couldn’t die. I couldn’t die there.

"I knew that if I died there, you would be heartbroken. So you gave me the courage to survive.

"Please stop crying, okay? You’re crying so much that my heart hurts!"

[Ding! Energy Points +10]

[Ding! Energy Points +10]

[Ding! Energy Points +10]

[...]

Hermione cried even harder.

Vesey coaxed her for quite a while before she finally calmed down.

"Yes, you’re right. I’m still too young. I’ll definitely work hard to become stronger!"

Hermione would never let Vesey follow the same path as the one described in the diary again.

A good person like Vesey deserved to live peacefully for the rest of her life.

She had already suffered so much.

It was time to make her life easier and happier from now on, wasn’t it?

Thinking this, Hermione leaned over and kissed Vesey hard on the cheek.

Vesey’s face turned slightly red, but she didn’t refuse.

Hermione secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

She had been worried that after what those people had done to Vesey, even a girl’s touch might make her uncomfortable.

Fortunately, Vesey was still the same as before.

After everyone had gathered, Mr. Weasley took them all to Gringotts.

They went to the Weasley family’s vault first.

When they saw the small pile of Silver Sickles on the floor and the single Gold Galleon, the Weasley children all flushed with embarrassment.

Mrs. Weasley quickly gathered all the money into her bag.

Then they went to the Potter family’s vault.

Harry withdrew a large number of Galleons.

He also withdrew a large amount for Vesey—more than he took for himself.

He was worried that Vesey, being a girl, would have a lot of things to buy and might not have enough money.

Since Harry had given her money, Vesey was reluctant to take any from her own vault.

She was still saving her money for the future.

Hehe!

After withdrawing the money, Mr. Weasley took Mr. and Mrs. Granger to the Leaky Cauldron for a drink because they didn’t know where else to go at that time.

Mrs. Weasley took Ginny to a second-hand clothing shop to pick out some second-hand robes.

They agreed to meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour.

They would buy everyone’s books then.

So this hour belonged to them.

Vesey was surrounded by Harry and the others.

People constantly glanced at her as they passed by, and one or two even stared at her neck with pitying expressions.

Vesey didn’t pay much attention to them.

She simply marked those people with Energy Points and gave them a little poison.

Harry and the others, however, were furious.

They almost wanted to start fights with those people.

But Vesey stopped them all.

She said generously:

"It doesn’t matter. I’m used to it.

"Besides, I didn’t actually show much at the time. Before I saw the photo ball, I even thought they had taken me..."

Her face suddenly went pale.

Harry and the others were so heartbroken that they almost wanted to break into Azkaban and kill every one of those people.

"But it’s strange when you think about it. Maybe it’s karma.

"The vampire wizards who hurt Vesey are all dead now. Apparently, they contracted some strange disease.

"My dad said that their families thought someone was taking revenge on them and claimed that Vesey had done it.

"But Vesey was accidentally taken to Nicolas’s manor by that crazy woman’s spell, and Mr. Nicolas even accepted her as his student. She didn’t have any time to do something like that.

"So most people say it was karma. Not long afterward, the immediate family members of those people also developed the same strange disease.

"Apparently, even the healers at St Mungo’s thought it might be some kind of punishment from Merlin.

"Although my father said that was ridiculous, the strange disease definitely had nothing to do with Merlin. After all, there are so many people alive in Azkaban who have committed terrible crimes, yet none of them contracted that strange disease."

The moment Vesey heard this, she knew who had done it.

Snape.

After all, she had seen those vampire wizards before, and they had already been poisoned by Snape.

If their immediate family members had developed the same symptoms, then they had obviously been poisoned by Snape as well.

It was probably that crazy woman who had appeared during the trial and completely enraged Snape.

He had already gone completely mad after learning from the diary that those people would poison Vesey.

And now those same people had tried to kill her.

Snape hadn’t simply used the Killing Curse, probably because he was afraid that doing so would land him in Azkaban and leave him unable to take care of Vesey.

Vesey just didn’t understand why Dumbledore had agreed to it.

Could it be that Dumbledore felt Vesey had suffered too much and simply turned a blind eye to Snape’s revenge?

After all, Snape hadn’t directly killed them.

Or was there another reason?

Aside from this matter, Ron and the others also mentioned that the vampires had claimed Vesey would develop a Vampire Conversion Potion the following year.

"There are many people who believe Vesey will succeed. They think those vampires weren’t fools. They went to such lengths and paid such a high price. What else could they have been after if not the potion?

"Of course, there are also plenty of people who think it’s nonsense. They believe Vesey is far too young and that those people were simply deceived by those pretentious vampires.

"As for the Ministry of Magic, I don’t know when it started, but they’ve actually been saying that this was Dumbledore’s way of building momentum for Vesey.

"They claim Dumbledore wants to win over the vampires, and that he’s become confused and wants to rule the entire magical world."

Vesey was speechless.

Did she remember incorrectly?

Hadn’t Fudge already been brought down because of her?

How dare the Ministry of Magic slander Dumbledore?

Weren’t they afraid that Dumbledore would actually become angry?

Could Fudge have returned?

"That’s terrible. Did Minister Fudge do this?"

Vesey put on an indignant expression.

Ron and the others shook their heads.

They smiled bitterly and said a name.

"Pius Thicknesse!"

Vesey raised an eyebrow in surprise.

She knew that name.

During Voldemort’s reign, Pius Thicknesse had become a puppet Minister of Magic.

Voldemort had placed him under the Imperius Curse. Although he might not even have known everything he had done, he certainly didn’t seem like a good person.

Sure enough, the moment he took office, he had begun spreading malicious rumors about Dumbledore.

He was even more radical than Fudge.

Vesey couldn’t understand why Dumbledore hadn’t replaced him with someone he trusted.

Someone like Kingsley, perhaps?

Could it be that Kingsley wasn’t qualified enough yet?

Or did Dumbledore have some other consideration?