British Ministry of Magic, Basement 1, Minister's Office.

It's a spacious room that doesn't match its appearance, and of course, it's normal to use magic to expand the space here.

Umbridge's description is inaccurate, and in fact the meeting appears to have begun when the two men arrived at the minister's office.

The room was filled with directors of various important departments, and all of them had extremely grim expressions.

A middle-aged wizard in his fifties, with a stern and serious face, pointed his finger at the parchment on the table, and his tone was indifferent.

“...... This is a copy of the contract that the Gringotts elves have given us so far, and we have carefully combed through the terms of it, and there are no mistakes or incompleteness, to be precise, the rigor of the wording and terms of this mortgage contract far exceeds that of any contract I have seen, and the complexity of the magical binding effect on it is also the highest so far. ”

"This morning, the International Office of Magical Law and our International Standards Institute for Magical Trade came to the same conclusion. In terms of the text, this is at least a rigorous framework that will take decades of polishing, and it is reasonable to suspect that the masterminds behind this moment have been preparing for this moment for at least a decade – no doubt it is a multi-year, well-orchestrated conspiracy!

After the middle-aged wizard finished speaking, his waist slowly straightened, and his eyes raised to look at Connelly Fudge who was sitting behind the desk.

Across the crowd, Arthur could see the witch's meticulously groomed silver hair, and the straight, somewhat unnatural slit in the middle, and the only person who could speak to the Minister in such a tone at the Ministry of Magic was Mr. Barty Crouch, the director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation.

"That is, as long as we exchange a sufficient amount of rubles from Gringotts, everything will be fine. ”

Connelius Fudge knocked on the table a little tiredly, waved his hand, and said a little weakly.

"Mr. Minister......

Several wizards standing in the front row exchanged glances, and Barty Crouch took a deep breath, his expression becoming extremely ugly, "Gringotts......"

Next to Mr. Crouch, Amelia Bones, the current director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, continued in a stiff tone, "Gringotts declared that it did not have enough ruble reserves and closed the exchange window between gold and galleons and rubles this morning. ”

The square-chin witch adjusted her monocle, trying to suppress the anger in her heart.

"The Ministry of the Interior of the Soviet Union is now also in a state of indefinite shutdown due to internal restructuring and disagreements. To put it simply, we've lost nearly all avenues through which we can exchange gold gallons for the worthless little pieces of paper in the Muggle Nations. ”

"That's bad news. ”

Cornelius Fudge's cheeks twitched, trying to squeeze out a relaxed smile.

The situation is far worse than they imagined.

Maybe the Ministry of Magic and the Hogwarts Board of Directors could raise that many gold Galleons, but the damn mortgage was actually the currency of a Muggle country.

Even without bothering the staff of the Ministry of Magic's trade department, Fudge was well aware that it was impossible to make up the shortfall in the ruble loan of the astronomical amount through private transactions with foreign wizards.

After another painful silence.

A strange cough suddenly sounded from the back of the crowd.

“herm，hem......”

As if not sensing the solemnity of the atmosphere, Umbridge maintained her high-pitched voice and said, "Mr. Minister, Arthur Weasley of the Division for the Prohibition of the Misuse of Muggle Objects has arrived, maybe we can ask for his opinion?"

Arthur Weasley?

Yes, if there was a Muggle in the Ministry, it would be Arthur Weasley.

Fudge looked up expectantly and looked in the direction of the door. He knew that Weasley had always had a good relationship with Dumbledore, and that Weasley was fascinated by Muggles, and that he might be able to give everyone some new perspectives.

"Huh, ......"

Mr. Weasley, who had not yet fully figured out the situation, walked over to Fudge's desk amid the gaze of the crowd and squeezed the top hat in his hand a little awkwardly.

"Mr. Minister, if you are missing those little pieces of paper in the Muggle world, why not seek the help of the Muggle Prime Minister?

"I'm sorry, Weasley, I thought you heard about it from Dumbledore. Cornelius Fudge waved his hand in disappointment, and pointed to the parchment on the table for Arthur to pick it up and take a look.

However, hearing Mr. Weasley's words, Amelia Bones got some hints, and looked at Fudge expectantly, "Yes, Mr. Minister, how did the Muggle Prime Minister reply? It's just the currency of a Muggle country, can't we do anything about it!"

"Without any valuable information, the British government was even more helpless than we were in the face of the Soviets. ”

The officer in charge of the Muggle Liaison Office answered her, and the small wizard spread his hands, "You don't understand what a powerful Muggle country it is. To put it simply, the Soviet Union was equal to half of the non-magical world, and any hostile behavior against it was tantamount to provoking a war between the two worlds. The most important thing is that the British government is not on the side of the Soviets, and they will not have too many rubles in reserve......"

Bang!

"Enough is enough, bad news, bad news, bad news, from yesterday to today, all of them. Gentlemen, I don't need you to keep reminding you how bad the situation is. I just want to ask, hasn't there been any progress on anything so far!?"

Cornelius Fudge slammed the Daily Prophet on his desk, slammed his right fist into the smug smile of the elves, and roared angrily.

"Look! The entire wizarding world is questioning us why Hogwarts is about to fall into the hands of the elves. This is an extremely despicable kidnapping, a shameless betrayal of the human wizarding world, and an unprecedented conspiracy! More than ten hours have passed, and our answer is that there is nothing we can do?!"

For the first time in his life, how he wished that what the magazine was saying was true, that he was a "goblin killer" who could bake elves into pies without changing his face, rather than a minister of magic who was forced to deal with cunning goblins.

"Ahem, actually, there is still some progress on my side. ”

In the face of the enraged Cornelius Fudge, Rufus Scrimge, the head of the Auror Office, cleared his throat, but his face was not happy at all, but a little more gloomy.

"We dug through the archives and plucked out the name of the man's mother, and the family behind him, his maternal grandfather, Marvolo Gaunt, out of the mouth of a damned Death Eater. In other words, the person who has Salazar Slytherin blood is not only Morfin Gaunt. ”

There was a palpable commotion in the room as Scrimgeour spoke, and as the core officials of the Ministry of Magic, everyone knew what these names meant.

"Damn! I know. The ghosts of the rats, who only dare to hide in the shadows. ”

Fudge's face trembled violently, and he cursed with gritted teeth.

"Stringer, keep checking on me, dig three feet into the ground to find that guy. Lady Amelia Bones, I hope you can adjust the allocation of resources in the department for a while, and as you heard, this may be our last resort to save the future of the wizarding world. Otherwise, we can only pray that the Gringotts elves will suddenly have mercy and abandon the contract, or that the behemoth of the non-magical world will take the initiative to send us mountains of rubles. ”

"I see. Amelia Bones nodded solemnly, a murderous look flashed across her face, and left the minister's office first. Immediately afterward, the various departments under the Department of Magical Law Enforcement followed her out of the room, and the room suddenly became much empty.

"Of course, on the Gringotts elves, we still need to try again. Cornelius Fudge sighed a little weakly, and looked around at the directors of the various departments who were still in the office, "So, ...... next."

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Chapter 2!rua~rua~

What you know, it's still the feeding standard, maybe it can really be three watches~

In other words, if you say three more, what should the round-faced fat chicken be called?