Chapter Seventy-Two: Padma the Man in the Woods
"Remember our promise, and it's time for you to keep your promise. Man in the woods. The final letter looked even more messy than the previous one, and it was covered in ink, as if it had been hastily written. The ending stroke is stretched very long and swayed crookedly to the edge of the note.
If he hadn't seen this, of course Brandi would have been in the same veil as Fudge and Scrimgeur, but if the sender claimed to be from the woods—
Brandi's mind only remembered the one and only. A girl who once traded a family-unique night vision charm for Brandi's life in the Forbidden Forest.
Padma Petyr, the twin sister of the silly girl, is the iceberg sister who pretends to be disgusted on the surface, but in fact will give up the whole world for Parvati. She was also the only one who had made a pact with Brandi in a location in the woods.
There was no time, no place, and no idea what to do...... If one day she asks Brandi for help, no matter how excessive and bizarre the request is, Brandi has to do it—even if it costs his life.
Remembering what had been agreed, Brandi held his breath for a moment.
Now an even more terrible situation has appeared in front of him - the recipient is Britney, not Brandi Spears.
If Padma knew that Brandi had gone to Beauxbatons, the Ball Courier should have sent the letter directly to France, which meant that Padma had no idea what was going on at Hogwarts.
In this case, wouldn't it be safer for the recipient to write Brandi? Even if he wasn't at Hogwarts during this time, the letter would be sent to Gryffindor Tower, at least as soon as Brandi returned......
But Padma used the name Britney. This meant that if Brandi didn't receive it, then the letter would be sent to Ravenclaw, where Britney was - there would certainly not be such a girl there, so that unclear letters would only be sent directly to the Headmaster's office and handled by Dumbledore himself.
Is it either himself or Dumbledore? Can't let anyone but the two of them see it, not even Harry?
Brandi thought to herself.
Moreover, Padma didn't know that Hogwarts was currently under letter control, but she insisted on using such a scattered and incomprehensible code to inform herself in a subtle way, rather than sending a long letter to clearly state the reason for the incident and what she wanted Brandi to do.
I'm afraid there's only one answer that can explain both of these questions – it's a complete distress letter. The Pettier sisters are under house arrest by someone, so closely watched that they don't even have time to finish a letter. And they don't want anyone to know about this except Brandi and Dumbledore!
With this in mind, Brandi began to try to calm his emotions. He was in a hurry to get back to Hogwarts right now, to unpack the letter and find out what had happened to Parvati. But the current situation is really a bit tricky, and no one could have imagined that Padma's letter actually happened to collide with the Azkaban prison escape! Fortunately, the Ministry of Magic co-authored the connection between the information that Sirius Black was hiding in the mountains and the 'man in the forest' in Padma's letter.
No wonder they were so eager to catch themselves recklessly without any procedures, they thought they were Blake's hidden inside line at Hogwarts? And listen to what they mean, this Blake is hell-bent on harming Harry? Do they have a grudge?
"That's it! We have answered your questions and the letter has been shown to you. Now tell me who the owner of these letters is, where they are being sent, and what he wants you to do! ”
Brandi had been thinking for too long, much to Fudge's displeasure. "Our patience is limited, Miss Spears. You're delaying the Minister of Magic and the Auror Office at the same time! ”
"I'm sorry, Mr. Fudge, I just thought about something."
Hearing Fudge's roar, Brandi quickly shook his head, put aside the irrelevant trivia, and began to rack his brain to think about how to put this matter in the end: he was going through the names of people in his mind, he couldn't be at Hogwarts and Beauxbatons; At the same time, he can stand up and stand up for himself after being found by the Ministry of Magic - well, this is too unrealistic, but at least he has to be a wizard with high mana and can afford to use the ball as a messenger!
In addition to Dumbledore, which powerful and famous boss would he know?
Then Brandi had a flash of inspiration and sold the spicy man very decisively...... Famous, golden, self-reliant, and then forgetful - wow, it's amazing! There is really no one more suitable for this black pot than Nicola Lemay!
"Well, I think I understand what's going on." So he plucked up the courage and apologized to Grandpa Lemay from the bottom of his heart. He looked Fudge in the eye. "But unfortunately, Mr. Fudge, this matter may not have much to do with the Blake you care about—these letters were sent to me by Mr. Nicolamay."
Fudge obviously didn't expect that the girl in front of him would put so much effort into making up such a lame and funny reason, and he got up and made his face swollen.
"Ridiculous!" Fudge said angrily, "Even if you lie, you have to choose a suitable excuse!" Nicola Lemay, the world's top alchemist, will write to you? It's full of holes, Scrimgeour! You go get the truth potion right away, I don't have the time to listen to her nonsense—"
"But it's true!" Brandi hurriedly shouted, "The classmates who went to Beauxbatons with me can testify that on the first day of the alchemy course, Professor Lemay specially left me for dinner!" We really knew each other before! ”
Scrimgeur's form froze, he looked at the untouched quill on the table, and stared at Brandi suspiciously.
"Are you serious?"
Brandi gasped, nervously fainting. "Yes, Mr. Scrimgeur, you could have asked my classmates, or Professor Dumbledore, or Professor Lemay—they all knew about it!"
Scrimgeour and Fudge made eye contact for a moment, then walked out on their own.
"Well, then I'll ask you again why Nicolamay sent you a letter in such a form! Is he so idle that he panics? What the hell do those numbers mean! ”
Brandi's brain was racing, and he covered his mouth. "Because there's so much involved, sir, I promised Professor Lemay not to say anything about it."
Seeing Fudge's expression becoming more and more hideous, he pretended to scream in panic. "I'm secretly studying alchemy with Professor Lemay! Those letters were the puzzles that Professor Lemay had given me as a test, and I can only say so much, sir, please! ”
The word alchemy seemed to have an amazing magical power, and Fudge, who was still angry just now, immediately fell silent, and the wizards next to him began to exchange ears, all with surprised expressions on their faces.
"You?" Fudge muttered a repeat, holding the official Hogwarts archive of 'Britney Spears' identification materials, and his eyes widened the more he looked at it. "Learning alchemy with Nicolame? No kidding, you can blow up a cauldron three times with even a bottle of swelling potion! Nicolame doesn't care about so many alchemical geniuses who want to enter his house to learn, but he just likes you, a clumsy yellow-haired girl? ”
"Ah, I think I can testify to her, Connelly." Behind Brandy, a calm, gentle voice rang out, and Brandi turned his head in joy.
Dumbledore pushed open the half-hidden door and strode in. He was dressed in a starry blue robe, and he had an extremely confident expression on his face. He came up to Brandi and gave him a gentle look.
Brandi almost cried out in excitement, Professor Dumbledore had arrived at the right time to drag himself back from the brink of revealing - if Fudge asked even a little more about alchemy, he would be completely finished.
"I remember that the torture chamber was not set up for the Ministry of Magic to investigate the situation with wizards, the Ministry of Magic has been so tight that there is no place for people to talk quietly and investigate and collect evidence?" With a smile on his face, he conjured an armchair with his wand and sat down.
"Ah," Fudge looked a little caught off guard. "You're coming faster than I thought you would, Dumbledore."
"Actually, I happened to come over to talk to you, so the pace was a little faster." Dumbledore said, "The magical enchantments you've planted around the castle have interfered with the normal lives of the magical creatures in the Forbidden Forest, and Rubeus Hagrid, the warden of the hunting grounds, has told me many times that the unicorns have even stopped coming into heat. You know, it's spring, the season of revival. ”
Dumbledore's words were so serious that Brandy was desperately trying to keep himself from laughing.
Fudge's face turned a little ugly.
"We're also here for the safety of the castle, Dumbledore, and Black is coming, I thought you could understand...... "Also, I think the focus should be on Miss Spears right now." You just said that you can testify for her - Miss Spears really studied alchemy with Lemay again? ”
He recounted the eleven letters in detail, and added a lot of subjective opinions to them. Dumbledore didn't seem to be listening at all, though.
"Speaking of which, her letter of recommendation was written by me myself." Dumbledore casually scanned the letters, tilting his head and winking at Brandy. "I think Miss Spears is strong and hard-working, and will be more than enough to help Nicol with some heavy chores - the key is that she is not very good at it, and Nicol at least does not have to worry about his skills being stolen."
Brandi's face immediately collapsed, and Dumbledore was clearly in the middle of a downhole......
At the same time, Scrimgeur, who didn't know what to do, returned to the room, walked over to Fudge and whispered a few words, and nodded to Brandy.
"Congratulations, Miss Spears." Fudge looked a few years older, and the suspect he had identified as a suspect had been blamed cleanly, which made him somewhat unable to get off the stage. "Mr. Scrimgeour has just contacted Mr. Lemay, and in addition to the fact that he has proven that he is indeed acquainted with you, his wife, Madame Perenal, has asked Scrimgeour to tell you not to forget to promise Lemay something. So it seems, what the letter says—"
Brandi was stunned for a moment, and then realized that he had promised LeMay that he would reseal the ancient ruins in the Benas Desert. He nodded hurriedly, "Ah, that's right, that's the agreement above." ”
"Okay, okay." Fudge waved his hand in disappointment, "So it looks like you're not the one we're looking for, you can go Miss Spears - take the letters with you." With Merlin on top, Lemay really picked a good time to test his precious apprentice. ”
"What about Hogwarts setting up letter control—" Dumbledore said cheerfully, standing up and turning the armchair away.
"Then I can only express my regrets, Dumbledore. Not only that, but I have one more thing that I need your permission to do - if I can, I'd like to do it in the next school year at Hogwarts until I catch Black. ”
Dumbledore seemed to have expected this, he nodded to Fudge, and then he turned to Brandy. "You go back through the Floo network first, wait for me in the principal's office, I have something to say to you."
With that, he and Fudge left the room quickly.