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Chapter 966: Information from Mundungus
🕑 Added 2023-12-20 07:07:24 +0000 UTCHarry, Hermione, Ron, and Colin all looked at Evan, and then turned their heads to look at the woman in the corner in astonishment.
Except Colin who had no idea who Mundungus was, the others were all well aware, having seen him many times over the holidays.
In their minds, Mundungus was a squat, unshaven wizard with short bandy legs, long straggly ginger hair, bloodshot baggy eyes, smoking foul-smelling tobacco, and always emanating a strong smell of mingled drink and stale tobacco.
In any case, it was nothing like the veiled witch in front of them.
It would be amazing if there was a way to turn a dumpy man into such a slender witch!
"You’re kidding, Evan. There's no way he could be Mundungus..." Ron said.
"We can go over and ask to make sure!" said Evan, walking quickly to the side of the witch.
The witch dodged back for a moment, but quickly regained her composure.
"Get lost, brat!" she said roughly, in an ugly woman's voice.
"Stop pretending, Dung, we recognize you!" said Evan. "How about the things you’re supposed to buy?"
"I don’t know what you're talking about!"
"Oh, if that's the case, then I won't pay. You know, there are more orders to come..."
"Wait a minute, you can't do that. It took me so much..."
Mundungus stopped, and he saw Evan looking at him with a smile.
"Damn, how did you recognize me? I'll post those things to you in a few days, now you guys stay away from me!" Mundungus said in a panic, looking around, "Listen, I can't be discovered, the bartender here has a great memory, because of a minor incident, he banned me from the Hog’s Head twenty years ago, I can't be noticed by him..."
"Goodness, you really are Mundungus!" Hermione said in surprise, as if transfixed!
"Why are you here?" Harry asked, "And in this state."
“Keeping an eye on you, of course. This is my task. You don't really think that Dumbledore will let you guys leave Hogwarts without any protection," Mundungus muttered, returning to his own voice. "Don't give me that angry look, Harry, it's not up to me, I still have a lot of business to do, but now I have to come here early in the morning. Can't even smoke, just sitting here. As for my current appearance, Tonks helped me with this disguise. We lost Moody’s spare Invisibility Cloak when Sturgis was arrested."
"Sturgis Podmore?" said Ron, “but he’s that bloke who looks like his head’s been thatched, isn’t he? He’s one of the Order..."
“Ron, shh!” said Hermione hastily, casting a terrified look around them. "Keep your voice down, you shouldn't have said that word."
They gathered in a circle, Colin looked curious, and Mundungus, who was sitting in the corner, almost fainted.
"Sturgis was arrested? What on earth is going on here?"
"I don't know..." said Mundungus in a very low voice, realizing he might have said too much.
"Remember when he was supposed to be part of our guard going to King's Cross and didn't show up!" said Harry. "Moody was all annoyed because he didn't turn up. He was doing something for us, wasn't he?"
"Yeah, at least I thought so, you five..." Mundungus said, but was cut off again.
"I remember now, it was said in the Daily Prophet, the paper from the day the Gryffindor Quidditch team first practiced," said Hermione, squinting as she recalled, "I read that article and I was going to tell you about it.”
Because of Ron's poor performance, the atmosphere that night became so awkward that Hermione forgot to mention it.
In the past month, Ron had participated in four more Quidditch training sessions, and in the last two, he hadn't received any loud scolding.
Angelina thought that his progress was too slow, but at least he was still making progress, so she couldn't say anything.
"What did the Daily Prophet say?"
"I remember they said that Podmore was arrested by a Ministry of Magic watch-wizard, who found him attempting to force his way through a top-security door at one o’clock in the morning. Podmore, who refused to speak in his own defense, was convicted on both charges and sentenced to six months in Azkaban."
“Six months in Azkaban!” whispered Harry, shocked. “Just for trying to get through a door?!"
“Don’t be silly, it wasn’t just for trying to get through a door — what on earth was he doing at the Ministry of Magic at one o’clock in the morning?" Hermione said in a low voice, "It must not be that simple."
"You must know what's going on, right?" They all looked at Mundungus.
"Don't stare at me like that, they seem to be guarding something, and that thing is kept in the Ministry of Magic." Mundungus said quickly, "What is it? I don't know. They never let me go there and I didn't ask about it. As for Sturgis, who knows what kind of madness he went in, trying to break into the secret Ministry of Magic area that day, yeah, I heard Mad-Eye say that. I don't know anything about other things. Please, can you go away? The bartender may come out at any time, and the five of you are too conspicuous here!"
They left Mundungus and walked back to the bar, with the conversation still revolving around Sturgis's arrest.
"From what Mundungus said, it seems like Mad-Eye and the others didn't know about this, they seem shocked by Sturgis's actions," said Evan. "They didn't expect him to get caught, it's really strange!"
"Not strange at all. It could be a frame-up!" Ron immediately exclaimed.
"Well, there’s a possibility that the Ministry of Magic suspects he’s one of Dumbledore's lot." Hermione continued her analysis, "So, perhaps, they lured him deep into the Ministry, and he wasn’t trying to get through a door at all! Maybe they’ve just made something up to get him!"
Evan nodded thoughtfully. It was also possible that the Death Eaters tried to enter the Ministry of Magic's Department of Mysteries that night, but they were discovered by Sturgis who was on patrol. They might have deliberately framed him and controlled him to see the power of the Ministry's protective enchantments.
"I'm more concerned about what Mundungus said just now, that they are guarding something, and that thing is kept at the Ministry of Magic," said Harry. "Could this thing he's talking about be the weapon Voldemort wants?"
"Who knows!" said Hermione, thoughtfully, "but it's hard for me to imagine that if there’s such a powerful weapon, Fudge would keep it in the Ministry of Magic and not use it. It's not like his style, is it?”
