The Silent Witch of Hogwarts

Chapter 17: The First Operation

"Um……"

The masked witch nodded slightly, as if to say hello to the Aurors.

"..."

The Aurors all looked at their master, Scrimgeour, but Scrimgeour was not angry. Instead, he looked at the witch with interest and finally nodded.

"Now that Miss Hamel has arrived, let's begin today's inspection." He slowly walked up the steps of the Ministry of Magic office and looked at the dozen or so Aurors below. "Today is our Auror office's first inspection of dark magic items. The main objective is to investigate whether the major pure-blood families and magical item shops are hoarding items."

As he spoke, he looked at the masked witch. Through the silver mask, he couldn't tell what she was thinking.

Of course... of course I wasn't thinking about anything!

With her head down and wearing a mask, Loila wasn't thinking about anything. She wasn't listening to what Scrimgeour was saying at all; she was nervously muttering about the knowledge of magic arrays.

"The engraving of the energy storage magic circle requires magical materials, or the blood of magical creatures... Veela, although not a magical creature, can still have its blood used..."

No wonder she was nervous, considering she was surrounded by Aurors! Aurors!

Those who like to meddle in other people's business and always find trouble for themselves!

Thanks to... thanks to Dumbledore's solution... even if I'm so nervous that I'm reviewing magic array knowledge behind the mask, they won't find out.

If Dumbledore knew what Royla was thinking, he'd probably just laugh it off...

Soon, Scrimgeour's speech seemed to end, and the Aurors began to act.

Loila quickly followed behind the Aurors, but she didn't look like a special advisor... more like an arrested dark wizard.

"..."

A large, densely packed group of Aurors walked through the streets of Diagon Alley, drawing curious glances from every passing wizard...

"What serious criminal have they arrested?" Arthur Weasley, with his red hair, looked at his colleagues curiously. He remembered that there had indeed been an inspection of dark magic items today... Which family's wizards have been arrested?

Others speculated even more wildly... some even suspected that one of the mysterious man's accomplices had finally been caught.

Of course, Loila was unaware of all this; she was wholeheartedly reviewing the great knowledge of magic arrays until the Auror beside her seemed unable to contain his curiosity and spoke up.

"Hello... Professor." The young man with short brown hair suddenly lowered his voice: "I'm Gerst Parkinson... It's nice to meet you."

"Ah..." Startled by the sudden conversation, Loila quickened her pace, prompting Gerst to quicken his pace as well.

"You must be the new professor at Hogwarts, right?" Gerst seemed to be a chatterbox, and even when Loyla didn't say a word, he could still start talking on his own: "I'm also a graduate of Hogwarts, ah... everyone should be a graduate of Hogwarts."

I...I don't know you...Don't be so...so enthusiastic!

Loyla's biggest fear is being an Auror, and her biggest fear is being overly familiar with people... This Mr. Gerst from the Parkinson's family is probably the most overly familiar person Loyla has ever met.

After all... no one would suddenly greet a complete stranger, right?

Loila had no idea how to respond to Gerst, but luckily she was wearing a mask, so even though she was pale, she didn't have to worry about being discovered.

Unaware of all this, Gerst continued chatting casually: "You can guess which college I graduated from..."

"..." Loila pursed her lips in silence. She guessed that this Mr. Parkinson was probably from Gryffindor... After all, aren't students from that house known for their enthusiasm?

"I think I asked a stupid question." Seeing that Loira didn't seem angry at all for not responding, Gerst scratched his head and said to himself, "Of course, all Parkinson's family members are Slytherins."

"After all, we are members of the Twenty-Eight Holy Families." He said this, but there seemed to be a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

But in her mind, Loyla had already labeled Slytherin as "terrible"!

So all Slytherin students are like this... so talkative... I must stay away from them when I get to Hogwarts!

Completely unaware that he had dragged down Slytherin's reputation, Gerst was still chatting, from who the twenty-eight pure-blood families were to whether Hogwarts would be admitting magical creatures this year to what color socks Headmaster Scrimgeour was wearing today.

In the short journey of just over ten minutes, he talked about seven or eight different topics.

Loila couldn't keep up with his leaps of thought at all... Sometimes she felt she should say something, but Gerst had already moved on to the next topic.

Scrimgeour, who was walking ahead, would occasionally turn around and glance at him, then nod thoughtfully.

Miss Hammill seemed to be much more cautious than he had imagined... He deliberately placed the most talkative wizard in the Auror office next to Miss Hammill, just so he could see if he could glean anything from this somewhat strange lady.

Scrimgeour was an exceptionally perceptive man; he had spent the entire night checking the family lists of all the English wizards… but he couldn’t find a single person named Lola Hammill…

He couldn't help but wonder what the purpose was of this mysterious lady whom Dumbledore had forcibly brought in.

If Loila knew that the reason she was subjected to such "torture" was just this... she might cry and tell Scrimgeour that she was just a wizard working hard to revive the Mughal Party.

"Ah... I almost forgot." Gerst, who was next to Loila, seemed to have thought of something and jumped from the male-female ratio of house-elves to another topic.

"It seems we're going to conduct an investigation into a pure-blood family today," he said casually. "As an advisor, you probably don't know much about it."

"But there's no need to be nervous."

"If you don't talk to me, I won't be nervous!" Loila pursed her lips and shook her head slightly. Gerst's incessant talking made it impossible for her to relieve the pressure, even by reciting magic array knowledge.

Gerst, of course, had no idea what Loila was thinking. He casually remarked, "With Director Scrimgeour in charge today, we don't need to worry even when investigating the Malfoy family."

"However, the family we're investigating today doesn't seem to be any troublesome, after all, they're from France... and they've always been very supportive of our Ministry of Magic's work."

"Ah...didn't I tell you which family it is?"

"It's the Rozier family."

The Rorororo Rozier family?!

Loila suddenly stopped, and Gerst beside her took a few extra steps forward without stopping.

"Do you know anyone from the Rozier family?" Gerst paused for a moment.

"No..." Loila stammered, shaking her head and then urging her stiff legs to take a step forward... However, if you looked closely, you would notice that her legs were trembling.

Royla was terrified... even more terrified than when she faced Dumbledore.

The reason is also very simple.

The Rozier family!

It's...it's the family that Ms. Vida belongs to!