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Chapter 1566: A War Without Victors (Part Sixteen)
Chapter 1566: A War Without Victors (Part Sixteen)
In reality, both of them were well aware that Albert would never easily divulge the details of his deal with Kingsley. At the very least, he wouldn't casually bring up such confidential matters here, so they didn't bother asking and were instead surprised that Albert had agreed to stay on as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. As far as they knew, Albert had never been enthusiastic about imparting knowledge to students, and his decision to remain at Hogwarts was most likely one of the conditions of that secret deal.
Fred and George's guess was correct; Albert's decision to stay on was indeed a result of his negotiation with Kingsley. He himself had very little interest in teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts and didn't plan on wasting too much energy or patience on the students of Hogwarts.
The reason for this was simple—both Headmistress McGonagall and Minister Kingsley wanted to leverage Albert's newfound fame to reassure everyone about Hogwarts, ensuring that the school could reopen smoothly in early September. This was one of the troubles that came with the rapid surge in Albert's reputation.
Fortunately, the benefits he gained from personally killing Voldemort were satisfying enough to make it all worthwhile; otherwise, Albert might have regretted his actions.
A familiar fragrant breeze drifted by, disrupting Albert's train of thought. As he looked up, he noticed that the girls who had gone to lay flowers at the memorial had returned.
Noticing that Albert seemed deep in thought, Isabelle decided to try and bring him back to the present, but before she could, Albert had already snapped out of his reverie.
"Dear, Penelope mentioned that there will be a celebration banquet tonight," Isabelle said, leaning in to kiss Albert's cheek and whispering in his ear. "She just broke up with Percy and is feeling rather terrible, so I need to keep her company."
"Oh, so they finally broke up?"
Albert turned his head casually to glance at Percy, having initially thought that the shared experience of fighting together would bring him and Penelope together. Apparently, that was just his wishful thinking.
"You predicted their breakup?" Isabelle raised an eyebrow.
"For them to be together, they would both need to learn to compromise and try to fit into each other's lives," Albert replied in a voice that only the two of them could hear. "But Percy values his career and future more."
"You certainly see people more clearly than I do."
Isabelle kissed Albert again and then turned to join Penelope, intending to chat with her during this time.
In fact, Penelope's situation was quite normal.
Many couples from Hogwarts couldn't withstand the test of time after graduation and ended up parting ways.
Isabelle and Albert's swift marriage right after graduation, which was still going strong, was more of a special case.
"Women!"
Albert sighed softly as he watched the girls walk away.
"We're just not compatible. Penelope and I don't have much in common anymore, and I can't give her the life she wants... Plus, I can't afford to stand still," Percy said, appearing from somewhere nearby as he watched his ex-girlfriend's retreating back with a melancholy expression. "I'm actually glad that Penelope took the initiative to break up with me. Maybe that way, she'll feel a little better."
"Do you need me to divine your love fortune?" Albert knew that Percy's words were deliberately meant for him, but he truly had no interest in other people's relationship issues.
"Never mind," Percy hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. "I'd rather focus on my work now. What do you think I should do next?"
"You don't have to worry about that. Our futures will definitely be bright, given that most people prefer to rely on their own kind," Albert replied, unable to recall what Percy had ended up as Minister for, and too lazy to waste energy on divining the answer. He offered a convenient excuse instead.
"Accurately predicting the future is actually quite troublesome, and I do charge a fee for my services," he added.
Percy reached into his pocket, seemingly to retrieve his wallet, but ultimately sighed in resignation. "Looks like I'll have to come back another day for a reading then!"
"Alright, if you don't have any money, scram. Don't waste our time," Fred said, shooing Percy away like an annoying fly.
After Percy glared at the twins and walked away, Albert asked, "What's the matter?"
Lowering his voice as they made their way towards Hogwarts Castle, George said, "Kingsley wants us to create a customized batch of Dark Arts defense equipment for the Aurors, but as you know, the Ministry is broke, so they want to put it on credit."
"According to what you're saying, after Voldemort's complete demise, we need to strengthen the connection between our Dark Arts defense shop and the Ministry," Albert remarked.
"I know you want to make this deal, but in business, risks and rewards must be equal," Albert advised. "You can give the Ministry a nine percent discount, ask them to pay a deposit in advance, and keep the initial order volume small. After all, the war is over, and Aurors don't need a large number of Dark Arts defense equipment anymore. If they end up not needing that much and try to return the items, it'll be a hassle."
"That's what we thought as well. This was their request."
Fred quickly pulled out a piece of parchment from his pocket and handed it to Albert.
"I've already got my hands full. I don't have the time to help them design Dark Arts defense equipment," Albert said, taking the parchment without even glancing at it and stuffing it back into Fred's pocket.
"I think you're lazier than we are," the Weasley twins commented, thinking that Albert was just unwilling to help.
"I still need to help inspect the castle's repairs. Do you two want to come along and see how busy I am?" Albert stopped in front of the bustling Oak Front Door, intending to give Fred and George a taste of his hectic work.
"Never mind, we have other things to do!"
Fred and George clearly found such mundane work uninteresting and made a quick excuse to slip away.
The repairs of Hogwarts were carried out by employees sent by the Ministry of Magic, along with the professors of Hogwarts, but the results were not very optimistic. The damage to the castle from the previous battle was extensive, and it was challenging to completely restore the ancient magical castle with simple repair spells.
"Kingsley is already helping to find professional wizards to take over the castle's repairs, but it will take some time. For now, we can only temporarily make do to get the school running again," said Professor Flitwick, who had asked Albert to help ensure that there would be no problems before the celebration banquet ended, even though the likelihood of such an occurrence was low.
To that end, everyone was busy for most of the day, and they also had an in-depth discussion about Hogwarts' repairs with the so-called professionals.
Hmm, how should he put it?
That professional gave Albert the impression of being a fraud.
He felt that using his old wand to cast repair charms might yield better results than the methods that man was suggesting.
After this brief technical exchange, Albert was once again summoned by Headmistress McGonagall to discuss the teaching arrangements for the next semester.
He couldn't find an excuse to refuse, as Albert was now a professor at Hogwarts himself.
"So, does the school intend to have all students repeat a year?"
Upon hearing this good news from Albert, Hermione heaved a sigh of relief. She had been worried that the school would continue with the unfinished courses from the previous semester. If that were the case, it would have been challenging for her to return and complete her seventh year.
"That's more or less it. For subjects that most students have already studied, the professors will likely speed up the teaching pace. If you have time, it's best to review the knowledge from the books, especially since you've signed up for a bunch of courses," Albert advised.
Albert offered Hermione some suggestions, hoping that she would drop some of the unnecessary courses to reduce her workload, but Hermione remained stubborn, insisting that she wouldn't be overwhelmed by academic pressure.
Albert had his doubts about that and could only hope that she wouldn't end up in tears later on.
"Is there anything else?"
Noticing Hermione's hesitant expression, Albert asked, knowing what she wanted to say.
"Um... the war is over."
"Oh, do you want to go to Australia to find your family?" Albert immediately brought up his promise to her.
"Yes."
Hermione wanted to discuss this matter with Albert, knowing that he would keep his word.
"Wait a few more days. After I finish up some things here, I'll accompany you to Australia to find your family," Albert said, taking out his notebook to check his recent schedule and then looking up at Hermione.
"Thank you."
"I promised you I would," Albert hesitated for a moment before reminding her, "But your family may not be willing to return to Britain, so you should be prepared for that possibility."
"They don't want to come back?" Hermione panicked slightly.
"That's how my family is. After they went to the Far East, they didn't really want to come back to Britain," Albert said helplessly, sharing his own experience.
"I don't know what the situation is with your family, but you should be mentally prepared."
Hermione decided to first find her own family. As for the scenario Albert mentioned, she didn't have a good solution either and could only brace herself for that possibility.
Although she was reluctant to admit it, her intuition told her that the outcome would likely be just as Albert had described.
They were ultimately from different worlds.
Once Hermione graduated from Hogwarts, she would remain in the wizarding world and gradually reduce her contact with the Muggle world.
"Thank you."
Hermione gave Albert a light hug and then turned and walked away.
"You're really something, always popular with the ladies!"
Watching Hermione's departing back, Cedric, who had appeared from somewhere nearby, remarked softly, "But you know, teacher-student relationships are forbidden at Hogwarts."
Albert understood the underlying meaning of his friend's words and calmly replied, "You seem to have forgotten that I'm married."
"You..." Cedric was a little exasperated and reminded him with good intentions, "Don't forget, you're quite famous now. I'd bet those gossip reporters are just waiting for some juicy news about you."
"They can always fabricate stories if they want to. It's one of the troubles that come with being famous," Albert said, indifferent to the reporters' lack of ethics. "Now, let's go take a look at your office.
"This is our office," Cedric corrected.
"It's yours. I only have a few classes a week and don't plan on staying at Hogwarts at all." Albert reached out and stopped Cedric, who was about to push the door open, reminding him, "Have you forgotten whose room this used to be?"
"It shouldn't be a problem, right?"
Cedric didn't think anyone would be foolish enough, but out of caution, he still took out his dragon-hide gloves and put them on. He then took out a detection device and poked it at the doorknob to ensure there was no dangerous Dark magic present.
In fact, there was no Dark magic on the doorknob, but there were quite a few dangerous Dark magic items on the bookshelves in the room, which Albert could easily identify even without the detection device.
"I really don't understand what that guy was thinking. Isn't he afraid that one day he'll end up causing his own demise?"
"Maybe it's his peculiar hobby, just like how Mr. Weasley likes to collect Muggle batteries," Cedric replied.
"That's not funny at all."
Cedric poked at the seemingly suspicious spots with the detection device and asked, "What do you plan to do with these things?"
"Let Kenneth sell them on the black market!" Albert answered without hesitation, "That guy's good at this sort of thing, and you just need to remember to give him his cut."
"That doesn't sound like something you'd say. Aren't you already rich?" Cedric was surprised that Albert didn't plan to destroy these Dark magic items but instead wanted to sell them on the black market for money.
"Destruction is a waste. Making the best of waste is the best approach. Trust me, dumping the leftovers on Mundungus might not be a bad choice."
"I think you shouldn't be discussing illegal matters in front of an Auror." Cedric reminded Albert that he himself was an Auror.
"You're now an assistant teacher at the school." Albert waved his wand and conjured a box, starting to clear out the items in the room, "If you don't need the money, you can use it to buy teaching tools."
"You're quite generous!"
Cedric was considering whether to turn this batch of Dark magic items over to the Ministry of Magic.
"Because I don't need the money, but you do." Albert kindly reminded him, "A professor's salary isn't that high, and as an assistant, your pay will be even lower."
"I'm getting an Auror's salary."
"Believe me, being an Auror is a dangerous job. No one wants to stay in that position forever unless you don't plan on getting married." Albert knew very well that Aurors earned a high salary, but it also came with certain risks, "And, you may think that the base salary for Aurors is high, but half of it goes towards purchasing equipment for the Aurors, so you probably won't get that portion of the galleons. This means your salary will likely be reduced by more than half."
Cedric frowned, "You seem to know a lot about this."
"Because it was my suggestion to Scrimgeour, otherwise, how do you think he managed to recruit so many Aurors during his term?" Albert explained, "With just that small amount of galleons per month, do you expect people to risk their lives for the Ministry out of sheer passion?"
"No wonder Kingsley has always wanted you to be his senior advisor." Even Cedric had to admit that Albert had a point.
He didn't deny that there were indeed some who were willing to fight for noble ideals, but such wizards were definitely a minority.
After the two finished cleaning up this room, they headed over to Alecto Carrow's room to take a look. They didn't find many valuable items in the Death Eater's room.
In fact, most of Alecto Carrow's wealth was hidden away in some secret location, waiting for Albert to discover, so he really didn't lack money.
As for plundering the wealth of Dark wizards, Albert had absolutely no psychological burden. Defeating enemies and claiming their spoils was normal, especially since Amycus and Alecto Carrow, the siblings, were already gone. Leaving the galleons to gather dust in Gringotts' vault would be the most wasteful thing to do.
After quickly clearing out the possessions of the two Death Eaters, the two men made their way to the Great Hall, where the celebration banquet was about to begin. A large number of students who had returned to school in the morning flocked into the Great Hall, filling the long tables of their respective houses.
Looking at the walls behind the staff table, which were now draped in various colored curtains, Cedric muttered, "I thought they'd be black."
"Tonight is a celebration banquet. We already held a memorial service this morning." Albert walked towards the staff table, under the gaze of the students.
"Squeezing both events into the same day feels quite awkward."
Cedric muttered as he made his way to the Hufflepuff table, where several familiar faces were already waving at him.
"I heard you're planning to stay at Hogwarts."
Truman turned away from the staff table and expressed his envy for Cedric's career path.
"It's only temporary." Cedric lowered his voice as he brought up another matter, "I heard Kingsley is recruiting a large number of people from Dumbledore's Army for trials."
"Yeah, the number is quite surprising." Truman shrugged, "But who knows how many will make it through? Being an Auror is lucrative, but it's also dangerous, especially during this period. I doubt many will succeed."
(End of Chapter)
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