Days wandering around Hogwarts

Chapter 394: Promising
The game was over, but the players had not returned yet, but the Daily Prophet reported how the Hogwarts team had turned around from the second-to-last place to become the champion in the Potions Championship thanks to Percy's amazing performance.

In the report that took up the entire front page, at the top was a group photo of all the team members. Eighty percent of the text was about how Percy turned the tide in the play-offs, and the others took up 20 percent.

After reading the report, Fred and George began to discuss giving the third child a grand welcome ceremony.

However, when the team returned, they discovered that three people were missing, Percy being one of them.

Snape was upset because Lupin was not among the missing persons.

Harry returned to the common room and just sat down at the long table when Dean Thomas, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil surrounded him with smiles on their faces.

Harry greeted his three classmates, "Long time no see, any news from Hogwarts lately?"

Ximo next to them said to them proudly: "Hey, do you want to hear a story?"

Dean said to Seamus, "Don't worry about the story yet. We have something to talk to Harry about."

Harry thought he knew what they were going to do, so he said, "Oh, presents, I'll give them to you now."

Dean shook his head and said, "There's no rush for the gifts."

Lavender said seriously, "We were commissioned to do something."

Harry suddenly felt something was wrong.

Parvati took out a stack of parchment and said, "Before Charles left, he asked us to write down the assignments that the professors left for you during your absence."

Harry opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Hermione next to her screamed, "Ah, I actually forgot I have homework!"

Ron slipped away immediately upon seeing this.

Harry was forced to make up his homework, and Hermione took the initiative to make up his homework. Ron knew very well that if he stayed with the two of them for a few days, he would definitely be dragged into it.

He had brought back some candy for Ginny, and now was a good time to take it and brag to the second years.

As Ginny took the candy, she asked Ron, "Where are Percy and Charles? Why haven't they come back?"

Ron replied, "Professor Dumbledore is going to attend the International Confederation of Wizards conference and has taken Percy and Charles with him."

The International Confederation of Wizards is a government organization composed of the Ministries of Magic of various countries in the wizarding world. It is very high-end and classy for students, but extremely far away from them.

Ginny said in surprise: "Percy has made it!"

At the same time, in a small courtyard on Capello Street in the center of Verona, northern Italy, Percy held back his sneeze for ten seconds and finally sneezed.

Charles joked, "Why, is this your reaction when you see a beautiful woman?"

Percy said a little depressed: "How come you are still in the mood to go out and play now?"

The International Confederation of Wizards holds a conference every year, and Dumbledore, as the president, attends it. This time he brings Charles with him, and Charles calls Percy along.

Percy took this very seriously and made all kinds of preparations, but he didn't expect Charles to come out to play.

Charles looked with interest at a bronze statue of a girl in the yard. The statue's right hand and right breast had been rubbed shiny by countless tourists.

He said to Percy irrelevantly: "Do you know that Shakespeare never came to Verona in his life? He wrote the famous tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" after hearing a love tragedy story set in this city." Percy asked in confusion: "Who is Shakespeare? What is this story about?"

The corner of Charles' mouth twitched, and he sighed and said, "I have always believed that the lack of language and mathematics in Hogwarts is the biggest failure."

Percy said, "There are wizards who specialize in teaching underage wizards writing and arithmetic, but my family can't afford the tuition."

"I heard that some wizards in the UK believe that they should offer courses starting at the age of six, just like the magic institutes do."

Charles said casually, "You can promote this matter in the Ministry of Magic when you have the chance, such as the Hogwarts Primary School."

Then he returned to the topic: "Shakespeare was an Englishman four hundred years ago. He is one of the most famous writers and poets in the Muggle world."

"The story of Romeo and Juliet is... just think of it as Harry's son and Malfoy's daughter falling in love, but because the two families have deep conflicts, they can't be together, and in the end they die together for various reasons."

Percy got the gist of the story.

Charles continued: "The content of the story is not important. The tragedy has been so popular for hundreds of years that the city of Verona bought the courtyard and claimed it as Juliet's home, which attracted many tourists."

Percy suddenly felt that Charles was trying to convey some kind of message by saying something else.

Charles went on to say, "There is an important topic at this conference, which is the antidote for werewolves."

"Someone plans to propose at this conference to eradicate werewolves worldwide, and many countries agree."

The issue of werewolf potion has been a hot topic in the wizarding world. Britain was the first place to announce and pilot the potion, and is now at the center of the controversy.

It's just that the bureaucrats in the British Ministry of Magic wanted to reap the benefits without taking any responsibility, so the matter fell on Charles, who was given a position in the Werewolf Support Services Office.

Now the Werewolf Support Services Office has only one director, and Percy is one of the designated staff members.

Dumbledore originally wanted to bring Lupin, but Charles felt that Percy was more suitable for such an occasion filled with bureaucrats.

Percy became a little excited and said seriously, "You mean, like the Muggle government here, use this incident to seek benefits for the British Ministry of Magic?"

He thought that if he made contributions to the Ministry of Magic before he even started working there, the Minister and others would definitely think highly of him.

Charles shook his head and said, "No, it's for myself."

In Percy's puzzled look, he continued, "We are just an insignificant extra in this kind of meeting. If we do well, we won't get much credit, and if we mess up, it won't be a big disaster. Even if I give Skeeter a lot of money, she can't write a piece of news that flatters her."

"We need to make a speech in this meeting. I'll give you the outline later and you can fill it out yourself. Then you can go on stage and speak."

Percy somewhat understood what Charles meant, and suddenly his face and hair turned red with excitement.

Although Charles had no interest in this kind of meeting, and would not have come if he had not been here for tourism, Percy still took it seriously and vowed to get things done.

Charles didn't pour cold water on him and continued, "This kind of meeting doesn't solve practical problems, and the speeches don't have much effect, so don't talk about the actual situation in your speeches, but talk more about a better future."

Now Percy is full of bookishness and thinks that working in the government just requires getting everything done well.

Charles wanted to show him how real bureaucrats worked.

(End of this chapter)