Hufflepuff girls' dormitory, the exclusive luxury bedroom of Erina and Hannah.

After a comfortable bath, the girls, wrapped in bathrobes, walked out of the bathroom, giggling and throwing themselves onto the soft, large bed in the center of the room. After a few seconds of rest, they each grabbed their own dolls, pillows, and cushions with practiced ease and began to play-fight.

In fact, pillow fights were another reason why Hermione, Luna, and others liked to spend the night here.

Compared to the collective dormitories with strict discipline and mixed-year students, Erina's "lawless land" was clearly much more interesting.

After playing happily for a while, Erina cleared her throat and clapped her hands.

"Ahem, okay, let me think…" She nimbly dodged the unicorn cushion thrown by Luna, and said with great enthusiasm, "Since everyone is here today, why don't I tell you a story about the Master of R'lyeh? This story is definitely no worse than Pikachu—"

After the pillow fight came the fixed bedtime story session, with the starting time and story content uniformly arranged by the "dorm leader," Erina.

According to past practice, after Erina finished her opening remarks, the little wings would all sit in the "viewing position" at the foot of the bed, obediently waiting for the "dorm leader" to play an animation on the curtain at the foot of the bed. In the late twentieth century, when the internet was just budding, this temptation was too difficult to resist.

However, today was clearly not a "typical situation."

"The story about the Master of R'lyeh can wait a bit…"

Before Erina could finish her sentence, Hermione, leaning against the headboard, suddenly interrupted.

Hermione's amber eyes looked at Erina, as if trying to read the thoughts hidden in her heart.

"What we're more curious about now is what exactly happened today. Aren't you going to tell this even more exciting story first? You didn't come to the library for self-study tonight, but arrived at the entrance hall early to watch the fight. That's strange, no matter how you think about it."

"Uh, actually…"

Erina blinked, her little ahoge waving alertly from side to side.

She suddenly realized a small loophole in her plan today: her alibi was invalid here, because everyone in this room knew that she was a hopeless wanderer who could not arrive at the scene of the crime on time by herself.

"And, the first sentence you said when you first met Mr. Lovegood."

Hermione said quickly, not giving Erina a chance to make excuses.

"You said at the time, 'Mr. Lovegood, I didn't expect you to come to Hogwarts today too.' This shows that you knew the reason he came to Hogwarts, and knew that besides Mr. Lovegood, there were other guests coming to the school—don't try to lie, not a hundred times."

"Yeah, and your conversation with Dad today was also weird… Erina, I know you must know something I don't…"

Luna picked up her little unicorn cushion and said softly in a dreamy tone, her expression particularly firm.

Under the dual gaze of the goddess of wisdom and the goddess of fate, Erina had almost no room to lie, and the most crucial thing was that there was also a very easily incited iron-headed goose next to her. With the combined strength of the three, it would be difficult for her to gain any advantage.

"Okay, I admit I did know some inside information in advance…"

Erina spread her hands. "You know, I'm also the head chef of Hogwarts Kitchen, so the direct person in charge of the school's house-elves is naturally me. Shortly after this afternoon's Muggle Studies class started, we got some unexpected information from the house-elves."

"We?" Hannah, hugging the pillow, raised her head and asked curiously.

"Well, of course, there's also Professor Dumbledore—"

Erina considered her answer, trying to control the little ahoge on her head from shaking randomly.

"Professor Dumbledore learned in advance that the Ministry of Magic was coming to the school to arrest people, so he arranged for Professor Apocalis to guard the door, to ensure that even if he himself was entangled, he could delay long enough… Of course, in terms of results, he overestimated the Aurors' strength."

"Then… um… Professor McGonagall's academic conference tonight?"

Hermione pondered the scattered clues she had obtained tonight, completing the puzzle in her mind one by one.

From the very beginning, she had noticed that the professors at Hogwarts seemed to have another layer of connection besides their teaching work.

At the beginning, she once thought it was the "Order of the Phoenix" mentioned by Professor Dumbledore during the trial to resist the dark wizard, but as time went by, Hermione keenly discovered some unexplainable details, such as Mr. Lockhart clearly belonging to another organization.

And the most important point was that Erina was probably also a member of that mysterious wizard organization.

"Professor McGonagall? Oh, that was a planned conference."

Erina waved her hand and explained casually in a relaxed tone, without any sign of panic.

"Weren't you also at the scene last weekend? The reshaping of the basic theory of Transfiguration is a very important academic breakthrough in the magic world. In order to notify so many reporters to attend, the owls sent out by Hogwarts reached every corner of the UK… That's not easy."

Erina paused, anticipating the next possible question, and quickly replied.

"As for why I know about this? Hogwarts Kitchen has to prepare the snacks and tea for the conference."

"What about Mr. Lovegood? He doesn't seem to be—"

"Well, I heard that he didn't plan to come to the conference at first… In fact, he was the first wizard invited by Professor Dumbledore. As for why he eventually changed his mind, I guess on the one hand it may be due to Professor Apocalis' invitation, and on the other hand…"

Erina turned her head to look at Luna, who was holding the unicorn cushion, and raised her eyebrows, with an expression that spoke volumes.

"Well, that's really Dad—"

Luna stared at Erina's ahoge for a few seconds, then nodded slowly.

*The Quibbler* rarely attends various press conferences. If it weren't for her, her father could stay at home for a year.

As for Professor Apocalis, this might be another factor—after more than a year of getting along, the Lovegood family now knew that the mysterious benefactor before was Professor Apocalis, and his huge annual reward accounted for most of the father and daughter's living expenses.

"Unbelievable, how could the Ministry of Magic… how could they be so unscrupulous…"

Hannah Abbott rubbed her doll, stuttering in surprise, with a look of lingering fear.

"Aren't they afraid of Professor Dumbledore? Secretly arresting an official professor from Hogwarts, they're being too bold?! If there really is an accident in the process, or an adult wizard-level battle breaks out directly in the school, that would definitely…"

"If the result is that Professor Umbridge and her group win, then the Ministry of Magic has no reason to worry."

Hermione replied calmly, glancing at Hannah and saying softly, thoughtfully.

"Hannah, do you remember the Prefect Rule that Professor Apocalis formulated earlier?"

"The party that provokes the dispute will be doubly punished after the failure, because conventional restrictions cannot play a warning role at all—most people who provoke the dispute have already thought about the consequences before they act. This is why the school stipulates that the punishment for those who provoke the dispute should be increased. And compared to the school, for the officials of the Ministry of Magic, they obviously do not have this restriction and warning, as for the reason…"

She pondered for a moment, gently hammered the pillow, and said softly with a realization.

"Professor Dumbledore, that's right. Of course they fear Professor Dumbledore. That's why Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge will personally arrive at Hogwarts and use a reason that cannot be refused to hold up the headmaster, and this is probably their purpose after success."

"Purpose?"

"Well, if I'm not mistaken…"

Hermione turned her head to look at the mastermind beside her, and raised her eyebrows quite triumphantly.

"They should be planning to use Professor Quirrell to deal with Professor Dumbledore, right? Is that so? After all, Professor Dumbledore's prestige in the wizarding world is too high, and Hogwarts' recent reforms are constant. The Ministry of Magic may have sensed the crisis."

"Mostly correct, but a little ahead of schedule… It hasn't reached that point yet…"

Erina shrugged and corrected.

Frankly speaking, Erina was not surprised at all that Hermione could analyze so many behind-the-scenes undercurrents.

After all, in the original book, the most powerful thing about this "Miss Know-It-All" was her reasoning ability.

For example, if the timeline hadn't changed, Hermione would have been able to successfully deduce the location of the Slytherin Chamber of Secrets and the secret of the Basilisk this semester with a few unsuccessful murder attempts and Harry's vague clues. That's something Dumbledore couldn't do even decades ago.

And under Erina's influence, Hermione's ability in logical analysis is now much stronger than before.

"A little ahead of schedule? It hasn't reached that point yet…"

Hermione was stunned for half a second, then quickly reacted.

"You mean, after today's incident, the Ministry of Magic will officially regard Hogwarts and Professor Dumbledore as a crisis?"

"Obviously, the head of the Auror Office plus four elite Aurors, plus a senior official, such a strong lineup was rubbed against the entrance hall by an ordinary castle administrator from Hogwarts. If the Ministry of Magic doesn't raise the alarm, then they are really stupid…"

"But, Erina, won't the reporters publish the news in the newspapers tomorrow?"

Hannah frowned in confusion, her big eyes full of doubt.

"Even if the Ministry of Magic plans to do something, there won't be any way in the short term, right? After this lesson, they should restrain themselves for a while. At least when I was a Prefect, I rarely encountered people who continuously and frequently violated school rules in a short period of time."

"No, that's because you've only met students."

Erina shook her finger, a glint of slyness flashing in her eyes, and said softly.

"How about we make a bet? I bet the Ministry of Magic won't give up—they will launch the next round of counterattacks in the newspaper tomorrow, even if they have to half-tear their face against Hogwarts, they won't stop there. You bet…"

"Let's bet, I don't believe the Ministry of Magic will be so stupid… um—"

Before Hannah could finish her words, two hands quickly reached out from two directions and covered her mouth.

"Don't bet, or you'll be even stupider than the Ministry of Magic…"

"Erina is bullying people again, Sister Hannah, don't be fooled…"

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Yay!