128 King's Road, 2nd Floor Master Bedroom.
Dumbledore and Sherlock were having cordial and friendly talks about the follow-up issues of the Malfoy family house-elf Dobby matter.
"Just as you imagine, after Voldemort's defeat, Lucius Malfoy claimed that during the wizarding war, he was under the Imperius Curse and shouldn't be held responsible for his actions."
"This clumsy excuse sounds so ridiculous that I don't even think it's necessary to refute it."
"It does sound like that, but he used this very reason to escape imprisonment and returned to upper wizarding society with a perfect reputation."
"Heh."
"There's nothing we can do about it, Sherlock."
Seeing Sherlock's mocking expression, Dumbledore felt somewhat helpless.
"The wizarding world isn't about fighting and killing; most of the time it's about social relationships."
Sherlock neither agreed nor disagreed with Dumbledore's statement, and continued asking. "So this time, old Malfoy is doing this to serve his former master? Like Quirrell last school year?"
"I don't think so—except for a few of us, everyone's understanding of that incident is that Quirrell had ill intentions and wanted to obtain the Philosopher's Stone. Lucius obviously thinks the same.
After all, it's hard for anyone to imagine that the famous Dark Lord, who made the entire wizarding world tremble with fear, would be so pathetically stuck to the back of someone's head."
After subtly mocking his former opponent, Dumbledore continued. "Lucius knows nothing about Voldemort's situation, so I think he simply wants to get rid of this Dark Magic artifact.
Well... if I had to say, he probably also wants to ruin Mr. Weasley's reputation."
Sherlock was stunned. "Bringing Voldemort's Dark Magic artifacts to school can ruin Ron's reputation?"
'What kind of magical reasoning was this?'
"No, no, the Mr. Weasley I'm referring to isn't your good friend, but his father, Arthur Weasley."
Under Sherlock's inquiring gaze, Dumbledore slowly revealed information he didn't know.
Ron, Percy, and the Weasley twins' father, Arthur Weasley, was the Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office at the Ministry of Magic.
The Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office and the Improper Use of Magic Office that they had encountered with Mafalda Hopkirk were both subordinate departments of the Ministry's largest department, the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.
Both were at the same organizational level and had to follow the overall management and command principles of the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.
The Improper Use of Magic Office was responsible for investigating wizards who improperly used magic.
The Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office was responsible for restricting the application of magic to things made by Muggles.
Just from their responsibilities, one could imagine that their status within the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and even the entire Ministry, was completely different.
The former was well-staffed with ample funding, while the latter was understaffed and underfunded.
However, it was precisely this office with only two people that had recently conducted surprise inspections of some wizarding families and confiscated some Dark Magic artifacts and illegal items.
Lucius Malfoy's home was among those searched.
According to Dobby's testimony, during this period, Lucius had been disposing of items that might prove his guilt in batches to cope with the inspections.
Other Dark Magic artifacts were manageable, but the Dark Magic artifact left by Voldemort wasn't so easy to dispose of.
One careless move could destroy years of careful management.
Under these circumstances, Malfoy came up with a vicious plan.
That was to secretly slip this Dark Magic artifact into Hogwarts.
This way, he could get rid of the Dark Magic object and sever his connection with Voldemort.
Since Voldemort's downfall, Malfoy had been working to reduce the impact of his former status as a Death Eater over the years.
With time passing and his family's financial power at work, this project had been quite successful.
Today, very few people would remember that he was once a Death Eater.
But.
With the high-profile enrollment of Harry Potter, the savior of the wizarding world, people would naturally think again of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
Under these circumstances, Malfoy naturally didn't want any more connections with the former Dark Lord.
He had to quickly cut ties!
On the other hand, in Malfoy's view, if it weren't for Arthur Weasley conducting these surprise inspections, he wouldn't have suffered losses.
So, what if I have Dark Magic artifacts?
If you don't inspect, couldn't we all live in peace?
So, the key to the problem wasn't him, the person who possessed Dark Magic artifacts, but Weasley, the person who inspected for Dark Magic artifacts.
Therefore, throwing this Dark Magic artifact into the school could not only complete the separation from Voldemort but also conveniently take revenge on Arthur Weasley.
As for whether Voldemort's Dark Magic artifact would cause trouble at Hogwarts...
Please, that's a backup plan left by the Dark Lord—what does it have to do with me, Lucius Malfoy?
I've already proven my innocence, haven't I?
He even hoped things would get as chaotic as possible.
That way, he could stand on moral high ground and criticize Arthur Weasley.
Aren't you conducting searches? Yet you let Dark Magic artifacts flow into the school—this is dereliction of duty!
If things went smoothly, he might even get Weasley to lose his position at the Ministry.
"Besides what you mentioned, he has another purpose," Sherlock suddenly interrupted when Dumbledore reached this point.
"Once the Dark Magic artifact really causes adverse effects at school, you would be the primary person responsible."
Sherlock looked at Dumbledore with piercing eyes.
"After all, you're the headmaster."
Upon hearing this, Dumbledore fell silent for a moment, then smiled bitterly.
"Sherlock, you're right—I haven't even had time to tell you that Lucius Malfoy is also one of Hogwarts' Board of Governors."
"Wonderful, this school truly practices 'education for all, rejecting no one.'"
Hearing Sherlock's somewhat mocking tone, Dumbledore felt helpless.
"Sherlock, you're still young. When you grow up, you'll know that sometimes people have to make compromises."
"No need to wait until I grow up—I've seen plenty of this before I knew about the wizarding world."
Hearing Sherlock's words, Dumbledore fell silent again.
After a moment, he slowly spoke.
"Actually, Lucius Malfoy's strategy has a considerable chance of success..."
This was no alarmist talk.
With the element of surprise, a school governor had countless ways to slip Dark Magic artifacts into the school.
However, Lucius Malfoy never expected that before his plan could be implemented, an unexpected variable would appear.
House-elf Dobby.
Generally speaking, only very ancient wizarding families would possess them.
The Malfoy family was one of them.
The characteristics of this species were very magical—they were extremely loyal to their masters, usually serving only one mansion or one family for life.
They were responsible for managing ancient luxurious mansions, diligently completing household chores.
Not only were they proficient in daily household magic, but they also possessed magical abilities that many powerful wizards couldn't achieve.
The most typical was Apparition.
All house-elves were masters of Apparition.
They could even perform this magical spell in places where wizards couldn't Apparate.
Besides this, their combat abilities weren't weak either.
An adult wizard wasn't necessarily a match for a house-elf.
Even so, they would still be bound by their masters under the contract.
Even if they very much disliked their masters, they couldn't disobey their masters' commands.
Once they disobeyed, they had to punish themselves.
Only after being given clothing by their masters could they gain freedom.
It's worth mentioning that in the concepts of most house-elves, gaining freedom was considered a disgrace. Because it represented being expelled from the family by the master. Once this happened, they would have to apologize to all house-elves.
For this reason, Lucius Malfoy never considered the possibility that Dobby would betray him. It's no exaggeration to say that he trusted house-elves more than his own wife and son.
But now it seemed that Dobby from the Malfoy family was exactly the anomaly among house-elves.
"Sherlock, thanks to this house-elf, we were able to learn of Lucius's plan."
Sherlock raised an eyebrow. "So, what do you plan to do with it?"
To be fair, Dobby's starting point was good.
To protect Harry, it didn't hesitate to run and warn Harry while concealing it from its master. For this, it even punished itself repeatedly.
But, Its actions were really hard to accept. This creature refused to communicate. It would only handle problems in ways it thought were "for your own good."
And it liked to use self-harm to pressure others.
This was exactly what Sherlock hated most.
Harry might fall for this approach. But Sherlock wouldn't indulge it.
From Dobby's actions, if he hadn't arrived in time that day, this creature would definitely have used various means to prevent Harry from going to school.
Even if Harry really got to school, it would find other ways to make Harry unable to stay at school.
Throughout the entire process, it wouldn't matter if Harry was seriously injured. As long as it could save his life in the end, that would be fine. This was its way of protecting Harry.
For this reason, Sherlock didn't sympathize with it at all. Even if it really did provide important intelligence.
Seeing Sherlock's expression, Dumbledore already knew his attitude toward Dobby. He smiled bitterly.
"I've temporarily locked it up."
Sherlock shrugged. Things had come to this point. The most important thing was not to let old Malfoy succeed.
As for house-elves, whatever happens, happens.
Dumbledore's solution was to have the heads of the four houses conduct thorough inspections before school started to prevent Dark Magic artifacts from being brought in.
Sherlock was puzzled by this. This idea didn't sound very smart.
"Why not just take down Malfoy directly—after all, Harry doesn't need to prove the power of love through him."
He thought Dumbledore should solve the problem fundamentally.
"Dear Sherlock, I regretfully have to tell you again that Lucius is one of Hogwarts' twelve Board of Governors members.
Without concrete evidence, even as Hogwarts headmaster, I can't do anything to him.
Obviously, a house-elf's testimony cannot serve as 'concrete evidence.'
Even if our Professor Severus used Veritaserum for this—the Ministry wouldn't acknowledge it."
Noticing Dumbledore's wording, Sherlock immediately understood.
"You have conflicts with someone in power at the Ministry?
Is it the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement?
No, his position couldn't affect you... Then it should be the Minister, right?"
Dumbledore was startled, then laughed while shaking his head. "Sherlock, you're too perceptive—but you shouldn't focus your attention on these useless matters."
"I'm just somewhat surprised. I didn't expect that coming to the wizarding world, I'd still have to face these annoying bureaucrats..."
Sherlock sighed deeply. Faced with this situation, he was also powerless.
At this point, they could only follow Dumbledore's method. Although it was a clumsy approach, it was stable.
"However, is he really just trying to sever ties with Voldemort?"
Dumbledore looked at Sherlock. "You might as well speak more plainly."
Sherlock's gaze met Dumbledore's unflinchingly as he slowly said.
"The peak produces false followers, but twilight witnesses the devout believers."
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