The bar owner said nothing and led George, Fred, and the others straight onto the road, completely ignoring the traffic going back and forth.
Along with a series of sharp braking sounds, several cars were forced to stop.
In the front car, the driver angrily stuck his head out of the window, ready to curse.
But when he saw the bar owner's tall figure and the strange clothes on Harry and the others, he immediately shrank back inside.
"I bet he definitely thinks we're lunatics who escaped from a mental hospital!"
Harry felt a bit embarrassed and covered his face while whispering to Hermione.
Hermione, who also grew up in the Muggle world, naturally felt the same and nodded while covering her face.
"What's there to hide?"
George and Fred said carelessly, and while passing by they even made a face at the driver, scaring him so much he almost shrank into the chassis.
Seeing this, George and Fred burst out laughing.
The group chatted and laughed as they crossed the road. During the evening rush hour, their strange outfits attracted a lot of curious onlookers.
Some kind aunties even came over to ask if Harry and the others had been trafficked and whether they needed help calling the police.
After all, the bar owner did not look like a good person.
However, all those concerned gazes disappeared once they got close to the abandoned red telephone booth.
The people who had been watching them just a moment ago instantly looked away and went back to what they were doing.
"Muggle-Repelling Charm! That's why those Muggles acted like that."
Ron said proudly, seemingly wanting to show off his knowledge.
But Hermione immediately said, "Of course I know that's a Muggle-Repelling Charm. We already saw it at the entrance of the Leaky Cauldron when we first entered the magical world!"
Ron curled his lips and wanted to say more, but George slapped him on the head.
"Stop spacing out, hurry up and follow!"
Only then did everyone notice that the bar owner had already entered the phone booth first and was waving inside for them to hurry up.
Ron rubbed the back of his head, looking aggrieved, and said, "Why do we have to go in there?"
George and Fred clearly also wanted to know, and they both looked at the bar owner ahead.
"This is a hidden passage into the Ministry of Magic," Harry explained when he saw the owner had no intention of answering. "Mr. Weasley brought me here when I came for a hearing before."
"What? Our dad brought you here?"
George and Fred spoke one after another. "We're his own sons, but he never mentioned something this fun to us!?"
No one responded to their complaints anymore.
Because everyone knew Mr. Weasley not telling George and Fred about this passage was actually the right choice.
Otherwise, with their personalities, who knew what trouble they might cause.
But surprisingly, the bar owner, who had been silent until now, gave a cold laugh and said, "Oh! The famous savior Harry Potter, your experiences really are quite rich."
Hearing the sarcasm in his words, Harry frowned and said, "Not richer than yours, right? Mr. Weasley told me this phone booth is an emergency passage of the Ministry. It's not strange he knows as a Ministry employee, but how do you, a bar owner, know about it?"
"Obviously, that Weasley fooled you, kid," the bar owner said carelessly. "This phone booth was just a regular passage before the Floo Network fireplaces became common at the Ministry. Quite a few people know about it."
"The real emergency passage is a public toilet a few blocks away. Visitors have to stuff themselves into a toilet bowl and flush down to reach the Ministry."
"If you don't like squeezing into this phone booth, I can take you there instead."
As soon as he said this, everyone's expressions changed.
Especially when they saw George and Fred looking eager to try, Hermione instantly lost it and pushed Harry and Ron into the phone booth, saying, "Quick! Quick! Let's go! I refuse to get flushed down a toilet!"
Under Hermione's urging, everyone squeezed into the narrow phone booth together.
At this moment the bar owner could no longer keep his previous calm. His arm bent awkwardly as he reached the dial and slowly dialed a series of numbers with difficulty.
As the dial spun back with a whirring sound, a cold female voice sounded inside the booth, "Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business."
"Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger…" Harry quickly recited everyone's names, then halfway through looked at the bar owner and asked, "What's your name?"
The owner frowned slightly, stayed silent for a moment, then said, "Aberforth."
"Your surname?" Harry pressed. "To get through this phone booth you must report your real and complete name. You should know that, right?"
"Of course! Of course! I know!" the bar owner said irritably. "Dumbledore! My name is Aberforth Dumbledore!"
"What? Your surname is Dumbledore too?" Harry and the others exclaimed in unison.
Aberforth seemed to have expected this reaction.
He forcefully pushed Harry aside, repeated everyone's names again toward the dial, then finally said, "We're here to save the world!"
"Thank you," the cold female voice sounded again. "Visitors, please take your badges and pin them to the front of your clothing."
Then, with a jingling sound, six badges slid out from the metal coin-return slot.
Each badge clearly had each person's name engraved on it, with the suffix "Rescue Mission."
Aberforth roughly pinned the badges onto Harry and the others' robes.
"Visitors to the Ministry, you must undergo inspection at the security desk and register your wand. The desk is located at the end of the main hall." The cold female voice spoke slowly.
After that, the floor of the phone booth suddenly began to tremble. The pavement outside the glass window rose higher and higher, until everything above them became pitch black, and they could only hear a dull scraping sound.
In the darkness, Harry blinked his big eyes. He took several deep breaths before speaking, "Aberforth, sorry, can I call you that? Because your surname…"
"Just call me that!" Aberforth said impatiently. "Anyway, I hate you people using that surname on me!"
"Uh, alright!" Harry continued awkwardly. "You and Dumbledore… Headmaster Dumbledore, are you relatives? I mean, are you from the same family?"
While Harry spoke, they had already descended deep into the Ministry.
A thin golden light shone into the phone booth, clearly lighting up Aberforth's cold expression.
"Of course not!" Aberforth said without hesitation. "I have nothing to do with that guy!"
Just as he finished speaking, the thin line of golden light slowly widened, spreading over their bodies.
Through the narrow glass door of the phone booth, they could clearly see a middle-aged man in a black security uniform staring at them in a daze.
"The Ministry of Magic hopes you have a pleasant evening."
The cold female voice sounded again.
The phone booth door suddenly opened.
Immediately, Aberforth flipped his wrist, and a gray-white ball of light shot out and hit the middle-aged man's face, knocking him unconscious.
Harry, George, and the others stumbled out of the booth.
They gripped their wands tightly and looked around with great caution.
But in the huge Ministry hall, apart from that middle-aged man, it seemed completely empty. The fireplaces embedded in the walls were not lit, and only on the deep peacock-blue ceiling did the golden symbols keep moving and changing.
"Hurry up! There won't be anyone else here!"
Aberforth said impatiently and walked toward the inside of the hall first.
Ron frowned and said, "How do you know?"
"Because it's already five in the afternoon. Past the Ministry's off-work time."
"Even so, don't they have overtime staff or duty personnel?"
"I can clearly tell you, no," Aberforth said angrily. "When I came to the Ministry to handle procedures for the Pig's Head Bar, I personally experienced it."
"Those Ministry officials absolutely do not work overtime. As soon as it hits four-thirty in the afternoon, apart from two or three people dumped in the defense department to idle around, there won't be anyone left."
Hearing this, George and Fred's faces were full of envy.
As ambitious young men determined to open 'Weasley's Joke Shop' (small capitalists), they were already used to a 996 lifestyle and never imagined there could be a workplace that enforced leaving work on time to such a degree.
"No wonder everyone wants to work at the Ministry after graduation!" George and Fred sighed. "Good money and little work! Anyone would want that!"
Aberforth glanced at them with a look like he was looking at trash, then said, "Stop talking nonsense. Let's go!"
After speaking, he ran past the Fountain of Magical Brethren statue made of extraordinary beings of different races and arrived at the wand inspection station inside the hall.
During the day, this place was always crowded and looked busy and tense.
But now it was completely empty, and even the chair where the inspection wizard usually sat had no security staff in sight.
This clearly confirmed what Aberforth had said earlier.
Or perhaps the unlucky guy Aberforth knocked out earlier was supposed to be sitting here.
They passed through the golden grille gate and reached the elevator without any obstacles.
As Aberforth pressed the button, the elevator immediately began descending with creaking sounds.
The chain's friction noise sounded especially harsh in the silent, empty Ministry.
Even with Aberforth's earlier assurance, this still made Harry and the others nervous.
However, until the elevator reached the bottom, no guards appeared.
Only that familiar cold female voice announced again, "Department of Mysteries."
The grille gate slid open softly, and the black door Harry had seen several times in his dreams finally appeared in front of them for real.
Just like in the dream, a distorted letter M was clearly hanging on the door.
———
At the same time, in the Minister for Magic's assistant office on the first floor of the Ministry.
Link and his group were gathered around a huge crystal ball.
Reflected on it was the clear image of Harry and his group.
"Tsk! How did that old guy get drawn in too?"
Looking at Aberforth in the image, Old Barty rarely complained.
Link smiled and said, "Very normal. After all, Dumbledore is his real older brother. Though he says Dumbledore was expelled from the family on behalf of their parents, in reality, their brotherly bond is still deep."
"You mean that bar owner is Dumbledore's real younger brother?" Percy said in disbelief. "But… how is that possible?"
"What's impossible?" Old Barty said disdainfully. "If you shave off that old guy's beard, you'll see he looks almost exactly like Dumbledore!"
After being snapped at like this, Percy instinctively wanted to argue.
But then he seemed to remember something, quickly glanced at Link, and seeing Link had no reaction, he lowered his head pale-faced.
Seeing this, Link nodded in satisfaction. It seemed Old Krell's earlier lesson had worked quite well.
"Alright, since Harry and the others are in position, are our people ready?"
Link turned and asked Old Barty again.
Old Barty, who had just looked disdainful toward Percy, immediately changed to a humble expression and said respectfully, "Scrimgeour has received the message and is leading the Auror team to ambush in the Unspeakables' passage. They can enter the Department of Mysteries through the emergency route at any time."
"Mr. Krell's hunter team has also arrived at the Department of Mysteries and is currently hiding in the Shadow Hall."
"As for the D.A. army you brought, they are waiting on the second floor in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
Old Barty's voice paused slightly when mentioning the D.A. army.
Link smiled and said, "You're not satisfied with me bringing the D.A. army into this operation?"
Old Barty's face stiffened, but he still gritted his teeth and said, "Yes, Lord Fawley! Honestly, those students' combat strength isn't strong and won't help much in this battle. Bringing them here feels more like…"
"Like sending them to die?" Link interrupted. "Heh, you wouldn't understand."
After saying that, Link walked out of the Minister's assistant office first.
Percy, Emily, and the others hurried to follow.
Only Old Barty remained behind, looking at them with a pained expression.
Old Barty truly did not understand why Link was doing this.
Those students were the future of the British magical world. Even if Link wanted to train their combat ability through this chance, starting directly with the ultimate battle against Voldemort was a bit too outrageous.
"Sigh…"
After a long sigh, Old Barty finally followed at the back of the group.
And their final destination this time was Fudge's Minister for Magic office.