As he spoke, Howl raised his hand and patted Hagrid's broad shoulder: "He is sixty years old now. Look at his aged and decrepit appearance. His entire youth, prime, and middle age were burdened with this title, only able to do the most lowly jobs to barely make a living."
Hagrid, his face flushed, said, "Howl, this is not lowly—"
"Tsk tsk tsk, don't speak yet," Howl quickly interrupted him.
"How much life does he have left to live? Is thirty thousand too much?"
"Then exactly three thousand Galleons can buy this big oaf a grave—ugh—cough cough!"
The woman spoke halfway, her mouth and nose inexplicably choked with water, interrupting her breathing.
"What's wrong with you? Amber! Amber!"
"When people are unlucky, there's nothing they can do. They can even choke while talking." Howl shook his head pitifully.
The woman was quickly carried out; she needed emergency treatment, otherwise she might choke to death. The liquid gushing from her mouth and nose flowed endlessly like a spring.
"Let's end this quickly." Someone in the Wizengamot finally couldn't help but urge.
Soon, the final discussion ended.
"Twelve thousand Galleons." Amelia brought down the gavel, and the Wizengamot voted by show of hands.
Unanimous vote!
How much money Fudge, or rather the Ministry of Magic, had to pay had little to do with them.
To be precise, they only needed to care about one small problem.
That is: the Ministry of Magic, on the verge of deficit after the compensation, would once again levy huge taxes on the wealthy.
And there were many ways to solve this small problem.
Dividing assets to avoid taxes, exchanging benefits with the Ministry of Magic, or manipulating the market through alliances to continue profiting from the people's Galleons.
Some were even considering whether to use this opportunity to impeach Fudge and replace him with someone new—although this probability was low. Fudge's leaning towards the pure-blood faction after this incident was almost an inevitable event.
There were countless methods; it still depended on the direction of events to come.
The only thing that could be confirmed was that now, it would be foolish to stir up trouble with the Hogwarts faction here.
Yes, in their eyes, Hogwarts had clearly become a faction in the Britain Wizarding World.
Previously, its composition was Dumbledore and various highly respected academic Wizards who were friendly with him.
But now, they had no choice but to temporarily shift their gaze from Dumbledore to this new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor!
This person had a distinct difference from the original Hogwarts faction, an obvious, more violent, and less rule-abiding distinction.
"Dark Lord's Curse! Come on! Quickly kill him or cripple him!!"
Many people prayed this way.
...
Hagrid sat motionless on the luxurious chair, trying to recover from his astonishment and relief.
The members of the Wizengamot stood up one after another, talking and tidying up their documents. Some had even packed their things long ago and left as soon as it ended.
Like students who had been preparing for the end of class.
"It's over…" Hagrid murmured, feeling as if what had happened today was a dream.
Then, he suddenly slapped himself, crisp and loud.
"It's not a dream." Only then did he react, and his braided beard trembled.
Howl had a gentle smile on his face.
However, he never expected Hagrid's first words to be…
"Howl, I must say, being the Gamekeeper is not a lowly profession, and I still have many years to live."
"I know…" Howl's face was covered in black lines. Howl had done a simple calculation of Hagrid's lifespan and estimated it to be over one hundred and fifty years.
Never mind, the verdict was already over, let him say what he wanted.
Was there an appeal in the Wizarding World?!
"Let's go," Howl said, leading the way out of the courtroom.
As for Fudge and his party, they had left even earlier, departing quickly as soon as it ended.
Outside the courtroom, Howl also saw Dumbledore, and the old man who had been following him earlier.
He had already known who this person was during the interrogation process.
Newt Scamander.
A traveler, magizoologist, author, and anti-Grindelwald fighter active during the Grindelwald era.
He was also the founder of the Ministry of Magic's Werewolf Registry, the first Wizard in History of Magic to attempt to directly address the Werewolf problem. He promoted the law "Prohibition of Breeding for Experimental Purposes," effectively curbing various uncontrollable deformed fantastic beast experiments.
"Hagrid, it's good to see you." Newt carefully waved his hand.
"Newt, oh my, I can't tell you how happy I am to see you." Hagrid said in surprise, wanting to go over and give him a hug. Fortunately, Newt quickly dodged.
Hagrid awkwardly stopped, then turned back to Howl to explain: "This is Newt. We often exchanged fantastic beasts in the forties and fifties."
Howl nodded understandingly, and at the same time, a question popped into his mind.
Hmm… they had communicated in the forties and fifties, and in the sixties, Newt promoted the law prohibiting fantastic beast experiments…
It felt like there was some connection to Hagrid in all of this.
"Hello." Thinking, he stepped forward and shook hands.
-------------------------
If you enjoy this story, you can read 70+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
Webnovel will keep getting 1 new chapter every day but Patreon readers can stay far ahead.
Maybe it's not a big deal now… maybe it will be later.
[email protected]/Rexlent
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"