Mysterious Journey
Chapter 893 Charlie's Little Trouble
However, no sooner had the owl delivering the Friday mail flown away from the milk jug than a commotion erupted in the Great Hall.
They unfolded the newspapers—all of them, whether it was the *Daily Prophet*, the *Witch Weekly*, the *Quibbler*... or even specialized publications like *Transfiguration Today* and *Potions in the Forefront*—and on the most prominent cover position was a large photo of Cornelius Fudge and Albus Dumbledore standing together, exchanging signatures on some documents.
And the headlines next to the pictures uniformly proclaimed:
[MINISTRY OF MAGIC'S LANDMARK COLLABORATION WITH HOGWARTS]
[ALBUS DUMBLEDORE APPOINTED—]
[CHIEF OF THE FIRST PROFESSIONAL TITLE CERTIFICATION AND TRAINING IN THE BRITISH MAGICAL WORLD]
"Professor Dumbledore—professional title... certification training?"
Charlie Weasley frowned, a half-eaten piece of toast slipping from his fingertips. "What does this mean?"
As a "magical master's student" who had returned to school after more than a year of work, he had an innate sense of foreboding about this phrase, like when you've caused trouble at school and come home to find your mother reading a letter.
Ginny, sitting beside him, unfolded the newspaper, picking out the key points to read aloud:
"After lengthy discussions, the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts have decided to undertake further educational reforms, using Hogwarts education as a starting point to plan and organize a complete and orderly system of professional titles, thereby solving the employment problems in today's society and promoting the stable development of the magical society. This has been a long-standing vision of the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts..."
"'Times are progressing, and traditional knowledge is beginning to lag and become disconnected.' Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge said, 'But this is not because of laxity in school education, but because of the lack of skills training between students and professionals. In the future magical world, Hogwarts may undertake an even more important educational and guiding responsibility than ever before...'"
"According to Minister Cornelius Fudge's statement, the British magical world is expected to launch a preliminary pilot program of [Professionalization] in Diagon Alley, London, next September. Some special industries must hold certain qualifications to continue operating (see appendix on the last page for a list of industries and required qualifications). Non-compliant shops and practitioners may face mandatory training, suspension of business, and other risks..."
"Special industries? Practicing qualifications?" Charlie turned his head curiously, preparing to flip through the newspaper in Ginny's hands.
"Wait, I haven't finished reading yet!" Ginny pretended to bite, scaring Charlie's hand away, and continued reading.
"—Considering the stability of social order, Hogwarts has already begun the first round of corresponding training courses this academic year and has invited a group of outstanding alumni to return to school for further study to ensure a smooth transition in the early stages of the pilot program..."
Ginny raised her head from the newspaper and glanced at her brothers around her who were listening intently to the newspaper.
Apart from Bill, who worked at Gringotts with the goblins, even Fred and George rarely put down their knives and forks and looked at her seriously. As for Percy Weasley, he was listening attentively while looking at the newspaper with a serious expression.
Percy would be entering his seventh year next September, and he, determined to join the Ministry of Magic, would not miss this important information.
"In addition, the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts will also determine which subjects are eligible to be included in the first batch of professional title training subjects in the magical society based on the pilot program's situation in the coming year—the evaluation criteria will be comprehensively considered from three aspects: social job vacancies, teaching quality assessment by the High Inquisitor, and teaching results of the first batch of students."
"The Ministry of Magic's Undersecretary and Hogwarts's Deputy Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, Dolores Jane Umbridge, will complete the corresponding assessment as the High Inquisitor appointed by the Ministry of Magic. As the Ministry of Magic's High Inquisitor, Ms. Umbridge will gain an in-depth understanding of various subjects and students and make recommendations on behalf of the Ministry of Magic..."
"High Inquisitor? Professor Umbridge? Why her..."
Ginny suddenly stopped reading, and an unhappy expression appeared on her face.
"What's wrong, Ginny?" Percy asked, frowning. "Do you think there's a problem with this?"
"Oh, Percy—because this isn't pleasant good news..."
Fred sighed, fiddling with the grilled scallops in his plate with some annoyance. "You should have heard some rumors about Professor Umbridge, right? She's the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for the first to fourth years, and all she does in class is make us copy textbooks, and they're all boring defensive theories..."
"That's not even the scariest part, she treats us like five or six-year-olds. Can you imagine how she teaches?"
George said painfully, pinching his throat to imitate that high-pitched, affected voice, "Children, come on, repeat after me, 'We must not actively cast offensive spells.'" "Oh, dear, be sure to raise your hand before speaking, that's what good students do." "When answering questions, you must say, 'Yes, Professor Umbridge'..."
"Enough, George, I don't want to throw up on the table—"
Ginny shivered, kicking George, who was imitating Umbridge, and glared at him fiercely.
"In short, no one in our first year likes her. If it weren't for Professor Lupin, I would have even classified Defense Against the Dark Arts as the most hated subject... Compared to Professor Snape's Potions, that woman Umbridge teaches garbage. Luckily, it seems her review scope shouldn't include us."
Apart from Eileen and Hermione, most of the lower-grade students hated Umbridge the most.
Undoubtedly, the word politician was completely embodied in her, rigid rules, moronic education, dogmatic training, boring copying teaching... Umbridge relied on her own strength to raise the overall rating of other colleagues.
"It's you guys, Charlie, Percy, who will probably have headaches later."
Ginny turned to look at her brothers, flicking the newspaper in her hand, revealing a gloating smile.
"According to what it says here, you should all be participating in those 'professional title examinations' this semester, right? And there's also the opportunity to have in-depth exchanges with Professor Umbridge. Percy, you must hold the line..."
"You little girl, it's only been less than three months, where did you learn so much nonsense?"
Percy Weasley frowned, knocking Ginny's forehead slightly angrily.
Since Ginny came to Hogwarts, it was as if she had opened some strange world. The timid, well-behaved girl image disappeared in less than half a month, replaced by an increasingly witch-like form. In fact, the lower-grade girls seemed to have a tendency to develop in this direction, and Percy, as a contender for the next head boy, felt deeply uneasy about this.
Just...
Percy Weasley's gaze lingered on the next table, and he helplessly withdrew his gaze.
Anyway, he was graduating in a year, and there was no need to provoke that silver-haired she-devil at this time. The job of prefect and head boy was only to assist the professors in restraining and guiding the students, not to launch a suicidal charge on their own initiative.
Professor Dumbledore would surely handle the influence of Miss Eileen Kaslana properly.
"Waa... Bill, Charlie... Percy is bullying me again..."
Before Percy could regain his attention, Ginny quickly covered her forehead and complained tearfully to the side.
Now it was different from the last semester. Percy was no longer the "Weasley leader" in Hogwarts. After being reminded by Coach Granger, Ginny quickly found the secret to restraining Percy—just complain to the other two brothers.
Of course, this method was only limited to Ginny Weasley.
George and Fred had previously encouraged Ron to imitate it once, which made Ron ignore them for a week.
"Percy, just say it lightly, don't use your hands."
Bill Weasley coughed lightly, patted Percy's shoulder helplessly, and leaned over to say softly.
"Ginny knows about you and Penol. She now has more than one piece of information. Whether it's George, Fred, or your daily whereabouts, they are all under the control of this little witch... I suggest you spoil Ginny a little more later. You know our family's women, um, whether in the past, present, or future, are not easy to mess with..."
Unlike the other Weasley children, Bill, who was employed by Gringotts Wizarding Bank, knew too many secrets.
As a B-level personnel of the sCp Foundation, especially the core researcher who participated in the "Dark Lord (Fragmented) Soul Anatomy Research Project," he was very clear about how dangerous Eileen Kaslana was in Hogwarts.
On the other hand, within the Foundation, no employee can inquire about the details of the upper layer of encrypted content.
Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, Hannah Abbott... all of these names are ordinary Hogwarts students in the Foundation's internal searchable information, or more precisely, that's what they look like with the identity of B-level personnel.
This also means that their real information is at least in A-level, or even higher-level confidential information.
After all, judging purely from combat ability, Miss Hannah is definitely at A-level. Although Miss Granger, who has always been on par with Eileen in terms of grades, is still a mystery in strength, she is definitely not an ordinary second-year student. As for Miss Lovegood... she is the first student in Hogwarts to enroll before school age in hundreds of years.
Bill Weasley even suspected whether there were any o5-level members among the other three "Misses."
Therefore, since he knew that Ginny had joined the Hogwarts freshman team and had a close relationship with Coach Hermione, Bill was very worried that one day he would see Little Ginny take out an identity card of an A-level member while performing a task.
"...This is too outrageous, dragon taming actually requires so many qualifications?!"
Just then, Charlie Weasley's exclamation interrupted Bill's thoughts.
Charlie had already taken the *Daily Prophet*, which was obviously thicker than usual, from Ginny's hand and flipped to the appendix on the last page, incredulously rubbing one of the lines, as if trying to erase it from the newspaper.
[DRAGON TAMER: TITLE QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS]
[Magical Creature Level 1 Breeder], [Advanced Flying License], [Advanced Muggle Researcher]...
Adding up, there were at least seven or eight corresponding qualification certifications, which made Charlie feel for a moment as if the people behind the Ministry of Magic who formulated these title plans were targeting him. He just wanted to raise dragons peacefully, why was it so difficult?!
"I took a closer look, dragon tamer seems to belong to [Advanced Title]..."
Percy Weasley pushed his glasses and pointed to the small print on the newspaper, thoughtfully saying.
"The taming qualification of this gregarious, 5x-level magical creature should be the most difficult in the field of magical creatures, second only to special titles such as [Special Grade Potions Master]. It's not incomprehensible that the requirements are high. What I'm curious about is, what about the advanced Muggle researcher? This series of title requirements is a bit too much..."
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"Obviously, it's a brand new title derived from the Muggle Studies course."
Charlie said dejectedly, his eyes sweeping over other positions, most of which related to magical creatures had this requirement.
The only difference was whether it was [Advanced], [Intermediate], or [Beginner].
"If Dad was here, he would be very happy, but I didn't choose the Muggle Studies course from o.w.Ls! God—do I have to start making up for it from scratch? Why do you need to understand Muggles to raise fire dragons?!"
"Be objective, Charlie, this course may not be necessary... Professor Quirrell's course still needs to be accepted."
Bill Weasley patted his younger brother's shoulder, comforting him with a smile.
"Look, it says (To Be Determined) here. If this course doesn't pass the Ministry of Magic's review, then it may not be able to appear as an independent discipline that can evaluate professional titles for the time being. Then you only need to complete the o.w.Ls basic written test—look, it's specially noted here that o.w.Ls excellence is equivalent to an intermediate title."
"But, what I need is advanced..." Charlie Weasley said with a wry smile.
"In that case, you may have to pray that Professor Quirrell can pass the 'High Inquisitor's' review, otherwise you may have to stay in Hogwarts until the acceptance is qualified, or you can ask Professor Scamander later? Isn't that your idol all along? Haven't you been secretly communicating with Mr. Scamander during this time? If you ask..."
"It's useless, the qualification requirements for each position will be discussed and decided by the top wizards in each field..."
Charlie sighed helplessly, put down the newspaper in his hand, and said with no love for life.
"Don't you think that the formulation of the basic qualifications for dragon tamers won't go through Mr. Scamander? In the field of magical creatures, is there a wizard who knows and has more authority than the author of *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them*?"
"...Actually, okay."
Bill's lips moved slightly, shrugged his shoulders, and didn't continue to insist on persuading him.
The future magical world is bound to have close exchanges with the non-magical world, so it's a good thing for Charlie to know more about Muggles.
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Yay!