The next day, Cornelius Fudge solemnly declared in The Daily Prophet, "We are doing everything in our power to recapture Sirius, and we have already visited the House of Black yesterday, but did not find any trace of Sirius. We urge the Wizarding World to remain calm. I guarantee with my life that Sirius will be apprehended."
Attached was a photo of him leading people to inspect the Black Ancestral Home.
However, in the afternoon, a small newspaper suddenly reported the unknown truth behind the matter.
The newspaper showed Arthur Black pulling Cornelius Fudge, urging him to continue the inspection. But Cornelius Fudge refused to listen and insisted on leaving.
Their conversation was also recorded verbatim by Rita Skeeter in the newspaper, and their lip movements perfectly matched the dialogue.
There were also other remarks written by Rita Skeeter, such as Arthur Black offering to let Aurors inspect to prove his innocence, but Cornelius Fudgebeing inactive and perfunctory.
This newspaper delivered a harsh slap to the face of the Ministry of Magic.
Cornelius Fudge was even more enraged, going mad in his office, "Who on earth did this! There was already an 'Invisible Man' who kept reporting secret matters of the Ministry of Magic, and this time he even reported my affairs. Investigate! You must find this 'Invisible Man' for me, I want him to enjoy life in Azkaban for the rest of his days."
At this point, his secretary said, "Minister, I suspect this is very likely the work of an illegal Animagus. Only an Animagus could know about Ministry of Magic affairs without attracting our attention."
Cornelius Fudge clenched his fists, "That's right, it's an Animagus. This is all because those Professors at Hogwarts are irresponsible. It's impossible for them not to know about something as obvious as students learning Animagus, but they have never reported it. Perhaps this is all Dumbledore's conspiracy; he wants my position, so he sent someone to undermine my prestige."
The others present remained silent.
If Dumbledore had wanted to be Minister for Magic, he could have taken the position immediately after defeating Grindelwald.
After Lord Voldemort was defeated more than ten years ago, he could also have taken office, but Dumbledore declined. Even Cornelius Fudge himself only became Minister for Magic with Dumbledore's support.
However, once he had secured his position, he began to ostracize Dumbledore, the man who could unseat him at any time, and he was no longer as amiable to his subordinates as he had been when he first took office.
But Cornelius Fudge was their superior, so they couldn't say much.
An Auror, seeing the heavy atmosphere, had a flash of inspiration and said, "Minister, could Sirius also be an Animagus? Is that why he was able to escape from Azkaban?"
Cornelius Fudge scoffed, "Hmph, if he really were an Animagus, why wouldn't he have escaped sooner? Why wait 12 years in Azkaban with Dementors before he was willing to escape?"
"Maybe... maybe he just learned it?"
Cornelius Fudge looked at that Auror with contempt and sneered, "How could such words come out of your mouth? Could he learn Animagus in Azkaban, a place where he can't even see moonlight?"
His secretary was also used to his ugly face, but they were all just employees. So he could only change the subject, "Minister, do you remember that black stray dog we saw last time? Perhaps that 'Invisible Man' is that dog."
"Then ask the Aurors guarding the Black Ancestral Home if that black dog did anything strange?"
The returned news greatly disappointed them. The black dog had always quietly stayed in the yard. It usually ate and slept normally, only not letting Arthur Black, its new owner, touch it.
It's normal for a stray dog not to let people touch it after only a few days of acquaintance. The clue to finding that "Invisible Man" was again cut off.
But those Wizards who had already seen the report would not give the Ministry of Magic much time to resolve this matter. They were concerned about the threat posed by the escaped convict Sirius, and they wanted the Ministry of Magic to give them a satisfactory answer immediately.
Cornelius Fudge could not find any reason to refute the report now. Helpless, he could only publish the fact that he had already arranged Aurors to monitor the Black Ancestral Home in the newspaper, which finally appeased the anger of the Wizards who had come directly to the Ministry of Magic to protest.
Arthur, afterwards, also pretended to be hearing about this for the first time and immediately cut off the funds he had originally planned to donate to the Ministry of Magic.
Later, Cornelius Fudge had to agree to many of Arthur's demands to regain this donation from the House of Black.
As for suspecting Arthur was the mastermind, he only considered it for a moment. One reason was that he believed Arthur was still young and incapable of such a thing. The other, most crucial point was that Arthurhad not yet been born when the 'Invisible Man' was active.
The Ministry of Magic was already spending money like water, and the recent efforts to capture Sirius had made the Ministry of Magic's expenses exceed its income.
Moreover, in his opinion, Arthur's demands were not too excessive, so he agreed to all the conditions Arthur proposed.
The first thing was to sell the Ministry of Magic's land near Arthur's newly built Black Manor to Arthur. The money Arthur later gave to the Ministry of Magic was nominally for the purchase of that land.
The second thing was to have all Aurors near the Black Ancestral Home visibly withdraw.
The third thing was to give Arthur a position in the Ministry of Magic, an Unspeakable belonging to the Department of Mysteries.
In addition, Arthur also specifically paid a sum of money to establish a research group dedicated to studying the veil in the middle of the Death Chamber, which is a one-way passage to the world after a Wizard's death.
That is the veil that Sirius fell into, causing his death, after being hit by Bellatrix's Charms.
After meeting Ravenclaw last time, Arthur had developed some interest in that other world that Wizards would only enter after death.
This time, he could use this opportunity to acquire the veil in the Ministry of Magic that was connected to that world.
The Department of Mysteries was basically defunct now, with few Unspeakables researching the items within it. But the established rules had not changed.
When the Department of Mysteries was first established, to prevent conflicts among Unspeakables, ownership rights were set.
Once an Unspeakable selected a magic item, other Unspeakables could not lay claim to that item, unless after ten years that Unspeakable had still not found any results from their research.
This meant that, within ten years, the veil in the Death Chamber could be said to belong to Arthur.
After ten years, when powerful Wizards like Lord Voldemort and Dumbledore died, Britain would be his to command.
Anyone else who wanted to research it would have to join Arthur's group. However, there were not many Wizards researching these things now; the Wizarding World had already stopped developing for decades. At most, they were researching some new Potions, Charms, and the like.
Arthur wanted this veil also to better understand that other world in the future. After all, after his death, he would also enter that world.
He had already enjoyed the benefits of being a "prophet" in this world, and for the next world, he still wanted to understand the situation as much as possible. This way, if he went to that world in the future, he could also avoid making some mistakes.
Arthur, having received compensation from the Ministry of Magic, no longer disliked Cornelius Fudgeas much. If it had been a more rigid Minister for Magic, he would not have agreed to this matter.
This was no different from the Ministry of Magicdirectly selling things.
Afterward, the Aurors near the Black Ancestral Homealso mostly withdrew. Arthur investigated himself and found that only two Aurors remained, working in shifts, secretly monitoring him.
A few days before Hogwarts started, he finally picked up the black dog, which had never let him touch it, by the scruff of its neck and carried it back into his room.