Hogwarts: Even Voldemort Can't Stop Me From Studying

Chapter 1105: Chapter 192: Visiting Seraphina

The atmosphere in the drawing room felt unusually leisurely, as if the people meeting here weren’t bitter political enemies with deep-seated grievances, but old friends who hadn’t seen each other in years.

The room was very quiet. The dark, timeworn furniture and heavy drapes seemed to swallow the light from outside, leaving only the occasional crackle of the logs burning in the fireplace.

Stella Piquelli stood at the door, cautiously poking her head in for a look. She saw her aunt sitting peacefully on the sofa, her favorite blanket spread across her knees and a steaming cup of honey tea cradled in her hands.

Chairman Hosone was sitting on another sofa, expression calm. Ezra Hughes stood by the fireplace, head tilted back as he studied the photographs pinned to the wall.

—Both sides were very calm; they hadn’t started arguing the instant they met, let alone come to blows.

Stella quietly let out a breath, carried the silver tray in with light steps, and set two steaming cups of black tea down in front of Hosone and Hughes.

"Please enjoy, Mr. Hosone, Uncle Ezra," Stella said softly.

"Thank you," Hosone replied mildly.

Hughes was in a foul mood because of Laira, but looking at this guileless girl, he still forced a smile.

Stella’s parents had both worked in the Congress before; when she was little, they often brought her to the office, and she would run all over the Congress Headquarters building. Sweet-tongued and adorable, she was well-loved by everyone.

He didn’t know when this girl, who once dared draw a mustache on his face, had come to wear such a careful, timid look.

Hughes had just opened his mouth to say something when he saw Stella suddenly frown, her body turning slightly toward the door, tension in her expression with a faint trace of disgust.

Hughes paused, looking over.

Hurried footsteps sounded from the doorway.

Two Wizards in Auror uniforms—but lacking any edge or sharpness in their bearing—were striding over quickly, their tightly knitted brows full of a nitpicking, fault-finding look.

But when they saw the two people in the drawing room, their faces changed at the same time, and they halted hesitantly.

No matter how much recognition Laira Piqueley had won from high-level officials, for these ordinary staffers, the Congress President and the Auror Office Director were still figures far above their heads.

Ezra Hughes vaguely understood something, and his face darkened at once.

He set his tea down on the cabinet with a clatter, then turned and walked toward the door, his tall frame radiating an invisible pressure.

The two Aurors instinctively straightened up, a flicker of panic flashing in their eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Hughes’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was cold as iron.

The two exchanged a glance, and one of them forced himself to speak:

"D-Director Hughes... we’re under orders to protect Madam Piqueley..."

"Protect? We’ve already been inside for five minutes, and only now do you remember you have someone to ’protect’?"

Hughes said icily, "Get out. Chairman Hosone and Ms. Picquery have important matters to discuss."

The two looked troubled, stammering, "But..."

They glanced at each other, hoping the other would step up and say something.

Hughes’s gaze sharpened, and his tone suddenly turned vicious:

"What, my word doesn’t move you? Have I already been removed from my post as Director of the Auror Office? Or is it—"

He abruptly stepped closer, and the two couldn’t help but retreat.

"—that as Aurors, you’ve gone and acknowledged a new master for yourselves? You’re following someone else’s orders now?"

Their faces grew dark and ugly, cold sweat trickling as they struggled for words.

—So it really was like this?

Hughes flew into a rage and roared:

"If I am still Director, then right now I order you—immediately! Get out of this room, out of this estate, and back to wherever you’re supposed to be! If I see the two of you skulking around here again..."

He didn’t finish the sentence, but the chill in his words was unmistakable.

The two exchanged a hasty glance, then finally lowered their heads and hurried out without a word, disappearing at the far end of the corridor.

Hughes stood at the window, staring coldly until he saw them dawdle their way out of the estate; only then did he withdraw his gaze and slowly turn back. He gave Hosone and Lady Seraphina a slight nod, then turned to the girl beside him and said:

"Stella, would you show me the scenery around the estate?"

Stella was taken aback, then quickly said, "O-of course."

She lifted her skirts and skipped lightly out of the room. Hughes followed a step behind; as he turned and closed the drawing room door, he exchanged a look with Hosone from a distance.

"Click."

The heavy wooden door swung shut.

Walking down the quiet corridor, Stella couldn’t help doing a little hop, her face breaking into a smile as she said:

"Thank you, Uncle Ezra! If I’d known you would speak up for us, I would’ve told you about all this much earlier!"

Hughes frowned. "They’ve been like this all along?"

"Yes!"

Stella lowered her head, her expression dimming as she said:

"I know Chairman Hosone doesn’t like my aunt, but to have people watching us even at home, with everyone coming in and out of the estate being checked—that’s really going too far!"

"Uncle Ezra, could you talk to him? Aunt Seraphina has long since left that position and won’t pose any threat to him. Could you ask him to let us go..."

The more she said, the uglier Ezra Hughes’s expression became, his features shadowed so that he seemed nothing like the "Uncle Ezra" she knew.

Her voice grew softer and softer, until in the end she couldn’t go on.

—Yes, compared to her and her aunt, Chairman Hosone was his comrade-in-arms. What good would it do to ask him to plead on their behalf?

It was just like the guests who had visited the estate before; they too had been angered by the rude behavior of the bodyguards and maids, but once it was mentioned that this was "concern" from the sitting Congress President, everyone fell silent.

Even Seraphina Picquery’s old friends, faced with a sensitive political issue like this, wisely chose to keep quiet and advised Seraphina to endure for the time being.

"Their presence proves that Hosone doesn’t intend to move against you... In any case, they won’t actually do anything. Just treat it as having a few extra bodyguards for free."

—That’s what they all said.

Just as Stella was lowering her head, fighting the urge to cry, she heard Hughes grind out, word by word, through clenched teeth:

"Nikolo doesn’t like Ms. Picquery? He’s even sent people to watch her? Who told you that?!"

Stella lifted her head blankly. "Is... isn’t that right?"

...

In the drawing room, Seraphina waited until everyone had left before she slowly set down the teacup she had been holding, her gaze gentle as she looked at Hosone:

"Now we can speak quietly, Nikolo... I think there may be a great many misunderstandings between us?"

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