"Gawain Robards taking office is hardly a surprise. Barty Crouch is still Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Millicent can't go over his head and interfere with Auror Headquarters," Murphy said.
Barty Crouch clearly knew that his trial of Sirius had been flawed, so he kept putting things off. Half a year had passed, and the retrial still hadn't begun.
Thanks to that caution, although his reputation had been slowly declining ever since "Barty Crouch Jr." died tragically in prison, he still had plenty of supporters and remained firmly seated in his position as department head.
Lucius Malfoy sat opposite him, his face dark.
A few days earlier, the long-vacant position of Head of the Auror Office had finally been confirmed for Gawain Robards, which clearly wasn't the outcome Lucius Malfoy had expected.
"It seems your gold doesn't carry quite so much weight at the Ministry of Magic after all," he said irritably.
Murphy raised an eyebrow. "What, do you care that much about who gets the job?"
"'Our friends' are very unhappy with this outcome," Lucius Malfoy said. "And I already promised that the position would go to Rasim Selwyn."
Murphy scoffed. "Even though this Rasim still hasn't shown his face before me once?"
"The Selwyn family actually has a good relationship with Rufus Scrimgeour. They're somewhat unhappy that you engineered Scrimgeour's downfall."
"Ha." Murphy sounded as though he had just heard a hilarious joke.
"Even though they've been coveting the position of Head of the Auror Office for ages?" Murphy snorted contemptuously. "A flock of scavenging vultures, blaming me for killing their prey? What noble gentlemen they are."
Lucius Malfoy had no answer to that. Only after a long while did he say, "Gawain Robards taking office does us no good."
"But it does us no