The Ministry of Magic's Problems

Jon naturally had no interest in the affairs of adolescents.

Over the past few days, Hermione had practically treated reporting information to him as a mission, telling Jon every last detail. It had forced Jon to spend some time explaining to her what actually mattered.

After all, the Hufflepuff Magic Research Society was not being paid to sit around doing nothing. They were keeping records too. If Hermione did everything, why was Jon spending so much money?

This sort of needless internal competition was best avoided whenever possible.

But today, Hermione did tell him something.

She and Harry had been forced to encounter Elder Wopur at Slahogern's dinner party. He was a former Hogwarts student and the author of Blood Brothers: I Live Among Vampires—along with his vampire friend Xue Ni, of course. Their appearance had been driven by less-than-pure motives concerning the as-yet-unpublished The Harry Potter Biography.

Hermione knew Jon was working on these matters, so she reported it to him.

"You don't need to worry about that," Jon wrote in his notebook. "He doesn't have the ability to write that book. I have plenty of ways to stop it. Is there anything else?"

"There is."

Hermione's handwriting quickly appeared in the notebook. "There is something wrong with Malfoy. Harry said he looked rather sickly. It was the first time in a long while that he had observed Malfoy from so close, and he noticed dark circles under Malfoy's eyes and a distinctly gray complexion."

"Alright, I understand. Let me know promptly if anything else happens.

P.S. Have a happy christmas holiday."

After writing that, he closed the notebook. Draco's situation was indeed one of the more important matters this year. There was no helping it—Voldemort had chosen him.

Perhaps young children were easier to control.

There was another