The Ministry of Magic was a little different from usual today. Several hours had passed since the morning's events, and it was already past noon—almost lunchtime was over!
Yet in the Ministry's staff cafeteria, there wasn't a single person there to eat, only the cooks and staff preparing to serve them. This was the high-quality lunch the Ministry of Magic provided for free! At this time on an ordinary day, the place would already be packed!
And now, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge was still in his Minister's Office, frantically reviewing the various urgent documents sent in by each department! In fact, it wasn't just the Minister of Magic who was at his wit's end. Nearly every Ministry official on duty was overwhelmed!
Right now, Fudge didn't have even a moment to rest, let alone go to the cafeteria for lunch! Things had reached this point because the situation was worsening too quickly and had become far too difficult to handle. If things went badly, every Ministry employee—including Minister Fudge—would have to eat at their desks today! Go to the cafeteria? They'd be lucky not to drop dead from exhaustion!
No one—not even Little Richard, the department head's secretary who had first come to report the matter—had anticipated that, after Wandless Magic was made public, the Ministry's system for monitoring wizards would show signs of nearing collapse after just one morning. Just one morning!
With the extraordinary powers of the wizarding world lacking effective oversight, all it had taken was a few short hours! No one had imagined that some wizards' humanity could become so twisted and depraved. Was this what people meant by the inherent evil of human nature? A philosopher had put it well: whether power or magical ability, when left without effective oversight, it would always bare