After giving a long speech to an audience that wasn't listening, Fudge took the initiative and posed for a group photo with the four of them.
Only then did Harley understand why they had arrived at the Ministry of Magic as early as two o'clock, even though the Portkey wasn't set to activate until half past three.
On top of that, the people taking the photos this time weren't reporters from the Daily Prophet or any other newspaper. They were Ministry employees.
Harley had a pretty good idea what Fudge was planning.
If Hogwarts won the championship, the news that the Minister for Magic had strongly supported Hogwarts's participation in the Wizarding School Potion Championship would appear on the front pages of all the major newspapers, complete with photos as proof.
And if Hogwarts didn't win, then nothing had happened.
After all, although this was an international competition that represented the Potions skills of a country's young wizards, Britain hadn't participated in a long time and had naturally done no publicity for it. In fact, it was fair to say that most British wizards didn't even know the competition existed.
Since the public didn't know about it, then if they lost, they lost. They could just pretend the competition had never happened.
Fudge didn't stop rambling until the Portkey was about to activate, then hurried out of the room.
That evening, Fudge had a banquet with the Malfoy family, and several Pure-blood families would be attending as well, so he had to get ready.
As the door shut behind him, Professor Slughorn shook his head. "It's because of politicians like that that I don't like going to the Ministry of Magic."
"That's not what you thought at the time," Dumbledore said, mercilessly calling him out.
"Back then, you said that