The top floor of a tower in Hogwarts Castle had been converted into a futuristic control room.
There were no flowers or applause here, no steaming hot pot, only countless floating crystal screens, wildly flashing signal lights, and a command console nearly buried in parchment.
"Levitation Charm energy in the left stands is down three percent! That damned Peeves is trying to turn the chandeliers into water bombs again! Moody! Have your Aurors shove that ghostly face of his down a toilet!"
Sirius Black wore a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, his tie hanging crookedly around his neck, as he shouted into a Two-Way Mirror clutched in his hand.
His handsome but slightly weathered face was full of irritation, with none of his usual air as the dashing "director of the Academic Affairs Office." He looked just like a project manager driven mad by a client.
Mad-Eye Moody's gravelly roar came from the mirror, accompanied by a noisy electrical crackle in the background:
"Shut up, Black! This is on-site security! I've already sent Tonks to deal with it. And can you keep that blasted fireworks system of yours away from my Magical Eye? It nearly blasted my remaining Runespoor prosthetic eye blind just now!"
Sirius cut off the connection forcefully and turned toward another enormous crystal screen.
The screen showed the festivities in the Great Hall-Douglas was raising his glass, smiling elegantly at the camera as he basked in the cheers of the entire room.
"Look at him. Just look at that bastard."
Pointing at the screen, Sirius let out a laugh of sheer exasperation and turned to Percy Weasley, who was rapidly approving documents beside him:
"I'm slaving away up here, monitoring thirty-six hundred magical nodes like a House-elf, while he's down there eating