"Of course not."
The eldest Williams glanced around the entire office, his tone gentle but firm as he refused:
"We now have our first task..."
He turned around, looking at the crowd gathered at the door, speaking in a voice not too loud but enough for those around to hear clearly:
"It's this theft that occurred in the private office of the Security Envoy at the Ministry of Magic!"
In the corridor, the students who had gathered out of curiosity instinctively took two steps back, exchanged glances, and the faint noise disappeared immediately.
Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows slightly, while Percy's face immediately turned red.
Just as they were about to say something, a hand quietly raised from the crowd.
Williams' sharp gaze immediately swept over, but upon seeing the red hair taller than those around, he paused slightly.
"Uh... sorry, it's me who took it."
Ron said with an innocent look.
Professor McGonagall turned her head, frowned, and said, "Mr. Ron Weasley, you entered Mr. Percy Weasley's office without permission?"
The tension instantly eased with the consecutive "Mr. Weasley."
"It's because..."
Ron scratched his face and said, "Mom made new scones and nut chocolate; she said Percy should try them... I didn't think much and unlocked the door..."
Percy turned his head to look at the inconspicuous package at the edge of the table, his Adam's apple moved as he turned to question:
"Then why did you take my registration form?"
Ron said with his head down, "I saw the reports on your desk piled up messily, wanted to help you organize them, so I... took them back..."
Percy: "..."
He wanted to scream, wanted to get angry, and immediately expose Ron's lie.
Because he had long since broken with his family; with Ron's character, it would be considerate not to mess with him behind his back, how could he still come around bringing candy and offering to organize documents?
But he couldn't.
He couldn't publicly speak the truth, letting others feel he was a cold-hearted person to his family.
Percy's chest heaved violently a few times, finally pressed down his anger, and squeezed out a sentence:
"You... I thank you for your 'help', Ron... But you shouldn't have touched the things on my desk! Now, please help out and bring back those reports."
In the crowd, some students looked uneasily at Percy and those serious Ministry officials beside him, heart rate suddenly increasing.
They were the students who had registered previously; some almost forgot the nonsense they had talked about.
But everyone knew well, originally intended to tease Percy... However, now that the Ministry of Magic valued it so much, what if they really wanted to "deal with" those reports...
As everyone felt uneasy, they heard Ron say with great remorse: "I'm very sorry, but..."
"But what?" Percy asked.
"But we were playing in the common room—"
"You know, chasing, running, jumping, occasionally playing a little prank—"
"Inadvertently bumped into Ron—"
"Everything in his hands flew up and then 'bang'—"
Fred and George squeezed out from the crowd, sandwiching Ron in between, waving their arms to demonstrate and saying:
"All the papers scattered!"
"I wanted to use the Scouring Charm to pick them up, I swear—"
"But the wind went the wrong direction, they all blew into the fireplace—"
"Whew... just like that, all gone!"
"Sorry, it's all my fault." Fred said with his head down: "I used the Scouring Charm wrong."
"No, it's my responsibility." George seemed to repent seriously: "It's my fault for accidentally bumping into Ron."
"If blame must be placed, blame me!" Ron said insincerely: "If I hadn't thought of helping Percy organize the documents, none of this would have happened."
"Well..." Ginny nervously raised her hand.
Percy looked over sharply, his tone uncontrollably fierce: "Ginny? What did you do again!"
"I... I saw the papers falling into the fire, so... so I helped save some."
Ginny, pale as if frightened by him, said hastily: "I repaired some burned ones... If you still need them..."
She took out a stack of parchment from her backpack, all marked with scorched marks, some with several holes in the middle.
The top one, at the end, "Colin Creevey's" signature had become blurred, only the first few letters were visible.
Ginny continued: "Those destroyed... Maybe they can report to you again? If these are truly individuals in need of help, I think everyone would be willing to spend some time to do it again..."
Percy looked at the thickness, now less than one-third of the original, opened his mouth, unsure what to say.
He only felt the corridor was extremely quiet, his colleagues watching him, school students and professors also observing him.
Watching how he'd handle the matter, whether he'd punish his brothers, after all, they were all "well-intentioned"...
Percy looked at the twins posing as obedient alongside Ron, even Ginny, almost furious enough to vomit blood, facial muscles twitching slightly.
The moment felt extremely long, but in reality, only two seconds passed, the sound of Professor McGonagall soon rang out in the corridor:
"Fred! George! Using unfamiliar spells recklessly in the common room, almost causing a fire, damaging important Ministry of Magic documents, Gryffindor loses twenty points! Each! And a week's detention, starting today!"
The twins lowered their heads, saying sincerely:
"Sorry, Professor... and Percy."
"Especially to Percy."
"We accept the punishment."
"We hope he can forgive us."
"Although we know it's tough."
Both looked eagerly at Percy, surrounding people also turned to Percy, awaiting the words "It's okay" from him.
After all—
Everyone knew the twins' personality, they weren't intentional!
Besides, it wasn't something important that got burned.
At the office door, feeling a bond named "family affection" binding him, forcing him to be "forgiving," Percy's face alternated between red and green, lips moved several times, but he couldn't make a sound.
At this moment, Williams stepped in front of Percy, taking the stack of scorched parchment from Ginny's hand.
He bowed his head, looked through the contents, and as he recognized what was written, a mix of surprise and excitement surged through him, he abruptly laughed.