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Chapter 889: Hogwarts Education Quality
🕑 Added 2023-09-30 11:18:00 +0000 UTC“Ah,” said Fudge, who looked thoroughly disconcerted. “Dumbledore. Yes. You ... er ... got our ... er ... message that the time and ... er ... place of the hearing had been changed, then?
“I must have missed it,” said Dumbledore cheerfully. “However, due to a lucky mistake I arrived at the Ministry three hours early, so no harm done."
“Yes ... well ... I suppose we’ll need another chair ... I ... Weasley, could you...?"
“Not to worry, not to worry,” said Dumbledore pleasantly.
He took out his wand, gave it a little flick, and a squashy chintz armchair appeared out of nowhere next to Harry.
Dumbledore sat down, put the tips of his long fingers together, and looked at Fudge over them with an expression of polite interest.
The Wizengamot was still muttering and fidgeting restlessly.
Fudge was terrified to the extreme. Evan’s previous intervention had already taken him out of breath, and now seeing Dumbledore appear, he became even more panicked, not at all what the Minister of Magic should be.
“Yes,” said Fudge again, shuffling his notes. “Well, then. So. The charges. Yes."
He extricated a piece of parchment from the pile before him, took a deep breath, and read, “The charges against the accused are as follows: That he did knowingly, deliberately, and in full awareness of the illegality of his actions, having received a previous written warning from the Ministry of Magic on a similar charge, produce a Patronus Charm in a Muggle-inhabited area, in the presence of a Muggle, on August the second at twenty-three minutes past nine, which constitutes an offense under paragraph C of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, 1875, and also under section thirteen of the International Confederation of Wizards’ Statute of Secrecy. So, you are Harry James Potter, of number four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey?" Fudge said, glaring at Harry over the top of his parchment, trying to calm himself down.
“Yes,” Harry said.
“You received an official warning from the Ministry for using illegal magic three years ago, did you not?"
"Yes, but..."
“And yet you conjured a Patronus on the night of the second of August?” said Fudge.
"Yes!" said Harry, "but..."
“Knowing that you are not permitted to use magic outside school while you are under the age of seventeen?"
"Yes, but..."
“Knowing that you were in an area full of Muggles?"
"Yes, but..."
“Fully aware that you were in close proximity to a Muggle at the time?"
"Yes," said Harry angrily. Fudge never let him finish. "But I only used it because we were..."
Madam Bones cut across him in a booming voice, "You produced a fully fledged Patronus?"
"Yes," said Harry, "because... "
“A corporeal Patronus?"
“Yes,” said Harry, feeling both impatient and slightly desperate, "Evan taught me. It’s a stag, it’s always a stag."
"Always? You have produced a Patronus before now?" boomed Madam Bones, and then she turned her gaze to Evan, "Can Mr. Mason next to you also produce a Patronus?"
"Yes, I’ve been doing it for over a year," said Harry, "Evan had mastered it before I did, he..."
“And you are fifteen years old?" Madam Bones paused, "Mr. Mason is one year younger than you?"
"Yes, we..."
“You learned this at school?"
"Yes, I learned it in my third year, and I practiced a lot." Harry said.
Every time he talked, the murmurs were louder. The members of the Wizengamot were surprised that they could conjure a corporeal Patronus. This was magic of very high level.
“Impressive,” said Madam Bones, staring down at them, “a true Patronus at that age … very impressive indeed!"
"In fact, there are already many students in Hogwarts who can conjure their own corporeal Patronuses. This is nothing to make a fuss about," said Evan. "Speaking of it, thanks to the Minister's arrangement of Dementors to protect the school, we could find such a good practice object and had the opportunity to master this spell.”
“I remember it was mentioned in the story about you catching Peter Pettigrew. Many people saw two corporeal Patronuses appear and drive away hundreds of Dementors..." Madam Bones nodded.
The two Patronuses were a stag and a doe. The stag was summoned by Harry, but he didn't know who had summoned the doe. The person didn't show up later, and Harry suspected that it might be his mother.
"My niece also told me about this. She came back from school and told me that she could produce a corporeal Patronus," said a witch in the back row. "To be honest, I was really surprised."
The wizards above began to whisper again, and it seemed that many of their children had learned the Patronus Charm.
"Amazing, really amazing! The level of education at Hogwarts is better than I thought," said Madam Bones, "Dumbledore I have to express my sincere admiration for you. It's not easy for so many young wizards to learn the Patronus Charm, is it?"
"Thank you for the compliment, Amelia!" said Dumbledore gently, "but these are all self-studied by the students. As Mr. Mason said, if you need to thank someone, I think Mr. Minister has contributed a lot to this."
Fudge's face had turned purple, which was a great humiliation and irony to him.
The young wizards learned the Patronus Charm because he’d sent Dementors to Hogwarts as guards.
What would people say if the outside world knew this?
Because of his incompetence, the young wizards had to protect themselves spontaneously...
Later facts proved that his decision to send the Dementors to Hogwarts was stupid.
"I think Hogwarts education is far better than expected. It does not have the problems we were worried about before," said Madam Bones. "In this case, send to Hogwarts..."
"Enough, it's not a question of how impressive the magic was, nor is it a question of discussing the teaching reform at Hogwarts," said Fudge in a testy voice. "Now it’s a trial. In fact, the more impressive the worse it is, given that the boy did it in plain view of a Muggle!"
Many wizards murmured in agreement, but it was Percy’s sanctimonious little nod that goaded Harry into speech.
"I did it because of the Dementors!" he said loudly, before anyone could interrupt him again.
He had expected more muttering, but the silence that fell seemed to be somehow denser than before.
