Chapter 897: The War Dance
If Fudge had been hit by the Imperius Curse, perhaps he would have acted more intelligently instead of being so foolish.
His performance at the hearing today was enough to prove that he was not under the Imperius Curse; otherwise a giant would have been needed to control him.
But thanks to him, the hearing that the Ministry of Magic had been preparing for so long became a joke.
“Don’t think it hadn’t occurred to us, Harry,” muttered Mr. Weasley in a voice Evan and Harry could hear. “But Dumbledore thinks Fudge is acting of his own accord at the moment … which, as Dumbledore says, is not a lot of comfort… Best not talk about it anymore just now.”
The doors slid open and they stepped out into the now almost-deserted Atrium. Evan saw Rita being stopped by Eric the security man.
“I’ll go and have a word with her,” said Evan, “about the hearing report…”
“Alright!” said Mr. Weasley, looking at Rita Skeeter. He was still upset because of Lucius’s meeting with Fudge, “It’s really not a good time to visit the Ministry of Magic. Harry, you and Evan will wait for me in the Atrium. I’ll go up and call the others.”
Evan and Harry left the lift and walked to the golden fountain.
“No, ma’am, the minister won’t let you in,” said Eric, keeping Rita outside the Atrium.
“People have the right to know the truth, Fudge…” Rita kept cursing, and her clothes looked a little messy.
Evan hurriedly walked over, dragged her to a corner, and whispered the details of today’s trial.
It was mainly about Fudge’s performance and their promise to investigate the Dementors incident.
Harry didn’t go with him. In fact, he admired Evan and Hermione for being able to deal with Rita Skeeter. In the last semester, he had experienced the skills of that woman.
Harry stopped by the golden fountain, pulled his money bag from his pocket, and looked at the statues again, feeling happier than ever. Then, he turned his money bag upside down and emptied not just ten Galleons, but the whole contents into the pool.
More than ten minutes later, Rita Skeeter, who had learned the detailed process from Evan, Disapparated and left with satisfaction, ready to go back to revise her report. Only then did Mr. Weasley come down with Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Fred and George.
“I told you two not to run around. Fortunately there has been no trouble…” Mr. Weasley said.
“We just went to Percy’s office!” Fred said with a smile, and walked over to Evan.
“Just outside the Minister’s office, it’s a rather large hall with luxurious furnishings. His desk is placed there, and it’s full of Percy’s papers.” Fred followed, winking at Evan.
Seeing their faces, Evan wondered what prank product they must have left near Percy’s desk.
“What is it?” Evan asked directly.
“Our new product, a Portable Swamp!” Fred said, lowering his voice.
“It’s all camouflaged, just under the chair. He’ll be surprised when he finds out.” George continued.
Meanwhile, Harry told Ron, Hermione, and Ginny again about the outcome of the trial.
“Congratulations, Harry!” said Ginny, blushing as she looked at Harry.
“I knew it!” Ron punched the air, “You always get away with stuff!”
“They were bound to clear you, it was obvious. I analyzed it in the newspaper,” said Hermione, who had looked positively faint with anxiety and was now holding a shaking hand over her eyes. “There was no case against you, none at all.”
“Yeah, everyone seems quite relieved, though, considering they all knew I’d get off,” said Harry, smiling. “The inquiry about Evan is over, too. Fudge has completely failed…”
They walked in the empty Atrium, everyone with a smile on their faces.
To celebrate Evan and Harry’s acquittal, and their successful revenge on Percy, Fred and George were doing a kind of war dance to a chant that went “They got off, they got off, they got off…”
Soon, Ginny joined in, and Hermione danced along for a while, but she couldn’t keep up.
“They got off, they got off, they got off…” The three people sang over and over again.
“That’s enough, settle down!” shouted Mr. Weasley, though he too was smiling. “Really, you guys, this is the Ministry of Magic.”
When they got back to Twelve Grimmauld Place, Mrs. Weasley, after learning the news, first gave Harry a strong hug, then hugged Evan, and wiped her tears of joy with her apron.
“Well, you guys, sit down and have lunch, especially you, Harry, you hardly ate breakfast…”
They all sat down at the table, still digesting the good news.
“The specific report on the trial can be published out tomorrow. If Rita’s fast enough, I think I can get her report in the afternoon,” said Evan. “You probably can’t imagine Fudge’s expression then.”
“Really funny,” said Harry, feeling the same sense of relief and exhilaration he had felt after narrowly escaping Lucius Malfoy earlier in the year, now welling up inside him again. He was really amused when he recalled Fudge’s performance, too.
“Of course, once Dumbledore turned up on your side, there was no way they were going to convict you,” said Ron happily, now dishing great mounds of mashed potatoes onto everyone’s plates.
“Yeah, he swung it for me,” said Harry. He felt that it would sound highly ungrateful, not to mention childish, to say, “I wish he’d talked to me, though. Or even looked at me.”
He really did hope that Dumbledore could say a few words to him, and then he remembered what Evan had told him before. As he thought this, the scar on his forehead burned so badly that he clapped his hand to it.
He’d been contacting Occlumency recently, but there had been no progress.
Evan had already told Harry what he knew, he himself was not very proficient in this complex magic skill, and he could barely master it. In the face of Harry’s current situation, there was a limit to what he could do to help.
Perhaps it was time to ask Snape for help. Snape’s mastery of Occlumency had become almost instinctual. Over the past decade and a half, he had tightly sealed and protected his thoughts, even when no one wanted to know what he was thinking. He had never let his guard down and had never stopped using this magic.
Evan noticed Harry’s abnormality. Did that mean that Voldemort had also known the outcome of the trial and was losing his temper? In other words, did he know about it from Lucius…?
Instigating Malfoy’s defection would not be so fast, Voldemort might not have known yet that three of his Horcruxes had been destroyed.
The more the soul split, the weaker the connection between the souls was.
But if the destruction continued, Voldemort would know sooner or later, which was why Evan did not find all the Horcruxes and destroy them in one go.
In the meantime, this also meant that Lucius Malfoy would be in trouble sooner or later.
The pain of Harry’s scar came and went quickly, and none of the others had noticed a thing. All of them were now helping themselves to food while gloating over Harry’s narrow escape.
Fred and George were still singing, Hermione and Ginny were muttering something.
“I bet Dumbledore turns up this evening to celebrate with us, you know,” said Ron happily.
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