Chapter 684: Promotion to the Hall

Following the gloomy Fudge and a group of Aurors, Firth and Dumbledore walked through an empty corridor with no doors or windows, and came to a simple black door at the end.

However, they did not push the door open, but turned to an inconspicuous gap in the left corner, where there was a staircase leading to the tenth floor, and the only staircase leading to the tenth floor.

They walked down the stairs, and when they reached the bottom, they saw another corridor.

This was exactly the same as the corridors leading to Snape's underground classroom at Hogwarts: rough stone walls, with torches on brackets.

Firth and Dumbledore continued to walk forward, and Fudge followed closely behind them. As for the Aurors, most of them were left above, and only Dawlish and two other unknown Aurors followed Fudge as bodyguards.

There were several old and heavy wooden doors on both sides of the corridor, with iron bolts and keyholes embedded on them. Dumbledore walked to a gloomy black door with a big iron lock before he stopped.

"Courtroom 10..." He said with emotion: "I didn't expect that less than a year later, I would come back here again, as a defendant."

"Don't worry, after we convict you, you won't be able to come here for a long time!" Fudge said viciously from behind.

Dumbledore turned his head and glanced at him lightly.

This simple action scared Fudge so much that he quickly took two steps back and even pulled out his wand.

"Alas..."

With a sigh of deep disappointment, Dumbledore retracted his gaze, then pushed open the black door in front of him and walked in with Fish.

Fudge's face flushed instantly, and he looked around. Dawlish and the other two Aurors lowered their heads, avoiding his sight and pretending to see nothing.

"Ahem," Fudge quickly recovered from the embarrassment, straightened his collar, and said, "Let's go in too."

Fish followed Dumbledore into the deep courtroom and looked around curiously.

The walls were made of black stone, and the light from the torches was dim and gloomy. On both sides were rows of empty benches that gradually rose, and in front of him, on the highest benches, many dark figures suddenly appeared.

Fish's pupils changed, and he immediately adapted to the dim environment here, and at the same time he could see the figures in front clearly...

Those people were wearing purple robes with an exquisite silver "W" embroidered on the left chest. After seeing Fish and Dumbledore come in, most of them waved to Maomao with a smile on their faces.

These people were all known to Firsh. Among them were Professor Tofty and other examiners who had come to Hogwarts to supervise the exams a while ago. Some of them were people Firsh had met at St. Mungo's. Some of them were seeing a doctor at St. Mungo's at the time, and some were visiting patients.

In addition, there were several old wizards who were about the same age as Professor Tofty. Firsh had met them when he followed Professor McGonagall to some parties during the holidays.

The most important thing was...

Firsh shook his ears, sniffed, and then glanced at a dark corner away from the crowd - there was a beetle lying quietly there.

"Hello, meow!"

(ΦωΦ)

Firsh retracted his gaze, then raised his arms high and waved at the people on the trial bench.

Dumbledore took Firsh to the center of the trial room, and he sat casually on the chair with chains wrapped around the armrests.

The chain jingled, but Dumbledore didn't care. Instead, he pulled out his wand and shook it gently to the side, conjuring an armchair with a thick black velvet cushion next to him.

"Fish, sit here."

Dumbledore pointed to the chair he had conjured, then put away his wand and leaned back, resting his elbows on the chain of the armrest, his long fingertips touching each other, looking at the Wizengamot members above in a very relaxed posture.

At this time, Fudge came around from the back and walked to the front row of the group, sitting between a wide-set, square-jawed witch with short gray hair and a monocle, and a thin wizard with a big back hair and a goatee.

He also changed into the purple-red robes at this time, and held a thick stack of parchment documents in his hand.

"Good," Fudge said, "The defendant is finally here, let's start. Is the recorder ready?" He asked loudly at the other end of the bench.

At the end of the front bench, a young wizard responded, holding a quill and parchment in his hand, ready to record at any time.

"The trial on June 26th," Fudge said in a loud but weak voice: "The trial of the current headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, for violating the Misuse of Magic Act, the Wizarding Safety Act and the Statute of Silence."

"Interrogators: Cornelius Oswald Fudge, Minister of Magic; Amelia Susan Bones, Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement; Piers Guy Thicknesse, Deputy Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Trial recorder: Malcolm Covens Clarke. Witnesses for the defense..."

Fudge glanced at the cat sitting next to Dumbledore with a complicated expression, and continued: "Defense witness: Fish Robert McGonagall."

At the far end, McCartney was writing quickly on parchment.

After a moment of pause, Fudge picked up the parchment on top of the pile of documents in front of him, took a deep breath, and read aloud: "The defendant is accused of the following crimes -"

"At 11:49 pm on June 13, after deliberately using an invisibility spell to hide himself, the defendant attempted to sneak into the Department of Mysteries on the ninth floor of the Ministry of Magic. This act violated the Misuse of Magic Regulations. Section 8 of the Wizarding Safety Act, Section 2 of the Endangerment of Wizards Act, and Sections 1 and 5 of the Silence Act."

He put away the parchment and said sternly to the jury next to him: "All of this was witnessed by myself and the Aurors from the Ministry of Magic. The facts are there and the evidence is conclusive. There is no room for quibbles by the defendants!"

"I may not remember it accurately," Dumbledore said calmly in the face of Fudge's aggressive attitude: "But I believe that according to the Wizengamot Charter of Rights, the defendant has the right to defend himself, right? Is this right? Isn't that Department of Magical Law Enforcement policy, Ms. Bones?" he asked the monocle-wearing witch.

"Yes," said Ms. Bones. "It is."

Dumbledore smiled faintly, glanced at Fudge, who was looking nervous, and said, "First of all, Minister Fudge's memory may not be very good. I already explained it to you that night. I came to visit for something... Shouldn't the Ministry of Magic prohibit others from visiting at night?" He turned his attention to others.

The jury and the other two presiding officers nodded.

Fudge hurriedly retorted: "Then why did you use the invisibility spell to hide your body?!"

"I remember that I had already explained this problem at the time." Dumbledore still looked friendly. "I didn't see any reception staff or guards in the main hall. I suspected that the Ministry of Magic was attacked by the enemy, so That’s why I chose to be invisible.”

He once again asked the question that made Cornelius Fudge speechless: "Minister Fudge, can you explain to me now why you and the Aurors are all in the Ministry of Magic, so you have to separate the reception and Have all the guards been removed?"

Fudge was questioned at the beginning just because his ability to react on the spot was not very good. After more than ten days of preparation, he had already thought of a countermeasure——

"Because I received a tip that night that a thief wanted to break into the Department of Mysteries and steal the secrets of the Ministry of Magic. In order to prevent innocent people from being harmed, I arranged for them to hide first!"

After he finished speaking righteously, he looked at Dumbledore proudly and condescendingly.

"Well," Dumbledore nodded gently, "This statement is acceptable."

However, before Fudge could be happy for a moment, he changed the topic again and asked: "Then after you arrange for them to leave, why don't you hang a sign in the main hall or leave a message in other ways to inform the visiting guests that the Ministry of Magic The staff left temporarily because of something and asked them to visit on their own, so I won’t get misunderstood.”

"..."

After an awkward silence for a moment, Fudge said with a dark face: "I..."

…

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The technique of breaking sentences and chapters will become addictive...

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Fish's middle name "Robert" is the name of Professor McGonagall's father and younger brother. It is customary for naming in HP to use the names of relatives and friends as Christian and middle names.

I also considered "Elphinstone", Professor McGonagall's deceased husband, but judging from the fact that Professor McGonagall did not change her husband's surname after getting married, her father's name should have a higher priority.

The middle name of Piers Thicknesse, the future Minister of Magic controlled by Voldemort, was not written in the original novel, so I used the name of the actor who played him.

The recorder, Malcolm Covens Clark, is the name of a British documentary director. Covens is actually his Chinese name, and I used it as my middle name.

Unlike those BBC documentaries that smear us, this director’s films have a very upright outlook. He also spoke for us during the epidemic. He has won 2 Oscars and 16 Emmy Awards. He seems to be living in Shanghai now... I don’t know if he regrets it.

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If you vote for a monthly ticket now, you can go to the lottery. Come on, everyone, I and other book friends have all won good things!

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After stopping the medicine, Zhongyuan really felt better. I ate half a can today and regained a lot of energy... At least he has the strength to bite and kick me... (ω)

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Thanks to Ye Lingyin, Allen Shangheng, and Ino from Cat Island for giving Fish his birthday gifts.