Hogwarts: This professor is too Muggle.

Chapter 314 Worry
[Expected Guardian]

The tip of the staff spewed out a silvery white mist that condensed and did not dissipate, already forming a blurry outline, like a young beast leaping lightly.

"Fortunately, I haven't fallen too far behind. I should be able to summon a physical Patronus before summer vacation." Hermione put away her wand and breathed a sigh of relief. "I've been spending all this time in the library and haven't practiced the Patronus Charm much."

Haven't you finished your homework yet?

Harry had stopped practicing and was sitting in front of the fireplace to warm himself, holding a roasting fork with a piece of toasted bread skewered on the end.

"Well... Professor Victor assigned quite a lot, but I finished writing it last week."

Hermione patted the cushions and sat down on the armchair. She picked up a fork, skewered a beef pie, and handed it to the fireplace: "I've been spending a lot of time in the library lately, mainly researching materials about Ministry of Magic trials."

"Court documents?" Ron's voice startled Harry.

The pure-blood wizard, obsessed with dark magic, sank into the sofa, put down the book about Fiendfyre, and seemed to finally wake up from his reverie, snatching the toast that Harry had just baked.

He squeezed down next to Harry, took a bite, and asked indistinctly, "What court documents? Ask me, my dad works at the Ministry of Magic!"

Harry blinked, looked at the empty fork, then at Hermione, and gave her a puzzled look.

"What else could it be but information about Sirius Black?"

Hermione said irritably that she had a similar experience. When Hagrid secretly hatched Norbert, the two of them were the same. Their attention was all on the little dragon, while she was in the library flipping through books, calculating how many years Hagrid would be sentenced to.

"..."

Harry scratched his head, belatedly realizing what was happening.

When the Ministry of Magic took Sirius away, he was reluctant to part with him. That very night, Professor Levent took out the Resurrection Stone and reunited him with his parents. To this day, he is still immersed in the joy of reunion and the sadness of parting again. All that remains is to focus on practicing the Patronus Charm.

“The truth has been investigated and clarified. I thought Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall had made arrangements so that Sirius would be acquitted once the trial was held after the holidays.”

“If everything is normal, then that’s how it is,” Ron said, swallowing a piece of bread to answer his question.

"What do you mean by that?" Harry had a bad feeling.

"The Ministry of Magic is not Hogwarts. While we have holidays and classes are suspended during the Christmas break, the Ministry of Magic does not shut down. There are staff members on duty to keep all departments running normally. Normally, the trial does not have to wait until the end of the holidays."

Ron gave another example: "Last Christmas, Willie Widsin cast a spell that made the toilet bowl grow teeth and bite a Muggle's buttocks into seven pieces. He was fined 200 Galleons and sentenced to three months in Azkaban on the same day."

"Then why are they delaying Sirius's trial?"

"Maybe that pink toad is causing trouble, or maybe Fudge is trying to go against Dumbledore...who knows?"

Seeing Harry's anxious brow furrowed, Ron patted him on the shoulder and skewered a few more mushrooms on his fork: "Calm down, buddy. The Ministry of Magic isn't just Fudge and Umbridge's Ministry. There are honest and reliable staff, like my dad."

“I know Mr. Weasley is honest and kind, but he can’t help in this matter,” Harry said quietly.

"And then there's Ms. Burns and the others, not to mention Dumbledore is the Head of Wizengamot, and Professor Levent is also very influential in the wizarding world..."

Ron calmly said, "For such a big case, the trial can't be postponed indefinitely. Fudge can only delay until the end of the holiday. Once it's in court, the presiding judge and the Wizengamo jury will have the final say."

Before Harry could even breathe a sigh of relief, the little witch's words made his heart leap into his throat again.

“In fact, Fudge can.”

Hermione waved her wand, summoning the documents she had brought back: "The Ministry of Magic has a very primitive government structure, with the main power concentrated in the hands of the ministers. Although Wizengamot was formed to limit the ministers' power, it was just a loose council of old wizards with no direct jurisdiction. Fudge can directly intervene in the affairs of several departments."

"On the surface, it's true that we can't delay indefinitely, but as long as there's a suitable reason and the procedure is legal... you can decide for yourselves!"

Hermione flipped to the page with the folded corner and pointed it out to them: "The reason Sirius's case didn't go to trial last time was because the courtroom was overloaded and there weren't enough staff. Cases like this, which seem to have solid evidence, only need to be approved by a few department clerks."

“You mean…” Ron said thoughtfully, “Fudge can just fill the courtroom with some trivial cases and drag Sirius’s case out indefinitely? Or hand it over to Umbridge for judgment?”

“How dare he!” Harry shouted angrily.

"Or he doesn't have to keep dragging it out; he can act as the presiding judge himself."

Hermione picked up another document, flipped through a few pages, and pointed to another legal provision: "The regulations concerning this part are very crudely formulated. In fact, apart from the Statute of Secrets, the Ministry of Magic's laws are very crude. The presiding judge has a great deal of discretion. This is why the Malfoys were able to escape trial twelve years ago, and Professor Snape had Dumbledore's guarantee and didn't even have to go to the Ministry of Magic to give a statement or pay bail."

The little witch paused, explaining that Professor Levent always managed to walk the line between the law and reality, which was also due to this.

“Discretionary power…bail…” Harry was somewhat bewildered.

"This means that the presiding judge's will can influence the course of the case's verdict."

Hermione looked into his light green eyes and explained to him in a simple and easy-to-understand way: "Take Sirius's case for example. Although he was not a Secret Agent and did not join Voldemort, he disregarded the Secret Act and publicly dueled Peter in the Muggle streets, resulting in the deaths of 12 Muggles. He must bear secondary responsibility, and could even be considered an accomplice."

"That was Peter's fault, why blame Sirius?" Harry couldn't accept it.

“We must admit that if Sirius hadn’t been chasing us, Peter wouldn’t have caused the explosion, and those Muggles wouldn’t have died.”

"Sirius has already served his sentence. He was imprisoned in Azkaban for 12 years and suffered 12 years of torture!"

"The Ministry of Magic's wrongful judgment was also due to Sirius's lack of cooperation with the investigation, passive resistance, and refusal to reveal the truth back then."

Hermione spoke slowly: "In addition, he is an unregistered illegal Animagus who disagreed with the Ministry of Magic's verdict, appealed without due process, and caused a riot by escaping from prison... If the trial does not go well, he may have to continue serving his sentence."

"..."

Harry's face flushed red with anxiety, but he couldn't utter a word in rebuttal. "That's why I'm digging through the files. We can't let Fudge influence the trial. We have to find a way to defend Sirius and convince the Wizengamot jury." Hermione handed Harry a freshly baked beef pie, which burned his hand.

Harry held the pie in silence.

Ron snatched the pie and said nonchalantly, "It's fine. At worst, we'll break them out of prison. I've almost mastered the Fiendfyre spell. We'll just burn Fudge and Pinkfrog's office down."

……

Hogsmeade, three brooms.

As the holiday drew to a close, Melvin and several professors arranged to meet at a pub. Flitwick and Sprout declined the invitation to go to the third-floor room, which was too secluded and lacked the lively atmosphere of a pub. They also declined to sit at the bar on the first floor, as there were too many holiday drinkers and Ms. Rosmerta was surrounded by a crowd.

They happened to run into Tonks, who was on duty, and they sat together in a corner on the second floor.

Lupin's expression was slightly unnatural. Although the clothes had no patches, they were too old, faded from washing, and slightly whitened in the folds, making him look somewhat shabby.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your eggnog and mead are here." A waiter wearing an apron walked to the table and set down a tray full of glasses.

Professor Flitwick ordered a fruit syrup soda, garnished with a cherry and a small decorative candy umbrella, which was delicate and cute, but seemed quite out of place with the rugged temperament of the mixed-race fairy.

Tonks took a big gulp of eggnog, biting the straw as he looked around at the crowd gathered in front of the mirror, clicking his tongue in amazement: "The mirror business is all about making money, Melvin. Just wait, Fudge will come knocking on your door sooner or later asking for donations and sponsorships."

The second floor of the tavern served as a screening room, where a trailer for a magical epic was being shown in the projection mirror. From Melvin's forward-thinking perspective, this short series was barely passable; the plot was not exciting enough, and the narrative of magical history was too straightforward, almost like a documentary.

The hastily trained actors performed poorly, their lines sounded like theatrical recitations, and the repeated use of Malfoy and Nott's surnames was nauseating.

But the wizards didn't have his discerning eye; they were all very excited to see the history of magic in the book brought to life on the screen.

Hearing Tonks's teasing, Melvin smiled and said, "Sponsorship? I am indeed considering that."

"Hmm?" Everyone present was immediately curious.

"You'll find out soon enough," Melvin said, taking a sip of mead.

The others made a few jokes but didn't press for details. They made the most of the last days of the holiday, clinking glasses and chatting about their recent lives.

Flitwick ate the decorative cherry, fiddled with the candy umbrella, and looked up at the student who had graduated less than two years ago: "Tonks, you've been stationed at Hogsmeade for the entire holiday, didn't you even get a break for Christmas?"

"Is there any way...?"

Tonks slumped his shoulders, looking listless. The overtime work had made even the disguised Magus look haggard: "I just finished my training and rotation not long ago. I'm the youngest in the group, unmarried and without children... If I don't work shifts, should Mad-Eye be the one to do them? Oh, he's retired... Never mind, I'll take a few more days off during Easter."

"Didn't the Aurors all leave?" Lupin wondered.

“The patrolling Aurors have left, but we still need to leave people to keep an eye on the Dementors, Fudge, and Pink… You understand Umbridge’s little scheme, right?” Tonks winked at him, his pink hair and purple eyes conveying everything without a word.

Lupin quickly looked away, his words stammering, "So, when you hand over the duties, do you need to go back to the Ministry of Magic?"

"You want to ask about Sirius Black, right?"

Tonks's words drew everyone's attention. She paused, her playful expression fading, and said, "Fudge is deliberately delaying the trial. He's started stuffing all sorts of trivial cases into the schedule. The execution division staff haven't finished their vacations yet, but the courtroom is already swamped. Conservatively speaking, Sirius's case will have to wait at least two more weeks."

Flitwick and Sprout frowned, looking somewhat worried.

"How is Sirius? Is he alright?"

"It's unclear whether it was at Umbridge's behest, but the night watchmen would sometimes deliberately turn off the fireplace, leaving the people in the waiting room freezing. Peter was so cold he curled up like a mouse, and Sirius had to pay for the heating."

Looking at Lupin's worried face, Tonks comforted him, "But the amount isn't high. When Ms. Burns inquired about the situation, Sirius was still in the mood to joke, saying that even if he lived for another two hundred years, this amount of money wouldn't be enough to buy Harry a Firebolt..."

Just as Lupin was both amused and exasperated, he heard Tonks add, "But Ms. Burns didn't really like the joke; she disliked Sirius's pure-blood ways."

"..."

Sunlight, reflected off the snow, slanted in through the window. Melvin, holding a glass of mead, listened to his colleagues' conversation, then slightly turned his head to look out the window.

It was a clear winter day, a rare treat, but a white mist lingered on the horizon, obscuring half the sunlight from Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. Dark figures draped in cloaks moved through the mist, looking extremely unsightly.

Two hours later.

As the professors walked back to school, Flitwick still held the candy umbrella, like a new and wonderful toy for a little wizard. Melvin kept glancing at the Dementors on the horizon, his strange gaze drawing frequent sidelong glances from Lupin.

I always felt that it was like the look of a hunter sizing up its prey.

Lupin shook his head and continued the previous topic: "We can't let Fudge delay the trial, and Sirius can't stay in the waiting room indefinitely. Is there any way to bypass Fudge and initiate the trial? It would be best to prevent Fudge and Umbridge from interfering... I remember Wisengamo has some special legislation."

“There are indeed relevant regulations, and Melvin has experienced it firsthand.” Flitwick, who was born into Ravenclaw, was erudite not only in magical knowledge. “I remember when he first arrived at Hogwarts, Umbridge wanted to make things difficult for him, but Madam Machban directly initiated a vote, bypassing the Ministry of Magic.”

"Could it be used on Sirius Black?" Lupin's eyes lit up.

“Well…” Flitwick looked troubled. “Ms. Machiban exercised the powers granted to her by the Act not only because she was a member of Wizengamot, but also because she was a member of the Examination Authority. Melvin’s reform of Muggle Studies was within her jurisdiction.”

“Sirius’s case is very complicated. To directly lead the trial, we need to unite the law enforcement people, preferably with the chief of Wizengamot…” Sprout said hesitantly, “Only if Dumbledore publicly expresses his opinion can this be done.”

This is tantamount to Dumbledore breaking with Fudge and openly standing against him, which has an impact on the Ministry of Magic.

Melvin knew what the two old professors were hesitating about. The old principal had imprisoned himself in his office for decades, never daring to touch power. Even when Voldemort was rampant and the situation was most critical, he still did not step out of the cage he had set for himself.

(End of this chapter)