The days at Hogwarts

"For a long time, other creatures were unwilling to attend the parliament, and finally this fountain statue was left behind."

Dumbledore looked at the statue and pondered for a moment, then said with regret: "I always feel that such statues are very impolite, but I can't convince the people in the Ministry of Magic to change it. Perhaps you will find a way in the future."

After hearing the second half of the sentence, Moody, who had been vigilantly observing his surroundings, suddenly turned around and looked at the two of them with strange eyes.

Hermione thought Dumbledore's words were a little strange, but she couldn't find out what was strange.

Continuing forward, hundreds of Ministry of Magic staff were walking around in the hall.

Some of them were holding a bunch of crumbling parchments, some were carrying tattered briefcases, and some were reading the Daily Prophet as they walked. Their faces were full of the dead air of a holiday morning, and they strode towards a row of golden doors at the end of the hall.

Everyone who saw Moody approaching avoided the blue eyes that kept moving in fear, as if they were afraid of being stared at by him. With Moody's power, Dumbledore and Hermione skipped the process of registering their wands.

After passing through the gate, we came to a smaller hall. More than twenty elevators moved up and down in the wall, and the sound of golden fence doors opening and closing could be heard constantly.

A familiar red-haired figure stood in front of them and spotted them before he got close. Mr. Arthur Weasley greeted them from a distance, waving his hands and trying to call Dumbledore's name but realizing he couldn't, he smiled awkwardly.

"Good morning! Hermione, Alastor, and--" Mr. Weasley lowered his voice and whispered, "Principal Dumbledore, this outfit is really nice. If it weren't for Alastor, I wouldn't have recognized you."

Dumbledore smiled and said, "Good morning, Arthur."

Moody nodded and said nothing, his eyes still scanning.

"Good morning, Mr. Weasley," Hermione greeted politely.

With the sound of ding-dong and clacking, an elevator landed in front of them. Arthur led them inside: "The elevator is here. Let's talk while we walk."

There were originally some people in the elevator, but when they saw Moody coming in, they all left as quickly as if they were fleeing and waited for the next elevator to the side.

Seeing this scene, Arthur laughed happily: "Thanks to Alastor, otherwise it wouldn't be so easy."

Dumbledore laughed along.

Hermione tilted her head cautiously and saw Moody pout.

The gate slammed shut, the elevator slowly descended, the chain rattled, and the cold female voice in the phone booth sounded again.

"Ninth floor, Department of Mysteries."

What is the mysterious thing... Just as Hermione was thinking about this question subconsciously, the door of the elevator opened with a crash, and she was taken out of the elevator without knowing why.

This is an empty corridor, different from the corridors upstairs. There is no one, no doors or windows, only a simple black door at the end of the corridor.

Arthur and Moody were in front, followed by Dumbledore and Hermione, and the group walked slowly along the corridor.

"Crock is on vacation and Bode is handling things upstairs. No one will disturb us." Arthur said in a relaxed tone.

Moody took over the topic in a rough voice: "To be honest, I think Albus is overthinking. There is no way that the Hall of Prophecy will go wrong. Even if he is really resurrected, he would not dare to come to the Ministry of Magic."

What is the Hall of Prophecy?

Resurrection? Was he referring to Voldemort?

Aren't we here at the Ministry of Magic for the matter of Chaloran?

A series of doubts arose in Hermione's mind, but in an unfamiliar environment and in front of strangers, she chose to remain silent.

"You know, I don't trust the people in the Ministry of Magic very much now." Dumbledore said jokingly, "Well, worrying too much... It feels strange when this word comes out of your mouth, Alastor."

"My suspicions are well-founded!"

Led by Moody who limped, they came to the pure black door.

Moody turned around, glanced at Hermione, and then looked at Dumbledore: "Are we going to take this little girl in too? Hehe! I'm afraid she will be scared and cry by the things in there."

Is there something scary in there... Hermione looked at Dumbledore.

"Don't be fooled by him. We are about to pass through the Hall of Time and enter the Hall of Prophecy. There is nothing to be afraid of." Dumbledore then looked at Moody. "She will use the Time Turner next year. It will be good for her to understand the power of time in advance."

Moody's eyes changed immediately. He no longer looked down on the child. Instead, he showed some appreciation. "You must learn all the courses, good girl. No wonder Dumbledore brought you here."

Hermione was even more confused.

"Come on, I'll show you around." Moody pushed open the pure black door, and they entered the round black room together.

Everything here, including the ceiling and floor, was black; twelve identical black doors without marks or handles were embedded in the black walls around them, separated from each other by some distance.

Some candles with blue flames were dotted on the wall. The cold, flickering faint candlelight was reflected on the polished marble floor, sparkling and watery, making people feel as if there was a dark surface of water like a deep abyss under their feet.

The scene in front of her made Hermione feel a little uneasy, but fortunately Dumbledore took her hand, and the rough and heavy warmth made her feel at ease.

Arthur closed the door they had come in through.

There was a loud rumbling sound and the circular wall began to spin. Hermione held Dumbledore's hand tightly, fearing that the floor would move as well.

In the dim blue light of the fire, Hermione saw Dumbledore smiling gently at her.

For a few seconds, the wall spun rapidly, and the blue flames blurred around them like neon tubes. Then, abruptly, they stopped.

Moody's rough voice echoed in the room, breaking the heavy atmosphere that had been heavy for a long time: "Ha, boring trick, it's been the same for so many years."

He limped forward, moving along the wall, with the others following closely behind.

"The Hall of the Brain, the Hall of Death, the Locked Chamber..." Moody listed, and stopped in front of a door. "Ha! That's it, the Hall of Time!"

Moody pushed open the black door, and a beautiful, diamond-like, flickering light shone on everyone's faces.

The room was filled with clocks of all sizes, grandfather clocks, travel clocks, hanging between bookshelves, or standing on tables that ran the length of the room, and because of this, a rapid, endless ticking sound filled the room, like the sound of thousands of tiny footsteps marching in unison.

The dancing, diamond-bright light came from a towering crystal bell at the far end of the room. The bell was taller than Hermione and stood on a table, seemingly filled with a roiling, glittering current.

Inside the cover, a small, bright object like a gem floated up and down. Like an egg, when it was lifted up by the airflow in the glass cover, it cracked with a snap, and a hummingbird emerged and rose directly to the top of the glass cover. But as the airflow fell, the bird's feathers were soiled and wet again, until it fell to the bottom of the glass cover and was locked in the egg again. This process was repeated in the cover.

Moody and Arthur seemed to have seen this many times, and did not show any surprise. Hermione was attracted by this magical scene and could not help but slow down her pace.

"The power of time always makes people look sideways." Dumbledore stopped and said, "Arthur, take Hermione to visit here. Alatus and I will go to the Hall of Prophecy. If we delay too long, you can take Hermione to see the trial scene of the Ministry of Magic below. By the way, are there any interesting cases today?"

Arthur replied: "There is one! Willy Weathersing, the guy who turned an ordinary toilet into a biting monster, and a poor Muggle's butt was bitten into seven pieces."

Moody said viciously: "This guy is a repeat offender against Muggles. This time he should be sent to Azkaban!"

Dumbledore patted Hermione on the shoulder and said, "This is an interesting and meaningful case. You will regret it if you miss it."

Hermione nodded dazedly, and was left behind with Mr. Weasley, watching Dumbledore and the Mad-Eye man enter the only door at the back.

Turning back, Hermione asked weakly, "Mr. Weasley, what are we going to do now?"

Arthur replied slowly: "Look carefully at the scene in the crystal cover. Dumbledore is right. It will be of great help to you to understand the power of time."

"Okay." Hermione forced a smile, turned back nervously, and carefully observed the hummingbird in the crystal cover breaking out of its shell and flying, and then turning into a tiny egg.

Because she was not familiar with Mr. Weasley, Hermione could not fully concentrate on understanding the time. When she was sure that she had seen every process of the hummingbird's transformation, she immediately turned around and said quickly: "Mr. Weasley, I've finished."

Arthur didn't dwell on it and smiled: "Then come and see the time converter. You will use it often next semester."

Hermione suddenly realized that the time-turner should be the solution to the time conflict of classes in the next semester.

She originally thought that a possible solution would be to adjust the class time, but it turned out that her mind was not magical enough...

A closet with a glass front door. The wall where the closet is located is covered with various hourglasses, and the flowing sand inside is crystal clear and sparkling. The light from the hourglass flows, causing the transparent part of the cabinet to seem to be slightly distorted. The magical image reveals a trace of the magic of time.

Hermione's eyes sparkled. "Are these the time turners?"

"Yes, I won't introduce it. Professor McGonagall will explain it to you in detail next semester."

They could see but not touch it. They stood in front of the closet for a while, and then Arthur took Hermione away.

I didn't take the elevator to the courtroom. I left the Department of Mysteries, turned right, entered a staircase through a gap, and walked down the stairs to a corridor.

It was exactly like the basement corridors at Hogwarts: rough stone walls, torches on brackets, and heavy wooden doors with iron bolts and keyholes.

"Courtroom... Third... Fourth..." Mr. Weasley checked the sign on the door. "Although I don't know why Dumbledore specifically asked you to sit in on this trial, he must have his reasons for doing so."

Hermione was stunned: "Specially brought up, didn't we just happen to catch up?"

"Oh, maybe it's possible, but based on my understanding of Dumbledore, the possibility is not high... How do Muggles say it, probability - no, it should be statistics." Mr. Weasley muttered eagerly, and it seemed that he wanted to discuss this with Hermione.

Hermione's heart was in turmoil.

She thought today's trip was purely for Loren's matter, but now it seems that it is not the case at all. Dumbledore's other purpose is the Hall of Prophecy related to Voldemort. He brought her here and planned to let her listen to a trial.

Question after question popped up like bubbles in a kettle, making a gurgling sound in Hermione's mind.

They stopped in front of a gloomy black door with a large iron lock on it. Mr. Weasley whispered to Hermione, "Don't make loud noises when you go in. You should know that many important cases do not allow spectators. Fortunately, this one is not one of them."

Hermione nodded and followed Arthur into the seventh courtroom.

Chapter 247 Hermione's Journey to the Ministry of Magic (Part )

After entering the room and turning right, there were already some people sitting at the back of the room, apparently they were also there to listen in. Mr. Weasley took Hermione to sit in the audience gallery, and Hermione was able to see the full picture of the courtroom.

The deep circular dark room was like a hemisphere with a cross section at the top, divided into three parts. The outer circle was rows of gradually rising seats. The sunken center was the lowest place in the room, where a chair was placed with iron chains on the armrests on the left and right.

Everyone's sight can be seen unobstructed, to the defendant's seat.

There was a square black wooden table in front of the room, and behind it stood Umbridge, the Senior Undersecretary of the Ministry of Magic, wearing a black inquisitor's robe and a square judge's hat on her head, which looked much more pleasing to the eye than the pink suit.

On either side of her, there were some Ministry of Magic staff dressed similarly to her, Hermione guessed they were record keepers or something like that, except their desks were not as impressive as Umbridge's. There were also about thirty people around, wearing purple robes with an exquisite silver "W" embroidered on the left chest.

"Those people are members of the Wizengamot." Arthur introduced in a low voice, "According to the procedure, there should be fifty people from the Wizengamot participating in the trial, and Dumbledore is one of them. But it doesn't take that many people to try Willy Weathersing."

Silence filled the courtroom, and everyone spoke in whispers, until a man with bandaged hands walked over to the chair in the center of the room and sat down.

All the whispering people stopped at the same time, and an ominous silence enveloped the entire courtroom.

"The defendant is here, let's begin!" Umbridge's voice was still shrill, like an annoying girl. She asked a recorder beside her, "Are you ready?"

"Yes, ma'am," a cold male voice said.

The room was so dark that the record-keeper's face was half hidden by shadows. Hermione could only see the outline of horn-rimmed glasses on his face.

"The trial on March 27th," Umbridge's shrill voice echoed through the courtroom, "was the trial of Willy Weathersing for breach of the International Statute of Secrecy."

"Interrogator: Dolores Jane Umbridge, Senior Under-Minister of Magic: Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement..."

The following series of official titles and names went in through Hermione's left ear and out through her right ear. Hermione only noticed that this Umbridge had the same middle name as hers, and the little witch's full name was Hermione Jane Granger.

She felt ashamed of this and planned to discuss changing her middle name with her parents when she returned from vacation.

Umbridge finished reading a long string of nonsense, pulled out a piece of parchment from the pile of documents in front of her, and read aloud: "The defendant is charged with the following crimes: the defendant had previously received a written warning from the Ministry of Magic for similar charges. This time, knowingly and intentionally replaced a normal toilet in the bathroom of a large Muggle supermarket at noon on March 20th, knowing that his behavior was illegal. This behavior violated the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy..."

Arthur explained to Hermione in a low voice: "He is a habitual offender, an anti-Muggle prankster who has committed similar crimes before."

"Then why wasn't he tried before?" Hermione asked in a low voice, her eyes carefully observing Willy Weathersing in the dock.

"Well, he used to hide in the toilet and use the levitation spell to throw excrement around..."

Arthur paused for a moment. "Anyway, since he didn't cause such a big trouble and didn't cause serious consequences, no one would hold on to his deeds."

"…The evidence is irrefutable. According to the Wizengamot Charter of Rights and the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, Willy Widdersing is prohibited from leaving the wizarding area for six months, prohibited from engaging in alchemy-related industries for three months, prohibited from contacting Muggles for five years, and fined 300 gold Galleons…"

"Please raise your hands if you agree that the charges are true..."

"Please raise your hands if you agree that the charges are not established..."

"Now, I declare that the charges against Willy Widdersing are established!"

The trial was much faster than Hermione had imagined. The people in the trial seats quickly packed up their documents, picked up their briefcases and left. Willy Weathersing was taken away by two employees of the Ministry of Magic. In the blink of an eye, the courtroom became empty.

"Is this the end?" Hermione looked at Arthur in confusion.

Arthur was a little angry: "The sentence is too light, it shouldn't be like this, he doesn't even have to go to Azkaban!"

"Isn't it like this in the past?"

"Not at all. Because of this incident, many people from the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes went there, as did the Memory Deletion Command and the Muggle Mediation Committee. According to previous management, he would have to be locked up in Azkaban for at least a year!"

"Then why is it like this this time?"

Arthur punched the armrest indignantly. "It must be because the presiding judge is this girl Umbridge. She deliberately ignored the most crucial Muggle Protection Act and didn't even mention it in court!"

"The people who came to the Wizengamot today were arranged. Most of them are people who don't understand the specific sentencing. They just need to make sure the charges are proven. In addition, with Umbridge's inducement..."

Arthur sighed. He felt very embarrassed to see what happened today in front of the little witch. He was embarrassed for the people in the Ministry of Magic and even more so for the wizards themselves.

"It's all Umbridge's fault. She has been going too far since she took office, and Fudge trusts her."

Hearing Mr. Weasley's words, some strange thoughts arose in Hermione's heart like ripples.

The once mysterious Ministry of Magic completely unveiled its secrets before her. Apart from the magical mysteries of the Department of Mysteries, the judicial system... human rights... the wizard government system was even more rudimentary than she had imagined.

Countless unspeakable thoughts turned into a seed, buried deep in Hermione's heart, and even she herself didn't realize it...

Hermione didn't know how to comfort Mr. Weasley, so she said, "Mr. Weasley, should we go meet up with Headmaster Dumbledore?"

"Oh, reunion, yes, reunion." Arthur took a breath hastily, composed himself, and took Hermione out of the seventh trial room and walked upstairs.