"It truly cannot be done."

Dumbledore answered plainly. "But if I act openly, what happens to the staff and students of Hogwarts? Fudge will take it out on the school, and the children will only suffer more."

He folded his hands together, fingers interlaced:

"I was waiting for you to return anyway, so I may as well stay here in the meantime. Fudge sees me sitting quietly under watch, and his mind is at ease."

"As long as I remain here, the Ministry has no reason to make trouble for anyone else. The school can at least maintain the appearance of calm."

He paused, and something shifted in his expression.

"And besides — Tom has already returned."

Dumbledore looked at Hermione.

"He is gathering strength in the shadows. If I were to break with the Ministry right now, the entire Wizarding World would fall into internal conflict, and that is precisely the situation Tom most wishes to see."

"We need to concentrate our strength against the true enemy, not waste energy on Fudge."

Hermione gave a nod.

Quintessentially Dumbledore, he would rather suffer the indignity himself than let things slide downhill.

He was simply too good at enduring.

She wasn't buying it.

"Hermione," Dumbledore leaned forward slightly, curiosity in his eyes. "After you left that day, weren't you supposed to,"

"We can catch up later." Hermione raised a hand and cut him off. "Let's deal with the problem in front of us first."

She rose, walked to the railing, and looked down at the Aurors patrolling below.

"You have too many reservations. The fastest way to solve a problem is to deal with the person causing it, directly."

"You want to act right now?"

Dumbledore reminded her, "Fudge isn't at the school. Only his people are here. Even if you drove away every one of these Aurors, more would keep coming."

"True."

Hermione nodded. "Fudge, Umbridge, and that whole string of lackeys, hunting them down one by one would be far too much trouble. I haven't got the spare time to go running all over the world."

"So we may as well just call them all here."

Old Dumbledore was sharp. He caught on immediately.

He looked at Hermione and gave a helpless little smile. "You want to use me as bait?"

Hermione nodded, without a hint of guilt.

Dumbledore's presence here was the greatest source of danger as far as the Ministry was concerned. If that danger made any kind of move, who would dare not come?

She raised her right hand. A point of silver light kindled at her fingertip.

It spun twice around her finger, then took shape, a small silver bird, no bigger than a palm. It fluttered its wings twice and slipped out through the window.

In the blink of an eye it was gone, swallowed by the sky.

......

The Headmaster's office.

Umbridge sat primly behind the large desk in that signature pink coat of hers.

She held a cup of tea in one hand and gazed into a small mirror, admiring that face of hers, broad and warty as a toad's.

The walls were covered in framed photographs: Umbridge posing with senior Ministry officials, one after another. Every portrait of the former headmasters and headmistresses had been crudely draped in black cloth.

She had been in excellent spirits these past few days.

Dumbledore was confined to the Astronomy Tower. No one at Hogwarts dared defy her any longer. The students who had once pinned their hopes on him, the troublesome ones, now had no choice but to sit obediently in their classrooms like a flock of quails.

BANG!

The office door flew open.

An Auror stumbled inside, face drained of color.

Umbridge's hand jerked. That bloated face of hers darkened instantly.

"What is all this fuss about!"

Her voice came out in a shrill squeal, haughty and cutting.

"Not a shred of manners!"

"Is it those ungrateful students breaking my rules again?"

"No — it's not the students!"

The Auror stammered, gulping for air, terror plain in his eyes.

"It's — it's Dumbledore!"

Umbridge's expression froze.

"Dumbledore has come out! He's left the Astronomy Tower, he's gone to the Great Hall!"

The Auror swallowed hard.

"The guards upstairs didn't dare stop him. The moment he walked out, a crowd of students spotted him and followed him straight to the Great Hall. Something feels very wrong, this is about to blow up!"

Dumbledore had come downstairs?

Every ounce of fat on Umbridge's body gave a violent shudder. She instinctively shrank back against the chair.

Dumbledore's name landed like a curse, shattering in an instant the sense of control she had spent these past few days carefully building.

But in the next second, she thought of the entire Ministry of Magic standing behind her, and the supreme authority Cornelius Fudge had promised her.

She drew a deep breath. Forcibly suppressed the panic rising in her chest. Her expression shifted through several changes before she managed to squeeze out a thin veneer of composure.

"Stop panicking!"

Umbridge stood up, her voice sharp. "Hogwarts answers to the Ministry now. What waves can one man make by himself?"

"Go notify Minister Fudge at once!"

She issued the order through clenched teeth. "Round up every Auror in the castle and bring them all with me to the Great Hall!"

The Auror fled as though pardoned from execution, scrambling out the door to pass the order along.

Umbridge stood there staring at the framed photographs on the wall. She steeled herself, then marched out of the office on her short little legs.

......

The Great Hall of Hogwarts.

What had once been a deathly quiet self-study session had been completely transformed.

Students from all four Houses had gathered in full force. Chatter and hushed whispers filled the air without pause.

And at the very far end of the Hall, in the high-backed armchair where the Headmaster sat at the Opening Feast each year, Dumbledore was seated, his expression calm.

A crowd of students swarmed around him as though they had found their anchor. They buzzed with excited murmurs, and some even worked up the courage to go straight to him with their grievances.

Half a year of suppressed feeling had finally found its release the moment they laid eyes on this white-bearded old man.

Beneath the table, Harry, Ron, and Draco were squeezed into the very front.

"He actually came out..." Ron's eyes were shining.

Harry gave a firm nod, struggling to keep the wild joy from bursting out of him.

BANG!

The doors of the Great Hall were flung open.

Umbridge swept in at the head of a cluster of Aurors, all bristling hostility.

Looking at the students whispering excitedly around her, Umbridge's eye twitched. Every instinct told her to open her mouth and let loose a torrent of abuse, give these reckless little brats a lesson they wouldn't forget.

But when she walked up to the long table and met Dumbledore's expressionless gaze, her throat suddenly produced no sound at all.

This was the weight of the greatest white wizard of the age.

No words needed. A single look was enough to make Umbridge involuntarily shrink an inch.

She forced the insults back down. Her fat cheeks twitched twice, and she squeezed out a smile even uglier than tears.

"Ahem, Dumbledore... former Headmaster."

She placed heavy emphasis on "former."

"Whatever is the matter? Why have you come out? Was there something lacking in how we looked after you?"

"No."

Dumbledore shook his head. "Three meals delivered on time. The pumpkin juice was hot. I was quite comfortable."

Umbridge's mouth tugged at the corners. A flash of displeasure crossed her eyes.

"In that case, why did you suddenly come down to the Great Hall?"

➤ Next: The Ministry of Magic Arrives

Chapter 356 - The Ministry of Magic Arrives

"You should be well aware that your current status makes it inappropriate for you to appear in public."

Umbridge attempted to "remind" him.

"It's nothing."

Dumbledore swept a glance across the hall below. "I simply wanted to see how the students were getting on. The moment I came downstairs, a number of children crowded around to air their grievances and ask me to see justice done."

He spread his hands.

"There was no helping it. I had to come."

The smile on Umbridge's face stiffened.

She forced her anger down. "The school rules were set by the Ministry of Magic. Everything is for the safety of the students."

"Besides..."

She drew herself up.

"I am the Headmistress of Hogwarts now. The students are naturally under my care."

"'Former' Headmaster Dumbledore, I must ask you to return."

Dumbledore regarded her in silence for a moment, then let out a quiet laugh.

"Dolores, I would like to ask you something."

"What?"

"Have I been arrested by the Ministry of Magic?"

Umbridge froze.

She hadn't anticipated that Dumbledore would be so blunt, tearing straight through the veil of pretense without a second's hesitation.

The entire Ministry had publicly declared that Dumbledore was merely cooperating with an investigation. Who would dare use the word arrested?

"No — of course not!"

The answer came out on instinct.

"In that case..."

Dumbledore rose slowly from his high-backed chair.

"Why must I be confined to a location designated by you, forbidden from leaving?"

He was always gentle and reserved in his usual manner. But the moment he stood, the aura forged through countless life-and-death battles, the presence that had given two generations of Dark Lords pause, released itself without reservation.

The Great Hall went dead silent.

Umbridge took two involuntary steps backward.

When she came back to herself, she caught the strange looks from her subordinates and the students around her, and felt the ground drop out from under her dignity.

Mortified fury surged up, and she stepped forward two paces, sorely tempted to order the Aurors to seize him right then and there.

But she didn't dare.

No one dared raise a wand at Albus Dumbledore.

Not even when his hands were completely empty.

For a moment she stood stranded in the center of the Great Hall, unable to advance, unable to retreat, every inch a ridiculous Pink Toad.

"This is certainly not confinement."

Just as the standoff dragged on, a slick voice drifted in from beyond the doors.

"We are merely asking Albus to stay here temporarily and cooperate with the Ministry's investigation."

Cornelius Fudge strode in with the voice, bowler hat on his head, a silver-headed cane in hand.

Behind him came a large contingent of elite Aurors.

Not the ones who had been patrolling the castle. A force brought in separately, straight from the Ministry.

By the look of it, he had mobilized most of the deployable manpower the Ministry had.

At the sight of Fudge, Umbridge looked as though she had found her savior. Her whole demeanor shifted in an instant.

"Minister!"

She hurried to meet him, then wheeled around and pointed at Dumbledore, voice sharp.

"You've arrived just in time! Dumbledore left his designated quarters without permission, incited students to gather, disrupted the order of the school, he has absolutely no regard for the Ministry of Magic!"

"That will do, Dolores. I know what to do."

Fudge waved a hand and cut her off.

Umbridge shut her mouth immediately, stepped to one side, and resettled the smug, gloating smirk on her face, every inch the creature that bites hardest when its master is watching.

"Long time no see, Albus."

Fudge greeted him with a jovial smile.

"Cornelius."

Dumbledore gave a slight nod. "You've brought quite the grand force to a school."

"Ah, what choice do I have?"

Fudge sighed, putting on the air of a man laying his heart bare for the greater good.

"Rumors have been running wild of late, the attack on the Department of Mysteries, the Witch still missing with no word of her whereabouts... Public sentiment is running extremely high, and the finger of blame is quietly beginning to turn in your direction."

"Of course, I personally trust you without question!"

He took two steps forward, his expression shifting into something pained.

"But that is only my personal view. To protect you, and to protect the reputation of Hogwarts, temporarily restricting your movements is the best option."

"Once we have investigated everything thoroughly and cleared you of suspicion, it will be better for everyone."

Fudge paused. A note of warning crept into his voice.

"So, for the sake of our many years of friendship, do me this favor. Don't make things difficult for Dolores. Go back to the Astronomy Tower. What do you say?"

The words were smooth. The posture was humble.

But Fudge knew exactly what he was doing.

It wasn't that he didn't want to throw Dumbledore straight into a Ministry cell.

He simply didn't dare.

Dumbledore's standing in the Wizarding World was too high. Former students and old allies spread across Europe, and his international prestige was unmatched by anyone. Arresting him by force without solid evidence would send public opinion spiraling out of control in an instant, and his own position as Minister would be finished along with it.

More than that, Fudge was afraid.

Even now, he couldn't shake the memory of that terrifying Witch who had nearly torn the Ministry of Magic apart.

If Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of this age, were truly provoked into tearing off all restraint and coming to blows, he would only be more terrifying than the Witch.

Better to keep the man right under his nose. Grind away his influence slowly. Make certain he could never threaten Fudge's position.

As long as Dumbledore still cared about the students of Hogwarts and the stability of the Wizarding World, he would not dare break the peace.

So the moment Umbridge's notice reached him, Fudge hadn't even finished his dinner. He assembled his forces and came straight to Hogwarts.

The display had to be grand. Grand enough to make Dumbledore understand his resolve.

Dumbledore looked at the man before him. A deep weariness settled into his eyes.

"Cornelius." His voice was not loud, but it carried through the entire Great Hall. "Now is truly not the time for infighting."

"Tom... Voldemort has returned. He is gathering Death Eaters in the shadows, building his strength. If the Ministry continues to lose people, it will play right into his hands. I do not wish to see that happen."

At that name, the muscles in Fudge's cheeks twitched violently.

"Enough!"

He brought his cane down hard on the floor. His voice cracked across the hall.

"Albus, how many more times do you intend to repeat this pathetic lie?"

Fudge pointed at Dumbledore, spittle flying, all composure gone.

"2 years ago — at the Triwizard Tournament — the Dark Lord was publicly and utterly slain by that Witch! The entire Wizarding World witnessed it with their own eyes!"

He let out a cold laugh. His gaze turned vicious.

"You want to use a dead man's name to manufacture panic and prop up your own prestige! I have endured you again and again, out of consideration for our long acquaintance. I didn't even issue a warrant when your so-called Order of the Phoenix trespassed into the Ministry's restricted grounds!"

Having gone this far, Fudge dropped all pretense entirely.

"You had better cooperate with the investigation and stay in the Astronomy Tower, otherwise, don't blame me for setting aside old ties and throwing every last one of them into Azkaban!"

"And when that happens, the students of Hogwarts will suffer right along with you!"

➤ Next: Riding the Tiger