Chapter 477 - 28: News

Chapter 477: Chapter 28: News

By the next day.

In fact, the Ministry of Magic had already come to Hogwarts that same night. Someone escaping from Azkaban was a major incident. Nobody was going to wait until after a good night’s sleep before dealing with it.

Sirius and Peter had both been taken away by the Ministry and had yet to return. Then again, Sirius’s home was not at Hogwarts in the first place. Harry had no idea what the final outcome would be.

Wasn’t a normal trial supposed to require witnesses? Yet the three of them, who were the main witnesses, had not received any summons at all.

All Harry could do was wait passively for some unfamiliar owl to fly in and perhaps deliver good news about Sirius. The waiting was torture. At the very least, he was finally beginning to understand what it felt like to worry about family.

Staying around with nothing to do only made him think more. Eventually his restless mind landed on another problem: if Sirius wanted to clear his name, he would have to admit they had all been Animagi. Being an unregistered Animagus was a crime too. Could Sirius actually end up being thrown into Azkaban again?

Then again, Hermione had said that yesterday’s... whatever it was, did that count as God blessing Sirius? Harry was not religious either, but at this point he could only clasp the wire broom Yimi had given him and pray sincerely.

After revising the letter he had written to Sirius several times, Harry called over his owl. Hedwig was a snowy owl covered in beautiful white feathers.

Hedwig landed beside his hand. "Meow~"

Harry stared at her. "?"

What had happened to her?!

Harry walked numbly down from the West Tower.

Almost the entire school was discussing what had happened yesterday. Students kept glancing at him too. Eventually everyone would learn the truth, because...

"We meet again, Harry Potter."

A female voice Harry had no desire to hear greeted him. It was Rita Skeeter, the reporter who had visited only a few days earlier.

She wore the same smile that made Harry uncomfortable. "This time I’ve come specifically for a personal interview with you, Harry."

"If you want to know about Sirius, all I can say is that he’s innocent. I remember your newspaper is under Ministry supervision. You must’ve seen that Peter Pettigrew is still alive too." Harry had no choice but to answer her. Perhaps this woman knew what had happened to Sirius by now.

"I know, Harry. And the facts proved that kick I gave him the other day was quite a beautiful one, wasn’t it? But you have to understand, what everyone really wants to hear is your opinion. You believe Sirius is innocent, don’t you?" Rita let her quill write on its own as she continued, "I just spoke with several students. They said the whole of Hogwarts lit up yesterday."

"That had nothing to do with any of us. It was the little cat... I don’t know what happened." Harry saw Rita’s eyes light up.

"Which little cat?" Rita asked.

Last time, after all, she had already guessed that the strange cat might be an Animagus.

...

On the ground floor, inside the staff room—a place where a tragedy had once occurred, considering that Professor Binns had died there and become a ghost.

"Where’s Dumbledore?"

"Crunch, crunch, crunch—"

"You know how angry he is about the Dementors hurting students. He’s probably having a calm, civilized discussion with people from the Ministry right now."

"I think, well..."

"Crunch, crunch, crunch—"

While the professors talked, the sound of Yimi eating biscuits was exceptionally loud. Why was she here? Because she was Professor Yimi! Self-appointed, of course.

She was sitting on an old black wooden chair beside McGonagall, wearing a child-sized wizarding robe lined with fleece. The extra padding ruined the flowing elegance a wizard’s robe was supposed to have and left the little kitty wrapped up like a small barrel.

McGonagall reached over and brushed biscuit crumbs off Yimi’s clothes.

"So this little girl used a Patronus Charm and summoned a divine being?" Professor Flitwick, who was rather short, studied Yimi with curiosity.

Yesterday his short legs had kept him from catching up with the other professors.

Harry and Hermione had told them everything, including the humanoid figure that appeared when the first Dementor arrived. The saintly apparition had made it easy for Hermione to connect that earlier figure with the characteristics of a Horseman of the Apocalypse, and the implication had genuinely frightened her.

At McGonagall’s request, Yimi cast the Patronus Charm again. For the second time, light flooded every corner of Hogwarts. It was warm and soothing enough that even some of the gloom on Snape’s face faded. This time, however, nobody saw the figure Hermione had described.

Perhaps it was not something meant to be displayed casually, or perhaps the difference was simply that there was no enemy to target this time. Whatever the reason, everyone could feel that the vast, peaceful radiance was no ordinary Patronus Charm.

"She killed the Basilisk too. This abnormal Patronus Charm may have come from the Dark Lord," Snape said expressionlessly, offering his theory.

"She may have learned the spell from his memories, but this effect could not have come from him, Severus," McGonagall said as she tidied Yimi’s hair. "I even doubt Riddle, back when he was a student, could have cast a Patronus Charm at all."

The Patronus Charm required the caster to focus on a happy memory, and the more precious that memory felt, the stronger the Patronus became. Whether Voldemort possessed such a memory at all was highly questionable.

Voldemort had never had a true friend. While at school he had won the favor of many teachers, yet always maintained exactly the right distance from everyone around him.

"The effect of a Patronus Charm depends on the caster’s own heart and the strength of the happy memory," Professor Flitwick said.

"I think the little girl may simply have an unusually strong heart... or perhaps she really does have some connection to the ’god’ Granger described. She’s the one who killed the Basilisk, isn’t she? She even dragged it out through the corridor and left it in front of the castle for an entire day."

McGonagall stroked Yimi’s hair. "Dear, the ’god’ you summoned yesterday—is he someone you know? I heard Granger say it was Jesus." Naturally McGonagall knew who that was. Her father had been a Muggle, and people in the wizarding world were not completely ignorant of such things anyway. They celebrated Christmas too.

Yimi chewed her biscuit and answered indistinctly, "I know him. He’s an old man."

"..."

Professor Trelawney, who taught Divination, eagerly cupped Yimi’s face in both hands. "I must give you a proper reading, child."

"Mm..."

"Another time, Sybill. I think you may be frightening her." McGonagall pulled Yimi away. Trelawney had a habit of making ominous predictions about people. Nearly every school year, someone was told they showed signs of imminent death, yet somehow nobody actually died.

Nobody noticed—or perhaps anyone who noticed simply did not care—that a ladybug on the windowsill trembled its wings in what looked suspiciously like excitement.

It was Rita Skeeter.

Yes, she too was an unregistered Animagus, and her form was a fragile little ladybug. A tiny insect could not fly long distances the way a bird could, but for a gossip reporter, such an inconspicuous shape was nearly perfect.

The professors continued discussing the strange principles behind Yimi’s Patronus Charm. Rita alone seemed to understand just how enormous a story she had stumbled onto.

After listening a while longer, she slipped away as quietly as she had arrived, already preparing the story for tomorrow—or perhaps the day after. Tomorrow’s headline needed to cover Sirius’s verdict. A truly excellent reporter knew better than to waste two potential front-page stories by combining them.