"Professor, I have to say, you were seriously cool just now," Harley said sincerely as she walked out of the Wizengamot chamber side by side with Kasenhis.
"Well, I was a top student after all. Giving a wizard court full of legal loopholes a bit of dimensionality reduction isn't exactly hard," Kasenhis said with a grin.
Behind them, Lupin and Sirius, who had been sitting in on the trial, hurried to catch up.
"Why does that pink toad's latest stunt feel so small this time? It barely made a splash. I remember last time she caused enough trouble to cost Fudge an entire arm, but this time she only lost face," Lupin said as he walked over.
"Honestly, I don't really understand people like her either. She went through all that trouble just to try to get Harley expelled? The problem is, aren't their real enemies supposed to be Barty Crouch and Scrimgeour right now? Even Dumbledore should be someone they're trying to win over as a potential ally. Picking on Harley does them nothing but harm. Why do it?"
It wasn't just Kasenhis who couldn't understand Umbridge's way of thinking.
Even Fudge couldn't understand it.
...
At that very moment, in the Minister's office, he was staring at Umbridge standing in front of him.
"Explain this to me. What kind of mindset and brilliant thinking led you to gain control of the Dementors, and then—without doing a single useful thing—you first transferred a whole bunch of Wizengamot members away to help Barty Crouch instead?"
"And then on your end, you used the Dementors to set a trap for that Harley Potter, offended Dumbledore, and made things difficult for us!"
"Why? How did a plan like this even pop out of your head?" Fudge asked in disbelief.
"I'm very sorry, Minister. I've been abroad for too long and didn't fully understand the situation back home. I thought your enemy was Dumbledore," Umbridge said hurriedly.
"Exactly the opposite! Dumbledore is the ally I'm trying to win over right now! Idiot! A complete idiot worthy of being put into a Chocolate Frog card!"
Fudge slammed his alchemical arm down hard on the desk, making Umbridge flinch and shrink her shoulders.
"Please forgive me, Minister…" Umbridge said timidly.
"Forgive you? How am I supposed to forgive you! The premise of forgiveness is that you're a person—someone whose way of thinking can at least be understood. But that's exactly the problem. I can't understand your thinking at all. So tell me—even if my enemy really were Dumbledore, what good does framing Potter do for us? And what harm does it do to Dumbledore?" Fudge continued.
"Uh… it could weaken Dumbledore's lackeys?" Umbridge asked tentatively.
"The problem is, Potter—a boy who's only going into fifth year next term—what kind of proper lackey is he supposed to be? What power does he have? He's just a fifth-year student! The only thing your stunt accomplishes is making Dumbledore guard against us earlier and dislike us even more. Aside from that, what use is it to us at all!" Fudge roared.
"…Annoy him?" Umbridge held it in for a long time before finally squeezing out that line.
Fudge took a deep breath. It could be said that even Kasenhis chopping off one of his arms before had done less damage to him than what Umbridge had just said today.
How could anyone say something so utterly outrageous?
"Umbridge… whether or not you managed to disgust Dumbledore, I don't know. But what I can guarantee is that you've definitely disgusted me."
"Now, get out!" Fudge bellowed.
Umbridge was so frightened she hurriedly scurried out of the office—but just one second later, she stuck her head back in. "Minister, where exactly should I roll to?"
Fudge took a deep breath.
At this moment, he wished more than anything that the Killing Curse were legal—or that he and Umbridge were somewhere in the middle of nowhere, with no one around for eight lifetimes.
But in the end, he swallowed all of that back down. "I told you to get out… not to roll back in."
"Understood, Minister!" Umbridge shouted happily.
...
Meanwhile, on the other side, Kasenhis, who had just walked out of the Wizengamot, saw a letter suddenly appear in front of him.
"What's that?" Harley asked.
"A letter from Dumbledore. He wants us to gather somewhere to set up his private armed force—oh, of course not that. His private club… no, that doesn't sound right either," Kasenhis frowned, feeling like his tongue just wasn't cooperating.
"Where to?" Sirius asked from behind Kasenhis.
In an instant, Kasenhis, Harley, and Lupin all turned their eyes on him at the same time.
Kasenhis pressed his lips together and suddenly realized—this letter might not have been meant for him at all. It was probably meant for Sirius.
When he handed the letter over to Sirius, sure enough, the two of them were perfectly in sync with Dumbledore. Sirius stared at it for a full four minutes before finally reading between the lines.
The entire sheet of parchment was filled with just one sentence: "We need a house!"
Sirius's mouth twitched, but when it came to fighting Voldemort, he was always serious.
He pulled a feather out of his chest pocket, rubbed it between his fingers, dipped it in ink, and turned it into a quill, then wrote a reply on the parchment.
The next moment, the letter vanished with a pop.
"Has he been waiting for me for this all along?" Sirius suddenly asked.
"Looks like it. Very obviously."
......
This holiday could truly be called a season of chaos.
And the Dursleys' house being visited by Dementors was no small matter—it meant that, in a very real sense, the lives of Harley's three Muggle relatives were now under threat.
And Harley no longer had any intention of continuing to live with the Dursleys.
Even though Dumbledore wanted her to stay there, Dumbledore wasn't a god. He couldn't control people's will.
So in the end, the two sides still didn't end up living under the same roof.
And Kasenhis was temporarily dragged in by Sirius and Lupin to serve as extra muscle.
According to them, those two great detectives had already upgraded from mind games to full-on gang shootouts in America, so there was no need to worry about Voldemort finding them.
For now, it was best for their group to stick together. Safer that way.
So…
"Ahem, that's why I'm here," Kasenhis said, looking at Neville's slightly resentful little eyes…
Because after all this time—nearly five years—Kasenhis still hadn't gone to Neville's house for a proper family meal.
And yet today, he'd been tricked into coming over by Sirius.
But.. Isn't that kind of impressive?
________
(～￣▽￣)～Read 12 Chapters ahead:
Patreon: Dragonel