Volume 6: Summer at Spider's End Alley Chapter 438: The Hogwarts Trial
"He came to me. He wanted to transfer me from the International Magical Cooperation Department to the Secretary Department of the Minister's Office for this."
In Dumbledore's office, the old man who was eating candied pineapple said with a smile.
Dumbledore rubbed his brows. He had no free time at all during this period.
"How did you answer him?"
The old man licked the remaining icing on his fingers and then spread his hands and spoke.
"What else can I say? Since he has such great trust in me, I must tell the truth. Although that thing is difficult to refine, I can never be worse than Snape. However, the difficulty lies in the fact that a large amount of materials are needed to enhance the feel of the hand in the early stage of refining. If you want to ensure success every time, you must have at least more than 5 times of production experience. If I want to completely replace the former Snape, he needs to give me time."
Dumbledore continued calmly.
"Then what?"
"And of course he considered me as one of his backup plans. He has someone who is capable of making this potion and can guarantee his loyalty. I am the most suitable person, and there is no one else. Of course, he also stepped up his efforts on Snape's side and made preparations for both situations. Capturing Snape back, no matter what method he uses, to make him willingly work for him again is naturally his first choice."
Speaking of this, the old man wiped his hands and asked in a somewhat incomprehensible manner.
"I actually still can't figure out why you say that he is loyal to Snape? Is it really just that his master's abandonment this time has completely broken his heart? I didn't realize how loyal he was before."
Faced with this question, Dumbledore showed some emotion.
"It's not that he wasn't loyal before, but he has never been loyal to anyone. In your eyes, he is cunning, evil, sinister and treacherous, but in fact, all the choices he made are very simple, so simple that it is unexpected."
The old man frowned.
"When will you change your bad habit of keeping people guessing?"
"When you no longer need me." Dumbledore smiled and blinked, standing up from his seat.
The old man also stood up.
"Now that you have settled down in France, some students have seen my name in some information about my position in the UK. What are their reactions?"
"It hasn't aroused any major suspicion yet, because there are very few photos of you that have been leaked. They just thought it was someone with the same name. After all, you've been dead for almost three years. How could anyone think that your death was fake?"
Slughorn, who had appeared in France at some unknown time, couldn't help but curl his lips when he heard what Dumbledore said.
"At least my students found out on the spot, didn't they? Now that I think about it, I was really scared that night. If you hadn't helped me get my wand back, I would have been ashamed to be your teacher."
They walked out of the office. There were not many professors and students passing by in the corridor, and even if there were, they would not be able to tell who Slughorn was from his current appearance.
Dumbledore said quietly as he led Slughorn out of the house.
"Your students have scared everyone over the years. It's a good opportunity to take a look. We had a big debate internally on how to properly deal with the people we brought back from England, but Jon came up with a suggestion that I think is very good. Some people still have some doubts about this, so we decided to use Hogwarts as a pilot. After all, we brought back a lot of former Hogwarts students this time."
Slughorn said, nodding.
"In fact, it is not a difficult problem to punish these pure bloods, unless someone deliberately shields them. Otherwise, there will be no problem as long as they are dealt with strictly. The key point is how to solve the bloodline concept brought by the Dark Lord. Although there were disputes over bloodline in the past, they were always kept in secret. Now they have been solidified into policies and have been implemented in the UK for more than ten years. For French wizards, this kind of thinking is not yet deeply rooted, but for British wizards, it is different."
Dumbledore agreed.
"Yes, you are right. This is also what the students we brought back from Hogwarts Castle have discovered. Pureblood and half-blood students are not arrogant at all, and treat Muggles coldly and cruelly according to their bloodline. As for the senior Muggles brought back from England, our people have tried their best to correct their modified memories these days, but their cowardice and inferiority engraved in their bones and their reverence for bloodline cannot be changed so easily. It is for this reason that many discussions have been held within the Wizarding Horizon. This is just the problem we are facing in France. If we really take back England in the future, how can we guide the ideas of wizards in England who have been ruled by the bloodline class for so long to become normal people?"
"Jon made a very interesting proposal in that meeting. He said that once a person has formed a habit, it is difficult to change it, especially the established concept of superiority and inferiority. But we can make use of the trial of the pure-bloods and conduct a large-scale public trial. It is similar to a public court. In front of everyone, each pure-blood who has been found guilty will be tried one by one, and the former oppressed will be allowed to serve as witnesses to publicly tell everyone about the treatment they have experienced. In the end, everyone present will decide what kind of punishment the defendant should receive."
After a long moment of thought, Slughorn clapped his hands with emotion.
"It's a great idea. This should be an emotional release. As long as the oppressors' suppressed emotions are aroused, no one will want to be a servile slave forever."
"It's probably about to start now, so let's go take a look."
Dumbledore led Slughorn to the open space outside the school, which was already surrounded by students.
Among them, it is obvious that there are many different groups with clear realms. The largest number of people are naturally the half-blood and pure-blood students of the former Hogwarts Castle who are classified separately. These people are also obviously divided into two groups. A small part of them are half-blood. They are the ones who have been carefully checked and interviewed by the Order of the Phoenix and were confirmed to have not done any bad things in the school.
But there was still a large number of people who were being managed by McGuffett and others, and were lining up in front of a platform.
Most of these students were obviously trying to remain calm, while some younger students could not even maintain their "pride of bloodline" and looked around in panic.
The next largest group of people were of course the students in the Hogwarts carriage. There were a number of chairs arranged around the platform, and they were sitting on these chairs, watching the castle students who were waiting for trial, whispering to each other.
Next to the carriage students, there was a small group of students who were sitting restlessly. These people were obviously the Muggle students who had been oppressed in Hogwarts Castle. They seemed to be not used to the current situation of being out in public, especially since they were sitting while the pure-blood and half-blood students were standing.
After handing all the pure-blood and half-blood students whose wands had been confiscated to the care of the sixth and seventh grade students on the carriage, McGonagall, Flitwick and Lupin walked up to the podium and sat at the long table on one side of the podium. The three of them were the final judges, and their role was to prevent the students from getting carried away and demanding the maximum penalty no matter what crime they heard.
Dumbledore and Slughorn, who no one could recognize at the moment, sat at the front of the audience. They were not there to act as referees, but merely to be spectators of this large-scale wizarding social experiment.
"Jon told me that this method was not invented by him," Dumbledore said softly. "He said that decades ago, some Muggles used this method to stimulate and awaken those who had become numb due to oppression."
Slughorn said nothing more, for the public trial had already begun.
Mag acted as the chief judge in this special court. After maintaining order at the scene, she announced the start of the trial.
At this time, everyone in the audience fell silent and looked at the first pure-blood student who was brought onto the podium.
He was a wizard who looked quite old, definitely a seventh-year student about to graduate.
He was brought to the podium and no seat was provided. He stood alone facing everyone else, and everyone present looked at him.
This obviously made him even more nervous and flustered. He managed to maintain a calm expression on his face, but his pale lips and trembling hands made it clear to anyone that he was feeling uneasy.
"Ganos Flint, former seventh-year pure-blood student at Hogwarts Castle."
McGonagall's voice was cold as she revealed the identity of the student standing on the podium. She also read out the charges against him by comparing them to the parchment in her hand.
"You were accused of forcing the mixed-blood student Asia Conrad to submit to you, and using Hedda Floyd and others who were also pure-bloods to threaten Miss Conrad with death, to further coerce her, and ultimately lead to her death. Is that right or not?"
After hearing what Mag said, most of the students in the carriage in the audience were stunned for a moment.
They had not originally taken this public trial seriously, thinking it was just an alternative and special extracurricular activity. Even if the students in the castle were bad before, how bad could they be?
After all, Hogwarts Castle was once a school, so there would definitely not be anything outrageous happening there.
But after hearing the charges against the first pure-blood student on trial , many people found it hard to believe. They didn't expect that the first one to come up would be accused of murder!
Flint denied loudly with a trembling voice.
"No! I didn't do any of this! We were in love with each other, it was all Freud, that vicious woman who did it!"
There were voices of discussion in the audience , but Mag's expression remained unchanged as she continued.
"Bring up the witness."
Soon three people were brought up from the bottom of the platform, and all three were girls. After they stood on the platform, they all felt a little uneasy, especially the two girls who were brought out from the team that was originally going to be tried, who were even more uneasy.
"Virrit Starr, Celia Peck, you are both former seventh-year pure-blood students at Hogwarts Castle. In your confessions, you confessed that you had participated in the school violence against Miss Cornelia, and that the violence was caused by your friend, Miss Floyd, who was not present, who was jealous of Miss Cornelia and thought that she had won the favor of Mr. Flint, right?"
Freud's two pale faces nodded like chickens pecking at rice.
"Yes!"
"Does Mr. Flint know anything about this?"
The two henchmen secretly glanced at Flint standing in the middle of the platform and found that he was also looking at them pleadingly. However, after knowing that they were only accomplices and that their crimes could be mitigated as long as they confessed honestly, the two of them betrayed the former "Master Flint" without hesitation.
"He knows everything!" the follower named Starr shouted, "He knows everything that Freud did. At that time, Conrad was always avoiding him and rejected his love in every possible way!"
The follower named Peck also shouted.
"I, we heard Flint's friends talking about it. He once boasted to his roommate that he deliberately let Floyd bully Conrad so that he could take advantage of the situation and create the best opportunity for him."
Their confessions caused boos from the audience below, which was a disdain for Flint's previous statement that they were in love.
Mag turned his attention to the last witness.
"Misty Mesa, you were Miss Conrad's roommate, and regarding her relationship with Mr. Flint, you testified that she was frightened by Mr. Flint's advances."
"Yes, she is extremely scared!" Mesa seemed to have mustered up all his courage, "In Britain, wizards of different bloodlines cannot marry each other. Even if they just have a relationship, it is a crime for the one with lower bloodline! So she has always been very afraid of this matter, but she can't resist!"
After hearing the testimonies of these three people, Flint's face turned extremely pale. He knew that his biggest lie had been exposed. The main reason why Asia fell into that state was because of his persecution!
The noise in the audience below became louder, and many of them were denouncing and despising Flint's behavior.
Slughorn, who was sitting in the audience, noticed the reactions of the innocent half-bloods and the former Muggle students of the castle who were sitting in fear below.
This is not a tragedy between those with blood and those without blood, but it is more suitable to be placed first as a public trial.
