Volume 6: Summer at Spider's End Alley Chapter 440: New Gallows
The platform was covered with mud.
Flint, who was controlled in the middle, had completely turned into a clay figure.
The mud, which had always been under his feet but which he had never cared about or paid attention to before, now ran down his head and across his face, making him feel extremely humiliated.
Even though they were captured and brought to France, at the beginning, Flint and many of the purebloods were not worried about their situation.
Their headmaster was not defeated. Their parents were the backbone of the British Ministry of Magic and even the Death Eaters. It would be of no benefit to Dumbledore and his team to abuse or kill them. The most sensible move was to put them under house arrest in France, so that the British purebloods would be cautious in the subsequent wars. In this way, even if the war was lost later, they could be used as conditions to make deals.
What's more ironic is that although the half-bloods and Muggles below don't understand, Dumbledore has always had a high reputation in the pure-blood circle.
This is a very strange phenomenon, but it is reality, just as Lucius would believe Dumbledore's promise to protect Draco more than the trust of his fellow Death Eaters.
Therefore, these pure-blood students all knew that Dumbledore was not the notorious dark wizard as portrayed in the Daily Prophet, but a kind-hearted man.
But the treatment Flint encountered now made him completely shaken.
Listening to the shouting of the mixed-race bastards below, his body was unable to move, and he had no way to wipe the mud off his face. He could only glare with resentment at Asia who was still standing on the stage.
It’s all this bitch’s fault!
And these bastards in the audience!
Do they really think this represents their victory and liberation?
The headmaster has not lost yet, and neither have the purebloods!
Sooner or later, they will have to pay the price for what they said today. Purebloods are too lenient towards half-bloods. They should enslave them like mudbloods! Treat them all as slaves!
Only fit to be used as a slave serving noble bloodlines and never able to turn over a new leaf in their entire lives!
Of course, the audience had no idea what Flint was thinking. If they knew, the anger of those mixed-race students would only be multiplied tenfold.
This kind of emotional outburst continued for a while before it was stopped by the teachers who were maintaining order around. Then the mud on the podium was cleaned up with just a cleaning spell from Lupin.
Flint looked very embarrassed, but Mag showed no sympathy on his face when he looked at him.
The students in the audience had only just learned about what he had done to Asia, but Mag and the others had long known that neither Flint on the stage nor the pure-blood students waiting for trial were worthy of sympathy.
When John's idea was first proposed, Magg, Flitwick and others did not actually agree with it.
They felt that such an action was a bit too extreme, and that treating pure-blood students like this was too insulting to their dignity. After all, these students were just a group of children who had not graduated from school yet. No matter how bad they were, they couldn't be as bad as their parents, right?
Jon didn't say much at the time, but just suggested that they could first complete the individual interrogation of these pure-blood students and then decide whether to hold a public trial on them.
Regardless of whether there will be a public trial later, these pure-blood students will be strictly interrogated in the Wu Ping Line, especially some of the senior students. A large number of them have already participated in the family business. Each of them knows a lot of secrets about the British pure-blood high-level officials, which is of great value to the Wu Ping Line's subsequent strategy against Britain.
In order to ensure the accuracy of the information obtained, no truth serum was saved in this private interrogation. It was after this interrogation that Mag and the others all fell silent and no longer had any doubts about the subsequent public trial.
He even took the initiative to determine the minimum sentencing standards for every pure-blood who would participate in the public trial, and these standards were surprisingly consistent.
After restoring order at the scene, Mag picked up another piece of parchment and read it in a cold voice in front of everyone present.
"Except for the crimes committed in Hogwarts Castle, in the absence of witnesses and evidence, we obtained approval from the Humanitarian Review Department of the Wizarding Equality Front to use truth serum on Ganos Flint to collect evidence. The results are as follows."
"In 1994, he killed two lives for the first time in Flint's home. They were slaves assigned to serve his family. One was a witch named Stacey Angell. The motive was that Flint was caught by the victim's daughter when he was trying to rape her. He claimed that he used a blasting spell that he had not yet fully mastered in a panic, and blew up the storage room in the house. Angell and her daughter died there, and he successfully escaped. Later, he teamed up with Flint's housekeeper to kill Angell's husband at home. In order to cover up his crime, his parents announced to the public that Angell's family was executed because they tried to escape."
"In 1995, at the beginning of this year, the Miss Conrad incident happened. He returned home once after Christmas. In order to vent his anger for not getting Miss Conrad, he released the Unforgivable Curse on the Muggle-born wizards in his own magic product factory. No one was killed in this incident, but his Cruciatus Curse turned one of the Muggle-born wizards into a madman, and then he was expelled by the Flint family."
The scene was extremely quiet.
The half-bloods, who were originally burning with anger over what happened to Asia, now fell silent.
Compared to these two incidents, shouldn't the Machs also be angry?
But they turned their heads and looked at the Muggle students who were rescued from Hogwarts Castle. Without exception, they all had numb expressions on their faces. Regarding the two crimes stated by McGonagall, which were several times more cruel than the persecution of Asia, the Muggle students were very calm. Was this the treatment they should receive?
But the students in the carriages below the stage couldn't remain numb.
They all clenched their fists tightly, and their angry eyes looked as if they could eat Flint on the platform alive!
This guy is a complete beast! A beast that doesn't deserve to be treated as such!
"And now, to sentence Ganos Flint..."
Before Mag could finish his words, thunderous cheers rang out from the audience.
"Hang him!!!"
Every student on the carriage stood up from their chairs in indignation. Their necks turned red with excitement. All their voices merged into one sentence.
"He must be hanged! This damned beast doesn't deserve to live in this world!!!"
Even the half-bloods were infected. They stood up from their chairs and shouted with all their might, demanding that Flint be hanged!
Of those present, only the Muggles from the castle were still seated.
They sat there at a loss, looking around, wondering whether they should also follow the others and stand up, shouting for the pure-blood master on the platform to be hanged.
They were all still a little confused. It was normal for others to feel angry because of what happened to the half-blood lady. After all, that lady also had noble blood. But why were they so angry about what happened to these "mudbloods"?
Aren't "mudbloods" born lowly? Isn't this what they are born to endure?
Amidst the waves of shouting, at Mag's signal, George untied the restraints on Flint's mouth.
"Is there anything else you would like to say for yourself? Ganos Flint."
Flint was extremely flustered. He had no idea that he had been fed truth serum. He just remembered that after lunch the day before, all the purebloods were taken into a room that looked like a nap room. Then these people asked them some questions and then they fell asleep.
When they woke up again, it was already evening. Everyone thought it was just an ordinary lunch break. Some pure-blood students were even complacent about it, thinking that Dumbledore would treat them to good food and drink even if he took them to France.
But Flint now feels that something is wrong. The anger of these people off the field has been ignited. If this continues, even if the adults don't want to kill him, these students will force him to death.
He shouted.
"No! You can't kill me! I'm still useful! All the captured pure-bloods are still useful! My father is the Director of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes at the British Ministry of Magic! My mother is a Death Eater! If you kill me, they will definitely fight you to the death! If you want to fight back to Britain, you will definitely pay a more painful price! Leave my life! We can use it as a deal! This is the best and most beneficial thing for you!"
He tried to explain the pros and cons to them so that McGonagall and Dumbledore, who actually had the power over his life and death, would not listen to the students.
But this is a public trial.
Perhaps even now, there are almost no wizards in the magical world who know what a public trial is.
The moment he was brought to the podium , the only ones who could decide his life or death were the students below the stage!
"Ganos Flint, hang!"
Mag made the final judgment!
There was a tsunami-like cheer and thunderous applause from the audience, as if they had accomplished an amazing feat at that moment!
After hearing the verdict, Flint's face turned deathly pale, his legs trembled as he collapsed to the ground, his crotch became wet at some point, and a fishy smell filled the air.
When the sentence of hanging was ordered, there was no delay, no postponement of the execution time, and no private execution away from others. Instead, in front of everyone, right on this high platform, Mag used Transfiguration to create a gallows!
Flitwick added ropes to the gallows.
Lupin ordered George and Fred to lift Flint off the ground together.
The cheers from all the students below the stage were getting louder and louder. Even the pockmarked students in the castle couldn't help but be infected by this atmosphere with inexplicable shock on their faces and stood up from their seats.
Will he really be hanged? Are they really going to hang a pureblood who is born noble?
Even Slughorn, who was sitting in the front, turned to look at Dumbledore in shock.
After hearing Flint's crimes, he was not surprised at the fate of this pure-blood student. Flint was no longer a child, he was a seventh-grade student in the castle and should have graduated this year, which meant that he was actually 18 years old and should have paid the price for what he had done.
But what he didn't expect was that Dumbledore actually dared to do that in front of so many students, the youngest of whom had just started school last year and was less than 12 years old, and the oldest was just 18 years old. He let such a group of children, most of whom were not even adults, watch their enemy being hanged!
“Isn’t this too cruel for students?”
Dumbledore just calmly watched George and Fred on the podium scramble and grit their teeth to put a rope around the neck of Flint, who was already paralyzed like mud.
"Look around, my old friend. Look at the eyes of these young people. Do you see any pity or sympathy for the man on the stage?"
Slughorn did not look, because he knew very well that if they could kill Flint with their own hands, these students would all scramble to do it. At this moment, the Weasley twins who were hanging the noose on the stage were doing the job that everyone envied the most and wanted to replace the most. They all wished that this scumbag would die immediately!
"I know they are eager to get rid of that bastard on the stage, but Albus, I don't think these students should participate in this. It is enough to end the blood and cruelty of this generation here. Isn't it what you and I hope most that these children will never have to step onto the bloody battlefield again after graduating from Hogwarts, and never have to watch lives die? Then why bring such deaths to school now? This public trial is enough until the trial results come out. The execution procedure can be done privately."
"I had the same idea as you before." Dumbledore said softly, "But that night Jon came to me and emphasized to me very seriously that if a public trial really had to be held, the students must be allowed to see this scene, the scene of the enemy being hanged by our own hands."
"Only in this way, even if ten, twenty, thirty or even a hundred years later, the students sitting here will never forget this day when they recall the past. This will make them remember that our battles will always cost not only our own blood, but also the enemy's neck!"
"They will understand it themselves, and they will also educate their next generation to understand that if any injustice happens again in the future, even a street lamp on the side of the road can become a new gallows!"
