HP: The Root of Everything - The Magician

Despite Connelly Fudge's seemingly kind and gentle appearance, anyone who knows him knows how cunning he is.

If he weren't cunning, he wouldn't have become the Minister of Magic.

In the headmaster's office at Hogwarts, Dumbledore, who knew this all too well, frowned as he looked at Fudge, who had come to interrogate him. He was already prepared for the price he would have to pay to protect Griffin and Hermione.

Without evidence, a conviction cannot be made.

But this is a world of magic, and for many things, the law is merely a means to an end.

Fudge, leading five ministers including Kington and some Aurors, sat down and chatted with Dumbledore, the headmaster, for a while before getting straight to the point.

Fudge pulled out the newly published magical newspaper from his pocket, threw it on the headmaster's desk, and angrily pointed at the contents, saying, "Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, have you read this newspaper?"

Dumbledore neither agreed nor disagreed, but could only nod.

Fudge seized the opportunity to question again: "Fine, since you admit it, then don't stop the Ministry of Magic from arresting Hermione Granger, this criminal."

After saying this, Fudge ordered his Aurors to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to capture Hermione and Griffin.

Seeing Fudge's blatant misinterpretation and presumptuousness, Dumbledore slammed his fist on the desk, making a loud noise, and then slammed the door shut, saying, "Fudge, are you trying to mislead me?"

I nodded, admitting that I had read the newspaper.

"Instead of...acknowledging the baseless and malicious 'slander' against Miss Granger in my college published in the newspapers."

After Dumbledore clearly and explicitly corrected Fudge's petty tricks regarding 'language,' he picked up the newspaper, chuckled, and said, "Chief Fudge, the information published in this newspaper is nothing but a piece of text without any evidence."

"I can't believe that you, the Minister-General of the Ministry of Magic, would so easily believe the nonsense from above."

"You believe whatever an unscrupulous reporter writes in the newspaper? Ha~ In my opinion, you should step down as head of the ministry, lest the ministry go astray under your foolish leadership."

Fudge was stunned by Dumbledore's manipulative question.

He never imagined that Dumbledore, whom he had known for almost a hundred years, would be so shameless as to act like a rogue. Today, he had truly witnessed it: "Ha, you want evidence? Fine~ I've brought it for you."

At the behest of Chief Fudge, an Auror brought the female reporter up.

Fudge, in his capacity as Minister of Magic, then ordered the female reporter to reveal that Griffin had killed the Auror squad leader on the rooftop and that Hermione had ordered Griffin to kill four Aurors.

But little did anyone know, in order to keep Griffin at Hogwarts, Dumbledore really went to any lengths, even his old ways.

In the principal's office, he immediately and completely refuted the female reporter's claims: "Nonsense, utter nonsense..."

"To say that my student, Miss Granger, is the murderer who killed the Auror, ha~ it's utterly ridiculous."

"Do you, as a reporter, have any evidence to maliciously slander a pure and kind young witch in front of the Minister of Magic and me, Dumbledore?"

"Tell me, do you have any evidence?"

Under Dumbledore's relentless questioning, the female reporter panicked instantly, and when it came to evidence, she truly had none.

The Auror's body was holyly destroyed by the Griffin, and then Hermione reduced it to ashes.

Besides her, the only third party present at the scene was the pure-blood noble wizards from those families, but after Dumbledore's "whitewashing" and Shake's "laborious arrest," they were clearly no longer able to stand up as witnesses.

Therefore... the female reporter's words can be considered as her one-sided statement, a completely malicious slander.

Seeing that the female reporter couldn't produce any solid evidence, Dumbledore smiled secretly, a smile hidden beneath his white beard, and looked confidently at Fudge, whose face was pale.

Then, under Fudge's watchful eye, he placed the newspaper on a candle and brazenly burned it.

Fudge was furious at Dumbledore's actions, but he could only suppress his anger.

Because the one who challenged and disregarded his authority was Albus Dumbledore.

Fudge's chest heaved violently beneath his robes as he took deep, impassive breaths, struggling to calm his easily agitated anger.

After calming down, Fudge pressed on with questions: "Headmaster Dumbledore, you said that the Aurors of my Ministry of Magic were not killed by Hermione Granger and that Griffin, so tell me, how did they die?"

Immediately, Dumbledore gave the excuse he had prepared beforehand, saying that it was done by those pure-blood wizards from the families.

Like the female reporter, there was no evidence to prove Dumbledore's words.

But were Dumbledore and the female reporter the same person? No, that's why the female reporter's truth was judged as slander.

Dumbledore's lies, without any evidence to expose them, left Fudge and the others with no choice but to believe them.

Although Fudge no longer has evidence to prove that Griffin and Hermione killed his five Auror squad members, the fact remains that the Aurors died at Hogwarts, which is undeniable.

Using this as an excuse, Fudge launched another attack on Dumbledore.

This established fact cannot be concealed or covered up with false information, so even the shameless and scoundrel Dumbledore could only admit that it was a dereliction of duty on his part at Hogwarts.

In order to quell the matter, Dumbledore had no choice but to pay a price to smooth things over.

The price was that one of the professorships at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was handed over to the Ministry of Magic.

From then on, Fudge seized the opportunity presented by this incident and successfully extended his power into Hogwarts.

But... this result is far from satisfying his ambition for power at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Fudge then produced a thick file.

After turning to the first page, he stood up and confronted Dumbledore, demanding, "Headmaster Dumbledore, do you know your crime of harboring and concealing Teach Carr, this vicious criminal?"

After asking the questions, Fudge read aloud from the document detailing Teach's numerous crimes to Dumbledore: "September 1991..."

"That criminal, Teach Carr, shot and killed two of my Ministry of Magic's Aurors."

"In October of the same year, in the swamps at the edge of the Dark Forest Mountains, four Aurors from my Ministry of Magic were shot using magical means."

"In December of the same year, also in the swamp, a trap was set using despicable means to lure and kill an Auror from the Ministry of Magic."

"In early 1992, Teach Carr, who had murdered several Aurors, once again laid an ambush, killing ten Aurors from two teams sent by the Ministry of Magic to capture him."

"In the middle of the same year, thirteen of my Aurors were killed."

"At the end of the same year, nineteen of my Aurors were killed..."

As he read on, Fudge's face gradually showed anger, and this anger was not feigned, but genuine.

After reading it aloud, Fudge closed the file and said menacingly to Dumbledore, "Nearly fifty people. That Teach Carr murdered nearly fifty Aurors from my Ministry of Magic."

"Albus Dumbledore, I, as the Headmaster, here and now, say this: if you don't hand over the traitor Teach, then there will be no place for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the British wizarding world."

"Even you, who are known as the most powerful white wizard, don't have it."