 once
more.
"Good evening, Hagrid."
It was Dumbledore. He entered, looking deadly serious, and was
followed by a second, very odd-looking man.
The stranger had rumpled gray hair and an anxious expression, and
was wearing a strange mixture of clothes: a pinstriped suit, a
scarlet tie, a long black cloak, and pointed purple boots. Under his arm
he carried a lime-green bowler.
223
"That's Dad's boss!" Ron breathed. "Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of
Magic!"
Harry elbowed Ron hard to make him shut up.
Hagrid had gone pale and sweaty. He dropped into one of his chairs
and looked from Dumbledore to Cornelius Fudge.
"Bad business, Hagrid," said Fudge in rather clipped tones. "Very bad
business. Had to come. Four attacks on Muggle-borns. Things've gone
far enough. Ministry's got to act."
"I never," said Hagrid, looking imploringly at Dumbledore. "You know I
never, Professor Dumbledore, sir -"
"I want it understood, Cornelius, that Hagrid has my full confidence,"
said Dumbledore, frowning at Fudge.
"Look, Albus," said Fudge, uncomfortably. "Hagrid's record's against
him. Ministry's got to do something - the school governors have been
in touch -"
"Yet again, Cornelius, I tell you that taking Hagrid away will not help
in the slightest," said Dumbledore. His blue eyes were full of a fire
Harry had never seen before.
"Look at it from my point of view," said Fudge, fidgeting with his
bowler. "I'm under a lot of pressure. Got to be seen to be doing
something. If it turns out it wasn't Hagrid, he'll be back and no more
said. But I've got to take him. Got to. Wouldn't be doing my duty -"
"Take me?" said Hagrid, who was trembling. "Take me where?"
"For a short stretch only," said Fudge, not meeting Hagrid's eyes. "Not
a punishment, Hagrid, more a precaution. If someone else is caught,
you'll be let out with a full apology -"
"Not Azkaban?" croaked Hagrid.
Before Fudge could answer, there was another loud rap on the door.
224
Dumbledore answered it. It was Harry's turn for an elbow in the ribs;
he'd let out an audible gasp.
Mr. Lucius Malfoy strode into Hagrid's hut, swathed in a long black
traveling cloak, smiling a cold and satisfied smile. Fang started to
growl.
"Already here, Fudge," he said approvingly. "Good, good. . ."
"What're you doin' here?" said Hagrid furiously. "Get outta my house!"
"My dear man, please believe me, I have no pleasure at all in being
inside your - er - d'you call this a house?" said Lucius Malfoy, sneering
as he looked around the small cabin. "I simply called at the school and
was told that the headmaster was here."
"And what exactly did you want with me, Lucius?" said Dumbledore.
He spoke politely, but the fire was still blazing in his blue eyes.
"Dreadful thing, Dumbledore," said Malfoy lazily, taking out a long roll
of parchment, "but the governors feel it's time for you to step aside.
This is an Order of Suspension - you'll find all twelve signatures on it.
I'm afraid we feel you're losing your touch. How many attacks have
there been now? Two more this afternoon, wasn't it? At this rate,
there'll be no Muggle-borns left at Hogwarts, and we all know what
an awful loss that would be to the school."
"Oh, now, see here, Lucius," said Fudge, looking alarmed,
"Dumbledore suspended - no, no - last thing we want just now
262
"The appointment - or suspension - of the headmaster is a matter for
the governors, Fudge," said Mr. Malfoy smoothly. "And as
Dumbledore has failed to stop these attacks -"
"See here, Malfoy, if Dumbledore can't stop them," said Fudge, whose
upper lip was sweating now, "I mean to say, who can?"
"That remains to be seen," said Mr. Malfoy with a nasty smile. "But as
all twelve of us have voted -"
225
Hagrid leapt to his feet, his shaggy black head grazing the ceiling.
'An' how many did yeh have ter threaten an' blackmail before they
agreed, Malfoy, eh?" he roared.
"Dear, dear, you know, that temper of yours will lead you into trouble
one of these days, Hagrid," said Mr. Malfoy. "I would advise you not
to shout at the Azkaban guards like that. They won't like it at all."
"Yeh can' take Dumbledore!" yelled Hagrid, making Fang the
boarhound cower and whimper in his basket. "Take him away, an' the
Muggle-borns won' stand a chance! There'll be killin' next!"
"Calm yourself, Hagrid," said Dumbledore sharply. He looked at
Lucius Malfoy.
"If the governors want my removal, Lucius, I shall of course step aside
-"
"But -" stuttered Fudge.
"No!"growled Hagrid.
Dumbledore had not taken his bright blue eyes off Lucius Malfoy's
cold gray ones.
"However," said Dumbledore, speaking very slowly and clearly so that
none of them could miss a word, "you will find that I will
* 26$*
ummer was creeping over the grounds around the castle; sky and lake
alike turned periwinkle blue and flowers large as cabbages burst into
bloom in the greenhouses. But with no Hagrid visible from the castle
windows, striding the grounds with Fang at his heels, the scene didn't
look right to Harry; no better, in fact, than the inside of the castle,
where things were so horribly wrong.
Harry and Ron had tried to visit Hermione, but visitors were now
barred from the hospital wing.
226
"We're taking no more chances," Madam Pomfrey told them severely
through a crack in the infirmary door. "No, I'm sorry, there's every
chance the attacker might come back to finish these people off . . ."
With Dumbledore gone, fear had spread as never before, so that the
sun warming the castle walls outside seemed to stop at the mullioned
windows. There was barely a face to be seen in the school
* 265*
that didn't look worried and tense, and any laughter that rang through
the corridors sounded shrill and unnatural and was quickly stifled.
Harry constantly repeated Dumbledore's final words to himself "I will
only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me... Help will
always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it." But what good
were these words? Who exactly were they supposed to ask for help,
when everyone was just as confused and scared as they were?
Hagrid's hint about the spiders was far easier to understand the
trouble was, there didn't seem to be a single spider left in the castle to
follow. Harry looked everywhere he went, helped (rather reluctantly)
by Ron. They were hampered, of course, by the fact that they weren't
allowed to wander off on their own but had to move around the castle
in a pack with the other Gryffindors. Most of their fellow students
seemed glad that they were being shepherded from class to class by
teachers, but Harry found it very irksome.
One person, however, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the
atmosphere of terror and suspicion. Draco Malfoy was strutting
around the school as though he had just been appointed Head Boy.
Harry didn't realize what he was so pleased about until the Potions
lesson about two weeks after Dumbledore and Hagrid had left, when,
sitting right behind Malfoy, Harry overheard him gloating to Crabbe
and Goyle.
"I always thought Father might be the one who got rid of
Dumbledore," he said, not troubling to keep his voice down. "I told you
he thinks Dumbledore's the worst headmaster the school's ever
227
*266*
had. Maybe we'll get a decent headmaster now. Someone who won't
want the Chamber of Secrets closed. McGonagall won't last long,
she's only filling in ......
Snape swept past Harry, making no comment about Hermione's
empty seat and cauldron.
"Sir," said Malfoy loudly. "Sir, why don't you apply for the
headmaster's job?"
"Now, now, Malfoy," said Snape, though he couldn't suppress a thinlipped
smile. "Professor Dumbledore has only been suspended by the
governors. I daresay he'll be back with us soon enough."
"Yeah, right," said Malfoy, smirking. "I expect you'd have Father's
vote, sir, if you wanted to apply for the job - I'll tell Father you're the
best teacher here, sir -"
Snape smirked as he swept off around the dungeon, fortunately not
spotting Seamus Finnigan, who was pretending to vomit into his
cauldron.
"I'm quite surprised the Mudbloods haven't all packed their bags by
now," Malfoy went on. "Bet you five Galleons the next one dies. Pity
it wasn't Granger -"
The bell rang at that moment, which was lucky; at Malfoy's last
words, Ron had leapt off his stool, and in the scramble to collect bags
and books, his attempts to reach Malfoy went unnoticed.
"Let me at him," Ron growled as Harry and Dean hung onto his arms.
"I don't care, I don't need my wand, I'm going to kill him with my bare
hands -"
"Hurry up, I've got to take you all to Herbology," barked Snape over
the class's heads, and off they marched, with Harry, Ron, and Dean
bringing up the rear, Ron still trying to get loose. It was only
* 261*
228
safe to let go of him when Snape had seen them out of the castle and
they were making their way across the vegetable patch toward the
greenhouses.
The Herbology class was very subdued; there were now two missing
from their number, Justin and Hermione.
Professor Sprout set them all to work pruning the Abyssinian
Shrivelfigs. Harry went to tip an armful of withered stalks onto the
compost heap and found himself face-to-face with Ernie Macmillan.
Ernie took a deep breath and said, very formally, "I just want to say,
Harry, that I'm sorry I ever suspected you. I know you'd never attack
Hermione Granger, and I apologize for all the stuff I said. We're all in
the same boat now, and, well -"
He held out a pudgy hand, and Harry shook it.
Ernie and his friend Hannah came to work at the same Shrivelfig as
Harry and Ron.
"That Draco Malfoy character," said Ernie, breaking off dead twigs,
"he seems very pleased about all this, doesn't he? D'you know, I think
he might be Slytherin's heir."
"That's clever of you," said Ron, who didn't seem to have forgiven
Ernie as readily as Harry.
"Do you think it's Malfoy, Harr