Harry Potter: Dudley From LOTM - 3446

Chapter 346: Speculation

"So that is what this is about."

"How can the Auror Office get away with this? I am telling my family exactly what they have done. My dad will go straight to the Minister and lodge a complaint."

"This is terrifying. Has the Ministry really become this lawless?"

Murmurs broke out all along the corridor. Scrimgeour’s face grew darker and darker.

"Sharp‑tongued little brats," he said coldly. "I will get to the bottom of those matters."

"Instead of abusing your authority, you might try doing some actual work," Harry shot back.

"Have you caught Sirius Black? Have you caught Grindelwald? Have you caught Voldemort?" Dudley added.

At those three names, everyone nearby sucked in a breath.

Even the Aurors turned a shade paler.

Every witch and wizard Dudley had just listed was the stuff of nightmares.

"Ministry business is none of your concern," Scrimgeour snapped. He threw down the words and stalked off the train.

Dudley narrowed his eyes.

In that brief clash, he had seen it again: a thread of black aura coiling around Scrimgeour’s body.

Before long, the Aurors all left the carriage. Lupin raised his wand and repaired the damage to the train.

The four of them returned to their compartment. Not long after, the Hogwarts Express shuddered back into motion, and Lupin came in as well, resuming his place by the window.

"All right?" he asked.

"We are fine. Just cold," Hermione said, hunching her shoulders.

Lupin opened his battered case, took out a paper bag of chocolate, broke it into pieces and handed them round.

"Eat. It will help," he said.

They exchanged a look, then began to nibble.

Warmth spread through them almost at once, rich and soothing. The heaviness in their chests eased. Their fingers stopped aching with chill.

Lupin’s eyes moved from face to face, lingering a little longer on Harry.

"You should not have clashed with the Ministry," he said. "The Dementors may have overstepped by entering the carriages, but so long as you do not provoke them, they finish their inspection and leave."

"That is assuming they intend to leave. We had no notice of any inspection at all," Ron muttered.

"Exactly. What if they were not sent by the Ministry? If we had waited until we couldn't fight back, it would have been too late," Harry said.

"You are overthinking this," Lupin said after a pause. "Dementors are under Ministry control. They do not act without orders."

"And if there is a traitor inside the Ministry?" Dudley said, voice flat. "That is hardly unheard of, is it? I would rather keep my own life in my own hands."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione nodded quickly.

Lupin had no answer to that.

Silence fell over the compartment.

They all had a hundred things they wanted to discuss, but with Lupin sitting right there, it was not the time. Now that he was awake, they could hardly start throwing up privacy charms again without making matters worse.

Outside, the downpour drummed on the windows. The steady rattle of rain filled the carriage with a strange mix of noise and stillness.

Before long, the train slowed and came to a final halt.

A quick glance through the rain‑smeared glass confirmed it: they were back at Hogwarts at last.

Students began filing off the train. Dudley and the others pulled on their robes and, after saying goodbye to Professor Lupin, stepped down onto the platform.

"Do you really think there is a traitor in the Ministry?" Harry asked.

"I do not know. But something is definitely wrong with Scrimgeour," Dudley said.

"He feels completely brainless now. No emotional intelligence, no actual intelligence," Hermione said sourly.

"Should we tell the Ministry what we have noticed?" Ron frowned. "Scrimgeour might be under some kind of influence. I can feel it too."

"And you think they would believe you?" Harry said helplessly.

"Belief is one thing," Ron persisted. "They should at least investigate."

"If they were capable of finding the problem themselves, we would not be in the middle of it," Dudley said, shaking his head.

They climbed into one of the horseless carriages and set off towards the castle.

All four of them stiffened at the same moment.

That cold aura was back.

They leaned out to peer through the rain and saw them: two towering black figures drifting on either side of the Hogwarts gates.

Dementors.

"What in Merlin’s name is the Ministry playing at? They have actually put Dementors at the school?" Ron said, face twisted.

"Are we students or prisoners?"

Dudley drew his head back in and said nothing.

A thought had just cut through him like ice.

Was Scrimgeour only going after him because of the Dementor that had died in Surrey, with everything since then nothing more than escalating retaliation? Or had he been Dudley’s enemy from the very beginning?

Layered on top of that was the way Scrimgeour felt now, like someone quietly eroded by the side effects of a powerful Sealed Artifact along the Abyss Pathway. It led Dudley inevitably to one particular group.

The organisation that collected Sealed Artifacts in the dark.

Cole had been unable to trace them for a long time now. The way they had moved against his family, swift and thorough, still nagged at Dudley. None of it felt natural.

"Could Scrimgeour be tied to them as well?" he wondered.

"Dudley? What are you thinking?" Harry asked, seeing the look on his face.

"I am thinking the waters behind Scrimgeour may be very deep indeed," Dudley said bluntly.

All three of the others sobered at once.

To have a wizard like that, head of the Auror Office, fixated on them made the pressure almost suffocating.

Ron felt it keenly. His father worked at the Ministry. If this mess splashed onto him as well, Ron did not know what he would do.

"We will be inside the castle from now on. We should be safe there, right?" Ron said.

"The Ministry’s hand has already reached Hogwarts," Dudley replied.

As he spoke, their carriage rolled under the stone arch of the front gate. The chill seeping from the Dementors made them all shiver.

"Maybe we should make the first move and seek out Sirius Black," Dudley went on. "The way the Ministry is handling his case feels wrong. They are hiding something."

Harry, Ron and Hermione stared at him, stunned.