Even those who had the utmost confidence in Dumbledore's abilities and decades of leadership couldn't avoid confronting one unavoidable, deeply troubling issue that lurked persistently in the back of every supporter's mind.
That is, Albus Dumbledore was already well over a hundred years old, old even by the stretched standards of wizarding long life.
Although he showed no signs of declining wisdom, failing memory, or diminishing magical power during his public appearances and official duties, maintaining his formidable reputation, no one who believed in Dumbledore and supported him would dare stake their lives on him winning a simple contest of longevity against the Dark Lord Voldemort.
Of course, no rational wizard or witch believed the inevitable war between the two opposing sides would ultimately be decided in such a shallow, almost laughably simplistic manner.
But if Voldemort proved despicable enough to use such cowardly tactics and in fact, throughout his entire life, Voldemort had shown such patient, insidious strategies that avoided direct confrontation.
He had deliberately and consistently avoided confronting Dumbledore face-to-face in direct magical combat. Instead, he cunningly used his fanatically loyal Death Eaters as disposable weapons to orchestrate devastating terrorist attacks from the shadows, throwing the entire wizarding world into escalating chaos and fear while he himself remained safely hidden from Dumbledore's reach.
This approach inevitably led to widespread concerns throughout the magical community that Voldemort was deliberately planning to simply wait for Dumbledore to eventually die of old age.
But Bryan Watson's appearance on the magical stage had completely reversed this situation.
Beyond his seemingly unfathomable magical prowess, Bryan had consistently displayed political wisdom, and strategic thinking that matched Dumbledore's. More importantly, he was nearly half a century younger than Voldemort himself, giving the forces of light a champion who could fight for decades to come.
With Bryan Watson's powerful presence standing beside Dumbledore, even if the wizarding world unavoidably fell into a lengthy period of darkness and chaos during the coming conflict, ordinary witches and wizards could still maintain hope for the future rather than falling into complete despair.
The wizarding world's order and society would ultimately return to some semblance of normalcy, rather than sliding into the abyss of darkness after Dumbledore inevitably grew too old to continue as their protector.
Sirius had pointed out the most crucial, hope-sustaining aspect of Bryan's presence, which immediately put both Arthur and Kingsley considerably more at ease in the cramped little office.
However, despite this reassurance, some problems and concerns still remained unresolved.
"But what exactly does Bryan plan to do with this bold public declaration?" Arthur asked worriedly, his face was wrinkled with concern.
He stared absently at a detailed Muggle car engine disassembly diagram he had enthusiastically posted on the opposite wall.
"He publicly criticized and condemned the Minister of Magic in the Daily Prophet, in front of thousands of readers throughout Britain—you know Fudge's style. He's definitely not a magnanimous wizard."
Even Sirius, with all his confidence in Bryan's abilities wouldn't seriously think that Bryan intended to completely break ties with Fudge and then proceed to slaughter Fudge along with all the pro-Fudge political forces and Ministry loyalists currently in the government.
Frowning slightly with concentration, Sirius turned his head to look thoughtfully at Arthur.
"After Bryan's interview was published this morning, Fudge's public approval ratings have completely tanked. There's no way he'll be elected to serve another term as Minister after this scandal."
"But the next Minister of Magic election isn't scheduled until next summer—" Kingsley interjected in his deep voice.
"That's still a whole year away. The current Minister certainly won't let Bryan off easily, and he definitely won't just sit idly by doing nothing, passively waiting to be ousted from his office next year when voters remember his failures."
That was undeniably true and logical, and even Sirius couldn't refute the sound reasoning behind it, much as he wanted to dismiss the concern.
Was Bryan trying to force Fudge into a corner, pressuring him to finally abandon his denial and join the anti-Voldemort alliance through sheer political necessity?
This tentative thought crossed Sirius's mind as a possibility, but he immediately shook his head, rejecting the notion. Bryan couldn't possibly be that naive or idealistic about Fudge's character.
"Dawlish!" came a sudden thunderous roar from somewhere outside in the corridor.
The completely unexpected yell caused all three men's expressions to change intensely, their faces turned pale with alarm.
"It's the Minister—" Kingsley identified immediately.
"Gather all your Hit Wizards together, immediately, without delay!" the furious voice commanded with rage.
As the three colleagues rushed urgently from the cramped little room into the narrow corridor and sprinted toward the Auror office with their robes flying behind them, they heard another sharp, commanding roar echoing from that direction, growing louder as they approached.
"I'm giving you exactly one hour to gather them! Not a minute more!"
Sirius, Arthur, and Kingsley ran down the corridor like the wind itself, pushing open the door with considerable force and bursting into the Aurors' place. They arrived just in time to witness Fudge, his face turning purple, roaring directly at the frightened and somewhat confused Dawlish who stood frozen behind his supervisor's desk.
Not only Dawlish appeared thoroughly panicky by this unexpected visit, but even the normally unflustered Rufus Scrimgeour sitting rigidly at his own desk across the office was looking at Fudge with deeply puzzled uncertainty.
Behind the half-open door at the main entrance to the Auror office, quite a few Ministry employees and curious officials had already crowded together in the doorway, pressing against each other—all those who had witnessed the furious Minister storming down from his office upstairs and had cautiously followed at a safe distance to observe the unfolding excitement and drama.
Clang!
Sirius burst through first, shouldering the door open wide. The moment he stepped boldly into the tense room, the absolutely raging eyes that Fudge's twisted round face immediately shot directly at him left Sirius momentarily stunned and breathless with shock.
He had never before seen the Minister of Magic display such a terrifying expression of murderous fury! He even looked ready to kill.
"Gather your men together—all of them!" Fudge commanded again.
Dawlish scrambled awkwardly from his seat, nearly tripping, and came around hastily to the front of his desk.
Facing the clearly enraged Minister of Magic in front of before him, Dawlish was so thoroughly frightened that beads of nervous sweat appeared among his short, stiff gray hair, beginning to trickle down his temples.
"Of course, absolutely no problem, Minister," Dawlish stammered fawningly. "But if I may ask, sir—what exactly are you planning to do with the Hit Wizards? What's the emergency?"
"What am I planning to do?" Fudge repeated incredulously, his voice was rising dangerously.
He didn't even bother looking at the trembling Dawlish directly, but instead glared at Sirius like a starving wolf spotting vulnerable prey, his bloodshot eyes were turning chillingly cold.
"Of course, I'm going directly to Hogwarts with all of you to personally arrest that treacherous scoundrel who has maliciously slandered the Ministry's reputation!"
It was as if an actual cold wind from the Arctic had swept violently through the previously warm Auror office. The entire room, which had been practically sweltering from the oppressive heat of Fudge's explosive fury just moments before suddenly fell into absolute, shocked silence.
Every person present seemed to be holding their breath.
Dawlish, having received his clear instructions directly from the Minister's mouth, didn't immediately move to obey but instead stood completely frozen in place like a statue, utterly at a loss for how to proceed with such an obviously problematic order.
In the heavy, uncomfortable silence that followed this declaration, Kingsley Shacklebolt's usually calm expression shifted subtly.
Using Sirius's taller body in front of him to block Fudge's direct line of sight, he discreetly caught Arthur's anxious eye across the room—Arthur being the only person currently present who didn't officially belong to the Auror office and thus had a legitimate excuse to leave.
Kingsley's lips moved subtly, forming silent words.
"Sorry, Minister—" Arthur said suddenly, clearing his throat nervously.
Having caught and understood Kingsley's urgent hint, Arthur pressed his lips together firmly, visibly suppressing his wildly trembling heart and racing pulse. He forced himself to speak in what he hoped was a calm voice:
"There's just been an urgent report of a serious incident involving massive toilet sewage backup at the Muggle neighborhood of Bethnal Green. Based on the magical signature, I'd bet my vault it's definitely those newly arrived foreign wizards causing chaos again. I really need to go handle this situation immediately before it escalates."
Fudge paid absolutely no attention to Arthur's words or departure, his tunnel vision was completely focused on Sirius. He remained engrossed, still staring at Sirius, so Arthur seized the opportunity and quickly slipped out of the increasingly tense Auror office.
"You actually want to arrest Bryan?" Sirius asked slowly.
He met Fudge's venomous gaze without flinching or showing even a hint of intimidation, and a trace of openly mocking smile began appearing on his face. He continued speaking in a deliberately provocative tone:
"On what specific legal grounds, exactly? Which particular law did Bryan violate that would justify his arrest? Or perhaps the Minister of Magic believes himself able to completely bypass our centuries-old legal system and throw someone directly into Azkaban prison without trial, based purely on personal vendetta?"
The veins on Fudge's flushed forehead visibly bulged at an alarming rate, pulsing with his elevated blood pressure. His expression became so dangerously furious and unhinged that Rufus watching coldly from the sidelines thought that Fudge would transform into a mindless, rabid werewolf the very next second and pounce on Black to tear him apart with his bare hands and teeth.
"Didn't you hear what I clearly said, Black?" Fudge asked in an extremely cold tone.
"Bryan Watson has slandered the Ministry of Magic with completely false and defamatory statements, causing severe damage to the Ministry's reputation. He must be brought to justice and stand trial before the Wizengamot assembly!"
"Oh, slandered the Ministry?" Sirius repeated mockingly. He laughed with open, unconcealed contempt.
"I suppose you're referring specifically to what Bryan truthfully said in his published Daily Prophet interview this morning. If merely stating obvious facts counts as illegal slander, Minister, then I sincerely suggest you take some personal time to visit the Leaky Cauldron pub, walk through Diagon Alley's shops, spend an afternoon in Hogsmeade village—basically go anywhere in the magical world where ordinary witches and wizards gather together and actually listen carefully to their unfiltered conversations about your administration.
Then you'll quickly discover just how remarkably moderate and restrained, Bryan's published statements in the newspaper really were compared to what people are actually saying about you in private."
For one moment, Sirius actually thought with a jolt of adrenaline that Fudge was going to pull out his wand and attack him right there in front of numerous witnesses. But fortunately for everyone's sake, Fudge ultimately managed to restrain his violent impulse.
His wild eyes remained intensely fixed on Sirius's calm face, breathing somewhat heavily through his flared nostrils like an enraged bull.
"Very well, Black. Very well indeed," Fudge said with forced control, his voice was shaking slightly. "I've long known that you and Watson are in cahoots together, you—"
"That seems completely irrelevant to the issue we're currently discussing, Minister," Sirius interrupted smoothly, his tone dripping with condescension.
"What we're discussing right now is your stated reason for attempting to arrest Bryan, and the justification you just cited is clearly legally untenable in any court. It wouldn't survive the first challenge."
A raging inferno of fury burned intensely in Fudge's increasingly clouded mind, his round, flushed cheeks were trembling visibly with suppressed emotion. Sirius's calm, dismissive words had undoubtedly pushed his explosive anger to yet another dangerous peak, bringing him dangerously close to losing complete control.
But paradoxically, at the same time, the logical challenge also helped his anger-clouded, increasingly irrational mind regain some small measure of necessary rationality and clear thinking.
If he wanted to throw Bryan Watson into Azkaban's darkest cell to keep eternal company with the soul-sucking Dementors and oh, how he desperately wanted that, he did indeed need a substantially more solid, legally defensible reason that would stand up to scrutiny.
If he couldn't find a legitimate excuse proving that Bryan had actually violated some wizarding law in an obvious way, then expecting Bryan to humbly submit to the Ministry and Minister of Magic's authority and voluntarily march himself to prison would be ridiculously optimistic even in fantasy.
"Arresting Watson... huff, because—" Fudge panted heavily.
"You want a proper legal reason, Black? Fine, I'll give you one. Bryan Watson has used the forbidden Fiendfyre curse multiple times in public, and his reckless actions have caused numerous casualties—"
"I must remind you of the facts, Minister—" came an unexpected voice.
To absolutely everyone's astonishment, it was actually Rufus Scrimgeour himself, standing quietly to the side until now who suddenly interrupted Fudge's accusation mid-sentence.
He met Fudge's shocked, incredulous gaze calmly, maintaining perfect professional neutrality, while his own tawny eyes revealed a faint disappointment and contempt toward Fudge.
"The specific spell that Bryan Watson has used multiple times in various documented incidents is officially called the 'Spirit Fire Curse,' not the forbidden Fiendfyre," Scrimgeour said with authority.
"Remember, Minister? The Ministry of Magic itself publicly vouched for this classification and validated Watson's use of the modified spell.
As for the alleged casualties you just mentioned, from what we can clearly see in all official records and documented evidence, this tragic loss of life seems to have occurred only once, last summer at the Quidditch World Cup catastrophe and the Department has already officially blamed all those casualties on the dark witch Cliodna and her terrorist forces."
Looking at the now completely Cornelius Fudge, Scrimgeour continued with slight satisfaction:
"Ah, of course, the werewolf Fenrir Greyback did meet his end under Watson's 'Spirit Fire Curse'. If you insist on holding Bryan Watson accountable for that—"
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