Dumbledore smiled at a few people before they realised they had been staring at him. Soon, normalcy returned to the room, but one could easily observe that everyone still had their subtle attention on Albus Dumbledore himself. Such was the stature of the man. He always had the attention on himself.
Albus Dumbledore exchanged a brief nod with the old man following behind him before he continued moving towards Edmund and Antonio. Antonio recognised the man. He was the head of one of the four most powerful families of Wizarding Britain. Alarac Longbottom.
The four families- Potter, Black, Malfoy, and Longbottom were the most powerful and influential families of Wizarding Britain. These were informally called the Tier one families. The families at the top of the chain. The top powers. Each family had five votes, the highest any family had.
Then came the Tier two families. Families like Bones, Lestrange, Greengrass belonged to this category. Each of these families had 3 votes each. As a group these families had the highest number of votes.
Then came the Tier three families. They were the least influential in power but the highest in number. Families like Sinistra, Crabbe, Goyle, and Abbott belonged to this category. And very soon, the Olario family was going to be included in this list, and the Marius family would be wiped off from it. Each of these families had one vote each.
Families were not the only ones who had the right to vote in the Wizengamot. Many other people, mostly senior ministry officials, also had voting powers.
The Minister of Magic himself had five votes, equivalent to a Tier 1 family.
Two department heads, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and the Head of the Department of Mysteries had three votes each.
One point to note was that the Department of Mysteries was so mysterious that its head rarely attended a Wizengamot meeting. Unless the matter was of extreme importance, the Department of Mysteries kept to itself.
The Chief Warlock also had three votes.
Apart from them, every other department head and the Head Auror had one vote each. The Headmaster of Hogwarts had three votes, while the Vice Headmistress had one vote. This arrangement had been set up by the four founders. Hogwarts served as the premier school of Wizarding Britain and almost every child of a pure blood magical family studied in Hogwarts. Given this circumstance, participation of headmaster and vice headmaster in Wizengamot was a norm that everyone accepted.
"Headmaster Dumbledore," Edmund Bones said with a polite smile in greeting as soon as Dumbledore was close enough to hear him.
Despite the ideological differences between the two, despite the fact that Edmund vehemently opposed many of Dumbledore's thoughts and actions, despite the fact that the two had been at odds on many issues, despite the fact that Edmund had spoken quite a lot about Albus Dumbledore, definitely not great things, when Antonio had been present, there was respect in Edmund's voice towards Dumbledore.
Even Antonio would have to agree that Dumbledore was a living legend of Wizarding Britain. He commanded reverence from the populace. There was this aura, this sensation surrounding him that almost forced people to respect him. And this same respect was showing on Edmund's face.
"Lord Bones," Dumbledore spoke only after he had arrived and stopped in front of the duo. "I hope you are doing well."
"Yes," Edmund nodded. "I am doing absolutely fine."
"How are you doing?" he questioned further. "How are things at Hogwarts? Has normalcy returned to the school?"
"I am extremely sorry and pained at what happened at Hogwarts," Edmund added. "Hopefully we can bring those monsters to justice as soon as possible."
"I am also doing fine, Lord Bones," Dumbledore replied. "And things are almost back to normalcy in Hogwarts. Classes have resumed as per the time table. Only the weekly trip to Hogsmeade remains suspended."
"Though the students would take some time to recover from the shock. We are working on helping them." As if reading Edmund's mind, Dumbledore added further, "You will be able to meet your son very soon."
An embarrassed expression appeared on Edmund's face as he nodded awkwardly. He had not been able to meet his son and though he knew that Edgar was fine, he was a little anxious to meet him.
"As for bringing the perpetrators to justice," Dumbledore continued, "they will surely be brought to justice. No one will be spared. Under no condition."
Dumbledore said no more, but there was a kind of conviction in Dumbledore's voice. And this kind of conviction did not come if you were relying on the ministry to do justice. This kind of conviction only came if you believed in yourself.
Antonio inwardly raised his eyebrows as his belief that Dumbledore had killed the two Death Eaters increased even more.
Dumbledore finally turned and faced Antonio. The duo had interacted with each other last when Antonio had killed Alicus Marius in the honour duel. Dumbledore had openly expressed his displeasure regarding Antonio's action, especially the way he had impaled Alicus.
It had been a confrontational interaction, and Dumbledore had been quite displeased. He had even tried to reprimand Antonio, but Antonio had given in bluntly. He had not let the respect for the legendary figure of Dumbledore affect his response.
"Headmaster Dumbledore," Antonio greeted with a polite smile.
"Lord Olario," Dumbledore nodded, his eyes twinkling. "Congratulations on your formal induction."
There was a silence between the two before Dumbledore opened his mouth.
"It looks like your way of dealing with Death Eaters has triumphed over my way," he sighed. There was a little remorse, a little defeat, and a little regret in his voice. "They cannot be redeemed."
Antonio remained impassive.
"I do not have any specific method, Headmaster Dumbledore," Antonio said. "But if someone tries to kill me, I cannot think of ways to redeem them. Death Eaters understand only one language. A language of death and terror."
"They must be answered in the same manner," Antonio added.
Dumbledore nodded.
"You are correct," he sighed. "They understand only one language. And they will be answered in that language only."
Dumbledore gave the duo one final nod before he crisply walked away. Edmund and Antonio exchanged glances with each other.
They understood that Dumbledore's purpose in approaching them was to make that remark to Antonio. But then why did he have to make that remark?
The duo might have discussed it further, but it was time for the Wizengamot session to begin, and they moved towards the council hall.
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