Chapter 28: Chapter 28
It was a while before Harry Potter woke up following his ordeal. Without opening his eyes, he tried to get his bearings, but he could not tell where he was. The smell and the general feel of the air about him suggested that he was in a medical facility, but it certainly was not the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts Castle. There was hardly any noise to be heard, just a few people breathing. Ignoring the sounds of his of breaths, Harry guessed that there were two other people in the room, but who they were he could not tell.
One thing he knew for certain however was that he ached all over. Every muscle in his body seemed to be throbbing slightly in pain.
Deciding to discover just where he was, Harry opened his eyes.
"Mr Potter," said a man's voice as his eyes opened "Welcome back to the land of the living."
Harry blinked several times before making to sit up. Before he could shift too much, however, a hand was placed onto his chest and he was gently pushed back down onto the pillows.
"Easy there Harry," said Sarah Abbott, the one to whom the hand belonged. She raised a small crystalline goblet to his mouth and instructed "Drink this."
Without question Harry drank the potion contained within the goblet. It tasted awful, but almost immediately he felt the dull ache in his muscles ease off.
"How are you feeling?" asked Sarah.
"Alright," replied Harry "But what happened? Where am I?"
"You don't remember?"
Harry shook his head, no.
"You are in one of the healing rooms of the Department of Mysteries, Mr Potter," said the man's voice again. Harry looked over to see that it was the Unspeakable, Algernon Croaker.
That kicked Harry's mind into gear, and he asked eagerly "The exorcism, did it work? Is Voldemort's soul fragment gone from my body?"
"No and yes," replied Croaker.
"I don't understand," said Harry "How can that piece of Voldemort's soul be gone if the exorcism didn't work?"
"During the process of the exorcism the soul fragment managed to take control of your body, Mr Potter," said Croaker "Using its knowledge and your power it was able to break free of the magical barriers we had in place. We were then led on a merry chase throughout the Department of Mysteries until you yourself were able to regain control of your body. In doing so you forcefully ejected the soul fragment from your body and it was destroyed."
Harry shuddered "Voldemort had control over my body? How many people were killed?"
"Fortunately for us, no one died," replied Croaker "With you in at least partial control, any killing curse fired simply missed completely. Your courage and strength thwarted him that much right from the beginning. We had quite a few injuries when half of the Hall of Prophecies was brought crashing down on all our heads, and some of those injured were in a bad way, but nearly everyone has recovered. One or two will require a few more days' bed rest, but otherwise they're all fine. In fact the only person in the past twelve hours that we have had to worry about is you."
"Me?" asked Harry, who was trying to get his head around the fact that he had nearly killed so many people- 'No' he told himself 'Voldemort nearly killed them. I was doing my best to hold him off… I was the reason he hit no one with the killing curse…' He needed to keep on telling himself that, as the only other option would lead to a dark and spirally path of depression.
"The effort involved in fighting such a strong opponent for so long left you magically exhausted," explained Croaker "To be honest we are surprised that you have recovered so quickly. Usually it takes around a week to recover from the level of exhaustion you were suffering from."
"So how long have I been unconscious?" asked Harry.
"A little over forty eight hours," answered Sarah "It's Sunday evening."
Harry nodded thoughtfully before asking "So how did I get rid of the soul fragment? You said that I forced it out of my body, but how…?"
"It was a combination of your determination to not allow him to hurt anyone, and the added benefits of a room here in the Department of Mysteries that you managed to stumble into."
"What room is that?" asked Harry.
"It is a room dedicated to studying a magic that is older than any other," replied Croaker "A magic that is also perhaps the least understood, especially by the cruel and the wicked."
"And what is that magic?"
"Love" said Croaker "Through some strange means that we do not even begin understand, your entering that room, with so much ambient love-based magic in its atmosphere somehow weakened the soul fragment, and it began to scream as if in pain, allowing you to force it out."
Although that seemed vague, Harry thought he understood "So the evil creation of Voldemort could not survive contact with magic that was so pure… and innocent."
Croaker gave a single nod of his head in answer.
"Why don't I remember any of what happened?" asked Harry.
"It is to be expected," said Croaker "Magical exhaustion on the scale that you attained is usually accompanied by temporary memory loss, especially with the trauma of your situation. Now, I've kept your attention long enough. Get some rest."
And with that he left the room.
Harry remained quiet for a few long moments before turning his head towards Sarah and asking "So, what else have I missed?"
In answer, Sarah picked up a copy of that morning's Sunday Prophet and handed it to Harry.
The front page was dominated by a picture of Cornelius Fudge, standing alongside Dolores Umbridge, Madam Bones and number of others, all of whom Harry recognised from his trial before the Wizengamot.
Above this picture was the headline "Wizengamot Seeks Hogwarts Reform."
The article below read;
In a surprise move last night, the Wizengamot cast a majority vote in favour of instigating a reform to education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. So far the only known subject provided by the school's curriculum to be targeted is History of Magic.
In a press release immediately after the Wizengamot session concluded, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge stated "We have been concerned about the standards of education received by our children at Hogwarts for quite some time now. Our initial major concern was with Defence Against the Dark Arts, a subject which has been taught by a new teacher every year for quite some time, leading to disjointed learning for the students. However a far more serious threat to the quality of education at Hogwarts has been brought to the forefront of our concerns. History of Magic is regarded as a dull lesson by almost every student within the school, and it is not helped in the slightest that the subject is being taught by a ghost. Further investigations proved that since his death in the early eighteenth century, he has not kept up with increasing standards. Nor do the more recent events of our history make it into his lessons."
Wizengamot Elder and Governor of the Wizarding Examinations Authority Griselda Marchbanks had this to say – "I've always liked and respected Albus Dumbledore, the current Headmaster of Hogwarts, but one thing that we have always disagreed on is the teaching of History of Magic. Albus likes to insist that Professor Binns is as capable a teacher as anyone, but the examination results of the past few centuries tell a completely different story. No one bothers to take the subject for their N.E.W.T level examinations, instead electing to drop what they perceive as a tediously dull subject altogether."
When asked how the Ministry planned to rectify this travesty, Minister Fudge replied "Well to start with we voted in favour of casting a ban on ghosts holding teaching positions. Now that is not to say that a ghost cannot pass on knowledge or advice if it so chooses, but they can no longer be a professor at the school. Of course with it having been several centuries since anyone took a higher level qualification in the study of History of Magic, our choices for a new professor were extremely limited. In the end we elected to send in Dolores Umbridge, the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic, to act as Professor and to get a full assessment of the situation we now find ourselves in."
Lucius Malfoy, a close friend and confidant of the Minister for Magic had this to say – "It pleases me to no end to see that the Ministry is finally stepping in to take control of the seriously falling standards within Hogwarts School. Concerns about the running of the school have been voiced for years, but Albus Dumbledore's supporters' have always managed to block all attempts to make some serious headway with reforming the running of the school. This is the first positive step, of what I hope will be many, taken by the Wizengamot to address the quality of education provided by Hogwarts."
However, not all parties appeared pleased with the outcome of the vote. Elphias Dodge, a long-time supporter of Albus Dumbledore, commented "Quite frankly it is an absolute disgrace. Albus Dumbledore has always run a tight and secure ship at Hogwarts and it will only be after the Ministry interferes that trouble will begin."
To read more on this story, see pages two, three, four, five, six and seven.
To read about Elphias Dodge's alleged dealing with rogue goblins, see page eight.
"Holy crap," exclaimed Harry, setting the paper down "Fudge got her into Hogwarts."
Sarah nodded and said "They circumvented Dumbledore completely. When they tried with the Defence Against the Dark Arts post they were just trying to slip someone into Hogwarts. Now that they have put someone in there to investigate the state of things, Dumbledore really has little to no wriggle room. He might be powerful, but even he cannot block a Ministerial investigation."
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