Harry Potter 05 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Dumbledore was not looking his way; he was continuing to look up at the obviously flustered Fudge.
    ‘Ah,’ said Fudge, who looked thoroughly disconcerted. ‘Dumbledore. Yes. You – er – got our – er – message that the time and – er – place of the hearing had been changed, then?’
    ‘I must have missed it,’ said Dumbledore cheerfully. ‘However, due to a lucky mistake I arrived at the Ministry three hours early, so no harm done.’
    ‘Yes – well – I suppose we’ll need another chair – I – Weasley, could you –?’
    ‘Not to worry, not to worry,’ said Dumbledore pleasantly; he took out his wand, gave it a little flick, and a squashy chintz armchair appeared out of nowhere next to Harry. Dumbledore sat down, put the tips of his long fingers together and looked at Fudge over them with an expression of polite interest. The Wizengamot was still muttering and fidgeting restlessly; only when Fudge spoke again did they settle down.
    ‘Yes,’ said Fudge again, shuffling his notes. ‘Well, then. So. The charges. Yes.’
    He extricated a piece of parchment from the pile before him, took a deep breath, and read out, ‘The charges against the accused are as follows:
    ‘That he did knowingly, deliberately and in full awareness of the illegality of his actions, having received a previous written warning from the Ministry of Magic on a similar charge, produce a Patronus Charm in a Muggle-inhabited area, in the presence of a Muggle, on the second of August at twenty-three minutes past nine, which constitutes an offence under Paragraph C of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, 1875, and also under Section 13 of the International Confederation of Warlocks’ Statute of Secrecy.
    ‘You are Harry James Potter, of number four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey?’ Fudge said, glaring at Harry over the top of his parchment.
    ‘Yes,’ Harry said.
    ‘You received an official warning from the Ministry for using illegal magic three years ago, did you not?’
    ‘Yes, but –’
    ‘And yet you conjured a Patronus on the night of the second of August?’ said Fudge.
    ‘Yes,’ said Harry, ‘but –’
    ‘Knowing that you are not permitted to use magic outside school while you are under the age of seventeen?’
    ‘Yes, but –’
    ‘Knowing that you were in an area full of Muggles?’
    ‘Yes, but –’
    ‘Fully aware that you were in close proximity to a Muggle at the time?’
    ‘ Yes ,’ said Harry angrily, ‘but I only used it because we were –’
    The witch with the monocle cut across him in a booming voice.
    ‘You produced a fully-fledged Patronus?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Harry, ‘because –’
    ‘A corporeal Patronus?’
    ‘A – what?’ said Harry.
    ‘Your Patronus had a clearly defined form? I mean to say, it was more than vapour or smoke?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Harry, feeling both impatient and slightly desperate, ‘it’s a stag, it’s always a stag.’
    ‘Always?’ boomed Madam Bones. ‘You have produced a Patronus before now?’
    ‘ Yes ,’ said Harry, ‘I’ve been doing it for over a year.’
    ‘And you are fifteen years old?’
    ‘Yes, and –’
    ‘You learned this at school?’
    ‘Yes, Professor Lupin taught me in my third year, because of the –’
    ‘Impressive,’ said Madam Bones, staring down at him, ‘a true Patronus at his age … very impressive indeed.’
    Some of the wizards and witches around her were muttering again; a few nodded, but others were frowning and shaking their heads.
    ‘It’s not a question of how impressive the magic was,’ said Fudge in a testy voice, ‘in fact, the more impressive the worse it is, I would have thought, given that the boy did it in plain view of a Muggle!’
    Those who had been frowning now murmured in agreement, but it was the sight of Percy’s sanctimonious little nod that goaded Harry into speech.
    ‘I did it because of the Dementors!’ he said loudly, before anyone could interrupt him again.
    He had expected more muttering, but the silence that fell seemed to be somehow denser than before.
    ‘Dementors?’ said Madam Bones after a moment, her thick eyebrows rising until her monocle looked in danger of falling out. ‘What do you mean, boy?’
    ‘I mean there were two Dementors down that alleyway and they went for me and my cousin!’
    ‘Ah,’ said Fudge again, smirking unpleasantly as he looked around at the Wizengamot, as though inviting them to share the joke. ‘Yes.