Chapter 90 - Dementors! Part-2 (Patreon)

{Great Hall, Hogwarts}

{10th Sep 1991}

{3rd Person POV}

*Bang*

"Attention!" Albus shouted. The blast from his wand was carefully controlled so that every eye automatically turned to him. He let the moment settle in for a moment before he began speaking, "I know many of you are confused about what happened, but it was prudent to gather yourself in one place for security precautions."

Albus looked around all the students and then proceeded to give a vague explanation, just enough to fuel the rumors with countless possibilities, "Someone had infiltrated the Castle and our security has been breached, to account for all possibilities the castle would be put on lockdown for the night and searched while the teachers would patrol the great hall."

A string of gasps filled the hall at his explanation, since none of the students had encountered black he didn't have to name him especially, the rumor mill would do its work.

"Before your imaginations run wild, a good night of sleep would help considering your classes would continue like normal-" A series of groans filled the room so Albus raised his voice and continued, "- no one is permitted to leave the Great Hall for the night."

Albus then lifted his wand and waved it in a gentle arc, it was one of the most neutral wand movements that he was comfortable with and only his tight grip over his mana made the next step possible. Conjuration was one of the most difficult of magics, it was a branch of transfiguration where you transfigured air itself into your targets.

Even Conjuration is divided into two magical branches. The first is the like for like conjuration which is taught at Hogwarts. In this when you conjure an object, you take the same amount of air molecules into account. It doesn't cause much when done in small quantities, but in enclosed areas where there is a shortage of air itself, conjuration could be dangerous.

The spell he used was the second type of Conjuration, he took just one air molecule per object and then used his mana to duplicate the air molecule and then transfigured the 'conjured' air into bedrolls. The whole process was complicated in reality but to the students, it looked like the objects just popped out of nowhere, and now they had a place to sleep.

Normally Albus would not have wasted this much mana on conjuring these beds, a word to the house elves and they would arrange this same structure. His main objective was to calm everyone down, although most of the student population were adults now, a fear of unknown dark wizards persisted. With his showcase of high-level magic, and the ridiculous explanations that the Hogwarts rumor mill would come up with, this whole tense situation would dissolve into bedtime gossip by tomorrow.

"Severus, can you follow me for a bit..." Albus canceled the soft Sonorus~ Charm that he was using and turned to instruct Severus. He then turned to Minerva and continued, "Minerva, discreetly check on both Rigel Black and Harry Potter, I don't think they know that it was Sirius that broke into the castle so it shouldn't be too bad."

Seeing Minerva nod he addressed the head of 4 houses, "Make sure no one leaves the Great Hall, if what I'm afraid comes to pass, we will need to be careful in the upcoming days. I'll go ahead and initiate the lockdown right after this..." Albus instructed, he paid little attention to Minerva and her follow-up response as a warning from the wards was already ringing in his mind.

'They came here faster than I expected...' Albus mused. He was banking on Cornelius's slow approach but it seems that Lucius has a hand in this.

"Come along Severus," Albus spoke and then he glided across the hall. Students were already claiming their spots. He quickly walked through the gates of the hall and after Severus followed him, he pointed his wand at the door and started waving it in an intricate arc.

Hogwarts was a castle designed for war, and although the wards didn't have the capabilities to kill the dementors, he could activate the revulsion wards to keep them from coming close to the castle. Cornelius would not be happy about being rejected straight away but then again this wasn't something he could butt in. He had already met the minister 3 times in the last week and knew the kind of pressure he was under.

*Clang Bang* *Clang Bang* *Clang Bang**Clang Bang* *Clang Bang* *Clang Bang*

The door the the Castle was locked as Albus activated the lockdown procedure, he wanted to check the hidden passageways through which Sirius could have sneaked in but that could only be pushed away for later.

"Make sure no one enters the Great Hall Severus, even if the aurors demand entry," Albus spoke before he started walking up the grand staircase.

"Professor Dumbledore-"

"-Headmaster-"

"-it true-"

"-Is Black back-"

...

The hundreds of paintings that adorned the Hogwarts walls kept asking questions, ones that Albus had no intention to answer. He swiftly made it back to his office, since there was no point in going along with Sirius's trail, he had to deal with the problem that would surely arrive through his floo.

He walked through his office door and came face to face with Cornelius Fudge's head peeking through his fireplace. The Minister of Magic was a portly man, he wore a circular hat on top of his head to hide his receding hairline. His face was set in a frown and as soon as Cornelius noticed Albus's arrival he immediately began demanding an audience.

"Let me through Dumbledore, this is not a situation that could be swept under the rug, by tomorrow this whole situation will be blown up in the Daily Prophet and I need answers," Cornelius demanded. His face went a little red as he blew through the statement he had prepared.

"Certainly Cornelius," Albus relented, he waved his wand allowing the wards to trip and the Minister of Magic walked through the fire. And as he expected, another man with long hair and a scowl permanently etched on his face walked through right on after him.

Albus could have blocked Lucius from walking in but right now he wanted to deal with both of them at the same time before he had to close the one passageway that he knew Sirius could have used.

"Why are my Aurors telling me that the Dementors are not able to cross the Hogwarts wards, we already talked about it Dumbledore, and the Governor's already approved the deployment-" Cornelius started but he was cut off by a simple wave of Albus's wand. The wand that had won against the terror of Gellert Grindelwald glinted and Cornelius's mouth snapped shut.

"I already told you Cornelius, no dementor would step foot inside the Hogwarts wards..."

...

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AN - Voldemort POV later today! I'm trying to resume the 2 chapters a day schedule, hopefully with at least 1 chapter every day! The holiday period made me a little lazy!