Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix [194]
“Well, mostly yes, Harry. But, as I’m sure you’ve found out by now, all Animagi are connected through telepathy. I could hear your cry for help loud and clear.”
With the end of that sentence, they had reached the entrance to the Great Hall. Dumbledore threw open the doors of the Great Hall, revealing all of Hogwarts school… everyone except the four of them that is. Harry, Ron and a very confused looking Hermione sat down at the Gryffindor table, and Dumbledore ran to the head of the room. Just as he sat down in his great chair, though, he sat up again, to give his speech.
“Once again… another year has passed us, quickly for some… not fast enough for others,” he said, looking at Fred and George’s general direction. “We have all accomplished much this year, and you should all be proud of what you have done, no matter how large or small you may think your accomplishments were.”
There was some applause, and he began again.
“Also, I would like to announce that the new Minister of Magic is in this room right now.”
Everyone excitedly looked at the teachers at the front of the room. Everyone had been waiting for this moment for a long time. Harry tallied off the teachers than ran in his head, seeing which ones ran for the position, and which ones didn’t. But, he deduced quickly, none of them ran… none of them except for…
“Me,” said Dumbledore. There was an explosion of applause, and everyone in the room (except for some of the Slytherins) stood up and cheered. It was accolade like Harry had never seen before. Had all of them really wanted Dumbledore to win? Not that he had any doubt in his mind that Dumbledore was, by far, the best candidate.
“Yes, yes… and, for my first acts as Minister of Magic, I hereby decree these three things! Number one: school shall begin one week later than usual… I think we could all use a bit more vacation.”
There was applause and whistles coming from all over. Even the Slytherins cheered for Dumbledore this time. In fact, the only ones who weren’t applauding were Fred and George.
“Oh man,” they said, “the first time they give us extra vacation and we can’t take advantage of it!”
“Second!” Dumbledore continued. “I hereby allow all Hogwarts students to take their wands home over the Summer holiday, and allow them to use whatever magic they want… as long as its not an illegal spell.”
If Harry thought the cheering for the last decree had been huge, it was nothing compared to this. Once again, only Fred and George looked miserable.
“And lastly,” said Dumbledore, “I will NOT allow any more of these disgusting cover-ups of Voldemort’s terrible and inhuman acts of violence!”
There was no applause. Everyone had expected some sort of new and fun gift, this took them totally by surprise.
“And as my first way of not covering up his actions, I shall tell you the reason why I am late to this feast.”
“Oh no,” though Harry to himself. “He’s going to say what happened…”
“There was an attack on three students and a teacher earlier, and it was done by none other than Voldemort himself, along with one of his cohorts. If it had not been due to some extreme bravery by certain students… more than one member of this school would have died in that past two hours.”
Everyone in the room turned white and began frantically looking around the room to see who was missing. That would be the person that was dead. Harry put his head down, anticipating the moment when they would figure it out. It wasn’t long before Colin’s little brother, Dennis, stood up and screamed.
“COLIN!” he yelled at the top of his lungs until he was red in the face. The tiny boy ran out of the room crying, everybody in the room watching him go.
“Yes,” said Dumbledore, “Colin Creevey is dead. Though many of you may not have known him, I can assure you, he died the most honorable of deaths: sacrificing his own life so that another may live. So like Cedric Diggory last year, let us all raise our glasses to Colin… Colin Creevey!”
“To Colin!” everyone in the room said at the same time. Even though it was by far