Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix [96]
Harry went to bed that night feeling as though he were the happiest person on Earth. He had just won a Quidditch match, he was going to the dance with Cho, he was going to probably be head of a Dueling Club, and Sirius and Lupin were free, looking for a phoenix to help Harry see his mom again. He collapsed on his bed, crumpling up and throwing out the note under his pillow without even looking at it. He was in such a good mood, he didn’t even want to try and risk it by reading the note.
CHAPTER 19- The New Dueling Club
Harry woke up the nest morning still feeling happy, and went down to the Great Hall for breakfast, eager to get back to classes. When he came down, he was surprised to see Malfoy and a few other Slytherins crowded around a newspaper, grinning. Shouldn’t they be sulking about their loss?
“What are they so happy about?” asked Harry as he sat down next to Hermione and Ron.
“They’re reading about the attack on Azkaban over the newspaper,” said Ron, biting into his piece of toast.
“I hope there’s nothing in the article about us,” said Harry.
“Don’t worry,” said Hermione who had a copy of the newspaper, “there isn’t.” She handed it to Harry. He read it to himself:
Azkaban Attacked!
Last Saturday, the largest, and supposedly most secure, wizard prison in all of Europe was broken into and destroyed. Since there are no eyewitnesses to this crime, exact information is still sketchy. The only person, it seems, who knows what is going on is former Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, who admits to have been covering up attacks by You-Know-Who since last June.
“He’d been planning it for months,” Fudge is to have said at his resignation. “You-Know-Who had communication with the dementors. He told them to plant explosives all over, to destroy the entire place, allowing his Death Eaters to just walk right in, and free his imprisoned followers.” And that is just what happened. All criminals convicted of following You-Know-Who were freed, and are now wandering the country with him. All other prisoners are reported dead or missing.
The election for the new Minister of Magic will be held all day tomorrow. All ranking wizards are required to arrive, all other wizards of voting age are encouraged to come and vote as well.
“Cornelius Fudge resigned as Minister of Magic?” asked Harry after waiting a few seconds to take in what he’d read.
“Oh yeah,” said Ron. “It’s been all over the Wizard News lately.”
“He admitted to covering up You-Know-Who’s attacks,” said Hermione, looking over her Transfiguration book. “He said his reason for doing it was so that there wouldn’t be a panic, but everyone knows he should’ve said the truth anyway. We’ve lost a lot of time that we could’ve been using to get You-Know-Who and stop his attacks, especially the Azkaban raid. The people were so angry at him that he decided to resign before he was thrown out.”
“So who’s going to replace him?” asked Harry.
‘That’s what’s the election for,” said Ron. “I think the candidates are the head of the Improper Use of Magic Office: Mafalda Hopkirk, Dumbledore, of course, some other guy… Elbiret Mann, I think he’s the head of Invention of New Spells office, and some other guy… Zac Peeples I think… some nobody.”
“So who’s going to win?” asked Harry.
“Well, probably Dumbledore,” said Hermione, not looking up from her book. “Though Elbiret is a close match. He’s come up with some excellent spells that have saved people’s lives.”
“Ah yes, Elbiret. He’s the one who improved the weather charms to include raining cats and dogs, one of my most favorites.”
Harry turned around to see who was talking to him, and saw tiny Professor Flitwick.
“Oh hello professor,” said Harry, wondering why he was there.
“Harry,” said Professor Flitwick, “I need to talk to you about the Dueling Club meeting this Friday. I liked the idea you gave me the other day about having a tournament to see who the captain will be, and then having contests every week or so. Do you still want to do that?”
“Um,