Umbridge looked at the High Council and said with a certain amount of defiance. "The Minister said he chose me because I was exactly the person needed for the position, so that the children would learn what the Ministry needed for them to know so they could survive in the magical world."
"So the Minister wanted the children of the wizarding world unable to defend themselves." Delacour sounded surprised.
"That it what Aurors are for." Umbridge countered. "They defend the people of the wizarding world from those who want to kill them. The people of the magical world should only have to worry about defending themselves from Boggarts and the like."
"But Aurors can't be everywhere," Lord Perrivor pointed out. "Not to mention the fact that new Aurors have to be trained and they need to know the basics of how to defend themselves from more creatures than simple boggarts. You taught no practical spell casting so how were the children to learn the spells. Merlin help the magical world if you had managed to last more than a year."
"They can read, that gave them all they needed to know." Umbridge persisted. "Besides, the students who took their OWLs and NEWTs scored the highest Hogwarts ever had during my tenure."
"Only because of the DA," Harry put in, unwilling to let the toad claim all his hard work. "I can prove that the only ones who scored exceptionally well on either the OWLs or NEWTs were those in the DA. The rest failed or barely passed and that's probably because they had prior training at home."
Umbridge just glared hatefully at Harry, but made no comment.
"Umbridge, where did you get the Blood Quill from?" Delacour asked his next question. "It is a Class 1 Restricted item. It is used solely for magical contracts requiring a blood signature and as such only the Ministry's Legal offices and Gringotts are allowed to be in possession of one. Was it supplied by the Minister?"
"No, the Minister did not supply it. I took it from the Auror evidence lockup. It had been there for over fifty years, so I knew no one would miss it." Umbridge admitted. "I knew I was going to need something to control the more stubborn children and pain has always been a powerful motivator."
"So Fudge didn't suggest you bring anything to as you said control the more stubborn children?" Delacour wanted to know.
Umbridge tried to avoid answering, but the truth spell forced her to. "No, the minister knew nothing about how I intended to control the more stubborn children like Potter. I think he expected the decrees to keep them in line since no one wanted the stigma of being expelled from Hogwarts following them around. I knew better though. I've seen children like that brat Potter before. You have to rule them with fear to keep them in line."
"I think that we all on the council are pleased that no matter how drunk with power and love of his position Fudge was he at least didn't stoop to knowingly condoning the torture of children." Lord Longrim put in. "Though he should have picked his underlings better. This makes what three members of your staff Cornelius, who have proven to be a liability?"
Of Men and Mice
Umbridge's testimony had taken about two hours. It would've gone quicker if the toad hadn't felt the need to choose her words with such care forcing Delacour to repeat or rephrase every question until he got the whole truth out of her. The woman was trying to avoid admitting to any more crimes than she already had. Harry personally considered it a wasted effort, given she probably wasn't going to see the outside of Azkaban while she was still alive. Given that fact what were a few more years added on to her sentence?
The High Council decided to call for a lunch break after Umbridge was escorted from the witness chair. As soon as they did the configuration of the room changed. Along one wall a table with all kinds of different food appeared and as soon as the members of the court headed toward it, to serve themselves, the chairs were replaced by table and chair sets of varying sizes around the room.
Harry chose one of the two seater tables against the far wall as did Dantes, though not the same table.
For the most part Dumbledore left Harry alone during lunch however Dantes was another matter. Having recognized the House badge on Dantes' robes as that of Ravenclaw; Dumbledore felt he needed to speak with him. If he could get the current Head of the House Ravenclaw on his side, Hogwarts would be a lot easier to run. Knowing how difficult it was to find a copy of the charter that had ceded control of Hogwarts to the people of Magical Britain, Dumbledore doubted that new Lord Ravenclaw had read it. It had taken Dumbledore months to locate the copy that was kept at Hogwarts and he had started looking for it when Fudge had tried to take over his school. The Headmaster was determined prevent the Ministry from ever gaining control of Hogwarts again and with Dantes' help as one of the Founder's heirs, the Ministry's influence would be all but eliminated.
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