The Self-Deceiving Fudge

The headmaster's office was fairly quiet, but there were plenty of people inside. Everyone could see several familiar faces, but with a few people who didn't get along also present, no one felt comfortable speaking and they all remained silent.

Dumbledore stood alone beside the desk, one hand braced against it as his knuckles tapped repeatedly on the surface, as if he were deep in thought.

Before this, Dumbledore had sent a letter to Fudge, the Minister for Magic.

Although he had only just left Hogwarts, he had no choice but to come back again.

The others seemed to be waiting for the owl as well. Some glanced at the others, while some stared at Peter Pettigrew, who had been Petrified in the middle of the room.

Peter was rather pitiful. After being brought to the headmaster's office, Snape had used a potion to undo the Petrification Curse, but Peter had then been forcibly given a few drops of Veritaserum. After answering several questions, he had been Petrified again by Dumbledore himself.

Magical portraits of past headmasters hung in the headmaster's office. They retained some of their owners' ways of thinking and could therefore offer the current headmaster advice.

"Oh dear, that boy looks dreadful."

"I'd say he deserves it. A traitor ought to meet such a fate!"

The words of an old headmaster with a goatee silenced the other portraits, because they felt he was right.

"You're a Black too?" Sirius Black looked blankly at the portraits on the wall and searched among them for a while.

At last, he spotted the old man with the goatee. "Ah, yes, I'm a Black."

"Not bad, boy. You've got guts! You haven't disgraced the noble House of Black or Slytherin."

That headmaster had also been a Black. He had remained headmaster