Douglas ignored the two of them and continued:
"I learned the truth about certain things from Sirius, but I didn't believe him at first, so I locked him up..."
Professor Sprout frowned and asked:
"Douglas, I remember you telling me that Mr. Potter spent almost the entire summer at your house. You let him and Black..."
Professor Sprout did not finish, but everyone understood what she meant.
Snape's eyes were practically blazing.
The Ministry officials drew their wands, glaring at Douglas.
Fudge wanted to say something to Dumbledore, but Dumbledore motioned for him to keep quiet for now.
Douglas was quite happy to explain things to his Head of House.
"Yes, Professor. I'm sorry I haven't told you about this."
Professor Flitwick said with a smile:
"Minerva knew about this, didn't she?"
During their last visit to the Three Broomsticks, Professor Flitwick had noticed that the two of them shared a secret, and it was certainly about Black. But he was not fond of gossip, so he had never approached either of them to ask.
Professor McGonagall nodded beside them, then said:
"Let's let Douglas finish first."
Douglas continued:
"Originally, I planned to hand Black over to Headmaster Dumbledore once term began. But..."
Fudge said disapprovingly:
"You should have notified the Ministry. You must understand that Black is a..."
Douglas glanced at him. An idea suddenly popped into his head, and he improvised:
"Then, at the start of term, Dementors went missing aboard the Hogwarts Express. That made me feel there was definitely more to this than met the eye. I asked Black, and he believed those Dementors had been won over by Voldemort..."
At the sound of Voldemort's name, gasps rang out around the office.
Fudge slammed his teacup down on the desk and snapped:
"Nonsense! Voldemort is dead!