Scrimgeour's gaze pinned Fudge's pallid face like a pair of nails.
The air throughout the Griffin's Nest grew thick with their silent confrontation.
Fudge's lips moved, but not a single word came out. He felt like someone pushed to the edge of a cliff, with both a bottomless abyss and a smooth road strewn with flowers below, yet the choice was not his to make.
Just then, Remus Lupin stepped forward.
He paid no attention to the corpse that had caused such an uproar, nor did he look at the reporters who were all but thrusting their camera lenses into his face.
He simply walked to the very front of the platform, his voice gentle, yet carrying a power that could soothe people's hearts.
"The final part of the graduation ceremony."
He announced it.
"Set sail."
The thirty-odd graduates seemed oblivious to the chaos around them. Their attention shifted instantly from the cold corpse back to their headmaster.
From their uniform pockets, they took out neatly folded magical paper cranes.
They bowed their heads and, with an almost reverent air, poured their unspoken wishes and goals into those little pieces of paper.
"To become an Auror who can protect my family."
"To stop Mum from crying because of me."
"To join St. Mungo's and research safer treatments for werewolves."
Then Lupin raised his hand.
"Release."
A gentle command.
More than thirty paper cranes broke free of their owners' palms at once, taking wing with a faint glow. They did not scatter, but circled above Diagon Alley, gathering together.
One, ten, thirty...
Then, from the windows of the Griffin's Nest, from the rooftops of the surrounding shops, and from the hands of the Marauders Power Company employees stationed in advance among the crowd, hundreds upon thousands of identical magical paper cranes