Harry Potter: Blood of the Dragon

Chapter 162 - 162. Corruption

*Ring Ring... Ring Ring...*

"Ah, let me eat in peace." Adam cursed. It was the next morning. They were eating breakfast when the phone rang. It had been ringing for a while now. ??

He got up to pick it up. "Ah, Ma'am, yes I'm fine, Magnus is okay too. Yes, I'll call him over."

"MAG, It's the queen, she wants to talk to you," Adam shouted.

"She's fast," Magnus muttered and ran to the living room where the telephone was.

He started talking, "Hello, Granny Liz. How are you?... Yes, I'm fine too, no injuries... Don't worry, there were no names of the Royals, but there are a lot of nobles and powerful people in the governments across the world. So take my warning, don't try to help anybody, because I'm going to make sure all the people named in that folder get punished... Right, I know they will try to save themselves, it'll only expose them. Okay, take care."

He hung up the phone and returned to the dining table. He had told everything to his parents about how it all started and it led to this.

"He really dug his own grave," Grace muttered.

~This he will.~ Magnus thought to himself.

"Okay mum, I will return to Hogwarts. I might get called back later to testify in the court." He got up and received a kiss on his forehead from Grace.

"Bye, sweetie. Take care."

Then Abe teleported him outside the school. From there he entered the school with the help of Hagrid. The half-giant was as cheerful as always. Magnus sometimes wondered, why was it that some of the nicest people he had met were all half-humans. Hagrid, Remus, Flitwick, Martha... well she was a cat and something else.

"Blimey Magnus, I read ter newspaper today. Terrific work yeh did, slimy old wizards like 'im are shame ter wizardin' world. Come, headmaster wants ter see yeh." Hagrid led the way while talking in his strange accent. It was like a hint of newness in the old castle.

Soon, he arrived at Dumbledore's office. "Go on in, he's waitin' fer yeh."

Magnus said his bye to Hagrid and spoke random lemon related words, soon it opened with his 7th try. Magnus knew Dumbledore could open it from his office and he was most likely seeing him, but probably liked seeing Magnus struggle to guess the word.

As soon as Magnus entered, he was greeted with a hug from Fawkes. The red bird flew directly over his shoulder and hugged his head with his wings.

"Haha, what's gotten into you, Fawkes? Are you grateful that I got you a girlfriend?" He asked while petting his head.

"REEE..." Fawkes nodded his head.

"Alright, I am happy for you. Now don't rush it and take it slow, I've heard many adults saying this whenever giving advice." Magnus said and looked at Dumbledore.

"How are you, professor? How's life treating you?" He asked jokingly.

Dumbledore chuckled, "Tell me, how is it that anything you do makes big news? It was just a small article, and it led to all this."

Magnus shrugged his shoulder, "How would I know. And I am pretty famous, I bet if I even sneezed in public it would be in the papers. Don't worry, professor, now that Minister on our side, we will make sure we press the terrorists down. What we need to do right now is audit the ministry, weed out all the spies and make it more independent from the control of just a few families. Only then can the ministry be neutral."

"I have been trying to do that for years," Dumbledore said. It was true, he had been trying so hard to tackle the polarisation of magical society and the ministry.

"Well, you didn't have me. Although you had a very great reputation earned by defeating Grindelwald, you reduced that reputation by entering petty politics. It gave people the chance to dirty your name. A good role model is one that inspires people, even when he's not in front of them.

"Due to my blood and my royal status, to most people, I look mysterious and unapproachable, that's what keeps them thinking about me, and they keep on admiring me. I also don't lack money and influence. You were just slow and less decisive." Magnus said what he thought about Dumbledore's own fight.

"I guess the new generation is always bound to surpass the old one. You should go to your class now, if I get the news about you being needed in the muggle investigation I will take you there." Dumbledore said and let him leave.

After Magnus left, Dumbledore went to a corner of his room, where a sink-like thing was floating. It was the Pensieve. He took out a small vial from the cupboard and put it in the magical artefact.

"Where did I go wrong with Tom?" He muttered and drowned his face in it.

...

By now, the third class was already in the session. It was Charms class so Magnus simply entered the classroom, disturbing Flitwick's lesson. Magnus had no need to come here though, but Ragnar was here, and he wanted to help him get good at Charms.

"Ah! Welcome back, Mr Pendragon. You did a splendid job this time, truly what we expected from someone related to the greatest wizard and the king." Flitwick praised him.

*CLAPS*

All of a sudden everyone started clapping for him. There were Slytherin and Ravenclaw students together.

Magnus embarrassingly thanked them and took a seat beside Ragnar. "Did the newspaper come in?"

Severus handed him two different ones. One was Magnus' own paper, called Magical Daily and the other was Daily Prophet. Not so surprising, on the first page was the article written by Rita Skeeter.

"MISUSE OF MAGIC ON MUGGLES! WIZARD PAEDOPHILE AND MINISTRY WORKER CAUGHT!"

It was an amazing piece written by her. It talked about how Oscar was misusing his power to run propaganda, then how he used his magic for 30 years to exploit children. After that, the brave story of how Magnus caught him, with the help of the Minister of Magic personally. Then, he dealt with the whole gang and saved 50 children.

What was the highlight of this article was that she had gone to various pureblood families and asked them to comment on this. This was an extremely sensitive matter, be it muggles or wizards, harming children was not tolerated by people. So, these families had to publicly condemn Oscar and his misuse of magic, so their names won't be associated with this case.

Then there was another, much bigger article in the Magical Daily, which went into deeper detail about Oscar's life, how he did things and the skeletons under his basement. This was the first-ever edition of this paper and it will be free for the whole month. Even after this month, it will not generate profit and will be sold at the cost price.

"Congrats, Magnus. You are so awesome, everyone is talking about you in the school, even more students have joined the duelling club now, as well as Severus and Ragnar's potion classes." Emma cheerfully told him.

"That's good. At least there was something good from all this. Okay, let's study now. Brooms won't help you always. If you want to be my friend, you must be good at all subjects." Magnus advised her.

"YES! I WILL BE THE BEST!" She blurted and diligently focused on the class.

Severus scoffed from the side, "You yourself suck at potions."

"That's genetic," Magnus argued.

...

Perhaps, the wizarding world was used to crazy news coming every week. Not to mention, all the evil deeds of Death Eaters had made them somewhat numb to all the murder news.

But that could not be said about the Muggle world. The Child Trafficking network, such a multinational criminal organisation was uncovered, it was not something that happens every year, not even every decade.

And what was more concerning was the fact it was operating from the United Kingdom, which was supposed to be safe and developed. The world was in shock, interviews of Magnus, Adrian and Tom were continuously being shown across the globe.

Magnus was being hailed as the Super Kid because of his track record. But the general mystery about him was triggering more people to find more things about him.

Meanwhile, some European countries, United States and Canada started to give their statements that criminals should be punished heavily. It was already chaotic, but when the complete news was published, about the hundreds of skeletons from under Oscar's home, and his ledger of more than 1500 kids kidnapped, it shocked many.

But, then the news came that this isn't just a matter of the UK, but the whole world, as this network spaned around the world, with many powerful people in powerful countries.

This made many nervous because they knew that news was going to come out soon, some big names were going to be dragged into this, and some powerful people will witness their falls.

...

At the Police Headquarters,

Tom, although being called a hero by the public, was being criticised in his own department for not informing the station before he proceeded. The ones at the forefront of all this were Tom's own bosses, the Inspector and Chief Inspector.

Tom was confused about why this was happening. He had done nothing wrong, he didn't have any means to contact them at that time. But, this malicious attack from his own department was strange and too out of the ordinary.

So, he asked Adrian for help. He was already a part of Magnus' grand plan so it was okay for him to do this.

Adrian immediately sent a few wizards to dress up as officers and infiltrate the police hierarchy, to find out what was being discussed.

Sure enough, it turned out that the Deputy Commissioner, the second-in-command of London's Metropolitan Police Service also had his own name in that folder of names. He was trying to suppress the investigation to buy time so he could deal with the evidence. Supporting him were many more powerful people.

They were planning on demoting Tom as soon as this case was dealt with, and it will be dealt with soon. The reason was simple, it was too big and the country's image was on the line. The evidence was also clear and Oscar was also very cooperative with them, ready to confess everything.

When Adrian found out about this, he devised a plot, of earning Tom even more points in the force. So, that he can give the exam for higher ranks and directly jump a few positions. Because, if he were to go up from being a Sergeant, he'd need to cross 9 ranks to reach the top.

But Adrian needed to talk to Magnus first.

...

A lot of behind the scenes activities were happening. Many had lost their night's sleep because a special court was organised to hear the case immediately. It was pressure from the people, especially the parents of the kids who were already lost or those who were saved.

In just 3 days, the prosecution made a pretty solid case and the Crown Court was in session. Oscar was transported in a secure convoy. He received many eggs and curses from the people gathered outside the building, the police had to wear full riot gear and control the crowd.

But Oscar seemed very calm about all this. The reason was the special deal he had made with the Ministry of Magic. And he knew that in this country, the Ministry had even more power than Muggle Government.

The court was being presided by 3 judges. But there was no jury this time. A Crown Court trial without a jury is permitted in many cases. This time the reason was that a trial without a jury was in the interests of justice.

Not many people were allowed to enter though, only a few parents were. But, the whole session was going to be live telecasted to create confidence among people. But, they were so wrong.

Immediately, the court started the hearing. The starting statements were being made. Fighting for Oscar was none other than Ted Tonks, one of the top lawyers in the country. But he was only here to make sure Oscar did everything Magnus had planned. Magnus was also there, with Adrian, sitting in the front row of the audience.

Then, the moment everyone was waiting came. The book of names was to be read, each name would be read by the Prosecution.

"Supreme Court Judge Anderson Hughes. CEO of Gibson tractors, James Bradeworth. Viscount Henry Williams..." The Crown Prosecutor read all the names one by one. And the public just gasped each time a new name was heard. All these were powerful or rich people.

When he finished speaking and sat down, the Judge looked at Ted and asked, "Does the defendant have any objections to the names read just now?"

Ted simply looked at Oscar in disgust, who was already chuckling in his seat.

"What is so funny?" The judge angrily asked.

Oscar stood up and started laughing loudly, "HAHAHAHA... Oh! Merlin's Beard, that is not my full folder of names, so many of the names are missing from it. You all are so corrupt, no wonder you couldn't catch me, it seems the scums who helped me all these years are at work right now. HAHAHA... this is so entertaining."

*LOUD CHATTERING*

The people started talking loudly, some parents angry looked at the Prosecutor and called them criminals, for trying to save the rich and powerful. The Judge too was now being called a pedo.

"ORDER! ORDER!" the Judge hammered his desk and glared at the Prosecutor.

"Where is the full folder?" he demanded.

"Perhaps I can help," Ted got up.

The judge respectfully looked at him and nodded.

"I would like to call Sergeant Tom to the witness box." He requested and it was immediately granted. He had given all the previous notices anyway. Now was the time the real trial would start.

[A/N: Do you want Hagrid to talk like this or return to normal English? I studied a little how his dialogues were written in the books, and this is all I could come up with.]

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