Chapter 390: Total Break
"Now, I demand that every dementor evacuate Hogwarts immediately!"
"Otherwise, I will remove them myself!"
Dumbledore's voice rang across the Quidditch pitch. His wand was raised, aimed directly at Fudge and Scrimgeour.
For a moment, no one could speak. Even Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape had not expected Dumbledore to be this absolute.
Fudge stared at him, slack-jawed, as though the ground had shifted beneath his feet.
"You... you're mad."
"You've gone completely mad!"
The words burst out of him the moment he found his voice.
"I am not mad."
Dumbledore's eyes met his, cold and unyielding.
He said nothing more. Everything that needed saying had already been said. From this moment, his break with the Ministry of Magic was complete.
For years, he had run himself ragged on the Ministry's behalf, and even after the Basilisk appeared at Hogwarts, he had not returned promptly, choosing instead to pursue the matter of Grindelwald. In the end, Grindelwald remained uncaptured, and the students of Hogwarts had been left unprotected. It had strayed entirely from what he had set out to do.
"Dumbledore is incredible right now! I love it!"
Ron said from a distance, unable to contain himself.
If Dumbledore gave the order to attack, Ron would not hesitate for a single second. The fact that his father worked for the Ministry had, for the moment, entirely slipped his mind.
"But... can Dumbledore really hold off the entire Ministry on his own?"
Hermione asked, voice tight with worry.
Powerful as he was, there were many Aurors present. If it came to a fight, there was no guarantee he would walk away unharmed.
"Hermione, you don't actually think Dumbledore is as past it as they claim, do you?" Harry said. "He didn't become the greatest wizard alive by being ordinary. He's not someone you can underestimate."
"Besides," Dudley added, "we are here as well."
With that, he began walking slowly toward Dumbledore.
As he moved, the aura of a Judge broke free from him entirely.
Since Dumbledore had already severed ties with the Ministry, there was no longer any reason to conceal it. And truthfully, it could no longer be hidden.
The Ministry officials who had been holding their ground against Dumbledore felt something clench inside their chests. Colour drained from their faces.
Their gazes snapped toward a figure approaching steadily through the rain.
The presence radiating off that figure was crushing, something vast and tangible pressing down on them like a physical weight, making it difficult to draw breath.
"Who is that?"
Fudge tried to raise his wand, but his trembling hand would not obey.
The figure felt like a god standing above all of them, something that could end a life or spare it on a whim, something that carried an authority far beyond anything they had ever known.
Scrimgeour and the Aurors behind him reached instinctively for their wands, but found they could not. The authority pressing down on them made even that simple act impossible.
There was no resisting it. To defy that presence felt as though it would bring a punishment far worse than death.
Footsteps drew closer through the rain, slow and measured.
Then the figure stepped fully into view.
"Dudley Dursley!"
Fudge stared, his voice cracking with shock.
"Minister Fudge," Dudley said, his expression empty of anything.
"You... you..."
Even standing face to face with him, Fudge could not accept it. That overwhelming, suffocating authority had come from a child.
A third-year. And yet the fear settled into his bones regardless, so deep he could not bring himself to meet Dudley's eyes.
"I believe Professor Dumbledore has made his position quite clear," Dudley said, his tone flat and final. "The dementors are to evacuate immediately. I do not wish to see them at Hogwarts again."
Fudge's face contorted. He fought against it with everything he had.
It was not enough. The authority was too absolute. His will buckled under the weight of it.
"Fine," he said through gritted teeth.
Dumbledore looked toward Dudley. Something moved in his eyes: surprise, curiosity, and a quiet significance that went beyond either.
"Minister Fudge!" Scrimgeour's voice came out low and strained.
He was pouring everything into resisting the pressure bearing down on him, and all he managed was those two words. Nothing else would come.
"We are leaving!" Fudge snapped.
He could not think clearly here. He needed distance, and he needed it now.
"Move out."
Without another glance at Dudley or Dumbledore, Fudge turned and walked away quickly. The Aurors fell into step behind him.
Kingsley paused long enough to glance at Dumbledore and caught the faintest nod before following the others out.
Around Hogwarts, dark shapes gathered at the edges, the dementors lingering, their hollow attention turned toward the castle. Then, one by one, they drifted upward and dissolved into the storm.
With them gone, the school seemed to breathe again. Something heavy had lifted from the air.
The rain had already begun to ease. The biting cold softened. It seemed as though, before long, the sky would clear.
"Dudley, thank you," Dumbledore said.
"There is nothing to thank me for. You were protecting the school. I could not have stood aside," Dudley replied.
"Though truthfully, I could have resolved the situation on my own. You stepped in a little early," Dumbledore added, a quiet laugh in his voice.
Dudley smiled.
He understood what Dumbledore actually meant: not that he had arrived too soon, but that he had revealed himself too soon.
"A little early, perhaps. But it no longer matters," Dudley said.
His strength had reached the point where he could stand against the Ministry openly. Even if it came to a full, permanent break, even if he found himself treated as a fugitive, it would not trouble him overmuch.
If it came to it, he could dismantle the Ministry from the ground up.
That might still require some effort at his current level, but once he advanced to another Sequence, it would become considerably simpler.
And that day was not far off.
"You forced Fudge and the others to back down through your presence alone," Dumbledore said, looking at him. "I had underestimated you."
"They have only yielded for now. There will be a great deal more to handle after this. What do you intend to do, Professor Dumbledore?"
Dudley looked at him steadily.
"I may well lose the position of Headmaster of Hogwarts," Dumbledore said, his voice entirely calm. "But they will not dare move against me directly."
"They need me."