Selene || Remus Lupin

Ch. 34 - Fudge's Denial

The hospital wing was completely silent for a couple of hours, to Selene's relief. She wanted to make sure that Harry was able to rest as long as he wanted to, and anyone who interfered with that was going to feel her wrath.

That was why when loud voices began to echo in the hallway outside of the hospital wing, Selene became extremely agitated.

"They'll wake him if they don't shut up!" Bill said irritably.

"What are they shouting about?" Molly asked. "Nothing else can have happened, can it?"

Selene stood up from her place next to Harry to go and peer through the screens. "It sounds like Minerva and — and Fudge?"

As the voices drew closer, Selene could hear more of what they were saying.

"Regrettable, but all the same, Minerva –" Fudge's voice came loudly.

"You should never have brought it inside the castle!" Minerva yelled. "When Dumbledore finds out —"

The rest of her sentence was drowned out as the hospital doors banged open. Selene threw back the screens and strode to meet Fudge in the middle of the room. McGonagall and Snape were just behind him, looking furious.

"I'm sorry, Minister, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave," she said quietly, a hard edge to her voice. "This is a hospital wing, you shouldn't barge in like —"

"Where's Dumbledore?" Fudge demanded, cutting across her.

"He's not here," Selene said, anger seeping into her voice. "And again, this is a hospital wing. So why don't you —"

Selene was cut across again, however, by the doors opening once more. Dumbledore swept into the room, looking gravely serious.

"What has happened?" he said sharply, looking between Fudge and Minerva. "Why are you disturbing these people? Minerva, I'm surprised at you — I asked you to stand guard over Barty Crouch —"

"There is no need to stand guard over him anymore, Dumbledore!" McGonagall shrieked. "The Minister has seen to that!"

"What's happened?" Selene asked urgently.

"When we told Mr. Fudge that we had caught the Death Eater responsible for tonight's events," Snape said, "he seemed to feel his personal safety was in question. He insisted on summoning a dementor to accompany him into the castle. He brought it up to the office where Barty Crouch –"

"I told him you would not agree, Dumbledore!" McGonagall cut in furiously. "I told him you would never allow dementors to set foot inside the castle, but —"

"My dear woman!" Fudge roared, waving a finger in McGonagall's face, "as Minister of Magic, it is my decision whether I wish to bring protection with me when interviewing a possibly dangerous —"

He could not finish, though, because McGonagall's voice rose even higher that his. It seemed she could not bear to hear his excuses.

"The moment that — that thing entered the room," she screamed, pointing her finger back at the Minister, "it swooped down on Crouch and — and —"

"No!" Selene gasped.

Selene knew exactly what she was going to say, and her heart dropped into her stomach, the air being drawn out of her lungs.

The Dementor's Kiss had been administered to Crouch. He could not testify. He was hardly even a person anymore.

"But he cannot give testimony, Cornelius," Dumbledore said, staring hard at Fudge. "He cannot give evidence about why he killed those people."