How It All Goes Down
Cornelius Fudge
- Harry, Ron, and Hermione can't believe that Hagrid was the Heir of Slytherin who opened the Chamber fifty years before.
- They decide that they won't say anything to him unless there's another attack.
- Harry hasn't heard the voice in weeks, though, and nothing seems wrong at the castle.
- Over Easter break, Hermione starts talking about what classes they'll get to choose for third year.
- Harry has no idea what to do, since he was raised as a Muggle and doesn't understand what might help in the future.
- Finally, he just goes with all the classes Ron picks, so at least he'll have a friend.
- Harry continues to train in Quidditch, since there's an upcoming match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.
- On his way back from one of the practices, he finds Neville Longbottom panicking.
- In their dorm room, Harry sees that all of his stuff has been turned inside out and upside down.
- Riddle's diary is also gone.
- The morning of the match against Hufflepuff, Harry is on his way to the game when he hears that voice again – "Kill this time…let me rip…tear" (14.47).
- Ron and Hermione still can't understand the voice.
- Then Hermione seems to have some kind of breakthrough.
- She rushes off to the library without explaining.
- Harry goes out to the Quidditch pitch for the game.
- However, Professor McGonagall appears to announce, "This match has been canceled" (14.63).
- There has been an emergency: Hermione and a Ravenclaw prefect, Penelope Clearwater, have both been Petrified.
- Professor McGonagall brings Harry and Ron to the Hospital Wing.
- There, they find Hermione lying Petrified in a hospital bed.
- Professor McGonagall shows them a mirror that was found near her body.
- She asks if they can think of any explanation.
- They can't.
- Professor McGonagall leads them back to the Common Room and announces new rules: there's a 6:00 PM curfew, students must be accompanied to each lesson by a teacher, no student is allowed to go to the bathroom without a teacher, and Quidditch has been canceled.
- All the students are in an uproar.
- Harry and Ron decide that it's time to see Hagrid.
- They sneak out of the castle using Harry's Invisibility Cloak.
- Hagrid opens his cottage door looking extremely nervous and distracted.
- He invites Ron and Harry in for tea.
- Before they can really settle in to talk, there's a knock at the door.
- Harry and Ron hide under the Invisibility Cloak.
- It's Professor Dumbledore and a stranger with "rumpled gray hair and an anxious expression […] wearing a strange mixture of clothes: a pinstriped suit, a scarlet tie, a long black cloak, and pointed purple boots" (14.104).
- This stranger is the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge.
- He has come to arrest Hagrid for the attacks on Muggle-borns at the school.
- He points out that Hagrid's record is against him, and the Ministry has to do something.
- They're going to take him straight to Azkaban, the wizard prison, without a trial.
- Just then, Lucius Malfoy comes in.
- He has arrived to tell Professor Dumbledore that the school governors (including Lucius) have voted to remove Professor Dumbledore from office.
- They can't trust him to run the school because, "At this rate, there'll be no Muggle-borns left at Hogwarts, and we all know what an awful loss that would be to the school" (14.124).
- Professor Dumbledore agrees to go, but he also says very clearly, "I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me. You will also find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it" (14.138).
- Harry is sure that Professor Dumbledore knows he and Ron are there.
- Hagrid also gives a parting word: "If anyone wanted ter find out some stuff, all they'd have ter do would be ter follow the spiders" (14.141).