Chapter 83: Hogwarts Will Be Shutdown

Chapter 83: Hogwarts Will Be Shutdown

Everyone in the hut was stunned by Dumbledore’s words. Even Harry and Ron knew how much shock it would cause in the wizarding world if the school were really closed.

Even fifty years ago, when a student died because of this, Hogwarts hesitated about whether to shut down the school or not, but now Dumbledore asked for the school to be shut down.

Fudge, as the Minister of Magic, is aware of what it means if Hogwarts is closed.

He stared at Dumbledore, and his words were a little out of place, “Du... Dumbledore, do you know what it means if the school is shut down?”

Of course, the consequences that Fudge thought of were bigger than what Harry and the others could think of. The biggest impact of the shutdown will be focused on Dumbledore’s reputation.

Because it means that the situation in the school is completely out of his control, those reporters in the Daily Prophet will definitely try their best to write some headlines that are powerful enough to attract attention.

The wizards in the British wizarding world will read this, and their reaction will naturally be reflected to the Ministry of Magic, saying that the current government is incompetent at its job. It doesn’t matter whether the reputation of the Ministry of Magic is affected or not. The key is that Fudge will also be labeled “incompetent” for handling the problem.

If only Dumbledore’s reputation were damaged, he wouldn’t mind. Hagrid was so moved that he thought Dumbledore was using this to threaten Fudge so that he would not be locked up.

“You don’t have to. I can go with them, and I believe you will solve the problem soon.”

Dumbledore shook his head slightly, “I’m not doing this for you, Hagrid, and I’m not threatening Fudge. If you really think there’s something wrong with Hagrid, you can take him. But whether Hagrid is taken or not, Hogwarts will be closed in three days, and tomorrow morning, I will tell every student and teacher that it is best to send them home.”

Fudge’s eyes widened. He didn’t dare to threaten Dumbledore to change his mind. He could only ask, “Come on, Dumbledore, even if you want to close the school, the school board won’t agree. They won’t let you close Hogwarts just like that!”

“Lucius’ son is also one of the students who was attacked. I think he should understand better than me that the only way to get his son back is to wait for the mandrakes to mature and create the antidote. Knowing his son is a victim in this incident.”

“Hagrid asked us to bring Fang, enter the forbidden forest, and follow the spiders to find out the truth of this problem.”

Harry and Ron looked at each other, and they had already made up their minds.

They put the Invisibility Cloak on the table in the hut, as they won’t need it when they enter the Forbidden Forest. They walked out of Hagrid’s hut and took Fang away from there. Fang has a complicated eye as he sees Hagrid being taken away.

Harry grabbed Fang and patted, “Take us somewhere, Fang.”

Fang shook his body as if he understood Harry’s words, walked ahead, and led the two of them into the Forbidden Forest.

“Lumos.”

Harry cast a spell on his wand, barely illuminating a space of more than two meters in radius, but Ron did not dare to use magic. His wand had not been repaired, and he was afraid that any spell would not work and would backfire on him instead.

They found the little spiders on the ground and followed them, walking all the way to the depths of the Forbidden Forest. Fang ran around them, sniffing the roots and leaves along the way and relying on the light of Harry’s wand. They followed the spiders that kept crawling down the path for about twenty minutes.

No one spoke but listened carefully to see if there were any other sounds besides the sound of branches breaking and leaves rustling. The trees grew thicker, and Harry’s wand was the only thing lighting the darkness around, and they started to deviate from the usual path.

In the past, Hagrid warned them not to deviate from the forest path. But this time, Hagrid was probably locked in Azkaban’s prison cell, and they could only follow the spider.

After walking for about half an hour, Harry and Ron’s clothes were ripped by the low branches and vines. When Ron was panting and signaled to Harry that he had to stop and rest for a while, a cold and familiar voice suddenly sounded behind them.

“Why are you here?”