Chapter 340: The Beginning and End of the Student Movement

Zhang Qiu pulled Harry and Luo En to leave quietly, they didn't go to find Hagrid to chat until the next day, and Hagrid didn't mention his brother's matter at all, instead turning to care about Harry's study situation, which made Harry feel a bit embarrassed.

Then, after the Easter holiday began, Hagrid left quietly. Harry again declined Arnold's invitation to intern at the Minister's office, settling down to make a six-week review plan for himself and Luo En. But they both knew this plan probably wouldn't be executed, because Hermione might be about to fall into the vortex designed by the Ministry of Magic.

And in order to leave this "opportunity to show off" to Luo En, Trig went on a trip with his mother at the beginning of the holiday.

Three days before Easter, things happened as scheduled. Hermione and Elena had to use a few spells while assisting in escorting Grawp, and "coincidentally" were seen by a team of Muggle explorers.

Because of some historical legacy issues, Hagrid was not allowed to hold a wand. At first, he intended to shift the matter to his illegal possession of a wand, but the testimony of the Muggle explorers was very clear: the caster they saw was a brown-haired girl.

The Ministry of Magic also immediately got moving, they directly detained Hagrid, Hermione, and Elena, and delayed the trial, just constantly sending letters to Hogwarts demanding the expulsion of Hermione.

"This is the Ministry of Magic giving Headmaster Snape face, if he is willing to give up Hermione, then let the Ministry of Magic do whatever they want!" Harry heard a student say angrily, or rather, speculate self-righteously.

"Eh, hope Headmaster Snape is willing to stand up," another student said pessimistically, "If she were Slytherin, but would the Headmaster be willing to offend the Ministry of Magic for a Muggle-born?"

"But the problem is, they clearly chose the wilderness to walk." A student raised the newspaper in his hand, "It's all that inexplicable Muggle exploration team's fault!"

"It's not their fault, it's the Ministry of Magic making a fuss out of nothing. I'm worried this is probably a test of the Headmaster by the Ministry of Magic, do you still remember Trelawney?" Another student said mysteriously, "I'm afraid Hermione unfortunately became a victim of political struggle."

The students who didn't know the truth were still arguing, and Luo En glanced at Harry; he probably had to prepare to take action.

If he didn't start from Torchwood, the platform Luo En chose was Deng Buliduo's Army. He quickly pulled together a batch of Gryffindor students willing to go on strike and parade with him, then Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw also responded actively, only Slytherin was still in a state of "none of my business".

Finally, relying on Hermione having some popularity in the girls' club, they finally managed to gather a parade team that included students from all houses.

While Luo En was busy, Harry also had his own things to do. He couldn't participate in the parade. Harry's reputation in the Daily Prophet was too high; as long as he appeared, he would definitely steal Luo En's limelight.

The whole plan was beneficial to Hermione; she could gain reputation after being briefly detained, which was a profitable thing. But for Harry, he hoped in his conscience that she wouldn't suffer any torture during the detention.

The Ministry of Magic wouldn't deliberately torture Hermione, but they did one terrible thing unintentionally: they locked everyone involved together, which meant that in a large cell, Hermione, Elena, Hagrid, and... Grawp were locked together at the same time.

Harry found Sirius and Lu Ping, and the three of them went to the Ministry of Magic in the capacity of the Order of the Phoenix. Johnny English, who was in charge of the case, opened the back door for them, and the three of them easily came to the detention area.

Hermione and Elena, who were originally sitting on the right side of the cell, stood up all of a sudden. Hermione's eyes lit up, but Elena looked a bit flustered.

Harry easily understood their emotions. For Elena, if Harry and the Order of the Phoenix directly persuaded the Ministry of Magic to release them, the whole plan would be ruined; but for Hermione who was kept in the dark, she wished the Order of the Phoenix would preside over justice.

"Where's Hagrid?" Harry asked.

Johnny reached out and pointed to the left side of the cell, where a behemoth was locked with dense iron chains, obviously that was Grawp. And Hagrid was sitting beside him, talking to him in a low voice.

"Ahem." Sirius cleared his throat, "I'm here to bail them out."

"Ah right," Johnny cooperated very well and shouted into the cell, "Hagrid, you can take your brother away."

"What?" Hagrid rushed to the cell door all of a sudden, "Me? But what about Hermione and Elena?"

"To be precise, you are a member of the Order of the Phoenix, we have to give the Order of the Phoenix some face." Johnny said with feigned difficulty, "But they belong to Hogwarts students, the Order of the Phoenix shouldn't be able to manage so widely, right."

"They are reserve members of the Order of the Phoenix." Hagrid said angrily, "They joined Deng Buliduo's Army!"

"Calm down, Hagrid." Sirius said, "We also went through a lot of relationships to get you out first, this matter involves a series of very complex political struggles, things are very difficult to handle."

"Right." Johnny suddenly echoed, "The cause of the matter still has to be said about Headmaster Snape taking the position of Senior Undersecretary to the Ministry of Magic. For some people, this is just a nominal position, but for another Senior Undersecretary, Dolores Umbridge, this is a very serious threat."

Everyone present looked at the Director of the Auror Office with surprised eyes as he began to talk about the high-level scandals of the Ministry of Magic without restraint.

"We all know that the Minister hasn't decided on the real Undersecretary, or successor. Umbridge originally aspired to that position, but Snape's joining made her worry. She wanted to find a way to squeeze Snape out, so she seized the matter of casting spells outside of school and made a big fuss about it." He said in a very honest tone, "One of the few red lines of the Ministry of Magic is the Statute of Secrecy. She wanted to guide Snape to oppose the Statute of Secrecy, so that even if he couldn't be dismissed immediately, it would be enough to lower his evaluation in the Minister's heart."

"Uh, you just, said it all?" Hermione asked puzzledly.

"Of course, she doesn't respect me, and I don't want to respect her either. Umbridge wants to use the Auror Office as a gun, but everyone knows I'm actually on the side of the Order of the Phoenix." Johnny naturally found an excuse for himself.

"Then can we leave too?" Hermione blinked.

"This really won't work." Johnny shook his head, "I don't mind saying things out, but I still have to follow the rules."

"Then I won't leave either." Hagrid sat down angrily.

"Uh, actually I mean, I'm very willing to improve your accommodation conditions." Johnny gestured, "So as soon as the Order of the Phoenix said they wanted to bail you out, I agreed immediately."

"What do you mean?" Hagrid looked at him puzzledly.

"Get Grawp out first, I think this is a good thing for the two children." Johnny said directly without any emotional intelligence.

Finally, Hagrid grumbled and took Grawp away first. Lu Ping promised to find him a forest near Gillingham.

Before leaving, Harry climbed the prison bars and whispered to Hermione: "Don't worry, Hermione, the school is also organizing a rescue operation."

"What are you preparing to do?" Hermione said worriedly.

"Strike and parade, putting pressure on the Ministry of Magic." Harry revealed a little, "We are also working hard, you just endure it for a little while."

"To be honest, if it weren't for Grawp, it wouldn't be hard to endure for a few more days." Hermione said in a low voice.

On April 5th, Hogwarts students launched a strike and parade, collectively coming to Diagon Alley to demonstrate, demanding the release of Hermione and others who were arrested for casting spells outside of school. Although the Aurors gave way to the students intentionally after symbolic obstruction, the Ministry of Magic's attitude remained tough. They only released the accomplice Elena Caslana, while maintaining the detention status for the principal culprit Hermione Granger. And there was gossip saying that Umbridge intended to lock Hermione up until she confessed herself, so she could logically send her to Azkaban.

Thus, on April 6th, a more indignant student movement broke out. Almost all the students still in school went out collectively and shouted the slogan the Ministry of Magic had been looking forward to for a long time: Amend the Statute of Secrecy.

At this juncture, Minister for Magic Jim Hacker also "coincidentally" completed his visit to Curan and returned to the country in time to preside over justice. He first affirmed the spirit of the students who were brave enough to convey political demands, and then immediately convened a meeting to revise the Statute of Secrecy.

In order to avoid the Ministry of Magic dragging out the time with mountains of documents and seas of meetings, the students maintained a parade team of considerable scale every day to put pressure on the Ministry of Magic. Thus, the Ministry of Magic completed a revision of the Statute of Secrecy with the fastest speed in history, deleting any punishment clauses regarding underage wizards casting spells outside of school, and explicitly stipulated that the Improper Use of Magic Office has the obligation to eliminate the adverse effects produced by underage wizards casting spells outside of school.

On the fourth day of the parade, after the new law was issued, Hermione Granger was announced to be released without charge. At the entrance of the Ministry of Magic, the slightly haggard Hermione saw the sunshine again. She immediately excitedly hugged Luo En who was standing at the forefront of the student group. This photo was described by the Daily Prophet as "the victory of the student civil rights movement".

Then, without Hermione saying any words, the reporters of the Daily Prophet began to fabricate interviews with ease. They attributed all the unfair treatment Hermione received to the discrimination against Muggle-borns in the Wizarding World, and also made up some "mental torture received during detention".

The story of "Umbridge's factional struggle" had long been spreading like wildfire among the people, so the more the Ministry of Magic did this, the more the public felt they were covering up.

But at the same time, since the public understood they were doing public relations and whitewashing, they would be used to the overwhelming reports and praise. And the resentment they generated would naturally bypass Hermione and turn to Umbridge. ===== CHAPTER 341 =====