In The Fight To Survive (Golden Trio Era) {4}

Dumbledore's Will

Scrimgeour loudly cleared his throat, "I am here, as I'm sure you know, because of Albus Dumbledore's will." Harry, Mikayla, Ron, and Hermione looked at one another. "A surprise, apparently! You were not aware then that Dumbledore had left you anything?" Scrimgeour almost smiled at the news, "A-all of us? Me and Hermione too?" Ron asked, not being subtle about his surprise and confusion. "Yes, all of y-" Harry quickly interrupted to distract the Minister from what Ron had said. "Dumbledore died over a month ago. Why has it taken this long to give us what he left us?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Hermione cut in before Scrimgeour could even open his mouth to answer, "they wanted to examine whatever he's left us. You had no right to do that!" Her voice trembled as anger began to bubble within her, "I had every right," Scrimgeour stated sitting forward, hoping it would assert his dominance over the four seventeen year-olds. "The Decree for Justifiable Confiscation gives the Ministry the power the confiscate the contents of a will-" Mikayla quickly cut him off saying that the law he was referring to was to stop wizards from passing on Dark artefacts.

"And the Ministry is supposed to have powerful evidence that the deceased's possessions are illegal before seizing them! Are you telling me that you thought Dumbledore was trying to pass us something cursed?" Hermione questioned barely holding in her anger. "Are you planning to follow a career in Magical Law, Miss Granger?" Scrimgeour asked with a smug grin, "No, I'm not," Hermione retorted immediately, "because I'm planning on doing some good in the world!" Mikayla and Ron laughed. Both of them feeling proud of Hermione's dismissal of authority in response to the Minister's manipulative tactics.

Scrimgeour's eyes flickered toward them, disapproval evident in his scowl, "so why have you decided to let us have our things now? Can't think of a pretext to keep them?" Harry questioned summoning the Minister's gaze upon him once again. "No, it'll be because thirty-one days are up," Mikayla answered for the Minister. "They can't keep the objects longer than that unless they can prove they're dangerous." She explained to Harry, before wearing her own smug grin as she turned towards the Minister, "Isn't that right, Minister?"

"Would you say you were close to Dumbledore, Ronald?" Scrimgeour questioned completely ignoring Mikayla's words. He seemed to have decided that Ron would be the easiest person to get information out of, because he has the most amount of risk. If Ron protests the Minister too much, his father's job could be on the line and that's the last thing any of them would want to happen. "Me? No, not really... It was always Harry and Mikayla who..." Ron looked around at his friends, all of them sending him a stop talking now look.

It was too late, the damage had been done and Scrimgeour looked as though he had heard exactly what he had expected, and wanted, to hear. "If you weren't very close to Dumbledore, how do you account for the fact that he remembered you in his will? He made exceptionally few personal bequests. The vast majority of his possessions, his private library, his magical instruments, and other personal effects, were left to Hogwarts. Why do you think you were singled out?"

Ron was beginning to become flustered "I dunno, I, when I say we weren't close, I just meant, I think he liked me..." Ron trailed off, his face turning bright red as he tried to figure out what he wanted to say. "You're just being modest, Ron. Dumbledore was very fond of you, of all of us." Hermione cut in to prevent the train from catching fire after that horrific crash. "This is honestly ridiculous." Mikayla scoffed as she sunk back into the sofa, baiting Scrimgeour, who fell right into her trap.

"What do you mean by that, Black?" He grinned, "what I meant that it's absolutely ridiculous that the Minister of Magic is sitting here, doing a will reading, acting as if there isn't a literal serial killer/cult leader on the loose. You've been locked up in your office for weeks, under the ruse of planning the demise of Voldemort. When in reality you were looking for hidden meanings or messages in Dumbledore's bequests! It's absolute insanity." Mikayla proclaimed, shaking her head in utter disbelief which clearly rubbed the Minister the wrong way.