There was a moment of silence after he had finished repeating everything about his study and research on Pokémon before joining Hogwarts.
The Minister, the Greaves guy, and Mrs. Winsted were staring at him like he had been hit with a malfunctioning Obliviate spell that had destroyed his sanity.
Even McGonagall did not look so convinced.
The Minister straightened and laughed.
Then his eyes sought those of the Headmaster.
Dumbledore wasn't laughing.
His face was an unreadable wall.
"Surely, Dumbledore... this boy is just playing with our minds.What he just said... no kid his age would be able to achieve that, let alone one who knew nothing about magic prior to his admission to Hogwarts."
The Headmaster did not affirm or deny the Minister's point.
So Fudge turned to the Greaves guy.
The man nodded profusely, causing loose chunks of flesh beneath his chin to ripple like waves.
"It's preposterous even to think of it, knowing how much time and skill and resources the Department has put into research on Pokémon."
Mrs. Winsted spoke.
"You realize whether you are lying or not, you are admitting to what could potentially be a crime under the Improper Use of Magic Act."
Magnus nodded.
"I have told you only the truth."
Technically he had.
What he had withheld was for their own good.
But right now he almost wished he had told them he had learned all this from an anime…in a world where even they were nothing but fiction.
She scribbled something down furiously before going on.
"Let us come to the recent matter.We have interviewed the two owners of the Pokémon involved in this incident."
She let that statement linger for a second like she was telling him that his story better be consistent with theirs.
Dumbledore had told him as much.
And besides, Hermione had mouthed it discreetly.
The only reason he would have lied was to protect her and Fred…
But if the two had been interviewed before and given the true version of events, then there was little point in lying
The good thing is that so far, there was no mention of Hagrid or his Pokémon.
"Ms. Granger seems to believe you knew about her Pokémon even before the Indexing. Can you confirm this?"
"Yes."
There was a glint of disappointment in the lady's eyes, like she had been hoping he would at least deny and give her a chance to crush him in front of her superiors.
Then that disappointed look vanished almost immediately as she seemed to find another path.
"How could that be possible?I was informed the Ministry has no past records of that Pokémon, and neither did any of our partner Ministry records," Cornelius Fudge asked as he turned to the lady.
"Your people used the Genealogy Spell, I believe?"
Mrs. Winsted nodded.
"I conducted the indexing, sir. I cast the spell myself several times.There was nothing, so I indexed it as a parent generation."
"Clearly there had to be a mistake," the Minister said."The kid seems to have identified the Pokémon correctly, including its traits."
"My thoughts exactly, Cornelius," Dumbledore spoke for the first time since he began."If the boy has studied this species before, then it clearly is not new, unless we are referring to the Ministry, of course."
Mrs. Winsted seemed to be withholding an outburst.
"The Department indexes hundreds of new Pokémon yearly.All of these have been in existence before.A parent generation marks when we officially index it.The Ministry has thousands of records which the boy or anyone doesn't have access to."
"True enough," Dumbledore agreed, obviously to deescalate the situation.
"And in any case," the Greaves guy said,"it doesn't explain why he couldn't have shared his knowledge with the Ministry.It was the right course of action."
The Headmaster leaned forward.
"I think we all know why he did not.And why anyone in the future might still have reservations against such a course of action.The Ministry's response would be to confiscate the Pokémon and, in Magnus's case, subject him to trial-like questioning."
Fudge sat up at that.
"Surely, Dumbledore… this… is not a trial..."But even he, looking around, seemed to realize just how false his statement was.
It wasn't a trial.At least not in official capacity.But their manner of interrogation insinuated the opposite.
"Just for the record, kid, this is not a trial," the Minister said to Magnus."At least not yet.We are here to determine how to mitigate what happened and prevent it from recurring.For that, we have to understand the actual events."
Magnus nodded.
"In any case," Fudge went on,"I'm aware that the Pokémon's abilities are not entirely unique.There are fish visible even to Muggles that do that."
He was referring to the electric eel, Magnus knew.
It was true, but compared to Pichu, that was nothing.
He did, however, appreciate the intervention.
"What interests me most was the last incident, where an Eevee actually transformed and used telekinesis to stop a Bludger and to attack you.Do you claim to have known this as well?"
"Yes, sir," Magnus answered quickly, while averting the Minister's searching gaze.
"Come on, boy… surely, that was advanced magic right there.Something you, as a fresh first-year, barely possess."
Magnus wanted to look at Dumbledore.
I mean, he had told him everything.But it seemed he had told the Minister or his officials nothing.
"It's true, sir, that I have no such magic.But Pokémon don't rely on human magic...They can achieve their own, depending on their evolution path."
Fudge looked at Greaves first, then at Mrs. Winsted.
Neither of them seemed to have an explanation.
"You are saying these creatures can achieve magic by evolving?" Fudge asked.
That would be putting it simply.But it was quite close.
He nodded.
"And you found a way to cause them to achieve this?"
"Yes..." Magnus affirmed."Not every Pokémon. I haven't studied all of them," he added, knowing that saying otherwise would sound overfetched."I had just started with Eevee.Every Eevee can evolve into one of their eight evolution paths depending on their nature and environment.Fred's Eevee was playful and quite active during the day…So based on my research, it would evolve into a psychic type.So that is what I conditioned it to."
"You conditioned it?You're saying you helped it achieve what it did, even though you don't have that magic yourself?" Alton Greaves asked.
"Yes, sir.The requirements for an Eevee to become an Espeon are relatively easy compared to the other eight paths.It only needs close friendships during the day and then bond and become extremely protective of its trainer."
There was total silence for some seconds.
Then Greaves burst out laughing.
And Magnus swore inwardly.
This was proving too hard to explain.Everything he said made him look dumber than before.
"Surely , Headmaster, you can't tell me you believe that?" he asked, noting he was the only one who seemed to find what was being said amusing.
Dumbledore pushed back his glasses.
"As a matter of fact, I do."
The Head of Department seemed to be thrown by that response.
"So you would believe an unregulated kid who has decided to comes up with weird tales for a cover story?"
Magnus felt like screaming at the silly man.
But then caught the warning glint in the Headmaster's eyes.
He instead stayed quiet.
"Surprisingly, we are here seeking answers from that unregulated kid instead of the Ministry Department responsible for this," Dumbledore countered. "Or does your department have an answer to what happened here?"
That seemed to stop the man.
The silence stretched out for a while, and no one seemed to want to break it...
Until the Minister spoke.
"This.... this is Interesting...And dangerous."
****
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