Early the next morning, the students of Hogwarts were surprised to find Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge appearing in the Great Hall.
What surprised them even more was that sitting right by the Gryffindor table was someone they never, in their wildest dreams, expected to see.
None of the students were unfamiliar with that face. Wanted posters of him had been plastered all over every street and alley in Hogsmeade Village—Sirius Black.
The previous night, Cornelius Fudge had rushed to Hogwarts overnight to handle Sirius's situation, staying at the school for a long time as a result.
Fudge didn't show the slightest bit of impatience regarding the hassle of this years-old wrongful conviction.
Back then, the Ministry of Magic had indeed handled Sirius's case highly improperly, locking him straight away in Azkaban without even holding a trial.
However, this was not Fudge's fault, because it wasn't him who sent Sirius to Azkaban, but the previous Minister for Magic.
The British Ministry of Magic wasn't all that different from the so-called democratic governments of Western nations.
Fudge didn't need to take the blame for the mess left behind by the previous administration.
On the contrary, he could use this opportunity to pull a political stunt.
For instance, he could take the initiative to step forward and apologize to Sirius on behalf of the previous Minister, and then have the Daily Prophet spin the narrative, indirectly shifting all the blame back onto his predecessor.
This way, with the previous Minister having botched things and Cornelius Fudge setting things right, a stark contrast would be created.
Not only would his image remain undamaged, but his willingness to step up and take responsibility would greatly improve the wizarding public's perception of him.
At the very least, it would salvage his reputation, which had plummeted in the eyes of the public due to the recent fiascos.
As for whether this would cause any negative impact for the former Minister, Millicent Bagnold—
As a textbook politician, Fudge couldn't care less.
As long as he reaped the benefits, why should he care about anyone else?
Moreover, it was only natural for people to lose influence once they left office; Fudge was more than eager to use this matter to completely wipe out whatever lingering influence Millicent still had within the Ministry.
Therefore, when it came to granting Sirius a retrial, Cornelius Fudge was incredibly cooperative.
Even before the formal retrial had officially begun, he had already ordered all of Sirius's wanted posters to be rescinded.
That was the reason why Sirius could sit openly in the Great Hall, sharing a meal at the same table as Harry.
Before breakfast began, Cornelius Fudge rose from his seat, walked to the front of the staff table, and recounted the entire history of Sirius's case to all the staff and students of Hogwarts.
The truth of the matter had been extracted from Peter Pettigrew's mouth the previous night using Veritaserum, making it highly credible.
This story would be published in tomorrow's Daily Prophet, announcing it to the entire wizarding world.
However, the formal trial would have to wait a bit longer.
The Christmas holidays were just over a week away, leaving only seven working days if the intervening weekend was excluded.
Given the Ministry of Magic's utterly glacial efficiency, there was absolutely no way they could properly arrange a whole series of trial proceedings within just seven working days.
Furthermore, sufficient time had to be allowed to coordinate schedules so that the full Wizengamot delegation could attend the trial in an orderly fashion.
But the most important reason of all was that, come rain, thunder, or gale, Ministry employees always clocked out exactly when their shift ended.
Unfinished work? Staying late for overtime?
Nonexistent.
Holiday rotations to ensure someone was on duty at the Ministry twenty-four-seven?
They did have that, since emergencies were quite common in the wizarding world, but those individuals were merely tasked with guarding Ministry headquarters.
As for anything happening outside the Ministry? They were just a bunch of low-level security guards—how could they possibly bother themselves with all that?
Therefore, they could only schedule the trials of Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew after the Christmas holidays.
By that time, as Sirius's godson, Harry would also be able to travel to the Ministry to attend the trial as a spectator.
On the final weekend before Christmas, students in their third year and above were allowed another visit to Hogsmeade Village.
Kyle wasn't particularly looking forward to it; his attention was currently entirely focused on the cultivation of the Six Paths of Pain.
As the Christmas holidays steadily approached, the date to open the jars for the Six Paths of Pain drew nearer and nearer.
Early in the morning on the day before the Hogsmeade weekend, inside the alchemy laboratory of Akina Mountain Villa, six of the seven large glass jars that originally lined the walls had already vanished.
Aside from the White Zetsu body reserved for Black Zetsu's possession, the Six Paths of Pain soaking inside the remaining six large glass jars had already been moved by Kyle onto six neighboring laboratory tables.
What he needed to do now was bestow a part of his personality upon these six bodies, which had been cloned using his own cells.
"In the name of Kyle Grindelwald, I bestow upon you a part of my personality."
As his wand tapped against the head of the Deva Path, Kyle felt a warm current surging through his body, flowing out along a certain protruding object in his hand—namely, his wand.
Once the warm current poured out, what followed was a wave of emptiness.
Shaking his slightly dizzy head, Kyle's unfocused eyes began to regain their clarity.
Before him, the Deva Path had already slowly opened its eyes.
However, his gaze remained completely vacant. Just like the Black Zetsu that Kyle had first created, the "brilliant" gleam reflecting from his eyes made it entirely obvious that he was an absolute idiot.
But that didn't matter; Kyle didn't need him to possess independent thought.
What he wanted were six biological weapons that could be controlled by him and Black Zetsu.
Bestowing a personality upon them was merely to enable them to make basic judgments and fight autonomously when he gave only simple commands.
Otherwise, if the Six Paths of Pain were all like marionettes whose every move had to be manually controlled, it would be no different from a single person trying to play Overwatch on six computers simultaneously.
Facing the Deva Path before him, Kyle raised his wand once more.
What he needed to do this time was place restrictions on the Deva Path, just as he had previously placed restrictions on Black Zetsu.
Finally, it was time to grant the Deva Path its own magical abilities.
As the primary powerhouse among the Six Paths of Pain, Kyle valued the Deva Path's combat capabilities above all else.
Kyle's plan was to use Black Zetsu as a tool to command and control the Six Paths of Pain on his behalf.
Despite having autonomous mobility, maximizing the combat potential of the Six Paths of Pain still required tactical micromanagement from a fully conscious controller like Black Zetsu.
However, even if Black Zetsu could split his focus, he could control at most two of the six paths simultaneously while maintaining their full combat strength.
As for six-thread operations—controlling all six paths at once and having every single one of them perform at one hundred percent combat capacity...
Well, he might as well go to bed and keep dreaming. Anything was possible in dreams.
Since only two of the paths could achieve their maximum combat potential, it was necessary to make trade-offs.
Kyle couldn't possibly have every single one of the six paths master all the magic that he, the original body, knew.
There were two reasons why he didn't do this.
The first reason, and the most crucial one, was that he truly didn't have the time—or rather, he was just plain lazy.
After all, copying memories was an incredibly mentally draining task; the larger the memory volume being duplicated, the more mental energy it consumed.
In the future, he could transfer a bit to the six paths, rest a few days to recover his mental energy, and then continue with the task.
But right now, he didn't have that much time. There was still the most troublesome Asura Path waiting to be fully modified.
To modify the Asura Path into his ideal mobile arsenal, it would take him three whole days even if he stayed cooped up in the lab twenty-four hours a day without eating or sleeping.
So, he would hold off on that for now, and the remaining four paths would just have to do for the time being.
The second reason was that even if he let the six paths master all his magic, they could never achieve the same level of combat power as he could.
Although the cloned bodies were not much different from his original self in every aspect, perhaps due to sub-standard cloning technology or the lack of a soul, their magical power couldn't reach Kyle's level—which could honestly be described as "tons of chakra."
Kyle had done his best to cultivate the bodies to perfection, but even so, they only possessed forty percent of the original's magical energy.
With such a pitiful amount of magic, even if Kyle taught them the Susanoo, they wouldn't be able to manifest it.
Unless the Six Paths concentrated all their magic onto one single path, just like Nagato controlling the Deva Path to cast the Cataclysmic Almighty Push, destroying the entire Konohagakure (Hidden Leaf Village) with a mud-covered "bag of rice."
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