Disciplinary hearing of Harry Potter
From Harry Potter Wiki
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| Hearing of Harry Potter | |
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Harry Potter was called for a hearing for using underage magic. |
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Harry Potter was cleared of all charges. |
- Harry Potter: "But the letter said..."
- Kingsley Shacklebolt: "Dumbledore has persuaded the Minister to suspend your expulsion, pending a formal hearing."
- Harry Potter: "Hearing?"
- Kingsley Shacklebolt: "Uh-huh."
- — Kingsley Shacklebolt and Harry Potter on the latter's hearing[src]
The disciplinary hearing of Harry Potter occurred before the Wizengamot on August 12, 1995 after Dolores Umbridge, under-secretary for the Minister for Magic, secretly ordered Dementors to attack Harry Potter in the Muggle town of Little Whinging ten days earlier. Harry was forced to perform a Patronus Charm to save him and his cousin Dudley Dursley.
Subsequently, Harry was formally accused of performing underage magic, and was expelled, but after Albus Dumbledore's intervention, it was retracted and changed to a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry of Magic's headquarters, before the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Amelia Bones, in her office. Cornelius Fudge, the then-Minister for Magic, was adamant against Harry and Dumbledore's claims about the return of Lord Voldemort, and changed the hearing to an earlier time and different location, in the hopes of making Harry to miss it, as well as making it to be tried by the entire Wizengamot. Due to the change of time, Harry was five minutes late, but managed to attend it anyway.
During the hearing, Fudge was incredibly biased against Harry, in the hopes to discredit and expel the boy for his claims that Voldemort has returned. Fudge introduced highly irrelevant considerations and biassed accusations into the trial, all the while denying Harry and Dumbledore a chance to tell their version of what happened, and refused to believe the witness Arabella Figg, partly due to her being a Squib. However, due to the fair Madam Bones and a majority of the court, Harry was found innocent, with only Fudge, Umbridge, and roughly half-a-dozen of the court favouring in pressing charges.
[edit] Behind the scenes
- In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Mafalda Hopkirk's letter expelling Harry was a Howler, which looked less like the Howlers from the books than the one in Chamber of Secrets.
