‘Oh, I don't know,’ said Madam Bones, in her booming voice.

‘Oh, I don't know,’ said Madam Bones, in her booming voice. ‘She certainly described the effects of a dementor attack very accurately. And I can't imagine why she would say they were there if they weren't.’

‘But dementors wandering into a Muggle suburb and just happening to come across a wizard?’ snorted Fudge. The odds on that must be very, very long. Even Bagman wouldn't have bet—’

‘Oh, I don't think any of us believe the dementors were there by coincidence,’ said Dumbledore lightly.

The witch sitting to the right of Fudge, with her face in shadow, moved slightly but everyone else was quite still and silent.

‘And what is that supposed to mean?’ Fudge asked icily.

‘It means that I think they were ordered there,’ said Dumbledore.

‘I think we might have a record of it if someone had ordered a pair of dementors to go strolling through Little Whinging!’ barked Fudge.

‘Not if the dementors are taking orders from someone other than the Ministry of Magic these days,’ said Dumbledore calmly. ‘I have already given you my views on this matter, Cornelius.’

‘Yes, you have,’ said Fudge forcefully, ‘and I have no reason to believe that your views are anything other than bilge, Dumbledore. The dementors remain in place in Azkaban and are doing everything we ask them to.’

‘Then,’ said Dumbledore, quietly but clearly, ‘we must ask ourselves why somebody within the Ministry ordered a pair of dementors into that alleyway on the second of August.’

In the complete silence that greeted these words, the witch to the right of Fudge leaned forwards so that Harry saw her for the first time.

He thought she looked just like a large, pale toad. She was rather squat with a broad, flabby face, as little neck as Uncle Vernon and a very wide, slack mouth. Her eyes were large, round and slightly bulging. Even the little black velvet bow perched on top of her short curly hair put him in mind of a large fly she was about to catch on a long sticky tongue.

‘The Chair recognises Dolores Jane Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister,’ said Fudge.

The witch spoke in a fluttery, girlish, high-pitched voice that took Harry aback; he had been expecting a croak.

‘I'm sure I must have misunderstood you, Professor Dumbledore,’ she said, with a simper that left her big, round eyes as cold as ever. ‘So silly of me. But it sounded for a teensy moment as though you were suggesting that the Ministry of Magic had ordered an attack on this boy!’

She gave a silvery laugh that made the hairs on the back of Harry's neck stand up. A few other members of the Wizengamot laughed with her. It could not have been plainer that not one of them was really amused.

‘If it is true that the dementors are taking orders only from the Ministry of Magic, and it is also true that two dementors attacked Harry and his cousin a week ago, then it follows logically that somebody at the Ministry might have ordered the attacks,’ said Dumbledore politely. ‘Of course, these particular dementors may have been outside Ministry control—’

‘There are no dementors outside Ministry control!’ snapped Fudge, who had turned brick red.

Dumbledore inclined his head in a little bow.

‘Then undoubtedly the Ministry will be making a full inquiry into why two dementors were so very far from Azkaban and why they attacked without authorisation.’

‘It is not for you to decide what the Ministry of Magic does or does not do, Dumbledore!’ snapped Fudge, now a shade of magenta of which Uncle Vernon would have been proud.

‘Of course it isn't,’ said Dumbledore mildly. ‘I was merely expressing my confidence that this matter will not go uninvestigated.’