"J .K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rowling J. K)

fifty eyewitnesses тАФ but anyway, as I say, he's dead. Murdered, as a matter of
fact. On Ministry of Magic premises. There's going to be an inquiry, actually..."
To his great surprise, the Prime Minister felt a fleeting stab of pity for Fudge at
this point. It was, however, eclipsed almost immediately by a glow of smugness
at the thought that, deficient though he himself might be in the area of materi-
alizing out of fireplaces, there had never been a murder in any of the govern-
ment departments under his charge... Not yet, anyway...
While the Prime Minister surreptitiously touched the wood of his desk, Fudge
continued, "But Blacks by-the-by now. The point is, we're at war, Prime Minis-
ter, and steps must be taken."
"At war?" repeated the Prime Minister nervously. "Surely that's a little bit of an
overstatement?"
"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has now been joined by those of his followers
who broke out of Azkaban in January," said Fudge, speaking more and more
rapidly and twirling his bowler so fast that it was a lime-green blur. "Since they
have moved into the open, they have been wreaking havoc. The Brockdale
Bridge тАФ he did it, Prime Minister, he threatened a mass Muggle killing unless I
stood aside for him and тАФ "
"Good grief, so it's your fault those people were killed and I'm having to answer

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questions about rusted rigging and corroded expansion joints and I don't know
what else!" said the Prime Minister furiously.
"My fault!" said Fudge, coloring up. "Are you saying you would have caved in to
blackmail like that?"
"Maybe not," said the Prime Minister, standing up and striding about the room,
"but I would have put all my efforts into catching the blackmailer before he
committed any such atrocity!"
"Do you really think I wasn't already making every effort?" demanded Fudge
heatedly. "Every Auror in the Ministry was тАФ and is тАФ trying to find him and
round up his followers, but we happen to be talking about one of the most
powerful wizards of all time, a wizard who has eluded capture for almost three
decades!"
"So I suppose you're going to tell me he caused the hurricane in the West
Country too?" said the Prime Minister, his temper rising with every pace he
took. It was infuriating to discover the reason for all these terrible disasters and
not to be able to tell the public, almost worse than it being the government's
fault after all.
"That was no hurricane," said Fudge miserably.
"Excuse me!" barked the Prime Minister, now positively stamping up and down.
"Trees uprooted, roofs ripped off, lampposts bent, horrible injuries тАФ "
"It was the Death Eaters," said Fudge. "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's follow-
ers. And... and we suspect giant involvement."
The Prime Minister stopped in his tracks as though he had hit an invisible wall.
"What involvement?"
Fudge grimaced. "He used giants last time, when he wanted to go for the grand
effect," he said. "The Office of Misinformation has been working around the
clock, we've had teams of Obliviators out trying to modify the memories of all
the Muggles who saw what really happened, we've got most of the Department
for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures running around Somerset,