The Final Confession
"It all started two years ago when Professor Trelawny came to my office and said that she wished to speak to me. But she couldn't simply tell me right there what it was she wanted, so I went to the Great Hall with her. She started to ramble about prophecies and some sort of vision she claimed to have had, as always. But this time... She said that she had seen a murder taking place at Hogwarts, and that that particular murder would set off a chain reaction of murders that would lead to the end of Hogwarts. Mr. Fudge, sir, I was fed up with her disillusions and I simply had no patience left with her. So I used the Avada Kedavra curse on her.
"Snape saw me perform it. He vowed to keep it a secret as long as I didn't tell anyone that he had returned to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and merely figured as a spy for the Order. He was actually spying on the Order and warned the Dark Lord about all the counter-attacks they were planning, an exceptional position for him I suppose. I didn't like the thought of protecting a Death Eater, but what other choice did I have? The students need me, and I couldn't let one little mistake prevent me from teaching the next generation of witches and wizards, because they are the ones that will have to fight You-Know-Who when that day comes.
"But, you see, there was another witness... little Hermione Granger happened to walk by just when I had... on Trelawny... and neither Snape nor I could let her get away with that information. What we planned to do was hideous, yes, unforgivable... but it had to be done. It's just that, when we caught up with her she was already dead. And there were two bodies, two Hermionies... It took me some time to figure that one out, I admit, but it is really quite simple, Minister. In her third year, Hermione was given a Time Turner to enable her to attend all the classes she had chosen for herself, but when she dropped those extra classes she never returned the Time Turner. My guess is that she heard a rumour about me killing Professor Trelawny and went back in time to see for herself, because she simply couldn't think such a thing of her teacher... oh, dear... I deeply regret that it had to happen. Little Hermione...
"As you probably know, Hermione was quite close to Ron Weasley's younger sister, Ginny, and when she learnt that Hermione had committed suicide she... she went mad. She killed a boy, Cornelius. Blaise Zabini, a Slytherin fifth-year. It is rumoured that he raped her, and that she wanted to avenge that, but... to be honest... I just don't know what to make of it. That is why they sent her to that mental institution.
"A few weeks later, many dark events took place... I know that Dumbledore went to extreme extents to cover it all up, but maybe you have heard something about it. I don't know exactly what happened - I can only guess. We found Neville Longbottom tortured to death in the forth floor corridor, lying next to the burnt corpse of Professor Snape. I'm not sure, but Neville might have left his dormitory after curfew and happened to encounter Snape in the corridor. Why they were both dead, I have no idea. And later... we also found Draco Malfoy, another Slytherin, dead below a statue in another corridor further down. It was assumed - this you might remember - that a Dark wizard had gained entry to the school with the intention of killing Harry Potter, and that the poor Malfoy boy had come in his way.
"But exactly two years later, this very night, the since missing Harry Potter called his best friend Ronald Weasley to tell him that he was the one who murdered young Mr. Malfoy. When Dumbledore heard about that, he went straight to the boy's room and smothered him with a pillow. Minister, I had to kill him. Don't you see? It was the only way to stop the evil circle that Trelawny created two years ago by telling me about that premonition! I didn't believe her when she told me... but by killing her I made it come true. And it had to stop."
Cornelius Fudge regarded Professor McGonagall with apparent fright and utmost horror. Several minutes ticked by before he cleared his throat and gave her his answer to that long monologue.
"We have to shut down Hogwarts."