Disclaimer:I don't own Harry Potter, or anything else you recognise.
AN: Special thanks to Seekretkeep and my Mum for helping me and giving me inspiration for this FF. :)
Title: Fudge's Education
Summery: A plan to remove Dumbledore from Hogwarts, is lead astray, when Time plays tricks on Fudge. Confronted by the Founders of Hogwarts, Fudge has to play smart. Unfortunately, he's not very good at that...
Fudge looked up at the impressive castle that housed hundreds of students and had to suppress a groan. Many of the students here would be great allies, if it wasn't for the fact that they were being manipulated by Dumbledore, who was using the naïvety and innocence to form an army to overthrow him. But despite that depressing thought, something stirred inside the Minister, reminding him of his purpose, the point of his visit. Because Fudge wasn't at the well established school for pleasantries. No he was there on a mission. A mission to remove Dumbledore and replace him with someone far more suitable, like Dolores Umbridge, for example.
Consumed by these many thoughts, Fudge overlooked many subtle differences to the castle he was looking at and the castle he went to school at. The ones he did notice were put down to maintenance work, an attempt to restore the school to it's former glory back in the days it was originally built, the days of the founders when magic was feared among the common people.
But some things, Fudge tried, but failed, to explain away. Like the fact that Hogwarts seemed like a ghost castle. Sure you could say oh, the students are obviously being quiet and listening for a change but that hardly explains the complete lack of noise. Because, if the students were quiet, the teachers would be talking, but they weren't. For every classroom door that Fudge passed had an eerie silence behind.
None the less, Fudge refused to be deterred and ploughed on.
As he was nearing the great hall, the first sign of human habitation reached his ears. A loud, boisterous laugh of pure amusement. Happy to have his hidden fears assuaged, Fudge's paces regained their purpose as he strode towards the direction of the laugh.
Pausing for a moment to compose himself, Fudge looked at the great doors with trepidation. After assuring himself that all was well, and Dumbledore was finally getting what was coming for him, Fudge raised his hand and pushed the doors open.
Inside was a sight that he didn't expect to see. Instead of four house tables, there was one table in the centre of the room with roughly ten adults sitting around it, enjoying what clearly was a meal of some sort. But Fudge recognised none of them. That's when one turned round and stated
"We appear to have a visitor" His voice was cold, yet emotionless. His eye's were pools of molten silver, belaying no emotion yet conveying the fact that the man whose eye's they were wouldn't hesitate to curse or kill him. They were the eyes of what Fudge connected to a Dark Wizard. And one who knew all about the power they wielded yet didn't turn away.
His simple sentence stilled all conversation as everyone turned to face Fudge, scrutinising him.
"And who might you be?" The same man continued
"Minister Fudge. Where have you hidden Albus Dumbledore? I'm afraid-"
"Minister? Minister of what? And Albus Dumbledore? Who's that?"
"Minister of Magic" Fudge said, puffing out his chest, self importantly "and you must be lying. How can you not have heard of Dumbledore?"
"Quite simply really. He doesn't exist. May I ask why you used such a strange name to access our school?"
"Your school? I believe that Hogwarts belongs to no-one"
"If that's so, how are we Lords and Ladies?"
"To become a Lord or Lady you need to have a seat on the Wizardmount and be a head to an ancient family"
"What's these lies you spew? Sal here was quite right in presuming your an impostor if this barbaric nonsense is what you believe!" A witch to the right of the wizard who spoke first, exclaimed her dark eyes blazing.
"Sal?" The Minister queried
"Lord Salazar Slytherin, Head of Slytherin house and fourth founder of Hogwarts" Fudge's face dramatically paled
"Salazar Slytherin, as in the Salazar Slytherin?"
"As far as I'm aware, I'm the only Salazar Slytherin in this room"
"I mean the Dark founder?"
"Dark founder? What exactly does that mean?" The one Fudge presumed to be Godric said, his voice harsh
"He's a Dark wizard! A parselmouth! Hater of muggleborns! That's what I mean. Didn't you know?"
"Dark Wizard's are wizards that have lost all rational thought, all human emotion, to the Ancient Artes. They enjoy torture, killing. They are not, in any way, shape or form, like Sal" Fudge blinked and turned, his shocked eye's meeting the glowing yellow ones
"Helga, it's fine" Salazar whispered quietly, before raising his voice to address Fudge "And where lies the bases to these unfounded accusations?"
"The history books" Fudge stated as Rowena pushed a strand of her dark brown hair our of her eyes. A gesture that hid the gears turning in her mind as she attempted to figure out the mystery that was the man in front of her.
"Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't history biased? Isn't it warped over time? Don't records get lost and corrupted, thus causing the facts to change?" Salazar continued
Fudge blinked "well yes..."
"Than isn't it possible that what you dean to be sold, verifiable fact, to be far from the actual truth?" Fudge's jaw floundered
"Well...yes... I suppose..."
"Precisely. Now please answer our earlier question, why did you want to access Hogwarts?"
"I don't need permission to arrive here." Godric's fern green eyes narrowed, and by doing so, hiding the laughter lines that covered his weathered face.
"Really? Can I please see the document that gives you the power to access private property without invitation?" Fudge spluttered incomprehensibly for a moment "Oh wait, let me guess. You don't have one"
In a bid to defend himself, Fudge declared "Hogwarts hasn't been private property for over a thousand years, so when the ministry was formed it wasn't private property, thus not calling for documents that declared my right to walk on these lands to find Dumbledore and inform him of his probation"
"And yet again, the mention of this mysterious Dumbledore fellow. And, are you sure this ministry isn't a self-given title to try and gain access to our school? Because there is no ministry. Surely you know that it's dangerous to even talk about magic, with the Muggles out for our blood? Or are you really that oblivious?"
"Muggles out for our blood? Nev-" Fudge's eye's widened as if he was seeing what was in front of him for the first time, and at that moment, comprehension dawned in Rowena's hazel orbs "Wait... You said you are Salazar Slytherin." One dark eyebrow rose, challenging him to go on. Fudge turned to face Godric, careful to hide a sneer, for Godric's wild mane of red hair reminded him of Hagrid "So you must be Godric Gryffindor" He received a small nod of acknowledgement. If possible Fudges' eye's widened further as he turned to face the two ladies, one who had her strawberry blond hair pulled into a scraggily bun, the other's hair lightly framing her sharp features "Which means you must be Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw" The two further nods left Fudge in a spluttering heap of denial.
"Lady Ravenclaw? Lord Slytherin?" One of the unidentified people questioned, clearly looking for answers
"Time travelled" Salazar's short, clipped answer clearly stated he was trying to figure something else out, something more obscure. That left Rowena to try and quickly explain whilst Fudge was clearly distracted
"This incompetent moron here appears to have travelled through time, but has only just realised it. He also claims to be the leader of our world in the future"
"Really? Our world must have fallen into chaos, and our intelligence levels must have been seriously reduced."
"Indeed Sir Delaney-Podmore" It was at that moment that Fudge regained his limited brain power
"Please say I'm hallucinating... Please say that you're figments of my imagination..."
"We could but that could be lying" that simple sentence was obviously too much as Fudge fell to the floor in a dead faint
"So what can we do? We can't interfere in a way that would change everything before Fudge, but surely we can stop this idiocy from continuing?" Godric muttered
"Well..." Here Helga paused, her eyes' glinting mischievously "We could get Sal to teach him the correct way of running our society"
"Nothing against Lord Slytherin, but why him? Lord Gryffindor was born and raised a Lord"
"As that may be the case, Salazar has a certain, style, for lack of a better word, that makes him a better teacher. He also has as good an understanding of how our world should be run as Godric. It also helps by the fact that Fudge seems to be terrified of him" The teacher nodded in understanding at Rowena's words
"Where should I start? With quizzing him on his views and what he plans to achieve or the state of his time. Because some of our ideals might cause more problems instead of solving them." Salazar joined the conversation
"A valid point. Maybe start with both, combine them somehow. And then from that knowledge, devise a syllabus that would teach him the lessons that he's obviously lacking" Salazar nodded once and then excused himself before gracefully rising from his seat and exciting the hall, easily side-stepping the still unconscious Minister
After two hours of lesson's under the Slytherin founder, Fudge had officially had enough. It was bad enough that he was frequently being indirectly insulted but the fact that he had to learn the history of house-elves and treat werewolves as beings was too far. All 'half-breeds' were dangerous. They should be kept on a tight leash. If possible, exterminated. They were, after all, contaminating the quickly dwindling number of pure-blood families. Stifling a groan, Fudge looked back down at the page he was supposed to be reading
In order to stop a repeat of this kind of treason, the High-Elves made an example of the traitors. They cast a spell on the rebel elves and changed their magic. If the rebels didn't bond to a wizard or witch and start serving him or her (as a kind of servant) their now wild magic would cause spontaneous elven combustion, effectively killing the creature. They also could only use their magic for household chores...
A sound caused Fudge to look up from the ancient book as the Ravenclaw founder walked in.
"Salazar has been called away for urgent business, so I'll be testing you. Question one. What was the name of the rebel elf group?"
Two days later and Fudge decided that the founders were no longer the all-powerful light orientated (with the exception of Slytherin) history portrayed them as. He no longer looked up to them with reverence. He just wanted to go back to his time where he his ideals weren't being chipped away at and reformed. Nor did he like the fact that Slytherin truly was a master manipulator, for countless time's he'd won the debates, and that meant a pile of paperwork, an un-happy public and a lot of firing for Fudge to do and just a small bit of satisfaction for Slytherin.
He truly wanted to go home.
And for once, his wishes were listened to.
The next morning, Fudge woke up to the (alien seeming) sound of student chatter. The school was no longer a ghost castle. It had students in. But yet, Fudge was still in the bed-chamber he'd been assigned when there was obviously no chance of him returning.
But yet, here he was, in Hogwarts at the same time he originally planned to be, just in a different place.
A few quick charms later, Fudge was presentable and ready to finally apprehend Dumbledore.
Upon reaching the doors to the great hall and not being transported back in time, Fudge felt a sense of joyous revenge creep through him. He felt although he'd managed to trick Time into keeping him in his time, not the Founders. And now he was finally about to get even. What more could he want?
Okay, maybe not having to change legislation which he promised Slytherin he'd do, but, minor details.
When he entered the hall, it instantly fell silent, the same kind of silence as when he originally walked into Hogwarts, back in the Founder's time. But thankfully, this time it wasn't accompanied by time travel.
Remembering a few of Salazar's lesson's which he actually deemed useful, he met Dumbledore's eyes.
"Supreme Mugwump Dumbledore."
"Minister Fudge. What brings you to Hogwarts today?"
"A few topics which should be discussed in private, if possible?"
"Certainly"
"Lead the way"
And with that both Fudge and Dumbledore exited the hall, only for Dumbledore to be arrested and forcibly taken to the ministry.
No one heard Time madly cackling in the background.
fini
AN: So what do you think? Good? Bad? Please, let me know.