I don't opwn Harry Potter, all rights belong to JK Rowling

For this story Fudge was elected in early 1988.

Mixing with Muggles

Minister Fudge. He liked that, in fact, he thought to himself he'd never get sick of hearing that. Now Bagnold had gone and his campaign was successful he was the most important person in magical Britain. He'd just got back having introduced himself to the muggle Prime Minister and it was time to think. The name Fudge wasn't all that well respected within wizarding circles, it wasn't an ancient or noble name but by Merlin would Cornelius but them on the map.

Fudge had a plan, an ambitious plan, he needed something to endear himself, a coup of sorts to show that he was the most powerful, the smartest and he was Britain's best choice in all elections. Already he'd heard rumours he ran to Dumbledore for advice but no he would prove them wrong. It had to be something that would win him supporters within the ministry and something that would make the public love him. Harry Potter was his target. The Boy-Who-Lived, rumour had it Dumbledore had hidden away the boy with muggles, that simply wouldn't do, the boy was an icon in the wizarding world, a symbol of hope, he belonged with them. The mystery of how the boy had survived the killing curse was something the unspeakables were dying to know and Fudge could see the value in it to. Imagine if he Cornelius Fudge brought back Harry Potter, leading to a defence against the killing curse, the public would see him as a hero and he'd go down in history forever.

It took him a month to track down where Potter was, he'd trusted some aurors to find him and now he and an escort were on their way to a small town in Surrey. Cornelius was shocked at the street he found himself on, how positively muggle, why, all the houses were almost identical, their lawns so boring and uniform it was easy to see why their lives had no magic in. Knocking on the door of number four he held his bowler hat in his hands, some people were still very touchy about hats indoors and he was never sure if a doorway counted or not. As a cautious man, he thought it best not take any risks and so he held the lime green hat behind his back and waited. The door was answered by a thin woman with a long neck, he personally thought she looked at tad horse-like but he wasn't here to judge, he was on a mission.

"Greetings, I am Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic." He never got further than that before the woman positively shrieked, how barbaric and uncivilised. A large man resembling a walrus appeared next to her. He reminded Fudge a little in shape and facial hair of his old professor, Horace Slughorn, he owed that man a good Christmas gift, it was Slughorn who got him his first job in the ministry, junior minister you know? Not everyone makes junior minister straight out of school but good old Horace had always said there was something special about him.

"What are your lot doing here?" Asked the larger man.

"As I was saying to your wife, I am Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic. Would I be correct in assuming you are a Mr Vernon Dursley?"

"I am." The man said sharply.

"I believe you have been entrusted with the care of Harry James Potter?"

"What has that freak done now?" The man snapped shocking Fudge, this man seemed rather unpleasant, mentally he apologised to his old potions Professor for ever comparing him with this man.

"May we come in, I'd like to speak to the boy?" Fudge asked.

Mr Dursley looked offended but a whispered conversation with his wife, of which the only word Fudge heard was 'neighbours', led to Fudge and his escort being led inside. The inside was pristine, polished surfaces everywhere and plenty of photos, many contained a rather rotund boy none contained the dark hair and emerald eyes that the Potter boy had been known to have.

"Boy" roared the unpleasant Mr Dursley, a small scrawny child emerged from a cupboard under the stairs looking rather nervous. This must be young Mr Potter, what was he doing in the cupboard Fudge wondered. "These people are here to speak with you." The way he said people was surprising, he seemed to spit out the word as if he was forcing himself to say it, if a voter spoke of him like that he would be truly concerned. Thankfully this man was just a muggle.

"Hello Harry, I am Minister Fudge." He said to the boy with a big smile that his campaign manager had made him practice. It was meant to reassure people and Harry seemed rather nervous, then again it's not every day that you meet the Minister of Magic.

"Err, hello, sir." Replied Harry looking to his relatives wondering what was happening.

"Well, you wanted to speak to the boy but I warn you now that we won't stand for any of your freakishness in our home. You and your unnatural ways are not welcome here." Fudge was confused, what were these people on about?

"Yes, well we would like young Harry to come with us. We feel it's only right that he returns to our world."

"Good riddance, we never wanted him anyway." Spat the woman. Fudge was shocked by this, he never expected this response and frankly he wasn't quite sure what to say.

"We'll sign anything just keep him away and leave us normal people alone." Mr Dursley said supporting his wife.

"Oh, alright then" Fudge opened his briefcase and pulled out a couple of forms. These change of guardianship forms he had prepared along with a small pile of gold for convincing them that Harry would be better with him. He never expected that Harry would basically be thrown at him. "If you would be so kind as to sign here and here." He instructed pointing to the relevant places, his mind wandering to ways to spend the gold, after all its expenditure had already been marked and put aside in the budget.

Half an hour later Minister Fudge was the new guardian of Harry James Potter. He had settled Harry into a guest room within his property and set up a meeting with several department heads for the morning. He'd contact the Daily Prophet after getting the boy checked out and unveil the boy to the world when he felt ready. Now for a nightcap before bed.

The next morning Cornelius led Harry into the Ministry before regular hours, he had been stunned last night to discover that the boy knew nothing of the magical world or his fame. The boy seemed to be in shock and but unwilling to ask questions as if the Dursley's had done their best to remove all curiosity. It was clear the way his eyes kept widening whenever he saw magic and his mouth opened that he wanted to ask but felt better of it. He was more than a little shy which just wouldn't do for a national icon but one step at a time. Maybe he should delay the press release until Harry was ready for cameras.

They made their way to the bottom of the ministry before most people got in and they successfully entered the Department of Mysteries without anyone spotting Harry. Due to the unusual nature of the work conducted by this secretive department they had their own medical unit which allowed for the unspeakables to start getting readings from Harry straight away and Fudge had wanted a medical assessment done on him the moment he saw how the muggles had lived.

They were blown away by all the readings they found. They could detect large amounts of dark magic oozing from the scar in his head. Dark magic was normally a subjective term which made dark magic detection spells and devices unfeasible however this was clearly the blackest of magics. The killing curse belonged to this group of magics but it never left a mark on a body when it was successful. The unspeakables were intrigued. Experts from each sub-department were all clamouring for more readings. The boy seemed extremely nervous but sat quietly while the hooded magicians waved their wands around.

Things were going well, right up until an unspeakable from the Death chamber carried out his tests. As part of his training he had studies death is several aspects including avoiding it. He had studied ancient Egyptian soul jars and even analysed a sample of the Elixir of Life provided by Nicholas Flamel. Whenever he was presented with an object he had a set of spells he ran to identify the object. It was so routine now after nearly forty years in the Department of Mysteries that he absently ran through them on the boy. What he found scared him. The boy's scar had pinged the foreign soul detection spell, a spell of his own creation to identify ancient magical Egyptian Pharaohs whose soul resided in their prized artefacts. That scar came the night the Dark Lord vanished. That only led to one candidate for the owner of the foreign soul given soul magic was so heavily restricted and there had only been one person there that night who would ignore all restrictions. The fear must have shown in his body language. People all seemed to step backwards especially those who recognised his speciality.

"Is something wrong?" Asked Minister Fudge.

"Indeed, grave news indeed." A few unspeakables groaned knowing his speciality and the use of 'grave' however most were too worried. "He who must not be named is a false immortal."

"A what?" The Minister asked, a slight tremor in his voice.

"A false immortal, the Dark Lord has found one of the forbidden ways to cheat death."

"No, that can't be, he's gone." Fudge mumbled.

"Oh yes, he has gone." The unspeakable replied. Fudge seemed to relax before the unspeakable followed up. "But it is possible for him to return."

"That's not possible." Insisted Fudge.

"Oh it is, the cost is quite monstrous but it is possible. There are many ways to cheat death and I have detected the presence of one on this poor boy."

Said boy was now looking positively terrified by was far too shy to say anything while the other unspeakables didn't seem too happy. Though their faces were hidden the excitement and energy from earlier had fled faster than a man faced with a nundu.

"I don't believe it." Fudge stated nervously.

"Minister, he is not entirely dead. He is however clearly incapable of acting at this moment. He has a chance to return however. We have time, potentially lots of it to ensure that if and when he returns we can send him through the veil permanently."

Clearly Fudge was working on something. Though he was often a bumbling fool who trusted his advisors a tad too much he wasn't stupid by any means. Academically he had done rather well and his time in the ministry was rather distinguished. His head shot up as he turned to his aide. He could be the man who ended the real threat of Voldemort and if this unspeakable was right then it had potentially very little risk.

"Firstly, nothing said today leaves this room. I want us all to swear it. Secondly what more do you know about this?"

After a round of oaths they moved to a meeting room where they were to be briefed once some other people arrived. Amongst those summoned were Madam Bones, the new head of the DMLE. Rufus Scrimgeour, head of the aurors and Marcus Davis head of the hitwizards. While this was happening an unspeakable remembered a little glass orb with a boy's name on it. It was one of the only ones from the last decade so he was rather familiar with it. Only the boy could activate it so while everyone else set up the meeting Harry Potter was escorted a little way down row ninety-seven within the Hall of Prophecy. There he collected the orb and unsure what to do with it took it back to Fudge. Harry didn't know the man but he knew him better than the others and he'd been nice to Harry so far.

Once everyone was in place the meeting could begin. It was stated that everything covered in this meeting was covered as top level ministry secrets meaning they all swore unbreakable oaths that everything covered in this meeting should not leave the room. While Fudge sat at the head of the table he left it to the lead unspeakable to chair the meeting. The lead unspeakable then covered what he had found within Harry's scar and what it meant. He gave a brief summary of how it worked and it quickly became clear to all why they had all been pulled down to the mysterious department beneath the ministry. Normally Fudge would have invited his friend Lucius Malfoy but he had such a terrible time with He-who-must-not-be-named with that nasty imperius business, it would be kinder to leave him ignorant. If this meeting went as planned, then he'd never have to worry. A quirk of the top-level secrecy oaths nobody could disclose anything to anyone without permission from at least two of the people involved in the oath. Meaning that nobody else would worry him either.

The meeting boiled down to the issue that he-who-must-not-be-named was still alive somewhere and it was possible for him to regain a body. There was a fragment of his soul inside Harry Potter's scar. Depending on the exact method of soul preservation there could be multiple fragments out in the world. A task force would be needed to hunt these down to remove the Dark Lord's immortality. With these conclusions, everyone went quiet to consider who they wanted on the task force. It was into this quiet that eight-year-old Harry Potter found out how to active a prophecy orb. Sybill Trelawney's voice echoed through the meeting room.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."

"Well that changes things." Someone muttered as the prophecy orb rolled ominously down the table having been dropped by the surprised child.