Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: The Prime Minister still dislikes his Minister of Magic.

Chapter 1: The Other Minister

The Prime Minister had been about to leave his office and go to bed when that annoying painting that could not be removed announced the impending arrival of Cornelius Fudge.

Fudge was certainly his least favourite member of his cabinet, though the Prime Minister was fair enough to admit that that fact might at least in part be due to his not having had any say whatsoever in Fudge's appointment. In fact the Prime Minister wasn't quite sure how the Minister for Magic was chosen at all. Quite possibly it simply happened by magic!

On the other hand he thought he might have been able to live with the admittedly rare appearances of Cornelius Fudge in his office if the man had only ... well, used the door instead of the fireplace to enter the room, refrained from waving that spooky stick of his around and not turned his favourite teacup into a rodent before the Prime Minister had even had the chance to finish his tea!

Oh, and if each of his appearances so far hadn't been to announce some terrible news that the Prime Minister had found himself quite incapable of doing anything about.

"Please don't tell me there's been another mass breakout from Azkaban," were therefore the first words that escaped him when he saw Fudge step out of the happily dancing flames in the fireplace that he couldn't even remember having had lit. It was the middle of summer after all!

"No, no, not this time," Fudge reassured him. "In fact we even managed to recapture some of the escapees yesterday. Along with some new ones we had no idea were in league with You-Know-Who before. Though I must admit that we are not entirely sure of their guilt yet. They may have been under the imperius curse."

The Prime Minister had no idea what the imperius curse might be, but felt quite confident that it would be better for his peace of mind if he continued in ignorance and didn't ask.

"Peter Pettigrew?" he suggested hopefully instead.

"I fear not. He continues to be missing. We fear that he has probably reunited with You-Know-Who by now. In fact if Harry Potter's vision can be trusted he was instrumental in bringing him back to ... well life for lack of a better term. We have reason to believe that You-Know-Who is able to send the boy false visions, though, so we cannot take that as proof."

"Harry Potter?" the Prime Minister remembered. "Wasn't that the boy you took against his parents' will and are refusing to hand over to their chosen institute?"

"Well ... they are not his parents you see," Fudge hedged. He well remembered that he had promised to hand the boy over immediately the last time he had visited the Muggle Minister as he thought of the Prime Minister. "They are his aunt and uncle and were registered as his legal guardians in the Muggle world to protect him there. His actual parents are still alive, though and so the right of decision lies with his father and he is quite determined to keep the boy at Hogwarts Institute, which I have to admit I too think is best for a magical child, both for his proper education and for the sake of secrecy. We wouldn't want him to give our existence away by doing magic in front of his fellow students at a Muggle institute, would we? Just think of the uproar there would be!"

"That is of course true," the Prime Minister admitted. "But what am I supposed to do about the aunt and uncle then? They seem to be quite sure that the place is most dangerous and that they are called upon to rescue the child."

"I ... oh, I will inform Albus Dumbledore of the matter. I am sure that he will know what best to do about the Muggles." Fudge said a little impatiently. "We really have much bigger problems at the Ministry right now. We simply can't be expected to deal with the minor problems of a single individual under the circumstances."

The Prime Minister could have pointed out that one boy, one aunt, one uncle, one father and presumably also one mother did not total up to one individual, but decided to let the matter drop. No matter how much he didn't want to he still needed to know what the latest bad news from the Ministry of Magic were. Besides single families really ought to be too insignificant a matter for a minister to bother with.

"Very well," he said therefore. "What has happened then?"

"Well, first of all I have to inform you that You-Know-Who is back. Not only that, but he chose to announce that fact by appearing in the Ministry of Magic itself the day before yesterday. He caused some destruction and killed one of our best Aurors. Some people, unfortunately including civilians were injured. We managed to drive him off and capture several of his Death Eaters, however and the damage to the building itself should be repaired by the end of the week. No Muggles have come to any harm that we know of, but I must warn you that You-Know-Who is a known Muggle-hater and while he is at large nobody is safe."

"So what can we do to protect me ... my people?" the Prime Minister asked.

"Well, nothing I fear. He will attack using magic after all," Fudge admitted. "Also be advised that the dementors have abandoned Azkaban and are most likely in league with You-Know-Who. They cause depression among all who come near them and can suck out people's souls. Unfortunately they are invisible to Muggles, so there is very little you can do about that either. They do like lonely, dark and foggy places, though, so perhaps you could advise the Muggles to avoid those. You might claim that there is a serial killer on the loose, perhaps."

The Prime Minister nodded, though that was what he had already done about Peter Pettigrew.

"Ah yes, and I have been forced to step down so I am also here to introduce you to my successor."

The second wizard the Prime Minister had ever met arrived as if on clue making the Prime Minister wonder whether he'd been using some magic spell to spy on the conversation and time his entrance for best effect.

It only took the Minister about a minute to decide that he liked Rufus Scrimgeour even less than he did Cornelius Fudge.