I do not own any of the characters from the Harry Potter and Zoophobia canon. They are the rightful property of J.K Rowling and Vivienne Madrano respectively.

Chapter 3: A Game of Politics

Albus Dumbledore sat alone in his office, surrounded by his contraptions, books and his pet phoenix Fawkes. The nearby portraits of headmasters and headmistresses of old sat in their frames, snoozing softly as he stared into the fireplace that crackled in front of him. As he did this, he played with the wand in his hand, feeling the soft wood on his fingers as he waited for his esteemed guest.

Sure enough, the orange tinge of the fire erupted into emerald green and a figure stepped out of the flames. As he left it, the fire quickly reverted back to its original orange glow.

"Evening Cornelius"

"Evening Albus. Is this a bad time?"

"No, no… the children are all tucked in bed so now should be fine" replied Dumbledore

The portly little man dusted his pinstriped robes and took off his lime green bowler hat, twirling it in his hand as he walked over to shake Dumbledore's hand. As he did, Dumbledore noticed the fatigue in his eyes.

"Can I offer you any refreshments?" Dumbledore waved his hand over to a nearby table that hosted a tray containing a blue teapot, some teacups and a plate of crumpets. Cornelius Fudge's eyes lit up slightly as he pushed a chair backwards and sat into it.

"That would be a welcome treat. One sugar however and no milk"

With a wave of his wand, the teapot levitated itself and poured out a generous helping of hot tea into an unoccupied cup. The same time, the sugar bowl opened and a spoon of white sugar was poured in. The spoon stirred the tea itself before the steaming cup was levitated over to the Minister for Magic and into his open hands.

"Now," said Dumbledore as he tucked his wand into the innards of his robes. Fudge took a sip of his tea, shuddering slightly as the warmth coursed through his body, "To what do I owe the pleasure, Cornelius? I got your owl just this morning"

"Yes, onto business" He drained the rest of his cup before setting it on Dumbledore's table, "But before that, I have to ask, how are the children reacting to the boy's death?"

"Ah...yes. That..." Dumbledore said sadly, "Its as bad as you would expect it to be. Most of the children here grew up with stories of the boy and how he was such a hero. The fact that he died so young has left many of the students here shaken. Hasn't stopped lessons, however"

"I wish I could say the same thing about the Ministry, Albus" replied Fudge with a groan. He rubbed his temple as the teapot refilled his cup, "Half my staff hasn't shown up for the last few days because they were with their families. At this rate, nothing is getting done properly"

"I'm sorry to hear that Cornelius"

"Don't be- least you can do is hear my problems" taking another sip from his cup, "I have problems Albus, problems that keep piling up ever since that boy's death"

"I...see. May I ask what these problems may be?"

"Hang on, I got them right here" Fudge reached into a black, leather suitcase that Dumbledore hadn't noticed he brought in with him. Fishing around its contents, he eventually withdrew a stack of papers, each of them stamped with the Ministry of Magic's Seal in the right-hand corner. Passing them over to Dumbledore, who took them with shaking hands, he skimmed over the contents on the pages. As he read each of them, his eyes widened slightly in surprise before speaking in a low voice.

"Oh my..."

"Yeah it's not good is it?" said Fudge as he chewed on one of the crumpets from the plate, "Last few days have seen a surge in muggle attacks, most of them done by regular folk, none of that dark wizard business"

Brushing the crumbs from his fingers, Fudge leaned forward and spoke with an ominous tone, "People are a calling for blood Albus. They want revenge for the boy, and its hard to stop them when a majority of my staff are in full favour of it"

"I...I had no idea...that it was this serious" said Dumbledore, skimming down near the end he saw a few similarities among the attack cases, "I notice that most of these muggles seem to be related to Vernon Dursley in some way. Secretaries, workers, even Dursley himself was attacked three times"

"What disturbs me however is the response time, Aurors and Obliviators didn't arrive until an hour after the report was put forward" continued Dumbledore.

"Yeah...about that" Fudge chuckled nervously as he scratched the side of his cheek, "I've got problems finding any Aurors willing to go help those muggles, especially anyone associated with that fat Dursley. Said 'It would be a favour to help them'"

Placing down the papers, Dumbledore turned his attention over to Fudge who sat there nervously, "So what do you want me to do about it? Do you need my advice on this?"

"Alas, that is not the case sadly" replied Fudge "No...what I want, is answers"

The tone in the room quickly turned cold as Dumbledore noticed the Minister's agitation, "What answers are you talking about specifically?"

"Please don't play dumb Dumbledore - it is extremely insulting to your intelligence" Fudge reached into his briefcase once again and pulled out a crinkled newspaper. Its yellowing pages indicated to its constant use, yet the words were still clear enough for Dumbledore to read the emboldened words at the front, "I think this should clearly indicate what I want. No - scratch that - what the people want"

"I see... Is that why you've arranged this little meeting of ours?"

"Yes...every since that boy died, there has been a cascade of problems one after the other. Anti-muggle sentiment is on the rise, there's been an increase in dark activity, paranoia is infesting the streets and there have been talks from my political opponents of removing me for my incompetence. People are scared Albus, scared of what might happen now that the boy is dead. But worst off is they're confused. Confused as to how this could have happened in the first place "

"So how'd you know I had something to do with the boy? As far as I'm concerned, the only person from the Ministry who knew where I took the boy that fateful night was your predecessor Millicent Bagnold"

"You can thank your, half-giant friend, for that," said Fudge condescendingly, "Aurors were sent to the Leaky Cauldron yesterday due to noise complaints. Your friend and quite a number of people were arrested for drunken behaviour and misconduct. Told us some very interesting thing while he was sobering up in his cell"

'Oh Hagrid...' Dumbledore internally groaned as he realized what Hagrid must have done, 'Boy's a good kid but if you put him together with alcohol, he'll never cease to amaze me with the amount of stupidity he can commit"

"He's not in trouble I hope," said Dumbledore to which Fudge shook his head.

"Nah... We let him out this morning. Still, to the matter at hand I know now that you took the boy, so do a large number of people in the Ministry and their families. You can bet that information will not be suppressed no matter how hard I try. Reporters are going to be here soon demanding answers so the least you could do is still tell them to me before you have to tell it to a crowd of angry, and frankly, gossip-hungry reporters"

Fudge and Dumbledore had a small staring contest before Dumbledore sighed and stood up from his chair. He then walked over to one of the many tables that decorated his office and motioned Fudge over to it. This particular table housed a miniature silver contraption that looked like a combination of a Tesla coil with a large red ruby implanted in the middle. This particular ruby however now sat, dully as a piece of rock, as if all the colour in it had been drained out.

"There is ancient magic," said Dumbledore wearily as he prodded the machine a few times with his wand. Despite each prod he gave it, the machine didn't respond in any way though it allowed Fudge to have a closer look at the age showing on Dumbledore's face, "A magic extremely powerful in its own rights, yet how it works still to this day bewilders us wizards"

"What is it?"

"Love" replied Dumbledore simply, "So simple, isn't it? Yet it was this very thing that saved Harry that fateful night. The moment his mother threw herself willingly to protect the boy, she evoked this ancient magic. Through her love, she cast upon the child, a protection spell more powerful than any shield charm in the world. It is because of her love for her own child, that Voldemort was defeated that night "

Fudge shuddered slightly at the mention of Voldemort's name "Surely... - you're telling me, that the reason You-Know-Who was defeated that night, was because of his mother's protection? Not his own skill?"

"Would you believe a fifteen-month-old child could defeat one of the most powerful dark wizards of the century?"

"I...I...No..." said Fudge "I mean I believed it when it happened. But thinking about it - truthfully no"

"And you wouldn't be wrong" agreed Dumbledore "This magic works in peculiar ways. It requires a sacrificial pawn, someone who is offered the chance of life but consciously chooses death to protect another out of nothing but pure love. Once it is cast, the intended victim would be protected from their would-be murderer, who in turn cannot even touch the victim without feeling immense pain. All casted spells on the victim by the murderer would either rebound or have a reduced effect"

"Then how did the child defeat You-Know-Who? If the only thing he had was a powerful protection spell"

"Now this is all guesswork and theories," said Dumbledore, "My guess, however, is that due to the protection from his mother, the Killing Curse used by Voldemort rebounded back towards him, and as a result, he was defeated"

"Does...does this mean You-Know-Who is truly dead?" asked Fudge hopefully. He prayed in his heart that Dumbledore would say yes back to him.

"Alas no" Fudge's heart sank "I do not believe that Voldemort would be willing to die just like that without at least some effort to preserve himself. My best bet is that he's out there somewhere, too weak to come back but slowly regaining his power"

"Okay... But why did you put him with those muggles? Because of them, the boy is now dead and the whole wizarding world is seemingly ready to explode"

"There was no other choice"

"No other choice!" yelled Fudge right back into Dumbledore's face, "Merlin's beard, Dumbledore! There are plenty of wizarding families that would have gladly taken the boy in, heck he would've been safer at the Ministry than with those damn muggles"

"Sadly that is not possible" replied Dumbledore calmly to the fuming Minister, "By the time word reached of Voldemort's defeat, his Death Eaters would have stormed the country in search of the boy for revenge. Have you forgotten what happened to the Longbottom's?"

"B...But the Ministry - "

"Was compromised with spies and you know it" interrupted Dumbledore, "handing the boy over to the Ministry would have assured him a Deathwish"

"Eruggh…,Fine, I'll trust you on that" Fudge deflated slightly as he sunk back into his chair, "The wizarding world wasn't safe. But why those muggles, Albus? Why not a regular muggle's orphanage or something? Hagrid told us that Minerva was spying on them the whole day, warning you of what they were like when you brought the boy to them, why did you persist with it?"

"There was a reason behind that" admitted Dumbledore, " The case of Harry Potter was unique because the victim was his own mother. Because of this, another charm was cast, known as the 'bond of blood'. This charm prevents the boy from being harmed by Voldemort as long as he was in the confines of a relative, specifically a relative that was related to Lily Potter by blood. Hence is why I placed him with his muggle aunt, Lily Potter's sister and the only remaining blood relative to Harry"

"This charm ensured that he would be protected" continued Dumbledore, "Protected as long as he regarded his aunt's residence 'home' until he reaches the age of maturity, seventeen. Doing this would have protected him from the remnants of Voldemort's army and given him time to grow up as a normal child before being exposed to the harsh reality of our world"

"My only failing was my inability, no - rather my stubbornness to accept the Dursley's true nature" Dumbledore sighed sadly and it was in this moment that Fudge truly felt sympathy for the elderly man, "I believed that they were redeemable, that they could have been willing to accept the child for what he was because he was family. Petunia herself had once written to me as a child, expressing how much she wanted to be a witch despite her lack of magical capabilities. I hoped that her desire as a child would have allowed her to accept the boy. I guess I was greatly mistaken - and now a child is dead because of my actions"

He pointed to the large contraption with his wand, particularly the large ruby that was lodged in the centre of the tesla-coil like machine. "This machine was to monitor the strength of the blood wards. But now that the boy is dead, you can see that the ruby is duller. This indicates that the protection spells over the Dursley's house are failing"

"The only thing I don't understand - Is why you pulled all of this and didn't tell any of us," said Fudge. Dumbledore shook his head slowly.

"I couldn't risk the boy's safety. The war had just swung in our favour and the army of Voldemort was scattered. Sure they had lost their leader and their purpose, but many of them were out for blood. Had I revealed what I was doing, what's to stop they from imperising a few muggles to head over to the house and attack all of them? As far as I'm concerned, the wards don't work against muggle intruders"

"The idea was to raise the boy away from all of it. Away from the war and the damages that it had caused. To give the boy a normal upbringing away from the destruction. But all did was deliver him to his death"

By now the teapot was empty, its contents having been drained by both of the occupants in the room. In the back, Fawkes gave a loud squawk before flying out of the opened mosaic window to explore the grounds of the school. Fudge gave the Phoenix an interested look before turning back to Dumbledore.

"So what happens now?" Dumbledore merely gave a tired shrug of his shoulders.

"I don't know. You tell me"

"I...I want to tell the public. To give them the answers. Yet the people don't want it from me... they want the answer to come from you"

"If that is the case, then I shall go with you and reveal to the public everything. Its the least I can do now to ensure the paranoia doesn't spread to across the wizarding world"

"If that is what you think is the best case, then I will support you in whatever way I can. Your advice has been a tremendous help in my early years so the least I could do now is back you up, Albus"

"Still..." said Fudge as he got up and stretched his back, "If that is all for tonight then I must request my departure. I have to get up and ready tomorrow to prepare the reporters"

"Of course, Cornelius" The two men stood up and shook hands before the Minister for Magic walked over to Dumbledore's fireplace and threw a few traces of Floo powder into the still crackling flames. With a loud whoosh, the flames grew even larger and the colour changed to emerald green.

"Oh by the way...whatever happened to Harry Potter's body?" said Dumbledore from his headmaster's seat.

"Hmm...? The boy's body? Don't worry about that, we were able to attain it from the muggle "Aurors" once they were done with their investigation"

"Police Cornelius, Police" corrected Dumbledore, to which Fudge just rolled his eyes at him, "Still where are you planning to bury the boy?"

"Where else but with his family, of course" replied Fudge with a sad smile, "Godric's Hollow"

With those last words, Cornelius Fudge stepped into the flames and vanished from the room, leaving behind an exhausted Albus Dumbledore alone in his office. Surrounded by his contraptions that continued to make clicking sounds as he sat there in silence with his thoughts.

Author's Notes: I've decided to make Fudge less of an idiot in this fanfic. While he was a good-natured person that meant well, his fixation on maintaining peace ultimately made him an antagonist in the books. Nothing wrong with that, as paranoia can change even the best of people. Harry's early death, however, has forced him now to take thing much more seriously and with Dumbledore telling him everything; who knows, maybe things will turn out differently.

I think we've had enough of the wizarding world for now. Next few chapters will focus primarily on Harry and how the world of Zoophobia ties into the Harry Potter Canon. See you until then.