Chapter 10

-o0oOo0o-

After the Wizengamot session was over, Harry was preparing to leave his office when a knock came on the door. Harry went to open the door: it was professor Dumbledore.

"Evening, professor", Harry said, stepping aside to allow the old wizard to come in. "What can I do for you?"

"Ah, Harry. I hoped you could help an old man in his quandary", Dumbledore said, and after a questioning gesture to which Harry answered by merely shrugging he conjured an armchair and sat down with a satisfied sigh.

"After our last meeting I have been thinking about what you said to me", Dumbledore started. "And I must admit, you were right. The prophecy makes this your war, and I should have told you more than I did. So please consider my involvement today as a gesture of good will from my part. A sign that I will help you in what you wish to do. But I must ask that you would tell me beforehand what you are doing. Many of my allies here were stunned to hear about Sirius, and the fact that you mentioned my knowledge of it made my position quite awkward."

"I'm just doing what you should have done years ago. Fudge was never the right man to lead, and you should have got rid of him the moment you knew Voldemort was seeking to return."

Dumbledore sighed. "To be young and idealistic! You don't yet understand what responsibility that kind of power brings. I just hope you'll learn it soon."

"Power? Responsibility? You just don't get it, do you? I'm not seeking for power or responsibility, I'm more than happy to leave those to Amelia. But Fudge was making my life impossible to live, and he needed to go."

"And what if Amelia does the same? Will you just seek to remove her too?"

"I'll cross that bridge when I get there. But I trust Amelia will do what is needed and I don't think that will ever become a problem. Besides, she knows of the prophecy, she understands what I must do."

Dumbledore looked alarmed. "She knows? Are you sure that is wise?"

"Frankly, yes. She needs to know the facts to be able to do the right decisions. And it was necessary to tell her so that the prophecy wouldn't come up whe she interrogated Snape. If it had, then everyone would know about it."

"Severus? That was your work too?"

"Well, no. It was Daphne's operation. But I did have my hand in it."

Dumbledore looked at Harry appraisingly. "I see you have been working on this quite some time now. I only wish you will remember that we are on the same side in this, and that you can always come to me for help."

"I'll keep that in mind", Harry replied diplomatically. "The best thing you can do is to tell me everything you know. And Amelia too. Having the right information is the key to avoiding wrong decisions."

"I will think about that. But now I really need to go. I wish you best of luck in your endeavours, so much depends on you succeeding."

"I wish that too, professor."

- O -

The next Friday Harry, Augusta Longbottom and Damien Greengrass were gathered in the ministers office at Amelia's invitation. It was her second full day in office, and judging by the amount of paper on her table and around the room she was already swamped in work.

"I don't know if I should thank you or hate you or this position", Amelia said. "The ministry is in worse state after Fudge than I dared to fear. Apparently incompetence wasn't the only reason why Fudge refused to increase the funds of the DMLE. The ministry is broke."

Amelia gestured at the papers around. "I've been trying to make sense of this mess ever since I first arrived to office. Fudge has been blowing away money left and right. He has bought support with tax cuts, he has hired 'personal assistants' and 'junior secretaries' as favours. He has thrown lavish parties to his friends. The Quidditch World Cup Stadium alone cost over five million galleons, and the latest 'investment' he did was upgrading the wards and defences around his own home. One hundred thousand galleons! 'Protecting the minister', my ass."

"So, what are you going to do?", asked Harry.

"That's just it. I don't know what can be done. Some businesses are already moving their operations abroad, and raising taxes in this situation would only result in even more of them doing the same. The Insurance Fund and St. Mungo's are going to eat up even more money when the war really gets going, and already it looks like we are going to run out of funds around Halloween."

"Can't we, I don't know, take the money from the Death Eaters?"

"That's not possible", Augusta answered. "The Goblin treaties protect everything that's inside Gringotts, and those are not going to change without another rebellion. The best we could do would be to confiscate any properties or companies they own, but homes aren't worth much if you need to first buy a curse breaking team to take down the wards and traps and then do new wards. And I don't know how many would be willing to buy a Death Eater home in current situation. Besides, the wealthiest Death Eaters are officially 'under Imperius Curse'. We would need to capture and convict them before we could do even that."

The four of them sat silently pondering the seemingly hopeless situation.

"How much?", asked Harry finally.

"How much what? How much money we need?" Amelia asked and Harry nodded. "Well, to keep the ministry running for yet another year, I would say ten million more. Fifteen, if we want to start fighting back. And it's going to take time before we have the new troops recruited and trained, even if we don't try to make aurors out of them."

"I'll have to think about this", Harry said. "And talk to the goblins. But I might be able to help with the money."

- O -

Harry arrived back to home with a portkey. The goblins had confirmed what he had already known: he had enough money to cover the ministry's deficit, but it would take some time to liquidate some of the investments. And any property he owned in the wizarding world would have to be sold with great loss, as the market really wasn't that good because of the war.

"Why does it always have to be me?", he asked from Daphne, who was reading the Daily prophet sitting in the living room. "Why can't the ministry do anything right?"

"What's it now?"

"Well, apparently Fudge managed to completely ruin the economy of the ministry. They are broke, and can't really do anything. And it appears that if we want to have any support from the aurors I have to foot the bill."

Harry slumped on the sofa, exhaling loudly.

"It's not that I really care about the money", Harry said to Daphne. "Because I don't. It really doesn't matter to me if I have twenty, twelve or two million galleons, it's anyway more than I can even comprehend, much less actually use. It's just that If I give it away, I would like to decide where I give it, not just use it to fill holes dug by Fudge."

Harry sighed. "But I don't really have an alternative, now do I? If the ministry doesn't get the money, we won't have a ministry next year. And I can't fight the Death Eaters and Voldemort all by myself. And if I'm dead the money isn't going to do much good to me either."

"Have you though about what you could ask from the ministry in return?"

"Yes, and that's just it. I don't want the ministry to do anything else than their bloody job. They can't really give me anything that I couldn't get myself. And I hate myself for even thinking about it; it feels like something Malfoy would do."

"What about some sort of official position that would allow you to fight? Or maybe immunity from prosecution? You know you'll probably have to do things that are against the law, and it really wouldn't do to win the war to just end up in Azkaban."

Harry drew his hand through his hair. "Yeah, that could be useful. I can see how Malfoy or someone similar would try to sue me for killing Voldemort. Or his followers, as I'm pretty sure there will be situations where I'll have to go through those first."

Harry paused to think some more.

"And then it could be useful to get information straight from the ministry, so some sort of official position where I could get what I needed from the aurors could be just what I need. But still I wouldn't like it to seem like I was buying favours."

"It doesn't have to be like that", Daphne said. "You could ask for those first. You don't need to make it conditional before Amelia denies. And it's not like they are unreasonable demands, given the prophecy."

"So you agree that I should give the money?"

"It's your money, you can do whatever you like. But yes, I agree you should do it. But it's not like you need to be the only one to give money, you should publicise it and ask for others to help, too. 'Lord Harry Potter donates for the war effort - the country needs your help.' That sounds like a good headline for the Prophet. And you should make it a loan, the ministry can pay you back after the war."

"Right. Let's work with that."

- O -

"You want what?" Amelia asked when Harry came back to the ministry later same evening.

"I want immunity from prosecution while I'm fighting Voldemort and the Death Eaters. I want access to information the aurors and the ministry has. I want to be able to fight this war to my best capability without needing to worry what will happen to me after the war is over."

"And pray tell me, why should I give you these?"

Harry sighed. This was it, now he would have to blackmail the ministry.

"Because if I can't fight this war with your blessing, I'll have to fight it without. And if I have to fight it without, I will not be supporting the ministry monetarily, but will instead use my money to hire every mercenary I can to do the fighting the aurors aren't currently capable to do."

Amelia drummed her desk with her fingers. There in front of her she had a man, no, a teenager who had almost single-handedly overthrown the previous government. Who was prophesied to kill the Dark Lord. Who apparently held the keys to her current budget crisis. And who had just threatened to take the war to his own hands if she didn't comply with his demands.

Amelia knew what would happen should Harry make good of his threat. The world of wizarding mercenaries was a brutal and bloody one. They would decimate the Death Eaters, but there would be an awful lot of collateral damage. There would be no trials, no one would be brought in front of justice. There would be only death and destruction. Assassinations in bright daylight. Firefights in the streets. Homes burnt to ashes with Fiendfyre. And given that her government was in crisis, she would be powerless to stop the anarchy that would follow.

"I don't like it", she said finally. "I don't like any of it. I don't like that you are basically blackmailing me, and I don't like the idea of anyone having immunity from prosecution. But I can see where you come from, I was there in your 'trial' a year ago."

Amelia paused to clean her monocle. "I will see what I can do. But I need some sort of guarantee that you won't abuse your powers. I want to bring the bastards to justice as much as you do, but that won't happen if you kill them. And I don't want innocent people caught in crossfire."

"I don't want it either. I just want to be able to fight this war and be done with it. And not worrying if someone decides they want to sue me for doing so will help me get this over quicker. We are on the same side here. But as it is my 'destiny' to kill in this war, I would like to do so without it being a murder."

"Right. Now, what did you say about monetary support for the ministry?"

Before Harry had time to answer, the office door was thrown open by an auror.

"Minister! There's been an attack at the Diagon Alley!"

- O -

Lucius Malfoy was not happy. The operation in the Department of Mysteries had been a disaster; not only had they failed to reach the objective, their entire group had been ambushed by aurors and the Order of the Phoenix. He had been lucky to escape, but in retrospect he wasn't entirely sure if it had in the end been better to get caught. You see, Lord Voldemort had not been pleased that he still didn't know what the prophecy said, and the fact that Dumbledore had yet again managed to force him to retreat hadn't made his mood any brighter.

His apparent failure last month was why Lucius was now in the Diagon Alley, dressed in his Death Eater robes and mask. He was leading a group of fresh recruits in their first mission, which was to cause mayhem and fear in the general populace. And punish Potter for his latest triumphs in Wizengamot. Their primary target was the new joke shop that the blood traitor Weasleys had opened.

It should have been an easy in and out job, but to Lucius' displeasure things were not going as they were planned. The Weasleys had implemented devious defensive measures, and as soon as the first curses hit the building the hideous animated jester figure in the front of the store had sprung to action, throwing all kinds of stuff out of his brightly coloured top hat. Currently half of his troops were hopping or crawling around transformed into all sorts of fluffy animals, and even though most of the adults had run screaming to cover as soon as they had arrived, now a little girl no more than maybe four years old was laughing merrily at the window of a nearby store pointing at them.

"Mummy, mummy, look at the funny bunny!"

Lucius sighed. This was not going the way it should have been. Luckily he didn't have a stated objective on this mission beyond causing mayhem, as he was quite sure he couldn't have met that with these troops. But as the whole operation was merely a distraction, this utter failure to do anything was still enough.

As soon as the aurors arrived to the crime scene Lucius barked a command to retreat, and after shooting one last curse at the aurors he activated his portkey with the rest of his troops that were still capable of doing so.

- O -

Bellatrix Lestrange was in her element. After spending over fourteen years in Azkaban her Master had freed him, and the last months had been the best time of her life as she was once again able to serve on her Masters side. And now she was silently edging nearer the moderately large house in a muggle neighbourhood east of London. Her Master had been most displeased how Potter had managed to turn the government around, and had given her, Bellatrix, the honour of teaching the brat a lesson. Potter's mudblood whore wouldn't know what hit her when Bella was through with her.

When she was ready in position Bellatrix gestured the other Death Eaters to circle around the house. No one would escape tonight! She searched for wards around the house, and did indeed find a relatively strong defensive enchantments protecting it. But they wouldn't stand a change against the attack by six experienced Death Eaters.

Soon enough the others signalled that they were in position, and Bellatrix opened the attack by casting the killing curse against the wards. The protections groaned under the onslaught of the black robed people.

Five minutes later Bellatrix' mad cackling could be heard as she basked at the warmth of the burning building. The eerie green glow of the Dark Mark floating over the fire mixed on her pale complexion and crazed eyes with the reds and yellows of the inferno making her appearance a frightening sight.

- O -

Antonin Dolohov and a crew of elite Death Eaters were closing in on the Bones manor. The Ancient home of the Most Ancient house of Bones stood on a hill surrounded by great oaks that must have been multiple centuries old. The building itself was medieval style grey stone mansion with crenellated roofs, and thick vines were climbing up on the walls giving the building old, imposing but at the same time warm feel.

The curse breakers had been working on the wards silently for days now, and the main protections around the house were almost ready to collapse. There was still an independent line of defensive enchantments that would have to be torn down during the actual assault, but Dolohov was confident that the attack would be success.

A slight sizzling sound in the air followed by a loud gong from the house signalled the fall of the outer defences. Dolohov shouted his commands and the Death Eaters started their charge against the fortress home of the new minister and it's defenders.

- O -

Lord Voldemort walked along the Privet Drive towards #4. His spies had finally found out where Harry was living, and Voldemort was here to put an end to the temporary uprising the boy had managed to get rolling. As he walked past the identical houses Voldemort couldn't help but wonder how in earth the Potter boy thought he could win against him, if he couldn't even find a place to live that would at least somehow reflect his position as the 'one with the power'. Power should be respected and embraced, not to be hidden in obscurity.

As he neared the residence of his prophesied enemy, he wondered where exactly his campaign for dominance had gone wrong. The pureblood families hadn't embraced his promise of better future, but instead had chosen to defy him. Couldn't they see the threat the muggles and muggleborns posed to the Wizarding world? One after another the ancient families had gone extinct, the bloodlines of the four founders forgotten, tradition blown away to the wind.

Once proud families were decimated. Blacks, gone. Bexleys, gone. Fingalls, gone. Bones reduced to two females, one of which was still a child. Longbottoms only survived through an old widow and a teenage heir. All that was left of the Waveney family was one senile old man who was both blind and deaf. Even the Malfoy family, his strong supporters, had became nothing but a shadow of it's former glory.

And the younger pureblood families couldn't see their opportunity moment either. This was their time to rise to the position that rightfully belonged to them, but instead they elected to join forces with Potter and the other mugglelovers. Voldemort still wasn't quite sure if the whole episode in Wizengamot had been orchestrated by the old fool or not, but it sure would fit in his modus operandi to work through his allies, keeping himself on the shadows.

Finally he arrived in front of number 4, privet drive, and was astonished by the lack of protective magic around the house. He could feel the remnants of strong wards, but even they couldn't have resisted a determined attack for very long. Voldemort shook his head. The old fool still believed in hiding instead of meeting power with more power. Hadn't he learned nothing from the last time? Any hiding place was only as strong as the weakest person who knew where it was. Leaving the protection of anything to the hands of the weak was folly, that Voldemort would never fall in to. He respected the strength of the old man and the magic he wielded, but he had always been too weak to truly use the power he had.

Voldemort walked up to the door, and knocked. There was sounds coming inside, shouting for the boy to go open the door. Voldemort smiled at the irony of it all. The Boy-Who-Lived would personally open the door to his death.

"Who are you and what do you want?", asked a tall fat boy dressed in loose sweat pants, standing barefooted in front of the Dark Lord. "And what kind of clothes are those? Are you one of the freaks? Potter's not been here since last summer, get lost."

Voldemort was floored. He couldn't remember anyone talking to him like that since he was still staying in the orphanage, and those were not nice memories.

"What do you mean Potter's not here? This is where he lives."

"Well, doesn't live any more. Dad says he had some cock and bull story about him being important in the other place, but I say that's bullshit. A useless freak like him could never be important, anywhere."

"Who is it , Dudley?" came a male voice from inside.

"Just one of the freaks. He's looking for Harry."

"Tell him to piss off. After the show the boy put on at the station I don't want anything to do with them. Good riddance if you ask me."

Dudley turned back to the Dark Lord. "You heard that yourself. Now take off before you get hurt". After that he turned back inside and slammed the door shut.

Voldemort stood there stunned. The nerve of these worthless muggles! Potter might be his enemy, but anyone who was prophesied to be able to stand against Lord Voldemort was worth at least some respect. As he got angrier a visible aura started to form around the Dark Lord. With a loud shout an uncontrolled burst of magic demolished the front door and most of the hall behind, as Voldemort drew his wand and marched inside. He might not get Potter this night, but there would be pain, screams and blood, that much was sure.

-o0oOo0o-

A/N Well, it's quite a bit shorter than the previous chapters, but there's something in the cliffhangery feel that I liked, so there you are. The last chapter ended in pretty much total victory for Harry, so I think a bit of a tension might be good for a change.

Also many, many thanks for the praise on the last chapter, although I must give credit where it belongs: the last line by Dumbledore is quite blatant rip-off from Lorddwar's "Harry Potter and the Summer of Change". But that's how creative process works; you see something that you like, you take it and combine it with your own ideas to make something that's hopefully better or at least somewhat enjoyable. I of course encourage others to steal my ideas if they feel they could use them. After all, they say that imitation is the highest form of flattery.