I know people have wanted to see the last of the Fudgetard (both of them I guess ;^), but I've been trying to use the original story timeline as far as possible, which has required Fudge Senior so far. I think we're ready to start playing Jenga with the ivory tower he's built for himself now though. ;^)
Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. (NB: Refer my profile if anyone's interested in the reasoning behind the disclaimer.)
They didn't have to wait too long to see what Fudge and Hopkirk's next move would be, because four new 'Educational Decrees' came out a week before Hogwarts broke up for Christmas. The first gave Hopkirk the right to look into any and all aspects of the teachers and courses at Hogwarts. The second gave her the right to require changes to any subject at Hogwarts. The third cancelled students' rights to use private tutors instead of the regular classes, and the fourth gave her the incontestable right to dismiss any teacher who she'd already put on probation.
These were, of course, immediately followed by Hopkirk dismissing both Trelawney and Hagrid.
This resulted in an immediate meeting of the Hogwarts board, one that involved the Headmistress, Deputy Headmistress and the Governor of the Wizarding Examinations Authority. They looked at the two dismissals first, and while they couldn't show a strong case for arguing against Trelawney's dismissal, because she really was ineffectual and nothing worthwhile had come out of the Divination course for as long as she had been teaching it, they could show a marked improvement in the majority of students' results in Care of Magical Creatures under Hagrid at both the OWL and NEWT levels, as well as the yearly results.
They then went through the recordings of her 'review' of Hagrid's class, as well as her forcing her way into his cottage to interrogate him as soon as he got back, Professor McGonagall's argument with Hopkirk and Fudge in Hopkirk's office (though the board were told that it had been Auror Tonks who set the mirrors in Hopkirk's office, rather than Harry), and Hopkirk's subsequent floo call to Fudge. These recordings showed quite clearly that the review of Hagrid's class and his dismissal were no more than an attempt at revenge for her being disciplined by the Headmistress for her actions in Hagrid's cottage, coupled with her blind bigotry about a creature being allowed to teach at Hogwarts.
That led straight into the issue of what Fudge was trying to do to the education of students in Magical Britain, and why. They once again reviewed the lack of teaching qualifications and the abysmal results that Hopkirk had achieved in History of Magic as well as the rest of her subjects while she was at Hogwarts. They also went through what was now being taught in the History of Magic, and Madam Marchbanks was more incensed than anyone else to find that it was no more than propaganda material to support what Fudge was trying to tell everyone, that You Know Who had been killed in 1981 and anyone who said anything else was lying. When the Governor of the Wizarding Examinations Authority categorically states that nearly all students will fail their OWL, NEWT and end of year examinations on the basis of what was being taught in that class, everyone takes notice.
While they were going through teaching qualifications and records, they went through Trelawney's and Hagrid's as well, and Trelawney's was little better than Hopkirk's. The initial response to Hagrid's expulsion was bad, until they went though his results up until he was expelled and viewed the memories which proved that he'd been framed by Tom Riddle (who later became Voldemort) and had been expelled purely on Riddle's word.
They then brought in the magical portrait of Armando Dippet, who'd been the Headmaster at the time, and he confirmed that Hagrid had been expelled on Riddle's word only, but he added that none of the Professors had argued against the expulsion. When asked about Dumbledore he was confused, saying that Dumbledore had only argued against sending the boy to Azkaban at fourteen and talked him into taking him on as an apprentice Gamekeeper, he hadn't said a word against expelling the boy. Even the traditional purebloods weren't about to argue against fighting Hagrid's dismissal on the basis of so much proof that he'd been framed and how good the students' results were with him as their teacher.
With the decisions made about Trelawney and Hagrid, the board went through the rest of the subject changes that Hopkirk was insisting on with Madam Marchbanks. Once again, Madam Marchbanks confirmed that if this was what the students were taught, they nearly all will fail their OWL, NEWT and end of year examinations.
On the basis of this, the members of the Hogwarts board called for an emergency Wizengamot session. Professor McGonagall and Madam Marchbanks went to the session with the board and all of the evidence that had come out of the meetings at Hogwarts, and Hopkirk, Fudge and the head of the Department of Magical Education were all summoned to the session.
It was amusing to see Hopkirk, Fudge and the head of the Department of Magical Education all trying to point fingers at each other and claim that they weren't responsible for the lies and manipulations that had prevailed through this. The results of the Wizengamot session were that Fudge's 'Educational Decrees' were all cancelled and permanently abolished, Fudge was told to stay well clear of Hogwarts and the Department of Magical Education, and the head of the Department of Magical Education was dismissed. Madam Marchbanks took over in his place, keeping the Wizarding Examinations Authority under her control as well. She was also given a place on the Hogwarts Board, so that the Department of Magical Education now had a say in the direction of Hogwarts, which was seen by almost all of the Wizengamot as a much more appropriate and effective way of doing what Fudge claimed to have been trying to do.
The major issues being discussed in the emergency session were not enough to overshadow the furore that came from Lord Longbottom's return from the dead, as it were, and no-one could fault the mother's pride that the Chief Witch displayed when she welcomed her son back to the Wizengamot.
Professor McGonagall did need to find two new professors over the Christmas break, but it was for the History of Magic and Divination, as Hopkirk's head had been the first to go on the chopping block but Hagrid was definitely staying as the teacher for Care of Magical Creatures. The only changes for Hagrid were that his expulsion had been expunged, and he was required to sit his OWL and NEWT examinations so that his records would show that he was properly qualified to teach. He had to go through extensive study sessions, with most of the group helping him, to prepare him for his exams, but Madam Marchbanks, as the person who now controlled magical education in Britain, took the fifty years since his education had been unfairly terminated into account and allowed him until the end of the school year to revise for and do his exams.
Fudge got a seriously bloody nose out of the affair, but unfortunately he'd been slippery enough to avoid it being enough to topple him, not yet anyway. However, even though he managed to deflect much of the blame onto the head of the Department of Magical Education, it was at least enough to stop him publicly shouting down anyone who was talking about concerns of Voldemort's return.
Professor McGonagall talked one of her peers, Winifred Somersby, into taking on the role of Professor of History of Magic. The feisty old witch was a noted historian and she brought a passion to the subject that no-one alive had ever experienced at Hogwarts (because Binns had been teaching the subject there longer than most people in Magical Britain had been alive). Professor Somersby was so good that Angela talked her into tutoring the Founders Group (they changed the name of the group, too) for extra money when she wasn't occupied with her regular classes.
Hogwarts' new Divination Professor was a very controversial choice, because Professor McGonagall hired Firenze, the centaur, to replace Trelawney. The traditional purebloods on the Hogwarts board initially baulked at allowing a centaur to teach the students, but it was Madam Marchbanks who pointed out that the Divination students at Hogwarts been taught for over a quarter of a century by a fruitcake who's one and only true prediction had been given before Dumbledore hired her and that had definitely showed in how unsuccessful her students had been. Madam Marchbanks noted that, if not for Dumbledore refusing to dismiss her, Trelawney's inadequacy probably would have seen her gone within six months. She also pointed out that Firenze was one of the reliable seers that centaurs often produced, so with him directing them, any students who actually had a talent for divination would have a far better chance of finding it than they ever had with Trelawney. That had been enough to see any resistance buckle, as they knew it would.
Unfortunately for Firenze, his agreeing to work for the humans was the last straw for the more ardent traditionalists in his herd. They argued that he had already brought shame on the herd by carrying Harry out of the forest back when he saved him from Voldemort in his first year, so submitting to the humans again by working for them led to him being beaten half to death and ejected from the herd, and they told him that if he ever returned to the forbidden forest again, he'd be killed. He was sworn a place in the centaur herd at Potter Manor if he ever chose to leave Hogwarts, but being banished from his own herd and the forest where he was born like that was terribly hard blow for him.
They obviously had to move the Divination classroom for Firenze to teach the subject, because he couldn't climb the ladder up into the room at the top of the tower, so Divination was now taught in a room on the ground floor that had been magically expanded and transformed into a forest glade. The Divination classroom also served as Firenze's chambers.
While successfully dealing with Fudge trying to force everyone at Hogwarts to only say what he wanted them to was important, there was something even more important that the family had to deal with over the Christmas break. The goblins were pretty much certain that they'd tracked down the location of one of the last two horcruxes, because they'd almost lost the team of curse breakers who tried to retrieve it. What had almost got them was the serpent magic which protected the site, and they only knew of two parseltongues who were available to deal with this, Harry and Ginny. This meant that they'd had to wait for Harry to try and deal with the protections and retrieve the horcrux.
When they were taken to the cottage by portkey, Harry looked up on the nearby hillside and saw the big house that Voldemort had pointed out from the graveyard that night, which confirmed that the goblins were correct in his mind. The curse breakers informed him that the cottage had belonged to Tom Riddle's mother's family, and the wards were apparently created in parseltongue. They actually seemed to use some kind of spirit snakes, and the healers were still trying to heal the curse breakers who'd been attacked when they tried to get to the cottage.
When the curse breakers showed him what happened to the first team and how to cast the detection spells to display the wards, Harry snorted. The wards were cast in parseltongue alright, but they were ridiculously simple. Voldemort was obviously so enamoured with his own brilliance and sure that he was the only parseltongue in existence that he couldn't imagine any possibility that anyone but him would be able to disable the defences. Thanks to this, it only took a matter of minutes to get the team safely into the cottage. A quick scan for dark objects, followed by other scans to identify and disable the last of the defences, had the horcrux in their hands and the goblins grinned with delight as they took in the vindictive pleasure that Harry displayed as he was reapplying the defences in parseltongue, adding extra layers and traps that Voldemort hadn't thought of. They set magical devices to monitor the site, so they'd be notified if and when Voldemort tried to recover the horcrux.
Once they had taken the ring they discovered in the cottage back to Gringotts and cleansed it, it presented quite a quandary, as it was obviously an object of great power but none of them could identify it or its purpose. All that they had managed to ascertain so far was that it was an heirloom of the Peverell family, which had been extinct in the male line since the beginning of the fourteenth century but Harry was a descendent of. The goblins kept the ring locked away in Harry's personal vault unless they were examining it.
Starting back after the Christmas break, the announcement of the new teacher for the History of Magic brought a cheer from the students, because Hopkirk had managed to be worse than Binns, as impossible as anyone found that idea to contemplate. Upon the announcement that the new Divination teacher was a centaur however, the Great Hall erupted in an torrent of disbelief and outrage from students of pureblood families that they were expected to learn from a creature. They had been prepared for this, and Madam Marchbanks was on hand to address the issue. It was unclear whether it was to compensate for her own hearing issues or to ensure that she had everyone's attention, but the sonorus spell she used when she shouted "Silence!" almost deafened everyone in the Great Hall.
Madam Marchbanks brusquely informed them that anyone disrespecting Professor Firenze would be dealt with severely, but any students not comfortable with learning from him would be permitted to remove themselves from Divination without penalty. She was less accommodating when presented with demands that students who withdrew from Divination be given a suitable alternative so that they would not suffer any detriment for having one less subject. She thundered at them that Professor Firenze was far more qualified to teach the subject than Miss Trelawney had been, so if they refused to learn from him purely because of his species, they did not deserve anything. More than a few female students ran out of the Great Hall in tears at that.
Those students who did manage to change from Divination to Muggle Studies were even more outraged to find that it was now a serious course that they had to work, and make an effort, in to get reasonable results. As soon as she was confirmed as the Headmistress, Professor McGonagall had sat Professor Burbage down and informed her that her course was a farce, and Hogwarts did not waste its students' time by teaching them a hodgepodge of fallacies and inaccuracies. Professor Burbage had embraced this, as she truly wanted to teach her students something worthwhile, and with the Tonks' (and Hermione's as well occasionally) assistance and the aid of a muggle room like Harry had implemented at Potter Manor, she had turned the Muggle Studies course into something that would teach them how to understand and operate in the non-magical world better, much to many of her students' chagrin at the increased workload.
Professor McGonagall had had a similar discussion with Sybill Trelawney about her Divination course, but Trelawney's reaction was that there was no better way to teach the fine art of Divination than what she was doing, so she refused to consider making any changes. Professor McGonagall had never had much respect for Trelawney with her attitude and bizarre ways anyway, so this and the abysmal results of the students in her class salved her conscience in the matter of allowing her dismissal to go through without any serious attempt to overturn it.
The changes to the courses and teachers were completely overshadowed by something else a couple of weeks after they returned from the Christmas break though, because they were woken in the middle of the night by a mirror call from Madam Bones. There had been a massive breakout of Death Eaters from Azkaban. When the regular patronus message from the Auror she had stationed at Azkaban didn't come through, she'd sent a team out there to find the wards down, most of the guards murdered, and the dementors gone, along with a few of the human guards and over forty five Death Eaters that they had had locked up there.
The Daily Prophet had an early edition out at dawn with the names, pictures and crimes of all the escaped Death Eaters, as well as the missing guards with warnings to be careful if they were sighted as their disappearance was highly suspicious. The public was asked to call the DMLE immediately if any of these men or women were sighted, but stay away from them. There was an emergency Wizengamot session first thing in the morning, and Fudge jumped in to try and put most of the blame on Madam Bones, as well as alluding to the fact that it was suspicious that several of the escaped Death Eaters were related by blood or marriage to the only known previous escapee from Azkaban.
If Fudge thought that his previous supporters would have stood behind him when he made a play like that, he was seriously mistaken, as the vast majority of the Wizengamot were cheering Harry on when he popped down to the floor of the chamber with the Sword of Gryffindor blazing into existence in his hand. Fudge tried to run, but found his way blocked by Aurors loyal to the head of the DMLE, and these Aurors obeyed Lord Potter when he ordered them to put the Minister in the witness chair. No-one missed the fact that the Chief Witch had secured the Minister of Magic into the chair like any other accused without question.
The Wizengamot ignored Fudge's threats and complaints as the Director of the DMLE ordered, at Lord Potter's request, for veritaserum to be administered to the witness as the majority of them were looking forward to the show that they were sure was about to start. For this reason, no-one objected when Lord Potter requested leave to ask the Minister a few questions before it was opened to the floor.
"Has Madam Bones formally requested that the dementors be removed from Azkaban?"
"Yes."
"How many times had she requested this?"
"I don't know, at least a dozen, I just get my assistants to send back a standard memorandum to reject the request."
"What reason has Madam Bones given for requesting the dementors' removal?"
"She says that they cannot be trusted to follow the orders of the Ministry and they will defect as soon as the Dark Lord calls for them."
"Why have you rejected the Director of the DMLE's requests, what reasons did you have for rejecting them?"
"The dementors have mostly followed our orders to date, and so far we've been able to cover up what they did when they ignored them. I also couldn't afford to admit that the Dark Lord can come back as it would undermine the trust the people have in me."
"Do you know that the Dark Lord has returned?"
"Yes, of course! You showed us the proof of that after you brought young Diggory's body back from that graveyard."
The muttering that was spreading through the Wizengamot didn't bode well for Fudge.
"Has the Director of the DMLE also requested that the warden and several of the guards at Azkaban be replaced."
"Yes."
"Did you reject these requests, and if so, why?"
"She claimed to have proof of their association with the Dark Lord and his supporters. I rejected her requests because I was instructed to by my supporters."
"Who were the supporters who instructed you to do this?"
Fudge named Malfoy, Avery and half a dozen others, two of whom were in the chamber and were arrested by the Aurors.
Harry then named the missing guards and asked if they were among the names that the Director of the DMLE had requested be replaced and Fudge confirmed that they were.
After looking up at Sirius, Harry asked. "Were Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange, her husband and her brother-in-law the prisoners who you were referring to as being related to Lord Black by blood and marriage?"
"Yes."
"Are you aware that Lord Black formally banished Bellatrix Lestrange from the Black Family and forced the dissolution of her and her sister Narcissa Malfoy's marriages as soon as he assumed the role of Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black?"
"Yes."
"So you are aware of the fact that Lord Black vehemently rejects any Black family members who would connect the House of Black with Voldemort and his supporters?"
"Yes."
"Then why were you trying to insinuate that Lord Black had aided those who had been connected to the Black family before he formally banished them from the Black Family?"
"I had to put the blame on Black and Bones for this escape and take people's attention away from me."
"Minister Fudge, have you ever knowingly aided Voldemort and his supporters?"
"Yes."
"Tell us the date of each occurrence and what you did for them each time."
Fudge talked for the next fifteen to twenty minutes about what he had knowingly done for Malfoy and his other supporters who served Voldemort. He stopped talking when the veritaserum wore off, but by then it was a moot point, there was no recovering from what he'd admitted to.
He refused to answer the other Wizengamot members' questions until threatened with more veritaserum, but by the end of the questioning it was a given that he was finished. It was only the Minister of Magic's automatic immunity from prosecution that stopped him from being arrested then and there. They allowed Harry to call for the vote of no confidence in the Minister, as no-one wanted to cross the angry young Lord at that point.
With the almost unanimous vote to get rid of Fudge, Harry called on Amos Diggory and asked whether he would accept consideration to take on the role of Minister to lead them in fight to defeat Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Harry had not forgotten what Mr Diggory had said to Fudge the night that Cedric was killed, and while he may not have the background to be the Minister in a time of peace, he was one of the few that Harry was prepared to trust to lead the Ministry in a war against Voldemort.
Mister Diggory stood and said that he would accept the responsibility if chosen for the duration of the war, and the Chief Witch called for any other nominations on that basis. A few other names were put forward, but most had dubious affiliations or were obviously just looking for a chance to fill their pockets. When the Chief Witch called for a vote, most of the Wizengamot followed Harry's lead and voted for Amos Diggory, because being on the wrong side of this Lord Potter was something that few of them cared to be.
With Amos instated as the new Minister of Magic, they launched into their plans to recapture the prisoners and deal with them and their master. The fact that the DMLE and the Potter Alliance already had a great deal of information on the subject and were obviously working together on this wasn't lost on the Wizengamot, and the momentum of the new Minister and Madam Bones working together got the call for everyone in the Wizengamot and Ministry checked for Voldemort's dark mark carried.
The panic in the room when that motion was passed was understood when three of the Wizengamot and four more ministry officials in the gallery were found to have the dark mark, and they were quickly questioned under veritaserum and processed.
Looking at Fudge, Harry called for a vote to get a proper accounting of the Ministry's coffers before they finished the session. Those with anything to hide tried to argue against the vote, but it went through and the Ministry's account managers were brought in from Gringotts to report on the state of the Ministry's vaults. The chambers were sealed and everyone was held there until the accounting was done.
Harry and the family weren't surprised to hear that most of the fortunes that had been taken off the prominent Death Eaters who were arrested in the past couple of years had since disappeared. Senior ministry officials were dragged into the Wizengamot session by Aurors and they and Fudge were questioned about the large transfers they'd authorised from the Ministry vaults that held the seized funds. The accounts that those funds had been transferred to were also examined and Gringotts got details of where the funds had gone to after that. Well over half of the funds had ultimately ended up in Death Eater hands, and most of the remainder was still sitting in the vaults of the ones they had been siphoned off to. About seventy percent of the funds were recovered to the Ministry vaults and a further four Wizengamot members and six senior Ministry officials were arrested and processed.
By now a good portion of the Wizengamot was shouting that the goblins had breached their agreements by giving out details of the transfers, but they in turn pointed out that they were required to recover moneys unlawfully removed from their clients' vaults, and that was what they were doing.
The looks going Fudge's way made it fairly clear that his life expectancy was almost certainly less than Harry's now. He may be immune from prosecution for what he'd done up to now, but crossing those who had been paying to keep him in his position as Minister, and even more importantly Voldemort's people, was something that would never be forgotten, or forgiven. When he begged Amelia for protection, she told him that that was a decision that the Minister would have to make. He rushed over to beg to Amos, but he just looked at him as the shite that he was, saying. "You've taken millions of galleons from the ones who murdered my son Fudge, you can pay for your own protection!"
"But Amos, his people are killers!"
"Who's people? The one who you kept telling everyone was just a figment of an unstable boy's over active imagination?" He turned to look at Harry. "Lord Potter? I believe that was the phrase that was used, was it not?"
Harry nodded to him. "Yes Minister Diggory, I believe that you are correct in what was said." He dismissed Fudge then before he addressed Amos and Amelia.
"We have to build up the Ministry's forces to deal with Voldemort and his followers, but if we want to have any hope of fighting them, we cannot afford the risk of allowing any of his followers to remain inside the Ministry. Would you consider requiring all current Ministry employees and any new hires to swear an oath on their magic and their life that they do not now, and nor will they ever, knowingly support Voldemort or his followers?"
That stopped them for a moment, and they looked at each other. No-one had ever taken measures this drastic before, but then no-one had seriously opposed Voldemort before either. If they wanted to avoid having thousands upon thousands of muggles and citizens of Magical Britain being raped, tortured and killed like they were last time, they had to take drastic measures. Amelia was the first to respond. "I can't make any decisions for the rest of the Ministry Lord Potter but yes, I can and will enforce that oath within the DMLE, if we can't trust the people we're using to go after them then we don't have a chance, Minister?"
Amos nodded slowly. "Yes, we're at war and every time we turn around we're finding more of his people in our midst, we cannot win like that. Anyone who refuses to take the oath is to be detained and questioned under veritaserum, agreed Amelia?" Amelia nodded.
Amos turned to look at the Wizengamot members. "What about them?" Harry shook his head. "While they are free to take the oath and I for one will do so, I don't think that we can force that on the Wizengamot members Sir, not being allowed to support anyone going against the current Ministry's laws and rules can be enforced on anyone working for the Ministry, but holding a seat and voting rights in the Wizengamot does not require you to abide by the rules of the current Ministry, or we wouldn't have been able to get rid of Fudge the way we just did. There is something that we could do if you were prepared to formally declare any Death Eater a criminal and subject to arrest and processing though?"
Amos gave Harry a feral grin. "I'm listening Lord Potter?"
"We can set the Ministry wards to react to anyone bearing Voldemort's dark mark or carrying the taint of his magic. That way, any Wizengamot members or Ministry visitors who have been marked by Voldemort or had serious dealings with him can be detained, questioned and processed?"
Amos and Amelia looked at each other and nodded. With that, Amos asked Amelia to publicly take his oath, then he'd take her's and then he'd announce that everyone in the Ministry would be required to take the same oath, he'd also declare that all Death Eaters were criminals and were subject to arrest and processing. They quietly had a word to Augusta, as the Chief Witch, and she gave Amos the floor.
Hearing the oath each of them gave, and then hearing that everyone in the Ministry would be required to give the same oath and all Death Eaters were declared criminals caused a small rush for the door, but they were all prevented from leaving. Of the two dozen Aurors in the chambers, three refused to take the oath and were arrested. The fact that half of the twenty other Ministry employees who were in the chambers refused to take the oath didn't bode well, but they were hopeful that that was because they were there on orders to find out what was going to be done about the breakout. They also uncovered another four in the gallery who were marked Death Eaters. Finding out just how many Death Eaters were still in their midst was worrying.
Harry, Angela, Augusta, Sirius, Frank and over a dozen other Wizengamot members also took the oath to prove that they were not affiliated with Voldemort in any way.
That day went down in the history of Magical Britain as a momentous day, because there had been so many events of great import that there were two special editions of the Daily Prophet issued. People were frightened and confused to wake to the news that over forty five Death Eaters, the dementors and some turned guards had disappeared from Azkaban overnight. They were even more confused when a second special edition arrived before dinner to tell them that Fudge had confessed to having knowingly aided Voldemort and his followers and had been thrown out of the Ministry. Many of the sheep refused to believe what Fudge had done, even though transcripts of his confession were included in the paper.
The immunity for past acts that is awarded to the Minister of Magic was explained, and the Prophet's reporter recounted the calls that were made in the Wizengamot to repeal that ruling so that Fudge could be charged for working for You Know Who, all the while he was accusing Lord Potter of being a delusional liar for trying to warn people that Voldemort was back.
The announcement that the Wizengamot had used the proof that Death Eaters had mostly lied about being under the imperius curse to suspend the purebloods' right to refuse to be questioned under veritaserum, and that it was tabled to be abolished within the week struck fear into the hearts of many Voldemort supporters. Many of them started scrabbling to get out of the country, not knowing about the triggers that had already been set up to to generate alerts when anyone suddenly tried to get portkeys or transfer significant amounts of money out of the country. Anyone caught trying this was questioned, and if the interviewer wasn't satisfied with the answers, they could be questioned under veritaserum.
Some were allowed to take their money and leave, but that was mostly muggleborns and half-bloods who wanted to get their families out of Britain before they were targeted like their kind had been in the last war against Voldemort. Some were arrested, but most were allowed to leave, without their money. Their money was held in their vaults at Gringotts until they returned and/or the war was over, but any large transactions they requested were examined to determine whether they were going to Voldemort supporters.
The second Special Edition also reported how Amos Diggory was the new Minister of Magic, at least until Voldemort and his followers were defeated, at which time he announced that he wanted to step down. It covered the discovery of the fortunes that had been siphoned out of the Ministry to Voldemort's followers and the private vaults by Fudge and others, and how nearly three quarters of it had been recovered, with most of those involved being arrested.
Amos and Amelia had used the second special edition to announce the fact that the Ministry was using the recovered money to hire witches and wizards to expand the Auror's office for the fight against Voldemort and his followers, and also to replace the others in the Ministry who had been exposed as working for Voldemort and arrested and/or dismissed. The traditional purebloods were outraged by the notice that the old blood rules no longer applied to employment and advancement in the Ministry for the duration of the war, and that the Minister's expectation was that they would be abolished before the war was finished.
Another notice that worried even more than angered many purebloods was that with the new Minister's support, the proposal from the Potter Alliance to replace the nine seats in the Wizengamot that had been vacated by the arrests in the emergency Wizengamot session with notable and respected muggleborn or muggle raised members of their society was carried. The primary intent of this motion was to give the muggleborns a voice in a time where their kind was at great risk, to this end they were given the right to hold the thirty five votes that the ones that they replaced had held, so that their voice would be heard.
Before they crawled back to their beds in Hogwarts and Potter Manor, Harry brokered the arrangements with the Head Goblin to have the Ministry's wards updated as discussed with the Minister, and Hogwarts' and St Mungo's as well. Potter Manor's wards already incorporated these protections and more.
They were quite aware that after what they'd used the shock of the Death Eaters' breakout and the groundswell of outrage at Fudge's betrayal to push through, every one of them was now even more of a target for Voldemort and his followers. The new Minister of Magic and Wizengamot members had strong wards placed over their homes as they would also become targets. Amelia was safe enough, as she just went from living at Potter Manor most of the time, to living there all the time. Augusta, Frank and Alice also moved in full time, as did anyone else in the family who wasn't there, or at Hogwarts. Between the wards and the centaur and goblin guards, there was no safer place to be.
The next morning at breakfast, the Great Hall was in an uproar, because between the fifty Wizengamot, Ministry and other other people arrested the day before and the forty five escaped Death Eaters, there were a good many students' families effected by the events of the previous day, not to mention Ronald Fudge, who's father had been chained, questioned under veritaserum and thrown out in disgrace as the figurehead of those who were beneath contempt.
At Luna and Harry's request, Hogwarts had suppressed any wizarding magic being used within the Great Hall, which meant that the elves, goblins, Professor Flitwick and Harry and his family who could use other magic were the only ones who could use magic in there. This was proven to be quite a sensible precaution when they saw the ones, like Ronald Fudge, who were trying to curse them for what had happened. Anyone seen trying to do this had their wands confiscated, and the guards and Aurors didn't miss seeing many of them.
When the prior incanto spell was cast on the wands, over twenty were serious enough to have their owners expelled and have their wands broken, and five of the older students were arrested so they would be reunited with their parents in prison. The only thing that saved Ronald Fudge was that he was incapable of casting a serious curse, so his punishment was restricted to Hogwarts.
What no-one but Amos Diggory knew outside of the family was that Madam Bones had reinstated Frank, Alice and Moody as Aurors under her direct control, along with making Remus, Harry, Hermione, Fleur, Arthur, Fred, George, Katie, Angelina, Bill, Charlie and Xeno Aurors, adding them to Angela, Sirius and Tonks. This meant that Madam Bones had a significant and capable off the books Auror force who were dedicated to protecting their family and stopping Voldemort. She also added the other students in the family as Trainee Aurors, under Angela's control, so that in the event of them being caught up in any activity against Voldemort and his followers, they would all be operating in an official capacity.
One of Minister Diggory's first duties was to inform the Muggle Prime Minister of the threat that the escaped Death Eaters and their master represented. The Prime Minister was angry to find how much had been kept from him and how much Fudge had lied about in what he had told him, and demanded that the true facts be presented to the Queen. Amos called for Amelia to come and help him explain all of this to the Muggle Queen, and at her suggestion, they included Harry in the party, because he'd seen things first hand that they hadn't.
After Amos introduced Amelia as the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, she took over the introductions, because while the head of a Minor House, Amos didn't quite grasp all the intricacies of the Noble Houses of Magical Britain. She first clarified her own position as the regent for her niece, the Heir to the Noble and Ancient House of Bones, listing the primary title of Countess and her subsidiary titles under that, then she introduced Harry, as the Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter, listing the primary title of Marquess and his subsidiary titles, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Gryffindor, with the primary title of Earl and subsidiary titles, Head of the French Noble and Ancient House of Flamel, with the primary title of Comte and subsidiary titles, and Heir to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, with the primary title of Marquess and subsidiary titles.
The Queen and her Prime Minister were shocked and horrified by what they heard about Voldemort and his Death Eaters' activities. They also found it hard to believe that this quiet teenager held multiple titles from Marquess down to Baronet and Laird in three separate Noble Houses of Magical Britain and France, and was also the heir to another British Magical Noble House with titles from Marquess on down. The Queen made a note of the houses to have her people look into them, because as hard as it was to believe, she did not believe that these people were likely to make empty boasts, which made the stories they were told about this young man's actions all the more incredible.
When the Queen made a comment about Harry making some lucky young woman a wonderful husband one day and he just blushed, she looked at the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement for an explanation. Amelia looked at Harry, and then Amos, and then she explained. "Harry already has a wife Your Majesty, four of them in fact."
At the Queen's look of horror, Amelia rushed to explain. "I'm sorry Ma'am, I think I need to explain how things work in our world. In Magical Britain, all unions and contracts are defined by the magical bonds between the parties. Harry's best friend from when he started school at Hogwarts when he was eleven, Hermione, is also his soul mate. So, when they were discussing how they felt about each other when Harry was twelve and Hermione had just turned thirteen, due to their bond, that was magically accepted as a betrothal." She drew a breath before she continued.
"Our world has some terrible and exploitive marriage laws going back centuries that were enacted to ensure that the noble houses and bloodlines didn't die out, and an attempt was made to force two girls who were at Hogwarts in their third year there into betrothal contracts. If successful, they then would have been married by being deflowered, not by their choice. Harry's regent, the Longbottom Regent and I managed to block those betrothals in the Wizengamot, but when we told the girls what had almost happened and were trying to work our how to protect them from that, one of the other girls in the group who's parents had been trying to force her to trap Harry into marriage so that she became Lady Potter reminded us of the rules, as well as another rule that blocks betrothals if the girl isn't a virgin. Harry agreed to help protect the girls with Hermione's support…."
The Queen gave her a shocked look and Amelia nodded. "Yes Ma'am." before continuing. "Hermione's primary condition in this was that they would be each other's first. She knew that they would be wed once they did this, so her and most of the other girls' parents were brought in and they all agreed to the necessity of doing this, therefore Harry became married at thirteen to Hermione, making her Lady Potter. Then, when he'd just turned fourteen, one of the other girls in the group, Luna, was accepted as the true heir of the Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Ravenclaw and Slytherin, both of which carried the primary title of Earl, or Countess in her case. This made it no longer acceptable for her to be a vassal of the House of Potter, which she had been from before Harry and Hermione became betrothed, so they followed the process required to rescind that, but they were worried about her being a prime target for people who wanted to control her titles and power, so as a girl cannot be in more than one union at a time, she entered into a formal procreation union with Harry as the head of the House of Gryffindor to allow her to continue the line and name of the House of Ravenclaw. Actually Luna is an exception, because as the female head of two Noble and Most Ancient Houses she entered into procreation unions with Harry for both Houses."
"You see Ma'am, one of the other girls, one of the ones who we blocked the forced betrothal for actually, had already entered into one of these procreation unions with Harry as the head of the House of Flamel to continue the line and name of the French Noble and Ancient House of Delacour…. I'm sorry Ma'am, this is something else which should probably be explained. You see while Fleur, Mademoiselle Delacour, appears to be a beautiful young woman, she is not actually human, she is a veela. The veela have many abilities that human women don't have, and one of those is the ability to put a hold on a pregnancy until they are ready to proceed, so while she became pregnant when Harry helped her, she put that pregnancy on hold until she had finished her schooling at the end of that year, then she entered into the procreation union with Harry and released the hold on her pregnancy. Fleur is the heir of Comte Delacour, the Deputy Minister of Magic for France."
"After Luna entered into the procreation unions with Harry and highlighted the risk that the girls were exposed to, I broached the matter of my niece Susan, as the heir to the House of Bones, entering into a similar procreation union with her friend Neville, as the heir to the Noble and Ancient House of Longbottom, to continue the line and name of the House of Bones with Neville's grandmother, who is his regent. When she raised the matter with him, Hermione pointed out that we could also protect the other girls through similar unions. They worked out that Daphne, the other girl we blocked the forced betrothal for, could go into a procreation union with Harry as the heir to the House of Black to continue the line and name of the Noble House of Greengrass and Luna's father could make her adopted sister Padma his heir in her place for a procreation contract with Harry as Lord Potter to maintain the name of the Noble House of Lovegrass, but then they were stuck for the three younger sisters who couldn't enter into procreation unions because they weren't in line as the heir."
"That was when Fleur pointed out that Harry could marry them, as the marriages could be rescinded almost as easily as the procreation unions if and when the girls found themselves someone or were no longer in danger, so Gabrielle Delacour became Lady Flamel, Astoria Greengrass became Lady Black and Ginevra Weasley became Lady Gryffindor. So that is why Harry has four wives Ma'am. Hermione, Lady Potter, is his true love, and he's protecting the other girls by marrying them or using the procreation unions under his other houses."
The Queen was looking wide eyed at them by the time Amelia finished. By necessity, she understood the history of the aristocracy quite well and understood that this had been common practice centuries ago, but it was hard to believe that anyone still followed those archaic rules, let alone that children in their early teens were needing to go to these lengths to protect one another from these disgusting forms of Noble House politics. She drew a breath and bowed her head regally at Harry.
"We stand corrected Lord Potter, you are a most remarkable young man and we feel confident that you are a wonderful husband to all of your wives."
Harry bowed his head to her, still blushing. "Thank you, Your Majesty."
"Minister Diggory, we hope that we may rely on you to keep our Prime Minister appraised of any issues which may endanger people in our realm?"
Amos also bowed his head to her. "Yes, Your Majesty. If any activities of Voldemort and his people appear likely to cross over into the non-magical world, we will notify the Prime Minister immediately and render any assistance we can."
They all paid their respects to the Queen and then departed, Amos and Amelia heading back for long hours in the office to review what progress had been made on hunting Voldemort and the Death Eaters.
In the week following the breakout, they managed to recapture the Azkaban guards and over a dozen Death Eaters. The Aurors raided the warden's home and captured two of the guards there, but they weren't quick enough to prevent the escape of the others, or the mistreatment of the warden's widow at their hands. They captured over a dozen more through the traps they had set at the Malfoy and Lestrange Manors (the wards had been set to allow people to apparate, portkey or floo in, but not out) and raids on other known Voldemort supporters' homes, but someone in Voldemort's group must have managed to make the voice of reason be heard, because they obviously went to ground after that. The only prominent Death Eaters that they recaptured in that first week were Rabastan Lestrange, who was caught in the trap at Lestrange Manor when he went there to reclaim their house for his master, and Peter Pettigrew, who was caught while trying to live the high life in the manor of one of the Noble House Death Eaters.
Amos did appreciate being able to tell the Prime Minister that they'd captured and dealt with over a quarter of those who'd escaped, even if it did feel as though they'd achieved far less than they should have.
What they were doing to the Death Eaters and Voldemort followers who went to Azkaban now was crippling their magic. Snapping their wands was enough to temporarily subdue most wizards, but they could still be a threat if they got other wands, so when they were captured, they were all given new trials and if what they had done and were willing to do for their master was heinous enough (as it usually was), they were either put through the veil or had their magical cores crippled so that they were no more than squibs when they were sent back to Azkaban.
The investigations of the ones who were arguing most vocally about treating pureblood witches and wizards this way ended up in another three seats in the Wizengamot being vacated. These were also replaced by muggleborns, bringing the muggleborn block to a dozen seats and fifty votes. Between them and the Potter Alliance, they now controlled nearly half of the seats and over half of the votes in the Wizengamot. Those who opposed them in the Wizengamot were now being very careful about what they said.
An interesting but unwelcome development in this was that the 'light' families were now opposing them almost as strongly as the 'dark' families, both because they still held to the beliefs that Dumbledore had sold them on and because ultimately they, like him and the 'dark' families, held the rights of the 'pureblood' families over everyone else's to be sacrosanct. Naturally, neither the 'light', nor the 'dark' were at all happy about the fact that the Potter Alliance, the muggleborn block and the more progressive neutral families held well over two thirds of the power in the Wizengamot.