The days leading up to Harry's majority birthday were nerve wracking. An unexplained expectation was building inside of him, as if he knew something big was going to happen, something bad, and his mood was affecting the others.
Hermione had tentatively suggested he might be feeling Voldemort's emotions and, while he doubted it, the possibility did nothing to relieve his nerves.
Harry had sent a letter to Percy to tell him not to return to Privet Drive, but had not received a reply. Warnings to the Dursley's were pointless and there was considerable doubt that Death Eaters would even be able to find where Harry had spent his childhood anyway. No previous attempt had ever been made on him while there, aside from the Ministry sent Dementors, although that may have been as a side effect of the Blood wards Dumbledore had erected, and there was no reason to think there would be an attack without him present.
Then again, Voldemort was insane.
Tonks had informed the Order of Harry's concerns, so everybody was on alert for something to happen. According to the bright haired Auror, attacks were occurring so frequently that it was becoming almost impossible to hide the truth from the Muggles. Whole towns had been eradicated by Dementors, vampires had been spotted in places that had been free of them for centuries, giants moved through the countryside like a natural disaster, and wizard families had become even more solitary and reclusive, making it difficult to rally support to oppose the encroaching darkness.
When the Daily Prophet arrived with a front page declaring "Harry Potter killed in Ministry attack", it was almost a relief.
'According to witnesses, Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived and believed by some to be the Chosen One, was killed in an unexplained explosion inside the London headquarters of the Ministry of Magic early this morning.'
"I wonder how much truth there is to this report," said Hermione, reading through the special edition. She also had several Muggle newspapers, but only one had mentioned a slight tremor in the city that officials were unable to explain, along with the many gas explosions and strange sleeping sickness infections that seem to be sweeping the country.
"Well there most likely was an explosion," said Ron. "But I doubt if You-Know-Who is behind it. Probably somebody in the Department of Mysteries playing with a new spell and it got out of control. Dad says things like that happened all the time before Fudge cut their funding. There used to be rooms full of stuff people were investigating that were too dangerous to go into anymore or had been contaminated by some spell or another. Those ones we saw were about the only ones still getting any attention, before Fudge got the boot. Maybe they have gone back in again now and are trying to make better spells for the war."
Harry sat silently pondering the situation. His scar had not done anything, and news of any major victory by Voldemort was likely to be brought to him by the Order, not the daily paper, so the headlines didn't feel right.
Suddenly the fireplace flared to life, causing the three teens to grab their wands.
Tonks's face appeared in the green flames.
"Good, you are all there," she said, without waiting for them to reply. "There was an explosion at the Ministry this morning-"
"Yeah," said Ron, holding up the front page of the Prophet for her to see. "Very accurate reporting, as usual."
Tonks frowned. "We know it wasn't Harry, Ron, it was Percy."
The smile on Ron's face froze. Hermione's hands covered her mouth in shock. Harry stood up.
"He isn't dead," Tonks added quickly, seeing their reactions. "But he is badly injured."
Harry felt the tightness that had enveloped his heart loosen slightly. "What happened?" he asked.
"Not now, Harry. Come through and we'll talk then."
Pausing at Hermione's insistence that Harry put on his weak disguise, the trio Flooed to St Mungos where Tonks escorted them to Percy's room. They encountered surprisingly few people on the walk through the sterile, white hallways. It was almost as if people were avoiding the wizarding hospital.
Reaching the ward that was their destination, Tonks pointed the way in, but remained outside of the room, on guard.
Percy had been placed in a high security ward normally reserved for Ministry officials, apparently at Scrimgeour's request. The only immediate difference Harry could see was the presence of guards stationed along the corridor, and the room appeared much larger than the one Mr Weasley had occupied after being bitten by Voldemort's giant snake, Nagini.
Arthur and his wife were sitting next to Percy's bed when the trio entered. After her initial shock at seeing Harry's altered look, Mrs Weasley hugged each of the three in turn, tearfully asking how they were to make sure they had been taking care of themselves and each other.
Heavily wrapped in bandages that covered every bit of him that Harry could see, Percy lay unconscious on the larger than normal hospital bed, looking more like an Egyptian mummy that a living man. Tonks told them he had been awake earlier and had asked for Harry, to everyone's surprise.
"From what we can tell, it was Erumpent Exploding Fluid sent to him in the mail," explained Arthur once their greetings were out of the way. "Nobody is sure how it managed to get inside the offices, since all incoming mail is screened before being taken in, but luckily Percy was following some rather extraordinary precautions with his mail and had placed the package inside some impressive wards before opening it. The explosion destroyed the desk and much of his office."
Harry noticed Arthur was avoiding mentioning that Percy had been impersonating him, and suddenly wondered if Mrs Weasley had been told about the ruse. It occurred to him that he had started to lose track of who knew what secrets!
"Lucky," said Ron, eyeing Harry darkly. "I wonder who would be sending Percy something like that?"
Harry shifted uncomfortably. He knew the bomb had been meant for him, and Percy had been injured protecting him. No matter what he done, it seemed the people closest to him got hurt.
"Ron-" started Hermione, but she was interrupted by Percy's weak voice.
"Harry?"
Mrs Weasley rush over to start fussing, but Percy was determined.
"Harry. Must. Go. Harry. Ministry."
"Shush now, Percy, calm down. Mummy is here, Percy. Everything will be okay," soothed Mrs Weasley while keeping Percy from sitting up.
"No, Mum. Harry. Harry, must be seen, after attack," his voice became quieter as he drifted back to sleep.
"That's why we asked you to come in, Harry," said Mr Weasley. "Everytime he has woken up he says the same thing."
Harry's confusion only lasted a minute as what Percy was asking of him sank in. The Ministry needed to show the world that Harry Potter was not dead, otherwise all of the good they thought they had been doing having Percy imitate Harry would be lost. They couldn't just get somebody else to take the Polyjuice either, people would be on the lookout for it until the uproar died down.
He moved to stand closer to Percy's head, hoping he would hear him.
"Okay, Percy. I'll go to the Ministry, but then you won't ever have to go back again, okay?"
Mrs Weasley gasped. "You can't, Harry, it's too dangerous."
"He'll be ok, Mum," said Ron, putting an arm around his mother. "We'll go with him."
"No, Ron," said Harry. "We can't risk word that we are still friends getting back to Voldemort."
"You can't go alone, it not safe!" said Mrs Weasley.
Harry was about to object when Mr Weasley spoke up, interrupting them all. "I have to go back to work anyway," he said. "So I can go at the same time without being with him. All right, Harry?"
Harry nodded, knowing it was the best deal he would get.
"No," Percy interrupted. "Have to go back, Harry. Must keep up, appearances.' He slumped back into his bed, his voice fading off as he fell asleep again. "Doing so much good, and safer, for you…"
Percy's dedication made Harry feel uncomfortable. He knew the man was capable of blind loyalty, an attribute Harry had never found admirable, but he had never really thought about how dedicated Percy was in his own, if misguided, way. Despite almost losing his life, he was determined to go back into danger simply because he was convinced it was the right thing to do.
Or maybe he was trying to make up for his past failures.
"I'll meet you back at headquarters tonight," Harry told Ron and Hermione.
Hermione nodded thoughtfully, but Ron wasn't willing to let him go that easily and argued passionately to be allowed to go along, in disguise. Hermione eventually managed to talk him out of it, suggesting his presence would put Harry in more danger since it would be something new that could be noticed.
Before Harry left, Mrs Weasley gave him a hug that threatened to break his spine.
"Don't stay away too long," she told him. "We miss you, Harry. All of us."
He left quickly after that, not wanting to break down in front of the women who had been more of a mother to him than any other he could remember. Ron and Hermione stayed behind to keep her company as she sat a vigil besides Percy's bed.
Exiting the Floo in the Ministry, Harry managed to stay on his feet, but only by stumbling a few steps forward. He had come out of the employee exit in the atrium rather than the public Floo with its extra security, and had to pause for a moment to get his bearings.
The atrium was more packed than he had ever seen it before. People seemed to be running in every direction, hurrying along on unfathomable tasks with a look of urgency on their faces that at first made Harry think something was wrong.
Mr Weasley had coached Harry on where to go, but the mass of people threatened to confuse his sense of direction.
"Look, it's Harry Potter!" a voice said, loud enough to be heard over the hubbub of noise that always existed in a crowded area.
Quickly the whisper spread as people turned to look, and in some cases, ran over, to see for themselves. Soon Harry was surrounded by a crowd, all asking him questions, or wanting to shake his hand. Somebody thrust a copy of the Daily Prophet with the headlines of his demise into his hands and the distinctive flash of a camera meant he would once again grace the cover of a special edition. He nodded and smiled, answered questions briefly, with a cover story of having gone out when the explosion happened, and shook what felt like a hundred hands while wondering how long of 'being seen' would be long enough.
Harry caught a glimpse of Mr Weasley nervously pushing his way through to the front of the crowd when a loud canon blast stunned everyone to silence.
"Will everyone please go about their business and leave Mr Potter get on with his?" a magically amplified voice called out.
Two men in Auror robes pushed through the crowd to stand either side of Harry. They did not look particularly friendly and the crowd parted before them like water. Both were tall and very solidly built. Their sheer size alone would have intimidated most people.
"This way if you will please, Mr Potter," the dark haired of the pair said, guiding Harry by his arm.
With his escort, they quickly left the crowd behind and entered the labyrinth of offices that was the top floor of the Ministry of Magic. After a few seconds, Harry felt the first slight stirring of worry. The direction they were taking him did not seem to be the way Mr Weasley had told home to go. He couldn't say anything though, just in case he had gotten the directions wrong, because not knowing where the office he was meant to have been going to almost daily for weeks would be a sure sign to anybody that it had not been him.
All doubt disappeared when they entered the elevator though. His office space had definitely been on the top floor, that much he was certain of.
"Where are you taking me?" he asked the guards.
At first he thought they were going to ignore him. Fear filled his stomach as he suddenly considered his position. Mr Weasley had seen him lead away by Aurors, so he would think Harry was in safe hands; he had no reason to check up on Harry now.
"A senior Minister has requested a meeting with you," one of the guards said, just as Harry had been about to demand an answer.
The elevator door opened and his escort led him through to an intimidating set of doors.
"Who?" asked Harry as they reached the doors, realising he had no idea what was going on.
Instead of answering, the dark haired guard knocked on the door which immediately swung open.
"Hello again, Mr Potter," said Dolores Umbridge from behind a massive, doily covered desk. "I am so glad to see you again."
Harry tried to step back, but the guards grabbed him and thrust him forward into the room, closing the doors behind them. "What do you want?" Harry snarled, not bothering to hide his anger.
"Come now, Mr Potter," the toad-like former DADA professor said in her falsely sweet and incredibly annoying voice. "I am sure you know exactly why you are here."
Harry refused to say anything, but simply stood waiting for her to continue. In his mind he was already trying to find a way out. The guards had taken up positions in front of the doors, just behind where Harry was standing. Umbridge had her wand sitting within easy reach on her desk, and Harry's was stuck in his back pocket, as usual.
"No?" the toad asked. "Well let me enlighten you. You recently managed to destroy a portion of some Ministry offices, undoubtedly in another one of your schemes to get on the front page of the Prophet."
"What? You have to be joking?" Harry said, unable to believe what he was hearing. "You think I tried to blow myself up in order to get more press? You are insane."
Umbridge's eye flared at Harry, a definite sign his words had stung her.
"Don't forget you place, boy," she growled.
"My place? You lunatic imbecile. I am here at the Minister's insistence. Who the hell are you to accuse me of anything?"
Umbridge's breath started coming in faster and faster as Harry spoke. Her unsightly nostrils flared as she sucked in air. Whatever she had planned, Harry was determined to disrupt, and making her lose control while in the presence of two witnesses was as good an idea as anything else, in his opinion.
"WHO AM I?" she raged. "I WAS THE SENIOR UNDERSECRETARY TO THE MINISTER OF MAGIC BEFORE YOUR LITTLE ESCAPADE!"
"MY ESCAPADE?" yelled Harry. "DON'T YOU MEAN VOLDEMORT'S ESCAPADE? YOU REMEMBER, VOLDEMORT CAME INTO THE MINISTRY WHEN YOU CLAIMED HE DIDN'T EXIST!"
"ENOUGH!" shouted Umbridge, finally having apparently reached her limit.
Suddenly her wand was in her hand and, for the first time, Harry considered he may have gone too far in goading her.
"Petrificus Totalus!" she screamed.
Harry's arms snapped down to his sides as his legs clamped together. He slowly started to topple over before the rough hands of the Aurors caught him and dragged him over to a chair in front of Umbridge's hideously decorated desk.
Umbridge sat back in her chair, taking a moment to calm herself and adjust her hair. Harry, completely immobilised once again, had no choice but to stare at her bloated, frog-like face.
"Now, since you have proven that you will not be voluntarily assisting us in our enquiries, and you can now consider yourself under arrest for wilful destruction of Ministry property, I am perfectly within my rights to use this," she said, holding up a small bottle of clear liquid.
Harry knew what it was; Veritaserum, the truth drug. A few drops and he would have no choice except to answer her questions. He struggled against the magic holding him in place, straining with all of his will, trying desperately to break the bonds holding him still.
"Let's see, Mr Potter. What questions would I like you to answer?" she mused exaggeratedly, obviously enjoying tormenting Harry with her power over him. "Oh, I know."
"Let's start with the current location of Sirius Black."
Harry, shocked at her words, stopped struggling. How could she possibly still be looking for Sirius? Even with the former Minister himself seeing Voldemort, could she still believe Harry had been lying about Pettigrew and Voldemort's return?
"Yes," she said, misinterpreting his astonishment at her words. "I can see from your eyes that question will yield all the evidence I need to lock you up in Azkaban for a number of years, then we can find out how you have been able to fool everybody into believing You-Know-Who is back. I have no doubt the real truth of how you murdered Dumbledore will come out, not that I am sorry he is gone, but we can't let murderers loose on the streets with the public fawning all over them, can we?"
She licked her lips in anticipation, a sight that made Harry's stomach churn. "Yes, Mr Potter, let's finally find out the truth behind everything you have been doing, shall we?"
She stood up and slowly walked around the table as Harry renewed his struggle. Her eyes were alight with a fanatical gleam. She was enjoying prolonging his torment.
"Hold him," she told the two Aurors.
Obediently, they grabbed Harry's arms as she raised her wand to ready to remove the spell paralysing him; he couldn't swallow the potion if he couldn't move.
"Normally three drops will make even the strongest of men tell their secrets, but I think you might need five, or maybe even six, just to make sure, although I am told it might have some rather nasty side effects," she grinned evilly.
Tensing himself to launch an attack the first second he could, Harry waited for exactly the right moment. His chances were slim, but there was no way he was going to give up without a fight.
"I told you not to tell lies, didn't I, Mr Potter?"
Suddenly he heard the door to the room burst open, causing Umbridge to leap backwards and the two Aurors to swing their heads around. One even managed to raise his wand before Harry saw the tell-tale reflection of a red light flash and felt the Auror fall away as the stunner took hold.
"Hold it right there!" said the familiar voice of Tonks.
A wave of relief swept over Harry like the sun coming out from behind the darkest clouds. He had never been happier to hear the often exuberantly hair coloured Auror and wanted nothing more than to jump up and kiss her.
'What do you think you are doing?" yelled Umbridge. "This is my office and I-"
"Have a lot of explaining to do," said a voice Harry recognised as Minister Scrimgeour. He could hear the shuffled walk of the partially lame man as he entered the room.
"Stand down, Auror," said the Minister. The second of his two assailants release Harry's arms and took a step away from him.
"Minister," began Umbridge. "I was just about to question Mr Potter about the explosion, which, as you know, I have been authorised to investigate-"
"Madam Umbridge, I will advise you to be quiet until you are asked a question," said Scrimgeour, cutting her off for the second time.
"Alright, Harry?" asked Tonks. Then, not getting a response, she moved closer. "Arthur Weasley reported something strange was going on and I happened to pass the Minister who was already looking for you."
She moved closer to look into Harry's unmoving eyes. "Oh right, sorry," she said, realising his predicament.
"Finite Incantatem."
The spell holding Harry disappeared and he immediately jumped to his feet and drew his own wand pointing it at Umbridge.
"She's insane," he said. "She thinks I caused the explosion and still believes I am lying about Voldemort." Harry barely noticed the flinch everybody in the room made at the mad man's name. "She was about to give me Veritaserum and ask questions about Sirius Black."
The Minister for Magic's eyebrows rose at that statement, but Tonks's pulled together in an angry frown.
"Is that true, Madam Umbridge?" Scrimgeour asked the toad.
"Of course not," she replied, with feigned indignation. "I merely asked Mr Potter to meet with me to discuss the explosion, and he started yelling and causing a scene. He had to be restrained."
Harry was about to really start yelling, but Tonks reached out and placed a hand on his arm, calming him with her touch, again.
"May I see what's in your hand, Madam?" the young Auror asked.
Umbridge was unsuccessfully trying to hide the small bottle in her meaty fist. "This? Nothing, just some water," she said dismissively. "Let's concentrate on Mr Potter shall we?"
"Water? I guess you won't mind taking a drink of it then?" asked Tonks.
"What? No thank you, Auror. I am not thirsty. Now, Minister, if we can just move back to the subject at hand-"
"The subject at hand is what you think you were giving Mr Potter," insisted Tonks. "If it is just water, no problem, but if it is Veritaserum, you may have exceeded your authority, since you are no longer a senior undersecretary."
Umbridge swelled up to retaliate when Scrimgeour again cut her off, this time before she even got started.
"Sit down, Dolores. Don't bother denying it. You were about to give Mr Potter, a personal guest of mine, a strictly controlled substance without gaining the proper permissions. Now I am most anxious to find out why."
"She doesn't believe Voldemort is back," repeated Harry.
Scrimgeour shook his head. "That may be true, but I think there is more to this than just that. She doesn't have the brains or guts to have arranged this, Harry. As you may know, at your suggestion Percy recently took it upon himself to investigating some incidents that have occurred over the last few years. In particular, he was looking into the smear campaign the Ministry ran against you and Professor Dumbledore. His most recent report to me indicated he felt he was close to finding a pattern behind many of the Ministry's policies, but then your office was attacked. Now I find you yourself practically abducted and about to be subjected to some rather improper and highly dangerous questioning. A bit much of a coincidence, don't you think?"
Harry considered the Minister's words. He still had his wand pointed at Umbridge, and she would occasionally open her mouth to protest, but then would glance at his unwavering aim and stay silent.
"Make her take it," he said. "You have the authority, don't you?"
Umbridge suddenly look terrified.
"Yes, I do, but I am loath to use it," answered Scrimgeour. "It is not one hundred percent reliable and can be damaging or even fatal, in rare cases."
"Answer all of our questions, and I won't do that to you, Delores."
Umbridge shook her head, her beady eyes opening wide in terror and panic. "I am telling the truth, I was just going to question him about the explosion."
Harry felt his anger rising again, but Scrimgeour shook his head.
"I gave you a chance to come clean, Delores. Now you will take the Veritaserum. Auror Tonks, will you please administer three drops? Auror Cain, please assist her should Madam Umbridge choose to resist."
"With pleasure," snarled Tonks ferociously. The light haired Auror who had been standing quietly gulped, but obediently moved towards Umbridge.
Umbridge raised her wand, but Harry was quicker.
"Expelliarmus!"
The stubby wand flew from the toad's fat fingers.
"Well done," complimented Scrimgeour, as Harry neatly snatched the wand out of the air. "Now let's find out just what has been going on."
Three forced drops later, Umbridge sat in a trance-like state in her chair answering question after question for the Minister. It quickly became apparent that Umbridge had been receiving suggestions from an advisor outside of the Ministry. This advisor had been supplying her with gifts, supposedly in gratitude of her efforts to keep half breeds, non-humans, and other 'undesirables' under control.
Harry stood back and watched as the Minister expertly interrogated the former undersecretary, digging deeper into what had been going on. It had all began slowly enough, with a simple letter from an anonymous admirer complimenting her on the 'firm stance' she had taken in the werewolf rights issue several years ago. Subtle suggestions had been made which were eagerly adopted by the delusional woman as her own, suggestions that included her grand plan of taking over Hogwarts and even ways of dealing with Harry.
"The Dementors," Harry said, thinking out loud to himself. At Scrimgeour's inquiring gaze Harry elaborated. "She ordered a pair of Dementors to attack me at Privet drive when I was fifteen and had special wards setup to detect my underage magic," he said. "Ask her, she'll confirm it, along with torturing me and my school friends by making us write lines with a quill that cut our hands to use blood as ink, and even planed on using the Cruciatus curse on me to find out where Dumbledore was hiding."
At Scrimgeour's persistent questioning, Umbridge did indeed confirm all of her actions and more that Harry had not known about, including turning aside many convictions of pure blood family members and severely punishing half bloods or Muggle born offenders for the slightest offences.
Tonks was livid, her hair cycling uncontrollably through every colour in the rainbow, and some never seen in nature. Harry felt the same, and only managed to hold his anger in check because of Scrimgeour's calm presence, though he was gripping his wand so hard his fingers had started to go numb.
Absently he noticed the fair haired Auror, Cain, standing near the door, and the dark haired one still unconscious and forgotten on the floor where he had fallen to Tonks's stunner.
"Who was it Delores? Who was the one feeding you instructions?" asked the Minister, his excitement almost palpable.
"He never openly identified himself," she replied, her words starting to slur as the potion began to wear off and she fought for control.
"You must have some idea," insisted Scrimgeour.
"It was..," said Umbridge, struggling to not to speak.
"Yes?" encouraged Scrimgeour.
"It was…" the toad stammered.
"Come on, Delores, just tell us."
Harry, concentrating on Umbridge, caught only a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye. He instinctively swung his wand towards it, just as he heard the spell.
"Avada Kedavra!"
A jet of blinding green light flashed past Harry as he threw himself backwards, colliding with Tonks. The accompanying rushing sound filled his ears as he lost his balance and toppled over, taking the female Auror with him.
"Stupefy!" he cried even as he fell, pointing his wand in the general direction of the attack before crashing to the ground in a tangle with Tonks, who grunted loudly as his weight knocked the wind out of her.
Rolling off as quickly as possible, Harry brought his wand to bear. Scrimgeour was crouching with his wand out, pointing it at the door where the fair haired Auror lay sprawled, unconscious from Harry's lucky shot.
"Harry, are you alright?" asked Tonks, struggling to her feet with her own wand also pointed at the door.
Harry sat up. "I'm fine, you?"
"Just a bit bruised. Good shot, by the way."
"I agree," said the Minister, as he walked over to the fallen Auror and kicked the wand from his outstretched hand. It appeared Harry's spell had caught the man as he was running out of the door. "An excellent shot, indeed."
Harry looked around the room; his eyes coming to rest on the slumped figure of Madam Umbridge.
"But not soon enough," he said, looking into her open, lifeless eyes.
Strangely, he suddenly felt sorry.
"BLAST!" cursed Scrimgeour, rushing over to make a fruitless check of the former undersecretary. "First Percy, now Umbridge. What could be so important to warrant this?"
"Maybe you can ask him," said Harry, nodding to the fallen Auror.
"Probably find he was under the Imperius Curse," said Tonks.
Harry walked over to the unconscious man and bent over to pull the sleeve of the orange Auror robes back. The man's forearm was unmarked.
"Aparecium!" incanted Harry, touching the same place he had seen Snape's dark mark with the tip of his wand.
The barest of outlines appeared; a faint, but easily recognisable shape of a skull and a snake; the mark of Voldemort's followers.
"Then again, maybe we won't," corrected Tonks.
Scrimgeour, frowning darkly, walked to the first man Tonks had stunned, and performed the same spell as Harry, but no mark appeared.
"Looks like you might have a lot of work in front of you, Minister," said Harry.
Scrimgeour nodded, deep in thought. "Yes, this could be the break we have been looking for, but with Percy out of action I am going to have to find somebody else to follow the paper trail. His, er, recent assignment has made a great impact on the young man you know? Amazing what a different point of view can do to a man's perspective, eh?"
For a second Harry wondered what the Minister was talking about, then he realised he meant having to impersonate Harry, and that the Minister didn't know Tonks already knew about the swap. That suited Harry fine, so he said nothing.
"Auror Tonks, could you please call a few more Aurors here to take care of these two? I think it would be wise to question Auror Andrews here as well, even though he is not marked."
Tonks looked like she was going to object to leaving Harry alone with the Minister, but then nodded and quickly left the room.
"Harry, young Mr Weasley has had a bit of a rude awakening after being subjected to your mail for an extended period of time. A change for the better, I assure you," said the Minister conspiratorially, then he grinned a fierce smile. "You could say the rod has been forcibly removed somewhat!"
Harry nodded again, still unsure of the Minister's motives and a bit shaken up at being so close to a murder. His silence had the unexpected effect of causing the Minister to continue speaking, to fill in the awkward silence.
"Anyway, after finally accepting the depth of his errors, he has been working almost night and day to uncover how the Ministry could have become so corrupt as to allow You-Know-Who to operate for a whole year. You may have noticed during my questioning that I had a fair idea of what to ask Delores. I was simply confirming the information Percy has so far uncovered."
Harry nodded silently again, although he hadn't noticed anything of the kind.
"With Percy currently out of commission I need somebody else to take his place, somebody who I can trust to keep the search going, somebody with the determination to get through the many obstacles that have been raised to keep us from discovering the truth, somebody who won't be scared of uncovering senior Ministry workers involvement in corrupt dealings."
"Do you know where I might find somebody like that, Harry?"
It finally dawned on Harry what Scrimgeour was doing; he was trying to get Harry to work for the Ministry!
"Oh, no," he said. "No way, not a chance."
"But, Harry, think about it. You could have all the resources of the Ministry at your disposal, to help you in your, er, task - whatever that is."
"Sorry, Minister, I am not interested. Look at how close I just came to being forced to take Veritaserum. Do you really think I can risk somebody like Umbridge finding out what I am doing?"
"Surely Dumbledore can't have expected you finish whatever it was he was doing on your own!" argued the Minister. "Don't be unreasonable, Harry. You need help, even if it is just to come running when you call. Look at what happened here, if Arthur Weasley had not reported seeing you being escorted away from your office, you would indeed have been compromised, and that probably only happened because of your recent falling out with his family."
Harry shook his head and bit back a bitter reply, but the Minister's words hit home pretty hard.
"I only came here because Percy asked me too, to squash the rumours of my death," he said instead. "I would have preferred to have left the world thinking I was gone, that way less people may have been hunting for me."
The Minister's shoulders slumped in apparent defeat, just as Tonks and three other orange clad wizards entered the room.
"Very well," he said, straightening up at the sight of witnesses. "Auror Tonks, will you please escort Mr Potter to the remains of his office to collect his mail and then to the Dignitary's Apparition point? I am sure he would rather avoid the circus that undoubtedly awaits him in the Atrium."
"Yes, Sir," said Tonks, before turning to Harry and indicating he should lead the way out of the room. At the door Harry paused.
"Thank you, Minister," he said, then nodded in the direction of the now levitating form of the Death Eater formerly known as Auror Andrews. "Good luck."
Scrimgeour appeared surprised at Harry's well wishes, but silently nodded his thanks.
-
The office looked like somebody had let an angry dragon loose inside of it, and then poked the irritable beast in a very tender spot with a sharp stick.
Every wall of the moderately sized office, and most of the roof, was black with burn marks. Harry swore he could have drawn Percy's shadow's outline on the wall where it was slightly less burnt because Percy himself had absorbed the flames.
"Wow," he said.
Tonks nodded, looking quite green at the amount of damage. The desk and other furniture were totally obliterated, but five blackened chests lying where they had been thrown by the blast appeared intact, indicating they had some fairly serious protection spells on them.
"Ministry secure mail chests," explained Tonks. "Multiple, layered spells to keep them safe against anything short of an angry troll sitting on them, and it would have to be a very large troll and very angry at that."
There had been labels on the lids of the chests, but they were all but unreadable, so Harry just opened the first one. As he expected, it was full of letters. Picking one up he skimmed through it. It was from a little girl from London asking Harry to come and protect her and her family from the 'bad men' who wanted to hurt them.
Placing it back in the chest, Harry grabbed another one. It was similar, although this one was from a boy wanting Harry to rescue his uncle who had gone missing.
Seeing the look on his face, Tonks took the letter and read it while Harry browsed a few more. They were all the same; requests for Harry to help them in some impossible way.
In the second chest Harry found various letters, from older writers, judging by the language in them, all threatening in some manner. A few insisted Harry hurry up and 'do his job' before You-Know-Who killed more people, but others were defending Voldemort and calling Harry all sorts of nasty things for opposing him. Harry's blood boiled in anger just from reading a few lines of some random samples. He resisted the impulse to incinerate the contents of the chest, figuring Percy must have had a reason for keeping them.
The third chest had been seriously enlarged and was filled with boxes and packages, some large enough to hold a broom. Tonks, still sniffing after reading the letter from the first chest, read one of the notes and explained this appeared to be the gifts people had sent him, some seeking endorsements and others favours.
"Bribes," she said, seeing his look of incomprehension
The fourth chest contained all of the marriage proposals, and other suggestions, some quite improper. Harry didn't bother to look at even one of the photographs included in any of the envelopes, although Tonks picked several and either laughed or retched at them, sometimes poking her fingers into her mouth dramatically to indicate her thoughts on the model in question.
The fifth and last chest held what appeared to be official letters. Harry knew it the second he opened it because of the envelope sitting on the very top.
It was his Hogwarts letter.