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Chapter 15: Fifth Year (Part 9)
"We'll start where we left off then I've got something to tell you before we continue so this'll be the last memory for tonight." Harry explained after Minerva had took his memory and put it in the pensieve for him, since he was forbidden to get off the bed.
Dumbledore's abrupt departure took Harry completely by surprise. He remained sitting where he was in the chained chair, struggling with his feelings of shock and relief. The Wizengamot were all getting to their feet, talking, gathering up their papers and packing them away. Harry stood up. Nobody seemed to be paying him the slightest bit of attention, except the toadlike witch on Fudge's right, who was now gazing down at him instead of at Dumbledore.
"Why do I have the feeling that she'll be important later on?" asked James.
"I do too." said Lily. "Let's just hope she doesn't turn out to be the DADA teacher or something."
"Um... Don't you remember what I told you about Umbridge?" Harry asked glancing at his left hand significantly.
The returnee's, minus Sirius, Remus and Dora who already knew, groaned.
"Look on the bright side, she inspired those three to start an Army." Draco said nodding at the Golden Trio.
"True. Dumbledore's Army was originally a study group, it became more than that once most of the members decided they wanted to learn how to fight Voldemort." Harry nodded. "It wasn't just Umbridge that inspired us though, it was the Ministry too."
"The Ministry feared Albus was building an Army of students to fight against them." Hermione explained, "We just made that half true. It wasn't Albus, it was Harry, Ron and I. And we weren't ever going to go against the Ministry unless we had no choice." she shrugged. "But we did make a student Army."
"Yeah, as Harry said it was originally a study group for DADA even though it was always called Dumbledore's Army." Ron nodded.
"Who picked the name?" Remus asked, "I never thought to ask before."
"It was me." Ginny smirked, "Mainly to stop Harry agreeing with Cho."
"It worked, I liked your idea better." he told her, "You'll learn the rest later." he added to those who didn't know.
Ignoring her, he tried to catch Fudge's eye, or Madam Bones's, wanting to ask whether he was free to go, but Fudge seemed quite determined not to notice Harry, and Madam Bones was busy with her briefcase, so he took a few tentative steps towards the exit and, when nobody called him back, broke into a very fast walk.
He took the last few steps at a run, wrenched open the door and almost collided with Mr. Weasley, who was standing right outside, looking pale and apprehensive.
"Dumbledore didn't say -"
"Cleared," Harry said, pulling the door closed behind him, "of all charges!"
Beaming, Mr. Weasley seized Harry by the shoulders.
"Harry, that's wonderful! Well, of course, they couldn't have found you guilty, not on the evidence, but even so, I can't pretend I wasn't -"
But Mr. Weasley broke off, because the courtroom door had just opened again. The Wizengamot were filing out.
"Merlin's beard!" exclaimed Mr. Weasley wonderingly, pulling Harry aside to let them all pass. "You were tried by the full court?"
"You didnt know?" Harry asked Arthur, he shook his head.
"I think so," said Harry quietly.
One or two of the wizards nodded to Harry as they passed and a few, including Madam Bones, said, "Morning, Arthur," to Mr. Weasley, but most averted their eyes. Cornelius Fudge and the toadlike witch were almost the last to leave the dungeon. Fudge acted as though Mr. Weasley and Harry were part of the wall, but again, the witch looked almost appraisingly at Harry as she passed. Last of all to pass was Percy. Like Fudge, he completely ignored his father and Harry; he marched past clutching a large roll of parchment and a handful of spare quills, his back rigid and his nose in the air.
"I was trying not to show how stupid I thought I was." Percy sighed.
"I'd noticed. You did it when you were younger too whenever you got a question wrong." Arthur told him, "You could've at least acknowledged me."
"Didn't fancy another argument... Or having a mental breakdown in public." he admitted, "I really didn't know what I was doing off on my own for the first few months."
"You should've owled us then." Molly frowned worriedly.
"I tried to, multiple times. They all came back unopened, I don't think Hermes could find you." he said.
"Damn, the wards on Grimmauld." Sirius muttered, "There's an old ward I couldn't get down that repels unknown owls that aren't invited in, except Ministry owls, and I didn't know how to get it down or alter it, I completely forgot." he groaned.
"So that's what happened." Percy frowned, "I know Hermes didn't do it on purpose, he seemed quite upset when he got back to me." he explained.
"You should've told me about it Sirius, I spent quite a while taking down wards for Gringotts." Bill said, "I'd bet I'd be able to remove it."
"Have a look later if you want." Harry shrugged, "You know we worked on the house so we'll be there in a few days anyway so you can see what we did." he added.
Bill nodded and they all turned back to the memory.
The lines around Mr. Weasley's mouth tightened slightly, but other than this he gave no sign that he had seen his third son.
"I'm going to take you straight back so you can tell the others the good news," he said, beckoning Harry forwards as Percy's heels disappeared up the steps to Level Nine. "I'll drop you off on the way to that toilet in Bethnal Green. Come on -"
"So, what will you have to do about the toilet?" Harry asked, grinning. Everything suddenly seemed five times funnier than usual. It was starting to sink in: he was cleared, he was going back to Hogwarts.
"Oh, its a simple enough anti-jinx," said Mr. Weasley as they mounted the stairs, "but it's not so much having to repair the damage, its more the attitude behind the vandalism, Harry. Muggle-baiting might strike some wizards as funny, but it's an expression of something much deeper and nastier, and I for one -"
Mr. Weasley broke off in mid-sentence. They had just reached the ninth-level corridor and Cornelius Fudge was standing a few feet away from them, talking quietly to a tall man with sleek blond hair and a pointed, pale face.
"Oh great." Draco groaned.
The second man turned at the sound of their footsteps. He, too, broke off in mid-conversation, his cold grey eyes narrowed and fixed upon Harry's face.
"Well, well, well - Patronus Potter," said Lucius Malfoy coolly.
"Oh!" Lily exclaimed, "I'm tempted to strangle him! He was there in that graveyard, after all!"
"He won't be getting away with anything." Kingsley assured her, "Escaping Azkaban twice earns him a spot in the highest security cells. The only part of the prison guarded by security trolls, wizards and Dementors."
"I thought you'd stopped using dementors?" Charlie frowned.
"I had to put the remaining ones somewhere." he shrugged, "They're only there until I figure out what to do with them."
"Remaining ones?" James asked.
"We managed to round up about 20, the rest found themselves trapped in a room in the DoM and there wasn't enough room for the rest." he explained, "So I need to find somewhere to put them."
Harry felt winded, as though he had just walked into something solid. He had last seen those cold grey eyes through slits in a Death Eater's hood, and last heard that man's voice jeering in a dark graveyard while Lord Voldemort tortured him. Harry could not believe that Lucius Malfoy dared look him in the face; he could not believe that he was here, in the Ministry of Magic, or that Cornelius Fudge was talking to him, when Harry had told Fudge mere weeks ago that Malfoy was a Death Eater.
"The Minister was just telling me about your lucky escape, Potter," drawled Mr. Malfoy. "Quite astonishing, the way you continue to wriggle out of very tight holes - snakelike, in fact."
"It's not snakelike! A lion can beat a snake any time!" Sirius yelled.
Mr. Weasley gripped Harry's shoulder in warning.
"Yeah," said Harry, "yeah, I'm good at escaping."
Lucius Malfoy raised his eyes to Mr. Weasley's face.
"And Arthur Weasley too! What are you doing here, Arthur?"
"I work here," said Mr Weasley curtly.
"Not here, surely?" said Mr. Malfoy, raising his eyebrows and glancing towards the door over Mr. Weasley's shoulder. "I thought you were up on the second floor - don't you do something that involves sneaking Muggle artefacts home and bewitching them?"
"When we catch him I'll let you punch him." Kingsley told Arthur, "I'm not allowed to because the Minister isn't allowed within touching distance of prisoners. So I'll let you do it... Or I might give the Aurors free reign with their choice of questioning him." he mused.
"Either way is fine with me." Arthur grinned as the others chuckled amusedly.
"No," Mr. Weasley snapped, his fingers now biting into Harry's shoulder.
"What are you doing here, anyway?" Harry asked Lucius Malfoy.
"I don't think private matters between myself and the Minister are any concern of yours, Potter," said Malfoy, smoothing the front of his robes. Harry distinctly heard the gentle clinking of what sounded like a full pocket of gold.
"Bribes!" spat Sirius.
"He was trying to convince Fudge to do something. I'm not sure what but it was probably bad." Cissy sighed.
"Really, just because you are Dumbledore's favourite boy, you must not expect the same indulgence from the rest of us - shall we go up to your office, then, Minister?"
"Certainly," said Fudge, turning his back on Harry and Mr. Weasley. "This way, Lucius."
They strode off together, talking in low voices. Mr. Weasley did not let go of Harry's shoulder until they had disappeared into the lift.
"Why wasn't he waiting outside Fudge's office if they've got business to do together?" Harry burst out furiously. "What was he doing down here?"
"Trying to sneak down to the courtroom, if you ask me," said Mr. Weasley, looking extremely agitated and glancing over his shoulder as though making sure they could not be overheard. "Trying to find out whether you'd been expelled or not. I'll leave a note for Dumbledore when I drop you off, he ought to know Malfoy's been talking to Fudge again."
"What private business have they got together, anyway?"
"Gold, I expect," said Mr. Weasley angrily. "Malfoy's been giving generously to all sorts of things for years - gets him in with the right people - then he can ask favours - delay laws he doesn't want passed - oh, he's very well-connected, Lucius Malfoy."
"He doesn't deserve to be so well-connected." Sirius growled angrily.
"Calm down, he's not anymore." Neville smiled.
The lift arrived; it was empty except for a flock of memos that flapped around Mr. Weasley's head as he pressed the button for the Atrium and the doors clanged shut. He waved them away irritably.
"Mr. Weasley," said Harry slowly, "if Fudge is meeting Death Eaters like Malfoy, if he's seeing them alone, how do we know they haven't put the Imperius Curse on him?"
"Don't think it hasn't occurred to us, Harry," said Mr. Weasley quietly. "But Dumbledore thinks Fudge is acting of his own accord at the moment -"
"It still didn't do the Order any good." pointed out Bill.
"which, as Dumbledore says, is not a lot of comfort. Best not talk about it any more just now, Harry."
The doors slid open and they stepped out into the now almost deserted Atrium. Eric the watchwizard was hidden behind his Daily Prophet again. They had walked straight past the golden fountain before Harry remembered.
"Wait -" he told Mr. Weasley, and, pulling his moneybag from his pocket, he turned back to the fountain.
He looked up into the handsome wizard's face, but close-to Harry thought he looked rather weak and foolish. The witch was wearing a vapid smile like a beauty contestant, and from what Harry knew of goblins and centaurs, they were most unlikely to be caught staring so soppily at humans of any description.
"Yeah," said Lily. "They wouldn't. That fountain really ought to be changed."
"The revealing of the new statue is just before Christmas. I already had the old one, which was worse, taken away." Kingsley explained, "I'm changing a lot of things there, I might add an extra department or two in later years but at the moment I estimate it'll be 1 or 2 years from now until everything is completely normal and repaired."
"That long?" Regulus asked in shock.
"Yes, I'll be revising and going over all the current and old laws in the Wizarding world and removing, changing or updating them as necessary." he explained, "Mainly to get rid of the ones made by blood purists like Fudge and Umbridge, they did a lot of damage with some of their laws. Especially concerning magical creatures."
"Like the Werewolf ones." Remus nodded, "Made things impossible for part-humans to live freely. Some of the laws are agreeable but most are overly restricting and have been for century's."
"That's exactly what I thought." Kingsley nodded, "So it's out with the old and in with the new." he grinned.
"And everyone will support that." Arthur smiled, "Well... Maybe not the ones that think the laws are right."
"I'll deal with that when I get to that point." he promised, "If not I'll get Harry to help, they listen to him more than me as it is." he chuckled.
"Which is why you're glad I'll help." Harry smiled, "I can be very persuasive when I need to be."
"You don't have to tell us twice." Ron and Hermione muttered at the same time.
Only the house-elf's attitude of creeping servility looked convincing. With a grin at the thought of what Hermione would say if she could see the statue of the elf, Harry turned his moneybag upside-down and emptied not just ten Galleons, but the whole contents into the pool.
"I knew it!" yelled Ron, punching the air. "You always get away with stuff!"
"They were bound to clear you," said Hermione, who had looked positively faint with anxiety when Harry had entered the kitchen and was now holding a shaking hand over her eys, "there was no case against you, none at all."
"Everyone seems quite relieved, though, considering you all knew I'd get off," said Harry, smiling.
"There was always that doubt that you wouldn't." said Ginny, "Fudge is an idiot after all."
Mrs. Weasley was wiping her face on her apron, and Fred, George and Ginny were doing a kind of war dance to a chant that went: "He got off, he got off, he got off -"
They all laughed at the twins and Ginny's antics.
"That's enough! Settle down!" shouted Mr. Weasley, though he too was smiling. "Listen, Sirius, Lucius Malfoy was at the Ministry -"
"What?" said Sirius sharply.
"He got off, he got off, he got off- "
"Be quiet, you three! Yes, we saw him talking to Fudge on Level Nine, then they went up to Fudge's office together. Dumbledore ought to know."
"Absolutely," said Sirius. "We'll tell him, don't worry."
"Well, I'd better get going, there's a vomiting toilet waiting for me in Bethnal Green. Molly, I'll be late, I'm covering for Tonks, but Kingsley might be dropping in for dinner -"
"He got off, he got off, he got off -"
"That's enough - Fred - George - Ginny!" said Mrs. Weasley, as Mr. Weasley left the kitchen.
"I swear that's the first time I've had to tell you three to behave at the same time." Molly sighed.
"Nope, there was the time just before I started school Mum." Ginny smirked, "Remember I was trying to get Fred and George to help me blow something up?"
"Oh, I'd forgotten about that." Molly mused, "What was it again?"
"That old rock in the orchid." George grinned.
"The one blocking the gate to that big empty field out back." Fred added.
"I wanted to go exploring." Ginny sighed, "But you caught us."
"Because that field might be dangerous. There's active magic protecting it." Arthur said, "We don't know for sure but it might have been dangerous and it wasnt worth the risk."
"Really?" Ron asked, "Or are you trying to convince us to leave it alone? I'm quite curious about it now."
"It's true." Bill nodded, "I checked one night after Charlie ran into one of the wards protecting it when we were home a few months after starting our jobs, he just bounced off. It's not dangerous but you cant access it either." he shrugged.
"Harry, dear, come and sit down, have some lunch, you hardly ate breakfast."
Ron and Hermione sat themselves down opposite him, looking happier than they had done since he had first arrived at Grimmauld Place, and Harry's feeling of giddy relief, which had been somewhat dented by his encounter with Lucius Malfoy, swelled again. The gloomy house seemed warmer and more welcoming all of a sudden; even Kreacher looked less ugly as he poked his snoutlike nose into the kitchen to investigate the source of all the noise.
"Course, once Dumbledore turned up on your side, there was no way they were going to convict you," said Ron happily, now dishing great mounds of mashed potato on to everyone's plates.
"Yeah, he swung it for me," said Harry. He felt it would sound highly ungrateful, not to mention childish, to say, "I wish he'd talked to me, though. Or even looked at me."
"Sorry Harry." Albus said sighing.
And as he thought this, the scar on his forehead burned so badly that he clapped his hand to it.
"What's up?" said Hermione, looking alarmed.
"Scar," Harry mumbled. "But it's nothing - it happens all the time now -"
"But it's still not good news." said Sirius frowning.
None of the others had noticed a thing; all of them were now helping themselves to food while gloating over Harry's narrow escape; Fred, George and Ginny were still singing.
"Doesn't mean we weren't paying attention." Ginny huffed, "I'd noticed actually but I didn't know exactly what happened so I let those two deal with it." she nodded at Ron and Hermione.
Hermione looked rather anxious, but before she could say anything, Ron had said happily, "I bet Dumbledore turns up this evening, to celebrate with us, you know."
"I don't think he'll be able to, Ron," said Mrs. Weasley, setting a huge plate of roast chicken down in front of Harry. "He's really very busy at the moment."
"HE GOT OFF, HE GOT OFF, HE GOT OFF-"
"SHUT UP!" roared Mrs. Weasley.
This set everyone off laughing.
"Sorry Mum." Fred grinned.
"You know we cant resist being annoying at every chance we get." George added.
"And it was fun." Ginny nodded, "At that time everyone needed a laugh or something to distract them from the war... Even those of us who didnt get told what we couldnt have guessed." she pouted.
"That was the end of the memory." Harry said before an argument could start.