Author: Lucinda

Rated safe for anyone reading the early Harry Potter books.

Main character: Harry Potter

Set after the Third Task of the TriWizard Tournament in Harry's 4th year.

Anything recognizable from the world of Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.

PS..AoT..PS..AoT.. PS..AoT.. PS..AoT.. PS..AoT.. PS..AoT.. PS..AoT..

Harry Potter was many things, but he wasn't, despite the many times Petunia and Vernon tried to tell people otherwise, an idiot. It had been close to a minor miracle he'd managed to get back to Hogwarts after the nightmare at the graveyard, especially with fairly minor injuries – a nasty cut on his arm, an assortment of scrapes and bruises, cruciatus exposure… He certainly didn't feel good, but he was alive, still had all his bits and pieces, and would recover. He knew just how bad things could get with Voldemort in a body again, or at least enough to be very worried. And there was no way he could fix everything alone, and even less reason why he should have to fix it all by himself.

He had no intention of trying.

"Mr. Potter, I must know what happened!" Minister Fudge demanded, his lime green hat crumpled in his hands.

Harry looked at Fudge, remembering when they'd tried to explain about Sirius. Fudge didn't really want to know what happened, the truth would frighten him far too much. He'd become even more useless than he already was. No, the truth would never do for this.

"It was pretty awful, Minister," Harry's words were soft as he prepared his story. "Someone tampered with the trophy. I'm not sure who, but when Cedric and I touched it, we found ourselves in a graveyard. That couldn't have been what it was intended to do for the tournament, could it?"

"No, the winner was supposed to appear before the judges. Who would have done such a thing?" Fudge's face paled a little. "This tournament had proved to be quite the mess."

"Someone was waiting for us. He killed Cedric, and knocked me out. I woke up tied to a headstone," Harry paused, debating if Fudge would listen if he identified Pettigrew. He rather doubted it. No, best avoid that particular awkward truth for now. "I think he was crazy."

"How much do we need to fear a crazy man then?" Fudge seemed to perk up a bit.

"Minister, this wizard may be crazy, but he's dangerous. He cast the killing curse at Cedric. He'd set up this weird circle and a giant cauldron, and he did something awful with it. He did this awful…" Harry decided to play up his muggle-raised ignorance. "I don't think it was like any potion or spell I know. I'd almost call it some sort of ritual… are there ritual magics? There's so much I don't know, and I can't really study beyond classes over the summer, what with being sent back to the muggles every year."

"Terrible shame, the Boy-Who-Lived being stuck with muggles. Maybe we can do something about that… What were you saying about a ritual?" Fudge shook his head, hands trembling.

"He took some bone dust from one of the graves, some blood from my arm, and cut off his hand and they all went into the huge cauldron. Something came out… it looked sort of like a man, but horribly wrong," Harry shuddered, remembering the re-fleshed Voldemort. "I can't imagine anything like that to be legal, Minister Fudge. The thing from the cauldron, it talked, and it did magic. It called for followers, and people in robes and masks showed up."

"Robes and masks? Like… like…" Fudge was trembling now.

"Like people willing to use the fear of law abiding citizens against them, Minister Fudge. Everyone knows Voldemort is dead, right? That's why people follow what I do so much? Because he didn't kill me?" Harry wanted to try to control the reaction. He wanted Fudge worried enough to act, but not so terrified he panicked. Trying to claim Voldemort was back – even if he was – would be too much for Fudge to deal with properly.

"Of course he's dead. You killed him," Fudge insisted.

"I'm not entirely sure what happened that night, but I know he didn't do too well," Harry murmured. "I also know a lot of people are still afraid of him and his followers. A clever and nasty minded person could use that against people. All they'd have to do would be dress up in the robes and people would think the Death Eaters were back, even if they really weren't. Why, if a person was awful enough, they might even try to make people think Voldemort was back. Which he can't be, because magic can't bring back the dead. But…"

"You can't bring back the dead. And only a horrible person would want You-Know-Who back." Fudge leaned forward, his face desperate for someone to give him a direction. "But?"

"But all it would take would be someone looking scary and borrowing the name, with nasty robed people looking like they're obeying, and someone awful and clever could use the reputation of someone else to scare people into not fighting them. You said it yourself, Voldemort," Harry paused to allow the Minister to shudder at the name. "He's dead. And I've been told a lot of his followers were under some sort of mind control. Maybe someone's been at the mind control again."

"Of course, I know Lucius would never do such things of his own free will," Fudge murmured.

"Someone's been planning what happened out for quite a while. If they could gather what they needed for that ritual, then they could slip out and place people under mind control as well. They're a danger to the whole magical world," Harry insisted.

"We need to do something, figure out a way to…" Fudge paused, his hands mauling the hat.

"Maybe the Aurors or someone can figure out if people are under mind control? Start by checking the people who were controlled last time, and either fix them or keep them safe from our real villain?" Harry suggested. He hoped the Death Eaters would wind up thrown into Azkaban, or killed resisting investigation. He'd settle for bankrupted with reputations in tatters. "And have someone who knows what to look for check out the graveyard. Maybe there are things to tell what happened, and how to get rid of the scary thing that came out of the cauldron?"

"What about the Diggory boy?" Fudge mused, clearly already thinking about what he planned to do.

Harry suspected Fudge's plans involved other people doing the work and preventing Fudge from looking bad. He took a breath and answered, hoping to use the trick Hermione and some of the Professors had of audible capitalization. "The truth. He was killed by a Dark Wizard who was interfering with the Tournament for some currently unknown Foul Purpose. His death is tragic, and should be taken as a sign that this Unknown Criminal must be stopped for the Good of All Law-Abiding Citizens. Once the criminals are found and Brought to Justice – you might want to recruit a few more Aurors to make that go faster – maybe his family should get some sort of compensation, out of the assets of the criminals. Everyone will appreciate you getting things moving to find and stop this criminal before he can set off a new wave of fear and tragedy."

"Will they?" Fudge perked up.

"Oh yes, a pro-active leader making sure things get done to make us safer will be a big hit," Harry assured him. "I'm sure you have faith in all your department heads, that they know their jobs and can get them done properly, right? Just let them get things done, maybe give the law enforcement and investigation – is that the same department, or are those jobs separated? I'm not really sure how a lot of things work outside of Hogwarts in the magical community. In the muggle world, if there's a really scary criminal, the people start talking about how the law enforcement should have more people and a bigger budget to use to get the criminal before they can be hurt. I'm sure it will be the same for the magical world."

"Yes, yes… and then I can just tell Amelia to make it happen. Recruit and train some more Aurors, more investigators, get this taken care of promptly…" Fudge sounded almost like he was talking to himself.

"I'd be happy to talk to law enforcement and investigation about what happened if it would help," Harry offered.

"I'll pass that on. Let Amelia take care of all the details," Fudge was nodding now. He held out a lumpy looking small bag. "This is your winnings, from the Tournament. I'm sure Amelia or someone will be wanting to talk to you soon. Terrible, some upstart criminal trying to scare everyone by using that name… using those robes…"

Harry watched as Minister Fudge left. The man was a coward, and seemed quite easily manipulated. Maybe, just maybe this would get things moving in a helpful direction. Especially if he didn't try to convince the man about the truth – that Pettigrew had somehow given Voldemort back a body, and all the not even a little mind controlled Death Eaters were eager to get back to their horrible ways of torture and killing. He wondered if the law-enforcement were more competent than Fudge, and if things would at least try to get done.

He also wondered about alternate schools. He'd nearly died several times this year, making it four out of four years his life had been in deadly peril at this supposedly safe school. Someone should be able to answer at least a few questions – after all, for Hogwarts to be considered 'the best magical school in Britain', which couldn't quite be accurate what with it being in Scotland, it couldn't be the only magical school.

Harry didn't want to have to solve everything himself. And he shouldn't have to anyhow.

End Pottery Shards: Aftermath of a Tournament.