Chapter 18 The Minister's Mistake
The winter holidays were upon them in a flash, one morning the school woke up to find the grounds covered in two feet of snow. When Professor McGonagal came around making a list of those who'd be staying at Hogwarts many more students than usual signed up. The day before the holidays started Harry was called to an Order meeting in the headmaster's office.
He arrived early, Fawkes greeted him with a trill that opened a secret door across the room. In the room beyond was a huge oval wooden table with twenty-eight chairs around it. The floor was reddish wood that matched the table, the two windows were closed with green vines creping across them. The large fireplace in the back had a fire going in it, above the mantle huge a wonderful painting of Hogwarts on a winter day. Harry sat down at his seat, four down on the Phoenix's right facing the windows with the fireplace to his right. He put his report on Voldemort's current activities down in front of him and went to work polishing his wand. Soon the fire turned green and the Order of the Phoenix Council started coming in. Sarlan Master of Spies, Remus Head of the Dark Creature Control & Werewolf Agents Divisions, Aram Head of the Muggle Murder Division, Yotrisk the Training Master, Charlie (Weasely) Dragons & Fire Lions, Shenya- War Unicorns & Hippogriffs, Bane-Dire Wolves, Xenrose Chief of the Healers, Fiona Leader of the Broom Brigade, Taekal Master of the Smiths and Carpenters, Jarul of the Sciences, Hanarah, she took care of the ever-annoying press, George- Patrol and Divisions Effectiveness, Jan who recruited, and then there were the Patrol Leaders. Alanna of the Copper, Mundungus of the Red, Tira of the Orange, Faral of the Blue, Cindy of the Yellow, Waredon of the Green, Zamfrihia of the Purple, Liam of the Silver, Ventric of the Bronze and lastly Miranda of the Gold, and Severus Snape-Potions Master. Then of course there was the Lord Phoenix Sirius Black and ex-Phoenix and Master of Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore, and then of course Harry.
And then there was someone Harry would never have thought to see, the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge and two of his assistants.
Everyone took their seats, Sirius at the head of the table, Miranda at the opposite end, Albus next to Sirius on one side and Sarlan of the other with Snape next to him and beyond him Alanna. On Harry's side it went, from Albus, Mundungus, the Minister, Harry. Everyone but the Minister had their minds blocked from Harry, and so he was instantly hit with a barrage of thoughts, which he shoved away and tried to ignore.
"This meeting of the Order of the Phoenix has begun. As our "guest" we have the Minister of Magic and his assistants Jemima and Greg. He has claimed the right to sit in on this meeting. Now Minister, before we begin, you have sworn that you will not tell anyone anything you may hear here, we trust you will keep your word. Harry here is a mind reader, unless you wish him to hear all your thoughts you should block your mind, the spell is Blockarius, no wand necessary, just think it." The Minister stared at Harry, Harry could clearly hear him thinking the spell over and over, without effect.
"Minister that is not working because you are going to fast and panicking. Take it slow and think hard, try to put your entire mind into the spell. The Minister gulped and tried again, this time it worked. "Much better, thank you." He turned to the aids Jemima Pins was so terrified of a mind reader that she was almost completely unable to perform the spell, after nearly a dozen tries she suddenly calmed a bit and the spell snapped into place. Harry nearly sighed with relief, Jemima Pins was very firmly on the Minister's side and hated him. Next came Greg, who was much more at ease and, Harry suspected, not very loyal at all to the Minister. It took him two tries, Harry looked back to Sirius.
"Alright, Jan how has the recruiting been going?" The Phoenix asked.
"Well enough, by the time the next entry session comes we'll have fourteen new recruits, if they live that long, Voldemort may target them."
"We've had almost no word on him from any of our spies, he's keeping quiet since the attack on that Irish school." Sarlan commented, turning to Harry he added, "what about your spies?" Harry handed out reports to everyone but their three unwelcome guests.
"Good news and bad news. Good news is Voldemort has finished making his immortality potion, with the ingredients we supplied in it, he's staying quiet because he's nearly dead from it. Bad news is it didn't quite kill him, but he's in a coma and may not come out." It was as if Harry has put cheering charms on all of them, cheers and shouts of joy went up instantly all around the room. Harry smiled and waved them back into their seats. "I've got more, bad news I am afraid, Voldemort has eight new recruits, and he has gotten an apprentice to aid him. Some very powerful dark wizard from Australia of all places calling himself Satan. But he won't do anything while Voldemort s this ill, so we don't have too much to worry about from him, yet. In the report you'll find physical descriptions of all the new recruits I could get information on, including a magical ID and some information on each, that includes this apprentice Satan." There was a long pause and a few groans and sighs. "It will be a while before I get anything more though, my snakes can't seem to locate him anymore, he's just vanished, and none of them were around when he left, sorry."
"I have a question about your recruiting." The Minister said. "Do you pay the recruits to join? Do you give them ideas of glory? Do you tell them that your leader is an escaped convict and murderer? Do you-" he was drowned out by the angry outcry at this. Half the people were on their feet shouting, Sirius quieted them down mentally, he was sitting quietly, Harry, who hadn't said a thing, spoke up softly, his voice deadly.
"I wonder what the public would have to say about that statement, or the courts? Are you suggesting that they were not up to par that day? I am sure they'll be pleased to hear your opinion of them. Tell me, do you complain about every trial, or just the ones that don't go your way? Might I ask why you are protesting now, a year and half after the trial? Have you lost so much faith in our court system, or has the public lost fait in you?" The Minister's face and mind told him everything. "Do you really think that putting him back in prison will up your popularity? Or get rid of Voldemort?" There was a long drawn out silence in which the Minister fidgeted and got up his courage while glaring at Harry.
"You have no right to talk to him that way!" Jemima snapped angrily, Harry smiled a little and looked away, looking bored.
"My apologies, I was making an observation and asking a question, I did not know that that is against any laws, nor disrespectful." The last he said with quite a bit of contempt in his voice.
"He-who-must-not-be-named has not returned, I know all about your little organization. If the public thinks he's back you get popularity and control, you're no better then he WAS, some guy dressed like him killing people while you pretend to fight him, a good plot to over throw the Ministry I see, very well done, but I know the truth. It is over now, you can't harm me and I have found you out I-"
"You are blind and incredibly foolish." It was a statement, spoken quietly and calmly from Harry, who was examining a fingernail. "How long do you think it will take him to get you? You're only alive right now because your opposition and disbelief splits the wizarding world, making it an easy target. We squabble among ourselves while Voldemort slowly picks away, until it breaks and he takes all. When will you open your eyes and see? You, by not believing and not aiding, by splitting wizarding kind for him, help him to take over, one might "accidentally" think that you were one of his." Harry said, still ignoring the Minister.
"Harry has the truth of it, you are helping him Minister. Now if we can get back to business." Sirius looked to Albus, "about the remaining students from the Irish School of Sorcery?"
"Yes, fifty six transferring here, the school was rebuilt, but many have left. Besides them we have fourteen from other schools, making seventy in all. Hogwarts will have to be expanded; there are spells on it to make it possible. We could easily fit in three and a half thousand students, we just need helpers for the teachers."
"Yes, Beatrice Kalion has volunteered to help out as a Transfiguration teacher, Gar Zimmeri for Charms, Plata Walkins for History, Sandra Marble for Astronomy, Geoffrey Hemtleburn for Care of Magical Creatures since Remus and Hagrid will not be here full time, Dirk McDiamond for Defense, he's excellent with hexes and self-defense spells, and Caitlin Snape for Potions. No one for Divination, too bad." Miranda said, looking over Harry's report. Harry listened carefully, he'd known Snape was married, it was on his records, and he hoped she wouldn't be as horrible as Severus was. More transfers, he'd better start learning more languages, English, Russian, German, Icelandic, Dutch, Spanish, French, and Chinese might not be enough. Then again Ron was turning into a very good linguist, so was Draco, they both knew the same ones he did, as well as Japanese, Arabic, Bulgarian, Middle Egyptian, Modern Greek, Italian and Hawaiian. All the Marauders had entered a language program that had started at Hogwarts two months before, and they'd been teaching themselves languages since a month before the end of last year with the aid of language learning spells.
"We'll need translators, these kids come from everywhere, they'll all get quick courses in English, but they'll need help, it takes longer to learn to read and write a new language with magical aid than it does to learn to speak it." Remus said.
"My friends and I have been teaching ourselves new languages since the new school year started, we'll help." Sirius and Remus grinned at him, they both knew about the new Marauders and had asked Harry to keep them updated on all their activities.
"Thanks, that'll be a great help, do any of you know Mongolian?" Miranda asked.
"Ira started on it three days ago."
"What about Russian?"
"Yes."
German?"
"Yes."
"Arabic?"
"Yes."
"Um… we've got a new student who speaks Turkish?"
"Draco is currently working on it." Harry didn't add that Draco was having trouble with this one. They all seemed rather impressed and thanked Harry.
More students for them to get likely killers from Harry's head snapped around to Jemima.
"Miss Pins that blocking spell appears to have worn off, could you please renew it? And no, the recruits are not killers."
The meeting continued, Jemima seemed unable to keep her blocking spell up, nor could the Minister. When ever someone addressed Sirius as Lord Phoenix the Minister got mad, when the problem of getting rid of death eaters prisoners came up the Minister thought out a detailed image of a dementor sucking the life out of someone, Harry felt like vomiting. Jemima wasn't much better, she was constantly thinking up very unkind things about everyone there.
Worthless mercenaries and maniacs all of them
"Miss Pins I assure you none one here is a mercenary and all of us are sane."
A few minutes later Hooligans think this is all a lot of fun I bet
"Miss Pins!" This time Harry WAS angry. "Kindly keep such thoughts to yourself.
Dratted little whimp
"Minister please, that is rather rude."
Doesn't even know one plus one
"One plus one is two, happy?"
Shut the hell up you brat!
"I'll shut up if you quit thinking so loudly, just think quietly and I won't hear it."
Your all loony, crazy, mad! Murderers all! No decency in you, you all deserve to die. You're useless! Deranged! You don't deserve to be part of society; you poison people's minds against Cornelius, their REAL leader! This from Jemima.
Trying to take over the Ministry are you? I'll beat you yet! This from the Minister. Then came a horrible image of all of the Order standing on a dark field, waiting in chains while dementors sucked out their souls, the graphic detail was too much. The pits that should have been eyes, the toothless mouths, the dry rattling breath, the cold, the stink of decay, the bony hands with the flesh hanging off. Harry stood up so fast he overturned his chair.
"Minister you have a sick mind! SICK! SICK! SICK! That was the most horrible, disgusting, utterly revolting mental image…" Harry's voice trailed of as he left the room and the door shut behind him.
**
A half hour later the Order went out into Dumbledore's office, the Minister and Jemima Pins left through the fire, leaving Greg to watch the Order for another half hour then return to the Ministry. Harry was sitting in a chair, head in his hands, so pale his skin was nearly transparent.
"Harry? Are you okay, what was that image?" Miranda asked him, Harry looked up, and he looked sick. He described the scene in horribly vivid detail, they all looked a little pale and many revolted as they left. Besides those who had witnessed a dementor's kiss being preformed Harry was the only "living" person who had seen a dementor's face, and he had certainly seen it better than anyone else. The Minister's image brought on horrid memories and thoughts, and he knew he'd have nightmares that night.
"Sorry about that. He really doesn't have much control, nor does that miss perfect princess Jemima, horrid woman. Working with them is hard enough, never mind having the read their thoughts." Harry glanced up at Greg, no Greg was most certainly NOT loyal to the Minister, infact Harry, when he tried, could sense the telepathic link to the Phoenix that every Order member had, Greg was one of the spies, working undercover in the Ministry.
Sirius had been enraged with the Minister, both with his words, thoughts, and all the insults he and Jemima Pins had managed to piled on after Harry had left, anyhow the Minister lost support and respect after that meeting, the press hit him hard with all sorts of stories and insults. As the truth about the Minister came out more and more of his former supporters were swayed to the Order's cause. The meeting he had planned on to help him bring down the Order did the opposite, it strengthened it. This meeting was, in later years, called just the latest in a long list of the biggest mistakes of his career, though that career was just a gigantic chain of big mistakes in all.
The winter holidays were upon them in a flash, one morning the school woke up to find the grounds covered in two feet of snow. When Professor McGonagal came around making a list of those who'd be staying at Hogwarts many more students than usual signed up. The day before the holidays started Harry was called to an Order meeting in the headmaster's office.
He arrived early, Fawkes greeted him with a trill that opened a secret door across the room. In the room beyond was a huge oval wooden table with twenty-eight chairs around it. The floor was reddish wood that matched the table, the two windows were closed with green vines creping across them. The large fireplace in the back had a fire going in it, above the mantle huge a wonderful painting of Hogwarts on a winter day. Harry sat down at his seat, four down on the Phoenix's right facing the windows with the fireplace to his right. He put his report on Voldemort's current activities down in front of him and went to work polishing his wand. Soon the fire turned green and the Order of the Phoenix Council started coming in. Sarlan Master of Spies, Remus Head of the Dark Creature Control & Werewolf Agents Divisions, Aram Head of the Muggle Murder Division, Yotrisk the Training Master, Charlie (Weasely) Dragons & Fire Lions, Shenya- War Unicorns & Hippogriffs, Bane-Dire Wolves, Xenrose Chief of the Healers, Fiona Leader of the Broom Brigade, Taekal Master of the Smiths and Carpenters, Jarul of the Sciences, Hanarah, she took care of the ever-annoying press, George- Patrol and Divisions Effectiveness, Jan who recruited, and then there were the Patrol Leaders. Alanna of the Copper, Mundungus of the Red, Tira of the Orange, Faral of the Blue, Cindy of the Yellow, Waredon of the Green, Zamfrihia of the Purple, Liam of the Silver, Ventric of the Bronze and lastly Miranda of the Gold, and Severus Snape-Potions Master. Then of course there was the Lord Phoenix Sirius Black and ex-Phoenix and Master of Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore, and then of course Harry.
And then there was someone Harry would never have thought to see, the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge and two of his assistants.
Everyone took their seats, Sirius at the head of the table, Miranda at the opposite end, Albus next to Sirius on one side and Sarlan of the other with Snape next to him and beyond him Alanna. On Harry's side it went, from Albus, Mundungus, the Minister, Harry. Everyone but the Minister had their minds blocked from Harry, and so he was instantly hit with a barrage of thoughts, which he shoved away and tried to ignore.
"This meeting of the Order of the Phoenix has begun. As our "guest" we have the Minister of Magic and his assistants Jemima and Greg. He has claimed the right to sit in on this meeting. Now Minister, before we begin, you have sworn that you will not tell anyone anything you may hear here, we trust you will keep your word. Harry here is a mind reader, unless you wish him to hear all your thoughts you should block your mind, the spell is Blockarius, no wand necessary, just think it." The Minister stared at Harry, Harry could clearly hear him thinking the spell over and over, without effect.
"Minister that is not working because you are going to fast and panicking. Take it slow and think hard, try to put your entire mind into the spell. The Minister gulped and tried again, this time it worked. "Much better, thank you." He turned to the aids Jemima Pins was so terrified of a mind reader that she was almost completely unable to perform the spell, after nearly a dozen tries she suddenly calmed a bit and the spell snapped into place. Harry nearly sighed with relief, Jemima Pins was very firmly on the Minister's side and hated him. Next came Greg, who was much more at ease and, Harry suspected, not very loyal at all to the Minister. It took him two tries, Harry looked back to Sirius.
"Alright, Jan how has the recruiting been going?" The Phoenix asked.
"Well enough, by the time the next entry session comes we'll have fourteen new recruits, if they live that long, Voldemort may target them."
"We've had almost no word on him from any of our spies, he's keeping quiet since the attack on that Irish school." Sarlan commented, turning to Harry he added, "what about your spies?" Harry handed out reports to everyone but their three unwelcome guests.
"Good news and bad news. Good news is Voldemort has finished making his immortality potion, with the ingredients we supplied in it, he's staying quiet because he's nearly dead from it. Bad news is it didn't quite kill him, but he's in a coma and may not come out." It was as if Harry has put cheering charms on all of them, cheers and shouts of joy went up instantly all around the room. Harry smiled and waved them back into their seats. "I've got more, bad news I am afraid, Voldemort has eight new recruits, and he has gotten an apprentice to aid him. Some very powerful dark wizard from Australia of all places calling himself Satan. But he won't do anything while Voldemort s this ill, so we don't have too much to worry about from him, yet. In the report you'll find physical descriptions of all the new recruits I could get information on, including a magical ID and some information on each, that includes this apprentice Satan." There was a long pause and a few groans and sighs. "It will be a while before I get anything more though, my snakes can't seem to locate him anymore, he's just vanished, and none of them were around when he left, sorry."
"I have a question about your recruiting." The Minister said. "Do you pay the recruits to join? Do you give them ideas of glory? Do you tell them that your leader is an escaped convict and murderer? Do you-" he was drowned out by the angry outcry at this. Half the people were on their feet shouting, Sirius quieted them down mentally, he was sitting quietly, Harry, who hadn't said a thing, spoke up softly, his voice deadly.
"I wonder what the public would have to say about that statement, or the courts? Are you suggesting that they were not up to par that day? I am sure they'll be pleased to hear your opinion of them. Tell me, do you complain about every trial, or just the ones that don't go your way? Might I ask why you are protesting now, a year and half after the trial? Have you lost so much faith in our court system, or has the public lost fait in you?" The Minister's face and mind told him everything. "Do you really think that putting him back in prison will up your popularity? Or get rid of Voldemort?" There was a long drawn out silence in which the Minister fidgeted and got up his courage while glaring at Harry.
"You have no right to talk to him that way!" Jemima snapped angrily, Harry smiled a little and looked away, looking bored.
"My apologies, I was making an observation and asking a question, I did not know that that is against any laws, nor disrespectful." The last he said with quite a bit of contempt in his voice.
"He-who-must-not-be-named has not returned, I know all about your little organization. If the public thinks he's back you get popularity and control, you're no better then he WAS, some guy dressed like him killing people while you pretend to fight him, a good plot to over throw the Ministry I see, very well done, but I know the truth. It is over now, you can't harm me and I have found you out I-"
"You are blind and incredibly foolish." It was a statement, spoken quietly and calmly from Harry, who was examining a fingernail. "How long do you think it will take him to get you? You're only alive right now because your opposition and disbelief splits the wizarding world, making it an easy target. We squabble among ourselves while Voldemort slowly picks away, until it breaks and he takes all. When will you open your eyes and see? You, by not believing and not aiding, by splitting wizarding kind for him, help him to take over, one might "accidentally" think that you were one of his." Harry said, still ignoring the Minister.
"Harry has the truth of it, you are helping him Minister. Now if we can get back to business." Sirius looked to Albus, "about the remaining students from the Irish School of Sorcery?"
"Yes, fifty six transferring here, the school was rebuilt, but many have left. Besides them we have fourteen from other schools, making seventy in all. Hogwarts will have to be expanded; there are spells on it to make it possible. We could easily fit in three and a half thousand students, we just need helpers for the teachers."
"Yes, Beatrice Kalion has volunteered to help out as a Transfiguration teacher, Gar Zimmeri for Charms, Plata Walkins for History, Sandra Marble for Astronomy, Geoffrey Hemtleburn for Care of Magical Creatures since Remus and Hagrid will not be here full time, Dirk McDiamond for Defense, he's excellent with hexes and self-defense spells, and Caitlin Snape for Potions. No one for Divination, too bad." Miranda said, looking over Harry's report. Harry listened carefully, he'd known Snape was married, it was on his records, and he hoped she wouldn't be as horrible as Severus was. More transfers, he'd better start learning more languages, English, Russian, German, Icelandic, Dutch, Spanish, French, and Chinese might not be enough. Then again Ron was turning into a very good linguist, so was Draco, they both knew the same ones he did, as well as Japanese, Arabic, Bulgarian, Middle Egyptian, Modern Greek, Italian and Hawaiian. All the Marauders had entered a language program that had started at Hogwarts two months before, and they'd been teaching themselves languages since a month before the end of last year with the aid of language learning spells.
"We'll need translators, these kids come from everywhere, they'll all get quick courses in English, but they'll need help, it takes longer to learn to read and write a new language with magical aid than it does to learn to speak it." Remus said.
"My friends and I have been teaching ourselves new languages since the new school year started, we'll help." Sirius and Remus grinned at him, they both knew about the new Marauders and had asked Harry to keep them updated on all their activities.
"Thanks, that'll be a great help, do any of you know Mongolian?" Miranda asked.
"Ira started on it three days ago."
"What about Russian?"
"Yes."
German?"
"Yes."
"Arabic?"
"Yes."
"Um… we've got a new student who speaks Turkish?"
"Draco is currently working on it." Harry didn't add that Draco was having trouble with this one. They all seemed rather impressed and thanked Harry.
More students for them to get likely killers from Harry's head snapped around to Jemima.
"Miss Pins that blocking spell appears to have worn off, could you please renew it? And no, the recruits are not killers."
The meeting continued, Jemima seemed unable to keep her blocking spell up, nor could the Minister. When ever someone addressed Sirius as Lord Phoenix the Minister got mad, when the problem of getting rid of death eaters prisoners came up the Minister thought out a detailed image of a dementor sucking the life out of someone, Harry felt like vomiting. Jemima wasn't much better, she was constantly thinking up very unkind things about everyone there.
Worthless mercenaries and maniacs all of them
"Miss Pins I assure you none one here is a mercenary and all of us are sane."
A few minutes later Hooligans think this is all a lot of fun I bet
"Miss Pins!" This time Harry WAS angry. "Kindly keep such thoughts to yourself.
Dratted little whimp
"Minister please, that is rather rude."
Doesn't even know one plus one
"One plus one is two, happy?"
Shut the hell up you brat!
"I'll shut up if you quit thinking so loudly, just think quietly and I won't hear it."
Your all loony, crazy, mad! Murderers all! No decency in you, you all deserve to die. You're useless! Deranged! You don't deserve to be part of society; you poison people's minds against Cornelius, their REAL leader! This from Jemima.
Trying to take over the Ministry are you? I'll beat you yet! This from the Minister. Then came a horrible image of all of the Order standing on a dark field, waiting in chains while dementors sucked out their souls, the graphic detail was too much. The pits that should have been eyes, the toothless mouths, the dry rattling breath, the cold, the stink of decay, the bony hands with the flesh hanging off. Harry stood up so fast he overturned his chair.
"Minister you have a sick mind! SICK! SICK! SICK! That was the most horrible, disgusting, utterly revolting mental image…" Harry's voice trailed of as he left the room and the door shut behind him.
**
A half hour later the Order went out into Dumbledore's office, the Minister and Jemima Pins left through the fire, leaving Greg to watch the Order for another half hour then return to the Ministry. Harry was sitting in a chair, head in his hands, so pale his skin was nearly transparent.
"Harry? Are you okay, what was that image?" Miranda asked him, Harry looked up, and he looked sick. He described the scene in horribly vivid detail, they all looked a little pale and many revolted as they left. Besides those who had witnessed a dementor's kiss being preformed Harry was the only "living" person who had seen a dementor's face, and he had certainly seen it better than anyone else. The Minister's image brought on horrid memories and thoughts, and he knew he'd have nightmares that night.
"Sorry about that. He really doesn't have much control, nor does that miss perfect princess Jemima, horrid woman. Working with them is hard enough, never mind having the read their thoughts." Harry glanced up at Greg, no Greg was most certainly NOT loyal to the Minister, infact Harry, when he tried, could sense the telepathic link to the Phoenix that every Order member had, Greg was one of the spies, working undercover in the Ministry.
Sirius had been enraged with the Minister, both with his words, thoughts, and all the insults he and Jemima Pins had managed to piled on after Harry had left, anyhow the Minister lost support and respect after that meeting, the press hit him hard with all sorts of stories and insults. As the truth about the Minister came out more and more of his former supporters were swayed to the Order's cause. The meeting he had planned on to help him bring down the Order did the opposite, it strengthened it. This meeting was, in later years, called just the latest in a long list of the biggest mistakes of his career, though that career was just a gigantic chain of big mistakes in all.