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Chapter Seven

At The Office

It only took a moment for Ron and Harry to Apperate over to the Ministry. No one seemed to mind them popping out of thin air in the middle of the Magical Law Enforcement Dept. A young harried clerk hurried over.

"Mr. Weasley. Sorry to wake you and all but Fudge is in an uproar. He's telling off the Americans right now…"

Harry allowed his attention to drift while Ron and the clerk talked. He had only been in the Ministry twice before, and never in this room. It actually looked rather like a muggle police station, except for the people. Wizards and witches kept Apperating and Disapperating. A man with a horn sprouting out of his head was arguing with a man with three arms. The poor wizard trying to mediate the dispute kept getting hit in the head by the spare arm.

"…Dumbledore's already arrived." The clerk finished. "He's waiting in Fudge's office." Harry tore his eyes away from the argument as the wizard narrowly avoided being gored and followed Ron up the stairs.

Dumbledore was not the only one waiting in Ron's office. Cornelius Fudge had been Minister of Magic, until the fiasco with Voldemort. Fudge has 'resigned' his post and was put somewhere where he couldn't do any harm.

"Ah Weasley. Good to see you here so quickly. Harry Potter! Delighted to see you again." Fudge shook their hands jovially. "I was just speaking to Dumbledore here about our unfortunate situation with that Draco Malfoy…"

Harry gritted his teeth until Fudge stopped babbling and came to the point.

"Well you see, we've decided that it's highly unlikely Malfoy will come back right away. We'll keep an eye out though; see if we can't succeed where the Americans failed. Cheerio." Fudge said brightly, and showed them the door. Ron refrained from slamming it shut behind him.

"Bloody idiot, calls me in, this time of night…" Ron muttered under his breath. "Like Malfoy is just going to sit around waiting for us to catch him."

"No, he is not." Ron looked up startled. Dumbledore had exited with them. "Fudge still hears only what he wants to hear. You must keep an eye out Mr. Weasley."

Dumbledore turned down the hall as if to go. "Now I must get back to Hogwarts. Being the old man that I am, I need my rest…"

"Uh, sir. We actually needed to talk to you about something." Harry said quickly. "It's about Hermione. She's alive."

It was the one and only time Harry ever saw Dumbledore surprised.

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Questions, comments, critisicms, complaints? Review, my friend, review.

.•´¨`•»¦«•Kerowyn•»¦«•´¨`•.