Harry Potter & the Price of Mercy

by: NecessaryEvil

Chapter Twenty: Changing and Meditation

Disclaimer: Not mine, wish they were. I could use the money.

A/N: Thanks to my reviewers.

FSl: What's so gall darn funny? Anyway, glad for the review. I'm getting short on those recently. Can use all the support I can get.

Padfoot124: Can I what Genkai and Yusekei? Glad you like it.

And now on with the show.

Across the country wizards yawned in boredom at the announcement of yet another election to be coming soon for the next Minister of Magic. The people were quite tired of the monotony. The elections had gone exactly the same for the last sixteen years; the people elected Albus Dumbledore, Dumbledore turned down the position, and that moron Fudge got the position by default. No one had even bothered to run against Fudge since he 'won' the first time. If he was going to get enough votes even with the majority of the country voting for anyone else but him then there was no point running.

But finally someone had come along who had a view of the whole thing that allowed him to consider running, his name was Ambrose Evans and his view of the whole situation was this; Certainly the game is rigged, don't let that stop you; if you don't bet, you can't win. And so, with this in mind, Ambrose Evans announced his candidacy much to the shock and excitement of Wizarding England and in doing so, combined with the fact that his shiny green eyes and and burnt auburn hair made him look quite dashing, almost assured his victory....assuming that Cornelius Fudge didn't once again rig the vote.

Draco had made up his mind. Despite what he had learned about the dangers of doing so, if Cecily Diggory ever came up to him with that look of being on a mission he would lie down and tune her out until the look went away. This plan of course would have worked out much better if he had come up with it before getting landed in the situation he was currently in, hiding in a public restroom waiting for the guards to leave so he could use the international Floo to the American Floo center without being seen.

God, he was going to America for this girl. She was sooo going to owe him later, there were all sorts of disgusting things in America, like....even worse public toilets and something his father had referred to with a sneer as Democrats, he had described them as a whole society of Dumbledores. These emotions truly were terrible diseases if they were managing to get him to go to such a truly appalling place....on the bright side his father had always spoken highly of Republicans, the way he had described them they were like Governmentally sanctioned Death Eaters, the idea had always intrigued Draco, but tracking down these Republicans would have to wait. He, like Cecily had been, was on a mission now and the sooner he got it over with the sooner he could stop stooping so low to avoid attention.

He heard a door slam a clack locked on the other side of the door. O well, now or never, he thought as a he walked through the door and towards the fire.

Cho had become increasingly bored with hearing the strain in everyones voice whenever they stated that Harry was obviously innocent and even more increasingly bored with Ron's attempts to get in good with them again. It wasn't that no one believed that Ron had been right, in fact there was a good chance that everyone especially Harry's friends believed that he was guilty for the simple reason that the victims had been connected to his godfather's reincarceration, but Cho knew better for two reasons, the first of course being that it was Harry. Harry wouldn't even let his godfather kill the man whose betrayal had led to his parents death, he had never expressed any desire to anything other than stop Voldemort(not kill him if he could avoid it), and Harry would especially never do anything that he knew would hurt his friends.

The other reason that she was absolutely sure that Harry had not done it was that he had either been with her or on his way to tell Will Finn of their decision at every point of the night after dinner had let out, therefore she could have been an alibi had anyone bothered to listen, but of course they wouldn't for three reasos (1) she was Harry's girlfriend, (2) she was sixteen, (3) and they had all passed judgement but were too ashamed to admit it so they hid behind false support for Harry which required them to not need to hear it because they knew Harry was innocent.

So because of afore mentioned boredom with people she found herself sitting in the same place Harry had sat when overwhelmed by the magic of the castle and the start of the year and talking to the same merman Harry had been talking to. As it turned out the merman's name was Shleek and he had been a great admirer of Harry's since the Second Task when he had been one of the mermen to be threatened by a stick. He said that he was greatly appreciative of all that Harry had done for the merfolk these last few months and had liked his conversations with Harry not despite of, but because of their over all one sidedness. When Cho asked what Harry had done for the merfolk the merman looked at her suspiciously and said something along the lines of none of your bussiness, but less gruff, because the merman had no grudge against her and remembered her as one of the people that Harry had tried to rescue in the Second Task.

Cho apologized for prying and the merman said that it was not a problem and invited her to speak with him more often, they exchanged a few more pleasantries before he dove back into the lake to chase the giant squid (for excercise of course) leaving Cho to her boredom yet again. And the worst thing her boredom was that in inevitably led to her worrying about how Harry was holding up, and that way led to madness.

Cornelius Fudge was worried. It had been eight years since he had had an opponent that wouldn't be turning down the appointment of Minister if he won and all of the men who had helped him fix the election the last time he had had a real opponent had since died of shame. And this Ambrose Evans was just crazy enough and just charismatic enough to make the death of his election fixers a real problem and he knew that the second that Ambrose Evans was made Minister the Potter boy would be given a fair trial and then everything that he had said to the boy would come out in a public forum and not only would he be out of office, but he would be imprisoned for so many infractions that by the time they got through naming them all they would have found the more damning ones that no one but himself and the files knew about and he would be going away for a long time.

Therefore Cornelius Fudge was worried and when Cornelius Fudge got worried there was only one person he could turn to that would shake things up enough to keep him in office without actually having to admit to everyone that he knew that Voldemort was back. He threw some Floo powder in the fire along with a piece of paper with an adress. A few moments later a large head appeared suspended in the fire.

"Hello Ms. Renkin, I would like to talk to the Ghost," he said in his nicest voice.

"Of course Mr. Fudge, I'll put him right on and I must say that it is a pleasure to see you again,"

Harry had been meditating for twenty-four hours straight. It was what he had been taught to do if he ever had time free. Genkai had told him that it would excercise his magical energy whether it was actively using it or not and would therefor make his power stronger every time he did it. This was the first time since leaving the training arena that he had been bored enough to do it. He sat clearing his mind and chanting his mantra over and over again, "For good, return good," he wasn't quite ready to add the other half of the mantra yet, but he knew that if he ever was ready that he would remember the entire chant; For good, return good. For evil, return vegeance.

A/N: You like? You buy? Is cheap.