Disclaimer- I own not Harry Potter.
Chapter 10 Dawn of a New Age
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry paced in a large room he had converted into his study, right next to his master bedroom. He liked the place, filled with pictures of his parents and Sirius, with comfortable furniture that was strangely similar to that of the Gryffindor Tower common room. Not that Harry realized it.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Three months after the incident with the Boggart, Harry had explored most of the castle, discovering wondrous treasure troves of memories and objects. Pranking items, notes, old school books, failed Marauders Map prototypes (Harry had a little pang whenever he looked at them), all sorts of treasured memories of his parents and godfather. There was even a massive broom collection room, with many ancient brooms that were better to be collected than flown, and other's that probably were too old to fly.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ He had left most of the rooms alone, except to give them a through cleaning (The Dursleys had drilled him a habit of cleaning, no matter how much Dobby protested). There was only one room Harry had discovered that was not explored fully. Lily's study. The Boggart room.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry had avoided that area like the plague, cursing his fear. He could not face what was inside that study. He wanted to connect with his mother, but his fear of the Boggart kept him away. All those times I risked my life, fighting Dark Wizards, evil spirits, werewolves, Dementors, and yet a simple Boggart is what keeps me away from one of the greatest prizes of my life. Harry mused bitterly.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ He had matured. He knew that. Slytherin cautiousness, Ravenclaw analytical thinking, and Hufflepuff steadfastness now tempered his Gryffindor bravery. A deadly combination, as Voldemort had learned. He could see exactly what the Boggart was, his greatest fear, though not real, was still enough to terrify him. Any chance of recovering from Azakaban would be lost if he messed up facing the Boggart.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ In a way, Harry mused; the Boggart is the last obstacle between forgiveness and me. My fear of betrayal is keeping me distant from them.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry turned towards the window, where a rapid tap-tap-tap was shattering Harry's musings. There was only one consistent owl Harry ever answered, or that came directly to him. The Daily Prophet owl. He didn't read it to listen to the Wizarding World daily comings and goings, but to keep an eye out for suspicious activity and to make sure the Ministry wasn't screwing anything up. So far, the Ministry had been scrambling in the fallout of Harry's 'visit' to the ex-Minister Fudge, who was ousted by the Wizengamot in a rare unanimous vote of no confidence.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The Ministry had been turned into a political battleground, with many actually qualified candidates, unlike the previous Minister. The threat of Harry Potter descending upon them like a vengeful demon kept most of the un-qualified personnel from entering, but there were a few Fudge copycats, who merely wanted power. The actual election would be run by the Wizengamot, and the elected Minister would serve the remainder of Fudge's term, then would be qualified for re-election, to be voted on regularly.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry had taken it upon himself to watch over these elections from the shadows, grabbing all the information he could and weighing each candidate. Harry didn't want to intervene, but a bad candidate would mean more trouble down the road, such as more wrongfully imprisoned convicts and unnoticed Dark Lords. It's better to be safe then sorry, Harry realized when he first began watching the elections closely.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ However, he had never set foot in the Ministry since his run-in with Fudge, or even outside since his meeting with Ginny. He hadn't been in contact with anyone either, and there were huge stacks of letters in a room that Harry had designated as the mail storage room. There were shelves for Remus, the Weasleys, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, an assorted pile of people Harry had met, and then a nice fire for fanmail.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ However, looking at the headlines, which stated; Minister of Magic Elections Today! ྭHarry realized that he had a kind of strange obligation to go. No one asked him to, and he probably didn't have the 'official' authority to enter the election or do anything officially, but being the one who had a hand in not only saving the Wizarding World so they could have these elections, but ousting the previous Minister, Harry felt he had a right to be there. Also, as the Heir of Gryffindor, maybe I have some kind of political power, Harry mused, wishing he had asked Godric about it. Although spending three years in training and then the next few days preparing for a battle don't leave time to think about the future.ྭ Harry hated politics, but the alternative was risking other's suffering like him, and dark wizards running amok.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry quickly scribbled a note to Dobby, telling him that he'd be at the Ministry today, and that Harry might not be back until night.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Still, Harry thought as he summoned his Invisibility cloak, It's better that I stayin the shadows.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry wondered briefly if his former friends would be there as he cast the cloak around himself, and as he prepared himself for an Apparation, he briefly had second thoughts.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Too late now.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry Apparated into one of the closed office spaces in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Department. It was small, and not many people would go in, even if an election weren't taking place. Making sure the cloak was firmly around him, he crept out from the office, using a wandless unlocking charm to open the door. Although charmed against spells like Alohomora, brute magical force can overcome most obstacles, especially a minor locking charm.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry crept down slowly; looking around every now and then to make sure no one was coming right at him. Now then, Harry thought to himself, where is it being held? Harry removed the folded Daily Prophet in his pocket and opened it to the front page. He quickly scanned the article, his eyes widened and he looked at the paper in surprise.Courtroom Ten? Harry said to himself. Well, that brings back some unpleasant memories. Flashes from his disastrous fifth year came back to him, from Umbridge and the Dementors, to his trial, to Sirius…
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry shook his head. The old guilt wouldn't bring him down. Not now. He crept towards the courtroom, and saw the magical detectors set up at the entrance. They would see him coming, so it was better to announce himself, at least to the guards. Besides, he could probably scare a few guards into keeping quiet.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ He ducked behind a corner as he heard footsteps behind him, and once the steps had passed, he swept off the cloak. Checking to make sure no one could see him, he walked briskly towards the entrance. The two guards on duty looked relaxed, seeing as how there had been little cause for alarm with Voldemort and his Death Eaters dead.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ As Harry strode powerfully towards the entrance, one of the guards moved to stop him and ask for an I.D. "Do you have an I.D.?" The guard asked pompously, clearly thinking Harry was an intern or some rookie reporter going for a scoop.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "No, but I have this." Harry replied, and swept his bangs up, revealing his scar. The guards paled, and immediately stepped away from him.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Of course, Mister Potter. Would you like us to show you in?" The guard sputtered.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "No. In fact, if you breathe a word that I was here to anyone, I'll make sure that you get the same treatment as Fudge." Harry snarled. "Understand?"
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The guards turned even paler, resembling ghosts now. "Of-of-cour-course, Mister Potter." The guard stuttered, opening the door slightly.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Good." Harry swept into past the guards, who didn't even turn to look at him. Excellent.Harry thought, sweeping the cloak over himself and creeping quietly into the room, heading towards a secluded corner of the room.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Thankfully for Harry, no one noticed his quiet entrance, all too busy chatting away, and no one was looking directly at the entrance. The Wizengamot hadn't convened yet, and for that, Harry was grateful. Dumbledore could see through his cloak, and if he showed any signs of surprise when looking at the door, Harry could be spotted. Now all he had to do was hope that Dumbledore didn't look his way all throughout the election.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ A gong went off, and all chatter ceased as the Wizengamot convened. Harry suddenly felt very sick, and felt like he should run away now. It brought back painful memories of his trial.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Flashes, images sped by in his minds eye. Ginny's face during the trial. Ron and Hermione testifying. Remus punching him. Dumbledore's angry eyes.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ He shook his head, and realized that he had fallen to his knees. He looked up, and the Wizengamot stood, already announce while Harry was distracted, their faces relaxed and hopeful, so different from the day of his trial.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Flash. Angry eyes.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry had to shake himself again to rid himself of his disturbing images. He wanted to run, to believe it wasn't time to confront his fears, but in the end, his heart told him to stay. He obeyed it, a feature of himself he hadn't done for quite some time. Listening to his heart was an old habit, but not necessarily a bad one.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ He looked around the courtroom, desperate for something to shake him from his troubling thoughts. Instead, he got more of them. A crowd of redheads sat up front. Accompanied by a familiar bushy head of brown hair, and a balding elder man. The Weasleys, Hermione, and Lupin. Just effing great. Harry thought to himself, not daring to risk making a sound.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry leaned against the wall, tucking himself neatly into the corner, watching the proceedings. He listened to the first speakers, who were generally crowd pleasers. Weak. Would never be able to direct the Wizarding World to where it needs to go. Harry remarked about the first few speakers, dismissing them.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ For a moment, Harry thought about why his opinion even mattered, born from fifteen years with the Dursleys. He wondered why he should give a damn, a thought born from three years in bitterness and loathing in Azakaban. But finally, a clear voice replied to him from inside, Because you can make a difference. Because this is what Mum, Dad, Sirius, Godric, and everyone else would have wanted. To change the world.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry sighed. No matter what, no matter that Voldemort is dead, that I've fulfilled the prophecy, that I've paid any debts I owe anyone by killing Voldemort, I still can't stop helping people. Damn my hero-complex.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry looked over at the crowd. They were timid. Afraid of change. It was this uncertainty that kept groups like the Death Eaters alive. Someone needed to take charge. The next few speakers weren't any better. They talked smooth, promised big, and lied between their teeth. Legilimency comes in handy. ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry sighed. This was really disappointing. There were no strong leaders that would step up and take charge, to make change. Dumbledore, loath as Harry was to admit, could do it, but he would never leave Hogwarts. The others on the Wizengamot clearly were divided, unable to come to a decision already.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Without a clear favorite, this could go on for a while. Harry grumbled internally, as another speaker took the stand.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry mused about the remaining candidates when the slick, oily looking candidate took the podium. He began speaking in an oily, wheedling voice, which automatically annoyed Harry. However, this particular candidate obviously took lessons in 'How-To-Make-Harry-Potter-Pissed-With-You' from Fudge when he began talking.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "The tragedies of the past must be averted. The Dark creatures have gone unchecked during You-Know-Who's reign, and they must be put down, to prevent any more destruction. I am proposing that we continue Madam Umbridge's noble work," Harry could swear he heard several Weasley voices coughing and their standing rose slightly with him, "And stop these half blooded creatures, giants, werewolves, and other creatures that masquerade as normal wizards."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry could see that Lupin was glaring daggers at the man, and Harry felt like doing the same. This is the perfect example of why Death Eaters went unchecked. Harry thought to himself. The man looked around, as if looking for a approval, and then continued. As he began talking again, Harry wondered if he could get away with murder.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "We must either put even more laws and restrictions on werewolves and the like. We must insure that none of them ever side with a Dark Wizard again!" The man cried, pumping his fist into the air.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Several members of the crowd cheered, but most remained silent. They remembered Harry's words about Umbridge, and his standing on werewolves and giants.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ As Harry was delegating the merits of sending a wandless Choking Hex or perhaps a nice Pain Curse, the man still continued.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Also, Harry Potter is running unchecked throughout our society. He ousted Cornelius Fudge, a minister who helped us through the second war with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." At this point, Harry wondered if they would convict him if he used a Killing Curse on this guy.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Harry Potter is a dangerous wizard who must be stopped, lest he come back as Voldemort did! If elected, I would propose a close watch over Potter, and make sure he never manages to escape the Ministry's ever vigilant eye!" At this point, Harry was beyond caring. He wanted to kill this guy, and he would have, had not someone else beat him to it.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ A familiar Bat-Bogey Hex flew through the air, and knocked the candidate down hard as the bogies began attacking him. An even more familiar voice cried out angrily, "SHUT UP!"
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry watched as Ginny Weasley stood up angrily, looking murderous. Only the combined force of all six of her brothers and Hermione managed to keep Ginny from going to Azakaban for murder with her bare hands, most likely. "Harry's isn't like that! Remember the last time you thought he was a dark wizard? He was innocent, damnit!" Ginny cried out, and her large brown eyes threatened to spill tears.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "He was innocent, and we didn't trust him. Harry would never turn dark! Never! Even if we betrayed him, he didn't turn his back on the Wizarding World. We need to trust him." Ginny pleaded, and the plight of the candidate, now completely forgotten, as all eyes watched the youngest Weasley.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Please. Give him the benefit of the doubt this one time. The all of us, the whole Wizarding World, has betrayed him so many times. Please. Just trust him. If we can't trust Harry, who can we trust?"
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The crowd seemed moved by Ginny's pleading voice and face, and all those who supported that candidate had just decided to trust Harry.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry shook his head, a small, real smile on his face. He looked up, and saw Dumbledore, and his Legilimency picked up anxiety and unease. Harry could see the problem. Anyone nominated by Dumbledore might be seen as a political puppet, even though everyone should know damn well that Dumbledore didn't want the position.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Is there anyone in the crowd with a nomination?" Dumbledore asked, his normally jovial tone and twinkling eyes serious.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The people in the crowd murmured, obviously conflicted as well.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry resisted a groan that built inside of his throat. Damnit. What now? Harry asked himself, before an idea came into his head. A terrible, awful, horrible, wonderful idea.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I have one." Harry found himself calling out loudly. The entire courtroom seemed to stop and quiet on a sickle, and the Weasleys seemed to freeze, not believing their ears. They're going to be a hell of a lot more surprised in a few seconds.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Dumbledore's eyes were back at full twinkle as they turned towards his direction. The message in his look was clear. Show yourself.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry threw off his cloak, and the entire room could not have been more surprised if Voldemort came back from the dead to give out early Christmas presents, laughing gaily and sporting a tutu.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Mister Potter!" Madam Bones cried out in surprise, and several witches actually fainted on the spot.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I have a nomination." Harry continued, looking towards Dumbledore, as if asking permission to continue. The imperceptible nod Dumbledore responded with was enough.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "How did you get in here!" One wizard on the Wizengamot demanded. Several people, including the Weasleys and Lupin snapped their heads towards the man with simultaneous death glares.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I walked in." Harry said simply, smirking at the man.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "What right do you have to be here!" Another man called out. All death glares were retargeted towards him, and he shrank back.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Well, let's see." Harry said dryly. "I saved all of your bloody arses by killing old Moldiewart, you all threw me in Azakaban," nearly the entire crowd winced, "but if that's not enough, I could go on."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The crowd now glared at the man, who shrank against the assault. He shook his head feverently, and left the room in a hurry.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Mr. Potter, you had a nomination?" Dumbledore said benignly, smiling down on him. Much as Harry disliked Dumbledore at the moment, it wasn't the time to deliver a stinging rebuttal. Now was the time for pro-active maneuvers.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I did." The words spilled from his mouth even as his mind screamed, SAY NO! SAY IT WAS A MISTAKE! LIE! LIE DAMN YOU! LIE!
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Who is it?" Dumbledore asked in the same tone, but the twinkle in his eyes clearly showed that he knew whom Harry would elect.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Arthur Weasley."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ To say Ginny Weasley was surprised would have been an understatement when her ex-boyfriend and love of her life Harry James Potter had mysteriously appeared in the courtroom. When he stated his nomination, she was downright stumped, confused, feeling as though she'd been dropped into another world where up was down and Snape's hair was clean.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The crowd seemed immensely shocked as well. Harry Potter elect the father of a family that turned it's back on him?
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Hoping beyond hope, Ginny held on to a tiny shred of hope that this was a good sign from Harry.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "May I ask your reasons?" Dumbledore asked, once the crowd had died down.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry bit back a "No", and responded, "You may. Arthur Weasley is a strong candidate, if none of you have noticed. From the time I have known him, at least before my unfortunate imprisonment," Harry laced a few words with sarcasm, "He was quite fair, firmly entrenched in the light, and a strong character. He knows how to care for his family, and he is dedicated to his job. I'll assume that people don't change much in three years, so that is the reason I nominated him."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ There was complete silence in the courtroom, everyone working through the sarcastic, bitter speech that cut both ways and found a reasonable nomination.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I second this nomination." Madam Bones said firmly, standing up. "I agree with Mister Potter's assessment, and Arthur is a good candidate. Also, Mister Potter's confidence is good enough for me."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ There were murmurs of approval, and Harry's support seemed to sway the Wizengamot into a decision.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Very well then. Are there any more nominations?" Dumbledore asked, clearly just as a formality. Not one person responded. "Then let the Wizengamot congregate now." The entire Wizengamot got out of their seats and headed towards another private room, obviously to cast their votes.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry sighed, and began walking towards the exit. Having revealed himself, now he would obviously pay the price. His price came moments later as people rushed up to him, all clamoring, trying to get a conversation with him. The deadly glare that would have put a Basilisk down in a staring contest froze each and any one of them.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I don't have the time, nor do I wish to be bothered by your questions." Harry said coldly, his words and the fear of his anger sent them packing. Of course, there were a few people who still didn't leave.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Harry?"
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry turned, and saw the face of his nomination. Arthur Weasley. He looked more afraid and shocked than ever before, a good shocked though, unlike his face when the news of his son's murder happened.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Yes?" Harry asked, crossing his arms, looking impassive.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I… I… I just wanted to thank you." Arthur stuttered, out, looking half-afraid Harry would change his mind. "I'd like to thank you for your support, even though I don't deserve it."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I didn't do this as some sort of peace offering." Harry said evenly, and the faces of the Weasley's fell. "I did this because your still one Ministry official that I know well enough that isn't corrupt, and I actually do think you could do the job. It's up to the Wizengamot though. Maybe they'll make a good decision for once." Harry muttered bitterly, and Ginny and Arthur heard him, and winced.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry looked at each of them, and took each of them in. Remus looked more tired and exhausted than ever, the full moon just a few nights ago. The elder Weasley's faces held shock, surprise, and utter gratitude. The Weasley brothers, save Ron, couldn't even look Harry in the face and meet his powerful gaze. Ron looked at him with a pleading expression that was easy to read. He wanted forgiveness. Desperately.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Forgiveness isn't cheap Ron, Harry thought to himself. At least not mine anymore.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ He turned his gaze to Hermione, and something about her seemed strange. Something about her seemed to glow. Harry thought for a moment, and used the sight to scan her aura. What he found shocked him considerably.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "You're pregnant?" Harry blurted out, looking at Hermione in surprise. Her eyes widened in shock, and then she looked at him with a contemplative expression.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Yes, Harry. I am." Hermione stated, smiling at him. "I was hoping you would be the godfather?" She asked, her contemplative expression now fearful.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry looked at her now with surprise and shock. This completely threw the normally guarded and closed Harry Potter off. He almost said yes immediately, but knew that being a godfather to Hermione's child was an act of forgiveness, something he still couldn't let happen just yet.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I'll… think about it." Harry finally said, and Hermione sighed. It wasn't what she wanted, but it was better than him telling them to bugger off.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Harry?" Ginny asked, and he finally turned towards her. He raised a questioning eyebrow, obviously asking what Ginny wanted.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Thank you." She said gratefully, and added hopefully, "Maybe you could talk with us? Clear the air?" She looked at him with a mixture of pleading and hope, and somehow tugged at his stony heartstrings.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry's contemplative expression overtook his face, and he looked at her for a moment. "Not yet." He said quietly. "I need to work some… things out first. But maybe."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "That's good enough." Ginny said, smiling happily at him.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Behind them, Ginny's brothers wore slightly pleased expressions. It had been so long since their baby sister showed her brilliant, cheery smile. They missed it terribly. Unbeknownst to them, Harry was thinking the same thing.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ A gong sounded, and Harry turned back towards the front of the courtroom. The Wizengamot had decided.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry leaned against the wall, no longer looking at the Weasleys, but straight at the door the Wizengamot would come out of. He wanted an answer.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ As the members of the Wizengamot came out, many of them looked at him with a mixture of fear, suspicion, awe, and other various emotions that Harry didn't want to sift through. Only Dumbledore looked calm, merely smiling at Harry with an unreadable expression.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "The Wizengamot has come to a decision." Dumbledore's usually jovial voice said seriously, obviously taking upon the mantle as one of the most respected wizards of the age. "The new Minister of Magic, elected by an astounding unanimous vote is Arthur Weasley."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Dead silence.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Arthur Weasley just stood there, gaping like a fish at Dumbledore, and all the Weasley's held similar expressions. Harry was a little surprised, and hoped that his power and fame had nothing to do with Mister Weasley being elected. Harry countered that thought with the knowledge that other Ministry officials respected Mister Weasley as well.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Do you accept, Arthur?" Dumbledore asked, a smile on his aged features.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Arthur had to be elbowed by Molly before he finally regained his senses, and looked towards Harry. Harry gave him a slight nod, reassuring Mr. Weasley that Harry wasn't regretting his decision.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I accept."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The uproar of cheers and joy from the Weasleys deafened the noise of all the other noises of the crowd, as the family hugged, laughed, and cried over their new success.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ When they turned to look for Harry to thank him for making this possible, he was already gone.