Title: Impossible and Improbable

Author: Okidokiboki

Again, I'm sorry that this is taking a while to update. School is wreaking havoc on me.

Thanks to all my reviewers. You make my day. Especially DarkElf for reminding me that Harry was still stuck in a cell.

Disclaimer: I own Harry Potter, really, I do! Oh wait, never mind. I thought I was still dreaming for a second there.

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Chapter 3: La Vie

The ministry was packed with wizards coming in and out. Some had urgent looks on their faces, others just looked exhausted. Emergencies had become such a common word now.

Red paper airplanes were flying constantly with messages of importance. Deaths, kidnappings, disappearances, destruction, torture—anything horrible that could be named had probably been done by Voldemort and his supporters.

People asked their friends how they were doing each morning, that common ritual engaged by the world in general. Each person would answer with a "Fine" or "Okay," but everyone knew that there was no truth behind the words. Terror was a common expression in people's eyes.

Cornelius Fudge walked into this building of gloom and despair. He walked with a determined step, trying to not look at the people around him. Their stares were either questioning or accusatory.

He figured that this was probably how Harry Potter felt. How could a kid so young deal with it all?

Not that Fudge cared. He had lost his job and his dignity because of Harry and Dumbledore. Yes, the Ministry had given him a job in the Department of Justice, but that was just the result of under-the-table deals to save himself from complete humiliation. He had been replaced by Elizabeth Bouclier, a half-French witch famous in the Ministry for her success as an auror as much as for her beauty.

She was young and female, both of which enraged the chauvinistic elitist in Fudge. What was worse was that she was actually doing better at his job. She had managed to prevent many deaths and arrest a lot of Death Eaters as an auror, and now as the Minister of Magic, she had managed to make the wizarding world a little safer.

Fudge finally reached his office. Opening it, he found a flood of mail from people. Burning them with his wand, he sat down. He knew what those letters said. He had gotten the same type at his home. They were letters filled with questions asking if he was sure. If he was sure that it was Harry.

Of course he wasn't sure. He had no evidence other than a wand, and an accused hero. How the hell could he be sure! He had seen the look in Harry's eyes. The look had haunted him all night. He had seen the green eyes stare at him, pleading silently. It was a look filled with innocence that he was still trying to ignore. He had seen it, the two men next to him had seen it. Even if Harry had confessed, as long as he had that look in his eyes, Fudge would believe he was innocent.

But Fudge convicted him. He tried to convince himself that he did it because the evidence all pointed to Harry. But Fudge knew that wasn't true. He could have said that there wasn't enough evidence to convict him. He knew why he had convicted Harry. He had done it because he wanted revenge. Because he blamed everything on him. And he wanted Harry to suffer in Azkaban because of it. And in doing so, he had stripped the people around him of one of their greatest heroes.

It was not just Harry that would suffer—it would be everybody.

"Stop it," Fudge told himself, "Stop thinking like that. It wasn't you. You just did what you were supposed to do." He continued mentally berating himself that he didn't realize that a paper airplane was hovering near his head. Eventually the airplane got impatient with the man mumbling to himself and painfully jabbed his neck.

"Ow!" Then after a few seconds, he finally realized that he should look at the thing that had poked him.

The paper airplane was a light purple. There was only one person in the whole ministry who could send paper airplanes that were purple.

Fudge,

Please come to my office as soon as possible.

Elizabeth Bouclier
Minister of Magic

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In the office of the Minister of Magic, Elizabeth Bouclier was pacing behind her desk. It was something she often did when she was trying to think. When she was an auror, she had worn a few carpets down. Every so often, she looked outside the large windows. She saw both the Muggle and wizarding world collided into one whole world. She could always tell the difference.

The Muggles normally didn't look as worried because they just didn't know what was going on. And she had gone to great lengths to keep it like that. She wanted to keep the knowledge of the wizarding world to a minimum. It would be safer that way. She had seen the response of some Muggles to wizards, and it did not give her a positive outlook. She herself was a half-wizard. Her mother, a Muggle from England, had known about her French husband's magical abilities and fell in love with him despite it. However, one day, her mother's parents found out and were not as accepting. Threatening to disown her, she ran away to France with her husband.

Elizabeth grew up in France knowing that she was magical, but unable to tell any of her friends. When she was of the right age, she had the option between Beauxbatons and Hogwarts. Her parents and her decided that Hogwarts (where her father had studied) would be a better experience because not only was it one of the top schools of magic, but because she would be able to improve her English.

After she graduated, she decided to stay in England and work as an auror. As a ministry worker, she had seen many cases where Muggles had found about a witch's or wizard's abilities and been unhappy about it.

No, she decided, Muggles were best kept in the dark when it came to the magical world. True, this was not a case of "What you don't know can't hurt you," because Voldemort would hurt anyone that he could, but ignorance is still bliss.

Now, after five years as an auror, she was the Minister of Magic. The nomination had come as a surprise, but she decided that it would be a good opportunity to implement the safety measure she had wanted to enforce before but was not allowed to.

Hearing a knock on her door, she turned around.

"Come in."

Cornelius Fudge walked in, holding her memo in his hand.

"You wanted to see me, Minister?"

"Yes. Please sit down."

Fudge sat down, while Elizabeth remained standing. Fudge had to admit, the woman was rather intimidating.

"Are you feeling okay, Fudge?" she asked with concern, surprising Fudge.

"Yes, of course."

"You look a little sick. Would you like water, tea, anything?"

Fudge figured that if the minister was showing kindness, he should probably accept it. Besides, one day, he would have his position back, and it would be nice to take advantage of the current minister as much as possible.

"I'll just have a glass of water, please."

Elizabeth waved her wand and a house elf came wobbling in with a glass of water. Fudge looked at the elf with a degree of distaste, having never really come to terms with the idea of equality, and took the water.

He took a quick sip of water and then focused his attention back on Elizabeth.

"So what would you like to talk about?" Fudge asked.

"Well, obviously, I have some inquiries about the trial of Harry Potter."

"What sort of inquiries might you have?"

"I have the same question that many people have. Unlike most people, however, I have the ability to ask it—"

"You want to ask what made me convict Harry. You want to know what makes me think he is guilty."

"Yes," she replied, nonplussed by his ability to see what she was thinking, "I want to know what evidence you have that proves his guilt."

"First of all, there was his wand. The wand had the curse—"

"But it could have been performed by anyone else. Someone could have stolen his wand."

"Perhaps. But another reason I decided to convict him was that he was in the room. He had no reason to be in that room—"

"Didn't you ask him what he was doing in there?"

"Of course I did. But he could give me no valid reason."

"So basically," she started, not looking very happy, "you convicted a boy on the basis that he could gave you as few reasons to be innocent as to be guilty?"

"Minister, he could give me no reason to believe he is innocent." Fudge could feel the lie leave his mouth. It was not very difficult for him to lie, however, he had done it so much before.

"And whatever happened to the concept of innocent until proven guilty?"

"This is not a time when you can just let people go because you wish to believe that they are innocent. Surely, you are aware of the situation of the world around us," Fudge said with a degree of sarcasm.

"Yes. I know that this world is in danger. One does not have to be the Minister of Magic to know that. However, I know that sticking Harry Potter in jail based on nothing is just as dangerous."

"That boy is nothing! He does not mean anything. The only thing that has happened is that the world has lost its hero. And maybe that is a good thing. It's time people realize that you cannot trust anyone."

"Trust is what led people to be able to stay together in this time! Trust is what keeps most of the wizards and witches sane at this time!" Elizabeth's voice was rising.

"Trust is a lie. You don't know who you can trust. You are the Minister of Magic, it's time you realize that," Fudge spat back.

"You asked me, Fudge, if I know what situation this world is in. And now you're asking me to not trust anyone. Let me tell you something, Fudge, I am not about to trust someone who was not willing to believe that this situation could never happen."

Fudge was silent. She had touched on the Subject. And he had nothing to retort. Her eyes were intense; he would rather stare into the sun than look into her gaze.

"You can go now"

Fudge stood up and walked up, leaving his glass of water at almost the same level as when he gotten it.

He walked slowly back to his office. People near Elizabeth's office looked curiously, wondering what he had been discussing with her. He was angry, they could see that. Most of them had worked under him before, and they knew when he was angry. He'd been that way when Sirius escaped, when Harry had started saying that Voldemort was back, and when he had been fired.

Angry was one way a person did not want to see Fudge, but Elizabeth did not care. He knew it. He knew that he was more afraid of her than he thought she should be of him.

Fudge got back to his office. On his desk was a single letter. He was so sick of these letters. He took out his wand and burned it. But for some reason, the letter didn't burn. It was still there. He tried it again, just in case he had messed up the spell in some way. But the letter was still there.

Fudge's curiosity got the better and he walked to his desk. He picked up the letter. The only the written on the top was his name, scrawled in neat-looking handwriting. The letter was a little hot, but he opened and read it.

Would you like to be the Minister of Magic again?

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Elizabeth sat down. She stared at the glass of water left on the desk. She waved her wand for a house elf. In came the elf that had delivered the water.

"Dobby?"

"Yes, miss?"

"What did you think of the man you delivered the water too?"

"Is Dobby allowed to speak freely?"

Elizabeth smiled, "Of course."

"Dobby is not liking him, miss. Dobby is thinking he is a very mean, bad man."

"Why do you think so?"

"Dobby has seen him, miss. He has eaten at my old masters house," Dobby said, not quite sure if it justified his dislike him, "He is not liking Harry Potter too."

"What was he doing at the Malfoys' house?"

"Dobby knows not. They talked and gave money too each other."

"Yes," Elizabeth said, staring into nothing in particular.

"Miss, would you like me to take the glass?"

"Yes, of course. Thank you, Dobby."

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Fudge stared at the letter. This was his dream. But how could a letter just promise him his job back. He tried to scan through it and find some clue as to who had sent it. He tapped it a few times with his wand, but nothing happened.

After a few minutes of just staring at the letter, the words began to slowly change.

Meet me at the Gorgon Sisters Café in Knockturn Alley at 9:00 tonight.

Around Fudge, wizards and witches were hustling and bustling about, but he could not hear any of them. All he knew at that moment was that he would finally be able to be minister again.

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Elizabeth watched Dobby walk out of the room. She had acquired Dobby after Dumbledore was killed. Apparently, in his will, Dumbledore had said that Dobby would go to the new minister. She was not quite sure why, but she was glad that Dobby was here. He represented so many of the things that she believed should come in a government. He also had some useful information. His employment with the Malfoys meant that she was able to find out a good deal on the notorious family. She had always known that Fudge and the Malfoys had dealings; she had personally warned Fudge against such a business relationship because of the nature of the Malfoys' past, but he had assured her that they were never evil—just under an evil influence.

But it was still disturbing that Fudge was so close with them. She knew that Fudge was not very happy with her as the minister. She also knew that he would probably do anything he could do get it back. His last few weeks as Ministers had been full of Howlers and unhappiness. It was by some dumb luck that he had been able to secure a position in the Department of Justice. Of course, Elizabeth suspected that it was more than just luck, but she was too busy trying to keep the peace to investigate what deals he might have engaged in.

As long as he didn't take her position, everything would be okay. It was not that she was power hungry, but she knew that he had no idea what was going on. He had no idea that Harry Potter was far more disastrous that he made it out to be. It had nothing to do with trust, but with safety.

But Elizabeth knew. She knew that Harry Potter was important. She knew about the prophecy. After all, she was a member of the Order of the Phoenix. She had been, from the moment she had heard of its reformation. She had believed Harry Potter from the start. She didn't think that a kid would just make something like that up. Not even as a prank.

But Fudge hadn't agreed, apparently. And now he had sent the boy to jail. And based on nothing but the inability to come up with a good excuse. Yes, she knew that the evidence pointed towards Harry Potter, but it was not conclusive. Anyone could come up with a frame-up like that. Elizabeth was not a great auror for nothing. She was a great auror because she had instincts that rarely (if ever) proved her false. She had caught criminals because she had the ability to see anything that could point towards the truth. And she was very certain that the only reason that Harry Potter was in jail was because Fudge still had a personal vendetta against him.

And now the rest of the wizarding world was going to pay the price.

C'est la vie, non?

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It was 8:55 as Fudge began to head down Knockturn Alley. He kept his down, just in case someone saw him. He finally got to the Gorgon Sisters Café. People of all sorts were sitting, drinking concoctions of the strangest kind. Fudge was familiar with this place—not all deals are made in a boardroom filled with suits. Walking to the bartender, he ordered a drink and sat down a table.

After waiting a few minutes, he felt a figure behind him. The figure went to the seat. Fudge tried to figure out who the person was, but he couldn't see past the cloak. Then he heard the deep voice.

"Cornelius Fudge, I am going to make you the deal of your life."

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So this is my holiday gift to everyone. A tad bit belated. Only two days though, technically. So here is my New Years Resolution: Update this story at least every two weeks. If not, more. So keep track of me and remind me too.

So what did you think of this chapter anyways? It's different than the chapter on the ministry I had before. I figured that Fudge was way to OOC. And besides, it would be nice to have a new Minister because the sixth book is supposed to have a new one. I decided it should be a girl because it would be interesting. She's half-French because that way I can dish all I've learned in French class onto you guys. Her last name, Bouclier, means "shield." Make what you want of it. I know Harry wasn't in this chapter. But don't worry, he'll be back soon!

In fact, if you review a lot, he'll be back even sooner….