The Return of Norbert

By: lucky-cyber-bunny

Chapter Five: Fudge!

This one took even longer than chapter four, and I'm really sorry! But I'm almost done with six, and it is the summer, so don't worry, it's coming out soon. Enjoy the next part of T-Ron.

"HOW IN MERLIN'S LONG BEARD DO YOU LOSE A DRAGON!" Fudge bellowed at Elena.

"HOW COME YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE HE IS?" She yelled back.

The whole office and facility, excluding the non-speaking dragons, were listening to their conversation. The staff was outside the door of the office and the dragons were outside of the main door. Kiko and her friends were giggling dragon laughs.

"DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO BLAME THIS ON ME!" Fudge yelled, his face turning into a plum color. He had his finger in Elena's face and was leaning towards her.

Elena sat down and massaged her temples. He was right, it was all her fault. She looked up at him. "I'm sorry. Today has not been a good day for me. I tried to find out where he is, but his friends wouldn't talk."

Fudge, unaware that dragons could talk looked at her like she had lost her marbles and his face scrunched up again. "Are you trying to trick me Ms. Veanu? Because you are not in a good position at the minute, and I suggest that you don't play games with me."

"I'm not playing games with you, Minister. Some dragons can talk. The missing one is a speaker and his friends are speakers too." Elena said, trying to tell if Fudge understood or not.

"Whatever." (He obviously didn't) "We need information on him. Where are his files?"

Elena looked around her workspace. When she had slammed her fists on the table, he papers had flown all over. She gathered them up off the floor and put them into a gigantic pile. "Here." She said, straitening the pile.

Fudge leaned in again. "You know that I hate animals. If it weren't for all the animals' rights activists, you wouldn't be here because the preserve wouldn't be here. I'd have all the dragons killed or put in bottles or turned into wands or something. I pay you to keep the dragons here and satisfied and you" He slammed his hand on the pile of papers "can't even keep a speaking dragon in control. Nor your PAPERS!" He was getting mad again.

"I didn't mess up his papers. Razran, my personal assistant, did it. He dropped them all over the floor."

Razran, who was outside the door hissed "I did not!"

"And your excuse for losing the dragon?" Fudge asked

"We are working on finding reasons on why he left."

"And how can you be doing that if its papers are all over your floor?"

"We have duplicates the staff are working on."

"Oh. Well how are they working on them when THEY ARE SITTING OUTSIDE YOUR DOOR?" Fudge bellowed so everyone could hear.

The staff scattered back to their desks and workstations while the dragons rolled with laughter outside. They all hated Elena and it was great hearing her get slammed by the Minister of Magic, even though he was an ass too.

Fudge created a comfy chair and plopped in it, lips pursed in agitation. "Alright. Let's start with the basics. Does it have a name or title or number?"

Elena flung her files open and searched. "His name is Norbert and his number is 1295642, but he wouldn't care if anyone called him that."

"And who owned him or where did he come from?"

More file searching. "He came from England and was privately owned and given up."

"By who?"

"It doesn't say, sir."

"Well we'll need to find that out. What is he?"

"Norwegian Ridgeback."

"Do you have a picture of him?"

Elena handed the file photo over. Norbert was twitching and sniffing and looking all around, not caring about the picture taking at all. It looked like he was taking in his surroundings.

"Any noticeable features or whatever?"

"No."

A knock at the door made Elena rush to it. One of her secretaries was holding up a folder. "I thought this would be of use to you." She said quickly and rushed back to her desk.

"What is that?" Fudge asked.

"I don't know. I haven't opened it yet."

Fudge glared at her and she went back to the desk and opened the folder.

"Well this is important. It seems that a few days ago, Norbert was asked to commit himself to a death of honor. To die so that his heart could be harvested of its strings. I guess we found his motive."

"You shouldn't ask" Fudge said. "You should just do it."

"We're not allowed."

"Anyway. Were there any sightings?"

"No."

"How the hell...?"

"That's what I want to find out. If, per say, he did go to England, that would be a lot of ground to cover and a lot of muggle homes to go over. The globe is never completely covered in clouds and the chances that he wouldn't be seen are slim. He must have had some help. Either from the inside out, or the outside in. And nobody's seen anyone suspicious around for months."

Fudge put his hand under his chin and let his eyes drift out into space as he analyzed the situation. It took quite a while before he spoke again and Elena had her files all fixed up when he did.

"Who is his main handler that would know him the best?"

A flip through the files form Elena produced the name "Weasley."

"I want to talk to him right now." Fudge said, crossing his leg up on the other. He looked as if he was trying to relax.

"I'll send for him at once." Elena said. She went over to her window and whistled. A slim owl flew over to the window. She scribbled a note down on a scrap piece of parchment and handed it to the owl. "Go find Weasley." she told it, and the bird was off.

"Beautiful animal." Fudge said, watching it fly off. "What is it?"

"A boreal owl. His name is Fu-Fu. He is one of my many. He knows this place better than I do." Elena answered, pleased at her owl's work.

Fudge and Elena sat in silence as they waited for Weasley to come into the room. Fudge studied the office more intently, and Elena just flipped through her file folders.

"Yes, Ms. Veanu, how can I help you?" Charlie asked, rushing into the office. When he saw Fudge, he straightened up and greeted the minister. "Minster Fudge."

"We need all the information on the dragon as possible." Fudge said.

Charlie thought for a moment. He was feeling very nervous, so he began rattling off random facts about Norbert. "Well, his favorite food is pork. He hangs out with Lead, Kiko, Noddy and Mishka and Natisha. He was born in England. He likes to sneak off to the forest by himself. He is afraid of the large black Iron Belly, uh, #099735, because he likes to pick fights with Norbert. He sleeps late in the morning. He had a teddy bear his mommy gave him. He-"

Fudge cut him off. "Who was his mommy?"

"Oh. A privet owner."

"Yes, but who was she?"

"I'm not sure."

"You have to know something!" Fudge asked desperately. He wanted to shake the tall red head.

"All I know is that she's from England, she gave him a teddy bear, and that Norbert only says the best things about, uh, her." Charlie didn't want to tell the Minister that Norbert's mommy wasn't a woman. He figured that would hide Hagrid as long as people didn't figure out that a mommy could be a man for dragons.

"Is that all you know?" Fudge asked.

"Be honest, Weasley." Elena added.

"Yeah. That's it."

Fudge thought for a moment. He wanted to ask Weasley more, but he couldn't think of anything else.

Elena, however, asked "How did you get the dragon here?"

"Me and a few guys from here flew him in."

"Where was the pick up location?"

"England." Charlie said, trying to be as vague as he could.

"Who was with you that night? I want names."

Damn it! "Well, I just grabbed a few people. I took Marcus, Dilburg, and Vecinu." Charlie used his best friends. He knew that they wouldn't snitch on him. Andrew Marcus and Henry Dilburg had gone to Hogwarts with him. They both knew and appreciated Hagrid. Monica Vecinu was a girl who was born here, and she and Charlie had a "thing" going on between each other.

"I will talk to them about the matter because I don't think you are being quite honest." Elena snapped

"I am. It was very late when we made the pick-up. It was in a privet location in England. I am not lying."

"Very well. If the minister has nothing else to say you may leave."

"I have nothing else for you, Weasley. Keep up the good work."

Charlie thanked the group and ran off to find his friends. He wanted to warn them about Elena.

He had gotten to Monica and Andrew, but Elena had gotten to Henry before he did.

"So, Mr. Dilburg," Elena began "Where did you get Norbert from?"

"Hogwarts. We picked him up from some kids in one of the towers." Henry spewed. He thought that Elena was hot because she was in charge. He would have given Elena his bank pin number if she had asked for it. He was a sad sucker.

Fudge smiled "Thank you very, very much."