Harry Potter & the True Power
Chapter 18: The Falling Icons
The training of the new death eaters had started. They were being trained by several of the senior death eaters. With nearly two hundred new recruits already added to his depleted strength, he had a lot to take care of.
In the many times he had faced Potter, no one had come out victorious. Rather, if he was honest with himself, he had each of the rounds. Being thwarted by a one year old and then continuously since his eleventh birthday had not fared well with him. Since he had managed to get a body last year, he had wanted to get the prophecy. He knew only the beginning and the way things were happening, the ending had to be known.
Prophecies were the children of fates, spanning across the very fabric of time. It was magic at its most powerful and at its very best. These were powers not to be taken lightly. He himself believed himself to be a child of fate. It's not everyday that a muggleborn rises to his heights in the Wizarding world. True, he had the blood of the great Slytherin himself, but the fates themselves had played a big role in his finding out.
In his younger years, he could always speak to snakes that were abundant in the forest near his orphanage. It was not till his third year, that he found out that only the heir of slytherin were the known family with a history of parseltongue. He delved deeper and found out that his mother was the last heir to the slytherin line.
If this was not an act of fate, he didn't know what was. He had managed to cheat death several times. It almost felt that he had thwarted its intent for him for so long. Yet, who can say, what their intent is.
He had been busy for the last many days since he had woken up. Due to extra strength in him, now he was able to do many things that he had not been able to do earlier. He had been doing and some very strong magics and practicing with several ancient tomes. Yet, the thought of Potter was never far away from him.
He had tried to access Potter's mind a few times but every time he went into meditation to do so, he could not find the particular thread that had earlier connected them. Slowly but surely, Potter was becoming his first true advisory. Dumbledore had always been more experienced than him, rather than more powerful. The old man can still play with transfiguration like no one can, not even him.
He had never been afraid of Dumbledore, he had been afraid of the Hogwarts itself. During his earlier studies, he was sure that there were secrets about the castle that nobody knew. Even after so many years, its initial building was an enigma. None of the four founders were rich enough to build this. There had been certain rumors of an unknown benefactor but he had been unable to find records of anything one way or the other.
While being a student there, he had felt many times that the castle had assisted him. It wasn't just out of the blue that he had found the chamber of secrets. He was lead there by none other than Hogwarts itself. It had known that he was a descendant of the slytherin line. But after the time that he had freed the basilik which had ended up in the death of myrtle, he had never been able to open the chamber of secrets again.
Hogwarts had never helped him again. And he was afraid of it, probably the only thing he was afraid of. After all, his great fore-father was one of those who had helped built her. He had to become greater than Salazar Slytherin did, if he was to conquer the bastion of hope, Hogwarts.
Cornelius Fudge, the British minister of magic was fuming. How dare it print all the baloney against the ministry? He had made an agreement with Luscious. He would be kept in an ordinary prison and in a couple of months time, he would be freed without much fanfare. Till then, the whole Department of Mysteries event would have been lost on the Wizarding population. If there was one thing that he had learnt in politics, it was that the general population had worse memory than a squid.
He had gone straight to Azkaban to speak to him.
Flashback Begins
"Luscious!" he said sternly at the senior Malfoy who was living luxuriously with a house elf at his disposal and a few other companions.
Seeing the minister in such a mood, Luscious, ever the charmer, said, "Hello my good friend! What brings you to this place?"
"We had an agreement, didn't we?" Luscious nodded. Fudge continued, "Then explain this."
Luscious took the copy of the Daily Prophet and read the article. He was astounded. Clear instructions had been given to the editor as well as all the senior reporters that nothing was to be printed against the ministry of magic or its minister. But this clearly damaged not only the ministry but Dumbledore as well. He quickly looked to the second page which had the editorial. The name of his editor, Bellerophon Beller was not there. Instead, there was a new name, Luna Lovegood.
He turned his face up and said, "There is something wrong. This is not my editor. Wait a minute. I need to speak with my spouse." With that, Luscious turned and went to a small mirror kept in a drawer by the side of his bed.
"Narcissa." He called once, his voice colder than ice.
Fudge himself was baffled. Was this the way to speak to your own wife? Maybe he had misjudged Malfoy after all. If a man was this cold to his own wife, he could not be trusted. Rather, he can be trusted to betray the trust.
A few seconds later, Narcissa came to the mirror. They talked, or more like Luscious shouted at his wife while she something. Fudge had already guessed what had happened. Lucious was no longer in control of the WWN and the Daily Prophet. He was of no more use to him.
Without waiting for an explanation, Fudge turned and walked out. He left instructions to the auror in-charge that all special liberties assigned to Malfoy were to be withdrawn immediately and he was to be kept in the most secured cell.
That cell had at least on Dementor stationed outside it at all the times. He was going to go insane and be no longer a threat to him.
Fudge got out and apparated to his office and made a minesterial edict.
Flashback ends
And now, he was at the offices of the daily prophet and was going to barge in at the new editor.
Dumbledore was sitting in his office. He had learnt from reliable contacts that he was being removed from the position of the head of the Wizengamot. The article in the newspaper had damaged all his work of the last fifty years.
He could not let that happen. Now, the only way for him to come out of this mess was to find Harry. Should Harry endorse his faith in Dumbledore, he was sure that the entire Wizarding world would once again fall into place.
He could also make a deal with Fudge. He too was under the threat of being impeached. His contact had also told him that as soon as a new head would be elected, they would impeach the minister. An informal voting had already taken place.
He had to find Harry. He was his only hope.
Fawkes too had absent for the last two weeks or so. Even before that, he had been absent more than usual for a day or so. Fawkes was the only chance for him to find Harry. He never knew when he laid his head down and lost consciousness.
Fawkes had felt all that was happening through the link. He was extremely disappointed.
When Fawkes had first observed Albus, he was a very powerful wizard with a pure heart. Fawkes had seen potential in the wizard to be great and decided to help him. He had a feeling that this man was a man of destiny.
Dumbledore had fought selflessly against the previous dark lord. He had risked his life and more than that, he had even lost his whole family except his brother to this fight. In the end, Dumbledore and many pureblood wizards of prominent families had fought in the final battle.
The ministry was as useless then as it was now. Something in politics always attracted the power hungry yet weak willed people. The then minister was no different.
Indeed, Albus Dumbledore had been a man of destiny. He was the last person standing. The only person standing.
What followed was a time of huge rewards to him, but along the way, he had forgotten the humility which had first attracted Fawkes to him. He had changed.
For several decades after that, Fawkes stayed with him so that he may not go dark.
Now, he was not so sure. The one thing he wanted was the one thing forbidden to him. Harry Potter.
If he could stay centered for a few days, he may be saved.
Fawkes was very worried. He decided to at least be with him and try his best to help an old lost friend.
He appeared in front of a very worried and pale looking Albus Dumbledore.
Several new security and monitoring measures had been taken at the offices of The Daily Prophet. There were several wards, one of which did not allow anyone with damaging intentions towards anybody in the building to enter. They had to be let in after a manual pass which could only be given by the editor or the owner of the newspaper.
Fudge, as he put his fist step, was literally pushed away from the entrance. There were several security guards keeping vigil. They immediately came into action as they felt the silent alarm buzz in their special security watches.
Meanwhile Fudge, who had been pushed out, was now enclosed in a blue shield. It was like a petrificus totulus charm. While inside, he could not move an inch until they were given a manual clearance by the editor. Several aurors, who were with the minister as his security team immediately tried to barge in and rescue the minister. Unfortunately, they all had the same fate as the minister himself. In a few seconds, there were five wizards encased in the blue shield, unable to move.
They were even more annoyed when a Daily Prophet Photographer came in and took their photographs.
Unfortunately, no one was present there to release them. The editor, Luna Lovegood, had just apparated to a meeting with the new owner of the newspaper. As per protocol, the department of aurors was flooed and informed of the situation.
Senior auror Kingsley Shacklebolt apparated to the offices of the Daily Prophet. He was accompanied by Nymphadora Tonks. They could not do anything, as no one could get through to both the people capable of releasing the stasis field.
Fawkes flashed before a despairing Albus Dumbledore. He saw the huge change which had fallen on his friend. Fourteen days ago, he had left an old man who was young at heart. But now, the most powerful wizard of his time was but a shrunken mass of abandonment and despair.
His pallor was yellowish, as if he had been ill for a long time. Gone were the twinkling eyes which held such humor. Gone was the spirit which radiated a happy man. This was a very old man that Fawkes was seeing, a very old and broken man.
He had to do something. They had been friends since ages. He just could not forget all those years.
Fawkes started to croon a phoenix song full of hope, youth, and vigor. A few tear drops fell on the hands of the old wizard. Slowly, the pallor changed back to a healthy color. Enveloped in the wonderful song, Dumbledore, who was moving in and out of consciousness, went to sleep.
Fawkes requested Hogwarts to temporarily remove the focus of wards from Albus to someone else. Hogwarts accepted and made an emergency transfer. Minor wards were transferred to Minerva while Hogwarts itself took emergency action and started to look for a viable alternative.
Feeling the load taken off Dumbledore, Fawkes thanked Hogwarts and flashed back to the Himalayas. He could have put Albus in the time closet but knew that though Albus would be rested, he would not get the time to do what he must do.
Fawkes, at that moment, had no idea how far reaching the consequences of his action would be.
At the Daily Prophet building, it was not till two hours later, when the editor returned, that the shields removed. By that time, a special edition and a reprint featuring the whole event and a special series of events highlighting the sad career of the minister of magic was already sold out.
Things were indeed speeding up.
Fudge was red with rage. Never had he suffered such humiliation in his entire career. He vowed that he would take care of the new owner of the Daily Prophet.
The ministerial edict he had prepared was served to the editor. It put on hold the sale of the Constantine Media Company to David McCall pending further investigation. Though the paper work dealing with the finances had already taken place, there were a few ministry notifications pending. News media, though private, still had ministerial guidelines to follow. As usual, they were in place to give the minister with certain leverages with the media.
The minister had further ordered the arrest of the Editor of the Daily Prophet for illegally detaining five wizards without any cause. As the minister of magic himself and his security team were involved, it also invoked certain other security regulations.
An arrest order was also taken out against the owner of the news paper. Though nobody except the editor knew where he lived. All his correspondence was sent to the Gringotts.
Seeing everything through security charms, Harry and Luna, who were sitting in his office at the Gringotts, were laughing their heads off.
Flashback Begins
Gringotts, being as rich as they were, had several resources which were employed to make sure that goblin interests were not hurt by the dealings of the Wizarding kind. They had been on the bad side of power hungry bureaucrats too many times to forget. Over the years, they had a very formidable web of information gatherers.
Hence, it was pretty obvious that whatever Fudge did, they knew. Several of his close guards were on their payroll.
As soon as Fudge left Azkaban, the goblins were alerted. They had already made it known to their resources that anything regarding the media or the boy who lived was top priority. Everybody knew that any useful information would be handsomely recompensed. Just as fudge went into his office, they were relayed the information.
It made that wizard's year.
Harry had been sitting in his office. He was sure that there would be repercussions from the ministry because of their lambasting them in today's edition. He was sitting there planning for several scenarios when Ragnok, after a knock, entered this office.
Harry looked and managed a smile. Ragnok was not fooled. Over last several days, they had become quite good friends. For Ragnok, it had been a friendship spanning a couple of weeks. For Harry, it had spanned across seventeen years.
"I have some news for you. Fudge visited Malfoy senior at Azkaban today. It seems he was living in the lap of luxury rather than being fed off by the dementors." He proceeded to give the information regarding fudge's plan as well as his decision to see the new editor and owner himself.
After hearing this, a mad twinkle came into his eyes. Ragnok was sure he would enjoy the turn of events.
Harry moved to the fireplace and called Luna.
"Luna," Harry said as his face entered Luna's office.
"Yes Harry. Anything happened?" she too was worried about the repercussions.
"Yes. I just found out that Fudge is going to come in to the daily prophet himself and put in a notice to hold the sale of Constantine Media Company to me pending a ministerial enquiry."
Luna looked at Harry. He should have been worried. Rather, his eyes were shining like crazy.
"You should have been worried. But your eyes are saying something else. What's the plan?" she asked him
Smiling as what would later become his marauder smile, he said, "Let him come in. As soon as he enters the building, the protection charm will put all of them in stasis field. His guards are like him, incompetent. As is, those charms can only be removed by only one of us. You leave your office. Tell your secretary that you have a meeting with the new owner regarding the future of the newspaper. Put Rita in charge and come to Gringotts immediately. Get Rita and prepare a special edition with the details of all the information we have collected and prepared regarding the misgovernment by fudge. "
"Have someone take a photograph of Fudge and his cronies in the stasis field. Have the special edition in market with in thirty minutes. We will plan something for afterwards as soon as we hear the edition has sold out. Print at least two hundred thousand copies. I want it internationally distributed."
Luna was clearly enjoying this. She nodded and set the action into play.
One hour and fifty minutes later, they heard the news that the special edition had been totally sold out. There was a re-order of another quarter million copies, mostly from other countries.
Ten minutes later, as soon as the duplication charm had created sufficient copies, they were dispatched.
With his final stroke of genius, Harry had already transfigured a cat into Luna and put an imperious on it.
When the transfigured cat appeared at the newspaper building, Luna appeared behind her, hidden under an invisibility cloak. She cancelled the security charm, reviving everybody. Within seconds, the doppelganger was put under the petrification spell herself by all the crazy aurors. It had been a shameful day for all of them.
Luna saw that everything was going as planned. So, she apparated back to her office, and returned to Gringotts.
Luna, the cat, was quiet all the way to a cell in the Azkaban.
Flashback ends.
Luna, the witch, was laughing her head off with Harry. Harry had far surpassed the legendary pranks by the marauders during their school term. She didn't know who they actually were, but their pranks had been legendry. She had walked in on the twins enough times to know who their role models were.
Considering their own calibers, she was sure that they were geniuses.
She didn't know of their relationship with Harry. She didn't know that while they wrecked havoc in just a school, their blood heir had pranked the entire world.
They would have been so proud.
Author's Note:
So how did you like this one? Anyway, your last chance to guess about lily. Her fate will be decided in the next chapter.
again, i would like to thank all my reviewers who have made the journey with me so far.
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