Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Harry Potter. At all. Zip. Nadda. Nothin'. So don't sue me. Besides, I don't have any money anyway. It all goes to pay for my University tuition. I didn't even have enough to pay for the 6th book when it came out. I had to borrow it from my friend… Same with the 5th one…
The Meeting with Fudge
Hermione managed to get to work just on time …although she was going at least twice the speed limit and almost crashed a few times.
She burst into the office at 8:58, leaving her just 2 short minutes to prepare for her meeting with Fudge. Oh shit! she thought as she paced outside Fudge's door. What do I say to him? I guess the truth; that there are no new developments. He is not going to be happy when he hears that. I promised him new leads for today! Shit!
Just then the door opened and Fudge's secretary came out and said, "He's ready for you now."
Hermione nodded slightly and pushed past the secretary and into the office, closing the door behind her.
The first thing she noticed about Fudge's office was that it was very dark. The blinds were drawn tightly and the room was lit by a single candle sitting on the desk. As Hermione's eyes adjusted to the light (or lack of it), she noticed that Fudge was not sitting on the swivel chair behind his desk. She craned her neck and looked around the room. She could not see him anywhere. She was just about to walk right back out of the office and ask the secretary what was with the joke, when a small noise from just behind her stopped her. She froze on the spot and held her breath. After she waited a few seconds and nothing happened, she chanced a quick look behind her. She was surprised to see Fudge standing there. She spun around and folded her arms across her chest with a look of pure annoyance on her face.
"Nice joke," she said sarcastically as she turned and walked over to the seat in front of the desk. "Now let's get on with the meeting, shall we?" She sat down in the chair and waited for Fudge to come and sit down in the seat across from her. When he didn't she turned and faced him. "This really isn't funny anymore, sir." When he didn't acknowledge that she'd said anything she stood up. "Fine," she said. "I'll fill you in on my progress and you can just stand there." When he still didn't respond, she started in on her report. "Okay, well there are really no new leads on any of the outstanding cases, but we know that the death eaters are having a mass meeting with you-know-who sometime in the next week. I'm hoping that if Kingsley and Tonks can find out the location from Crabbe, who if you remember I caught a couple days ago, then we may be able to stop whatever it is that they're planning before it even happens. And that would be a lot easier than having to deal with the mass muggle killings that they're threatening since we won't comply with their new proposal. Also, I'm going to start looking into a new case; Cho Chang. I was just thinking that there really isn't a lot I can do right now on any of the outstanding cases, since there are no new leads and we've exhausted all of the old ones, and I knew Cho so it would be a lot easier for me than some-"
Fudge cut her off. "Don't do that case," he said faintly. "It's probably not even valid. It's just based on sketchy rumours from an unreliable source."
"But sir, most cases are just based on that. Rarely is there ever any real proof at first. That's what my job is, sir; to take sketchy facts and find evidence that can help us track them down. See the thing is-"
He cut her off again. "Do. Not. Do. That. Case," he said separating each word as if he were talking to an insolent child. "Got it?" he asked.
Hermione nodded but inside she was thinking, When do I ever listen to you?