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Inquisitor…
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Fudge exited the elevator and headed towards his office when he saw Umbridge sitting at her table in the outer office. Her hideously pink sweater made it hard to miss her. His hand moved over to his pocket as he felt the letter in it. Fudge had received it this morning and the contents of it had brought a smile on his face.
He walked into the outer office and Umbridge looked at him as she stood up.
"Good morning, Minster," she said.
"Good morning, Dolores," Fudge responded. He then just stood there looking at her.
Umbridge looked confused. "Is there something I can help you with?" she asked.
"There is one thing," he began as he took out the letter before handing it to her. Umbridge read it, before looking up at him with a wide grin which made her toad-like face even uglier.
"Congratulations, Cornelius," she said sounding excited. Fudge didn't miss that she had referred to him by his first name. He wasn't surprised or offended though as him and Umbridge had been working together for a really long time so they shared a rather close professional relationship. And while he was aware of her extremely discriminative personality he couldn't deny the sheer amount of loyalty which she had for him, even though it was just because she wanted to climb higher on the ministerial hierarchy. Maybe that is why he had chosen her for the task that he was about to tell her because he knew that she wouldn't disappoint. He could already see Dumbledore slamming his head against the wall because of what was to come and that couldn't help Fudge from smiling which made Umbridge wonder what the minister was thinking.
"I want you to go to Hogwarts," he said. Umbridge's grin was replaced by a look of confusion. "I don't trust anyone else to do this job but you. You will be my eyes and ears in that place and you will report to me whatever it is that Dumbledore is plotting against me and stop that from happening."
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Ann exited the fireplace to walk into the main hall and saw Matt on the sofa reading the Prophet. He put the paper down as she came over and kissed him on the lips before sitting next to him as a tired sigh escaped her mouth.
"Long day?" Matt asked. Ann only hummed in response as she closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder. He had his hand around her shoulder, scratching her head.
"I thought about what you said this morning," she said with her eyes still closed.
"And?"
"And I think you may be right," Ann said. "I talked to St Mungos and they agreed to take in my patients for the time being so I can go on 'vacation'."
Matt chuckled softly. "Vacation?" he said.
"What else could've sounded believable?" Ann said. "Do you think they would've taken my patients if I'd told them that I was temporarily closing my practice because you-know-who has returned?"
"Well, with the breakout more and more people are starting to believe it," Matt said.
"Still, I don't want my patients to suffer," she said. "I wrote to all of them today telling them about the transfer of their medical care to St Mungos. There is no denying that some of them would definitely guess that I am not going on a vacation."
"Well, it's better to be safe," Matt said.
Ann nodded. They said nothing for the next few minutes as they just sat in silence. "It's quiet. The girls are still at Harry's?" she said eventually.
"They are," Matt said. "They've been really serious with their training and everything, especially Astoria. I didn't know she would agree to all of this."
"You know what this means though, right?"
Matt said nothing at first before finally speaking. "No one can tell what will happen when he shows up and there is no denying that our family will be on the list of people that you-know-who will want to see suffer. I want my kids to be safe but that won't be possible if they don't know how to defend themselves. Granted, that as parents it is our primary duty to protect them but who's to say what will happen to us? We have to be prepared for the worst."
Ann looked at her husband's grim expression. She wanted to deny what he had said but she knew she couldn't. He was right and she knew that simply because they had seen how horrible it had been the last time when Voldemort had come to power. Countless kids had become orphans when the death eaters tortured and killed their parents. Most of these kids were defenseless and they either died at the hands of those death eaters or were recruited. Ann knew she wouldn't be surprised if at least half of those kids had become death eaters by now. These kids, most of who were adults now, would be the hardest to deal with because of how young they were then they had been recruited by the death eaters over a decade ago. They would have all been molded to be the perfect soldiers for Voldemort.
"Do we have the safe house ready?" she said after a minute's silence.
"Everything that could be done to that place's wards has been done," Matt responded. "I have also hired a group of goblin curse-breakers to erect two more layers of wards and to check for any weaknesses in the existing ones. Let's just hope that things won't become bad enough for us to move to that place."
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Dumbledore was in the office when McGonagall barged in. She slammed the letter on the table as she glared at the old wizard who seemed to have been expecting that reaction from her.
"Is this true, Albus?" she asked. Her tone of desperation hoped that all of this was just some sort of a terrible prank although no one would dare to pull a prank on her.
Dumbledore sighed. "Unfortunately it is, Minerva," he said in a defeated tone. "And there is nothing I can do about it. The decision was taken by the Education Board."
"So you are just going to sit here?" McGonagall asked. "The ministry is trying to interfere with the matters of this school! How is that supposed to be taken lightly?"
"It cannot," he said before pausing. "I brought this upon us. I should've thought well before blatantly announcing Voldemort's return. This is all Fudge's doing."
"So what can we do about it?" McGonagall asked.
"He is sending an inquisitor to Hogwarts," Dumbledore said. "I guess we will have to be on our best behavior. Besides, it is me who Cornelius is after and luckily I will be busy with Order business most of the time. If I am not here then Dolores shouldn't be able to cause much trouble."
McGonagall blinked as she looked at him ridiculously. "So your plan to deal with this whole thing is to just leave it all on me?" she said.
"Only for a little while," Dumbledore said.
McGonagall immediately recognized that look on his face. "You have thought of something, haven't you?" she asked.
Dumbledore stayed quiet for a minute before speaking. "He is too worried about his public image – Fudge," he said. "If the people see Voldemort then they will at least realize the lies that Cornelius is spewing."
"So what will you do?" McGonagall asked.
"Prove that I was telling the truth," Dumbledore said. "I will make the people see Voldemort with their own eyes."
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A/N: Sorry for the small chapter…
Thanks for reading…