Portkeys and Photographs
Towards the end of Thursday, Whispers approached Harry, while he was studying in one of the larger trees, started tugging on his sleeve and saying, "Giver," over and over.
Swinging down to the ground on a hanging vine, he sprinted along with Whispers into the fertilizer room and took the blood bowl down from the shelf, placing it at the desk in the room.
§Hello?§
The Giver responded after a moment, his voice sounding a bit distorted through the bubbling blood in the bowl,
§Harry, it is good to hear you.§
He responded quickly,
§Is something wrong?§
The Giver sounded unsure,
§It is the Wandmaker.§
§He brought the wand five days ago.§
§It is amazing, to feel my magic and channel it this way.§
§He has taught me to make light and to make objects fly.§
Harry was impressed with the time it had taken his old teacher, but he had been using magic in other ways for hundreds of years.
§So, what is wrong?§
Now a bit of anger entered The Giver's voice
§It is the small man he has brought to translate, the one you called a Dwarf.§
§He treats this small man poorly, and does not show reverence to him for his help.§
§He treats the small man like a prisoner or an animal, depending on the day.§
§Yesterday he left the small man with me while he went to try to gain the trust of the hoohoos.§
§He seemed happy when the wandmaker left us but was afraid to speak ill of the man.§
That made Harry angry.
§Are the Scamanders still there?§
His tutor responded,
§They left two days before I received my wand.§
§They gained the trust of the hoohoos within three or four days after your leaving.§
§They came and went from the island and explored many parts of the area.§
§They are true friends of animals and all living things.§
Harry smiled, that did sound like Newt and Tina.
§I will write to Nestor about the treatment of the Dwarf.§
§Learn everything you can until then.§
§I will try to find a way for you to learn without him.§
The Giver sounded satisfied with that response,
§The Usurper wants to know if you have any progress.§
Harry hadn't been doing as much exploring as he wanted to and hadn't found anything new yet.
§No, still looking, no response from the creature you gave me either.§
There wasn't more to talk about, so they agreed to speak another time and Harry went to draft a letter to send to Nestor.
Friday afternoon, Brandt was laying on his back, sweaty, bruised, and tired as he just finished his fourteenth match with Stevens of the day. On the other hand, the dueling champion was taking his break by doing one-handed cartwheels and practicing capoeira while he waited for Brandt to get back up. The man was too good for him to ever beat, but he had hoped to at least make the man sweat a little.
Luckily, Brandt was saved from another round by Darby popping into the sparring room and saying, "Steward. Lord Black has returned, please join him in the trophy room."
As the command wasn't to him, Stevens just shrugged and continued his agility training as Brandt slowly got to his feet and stumbled towards his favorite room in the house. On the way, he cast a few freshening charms on himself, not that they would give him more energy or heal his bruises, he just didn't want to smell bad when he got there.
When he arrived in the room, Arcturus was standing next to the four pedestals at the end of the room. This time, all four of them were clear of the disintegration wards and he could see what lay beneath. The first pedestal held a stuffed red parrot, which he was pretty sure was called a macaw. The second one was the black scimitar he had seen before, which glinted as soon as he looked at it. That had to be some kind of magical effect that triggered when it was being observed. The third held a hook, meant to be used as a prosthetic hand, with a gold base and the hook made of silver. The final one held an astoundingly extravagant tricorn hat; black with gold trim and a fluffy black feather on the top.
As Brandt approached Lord Back, he noticed four anti-nausea potions were sitting on the table next to him. Four portkeys and four potions… it didn't take a genius to figure out what was about to happen.
"I've only just returned," Arcturus told him. "Is there anything I need to know about before I take up the rest of your day?"
There most certainly was. Brandt wondered how his lord would take the news.
"The Crabbe boy attacked Miss Granger. Mr. Potter sought revenge on her behalf and put him in a coma. The boy is a confirmed parselmouth and had me teach him the snake conjuring spell to enact his justice on Crabbe. However, the snake he was able to conjure was not venomous, so I am unaware of what he did to put the boy in such a state or how he managed to infiltrate the Slytherin dorms completely undetected. There already was an auror investigation, and Mr. Potter had enough foresight to take a dreamless sleep potion when he was done which completely cleared him of suspicion. The only people who know he was responsible are me, Miss Granger, and most certainly Lyra. Potter did contact me to inform me of his murderous intent before he carried out any action, and I managed to keep him from killing the boy. I'm not sure if he intended to put him in a coma, as he did say he wanted him to suffer every day for the rest of his life."
Arcturus's emotions fluctuated through that speech quite a bit. Some bits included shock, others he seemed pleased with what had happened. There was even a hint of admiration in there too.
"Any chance the boy will die?" he finally responded.
"Severus reports that he should regain consciousness sometime next week."
"Anything else?"
Brandt thought for a moment, then said, "Both children will be on the house quidditch team. I took them to a Harpies game and they got to meet Gwen and Angie after the game. Flying with the two of them got Harry convinced. Miss Granger and a few others also managed to create quite a revolutionary new helmet for quidditch leagues which should sweep the entire international market. The patent is also owned by eight others, six of which are purebloods, so no one will try to take it away from them. Also, Harry met Fudge at the game and has another meeting scheduled with him for tomorrow morning, and a date with a muggle girl in the afternoon. Miss Tonks and I gave the kids 'The Talk' last weekend, and I believe we should swear her into knowing their secrets."
Arcturus gave a long hum, "Your connections serve you well. Bring Miss Tonks into the loop. Have you had any luck finding them an occlumency tutor?"
Brandt shook his head, "Mine is unavailable, and Severus is too busy. I also have been unable to find a trustworthy tutor to train them in the knives they received as presents over the break. Nearly everyone I know who wields knives like that is a thief by trade and not someone I'd keep in close confidence or trust around children, particularly the two of them. I am going to approach Gilderoy Lockhart about being their calligraphy tutor though."
Arcturus seemed reluctant to agree on Lockhart but then said, "Try to get him to do it for free. For the honor of being able to say he tutored the Boy-Who-Lived. He's a wonderfully extravagant influence peddler, not unlike Slughorn in that regard only, so he'd probably jump at the chance. As for the other two, let me look into that, I'll try to see if I can get people from the continent."
He took a look back at the pedestals, "What do you remember from my lesson about The Black Islands?"
Brandt perked up, "I remember everything you told me. Which wasn't much, but still. The Blacks amassed a lot of their fortune in the decades around the advent of the Statute of Secrecy. This was done primarily through piracy of the muggle shipping lines, and raiding the colonies of the kings who foolishly let us serve them. A good deal of the trophies in this room are from that period. They operated in the Caribbean, the Western African Coastline, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Indian Subcontinent. The islands were ports and safe havens for the ships the Blacks owned. There are incredible protections on the islands that keep them better concealed and protected than a fidelius charm. That's all you told me."
"Exactly. Now, I need you to visit the islands. Every one of them, right now. I know you imagined some grand adventure and touring each island for your first visit, but that won't be happening. I need you to go to each one, and once you regain your wits, return here. Each portkey works both ways. Are you ready to go?"
Brandt was indeed a bit miffed that he wouldn't be able to explore the islands, but this was at least a step in the right direction. He nodded, and Arcturus gestured him towards the parrot. It was placed on his right shoulder and he could feel the talons attach, but not dig in.
"When you arrive, there will be an inferius in the room with you. Just ignore it."
"Ignore it? Ignore an inferius?" Brandt exclaimed in total disbelief.
"It's there for protection, just don't touch it and it won't harm you." That barely reassured him. "Ok, here is the activation phrase." He passed Brandt a slip of paper.
The Steward memorized the password and then vanished the paper. He prepared himself for the international portkey, and said, "Take what you can, give nothing back."
A hook from behind his navel pulled up and back as he felt the spinning sensation activate. It felt different than normal, as the portkey was attached to him rather than having to hold onto it. It still wasn't pleasant and he was happy that he couldn't vomit while traveling.
He did when he arrived, on a plank wood floor that he crashed into. Out of habit, he pulled out his wand and vanished the puddle on the floor before recovering from the dizziness and looking around. He was in a small room with a window that looked out over crystal blue water. The sun was rising, so he figured he was in the Caribbean. This was the port of call for The Black Rose, the terror of the Spanish colonies. He breathed a sigh of calmness looking at the water, then turned around and screamed at the rotting corpse standing in the corner dressed in a long coat and pirate hat.
He backpedaled so fast that he hit his head on the wall behind him and started to hyperventilate as he raised his wand with a spell of cursed fire on his lips, just waiting for the necromantic terror to attack him. But it didn't. It just stood there motionless. The eyes had gone a long time ago, there was still some flesh and muscle hanging from the bones, but it had to be the oldest zombie he had ever seen.
Necromancy was not something he had studied in school, but that didn't mean he didn't know quite a few people who had. There was no way to tell how old this corpse was, but the freshly animated ones always did look close to being alive. Upon closer inspection, this corpse also was adorned with tarnished gold necklaces, bracelets, and a few very expensive gemstone rings. It was there for protection but was an obvious trap as well. An intruder would see this dead man covered in riches and try to remove them, only to be torn to shreds by its inhuman strength and cursed touch.
Brandt took a moment to regain his balance and sanity after staring at the inferius in the room, then spoke the activation phrase for the portkey still on his shoulder and was sent spinning on a trip back to Black Manor.
When he crashed into the floor of the trophy room, there wasn't anything in his stomach to vacate, but he still gagged quite a bit, then staggered until Arcturus grabbed his shoulder when he stood up. As his vision spun, Arcturus put a potion in his hand and commanded him to drink.
Once the anti-nausea potion was in his system, he felt quite a bit better. The parrot had been taken off his shoulder and returned to its place on the pedestal. Brandt was now instructed to go and pick up the scimitar. With a small amount of reluctance and another gleam to remind him how sharp the blade must be, he picked it up and examined it.
Arcturus took a step back, and said with a smile, "Give it a swing, I know you're dying to do it."
Letting himself grin, he gave it a few test swings but didn't spin it as his Lord had done. It felt sharp enough to cut the air around him as he waved it.
"Do you remember the activation?" he was asked.
Brandt nodded and held the blade into the air while he recited, "As I gaze upon the sea, my dreams return to me." There was the pulling sensation and he was gone.
This journey was probably half as long as the one before and when he landed, he was on a beach, roughly the same time of day as it had been in England. The smell of the sea reminded him of being on Lyra's island, and he took a quick look around, only to see a small path that led to the interior of the island. With nothing else to do, he repeated the activation phrase and went back.
Just to be on the safe side when he returned to Black Manor, he drank half of the next nausea potion after returning the scimitar to its place, then walked to the next spot where Arcturus handed him the hook. As all his limbs were intact, there was no particular way to hold or attach it, so he just grabbed the silver hook and held it in his hand.
He was given the activation phrase, which he memorized, vanished the paper, then spoke aloud:
"A friend can betray you but an enemy will always remain the same."
This portkey felt a little longer than the last one, but not as long as the first. Brandt managed to stay on his feet when he arrived and found himself inside a large tent with a carpeted floor. There were two exits to the tent, with one seeming to go outside into the night, as he could feel a breeze coming from the opening. The other was closed with a series of clasps and had a sign on it that said, "Beware of the Leopard."
Not wanting to stray into that area, or encounter a leopard, which in all probability was a nundu, the portkey was activated again to take him back to Black Manor. This time, he ended up dropping the hook on arrival and he felt extra dizzy from the repeated use of the portkeys. Arcturus needed to prop him up and pour the anti-nausea potion into his mouth this time.
"Ok, one more," the old man said, and took the feathered hat and placed it on his head as Brandt sat on the stairs to the podiums, trying to recover. "This one will be the longest you've taken so far. When you arrive, immediately re-activate the portkey and return. Even if you are still dizzy, do not wait to come back." He was deadly serious, and repeated, "Do not wait."
Brandt funneled all his emotional control into his occlumency so he could focus on the situation. He accepted the paper with the trigger phrase, memorized it, and vanished it. Standing up as well as he could, he prepared himself for the long jump and spoke the phrase:
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
Nothing happened.
Brandt looked around, then repeated it, "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good."
"Bugger," Arcturus said with disappointment. "I hoped it would work, but was pretty sure it wouldn't." He snatched the hat off Brandt's head and tossed it back on the podium.
"What did happen?" Brandt asked.
"It's not working, that's what's happening," he said with an incredibly frustrated tone. "I haven't been to this island for twenty years, but I know the passphrase is correct… and it's still a portkey. It's just locked from use." He pulled out his wand and aimed it at the hat, obviously stopping himself from setting the hat on fire, then put the wand back in its holster, "There's no other way to get to the blasted island."
"Why do we need to go there?" Brandt asked skeptically.
"Other than the horde of treasure there and the free real estate?" He glared at Brandt. "The protection spells for the Black Islands were divided into four parts. If we want to put it on Lyra's island, we need access to the spells on all four of these. You said the place was a gold mine, so it will become another Black Island."
"Yeah, about that," Brandt began, drawing Arcturus's attention. "I've confirmed that there's a herd of re'em on the island; somehow they are pygmy re'em, each about 700 pounds on average. Harry used their manure to make a potion that passed their strength into his staff. That's how he managed to dent the bludger on display in the Hogwarts Quidditch Museum."
"That island is going to be ours, and it's going to happen before I die," Arcturus said with absolute certainty. "The only thing I can think of is that Pollux did something to the portkey."
"Your cousin?" Brandt asked. "But he's been dead for almost three years."
"He had to have done it a while ago, he did spend more time with the Black children than I did, so he must have keyed it to one of them. Draco is too young, so it would have had to be one of Cygnus's girls or Orion's boys."
"Can you recall Narcissa to test her?" Brandt asked. "You'll need to speak with Andromeda too."
"Cissy is too dedicated to her task to be recalled so soon after leaving." He frowned, then called, "Darby!" the elf popped in. "Pay a visit to Andromeda, tell her I need to have a serious discussion with her. She can name the time and place and I will be there." The elf popped away.
"I hope it's not the others," Brandt said, "but at least we are on the path to seeing if we can free Sirius. Merlin help us if we need to use Bellatrix."
"That would be a disaster," Arcturus agreed. "Report back to me about how Harry's meeting goes."
Saturday morning, Brandt was waiting for Harry in the common room when he left his room to make breakfast. He instructed Harry to pick out two outfits, one for meeting with the minister, and the other for going to the funfair with Liz. The first needed to be ultra-formal and the second would just be warm and passable for being a muggle. He needed to wear the first one now as they were going to have breakfast at Elmswood and then go straight to the ministry from there.
While Harry was changing, Brandt got to see Lyra and inform her that Harry would be gone for probably the whole day, but he would make it up to her another day with a trip just for her. If there was anything she wanted to do, she should start putting together a list of possibilities. As the other students headed out of the common room for breakfast, none of them gave Brandt a second look, as by now they were all used to his presence.
Harry came back in an outfit that Brandt thought looked similar to what he, himself, had worn to the winter soiree. While the tailcoat he had worn had been burgundy, Harry wore one with longer tails that went down below his knees and had silver embroidery on the lapels. He wore that over a black vest and shirt, along with black slacks and shoes. The silver on the coat complimented the silver streaks in his hair. He looked ready for the meeting.
When they arrived at Elmswood, Opal already had a breakfast spread waiting for them. Having had a small breakfast already, Brandt questioned Harry about his plans for the day.
"So, Harry, how do you plan on dealing with the Minister?"
Between bites of his breakfast, Harry responded, "He probably wants to talk to me about something, so I'll let him do that for a bit. Then I want to push him a bit by asking about Lyra's dad, which I assume he'll not want to talk about. I'll probably be angry about that, even if I don't want to, so he'll be even more motivated to change the topic. From that point, I'll try to steer the topic to other members of Lyra's family, and try to get information about Sirius Black."
Brandt nodded along, "It's good to give him the reins of the conversation to start, but don't completely take over afterward. This is about giving and taking; give him a little control, then take it back. Do it for yourself as well; be the slayer of the Dark Lord, and be a twelve-year-old boy too. If you need any hints on what a child your age is normally like, think of your friend, Mr. Creevey."
"I think I've figured out what the man wants from me too," Harry added. "There's a section in the library of old Daily Prophets, so I looked for ones with Fudge on the cover. He likes to be seen with famous wizards in photos, kind of reminding me of Professor Lockhart. So that's exactly what I'm not going to give him until we get the information on the man who betrayed my parents."
"There might be other things he wants from you too," Brandt cautioned him. "A public statement about how well he's doing as minister. Maybe your opinion on some new law. Try not to make any statements like that unless you are 100% ok with them being in the newspaper."
"I'll keep him focused on the photos," Harry said with a small smile. "I had Colin take a photo of me with Professor Lockhart, and we both signed it. I'll give a copy of it to the minister."
Brandt laughed as Harry showed him the photo. The two of them were standing in the snow out front of Hogwarts, Lockhart stared into the camera and occasionally smiled, his teeth sparkling as much as the icy landscape around them. Now and then, he would place a hand on Harry's shoulder and the boy would look up at the professor with admiration in his eyes.
"This is perfect," Brandt pulled out his wand and made several copies of it at different stages of the animation, then inscribed permanence runes in the corner so they wouldn't fade away. "I need to show these to Lord Black. This is a masterstroke of manipulation."
"Thank you," Harry said while blushing at the praise.
"One more thing. At the quidditch match, the photographer was trying to take a candid photo of the two of you, without your permission. How do you plan on avoiding that this time?"
Harry was stumped, he couldn't just put a hand in front of his face because the photos were animated. They could just use a frame from when his hand wasn't there. He couldn't do that forever.
"Could I just look like I drank a Pinocchio Tincture whenever I see a camera? That way any picture they take would look like I don't like the minister or think he smells bad."
Brandt laughed again, "That would be an interesting thing to do, though I'd suggest sour candy if that was the path you wanted to take. However, I have a better idea." Looking over to Opal who was making more food in the kitchen, "Opal, would you mind bringing me my obscuring cloak? The black one with the silver clasp."
The little elf put some kind of bubble around the eggs she was cooking, then vanished with a pop. A few moments later, she returned with a black cloak that had a silver locking clasp right below the hood. Brandt took it and handed it to Harry.
"Stand up and put this on for a moment." Harry did as he was instructed. "Now, put up the hood," again, he complied.
When the hood was up, Brandt reached over and tapped the clasp twice. Harry quickly looked to his left side where he saw a small dark spot in his vision. However, no matter how much he turned his head, he couldn't look directly at the darkness.
Brandt waved his wand in front of him and cast a spell, "šelggon glássa."
The spell caused an ornate mirror with a golden frame a little bigger than Harry's face to be conjured in front of him, floating in the air. The reflection he saw had the cloak he was wearing, but his face was completely shrouded in shadow. While he was staring at the disguise, Brandt cast a few more spells to shorten up the cloak, so it wouldn't drag on the ground. When he was done, Brandt double-tapped the clasp again and Harry's face was revealed, and the black spot on the side of his vision vanished.
He dismissed the mirror and told Harry, "If you see a camera, or just want to hide your face, tap the clasp twice."
That worked perfectly, and Harry put down the hood and went back to his breakfast. When Harry started to wash his breakfast down with his orange juice, Brandt breached the next topic of conversation.
"I got in contact with your friend Liz's parents about today. We need to have a short conversation about how you can talk about your life around her, is that ok?"
Harry put down his glass and gave Brandt his full attention.
"So, for starters, the owl you sent her was smart enough to leave the letter in her postbox instead of delivering it directly to her. However, it didn't have any stamps on it, so the explanation I gave her parents was that if the school has a faculty member heading south, they occasionally do a mail run if there are places on their route." Harry nodded along.
"What you told her already that the school is in an old castle is perfectly fine, just don't explain too much about how it looks. This is primarily because Hogwarts would be the largest castle in the UK, and it would be tough to explain why no one has ever heard of it. If asked, there are about two hundred students in attendance for seven years of school."
"What about classes?" Harry asked.
"Try to avoid that topic," Brandt said with a grimace. "You can say that the curriculum has a lot of natural sciences, as well as history. You won't start advanced math until your third year. The next thing I wanted to make sure you had a story for was your time before school." Harry looked a bit unhappy, so he tried to reassure the boy. "We won't be telling the full truth, but it would be good to have a story based partially on truth, just so it's easier to remember, and won't sound fake. Do you understand?"
Harry nodded, though he still wasn't happy about it.
"It's alright to tell people you are an orphan. Your parents died when you were young and you don't like talking about it, which is true. You were placed with relatives, but it didn't work out and then you had to move somewhere else which you can't talk about. The best way to try to get around not being able to say where specifically you were is just that it was somewhere near a zoo, and you got to spend time with lots of animals. It can also be where you met Lyra. Try to keep your details vague because you're not supposed to talk about it."
"I don't want to talk about it," Harry said with a frown.
"Good, then don't," Brandt said. "But keep it in mind in case you do need to. Liz's mother is going to be taking her to a funfair. There will be kids and adults there playing games and going on rides. Do you remember how to use muggle money?"
"It's easier than wizard money because there are numbers printed on them," Harry said with a smile. "Hermione told me that her father said that the wizard currency system must have been designed by a drunk monkey." He giggled as Brandt had a small chuckle.
Brandt took out a leather wallet that had a small coin bag on it as well and passed it to Harry, "Put this in your pouch for now, but when we go to meet Liz, I'm going to take your wand and pouch, so you'll need to put the wallet in a pocket. You'll also get one of the magical suppression cuffs like you did on the airplane in case you have any accidental magic around the muggles."
"What if I need to use magic?" Harry asked, a bit nervous.
"One cuff won't completely seal your magic, it will just make it so small surprises keep you from shorting out any electrical systems in the area. Also, if there is a need for magic, Miss Tonks and I will be there. We can also wipe memories of muggles that witness anything we do, while you cannot."
Brandt finished his coffee as Harry his orange juice. Opal popped in just as they finished and with one hand levitated their dishes towards the sink while using the other one to shoo them out of the kitchen so she could clean up.
The grandfather clock showed that it was only 9:15, but Harry insisted on being early, saying he didn't want to make the minister wait as the Filipino officials had done to him. Arriving early would show that he felt like the meeting was important and by extension make the Minister think he was too. Brandt agreed with that reasoning and they took a floo to the ministry.
It turned out to be good that they arrived early because as they walked by the cafe in the lobby, Brandt noticed several reporters from The Daily Prophet still eating their breakfast right off the main floor. They had probably been tipped off about Harry's meeting and hoped to catch him arriving. Brandt reached over and tapped the clasp on Harry's cloak as they walked to the security desk.
At the desk, Brandt presented his wand first, and like last time nodded along to the man's questions about being 'Just Brandt?' After finishing his check, he looked down at Harry, whose face was still cloaked, and raised a questioning eyebrow toward Brandt. He put a finger to his lips, making a shushing gesture as Harry passed the man his wand. Despite that, the man still gasped and looked down when Harry's name appeared and looked down as Harry briefly revealed his face, then hid it again.
The man gave Brandt a wink and repeated the shushing gesture. Brandt smiled back but did not doubt that the moment they were in the lifts that this man would be alerting the press that Harry was there. He was proven correct as, after they had gotten into the lift and started heading to the top floor, they looked down into the atrium to see the security guard run over to the cafe and started pointing up at the elevator as he got the attention of the journalists eating there. A few of them tried to take some pictures, in vain, of Harry and Brandt rising to the top floor.
The elevator let them off and they exited into a hallway that split in both directions. It appeared to wrap all the way around the open area of the atrium, eight floors below them. In front of them were a small lobby and a desk, with the same wand-checking stand as was at the security station they had been at before. To the sides of the room were several high-backed chairs, half of them with wizards sitting in them reading the newspaper and waiting. At the desk was a woman with a jacket that looked like an Auror's, but in blue rather than red, and when she looked up and saw them exit the elevator, she beckoned them over.
Brandt walked ahead, and said to the woman, "We're a bit early, but we have a ten o'clock appointment with Minister Fudge."
She opened a book and scanned it, then said, "I'm sorry, but the Minister has that time scheduled already for…" she trailed off as she looked at the cloaked child following Brandt. "Oh!" She began to fidget a little bit, then asked Harry, "May I see your wand?"
Harry passed it over, and it was placed on the stand, as it had been at the security desk, with 'Harry James Potter' appearing on a piece of paper in front of the woman.
She handed back the wand with a smile, and said, "You have a very gorgeous wand, sir."
Harry smiled under his cloak at being called, 'sir,' but politely replied, "Thank you, ma'am."
She rang a small bell on her desk and from a door behind her a man came out wearing the same blue jacket as hers.
"Please bring these two gentlemen to Minister Fudge's office," she instructed the man. "Provide them with refreshments if he's still in his last meeting."
The man nodded and gestured them down one side of the corridor. He seemed in a generally good mood as he casually escorted them on their way.
He gave a questioning look to the cloaked child, and asked, "Is this your first time here?" Harry nodded. "Well, look around," he gestured to the walls as they walked.
In between each office they passed was a portrait of a different wizard and occasionally a witch. Most were sleeping, very few were watching them walk by with interest, and others still were empty.
"These are all the portraits of past Ministers of Magic. The empty ones are visiting their other frames. They don't talk much here as no one stands still long enough to hold a conversation with them. So most of them prefer to be elsewhere when they aren't sleeping so they can engage with the people. No one became a politician because they didn't like having people paying attention to them when they spoke."
That made sense, politicians, and heads of state to a higher degree were probably some of the more vain individuals in the world. Some of them might claim they wanted to lead to serve the people or make the world a better place, but you could do that by pulling strings behind the scenes. These people wanted to be out front and center.
At the end of the curved hallway, they were let out into a small lobby that currently had no one in it. Just six chairs around a coffee table. There was one door right next to the waiting area with a large red light bulb next to it, and another door further away from that the bulb next to it was white. Their escort gestured for them to sit.
"Would you like anything to drink?" he asked.
"Coffee, black," Brandt said, then looked to Harry to respond.
Harry wanted to appear a bit more dignified than juice, so he requested, "Tea, black, one sugar, please."
"It will be here in a moment," he said and left them there.
Brandt looked up at the clock on the wall, and said with a huff, "So now we have almost half an hour to wait."
"And when he sees that he made us wait, he'll feel guilty, like he owes us something, right?" Harry responded.
Brandt looked impressed, "Did Severus teach you that?"
"Daphne did," Harry responded.
Brandt smiled, he would try to speak to her parents to get the Greengrass girl to teach Harry more things like that. A moment later, their tea and coffee arrived, it was a bit too hot to drink right away, so they let it sit.
A few minutes later, the door with the white light opened and a large woman, nearly as tall as Brandt, and much wider around, exited the office. She wore a flowered dress with a long pink coat over the top of it. Her auburn hair was perfectly coiffed into curls that rested on her shoulders and gave a slight bounce when she walked. She looked like she spent as much time getting ready each day as Lockhart did, but with none of the adventuring to keep herself in shape.
She was about to turn down the hallway the way they had come when she turned back and looked towards Harry and Brandt, "Excuse me, young man," she addressed Harry. "This is the Minister's office, remove your hood at once."
Harry reached up to take it down, but Brandt stopped him. "I'm sorry Madam Undersecretary, my charge needs his presence to be kept discreet. No one else has objected to his use of a privacy hood before we arrived here."
"I'm sorry that no one pointed it out to you before, but I must insist," she said firmly.
Brandt gave Harry a defeated nod, so he lowered his hood. The large woman seemed to recognize him, but then just shrugged.
"You're Harry Potter? Well, it's not like you're an Unspeakable, so keep the hood off." she just turned and walked off.
When she was gone, Harry said, "She didn't care who I am, I like her."
Brandt made a face like he had just bit into a moldy piece of bread, then said, "It's not that she didn't care. That woman just thinks she is better than every person on the planet, and that other people were made to follow her orders. She causes a lot of trouble for Lord Black, and anyone else she comes across."
"Who is she?" Harry asked.
"That was the Senior Undersecretary Delores Umbridge. She is in charge of the other Under Secretaries that help shape policy for Minister Fudge's government. A lot of her politics do align with Lord Black's, but anytime she has a slight difference of opinion, she creates a lot of trouble and noise that makes it not worth it to deal with her every single time it happens."
Harry started drinking his tea while he digested that information.
At about five minutes to the hour, the door to the Minister's office opened and there was the sound of laughter as two men exited. The first was tall and had a long felt coat, and was in the process of putting a flat cap on over his bald head. The other was the minister, wearing a black robe over his round frame, and the same lime green bowler hat he had been wearing the last time Harry had seen him. As the two exited the office, the taller man turned to look at Harry and Brandt and stopped laughing in dead silence to stare at the boy.
Fudge continued to laugh for a moment more before turning to where the other man was looking, and after a second of shock, proceeded to say, "Ah Mr. Potter! I hadn't been told you had arrived!" He looked at the taller man who was recovering slowly, "Eugene, I need to get to another meeting, but I'll see you again in a week or two," he said firmly while giving the man nudges in the back to move on while gesturing Harry towards his office.
Brandt passed Harry a crystal vial, and said, "I'll be right here if you need anything."
Harry was a bit shocked, he didn't realize he was going in alone and looked very nervous until Brandt firmly pressed the crystal vial into his hand and gave him a confident nod. Following the Minister's eager gestures, he walked into the man's office, with the door closing behind them.
The office was a very long room, so much that it would probably take nearly thirty seconds to walk across the long expanse to arrive at the man's desk. As if reading his thoughts, Fudge reached up to a circular object on the wall and twisted it. Like magic, the end of the room with the desk drew closer as the room shrunk until the desk was right next to them.
"My apologies to you, Mr. Potter. The large office is a great tool to use when meeting with unpleasant people. Making them walk so far to see you shows them that they need to come to you, not the other way around." Harry thought that was a very smart tactic to use, and that he'd share the idea with Severus later. "I hope you didn't need to wait too long," he added as Harry was appreciating the magic of the room.
"It wasn't too long," he told the Minister, "Just long enough for the tea to cool. And we got here early enough that the reporters were all still having their breakfasts."
Harry observed the reaction on the man's face which showed disappointment that the press had not been able to document his arrival. The two of them sat down at the desk, and then Harry noticed the sparkle of disillusionment in the corner behind the minister, which had him jump up and grab his wand.
"There's someone in the corner!" he shouted and was just about to cast a spell when the person there dropped their concealment and cast a shield spell at the same time. The man was wearing an auror jacket.
"No need to be concerned, Mr. Potter," Fudge told him. "It's just my protection, I am the Minister after all." Harry lowered his wand as Fudge looked towards the Auror, "Seen by a first-year, Chapman? Please report for retraining in stealth tactics on Monday morning."
The man frowned, not knowing that his spell had probably been perfect, just not good enough for Harry. He then reapplied the spell, which did seem to be better now, with less sparkle than before, but still there. Harry resheathed his wand and sat back down.
"Well, I guess I should have expected great things from the Boy-Who-Lived," Fudge said as he sat down as well. With an inquisitive tone and raised eyebrow, he asked, "Can you still see him?"
Harry nodded and pointed to the man, he tried to take a few steps to the side, but Harry's finger followed him. Fudge just stared at the empty space, then pointed his wand and cast a revealing spell, causing the disillusionment to fail exactly where Harry was pointing.
"Impressive, Mr. Potter. I couldn't see anything." To the auror, "Mr. Chapman, you can stand by the door, so as not to distract my guest."
The Auror reapplied the concealment then walked to the door and stood there. Fudge turned a dial on his desk and Harry watched as the room stretched again until the auror was very far away.
"That should give us a little privacy. It's good to finally meet you, Harry. May I call you Harry?" He asked carefully. "You may call me Cornelius."
Another thing that Daphne had told him is that important people like to be called by their titles, and unless you were actually friends, you should call them by that.
"Harry's fine, but it doesn't feel right not to call you Minister or Mr. Fudge. You are the Minister of Magic, after all."
Fudge gave a deep laugh, "Yes, you're right Harry, I am the Minister." After sitting up straight, he continued in a more serious tone, "I'm sure you're wondering why I asked you to a meeting as not all the students at Hogwarts get a private meeting with the head of state."
"It was a little strange," Harry said, "Though I guess, while you're the Minister, I'm Harry Potter. Though I didn't get voted into being the Boy-Who-Lived."
Fudge looked apologetic, and said, "No, sadly you did not. Your parents were astounding people and did great things for this country; as you could do the same. I wanted to speak with you today to see what you thought of the British Ministry and to see if you would be willing to give a sign of support to your fellow countrymen so that they could see that we stand together."
This was the kind of thing that Brandt had suspected was going to happen but he truly didn't support the man who had let Lucius Malfoy out of prison. Now that the Minister was asking for his help, he could put his plan into action, shame the man, and then offer a way that he could make it up to him.
So, he put on the face of a confused child, and said, "I don't know, I've been told to stay out of politics until I'm older. I'm not sure I want to be involved then either."
Fudge gave him a friendly smile, "It's not getting involved, it's just showing support. All you'd need to do is say something nice and take a picture with me. I'm sure you've been taught how to give a nice firm handshake?"
"I have, sir. Though I'm not sure I do support you," Harry said carefully.
Fudge looked a bit confused, "Well why not?"
"Because of my sister, Lyra," Harry said.
"Sister?... Oh… Miss Black, that's right. What about her?"
Was this man that dense?
"When I first came back to England, on one of the first days back, the two of us were attacked by a man who turned out to be her father." He shivered, "It was terrifying, but then he was put in prison, which made it better." He looked up at Fudge who was beginning to show understanding. "If you had asked me then, I probably would have jumped and done it right away, as you had just imprisoned the man who haunted my sister's dreams… then you let him out."
Now Fudge was sweating. This was no simple matter that he could sweep under the rug, or placate the boy into understanding. He had put the only remaining family of the Boy-Who-Lived in danger. It didn't matter that she wasn't his real sister. To him, she was.
To respond, he drew himself up into a formal posture, adopted his most formal mannerisms, and started stuttering like a child caught out after curfew.
"You don't understand what goes into politics at the ministry. It's all games, games between powerful people. Sometimes you have to let bad people out to keep other bad things from happening. Your sister has an Auror detail to protect her. Our best and most senior Auror, Alastor Moody is protecting her. Sometimes these things just need to be done, as your Headmaster would say, 'For the greater good.'"
Not knowing that he had probably made things worse by bringing up the man who had stuck Harry with the Dursleys, Fudge sat back down and waited for a response.
"I've heard a lot of bad things about Mr. Malfoy, and while I know that a lot of them probably aren't true, people don't say things like that unless you are a bad person on some level. People don't talk about you that way, do they?" Not waiting for an answer, he continued. "From what I've been told, it seems like you try to do the right thing when you get the chance, right?"
Seeing a lifeline, Fudge grabbed it and held on for dear life, "I do, Harry, I do indeed try to do the right thing. The men and women I released from Azkaban are proof of that. They were given a second chance. They cannot leave their homes right now and will have the chance to be better people. Everyone deserves a second chance."
Harry hadn't known how he was going to transition into asking about Sirius Black, but this looked like a good way to do it.
"Some people don't deserve one," he said darkly.
"Who do you think doesn't deserve another chance?" Fudge asked carefully.
"Sirius Black."
Silence stretched for nearly a minute before Fudge swallowed loudly enough to break the silence.
"You know about him then?"
"Someone told me that I shouldn't be close to my sister because she is a Black, like Sirius. I tried to find out more information on him and why he betrayed my parents, but I can't find anything."
"Well, he's in Azkaban for the rest of his life, so you don't have to worry about that," Fudge consoled him.
"Then I'll never get an answer to why he did it! Not even Arcturus, as his grandfather or Lord Black, can send him mail in prison, and none of the newspapers say anything about why he did it either. He was my father's friend and then he got him killed, I want to know why!" He finished that off by yelling a bit.
"What if I were to help you out there, Harry? As the minister, I can check his files and find those things out for you. Would you like me to do that?"
Harry wiped his nose, as if he had been sad, and said, "I guess so…"
"How about I get that information for you, and then we get lunch together in a week or two? I'm guessing you can't be meeting with heads of state in the middle of the school week?"
Harry shook his head, "I think I'd have too much homework except on the weekends." Then he had an idea, "I like the food at Cynthia Abbot's tea house…"
"Lord Abbot's wife? Never been there myself, but I've heard good things. When I have the information, I'll make a reservation for us. How does that sound?"
"I guess so…" he repeated.
"Well, I should get working on that, so we can have a pleasant meeting next time, how about that?"
"Ok," Harry said. "I'll send an owl to Cynthia to await your reservation," he added to put some motivation into getting Fudge's task done quickly.
Fudge reached for the dial on his desk, turning it, and causing the room to contract to its smaller size. Harry got up and Fudge walked him to the door. On the way there, Harry casually pointed to the disillusioned auror standing to the side of the room as the invisible man responded with disbelief, "How are you doing that?"
Fudge opened the door to find Brandt standing there with his back to the door. There were six reporters with cameras standing in the hallway. Quick as he could, Harry flipped up his hood and activated the charm on the clasp to hide his face, right before the flashes started going off, then ducked back into the office.
"It's just photographers," Fudge said while standing in the doorway.
"I don't like surprises," Harry said, out of truth and because he didn't want to ruin his plan of not taking a photo with the minister.
"Just one photo," Fudge said, almost begging. "It will be fine."
Remembering he had a photo with him, Harry reached into his pouch and pulled out his staff and the signed photo with Lockhart. He passed it to the Minister and said, "Here, you can have this one for now."
As Fudge took the photo, he tapped his staff on the ground and lit up the entire room. The light spread out into the waiting area and every nook, cranny, and crack everywhere.
One reporter cried out, "My film! The light is exposing all of it!"
Colin had found out two weeks ago not to keep any new film in the bedroom as the light from Harry's staff exposed it before it was even put into his camera. Harry had paid him back for the lost film but asked Colin to keep it in the darkroom in the future. Knowing he would be safe from the reporters now, and with his face concealed under the hood, Harry walked out into the hall and Brandt quickly took him back to the elevators.
Once they were safely inside and heading down to the Atrium, Brandt asked, "How did it go?"
"Mission accomplished!" Harry reported, then began to analyze what happened again. "I think I did at least. He wanted me to show him support by taking a photo with him and saying some nice things to the reporters. So I told him I didn't support him because of letting out Lyra's father and then talked him into getting me information on Sirius Black. He wanted to give me the information at lunch in a week or two, in public, so I told him I would send an owl to Cynthia Abbot, to tell her that she should expect the minister to contact her about a tea time for us."
Brandt was about to respond when the doors opened and there were even more reporters waiting for them at the exit, flashbulbs going off all over as the doors opened. Harry jumped behind Brandt to hide from them.
The Steward pulled out his wand and pointed it to his throat, "Back off!" he yelled, magic amplifying his voice. "Mr. Potter will not be talking to the press today. If I see another camera go off, all of your film will be ruined!"
No one moved a muscle, and Harry peeked out from behind Brandt. Even with his face still hidden with the charm of the hood, one photographer tried taking another shot.
Brandt looked down at Harry, "Do it," he instructed.
Harry didn't want to punish all of them for the one mistake so, he tapped his staff and used his willpower to focus magic into a spotlight aimed directly at the reporter who took the other picture. The man tried to move his camera away, so Harry just widened the bean so there was nothing he could do as the light got inside the device and ruined his film.
"Anyone else wants to waste a roll of film?" Brandt threatened.
No one responded, and the two of them carefully walked through the throngs of people toward the floo exits. Along the way, Harry threw a few sickles he had in his pocket into the fountain. Then they called out "Elmswood Lodge," and vanished into the fire.
Dream Casting:
Delores Umbridge - Lorna Scott