Disclaimer: No. 'Tisn't mine.

Author's Note: Yay, whee, okay, I have nothing to say this chapter. Except something very vague about it having been my brother's birthday recently so excuse the horrendously short length of this chapter and review please because I love you? Er. Yeah. (Halo?)

review responses deleted

o.o.o.o

Tonks choked out something that sounded like an oath. She stumbled back again, but this time when she ran into the richly dressed man, she fell. Fighting back the strong desire to remain on the ground, which felt a little more stable than her world at present, Tonks started to stand. In a gesture that seemed reflexive, the man behind her bent down to help her.

"Look!" shrieked Fudge angrily, trying but failing to pitch his voice loud enough to drown out Harry's single, agonized, continuous scream. "It's another of his attacks! Potter is attempting to subvert our minds!"

A few of the people tore their eyes away from where they were staring in horror at Harry's prone figure, to look at Fudge, disbelieving.

"Subvert our minds?" a woman near Fudge repeated a bit timidly. "The boy's in pain, Minister, sir."

"It's an act, can't you see?" Fudge insisted shrilly. He yanked his bowler hat from his head and gestured with it toward Madame Tibbles. "Tribble! Have him searched, damn it, woman!"

Harry hadn't stopped or paused in his scream. The unnatural sound went on, long and strong as it had been when he started, filling the room.

"Right away, Minister," agreed Tibbles, nodding her large head officiously. "You--" she pointed at Bidge, "--And, you--" she pointed also at Tonks. "Search him! And get his wand this time!" Then she rounded on Pennywesh and ordered, "Go and fetch another dozen Aurors. Now!"

Pennywesh went. But unseen by Fudge or Madame Tibbles, she was stopped in the doorway by Shacklebolt, who held her back only long enough to send Smythe to accompany her. The door remained open behind them, but there was no-one in the hall to keep out -- everyone was in the little room with Harry.

Without really wanting too, Tonks and Bidge made their way over to Harry, where they spent several minutes praying he'd stop screaming, while making a large show of patting him down and searching his pockets.

When Tonks touched Harry's right hand, moving over it gently, as if checking to make sure he wasn't holding anything, she had to refrain from screaming -- it felt to her as if everything was broken to pieces. His wrist, when she inspected that, felt much the same. She didn't have time to call Bidge's attention to it, for the Minister was forcing Tibbles to call them back. Bidge went right away, but Tonks merely crept away to one side.

Several men from the crowd, including the one that she'd bumped into quite a bit, surreptitiously spread in her direction, and she found herself surrounded. She barely registered hands on her shoulders; she was still crouched on the ground. Glancing at their faces, she found they looked familiar, and friendly, but she couldn't place them, and didn't feel like trying. Her attention belonged on Harry, so she turned it back.

Minister Fudge was busy -- around yelling at everyone for not having Harry's wand -- giving a nonsense speech about how fortunate they were to have the 16-year-old firmly in Ministry custody. All of his fancy, outside-supporters were nodding and agreeing just as they were supposed to, and none of them looked the slightest bit concerned that Harry hadn't even had a trial, and yet the Minister of Magic was two steps away from sending him to Azkaban.

The Malfoys had pushed their way to the front of the crowd, and Draco had taken an eager step ahead of even them. He was the closest to Harry as the other boy stopped screaming and slowly returned to consciousness.

His eyes fluttered open and he gave a low groan. Glancing around him, he grimaced, and struggled into a sitting position, using the broken wall as a support. He coughed blood onto the back of his hand, shook his head as if to clear it.

"Well, wasn't that interesting," he muttered, blinking several times and wincing when he spotted all the people in the room with him. He seemed to find Draco Malfoy's white-blond hair particularly bothersome.

"Potter!" The Minister was furious. "What have you done with your wand! Where is it?"

"I don't have it," answered Harry rather unsteadily. His eyes had focused enough for him to glare intensely at Fudge. "Haven't since your people abducted me."

"We did not--" exclaimed one of the new Aurors that had entered the room before Harry'd awakened. The man didn't look as if he'd been told what Harry had done before passing out.

"Enough!" Madame Tibbles cut him off superiorly. "Potter is aware that we didn't, he's just trying to cause a scene."

"Yes, Madame Tribble," the Auror muttered sullenly, shooting Harry a hateful look, which Harry ignored. Tibbles looked happy enough, though.

"Oh... Fine." Fudge glowered most unpleasantly around at everyone. His shifty eyes settled on Harry, and his eyebrows lowered even more, deepening his scowl. "You'll just have to take him now and we'll secure his wand later, I suppose. This -- You're sure he doesn't have his wand?"

"Quite sure, Minister," Bidge replied in an almost respectful tone. Tonks remained silent, watching the way Harry was rubbing his head, as if it ached... rubbing it with both hands.

"All right, all right," sighed the Minister quite bitterly, for someone who was getting his way. He nodded at Madame Tibbles and the Aurors. "Get him out of here, then."

"Harry!" cried Tonks softly, struggling against the hands holding her. Bidge had no idea what was going through her head, what she thought she could do.

"Minister Fudge," Draco Malfoy called quickly, as the man was about to send the Aurors -- and Harry -- away. Fudge turned courteously to the Malfoy scion, bowler hat twirling in his hands. Glancing once at his father, Draco inquired, "Might I... have a word with Potter, before he's taken away? We go to school together, you know, and..." Here the blond boy seemed to run out of steam.

Lucius narrowed his eyes curiously at his son, but remained silent, adding or retracting nothing from his son's request. Clearly this wasn't something they'd discussed.

Harry was crouched shakily on the floor, recovering from whatever it was he'd gone through in his vision. Despite the blood, neither of his hands seemed to be bothering him anymore. He glared at Draco, and opened his mouth to protest.

"Shut up, Potter," Tonks thought she heard Malfoy hiss, "Think of the damn Weasel and shut up."

He didn't close his mouth, but Harry gaped silently at the blond, as if he'd been slapped and hadn't seen it coming. It shut him up, though.

"Oh, of... of course," mumbled the Minister, looking a little ruffled. "Of course. Just a minute, mind, but..."

"Alone."

Fudge blinked at him. "Yes, of course, Master Malfoy, but..."

"Thank you, Minister Fudge," Draco murmured, inclining his head. His parents were both watching him, Narcissa curiously and Lucius with a strange expression of pleased disapproval on his face. Still, neither one interfered with their son's actions.

The Minister managed to fluster his way out of the room, and before they really knew what was happening, pretty much everyone else was outside in the corridor as well. When Lucius closed the door behind himself, Draco and Harry were the only two in the room.

Somehow, someone had repaired the hole in the wall, at least temporarily. Harry only just noticed it when he was looking for something to pay attention to other than Draco.

"Didn't think they'd let me alone with you," whispered the blond wonderingly. "At least you didn't go and ruin anything with your angry snuffling. You were close for a second there, but you didn't."

"What do you want?" Harry snarled, struggling to rise from the floor.

"You didn't do any of those things they're accusing you of, did you?" demanded Draco, watching Harry with a peculiar sort of nervous expression on his face.

Snorting angrily, Harry snapped, "Not that it matters to you any, but no, I didn't do any of it."

"I figured," returned the other boy with a nod. After a pause, Draco cleared his throat. "I... this is way too much like something the Weasel would do, but... I have your wand, Potter."

Harry could do nothing but stare, as the tall boy reached into his robes and removed a long, thin piece of wood that was indeed his wand. Draco looked rather sheepish.

"When I heard what was happening, and then that you didn't have your wand, well, I snuck over to those Muggles' you live with, and filched it."

Harry kept staring. "Why are you doing this?"

"I've been... talking to some people this summer." Draco looked around cautiously, as if making sure that no-one but Harry could hear him. "They said a few things that... I finally thought were worth listening to."

"Who--" began Harry, reaching out with grasping fingers and taking his wand from the offering Slytherin.

But Draco simply turned and swept to the door, calling over his shoulder just before he left, "Don't let them know you have that."

Unsure whether he could trust Draco, Harry nonetheless hid the wand in one of his trouser pockets, before any of the Aurors saw it.

"You're done, then?" he heard the Minister's voice from the corridor. Draco must have replied, but Harry didn't notice it, and the next thing he knew, the room was filled with unfriendly Aurors once again.

"How're we doing this?" someone in the front asked, eyeing Harry warily. "I'm not touching him."

Harry made a dismissive noise and began to stand up. It looked rather painful. He glared at his legs, and put both hands on the wall to support himself. None of the Aurors in the room moved to help him; he idly wondered what had happened to Tonks, Pennywesh, Bidge and Smythe. And Shacklebolt too, really. He couldn't see any of them.

"We're taking him down to Departure, first, is what we're doing," another explained, pointing her wand at Harry. The others all followed suit, and before Harry knew it he had... quite a lot of wands point at him.

Which didn't really seem to bother him, for some reason.

He looked around calmly, and in a voice that wouldn't have been out of place at a fancy dress ball for Ministry officials, said, "Well? Are we going, then?"

Just like that.

Wide-eyed Aurors with trembling wands more followed, than led Harry out of the room. As soon as they reached the corridor, though, they had to at least pretend to have some control over the situation, so they closed ranks around Harry. He still managed to give the Minister an angry sort of stare, though, which seemed to make the man uncomfortable.

Most of the other people in the hall were looking very smug and pleased with themselves, none more so than Lucius Malfoy. Which was probably because he should still have been in Azkaban, himself, but had somehow managed to sweet-talk Fudge into letting him out.

Harry actually thought that might have had a lot to do with what was happening to him just then.

As they took him away, Harry thought he saw Tonks picking up a piece of the wall that he'd, er, killed. It didn't seem important, though -- it was just a wall, after all.