Holding a glass of firewhisky in his hand, Fudge stared blankly around him. He couldn't help the yearning and desperation from showing on his face as his eyes came to rest at the rather large and ornate fireplace of his equally large and ornate office. It was almost as if he was hoping for some form of comfort to come out from there in a rush of green flames.
Unfortunately for him, at the moment, the fireplace in the office of the Minister of Magic was as devoid of his sought-after comfort as it was of fire.
It had been barely two days after the disaster that was the public revelation of the continued existence of You-Know-Who and things were quite quickly going to pot.
Almost against his will, his gaze returned to the day's edition of the Daily Prophet sitting on his desktop. He winced again at the headline screaming "YOU-KNOW-WHO HAS RETURNED!" The Prophet had been quite willing to collude with him this past year, seeing as his story not only made sense (and to be frank, it had at the time!) but because he was the man in power. Now that Dumbledore and the boy had been proven to be right, the media was more than happy to rake his name over the coals, as evidenced by the sub-headline right underneath saying "FUDGE FUDGES THINGS UP". At least the previous day had been quieter, considering that the paper hadn't had the time to fully process the news.
Just then, his principal private secretary peeked his head through the door. 'Sir, your political advisor is here to see you.'
'Show her in,' Fudge said hurriedly, throwing the contents of the glass into his mouth.
A woman entered the office. Fudge always thought that she looked as if she had been poured into her clothes but forgot to say "when". However, he wasn't fool enough to say that out loud in the intimidating woman's presence. Not that he was in much of a mood to do anything except hold his head in his hands as she took a seat offering only a perfunctory greeting.
'Well, this is a mess.' She said primly, picking up the paper and glancing at the article. 'A real mess.' She commented again as she tossed it towards the bin, not even flinching when the dustbin jumped in the air and caught the paper.
'What do I do, Marge?' Fudge asked plaintively, ignoring the sounds of the bin devouring the paper.
The woman looked at him unsympathetically. In her largely unexpressed opinion, the minister had just about enough intelligence to open his mouth when he wanted to eat and no more. 'Oh, is it my advice that you want?' she said tartly. 'Well, I suppose you have no other avenue to turn to, have you? I haven't heard a word from Dolores since the fiasco that occurred at Hogwarts a little over forty-eight hours ago. And Lucius …' she smiled nastily. 'Well, I doubt we'll be hearing from him again very soon. Azkaban doesn't really allow regular visits, and they most certainly don't allow inmates the chance to pop by here for tea whenever they like. Especially when the said inmate is a Death Eater!'
There was a moment's silence.
'Yes,' Fudge said as he looked at her with hopeful eyes. 'Please, Marge. I would be ever so grateful.'
'Yes, quite.' Marge responded, unimpressed. 'I do not know how I can get you out of this mess, Cornelius. After that night in Hogwarts … there is talk of charges being filed against Dolores, the Auror department and you as well. Scrimgeour is on the warpath seeing as the incident put quite a bit of dirt on his face. And Amelia … that woman has been practically frothing at the mouth. Not only has she put the screws on Scrimgeour, but I know her well enough to tell you that the only reason she is quiet right now is because she has something big planned just for you.'
'I am sure something could be worked out,' Fudge said nervously. 'After all, it was all just a terrible misunderstanding! Hagrid can have his job back.'
'I doubt giving one half-giant his job back is going to help matters any, Cornelius.' Marge said blandly in response. 'Especially now that Dumbledore has happily waltzed into the school and everyone, including the Board of Governors, is pretending that he never left. Speaking of which, a little birdie told me that they are planning on using that night's fiasco in pushing for autonomy in their next meeting.' She sighed. 'At least you haven't thought of arresting Dumbledore for the destruction done to government property.'
'Why? Do you think that would be a good idea?'
Hearing that eager question, Marge realised that she had said that last sentence out loud. Also, Fudge had taken her seriously. 'No!' she said quickly. 'Do that and you might as well commit political suicide! The papers will tear you to shreds, not to mention what Bones and Scrimgeour will do when they hear of this! And honestly, you want to try and arrest Albus Dumbledore? Again? Especially in light of recent events? You do remember being in the atrium that night, don't you?'
Fudge knew what she meant. No matter how much he would love to forget about the fiasco that happened when he first tried to arrest Dumbledore, he wouldn't ever be able to forget the fight he had been witness to in the Ministry Atrium that night.
He remembered it just like it was yesterday. And considering that it had actually happened two nights back, he wasn't far off the mark.
A loud blaring indicating an incoming emergency call was what had roused him and his wife from a restful slumber.
He remembered making his way down to the drawing room fireplace blearily, rubbing his eyes with one hand while adjusting the dressing gown with his other.
All sleepiness had evaporated the moment he heard the words coming out the frantic Auror's mouth.
'Professor Dumbledore is here! And he's fighting You-Know-Who!'
In hindsight, Fudge considered himself lucky that he hadn't gone with his initial instinct of just rubbishing those fanciful sounding claims and gone back to sleep. He wouldn't be able to live it down if he had.
He had stepped out of the safe confines of his home into the Ministry of Magic where it quickly became apparent that it, at the moment, was the least safe place to be.
The once pristine atrium was swiftly being torn to shreds as two clearly powerful wizards were locked in deadly combat. The first thing Fudge had noticed was the state of The Fountain of Magical Brethren. The water in the basin had long since drained out of a large crack, sloshing around the wooden floors of the atrium and the feet of the two combatants who were unmindful of that as they splashed about and tried their level best to best the other.
On one side was Dumbledore, flanked by the golden statues of the Wizard and the Centaur that were constantly circling him and his opponent. On the other side…
A shiver of horror went down Fudge's spine when he saw who it was. There was no mistaking the demonic visage of the Dark Lord. Fudge had only seen that face once years ago, and there was no way he was ever going to forget it.
He barely registered Amelia and Rufus being dragged out of the fireplaces by the statues of the house-elf and the goblin. They had been indignant at first, but quickly forgot all about it the moment they saw what was going on. They were soon joined by a good portion of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. A lot of the Aurors in that group had gone through the unpleasantness all those years back and instantly recognised who Dumbledore was fighting.
Amelia hadn't even noticed the monocle falling out of her eye.
Wrenching his thoughts back to the present, Fudge mopped his suddenly sweaty face with a handkerchief. 'Yes, well, you should be happy to know that I have already sent out the order to have all those ministerial decrees revoked effective immediately.' Adopting a darker tone, Fudge muttered, 'The old man is definitely going to be happy that we aren't going to be interfering with his domain anymore.'
'Well, that is a good move,' his advisor said with a mixture of approval and surprise. 'It was something that I was going to suggest, honestly. Remove them before anyone has the chance to force you into removing them. At least this way, we can present the appearance of a Minister who is willing to admit to his mistakes and working to rectify those mistakes.'
'Yes,' Fudge said with the beginnings of a smile. 'That is a good idea!' He turned to Marge, a light in his eyes. 'We can issue a press statement. Tell them that I am only a man, after all. All men make mistakes, but one must move on and work to correct those mistakes. To err is human and all. In fact, I'll take the opportunity to announce that I am giving Dumbledore back his position as Chief Warlock. It certainly should help.'
'That is a good idea,' Marge said, making a note. 'However,' she looked at Fudge gravely. 'I doubt this will be enough. You are going to need a much stronger statement to get confidence back. I won't lie, the past events have done quite a bit of damage to your image. Especially in light of what, ahem, he had said.'
Fudge visibly deflated. 'I'll need a miracle to keep my job!' He said despairingly. Having You-Know-Who appear in the middle of the atrium of the Ministry of Magic was itself a bad thing. The speech given by the Dark Lord to all and sundry when there was a lull in their duel just compounded matters.
A part of Fudge still shrivelled in shame at the thought of being credited with allowing You-Know-Who to gather his strength for a year in peace. Though, that was nothing compared to being acknowledged by the gleefully cackling dark wizard as the cause behind the death of Harry Potter. The evil man was more than happy to tell everyone that he had struck Potter down with the Killing Curse all the while mocking Fudge for not believing the boy who he sardonically called a "hero better than all the spineless sheep in the ministry".
Suddenly an idea came to him. 'A miracle!' he said, snapping his fingers. 'I know what to do,' He practically leapt to his feet in excitement. 'I'll get back to you in a few minutes, Marge, I have an idea!' Saying this, he started moving towards the door of the office.
'And what idea is this?' Marge asked in concern as she followed him. Experience told her that it was generally a bad thing when Fudge had one of his "ideas".
'Oh but that's a secret!' Fudge said knowingly, tapping his nose. 'I'll let you know later when I am successful.' Saying so, he ushered her out of the door.
'If, Minister,' Marge said to the closed door in front of her. 'If, not when'
Turning around she decided that now would be the best time to go and search for a new boss. If she was lucky, she might end up advising Fudge's replacement.
And here we have chapter 3. As you can see, it is a bit longer...
By the way, anyone notice that there was some weird problem with the alerts recently? It made uploading chapters very problematic for me!