Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.
Arthur was certainly unpopular with Fudge and his cronies, as not only had he deposed one of Fudge's loyal lapdogs to take charge of the new Foreign Affairs Department, he had also taken the best parts of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and kicked its head, Eustace Brockworth, downstairs to some dingy offices with the dregs of his department.
The first day, Arthur addressed the personnel of his department and told them that a) that he was responsible for anything that happened in his department, so he was implementing the same rule as the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Any and all orders in Foreign Affairs would come from him, and him only. He was the only one who would accept any instructions from outside the department and if he found that anyone in his department had accepted any orders that didn't come through him, at the very least they would be dismissed. and b) they had to read and comply with all of his rules or they would be dismissed.
He could see that the entrenched ones who had come from Magical Creatures had no intention of complying, so he called for the records of what had been done by their teams over the past few years and started firing the trouble makers on the basis of what they had done, or because they hadn't done anything. This of course had him immediately called to Fudge's office, where he was told that he was not allowed to fire the established people who had been moved into his department. Arthur started throwing files on Fudge's desk, files that showed activities that would have been judged criminal if they were investigated by the DMLE and evidence that some of them had sat at their desks and done absolutely nothing for years.
Fudge argued that he was misrepresenting the facts so he said. "Why don't we see what the DMLE has to say about that Minister?" and before Fudge could stop him, he had floo called Madam Bones and asked if he and the Minister could get her opinion on a few things. Amelia came through straight away and asked what they'd like her opinion on and before Fudge could say anything, Arthur handed her the files.
In nearly every case, Amelia ruled that the activities described, boasted of in many instances, had construed criminal acts and asked why her department had never been advised of these actions before. Fudge tried to argue that these Ministry officials had just been doing their jobs and there was nothing criminal involved here. She just looked at him for a while before she answered.
"I am beginning to understand the poor judgement that you displayed in the illegal arrest and incarceration of Lord Black now Minister Fudge. It appears that I will have to pay close attention to the education of the personnel that I have acquired from the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes as it would appear that the understanding of what construes legal and illegal behaviour in that department is rather lacking. I can assure you that every one of these incidents would have resulted in criminal charges if they had come to the DMLE. Therefore, I will be reviewing all the records for Lord Weasley's department and take any I deem merit it to trial, all of these merit going to trial on the basis of what was recorded. These witches and wizards are not fit to represent the Ministry of Magic, and many of them belong in Azkaban."
She turned to Arthur. "I am sorry Lord Weasley, but it appears that you will be losing a good percentage of your new staff."
Arthur waved that away. "Please don't apologise Madam Bones, I was just trying to explain to the Minister why I was dismissing these people, because apparently some of them went to their old head of department when they were advised that they were being dismissed, along with those ones who do not appear to have worked a day in their lives."
Amelia nodded. "Well it is a relief to know that I have not given you any disturbing news. I am in fact having similar problems with some of the people that the DMLE has just acquired, though I hadn't thought to review their prior activities, it would appear that I will be required to do that as a matter of priority now…. If these are anything to go by, there is a good chance I'll have to be taking many of my own people to trial as well."
She turned back to Fudge. "I presume that you no longer have any objections to Lord Weasley and myself weeding out the bad apples in what we have acquired from other departments in the Ministry, Minister Fudge?"
Fudge wasn't at all pleased with how this had gone, Weasley was supposed to have accepted that he would not be firing anyone who had been transferred into his department and that he would do exactly what he was told from here on in. Now it was looking like a strong possibility that the majority of the ones who had been transferred from Creatures and Accidents would be fired, if not sent to Azkaban. "I'm not happy about this Amelia, not happy at all! I insist on having the final word on any dismissals from either of your departments!"
She looked him in the eye. "I, and I'm sure Lord Weasley, will certainly discuss the dismissal of any personnel that we deem unsuitable for our departments Minister. Excluding, of course, those who must go to trial for illegal activities, there can of course be no argument against getting them out of the Ministry! For the others however, you cannot expect our other personnel to cover the workloads of these people as well as their own. Therefore, if you oppose them being dismissed from the Ministry we will, of course, expect you to facilitate their transfer to some other department so that we can replace them and get the necessary work done in our departments."
Arthur leant forward. "That appears quite fair Minister, if you do not wish those people out of the ministry, I am sure you can find a quiet office in another department for them. Do not forget that our two departments will be under the eyes of the Wizengamot Inspectors after the changes, and I am sure that the Ministry wouldn't want them making reports about Ministry officials who sit around doing nothing all day, would it?"
Fudge's eyes were just about popping out of his head, eventually he managed to get control of himself enough to bark. "I want to see the full files with proper justification for anyone you want out of your departments and there better be good reasons for every one of them! Now get out, I don't have time to waste with you!"
Arthur gathered up the files, asking Fudge for the ones he was trying to hide, and then left the office with Amelia. Fudge was too aggravated to notice that Amelia had left via the door rather than returning to her office via the floo. It was a struggle, but they both managed to keep straight faces until they were in the lift. Amelia signalled Arthur to come to her office to talk, and as soon as they were inside and safe from prying eyes she kissed him, because he'd just given her a way to get rid of most of the dregs she'd been saddled with too.
She and Arthur called for some food to be sent in and went through the files for the activities of the Creatures and Accidents departments together. The vast majority of the files were flagged for criminal trials, and there were also quite a number where the evidence showed that they didn't do anything. Less than a quarter of the ones transferred to the two departments had records that appeared good enough to keep them on.
Seeing this, Amelia decided to do a proper review of the rest of the DMLE. She was reasonably confident that most of the Aurors were worth keeping now, but she hadn't looked closely into most of the other areas, maybe it was time to do so. Considering the background Fudge had had with the Hit Wizards, that would probably be a good place to start.
Arthur was confident enough of the outcome of the trials of the ones they'd selected that he put the word out for people to replace most of the personnel in his department, then he and Amelia went back to Fudge with the files for the ones who weren't doing anything. Fudge tried to bluster but in the end he gave in and arranged to move them all to other departments because Amelia waved the Ministry rule book under his nose, specifically the page where it said that department heads had the authority to dismiss any personnel who did not perform well enough to meet their requirements, and hire replacements for them. When Fudge tried to argue that Arthur was too new to have that authority though, he saw a different side to Arthur Weasley.
"Are you trying to apply different rules to me than what apply to every other department head in the Ministry Minister? Show me the regulation that gives you that authority, or better yet, show the Wizengamot! The Wizengamot voted almost unanimously to put me in charge of the new department to manage Magical Britain's interfaces with the Muggles and other magical breeds. I have identified personnel who were transferred into my department who are refusing to work, and their records show that they have not made any significant effort in some time. I also find it interesting that quite a number of them were transferred into the groups that were coming under my control just before I took them over by the way, so I will be calling for a formal investigation into that! This meant that the groups I took over were also top heavy with senior officials who had little knowledge of the groups that they were in, and if I was a suspicious man I'd believe that someone had been making a concerted effort to ensure that the Foreign Affairs Department failed. But that is neither here nor there…."
He shook the files in his hand at Fudge. "These people will be out of my department by the end of the day, and out of the Ministry as well unless you find other placements for them before I terminate them. I should probably thank whoever it was who decided to pad my department with all of these senior people who won't do anything actually, because it will be easier to hire in properly qualified people to replace them at those pay rates. It would be rather stupid for anyone to try and downgrade any of the pay rates for their positions once we get rid of them, because the Wizengamot Inspectors would be on that like a terrier on a rat!"
That was when Fudge realised that Arthur Weasley was going to be a very big thorn in his side, and that they'd actually played into his hands by filling up the ranks of his groups with those old fools who could hardly stay awake through the day. He conceded defeat and quietly arranged to move them into other departments (at a lower wage, he added to himself). The smile on Arthur's face as made his goodbyes made it very hard for Fudge to remain civil until they had left his office.
It didn't take Amelia long to arrange trials for the large pile of charges that they'd put together on the basis of what the personnel in their departments had admitted to in their reports. They were all questioned under Veritaserum in front of a Wizengamot trial board and charged. Some went to Azkaban, but the majority of them were let off with fines or warnings because it turned out that many of them had actually exaggerated their actions in their reports. All of them were dismissed and banned from ever working for or doing business with the Ministry ever again though.
Most of Arthur's new hires were Muggleborn or Half-Bloods, and they were considerably more qualified and motivated than the Purebloods they replaced. Those Purebloods who did remain in the department were a different breed to most in the Ministry, and they were happily working with the new hires towards making the vision that Arthur had for the department come to life.
The general public of Magical Britain began to see the benefits of the new arrangements within a few months of Arthur taking charge of Foreign Affairs, because changes negotiated between Foreign Affairs and the Goblin Nation meant that the money that they had sitting in Gringotts could actually earn money. Xeno put articles in the Prophet to explain that this was something done in the Muggle world called investments and interest, but most people didn't care about that. Much of the wizarding world flocked to Gringotts to see what they had to do to start earning this interest on the money which had up until now just sat in their vaults doing nothing until they needed it. Xeno made a point of reporting that this had all come about from the initiatives that Lord Weasley, the head of the new Foreign Affairs Department, had negotiated with the Goblins.
After she had looked into them, Amelia scrapped the Hit Wizards (most of them went to trial for their illegal actions, but some were allowed to retrain to qualify as Aurors), replacing them with a bigger intake of Aurors, as she had additional funds now and the far more qualified and capable Aurors weren't paid that much more than the Hit Wizards had been anyway. From what they found out, the main reason the Hit Wizards Office had been created was that most traditional Purebloods couldn't meet the minimum requirements to qualify to become Aurors.
One of the first things Arthur handed over to the DMLE was the open cases from the Werewolf Capture Unit, because he'd fired everyone in the unit when he reviewed what they'd been doing. Both he and Amelia were furious that they had been supposed to be looking for monsters like Fenir Greyback for decades but they hadn't done a bloody thing. If they'd tracked down and stopped Greyback back when they first got the case, Remus and countless others would have been spared all that pain and suffering, not to mention the ones who had been killed when they turned.
The Aurors and the Investigation Office weren't busy, and tracking down rogue werewolves was something they could get their teeth into. Amelia contracted Remus in to assist with the investigation and capture of the rogue werewolves, though he may have done it for free if she'd told him that their top target was Greyback, because Greyback had been the one who turned him when he was a small child.
While Arthur and Amelia were having fun turning the Ministry upside down, Harry, Hermione and the others were turning wizarding education on its head. Harry and Hermione were joining Penny and Hagrid doing their OWLs, but they were both doing all twelve possible subjects. Penny was doing eleven (skipping Care of Magical Creatures) while Hagrid was doing nine (skipping Arithmancy, Muggle World Studies and Magical World Studies). The other thirteen were all set for their third year end of year exams too.
They all got through their exams fine, and Professor McGonagall helped Hermione convince her parents that she needed to stay with her fellow students and work on the fast track program over summer. They should have realised then that things were going too well.
The first indication that their worlds were colliding again came when they arrived at Potter Manor for the summer. Sirius had been rather put out when Harry and Hermione's reactions to his proud announcement that he had made all the arrangements for them all to attend the Quidditch World Cup in style in six week's time, because they both looked horrified.
It wasn't until they heard the young couple whispering furiously at each other about how this wasn't supposed to have happened for another two years that the others worked out what was going on. The others managed to get them to settle down enough to explain that this had happened at the start of their Fourth Year last time, and the World Cup had been part of the setup to bring the Triwizard Tournament back.
When that was met with blank looks, they explained that the Triwizard Tournament had been a competition between the major magical schools of Europe that had been run for five hundred years until it was banned two hundred years ago because too many competitors, and spectators too, were being maimed or killed in every tournament. In the last Tournament, a dragon had gone on a rampage and killed the competitors, the judges and quite a number of the spectators. That was the final straw and the Tournament had been banned from that point on.
What they couldn't understand though was who was behind bringing it back this time? Last time Dumbledore and Barty Crouch Senior had been behind the machinations to bring it back, using Ludo Bagman as a willing patsy. Voldemort had been involved as well, using Barty Crouch Junior, polyjuiced as Alastor, to set Harry up to ensure he was brought to the graveyard for his revival ritual at the end of the Tournament. (The adults understood why Harry glanced at Cedric at that point, but none of the other students picked up on it.) But Dumbledore and Barty Senior were in Azkaban and Voldemort and Barty Junior were dead, so who had organised it this time, or would it just be the World Cup this time because of the changes they'd made?
Getting back to the matter at hand, Hermione mentioned that last time there had been a fairly major Death Eater attack after the World Cup match had finished. They had burnt many of the tents, abused and terrorised the muggle family who owned the land that the stadium and camp ground were on and Barty Junior had cast the Dark Mark. If that happened again, that would indicate that either there were people who wanted to get the Death Eaters started again, or someone who wanted to convince the wizarding community that there were.
She smirked then as she turned to the twins. "And if you two make a bet with Ludo Bagman again, just know he pays in leprechaun gold when he loses!"
Hermione suddenly sobered and pointed out that events seemed to be repeating themselves, no matter what changes they made. After all, she and Harry had stayed well away from Ron and Ginny, and Percy hadn't had a chance yet to get to know Penny, let alone make her his girlfriend this time around, but the three of them had still been paired up with them in those Ministry's betrothal contracts. That was why she and Harry didn't think the World Cup coming to England was a coincidence, and that the Tournament would happen as well.
They quickly decided that they were still going to the World Cup, because most of them were looking forward to it and they couldn't do anything to stop what happened if they weren't there. Amelia started making arrangements to have a good number of Aurors on-site, and to quietly bring in what other Aurors and Trainee Aurors she had by port key the moment anything happened. Everyone who knew ahead of time was made to give an oath of secrecy, so that no-one else would find out that they were ready for something to happen. She also made arrangements to have a team of Goblin ward experts on-site to erect anti-apparation wards over the entire area as soon as something happened, to prevent the so-called Death Eaters escaping. If this happened as Hermione said, she was planning to have some very interesting discussions with these so-called Death Eaters.
She didn't have any fear that the 'children' would let anything slip, because their occlumency skills were better than most adults'. In fact, between the training they'd done in this life and the last and their family magics, she'd put money on the fact that Harry and Hermione were as good as Albus Dumbledore had been at his best, if not better.
While the students were moving forward with their lessons (working through the summer break as well was part of what they'd agreed to), those who hadn't gone through their animagus transformations with Harry, Hermione and the others were working on them now.
Amelia and Arthur tried to find out who had organised the World Cup and whether they had anything else in the works. They discovered that Martin Abbot, Sue's friend Hannah's father, had taken over as the Head of the Department for International Magical Co-operation when Delores Umbridge went to Azkaban. He and Ludo Bagman, who was still the Head of the Department for Magical Sports and Games this time around, had indeed brought the World Cup to Britain, so that hadn't changed much.
There were also rumours that they'd pulled off something else that would cause a sensation, which made it sound like the Triwizard Tournament was indeed coming to Hogwarts. They contacted Minerva when Harry and Hermione first mentioned the Tournament, but she hadn't heard anything from the Ministry about it, so it appeared that the Ministry was playing games, but that was no great surprise.
By the time the World Cup came around, the students had all successfully completed their first animagus transformations. The big surprise was Millie's animal form, because it was a Mngwa like Harry and Hermione's. That led to a bit of speculation about what the relationship between the three was. The rest were more normal, Katie's was a kite, Neville, Sue and Luna's were all owls, Padma's was a Dhole, Tracey's was an African Wild Dog, Daphne's was a wolf, and Astoria's was a Golden Jackal. They were all a long way from mastering their transformations of course, but they'd gotten through their first transformations fine.
Sirius and Remus arrived at the World Cup camp ground first to set up the tents, one for the boys, one for the girls, and one for the adults. They had trunks in all the tents, to use the trunk floos as well as provide private living quarters for some of them. Once the tents were set up, they all came in via the trunk floos, except for Narcissa and Draco, and Madam Hooch, Padma and Parvati. They port keyed in like the other spectators because they still weren't a hundred percent sure of Draco, and Madam Hooch and Parvati weren't privy to their secrets (they had invited Madam Hooch to join them because she was just as Quidditch mad as Minerva was).
The students wandered about the fair picking up merchandise like any other kids, though they were accompanied by the adults and shadowed by the goblin guards, because Gringott and Ulfr wouldn't allow Harry and Hermione to attend something like this without being properly protected, and Andi, Alastor and Sirius agreed with them. They were amused to see that the British fans were only a small fraction of the people here, and had to laugh about how clueless most British were about what was being said around them by the foreign visitors.
Harry and Hermione were discussing this as they listened to the comments about the British, because they could understand most of what was being said. They had to agree with much of what was said about the British, because Magical Britain was a minor power nowadays, but while most British were arrogant enough to demand that others speak English when dealing with them, they conveniently 'forgot' this when they were insulting their foreign visitors, just saying that they didn't realise that they spoke English if anyone was offended by their comments.
Harry had used his metamorphmagus talent to change his appearance and Hermione was using glamours to do the same, to ensure that no-one recognised them. They were taken as foreigners by the British and visitors alike because they were speaking to the visitors in their own languages. This meant that they had several altercations with British boys who were making lewd comments about Hermione. It was rather disappointing to see that much less than half of the parents who stepped in to stop these altercations made any attempt to chastise their sons for their unacceptable behaviour.
When they went up to their boxes in the stadium for the match, Sirius had a hard time stopping himself from laughing out loud at the expressions of the Ministry people as they took in the fact that the boxes that he had reserved for the family and their friends were easily three times bigger than the Ministry box. Harry and Hermione were happy that Winky wasn't there, because she'd been terrified last time, being forced come this far up to babysit Barty Junior in the Ministry box.
Harry had to hide his amusement on the outrage on Fudge and Martin Abbot's faces when the French Deputy Minister of Magic brought his family over to introduce them to Arthur, as they'd met when Arthur was talking to the French about matters of protocol with other magical beings. Louis Delacour had taken an interest in Arthur's attitude to people of other breeds, because his wife and daughters were all Veela, and they suffered considerable prejudice against them because of that. This was why he wanted to introduce them to a man who didn't appear to show any prejudice at all.
The introductions became quite spirited when Arthur introduced them to the famous Harry Potter, because the Delacours' youngest daughter, the ten year old Gabrielle, had developed quite a crush on the Boy-Who-Lived from all of the stories that had been made up about him. Gabrielle was quite crestfallen when Harry gently told her that those stories were all lies, but no less charmed by him.
Apolline and the soon to be sixteen year old Fleur Delacour were paying more attention to something else about these people they were being introduced to, the men and boys in particular, because none of them were fawning over them or leering or pawing at them like most men did, including those in the Ministry box. Being Veela, they could see the strength of the link that Harry had to the girl beside him, and to a lesser degree the other girl who stayed close to them, but none of these men and boys had been turned into drooling idiots by the Veela allure like most men were.
As a protective husband and father, Louis had noted this as well, and he quietly asked Arthur about it.
Arthur replied just as quietly. "It's training mostly Louis, many of us dealt with a lot in the last war, some are Aurors, Alastor is the most famous Auror we've had, and because of the type of threats they will quite likely have to face, we've made sure that all of our children are trained and practised in occlumency. They've also received Auror training including throwing off the imperius curse, so they can resist your wife and daughter's allure better than most. We have a few others with us who don't have the same training, but Draco's father was a Death Eater and he had his own style of training in these things."
"Incredible! Do you think your party would mind if my family and I joined you Arthur? I have not seen my wife and daughters this comfortable in a group of people before, and they certainly aren't comfortable with the way they were being treated in the Ministry box."
"I'm sure that we will be happy to have you Louis. These boxes are Sirius's, so I'll just ask him."
Louis nodded gratefully. "Certainement."
Arthur stepped away for a moment, and Sirius came back with him. "We'd love to have your family join us Louis! The more the merrier, that's why I reserved a bit more space than we needed."
Louis clasped his hands and bowed his head in gratitude. "Merci Comte Black! Now if you would excuse me, politics demand that I let my previous host know that my wife and daughters have found friends over here and wish to stay, so as I cannot deny them anything we will be spending the rest of our time over here."
Arthur stopped him before he left. "Louis, if there are any other requests to join us, particularly from my ex-wife's children, could you tell them that there's no room as we're waiting for other guests please?"
Louis looked over at the Ministry box. "Your ex-wife's children?"
Arthur nodded to them. "The two red headed boys and the red headed girl."
The look on Louis's face said that he wanted to ask how his ex-wife had other children in the same age ranges as his sons here, but he was too polite, so he just said. "Certainement." and went to tell Apolline that they were staying here before he went to give his apologies to Fudge.
When the Bulgarian Veela mascots put on their show before the start of the Quidditch match, they watched the display being put on by the men and boys in the Ministry box with a mixture of amusement and disgust. Apolline and Fleur in particular were distressed to see the way those men looked at the Veelas because at least half of the mascots were related to them, second, third or fourth cousins.
While this was going on, Arthur gave Louis a brief account of the fact that just under a year ago, it had been uncovered that three of the seven children who were supposedly his had in fact been sired by other wizards while his wife was married to him. It was also discovered that she and someone he had trusted had been keeping him under their control with potions and compulsion charms ever since he met her at Hogwarts. His wife and her accomplice had been tried and sentenced to Azkaban and the other wizards's children were cast out of his family and taken in by their real fathers, as that was what they wanted. When Louis looked over at the Ministry box and asked whether Minister Fudge had been one of those wizards, Arthur just nodded grimly and Louis apologised for being so indelicate, but Arthur just waved it away.
While they were talking, Arthur also suggested that Louis and his family come to their camp after the match, because they had heard rumours that there would be a disturbance afterwards. Looking down at the Veela mascots, he suggested that they be invited along as well, as the people who were thought to be behind the expected disturbance were the type who would be likely to target Veela. He assured him that they could provide safe escort for them.
Louis snorted at that. "Yes, we have seen that, in fact Apolline has asked why you have goblins of that calibre in your party."
Arthur smiled grimly. "They are primarily here for the protection of Harry and Hermione but they protect all of us, and we have some other quite formidable fighters in our group as well. Your family will be safer with us than anyone else Louis."
"I do not doubt this Arthur, and gratefully accept your offer. Now if you will excuse me, I will get Apolline to send a message to try and get her cousins to join us."
He left at Arthur's nod.
When he saw Fred and George getting excited about how the match was going, Arthur asked them if they had ignored Hermione's warning about making a bet with Ludo Bagman?
They both shook their heads with a grin, but it was George who answered. "No Dad, We didn't ignore Hermione, we took precautions, we've got a sure way of detecting leprechaun gold and Hermione gave us five thousand galleons to bet with him. If it doesn't pay off, she'll let us work it off over time, but if it does, we'll pay her back her investment and half of the winnings and we'll use the rest to start that joke shop we want."
Arthur looked at them suspiciously. "Just how much are these winnings supposed to come to, if half will give you enough money to start a shop?"
"At the thirty six to one odds he gave us for Viktor Krum catching the snitch, but Ireland winning the match, a hundred and eighty thousand galleons."
He frowned at them. "We'll be talking about this if you win boys, you can be sure about that!"
He went straight to Hermione after that. "What's this I hear about you giving my sons the money to cheat Ludo Bagman young lady?"
Hermione smiled at him, totally unrepentant. "For a start Arthur, I didn't give them the money, I invested it with the expectation that it will pay off like it did last time. And we aren't cheating Bagman, I didn't tell them what the bet was, but the twins have made the same bet they did last time and just like last time, Bagman was so sure he couldn't lose that he jumped at taking it. The odds are just over half what they got from him last time, but the bet's nearly ten times as much, so that's to be expected."
She paused and turned more serious. "Bagman's been cheating people for a long time Arthur, and he has made a fortune from it. Amelia agrees that it is quite fitting for the twins and I to profit from helping bring him to justice, and she'll be there with some Magical Law Enforcement Patrol officers to arrest Bagman when the twins prove that he tried to pay them in leprechaun gold. The goblins have confirmed that he should have enough real gold in his vaults to pay any bets that he has taken here, so people will get the money they're due and Bagman will pay for cheating people out of their winnings."
Hearing that Amelia was on-board with this did quite a bit to allay Arthur's fears, but he was still a little uncomfortable with his sons being involved in something like this.
The match was quite exciting, and the result was exactly what Fred and George had bet on, so they went looking for Bagman to collect as soon as the match was over. When the test proved that he had indeed tried to pay them off in leprechaun gold, Amelia and the officers removed the glamours they had been hiding under and told Bagman that if he didn't have enough real gold to cover the bets he'd taken he'd be under arrest. Luckily for Bagman, he'd taken enough bets that he could pay the twins the hundred and eighty five thousand galleons he owed them, but Amelia left one of the officers there to make a record of what needed to go to whom if he couldn't cover the rest of the bets he'd taken.
There was quite a party heading back to their campsite, because all of the Veela mascots had jumped at the chance to come along when Apolline's cousins got the note from her to say that they may be in danger if what was expected to happen did and that they'd been offered protection in one of the camps. They were all put under glamours, half of them as men, so their group didn't look too different from the other groups heading back to their tents.
The Irish fans were already getting rowdy with their celebrations, so they breathed a sigh of relief once they were inside the tent. The first ones inside caught Sirius casting the expansion charms to make the tent big enough for all of them and were quite impressed, because they knew how hard doing that on the fly was.
The veela were nervous about being in one room with well over a dozen men, even if half of them were young, but Apolline calmed their fears, speaking to them in Bulgarian. "Do not worry, all of these wizards have enough control to resist the Veela allure!"
Some of the other Veela weren't inclined to believe that. "Do you really expect us to believe that every one of these British wizards could control themselves if we relaxed the control over our allure Auntie?"
It was Harry who answered that, in fluent, almost flawless, Bulgarian. "Believe or do not believe, but do not insult my friends and family! Madame Delacour and her daughters have been in our company all night and I do not believe that they have been given any reason to feel uncomfortable with us..."
Apolline and Fleur interjected with emphatic "Non!"s at that.
Harry inclined his head to them gratefully as he continued. "We have reason to believe that there will be a disturbance here tonight and that the people behind it are not likely to be wizards that you would enjoy interacting with, but if you do not feel comfortable staying here with us, we will not detain you, you are free to go."
Some of the Veelas looked as though they may do that, but Apolline barked. "Sophia! Do not go out there! Your mother would never forgive me if I let you leave and you got hurt. You are safe here with these wizards, you would not be safe with the type that they believe are out there!"
That settled the matter, because Madame Apolline was well respected in the Veela community, so if she forbade her cousin's daughter from leaving because of the danger and said that they were safe here, they were staying where they were. The fact that they knew goblins well enough to recognise the ones here as elite warriors added to that sense of security.
They called for the house elves to bring food and drink and they settled down to a nice evening, until about an hour after they reached the tents. When they heard the unmistakeable sounds of mayhem, Harry popped out of the tent using elf magic to check, popping back in ten seconds later to tell Amelia that it had started. Amelia mirror called Kingsley to bring the Aurors and then called the goblins to erect the anti-apparation wards. As arranged, the better fighters of the adults ran out to help keep the trouble makers engaged until Kingsley and the rest of the Aurors arrived. Louis and his French Auror escorts went with them, citing a duty to protect French visitors out there.
A few of the group headed for where the dark mark had been cast from last time, in case anyone tried to do so again. If they did, it could be a chance to capture a Death Eater who was from Voldemort's inner circle, because they had been the only ones that Voldemort had taught how to cast the Dark Mark. If they could get their hands on one of them, they could hopefully get leads on others who were left.
Everything went to plan, the so-called Death Eaters tried to escape when they suddenly started falling to a strong and very skilled opposition, but found that they couldn't apparate away and that confused them enough for most to be quickly dropped. As soon as they had all been stunned and their wands taken away, they were quickly secured in magic suppressing manacles and bound.
Meanwhile, someone did turn up where they were waiting for the Dark Mark's caster and tried to cast it, but it failed to form properly because he was stunned senseless before it had completely left his wand. He too had his wand taken and was secured in magic suppressing manacles and bound.
As soon as the 'Death Eaters' had been captured, Harry, Hermione, Sirius and Remus transformed into their animagus forms and searched the area for traces of others who had tried to run away. They tracked down and captured four more that way. They didn't know how many they'd missed, but they didn't think there were many. In the end, they had captured eighteen bogus Death Eaters and one very real one.
The muggle family who had been subjected to the disgusting attentions of the 'Death Eaters' were taken to St Mungo's to be healed, and to carefully erase or alter the memories of that night in hope that they would be able to forget and live their lives in peace afterwards.
The problem they had with these fake 'Death Eaters' was that whoever was behind them was playing for keeps, because only a few of them had really known anything, and they'd apparently been made to take binding oaths not to reveal anything. Two of them had died under questioning before they caught onto what was happening and stopped the questioning. Luckily the actual Death Eater hadn't been one of the ones who had died, so they were handling him very carefully and trying to work out how to get the information out of him without killing him.
The rest of them were tried, given a partial dementor's kiss (leaving just enough for them to stay alive) and sent to Azkaban. Amelia made sure that Xeno reported that what happened to the wizards who had faked the Death Eater attack and brutalised that Muggle family would happen to anyone else caught doing anything similar.
Fudge called her to his office and told her that she couldn't do that sort of thing to wizards just because they went a little too far with some Muggles, but Amelia reminded him of what Alastor had demonstrated in the Wizengamot and asked him what he thought would happen when the Muggles determined that it was wizards who were doing this to their people?
Amelia looked him in the eye and said. "I am not prepared to take the chance of Magical Britain being obliterated just because some sick bastards think that they can do whatever they want to Muggles. Therefore, I am going to make sure that they all know that if they do this, we will catch them, and they will suffer a fate worse than death. The healers tell us that they should be less susceptible to the dementors in this state, so they should be able to last much longer in Azkaban. As soon as we have some evidence to support that, I intend to have that reported in the Daily Prophet too."
By now Fudge had decided that he didn't care about giving her a dressing down any more, he just wanted her out of his office because she was terrifying him!
When Fudge reported this meeting to Marcus Somerset, his Senior Undersecretary and his interface to the one who's orders he was following now (Somerset had had taken over the Department of International Magical Co-operation from Barty Crouch when he was sent to Azkaban, and then the Senior Undersecretary's position when Delores Umbridge had been sent to Azkaban, so there was an obvious theme there), he was informed that the one in charge wasn't happy with how he'd handled this, but to keep his head down and try not to do anything else as stupid as what he'd done so far, or there would be serious repercussions. He was also told to make sure Ludo Bagman got that message as well, because if Bagman screwed up his part of the next stage of the plan, he would be wishing that he was in the position of those wizards in Azkaban.
Two weeks before the new school year started, Minerva called to let them know that Fudge, Somerset, Abbot and Bagman had just visited her to tell her about their great achievement, that they had managed to get the Triwizard Tournament reinstated and it was going to be hosted at Hogwarts this school year!
Minerva mentioned that they appeared to have been prepared for her to tell them that she would not ignore her duty to protect her students by allowing Hogwarts to be involved in something so senselessly dangerous, let alone host the event, because Somerset had been telling Fudge how to respond. She'd been presented with a very convincing argument to show that she wouldn't be allowed to refuse to host the Triwizard Tournament at Hogwarts without being hounded out of Magical Britain as the witch who had wilfully destroyed Magical Britain's only real chance of regaining the reputation of a strong and true nation in the magical world.
They comforted Minerva and made her accept that she hadn't had any choice but to capitulate, but they initiated the plans that they'd been working on ever since they first saw the signs that this could happen. None of them really believed that Harry had any chance of staying out of the Tournament, even with the real restrictions that Minerva would undoubtedly be ensuring were in place to prevent anyone under the age of majority from entering their names into the contest…..
That was another thing that matched the last time, the officials had been forced to officially agree to alter the magical and other rules to only allow participants in the Tournament who had reached their majority. Unfortunately, what only the officials knew was that the figure for the age of majority would actually be fed into the goblet of fire by one of the officials, Martin Abbot in fact. (This was one change, as the Tournament was being controlled by the Heads of the Department of International Magical Co-operation of the countries of the three schools this time).
The three school Heads had been led to believe that the goblet of fire had been charmed to automatically use the real age of majority for each of their countries (sixteen for France and Bulgaria, and seventeen for Britain), but Abbot had in fact convinced the other officials that this had been too difficult to do, so he would just put in sixteen for everyone. He had no intention of using sixteen though.
As soon as they had confirmation that the Tournament was on, Arthur, Harry and Hermione asked for the Goblins' assistance to get them into France to visit the Delacours. Once they were there, they told them the truth about Harry and Hermione and how they knew things that they couldn't by any normal logic. Then they got to the reason for telling them this, that last time they went through this, Fleur had been selected as the Champion for Beauxbatons and because of this both she and Gabrielle had been in great danger. They had taken Harry's penseive with them and they used that to show Louis, Apolline and Fleur Harry and Hermione's memories of what had happened in the three tasks, begging them to keep Fleur out of the Tournament.
Louis was in tears when he told them that he could not, because when he had said that to the Minister of Magic as soon as he was told about the Tournament coming back, he was told that he would not be allowed to send a message like that to their people. Sending other children to compete in this tournament but keeping his own daughter out of it because it was too dangerous? Scandaleux! He was told that if he tried to dishonour the Ministry like that, he would not only be thrown out of the Ministry, his entire family would be thrown out of France!
As they'd watched Harry and Hermione's memories of the Tournament, Louis and Apolline had both gone white, and Louis declared that Gabrielle would not be setting foot in Britain until this damned Tournament was finished. While it was understood that there was no guarantee that the tasks would be the same this time around, Fleur decided that she would start training to be able to handle what she had seen immediately.
At that point, Arthur brought up another issue. He went over the history that they all knew, that the Veela had deserted Britain two hundred years ago to put a stop to their being forced into marrying wizards who wanted to use them as sexual slaves or as a display of their power. Then he told them that seeing the Bulgarian Veela mascots at the World Cup had apparently reignited the British wizards' desire for Veela, and that Madam Bones' Aurors and Officers had discovered that while the supposed Death Eater attack was going on, a group of wizards had raided the tents that had been set up for the Veela with the apparent intent of capturing them and spiriting them away. That led them to the unfortunate conclusion that if Fleur had to come to Britain without her family to protect her, there was a very real risk that wizards would try to 'obtain' her, because the ways to lock a Veela into a wizard's control were still well documented.
The thought of that horrified Louis, Apolline and Fleur, all the more so because they realised that what Arthur was saying was a very real possibility. Arthur explained what the family had done to protect themselves last year, describing the clauses that they had put in to ensure that they would be long term prospects, and asked whether Fleur had any friends or the family had any allies who had sons who could be legally betrothed to Fleur to give her a level of protection from this?
Fleur shook her head at that, saying that she did not have any male friends because the boys at Beauxbatons couldn't be near her without drooling and/or making advances at her, and Louis added that none of the families that the Delacour family was allied to would be willing to lock their heirs into a betrothal contact that would continue the Delacour line, but not their own.
Arthur explained the caveat that allowed both male and female line continuance contacts between a couple in Britain and asked whether that existed in France but Louis shook his head, when Arthur mentioned that it had been brought in during the Goblin Rebellions he nodded. "Aha! That is why, we understood that we could not afford to anger the Goblins, so we never allowed things to progress to that stage."
That didn't do anything to fix the problem though and they were getting more and more morose, until Harry suddenly said. "What about me?"
Hermione looked at him. "Harry Love, all twelve betrothal contracts that you are allowed are already filled, you can't get betrothed to anyone else..."
Apolline broke in with "Twelve?" and Hermione nodded and said matter of factually. "Oui. Harry is the Head of four Noble and Most Ancient Houses and Heir to another, and Heir to a Noble and Ancient House as well. Using both the male and female line options on each of his houses makes twelve. But eight of those contracts are with me and two are with Millie, the last two are with Daphne and Astoria so there's only four girls involved."
Apolline shook her head at that but Harry had started speaking. "Yes Love, but we've only used the British branch of the House of Flamel so far. I'm the heir to the entire House of Flamel, so I believe that that means that the French side of the House of Flamel could presumably be used as well?"
He looked at Louis, who leapt up and raced to the fireplace. He quickly floo called one of his most trusted aides, and came back smiling. "Oui. Our records confirm this Henri, you are officially listed as the heir to the Noblesse Ancienne, that would be Noble and Ancient in English, House of Flamel. Your house actually ranks above the Delacours Henri, as your title as Comte dates back nearly a thousand years. Would you truly be prepared to do this for our daughters Henri?"
"Yes, of course…. Wait, daughters? I thought that we were trying to work out something to protect Fleur when she comes to Britain?" He was looking from Louis to Fleur as he spoke.
"Oui, but what I was hoping, if you were willing, that we could do something similar to what I presume you have done with Daphne and Astoria, a female line betrothal contract with Fleur as my Heir and a male line betrothal contract with Gabrielle. This way both of our darlings would have protection against this abominable thing that Arthur has warned us about. Would this be something that would be acceptable to you Henri?"
Harry looked at Hermione, but they were already communicating. He nodded. "Oui. If it will help protect both girls, we will do this. Do you have a solicitor who could do this today?"
Louis looked thoughtful. "The family avocat will come, but I believe that this may need to be registered in the British system if we are to make use of those caveats that allow contracts to be agreed for both the male and female lines. Could your solicitor assist with this perhaps?"
Arthur spoke up then. "Definitely, Ted, you met him at the World Cup, did all of the other contracts for us, we can get him over here in a few minutes." With that he pulled out a communications mirror and called Ted.
While Harry pulled a shrunken trunk out of his pocket and expanded it to full size, Hermione brought up something else. "If you could get your avocat here Louis, he might be able to explain to Ted any French specific aspects that will need to be factored into these contracts, and then you should to get Gabrielle in here and fill her in on what's being discussed, otherwise I expect that she will be quite upset."
Apolline slapped her forehead. "Mon Dieu! How could we forget that? Oui! I must do that post haste!"
Louis floo called the family avocat while Apolline rushed out of the room to get their other daughter.
Apolline was terrified about Arthur's warning, but while the idea of Fleur and Gabrielle having to get betrothed to protect them against these things in Britain rankled, she had to accept that this was the best plan. She was incredibly touched and grateful that Harry would offer to do something like this for her daughters.
Ted arrived via the trunk floo while they were talking, and he explained more about what they'd done to protect everyone in the family against the Ministry using a two hundred year old war legislation to attack them. They were laughing about the fact that these would be Harry's thirteenth and fourteenth Betrothal contracts when the Delcours' family avocat arrived via the floo.
It was a remarkably simple process in the end. Ted used the same template as he'd used for the rest of the contracts, and as Hermione had suggested, the Delacours' avocat supplied the details that would be needed to make them acceptable in the French system. Once the contracts had been signed and sealed in blood, the avocat departed and Ted used the trunk floo to go to Gringotts to officially register the two contracts with the Goblins, coming back with everything legally registered. They'd already had the confirmation though as the betrothal rings had appeared on Fleur and Gabrielle's fingers as soon as the betrothals were registered.
Gabrielle laughed delightedly when she saw the official document that confirmed what the ring said, that she was betrothed to Harry Potter (Well, Henri Flamel, but he was still Harry Potter). She was angry at her mother for reminding her that the purpose of the betrothals was to protect her and Fleur from men who wanted to get control of them because they were Veela, they weren't about some happily ever after fairy tale. The little girl disappeared for a moment when she snapped. "I know that Mama! I know that I will never replace Hermione or Millie as his wife! I was just hoping to be able to enjoy the fantasy that comes from being betrothed to Harry for a little while!" She started crying then, and it was Harry who drew her into his arms and comforted her.
When they were leaving, Fleur looked to Hermione with a mischievous smile for permission, and when she got it, she gave Harry a very heated goodbye kiss. Of course, when Gabi saw that, she demanded a proper kiss from him as well, because the kiss on the head he gave her wasn't a patch on that.
As the Delacours were officially part of the family now, and to make things easier when Fleur arrived at Hogwarts in about six weeks time, they left one of the trunks and some communications mirrors with them and explained how to use them. This made their own return to Britain easier because they just used the trunk floo.
Percy Crouch showed that he was the same toady in this cycle as he was in the last, because as soon as Professor McGonagall had finished telling the students about the history of the Triwizard Tournament, explaining that it would be restricted to those students who had reached their majority, and pleading with them to consider the risks before they put their names in to compete, he sent an owl to the Ministry to tell them that she was spreading dissent.
As a result of that, the next night she was forced to give Ludo Bagman equal time to extol how wonderful the Tournament would be, and he became almost permanent fixture of the castle a couple of weeks after that, constantly trying to convince the students that this was an opportunity that couldn't be missed. Bagman had obviously been tasked with getting Harry on-side with the Tournament, because whenever he saw him, he came charging up to speak to him. He didn't seem able to understand that the grim faced witches, wizards or goblins and those surprisingly scary cats who prevented him from getting near Harry would always be there.
At least Cedric wouldn't be entering the Tournament this time, as he was under age and away from the ones who had pressured him into putting his name in last time. Harry was fairly certain that most of the Hogwarts entries would be from members of the Quidditch teams, as they'd be looking for another source of fame and glory with the Quidditch Cup being cancelled for the year, and he was also willing to bet that Gryffindor and Slytherin would make up the majority of those, as Gryffindor would be chasing glory and Slytherin would be determined to take it from them.
The students in their group had dived into the work. They were hoping that it would be easier this year because none of them had more than two years' work to do.
In the NEWTs group though, Harry and Hermione had replaced Arithmancy with Advanced Arithmancy, added Alchemy and Ancient Studies and started working on their masteries in Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, Defence, Arithmancy and Runes. Penny had also started working on her masteries in Charms, Defence and Runes, while Hagrid had started working on his mastery in Care of Magical Creatures.
The other thirteen were all in the OWLs group, and they were doing ten to twelve subjects each.
They were talking to Fleur every day or two, as she didn't have anyone to talk to at Beauxbatons. Her betrothal to the Heir of the Noblesse Ancienne House of Flamel and the heirloom betrothal ring of an Ancient House on her finger caused quite a stir, and it seemed that everyone was trying to find out who this Vicomte Henri Flamel she was betrothed to was. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to stop the suspicious looks or nasty comments from the other girls though, or the boys mooning over her for that matter, so Fleur was looking forward to getting to Hogwarts, where she knew there were people she could enjoy being with.
There had been no surprises when the eligability trials were held at Beauxbatons to determine who would go to represent Beauxbatons at the selection of the Champions on Halloween. Fleur said that it was almost as if the Ministry official had had her name on the list before she had even competed, and she shuddered when Hermione said that that was quite possible, considering what her father had told them. She was beginning to see why Harry and Hermione had such a world weary attitude much of the time, if they kept being forced to relive what they'd gone through last time…. Last time, in the future? This was so hard to understand!