Getting His Life Back

Chapter 3

The next few weeks went by fast. Harry was not having nightmares as much, but they were still too often. Harry's appetite was getting better. Classes were going well. Things were in a nice routine. Hermione and Ron came by once a week at least. Severus continued to give Harry one Dreamless Sleep potion a week for him to use at his desecration along with several pain potions. So Harry wasn't having too many problems with his leg. Harry started going on a broom for fun again. He had made a strap to hold his injured ankle, so he could fly. He enjoyed flying again and would go out to the Quidditch pitch when no one was there. He also began helping Hagrid with some of the animals. Hagrid had a few types of snakes, and Harry enjoyed taking care of them. He loved taking care of this mini- boa, that was currently pregnant with many eggs. Her name was Terri. Hagrid had told him he could keep one of the babies when they hatched from the eggs. He was very excited for this to happen. The other staff members were enjoying having him on staff with them. Most of the student's enjoyed his classes. So he was quite happy with how things were going.

It was in the middle of November when they received an unwelcome guest. Cornelius Fudge wanted to speak to Harry. Harry was not looking forward to this visit. Harry made his way up to Albus' office. He knocked on the door, and Albus beckoned him in. Fudge was sitting in the chair in front of Albus' desk, he stood as Harry closed the door.

"Hello, Mr. Potter." Fudge said, while extending his hand to be shook.

Harry just stood there, looked at his and, and looked back up, with his eyes narrowed slightly. "What do you want Fudge?"

Fudge gave an affronted look. "Now see here! I am..." But Harry never gave him the chance to finish.

"The Minster of Magic. I couldn't care less. What do you want? We finished our business last summer."

"I came to tell you that your task force was killed last night because of your negligence of teaching them!" Fudge said. (A.N. Harry taught some Aurors for a special team for dealing with Dark Creatures, and Death Eaters).

Harry looked at him shocked. "You sent them on a mission! I told you they needed more training!"

"Well you should have trained them better, and quicker!" Fudge said. Getting red in the face.

"I told you Fudge! They weren't ready! They needed more time! You! Should! Have! NEVER! Ordered! Them! On! A! Mission!" Harry yelled.

"Don't call me Fudge! I am the Minister of Magic! And should be treated with respect!" Fudge yelled.

Harry looked at him a moment, then replied in a deadly calm voice, "Fudge! I don't respect you! You have given me no reason to respect you. I will not call you Minister or Mr. for that matter."

"I'm warning you now!" Fudge said.

Harry just gave him a 'your crazy look.' "What are you going to do? Sick your dogs (His two goons with him) on me? You are NOT my boss. Threatening me will not work.

"I also wanted to confirm the Dark Lords demise." Fudge said changing topic.

Harry looked at him a moment. "We discussed that already. There were witnesses, including many of your top Aurors."

"There was no body. What if his soul escaped again?" Fudge argued.

"I knew the spells to make sure his soul did NOT escape again! I made sure I used several of them. There was no body, because it turned to ash."

"Well, well, wh..." Fudge stuttered trying to come up with another point.

"Look, if you can't take care of your own messes, its not my problem. Good day, Fudge. Headmaster." Harry walked out of the room.

Fudge looked back at Dumbledore. "Are you just going to let him do that? He should respect the Minister of Magic!"

Dumbledore looked livid. "Cornelius! Harry has NO reason to respect you! He defeated Voldemort! You never even gave him a thank you! He sacrificed almost EVERYTHING for us! He could have distroyed your career! But he didn't! He could have ruined you, but he didn't! Don't blame him for the death's of the Special Auror Squad! That was your doing Minister (said sarcastically). How dare you come here and insult him! Get out of here! Personally, I think he should have gotten you out of office! Get out now!"

Fudge started stuttering again. He was beat red.

"GET OUT" Dumbledore roared. Fudge left without a word.

Harry had gone down the stairs and strait to his rooms. Once inside he went into the guest rooms that he had changed into a physical therapy (A.N. PT) and training room. He had several knifed he collected along the walls, and a punching bag in the middle, as well as different items for is PT. He changed clothes to sweat pants, and a blue T- Shirt; and went to the punching bag and started punching it.

Dumbledore had the weekly meeting with the staff that evening. Everyone except Harry was there.

"Where is Harry, Albus?" Minerva asked.

Albus looked up sadly, "Cornelius showed up for an impromptu meeting with Harry just before the staff meeting. The Special Auror's Squad was sent out on a mission to capture some rogue Death Eaters. They didn't make it. Cornelius was tying to blame Harry."

The staff started talking at once, so Albus raised his hand to quiet everyone.

"But it wasn't Harry's fault!" Severus said irritatedly.

"Yes, I know Severus. And I had a 'talk' with him after Harry left."

"Where is Harry now?" Minerva asked.

Albus looked at her, "In his rooms. I believe using the muggle punching bag."

The rest of the meeting went well. Severus made his way to Harry's rooms. Once he arrived there, he used the password Harry had given him the month before, he found Harry still in the exercise room. "Harry?"

Harry looked over. He had tears in his eyes. Severus came closer. "Are you okay, Harry?"

"No. Fudge sent them out to die! He knew they weren't ready!"

"I know, Harry. And he never should have tried blamed you." Severus said trying to calm Harry.

Harry just stayed quiet. "Come on, Harry. Go to bed, get some rest. We'll talk about this later." Harry just nodded and went off to his room. Just as Severus started to leave Harry quitely asked, "Would you stay with me for a litlle while." Severus nodded and laid down next to Harry. They both fell a sleep in each ohters arms.

When Severus and Harry woke the next morning had that talk about Fudge. Which wasn't a very pleasant topic to discuss first thing in the morning. The Daily Prophet had an article on the deaths of the Special Aurors Squad, but it had little mention of Harry in it, other than he was the one to train the Aurors. Harry never saw the article because the staff never showed it to him, and he never asked. Hermione and Ron were coming for another visit that evening. Harry was looking forward to seeing his friends.

Hermione and Ron stumbled through Severus' fireplace. "Hello Severus!" Said Ron.

"Hello Ron, Hermione. How are things?" Severus replied as he came in the room to meet his visitors.

"Great! Work is well. The family is doing well. How is Harry doing? We read the article that was in the paper." Hermione said as she brushed her self off.

Severus thought a moment. "Fudge showed up the night before the article was in the Daily Prophet. He accused Harry of not training the Aurors properly, and was accusing him that The Dark Lord is not really dead. Harry went to his room for the rest of the night and missed a staff meeting. I went to his room after the meeting about found him close to tears in his exercise room. I sent him off to bed and stayed with him. We talked the next day. He never saw the article though. He never even asked about it. He's been well since though. He still goes to Hagrid's. He is pretty excited about the snake, the one that had laid eggs a few days ago.

Hermione was the first to speak. "Oh, Harry. Minister Fudge is never going to give him a break, is he?"

Ron spoke before Severus could reply. "Fudge has never even thanked Harry for defeating Vold- Vol- Voldemort." Ron stuttered.

Hermione smirked. "Still having trouble saying Voldemort, Honey?"

Severus interrupted before Ron could reply. "No, Fudge the idiot, has not thanked Harry. Formally, or informally. Well, we had better head to Harry's rooms."

They arrived at Harry's rooms shortly. Severus let them in after saying the password. They found Harry in the kitchen, getting some snacks.

Harry looked up and smiled. "Hi guys!"

They all smiled back. "Hi Harry!" Ron said.

"Do any of you want some snacks?" Harry asked. He had a plate full of all sorts of Muggle cookies and another plate of carrot sticks, and celery sticks with the choice of Peanut Butter or Ranch Dressing on the side. (A.N. Both are my favorite types of snacks!)

Ron and Hermione both agreed. Hermione, Severus, and Ron carried the food and drinks to the living room since Harry fixed the refreshments. They had a nice evening, talking about work, Quidditch, family, the snake that Hagrid had, and Muggle foods. Ron got very interested because of the types of snacks they were having. A few hours later Ron and Hermione both left. But they made Harry promise to go to the Burrow for Christmas. They made Severus promise too, but it took a while to get him to agree.

Over the next several weeks Harry did his Christmas shopping. He enjoyed being out of Hogwarts for a while. He finished all his Christmas shopping in about four hours.

Christmas, every one went to the Burrow. There were lots of people there. Harry was nervous. He hadn't seen most of them in quite a while. He went up to the front door, and found it open so went in with Severus right behind him.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Harry Potter. I just adopted and edited this story.

I have a vote for a Doggie. He still has Hedwig, but I think another pet or 2 would be nice. I have decided that the beach house will be on a small island in North Carolina since that is where I live and I know about some of the places there. I want to thank everyone for your reviews. If you have any ideas you would like to share please feel free to share them. I am very open-minded about other's ideas. I would also like to suggest if you like Flaming then light a match to light a non-scented candle because they are the best to roast marshmellows over. No one is perfect so please be nice. Constructive criticism is one thing but to be rude is not the right thing to do. Please enjoy and review.

Rena