Thank you again for all the reviews!
Chapter Twenty—Enemies Handled
"Why should I retract the truth, Minister Fudge?"
Theo hears those words as he opens his eyes fully for the first time since last night. He was sort of aware early on, enough to know that someone was bringing Harry breakfast and they were both still in the hospital wing, but this is the first time he's felt able to sit up. So he does.
Harry nods to him without looking away from the man in front of him. Theo is more than happy with that. Always focus on the most dangerous enemy in any room, his father taught him, and although Theo despises Tarquinius Nott, he had some good advice.
Fudge clears his throat loudly. "It's not the truth!"
"Would you like the Pensieve memories of how she used both the Cruciatus Curse and the Killing Curse on me yesterday, Minister Fudge?"
Harry's voice is calm and detached. Theo didn't know he could sound like that. Then again, when he hears Harry talking, it's generally to his friends or people that he considers allies.
And Harry is matching his voice with his posture, too, almost lounging back against the pillows behind him while he keeps his gaze nailed to Fudge. Theo smiles, but lies still so that he won't be more of a distraction.
"You could have forged them! Everyone knows that one of your guardians is a Legilimens!"
"There are ways to tell that kind of tampering has happened," Harry says, his voice bored. "Would you please go and get a Pensieve, Madam Macmillan? I think the Headmistress probably has one."
Madam Macmillan stares at Harry for a moment with sharp eyes, but she seems to see, like Theo, that he doesn't need any help. She nods and stumps out of the hospital wing, raking Fudge with her glance as she goes.
Fudge stares at Harry. Harry stares back. Theo, estimating the Minister quietly, thinks he's more afraid of the possible consequences of Harry telling the truth than he is of Harry, but that's all right. Men like Fudge are steered by fear. That means Harry has as great a chance of influencing him as anyone else right now.
Perhaps greater, Theo thinks, recalling how Umbridge seemed pretty important in that absurd trial Fudge arranged for Harry this summer. If she's a close associate of the Minister, she could drag him down if she fell.
"I insist on Veritaserum," Fudge croaks.
"Veritaserum is illegal outside of trial situations," Professor Snape intervenes. Theo half-glances at him and sees how very dearly the man would like to kill Fudge. Theo stores the sight away, so he can recognize that look if it's ever directed towards him. "Is it your intention to take this to the Ministry and convene the Wizengamot right now, Fudge, to try a fifteen-year-old yet again for telling the truth when you would prefer he didn't?"
"It's not the truth!"
Theo knows he's not the only one who can see the way Fudge's eyes are darting around the hospital wing, if Professor Snape's snort is any indication. Harry sits up a little more and shakes his head slowly.
"Why are you so resistant to admitting the truth, sir? It seems to be a defining trait of yours, and I don't know why. On the other hand, if you were any good at lying, you would have accomplished more of your political goals."
"How dare you accuse me of lying!"
Harry stares at him in silent incredulity and doesn't say another thing in response to Fudge's increasingly ridiculous huffs and mutters, which are never loud enough to require a response. Theo keeps lying still and enjoying it, although he does tilt his head a little when he hears two sets of footsteps instead of one coming back up the stairs.
Sure enough, not only Madam Macmillan but Professor McGonagall enter with the Pensieve. Fudge opens his mouth to object, but it dies a swift death as the Headmistress glares at him.
"If someone wants to use my Pensieve to accuse one of my students," the Headmistress says as she sets the Pensieve in the middle of the table next to Harry's bed with an echoing thump, "then I'm going to be here."
"No need to bestir yourself, I assure you, Minerva, this is a small misunderstanding between—"
"Then you won't need to bestir yourself, either, Cornelius."
That shuts him up. Theo grins into his pillow as he watches Harry lean forwards and press the end of his wand carefully against his temple, closing his eyes. Fudge chooses that moment to babble, of course.
"Why is it taking him so long? He has to concentrate on the memory? That would argue that he's altering it—"
The Headmistress turns and gives Fudge a look of such perfect contempt that Theo blinks. That was—excellent. He's never considered taking political lessons from a Gryffindor before, but at the moment, he realizes the higher-ranking ones probably have something to teach him.
"I—I," Fudge says, and runs down.
Harry opens his eyes a second later and pulls out the memory. Theo watches as it drops into the Pensieve, but of course, he can't see anything about its content from here. He stirs restlessly. He'd like to watch it, if only to see what was going on with Harry while he was fighting the leopard-entity.
He catches Harry's eye and tilts his head towards the Pensieve. Harry gives him a half-smile and a nod.
Theo breathes out slowly. He's still not used to the idea that sometimes, all he has to do is ask.
Minerva emerges from the Pensieve so furious that it's hard for her to breathe. The Minister is pale and wiping his hand across his mouth again and again as they come out. Minerva glares at him, but he doesn't offer another defense of his "innocent employee," as he's been calling Dolores in the papers this morning.
Minerva doesn't actually know who spread the accusations about Dolores using the Unforgivables before the Minister could even get to Hogwarts, but she's grateful to them. It'll look even more suspicious for Cornelius to try and shut them up now.
"I—I," Cornelius croaks, and then sits down on a chair across from Mr. Nott's bed and shakes.
Minerva can't help glancing at Harry, quietly reassuring herself that he's all right. He meets her eyes and nods, which startles her a little. Three years ago, he wouldn't have known the silent message she was trying to send, or might not have noticed her trying to send it.
Slytherin's changed him, she admits to herself as she sees the way he sits back with an impassive mask on his face in the next second, and angles himself subtly towards the bed where Mr. Nott is resting.
Mr. Nott, who became an illegal leopard Animagus with what apparently amounts to a few months of study.
Minerva looks away from his bed and breathes out. At least this brief pause has allowed her to get control of her anger. "And how do you explain this, Cornelius?" she asks, voice tight. "Your innocent employee attempting to torture and kill Mr. Potter?"
"It was—Dolores was under stress," Cornelius begins, eyes nervously passing back and forth between Harry and Severus, as if he doesn't know which one of them is the greater threat right now. Minerva could have told him that it's always Severus, but she dislikes dispatching advice for free.
"Someone who resorts to Unforgivables under stress isn't a good candidate for a teaching position at Hogwarts," Harry says, his face and voice perfectly bland. "I'm sure you'll agree if you think about it, Minister Fudge."
He cares more about removing her from Hogwarts than he does about her trying specifically to kill him, Minerva thinks, a little incredulous, and then revises her memories of how many people have tried to kill Harry over the years and decides this is perfectly in character.
"I, no, of course. We'll be removing her from Hogwarts effective immediately, of course. But someone under such stress also doesn't need charges pressed on them, I'm sure you'll agree?" His eyes are wide and hopeful now, fixed on Harry.
"Charges," Minerva begins, and her fury returns hard enough to choke her again.
Maybe that's a good thing, because Harry says at once, "Oh, Minister Fudge, I wouldn't want you to think that I didn't care. It's so sad to see someone under such stress from an ordinary part of their jobs that they resort to Unforgivables. I'm going to argue that Dolores Umbridge needs a stint in St. Mungo's. Probably on the Janus Thickey Ward, so they can investigate her thoroughly and make sure nothing's wrong with her."
The air seems to grow thicker. Minerva can see from the blank expression on Severus's face that this is not a tactic he and Harry worked out beforehand, which presumably makes it all Harry's own. Minerva struggles not to raise her eyebrows, and barely succeeds. Interesting.
Yes, Slytherin has changed Harry.
"I, of course, we might be able to arrange that," Cornelius says, brightening. He either doesn't see the trap ready to spring or doesn't care. "It's so good that you're agreeing not to press charges against someone so distraught, Mr. Potter—"
"In return, of course," Harry continues, "you'll acknowledge that Voldemort has returned. That must be the major reason for Professor Umbridge's stress, after all. Going around telling me that I was lying, and telling other students the amount of lies she had to daily, anyone would be stressed." He smiles at Cornelius, who looks as if someone has hit him with a Body-Bind. "I only want the best for Professor Umbridge."
"He's not back!" Cornelius snaps, galvanized.
"Then I suppose that there's very little reason for Professor Umbridge to be so stressed," Harry says, with a lazy drawl that Minerva thinks for a moment came straight from Severus. But, wait, no, it has some of Harry's own tone to it, and Severus never sounds this detached. "In that case, I think she's been persecuting students who couldn't possibly know as much about politics as she does with Unforgivable Curses, and—"
"What do you want?" Cornelius is sweating and not even doing anything about it, just staring at Harry with a dropped jaw and a frozen expression.
"I've already told you," Harry says, and there's no mask on his face now. Minerva wonders if it's wise for him to show his disgust for Cornelius quite so obviously, but Cornelius still flinches in front of him, away from him.
"For me to acknowledge that You-Know-Who is back," Cornelius says, barely moving his lips.
"Yes."
"And seek to move Dolores to the Janus Thickey Ward."
"Yes."
Cornelius takes a long moment to make the decision that Minerva thinks it's obvious he's going to make, his eyes traveling back and forth as he seems to argue with himself inside his head. Then he nods and swallows heavily and whispers, "Deal. You want—there's to be—I assume that you have a timeline that you'd like me to meet when revealing my knowledge of You-Know-Who's return?"
Already, his voice is stronger. Minerva stares at him, but no, she doesn't think her ears are deceiving her, or her eyes; Cornelius has stopped sweating. Amazingly, it seems that he really does better when he has someone dictating his actions, even if it's someone he didn't choose to listen to.
"I can be generous and give you until tomorrow to contact the Prophet," Harry says.
Minerva holds still and says nothing while Cornelius and Harry hash it out between them. She sees that Severus has the kind of blank mask on his face that means he didn't anticipate what was going to happen, rather than the one that says he's trying to avoid showing strong emotion. But he stares at Harry more than at Cornelius.
Mr. Nott watches Harry, too, but his expression is simpler to understand, maybe because he doesn't care about hiding it. There's steely devotion there, that's all, and Minerva snorts a little as she pictures Voldemort's face if he tries to gain Theodore Nott's allegiance and realizes it isn't for sale.
Of course, there are things that Theodore Nott has to negotiate on, and Minerva focuses her attention on them to shake off her own uneasiness about Harry's skilled political maneuvering. One young Slytherin man, at least, is going to be taking private lessons with her. Minerva doesn't intend to let someone talented enough in Transfiguration to become an Animagus at fifteen downplay his skills in that class any longer.
"Please explain your reasoning to me behind pushing for Umbridge to go to St. Mungo's and not Azkaban."
From the dangerously soft tone in Severus's voice, Harry knows he's near the end of his patience. It impresses him the more that his guardian managed to wait until the deal with the Minister was in place and he left. And at least Severus has raised a Privacy Charm around Harry's bed, meaning that Theo and Madam Pomfrey can't listen in.
Theo gave him a long, cool look when he realized the Privacy Charm was there. Harry ignored it. He plans to explain later, yes, but in some ways that's up to him. Theo doesn't need to know all the details of how Harry and Severus speak to each other, any more than he needs all the ones about how Harry and Sirius speak to each other.
"Because getting Fudge to admit that Voldemort is back was more important."
Severus leans forwards, studying Harry intently. Harry meets his eyes and allows it, aware of the delicate scrape of Legilimency inside his thoughts.
"So, once again, you are sacrificing your own well-being to the greater good," Severus says at last, in a voice that might make someone who didn't know better think he can speak Parseltongue.
Harry rolls hie eyes, which at least appears to startle Severus into listening. "No. I knew Fudge would refuse to admit that Umbridge used the Unforgivables on me. And that meant he wouldn't only fight the charges, but might attempt to smear me in the press or haul me in front of the Wizengamot again. Those are distractions. I can't afford them. I have better things to do with my time."
Severus pauses. Then he says, "But you could have spread the truth around through the papers, and forced Fudge to try Umbridge that way."
Harry shrugs. "There's no guarantee the trial would have gone the way I wanted it to. And if it didn't, then Umbridge would be free from Azkaban and more vicious than ever. Fudge might reinstall her as professor here, even."
"He would not—all right, yes, he would be that stupid."
Harry chuckles. "Right. This way, besides getting Fudge to admit to the truth, I get to look like the nice, merciful one, getting a poor distressed woman admitted to St. Mungo's. And I know the security on the Janus Thickey Ward is tight. Neville told me about how long it takes for him to be admitted when he visits his parents."
"She has still not suffered enough."
"I didn't say that she wouldn't suffer there."
"What have you planned?"
The dark delight in Severus's voice makes Harry smile. This is the side of himself that he can share with Severus and never with Sirius, who would be too concerned about the morality of the thing to understand why it makes Harry happy.
"Umbridge was helping a shadow-leopard, the one Theo fought. It's a being that was an enemy of Speakers and Parselmouths a long time ago. They beat it down and broke it into pieces, and it's one of the pieces that Umbridge found. I talked to Lyassa, and she's angry about Umbridge helping it and her hurting me. I think the Speakers are going to find ways to make Umbridge sorry no matter where she goes." Harry lifts his shoulders in a little shrug, and feels a sharp smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "And who knows? It might be a good thing that Umbridge is going to be on a ward for the insane."
Severus laughs a moment later. Harry thinks he can hear the man who was a Death Eater when he sounds like this. But then again, he also knows that this man, no matter who he is, would never hurt Harry.
"Excellent." Severus squeezes Harry's hand for a moment. "That relieves my mind that you were just being a self-sacrificing idiot."
"You could just say an idiot. I know you think those words mean the same thing."
"I am glad to see that you have overcome some of your instincts to fling yourself in harm's way," Severus says, without acknowledging his words. He looks at Harry for a moment. "And surprised. Why did you decide to do it this way?"
"I had time to think last night," Harry says, and sighs a little at the look Severus gives him. "Yes, yes, I know that you gave me Dreamless Sleep, but it just doesn't work all that well for me. And I had to talk to Lyassa, and I started thinking that I was going to have to start playing the game of politics the way my enemies play it. I still don't want to, and I'll avoid doing it when I can—"
"Gryffindor."
"But I can do it when I need to. And in this case, it wasn't like it was difficult. Fudge is a coward and he already lost once when he tried to put me on trial in front of the Wizengamot. That means he would be looking for some way out. And I offered him one that didn't mean he had to haul Umbridge up on charges, either."
Severus's hand reaches out and tightens on his shoulder for a moment. Harry thinks he's going to leave without saying anything when Severus adds quietly, "I am proud of you," and departs with his robes swishing behind him before Harry can do anything but stare after him with wide eyes.
Harry sighs and flops back on his pillow, ignoring the way that Theo stares at him and waits for an explanation. For the moment, he just wants to savor those last words.
Maybe playing politics isn't going to be such a gruesome thing after all.