The Game of Truth

Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic (actually Minister FOR Magic) awoke painfully, with a nasty feeling of dizziness and nausea. He soon discovered that he was tied up in rough ropes and chains, so tight he could barely breathe. Wherever he was, it was completely dark, not even a single candle illuminated the place.

Suddenly, a light shone broke the darkness, showing Fudge he was inside a transparent cylinder. A second light illuminated the floor in front of him, revealing his wand resting on the floor.

Resting in pieces, as it had been snapped in half.

"This is an outrage! I demand to be freed immediately!" He yelled, his hideous green lime bowler fell from his head and rolled on the floor, about two feet below his head.

A new light shone, showing him a grotesque puppet, riding a broom. It was dressed in black robes. It's hair looked like a nest of twigs, two jet black eyes studied him coldly. Two red spirals adorned its cheeks.

Its mouth opened with a jerking movement. A shrill, raspy voice came from it. "Hello, Minister Cornelius Oswald Fudge. I… apologize for the rough handling of your august person, but, well… you see…" the puppet leaned forward, theatrically turning its head left and right, as if looking for eavesdroppers, then looked right into Fudge eyes with a cold, dead, unblinking stare, "I want to play a game."

"What? A game?" Fudge exclaimed incredulous. "Do you have an idea of who I am? What I can do to you?" He shook angrily in his chains.

The puppet leaned back on its broom, and flew slowly around Fudge, forcing the man to turn around to keep it in his sight. After a full turn around the Minister, the puppet stopped, "in order: A game. Yes, a game. I know perfectly who you are. You can't do a single thing to me." The head turned to the wand on the floor. The puppet waved its right hand dismissively, "Wandless magic is not your forte, is it? And anyway, I am not even here. This puppet is literally a puppet, I move its strings from a place far away from here."

"What do you want?" Fudge blustered.

"To play a game."

"What kind of game?"

"An easy one. Truth."

"Truth or Dare, you mean?"

"No, That would imply you could ask me to do or reveal something. I have no intention to do that."

"Then, what do you want?"

"I want you to tell the truth. That's all, you tell the truth, you win the game. You don't, you won't play again."

The puppet turned around, "Over there, there is a microphone, our whole conversation is being recorded as we speak. If you win, it will be slightly edited and later broadcast in a pirate transmission in the Wizarding Wireless Network. Of course, you'll have to swear an Unbreakable Oath not to renege of its content."

"Are you insane? Release me immediately."

"No. The game starts now." At the puppet's words, a trickle of sand began to fall. "Why did you not investigate the events at Hogwarts in 1992?"

"What?"

"You heard me. You sent an innocent to Azkaban. No proof, no evidence."

"Hagrid had been expelled over similar incidents years before!"

"Again, you didn't order an investigation. You just ordered him sent to Azkaban."

The sand kept on falling.

Daily Prophet
Front Page
A Month Later

"MINISTER OF MAGIC FOUND DEAD!"

By Johann E. Silversmith

A week ago, the disappearance of Minister pf Magic, Cornelius Fudge, was unknowingly solved by the Muggle Police. The body of Minister Fudge was found at a beach in Brighton.

However, due to the strict enforcing of the Statute of Secrecy, the then unidentified body was registered as "Unknown" and treated as a simple Muggle corpse. According to our sources, Minister Fudge's body was subject to a barbaric autopseen, and cut open to examine internal organs.

Only thanks to a vigilant squib, who worked as a lowly janitor at the Muggle Coroner's Office, was the anonymous body finally identified as our beloved Minister.

A team of Aurors familiar with the Muggle's primitive procedures recovered the body.

The cause of death has not been revealed by the DMLE, but according to the squib, who read the autopseen report, Minister Fudge died due to suffocation, as if his head had been buried in sand.

We at The Prophet send our condolences to the Fudge Family, and hope they can find some relief in knowing that Minister Fudge has been returned to the Magical Britain he worked so diligently for.