Choices and Consequences

Harry's habit of waking early continued, but instead of jumping out of bed to work on his exercises or getting ready for one of his lessons with Professor Gaarder or John Christopher, he was able to relax.

The familiar, homey feeling of The Burrow surrounded him, even this early in the morning and, although the décor of Percy's old room was rather austere, he decided he preferred it to the violent shades of Chudley Cannons orange that dominated Ron's room.

Muffled sounds from one of the lower floors prompted him to ease himself out of bed and face the day. Now he knew he wasn't going to disturb the whole house by getting up and going downstairs he was a lot happier, and he smiled as he pulled back the dark, heavy curtains and blinked out at the morning, raising the window on its pulley and taking a deep breath of the crisp, warm air.

The sun was already up, and the previous day's rain appeared to have cleared, though it was still early and Harry couldn't hear anybody else up and about in the house.

He thought back to the previous evening, and how much he'd enjoyed his birthday, having so many friendly faces around. His presents had been great, and even though Ron's attitude had been a little off after his argument with Hermione, by the end of the evening, Harry was tired out with all the laughter at Fred and George's jokes, and Charlie's and Bill's stories, and the sense of welcome that he always felt at The Burrow had comforted him as he drifted off to sleep.

It seemed that Tonks and Charlie had reached an understanding, and they had disappeared without letting anybody know at some point during the evening, which had caused Mrs Weasley a little consternation, despite the fact that Charlie was certainly old enough to take care of himself. She'd acted a little ratty towards the twins and Ginny when they didn't make any effort to find him, but it had only been a brief moment of tension, as Bill took her off to one side to explain why they weren't searching for their brother.

With so many Order members in one place, Tonks had been comfortable enough leaving Harry in their care, rather than insisting on sticking around at The Burrow as security, and he was glad that she had. He didn't want her feeling like she had to follow him around everywhere, when there were plenty of other adults present.

Harry had played a little with his practice Snitch, though there wasn't really much more he could do with it indoors than let it fly around, for fear of turning the room upside down. In the end he'd spent most of the time with it just releasing and catching it, as he'd seen his father do when he'd been sixteen.

He had mixed feelings about the present. While he was pleased that Ginny had thought to get him such an appropriate gift, not to mention the effort she had apparently put in to earn it from Madam Hooch, he could still recall how much of a jerk his Father had been, and it made him realise why Snape was always so nasty to him.

In the end though, he decided that the past year had been difficult enough without worrying about what Snape thought of his Father, or why he would attack his contemporary, and resolved not to let the Potions Master's memory of James Potter at the age of sixteen affect how he, Harry, behaved.

He'd also played around a little with the medallion that Hermione had given him, practicing using it to send messages. He initially thought that its use would be pretty limited, only being able to use four words, but after a little experimentation, he was really pleased with it and was surprised how much he could say in just four words.

The book from Remus and the twins lay untouched for now, its secrets uncalled upon, while Harry didn't feel as though it would really be appropriate to change into the clothing that he'd been given - it was a little too warm for the jumper or boots, especially indoors, and he felt that he ought to save the silk shirt for a special occasion.

In the end, Mrs Weasley had sent them all off to their beds with a warm hug and a hot cup of cocoa at around eleven o'clock, though Harry could see that Ron and the twins still had a fair amount of energy left in their tanks.

He was startled out of his memories of his first proper birthday party by the sound of someone's footsteps thumping heavily down the stairs. He grabbed a change of clothes and headed to the bathroom before the rest of the Weasley clan woke up, packing up his gear in his overnight bag. It was a good job he hadn't been given any larger presents, as he would have struggled to carry them all back to Privet Drive.

Downstairs, Mr and Mrs Weasley were both up and about. Mrs Weasley was bustling about in the kitchen preparing breakfast, while Mr Weasley sat at the kitchen table sipping at a cup of tea and reading the Daily Prophet. Harry seated himself opposite, and Mr Weasley put the newspaper down to wish him a good morning.

"You're up early, Harry," he commented.

Harry nodded. "I'm sort of used to it now," he said. "Do you have to be at work early this morning?"

Mr Weasley grimaced. "Yes, unfortunately. With the election of a new Minister, there's a fair chance that we'll be moved around to new departments to start afresh," he explained. "Even if Fudge wins, you can be sure he'll reward those who have supported him with promotions or moves to better jobs. Basically we have to get as much outstanding casework cleared up as possible, in case somebody else has to take it over next week after the results are announced."

Harry hadn't realised that the election would cause so much anxiety for all those who worked in the Ministry, but he could see Mr Weasley's point.

"Do you think he will be re-elected?" Harry asked.

"Difficult to say really. If Amelia had been given a free run at it, I think she would have won, because she would have taken almost all the centre ground away from Fudge, and those who were inclined to vote against him simply to force a change would have voted for her."

Harry looked down at the table at the reminder of his involvement in Madam Bones withdrawing from the election. Mr Weasley carried on without noticing though.

"Having said that, there is also an argument that having two candidates fighting over the central ground would let one of the others win, but I think it's more likely that Fudge will win simply because he's the best compromise candidate for those who don't like the policies of the other two."

"What sort of policies are we talking about?"

Mr Weasley stopped for a moment, then wandered out of the room for a moment, returning with another newspaper in his hand.

"Here it is, Harry," he said, passing him the newspaper, just as Mrs Weasley set a cup of tea down in front of him. "Have a read through that. It's probably better than me trying to explain it to you," he suggested.

The paper was open to a page that had detailed biographies of the three remaining candidates, and each had their own column setting out the policies they intended to enact if they were elected.

"That came out earlier in the week, supposedly to give people an idea of who they are voting for and what it would mean," Mr Weasley told him.

The smell of bacon and sausages frying in the skillet made Harry's taste buds tingle in anticipation, but he looked down at the articles and forced himself to read them before contemplating breakfast. Having seen brief profiles of the candidates before, he was more interested in the policies they espoused, and concentrated his attention on that area of the page.

Julius Silverwood advocated closer ties with the Muggle world, providing protection for high-profile Muggles and Muggleborns and their families to keep them safe from Voldemort and other dark wizards. He proposed setting up 'safe havens' to where those who were attacked could be port-keyed.

He also promised a full investigation into how Voldemort had managed to return and into his links with various prominent pureblood families, as well as the 'conspiracy of silence' that had delayed word of the Dark Lord's return.

He promised to have all dementors destroyed for the safety of wizard-kind, and to improve the strength of the Auror ranks by increasing intake into the training programmes. He was also proposing to improve relations with goblins and to investigate the need for legislation covering house-elf rights.

Harry grinned at the thought of Hermione's reaction to that. He was sure that it was exactly the sort of thing that she would have wanted to see in an election manifesto, given her previous attempts to free the Hogwarts' house-elves.

He turned next to Silas Birtles. Harry didn't know much about Birtles other than he was a business partner of Lucius Malfoy, though in itself that placed a fairly heavy stigma on him from Harry's point of view. In contrast to Silverwood, he intended to immediately cease any contact at all between the wizard and Muggle worlds, and to use the resource savings to provide additional protection to 'upstanding citizens' that were under threat from the Dark Lord's return.

He also planned to provide for a higher level of regulation on apparition, Portkey creation and the licensing of magical products, to add to additional measures, such as increasing sentences for 'breaches of security' to incarceration in Azkaban to improve law and order. Indeed an additional caveat to that was that all convicted criminals would have their vault contents turned over to the Ministry.

Birtles also planned to restore the Wizengamot to its 'traditional' composition, which Harry knew very little about, but suspected that it involved a smaller panel which would be comprised of pureblood cronies.

Birtles's other policies included tighter control over the wizarding press, in order to avoid scare mongering, and to increase the money supply and de-regulate the banking system so that it was less reliant on the goblins.

Turning finally to Fudge's column, Harry was unsurprised to see that he was campaigning on the grounds that continuity was best for the wizarding world, particularly when confronted with such challenging times. He was promising to increase funding for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to improve the ability of the Aurors to carry out their work, and to outlaw any 'vigilante organisations' that threatened the stability of society.

Harry reckoned that Fudge was probably referring to the Order of the Phoenix, and to the 'threat' that the DA had appeared to be to the Minister the previous year, but that the vast majority of the Prophet's readers would assume that he was referring to Death Eaters, which made it an interesting slant.

Fudge also advocated retaining the 'gold standard' on which the currency was based and refuted suggestions that an increase in money supply would be effective in stimulating the wizarding economy.

Finally, and Harry thought this had been added only because of the stances of the two other candidates, Fudge intended to maintain the minimal level of contact between wizard-kind and Muggles, since he felt that the existing arrangements worked well enough.

Harry passed the paper back to Mr Weasley with a nod of thanks. "Not exactly much to choose from, is there?" he suggested.

Mr Weasley looked at him quizzically. "I'd've thought you would've been likely to support Julius Silverwood's position?"

"I'm not supporting anyone," Harry stated blandly, smiling at Mrs Weasley as she set a plate full of fried bacon, sausages, eggs and tomatoes in front of each of them. "I don't know enough about politics to be able to make a sound judgement. Why would people oppose him though?"

"The problem is that most purebloods will see his position as an affront to wizarding tradition, so he will have to rely on the Muggle-born and mixed blood votes," Mister Weasley said.

Harry could see the sense in that, but had another question:

"Aren't there enough Muggleborn or mixed-blood wizards to outweigh the purebloods?" he asked as he started cutting up the bacon and sausages in front of him.

"I'm not sure, Harry," Mister Weasley admitted, "but even if there are, his policies won't be all that popular, given the open nature of society he's advocating, and how scared people already are at Voldemort's return."

Harry nodded, his mouth now full of sausage.

"To be honest, he'll have a certain amount of support, but this is basically a choice between the lesser of three evils: Fudge is a known incompetent, but holds the middle ground; Silverwood is appealing to the Muggle-born vote, and is a complete unknown; Birtles is known for his anti-Muggle leanings, and has couched his proposals in careful language so as not to alienate too many people. It's a toss-up."

"Anyway, I need to get off to Diagon Alley and vote, then get to work myself. I hope you had a good birthday, Harry. You're welcome here any time you want."

Mr Weasley finished up his breakfast and pushed his plate away, getting up from the table. He kissed Mrs Weasley on the cheek and said goodbye to both she and Harry, before heading off through the fireplace in a shower of sparks.

Harry tucked in to his meal, but before he'd finished a loud squawk came from one of the upper floors somewhere, quickly followed by the thunder of footsteps rushing down the stairs. The footsteps were those of Fred and George, who flashed grins and yelled semi-coherent morning greetings to the kitchen's occupants before jumping into the fireplace themselves and disappearing.

Harry didn't have to wait more than a few moments before he discovered what all the noise was about, and the reason for the twins' hasty departure. Another rumble down the stairs was followed by a dripping Ron, clad only in a towel and with a murderous look on his face, which contrasted oddly with the blue tinge to his skin.

"Where have they gone?" he demanded.

Harry didn't reply, since once again he had a mouth full of breakfast. Instead he pointed towards the fire.

"Damnit!" Ron exclaimed, "I'm gonna get them for this!" he added before heading back up the stairs, only for Harry to hear another shout of annoyance as the footsteps reached the second floor.

Harry had finished his breakfast and was chatting with Mrs Weasley when Ginny and Hermione surfaced. They looked as though they had enjoyed a restful nights sleep, and Hermione in particular looked a lot brighter than she had done the previous day.

"What was Ron's little performance about?" Mrs Weasley asked the girls as she provided them with their own breakfast plates and poured another cup of tea.

Ginny snickered. "Well, to start with the twins turned the hot water off while Ron was in the middle of his shower," she said with a little giggle, "and then while Ron was down here chasing them and making a fuss, I snuck in behind his back."

"He didn't sound very happy about that," Harry noted.

"He wasn't," Hermione replied with a grin. "He stormed off back to his bedroom, which of course gave me time to sneak in after Ginny had finished," she reported with a smile.

"Ginny, that's not really fair," Mrs Weasley admonished her. "You should be nicer to your brother than that!"

Fortunately for Ginny she was facing away from her, so Mrs Weasley couldn't see the face that she pulled at Harry at the telling off, forcing Harry to choke back his laughter.

Ron eventually joined them, with a nasty glare at Ginny for her little trick, and dived wholeheartedly into his own breakfast. The cosy little scene at the breakfast table was only disturbed when Tonks slid into the room, attempting to do so unnoticed. Unfortunately she hadn't become any less clumsy, and tripped over a coat rack that was positioned by the door.

Harry found it remarkable that someone who could get through a whole host of exercises and duelling steps without missing a beat could manage to fall over so spectacularly when confronted by the most innocent of obstacles. All the time they had spent together in the past month, she'd barely shown a sign of the clumsiness he'd expected.

He didn't have much time to contemplate that though, because Mrs Weasley had launched into a tirade towards the metamorphmagus on a totally different subject.

She clearly hadn't missed the fact that Tonks and Charlie had slipped off together the previous evening, and royally reamed the young Auror out. Tonks, who was once again in her jeans and T-shirt and with her hair in green spikes, endured the rant stoically until Mrs Weasley paused for breath.

"You do remember that Charlie's in his mid-twenties, and has been living away from home for five years, don't you, Molly?" she replied mildly, before the Weasley matriarch could start up on another rant.

Mrs Weasley deflated all of a sudden. "I'm sorry dear," she apologised. "I forget sometimes, you know - the two of you disappeared, and you know how I worry."

"It's okay. I just wish you wouldn't start calling me a 'scarlet woman' in front of the children, though."

Mrs Weasley went red and started muttering under her breath about something as she shuffled away, but none of them could make out what she was saying.

"Anyway, Charlie said to let you know that he was going to Diagon Alley to vote and to get some cash from Gringotts, but he'd pop in later to say 'hello', probably after lunch," Tonks informed her. "Meanwhile, I have to get Harry back home. He's got a lesson this afternoon, and I have to get back to the day job, I'm afraid."

She pulled an object out from under her waistband, and waved it in Harry's general direction, prompting Harry to say some swift goodbyes, including hugs from Hermione, Ginny and Mrs Weasley, before submitting to the mercies of the Portkey, which took him and Tonks to the back garden of number four Privet Drive.

The following week saw Harry return to his schedule of lessons with John Christopher and Fabian Gaarder. The Occlumency lessons continued to progress well, and Harry was pleased with the way things were going. They also went back to proper duelling instead of simple spell repetition, so that John could see how well Harry adapted the spells for use in a combat situation.

Mad-eye Moody joined them for these lessons and the two of them continued to work Harry hard, although they were pleased with the rate at which he picked up new tips, tricks, spells and techniques.

Gaarder continued his work with Harry on the elemental magic, and he was still picking up bits and pieces that helped improve his ability but Harry felt as though there was a little bit of a block preventing him from casting the spells properly.

Gaarder didn't seem to be too worried though, and he was particularly impressed with the boost in confidence Harry seemed to have gained in the few weeks they had been working together.

Weekend mornings were still the combination of fun and hard work that he had become used to as he continued to work with Tonks on his exercises and she taught him a few new spells.

Harry had expected to find himself jealous at Tonks's fledgling relationship with Charlie, but in fact, barely noticed anything of the sort. Despite the way he had enjoyed flirting with the metamorphmagus over recent weeks, he had accepted that it was part of his learning process rather than the start of a serious romantic relationship.

Besides which, Tonks was several years older than him, and even though he'd made good progress in building up both his musculature and stamina, there was no way he expected to be able to compete against a proper grown-up like Charlie - heck the guy works with dragons, what could be cooler than that!

Anyway, although he enjoyed Tonks's company, he didn't get that feeling of butterflies in the stomach that he had done with Cho and that was supposed to tell him when it was "serious".

The only thing that week which particularly worried Harry was a letter from the Ministry of Magic that arrived the Monday after his birthday. The letter asked him to attend the Ministry the forthcoming Saturday to answer questions about what had happened in the Department of Mysteries a month or so ago.

On the surface, it seemed as though the request was fairly innocuous - of course the Ministry would want to know the details of why they had been there and what had happened - but Harry had a vague feeling of unease about it. Hadn't Dumbledore already provided an explanation?

On the other hand, it might lead to further investigations into Sirius's death, and thence his innocence in respect of the events of fifteen years before, which the Prophet had hinted might be the case over the weeks before the election, but Harry doubted that would be the primary motive for calling an inquiry of this nature.

His suspicions were aroused further after he'd talked to John and Moody about the inquiry summons.

They told Harry that Fudge had been re-elected, although the result had been fairly close. Fudge had polled around two-fifths of the votes cast, while the other two candidates had each gained around thirty percent.

"He hasn't wasted his time stamping his authority on the Ministry, either," Moody noted with a low growl. "He's already started putting legislation on the books that's making life difficult for the Order - it's like he's got a personal grudge against us."

"More like against Dumbledore," John suggested. "It's not just this new law on 'vigilante groups' that's stirring things up. He can get away with that by insisting that it's to prevent recruitment to the Death Eaters, but it makes it really difficult for those, like Alastor, that aren't satisfied with the measures Fudge is taking against Voldemort."

"Damn idiot!" Moody swore. "He's making the assumption that any group that he doesn't control is a threat to him."

Harry nodded at this, remembering the attitude that Umbridge had taken towards the students being taught practical defence, and the rumour that it was because the Minister was scared that Dumbledore was putting together an army of his own.

"Is he that insecure about the whole issue?" he asked.

"He considered that study group of yours to be a vigilante group, Potter," Moody said, confirming Harry's thoughts, "so be careful mentioning it to people you don't trust."

"That would be everyone, in your case, eh Moody?" John needled the ex-Auror, only to be met with a stern glare as Moody's false eye rotated in its socket towards him.

"He's right though," John continued. "You should be careful - they're talking about treating anyone found to be a member of a 'vigilante group' as though they were a Death Eater, and making the sentence a spell in Azkaban."

Harry gulped at the thought. 'Surely they wouldn't take such a stance with the DA?' he worried. Then again, this was Fudge they were talking about, and Harry realised that the Minister felt that Harry had done plenty to provoke him over the past couple of years, and probably wouldn't be inclined to deal with him favourably.

Apparently that wasn't all that the Minister was doing in his first week in office after the election.

"He's still messing around with Hogwarts, too," Moody pointed out. "He's instigating a new law that makes the Headmaster responsible for the actions of all his students."

"Ouch!" Harry said, thinking of all the problems that might cause.

"Dumbledore was furious about it, and with good reason. Can you imagine what would happen if one of those kids turned out to be a Death Eater?" John put in.

"I wouldn't be surprised if some of them already are," Harry replied. "Just look at the like of Malfoy - he's been acting like it for years."

"Are there any others you know of?" Moody demanded.

"Well Crabbe and Goyle's Dads are both Death Eaters, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were forced into it. Neither of them would be much of a boon though - they struggle to understand the orders that Malfoy gives them.

"I don't know about the others though," Harry continued. "You could make a case either way. Pansy Parkinson follows Malfoy around like a lost puppy, and the other Slytherins are all pretty vicious, too."

"What about from the other Houses?" John asked.

Harry shrugged. "No idea really. Noone from the other Houses makes any sort of big deal about the pureblood thing."

Moody went quiet for a moment as he processed the information.

"Okay, Potter. Let me know if you find anything out.

"That's not why Fudge is doing this though."

"Oh?"

"It's because of you, again," he growled.

"Oh."

"He's scared of Dumbledore's influence on you, and of all the things that you've done in the past. He's worried about your ability to speak parseltongue and your connection to Voldemort," Moody noted, pointing to Harry's scar. "He wants Dumbledore to rein you in, basically, to keep you under control."

Harry started to grow agitated at the Minister's interference, but his angry thoughts were interrupted by a question from John.

"So he wants it both ways then, Moody, right?"

"How do you mean, John?" Harry asked, struggling to follow the convoluted turns of the conversation.

"Well he wants to use these powers to try and get Dumbledore to exert more influence on all his students - to stop them getting the Dark Mark, for example - but at the same time he wants to try and drive a wedge between you and the Headmaster."

"He wants to be able use this to string him up straightaway, even if the intention is geared more towards stopping your ilk getting into places they shouldn't be," Moody directed pointedly at Harry.

"Anyhow, back to this inquiry," he noted, returning to the original topic of conversation. "It's pretty unlikely that Fudge has set this up without a personal agenda attached to it, just like with the other stuff he's been up to. He's kept it all hush-hush so far, so I can't imagine he's expecting anything positive to come out of it."

"Yeah, otherwise he'd have made a big deal about it," John interjected.

"Hasn't any of this stuff made the headlines?" Harry asked, wondering if it was all being swept under the carpet.

"Oh, the stuff about vigilante groups did," Moody assured him. "The Ministry put a huge positive spin on how it was going to make a real difference in the fight against Voldemort, and how the Aurors would be permitted to arrest anyone found to be a Death Eater, no other questions asked."

Harry wondered idly whether this would affect Professor Snape, but then realised that he didn't really care. It would make Potions lesson a bit less traumatic if Snape was thrown into Azkaban and was replaced, he concluded vindictively.

They speculated about the inquiry for a short while, but in the end, an exchange of owls with Dumbledore resulted in Moody agreeing to accompany Harry to the inquiry to prevent him getting browbeaten as he had been when brought before the Wizengamot the previous summer.

"Time for this inquiry to get started then," Minister Fudge chimed out importantly from behind the table.

Fudge was sitting on the other side of the desk from Harry, and alongside him were Amelia Bones, who had been retained in her position as head of the Department for Magical Law Enforcement, and Jerome Mallard, who had introduced himself to Harry as a senior Auror, and who was heading up the investigation into Voldemort's appearance at the Ministry in June.

The room had been set up in a similar fashion to the police interrogation rooms that Harry had seen on his occasional glimpses of cop shows on the TV. The solitary table and basic chairs were the only furnishings, and it was sparsely decorated, with only a tiny window high on one wall providing natural light. The only thing missing was the bright spot lamp to be shone into the prisoner's eyes.

Mad-eye Moody stood protectively half a step behind the seat that Harry had been directed to, and glowered at the three inquiry panel members.

"I don't believe your presence was requested, Alastor," Fudge noted.

"I don't care," the ex-Auror replied brusquely, "I'm here to represent Potter's interests. You're not about to pull your inquisition act on a minor. Either I stay, or we both leave."

For once Harry was grateful that it was Moody that accompanied him rather than Tonks. As much as he'd grown fond of the young metamorphmagus, he was keenly aware that this situation called for someone of Moody's experience and authority, someone that the Minister knew he couldn't push around.

Mallard and Madam Bones looked at Moody with respect, both for his reputation as one of the best dark wizard catchers the Ministry had known, but also for the way that he instinctively understood the situation.

"Let's start from the beginning then, Mister Potter," Fudge suggested nervously, with a glance up at Moody. "First of all, how did you get to the Ministry, when I believe you were supposed to be secure at Hogwarts?"

Harry ignored the temptation to lash out about exactly how safe the Minister considered it to be at Hogwarts given that he had planted a paranoid, sadistic and dictatorial teacher there to ensure that any hint of the truth about Voldemort's return was hushed up, instituted an inquisition within the school, and then supplanted the Headmaster with said teacher.

He'd save that for when Umbridge finally came to trial and perhaps he could drag Fudge into the mire with her.

For now, he was content to answer the inquiry's questions and, as Moody had instructed him that morning, tried to remain calm and polite no matter what provocation the Minister used.

"We flew, Minister, using the school thestrals to get us to London," Harry answered evenly. "We used the telephone box in Muggle London to allow us access to the atrium. There was no one around when we arrived."

The Minister and his colleagues looked a little surprised at the frankness of Harry's answer. They'd apparently expected to have to drag the story out of Harry, no doubt based on his sullen attitude the previous year.

"I think, more importantly, we need to know why you were at the Ministry, Harry," Madam Bones suggested calmly.

Harry had expected her to be somewhat annoyed at him, since the leaking of his letter rejecting the Order of Merlin had effectively led to her forced withdrawal from the ministerial election, but she seemed to hold no grudge against Harry for that.

"I received a vision from Voldemort-" Harry stopped briefly as his three questioners all shuddered at his use of the name. "-that I later found out was deliberately meant to draw me to the Ministry, specifically to the Department of Mysteries."

"A vision, Mister Potter?" Fudge asked incredulously. "What sort of vision? Am I to believe you are seeing things that are not really there?"

"I wish you weren't really here," Harry wanted to say, but bit his tongue and tried to explain his link to Voldemort.

Fudge seemed equally shocked by Harry's explanation, and it took several minutes for the two other panel members to calm him down when he had a sudden panic that Harry was able to channel the Dark Lord even within the depths of the Ministry.

After they had finally got the Minister settled once again, and Harry had explained the problems he had with the scar, he also had to explain that he was learning Occlumency to stymie Voldemort's plans.

"I don't know what Dumbledore is thinking of," Fudge muttered, more or less to himself, when Harry finished his explanation.

"Never mind that now, Cornelius," Amelia Bones interrupted. "We're here to hear from Mister Potter about what happened in the Department of Mysteries. Please continue, Harry."

Harry went on to explain the detail of the vision, and how he'd led the other five to the Department of Mysteries to save Sirius, and how he'd been confronted by Lucius Malfoy and eleven other Death Eaters, and finally realised that it had all been a trap: they had simply be lured there to retrieve a prophecy that Voldemort wanted.

"How did you know they were Death Eaters?" asked Fudge. "They could have been there quite legitimately."

Harry felt Moody's hand on his shoulder, reminding him to keep calm. 'How the hell did they think he knew they were Death Eaters,' he thought to himself, as he prepared a more acceptable response.

"They were wearing Death Eater robes and masks, Minister. You'll also recall that a number of them had escaped from Azkaban earlier in the year," he pointed out patiently. "The fact that they were acting together under the leadership of Lucius Malfoy implies that they were all Death Eaters."

Madam Bones nodded judiciously at Harry's logical conclusion, though the Minister seemed less than convinced.

"That's hardly conclusive!"

Again Harry was tempted to rip into Fudge and accuse him of defending Malfoy because he had been such a large contributor to the Minister's expenses over the years, but restrained himself. It wouldn't do to make unfounded accusations of the Minister when so far he'd asked perfectly legitimate questions about Harry and the others' presence in the Department of Mysteries that day.

"So how is it that you managed to escape twelve Death Eaters then, Mister Potter?" Fudge drawled, a hint of disbelief colouring his voice as though he couldn't believe that Harry had escaped such a situation.

"There were six of us there," Harry noted, just about maintaining his composure, "and despite the lack of a decent Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, we had all been practicing spells so that we could defend ourselves if necessary. Since the Ministry had decided we were perfectly safe without learning any practical defensive spells, it was probably a good job," he added with a little asperity.

"So there were six children against twelve so-called 'Death Eaters'. Are you trying to tell me that you faced up to twelve adults that meant you harm and still escaped?"

"Six of which were convicted Death Eaters," Harry corrected, "and yes, that's correct, we did managed to escape from them, at least long enough for help to arrive."

He proceeded to give an account of what had happened in the various rooms where he had been and, with a lump in his throat as he described it, played up the ultimate price that Sirius had paid for talking on his cousin Bellatrix. Madam Bones in particular looked uncomfortable at this point, since she had been involved in Sirius's original capture, but the three questioners allowed Harry to relate his story without interrupting.

Fudge's face had been a picture of outrage when Harry mentioned the way the students had use the prophecies to cause a distraction and allow them to escape, but he slunk down in his chair as Harry continued his tale, and started to realise that there was no way that he could get away with defending Malfoy or the other five that had not previously been identified by the Ministry as Death Eaters.

Harry had intended to stop short of telling them about the Cruciatus Curse that he had attempted to cast on Bellatrix Lestrange, but for some reason found himself carrying on right through, to the point where he found himself back in Dumbledore's office.

The looks of concern and sympathy on the faces of two of the panel made Harry feel a little better about the inquiry, and those expressions deepened further when he told them about the way that Voldemort possessed him and tried to goad Dumbledore into killing him, but Fudge's face had lit up at hearing of Harry's use of an Unforgivable, and it seemed as though he didn't hear anything beyond that at all. Harry could almost hear the cogs turning in the Minister's mind as he worked out how he was going to benefit from this information.

"You cast the Cruciatus Curse?" Fudge asked, the glee in his voice unmistakable, as he clung to the information like a drowning man who'd been thrown a rubber ring.

Harry bowed his head in shame, wondering if this was going to be the end for him. He remembered that the fake Moody had told them in class that the use of any of the Unforgivables on a human was enough to land him in Azkaban, and half-expected to be carted off there right away, but Moody interrupted Fudge's joyful questioning.

"Grow up, Fudge. You're not going to prosecute Harry for that," he stated.

"O-ho, and exactly why not?"

"Because firstly there are no witnesses, unless of course you can get that hag Lestrange to testify against him-"

"Ah, but he's admitted it himself. We can use his own testimony."

"Not in a case like this, you can't," Moody disagreed, and Harry could see Mallard nodding in agreement with the aged ex-Auror. "He's a Minor and he's providing a witness statement. Any personal implications are considered to be out of remit. Besides which, I can guarantee that we'd get a psychologist here to back up the fact that he reacted out of grief and couldn't be held accountable for his actions. Thirdly, I'm not sure that you could even class Lestrange as human anyway."

"He's quite correct, Cornelius," Mallard spoke up for the first time. "Even if you were to put a case up against Mister Potter, you wouldn't get a conviction. At worst you might discredit his testimony a little, but even if you tried that I don't think it would be much more than twenty-four hours before another no-confidence motion was on the floor of the Wizengamot."

The Minister looked extremely disgruntled at Mallard's words. He'd obviously hoped to get back at Harry somehow for his refusal to support his re-election campaign and for the implication that his largest contributor was a Death Eater.

"We're supposed to be here to review the events of that evening, Cornelius, not to press a vendetta against Mister Potter," reminded Madam Bones. "I think we've got plenty of information here to be going on with, so why don't we let Harry get home?"

"I hardly think that we're simply going to send him home! He's just admitted to casting an Unforgivable Curse on someone, even if they were a convicted Death Eater," Fudge began hotly. "He's enough of a menace to society as it is, without being given license to go around casting torture curses at unsuspecting members of the public."

"Don't be ridiculous, Cornelius," Mallard put it. "He was clearly under duress, and not accountable for his actions."

"I will not have-"

Madam Bones interrupted, her anger rising as she began to realise that the Minister seriously intended to take some form of sanction against Harry for his actions, whatever the justification for it or the mitigating circumstances. "I think we should discuss this in private," she suggested. "There's no need for Mister Potter and Mister Moody to hear us arguing like schoolchildren.

Mallard voiced his agreement, and Moody stood up, helping Harry get to his feet as well.

"Thank you for your time, Mister Potter, Mister Moody," Madam Bones said by way of dismissal, and moved round the table to open the door for them.

As they stepped outside and allowed the door to close behind them, Moody put his hand on Harry's arm.

"Just hold up here for a minute or two," he advised. "I think we might learn something if we hang around for a few moments."

Sure enough, as soon as Harry and Moody left the room, the inquiry members started arguing amongst themselves, loudly enough for Harry to hear them quite clearly through the closed door.

"I will not sit here and allow you to carry out a vendetta against a sixteen year old boy," Madam Bones was admonishing the Minister. Harry cracked a grin at the thought, reminded of the way that Mrs Weasley chastised her children.

"He cast an Unforgivable, Amelia, what do you expect me to do?"

"I'm not so stupid that I believe your cover story, Cornelius. The whole wizarding world knows you've got it in for Harry, especially after his letter got leaked to the Daily Prophet. Just because he called you on trying to get his support for your re-election campaign there is no excuse for you to continue this harassment."

"I would have thought that you would be more sympathetic to my point of view, Amelia. After all, it was you who missed out on the opportunity to become Minister after Potter's letter appeared in the press, and it's your department that will end up taking most of the blame, now that Millicent isn't around any longer to blame."

Harry scowled at the way that Fudge was blatantly trying to play of Madam Bones's tentative political situation. As Minister he had the right to sack her, and might well have to do so anyway once a full investigation was made into Sirius's lack of trial, but Harry was pleased to see that she wasn't taking a selfish view and stood up to Fudge for him.

"Why should I place any responsibility on Mister Potter for the failings of my own department?" Madam Bones asked, her volume rising considerably. "The fact that the failings have become public knowledge are hardly his fault either - the letter was addressed to you after all. Do you make it a habit to release all your personal correspondence into the public domain? I don't see reports about how much that oily Death Eater Malfoy has been paying you to do his bidding all these years getting into the press!"

"Calm down Amelia, Cornelius," Mallard's voice broke into the argument. "I don't think there's any point in taking this further."

"But there's a principle to uphold, Jerome," Fudge replied. "The boy's committed an offence that should see him in Azkaban."

"Don't be ridiculous. You're hardly in a position to argue that in public - you'd be crucified."

"What on earth are you talking about? Surely the public will see that it's in their interest and for their safety?"

"What? The rumour that he used an Unforgivable? If anything it's more likely to generate hysteria. Can't you just imagine the headlines in the Prophet?

"At the moment the vast majority of folk think that it takes years of studying Dark Magic to cast them. How do you think they will react once they know that a sixteen-year-old has done so without even studying them? You'll cause widespread panic if you confirm the rumour. Not to mention the fact that your own record is hardly spotless."

"What are you insinuating? I've never used an Unforgivable!"

"No, but you've killed, just the same."

"I have done no such thing!" Fudge blustered.

"Aside from the fact that you could be held responsible for the death of Sirius Black by refusing to accept that the Dark Lord had returned, which I won't go into further here because I'm sure Amelia has heard enough about that particular case, I'm reminded that you allowed a dementor to dispose of Barty Crouch Junior, rather than bringing him in for questioning."

"But Crouch was clearly a raving lunatic. Trying to pass himself off as Moody, indeed! Who would have believed his testimony?"

"Perhaps all those who believed Mister Potter and Headmaster Dumbledore when they said that Voldemort had returned?"

There was a pause as it seemed that Mallard had to wait for Fudge had to gather himself together again at hearing the Dark Lord's name.

"After all, Cornelius," the senior Auror continued, "what they told you was true, despite your protestations to the contrary and your attempts to silence both of them."

"I ... I..."

"Think about it, Cornelius. Think very hard and very carefully. I'm sure that if Mister Potter wanted to, he could easily bring you down with him. He could have done so with Amelia, but hasn't even mentioned the possibility, no doubt out of respect for her. I can see in his eyes, no matter how polite he might be, that he doesn't hold you in similar regard. Take it as a piece of friendly advice, Minister, but I really don't recommend that you pursue this particular case."

"I should have known when you asked us to be on this panel that your motives had little to do with actually finding out the truth about the Death Eaters that were captured in the Department of Mysteries, and more about trying to get your damn crony Malfoy out of jail, Cornelius," Harry heard Madam Bones remonstrating. "The way you have been continually fighting young Mister Potter brings the Ministry into disrepute, and to use an inquiry like this to further impugn his character is totally out of order!

"Anyhow, there's not much point in stringing this out any further," Madam Bones continued. "We'll need to speak to the other witnesses that young Mister Potter mentioned and then make a start on the trials."

"What! Why are we rushing into this on the word of a delusions sixteen-year-old?" Fudge protested, a note of panic creeping into his voice.

"He's hardly delusional," Mallard put in. "After all, you saw the Dark Lord yourself."

"That's not the point at all!" Fudge's voice raised even louder. "I mean, he's having 'visions' of Voldemort and associating with known criminals! His testimony can hardly be considered of the highest calibre!"

"We're not using him to prosecute them," Madam Bones told the Minister.

"What?"

"There's no need - we have enough witnesses to say who we found, what they were doing and what the spells they cast were. How they were dressed and the fact they were deep in restricted parts of the Ministry should be enough to show motivation, I would have thought.

"Dumbledore and one of my Aurors even provided us with Pensieve memories to use," Mallard added calmly. "There's really no need for us to involve young Mister Potter at all."

"I'm not standing for this!" Fudge complained. "You're waging a deliberate campaign to slander a man of impeccable standing!"

"Malfoy?" Harry choked outside the door at Fudge's latest statement, but Moody waved a hand at him to keep quiet, and Mallard was talking again inside the inquiry room.

"Surely you want to get these trials up and running, Cornelius? You don't want your friend Lucius hanging around in Azkaban with all those criminals without the opportunity to plead his case, do you?"

They could still hear Fudge blustering, but the voices quietened down a little and Harry began to have difficulty making out all the words. Moody had heard enough though.

He nodded at Harry. "I think that should reassure you that not everyone in the Ministry is out for your blood," he noted. "I'd love to be able to see Fudge's face right now, but I don't think we really ought to be caught eavesdropping, so let's get moving before they finish up and notice we're still here."

As they headed back to the lift to return to the Ministry entrance, Harry thought about what the Auror Mallard had been saying to Fudge. He was right in the sense that Harry had never even considered that Madam Bones or her Department would bear the brunt of any blame for the events surrounding Sirius's incarceration in Azkaban, he'd simply wanted to raise the issue. He certainly wasn't looking to cast blame on anyone.

He was just thankful that Madam Bones didn't blame him for her withdrawal from the Ministerial election. She seemed to understand, where Fudge did not, that she was responsible for the actions of her Department. Indeed, she seemed more annoyed at the Minister for letting the letter get out to the Prophet.

As Fudge seemed to have found out, once you were elected you could get away with a lot more than when you were standing for election and, despite the debacle surrounding Harry's refusal of the Order of Merlin, it appeared that a much greater furore had broken out over other issues and they had taken some of the spotlight away from Fudge's blatant attempt to curry favour with the Boy-who-Lived.

Once they had made their way back up to the atrium level of the Ministry, Moody activated the Portkey that returned them to Privet Drive.

"Well done today, Potter," he noted gruffly after they'd landed safely in the Dursleys' back garden, and Harry had gotten over the queasiness he always felt when employing that particular mode of transport. "Good to see you keep your head with that damned politician baiting you. You did more good by being polite and not responding to his jibes than you would have done getting outraged."