The Weight of the World

Chapter 17 - Fudge Returns

Madam Pomfrey got up early to check on Draco. She wanted to check his ribs and breathing and make sure that everything was still healing nicely before she let him go. When she made her way to the bed he was supposed to be in, he wasn't there. She looked in the closet that was beside his bed and found that his clothes were gone. He went immediately to Dumbledore's office to let him know that Draco was gone.

When she got there, Moody and Dumbledore were in the middle of a conversation, but she felt the need to interrupt them anyway.

"Professor, sorry to interrupt you, but Draco Malfoy wasn't in his bed this morning. His clothes were missing too, I assume that he has left the school," she said.

Dumbledore looked at Moody for a second, and then back to Madam Pomfrey.

"Poppy, Alastor found Draco below the Astronomy Towerthis morning. He is dead. It appears that he fell from the top of the tower late last night."

Madam Pomfrey gave a loud squeak and put her hands over her mouth.

"It doesn't appear that he was forced over the edge. It looks as though he simply jumped,” Dumbledore said shaking his head.

Madam Pomfrey still had her hands over her mouth to hide her obvious cries.

"He was very troubled Poppy. His father's involvement with Voldemort was the reason he was so badly injured the night before. I just wish I could have foreseen this," Dumbledore said as he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

"I have sent a letter to his father, asking him to come to the castle immediately," he said.

"You don't think they'll be problems from old Lucius when he gets here do you Albus?" Moody asked him.

"I do not know Alastor. No one can predict the reactions a father might have when he learns of the death of his son," Dumbledore said.

"I'll hang around the castle and make sure I am here when he arrives," Moody told him.

"Alastor, I do not think your presence will be required, but I do appreciate you looking out for me,” Dumbledore said smiling.

"I know you can handle Lucius, but he's a slippery one, he'd curse ya first chance he got as soon as ya turned your back," Moody said.

"I assure you I will be fine Alastor,” Dumbledore said.

"If you say so Albus.But watch out for him. I don't trust that slimy Death Eater any further than I can throw him,” Moody said.

Later that afternoon, Harry and Ron were down at the Quidditch field. Harry was working Ron pretty hard. Harry was getting better with the Quaffle and Ron was paying the price for it. But it was working was paying off, Ron was getting better, and Harry was finding it much harder to get the Quaffle past him and through the rings. Harry had just put a wicked move on Ron, but stopped mid-air to look at someone walking up to the castle.

"What happened? Why'd you stop?" Ron asked trying to catch his breath. "That was a great move Harry you had me beat."

"Someone's walking up to the castle; I was just trying to see who it was,” Harry said still looking at the person.

"Can you tell who that is?" Ron said shading his eyes from the sun.

"I'm not sure, but from the look of that blonde hair I bet its Draco's dad,” Harry said.

"I don't like him Harry. Not at all,” Ron said.

"I know, I think there's going to be trouble. He's here looking for Draco," Harry said.

"Ron, I'm going to head up to the hospital wing to warn Draco."

"Harry you better be careful, you do have your wand don't you?"

"Of course I do, I've had it on me the whole time I've been back at the school."

Harry flew his broom as fast as he could up to the door of the castle, then quickly jumped off and set himself at a sprint towards the hospital wing. He burst through the door to see the bed that Draco had been in the night before empty. He then ran into Madam Pomfrey's office to find her sitting behind her desk.

"Where is Draco?" he asked her gasping for air.

"Mr. Potter, he isn't here anymore," she said.

"Where is he? I need to warn him, his father just walked into the castle,” Harry said.

"His father is here already? My dear! Why on Earth would you need to warn him about his father being here?" she asked.

"I'm only guessing, but I think his father was there when he was hurt. I think his father wants to hurt him again. I've already talked to Dumbledore about it."

"Harry, sit down a minute. I need to tell you something," she said trying to calm her voice.

Harry looked at her for a second, and then sat down across from her.

"Harry, Draco threw himself off of the Astronomy Towerlast night."

Harry didn't say anything. It took a second for what she had just said to sink in.

"Harry did you hear me? Draco killed himself."

"No! Are you sure?" Harry said quickly.

"Yes, Harry. Professor Moody found him this morning. There was no evidence of any kind of struggle. It seems as though he just jumped."

Harry sat back in the chair he was sitting in. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. He didn't see it coming. He never thought that Draco was that bad off. He immediately wanted to go talk with Dumbledore and see if he knew anything about it.

"I can't believe he killed himself,” Harry said.

"I know Harry. I think he was just under too much stress from what happened to him the other night. I'll be here if you need anyone to talk to,”

"Thank you," Harry said and then he quickly headed out of the room.

Harry was in shock. It was the same sort of shock he felt when he had found out about Snape. He didn't really like Draco at all, but he found himself feeling very sorry for him, and sorry that he was now dead. He had remembered all of the times he had felt like doing something really horrible to Malfoy, and now he was dead. It made him feel guilty. He made his way to Dumbledore's office and could here Lucius talking from inside.

"Are you telling me that my son killed himself Dumbledore?" Lucius said loudly.

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy. He was found this morning at the base of the Astronomy tower. He came to us only a night ago very badly injured. You wouldn't know anything about that would you?"

Harry didn't hear an answer. He instinctively pulled his wand out and held it against his leg. He then heard Lucius begin speaking again.

"Dumbledore you're telling me that my son came here, to this school, injured, and then jumped out of your Astronomy Tower?"

"That seems to be what happened Mr. Malfoy. We are still investigating all of the details, but right now that seems to be exactly what happened,”

There was a moment of silence then Malfoy spoke again.

"Did my son talk to you about what happened to him or why he might jump?" Lucius asked.

"He did not give me any details Lucius. But I do believe he talked with Harry Potter yesterday, although I am not sure as to what all was said in that particular conversation."

"Harry Potter is here at the school?" Lucius tried to sound surprised. "Did you happen to ask Mr. Potter where he was when my son allegedly jumped to his death?"

"Lucius, I do not believe Harry Potter was involved in your son's death in any way."

"You don't do you? No, I guess you wouldn't. I am going to talk to the Ministry about this Dumbledore. I'll let you know right away that I hold you responsible for the death of my son, and I will make that known to Fudge and the others."

"You may do what you feel is necessary Lucius. I will tell you that your son came here extremely troubled. I don't think I have to tell you what was troubling him."

"Just what are you insinuating Dumbledore?"

"Nothing more Lucius, than the fact that I find it hard to believe that you have no idea why your son came here or what happened to him."

"You watch yourself Dumbledore. You'll watch your tounge. How dare you involve yourself in my family's business! I have nothing more to say to you Dumbledore. I can assure you this isn't the last you'll here from me on this matter."

"Good day Lucius, I will tell you that I am very sorry about your family's loss. Your son was an exceptional student and he will be missed."

Lucius stormed out of the office and caught Harry out of the corner of his eye. His eyes got very wide when he saw him, and even wider when he noticed that Harry had his wand lying against his leg.

"Potter!" Lucius turned to face him. "You will be sorry if you had anything to do with the death of my son,” Lucius said.

"I had nothing to do with the death of Draco sir. But I did talk to him. He told me what you did. He knew Voldemort sent you to get him."

"How dare you say that to me, Potter! You have been nothing but lucky so far, but I can assure you that your luck will run out one of these days. It will all come crashing down on you. One of these days very soon, you won't have anyone around to protect you and you can bet that it will be the worst and the last day of your life."

Harry felt one of the worst rages of his life building inside of him. He had his wand at his side and he knew that Lucius could never get to his in time. But he got control of himself before he did anything drastic. He let a small smile creep across his face.

"Tell Voldemort I said hello when you see him. And tell him that next time he decides to choke you, he needs to squeeze a bit harder."

Lucius had a look on his face that Harry had never seen. It was a mixture of both surprise and rage. He looked as though he wanted to go for his wand, but he was so set back at the fact that Harry had known about his last meeting with Voldemort, that he did nothing but walk past Harry and rush down the stairs.

Dumbledore had been listening outside of his office, and opened the door after he heard Lucius leave.

"Harry I am very impressed at the way you stood up to him, but you must be very careful not to provoke him, he is a very powerful wizard and can cause a lot of problems for you."

"Yes sir I know. But I also know what he did. He was the reason Draco killed himself. He was there the night that Voldemort came back and Cedric was killed. He was also there the night that Snape was killed. I just feel like we should do something."

"Harry, there are certain times for action and certain times that one should let things take their course. You will learn when these situations are. You are obviously getting better at it already; I see you had your wand out but did not use it," he said smiling.

"Yes sir. I just wanted him to see it so he wouldn't get the urge to do anything."

"That was a good idea Harry. You are in fact learning very quickly. I would also say that at this point Lucius probably didn't feel confident that he could have done anything to you anyway."

"You think he is afraid of me Professor?"

"Harry, I would imagine that all of the Death Eaters are afraid of you. Especially after watching you duel with Voldemort and live to tell about it," Dumbledore said smiling. "But that doesn't mean they aren't still very dangerous."

Harry looked at the floor with a frown on his face. He would have liked to have thrown the killing curse at Lucius. He had never really thought about killing anyone since he had confronted Sirius back when the thought he had been responsible for his parent's deaths. But right now he knew he wouldn't think twice about using the killing curse against Voldemort and any other Death Eater that put him and his friends in mortal danger. For some strange reason, he had felt a sudden urge to get revenge for Draco's death.

Harry returned to the common room where he found the others. It was there that he broke the news to them about Draco and also the news about what Draco's father had said to both him and Dumbledore just a few minutes ago.

"I can't believe he would do that," Hermione said stifling a cry.

Ron was dazed. It wasn't that he was really sad at the fact that Malfoy was dead; it had more to do about someone so young killing themselves.

"I think his dad is going to try and cause problems for Professor Dumbledore at the Ministry,” Harry said.

"He's a bloody Death Eater! How the hell can he just walk into the Ministry and cause problems for Dumbledore?" Ron said loudly.

"Fudge,” Hermione said. "He won't accept that Voldemort is back. He's too afraid that he'll be voted out of the Ministry if he causes a panic."

"I'm going to get a shower. I'll see you guys in a bit," Harry said in disgust.

Dumbledore sat at his desk and began to add thoughts to a Pensieve. He had received an owl that said that Fudge was on his way to the castle. He knew that Lucius had already informed Fudge about his son's death and he had no doubt that Fudge would be under a lot of pressure to find Dumbledore responsible in some way. Tensions had been running high between Dumbledore and Fudge since the last day of the Tri-Wizard tournament. It wasn't long before there was a knock on Dumbledore's door and Fudge emerged and the two shook hands.

"Albus hope your doing well," Fudge said systematically.

"I am, thank you Cornelius. And I hope I find you in good health."

"Yes Albus. Not too bad."

"Listen I am here because of the death of Draco Malfoy. Lucius sent me an owl this afternoon not too long after you informed him that his son was found dead. I need to know what has happened here Albus. There is no doubt he is already informing the school governors."

"Cornelius, Draco came to us badly injured. He had been severely beaten, and had suffered a broken arm, broken ribs and numerous cuts. He stayed in the Hospital Wing and Madam Pomfrey mended him very well. He seemed to be in very bad spirits about what had happened to him although he would never discuss the matter with me. He jumped from the Astronomy Tower sometime early this morning."

"Albus, Lucius says that Harry Potter is staying here for the summer and that Harry had some words with him today that lead him to believe that he was involved with Draco's death," Fudge said.

"It is true that Harry Potter is staying here for the summer. It is also true that Harry and Lucius shared words outside my office door. I doubt, however, that Harry insinuated that he was involved, and I myself, do not think he was involved in Draco's death in any way. I can tell you with great certainty that the two spoke and were very civil with one another. Harry was very concerned when Draco came to us injured and he merely conveyed that to Lucius."

"Albus, I can't lie to you, I have no choice but to have an inquiry into this by the Ministry. Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy have never gotten along, and no one has ever hid the fact of that. In fact, I know that the two have been involved in numerous confrontations at this school and have each been punished for it. How can you be certain that another one of these confrontations did not happen causing Harry to overact and somehow lead to Draco's death?"

"Cornelius, all I can offer you is my confidence in Harry, and my belief that there was no foul play in the death of Draco Malfoy. Perhaps the Ministry should investigate the reason that he was badly beaten the night before he came here. This could perhaps shed some light on why he felt the need to take his own life."

"Albus, I have had enough. I have to say that I am done with being nice here. First you tell me that Harry has seen the return of You-Know-Who to power. You've employed Severus Snape who bears the mark of a Death Eater and has been teaching who knows what to the students here. You've employed a werewolf, a half-giant and an Auror who is curses his own shadow. Now I guess you're trying to hint to the fact that Lucius old ties to You-Know- who someone played a part in his son's death. I have had doubts about the safety of the students at this school, and now my doubts have been realized now that a student has been killed here. I have no more to say to you Dumbledore other than you had better start looking for employment elsewhere. As for Harry Potter, he is welcome to stay here while the investigation is going on, but I believe after our findings he won't be attending school here next term. I am tired of overlooking the obvious dark aspects of that boy's life and I won't stand for any more accidents to happen at this school."

"Cornelius, I had hoped that your eyes would not have remained shut for so long. Voldemort grows stronger every day and his followers are planning evil with ease since they are feeling absolutely no pressure from you or the Ministry. The Dark Lord is doing what he can to help keep your eyes closed so that he can make sure you don't interfere with his plans while he is trying to gain numbers and power. I will adhere to whatever the Ministry finds in regards to this event, but I can only warn you that if you do not act soon, it will be too late for you to act effectively."

Fudge just looked at him wide-eyed. He could feel the power radiate off of Dumbledore and he had a look of fear in his eyes as Dumbledore stood before him and issued the warning.

"That is all I have to say to you Albus. This is complete lunacy. We'll be in touch soon, I assure you,” Fudge said.

He then immediately left Dumbledore's office slamming the door behind him.