Life and Love After Voldemort

"Actually, Bagman, I never trusted you for an instant. I've never forgotten that you once acted like you were trying to help me, only to have you use me and then betray my friends. That's not to say I immediately thought you were up to no good this time. I figured you were working an angle when you got hired to run the Cannons, but I didn't suspect anything more sinister than trading on your name to get back some money and some standing in the wizarding world. You weren't the only one with an agenda in play; I had my own when I considered joining the Cannons.

"It began as a way to help my friend make the right decisions he was facing in his life, but then I started to notice a lot of odd patterns surrounding the situation that weren't adding up. You were the biggest red flag, and I was lucky to have had our personal history together so I could tell the flattering, boisterous, and helpful façade from what lay beneath it. Suddenly, everything seemed to be funneling in one direction too conveniently for my tastes. If the smallest doubt arose about my signing with the Cannons as soon as possible, another compelling reason rapidly emerged for me to do so. What convinced me that something wasn't right was the day of the exhibition match at Hogwarts.

"First, that sneak Rita Skeeter actually did me a favor by scratching out in front of me a story of your comeback that asked some legitimate questions of how you went from a hunted welcher to a wealthy team owner in record time. Your arrival at Hogwarts soon provided the answer. Not only had you brought for my consumption a vivid display of life as a Quidditch star - stretch carriages, banquets, and parties 'til the break of dawn, but you also brought your newly-acquired wife. When I saw Nessie Chudleighton emerge from your carriage, her look and demeanor felt strangely familiar. That feeling nagged at me until we arrived in Hogsmeade that night and I saw Madam Rosmerta, who had stolen away from the Three Broomsticks to share in the terrific atmosphere of the evening. Her high spirits and energetic presence triggered a memory from when I had seen her considerably more sedate and somewhat detached from the moment. It dawned on me that Nessie's demeanor was similar to what Rosmerta had been like when she was under the Imperius Curse. No one else had reason to look for it, so no one else caught it."

"Bravo, Harry m'boy! Though to be fair, my shared happiness with Nessie started with a particularly potent love potion and then blossomed under the Imperius Curse into a full and legally-binding partnership. Again, my innate charm would've won the day for me eventually, but my backers had me operating under a damnably short timetable, and I was forced to use those marital aids as it were to get the ball rolling... Now, get back to your junior detective story. I can't wait to see how you think it ends!"

Harry ignored the bravado from Bagman and continued. "I thought the second I told the Ministry I'd committed to the Cannons that they'd be watching you and your newly-acquired business interests like hawks, but it didn't turn out that way. Although I now suspected that you were guilty of at least using an Unforgiveable Curse and likely much more, I knew from past experience that asking the authorities to act in an official capacity off a hunch of mine wouldn't yield results soon enough to make a difference. I therefore had to risk stepping into a potential trap in order to unearth the truth while acting like I was just playing Seeker. By bringing the Ministry into the picture in this way, I was betting that their routine surveillance and investigation associated with one of their own - helped along the way by whatever clues I could drop in their direction - would lead them to form their own conclusions about your operation and thus make them far more likely to act on it than on the hunch of an 18 year old rookie."

"At least you had sense enough not to have any faith in that blundering bureaucracy," said Bagman. "Putting an ordinary policeman in charge is their latest and greatest folly."

Harry was tempted to launch into an enraged defense of Kingsley and the new Ministry, but instinctively muted his anger and kept the dialogue going. "You're just sore you lost your pension and don't rate the executive dining room any more."

Bagman kept grinning. "Yes, their pumpkin soufflé was to die for, but I prefer the company of the real movers and shakers in the wizarding world to the pencil-pushers and bean-counters that make up the Ministry."

"As you said, Ludo, back to my story," Harry said. Further amused, Bagman made a grandiose gesture for Harry to continue.

"I upped the ante when the Ministry expressed reluctance in monitoring the league and your casino at the level needed to uncover your scheme. 'If they're not going to follow up,' I thought, 'I'll tie the Ministry's image to myself so closely that they'll be forced to monitor my every move.' It was only fair, given that the Ministry had wanted to tie their image to me multiple times in the past. They'd had no problem using me to their advantage before, so turnabout was fair play! Turns out they were as guilty as the rest of the wizarding world in letting down their guard, since the most effort they apparently exerted to monitor my movements was reading the Cannons box score in the Prophet's sports pages. My nudges at least produced access to the material that showed the building blocks of the scandal-in-waiting. I'm sure you have your associate keeping an eye on 'that Granger brat' too," Harry said as Ludo nodded smugly, "so there's no further harm in giving her credit for preparing the list that's in front of you."

"Really! How interesting. She doesn't seem the type who'd do that and not talk your ear off about it in the process, but we haven't heard a peep of suspicion out of her since she picked up on Rita's taunt about my hair-curling prowess."

"Hermione did catch Rita's slip, but I played it cool because I knew you had the place bugged. I eventually figured out how to place a variant of Muffliato there that served up banal conversation in place of what was actually being discussed. It had been activated in the suite by the time your next planted story on the leaked investigation surfaced, making it the safest place for us to examine and unravel your scheme."

Ludo chortled menacingly. "Ah well; the Mudblood can join her friends in Azkaban; it'll be a simple matter to tie her to King Weasley's part of the desperate caper. I never would have considered leaving her out of the merriment, but my backers prefer to keep things small to eliminate loose ends." Ludo fished a mirror from his jacket and gazed into it. "Proceed with procurement. Send signal after successful delivery. Out."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harry looked as if he wanted to go for his wand but thought better of it. "You can't do that! Leave the rest of them out of it; it's me you really want, though I still have no idea why." Ludo's maniacal grin widened.

"Not even Rita knows the full scope of it. She thinks that I'm just paying back my benefactors for bailing me out of my Goblin trouble by 'washing' some capital for them. Truth is, I'd maintained enough contacts with those on the fringe of the wizarding world that I was able to make contact with the underworld operation of two enterprising Death Eaters who escaped the Ministry's clutches after Voldemort fell. They weren't about to let the government return to full strength while waiting another decade or two to move into action. Their organization had started to recruit mercenaries from around the world to build a force that would attempt to overthrow the new government while the magical world licked its wounds and told itself all was well since Voldemort was gone. 'No one will be expecting anything like this, not a chance', their recruiters kept saying. 'We'll break them all within a year's time.'

"I needed to form an alliance of some kind to get the dogs called off me after running for so long, and this was the ideal way to do it. However, I wasn't about to come in as some foot soldier, not when I've got the cunning and charm of a born leader. I presented my plan in person: in exchange for initial protection and settlement of debts, I could singlehandedly infiltrate the Chudleighton casino empire and create a system that funneled a steady flow of undetectable revenue to my backers, who could then funnel that to mercenary forces around the world. In addition, it would be only one person pulling the financial strings, as opposed to the huge clumsy network they had in place which was rife with potential for bumbling and leaks.

"They bought into to my plan, and I soon found that they had made you the centerpiece of an effort to destabilize the new government before the overthrow was attempted. How better to both discredit you and the Ministry than to tie its spokesman and standard-bearer to a sordid gambling scandal that at the same time covered the tracks of our casino manipulations? It'd show that the new government leaders were no better than those in the previously disgraced administrations. In such a troubled time, public support would build for a change in leadership. The public would be carefully directed to seek new leadership in the form of the man who initiated the investigation and audit that uncovered the scandal in the first place! Skeeter's barrage of puff pieces on me would ensure that my selfless actions and their triumphant results stayed in the public's consciousness.

"Whatever happened from that point on, my backers would finally be in position to settle a score with the wizarding world and its hero, Harry Potter. I strive to keep things business-like, but I admire the drive they've manifested over their personal vendetta against you. You really should be careful whose blood you get on your hands, m'boy."

"Blood on my hands?" asked Harry incredulously. "Voldemort destroyed himself; his lust for power and blood purity is to blame for his demise."

"Unfortunately for you, that view is not shared by his previous comrades Crabbe and Goyle, who have vowed to avenge the death of one son by your hand and the imprisonment of another by bringing the wizarding world to its knees and achieving your desolation and destruction."