The Ends Justify the Means

“It’s been almost a month since the disastrous end of the Triwizard Tournament,” said Cornelius Fudge in an annoyed tone of voice, “and I’m still getting several owls every day asking me what I plan to do now that You-Know-Who has returned to power.”

“We’ve been encouraging The Daily Prophet to run stories about Potter’s mental instabilities . . .” Percy Weasley pointed out.

“Not enough people believe the stories, apparently,” snapped Fudge. “We’ve got to try something else.”

“What about charging the Potter boy with the murder of the other champion from Hogwarts?” offered Dolores Umbridge. “Diggersley, was that his name?”

“Diggory,” replied Fudge. “No, we’d have to have the Diggory boy’s parents’ cooperation to do that. His mum was so impressed that Potter offered to give them his Tournament winnings, I’m sure they wouldn’t go along with that.”

“He’s just a boy telling a story,” said Amelia Bones. “It’ll blow over soon.”

“Unfortunately, he’s not just any boy and this is far from just any story,” grumbled Fudge. “For years people have been saying He Who Must Not Be Named wasn’t really gone. All those who never believed he was truly defeated are now seizing on this story as their proof. It’s Potter’s word against -- that’s just the problem, I can’t even make a statement that the Ministry thinks the Potter boy’s off his rocker. I’d offend so many people they’d probably drum me right out of office.” Fudge sat fuming for a few minutes, while the others looked anywhere but at Fudge. “I want two or three good ideas from each one of you by our meeting next week. Meeting adjourned.”

Dolores Umbridge made her way back to her office, thinking to herself. Taking a piece of parchment, she jotted a quick note to the Wizarding Records Office Clerk:

Please send me the file on Harry Potter immediately.

Dolores Umbridge
Special Assistant to the Minister of Magic

She folded the parchment into a paper airplane, wrote “Urgent” on both sides of it, pointed her wand at it to make the word Urgent flash in bright colors, and sent the memo on its way.

“This Potter boy . . . He can’t be perfect . . . There must be something in his past, something he’s done, some weakness he has that we can use to discredit him . . . .”

While she was still thinking in this vein, a file folder arrived. It was hanging from what looked like a toy Muggle helicopter that was bewitched so that its rotor turned. Dolores unhooked the folder and the helicopter turned and flew back out of her office.

“Colloportus!” said Dolores, pointing her wand at the door. She didn’t want to be disturbed while doing her research.

Opening the chart, she saw first a page listing the Potter child’s date and place of birth and the names of his parents. Further down was the date of his parents’ death and a notation that he was placed in the care of his maternal aunt in Little Whinging. A handwritten note was included from Albus Dumbledore confirming that the boy had been taken to number four, Privet Drive, by the headmaster himself, personally. This information was nothing Dolores did not already know. She turned the page over, looking for more.

The next page listed the date of the letter notifying the Potter boy of his acceptance at Hogwarts. There was a notation explaining the vast number of copies of that letter that were required to be sent before one finally made it into the Potter boy’s own hands, hand-delivered by the gamekeeper of Hogwarts. Further down it listed the date his first term had started and each disciplinary action taken against him that year. She noted that he’d been found out of bed in the middle of the night with three other students, but this seemed too much like normal school misbehavior to be helpful now.

There was note that the Potter boy had been made Seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch team in his first school year and been given a special dispensation allowing him to have a broomstick, normally not allowed during the first year. Dolores wrinkled her nose. If he was a Quidditch hero, that would make her job doubly hard. Ludo Bagman had risen way beyond the level he deserved based on any skill he possessed, solely because of his fame as a Quidditch player. People were willing to forgive grave misdeeds if the doer of the deed was an athletic hero of some sort.

Another note, on a separate page signed by Albus Dumbledore, indicated that at the end of his first year, Potter had battled the Dark Lord, who had taken possession of one of the professors and attempted to steal the Sorcerer’s Stone. Dolores quickly removed that page from the file, placed it on the floor, and set fire to it with her wand. No reason to keep that kind of information around.

Potter’s second year ended with a dramatic and dangerous rescue of another student from the Chamber of Secrets. Nothing out of the ordinary happened that Dolores could use to discredit him.

Turning to the page covering Potter’s third year, Dolores immediately found what she was looking for. A charge of violating the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery during the summer. In front of Muggles, no less. He’d actually used magic on a Muggle, and not his aunt or uncle, either, but a Muggle who had no idea the Wizarding world existed. A note from Cornelius Fudge excused him “due to the present climate” and the escape of Sirius Black from Azkaban. Pointing her wand at the page, she muttered, “Occlusio!” The name “Cornelius Fudge” blurred enough to become illegible. Just in case anyone checked the file, no reason to let anyone believe the Ministry favoured Potter.

Also on the page about his third year at school, there was a confusing story about the escaped prisoner Sirius Black. The Potter boy had apparently come up with a story that Black was not the criminal everyone believed him to be, but that his victim, Peter Pettigrew, had somehow framed him and run away, turning himself into a rat. This was very interesting, Potter was given to making up stories -- lies! Dolores made a note to remember that for future use. The account also indicated that a group of dementors had tried to kiss Potter and another student and that Potter had conjured a corporeal Patronus to drive them away. So, Dolores thought, Potter not only likes to tell lies, he likes to play the hero as well.

Turning the page, Dolores found more evidence of being a hero in the records from his fourth year at school. In the second task of the Triwizard Tournament, the champions were each charged with rescuing a different person from the bottom of the lake. Potter had apparently saved all of the “hostages,” not merely his own. He did indeed like to play the hero.

Dolores sat thinking . . . Patronus . . . hero . . . How could she use this information to discredit Potter somehow? She rejected the idea of making public his story of Pettigrew as the real murderer. Many of those who believed his current story would start complaining about the Ministry imprisoning people without the benefit of a trial. That would not do, not at all. There must be some other way.

Potter likes to save people . . . Potter likes to show off his Patronus . . . . How could he be put in a position where saving people or conjuring a Patronus was against the law? The Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery! Of course! And if he did it to save a Muggle, in front of one or more Muggles, all the better! It would involve bending some rules on her end, of course. Cornelius Fudge would never support sending such dangerous beings into a Muggle neighborhood. But, what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. Fudge wanted Potter silenced, or at least discredited. He’d be expelled from school, at least, for this type of infraction, if it worked out the way she was planning.

Dolores pulled another sheet of parchment toward her across the desk. Dipping her vulture-feather quill into her ink, she began to write:

To: Dervin Hadeous, Warden of Azkaban Prison

From: Amelia Bones, Department of Magical Law Enforcement

We have received a tip that escaped prisoner Sirius Black has been sighted in the area of Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. Please dispatch a contingent of Dementors to this area immediately. I will personally supervise them once they arrive to eliminate the risk to innocent bystanders.

Folding the parchment, she opened a drawer in her desk and pointed her wand inside it. A magical secret compartment opened, revealing an assortment of seals and stamps. Dolores chose the one with the emblem of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement on it, and sealed the letter. She knew Amelia Bones would never agree to this, but with a little magic, she would never know. Pointing her wand at the letter, she whispered, “Remoramen Obliviate!” That would cause the warden to forget he’d ever received this letter moments after he gave the order dispatching the dementors. Pointing her wand again, she muttered, “Ipsum Deflagratio!” That would cause the letter to burst into flames after it was read. Thus covering her tracks, Dolores sent the letter on its way by owl and went to find Mafalda Hopkirk.

“Mafalda, dear, would you fancy having a cup of tea with me?” said Dolores Umbridge in her sweetest voice.