Was it all enough? - Year 7

After his run in the morning, he decided to write Cho before going to the Ministry.

Cho

I'm glad you wrote; I really missed you. I rub the charm every night, that's still one of the best gifts I've ever gotten.

If Kristi is happy with her contract, maybe by next year you'll get a few more players. I got the invitation to the opening; I'm looking forward to it. Any chance you'll be my date to it?

I won't be able to see you Friday. Dumbledore wants to see Sirius and I'm tagging along. There's been an attack so he's getting people together to get some information. That's Friday night and I don't know what time I'll be back.

Oh, I'm an official Auror now. Next week I'm going to learn how to mend minor broken bones and then onto other things. Did you know that Katie Bell's older sister works there? She was teaching me some advanced Apparation.

Have fun at work this week. I'll think about you every day.

I love you

Harry

Quickly, Harry cleaned up and went to the ministry. He spent two days learning to mend bones. If it worked the same on real bones that it did on the rubbery test body parts they had, this wasn't so hard. He couldn't believe Lockhart messed his up so bad. Before he finished for the day he was talking to Debbie. "Would you mind repeating that last part about concentrating on the bone one more time?"

Debbie looked slightly annoyed and said, "You've already done it four times, why..." And then she stopped because Harry had done the bind on her mouth without his wand. Her eyes got really big and she pointed at her mouth. After a moment of her looking angrier he released the spell. "Very funny. Now where's your wand, I didn't even see you have it."

"I didn't," he said. "I wanted to see if I could do it using wandless magic. Guess it worked, huh?" Harry laughed.

"You can be a real smart ass sometimes, you know that. I suppose the others knew you could do that as well? Fine, don't tell me anything. Get out of here, I'm done with you," she said but he could tell she wasn't really angry.

"Thanks for all your help Debbie, I learned a lot. Tell Katie I said hi. I'll see you again before I'm off to school."

Harry got back home in a really good mood, and immediately Dobby came to him looking serious and said, "Sir needs to come upstairs please."

"What is it Dobby? Is something wrong?" Harry asked following Dobby.

"Dobby can't say sir." They stopped outside of Harry's room and Dobby pointed.

Harry drew his wand and opened the door quickly, not knowing what would be in there. "About time you got home. Put that thing away," Cho said smiling, lying under the covers in bed.

"Cho! What are you doing here? Didn't you have to work today?" Harry said coming over to kiss her.

"I decided to leave a little early and come tell my boyfriend how much I miss him," she said hugging him and pulling him into bed.

Harry climbed in next to her and said, "I'll have to thank your bosses when I see them next."

After a couple hours of making love, they were lying there talking. "I can't believe how much I missed you Harry. What have you done to me?" she asked smiling.

She leaned over and kissed him. "So, Debbie Bell's been teaching you a few tricks, huh?"

"Yep, but she's done with me now. Man I'm glad you're here," said Harry before pulling her into a deep kiss.

"Now are you sure you'd rather go to some boring meeting with old people than see me Friday?" Cho was tracing circles on his chest while saying this.

"I really want to find out what's going on. I also wonder who else will be there. I'll miss seeing you a bunch." As much as Harry liked what Cho was doing, nothing would keep him from this meeting.

"Oh sure. After you get out of school, I'm going to have to teach you how to have fun in your off time," she said tickling him.

"Hey, I asked you to go to some tropical island and you wouldn't. I tried to have fun," he insisted.

"But I had to work!"

"You don't have to work."

"But I like my work right now. It's exciting to try and get this off the ground. Speaking of that, I have a surprise," she leaned off the bed and pulled out a piece of parchment.

Harry read it and looked at her confused. "What is this?"

"It's our company Harry! P/C Investments. I formed a company with us as equal partners. All you have to do is sign the form and it'll be totally official. We even made our first investment. We invested in the twin's store. I hope that's alright?"

Harry was amazed at how well Cho understood business. "Cho, this is amazing. How do you think of this? Of course it's alright," Harry said and hugged her. "How much do you want me to transfer to the account?"

"I put in 10,000. So, if you do the same that gives us enough to do some small-scale investments. I thought it would be fun. I invested 5000 with the twins."

"Your idea of fun to me is kind of like my idea of fun is to you. But, I'm glad you want to do this together. I'm all for it."

"Thanks Harry. I really wanted us to have something together." She paused and then gave him a suggestive look. "Sure there's no way I can talk you out of going to the meeting Friday?" she said while slowly getting dressed.

"I don't mind you trying but I really should go. The bad part is that I won't see you again until I come to your house the next Friday." Harry was obviously nervous at the thought of staying with her family.

Friday at the Unspeakable department, Harry went back to Fletch's office. "Congratulations Harry, you're an Auror now. Debbie said you learned a few new things, so it was worthwhile. Let's go into one of the artifact rooms." Fletch led Harry down a hall into a room with a few tables and some tools. There was a shelf in the corner with a bunch of weird items on it. Rose and Larry were already in the room. "These are some items that were recovered on a raid of a wizard's home who has been doing a lot of trade with known Death Eaters. We haven't identified all of them yet, but a few of them seem to be Egyptian."

Harry was trying to listen and pay attention to the charm Fletch had on the table, but the sound coming from the shelf kept distracting him. Fletch began talking again but stopped when he noticed Harry glancing at the shelves and asked, "Is something the matter Harry? You seem distracted?"

"How can you all concentrate with all that noise?" Harry asked, amazed the rest of the people could just block out all the sound.

The other three looked at each other and Fletch said, "What noise? We don't hear anything."

Harry looked stunned. He was hearing voices and it wasn't like a parsletongue voice, it wasn't like English either. "It's like a bunch of people talking. I can't understand what they're saying. It's coming from the shelf." Harry walked over to it and looked around.

Rose jumped up and stood next to Harry, "Careful Harry, don't just pick anything up," she said, obviously recognizing the risks of touching strange magical objects.

"I think it's this orb," Harry pointed to an orb that looked like amber. It was very irregularly shaped and not smooth at all. It looked like it had been knocked around for a long time.

Rose picked the orb up and brought it to the table.

"That's where the voices are coming from," Harry listened to the object closer. It sounded like a badly tuned Muggle radio where a lot of people were talking. "It could be one voice speaking a bunch of languages. I can't understand anything." Harry looked at the others in amazement, "You don't hear this? It's really annoying!"

The other three studied the orb closely and kept glancing at Harry, almost like they didn't believe him. "Harry. To me this is just a lumpy amber orb. It doesn't look special and I can't hear anything," Rose said and Larry agreed.

Harry looked at it more closely. "I can definitely hear voices." He started to bring his hand close to the object but suddenly his fingers glowed like they did when he first did wandless magic. Little bolts of what looked like electricity jumped between the orb and his hand, causing him to immediately pull his hand back.

The others gasped, "What did it feel like?" Fletch asked sounding worried.

"Nothing, I didn't feel anything, it just startled me," Harry announced and slowly put his hand over the orb again until the little electricity bolts went to each finger. He lowered his hand until it was around the orb. As soon as he picked it up, the orb darkened into an almost maroon color. "The voice stopped!" he exclaimed and just stared into the thing.

"Set it back down." Rose said anxiously.

Gently, Harry set the orb back down and it changed back to amber. Harry told them the voices started again. Each of Unspeakables picked the orb up and there was no change for any of them. Fletch brought over a lot of other objects from the shelf but nothing else acted strangely. "What do the languages sound like?" Rose asked having retrieved some parchment and a quill.

"Not like anything I've heard before. One seems to come though clearer than the others but I can't make out anything. It could just be a bunch of mumbling for all I know." Harry sounded disappointed.

"Touch it with your wand. Carefully," Larry suggested drawing warning looks from the other Unspeakables. Harry quickly thought this was another reason he liked coming here. At school or home, people would be forcing Harry to stay away from things like the orb, but in this department, they encouraged him to get involved.

Harry pulled out his wand and touched the top of the object but nothing happened. He waved the wand over the top slowly and again, nothing happened. The team was mumbling ideas around when Harry tried pushing the tip of his wand up against the orb. He felt no resistance and then wand sunk directly into the object. The orb suddenly turned brilliant red. Harry quickly pulled his wand out causing the orb returned to amber. "Could you still hear the sounds when your wand was in it?" Rose asked still writing notes.

"Yes, they almost seemed to sound excited. It didn't feel like my wand was going into anything. I couldn't even tell it was even there." Each of the others tried with their own wands and nothing happened. They spent the rest of the day trying everything they could think of on the orb but nothing new came from it. "Sorry we didn't get any answers on that thing," Harry told them when he was leaving.

Fletch laughed. "That's usual in this department. We've worked on objects for months before finding the key and sometimes we never do. This was your first taste of the non-exciting part of the group. More days go like this than trying new and exciting spells. Keep that in mind before you give up your glamorous career. Not a word about this object to anyone," Fletch said as Harry was leaving.

Harry got back home feeling both excited about the discovery, but depressed that they had no clue what the object was or why he could hear sounds from it. He talked to Sirius for a while about what they thought the meeting with Dumbledore would be about. After going for his run and eating, he and Sirius Apparated to Hogsmeade and then took a carriage to the castle.

Harry hadn't seen the castle so empty and quiet since the summer after he was hurt when he stayed there for a bit. It still felt like a very comforting place to him. He and Sirius walked to the statue guarding the entrance to the Headmaster's private area and after giving the password, went up to Professor Dumbledore's office. After knocking and hearing Dumbledore's voice call them in, he and Sirius entered a room where other people were already talking.

"Ah good. The final two invitees," Dumbledore said. Harry went to a chair a bit off to the side of the desk. "Harry, I don't believe you have met everyone here tonight." Harry recognized Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall, Mrs. Figg, and Mr. Moody but not a witch and wizard standing across from him. "This is Leopold McKenzie and Bethany Douglas, both old friends that we all trust well."

Harry shook their hands and greeted them warmly. "Well, now we can get down to business," Dumbledore said. Harry was ready to listen intently but Fawkes made a noise and landed on Harry's knee. Harry didn't say anything and began stroking the impressive bird trying to listen to the adult's conversations. "We have heard some troubling rumors about a change of strategy for the other side. It seems that Voldemort has instructed his followers to not carry out any attacks without specific instructions. The attack on the neighbor of the Minister of Magic was one such instruction. Also, there have been some rumblings about tighter control of the schools from the Minister of Education."

Hearing the Minister of Education mentioned, Harry spoke up, "I just met Mr. Gallah the other day. I don't think I trust him."

Everyone was now looking at him strangely. Dumbledore seemed to have a slight smile but Snape didn't seem amused when he said, "And how did you happen to meet the Minister of Education?"

"Um... I've been spending some time at the Ministry again this summer and Mr. Gallah introduced himself to me. Percy Weasley was with him. Percy still seems mad at me for the giant thing last year." Harry went on to tell them about how he thought Gallah was going to try and force Fudge out of office and about how it looked like Gallah was trying to find out information about other areas of the Ministry.

"Is that so Mr. Potter? Maybe we should have just come to you first instead of listening to any other sources we may have," Professor McGonagall spoke up.

"Why would you be at the Ministry instead of out enjoying your enhanced fame?" Snape asked coldly, but not as coldly as he used to, noted Harry.

"I would wonder the same thing myself Harry. There has to be something you'd rather do than spending your summer at the Ministry," Dumbledore added with a concerned look.

"I've been telling him the same thing," Sirius said giving Harry an 'I told you so' look.

"I like it there!" Harry exclaimed, "Also, I just completed all of my training so I'm an official Auror now. I can be more help if you need it." Harry seemed to have a pleading look on his face.

Harry could see Snape's face tightening like he wanted to say something. Before he could, Dumbledore spoke up. "I can't say I remember when a student still in school became an Auror. Well, your information is just another confirmation of what we have been hearing ourselves. Our guess is that at best, Mr. Gallah does not take the same stance against the other side as we do. If we give him the benefit of the doubt at this point, we can assume he would do nothing to aid us in preventing Voldemort from carrying out his plans."

"Is there anyone else in the Ministry who would become Minister if Fudge steps aside?" Mr. McKenzie asked.

"Not likely. He seemed to have everyone else afraid to challenge him," Mrs. Douglas added.

"So is there nothing we can do? If people who are at best sympathetic to their side gain control of the Ministry, how would we be able to stop them?" McGonagall asked.

Discussions went on for a while about how to stop Gallah and about who else could become Minister if Fudge really does step aside. Finally Dumbledore spoke, "Unless we have some hard evidence that Mr. Gallah is not against Voldemort, there is little we can do. We need to keep looking for Voldemort's real plan. Unless anyone has any specific ideas, we all need to continue trying to find out information."

"I could try to talk to Gallah," Harry spoke up drawing looks from the group. "Since he's so interested in what goes on, maybe he'll think I'll let something slip about the area I'm in."

"Why would he care about any area you may be in? He probably can get it from normal channels." Mrs. Douglas said since she didn't know which area Harry had been in.

"I don't think so. I'm pretty sure he's never been into the department. Fudge hasn't even been in there," Harry stated.

Mrs. Douglas looked confused so Sirius spoke up, "Harry is spending time with the Unspeakables Bethany. He did the same thing a couple years ago and doing so saved his life. He keeps joking that he may give up Quidditch and go to work full time there after school." Sirius informed the woman.

"I'm not joking!" Harry added in an annoyed tone.

"Ok, so you're serious. I'm still not comfortable with Harry trying to pry information out of the Minister of Education who has a good chance of being a Death Eater." Sirius said angrily.

Others in the room seemed to agree then Dumbledore spoke, "Does anyone have any other ideas how we could get information out of Mr. Gallah?" No one spoke for a minute. "Then what I would say is that if Harry wants to talk to Mr. Gallah, then we shouldn't stop him. In doing so, we can hope that Mr. Gallah would let some information slip that we could use. I must insist that you do not let Mr. Gallah even suspect that you are trying to get information from him. Do you agree?"

"Yes sir I won't let him know," Harry promised, happy that the Headmaster approved.

"Professor Dumbledore. That man could well be dangerous. Do you really think this is wise?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"If Harry is comfortable with this, then I will support him. Gallah wouldn't do anything in a public place," Dumbledore said.

They talked for a while longer before Sirius and Harry made their way to Hogsmeade and then on home. They were still arguing when they arrived in the kitchen. "I don't know what you think you're doing Harry. He could be very dangerous."

"All I'm going to try to do is talk. He may not even want to talk to me," Harry replied.

"I don't think you should be involved. We can keep working other sources and try to find out more information first. I think there's too much risk."

"What risk? Even if he'll talk to me, we'll be at the ministry. What can happen?" Harry asked sounding exasperated.

Suddenly they both turned towards the living area when they heard, "What's risky?" It was Cho, standing in the doorway with a long nightshirt on.

"Cho!" Harry said and went to hug her. "What are you doing here?"

"I couldn't wait until next week to see you. Now, what's risky?" Cho asked in a firm voice.

"Nothing's risky. Would you think talking to the Minister of Education is risky?" Harry asked, looking at Cho.

"No, why?" she answered looking confused.

"See. Cho doesn't think it's risky either." Harry said staring at Sirius.

"Ok, what if the Minister of Education was a Death Eater working for Voldemort and planning on taking over the Ministry? Then would it be risky?" Sirius asked.

"You're not serious? Of course that would be risky. Harry, don't tell me you're thinking about it." Cho exclaimed now on Sirius' side.

"No one is sure he's a Death Eater and no one's sure he wants to take over the Ministry. Now, if I happen to talk to him in the Ministry, what could happen? Do either of you really think I would do something stupid?"

"YES." They both said at once.

"Fine, let me rephrase that. I've never been happier. Sirius, you're free, we live in this great place. I'm playing professional Quidditch. I'm in love with the most wonderful woman I could ever imagine. Now, given all of that, do you think I would do something stupid?"

"YES." They both said again.

"I'm just going to talk. That's all. Please, trust me? Why don't either of you have any faith in me" Harry pleaded. "The Unspeakables don't treat me like a little kid, why do everyone else?"

Cho came and hugged him. "I just worry about you."

"Same here," Sirius admitted. "You know it comes with the job."

"Thanks, and I'm glad you do. But really, I'm not afraid of Gallah, not at all," Harry said.

"That's what worries me," Sirius said. "I'm off to bed."

"You don't know how glad I am that you're here," Harry told Cho. "C'mon let's go to bed."

They just snuggled that night and Harry thought how good it felt to have her here. They got up late in the morning and before they left the bedroom Cho said, "You know, that's the first time we spent a night together and didn't -dance-."

"Is that a problem?" Harry asked having enjoyed just sleeping with his girlfriend.

"Not as long as we don't make a habit of it." Cho joked.

They went down and had breakfast. Sirius was already up. "I'm getting used to you being around Cho. It's kind of nice."

"Thanks. You're easier to take not being an escaped convict on the run too." She joked back.

Sirius looked at Harry, took a deep breath and said, "Harry, I wanted to apologize for last night. I shouldn't have been like that. You're every bit as capable as anyone else in that meeting last night and I didn't treat you like that. If any of the others had volunteered to talk to Gallah, I wouldn't have said anything. I just need to forget you're less than half the age of the rest of us."

"Sirius! Don't talk about my age. I keep trying to get Cho to think I'm not a little kid," Harry said looking embarrassed.

Cho hit him and added, "I didn't even think you were a little kid the first time you asked me to the ball. Even then I knew you were special."

"Ok, whatever, you just broke my heart when you wouldn't go with me," Harry said and tried to fake a sad look, but then changed the subject. "So, want to go to Diagon Alley? I could use some new clothes to wear to your house next weekend. And, I'm tired of being here and at the Ministry."

"Sure, you could definitely use new clothes," Cho joked. She sat on the steps waiting for Harry to get back from his run and they cleaned up and went to Diagon Alley. They were trying to shop for clothes, but it was difficult because of all the attention Harry attracted. Cho finally found a place and started showing him some clothes that weren't normally what he would wear. They were way more modern than he was used to. "These are really in style now." Cho would say.

"Where would I wear something like this?" Harry asked, still feeling more comfortable in casual clothes.

"Kristi has been inviting us out to Paris. I thought we should go sometime. If we go to some of the clubs she talked about, you need to dress the part. There will be press there," Cho said sounding excited.

"I didn't think you wanted me going out with Kristi."

"I don't mind if I'm there. She can act like she wants you all night as long as you come home with me. That means I win!" Cho smiled. Cho finally talked him into some leather pants and dragon-hide boots. She picked out a few shirts that Harry thought looked questionable, but Cho and the lady in the store said were perfect. They also bought some more normal clothes that Harry could wear at her house the next weekend. She made him leave one outfit on. Cho also bought a couple new outfits.

Before they left, Harry had to buy some really ugly socks and a nice scarf for the house-elves. They walked by a couple jewelry stores and Harry noticed Cho didn't go towards the normal wizard rings. She kept looking at muggle-type rings. "Why don't you like the wizard rings?" Harry asked.

"Probably because all the women in my family are muggles. They all have nice traditional stones. Not magical rings. Even though I love being a witch, sometimes I want to feel connected with the rest of my family."

"That's nice," then feeling a bit hungry he asked, "Where would you like to eat tonight? You know more about these things than I do."

"There's this new restaurant that's really popular. I don't know if we could get in, but let's try." Cho said and they walked along toward the building. When they got close, Harry could see many people standing around outside.

He said, "It looks really busy."

"I heard it's always like this," Cho offered, "Let's see how long the wait is." They walked inside and the girl taking names spoke without looking. "Reservation?" Cho quickly answered, "No."

The girl was still looking down and said, "I'm afraid it will be at least an hour. You can wait." But then the girl looked up and stared... "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize." She looked back at the chart and said, "I think we can seat you right now. Follow me."

Harry looked at Cho confused, but she just smiled back at him. The girl led them to a table on the second floor, looking out over Diagon Alley. It was a nice table for two in the corner. She kept apologizing about telling them they'd have to wait. When she seated them and left, Harry asked, "Cho, what was her deal? Why did she say we'd have to wait and then just let us up here?"

Cho smiled and shook her head and said, "Because of you Harry, and not because of your scar. I said you were a Quidditch star and places like this love to have celebrities come in. It helps their business."

Harry had never been to a place like this before. People waited on them and actually brought things to their table instead of them just appearing. Cho ordered some fancy dish with seafood. Harry just ordered pasta. Cho had some wine with her mean, but Harry just had water. Cho thought the food was great, Harry thought it was ok. They did share a slice of chocolate cake for desert. The place didn't really impress Harry at first, but being here with Cho was great.

The bill came and Harry was surprised at how much it was. Cho told him how much to tip and Harry left that amount. Finally Cho said, "Let's go home Harry. I didn't get to see you much last night."

When they got back, Sirius had left a note that he had gone out and wouldn't be back until Monday. Harry called Winky and Dobby over. "Yes sir and miss. Is there something we can do?" Winky asked. Dobby just stood behind them.

"No thanks Winky, we just wanted to give these to you." Cho handed Winky the scarf and Harry handed Dobby the socks.

The two house-elves looked very happy. Winky maintained a professional attitude, but Dobby started to lose it. "Oh sir! You did not have to get Dobby anything. Sir is too great. Dobby is so..." then Winky gave him a look, turned to Harry and said, "We are thanking you very much for the gifts sir and miss. You are too good to Winky and Dobby. Thank you." she pulled Dobby away.

"How'd I get so lucky Harry?" Cho asked, sounding a little tipsy from the wine.

"What are you talking about?" Harry replied thinking how cute Cho looked being a bit drunk.

"I mean you, and this," she said pointing around. "How did I get lucky enough that this worked out?"

"I'm the lucky one Cho. I wouldn't have gotten over things without you being around."

"Oh yes you would have. You have two pretty girls around that would do anything for you."

"All I want around is you," Harry said smiling.

"Yeah, but they'll be around all year at school and I won't. You better behave," she said pointing a finger awkwardly at him.

"I'll behave Cho. Let's go up to bed."

"Ok, but I'm not letting you sleep this time," she said smiling.

After they woke up in the morning, Harry was looking at Cho when she woke up. "Morning," he said softly.

"Morning. Do I really have to go home today?"

"You are home. But you may have to go back to your parent's house, that's between you and them," he said smiling. Getting more serious, he asked "What should I expect this weekend when I come over?"

"It'll be fine. My father will show you off to my relatives and all of that. Prepare to be bored and to smile a lot. C'mon, let's go eat," she said jumping up and getting dressed. They stayed around the castle until early afternoon when Cho had to leave. "Promise me, nothing dangerous."

"I promise. I'm nervous about this weekend."

"Don't be. Just be yourself. I have to go. Thanks for a great weekend. Love you." Cho said before leaving.

Harry was at the Department of Mysteries with the others still trying to understand what the strange amber orb did. They had spent all of Monday and now all Wednesday morning with no luck. The Unspeakables didn't seem bothered by this but it was really annoying Harry. Fletch got called out of the artifact room and came back a few minutes later with a strange look on his face. "Harry. The Minister of Education would like to meet with you."

Harry looked up stunned. He hadn't tried to meet with Mr. Gallah yet so why would he want to talk to Harry? "What do you think he wants?"

"It could be he just wants to talk to a celebrity. But, he probably hopes you'll slip up and give some information. I'm not worried about that; just don't mention any of the artifacts or special spells you've learned. I think you should be careful though. I can't believe this is going to be a purely social meeting." Fletch walked Harry out to the floo. "If you get done early, come back. I'm interested in hearing what he wanted. I have a feeling he's going to cause trouble for us."

Harry left and arrived in a well-appointed lobby with a receptionist there. "Hello. The Minister of Education wanted to see me. I'm Harry Potter." The room was basically all off white and Harry couldn't see any doors or hallways.

The receptionist looked up and blushed a bit and tapped her wand to an area on the wall and said, "Harry Potter is here sir."

Harry heard some men talking and a few moments later, Noel Gallah seemed to walk right through the wall just off to the side of the receptionist. He came out acting very friendly and warm. "Harry. I'm glad you could make it on such short notice. Please come in." Mr. Gallah turned and went back through the wall. Harry followed as quickly as he could.

The view from the artificial windows was stunning. Even though most of the ministry was underground, this office seemed to have an entire wall of windows showing the London skyline. Harry was still staring out when Mr. Gallah spoke again. "Impressive isn't it. I couldn't stand working underground without it. It's the actual view as if we were ten stories above ground. I doubt there's anything like it down in that department you've been at."

Harry thought it best to make it sound like he was willing to talk about the department. "Oh no sir. It's nothing like this. Sir, I wanted to apologize if I seemed less than friendly the other day. I still can't bring myself to forget what Percy Weasley did last year. I should have handled it better."

"Don't give it a thought Harry. I actually asked you here so that I could apologize for that meeting and to let you know that even though I am giving Percy another chance, that I don't agree with the way he handled that situation. Now then, since that's out of the way, what do you think of the Ministry?"

Harry thought for a bit. "I think some areas are really interesting, but most areas seem too political. I don't see how you can handle all of it so well. Everyone says you're doing really well and moving up quickly. There must be people printing and saying things about you all the time that aren't true."

"Yes, that happens a lot. The key is to help the right people with things that are important to them in return for them helping you. I think you could be a good politician Harry. People like you, that's most of the battle right there."

"They like me because I'm playing Quidditch right now. If I go on a losing streak, that would all change. Viktor Krum already warned me of that."

"Speaking of Quidditch. Have you heard there's a proposed modification to the education charter that would prevent students from playing professional sports?" Harry looked shocked. The Minister looked at Harry for a moment before continuing, "I'm lobbying against it of course, but some in the ministry think the two shouldn't mix. What do you think you'd do if that got passed?"

Harry could see the calculating look in Mr. Gallah's eyes and even though he was panicking inside, he said as calmly as he could. "I'd probably transfer to Beaxbatons, attend a private school or in the worst case just quit school."

"You'd quit school? Quidditch is more important than your education?" Gallah seemed surprised.

"That would be the last resort of course, but if the ministry passed this rule, it would obviously be aimed only at me so why would I care about what they wanted anymore when they would have attacked me like that. And, right now the press still seems to like me so I would also talk to as many of them as I could trying to highlight how this rule had to be a direct attack and not based on any merits."

Gallah laughed a bit. "See, I said you'd make a good politician. If it's something you feel strongly about, you use any means at your disposal to accomplish the task. I did a bit of checking after our meeting. Percy said you spent a whole summer down in the Department of Mysteries a couple years ago, but there is no record of it. How did that happen?"

"I don't know for sure. I came for a tour and they let me stay and do small things for them. They were probably being nice to me since some of them knew my parents. Each day I would just travel by floo and not have to sign in or anything."

"You didn't come back last summer, what brought you back this year?"

"I was just resting last summer sir. I had a difficult end of term that year and didn't want to do anything with magic for a while. Now, I wish I had come back. This year, I wanted something to do something where no body cared about me playing Quidditch and they were nice enough to let me come back. I don't think I help much, but I try to stay out of their way."

"I heard a rumor that some evidence our security department recovered from a raid on a prominent businessman the other week may be down in that department. Did you happen to see then working on any unusual items? Our security department has promised to try and track these down since the businessman was fully cleared."

Now Harry realized why he was here. "I haven't seen anything like that. They don't let me do much, I basically run errands and stuff like that." Harry said trying to make it sound like he wouldn't have much information.

The Minister stood up and moved to the edge of his desk in front of Harry. "I'd say it's a bit more than that. I saw some paperwork that you completed Auror training. That makes you currently the youngest Auror. Congratulations."

"Thank you sir. I'm surprised the Minister of Education has time to pay attention to such things."

"Oh, I think you'll find I pay attention to a great deal of things. Being a good politician is all about information," the man sat on the corner of his desk, "I have been curious about something. How did you know a former employee of that department was involved with the men who attacked you last year? No one has been able to determine that."

Harry decided to tell him at least most of the truth. He told him the story of being attacked by Voldemort and the Death Eaters. "And I recognized one of the Death Eaters when his hood came down from a picture I remembered seeing in the Department." Then he went on to say he and Voldemort were hurt in the duel.

"There was only a report that you were attacked by some wizards. Did you report all of this to the Ministry?" Gallah asked calmly.

"No sir. They didn't believe me when I told them about Voldemort getting his body back two years ago. I didn't think they would believe this either. Personally I don't think the Ministry is going to be any help in the fight. They don't want to admit that Voldemort is back," Harry said and then had to smile when he said the next part. "I have to think that Voldemort was surprised to find out that I was carried out of there by a dementor and how a majority of them weren't going to free Azkaban to help him. And, he had to hear that I recovered much quicker than he did."

Gallah didn't look impressed and Harry thought he detected a flash of anger. "Yes, well remember that rumors aren't always correct. How is it you hear these things? I could use sources like that."

"Just here and there sir. That's the only up side of being famous; people want to help you a lot. You don't seem surprised to hear me say Voldemort is back."

"I try to keep a more open mind than others in the Ministry. Don't want to alienate either side now do I." Gallah walked back and sat in his chair behind the desk. "There is a bit of bad news I have to share with you today. I've heard from the Minister of Security that we've had to increase security measures due to recent activity by some radicals. I'm afraid this means you won't be able to get into Department of Mysteries until all of these elements are stopped." Gallah almost seemed to smile. "I hope you understand it's for your own safety."