Harry Potter and the Return to the Riddle House

Chapter Four

The Unlikely Candidate

One morning, Harry awoke to the odd sensation of being hit full in the face with a small, soft, and madly twittering bird. It was a few seconds before he realized what was happening.

"Pig! Sorry, Harry..."

Harry yawned. Then he remembered why he was feeling vaguely happy. Today they were going to Diagon Alley to get his school supplies! He dressed quickly and met the others in the kitchen. After a quick breakfast, they lined up in front of the fireplace in the front room with Mrs. Weasley. She passed a chipped old flowerpot that Harry recognized to Ron, saying,

"Now, just step right aside when you get there and wait for the rest of us, Ron... Rachel, you'll go with me so you don't get lost, since you've never been to Diagon Alley before, oh, and Tonks is watching Ian, you met her... Ginny, don't take off without us like you did last time, and if she does, Ron, don't tackle her again, for heaven's sake... is everybody ready?"

"I didn't tackle her, Mum, I grabbed her robes and she tripped."

"Yes, yes, Ron, just go, we need to stay on schedule; I want this done in one day."

So Ron took a fistful of the same green, glittering powder Tonks had used to take Harry from Privet Drive. He strode into the fireplace, and in a whoosh of green flames, he was gone.

"Alright, Harry, dear, you next," Mrs. Weasley said.

Harry threw the powder into the fireplace and stepped in, a little reluctantly. Last time he tried to get to Diagon Alley by Floo Powder, he had ended up in a morbid little shop in seedy Knockturn Alley, and he was not keen to return. So he shouted, very clearly, 'Diagon Alley', and felt himself spinning through the chimney once again. Hot ash struck his face, but he kept his eyes open for Ron. Suddenly, the spinning stopped, and Harry felt himself falling foreword. Just in time, he caught himself, and, panicking very slightly because he did not know which grate he had fallen out of, polished the smoke off his glasses and looked around. The first thing he saw was a great lot of white marble, than a short goblin behind a desk counting a pile of gold Galleons, and then, a mess of red hair.

"Hey, Harry," said Ron casually. "Better move before Ginny squashes you."

Harry had done it! He moved a little bit ahead and looked around what he recognized as Gringott's Bank. He hadn't realized quite how good it would feel to just get out of that house, and felt a pang of sympathy for Sirius. Before long, Ginny, Hermione, and Mrs. Weasley, with Rachel, had whooshed out of the fireplace. After they had withdrawn their money, Mrs. Weasley hurried them out onto the main street, lined with shops and restaurants. The first thing they saw was a large sign, shaped like a jester's hat, reading 'Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes'.

"Fred and George's joke shop!" gasped Hermione.

"Well, I suppose we have to look in, don't we?" said Mrs. Weasley.

Inside, the store was packed with brightly colored trick sweets, Skiving Snackboxes, and brilliant fireworks Harry recognized from last year. It was filled with people, most of them around his age. Fred, who was up on a ladder getting a huge box of the fireworks for a customer, spotted them and yelled

"Ron! Ginny!"

George, behind the register, broke into a wide grin and showed them around the shop. There were their famous trick wands, Vanishing Hats, sparking quills, exploding teabags... Harry was amazed. After a few minutes, he reluctantly tore himself away, at Mrs. Weasley's request. They made plans to meet Fred and George for lunch and hurried out to buy their supplies.

They got their many books, had their robes lengthened and mended, got some more Bundimum repellant, and where just talking about where to go for lunch when Hermione spotted a largish crowd around a newsstand. As they neared the group, Harry heard a middle-aged witch telling her husband, "Oh, they've announced the candidates for Minister, then..."

"Of course... today's the fifteenth!" Hermione gasped.

Ginny got there first, grabbed a flier, and brought it back to a little umbrella-covered table. She began reading from the list printed on the sheet of parchment.

" 'The following parties have been officially nominated for candidacy for the offices of Minister of Magic, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, and Junior Undersecretary to the Minister: Agreta Dirk, with Senior Undersecretary Odessa Benedict, Junior Undersecretary Felix Iago.'-- I've never heard of them-- 'Amelia Bones, with Senior Undersecretary Sergio Nero, Junior Undersecretary Jill Ashford'--oh, she's Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Bones, I mean, she's well placed, isn't she-- and 'Justinian Thedon, Senior Undersecretary..."

Ginny had gone oddly frozen. After a few moments, Mrs. Weasley said,

"Er... yes, dear?"

Ginny was still staring at the parchment. Ron impatiently stood up and looked over her shoulder. Then, quite suddenly, he gave a yell that made a woman in a bright orange cloak stare, and practically shouted,

"Senior Undersecretary Arthur Weasley! And... blimey... Junior Undersecretary Percy Weasley!"

"Percy?" Rachel said curiously. "Another broth-- oh."

She glanced apologetically at Mrs. Weasley, but she did not seem to notice. She was looking at the flier in Ginny's hand, apparently quite as stunned as everybody else. She reached a slightly shaking hand towards the flier. Her eyes ran over the words and she looked up.

"Well," she said finally. "We should get started on dinner, then."

"Yeah, we... what?" said Ron.

"Ronald, your father could possibly become the next Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic! We need to congratulate him! Of course, they might not be elected..." she added quickly.

So ten minutes later found Harry, Hermione, Rachel, Tonks, and several Weasleys (Fred and George came back with them from their shop when they heard the news) chopping potatoes, washing vegetables, and talking excitedly. Rachel seemed more relaxed, even smiling at the twins' jokes. Ian wound about, mostly getting underfoot, but doing it in a very cute way. Fred and George took an immediate liking to him.

By six-thirty, when Mr.Weasley was due to arrive home, the table had been set and everybody was starving. As they could not possibly answer the many questions they all had, they found cooking to be a good way to keep their minds off them, and as a result and there were dishes upon dishes piled on the table. Harry and the others had scrounged a few carrots or scraps of meat in between slicing, peeling, and seasoning, but were beginning to sincerely regret missing a proper lunch. Just as they began wondering if Mr. Weasley had been held up by a reporter or something, the door creaked open and he stepped into the house. The entryway was immediately flooded with red heads of hair. Mr. Weasley tried to herd everybody into the living room, and they saw that behind him were Lupin, grinning good-naturedly, Mundungus, Chris Connor and Percy. Harry did a double take. Percy Weasley was standing in front of the throng, looking straight at his mother with an embarrassed look on his face. The voices died away, and Mr. Weasley cleared his throat.

"Ah-- Percy is, um... interested in joining us, Molly."

Mrs. Weasley looked at Percy. Nobody spoke.

"I'm sorry, Mum," Percy said quietly. "Last year... I thought... Dumbledore... and... well, I know --ah--You-Know-Who is back, and... Fudge was... well, I want to fight him, and this seems... well... like the right way...." He trailed off awkwardly.

Mrs. Weasley blinked hard.

"Of course, dear... come and have some dinner," she said softly. She put her arm on his shoulder and led him into the dining room, his head slightly downward, looking like a seven-year-old who broke his mother's vase and was hugged instead of scolded.

***

At dinner, Mr. Weasley told them about the nomination.

"Well, all the Heads of Departments gathered in the meeting hall that we usually use for press releases. Percy -- as improvising Minister, you know -- stood up and asked for nominees, and first somebody from the Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee nominated Agreta Dirk, who's Head of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. She's a good Head of Department, but not politically-minded at all, she won't make it. Then after someone seconded her, she stood up and announced who she wanted to run with. Then a good many were nominated but not seconded, then came Amelia Bones. She made a short little speech, she has some good ideas. She would make a good Minister, but Thedon... he would be excellent. He announced that he wanted Percy and me, and then ran through a couple of his policies. He's got excellent views on the next few steps against Who-Know-Who, not just useless 'guides to elementary home and personal defense'. He's talking to Lupin about joining the Order as well."

"But Arthur, surely you knew he was going to ask for you!" Mrs. Weasley said. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Mr. Weasley swallowed his bite and took a sip of wine.

"Well... yes. He overheard some of my views on Muggle relations and a few other things at a Christmas party or something and apparently remembered them. Just turned up in my office the minute he found out he had a few supporters to nominate him... which was a little unfortunate, because he was ambushed by a hexed deck of cards.... But anyway, there was no way to be absolutely sure he was going to be nominated in the first place, let alone elected, so I didn't want to get everybody all excited for nothing," he said.

"But if Thedon is elected..."

Mr. Weasley allowed himself a small smile.

"The pay is pretty good," he said in a low voice. "We won't be rich, but we'll be quite better off."

Everybody at the table was silent for a while. Harry very much wanted this Thedon man to win. He could think of nobody who deserved the job more than Mr. Weasley...

Chapter Five

The Election

For the next couple of weeks, Harry saw very little of Mr. Weasley, he was always rushing around, preparing speeches and writing important letters. Harry learned that he would have quite a lot of responsibility, but not as much, of course, as Justinian Thedon, whom Harry met one day. He was a young-looking man with a friendly face, chiseled features, and dark hair. He was being shown around by Lupin, and was quite polite to Rachel, Hermione, and Harry, when he ran into them in the drawing room. He had to rush out quickly, however, he couldn't be gone too long, as he was very much in the spotlight lately, and could not draw attention to their secret headquarters. Harry thought it would be extremely handy to have the Minister of Magic himself in the Order of the Phoenix, and with Percy, the twins, and apparently Chris Connor, whom he saw around often, their ranks were growing nicely.

Hermione was getting the Daily Prophet delivered daily, and she, Harry, Ron, and Rachel read Thedon's, Bones', and Dirk's speeches and reports. Agreta Dirk, as Mr. Weasley predicted, was not particularly popular, she was the definite third out of the three candidates. Amelia Bones had some good ideas, but Harry's vote would have definitely gone to Justinian Thedon, if he was old enough. He had excellent plans for the battles against Voldemort and his Death Eaters, which were becoming more and more common. Aside from election updates, the Prophet was constantly running stories about Muggles asking odd questions at police stations, occasional odd disappearances, and even, once, a full-out battle in the streets. Harry was pleased to see, however, that Lucius Malfoy and other Death Eaters had been properly exposed, and could no longer bribe and threaten their way through the Ministry; he was sure this was a hindrance to Voldemort.

As Election Day drew nearer, the household grew tense and nervous. Harry had learned that the Minister would be announced just a week or so before he went back to Hogwarts, on August 25^th. Nearing the middle of August, Percy and Mr. Weasley, when Harry saw them, were looking stressed and uneasy, and he occasionally glimpsed Thedon himself, who looked fairly calm, considering. Harry rather liked him; he gave a certain impression that made everybody feel comfortable, which was handy for dealing with the press. Although he was relatively young, he apparently knew quite what he was doing, and he and Amelia Bones were constantly treading the lead in the polls.

Harry was therefore looking foreword to September first more than usual-- the election would be over, hopefully in their favor, and he could finally leave Grimmauld Place and go back to Hogwarts. He did notice that his mind was wandering towards Sirius a bit less often. A small part of him felt guilty about this, but if he was totally honest with himself, it was a relief. He felt best when he felt normal, when he was tossing rats to Buckbeak or talking with Ron and Hermione, and, more and more often, with Rachel. She had started speaking occasionally back in July, and at Harry's birthday dinner, even laughed out loud, more than once. The three of them were getting to like her quite a bit. She, like Harry, probably preferred thinking more about everyday things, and also probably found it easier than Harry did, not being in her old house. She did, however, have her parents' youngest son to remind her.

On the 24^th, the very eve of the election, Harry and the others sat down to lunch, along with Tonks and Chris. Rachel was chatting with Hermione and pouring Ian some more milk, when he piped up,

"Rachel, when do we go back to Mommy and Daddy?"

Rachel froze. There was silence around the table, but the little boy did not seem to notice.

"Rachel?"

She put the milk back in the center of the table and began cutting a piece of broccoli on her own plate. Ian giggled, like she was playing with him.

"Rachel, when do we go ho--"

"Shut up, Ian!" Rachel said suddenly. Ian looked shocked, and his eyes filled with tears. Seeing him, Rachel stood up and strode quickly out of the room. Chris, who was on Ian's other side, hurriedly picked him up and sat him in his lap.

"Ah, Ian... how'd you like to stay with me for a while?"

Ian perked up.

"In your house?"

Chris smiled.

"My apartment, yeah..."

"Whoa, yeah! Cool!"

He was very excited; Chris set him back in his chair and let him chatter about how he would 'stay with his brother every day!' Mrs. Weasley looked anxiously towards the door, but, at Harry's glance, said,

"Just leave her, dear, she'll be all right. That was just an unpleasant little jolt for her..."

***

Rachel was fine, the next day she hugged Ian and played hide and seek with him. Then she challenged Ron, Harry, Hermione, Ginny, the twins and Chris (who claimed to came over because he was tired of an empty flat) all to a game of Exploding Snap, and beat them terrifically. Everybody was in quite a good mood, even Harry, when Mrs. Weasley came back from a local wizard inn, where she had cast her vote. She began pacing about the house, clearly nervous and repeatedly denying it. But as Rachel said, since they wouldn't know the outcome of the voting until late that night, there was no sense obsessing over it, they would just make themselves overly tense. (Although she later admitted that she knew this to be impossible.) So Mrs. Weasley sat down with them and they played more Exploding Snap and chess, it turns out she was a quite good match for Ron, especially when the two of them had equally brutal queens. Everybody else, especially Ian, Fred, and George, made a enthusiastic cheering section, Harry had not laughed that much in one day since before Sirius.... No, he wasn't going to think about that now, he couldn't...

"Are you all right, Harry? You look sad all of the sudden."

Harry looked up. Rachel was looking at him with slight concern.

"I'm fine," he said quickly. "Just... nervous about the election, I suppose."

And by sunset, everybody certainly was. The dinner was hardly touched, all Harry could think about was... well, many things, how much the Weasleys could use some extra money, what a good Minister Thedon would be, even how Mr. Weasley's speeches were already improved.... He told himself that Bones would make a pretty good Minister, and at least none of the candidates were blatantly refusing to believe Voldemort was back, but he did not even try convince himself that he cared solely about the politics. He wanted Mr. Weasley to win.

After dinner had been abandoned, everybody went to the front room. People trailed in intermittently; by nine o'clock, they were accompanied by Lupin, Shacklebolt, Mundungus, and an elegant witch named Emmeline Vance. They spoke in a rather fragmentary way, occasionally making an guess as to how long it would take to count up the votes, or making a stab at conversations, which usually lasted only a few minutes. At half-past nine, Mrs. Weasley looked up and said,

"Well, the polls are closed. They should be through in about half an hour..."

"Half an hour?" Harry said, surprised.

"Oh yes," Tonks replied. "They have some pretty powerful magical counters up at the Ministry; when Fudge was elected, we knew it in about twenty minutes."

"He'll probably have to talk to reporters after they announce it to the candidates, and then again when they announce it to the public," Lupin chimed. "But if he wants to, he can get away soon enough."

So they waited. Harry was just saying that maybe Muggles with televisions had an advantage this one time, since they could know who was elected right away instead of having to wait for a paper or, in this case, the candidate himself, when the door opened behind them. Mr. Weasley stepped inside the house. There was silence as he strode into the dim light and Percy came into view behind him. Harry strained to catch a glimpse of his face, and when he did, he saw that he looked somber and very tired.

"Well, Molly," he said in a horribly flat voice. "I hope you don't mind me putting in more hours. I have a lot of responsibilities now..."

Ron's head beside Harry whipped up.

"No..." Fred murmured. Percy was actually smiling, and Mr. Weasley grinned. A veritable explosion of noise occurred around the room. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were hugging, Ron was looking like he was going to pass out, and Ginny was doing an odd dance with Fred and George that reminded Harry of the aftermath of his trial last summer. When the noise had died down a bit, Mr. Weasley looked at Lupin and said,

"It's looking like the thing that tipped the scales for Thedon and us was his proposal to lighten that scrap of anti-werewolf legislation, that we thought would turn people away..."

And then, more quietly, "You still looking for a job? Because Dumbledore wants a good teacher, and asked me to go to you directly." He smiled broadly. So did Lupin. Harry looked at Ron and Hermione, and beamed. This term wasn't looking half bad...