Chapter 8
March 1, 1983
The Daily Prophet
Evening Special Edition
NEW MINISTER FOR MAGIC ELECTED!
Regulus Black to take the reins of the Ministry!
Ron Burgundy, reporter
In a landslide vote, the population of magical Great Britain, including Scotland and Ireland, has voted overwhelmingly to put Regulus Arcturus Black in office as the next Minister for Magic. As our readers are all aware, some rather disturbing information came out about the now-deposed Cornelius Oswald Fudge that left many of his constituents with a bad taste in their mouths. From blatant theft of funds earmarked for desperately needed programs to the chemical enslavement and rape of a great many minor girls, he was bounced out of office and straight into Azkaban to await trial for his crimes. Unfortunately, his abuses in office have netted several more criminals, from the Auror department to the Wizengamot. Below is a list of co-conspirators, and DMLE Head Amelia Bones has gone on the warpath, interviewing her remaining staff to make sure that Fudge doesn’t have any more moles in her department.
In other news, the programs that Albus Dumbledore tried to interrupt have finally begun to move forward, with funding to come from an increase in the taxes over the next five years. With the influx of new employees to man the Wizarding Child Welfare office, as well as Hogwarts, immediate funding will be taken from the Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee, the Ludicrous Patents Office and the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. Arthur Weasley will maintain his position as Senior Undersecretary, and he will be moved immediately into the large, well-appointed office right next to the Minister for Magic’s office. There will be a communicating door between the two offices, so that Minister Black can reach his assistant as quickly as possible. It will also facilitate the monthly meetings Minister Black intends to hold with his right hand man and the heads of the various Ministry departments.
CO-CONSPIRATORS TO CORNELIUS FUDGE:
Auror Jack Bauer
Auror Andrew Sipowicz
Obliviator Ardath Bey
Obliviator James Moriarty
Unspeakable Templeton Peck
Unspeakable Olivia Greene
Wizengamot member Barty Crouch, Sr.
Wizengamot member Phobos Travers
All will be facing official sanctions at the least, and possible prison time at the worst. Here’s hoping that Minister Regulus Arcturus Black brings back the honor and integrity of the British magical world.
“Well, dearest, it looks like little Harry Potter didn’t die in vain,” Tom told his mate as he set the paper down in front of Severus. The Potions Master’s eyes scanned the article while he absently fed his son some porridge. He hadn’t noticed, in his distraction, that Harry had had enough and had turned his head away, so the porridge was going into the toddler’s ear. Muffled laughter finally brought the preoccupied man to his senses, and he looked at his spouse curiously, ebon brow quirked up on his forehead. Unable to answer the silent question, Tom just pointed at their son, his other hand stuffed in his mouth to hold in the hilarity. Turning, dark eyes widened and a look of shock covered his face.
“Oh, baby, I’m sorry,” he gushed as he quickly pulled his wand and flicked it at the little boy, who had so much porridge dripping from his ear that it looked like he had a massive infection. Once clean, the little tyke’s papa pulled him from the magical high chair and cuddled him close, smiling fondly at his son as the child wrapped his hands in his dad’s long hair and tugged gently. “Well,” the Prince Lord said pragmatically, “looks like we got the right man in office for once. Now all we need to do is get Albus out of Hogwarts, and our world will be safer.”
“We’re still not sending Hawthorne there,” Tom remarked, chin jutted out mulishly. “Heraklion School of Magic and Wizardry is perfectly fine for our son, and he’ll get a better education here than he would in Scotland. Besides, I’m worried that if we let him out of our sight for even a moment, something awful might happen to him. You know how much Dumbledore is depending on that prophecy coming to pass. It wouldn’t surprise me if he already had plans to turn someone into his puppet martyr, and who better than our own son.”
“I agree, love,” Prince-Riddle soothed his anxious husband gently. “We’ll make sure that we get all of Harry’s friends here, as well. Draco is a must; I don’t think our son would appreciate being so far away from his very best friend. I think the Longbottoms would want to join, as well, since their son is the only recorded birth at the end of July. Perhaps the Weasleys, as well? If Albus finds out that they turned on him, their children could be in quite a bit of danger.”
“I’ll contact him about transferring his older kids to the school for the next term after summer,” Tom told his mate with a grin. “We’ll have to help most of them relocate, though. I know I bought that abandoned settlement of Dyo Prini in Lasithi, near the school in the Heraklion Prefecture, and I’ve had the house elves fixing it up. Maybe they can be transplanted there, and build a better life here, with us.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“How are the twins?” Severus asked Narcissa, when everyone got together to celebrate Ostara. Amelia was approached with a proposal to relocate herself and her niece to Crete, where Susan could go to school with the rest of her friends. Bones was intrigued by the idea, since Dumbledore still had iron control over Hogwarts, but she didn’t want to leave her job or her responsibilities to the Ministry, especially with Reggie in charge now. So she agreed to set up a homestead for them in the village, where she could go back and forth to England for her job, but Susan would spend the majority of her time with little Hawthorne and the other kids.
“A handful,” the woman sighed out with a slight grimace. “I thought Draco was bad enough, but I didn’t expect two more kids to come along so soon.” The girls were born on Yule in 1982, and at three months were becoming quite vocal in their displeasure. They were named Juliette Aubrieta and Genevieve Angelonia Malfoy, and they could give the Weasley twins a run for their money with how much alike they looked. Narcissa utilized the same nanny elves that they’d had for their firstborn, and the twins were never alone for long.
“How’s Draco taking the new additions?” was Severus’ next question. He knew that his godson was quite spoilt, and figured that he’d pitched a fit at not being the center of his parents’ world anymore.
“Surprisingly okay,” the Malfoy matriarch replied with some pride. “There was an issue with his temper and his selfishness at first, but when I explained that the girls needed us more than he did, he calmed down a bit. It also helped that Hawthorne told Draco that he wished he’d had siblings with whom to play and have fun. That made our son realize the blessing he’d received when they were born, and he’s become quite the little protector for them.”
“That’s good,” the dark-haired man agreed with a gentle smile. He was so proud of his son, and he understood that loneliness. Both he and Tom were also only children, and though neither man would have wished to inflict their own childhoods on another youngster, Severus couldn’t deny that he would have loved to have had a little brother or sister to help ease the persistent loneliness. “Tom and I have been talking, and we are going to try for at least two more children. We both had unbearably lonely lives growing up, when we weren’t being assaulted nearly every day. We don’t want that for Hawthorne, so we’re going to try. Where are the twins, by the way?”
“I had Gritty and Simply take them up to your nursery for the time being,” the blonde told her old friend fondly. “They’ll be down later, when we start the festivities. Oh, before I forget. I talked to a bunch of the other parents, and we all think it’s a great idea to move all of our kids and families here, so that we can avoid being used as leverage in Dumbledore’s madness. If you and Tom don’t mind, I think Lucius and I would like a suite of rooms here in the manor, rather than a home in the village.”
“I think that can be arranged.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Original Timeline
September 5, 1995
The Daily Prophet
HARRY POTTER DEAD!
Our Savior murdered by someone in the Ministry!
Rita Skeeter, reporter
Yes, dear readers, you read that right. In the evening hours of August 2 of this year, Harry Potter and his muggle cousin were beset upon by two dementors who could only have shown up in that neighborhood if they’d been ordered to be there. According to the information this reporter was able to gather, the order to ‘Kiss on sight’ was given by none other than Dolores Jane Umbridge, the Senior Undersecretary to Minister Cornelius Fudge.
You remember, dear readers, that Harry James Potter, upon being portkeyed back to Hogwarts at the end of the Triwizard Tournament, with the dead body of fellow classmate Cedric Diggory in tow, had proclaimed the return of He Who Must Not Be Named. Minister for Magic Fudge was there as a guest, to see the end of the tournament and to proclaim the winner. As soon as the news was delivered, our cowardly leader of the magical world promptly denied that any such thing could be possible. When headmaster Albus Dumbledore supported Potter’s proclamation, he did the equivalent of sticking his fingers in his ears and chanting ‘Lalalalalalala’ like an overgrown toddler. He then proceeded in the following months to pay this newspaper to libel and defame a fourteen year old child and the defeater of the Dark Lord Grindelwald, which we did. Had we refused, this paper would most likely have been shut down.
It seems that our illustrious Minister went one step further, and granted his toady, Umbridge, permission to silence Mr. Potter by any means necessary, and unfortunately, she was quite successful. Harry Potter’s remains have been returned to the magical world, and a private funeral will be held at an undisclosed location, where he will be buried next to his parents. Only a small number of people will be allowed to attend the service, since many of us more or less turned our backs on a child crying out for help in the only way he knew how.
When his body was turned over to the DMLE for forensic examination, it was discovered that he’d suffered a lifetime of malnutrition, which made his bones brittle and had weakened his body. There is evidence of numerous badly healed fractures and breaks to his skeleton, and there were indications of repeated bruising to the brain, no doubt caused by the assaults under which that poor child suffered at the hands of his muggle relatives.
Also lost in the confrontation was Dudley Vernon Dursley, Harry Potter’s cousin on his mother’s side. This reporter had the chance to speak with Arabella Figg, a squib who was placed in the neighborhood to keep an eye on the Boy Who Lived, at the behest of Albus Dumbledore, the man who had abandoned Potter in that neighborhood right after his parents were murdered. This is what she had to say.
“I tried to get him to use his wand to protect himself and the Dursley child, but he panicked and he and Dudley ran off toward the alleyway between my street and the next one. They were trapped in a service tunnel, where the dementors approached from each end, and they had no way to escape, except for the patronus charm. I don’t know why he didn’t use his magic to save himself and the Dursley child. I can only speculate that he felt lost and alone after his godfather and his friends abandoned him to suffer his grief alone. That poor child never had anyone in his corner his entire life, and now that he’s gone, we’re left to pick up the pieces.”
Pick up the pieces, indeed. Without our Savior, who will save us from He Who Must Not Be Named now?
“Did you see this, Wormtail?” Voldemort asked as he tossed the paper onto the table. He was still trying to adjust to being back in a normal body once again, and his energy was quickly depleted if he moved too fast. Pettigrew picked up the Prophet and stared at the headline, his own thoughts sluggish. It’s my fault, he lamented to himself. If I hadn’t have betrayed James’ and Lily’s trust... If I hadn’t have destroyed Sirius’ life, my salvation might still be alive. What have I done?