Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
Harry Potter-McGonagall - Chapter 5 -Melted Fudge
With eyes that reflected every bit of light in the dark corridors, the predator stalked the stone hallway. As its claws made a slight tapping sound on the floor, one of its companions, a dark brown cat, followed closely behind him. He could sense that a meal was nearby. Another companion, a tabby cat, was following the first very closely. He did his best to ignore the deliciously-smelling raven that was flying above them as he followed his senses to find the storehouse of food.
Turning the corner, the ginger part-kneazle hit the jackpot. At least ten mice were together in the corner. Crookshanks clawed for the closest, but it managed to avoid being caught, but this cat wasn't about to give up. It struck again, this time securing its supper in its claws.
After it took a bite, he looked at its companions, expecting that they'd caught a mouse as well. He knew that two of them had somehow achieved the great honor of becoming felines, so when he noticed them following him, he decided to show them what it was to be a cat, and there was nothing more natural than this.
The black one, Harry, had a mouse caught in his claws, but wasn't eating it, while his closest companion, Hermione, merely had a mouse cornered. Crookshanks took another bite of his prey and hoped they'd get the hint. However, it was not meant to be. His human reverted back to her original form, probably because she hadn't eaten enough. He pitied her losing such a magnificent, attractive form, instead settling for only two legs, not nearly enough fur, without even whiskers to help her sense what was around her. A few seconds later, Harry lost his form as well.
"I can't do it," said Hermione. "I can't kill and eat a mouse."
"Then I guess you couldn't survive as a cat," replied Harry with a smirk.
"I hope that doesn't mean you'll try to hunt ravens instead," added Padma, who'd transformed back as well.
"Ha ha," replied Hermione. "Why don't you try eating worms and see how you like it?" At about that time, they heard another mouse squeal in agony as Crookshanks got another one.
"Anyway," Harry cut in, "Regardless of the results, I do think we learned a bit more about what it means to be a cat."
"I wonder if I should start following the post owls," said Padma, "to learn more about being a bird."
"Might not be a bad idea," Hermione commented after a few seconds.
"What we really should be doing is spying on the Slytherins," stated Harry. "I'll bet that at least one of them knows what Voldemort is planning next. We've got a secret passage that leads to their common room, Animagus forms, and an invisibility cloak."
"It does make sense," agreed Padma.
Harry smirked as he said, "I'll use my cloak to spy on the Slytherin girls' showers to see if any of them have Dark Marks," before being smacked upside the head by his girlfriend. "…or not," he added quickly.
--HPM--
"You have my word that I'll do my best to make sure you get more time to spend with your son, Mrs. Welsh," he said with his winning smile. The witch he was speaking to was a secretary at the Ministry of Magic who had recently returned from maternity leave, but she was being forced to work too many hours - sixty per week. She thought that by appealing to the Minister of Magic himself, she could get results. Consequently, she caught him while he was leaving the Ministry building.
"Thank you, Minister Fudge."
"It's no problem at all. Good evening." He then pulled a small parchment notebook and ever-wet quill from his pocket and wrote, "Have Mrs. Welsh sacked," before returning it to its rightful place. He briskly walked to the floo exit and clearly requested, "Fudge Manor." Neither he nor anyone else noticed the small rat with a silver paw that jumped into the floo with him.
The Minister's home may not have been as grand as Malfoy Manor, but it was impressive. It had three floors, all of which were uncommonly tall, marble floors and wooden walls. Expensive artwork could be found hanging on the walls throughout the mansion. Outside were several acres of a finely manicured lawn. All of this was maintained by one very hard-working house elf. Cornelius stepped out of his tall fireplace skillfully and walked in the direction of his dining room as he brushed the soot off his suit and bowler hat.
"Dinky!" he shouted as he noticed something wrong.
With a loud POP, a male elf wearing a tea cozy that had an ornate `F' on it appeared, bowing low. "Yes, master?"
"Why is there dust on the floor behind me?"
"Because Master is leaving that behind as he…"
"Clean it up, now, and be quick about it! I want my supper in five minutes! Is that clear?" Fudge yearned for the good old days when he could hit his elf for oversights like that. However, he couldn't imagine the embarrassment of being caught breaking one of the stupid elf-abuse laws, so he didn't think the elf was worth kicking.
Dinky managed to clean the floor and still serve the meal on time, mainly because the meal had been ready before the master of the house had arrived, kept hot by a warming charm. Fudge sat down at the huge oak table and ate alone. His wife had left him years before, so he was used to this arrangement. After he'd finished his caviar, he retired to his family library, which was a large room with decorative wooden shelving that held hundreds of tomes, none of which had been read by the esteemed Minister of Magic. He merely liked to be able to claim that he spent an hour in his family library every night before bed.
When he'd finished his relaxation in a room formerly dedicated to learning, he walked to the master bedroom and changed from his suit into a long sky blue nightshirt. Just after he lay down, he heard a small click.
--HPM--
Peter Pettigrew, aka Wormtail, had managed to jump into the floo with Fudge, and immediately found himself hiding from an overworked house-elf. He'd barely survived helping resurrect Voldemort, who'd thought it was more important to call the other Death Eaters than to heal his follower who'd literally given his hand for his master. He'd passed out from blood-loss before Harry Potter had escaped with his master and thought he'd die, but one of the Death Eaters (and none would admit whom) took pity on him and stopped the bleeding. Eventually, the Dark Lord gave him a magical hand.
Had he ever spoken to someone about the ritual (or thought about it himself), he'd have realized that his hand contained flesh, blood and bone, while the ritual only called for his flesh. He shouldn't have had to cut off a limb like his master had ordered him: he should've only cut off a piece of skin. However, he never discussed it with anyone, nor did he think too much about it. He was now recovered, and working a much more dangerous mission than he preferred. Imagine if he got caught sneaking around the Minister's house!
Luckily, Fudge kept his elf too busy to notice a rat hiding. Once he knew Cornelius had gone to bed, he floo-called the house where other Death Eaters were waiting to come through. Although anyone flooing the Minister would need a password, the Minister could floo anyone he wanted. In other words, the security went only one way, and now had been breeched.
Bellatrix Lestrange was the first one to walk through the floo, followed by her husband Rodolphus, along with Crabbe Sr. and Delores Umbridge.
"I've always wondered how the Minister of Magic lived," commented Crabbe as he looked around the beautifully decorated manor.
"He won't live for very long," replied Umbridge in her annoying voice.
"Longer than he'd like," added Bellatrix. "I know the Dark Lord has allowed you the killing blow, but itty bitty Fudgy needs to learn that his blunders won't be allowed. All his scheming against Harry Potty resulted in his getting better training in defense, and we all know that's you're itty bitty faulty."
Normally, Umbridge would've protested the accusation that it was her fault that Potter got her arrested, but even she knew not to cross the most feared witch in Britain. She knew that Fudge was also blamed for allowing the brat into the Ministry building so that he could switch prophecies, which resulted in a very embarrassing illness for the master. She didn't dare mention that Fudge didn't have the authority to stop him from entering the Ministry building, since he wasn't a fugitive.
However, what she couldn't forgive was the way that Cornelius had completely turned his back on her when she was arrested. He pretended that he had no idea she planned to torture the students when he'd specifically suggested she do so. After all the years she'd faithfully served him, he didn't even try to keep her out of Azkaban. That was pure betrayal. He chose to save his own skin and let her rot. Tonight, she would have her revenge.
They opened the door to Fudge's bedroom, and didn't waste any time. Bellatrix had Fudge flying up into the ceiling while all his furniture was moved around. "Hello, Fudgy-Wudgy," she said sweetly before letting him fall onto the floor. "Our master told us to say a few words to you. One of them is Crucio!" As Cornelius screamed in agony, his bladder emptied itself onto the front of his sky blue nightshirt.
At that moment, a panicking house elf Apparated to the Ministry of Magic to ask for help.
After a full minute, the mad woman let the spell go. The victim was gasping for air and trembling all over.
"Our Lord was disappointed in your performance - letting Potter grow in popularity!" stated Rodolphus before conjuring a fire-whip and beating Fudge with it as he screamed and cried in pain."
"Stop! W-what do you want? I'll do anything!" he begged.
"How `bout if ya melt?" suggested Crabbe before sending Fiendfyre at his feet.
The suffering man's eyes rested on the non-disguised Umbridge. "P-please, Delores?"
"No one let's me take the fall for them! Avada Kedavra!" she hissed before turning back toward the door, leaving Fudge's burning corpse behind.
"Let's go!" commanded Bellatrix. "Wormtail, go outside and send up the Mark!"
"Y-yes."
While the other Death Eaters were flooing away, Peter changed to his rat form and scurried out. He quickly transformed again to send up a Dark Mark. "Morsmordre!" he shouted before being shot in the back with a stunner.
--HPM--
When the terrified elf told Head Auror Scrimgeour that the Minister was being attacked, he mobilized his people as fast as he could, which was less than five minutes. Knowing that the house was warded to stop anyone from entering, they had to Apparate nearby, giving the Minister's attackers even more time to kill him. By the time they arrived, they saw a lone Death Eater with a silver hand firing a Dark Mark into the sky above the manor that was just beginning to burn with what appeared to be Fiendfyre. He instinctively knew they were too late to save Minister Fudge, but he wanted answers. Quick as lightning, he pulled his wand and stunned the one criminal they had. He couldn't wait to pour Veritaserum down that scum's throat.
--HPM--
Minister Fudge Murdered! Fudge Manor Burned Down!
By Anna Jesse
In a shocking turn of events, Death Eaters somehow managed to breach the security of the Minister of Magic's home last evening. The Aurors were alerted soon after, but when they arrived, they found the manor burning with fiendfyre and the Dark Mark being shot into the sky above. They captured the Death Eater who sent up the dreaded symbol and brought him to a holding cell where he was identified and interrogated.
"As hard as it is to believe, the man that was captured was none other than Peter Pettigrew, the man Sirius Black was arrested for murdering fourteen years ago. We found that he has the Dark Mark. When I looked up the record for Black's trial, I found that there wasn't one. This creates many more questions that will be asked of Pettigrew under veritaserum in front of the Wizengamot tomorrow," said Amelia Bones, head of the DMLE and acting Minister of Magic.
"I can't believe it," said Harry, in shock as he read the Daily Prophet.
"Maybe Sirius and Remus will be cleared," whispered Hermione.
"I'm sure they'll like being able to use their real names and appearances again," commented Padma, "especially Sirius."
The paper also included related articles regarding Sirius' initial arrest and escape, as well as how Remus Lupin had helped him and they'd disappeared. It obviously didn't talk about how they'd escaped to America and used assumed identities, since very few people, none of whom worked for the Daily Prophet, knew about that.
One person who did know about that was Amelia Bones, who Aunt Minnie had contacted shortly after Sirius and Remus had left Hogwarts on a huge flying carpet. At the time, she agreed that the lie about Sirius and Remus was necessary, but now they had the rat in custody. She'd been trying to get Black's case reopened for more than a year, and now she had the authority to do so.
Before they'd finished breakfast, six official-looking owls flew into the Great Hall and separated. One went to Harry; another to Hermione; another to Padma; another to Brianna; another to Minerva; and the last one to Professor Burbage. All of them had seen Remus and Sirius together, and Remus had stunned Professor Burbage that night. Harry unrolled the scroll and read:
Mr. Harry Potter-McGonagall,
Your presence is required at the Ministry of Magic - Courtroom Ten - at nine thirty a.m. tomorrow to testify regarding the incident involving Sirius Black and Remus Lupin that occurred at Hogwarts on 6 June, 1994, as it is believed that this relates to the trial of Peter Pettigrew.
Percival Weasley
Undersecretary to the Minister
"I guess that idiot's still working at the Ministry," commented Harry.
"I notice that he's not Senior Undersecretary," commented Hermione.
"So he's just trying to make himself seem important even though he's really just a secretary to a secretary to a secretary of the acting Minister," Padma completed.
"It looks like our Muggle Studies professor is confused about why she's been summoned," Harry remarked.
"She'll find out soon enough," said Hermione. "We can't explain it to her or it'll interfere with her testimony."
"That Remus attacked her," completed Harry.
"Yes," his girlfriend agreed. "That will be her testimony, and we'll explain why he stunned her. We are telling the truth about the incident, even that detail."
"Just not how Sirius and Remus escaped from Hogwarts," added Padma.
"Exactly," said Harry and Hermione together.
--HPM--
Much to the relief of Harry and company, the hearing at the Ministry was more of a formality than anything else. Wormtail was forced under veritaserum to tell the story of how he betrayed the Potters and then set Sirius up to take the fall. That was enough to revoke his Order of Merlin. He then told the story of how he'd hidden as a rat and eventually was found by Sirius Black. He told the Wizarding World what had really happened in Hagrid's old cabin when he'd come face-to-face with Sirius and Remus. Then he told about his part in Voldemort's resurrection ritual. That caused an uproar in the courtroom - more people than Harry could count were calling for Wormtail's head.
It was sad to watch Peter's mother, who thought she'd been the mother of a dead hero, find out that she was the mother of a traitorous Death Eater. Her face had paled and her countenance hardened. The old woman wouldn't even speak to her son.
The group from Hogwarts testified what they'd seen the night Pettigrew escaped Hogwarts to find his master, mainly so that the trial wouldn't be based on the testimony of just one man.
In the end, Pettigrew was sentenced to a Dementor's Kiss; all charges against Sirius Black were dropped; a large amount of gold was placed in Black's vault as compensation for his illegal imprisonment; and the charges against Remus Lupin were reduced to the misdemeanor of using a minor hex on someone. All of this was printed in the Daily Prophet, and within a few days, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black returned to England as free men.
--HPM--
A/N I'm sorry that the trial was a summary, rather than told in detail, but I didn't see much point in it. I've already described the trial process in the previous story, and no new information was revealed at the trial. You can assume Wormtail was crying and trembling in fear the whole time. If you want to read about how Wormtail escaped Hogwarts, it's in Harry McGonagall chapter 30.
Merry Christmas!
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