As expected, but still surprising nevertheless, was the resignation of Fudge as Minister that was announced in the Daily Prophet on the Monday morning; and less than four days after the revelations in the trial of Umbridge sunk his Ministership. The man had called a press conference on the sly the previous evening to make his announcement on his terms. In the article it even named the person he wanted to have as his successor, Elphias Doge, who had joined him at the press conference.
Harry already knew that wasn't going to happen, as Doge was a dyed-in-the-wool Dumbledore supporter. However, it now left the field open for Ogden to step forward as a candidate, and immediately announce he did so with the support of the Potter and Black alliances.
The announcement was so big it led the front page on the Tuesday morning. By lunchtime Doge had withdrawn and, with no other viable candidates, it was an assured win for Ogden when the Wizengamot next sat. With what else was going on, that was sooner than most people thought. "Now all he has to do is stay alive," said Sirius bringing their joy back down to earth.
As well as the announcement from Ogden of his intention to run for Minister, other - and far more major - ructions were going on in the Ministry.
Madam Bones and Unspeakable Croaker seized the opportunity and had their aurors, hit wizards and Unspeakables at the Ministry well before the sun was up and were arresting people left, right and centre on the Tuesday morning.
They had set their place to make their arrests immediately in front of the lifts on each floor of the Ministry building except for the atrium. With aurors and Unspeakables working together off preprepared lists of names, they arrested all marked Death Eaters; and had them immediately transferred to Unspeakable holding cells. Those named as accepting bribes were immediately transferred to holding cells in the DMLE. Blood supremacists and others who answered yes to the bigotry question were allowed through... for now. No one was allowed back into the lifts before the arrest operation was completed. And all outgoing mail, private Floo's and the like were blocked for the duration.
With only a few names off their lists missing, whether it was due to the owners of those names being on either holidays or off sick, the whole operation was completed before 10:00am.
Once they'd rounded up all they could in their arrest net, aurors moved on to the withheld outgoing mail. From that, a further five were arrested for interfering with an ongoing auror investigation. All five were caught attempting to warn others as to what they had to look forward to if they turned up at the Ministry. All those they were trying to warn were on their arrest lists.
Overseeing the entire operation, Madam Bones was in direct communication from her desk with Croaker down in the DoM.
For those of the four names on the list who did not turn up for work that morning, teams of three aurors each were sent to arrest them in their homes. The only one to slip that move was a brother-in-law of Beauregard Nott; a previously undiscovered Death Eater who worked in the Floo Regulation Authority. An arrest-on-sight order was put out on him.
To stop another notifying someone who could call for an emergency sitting of the Wizengamot earlier than Madam Bones wanted it, she called for the emergency sitting and for it to take place the following Saturday.
For the rest of the week the aurors, using judicious doses of Veritaserum, built their cases against those who accepted the bribes. When it was discovered who was bribing them, those names were also taken down and arrest warrants prepared. Almost all names were of senior members, if not the Heads of, powerful Houses.
As the information flooded in from the interviews Amelia Bones, Rufus Scrimgeour and Gawain Robards collated the information to build cases against those who did the bribing. In the process they also developed quite a substantial amount of claims against both Umbridge and Fudge. Umbridge, of course, was no longer a worry; but the information was sufficient to arrest Fudge. He'd be left until later with the other perpetrators.
While they were working hard all three finally admitted to one another they were having the most fun they'd ever had.
The stay of the three at the Black House went past pretty quick.
The first major hurdle after the potion-induced transformations was Harry's combined third and fourth year exam for Ancient Runes on the following Friday. For it, they had to go into the Ministry. Sirius was happy enough to take him and seemed to spend time wandering about and chatting to the pretty witches in clerical jobs throughout the building. Of which many had just recently received significant promotions and were happy to celebrate. Harry was just happy to get out of there at the end of the exam, not just because the exam left him mentally wrecked, but from the embarrassment his godfather was causing him.
The next morning, Harry rose early to head back to the Ministry. He was required for duty attending to the many trials that were taking place immediately following the early full Wizengamot meeting.
Immediately after the new Minister, Ogden, was 'elected' at the first order of business, the meeting was closed with various members heading for three court rooms for the trials. A last minute attempt at a motion to overturn certain of the arrests was soundly defeated.
And, immediately after the gavel came down for the close of business, three of the members were immediately arrested on bribery charges. One of whom moved the motion to have certain arrests overturned. Their cases were added to the current dockets.
Harry was required to invigilate cases in one of the courtrooms, to learn how to try a case when it would eventually become his turn. He watched as, almost on a production line, defendants were brought in, questioned, evidence was presented, and rulings were made. For most, they were ordered to pay the amount of the known bribes plus ten percent directly to the Ministry as fines; and forbidden to hold another position within the Ministry ever again. Those who were unable to pay, or pay the full amount, were sentenced to six months per one hundred galleons or part thereof in outstanding bribes to the low security section of Azkaban, as per already established conditions of sentencing.
There was much wailing and crying from so-called upstanding members of society who had received quite a lot of bribe money and no hope of paying it back without putting their families out on the street and destitute. The brave souls among them opted for longer prison terms so their families wouldn't suffer.
Harry found the whole thing necessary, but sad to watch.
At the end of the day, Harry tracked down Madam Bones and asked her when they'd see the trials for the marked Death Eaters.
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