Harry was sitting in a large and ornate office. A desk made of exquisitely carved and refined mahogany, far larger than anyone required a desk to be, sat before him. On the opposite side of the desk there sat a tall, Queen Anne wingback chair of black leather. In that chair sat Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic, who was surveying Harry with an inquisitive look that really did not seem to belong on his face. Most people would doubt that the Minister could actually make his face form such a look. Pompous and/or constipated, yes, or maybe befuddled, but never inquisitive. Nevertheless, it was there. And it made Harry quite uncomfortable, though he was doing his level best to conceal it.
Harry himself was seated in a chair not too dissimilar to the Minister's, though this one was admittedly a fair bit smaller.
They were currently waiting on Madam Bones. Following Harry's "confession" in the courtroom, the Minister had adjourned the day's proceedings so that, in his words "New evidence could be assessed and put in order." Harry guessed that meant that Fudge wanted to hear what Harry had to say for himself without the rest of the Wizengamot there, thus enabling him to discover what kind of spin he would have to put on the situation in order to get the best results. After all, it wouldn't do for Harry to mention anymore "Dementors at the Quidditch game" type things to the whole Wizengamot. Fudge had obviously seen a chance to get Harry on his side of things as well as do damage to Dumbledore's reputation, but that would only work so long as he and Harry got their stories straight.
Madam Bones had insisted on being in the meeting and, given that the case had already been brought before the Wizengamot, Fudge could not deny the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement access to proceedings.
Harry knew that this meant that the Minister would have to tread carefully, and it was likely that he would as well. Madam Bones would be a major asset as an ally. She would also make a devastating enemy.
Strangely Madam Bones had not immediately come up to the office when Harry and the Minister had. Instead they had gotten outside the courtroom and she had suddenly announced that she had a quick bit of business to attend to. What that business could be Harry could not guess, surely she had set aside a good portion of her morning in order to accommodate his trial. Nevertheless, they had gone on without her.
As they were waiting Harry ran many thoughts and possibilities through his mind. What should he reveal? What should he not? What should he put a spin on? Where should he lie? What did he want to achieve here?
The door to the office and Madam Bones walked in. Once she had taken a seat in a chair beside Harry, the Minister began.
"So, Mr Potter, you said down in the courtroom that plans had been changed. What exactly did you mean by that?" "Oh, it's quite simple," replied Harry "Dumbledore desires to take control of the Ministry for himself."
Fudge sat up straighter in his seat "And why would he want to do that?"
Harry shook his head "I am not entirely sure why. I'm just one of the pawns he hoped to use in order to invoke the change, and therefore not entitled to know the greater details of the scheme. It is possible, however, that he has come to mistrust your judgement in matters."
"My judgement?" asked Fudge.
"Oh yes," replied Harry "For example there was my third year, where you insisted that the Dementors be placed around Hogwarts." "That was for your safety," said Fudge "Sirius Black-"
Harry cut him off "The Dementors got a lot closer to killing me than Black has, and on three separate occasions as well. When, at the end of the year, Black had me confounded," Harry didn't like saying that as it wasn't truthful to Sirius, but he had to play to the Ministry's view of those events "and yet a Dementor tried to administer the Kiss to me, intending to get rid of me before moving on to Black. The Dementors lack any and all perceptions with regards to the differences between people and by putting them at Hogwarts you nearly got killed the very person you wanted to protect the most. I hasten to add that there was another student there at the time, a friend of mine. That would have just made things worse. It is only through the Defence Professor for that year teaching me the patronus charm that I was able to keep the Dementors at bay long enough for help to arrive. Had that not been the case, I would not be here to have this conversation, and I would guess that you would be out of office, either in Azkaban for the endangerment of students, or lynched by the Wizarding public for your part in the death of The Boy-Who-Lived. It is likely and a fair few other Ministry officials would have found themselves in the same situation." At that Harry nodded to Madam Bones.
Fudge shifted in his seat uncomfortably "Yes, well… When you put it like that…"
"There is also the case of the arrest of Rubeus Hagrid during my second year," said Harry "I'm not entirely sure how accurate the Hogwarts rumour mill is, but I believe that the phrase "The Ministry has got to be seen to be doing something" was thrown about." The Minister paled slightly, and Harry had to fight to hold back a smile. That quotation wasn't a rumour. Harry had been there, under his invisibility cloak the night that Hagrid was arrested and heard the words coming straight from the mouth of the Minister himself. But by saying it was a school rumour, Harry had covered himself at the same time as making his point to the Minister.
Harry continued "And then there was that shocking embarrassment at the Quidditch World Cup, with all those Death Eaters marching about, tormenting Muggles and setting fire to peoples' tents… I seem to remember an announcement of a reduction in funding for the DMLE sometime early during my second year at Hogwarts, and the following summer Sirius Black escapes from Azkaban Prison and then the next year we have to suffer that embarrassment, especially with the Ministers from many other countries present, as well as the media…"
"Yes, yes…" said Fudge with an air of someone who really did not want to think about such embarrassments.
"All in all, putting those things together, it's not hard to come up with a possible reason for Dumbledore's actions," Harry continued "But as I said, I'm just a pawn in the middle of Dumbledore's grand schemes."
Deciding to move the discussion along, Madam Bones asked "So when did Dumbledore approach you with his plan to seize control of the Ministry?"
Harry considered his words carefully before answering "Well, the first that I knew for definite was shortly before the third task of the Tri Wizard Tournament. I think it was not long after Mr Crouch turned up at Hogwarts, raving mad, before disappearing again. Dumbledore didn't come right out and confess the entire plan, he just said something along the lines of "The Minister is not prepared to listen to reason." I don't remember it all word-for-word, but the gist was that you were no longer listening to every word coming out of his mouth and it was time for you to go."
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