the boy's who lied - hedric

intruder

It could be said that Cedric Diggory had simply fallen victim to a result of simple jealousy. Would it not be far more logical, not to mention easier on the mind, to say that young Harry Potter had simply let his angsty teenage hormones out on his competitor, shot a simple hex that knocked him unconscious, felt an upsurge of remorse instantly, and decided to come up with some bizarre idea that a fallen dark wizard had returned from the dead. Of course, Fudge himself knew very well that it would not be the first time a certain Harry James Potter found himself in a rather odd situation, such as blowing up a relative, and he had not since forgotten this time last year when he had exasperatedly claimed that Peter Pettigrew was an animagus and Sirius Black, the escaped convict who coincidentally happened to be Harry's godfather, was completely innocent.

At the time Fudge had put the whole situation down to the stress of a troubled orphan and lack of sleep but things were seriously getting out of hand.

Yet, Cedric Diggory was perfectly alive, having been transferred to St. Mungo's mere minutes following his return from the maze. Fudge looked out of his office window and watched as dawn broke through.

Dumbledore had since left after trying to convince him that every word Harry was claiming was the truth and immediate action was to be taken in the wizarding world and yet Fudge still felt a waning of indifference. Not only was he still nauseous and sweating from the amount of times Dumbledore had uttered the word 'Voldemort', he also recalled the words of Severus Snape, a man insanely close to Dumbledore himself and a former follower of He who must not be named, stating that Dumbledore had always had quite a fondness towards Harry from the day he had entered the castle and that Harry could, and had, gotten away with many things.

It could be true that Dumbledore was off his rocker.

The man was old, in fact how old, Fudge had no idea, and it could be likely that Dumbledore simply had some strange connection to young Harry, the boy had realised and was taking advantage of the ancient wizard. That, in Fudge's opinion, made more sense than anything he had heard tonight. It simply did not make sense that this fourteen-year-old had yet again, managed to escape the hands of the most dangerous dark wizard there ever was, perfectly alive along with his teammate and there was a sudden feeling of inner rage towards Dumbledore. He had entered his office and practically lectured him for three hours on how he should make changes in the wizard community.

Was, he, Fudge not the Minister for magic? Wasn't it his authority to make decisions for the Wizarding World?

Suddenly something clicked in his mind. Of course, and yet he had not seen it coming before. Dumbledore had always wanted the position for Minister of Magic, he had even been encouraged to take it on. It was a brilliant plan. Claim that a dark wizard had returned and watch Fudge struggle on how to handle the community, then of course it would seem as if it was he, Fudge, who was off his rocker which could lead to the role of Minister being stripped off him immediately.

He slumped in his chair, feeling victorious with bubbling rage. If Dumbledore was trying to paint a false image of Fudge to the Wizarding world, Fudge had to stop him immediately, but stop Dumbledore?

It would be hard, yes, but worth it, for all his might Cornelius Fudge knew that he was not going to have his record tarnished by a century old man.

Wringing his, ever so slightly shaking hands together, he began to marvel about all the ways he could stop Dumbledore and young Harry.

He had a fleeting vision, however, of Cedric Diggory, remembering the shock that had gone through his body when he thought that he was dead, could it be?

No, no, Dumbledore wanted him to think so, and with that, he poured himself a glass of Brandy, called for his senior administrator.

"Wynona, dear", he started as a tweed woman in a plum knit vest, stuck her head round the door. "Could you please call for the Weasley boy and Kingsley, please".