Astra

LXXVII - The Trial of Harry Potter

"FUDGE IS FRIGHTENED of him, you see," said Tonks sadly.

"Frightened of Dumbledore?" repeated Harry incredulously.

"Frightened of what he's up to," said Mr. Weasley. "Fudge thinks Dumbledore's plotting to overthrow him. He thinks Dumbledore wants to be Minister for Magic."

"But Dumbledore doesn't want--"

"Of course he doesn't," said Mr. Weasley. "He's never wanted the Minister's job, even though a lot of people wanted him to take it when Millicent Bagnold retired. Fudge came to power instead, but he's never quite forgotten how much popular support Dumbledore had, even though Dumbledore never applied for the job."

"Deep down, Fudge knows Dumbledore's much cleverer than he is, a much more powerful wizard, and in the early days of his Ministry he was forever asking Dumbledore for help and advice," informed Remus. "But it seems he's become fond of power, and much more confident. He loves being Minister for Magic and he's managed to convince himself that he's the clever one and Dumbledore's simply stirring up trouble for the sake of it."

"How can he think that?" said Harry angrily. "How can he think Dumbledore would just make it all up--that I'd make it all up?"

"Because accepting that Voldermort's back would mean trouble like the Ministry hasn't had to cope with for nearly fourteen years," said Sirius bitterly. "Fudge just can't bring himself to face it. It's so much more comfortable to convince himself Dumbledore's lying to destabilise him."

"You see the problem," said Remus. "While the Ministry insists there is nothing to fear from Voldemort it's hard to convince people he's back, especially as they really don't want to believe it in the first place. What's more, the Ministry's leaning heavily on the Daily Prophet not to report any of what they're calling Dumbledore's rumor-mongering, so most of the wizarding community are completely unaware anything's happened, and that makes them easy targets for the Death Eaters if they're using the Imperius Curse."

"But you're telling people, aren't you?" asked Harry frantically, looking around at everyone. "You're letting people know he's back?"

They all smiled humourlessly.

"Well, as everyone thinks I'm a mad mass-murderer and the Ministry's put a ten thousand Galleon price on my head, I can hardly stroll up the street and start handing out leaflets, can I?" said Sirius restlessly, and Astra nearly laughed.

"And I'm not a very popular dinner guest with most of the community," said Lupin. "It's an occupational hazard of being a werewolf."

"Tonks and Arthur would lose their jobs at the Ministry if they started shooting their mouths off," said Sirius, "and it's very important for us to have spies inside the Ministry, because you can bet Voldemort will have them."

"But -" It looked like Ron was about to interrupt, most likely asking about Astra, but Hermione elbowed him. Astra sent him a look, silently telling him that what Sirius was saying was right; she only had five spies in the ministry (the remaining three that had been spending time at Grimmauld Place left to go there), and Tonks and Arthur knew their way around there pretty well.

"We've managed to convince a couple of people, though," said Mr. Weasley. "Tonks here, for one--she's too young to have been in the Order of the Phoenix last time, and having Aurors on our side is a huge advantage-- Kingsley Shacklebolt's been a real asset, too; he's in charge of the hunt for Sirius, so he's been feeding the Ministry information that Sirius is in Tibet."

"But if none of you are putting the news out that Voldemort's back--" Harry began, but Astra cut him off.

"Who said none of us were putting the news out? Why d'you think Dumbledore's in such trouble? Why do you think that Luna and the others are working on Quibbler articles or why I got Rita Skeeter arrested? We're all playing our part in this, Harry."