Wand-Leader & The Spy

16- Lies and murders

Outside Maidenhead, Berkshire, Britain, September 6th, 1999, 20.30 hours

"Again: Did the Minister personally order you to have the reports detailing the circumstances under which muggleborn children were taken from their parents falsified?"

"Yes."

"Are you certain that it was the Minister who gave you this order?"

"Yes."

"Was that Minister Lucius Malfoy?"

"Yes."

"Did you see any sign that he might have been under the influence of a spell at the time?"

"No."

"Is it possible you misunderstood him?"

"No."

"Do you remember his exact order?"

"No."

After fifteen minutes of questions, increasingly detailed questions, Wand-Leader Hermione felt a brief surge of hope. If the drooling cretin in front of her had misunderstood the Minister, maybe taken a remark out of context, thinking he was doing what the Minister wanted, without ever checking again… She shook her head. She knew better than to fabricate such excuses, but maybe...

"Was the order implied or clear?"

"Clear."

"But you do not remember it."

"Yes."

How could Fudge not remember the exact order that had destroyed so many lives? Hermione wanted to grab the potioned man and shake him until his sorry excuse for a brain gave her the information she wanted!

"Did you ever tell the Minister how your department executed his order?"

"Yes."

"How often?"

"In every personal report."

"Was he pleased?"

"Usually, yes."

"When was he not pleased?"

"When we failed to make the quota."

"The quota?"

"Of mudblood recruits."

"Did he call them that?"

"Yes."

It was no use. She couldn't deny the truth anymore. Part of her still wanted to cling to the slim hope that someone had manipulated Fudge into thinking the Minister had wanted this, and hid the whole conspiracy from the Minister as well. For almost twenty years. But if anyone could have staged this, staged her investigation, controlled the memories of everyone she met, then why wouldn't they have simply dealt with her?

She had to face facts, like she had been trained to. The Minister, Lucius Malfoy, knew what the Obliviators had done. Knew it, wanted it, had ordered it, and had been pleased by the results. Nothing else made any sense. Unless… the Dark Lord could have done this! Kept the Minister as a puppet.

But once again, she had to ask herself why the Dark Lord would have done this. And why, after his death, it had not been stopped. Unless the Dark Lord's death had been faked, and he was still alive, still controlling the Minister… but why? Why would he ruin his own reputation? Portray himself as mad if he wasn't? And why would he let the Fanatics claiming to follow him still run loose?

It did not make any sense. And the Minister hadn't shown any signs of being manipulated. He had always seemed to be, had been in control. A far cry from the known effects of long-term mind control.