The Cupboard Series 5: United We Stand ...

Chapter 5

Amelia Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, surreptitiously looked around the ancient chambers that the Wizengamot of Magical Britain met in, trying to get a read on the august body before the session began.

The upper galleries were only lightly filled today, mostly with reporters. She easily picked out Moreta Fowl, the primary news broadcaster of the Wizarding Wireless Network and Marcus Waynesbury from The Daily Prophet. Even Xenophilius Lovegood was there, representing his magazine, The Quibbler.

The tiers of rows where the one hundred and one members of the Wizengamot sat were slowly filling up. At the moment, with still around ten minutes to go before the session, most, she saw, had arrived. Blood-red robes embroidered with their elaborate golden 'W's' on their breast milled around in small clumps. Every now and again, these groups would break apart and reform as views and opinions were sought.

She knew exactly what was going on. There were a number of important items on the docket today, but none more important than choosing a replacement for the head of the Ministry of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, who had, quite ironically, lost his head at the wand of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

Having a strong, decisive Minister of Magic was vital in these times, in her opinion. There was no doubt that the murder of the Minister of Magic constituted a declaration of war and having the right person in charge of the Ministry could easily make or break the outcome.

Unfortunately, as they were still in the middle of the Minister's term – the populace wasn't due to go to the polls for another two and a half years – the duty of choosing the new Minister, according to the laws and charter of the Wizengamot, fell to that body. And with no time for potential candidates to lobby their position, there was simply no telling who would get voted in, assuming, of course, that there actually would be a vote. It could all come down to the various factions within the Wizengamot itself.

Amelia barely suppressed a scowl as she saw a group of the Darker members of the Wizengamot descend on the conservatives, those who espoused a moderate view between the Light and the Dark factions. No, with so much lobbying being down now, it was clear that no one side was confident of their nominees' success.

A deep reverberating gong echoed around the chamber, quelling all talk and sending the various Lords and Regents scurrying to find their seats.

As she took her own place, Amelia glanced up to her left and shared a nod with Sirius and Cyrus, or as they were here in these chambers, Lords Black and Greengrass. Slightly further along and up one tier, Augusta Longbottom, Regent for the House of Longbottom, took her place, inclining her head in greeting at Amelia, an action that she copied.

"This session of the Wizengamot, the seventeenth of the year nineteen hundred and ninety-five on the nineteenth of July, is called to session," Dumbledore intoned as he banged his gavel three times.

Dumbledore. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. Amelia couldn't help but scowl at the man. How he'd managed to hang on to his position of Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot she had no idea. He'd now survived a vote of no confidence not once but twice, the first person to ever do so, as far as she was aware. She knew that he had a block of ardent supporters within the Wizengamot, just enough to keep the voting in his favour, at least when it came to that sort of vote, and it really made her blood boil.

She took some solace in the fact that in a few years, when Harry Potter turned twenty-one and took his place with these walls, not just one, but two seats, the Potter and Peverell seats, would reactivate. That would be enough to break a lot of deadlocks and would also be enough to block Dumbledore's power base, assuming, of course, that he managed to survive as Chief Warlock that long.