August 2nd
THICKNESSE KILLED BY YOU-KNOW-WHO!
MARVOLO GAUNT NAMED MINISTER!
WIZENGAMOT DISBANDED!
STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARED!
Severus stared at the papers in utter horror.
"Who is Marvolo Gaunt?" Severus asked slowly. He was certain he knew who it was, but… but he desperately hoped to be wrong. He had been speaking to Nymphadora, but it was Harry who answered.
"Timmy," he quipped breezily. "Kinda brill he just made himself minister, isn't it? No voting, no bullshit. He just killed Thicknesse, blamed his alter ego, and took over."
"No fuss, no muss," Frederick said just as airily with an irksomely saccharine smile for his husband.
'No fuss, no muss,' indeed.
Instead of arguing with their blasé outlooks, Severus read through the many, detailed, complimentary, articles discussing the new minister's placement. The media loved Marvolo Gaunt, supposedly. They reported on his pureblooded background (a laugh, certainly), his intelligence and his decisive actions.
According to 'Minister Gaunt', he had arrived at the Ministry in time to witness the Dark Lord ending Minister Thicknesse's life. A story that was confirmed by no less than half a dozen witnesses. Further proof that Shacklebolt had been correct, the Ministry had been taken.
No report on the DMLE staff dispatched to 'bring Potter in for question'. No mention of how a dozen witches and wizards woke up on a distant coastline with their wands snapped and their pride irreparably wounded.
Severus paused as he kept finding the same phrase, reworded, worked into the articles. Severus idly touched his lips with his finger as he reread it all.
'Harry Potter… hero…'
'Savior… Harry Potter…'
'On fast track to be the youngest Minister of Magic…'
'Absent boy hero…'
None written by Harry's 'close personal friend' Rita Skeeter.
"I thought the DMLE crashed the party to take Harry in for questioning about Dumbledore's disappearance?" Nymphadora murmured over Severus' shoulder as she caught the same oddity he had.
Severus pointed at a phrase then allowed Nymphadora to take the paper from him while he fixed his thoughtful gaze on Harry.
"Harry, the Minister has taken an unexpected route," Severus said slowly, puzzling it over as he spoke. "It seems as if he has decided to not implicate you in Albus' disappearance after all. He states that he has cause for concern that Albus may attack you in a 'misplaced target for vengence'."
"Really?" Harry's eyes flickered to the paper Nymphadora held and he abruptly summoned it right out of her hands and to his own with a taunting smile. "Let me see…"
Severus sipped his coffee while Harry read the paper with Frederick now reading over his shoulder. Frederick's eyes tightened the more he read, Harry's did not. Eventually, Harry scoffed and tossed it back to Nymphadora, who accepted it with a roll of her eyes and a single raised finger.
"Timmy's been busy," Harry said flatly. He tapped the table with his thumb, over and over in an erratic rhythm. Severus watched as Harry gnawed on his lower lip, an appalling habit he had never succeeded in breaking him of.
An appalling habit that he would take to the grave, apparently.
"What… hmm… no…" Everyone seemed spellbound as they watched and listened to Harry tap on the table and mumble and hum to himself.
Finally though, Harry's head snapped up and he fixed Severus with a hard gaze.
"What's his game?"
"Truthfully? I haven't the faintest idea," Severus said. "I cannot begin to place myself in his thoughts to decipher his actions."
Severus regret his choice of words the moment they escaped his mouth. He regret them all the more when Harry stood, rolled his shoulders, and smirked at him.
"I'm gonna go chat with Timmy then, yeah?"
"No," Severus, Nymphadora, and Frederick all said.
Harry chuckled and shook his head, his longer than typical black curls swaying as he did. "Don't be fuckin daft, I'm not going to the Ministry." He tapped his head with his index finger, "I'm going here."
"Crazy again, gotcha," Nymphadora muttered, quite unhelpfully.
"And what are your aims, hmm?" Severus asked Harry. He pushed down his irrational anger that Harry's decision spurred. It was merely because it was just that- a decision. And Harry was not known for backing down from his decisions once made.
Harry blinked at him as if Severus were the one with the harebrained scheme to mentally converse with the Dark Lord who had them all standing on shaking ground. Frederick and Nymphadora shared a look and seemed content on allowing Severus and Harry to work it out between themselves.
"Ask what he's doing?" Harry said with exaggerated slowness. "Ask why he's hyping me up? Ask why he's doing this now? What's the goal?"
"Power," Severus said. "He has the entire country in his grip, without even the Wizengamot to slow his blaze."
"Right," Harry nodded and his shoulders relaxed. He stuck his hands in his pockets and the defensive posture was gone. "But he already had that, didn't he? With Thicknesse he could call the shots and not get dirty. So why now? Why take over now?"
Severus curled his hand around his teacup and stared at Harry thoughtfully as he tapped his nail on the glass.
Harry was not incorrect. Why now?
Severus was still pondering it as he watched Harry and the two thought it over simultaneously. It was Nymphadora who broke their silence with a quiet clearing of her throat.
"Why do you want to be Minister?" she asked Harry.
"I'd be in charge," Harry said. He said it simply, easily. It was common sense for Harry.
Harry had never been in charge for so long that the only future that enticed him was one where he was.
"Okay," Nymphadora bobbed her head at him in a prompting way. "So why does Vold—"
"Timmy."
"So why does Timmy want to be Minister now?"
Harry glanced at Severus and Frederick, both of whom were watching Nymphadora curiously, wondering where this was going.
Harry shrugged and Severus saw his muscles tightening beneath his shirt as he considered it. "For power?" he said uncertainly.
"Or… to be in charge?" Frederick offered.
Nymphadora shook her head and even Severus could not follow her train of thought. "Not why does he want to be Minister, but why now, Harry?" Nymphadora's eyes were intense as she cupped her hands together and rested her chin on them. She stared up at Harry as if pushing him mentally to discover the solution.
A solution that evaded even Severus' mind.
"That's what I'm planning on asking," Harry said with a grit jaw and flaring nostrils as Nymphadora pushed. Severus placed his hand on her leg, a silent warning, but she ignored him.
"You're running the show through Sev," she murmured coaxingly, those violet eyes bright as she stared at Harry intently, "pretend he's your puppet."
Quite rude.
"You can make him do anything you want, right?"
Harry flicked his eyes toward Severus' passive face with uncertainty shining. "Sure?"
"Trust me, you can," Nymphadora grinned. She became more solemn after a moment, "So why do you replace him? Why isn't Sev head of your alliance and you just tell him what you want done?"
Aah. Severus saw where she was leading Harry.
It was disturbing, yet effective. Who could (safely, without legitimizing the Dark Lord through a horcrux link) place themselves in the boots of the Dark Lord more effectively than Harry?
Harry must have seen it too, because his face went carefully blank and his eyes, usually so expressive, shuttered close. He rolled forward on his socked toes then rocked back and averted his eyes to the grand window behind Severus' shoulder that overlooked his beloved backyard.
"Cute metaphor," Frederick said with a staccato speech and a sneer for Nymphadora at the implied insult to his spouse. A sneer that hardly suited him, truthfully, it was undoubtedly an expression he had picked up from his husband over the years. Regardless, Severus bristled at the bite in his tone, though Nymphadora simply ignored him and watched Harry watch the sky.
The tension felt palpable; Severus watching Nymphadora, Nymphadora watching Harry, Frederick watching Harry, Harry watching the sky.
"He's planning something big."
Severus turned so he could look at Harry as well, the focal point of their attention. "Pardon?"
Harry's voice was soft, pensive now, but sure. "Timmy's planning something big. That's the only reason he'd take over directly. You don't ask your puppet to do something that absolutely can't be fucked up- you do it yourself."
Severus attempted to not be offended as he was the puppet in the hypothetical scenario Nymphadora gave Harry.
Nymphadora was brightening up rapidly at Harry's response though. "You think?"
She clearly believed that Harry's guess was accurate. Severus did as well, truthfully. The Dark Lord was cunning, and his followers had let him down in the past every time it came to…
"He won't kill me," Harry said, eerily following Severus' train of thought. He raised his hand to the window and ran his thumb back and forth across the cool glass. "He knows we're at a…" Harry spun around and raised a brow at Frederick above shuttered eyes. "What did you call it when Theo said we can't rob the army again?"
"Stalemate, because we can, but it'd easier if he'd help," Frederick said cryptically.
Harry turned back to the window with a nod, though Severus saw his lips twitch as if fighting a smirk when a pain relieving potion abruptly flew into the room and landed before Severus.
Cheeky, insolent, brat.
"We're at a stalemate," Harry said while Severus debated the level of headache he currently had. "I can't kill him, he won't kill me. He wants me on his side, and I won't join him."
"So what's he planning then?" Nymphadora asked, his brows pinched together and her eyes showing her enthusiasm for action being taken on the war front. "Personal vendetta, or political push?"
"Both," Severus said.
Harry turned and met Severus' eyes as he nodded shortly. "Both," he agreed. "He thinks he's came up with a way to bring me to his side and do whatever the fuck it is he wants to do as Minister. Boil muggles alive? I dunno," Harry shrugged. "That's not the question though, not really."
"The question is what are we going to do now?" Frederick asked, earning a nod from Harry and responding with a jaunty wink.
"Wait for the attack, build a defense, or preemptively strike against it?" Nymphadora murmured, her eyes distant as she undoubtedly considered it from her professional viewpoint.
Harry grinned, and it was the same grin he gave Severus after stealing the stone, the grin he wore when he recruited Barty, the grin that reminded Severus that this boy was fifty percent James Potter and fifty percent Lily Evans.
A smile that meant mischief and the 'absolute chaos' that Harry swore to enact in a graveyard.
It was a grin that swore vengeance.
It was one of Severus' preferred looks on the child.
"We strike now," Harry said. "Tell everyone we need to meet this weekend. Everyone, Tonks."
Severus popped the cork off the potion and swallowed it quite inelegantly as Nymphadora summoned parchment to begin planning.
***
"Shut up!" Harry snapped, effectively ending the quiet conversations filling the table along the sides. It was impressive how quickly Harry had been able to rally his troops.
Harry had called for a meeting a week ago and now had every member of his alliance in attendance. Several that Severus had never met, including the entirety of the wolves, a handful of Slytherin students, and a couple of Nymphadora's prior coworkers who had fled from their jobs and reached out to her after the recent change in Ministry leadership. Scrimgeour had even reached out to Nymphadora, knowing she had ties to Harry and assuming he was leading a resistance now that the Order was so decimated and ineffective. Nymphadora had vouched for the man, claiming he kept his job solely to try and offset any injustice within the Ministry, but if they still had a tie to the Ministry at all, Harry refused them.
Severus focused curiously on Harry, his Harry who was so impatiently seated at the head of the outrageously large table they had conjured to hold the meeting at Wolf Lodge, and…
Aah.
There it was.
Harry was impatient, his left hand was thrumming out a pattern on the tabletop, but it went deeper than mere annoyance.
Severus had watched Harry closely since Bailey's funeral. He watched him detach himself from his grief; grief for Bailey, Minerva, himself.
Harry was planning his death without grieving his life.
And he did so much for every other person—
He laughed with his friends, a strained laugh that Severus saw through. He attended parties. He wed his Weasley. He never missed breakfast, aside from the week he had been on a well-deserved holiday with his misfits.
He also plotted, nonstop. He planned to rain down fire on the Dark Lord's life before bowing gracefully from the war and leaving the final strike in someone else's hands.
He was breaking.
It was evident in the bags beneath his eyes. The white knuckled grip on his quill. And, most evidently, on the shiver of magic that surrounded him and blew gently through his hair.
Severus wondered if Harry felt as he did; it eased an itch to take action against the Dark Lord, but every move made a festering wound flare up. Every blow was a step towards Harry's death.
"Timmy's taken over as Minister," Harry told the gathered members baldly. "Which means he's got something important to do that he doesn't anyone else to do, probably."
"Marvolo Gaunt is Voldemort?" Ritters asked sharply. His usually passive face was taut and worry shone in his eyes as he looked at Harry.
"No, Gaunt is Timmy." Harry rolled his eyes theatrically and his misfits chuckled. "It's pretty damn weird that you guys insist on calling him a name he made up. You're giving him what he wants, basically."
"Whereas if we call him Timmy then we're giving you what you want," Black told Harry, goading him with his words and placating him with his genial smile.
Harry propped his chin in his hand and raised a brow at his godfather. "Lesser of two evils here, innit, Sirius?"
"Perhaps," Lucius murmured nearly silently.
Severus gave him an interested look, but Lucius remained impassive.
"Regardless of what 'e eez called, I believe zat eet eez a problem zat 'e 'as taken over, non?" Fleur Delacour said with a toss of her hair. She looked down the table to Harry, "What will we be doing?"
"That's what today's about," Harry said. He kept his chin propped up and let his eyes roam aimlessly up and down the sides of the table that separated him from Severus. "We don't know what he's planning, we can't kill him—"
"Why?"
Harry's lazily roaming eyes zeroed in on one of the younger werewolves, a girl named Monty, if Severus recalled correctly. "Why what?"
"Why can't we kill him?" Monty explained. She tugged on a lock of her short blonde hair and stared challengingly at Harry. "Are you scared to confront him?"
Susan Bones, beside Frederick on Harry's left hand side, smiled sweetly at Monty while Severus heard another member sigh heavily.
"Remind me your name because I can't be bothered to give a damn to remember it," Harry drawled, a mocking smile toying about his lips.
The girl thrust her chin out with an air of stubborn confidence. "Sky Monty."
"'Kay, well let's play a game, yeah? If you don't have anything helpful to add, try shutting the fuck up."
Severus refrained from chuckling, but he was one of the few to do so.
Appropriately abashed, Monty broke eye contact with Harry to glower at the table.
"We're not waiting for Timmy to follow through with his plan first," Harry told the others, easing past the moment with Monty gracefully. "I want to ruin it before it happens."
"What do you think he's planning?" Longbottom asked Harry.
"Something huge and probably involving Harry," Bones replied. She sniffed and glanced at her friend from the side of her eyes, "Like most of his plans."
"And involving muggleborns," Abbott, an interesting member added. Abbott was interesting to Severus in the way that he wondered how the boy landed in Hufflepuff when his determination and brashness were his most prominent traits.
Harry turned to him and arrogantly waved the quill he clutched, silently demanding he elucidate.
"That was Thicknesse's goal before he was so tragically murdered," Abbott drawled with a careless shrug.
Harry had a habit of recruiting those who were truly indifferent to the loss of human life. And Severus did not count himself as an exception.
"Does Timmy not want muggleborns in Hogwarts?" Charles asked the group at random. "Wasn't he a half-blood?"
"He is a half-blood, but he hates muggles," Harry told them.
Another disconcerting parallel between Severus' son and the madman currently ruling their world.
"Do we have any good guess on why the Minister is singing Harry's praises in the paper?" Lupin asked, looking directly to Severus.
Severus kept his expression as uninterested as possible as the others all turned to him.
It was just like Harry to set Severus up as some sort of leader in his ever-growing army.
"We do not," Severus said stiffly. "He likely believes that he will be able to draw Harry to his side, and since he is now a prominent figure in society, it will be less of a hassle to have the public image still be the beloved Boy-Who-Lived."
"I preferred when they called him the Boy-Who-Killed," William said with a jaunty wink at Harry.
Harry smiled blandly back, "Me too."
"Soo… what's the plan here?" Ritters asked slowly. "We don't know what he's planning, we can't kill him," here he gave Harry a curious look, "all we know is he wants to bring Harry to his side?"
"And plans on attacking muggleborns in some way," Theodore said with a withering look at Ritters. "Sorry that didn't make top of your worry list."
Ritters had the grace to tilt his head at Theodore and his largely pregnant girlfriend before looking toward Harry. "What are we doing?"
Harry blinked around the table with his chin in his hands and a lazy smirk slowly unfolding. "We go visit the ministry."
"For what purpose?" Severus asked.
Bones said destruction as Theodore said collect information.
Harry's eyes flicked from side to side as he considered his two most trusted friends. His smirk deepened, "Let's hear arguments for both sides, yeah?"
Severus wished that Harry would not invite arguments, as he got precisely what he wanted.
Bones, Black, and a large portion of the werewolves argued that the Ministry would be less of a threat, and the Minister would 'feel the heat' and possibly reveal his true nature, thus lowering his public image, if they destroyed the Ministry.
Theodore, Lupin, the aurors, and the Slytherin students argued that obtaining information was more prudent so they could make more targeted plans. Theodore logically explained that as the Minister is making sole decisions, they cannot solely use brash force this time but need to find out more about 'enemy plans'.
Many others were content to merely watch the two sides argue, shout, slam their hands on the table, and devolve into name calling.
"You're being an idiot!" Theodore yelled at Bones. "You don't think shit through and there will be consequences for burning down a bloody building!"
"Enough." Harry's voice was soft, yet effective. Theodore slowly resumed his seat, as did Bones, and Harry rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hands for a moment while all watched him.
"Fred, vote?"
"I'm with Susan."
"Sev?"
"Theodore makes the logical plan."
Harry let out a huff and leaned back in his chair to gaze thoughtfully up at the sky. "Mmm… Lue?"
Luna hummed and she too looked up at the sky. "I think that cloud looks like a dolphin."
Severus was truly insulted to have his opinion weigh the same amount as Luna's. She was a bright girl, intelligent and meticulous, yet she was also frequently lost to her own thoughts and ideals.
Harry kept his face tilted to the sky, "Tonks?"
"Sorry, Susan," Nymphadora shrugged at her adult ward. "There's a time and a place to burn shit to the ground, this isn't it."
Harry nodded, and then smirked at his pouting friend. "Let's get information this time, burn that shit to the ground next time, yeah?"
"Promise?" Bones asked him.
Harry grinned and Severus felt a swoop in his stomach when he said, "Cross my heart and hope to die."
The next two hours were spent selecting those that would be going on the upcoming 'mission'.
There would be twenty-one members going, two per department and an extra to keep track of who goes where. Granger was immediately told that she was unable to go, due to the 'risk of hurting Rosie' and Lucius was also kept from going due to 'you're an escaped inmate for now, mate.'
Severus and Ritters would be searching the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Harry had initially assigned Blaise to go with Ritters, but Severus planned on getting information from the man at the same time as they searched his department.
Nymphadora and Bones were assigned the Department of Mysteries. Black and Theodore were given the Wizengamot Division. William and Ronald were paired for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Department. Charles and Longbottom were for the Beast Division. Luna and Delacour were for the Department of Transportation much to Draco's disappointment as Harry assigned him the Improper Use of Magic Department with Narcissa. Monty (a staunch volunteer) was given the Department of International Cooperation with Abbott. Lupin was given the Department of Magical Games and Sports alongside Blaise. Frederick and his twin were assigned the Department of Magical Accidents and Obliviations.
"And you?" Severus asked Harry after he finished barking out orders to the others and jotting down names beside assigned departments on an oversized piece of parchment.
"Me?" Harry smirked and stretched his arms over his head. "I'm in charge, Sev. Everyone gets a coin and reports to me when they're sure they've gotten as much information as possible. And…" Harry lowered his arms and shrugged, "And if needed, I'm a brill fuckin' distraction, aren't I?"
"I see no way this can go wrong," Nymphadora said brightly.
Severus wished, not for the first time, that he could share her optimism. But as further plans were built, Harry's words 'I'm a brill fuckin' distraction' were playing on a loop in his head.