Sliding Down a Slippery Slope

"Minister Fudge, who in your office was responsible for sending out the notices regarding the change of time for young Mr. Potter's under-aged magic hearing?" Madame Bones asked. "I know I got my notification the night before and several other members of the panel got their notifications early that morning because they barely made it to the hearing on time."

Fudge tried to look dignified and responsible as he told the High Council, "I entrusted the task of making sure the notifications went out on time to then Undersecretary Delores Umbridge."

"And did you stress to her how important it was that everyone who was supposed to be at the hearing receive their letter in a timely manner?" Bones wanted to know.

"Of course!" Fudge managed to sound offended. "Delores knew how important it was that this hearing be conducted in the proper manner. I trusted her to take care of the matter appropriately."

Madame Bones turned her attention to Umbridge who was seated in a chair several feet away from Snape. "Miss Umbridge, what was your understanding of how the letters, notifying the participants about the change in time for Lord Potter's underage magic hearing, should be delivered?"

Umbridge stared at Fudge through narrowed eyes, not really surprised that he would try and place the blame wholly on her shoulders. Politics was a cutthroat business after all, but she wasn't going to let him get away with that. While she couldn't read the High Councillors that well, she was fairly certain just from the charges that had already been confirmed that Fudge was likely to lose his office, if not wind up spending time in Azkaban, so why not help add to his punishment, since he was indirectly responsible for her have to spend the rest of her life there.

Trying to sound like she was innocent of any wrongdoing, Umbridge told them, "The Minister instructed me to make sure all participants were notified in a timely manner. He also stressed how disastrous it would be if Mr. Potter and Dumbledore failed to make it to the hearing in time because then the Wizengamot would have no choice but to rule on the facts they had which was that he had indeed done magic in a muggle area."

"And how did you interpret that rather peculiar emphasis that Fudge had placed on Lord Potter and Albus Dumbledore possibly missing the hearing?" Lord Longrim inquired.

Umbridge paused for several moments as if in thought then replied, "I took it to mean that their letters shouldn't be sent out until the last possible minute, so that we could claim they had been sent in time. I had someone on the security desk notify me the minute Mr. Potter arrived at the Ministry and then arranged for the post owls to be sent out to them both."

"So you took it upon yourself to delay the letters to Lord Potter and Headmaster Dumbledore?" Bones wanted confirmation.

"I did as I was instructed by the Minister." Umbridge countered loftily. "He wanted them delayed so they couldn't make it in time and Mr. Potter was dealt with once and for all, so I did as he instructed me."

"But Fudge never told you to delay the letters, now did he?" Bones continued with the persistence of a terrier after a rat.

"He couldn't," Umbridge countered. "There were several other people in the office when he gave me the letter to have copied and sent out. I knew what he wanted to happen by the emphasis he placed on their names and the fact he mentioned how bad it would be for Mr. Potter if they failed to make it to the hearing."

"But yet someone else would take those instructions as meaning send these letters out fast as possible" Bones pointed out.

"They might have," Umbridge conceded, "If they hadn't known how determined the Minister was to find some way to have Mr. Potter expelled from Hogwarts so that he would be unable to practice magic again and would be consigned to the muggle world forever."

"And how did you know Fudge wanted Potter expelled from Hogwarts? Did he say he wanted that at any time?" Bones couldn't believe what she was hearing. It was the truth. The spells on the High Council chambers insured that.

Trying to sound as if she had been in the Minister's personal confidence, Umbridge stated, "We had had many discussions over the summer about trying to find a way to deal with the Potter situation and his claims that the Dark Lord was back. The Minister wanted him dealt with so he wouldn't destabilise the magical world with what at the time we thought were phoney claims of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's return. Those conversations did include trying to find some way to remove him… without killing him."

"But did at any time did Fudge say that he wanted Harry Potter expelled?" Bones persisted.

"He said he wanted him removed from Hogwarts." Umbridge repeated. "And short of Mr. Potter voluntarily removing himself and going to another magic school, the only other way was expulsion, given the Minister didn't want a hero of the wizarding world killed, because he was currently a misguided tool of Albus Dumbledore's."

"So Fudge wanted Potter removed from Hogwarts perhaps for his own protection considering the dangers the school seem to have recently been experiencing. Or perhaps Fudge wished to place the young Lord somewhere far away from what he viewed as the Headmaster's dangerous... influence." Bones knew she was reaching now.

Umbridge shook her head. "He never said anything like that. He just kept repeating Potter needed to be dealt with."

"And that was why you sent Dementors after him wasn't it?" Bones reminded her. "Interpreting the Minister's comments as orders again."

"But it was what he wanted," Umbridge countered. "The Minister wanted Potter dealt with but not dead. Someone who is Kissed is still alive."

Bones stared at the woman stunned into disbelief at her reasoning. There was nothing she could say. Clearly the woman was deluded. The question was would her delusions be an enough of an extenuating circumstance to get the charge of abuse of power slightly reduced.

"Miss Umbridge, did Minister Fudge tell you why he suddenly decided to change the time of the hearing?" Dantes asked. "From what I understand a hearing time is set up several weeks beforehand and usually if it has to be changed all the main participants are consulted to set up the new hearing time. Once that is done then the remaining participants are notified as well. That means everyone should have been notified at least several days before, not less than twenty-fur hours before. Didn't it strike you as rather unusual to change a hearing time at what is essentially the last minute like that?"

"It has been known to happen before." Umbridge then explained, "That a hearing time was changed at the last minute, I mean. All the Minister told me regarding the sudden change was that a sudden emergency had come up and he didn't want to have to rush Mr. Potter's hearing."

"I believe we have heard all that we need to on this charge," Longrim announced.

When none of the other Councillors disagreed, the silencing ward again went up but this time the discussion didn't take so long.

"Fudge, we find you guilty on the charge of failing to notify all the participants of Lord Potter's underaged magic trial in a timely manner." Dantes announced.

Before Fudge could protest that he had, Perrivor held up his hand silencing the protest. "While you stated that you had given the notification letters to Undersecretary Umbridge, it was your duty to make sure all the letters had been sent out and received, given you sent them on such short notice. Less than twenty-four hours is not adequate notice, Minister. I received my notice at six in the morning, not the day before and as a result, I failed to make it to the hearing as well. You changed the time without due thought therefore you and you alone have the responsibility to make sure everyone gets there on time."

"It is now time to move on to the most serious charges, those of aiding the Dark Lord intentionally or not; on his second rise to power, by denying his return, slandering Lord Potter and Headmaster Dumbledore who knew the truth, abusing your power once the truth was out because of Lord Potter to insure he didn't get a fair trial and was condemned to Azkaban." The expression on Dantes' face was very grim.

Amelia Bones sat staring at her table for several minutes, not really sure how to go about trying to defend the Minister from this charge. He had after all spent over a year pretending the Dark Lord wasn't back and trashing Harry Potter and Headmaster Dumbledore's reputations in the process. "Minister Fudge, when you were told by Lord Potter of He-Who-Must-Not be-Named's return after the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament, why didn't you believe him?"

"There was no proof." Fudge told her. "The boy was a well-known troublemaker at the school and according to sources a parselmouth as well. It is a well-known fact that Parselmouth's are Dark and so his claim that Lord Thingy was back wasn't even worth consideration. He was just trying to disrupt the peace that we in the magical world had been enjoying for the last thirteen years, by spreading vicious rumours to get more attention for himself."

Bones couldn't believe it. "You honestly thought a fourteen year old boy could lie well enough to fool Albus Dumbledore?"

"Dumbledore has been claiming for years that the Dark Lord would be back. Of course he wouldn't look too deeply into the story since it was what he wanted to hear." Fudge sounded confident.

"Fudge," Lord Altren couldn't help sounding disgusted as he said the man's name. "Did it cross your tiny little mind at any time after you were told that the Dark Lord was back that Lord Potter might be telling the truth?"

"Yes," Fudge admitted. "But after discussing the matter with someone in the Department of Mysteries, I was certain it wasn't possible."

"Madame Bones, when you have time, would you speak to Mr. Croaker who heads the Department of Mysteries and find out who the person Minister Fudge spoke with was." Lord Altren requested. "Tell him a High Councillor wishes to know and if he won't tell you have him send this individual to me please, assuming of course that they are still alive."

"Fudge, I will say this much for you, while you are an idiot, you are undoubtedly a very lucky idiot, given that you managed to stay in power after the Dark Lord's return was revealed." Longrim commented. "It is a well-known fact that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named studied the Dark Arts far more in depth than even Grindelwald did. In fact he is known to have performed a number of rituals upon himself with the intent of gaining more power. It doesn't require a great leap of imagination to suppose that he might have performed a ritual on himself in attempt to gain immortality. After all some of his followers had the largest and oldest collections of Dark Arts books in the world, and what they didn't have they could locate for him. And intelligent man would have realised the possibility that at some point in the past some Dark Lord or potential Dark Lord had researched a way to come back from the dead, whether they used it or not."

Fudge's face reddened, but there was nothing he could say to that.

"Fudge," Lord Kieran spoke up next. "Even if you didn't believe Potter or Dumbledore about the Dark Lord's return, why did you encourage the Daily Prophet among others to print slander abut them in an attempt to ruin their reputation?"

"I did no such thing." Fudge disagreed.

"Oh, then this isn't your signature on this letter to the owner of the Daily Prophet assuring him that no matter what he printed about Harry Potter and Headmaster Dumbledore, they would not be called to account for it, because the Minister's office would stand behind them?" Lord Kieran held up a document.

Taking the letter, Lord Perrivor read it over. "If I were the owner of a paper, I would assume from this document, you were giving me carte blanche to say whatever I wanted to about them, even the wildest most unsubstantiated rumour and that I would never have to face any consequences. Why would you be that foolish, Fudge?"

"It wasn't foolish." Fudge defended his actions. "Minister's before me have used the same tactic, even the muggle Prime Minister has been known to use the press to discredit someone so they aren't a threat to the security of the nation."

"But they have never given the press carte blanche to print lies before." Altren countered. "Previous Minister's both magical and muggle would have the press print facts slanted a certain way but they were still true facts. The Daily Prophet printed things that couldn't be proven, in other words they printed lies…at your instigation. Why would you condone this?"

"For the good of the magical world." Fudge said pompously. "At the time I thought they were spreading their lies about He-Who-Must-Not Be-Named being back. Dumbledore told the students at the leaving feast, even though I had ordered him not to. They had to be stopped before they threw the wizarding world into a panic."

"But you soon realised they weren't spreading lies didn't you? You had Ministry personnel covering up magical attacks on the families of muggle-born students and the disappearances of some witches and wizards." Longrim pointed out. "Tell me Fudge are you familiar with the Compact of 1137, one of the few magically binding documents signed by a muggle ruler King Stephen of England and the High Council of the Magical Britain? A compact so secret, not even his brother Henry of Blois the Papal Legate and Archbishop of Canterbury was ever told about it."

"Of course, it's one of the documents that I as Minister had to swear to uphold." Fudge couldn't see the point in the question.

"Did you ever read the Compact, Fudge? Or did you just swear to uphold it and not bother to find out the contents?" Longrim was beginning to suspect the idiot had no idea he'd violated a magically binding contract.

"Of course I know what it says," Fudge bristled. "King Stephen in return for the neutrality of the magical community of Britain in the civil war between him and his cousin the Empress Maud, ceded permanent control over certain areas of Britain where the magical community was living to us to govern over and rule."

"You are only partially right," Longrim corrected him looking as grim as his name. "It stated that in return for the neutrality of witches and wizards, in the civil war between himself and Empress Maud, that he would set aside certain areas as wholly magical territory that we would govern and rule over, but only so long as we kept the muggle world safe from our kind and alerted the muggle government which was declared in the Compact to be the Monarch or their chosen Deputy to any potential dangers so they could get their people out of the way. You failed to alert the muggle government. I know for a fact through my sources in the muggle government that neither Queen Elizabeth or Prime Minister Tony Blair who would've been considered her Deputy according to the Compact were notified by the Ministry of Magic as to the threat the Dark Lord posed to the muggle world…even after you finally admitted he was back. You as Minister broke the magically binding contract you swore to uphold."

Fudge's face went ash white as he realised what Lord Longrim was implying. If the Queen of muggle Britain or the Prime Minister became aware that the Compact had been broken, then they could demand all the areas that now belonged to magical citizens be returned to them and the Ministry would have no choice but to comply. He would be lucky if he could make it out of Britain alive and he would definitely have a price on his head.

Finally he asked, "Do they know about the Compact? And that it's been breached?"

"Don't you mean broken, Fudge?" Longrim countered icily. "It is unknown if the current muggle Monarch or Prime Minister are aware of the Compact or the fact that it has been broken. Blair and the Queen certainly know about the magical world since up until you took office, they had regular briefings from the Minister of Magic."

"But that was during the war with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." Fudge protested. "They needed to know then. Once he was gone there was no need for them to be apprised of the goings on in the magical world."

"During the reign of the muggle Queen, Victoria, the Minister of Magic provided the Queen with regular briefings on the state of magical Britain." Altren told him. "The Queen wished to be kept apprised of every corner of her kingdom, even those parts she would never see. The Minister of Magic at that time agreed with her reasoning and in turn had asked that information on the state of muggle Britain be provided to the Ministry of Magic as well. The exchange of information was so useful it was maintained through your predecessor's term in office, at least it was until he turned the task over to you since he was trying to deal with the situation the Dark Lord was creating."

After a moment's pause where every one could see he was trying to get himself back under control, Altren continued. "Thanks to your arrogance not to mention your wilful blindness we have no way of knowing what the muggle world is now capable of doing to us. We have lost the opportunity to learn about and possibly stop any potential threats to the magical world."

The silencing ward went up again, but came back down fairly quickly.

"It has been decided by unanimous vote, that the Queen and Prime Minister must be notified of the breach in the Compact." Dantes stated. "If the people of magical Britain are lucky they will not wish to declare the Compact null and void. We the Lords of the High Council have decided to let them decide your fate, Fudge, regarding the breaching of the Compact. If you are lucky, they may let us impose sentence on you, if not, and they wish to impose their own, your magic will be bound before you are turned over to them. Once this hearing is over, you will be held at Azkaban until they decide. Now there are two more charges to get through, before this hearing is over."

Fudge stared at them aghast. They were going to turn him over to muggle justice?

Everyone stared in astonishment as Fudge's eyes rolled up in his head and he fainted with only a squeak of sound like a mouse that had been accidentally stepped on.

The ones closest to Fudge and the High Councillors heard Dantes say aloud, "Drama Queen", before he gestured with his wand, causing a bucket to appear and dump a large amount of icy cold water on the Minister.

Fudge sputtered awake and then jumped as a harsh voice ordered. "Get back in your seat Fudge. We don't have time for your theatrics. I for one would like to conclude this matter today…if that is possible."

Fudge reluctantly returned to the chair he had fallen out of.

"Madame Bones, you may continue," Dantes told her.

"Since the Court has concluded that Umbridge was in no way qualified to teach children, let alone teach a class as important as Defence Against the Dark Arts, what made you think she was qualified to, Fudge?" Madame Bones had given up trying to get Fudge off. He'd already been found guilty on too many charges. She was just trying to mitigate the circumstances now.

Fudge's mouth opened and closed several times before saying, "Well she was certainly as qualified as some of Dumbledore's choices over the past seven years. And I knew she would teach the Ministry approved curriculum, not go off on the tangents Dumbledore allowed. I mean he hired a werewolf to teach at the school."

"If you are referring to Lockhart," Kieran spoke up, "then I agree with you she was certainly as qualified to teach as Gilderoy Lockhart. However Remus Lupin, whether he had teaching credentials or not, was far more qualified to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts. We had a look at the curriculum that you had approved to be taught. Do you realize that she was teaching first year material to fifth and seventh year students with no practical spellwork? How were they supposed to pass their OWLs and NEWTs?"

"But they did pass and with the highest scores ever recorded." Fudge pointed out, puffing himself up slightly, while forgetting to mention that it was all due to Potter's illegal club.

"And I believe that those high scores were due solely to the defence study group that Lord Potter and his year mates put together." Kieran reminded him. "It was not due to anything Umbridge may or may not have done. Why don't you just admit Fudge that you placed your toadie in Hogwarts to try and control the school? I mean it is fairly obvious to us, given that within a few months of her arrival there you appointed her High Inquisitor another job she was not qualified to have as that should be an appointment from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, not the Minister's office. Yet another example of you abusing powers you had no right to."

"The steps I took were for the greater good of the Wizarding world." Fudge declared pompously. "We couldn't afford the instability that people like Dumbledore, Potter and those who believed them could create."

A loud burst of laughter came from where Harry Potter was seated. Dantes pointed his wand in the young Lord's direction. "Lord Potter, you were warned."

Harry held up his hands in surrender and his body continued to shake with laughter. "I'm sorry my lord, but it just slipped out. It was so funny to hear Fudge actually use the same stupid excuse Dumbledore does when he meddles with my life. Not to mention the expression on Dumbledore's face when he heard Fudge use it. I will put up a silencing ward around me so that I won't disturb the proceedings any further."

There was a brief conference between the High Councillors then Dantes said, "That is acceptable. We do not want to hear another sound from you until the hearing is over, or you will be bound and gagged in that chair."

The silencing ward went up around the High Council table again and when it came down, Dantes announced. "Fudge we find you guilty of illegally placing a person not qualified to teach in a school where she was then able to harm many in pursuit of your concept of the Greater Good. It is quite clear that your idea of the Greater Good was not the right thing for the wizarding world or its inhabitants." Dantes looked at Dumbledore and added, "Neither was yours Dumbledore in the case of Lord Potter. I will remind you both of what the road to hell is paved with…good intentions. When you decide you know better than someone else how their life should be lived, you are on the road to becoming the next Dark Lord."

"Now we have reached the last charge; interfering with the process of a trial for Lord Harry Potter by denying the accused all means necessary to prove his guilt or innocence." Pervior told the assembled witnesses. "As Madame Bones was involved in that trial as a member of the Wizengamot, Lord Kieran who is not a member of the Wizengamot will be conducting the interrogation. I will not even though I was not one who sat in judgement on Potter's trial owing to my wife's illness."

"Fudge, why was there no defender for Potter?" Kieran asked what should have been a simple question. "It is the law that the accused must have a defender."

"No one wanted to be associated with defending him." Fudge answered meekly.

"Then there should have been no trial until a defender was found." Kieran countered.

"The public was demanding a trial and there were threatened riots in the streets if the potential Dark Lord was not dealt with." Fudge tried to defend his position.

"So you deliberately violated the law to calm the public?" Kieran wanted clarification of his reasoning.

"Yes!"

Perrivor bowed his head. "Have we fallen so far that the fear of the people is more important than the law of the land? That law was written to protect the people. I wonder if they or you would've been so quick to rush to judgement if it was if it was you or possibly one of them."

Fudge could think of nothing to say in response.

"Very well, you caved to the pressure others put on you instead of doing the right thing." Kieran decided to move on after several more minutes of silence. "Now given that you denied him the right to a defender, why did you also deny him the use of Veritaserum, which would have proven his guilt or innocence beyond a shadow of a doubt?"

"I had been told by a very reliable source that he was immune to it." Fudge repeated what he had been told by Percy Weasley who claimed he had overheard his brother and Potter talking about it. He know realised he had been played for a fool. "It was Percy Weasley. I trusted him and told others on the Wizengamot so we decided not to waste it since it would do no good."

"Fudge, I may not be a Potions Master like Snape over there, but even I know it takes time, a lot of magical power and repeated exposure to it to allow one to build up a resistance to Veritaserum. Potter while he may be powerful now wasn't then and there was no way he could've had repeated exposure to it, not unless they are dosing the students at Hogwarts with it every day." Longrim observed. "With every word you utter, you are proving over and over again, why you should not be let out without a keeper."

"All right you chose to believe Percy Weasley, instead of confirming the information with the Ministry Potions Mistress, so why didn't you use Veritaserum on the witnesses like Percy? After all I doubt he would've been able to resist it. He was your main witness to the events of Neville Longbottom's death and he should've been questioned under Veritaserum at the very least."

"Because both Dumbledore and I believed he was telling the truth." Fudge finally answered. It was the only safety net he had and he took it. The fact that Dumbledore believed Percy enough to snap Potter's wand before they even left the school grounds had been all the assurance Fudge had needed that Percy could be trusted.

"So you again decided to ignore the law that all witnesses should be questioned under Veritaserum in cases involving murder." Longrim commented. "I don't think we need to hear any more. He was convinced of Potter's guilt before the trial ever began and was determined to do everything possible to make sure he got a conviction."

The silencing ward went back up and stayed up for a very long time. When it finally came down, Dantes looked oddly triumphant. "Fudge, your sentence has been determined, but whether or not it will be carried out will depend on whether or not the muggle government wants exercise its right to punish you for the breach of the Compact or let us administer the punishment."

Perrivor took over at this point. "If the muggle government chooses not to punish you then here is the wizarding world's judgement. You are removed as minister effective immediately, though you will continue to work at the Ministry."

Fudge perked up at this imagining some advisory position where he could move back into the centre of power. Perrivor's next words dashed that dream to smithereens. "From now until you are too old to work, you will be a janitor third class and you will be unable to rise out of that position. Each day when you arrive at work, magic suppression bracelets will be placed on you so that you have no more power than a squib and have to clean things the way a squib would. If nothing else maybe you will learn to think and consider before you do things from now on. You will also be bound with a loyalty oath that what you see, hear, touch, taste, and even smell in the Ministry will not be spoke of to anyone living or dead inside or outside the Ministry."

AN#1: I will leave it up to your imaginations as to whether or not the muggle government chooses to exercise its claim on Fudgie. Fudge will be seen and mentioned no more in this story

AN #2: I want to thank Lady Foxfire for her help with the 3 chapters that made up Fudge's trial. Her help was invaluable in bashing Fudge just right. LOL