Power Corrupts - Absolutely

The attack had been meticulously planned out, every detail worked on

over and over until no creases were left. Each loophole had been

knotted and blocked and the chance for failure had been brought down

to zero.

Every Death Eater had been given a task, and each Death Eater had

gone over their task a thousand times until there was no doubt in

their minds that they would come out of this victorious.



Draco's task was to act as a diversion, or distraction as it were.

It was well known that the Ministry would be swarming with Aurors,

Order members and general do-gooders this evening and their

attention needed to be elsewhere if this plan was to go ahead.



Destroy the Ministry and destroy one of The Order's main defences.

It was perfect.



* * * * * *





Draco could feel the excitement turning to big fluttering

butterflies in his stomach as he waited to make his move. A few

Death Eaters were looking nervous, wiping sweat from their brows as

they paced the floor. The old abandoned house that had been chosen

as their hideout before the attack was very much muggle and quite

small, but no one seemed to care. Least of all Draco. He was focused.

He knew what he had to do and he wasn't going to let

a case of nerves stop him.



When given thenal,nal, he made his way out of the house and across

the street towards the Ministry. His father had told him how to get

into the building via the telephone box down the back street and had

made him recite the process several times in order to make sure he

stamped it firmly into his brain. It would not do to forget it now.



Stepping into the booth, Draco picked up the phone and dialed

62442, taking a deep breath, keeping his hand from shaking as he did

so.



"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic." A voice said from the other end

of the phone. Draco clutched at the phone wire as he sp




"Draco Malfoy. Please, you have to let me in. I need to speak with

the Minister, there's going to be an attack in Diagon Alley tonight.

I need to tell the Minister all I know before it's too late."



He hoped that would be convincing enough to get him in. For a

stomach churning moment it seemed as if he had been ignored, then

out of the coin chute popped a badge. Draco had been told about

this too and he put it on as he saw the ground outside the phone

booth rising up above his head. He was being let in. Instantly he

fixed a fake desperate expression on his face and ran his fingers

through his hair slightly, messing it up and pinching his cheeks to

make them looked flushed.



Soon the lift stopped and he was in the Atrium. Satisfied with his

now flustered and panicked appearance he darted out of the lift and

dashed through the large and near empty room.



"MINISTER!!! WEASLEY, PLEASE!" He cried as he rushed past

fireplaces, eyes darting from one side of the room to the other as

he ran. "MINISTER, PLEASE!!"



He was so caught up with trying to look terrified that he didn't

see Kingsley Shacklebolt step out in front of him. He bumped into him

hard and nearly fell backwards. This only served to help his case,

as it actually had caused him pain and it showed on his face.



"Calm down, boy." Came Kingsley's booming voice. "What's wrong?"



"I need to speak with Weasley. Now! Please, it's important." Draco

replied, out of breath now from running the length of the hall.

Kingsley looked a bit dubious. He eyed Draco for a while, through

slightly slitted eyelids.

"What is so important that you have to go running through a work

place screaming and shouting, hmm?"



Draco mentally cursed Kingsley for asking questions. Did he not look

scared enough? "I overheard my father.... there's going to be an

attack. Diagon Alley... Sunset." He spluttered out, catching his

breath now that he was no longer running. "You have to get people

down th..."



"An attack?" Came the Minister's voice from behind Draco.

The blond would have smirked would it not have given the game away.

Instead he turned, putting on his best 'puppy-dog' eyes and

approached, reaching out to clutch at Arthur's robes, almost like a

frightened child.



"Voldemort has planned an attack on Diagon Alley. I don't know

what's going to happen, I only heard a small part of my father's

conversation, but it's going to happen tonight." He said breathlessly

having decided that he should probably be a bit more flustered than

he was currently pretending to be. "He is sending all of his Death

Eaters, you have to stop them!"

Arthur looked on in shock as the boy grabbed the front of his robes

in what appeared to be some great distress. His brow quickly furrowed

though when he deciphered what young Malfoy was saying. "An attack

on Diagon Alley?"

He thought for a moment. What he really wanted to do was kick the

little shit back up onto the street, then make sure the Death Eaters

knew who had tipped them off. A bit of payback for all the times

he'd had to listen to his kids complain about the horrible things

that he had done to them. And Harry of course. Harry was a part of

his family now. And Malfoy's behaviour had been worse where Harry was

concerned.



Still, despite the fact that this young man was the son of a death

eater, he looked so desperate that Arthur believed him. Now he had to

take action. Once he had grabbed Malfoy's hands off his robes, he

glanced up at Kingsley with concern. "You know what to do Kingsley.

Take all the top Aurors; this could be our chance to strike a severe

blow to Voldemort."



He was determined to mark his entry into the top position at the

Ministry with a stunning coup. This just might be the thing. After

years of being overlooked and left to rot in the Misuse of Muggle

Artif Dep Department, he had finally been given his due. Fudge had

resigned eventually over the whole not admitting to Voldemort being

back debacle. It had taken a year, but the constant harassment by The

Daily Prophet and the continual berating in the form of howlers from

wizards all over the country, had finally taken its toll on the man,

and he had gracefully bowed out.



As it turned out, Arthur was the only one available for the job, a

fact he conveniently overlooked. The Heads of all the Departments had

approached Dumbledore to take on the position, as they had done once

before. And once again he had refused. Arthur knew that Dumbledore

still felt extreme guilt over not being able to help Tom Riddle when

he was at school, thus enabling him to become Voldemort and the most

evil wizard of the Century. Dumbledore wanted to ensure that no other

prospective dark wizard of that calibre ever came from Hogwarts

again, and so was content to stay where he was, and look after the

future of the wizarding world.



The other Department Heads had decided that their positions were too

important to entrust to someone else at this time due to the furore

that Voldemort being back had created in all facets of their lives.

Arthur's position was less important, and therefore could be

entrusted to Perkins, Arthur's assistant, leaving him free to take up

the reins of Minister of Magic.



Yes, Arthur Weasley felt he had good reasons to feel important. He

now had the top job in his world. No longer would he have to endure

the teasing, the ridicule of his fellow wizards. No longer did he

have to put a brave face on when dealing with anyone. He was no

longer poor, having received a huge increase in his salary to go with

his new position. He could look people in the face without fear of

seeing `that' look on their faces. He was the one in charge now. What

he wanted, he got, and damned quickly too.



Oh, Arthur knew what people thought of him. A kindly dodderer. A

nice man. Good family, shame he wasn't more assertive. Could have

gone far, but for his obsession with muggle artifacts, and that

unfortunate incident with a flying muggle car. Probably do an okay

job as the Minister, but he was an interim only. Arthur snorted.

Well, look at him now! He hoped they all choked on their words.

A coup like this one would cement forever his place in history, and Arthur was

determined to ensure that he did indeed have a place in history.



Watching Kingsley speed away to organise the Aurors, Arthur turned

once again to the Malfoy pup in front of him, who seemed to have

settled down a bit. He composed his face to the kindly, fatherly

face, the world knew and loved. "Well, Young Malfoy, we'd best see

you safely taken care of hadn’t we? I think it best not to send you

home just yet. We can’t have you placed in any danger of them thinking

you tipped us off, now can we? Come along, and wait in my office,

until we hear the all clear. Hmm? I can show you my collection of

plugs. Amazing people, muggles, did you know that? Come up with all

sorts of ingenious ways to live without magic."

Draco inwardly sneered when the old man started babbling on about

muggles and how 'amazing' they were. The man really was incredibly

dull. Draco was willing to bet his whole family was sick of him and

the way he seemed more interested in filthy underlings than what was

really important in life, like the purity of wizarding blood and the

fight to secure its survival.



Arthur shepherded the boy along the Hall, past Eric on the enquiry desk,

through the golden gates, and into a lift. Just as the doors closed,

Arthur saw with satisfaction that his teams of Aurors were swarming

out of the other twenty or so lifts and on their way to Diagon Alley

through the fireplaces. Those Death Eaters wouldn’t know what hit them.

With a gentle smile, he turned to Malfoy and asked why he had tipped

them off at all. It was a pertinent question after all. Malfoy had

never given any indication that he was going to go against his father

before. Arthur was willing to admit, that maybe he had made a mistake

assuming that this young man was anything like his father.



Draco kept the same frightened look on his face as he allowed

himself to be ushered along the hallways and into the lift. As

Arthur spoke, he turned to him and gave him his best 'I've always

just been scared of my father' look and replied. "I needed a way out.

I was scared... scared of my father… of becoming a Death Eater, but

I didn't know who I could go to. When I heard about the attack..."

He trailed off, straining his voice to sound as if he were trying to

hold back tears.



Realising there were no actual tears in his eyes, he quickly brought

his hand to his face and wiped at his eyes, to hide the lack of

true emotion. "I just hope it's not too late." He added softly,

watching as hoards of Aurors rushed down the corridors. He hadn't

ever felt this good about something in his life. Fools! All of them.

God, it was almost enough to turn him on, watching as one by one,

each of the Ministry's protectors vacated the premises, leaving the

place utterly helpless and open to attack.



As the lift stopped, Draco waited for Arthur to guide hit ant and

along the hallway to his office. He had taken to trembling now,

making sure his breath came in small shaky gasps as he once again

wiped at the pretend tears in his eyes.

Arthur offered him a seat and he sat, the older man then handed

him a glass of water, which he took and sipped slowly, keeping his

eyes fixed at a point on the floor, wanting to avoid eye contact as

much as possible.



"What exactly did you overhear?" The Minister asked, sitting on the

edge of his desk, looking at the young man with concern.

Draco's stomach tightened at that. Damnit! He hadn't thought about

that, he'd just have to make something up. He'd bluffed his way

through most of this so far he could pull this off. He ran his

fingers run up and down the side of the cup and took a deep breath.



"I can't remember everything that was said... I think my father was

talking to Macnair." He said, giving the very first name that popped

into his head. "I was on the stairs and they were both in the living room

I think, which is down the hall, so most of what they said was

lost... I..." He sniffed, and forced real tears into his eyes. Yes, he was happy

with the way his vision went all blurry. This was going smoothly so

far.

"I heard my father mention something about an attack, something that

had been being planned for months. I tried to get closer, but I was

scared of being caught. Macnair agreed that it should be done

tonight and tha wou would be the one to inform the others..."

He stopped abruptly as he felt one of his fake tears spill down his

cheek. Perfect! "I ran back to my room then..."



The room was silent for a while, and Draco could hear that all the

commotion outside had died down. The Aurors were gone. The Ministry

was a sitting duck. Before he realised what was happening, he felt

Arthur scoop him up into a fatherly hug. Oh God! Was that

necessary??! Instead of doing what he really wanted and pushing the

older man away in disgust, he simply leaned into him and sobbed into

his shoulder, feeling an intense tingling in his groin.



So this was what power felt like.

Arthur had listened carefully to the story of what the boy had overheard,

slightly sceptical in the beginning, but becoming both more convinced

and angry at the same time as the story wore on. Damn Lucius Malfoy,

he thought. This mere boy was almost beside himself with worry and

fear. It was incredibly brave of him to chance being exposed in his
the tear that rolled down his face. He was touched by the obvious

sincerity Malfoy displayed and when the boy had finished his story,

it seemed a natural thing to do. He would have done the saor
anyone in distress like that.



Even so, as Arthur enfolded the Malfoy boy in his arms, he recognised

that he was probably over reacting. The boy's initial reticence

indicated that he was unused to being hugged very often, if at all.

But, if he felt he needed further proof that the youth was telling

the truth, then it came when Malfoy began to sob quietly on his

shoulder. The kindly, fatherly expression he had composed his face

into initially, softened into a real one.



The Ministry would protect Ma… Draco, he must remember to call the

boy by his name now. The Ministry would ensure that he was returned

safely to his parents quietly, with no hint of his duplicity. He

sincerely hoped that Lucius was one of the Death Eaters assigned to

lead the attack. Arthur knew his Aurors were good, the best wizards

available in fact, and a personal debt would also be settled if they

could only catch Lucius in the attack. Yes. Lucius Malfoy in Azkaban

in the possession of the Ministry and being taken care of by the

Dementors would be sweet revenge indeed for Arthur.



He stood there with the boy still sobbing in his arms. Then a loud

clanging rang through the building, startling him and draining the

blood from his face. The breach of Security alarm bell! In all his

years at the Ministry, it had never rung, never been needed. It was

reserved for only the gravest emergency, and especially for attacks

on the Ministry premises.

In dawning fear and realisation, he shoved the boy away from him

harshly. It had all been diversion. Every word out of Malfoy's mouth

had been a lie! A ruse to lure away all the top Aurors from the

Ministry and enable the Death Eaters to attack a weakened

Ministry.

As soon as Draco heard the alarm sound, he dropped the facade. It

had started and he no longer needed to pretend. He knew that the

older man was too much of a wimp and a goody-goody to do anything to

him. As he felt Arthur push him away he smirked, knowing The

Minister had worked it out.

"You…stay here." Arthur ground out from between his

teeth. "I'll deal with you when I get back." Turning swiftly, he ran

from his office as fast as he could, locking the door over his

shoulder as he ran towards the lift, which luckily was open for him.

The only thing on his mind was to stop this attack before it ruined

him. Young Malfoy would pay for this; Arthur would make sure of it.

Draco simply watched and laughed as Arthur fled from the room to join

the battle. No mere locked door was going to stop him from

participating in this event. Oh, his fathouldould be so proud of

him. He was proud of himself, he had convinced the old fool so

easily that he was the sweet little innocent, and now, because of

his diven thn the Ministry would fall. The Wizarding world was well

on its way to belonging, once again, to Lord Voldemort.