A Pale Shadow

Harry looked over at Fudge, happy to note that the man seemed to be worried as Fudge kept mopping at his face, though there was little heat in the room. He leaned back in the black leather chair, his fingertips touching each other, \"I know what happened and I will give you this one chance to set things right Fudge. You will release Severus Snape and give him a public apology for wrongly imprisoning him.\"

Red creeped up the older man\'s face even though he tried not to show the anger build in him, \"I see and just what will happen if I do not indeed let go of the death eater?\"

Harry gave Fudge a bored look, \"I am more powerful than you, I am more loved than you and I have more of an army to call to my bidding than you and you want to know what will happen if you do not let the order\'s most loyal spy go?\" Harry leaned closer to the desk, \"I won\'t kill you if that makes you feel better, no I will allow you to live to watch your life and your power slip through your fingers. I will laugh as you wallow in the gutters despised by all those, that up till now, adored you.\"

Fudge broke out into a laugh, \"You come waltzing into my office and speak of armies and taking what I have earned away from ME! Mr. Potter just because you have defeated a weak dark lord from taking over do not make the mistake that I will be as easily. In fact why don\'t I show you the power I wield.\"

Harry watched as Fudge cast a spell and looked amusedly at him, \"So tell me Minister was that a summons for you guards because if it was you will find that they are, well shall we say, indisposed of right now.\"

The man began to look panicked as he realized that no one was coming and in a weak voice asked, \"So why not just kill me, be done with this now?\"

\"Because that would be easy and you wouldn\'t suffer, like he is.\" Harry stood his emerald eyes darkening as he looked through the man, \"I know that he is suffering, i can feel it, the pain and madness is sufficating. I want you to feel what he is feeling now, i want you to suffer as the one I love is suffering. I want you to pay for all you have done, not only to him but to my best friend Ronald Weasley.\"

With that Harry got up and walked to the door, \"If by the end of the month Severus is not returned to me, I will make good on all of my promises.\" Walking out the door, Harry hoped that Draco was having better luck with his meeting than he just had. He knew inside that Fudge would in fact not return Snape to him.\"

Draco looked at all that had managed to come in such a short time, each looked as he knew they would, full of scepticism. Standing when the last person sat, Draco smiled, \"Hello dear friends, it has been a long time since we last did this, almost a year in fact but that matters not. I had a visit today, one that was most welcomed from Harry Potter himself.\"

Several gasp and some disbelief could be heard coming from the crowd and Goyle stood up, \"I thought he was still in a coma Draco.\"

\"No, it seems that he came out of a week ago or so.\" Draco smiled at his old friend, \"He has decided to take on the ministry after hearing what has happened since he was gone. To do this he will need help and has asked me to talk to all of you.\"

Pansy stood this time, her face closed and Draco knew that she was hiding her distrust, \"I see and what will happen this time if we help him? We helped last time and look at us, our money gone, homes taken from us and we aren\'t allowed to use anything but the simplest of magic.\"

Draco nodded knowing full well how the children and loved ones of death eaters as well as Slytherins were treated, \"I understand your concern and with talking to him, Harry said that those who were not apart of Voldemort\'s reign of terror should not suffer because of it. He has agreed that all holdings should be given back to their rightful owners.\"

Blaise stood up this time his handsome face showing concern, \"Harry maybe able to promise this but what of the person who takes Fudges place? How can he be sure that they will also agree with to honor this promise.\"

Holding up a hand as others began to ask question and in essence drowning each other out, Draco spoke in a calm voice, \"Harry is above all things good to his promise and I have a feeling that he will make sure that who ever takes Fudge\'s place will see that it is kept. Besides what more do we have to lose, if we do not stand up now, they will keep coming and they will take more. Blaise, how long before they come and take Pansy away and do to her what happened to Ronald Weasley.\"

Both looked at him as did the others and all went silent before Goyle spoke, \"My wife is dead, they found her body two nights ago. She was supposed to be going in for just questioning but that\'s not what happened. I was...\" His voice broke with a sob, \"I was told that she had been tortured and raped repeatedly before she died. They killed her and I know that soon it will be all of us too. Each day someone else disappears and if Harry\'s friends are not safe then all we are doing is waiting to die.\"

Draco smiled to his friend and then looked to the others, \"At least this way we will die the way we want to and with luck the man who became more of a father to us than our own, might be saved.\"

Pansy looked to him, her eyes sparkled again with a light that had been lost, \"He means to go after Professor Snape then?\"

\"Yes.\" Draco looked to her, \"He means to go and bring all of them home as well as bring down Fudge once and for all. Now with that in mind, leave in small groups and keep safe until it is time for us to extract our revenge.\"

For the first time since Voldemort\'s defeat, Draco saw his class mates, friends and fellow slytherins come to life. He could tell that they were already plotting how to get their revenge for the pain they had lived. Looking at Blaise and Pansy, Draco gave them a hug, \"I will be in contact and if not me then look for Tonks, it seems that she is no longer being watched.\"

Pansy giggled, \"Well it is a hard job to do that since she can change her looks anytime she feels like it. Do you think that this will work?\"

\"Yes.\" Draco said as if it were a fact, \"Harry is back and he is angry. Blaise I need you to look into something for me. Harry said that he was able to ward Hogwarts to keep Fudge out, thinks it might be from Albus sharing his magic before he died. Find anything you can on transfers we just might need it before this all ends.\"

Blaise gave Draco a hug after Pansy and then pulled his wife into his arms as he replied, \"I will see what I can find out, if it is true, Harry might be as powerful as Merlin was.\"

Draco nodded as he slipped on his cloak before stepping into the night, \"I am counting on it, at least that is if any of us wish to live free again.\"