After the war

The parchments they went through were mainly statements, signed, dated and ratified with magical seals, reports of Fudge meeting with various men suspected of being death eaters, including several with Lucius Malfoy, the number of meetings increasing greatly as the war rapidly approached the final battle.
Some of the witnesses had managed to get pictures, which were wrapped inside their statements, grainy images of Fudge huddled with men that Severus identified to Harry as members of the inner circle.
It was Harry who found the most damning pictures of all though.

"Dumbelore must have had another spy inside Voldemort's ranks." He whispered in shock.

"What? Why do you think that?" Severus asked.

Harry silently held out the two pictures he had found in the very last parchment. The one that had been at the very bottom of the box.
They were very clear, and no one could argue the identity of the two people in the pictures. They had apparently been taken with a muggle camera, because the images didn't move. The first showed Fudge kneeling before Voldemort's throne, bending to kiss the hem of his robe. The second showed Voldemort handing a vial of something over to Fudge, who was smiling at the dark creature, his piggy eyes bright.

"I wonder who the other spy could have been." Harry said.

"I have no idea. Judging by the position the pictures were taken from, it was by the fireplace, and during a private audience. There should have been no one else in the room."

"You know, some muggle cameras have remote control options. Whoever took the picture didn't need to be in the room, they could have just planted the camera in there and then took pictures from outside the windows or something. They just need to be in line of sight of the camera."

"There is nothing on the parchment to indicate who took the pictures?"

"No, nothing."

"I suppose it doesn't matter. The pictures alone are damning enough, coupled with all the statments of meetings between him and the deatheaters."

"So what do we do with all this stuff? We can't give it to the authorities, because he is in charge of them."

"We will need to find out if the Daily Prophet is still running and if Rita Skeeter is still around."

"That twisted bitch? Why?"

"She may occasionaly have a fleeting relationship with tact, integrity and ethics, but she is no fan of the Minister, and will not hesitate to publish this."

"Fleeting relationship? She never even met tact, integrity or ethics, let alone formed any kind of relationship with them."

His reward to that statement was an inelegant snort of amusement from the dark potions master, and a raised eyebrow.

"None the less, she is the least likely to attempt to suppress this. if we give this story to the press, he will lose any support he still has amoung the population."

"All right, I'll take your word for it." Harry sighed.

"Good. Let's put this stuff away and put it somewhere safe, then we can go and see if there's anything edible in the kitchens, and check if any of the house elves are still here."

"Where would they go if they weren't here?"

"Albus may have sent them to his own estate until they were summoned back by either him, or a new headmaster taking office. If they are here, they can take care of making sure there is fresh food for the moment. If not, we will have to chance going into Hogsmead, and leave the school unattended with Fudge on the loose."

"You should stay here anyway, incase he has spies out."

"If it becomes necessary to leave the security of the school, we both go. We would just have to employ glamours."

"OK, let's go and check the kitchens out then." Harry said, bundling all his parchments back into the box and watching as Severus did the same.
Severus put the box in his private lab, relocked the door, and led Harry out of the room.


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Hey all.

Sorry its so long since my last post, hope you all enjoy the new chapter.