There was a knock at the door of his office, interrupting his studying of the immensely dull paperwork before him. Thankful for the excuse to turn his attention to something else for a bit, the Minister for Magic called out "Come in."
The door opened and a woman came in. She was short, with a wide face and very little in the way of a neck.
She was wearing her usual pink cardigan, and as was normal she had a small black bow in her hair.
"Ah, Dolores," exclaimed Fudge "I trust you are all set to go for our meeting with young Harry Potter this afternoon?"
"Indeed I am, Minister," Dolores Umbridge replied in her simpering, girlish voice "However, I once again find it necessary to ask why you feel that this needs to happen. Do you really trust my abilities so little that you would charge a student who has yet to take his O.W.L. examinations with overseeing me in my duties?"
Cornelius shook his head and replied "My dear Dolores, that is not what is happening at all. As I have already told you several times before now, I have every confidence in your abilities to bring order back to the running of Hogwarts School. Young Mr Potter is going to be acting in a different role to you. In some ways he will be your assistant, helping out with certain tasks that you find you require assistance in. But he will also act as a barrier between you and the students.
"The purpose of this plan, as I have already told up, is to restore order to the school and, naturally, complaints of the students must be listened to and considered as a part of that– it is the place where they are educated and their home for the majority of the year, after all. With your teaching post and your job sorting out the staff and curriculum you will be busy enough without having to endure being disturbed at all hours by any student who has a minor complaint. Mr Potter will be the one to listen to their complaints and anything inconsequential he will ignore, anything that he can handle himself he will and anything that you will need to know about he will inform you of."
Dolores nodded her head. The Minister could tell that she wasn't happy about it, but was accepting of it. However she continued to talk.
"But why Harry Potter, of all people?" she asked "Just a few short weeks ago the Ministry of Magic was going out of its way to discredit the boy, and now you are offering such an important role to him."
"It turns out that we were wrong about young Mr Potter, Dolores. The boy was tricked by Dumbledore into taking part in a plan that would have overthrown the Ministry had it succeeded. When the plan failed, Dumbledore abandoned it but left Harry to take the blame for it. Mr Potter realised this and has since apologised. He whole heartedly approves of the Ministry's new stance on Hogwarts, and wishes to support our efforts in any way that he can."
"But why use him for this?" asked Umbridge "Surely there are better candidates? Why not Lucius Malfoy's son? He's respectable lad from a respectable family."
Fudge shook his head and replied "I am afraid, Dolores, that it is not that simple. Yes my first thought was to enlist young Draco Malfoy for the role, but since then I have learnt that the boy was given the role of prefect for his house and year group."
"And why should that stop him being a viable candidate for the role?" questioned Umbridge.
"Because a candidate for the position of prefect is nominated by his or her head of house and is then either approved or rejected by the Headmaster. And the last person we want in this vitally important role is someone with Dumbledore's approval as that casts doubt on our ability to rely on them."
Seeing that his senior undersecretary still did not look happy, the Minister continued "Look at it this way, Dolores. We will have someone on our side who is already not happy with Albus Dumbledore, and who is not in his debt. Harry Potter will be able to look at things in a way that most students will not. He no longer has the rose tinted vision of Dumbledore that the old man likes to ensure that everyone has."
And then he added "And on top of all that, the Ministry's actions will get the endorsement of the Boy Who Lived. It is a win-win situation for use, Dolores."
Though still frowning, the woman nodded her head and said "Very well. I shall trust that you know what you are doing, Minister."
She got up to leave. At the door she turned and asked "Will the boy be getting paid for his role, Minister?"
Fudge looked momentarily surprised by the question before replying "Of course. The amount will be arranged between myself and Mr Potter after the main meeting this afternoon."
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