Harry spent the rest of the day, following Fudge around. Though he did create a few awkward situations for the Minister but nothing too major.
‘I guess I’ll have to try again tomorrow. Though I was able to embarrass him in front a several of his colleagues’ chuckled Harry.
‘Oh right!’ Harry’s expression brightened. ‘Fudge said something about a press conference the day after, I’ll be able to finish my plan early if I use that!’
Happy that his plan was working out well, Harry made his way back to 12 Grimmauld Place. As usual, he apparated back into the empty room to find a rather unpleasant guest in it.
“That mudblood lover kept going into this room and disappearing. I wonder where he’s going” a croaky voice said.
“What are you doing here, Kreacher?” asked Harry, colder than he had intended.
“You!” Kreacher screeched. “You horrible, vile, mudblood loving, disgusting peasant! How dare you tear the mistress’ painting!”
‘Ah, that’ thought Harry with his head aching.
At first he wanted to argue and even berate the annoying house-elf but he thought about it for a moment. ‘I know he’s really irritating but he’s been through a ridiculous amount. He was left to die by Voldemort and then had his beloved master die on him as well. Maybe I should be a little nicer to him’
“I’m sorry about the painting, Kreacher” Harry apologised sincerely. “I really shouldn’t have ripped it apart, that was going too far”
Kreacher looked at Harry with a shocked expression. “The mudblood lover is apologising to me, I wonder what happened to it?” said Kreacher out loud, though clearly talking to himself.
“Kreacher” called Harry, bringing the house-elf’s attention to himself. “I know your master stole a locket from a cave, can you tell me the whole story. Please?”
“You - how could you know about that!?” Kreacher asked, shocked.
“I’ll tell you as soon as you tell me the whole story” said Harry, as kindly as he could manage.
“I - ” hesitated Kreacher for a moment, before he continued, “Master Regulus was always extremely nice to me, he always took care of me. When you-know-who wanted to borrow me, he happily agreed but Master Regulus had no idea what was going to happen”
Harry nodded, prompting Kreacher to continue.
“Once we were in that cave, you-know-who made me drink a disgusting liquid, it made me so very thirsty but I couldn’t drink any water I conjured. It also made me so very weak and burned my insides” said Kreacher with a shudder. “Thankfully, I managed to get away before those disgusting things from the lake caught me and I made it back to Master Regulus”
“What did he do when he found out about what happened to you?” asked Harry curiously.
“He was furious, oh yes. Master Regulus immediately told me not to tell anyone anything and made me take him back to the cave” said Kreacher. “When we reached the basin, Master Regulus drank the potion himself, even though I told him not to but he did. Then he put another locket into the basin and gave me the locket that was in the basin earlier and ordered me to teleport away and destroy you-know-who’s locket”
Kreacher started to sob at this point. “I wanted to save Master but he ordered me, I couldn’t not follow it. So I teleported away, leaving my Master in the cave with those - things - and I tried to destroy the locket but I couldn’t”
“What happened to the locket then?” asked Harry, just to confirm.
“It was thrown away by you disgusting people!” screeched Kreacher.
Harry sighed, “Was the locket your Master Regulus left in the basin something precious to him?”
“Oh yes, that was Master Regulus’ uncle’s keepsake” said Kreacher, nodding furiously.
“Oh, that so? Stay here a moment” said Harry. “Don’t move!”
Harry didn’t wait for Kreacher’s reply and quickly apparated to the cave. Going through it with his earlier memories as well as Voldemort’s, he was able to reach the basin in just a few minutes.
‘Thank god I have Voldemort’s memories, I don’t really have to drink this potion’ thought Harry, waving his hand, causing the potion to vanish.
He quickly grabbed the locket, opened it and found the note in it. ‘This is the locket alright’ he thought, as he stuffed the locket and the note into his pocket.
He apparated back to the room to find Kreacher still standing there. ‘I’m surprised, I thought he would have left just to spite me’ thought Harry.
“Here you go, this is for you” said Harry, as he handed Regulus’ locket to Kreacher.
“Ma-master Re-regulus’ loc-locket” said Kreacher, stuttering. “Ho-how do yo-you ha-have it?”
“Oh, I know about the cave, so I just went there and got it for you” replied Harry with a grin.
“Ma-master Harry, th-thank you” said Kreacher with tears in his eyes.
“Now, now, no need to exaggerate” said Harry with a kind smile. “I’ll make sure no one mistreats you around this house so you also be nicer to them alright?”
“Of course Master Harry” said Kreacher with a reverential bow.
“Oh by the way, I already destroyed the locket your Master Regulus wanted destroyed so you don’t have to worry about it anymore”
“*Hic* Re-really? *Hic*” asked Kreacher, sobbing even harder than earlier.
“Of course, why would I lie to you” replied Harry with a smile.
“Thank you, Master Harry. Truly, Thank you” he bowed over and over, huge drops of tears falling from his eyes.
“Don’t worry about it. Now go along, I need to go meet the others” said Harry.
“Of course, Master Harry” replied Kreacher and with a crack, he disappeared.
“I’ll have to give it to Hermione, she was definitely right about being nice to Kreacher” said Harry with a sigh.
He donned his invisibility cloak and snuck down to the kitchen, peeking in, he saw Tonks and Remus talking to Mrs Weasley, with Ron, Hermione and Ginny sitting around them.
Harry took his cloak off, made his way upstairs to keep it in his trunk and then made his way back into the kitchen.
“Welcome back, Harry” said Mrs Weasley with a smile. “That was a long time in the toilet”
“Ah” said Harry with a confused expression but the moment he looked at Tonks’ anxious expression he understood that was her excuse to go change back. “I went and played with Buckbeak a little before coming back down”
“Ah, I see, come have a seat, we’re just discussing your new school year” she said, pointing at the chair next to Ron.
Harry scanned the people and noticed that the moment his gaze crossed Hermione’s and Ginny’s they blushed slightly and averted their eyes.
Tilting his head in confusion, Harry made his way to Tonks’ side and sat down.
“So, what happened while I was gone?” asked Harry in a whisper.
“Nothing much really, cleaned the house, I broke a few plates so Molly told me, as in you, to go rest” she said, sticking her tongue out cheekily, “oh and, Hermione and Ginny came and apologised to me - you, I mean - so I forgave them with a hug and a kiss, on the cheek”
“What!?” said Harry, rather loudly, causing everyone to stare at him. “Ahaha, sorry”
After everyone finally got back to their own conversation, Harry resumed his conversation with Tonks.
“Why did you do that!?” he asked.
“You need to make sure to make up if you fight Harry” she said in a sagely tone. “It’s no good to stay mad at each other”
“I don’t care about that, I’m happy that you forgave them, I was planning to anyway” he said, waving his hand, “I meant, why did you have to go as far as kissing them?”
“Oh that!” said Tonks, her face getting a silly smile as she replied, “They just looked so cute, stuttering and stammering an apology that I couldn’t help it!”
“Haah” sighed Harry, “This is going to make things really awkward” he said, massaging his temple.
“Anyway, forget about that, how’s it going with - that man?” she asked.
“Oh, it went really well” replied Harry with a jubilant smile. “If all goes well, everything should be finished by the day after”
“Really? That’s great!” replied Tonks. “Not that I don’t like being you, but I want to flirt more with Remus and doing it in your body might really ruin our relationship”
“Don’t you ever dare to do something like that” said Harry menacingly.
“Haha! Don’t worry, I won’t” she grinned.
Harry sighed and then got into the conversation with the others and eventually, made his way to his bedroom and slipped into bed.
Ron stared at him for a few moments after he entered the room but quietly made his way into bed as well.
Harry shook his head and drifted off to sleep, ready to cause more trouble for Fudge after he woke up.
The following day, Harry checked in with Tonks and then quickly made his way to the Ministry. It didn’t take him long to locate Fudge and when he approached the man, he saw his expression which delighted him.
Fudge looked disgruntled and annoyed, with his eyes darting around as if looking for assassins who were just waiting to jump out at him.
Harry followed him along for the day, causing hallucinations several times, causing Fudge to pick fights with several Ministry employees. Harry made sure to make him have hallucinations of different people, people he wouldn’t normally expect to see in the Ministry, including Sirius and Bellatrix Lestrange, much to Fudge’s horror.
Towards the end of the day, a hagard Fudge trudged along towards his office and came across Amelia Bones.
“Minister, I would like to have a word with you” said Amelia.
‘Oh good, she’s here’ thought Harry, ‘I can make Fudge’s impression even worse if I cause problems with her around’
“What can I do for you, Madam Bones?” asked Fudge with a forced smile on his face.
“I have been hearing a lot of rather - unsavoury - gossip lately” she said, her face an emotionless mask, “I would just like to confirm the veracity of the information”
“Nothing has been going on! At All” yelled Fudge, a tad bit too defensive.
After he said that, he turned his head and looked behind Amelia, his pupils shrinking as an untold rage crossed his face.
“Dumbledore!” he roared. “This is all your doing isn’t it!? You’re the one causing me to see all these things!”
Amelia looked surprised at the sudden outburst as she turned around to look at the newcomer and suddenly frowned.
“What are you talking about, Minister?” she asked.
“Dumbledore has obviously cursed me and made me mistake people as other people! That’s the only explanation of everything going on. No one other than Dumbledore would be powerful enough to do this!” he roared. “Ask the man himself! He’s right there!”
Amelia stared at Fudge for a good minute before turning to the newcomer, her frown deepening. “Mister Shacklebolt, are you aware of what is going on?”
Kingsley looked as surprised as Amelia as he turned to her and shook his head, “I’ve only heard the rumours that the Minister has been acting a little - off - lately but other than that, I’m not aware of what has actually happened” replied Kingsley in his usual deep voice. “However, if it really is Dumbledore’s curse then I doubt we could ever fix it. Though to be honest, Dumbledore really doesn’t strike me as the kind to go around cursing people for no reason. He has never shown much interest in the post of Minister after all”
Amelia nodded and turned back to Fudge. “Minister, perhaps you’d better rest for the day” she said, “That is not Dumbledore but Mister Shacklebolt”
“Wh-what? Bu-but no, he’s right th-there” stuttered Fudge, his voice growing softer by the minute. “I do-don’t understand”
“That’s enough Minister, you should go rest. You’ve had a long day” said Amelia with an air of finality that even Fudge as the Minister was clear that he had no right to refuse.
“I - understand” replied, laboriously.
He turned around and trudged back to his office, looking even more defeated as he went back.
‘Well, that went well’ thought Harry and quickly went back to the headquarters to relieve Tonks of her duty.
‘Tomorrow, I should hopefully be able to complete the final phase’ thought Harry with a smile.
