Harry apparated to the toilet entrance to the Ministry and, having made sure that he had the cloak donned, he quickly made his way into the Ministry.

Finding a deserted corner in the atrium, Harry fell deep in thought.

‘Now that I’m in the Ministry, I should find Fudge and start my plan,’ thought Harry, ‘Fudge is already really pissed at me, so I can use that against him,’ thought Harry with an evil grin.

Harry followed his living flame and located the Minister. After a few minutes of walking, Harry heard Fudge’s voice, giving instructions to someone. ‘Found him!’ thought Harry happily and made his way towards the voice. ‘Thank god he was near the atrium. If he was deep underground, I might have had some issues getting there’

Shaking his head to clear those unnecessary thoughts, Harry looked towards Fudge, who was deep in conversation with a short, portly woman with graying shoulder-length curly hair.

Harry had walked into a room not too far away from the atrium but heavily guarded. It was a stately room. A large oak desk occupied the center of the room with a few chairs in front of it and behind the desk sat the Minister on a plush chair that might as well have been a sofa.

“Doreen, have the plans for the press conference for the day after been looked over properly?” asked Fudge. “You know how important it is. I finally have some information on Dumbledore that needs to be shared with the entire world. It’s not just reporters from England who will show up after all.”

“Of course, Minister. I’ve looked over every detail,” she replied, reverentially. “I’m sure this news will shock everyone and after it gets out, no one will ever trust Dumbledore or his lies again.”

At first Harry wondered if she was just going along with Fudge’s nonsense because she had no choice, but the cruel glint in her eyes said otherwise.

“Excellent! If this goes over well, I’ll make sure that request for vacation of yours goes through without a hitch,” said Fudge with a smile.

“Oh, thank you Minister!” she said, with what Harry could only see as a genuinely elated smile.

Harry stared at Doreen and thought, ‘well, she looks almost as mean as Umbridge, so I guess I don’t have to feel guilty about involving her in my plans.’

He activated his Legilimency against her, implanting a small hallucination just as Fudge spoke to her.

“You may go now and don’t disturb me for the next hour, at least,” he said, though what Doreen heard was more on the lines of, “You may go now but come back here in ten minutes.”

“Of course, Minister,” she replied and made her way out of the room, closing the door behind her.

After she left, Fudge put his hands together and smirked. “Oh Dumbledore, I know you want to take over my position, but it won’t be that easy. I’ll make sure I completely smear any reputation you have in the mud, and I’ll take that lying puppet of yours down with you.”

Harry frowned, but quickly started his plan instead. ‘No point in getting angry now. I’ll be extra thorough with him.’

Harry activated his Legilimency again and implanted a hallucination in Fudge’s mind. ‘Let’s see how you react to this,’ thought Harry with a smirk.

•••

Same as any other day, Fudge asked for an hour of undisturbed time to plan for the rest of the day and possibly even the future. This was a habit he had picked up earlier this year, ever since that horrible Potter had spouted all kinds of nonsense about you-know-who.

‘If it wasn’t for Potter trying to get so much attention, I wouldn’t have to spend so much of my time on such frivolous pursuits,’ thought Fudge. ‘Dumbledore used Potter’s lies to replace me in the office as well. I have too many enemies nowadays.’

Fudge frowned as he recalled the hearing that had happened a few days back. ‘Potter swindled his way out of being punished, even though he broke the law. Not to mention, Dumbledore tried his damned best to sow doubt into the minds of the Wizengamot.’

Just as Fudge was getting ready to plan his next move against Dumbledore and Potter, he heard his office door open softly. A sound he would have missed if it weren’t especially silent in his room. ‘I thought I had asked for no one to disturb me for an hour. What is the meaning of this,’ thought Fudge with a frown.

He looked towards his door, ready to yell at whoever had the audacity to disturb him, just to freeze. The person he saw quietly entering his office, crouched down, trying to slink his way in, was a man - or rather, a boy, who had grown to be a thorn in his side.

‘Why the hell is Potter sneaking into my office?’ thought Fudge, shocked for a moment but only to have that emotion replaced with happiness, ‘I finally have you! You can’t swindle your way out of this now!’

“Lost, are we, Mr. Potter?” asked Fudge coldly.

Fudge watched, with barely contained excitement, as Potter visibly jumped at his question. Clearly, the boy had clearly thought that the office was empty. ‘Probably here to steal information for Dumbledore,’ thought Fudge, convinced by his deduction.

“Uh - um - well - ” Harry stammered, trying hard to come up with an excuse.

“Don’t bother trying to find an excuse, Mr. Potter. You’re not getting away this time,” said Fudge, gripping his wand. “Did Dumbledore send you? What information did he want?”

“Uh, no - Professor Dumbledore, h-had n-nothing to do w-with th-this,” stuttered Harry, his face betraying his lie.

“You’re not very convincing, Mr. Potter,” said Fudge menacingly. “I could have you arrested for just being here, you know.”

“Ev-even if you have me ar-arrested, the Au-aurors are much fairer than y-you, they wouldn’t hu-hurt me,” said Harry, his eyes darting around, looking for an exit.

Fudge got up from his desk and advanced towards Harry, his wand raised and pointing at him. “You’re right. Those fools would try to ‘do the right thing’,” he said with a mocking tone. “Some of those fools are even fond of you, even now, with you being such a huge liar.”

“I-I’m not a l-liar,” said Harry.

“We can find out rather easily. You’re right about the Aurors being fair, so it seems I’ll have to loosen your tongue myself,” said Fudge, an evil glint in his eyes.

Just as Fudge was about to reach Harry, he saw Harry raise his wand. “You’re much too young to take me on, boy!” yelled Fudge, “Expelliarmus!”

He watched as Harry’s wand flew out of his hand, while the boy himself flew backwards outside the open door, sliding through the room, to finally come to a stop in the middle of the room.

“Capture him! Capture Potter right now!” yelled Fudge, pointing at Harry, while looking at the men who were supposed to be guarding the entrance.

•••

Harry stood to the side, inside Fudge’s office, trying his hardest not to laugh out loud. Ten minutes had passed rather quickly as Fudge sat at his desk thinking, grinning maliciously or frowning at other times.

The moment Doreen had opened the door, just as she ‘heard’ Fudge tell her before she left, the hallucination activated on Fudge. The one he saw walking through the door wasn’t Doreen, but Harry instead.

He watched, amused to no end, as Fudge menacingly approached an extremely dumbfounded Doreen. Her questions, stutters and mutters, falling on deaf ears.

All she could do was watch in shock as Fudge raved on about some nonsense about Harry Potter, pretending he was actually in the office facing Fudge.

She could do nothing but watch in horror as Fudge pointed his wand at her and started attacking with no provocation from her.

Harry almost burst into laughter when he watched Fudge scream at his guards to arrest Doreen. He even had to bite his hand to stop himself from laughing.

‘Oh that was hilarious,’ thought Harry as he watched the guards confusedly walk towards Doreen and restrain her.

“What do you mean, sir?” asked one of the guards. “This is Doreen, not Potter, you know?”

Just as the guard spoke, Harry removed the hallucination. ‘Gotta let Fudge admire his own handiwork,’ thought Harry with a smirk.

“Wh-what?” stammered Fudge, a shocked expression on his face. “Where did Potter go!? Why is Doreen on the ground?”

“Uh, sir, by Potter, do you mean Harry Potter?” asked the other guard, just as confused as his colleague.

“Of course I mean Harry Potter!” screamed Fudge. “How many Potters do you even know?”

“I mean, I know an Alfred Potter,” said the second guard, quietly.

Quite a few more people had filed into the room by that point. Harry was even happier seeing so many people come in.

“Potter was right there!” yelled Fudge, “He tried to sneak into my office and steal information for Dumbledore! Search for him! He’s definitely still in the Ministry!”

The people around Fudge, at first, seemed to take him seriously, and a few even looked around, but the moment he went on about Harry acting like a spy for Dumbledore, many of them showed looks of exasperation.

From the side, hiding under his cloak, Harry could hear a few of them whispering.

“See, I told you he’s off his rocker nowadays,” whispered one of them to the man next to him. “Ever since that incident, he’s been full of all kinds of conspiracy theories.”

“I guess you’re right. I thought you were just making it up earlier, but honestly, this is just disappointing,” replied the other.

Many such whispers made their way through the group. Fudge, seeing their expressions, coughed and turned around, walking back into his office.

“Forget it, maybe I just dreamt it,” he mumbled as he walked away, leaving the crowd behind.

Harry watched as people helped Doreen up, asking her what happened. She eventually came out of her stupor and broke down into sobs, telling them a slightly dramatized version of what really happened.

Harry chuckled, ‘that’s Phase 1 of the plan complete. Time to follow him around and see how else I can stir trouble for Fudge.