Amelia Bones sat staring at her table for several minutes, not really sure how to go about trying to defend the Minister from this charge. He had after all spent over a year pretending the Dark Lord wasn't back and trashing Harry Potter and Headmaster Dumbledore's reputations in the process. "Minister Fudge, when you were told by Lord Potter of He-Who-Must-Not be-Named's return after the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament, why didn't you believe him?"
"There was no proof." Fudge told her. "The boy was a well-known troublemaker at the school and according to sources a parselmouth as well. It is a well-known fact that Parselmouth's are Dark and so his claim that Lord Thingy was back wasn't even worth consideration. He was just trying to disrupt the peace that we in the magical world had been enjoying for the last thirteen years, by spreading vicious rumours to get more attention for himself."
Bones couldn't believe it. "You honestly thought a fourteen year old boy could lie well enough to fool Albus Dumbledore?"
"Dumbledore has been claiming for years that the Dark Lord would be back. Of course he wouldn't look too deeply into the story since it was what he wanted to hear." Fudge sounded confident.
"Fudge," Lord Altren couldn't help sounding disgusted as he said the man's name. "Did it cross your tiny little mind at any time after you were told that the Dark Lord was back that Lord Potter might be telling the truth?"
"Yes," Fudge admitted. "But after discussing the matter with someone in the Department of Mysteries, I was certain it wasn't possible."
"Madame Bones, when you have time, would you speak to Mr. Croaker who heads the Department of Mysteries and find out who the person Minister Fudge spoke with was." Lord Altren requested. "Tell him a High Councillor wishes to know and if he won't tell you have him send this individual to me please, assuming of course that they are still alive."
"Fudge, I will say this much for you, while you are an idiot, you are undoubtedly a very lucky idiot, given that you managed to stay in power after the Dark Lord's return was revealed." Longrim commented. "It is a well-known fact that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named studied the Dark Arts far more in depth than even Grindelwald did. In fact he is known to have performed a number of rituals upon himself with the intent of gaining more power. It doesn't require a great leap of imagination to suppose that he might have performed a ritual on himself in attempt to gain immortality. After all some of his followers had the largest and oldest collections of Dark Arts books in the world, and what they didn't have they could locate for him. And intelligent man would have realised the possibility that at some point in the past some Dark Lord or potential Dark Lord had researched a way to come back from the dead, whether they used it or not."
Fudge's face reddened, but there was nothing he could say to that.
"Fudge," Lord Kieran spoke up next. "Even if you didn't believe Potter or Dumbledore about the Dark Lord's return, why did you encourage the Daily Prophet among others to print slander abut them in an attempt to ruin their reputation?"
"I did no such thing." Fudge disagreed.
"Oh, then this isn't your signature on this letter to the owner of the Daily Prophet assuring him that no matter what he printed about Harry Potter and Headmaster Dumbledore, they would not be called to account for it, because the Minister's office would stand behind them?" Lord Kieran held up a document.
Taking the letter, Lord Perrivor read it over. "If I were the owner of a paper, I would assume from this document, you were giving me carte blanche to say whatever I wanted to about them, even the wildest most unsubstantiated rumour and that I would never have to face any consequences. Why would you be that foolish, Fudge?"
"It wasn't foolish." Fudge defended his actions. "Minister's before me have used the same tactic, even the muggle Prime Minister has been known to use the press to discredit someone so they aren't a threat to the security of the nation."
"But they have never given the press carte blanche to print lies before." Altren countered. "Previous Minister's both magical and muggle would have the press print facts slanted a certain way but they were still true facts. The Daily Prophet printed things that couldn't be proven, in other words they printed lies… at your instigation. Why would you condone this?"
"For the good of the magical world." Fudge said pompously. "At the time I thought they were spreading their lies about He-Who-Must-Not Be-Named being back. Dumbledore told the students at the leaving feast, even though I had ordered him not to. They had to be stopped before they threw the wizarding world into a panic."
"But you soon realised they weren't spreading lies didn't you? You had Ministry personnel covering up magical attacks on the families of muggle-born students and the disappearances of some witches and wizards." Longrim pointed out. "Tell me Fudge are you familiar with the Compact of 1137, one of the few magically binding documents signed by a muggle ruler King Stephen of England and the High Council of the Magical Britain? A compact so secret, not even his brother Henry of Blois the Papal Legate and Archbishop of Canterbury was ever told about it."
"Of course, it's one of the documents that I as Minister had to swear to uphold." Fudge couldn't see the point in the question.
"Did you ever read the Compact, Fudge? Or did you just swear to uphold it and not bother to find out the contents?" Longrim was beginning to suspect the idiot had no idea he'd violated a magically binding contract.
"Of course I know what it says," Fudge bristled. "King Stephen in return for the neutrality of the magical community of Britain in the civil war between him and his cousin the Empress Maud, ceded permanent control over certain areas of Britain where the magical community was living to us to govern over and rule."
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