Work Text:
Harry Potter & The Ministry Fucked Up
"I better have heard that wrong," Harry ground out as he stared at the man in front of him. The man who had just come into his department and informed him that it had been decided that the Tri-Wizard Tournament was being brought back.
"No, sir," the man squeaked out, nearly shaking in fear as the room began to feel colder. "The uh...they...they decided to bring it back. Something about...about the uh...international relations?"
"We must be talking about different tournaments," Harry decided with a nod of his head, "because there's no way they can think they're going to bring back the same tournament that I was illegally entered into."
"I uh...I'm fairly sure it's the...uh...the same one, sir."
"The same one that ended with one student dead at the hands of a traitor and Voldemort returned?"
The man squeaked at the name and then again at the danger he could feel he was currently in.
"Y...yes sir."
"Get out."
The man didn't need to be told twice before he turned on his heel and ran out the door.
Harry Potter was done. The Ministry of Magic had the brilliant thought that they could just bring the tournament back? His children were there. His eldest son was old enough to compete and knowing the Potter luck he would be chosen. Dealing with the terror once was enough. There was no fucking way this was going to happen if he had anything to say about it -and he did.
He arrived home to a pale wife who held out a letter in a trembling hand. "Harry, they're going to bring back that thrice damned tournament. Jamie says he's gonna enter."
"Over my dead body," the dark haired man snapped, throwing his cloak over the back of the couch as he gathered his wife in his arms. "They caught me as I was leaving. The ones in charge are already gone for the day, but tomorrow-"
He didn't finish and Ginny didn't need him to because they were both aware that tomorrow, things were going be fixed.
The Next Day
Harry Potter had slept terribly. The idea of that magic forsaken tournament being brought back had meant the return of memories he'd long since worked through. Chased by a dragon. His two best friends floating at the bottom of the lake looking like something from a horror movie. The maze. The flash of green. 'Kill the spare.'
The scar on his arm throbbed in remembered pain and he couldn't stop his hands from clenching into fists. Fucking Ministry. Fucking idiots. The lot of them. He and Ginny had been silent this morning. Both waking, looking exhausted. He couldn't stand to see the fear in those gorgeous brown eyes. The worry lines on her face at the idea of their child entering into it.
As they had a silent breakfast Harry's mind was elsewhere. He would need to go straight to the minister if he wanted to stop this before it truly started. He pecked Ginny's cheek as he grabbed his cloak and left via floo.
Entering the atrium of the ministry, almost everyone stopped and turned to face him. His magic had grown greatly after the horcrux was removed and normally he kept it tightly controlled, but today his emotions were too strong. So everyone knew that Harry Potter was pissed.
He took the lift to level one. Standing his ground without needing to hold on to the rail or the handles dangling from the ceiling. The people in the lift with him were squeezed as close to the walls as they could get, trying to get away from his freezing magic.
When the lift stopped, Harry stepped off without bothering to look back and see the relief in everyone's faces. He popped his neck, rolled his shoulders, allowed his magic to flare around him, and then stomped to the minister's office. His secretary tried to stop him, calling after him, claiming the minister was in a meeting and wasn't to be disturbed. The man was content to ignore her, until she stepped between him and the door.
"Auror Potter, you have to stop," she demanded, shaking where she stood. "The minister has asked not to...be...disturbed."
Her words trailed off as her fear of the man in front of her got the best of her and she quickly moved out of his way. Mumbling something about 'nevermind, go on in, he's probably expecting you.'
Minister of Magic
The minister had been having a very good week. He'd managed to get Durmstrang and Beauxbatons to agree to bring the Tri-wizard tournament back. He'd gotten the Department of Magical Games and Sports on board and yesterday he'd sent one of the secretaries down to the DMLE to inform the head of the department that aurors would be needed during the tasks, crowd control and all. So now he was sitting back, looking over the forms that would need to be filled out before anything was finalized and thinking about taking an early day when his door was nearly blasted down.
"What in the-?! Head Auror Potter! What is the meaning of this?!"
Harry Potter
"Sit down and shut up."
When the minister opened his mouth with the intent to argue and inform him that he wasn't in charge, Harry's magic leapt out and shoved him right back down in his seat.
"I said sit down and shut the fuck up."
Unknown to Harry, his magic entered into his words the second time and forced the minister to drop back down in his seat and snap his mouth shut.
"Now, I don't know what the fuck you were smoking when you came up with the oh so brilliant plan to bring back this magic-damned tournament, but you're going to cancel it. You're going to contact the other schools and inform them that it would be a very bad idea to bring it back. You can do a fucking intelligence debate or something. But you won't be bringing this tournament back. Do you understand?"
For a moment the minister was silent. Unable to move or speak until Harry asked his question.
Minister of Magic
It felt like a pressure had been lifted after Potter's speech. The man was terrifying when he let his powers free like that, but he was the minister not Potter. Potter had no say in the tournament being brought back. So the minister stood, placed both hands flat on his desk, and leaned forward, getting in the savoiur of the wizarding world's face.
"Now see here Potter," the minister snarled, teeth bared, "you don't get to just storm in here with your magic all over the place and order me to do what you want. I'm the leader here. You're the follower. Do you understand me? If I say the Tri-wizard tournament is going to be brought back and that you're going to provide aurors to help protect people then you say 'yes sir' and 'how many aurors do you need.'"
The minister watched as Potter's anger slipped off his face, leaving behind an icy look that hadn't been seen since that day, all those years ago. This was the face that looked at Voldemort and then took him down. It caused the minister to shiver because it meant something bad was about to happen. He just knew it.
Harry Potter
The more the minister talked, the angrier Harry got until his anger got so great that it pushed everything else from his mind. Last time he'd felt like this he had faced off against Voldemort and won. Leaning forwards, getting into the minister's face -just as the man had tried to get into his- he nearly purred, "let me make something perfectly clear to you minister."
The Auror stood back up, away from the man's face. He kept his back straight, hands clasped behind his back, and feet shoulder-width apart. Green eyes intensely focused on the man across from him, expression icy. "I'm not asking you to cancel this tournament. I'm telling you what you're going to do. You seem to be of the opinion that you can scare me into obeying you, but you seem to forget. I got you this position."
He gave a terrifyingly empty smile as the man in front of him paled. "I got you this position and I'm not above removing you from it. I'm imagining that you want to keep it, yes? You want to stay in the public's good grace?"
The minister nodded mutely because everything being said was true.
"Then I suggest," Harry purred, leaning forward just a tad, "that you do what I've told you. If you don't I have no problem informing the public of every. single.one. of your terrible deeds that I just uncovered."
"You...you wouldn't because...because they would...they would know that you knew."
The toothy grin Harry answered with was enough for the minister to know that the public wouldn't believe him. The wizarding public was still in awe of the great things that Harry had done only two decades -give or take a couple of years- ago. They still believed he was the great leader of the light. Defeater of Voldemort. Saviour of their world. Protector of their rights. Yada yada yada. Blah Blah Blah.
Minister of Magic
The minister was sweating now because Potter was right. The public would never believe that Potterhad known the whole time. They would believe him if the man said he'd just found out. There was no way he would be able to convince him otherwise.
"The other schools have already agreed though," he said, worried and terrified about what might happen, "I can't just...cancel it."
The dark look that crossed the Defeater of Voldemort's face had him almost peeing himself. His knees were shaking so hard that it was a good thing he was still leaning on the desk or he would have fallen.
"Make. It. Work."
Gulping nervously, the man looked down at the papers on his desk. The papers that needed only his signature to confirm because the other ministers had agreed. "I...I can't just...I can't just deny it."
Killing curse green magic snapped towards the papers on the desk. The binding papers that he had to sign or he would lose his magic. He watched his terrified amazement as the magic seemed to eat the paper, turning it to ash and destroying the binding contract. There was a brighter flash of white and then the minister felt the magic binding him to the tournament break.
Harry Potter
"There. Now you have nothing to worry about. Contact the other ministers, explain that you decided, after careful consideration, that it would be a bad idea to carry out the tournament."
Harry tilted his head, watching the minister for a moment.
"Are we clear on what you're going to do? Or should I slowly walk you through it again?"
He watched the man gulp in terror and quickly nod his head in agreement.
"Do I need to stay here with you while you floo call them?"
Green eyes watched as the man quickly shook his head no. The idea of staying with Harry and his icy magic right now obviously terrifying him.
"Good. If I hear that you've decided against heading my warning. You won't get a second chance."
"R...right," the minister nodded, sweat dripping down his face.
Satisfied that the man wouldn't do anything else stupid Harry turned on his heel and headed back to his office.
When he returned home that night it was to an excited Ginny who almost knocked him over in her excitement.
"I have no idea what you did, but it worked! Jamie just sent a letter complaining about how the tournament was canceled. Apparently our minister 'chickened out' and decided that it was 'too dangerous' to actually do it."
Harry shrugged, pulling his wife closer and kissing her deeply. "I did what I said I was going to do," he informed her as he broke the kiss, "I fixed it."