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Headmistress!" Nearly Headless Nick exclaimed, head bursting up through
the floor.
"Nick," McGonagall replied, looking up wearily from her desk. True, the war was over, but that didn't mean
an end to politics or indeed paperwork. "Can I help you."
"Hagrid reports that Fudge has just arrived with a team of
Aurors."
Fudge, lately Minister of Magic, had taken on the Department of Education. The appointment had been seen largely
as a joke to start with since Hogwarts, the only institution in the UK was fiercely independent but he had managed to make
her life a misery over the past few months.
"Again? See if you can delay him, I need to see to this before the Governor's
meeting."
* * * * * * *
"Did you hear?" Dennis Creevey whispered to Euan Abercrombie during Herbology. "Stephen
told me that Elise had told him that McGonagall gave Fudge basilisk venom because he dared to enter her office without knocking
first."
"I heard that it was Snape. Peeves told me that he's been hiding out in the dungeons for years and he
wanted to get his revenge on Fudge for trying to put him in Azkaban."
"Suddenly even Snape seems good," Creevey replied
gloomily. It was a sad state of affairs if that was the best gossip going. Compared to his earlier schooldays, when Harry
Potter had been there, life was dull.
* * * * * * * *
"Sir Nicholas," McGonagall snapped, glaring over
the top of her glasses. "Could you please explain the rumours I have heard today? When I asked you to delay Fudge, I was not
countenancing permenant damage to a Ministry official!"
"I don't believe you could call it serious damage, Headmistress.
After all, it's a very close approximation to his normal state of mind."
"Explain yourself this instant!"
"Oh,
it wasn't anything dangerous. It was nothing but a bit of harmless fun, gave the students something to laugh at during lunch.
The Grey Lady gave Befuddlement Draught to Cornelius Fudge. Still, it might make him think twice about barging in again."
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