"It says here that he was caught red handed by another prefect and the student advisor, leading a gang of his fellow Slytherin students in intimidating behaviour towards three girls, two in their school year and one two years their junior."
"Ridiculous," scoffed Lucius.
Fudge moved on to the second offence "Refusal to co-operate with an investigation into alleged misconduct by a Hogwarts Professor."
"My son had the right to request a parent be present," argued Narcissa.
"I'm afraid not," said Fudge "if the questioning was about your son then he would, of course, have been allowed to have one of you present. However the questions were about events within the school and prefects are required as a part of their role to assist in any investigations into misdeeds within the castle, whether the investigation is done internally or by an external body."
He moved on "The third, and final offence, a combination of things, actually. Back-chatting to government officials and school governors, lack of respect for authority, neglecting to perform basic prefect duties, refusal to co-operate with the student advisor and failure to learn from past mistakes."
He set the parchment down and looked at the two parents sitting across from him "The behaviour of your son should not be tolerated from any student at Hogwarts School, and from a prefect even less so. I fail to see what you could possibly complain about here. Your son was in the wrong, and now he is paying the price for it.
The Malfoy's shared a look, and the Minister knew exactly what it meant. They were about to try their second tactic.
Lucius cleared his throat and attempted to appear humble as he tried to subtly slip his hand inside his cloak.
"Minister," he began, leaning forwards over the desk in an almost conspiratorial manner "while I admit that my son's behaviour has been a little out of line, this whole thing could prove rather embarrassing to me. If you could perhaps see to it that this whole this is kept quiet and sweep it all under the rug, I would be very grateful."
He leaned back into his seat and the Minister saw it there, a small, black pouch sitting on the edge of his desk. He knew from past experience that this small, non-descript looking pouch was actually charmed to be much larger on the inside and would therefore contain a good number of galleons.
Fudge felt sick on the inside. How many times had he, to his shame, fallen to this little trick in the past? Well, not this time!
With an expression of calm on his face, he drew his wand and levitated the pouch off of the desk and directed it back into Lucius's lap.
"You can keep your gold, Lucius," he said "Your boy is in the wrong and will be punished accordingly. End of story."
Lucius was seething. He stood up abruptly, not noticing that he had knocked the pouch of gold to the ground, and place both hands firmly upon the Minister's desk as he snarled "Now see here Fudge-"
But the Minister wasn't in the mood for backing down "No, you see, Lucius! Your son is in the wrong. He will be punished. Nothing, I repeat, nothing will get this decision reversed. I appreciate that you are both here out of concern for your son and family, but if you continue to behave like this then I am afraid that I will be forced to call for the Aurors, either to arrest you or forcibly remove you from the building. And believe me, either of those options would do more to damage the Malfoy family name your son losing his prefect's badge!"
Lucius Malfoy's mouth worked furiously, but no sound came out. Finally he turned around and marched out of the office. Narcissa followed him.
As the door shut behind her, Fudge realised for the first time that he was standing. He took a deep breath and then sat back down in his chair. He then realised that he was actually shaking, and not out of fear but anger.
He reached for the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out a glass and a bottle of brandy. He poured himself a shot and held it up in front of him.
"Well done, old boy." he congratulated himself before downing the contents of the glass.
His secretary poked her head around the door and asked "Everything alright, Minister? I thought I hear shouting."
"Everything's fine, my dear," replied the Minister. He got up again and walked around the table. In doing so, his foot connected with the small black pouch that had fallen to the floor earlier. He bent down to pick it up, and then stood up again with a smile on his face.
He called his secretary back "Gemma. Mr Malfoy very kindly left us a charitable donation. Please ensure that this makes into the fountain of magical brethren as you leave tonight."
With barely a sound, Lucius Malfoy apparated out of thin air just beyond the front gates of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His wife arrived next to him and together they began making their way up to the castle.
As they passed through the gates an enchantment detected them and sent a message up to the school.
.....
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