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Chapter 9 - Ch.09

Harry then drew from his satchel another sheaf of parchment and, still smiling, handed them over to the Prime Minister.

Taking them from the young man, the Prime Minister placed them on the desk alongside the original stack, gently used both hands to move the original stack off to one side, and then moved the second stack to the blotter in front of himself.

While they still appeared to be parchment, the Prime Minister could also see these were written using modern English lettering and language.

Before the Prime Minister could begin to read the top page Harry spoke up.

"While those documents will provide the evidence of which I spoke, they are not the main reason I am here."

"No?" the Prime Minister looked up and asked.

"No, Sir," said Harry quietly. "I am here to inform you the Minister of Magic, abetted by others, is fomenting sedition against the Crown amongst the people in the wizarding world."

"WHAT?! the Prime Minister near bellowed leaping to his feet.

"Yes, Sir," said Harry calmly. "And he is doing it, while almost literally, pulling the wool over your eyes."

"Explain!" the Prime Minister demanded with narrowing eyes.

"You are being lied to, Sir," said Harry. "And he is using magic to trick you."

"What do you mean?" demanded the Prime Minister.

"I shall demonstrate what I mean, momentarily," replied Harry. "But first, please tell me what you remember of the meetings you have had with Minister Fudge."

The Prime Minister stared furiously at Harry for a moment before seeming to visibly give himself a shake, and resuming his seat.

He thought deeply for a few moments before saying, "I first met him when he came into my office through the fireplace over there," he said gesturing towards the fireplace, "about a week after I assumed office. He nearly gave me a heart attack when he did that. That's when Muriel came dashing into the room.

"He then pulled out of his sleeve what I thought was a stick and waved it about a bit. The door slammed shut and the curtains closed themselves."

"That stick would have been his wand, Sir," interrupted Harry.

The Prime Minster nodded and said, "Then he told me who he was and said to me he was here to brief me on the magical world. I had never heard of such a thing and thought he was a crackpot. I grabbed the phone and tried to call for security but the phone was dead. So, I walked over and tried to open the door but it was locked. I could not even pull the curtains apart when I tried them.

"He then said something along the lines of 'perhaps a further demonstration was in order'. That's when he turned a chair, the one you're sitting in, into an English shepherd. Then he made my desk float up off the floor. He did a few other things, too, before he changed the chair back and let my desk down. He then calmly walked over and sat in the same chair in which you're sitting, and gestured for me to do the same. Once I was sitting behind my desk here he told me all about the wizarding world.

"Then he got up, said he'd see me again soon, and disappeared in a flash of green flame back out the fireplace."

"And the next time he came, Sir?" asked Harry.

"We had a long and fruitful discussion about wizarding matters and he left," replied the Prime Minister.

"And the next time, Sir?" asked Harry.

"We had a long and fruitful discussion about wizarding matters and he left," replied the Prime Minister again.

"And the next time he came, Sir?" asked Harry again.

"We had a long and fruitful discussion about wizarding matters and he left," replied the Prime Minister yet again.

By this time the Prime Minister was beginning to frown at Harry again.

"And the next time, Sir?" asked Harry.

"We had a long and fruitful discussion about wizarding matters and he left," asked the Prime Minister yet again.

"Now, Sir," said Harry, leaning forward to stare intently at the Prime Minister. "With the exception of the first meeting, what did you discuss at any of these meetings?"

The Prime Minister replied still frowning, "We had a long and fruitful discussion about wizarding matters."

"Yes, Sir," said Harry. "But what matters... exactly?"

"I... We...," stumbled the Prime Minister thinking hard. "I don't remember."

"I didn't think so, Mister Prime Minister," said Harry.

The Prime Minister seemed quite confused. So Harry gave him a few moments before asking, "Does Lady Muriel maintain for you an appointment schedule?"

"What?" asked the Prime Minister looking up. "Yes, yes, of course she does."

"Would you mind asking her to bring it in here for you?" Harry asked.

"Ummm... Ah!" the Prime Minister said suddenly understanding."Yes, of course."

The Prime Minister then reached out to his intercom phone and pushed a button on it.

A moment later the voice of Lady Muriel could be heard. "Yes, Mister Prime Minister?"

"Could you come in and bring with you my appointment schedule from... when I took office?"

"Of course, Mister Prime Minister," she said.

A few moments later Lady Muriel walked in carrying a large ledger, approached the desk, and placed it before the Prime Minister. She waited while he opened it and was obviously expecting him to ask her questions about it.

Harry said, "You're a busy man, Sir. See if you can find any time within it, around the time you believed you had these meetings, where you would have had the time to have them."

The Prime Minister then began flicking through it running his finger down the pages as he did so. As he went through the ledger his frown deepened and deepened.

Once he finished he closed the ledger with a snap and placing his hands flat upon it.

"How is this possible... Harry?" he asked.

"Other than the first, I believe the meetings never occurred, Sir," Harry replied. "Instead, I believe he or someone else came in, hit you with an Obliviate charm... a memory alteration spell... and told you that you and the Minister had... 'a long and fruitful discussion about wizarding matters'. Then left before you'd recovered.

"I believe the person, or persons, who did it would have only been in the office no more than about twenty seconds, if that."

Harry then paused while he waited for the Prime Minister to process that bit of shocking information. He could see the Prime Minister was quite livid. And Lady Muriel, still standing alongside the Prime Minister's desk, was no less.

"Is there a way I can know what really happened, for myself?" the Prime Minister nearly growled in asking.

"Yes, Sir," Harry promptly replied. "It's going to require me to perform a counter spell. And I'm going to need to lightly touch you on the forehead when I do."

The Prime Minister, still mightily frowning, thought for a few moments before saying, "Do it!"

Harry calmly rose from his chair, walked around the desk and stopped alongside the Prime Minister, who had watched him come around turning slightly as he did.

"When I do this, Sir," said Harry, "you are going to feel a little dizzy for a few moments as the real memories reassert themselves."

The Prime Minister nodded his head and waited.

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