Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Hermione kept a tight grip on Slughorn's wrist as she dragged him through the Floo. It was possibly dangerous for two people to travel at once, but she didn't want to risk him slipping away if her blunt attempt at blackmail wasn't enough.

Thankfully her gamble paid off, and they emerged unscathed through one of the dedicated Floo fireplaces in the Ministry's Atrium. Unfortunately, that did not last.

A mass of shouting people blocked the way forward, so close to the fireplace that Hermione rebounded from them into Slughorn behind her. Before she could recover her footing, she was shoved from behind as something knocked Slughorn forwards.

If not for Slughorn grabbing her arms, Hermione would have fallen. That saved her from being trampled underfoot, but it didn't save her from being caught between Slughorn's bulk and the crush in front of her.

Winded and bruised, she gasped for breath even as another push from behind drove it from her lungs once more. This time she was pressed too tightly against other bodies to inhale. Spots danced in front of her eyes.

Hermione desperately flicked her wrist until her wand slid from her sleeve and dropped into her palm. For a heart-stopping moment, she almost lost her grip on it, her arms and hands aching after holding up Slughorn's weight during her earlier adrenaline rush.

'Protego!'

She could breathe again, her vision cleared. Hermione felt a twinge of guilt at the people knocked to the floor around her, but if she hadn't acted ... She shuddered.

Then, through a gap in the baying mob crowding the Atrium, she saw a familiar face, barricaded behind the golden gates at the end of the room.

Severus, his eye blackened.

Before the space she had created could close, Hermione turned to grab Slughorn again, hauling him up from the floor. She noticed that a web of golden light blocked all of the arrival fireplaces behind them, which explained the shoves from behind: wards pushing them clear so that they could activate. With Slughorn in tow, she forced her way through the crowd. Several times she was elbowed and once she was punched. Fed up, she resorted to carefully controlled Shielding Charms; she didn't want to hurt anyone.

She didn't try to call out to Severus. There was no way he would hear her, not when several members of the crowd were using Sonorus to try to make themselves heard. The result made their words mingle together into an incoherent roar of rage at a volume that made Hermione's ears ring.

When she'd fought her way through to within a metre of the gates, she could no longer hear most of the crowd, doubtless the work of some kind of wards. She could finally make out the words of those closest to her.

"Murderers!"

"Come out from your cage and face us, coward!"

"My child didn't get a chance to live! I want justice! The Wizengamot on trial!" This last shout came from a wizard who Hermione was shocked to recognise as the Ministry archive's librarian.

Hermione swallowed. The cat was out of the bag about the plague and the miscarriages, then, and as a result these people wanted Severus's head in addition to the Wizengamot's. At least he was safely behind the gates. She could see Kingsley pulling him along towards the lifts.

"Severus!" At her call, Severus turned his head. Unfortunately his attention was not the only one to have been drawn ...

"An eye for an eye!" With that cry, a burly wizard lunged for her.

Hermione spun to face the danger. Another cast of Protego knocked her attacker back before he could lay a finger on her.

But he was only one of many. The mob closed in. Her fingers stung when Bellatrix's wand was torn from her grip as a swift Expelliarmus disarmed her before she could try another Shielding Charm.

Slughorn managed to disarm three of the bloodthirsty crowd before his wand was also taken.

Hermione stepped back, but that only pinned her against the cold metal of the gates. No hexes were cast ... could it be that they wanted to tear her apart with their bare hands?

She should let go of Slughorn. Maybe if she did, he'd be in less danger. Yet when she dropped his wrist, he twisted it so that he had a firm hold of her even as he stepped in front of her.

"Leave her alone! Look at yourselves! Attacking an unarmed woman, and a woman who helped Harry Potter..."

Slughorn was cut off by the sick slap of fist against flesh.

Even as hostile hands reached for her, the gates behind Hermione swung open. She fell inside, pulling Slughorn's dazed bulk with her. Familiar hands caught her and dragged them clear as the gates snapped shut, knocking the mob back.

Kingsley stepped forward to relieve Hermione of Slughorn.

Severus shifted his grip on Hermione and wrenched her around to face him. "Idiot girl! If you're part of a mob, blend in with it unless you want to be torn limb from limb." He shook her with every word that passed his lips.

Hermione winced as her body protested the rough treatment. "I tried that and being crushed and asphyxiated instead didn't appeal."

Severus instantly stopped shaking her and gently ran his hands over her body. "Are you all right?"

"I could ask you the same thing." She pointedly looked at his swollen-shut eye and the split lip trickling blood down his chin. "Give me your wand."

"It would have been far worse for me if Lucius hadn't sent a Patronus warning me. That gave me just enough time to call Kingsley; I was in the Atrium waiting for my research team colleagues to arrive." He handed the length of ebony over. "I saw those cowards take yours."

"It was Bellatrix's, so no loss there." She pointed his wand to his eye and then to his lip, healing them as best she could. "Anything else?"

The glint in his eye made it clear exactly what else he had in mind for when they were alone.

"Hey, you two, wait until we're somewhere safer. The new wards in the Atrium mean that no offensive spells can be cast, but they won't last forever when there's Curse Breakers in that mob." Kingsley shepherded them towards the lifts. Once safely inside, he turned to Hermione. "I can understand why you're here, what with the Prophet's front page...although I did hope you'd have more sense than to come to Severus's rescue...but what's Slughorn doing with you?"

"I haven't seen the Prophet yet. What have they done now?" Hermione crossed her arms. Was that infernal newspaper capable of anything good?!

"Ah. Well, that mob was the reaction to it, within minutes of delivery. The charming editors decided to share the blame that belongs to the Wizengamot with Severus."

"Why aren't the Aurors or Magical Law Enforcement up there?" Slughorn asked from where he was propped up against the side of the lift.

"They are." Kingsley sighed. "Problem is that they're part of the mob. Seems they don't want to uphold the Wizengamot's decisions anymore. I wouldn't blame them if not for the fact that they aren't just after the Wizengamot."

"Should I be honoured that they consider me a scapegoat to surpass that august body?" Severus sneered. Hermione tightened her grip on his arm almost unconsciously. No one would be taking him from her if she could help it!

"I don't know, I might match you there," Kingsley grumbled, jabbing his wand against the doors when they threatened to open as the lift briefly halted. "I am the Minister and as such have a seat on that stupid council, too. Oh, and I'm protecting you."

"True enough ... even if I'm the one with the largest target painted on my back, you're standing in the way."

The lift slid to a halt again, but this time Kingsley let the doors open to reveal the familiar corridor that led to both the Department of Mysteries and the courtrooms.

"The silver lining to this mess is that although I only called an emergency meeting just after I got the Prophet, almost everyone will already be here. It'd usually take them at least an hour...nothing like trying to save their own necks to motivate them!"

Kingsley cautiously walked forward, wand in hand. "The mob is still upstairs, but there might be hostile Ministry staff around. Only the actual courtrooms down here have strong defensive wards, but unfortunately the anti-offensive ones haven't been implemented yet."

Still dazed, Slughorn surrendered his wand to Severus, who tried to fall back into rearguard position. Hermione had none of it, slipping past him so that he was with Slughorn in the middle of their squad. His lack of protest was suspicious, though ... It didn't take long for her to realise that Kingsley had somehow shut down the lifts, leaving her position at the back as the safest.

But that would only be the case if no one came out of the Department of Mysteries, Hermione mused as they left that door behind them and swiftly walked downstairs towards the courtrooms. She fingered the line of the scar across her chest, remembering the last time she found herself ambushed in the bowels of the Ministry. Was it too much to hope that Kingsley had somehow managed to lock that door as well? That might explain why Severus hadn't tried to swap places with her.

The corridor seemed even darker and longer than normal, the tense silence only broken by their muffled footsteps. It should have been a relief that they reached Courtroom Ten with no marauding Unspeakables or other Ministry drones swarming. Instead Hermione felt all the jumpier, as both logic and instinct screamed at her that an attack was looming.

Kingsley touched his wand and then his free hand to the door. The wards protecting it appeared as a web of gold, temporarily parting to allow them through as the door swung open.

A forest of wands trembled before them, held by almost universally unsteady hands. They lowered with varying speed as the occupants registered who had entered. Hermione noted with some amusement that Fudge and his cronies almost dropped theirs in their hurry not to risk her wrath.

"I see we are all here," Kingsley boomed, his voice raised over the babble of the assembled Wizengamot. "Good. We can begin."

"Begin what? And we're not all..."

"All those who can come, Fudge. If you haven't noticed, those missing are witches, and I think we can all guess why they are indisposed," scoffed a tall man from beside Kingsley. Hermione recognised him as Kingsley's fellow husband, but couldn't remember his name.

"Enough!" Kingsley ordered, before Fudge could do more than open his mouth to retort. "We are under siege. Unless we want to be torn limb from limb by the mob that will eventually break down that door, we need to come up with something that will pacify them."

"He's the one they want!" cried one of Fudge's cronies, his mouth hidden by a beard that seemed to sprout from his nostrils. He was pointing straight at Severus. Hermione raised her borrowed wand, ready to hex that revolting beard into worms.

Severus laid his hand on her arm and gently made her lower it. "He's not worth it," he whispered, his lips by her ear.

Kingsley stepped between them and the beardy finger-pointer. "Severus may be their named scapegoat, yes, but the Wizengamot do not escape the rightful blame."

"You are meant to be on our side, Minister!" Fudge protested.

"And whose side is that?" snapped a portly man to his left. Fudge stumbled back in shock; Hermione surmised that the speaker must have been one of his cronies. "That Merlin forsaken addendum is why my wife and my daughter are going to miscarry. The only reason I'm not part of that mob upstairs is that I'm one of their targets. If I'm on anyone's side, I'm on hers." He levelled a fat finger at Hermione. "She's got the right idea, getting rid of that stupid law."

Fudge sighed heavily and reluctantly spoke up. "All in favour of revoking the addendum, at least until the plague is no longer a threat?"

Miraculously, all hands raised ... including Fudge's.

"While that might be enough for the enraged public, we're now without a means to repopulate. For the love of Merlin, we're worse off than we were at the start of this mess!" Fudge turned his balding head to Hermione. "I hope you have a viable alternative up your sleeves, young lady."

Incredulity contorted Hermione's features. "In a situation where witches cannot carry a child to term? Are you out of your mind?"

"What about Muggle women?" suggested a wizard too far back in the room for Hermione to make out his face. "I know it's not an ideal solution, what with the Statute of Secrecy, and the fact that they are, well ... Muggles. But they don't fall ill, so if we marry off wizards to them, there will surely be more witches born that way. No miscarriages!"

"Not an ideal solution?" Severus hissed. "It is not a solution at all while there are witches alive. No one will stand for any further interference from you. No man worthy of the word would stand by and do nothing by allowing an established marriage...even one brought about by this body...to be torn asunder."

"But what if the witches are doomed?"

Severus's arms closed around Hermione. "Over my dead body," he snarled. She could feel his words as much as she could hear them. "I will modify the cure successfully. The alternative is unthinkable."

"Of course, of course, I mean, I accept that we cannot ask wizards to abandon their wives, and that you will do your utmost, Master Snape, but we have to plan for the worst. If it comes to pass, we'll need to act to save ourselves or eventually die out too."

"Perhaps we can discuss that at another time," Fudge suggested, eyeing Hermione and Severus. He obviously thought that time should be when they were not present to argue. "The matter at hand, gentlemen. We need more witches. Until our pet Potions Master provides us with healthy mothers-to-be, we need to explore alternatives."

Kingsley's co-husband spoke up. "Let's hear it, Fudge. Your voice is practically oozing smugness. I can only think that you have an idea."

"Indeed I do, it's absurdly simple: we adopt Muggle-born girls under the age of eleven. We can prepare them far better for life in the magical world than their biological parents can. It's the perfect solution. Just as my esteemed colleague said, Muggle women won't be miscarrying."

Ice cold fury chilled Hermione's blood. She wanted to wipe that smug smirk from Fudge's face, preferably by sealing his lips shut permanently. The only silver lining of his abhorrent suggestion was that he'd reminded her of why she'd gone to the Ministry in the first place.

The room had erupted with a chorus of shocked gasps, enraged shouts and sickening applause. Hermione tapped Severus's wand to her throat and cast Sonorus to make herself heard. "Quite apart from the morally abominable idea of taking children from their parents, the only pre-Hogwarts Muggle-borns alive are male. There are no Muggle-born girls younger than twelve." An appalled silence had fallen, allowing Hermione to remove the Amplifying Charm.

"It's true," Slughorn admitted, fulfilling his purpose for being there. Hopefully his probable concussion wouldn't discount his word. "The Book of Names at Hogwarts has recorded the deaths."

Fudge's face was a sickly grey. Sweat beaded his brow, and he sat down heavily where he stood. "Oh, Dolores, how could you ... I trusted ..."

'Umbridge. What does she have to do with this?'

"Spit it out, Fudge. What do you know of this?" Kingsley's voice cut through the rising consternated babble.

"I ... I swear I had no idea ..." he stammered, covering his eyes with a shaking hand.

"Pull yourself together and get to the point," Kingsley snapped.

Fudge flinched. "The Director of St Mungo's is a close personal friend of mine. He was overloaded with work organising the distribution of the cure." His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. "He begged a favour of me by deferring responsibility of distribution to the Muggle-born population to me."

Hermione felt something intangible snap deep inside. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears, her sight fading until Fudge's loathsome face was all she could see. She lunged at him with an incoherent cry of rage, breaking free of Severus's grip.

Before she'd taken one leap, arms closed around her from behind, pinning hers to her sides. She struggled madly, but that only resulted in her being lifted off her feet.

Severus's voice in her ear forestalled any attempts to kick, as she belatedly recognised the arms restraining her. "Much as he deserves it, I will not see you imprisoned for attacking Fudge."

She stopped struggling and fell limp in his arms. She loosened her white-knuckled grip on the wand in her hand, something which all things considered was fortunate that she'd forgotten about. Her throat ached.

"Please don't let go of her," Fudge blurted as Severus set her back down on her feet. As requested, he kept his arms around her. In retrospect, it was just as well he did ...

"Um, so I had responsibility for that, but I'm a busy man at the best of times with my position here, and back then ..." Fudge continued, eyeing Hermione much like a mouse would a cat. "I deferred it to my secretary at the time – and now my wife – Dolores Umbridge-Fudge."

Once more Severus had to hold Hermione back, this time snatching his wand from her fingers as she tried to raise it.

"Let me at him!" She twisted her head to the side to snarl at her husband-come-captor, who shook his head regretfully. She stifled a furious sob and turned back to face Fudge. "How could you put their lives in her hands! Umbridge was responsible for the atrocities of the Muggle-born Registration Committee!"

"She ... she was under the Imperius Curse. She testified as much under Veritaserum!"

"Veritaserum has an antidote and can also be resisted by a sufficiently powerful Occlumens." Severus loosened his grip slightly as if he were considering unleashing her on Fudge for his sheer stupidity.

"Regardless of whether or not she really was under the Imperius then, she was definitely not in this case. Gawain, find Madam Umbridge-Fudge and arrest her." Kingsley ordered, crossing to the door and temporarily lowering the wards for his co-husband to depart. He turned back to Fudge and bound him in silver cords with a flick of his wand. "Cornelius Fudge, you are under arrest for criminal neglect if not outright manslaughter."

The sight of Fudge slumping in resigned acceptance of his fate smothered the fires of Hermione's anger, leaving her hollow. There was no satisfaction to be had when all of the victims were either dead or still dying.

Severus released her from his restraining grip and gently turned her to face him, running his fingers across her cheeks to wipe away the dampness of tears she hadn't even been aware of shedding.

"I need to deal with that mob now that I have the news to pacify them. Severus, do you think you can escort Hermione and Slughorn to my office so that they can Floo out from there? Your colleagues should be able to arrive once I've persuaded our uninvited guests to go home." Kingsley turned back to the door and lowered the wards once more so that they could leave. Once outside, he raised them again.

"Aren't you worried that Fudge's friends will set him free?" Hermione asked.

"No. Apart from the fact that the spell I bound him with can only be removed by my wand, his fair-weather friends won't want to risk going down with him. Some of them are Muggle-born or have a Muggle-born parent, too, so I should be more concerned about whether or not he'll still be in one piece when I get back." Kingsley smiled grimly.

They reached the lift without incident. Kingsley reactivated it, presumably locked back down after Gawain Robards used it, and took them up to Level One.

"Time to handle the mess in the Atrium. Wish me luck!" With that, he sent the lift back down.

Severus led the way to Kingsley's office, passing his wand to Hermione and using Slughorn's again himself.

Hermione slapped her forehead. "Homenum revelio," she murmured, wishing that she'd thought of casting the detection charm during the tense trip through the Ministry dungeons. There were no Ministry staff present. Were they all in the Atrium, or had they deserted their posts out of fear? Whatever the case, they reached Kingsley's office safely.

Severus pressed his hand to the door, which smoothly swung open at the touch, a far more subtle approach than Hermione's last entrance through it.

Beside the fireplace, Slughorn fumbled with the Floo powder, spilling a handful.

Severus cleared his throat and held out the wand in his hands. "Don't you want your wand back, Horace?"

"Oh, yes, much obliged." Slughorn took the wand back and turned to Hermione. "I'll keep my eyes open from now on, I promise. Hogwarts!" He left before Hermione could respond, something she regretted since he had acquitted himself well, both in trying to protect her and in vouching for her.

"What did he mean by that?" Severus asked, his body a comforting warmth against her.

"He hadn't looked in that book at Hogwarts before today. Fudge and Umbridge could have been caught long before now if he'd done his duty. But he is trying to make up for that now, so I don't think it'll help to tar him with the same brush as that horrid pair."

"Incompetent sycophant," he muttered. "Hermione, I ... I had no idea about the Muggle-borns. But I should have known!"

Hermione spun to face him. She took his face in her hands and waited until he reluctantly met her gaze. "It's not your fault. You're not the one whom Kingsley is throwing in Azkaban! You helped make the cure. You're not the one who was meant to make sure everyone who needed it got it."

"I suppose so ... I swear I will make sure that the research team investigates whether Muggle-borns babies can be given the cure, as they are surely still being born."

"Yes, and dying within days. My parents told me about reports in the Muggle news, so I went to Hogwarts to check that it wasn't some sick coincidence. It wasn't. It was Umbridge. Azkaban is too good for her." Hermione's words were muffled against Severus as he pulled her into a fierce embrace.

"Kingsley will make sure justice is served. In the meantime, I will find out if it is safe to give the cure to babies. I don't know, as adapting the dosage of the cure to make it suitable for as many as possible was the responsibility of one of my colleagues."

Hermione lifted her head to share a despairing glance with Severus. Muggle medicines were often unsuitable for children that young, a problem that might well be the case with magical ones too. Worse, even if the cure could be applied safely, the plague might have mutated outside the influence of the cure.

A Ministry memo flew out of the fireplace to be caught by Severus. He skimmed the contents and sighed. "I should go to meet with my colleagues. Will you be all right until I get back tonight?"

"I'll be fine," she stretched up on her tiptoes to give him a quick kiss on the lips. "See you later." She stepped out of his arms, handed his wand back to him and took a handful of Floo powder. "Malfoy Manor!"

* * *

AN: Many thanks to Kribu, Septentrion and JunoMagic for betaing.