Chapter One Hundred Forty-Five
The Wizengamot
They tortured every inch of me
Then expect me to forget it
They thought that they would finish me
But I pull through every time
(Vengeance is Mine - Alice Cooper)January 16th, 1999She sent the boys to visit Fred and George, knowing that the twins were keen on
having the Marauders advise them on current and future projects they had in the works.
Insisting on staying home, Mia informed everyone that Kingsley was stopping by to answer
a few questions she had in regard to her potential future within the Ministry—something
that she had voiced a curiosity about over the months since her return to 1998. Now that
her grieving period was over and she felt somewhat readjusted to the decade, she was
determined not to sit around the house and hope for projects to fall into her lap.
When the Minister for Magic stepped through the fireplace with a nervous smile,
Mia grinned at him, noting aloud that he very likely had every reason to be at least a little
anxious.
"How did she do it, Kings?" she asked after catching up with him for several
minutes. She refilled his mug of tea, pushing a bottle of firewhisky across the table to him,
should he like a splash.
Kingsley shook his head at the bottle, instead, dumping lump after lump of sugar
in the beverage before stirring it only once and then drinking. Mia tried not to cringe. "She
claimed Imperius, how else?"
"Rubbish," Mia hissed. "You know that's bullshit!"
He inclined his head. "Of course I do, but unfortunately, there's no proof that she
wasn't. Dolores Umbridge claims she doesn't know who cursed her, so there's no way to
trace anything—no wand to investigate. Besides that, she's a member of the Wizengamot.
Granted, not a seat of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, but she was voted in. What's worse is that
she still has friends there. Do you know the kind of hoops you have to jump through to