All in the Family

Chapter 134: The Other Minister

To reviewer: Thank you so much for your commentary! I hope you continue to enjoy!

Because I have a mild insanity issue, I have decided to redo these books again! Mostly for Remus and Sirius, I have made it my life's mission to write these two in all three stages of their life apparently and have no regrets, but know this next one will absolutely be the last time I have a go at this series and will move on to something else afterwards.

If you have not read The Summoning, I can happily send you PDF copy, but I'm mostly piggy-backing off of that since I agree with 80% of what was written. CoS is in the works with Luna, the Twins, the Trio, and Percy, but it'll be a solo venture quest much like The Summoning, a self contained reading the book in that book. Mostly it'll only exist so I can flex on writing for Luna, something I've always been leery of trying but I won't get another opportunity if I pass up now.

Then Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Sirius, Remus, and Tonks will have their own continuity for 3-7, the books I really want to redo with them.

It'll be a little weird and complicated, but the premise right now is to do it in the original, traditional style of reading the books like The Life that Never Lived, and if you email request I can send you a gmail doc for you to read on that when I post. At the end, I'll delete that and send out PDF copies. People still ask for copies of TLTNL all the time, so I'm mildly confident this should be compatible. If it goes well and enough people are okay with that way, I might even finally go back and do the Percy Jackson and Twilight books like I've always wanted to.

This will not see the light of screen until I finish All in the Family though. If you'd like to see this experiment happen with one of the above mentioned let me know, or there's a poll on my fanfiction profile. Just a little taste of what's to come. Until then, here is this!

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The room felt unbearably cold after their warm sprint through the park. The eight of them shivered and pulled closer together on instinct in the large office as their eyes tracked all around. A marble fireplace was the brightest bit of décor, but unlit, which Lily quickly corrected. It still didn't chase away the chill as Remus uneasily moved the firmly closed curtains to reveal the thin veil of fog against the sash windows, a hazy half moon just visible in the distance hanging over a house.

He swallowed uncomfortably for a wholly other reason as he kept his hand in place and tried to tell himself he was being paranoid for the lingering chill that felt deeper than any cold office. He might not recognize the place they were, but that was surely a Muggle neighborhood, and Dementors wouldn't breed so close to here causing this fog...

Alice squeaked in surprise at the small movement she'd seen, drawing all eyes to an ugly portrait with a muddy background and a frog-like man watching them. He marked the only indication of magic really, and they weren't going to bother asking him much, so it was a surprise when he provided an answer.

"What are you doing in the Prime Minister's office?" He demanded.

"We'd all like to know that," James assured.

"What would Harry be doing in this place?" Lily sighed as she stayed close to the fire.

"I say that's a problem for another day," Sirius grumbled as he made for the door. It opened, thankfully, and the room beyond was much more civil to his current needs. The plush waiting office had several large available couches and an adjacent bathroom as well as a tray of biscuits for whomever was waiting, and he immediately flopped onto the nearest one with exhaustion.

There weren't enough for all of them, but chivalry demanded of the others Alice and Lily get them while the boys got as comfortable as they could on the floor. The girls huffed at this when they saw, Lily flat throwing all but one cushion around the room at nobody in particular in protest and using the lone one as a pillow, Alice abandoning her spot in favor of curling up next to Frank on the floor with thick rugs and freshly cleaned carpet.

"You two alright?" James slurred, already half asleep but still forcing his eyes open to watch as Sirius pulled his shirt off and bunched it up in whatever form of a pillow he could, trying to smirk at Remus who just rolled his eyes, and then rolled over onto his other side. It didn't take a lot of brain power to follow Padfoot at least, ever. He had no shame for the scars on his side nor showing them off whereas Moony would never do the same no matter who knew of his affliction.

"Better than ever Prongs," Sirius chuckled as he flopped back down, keeping his voice low and very glad he'd waited himself now, he wasn't paying attention to a word he was saying his voice slurred with such exhaustion. "You know the miserable git, drama queen he is, terrified to tell anyone what's on his mind, but we're good." The others all probably thought him an arrogant arse for still being the most comfortable on the couch. Evans had distributed those cushions out fairly enough, it's not like he was putting anyone else out but himself.

He sort of regretted it all the same and was forcing himself to be cold up here alone rather than somehow winding up cuddling against Remus again, he really did sleep better that way for some reason and it had happened the past few times he'd been on the floor with him whether he meant to or not.

"Me, drama queen?" He demanded with his back still to them. "Hark, looked in a mirror lately?"

"Every day Remus," Sirius promised, eyeing him a tad in confusion, he sounded more agitated than the joke really called for.

James grinned as he drifted off, his eyes didn't open again for several long hours.

Getting themselves moving was an even worse process than uncomfortably falling asleep like they were, and the fire's warmth did not reach out here, so they all woke up shivering and looking around groggily in the unfamiliar gloom with no one feeling particularly well rested.

Regulus stumbled to his feet and went looking for the book with purpose though. The one time he hadn't really been paying attention to every detail of what had been going on, and they were now going to have to hear the consequences of that until they were free.

It didn't matter Harry had been in the dark and the whole thing had been wholly unsolvable, they'd had the most brutal of rugs pulled out from under them because of it and he would not be caught so ill-prepared again.

He went back into the Prime Minister's office with little sleep still clinging to his eyes and looked around carefully for the dark book that would blend so well in here, he didn't dare try one of those muggle light switches to help along. Instead sitting on the desk amongst paperwork was something slightly new.

The book was gossamer silver now, a little green six on the spine the only marking. He sat in the too-large chair and flipped open to the first chapter title and wondered which Minister was Other in this situation.

That answer was given in the first paragraph as he experienced this war through a Muggle for the first time in his life, their existence had barely been a blip on him before all this, now he read for this new world and their struggles.

It was fascinating really, to have the world contextualized through this other Minister by Fudge, but he stopped in surprise when his successor was announced. The others had come in by then, though nobody was talking for once, it was just warmer in here with that fire going. Lupin was still closest to the window and watching with unease, now they all understood why at least, to keep an eye out for Dementors. Thankfully none were close enough to be of real harm to them so long as he got them out of here fast enough, so he didn't linger on the topic past a feeling of relief this ex-Auror would be better than the last guy.

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Bit of a non-chapter I admit where nothing particularly happens, but I know you're all going to love the next one!