An Ally

Chapter 18

The next few months passed in a blur for Harry. The death eaters had been keeping true to the plan and the general populace was livid at the ministry for dragging their feet over keeping their laws updated for the times. Lucius was getting a lot of good attention-he knew how to play the newspapers well. He gave just enough information to enrage people, and then would placate them by suggesting new ideas. Press conferences were becoming more frequent and the Order of the Phoenix was quiet. A week before Christmas, Severus stepped forward at their meeting to inform them that the order planned on pushing for Alastor Moody to become Minister-apparently Moody was just as annoyed by this as Tom was.

"My Lord, this could work in our favor," Harry cut Tom off in one of his infamous rants. "Think of it: their one salvation for this situation is to put "Mad Eye" Moody as the minister. An ex-auror who, although effective, had very...interesting ways of getting things done. Nothing he does is ever done safely or by the books. Head of the Aurors, maybe. But something tells me he wouldn't maintain the position for long. After all, he had it once before for a single year before he retired. I don't think he wants to be minister. Too many rules and too many eyes watching his every move. Besides, parents remember him teaching their children about the Unforgivable curses by example. I'm not sure he'll be any good for their side and frankly, he just might make himself seem to be the worse option so he doesn't have to outright tell them no." Tom sat back in his chair, thinking. The death eaters sat there, stunned.

"That's a good point. It's settled then. We'll allow this to continue from them. The longer they think we don't know, the better. Now with that out of the way I want you, Lucius, to start pushing new ideas, new laws, and more regulations. Hold several conferences with the board for parents at the school and go over the findings that the ministry uncovered with a fine tooth comb. Suggest laws and ideas that would prevent such transgressions in the future. And include the muggle parents as well. If they can see more involvement with the school, then it will make the transition easier for everyone involved. I think the muggles have a resentment towards us for being excluded from the school and I'd like to remedy that."

The rest of the meeting they went over laws to prevent abusive home situations and even more laws were discussed to bring the old ones up to date. Harry stifled a yawn behind his hand after another hour and stood. The death eater that had been talking cut off his own sentence and watched him.

"I grow tired of hearing about this." He bent down and kissed Tom, leaving the older man slightly breathless with shock. "Come to me when you tire of these old men, My Lord." He winked and sauntered from the room, leaving Tom highly aroused and everyone else speechless.

The days were spent learning with Tom. By now, he was properly caught up with the rest of where he should be and at the pace he was going, he would be completely prepared for his OWLS before testing commenced at the school. They had decided that he would go to the ministry for his tests in the spring and would see how he felt about returning to Hogwarts for his sixth year. Although Harry missed a few of his friends, he felt entirely too betrayed by most to return to the castle for that long.

Nights were a little more complicated. Harry attended meetings less frequently as they were full of law debates and as such he spent those nights in the library where he would spread out his books and study. On the nights Tom was free, he spent most of his time exploring Tom's lower body. He was usually indifferent to touching Tom's erection, but he loved the way Tom's breath would hitch ever so slightly. He enjoyed watching the man shiver and try to hold himself still. Mostly, he loved getting Tom to blush and stammer. It was so infrequent that the blushing happened, and even less so the hesitation with his words. It was his goal to get Tom to start mixing up his languages mid-sentence.