Just like Brothers

Chapter 114

"Sirius has a cousin?" Harry asked.

"Yeah," Ginny grinned, "unless they're pulling everyone's leg, but I don't think so. Apparently she's good friends with Charlie, they were in the same year at Hogwarts...oh! Bill is here too."

"Bills here?" Harry's eyebrows raised, "what about his job?"

"He's transferring to a desk job at Gringotts," Ginny said, "he's looking for a flat, says he wants to be closer to home and be more hands on with the Order."

"He's in the Order?"

"So is Charlie," Ginny said, "but apparently Dumbledore wants to recruit more international wizards so Charlie is staying in Romania to recruit on his off days."

"And Percy?"

Ginny stopped and spun around, "nobody told you?"

"Told me what?" Harry frowned.

"Dad and Perce got in a mad row." Ginny pursed her lips, "right before we came here actually, you see, Percy's got a promotion at the Ministry."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

Ginny shook her head. "It was bad, I've never seen Dad row with anyone like that. It's normally Mum who shouts."

"But what about the whole Crouch situation?" Harry asked. If he recalled correctly, Percy had become very unpopular very quickly in the Ministry as he hadn't realized that his boss was being controlled by Voldemort. Not that the Ministry would confess that of course, they all reckoned Crouch had just gone absolutely nutters.

"Yeah, we were all surprised," said George, who came out of the bathroom as they walked by, "because Percy got into a load of trouble about Crouch, there was an inquiry and everything. They said Percy ought to have realized Crouch was off his rocker and informed a superior. But you know Percy, Crouch left him in charge, he wasn't going to complain."

"So how come they promoted him?"

"That's exactly what we wondered," George said. "He came home really pleased with himself, even more pleased than usual if you can imagine that.  He told Dad he'd been offered a position in Fudge's own office. A really good one for someone only a year out of Hogwarts - Junior Assistant to the Minister. He expected Dad to be all impressed, I think."

"Spoiler, he wasn't." Ginny said miserably.

"Why not?" Harry frowned.

"Well, apparently Fudge has been storming round the Ministry checking that nobody's having any contact with Dumbledore, his name's mud with the Ministry these days, see," said George. "They all think he's just making trouble saying You-Know-Who's back. Dad says Fudge has made it clear that anyone who's in league with Dumbledore can clear out their desks."

"They don't like Dumbledore?" Harry frowned, "shite, they really do have me living under a rock here."

"Yeah," Ginny said, "you missed Dumbledore's speech after everything happened. He told the whole school that Voldemort was back, pissed off the Ministry a whole ton with that one."

"Trouble is, Fudge suspects Dad, he knows he's friendly with Dumbledore, and he's always thought Dad's a bit of a weirdo because of his Muggle obsession -" George started.

"But what's this got to do with Percy?" asked Harry, confused.

"I'm coming to that. Dad reckons Fudge only wants Percy in his office because he wants to use him to spy on the family, and Dumbledore."

Harry let out a low whistle. "Bet Percy loved that."

Ginny laughed in a hollow sort of way. "He went completely berserk. He said...well, he said loads of terrible stuff. He said he's been having to struggle against Dad's lousy reputation ever since he joined the Ministry and that Dad's got no ambition and that's why we've always been - you know - poor."