120 Azkaban Pt.4

"I am fine with going back." Draco said.

Fudge wasn't even here for checking on the prisoners, so he was glad to leave this hell of a place. He had to tell a lot of lies to get here alone with Draco, without being escorted by the Aurors and to add to that, he was sure there will be some questions and doubts raised on some of those suspicious old timers.

As they were returning back, without Fudge noticing, Draco quickly shoot something from his hand. A letter came flying out of his pocket as soon as Draco touched it and escaped far away from them. Fudge wasn't able to notice anything and as for the Dementors, they were as good as blind.

"I can't understand you." Fudge suddenly said, "But now everything is over isn't it?"

"If you're talking about your deals, then yes." Draco said, "As long as you don't speak out that is..."

"Seriously what do you think of me... no that's not even that important." Fudge said, "Why are you doing all this? Do you think controlling me is equivalent to controlling--"

"Controlling the ministry? No." Draco cut Fudge off, "If it was, would blackmailing you be so simple?"

"Sigh, I just hope that the deal between us is over and your father carries on the promise he gave me."

"Don't worry, we will support you as the minister as long as we can." Draco said, "I can give you my word on that, as for the other families, we can control them for now as long as you don't go out of control and sign one of those weird laws again, trying to suppress us... cause if you do that, then even I wouldn't be able to save you as most of your funding comes from us, you wouldn't be able to continue on long, since now you lack public support as well."

"I know what to do." Fudge said grimly as they turned a corner when suddenly a dementor came flying near them, leaving a mist of cold air around them.

"Really annoying," Draco said looking at the back of the dementor, "I am still amazed that it doesn't attack us."

"Well, how do you think that we can work with them till now."

"But do you really think you can trust them?" Draco said, "They are dark creatures in the end, after all."

"You sound like Dumbledore and those others who think they are a nuisance." Fudge said, "But you've got nothing to really worry about, we've got everything under control. They are intelligent creatures you know."

"Sure you do." Draco murmured rolling his eyes.

"Did you say something?"

"Nothing." Draco said, "I was just wondering which one them is stronger, a Dementor or a Lethifold."

Draco always had this question in his mind ever since he got a Lethifold. Both of them are similarly alike, as they are both dark creatures and the only way of defeating them is the Patronus charm. Dementor attacked openly with the sole purpose of sucking someone's light and happiness from them. They can glide toward a victim without sound, and they are sentient enough to taste and sense fear, being drawn to it and the promise of positive memories that they can feed off of. They are also intelligent enough to be greedy and understand basic human language. They hunt in groups rather than alone surrounding an enemy by cutting off all their exits and going in for the attack.

Lethifold, on the other hand, is very similar, in fact, they are probably as intelligent as Dementors but unlike the Dementors, they tend to attack alone. They are intelligent enough to use their body as a disguise like hiding themselves as curtains and go in for attacks when the victim isn't noticing. Unlike the Dementors, they eat a person whole, slowly killing them by suffocating.

Draco couldn't decide which one was worse, to die a slow and painful death or to live like an empty shell after you get the Dementor's kiss. Draco wanted to do further research on the Lethifold but without learning the Patronus charm fully, letting the Lethifold out of its cage wasn't a good idea.

Fudge didn't answer Draco's question as he looked at him with uneasiness, he didn't speak to him till they got out of the prison. After they got out, they quickly apparated to a nearby Island and from a small trip through fireplace to the Atrium, located on level 8, they were back again inside the ministry.

"It's good to see you, Lucius." Suddenly a man called out as Fudge and Draco were getting out of the fireplace, "Oh, the Minister is with you as well."

Draco was surprised for a second but then remembered that he was still in the disguise as Lucius. Draco didn't say anything to the man as the other party kept waiting for a response.

"We are a bit busy right now, we will talk to later Mr. Smith." Fudge said. Draco nodded in response to that and left towards Fudge office leaving the man behind in daze.

Draco took out a small flask and drank the rest of the Polyjuice potion, "I nearly forgot about my disguise."

"Well, you've got to keep that in check." Fudge grumbled, "So this is it, isn't it?"

"I have something else to talk to you about." Draco said.

"What is it again?"

"Is your memory really that bad or did you really forget about my wand." Draco said in a cold voice.

"Oh that, let's talk about that in my office." Fudge said.

Both of them entered Fudge's office, which was located on Level 1. Draco hadn't been here before and truth be told it was nothing special as it looked like any other wizards office, just bigger and a bit luxurious.

"About your wand, I did get the news but I couldn't do anything about it as it lies a bit away from my jurisdiction." Fudge said sitting on his chair preparing tea for himself, "Tea?" he asked.

"I am fine." Draco said sitting on the chair opposite of Fudge, "You should know my circumstances don't you?"

"It's the same thing I explained to your father, that day." Fudge said, "It's really not possible for me to interfere much on it, especially since I've already reduced as much pressure on you as I can. Laws are made for equality and with the other masses being dominant we can't treat you differently as you said before, the public opinion of me isn't really good right now. Along with that, about your circumstances, the thing is solved with Pius dying, isn't it?"

"Pius was more like a warning for me to stay aware of my surrounding." Draco said, "And can you guarantee that another Pius won't come up."

"Pius was an unexpected factor, no one believed that he would go rogue and believe us, when I say that, we've caught everyone working with him." Fudge said, "I can give you my personal guarantee that things like this wouldn't happen again, in fact, weren't you living at peace before this happened?"

"What about other factors like, you-know-who?"

Fudge narrowed his eyes as he put his cup down, "He's dead and he isn't coming back so don't even worry about him."

Draco noticed the bit of fear in his eyes as he calmed his guard down a bit. "I need you to tell me where my wand is?"

"Why would you even need to know that?" Fudge said, "Besides when the ban is over, we will hand your wand over to you."

"I am not sure, I can trust the ministry fully," Draco said rolling his eyes, "And you know that I don't have to explain why either."

"Sigh! The wands safe in a vault." Fudge said, "I can assure you that no one can touch your wand. In fact, I can give it to you right now."

Fudge stood up and walked deeper inside his office and came out with a box in his hands. Draco confused looked at him weirdly as he put the box on the table.

"What is this?"

"It's your wand of course." Fudge said. "As my sign of trust, I will return it to you."

"So you had it all along with you and you still played naive?"

"Not really." Fudge said, "You'll see why in a bit."