But Draco murmured into his ear, "Mother and Father have to agree on all spending decisions," and Harry nodded. Fudge was probably upset at the idea that Mother wouldn't agree to spend bribery money on the Minister anymore if he damaged her son.
"It was—it was just to add drama! We didn't mean to make Mr. Malfoy fear anything, of course!" Fudge looked around as if hoping the audience had stopped watching him and gone back to the lake, but he was the focus of many interested eyes. "I promise, the children are going to be absolutely fine!"
Harry frowned. "They'd better be."
"And that includes my own darling child," Mother added, stepping around Fudge to draw Harry into a tight embrace.
"For shame, Cornelius," Father said, only lowering his voice a little. Harry was sure that everyone in the audience could still hear. "I thought better of you. Putting a Muggleborn child under the water without bothering to contact her parents? That goes against everything progressive we stand for."
Harry thought it was a good thing Mother was hugging him, so no one else would see him goggling. What the hell.
"We, ah," Fudge said, and stared at Father in a kind of horrified fascination. "We do, Lucius?"
"Of course." Father stood tall and proud, and just happened to draw his sleeve away from his left arm to bare it. "I have come to realize that some people had good reason to doubt my claim of being under the Imperius Curse during the war with You-Know-Who. After all, I hardly did anything to make up for the atrocities I committed under that curse, did I? I did not distance myself from known Death Eaters. My own dear sister-in-law was one."
Harry shivered. He had heard just enough about Bellatrix Lestrange to know he never wanted to meet her in person.
"Of course," Fudge mumbled. "So you're, ah, doing something to distance yourself now?"
Father nodded. "I mistakenly expected the people around me to pick up on my change of heart without actions to prove it. I realize, now, that this seemed like equivocation. And I will be moving to demonstrate my true beliefs in the coming months."
Harry peeked around Mother. Draco was goggling, too. Harry bit his lip savagely so he wouldn't laugh.
"How is that, Lucius?" Fudge yanked on his collar again.
"We can discuss it further when we have more time," Father said, and stepped back to stand beside Mother again, subtly escorting Draco along so they were together as a family. "For the moment, I appreciate that we are to watch the Second Task, and that we have taken more than enough of the audience's time."
Harry didn't mind being escorted to the stands this time, either, but whispered to Mother on the way, "Do you think I have to participate more than that? Jump in the lake or something?"
"The Task was to seek your friend," Mother said. "You looked for him, ascertained where he was, and made an effort at rescuing him. It is not your fault that the Ministry was so determined to have the Task take place that they did not remove him from the waters."
It seemed the Goblet of Fire agreed, because Harry could still cast Warming Charms as they waited for the Champions to come back to the surface.
Delacour was first, empty-handed and crying. Mother translated the French for him in a whisper, and Harry winced at the thought that her little sister was under the water. He really might not have been able to stop himself from participating if they'd taken Draco.
And it sounded like Delacour's sister was really young, maybe ten or so. Harry shuddered. Why was this stupid Tournament so important that they had to do that?
Krum floated up a minute before the hour was up, carrying Hermione. She started to cough and choke the minute her head was above the water. Diggory showed up a few minutes later, with a girl in his arms whom Harry vaguely remembered as Cho Chang, Ravenclaw's Seeker. Probably Diggory's girlfriend.
Fudge stepped to the edge of the water and nervously cleared his throat as he looked in Harry's direction. However, before he could say anything, Ron's head surfaced. Harry saw a glimpse of a scaley arm shoving him from below. Beside him was a little silver-haired girl Delacour immediately embraced. Harry looked at her carefully, and saw that she appeared whole and healthy, although she was crying, along with her sister.
....
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