A Meeting

[acciomod]

In the center of a spacious, circular room that was much too large for it, the grand mahogany desk was obscured by a mass of paperwork that, regardless of its owners efforts, seemed impossible to control. With every attempt that was made to clear it, a new collection of purple paper memos gathered on its surface. Each individual memo bore the label URGENT, regardless of how urgent the contents actually were, making organising them considerably more difficult than it should have been - therefore, simply organising the memos had eaten through the hours of the morning, and minimal work had actually been accomplished. It was little surprise that it was a very exasperated “yes, yes, come in!” that Professor Albus Dumbledore heard before he entered the office.

Cornelius Fudge, Britain's Minister for Magic, made another attempt to organise his in-tray, but the fourteen memos that had followed Professor Dumbledore into the room saw fit to clutter the desk once more. “Ah, Dumbledore. I see you received my letter? I must have missed your reply – very sorry about that – but as you can see...”

“There's no need for apologies, Cornelius,” said Dumbledore, waving a hand and smiling amicably. “I am quite sure that the letter is somewhere on your desk, but I can see quite clearly how it has been misplaced. Do you still wish to speak with me, or have I caught you at a bad time?”

“Well, yes, hm,” Fudge said, clearing his throat. “Yes, now will do nicely, but I'm afraid I'm very busy so it will need to be brief. It's about these, well... these Outsiders, Dumbledore - you've been following it in the Prophet, I assume? - the situation is starting to become unmanageable. I'll run you through the details. Please, take a seat.”

“Still no closer to finding how to stop it, I assume?” Dumbledore said, placing himself neatly in the leather seat. Yes, Fudge noted, he was clearly familiar with the topic. He would have been very surprised if he wasn't – this subject, along with the escape of mass-murderer Sirius Black, was one of great interest for the magical population of Britain. After all, while it wasn't unheard of for people to suddenly appear out of nowhere, it was very strange to have them pop up in such quantity, scattered all across Britain. They were lost, confused, and some of them even claimed to be from another world entirely! Stranger still, many of them used kinds of magic Fudge had never seen before.

Ideally, Fudge considered, it would be the best for everyone if they could find the reason for their appearance, and somehow reverse it. The Outsiders would return to their own homes, and he wouldn't lose sleep over some of the things he had seen them do. Alas, it seemed that it wouldn't be easy.

“Well, it's not for lack of effort,” he said, automatically making an attempt to seat himself, only to find many memos already occupying the space. “We have some of our best on the case, but it's been a month and so far we haven't been able to find the source of the spell, never mind a solution! I dare say we have a long wait ahead of us, and I can't possibly say at this point whether we'll be able to reverse it. Oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself.”

Again, Fudge cleared his throat, taking a moment to organise his thoughts while Dumbledore politely waited.

“Now. To business, Dumbledore. As you've no doubt read, we believe it was an act of Dark Magic that brought them here. That said, as we've had more contact with them, we've found absolutely no reason to suspect them as being dangerous - at least, not the majority. I must admit, there have been a few, ah... incidents, but for the most part they seem quite ordinary, barring a few odd abilities here and there. The biggest problem facing us at the moment has been concealing them from muggles, really. We've got a number of them living in a camp site we established, and I don't regret talking with them last weekend at all. Very enlightening.”

“I see,” Dumbledore said, as Fudge tailed off. “It's good to hear that people have, indeed, turned out to be people. With some of the rumours, I had started to think they might be something else entirely.”

“Yes, I must admit, I had almost thought the same myself,” Fudge answered, the thought only occurring seconds later that Dumbledore - unlike some others in the community who had expressed the same opinion - had not been entirely serious. “However, we do need to resolve some issues. It seems that these Outsiders are all capable of magic, and yet none of them seem to have even the most basic knowledge. Now, I was only there for two hours, but even then I could see that accidental magic was a problem. I hate to bother you with this, Dumbledore, but these Outsiders... well, they need an education.”

It was easy to see where this was leading. “You want them to attend Hogwarts?” Dumbledore asked, his eyebrows raised, saving the Minister the task of elaborating.

“Well, those who are of school age, certainly,” Fudge answered. “I can't think of a better place for them. And for the adults, well, simply a use of the premises would suffice – I'm sure we'll be able to come up with a more suitable course of study. Obviously, we'll inject some more funding into the school to accommodate the new students. If you could consider it...?”

Dumbledore leaned back in the chair, stroking his beard as he considered the proposal. Fudge, unable to guess what he was thinking, feigned reading one of the many memos, barely registering its content until Dumbledore finally spoke.

“I'll take it into consideration, Cornelius, and discuss it with my staff. I'll send a letter to let you know. I think I will use green parchment on this occasion, in the hopes it may help you to keep track.”

Fudge immediately placed the memo back on the desk. He had hoped for a more immediate answer, but at least it wasn't a no.

“Thank you, Dumbledore. That should be fine.”