Chapter 88: Stupid yet effective

It was the evening of the same day when Tom received Hermione's letter and currently, he and Natasha were sitting in the woods near Fudge's house, right at the edge of the wards covering it while Tom was studying them and trying to make a sort of a counterspell.

Unfortunately, as much as Tom hated having to get his hands dirty, Fudge's latest stunt in the newspaper forced his hand to get unpleasant.

The man practically denounced Tom and Natasha, using the fact they crippled over ten of 'children' from noble houses, to turn the public opinion against them. He launched a vicious anti-propaganda against them.

It was both too retarded for Tom to predict and would be effective to a fault if left alone for long enough.

It was retarded because while the article tried to be very covert about 'why' and 'how' exactly these noble 'children' get into a fight against Tom and Natasha, practically everyone who bothered to really think about it would realize it was these 'victims' who attacked the Quidditch World Cup and that the Ministry was now defending them.

It was already public knowledge that most of the attackers were crippled before they were forced to run away. Tom checked yesterday's Daily Prophet to make sure he didn't miss anything, only to find out that Fudge and the Ministry used his victory over the rioters and took the credit for it.

According to them, it was the valiant effort of the Ministry Aurors that repelled these fiends...

Yet, a group of crippled young adults from the dark families whose members have been confirmed Death Eaters who barely got off from being sent to Azkaban by pleading the Imperius turned out to become crippled just as the Daily Prophet declared that the same happened to the rioters.

It couldn't get more obvious and Tom was flabbergasted that Fudge would do something this stupid. It was as if the man was purposefully trying to destroy his chances to be re-elected. Tom really wondered how big of a bribe Fudge was offered for this.

But the wizarding stupidity did not end there. The Daily Prophet literally gain-said itself by first proclaiming it was the Aurors who stopped the rioters, only to next day proclaim that it was Tom and Natasha, the foreigners, who fought these 'victims', telling the same story differently.

And yet, Tom couldn't help but think it was a very good counter-move against them. After all, the British wizards were just a bunch of foolish sheep who believed everything written in the Daily Prophet rag.

The problem was that the whole set-up stank of Malfoy and that man definitely knew about the mentality of the British wizards and was milking it to his advantage to the extreme.

If Tom was like Harry Potter and just passively took the reputation spanking, with enough time, these articles could totally turn the public opinion against him and Natasha.

That would not be the end of the world for them, but it would really definitely make their life in the Wizarding Community much harder and Tom knew that would be just the beginning. Malfoy was trying to get some ground, so to speak, and this was just an opening volley.

For example, later on, the public could be riled up enough to demand Tom's and Natasha's arrest, which would force the Ministry to act and the whole thing could evolve into a nasty conflict where Tom would either be forced to leave the Wizarding Community for good, or he would start a bloody conflict.

A conflict that would be risking other supernatural factions getting involved because they definitely would.

No matter how isolationist the Wizarding Communities were, the wider supernatural factions would not just stand idly by if some non-wizard started warring in these communities. There was a balance between the factions to consider and many more things that could and would screw Tom over just because he was a foreigner in this faction.

Malfoy would not even have to try plotting in that direction. Hell, he probably wasn't even aware of the existence of other supernatural factions. Yet, if he took his plans in this direction it would have had very uncomfortable effects on Tom's long-term plans.

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Of course, there were tens of other ways Malfoy could play this game if his opening volley was successful but that was neither here nor there. Letting him snowball this in any direction would make Tom's life uncomfortable so he decided a drastic countermove was the way to go.

Tom doubted the blonde rat himself had any idea about exactly how friggin' effective this move of his was but damn... it showed Tom he should not underestimate the wizards too much despite the fact he was much more magically powerful.

"I am almost finished. Are you ready?" Tom asked Natasha, not looking away from his tinkering with Fudge's wards.

It was almost ridiculously easy, if a tad bit too expensive, to get the Minister's address from the goblins. This was the reason why Tom didn't want to buy a house through Gringotts.

All it took for him was to walk in, have a brief chat with his account manager and pay a few tens of thousands of Galleons, and voila, Tom knew where Fudge lived and even got an overview of all the wards the goblins installed on his property.

"I am good to go." Natasha, clad in a skin-tight suit that allowed her to use her flexibility to the extreme, nodded. She had her equipment all ready, checked, and rechecked. She was ready for this 'mission' of hers.

To be honest, she doubted it would be hard. It seemed to be just a standard infiltration. Nothing too excessive. Her target was not even a military fortress but a normal house guarded by a few armed individuals.

Not that she would drop her guard or underestimate her opponents. She just didn't think she needed Tom to fuse so much about it. This was the tenth time in the last half an hour he worried about her.

As cute as it was at the beginning, Natasha was starting to get exasperated.

"Okay." Tom involuntarily smiled, recognizing the twinge of irritation in Natasha's tone. He just couldn't help himself but worry for her safety. Extending one of his hands in her direction, Tom asked for her hand, "Paw."

Natasha rolled her eyes at him and gave her right hand into his, and watched as Tom started to weave a magical symbol on the top of her hand.

"This rune will ensure the wards will recognize you as a registered individual and your presence won't make the alarms go crazy." Tom looked at Natasha with a serious expression, "But be careful. Because of how the wards are set up, I can't interweave any defensive rune on you because it could intervene and-"

He didn't get to finish and Natasha sprang forward and kissed him, stopping his rambling.

Their tongues sluggishly yet eagerly rubbed against each other for a few seconds before Natasha reluctantly pulled away, "I will be fine. Have some trust in me." She said with slightly labored breathing and a small coy smile.

Tom wanted to protest but in the end, he could only wryly smile back and nod at her. He was not trained for infiltration so he would only be in the way if he tried to go with her.

"Good luck and don't hesitate." He worriedly squeezed her hand before letting go.

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