‘Deep down, Fudge knows Dumbledore's much cleverer than he is

‘Deep down, Fudge knows Dumbledore's much cleverer than he is, a much more powerful wizard, and in the early days of his Ministry he was forever asking Dumbledore for help and advice,’ said Lupin. ‘But it seems he's become fond of power, and much more confident. He loves being Minister for Magic and he's managed to convince himself that he's the clever one and Dumbledore's simply stirring up trouble for the sake of it.’

‘How can he think that?’ said Harry angrily. ‘How can he think Dumbledore would just make it all up—that I'd make it all up?’

‘Because accepting that Voldermort's back would mean trouble like the Ministry hasn't had to cope with for nearly fourteen years,’ said Sirius bitterly. ‘Fudge just can't bring himself to face it. It's so much more comfortable to convince himself Dumbledore's lying to destabilise him.’

‘You see the problem,’ said Lupin. ‘While the Ministry insists there is nothing to fear from Voldemort it's hard to convince people he's back, especially as they really don't want to believe it in the first place. What's more, the Ministry's leaning heavily on the Daily Prophet not to report any of what they're calling Dumbledore's rumour-mongering, so most of the wizarding community are completely unaware anything's happened, and that makes them easy targets for the Death Eaters if they're using the Imperius Curse.’

‘But you're telling people, aren't you?’ said Harry, looking around at Mr. Weasley, Sirius, Bill, Mundungus, Lupin and Tonks. ‘You're letting people know he's back?’

They all smiled humourlessly.

‘Well, as everyone thinks I'm a mad mass-murderer and the Ministry's put a ten thousand Galleon price on my head, I can hardly stroll up the street and start handing out leaflets, can I?’ said Sirius restlessly.

‘And I'm not a very popular dinner guest with most of the community,’ said Lupin. ‘It's an occupational hazard of being a werewolf.’

‘Tonks and Arthur would lose their jobs at the Ministry if they started shooting their mouths off,’ said Sirius, ‘and it's very important for us to have spies inside the Ministry, because you can bet Voldemort will have them.’

‘We've managed to convince a couple of people, though,’ said Mr. Weasley. Tonks here, for one—she's too young to have been in the Order of the Phoenix last time, and having Aurors on our side is a huge advantage— Kingsley Shacklebolt's been a real asset, too; he's in charge of the hunt for Sirius, so he's been feeding the Ministry information that Sirius is in Tibet.’

‘But if none of you are putting the news out that Voldemort's back—’ Harry began.