Mr. Weasley broke off in mid-sentence.

Mr. Weasley broke off in mid-sentence. They had just reached the ninth-level corridor and Cornelius Fudge was standing a few feet away from them, talking quietly to a tall man with sleek blond hair and a pointed, pale face.

The second man turned at the sound of their footsteps. He, too, broke off in mid-conversation, his cold grey eyes narrowed and fixed upon Harry's face.

‘Well, well, well ... Patronus Potter,’ said Lucius Malfoy coolly.

Harry felt winded, as though he had just walked into something solid. He had last seen those cold grey eyes through slits in a Death Eater's hood, and last heard that man's voice jeering in a dark graveyard while Lord Voldemort tortured him. Harry could not believe that Lucius Malfoy dared look him in the face; he could not believe that he was here, in the Ministry of Magic, or that Cornelius Fudge was talking to him, when Harry had told Fudge mere weeks ago that Malfoy was a Death Eater.

‘The Minister was just telling me about your lucky escape, Potter,’ drawled Mr. Malfoy. ‘Quite astonishing, the way you continue to wriggle out of very tight holes.... Snakelike, in fact...’

Mr. Weasley gripped Harry's shoulder in warning.

‘Yeah,’ said Harry, ‘yeah, I'm good at escaping.’

Lucius Malfoy raised his eyes to Mr. Weasley's face.

‘And Arthur Weasley too! What are you doing here, Arthur?’

‘I work here,’ said Mr. Weasley curtly.

‘Not here, surely?’ said Mr. Malfoy, raising his eyebrows and glancing towards the door over Mr. Weasley's shoulder. ‘I thought you were up on the second floor.... Don't you do something that involves sneaking Muggle artefacts home and bewitching them?’

‘No,’ Mr. Weasley snapped, his fingers now biting into Harry's shoulder.

‘What areyou doing here, anyway?’ Harry asked Lucius Malfoy.

‘I don't think private matters between myself and the Minister are any concern of yours, Potter,’ said Malfoy, smoothing the front of his robes. Harry distinctly heard the gentle clinking of what sounded like a full pocket of gold. ‘Really, just because you are Dumbledore's favourite boy, you must not expect the same indulgence from the rest of us.... Shall we go up to your office, then, Minister?’

‘Certainly,’ said Fudge, turning his back on Harry and Mr. Weasley. ‘This way, Lucius.’

They strode off together, talking in low voices. Mr. Weasley did not let go of Harry's shoulder until they had disappeared into the lift.

‘Why wasn't he waiting outside Fudge's office if they've got business to do together?’ Harry burst out furiously. ‘What was he doing down here?’

‘Trying to sneak down to the courtroom, if you ask me,’ said Mr. Weasley, looking extremely agitated and glancing over his shoulder as though making sure they could not be overheard. ‘Trying to find out whether you'd been expelled or not. I'll leave a note for Dumbledore when I drop you off, he ought to know Malfoy's been talking to Fudge again.’

‘What private business have they got together, anyway?’

‘Gold, I expect,’ said Mr. Weasley angrily. ‘Malfoy's been giving generously to all sorts of things for years.... Gets him in with the right people ... then he can ask favours ... delay laws he doesn't want passed... Oh, he's very well-connected, Lucius Malfoy....’

The lift arrived; it was empty except for a flock of memos that flapped around Mr. Weasley's head as he pressed the button for the Atrium and the doors clanged shut. He waved them away irritably.

‘Mr. Weasley,’ said Harry slowly, ‘if Fudge is meeting Death Eaters like Malfoy, if he's seeing them alone, how do we know they haven't put the Imperius Curse on him?’