Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own Harry Potter. JKR won't sell.

(Note, this story picks up in Goblet of Fire, after Fudge has refused to believe Dumbledore or Harry about Voldemort's return)

You Owe Me!

[Fudge] had almost reached the door when he paused. He turned around, strode back down the dormitory, and stopped at Harry's bed.

'Your winnings,' he said shortly, taking a large bag of gold out of his pocket, and dropping it onto Harry's bedside table.

'One thousand Galleons. There should have been a presentation ceremony, but in the circumstances…'

He crammed his bowler had onto his head, and turned to leave once again.

Harry scowled. Here he was having risked life and limb to return to Hogwarts to raise the alarm about Voldemort's rebirth, and the Minister of Magic himself was refusing to believe him. He was not going to stand for that, not with how the incompetence of the Ministry as a whole had screwed him over this year.

Before anyone could stop him, Harry had grabbed the bag of Galleons from his bedside table, swung it around and hurled it at Fudge.

During Quidditch practice, one of Oliver Wood's preferred warm-up methods was to have the team fly in a circle and throw the Quaffle to each other. Over the years Harry had developed an excellent aim with his right arm, and those with him in the Hospital Wing got a front row view of this as the bag of Galleons pelted through the air and thwacked Fudge in the back of the head just as he was reaching for the door handle.

Fudge's bowler hat was sent flying, and Fudge himself stumbled painfully into the door.

"Harry!"

Despite Hermione's cry of protest, Harry threw himself out of bed. He pushed his way past McGonagall, Dumbledore, Snape and Madam Pomfrey and advanced on Fudge as the Minister staggered back to his feet.

The Minister turned to see what had happened, and got a close-range view of what a pissed off Harry Potter looked like.

Harry grabbed Fudge by the front of his robes and shoved the man up against the door frame.

"You listen to me you pompous buffoon!" Harry growled "It might have escaped your memory, but you owe me. The day I got this," he pointed to the scar on his forehead "was the day that the incompetent band of morons you call a governing body had their collective arses saved. Until that fateful night when Voldemort came for me and my parents, the bloody Ministry was running around clueless and scared. Another couple of months, perhaps even a few weeks and you would have fallen to him. Without me, Voldemort would never have fallen the first time and you would currently be under his rule, had he not decided to kill you earlier.

"So far this crappy world has done little to pay me back for that, so you will start now. You will send a team of Aurors to the graveyard in Little Hangleton. That is where the Tri-Wizard cup took Cedric and I. You will send Aurors after Lucius Malfoy, Goyle, Crabbe, Nott, Avery and Walden Macnair. I don't care what they claimed in their trials thirteen years ago, and I don't care how much money they've donated to 'very good causes', you will dose each of them with veritaserum and find out exactly where they were tonight.

"If you are so certain that I am wrong, then you won't mind going through the proper channels to prove it, will you?"

Fudge, who just moments ago and ranted and raged against Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape now looked pale and frightened, possibly due to the amount of anger that Harry was radiating.

Harry released his grip on Fudge's robes and snarled "Go."

Fudge did not need telling twice. The dishevelled looking Minister forced the door open as hard as he could and ran for it, leaving his bowling had behind on the floor.

Harry watched him go and then turned to look at the others with a large smile on his face "I feel better for that."

Ron, Bill, Molly, Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall were all looking rather shocked. Snape was once again wearing his trademark sneer.

Hermione actually looked rather proud, which was odd considering her usual respect and reverence of authority figures. Then again, her respect for figures within the Ministry of Magic had taken repeated hammer blows this past year, first with Crouch and Diggory at the World Cup, Crouch and Bagman at the start of the tournament, Bagman during the tournament and now Fudge.

Dumbledore, however, looked grave.

"Harry, you may just have brought the full force of the Ministry down upon you."

"Or given it the kick up the arse it has needed for years." retorted Harry.

Fudge arrived at the Ministry. His first inclination had been to send as many Aurors as possible to arrest Harry Potter for assaulting him, but he soon realised that that would lead to mass amounts of public outcry. There were no witnesses to it who would side with Fudge.

So Fudge decided on a different approach; he would do exactly as Harry said. He would send Aurors to Little Hangleton. He would bring Lucius and the others in for questioning. And in that way he would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt just who was telling the truth.

HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED RETURNS!

Unspeakables find evidence of Dark Ritual that returned him to life.

PETER PETTIGREW CAPTURED ALIVE!

Sirius Black's guilt called into question.

TOURNAMENT TRADEGY RESULT OF POLYJUICED DEATH EATER!

Defence Professor imitated by Azkaban escapee, Barty Crouch Jr.

MALFOY, MACNAIR AND NOTT IN SHOCK ARRESTS!

Minister orders former friends to be locked up.

FUDGE PRAISED FOR QUICK ACTION!

Minister ordered arrests within hours.

AURORS SWOOP ON HOMES OF SUSPECTED DEATH EATERS!

Crabbe, Goyle, Avery and Carrows among those who have been brought in.

CHAMPION DIGGORY HONOURED AT HOGWARTS!

Fellow competitors salute fallen rival.

Those were just some of the headlines of the pages of the Daily Prophet during the final week of the school term. Fudge had received a nasty shock when the Aurors returned from Little Hangleton having arrested the supposedly dead Peter Pettigrew. That certainly gave credibility to the story had told Fudge the previous year.

The Aurors also brought the charred remains of a giant snake and the bodies of three fellow Aurors. Lord Voldemort himself had killed them before disapparating.

Following that, Fudge had given Amelia Bones, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement specific orders to "Leave no stone unturned."

Amelia did just that, starting with the questioning of Lucius Malfoy, Walden Macnair and Thaddeus Nott. Under the effects of Veritaserum, the three men had confessed everything to the entire Wizengamot. Fudge had been furious and demanded that the trio be pumped for names, dates and locations; nothing was too small or insignificant.

More and more Death Eaters were arrested and sent to Azkaban. Those already in Azkaban were questioned further. They got more names and locations. They got more times and dates. They discovered the importance (but not the purpose) of a locket, a ring a diadem and a cup. All four were located and destroyed.

By the time Harry Potter and his friends were getting ready to return to Hogwarts for their fifth year, Sirius Black was exonerated, a dozen Death Eaters and their sympathisers were in Azkaban and the finances of their families were in tatters after Fudge ordered them to pay court expenses out of their own pockets before fining them significant amounts of gold for wearing Voldemort's make. Rather sensibly the money from those hefty fines went straight into the budgets of the DMLE, giving the department a massive boost in funding to spend on protective clothing and the like.

Voldemort was still alive, but his power base was crippled. With his forces scattered, his Horcruxes gone and with no access to any money, Voldemort was forced to lay low. He hated it, but he was an egotistical megalomaniac, not stupid.

Strangely, about a year and a half later, just three days before Christmas, the Ministry detected a strong burst of magical energy originating in the Cairngorms mountain range in Scotland. Upon investigation a group of Aurors came across the charred remains of Voldemort.

To this day no one knows what killed him. Surely the fact that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger had been standing under a piece of mistletoe, with Hermione placing a kiss on Harry's cursed scar at the exact same moment as the magical explosion occurred is just a coincidence… right?

Oh, and for those of you who are wondering, Hermione was too busy watching Harry yell at Fudge to notice Rita Skeeter in her beetle form, but a Magpie did. And one Dolores Umbridge fell down some stairs and broke her neck. Neither would ever bother the world again.

A/N: Not my best work, I know, but it's okay for a one shot. I keep getting ideas for these "what Harry should have done" stories (see Hijacking the Kangaroo Court and Harry's had Enough for other examples). This idea pretty much started off with Harry throwing the bag of gold back at Fudge and evolved from there. Hope you enjoyed it.