The Ministry of Magic.
By the time Fudge strolled into the Ministry of Magic for work, Dumbledore had already been waiting in his office for quite some time.
"Dumbledore?"
Fudge jumped, with the same dread a schoolboy felt on seeing his headmaster.
"You... what brings you here?" He looked deeply uneasy as he stiffly placed his bowler hat on the coat rack.
During the month or so that Dumbledore had been gone, Fudge had felt freer than ever before. He no longer needed to seek the other man's advice and could decide every policy himself. To be honest, for the first time since taking office, he truly felt that he was the Minister for Magic.
Before that, he had seemed more like Dumbledore's puppet.
All this time had passed without anything going wrong, hadn't it?
Fudge did not want to see Dumbledore return.
He was actually better off without Dumbledore. Although Malfoy had been the one to drive Dumbledore away, Fudge had now benefited from it himself, so seeing Dumbledore naturally left him feeling a little guilty.
"I've come to collect a few things, Fudge. I believe-Voldemort-"
Fudge paled a little and said shakily, "Could you not mention that name, Dumbledore?"
Dumbledore said sternly, "I know that name left a great deal of terror and death in its wake all those years ago, but now it is merely a name. Fearing it only feeds the fear itself. Nothing good comes of that."
"I, I think we should discuss what you've come here for." Sweat beaded on Fudge's forehead as he skirted the subject.
Dumbledore could only continue, "I wanted to know whether his wand is still being kept at the Ministry of Magic. No one has come here and stolen it, have they?"
The Ministry of Magic had a department