"What do you mean?"
Douglas drew another parchment scroll from his sleeve.
It slid across the gleaming desktop.
It stopped right beside Fudge's hand.
"The position assessment for New Azkaban."
Fudge glanced down at it.
"That's an island labor camp."
"Precisely because it has only just been established."
Douglas guided him along at a leisurely pace.
"It needs absolute order all the more. It needs inviolable standards. It needs rules that allow no exceptions."
"Devising punishments is what Dolores does best, isn't it?"
Fudge followed this line of thought.
"But it's a thankless job. No one wants to manage criminals. Even without the Dementors, no one wants to go."
"That depends entirely on how you dress up the title, Minister."
Douglas rose.
His voice was deeply persuasive.
"This isn't dismissal and exile."
"It's a lateral transfer and a promotion."
"You must tell her that the ground-breaking work of the new policy's first phase has been completed."
"She performed brilliantly in the Hogwarts trial, but encountered a little resistance."
"You don't want her achievements to be buried just like that."
"And now the Ministry of Magic faces a far grander restructuring of its civilized prison management system."
"No one but her is capable of managing New Azkaban with an iron fist."
"Let her step out of the public eye for a while. When the time comes, all her achievements together will be enough to silence everyone."
Fudge listened.
A newfound light dispelled the weariness in his eyes.
The plan was flawless.
It gave Hogwarts an answer and removed the powder keg from the school.
It gave the Ministry of Magic employees an answer too; no one would be hounded by rankings anymore.
Most importantly.
Fudge himself would not have to bow his head and admit fault.
He would even become a