Categories > Books > Harry Potter > MY BUNNY HUTCH
THE DARK LORD VENIFICUS
5 reviewsDefinitely AU! What would happen if Snape convinced Dumbledore to give Harry to him to raise? NOT ‘reformed’ Snape. One-shot
5Original
THE DARK LORD VENIFICUS
Alorkin
Disclaimer: Cherries are red, Kiwi’s are green, I have no money, and suing is mean.
In Legalese, that means I do not own Harry Potter (et al). J. K. Rowling cobbled the first story together, so she claims the largest percentage. Bloomberg and schoolyard press take the next cut, while Paramount Pictures gets another. Me, I have copies of all the books for reference. (Yes, even books six and seven, which I happen to think sucked.)
I also don’t own ‘SEAL TEAM SEVEN’ either. That belongs to Keith Douglass
A/N: As with all my fics, this is dedicated to my late sister, FireLemming, for her beta work. She didn't even follow the Harry Potter fandom, preferring TLK, and yet, would take time to offer much needed (and often unappreciated) critical advice. Having an expert on literature, the English language, Mythology and anthropology, leaning over your shoulder making snarky comments about your writing can be a pain, but it does cut down on research time.
Synopsis: Snape convinced Dumbledore that Lily is adopted and therefore the blood protections he’d had in mind wouldn’t work. Instead, he offers to take Harry in himself, and vows to ‘treat him properly’. Dumbledore buys it. This is based entirely upon Snape’s canon personality.
“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…And the Dark Lord shall mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not…And either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives. The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord will be born as the seventh month dies…”
November 2nd 1981
On the day after the dark lord had fallen, Dumbledore was preparing to deliver the child of prophecy unto the hands of abusive animals. It had taken nearly ten hours to bind the child’s rather considerable magic, and another five to establish the ‘somewhat-less-than-effective’ blood wards around the Dursley home which would ensure the boy grew up in deprivation and torment, and now, he simply had to wait for mid-night, and the closing moments of Samhain.
Unbeknownst to the duplicitous old man, Sybill was delivering another prophecy.
“Beware of great treachery. The dark lord shall rise again, and be supplanted by another, greater and more terrible than before. The chosen one must be protected ere the world falls to the dark.”
Albus Dumbledore was about to bring the boy to his stooge, Hagrid, intending for the gentle giant to deliver the boy to his relatives. It wouldn’t do to be seen kidnapping the child now would it? A quick adjustment of the giant oaf’s memory and he would only remember having pulled the boy from the burning cottage and delivering him to Surrey. He’d have to deal with Black soon enough, but that was a task for another day.
His ruminations came to a halt as the black-clad potions master stepped into his path.
“Headmaster, your plan will not work.”
“Of course it will, my boy. Harry’s family will protect him, and keep him ignorant of his heritage until I allow him to return to the wizarding world.”
“It will not work because the child has no family.” He lied easily. “Lily was adopted.”
“I beg your pardon?” Dumbledore was flabbergasted.
“Lily was adopted.” Snape repeated his lie. He’d learnt long before to lie with a straight face…and better still, with sufficient evidence in his head that anyone taking a peek, as both the dark lord and the headmaster were wont to do, would convince themselves of his ‘truth’. “She was of no blood relation to Petunia Dursley.”
“Adopted, you say?”
“Indeed. I saw the papers myself. When we were thirteen, Petunia was trying to provoke Lily to anger, in order to have her punished, and she brought out the adoption paperwork. Lily was adopted at about two years of age, by the Evans family.”
“Oh Dear! Thank you my boy. I cannot say how vulnerable Harry would have been without those protections. Perhaps the Weasleys could…”
“The Weasleys have too many as it is. Mrs. Weasley is due to deliver a seventh…a girl this time, if I am not mistaken. She will have no time for an orphaned child. Let me take him. I will offer you my vow that he will be treated properly.”
“Severus….” Dumbledore began. “I am not unaware of your antipathy towards James Potter. Surely you don’t think I would allow you to…”
“Harry…” Snape interrupted…” Inwardly he was fighting to control his expression of disgust. “…is Lily’s child as well. What’s more, through my mother, we are more closely related than the Weasley’s, Bones’, Abbott’s, Diggory’s or Brown’s. The only ones more closely related would be Narcissa and Draco Malfoy, or Bellatrix Lestrange, as they share a common ancestor in Cygnus Black, the elder.”
“Oh dear. It would be most unfortunate should he fall into their hands.”
“Indeed.”
“What of Andromeda Tonks?”
“She and her husband are out of the country on a holiday. They are due to return just before the winter break.”
“No, that’s far too long…”
“I agree. I shall take the child and raise him in the manner you intended. Moreover, I offer this vow; I Severus Tobias Snape, do hereby swear on my life and my magic that I will treat Harry Potter properly. I will raise him to fulfill his destiny in the manner you intend.” Since Snape knew Albus intended to sacrifice Harry to eliminate Voldemort completely, he had no problem with the vow. As for treating him properly…well dogs had to be shown their places didn’t they?
Unfortunately, Dumbledore had always thought the best of those around him.
“Very well I shall place him in your keeping. Since you will have your hands full with Harry, I suppose I should retain Horace as Potions Master.”
“He is one of the most skilled potions masters in the world.”
Dumbledore handed the sleeping child to the Death Eater and returned to his office, feeling inordinately pleased with himself for avoiding such a disastrous complication. With Severus to raise the boy, he’d be ready for Albus’ masterful plan when he came to Hogwarts.
What he didn’t’ know was that Snape had other plans in mind.
******
November 16th 1981 Malfoy Manor
“Master.” Snape knelt before the roiling black phantasm. “I have the key to your return!”
“And what is that key, my faithful servant?”
“Harry Potter.”
“He lives?” Voldemort’s shade was astounded.
“He does. However, there is a ritual requiring the bone of the father, the flesh of a servant and the blood of an enemy. And a rather complex potion to tie them together. that ritual will return you to your body and then you may take your revenge.”
“How long before it is ready?”
“We have several months. The ritual must be performed on the summer Solstice.”
“Aah, yes. The time when the darkness conquers the light. How fitting.”
“Indeed.”
“Can you have the potion ready? I do not relish the idea of remaining in this form for longer than I have to.”
“It will be ready. There are other ways to stabilise your…essence, as it were.”
“And those methods are…?”
‘The most efficacious one would be to perform another ritual. First, we must locate a newborn magical child, kill his mother and force his soul from his body, leaving yours free to inhabit that body…but it must be done immediately upon birth.”
“Is there such a child available?”
“Indeed. Several families are due within the next few months. The one closest would the Creevey’s, a muggle couple descended from the Gryffidor line.”
“A mudblood?” Voldemort spat, furious that any servant of his would dare to suggest such a thing.
“Descended from the Gryffindor line.”
******
June 21st 1982 Little Hangelton
Harry wailed in fear as Severus dropped him onto the altar. “Be silent you stupid bastard! I cannot abide your caterwauling!” He swung his fist hard enough to knock the baby out. There was nothing in the ritual that required the child to be awake, after all. Turning to his accomplice, he spoke in his softly dangerous tones. “The master will be most pleased with your cooperation. We each have our parts to play. Now, the potion is ready. Have you everything you need?”
“Y…yes, Severus.” Wormtail gingerly held the bundled creature. They’d taken the muggleborn child and killed everyone in the delivery room, before performing the evil rite to force the babe’s soul out and Voldemort’s in. With all the death around, the transfer was simplicity itself. Dennis Creevey had ‘died’ before he was named.
Snape took over once more, nodding his head to prepare the homunculus for immersion.
“Good. Be ready.”
As the moon hit its zenith, he began the ritual.
“Now.” He ordered.
Wormtail eased the disgusting thing into the cauldron. It settled to the bottom of the cauldron with a soft thump. Severus was thinking ~A shame he won’t drown; but then, his soul would be freed and I’d have to do this again.~
Flicking his wand at the grave marked ‘TOM RIDDLE’, he cast a spell and cracks appeared in the decades-old mound of earth.
“Bone of the father, unknowingly taken, you will renew your son!” A gesture with his wand, and a fine sprinkling of duet rose from the newly opened fissures over the grave.
The dust fell softly into the cauldron; the potion instantly became a poisonous blue and its diamond-like surface roiled and spat, and sparks of eldritch fire flew every which way.
“Now, Wormtail!”
Peter approached the cauldron. “F…flesh…of the servant… w…willingly given, you will revive your master.” He couldn’t stifle the scream of pain as, with a swift stroke, he cleaved off his hand. The severed appendage fell into the cauldron with a sickening splat.
The hissing, spitting potion became a brilliant red, blinding anyone foolish enough to look. Wormtail staggered back far enough for Severus to complete the ritual.
“Blood of my enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe. With a nasty smile, he plunged the dagger into Harry’s chest, stilling the heart within forever. Cutting the babe’s throat and holding the still-twitching corpse upside down, he shook the boy allowing his blood to flow into the cauldron. Done, he cast the body aside like a gnawed bone.
The Potion became a blinding diamond white.
Then it grew quiet. The potion stopped its hissing, spitting fulminations. Both Death Eaters waited.
******
A surge of steam so thick neither terrorist could se a yard in front of them erupted from the cauldron.
In the mist, a skeletally thin body rose from the cauldron.
Lord Voldemort had arisen.
“Robe me!” He commanded.
With a whispered curse, Peter died. Turning to Voldemort, he said; “Your time has gone. Avada Kedavra!” and the shocked Lord Voldemort fell backwards into death.
******
June 22nd 1982 Hogwarts School.
Albus Dumbledore was enjoying his tea, when a knock came at his door.
“Enter”
In stepped the very last person he thought to see. Severus Snape. The man had a grim smile on his face.
“Aah! Severus. How is Young Harry?”
“See for yourself.” He reached into the bag he carried, withdrew the baby’s corpse. And flung it onto the headmaster’s desk.
Dumbledore was so shocked he missed the ‘Incarcerous’ Snape cast.
“Severus!” He exclaimed. “What have you done?”
“I have taken my revenge on James Potter. He was cruel to me, and so, I was cruel to his spawn.” He smiled a vicious smile.
“How could you? Harry was as much Lily’s child as James’. You gave me a vow to treat him properly.”
“I’ll get over it. As for the vow, I treated him as he should have been treated…as a worthless mongrel! I knew you meant to sacrifice the brat to destroy the dark lord. I merely did it a bit sooner than you intended. By the way, you won’t be needing this.” He reached into the headmaster’s robes and pulled out the Elder wand.
“I am now master of the Deathstick…and the new Dark Lord. Say good-bye old man. Avada Kedavra!”
And thus, began Severus Snape’s reign of terror. Whole families were wiped out, starting with every one of Dumbledore’s supporters, he’d killed the Weasleys personally, and followed by all the mugglebornes in Britain. Those of the Death Eaters who’d escaped prison faced a choice. Swear an oath of fealty to Snape or their families would die, root and stalk.
******
Four years later, Liam O’ Lorcáin, a first generation mage, attached to SEAL team seven, waited on a rooftop in Diagon Alley. They had been tasked for this mission when the British Government in exile had requested aid from the United States. Next to him were two of his teammates. The other four were waiting on the rooftops across the alley. Seven deadly assassins, who’d been assigned to deal with this dark lord. Each held their weapons ready. Below him and in front of the closed goblin bank across the square, a stage had been set up.
And it began. Lucius Malfoy ascended the platform and called out, “All kneel and bow your heads before his Excellency, the dark lord, Venificus!” He turned to the side and dropped to one knee as a dark haired man with a roman nose climbed the steps. Liam looked closely at the man’s face until he was certain it was his target. It was. The tiny mark just at his hairline, burnt into his forehead by a marking laser the year before, was clearly visible.
He triggered his microphone and whispered; “Target confirmed. We have a green light.”
Two clicks answered.
He sighted on the dark man’s head and stroked the trigger. His weapon bucked with a sharp crack. Half a second later accompanying cracks sounded from the two rooftops. In his sight, he watched the dark mans’ head explode, before he turned to the next black clad terrorist…the blond. Aiming and shooting again he shifted to another target. Within thirty seconds it was over. Fifty-one terrorists were dead, and the British army, had blown the gateway from the Leaky Cauldron and were storming down the alley.
The Ministry of Magic was overrun at the same time, with a casualty count of seventy three. Not all were Death Eaters, but such collateral damage was to be expected. St. Mungo’s hospital lost the fewest. Only twenty two. Fortunately all but five were Death Eaters. Hogwarts had evicted Snape and all the students when he attempted to make it his base of operations. Those students who’d survived had either fled the country or had been schooled in the ‘authorized indoctrination facilities’ Snape had designed. It would take another eight years to purge the students there of the controlling potions and the long-term behavioral compulsions. Half would die in the process.
On the authority of King Charles, all treaties were declared void, and the Ministry of Magic became just another part of the crown’s government.
FINI
Alorkin
Disclaimer: Cherries are red, Kiwi’s are green, I have no money, and suing is mean.
In Legalese, that means I do not own Harry Potter (et al). J. K. Rowling cobbled the first story together, so she claims the largest percentage. Bloomberg and schoolyard press take the next cut, while Paramount Pictures gets another. Me, I have copies of all the books for reference. (Yes, even books six and seven, which I happen to think sucked.)
I also don’t own ‘SEAL TEAM SEVEN’ either. That belongs to Keith Douglass
A/N: As with all my fics, this is dedicated to my late sister, FireLemming, for her beta work. She didn't even follow the Harry Potter fandom, preferring TLK, and yet, would take time to offer much needed (and often unappreciated) critical advice. Having an expert on literature, the English language, Mythology and anthropology, leaning over your shoulder making snarky comments about your writing can be a pain, but it does cut down on research time.
Synopsis: Snape convinced Dumbledore that Lily is adopted and therefore the blood protections he’d had in mind wouldn’t work. Instead, he offers to take Harry in himself, and vows to ‘treat him properly’. Dumbledore buys it. This is based entirely upon Snape’s canon personality.
“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…And the Dark Lord shall mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not…And either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives. The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord will be born as the seventh month dies…”
November 2nd 1981
On the day after the dark lord had fallen, Dumbledore was preparing to deliver the child of prophecy unto the hands of abusive animals. It had taken nearly ten hours to bind the child’s rather considerable magic, and another five to establish the ‘somewhat-less-than-effective’ blood wards around the Dursley home which would ensure the boy grew up in deprivation and torment, and now, he simply had to wait for mid-night, and the closing moments of Samhain.
Unbeknownst to the duplicitous old man, Sybill was delivering another prophecy.
“Beware of great treachery. The dark lord shall rise again, and be supplanted by another, greater and more terrible than before. The chosen one must be protected ere the world falls to the dark.”
Albus Dumbledore was about to bring the boy to his stooge, Hagrid, intending for the gentle giant to deliver the boy to his relatives. It wouldn’t do to be seen kidnapping the child now would it? A quick adjustment of the giant oaf’s memory and he would only remember having pulled the boy from the burning cottage and delivering him to Surrey. He’d have to deal with Black soon enough, but that was a task for another day.
His ruminations came to a halt as the black-clad potions master stepped into his path.
“Headmaster, your plan will not work.”
“Of course it will, my boy. Harry’s family will protect him, and keep him ignorant of his heritage until I allow him to return to the wizarding world.”
“It will not work because the child has no family.” He lied easily. “Lily was adopted.”
“I beg your pardon?” Dumbledore was flabbergasted.
“Lily was adopted.” Snape repeated his lie. He’d learnt long before to lie with a straight face…and better still, with sufficient evidence in his head that anyone taking a peek, as both the dark lord and the headmaster were wont to do, would convince themselves of his ‘truth’. “She was of no blood relation to Petunia Dursley.”
“Adopted, you say?”
“Indeed. I saw the papers myself. When we were thirteen, Petunia was trying to provoke Lily to anger, in order to have her punished, and she brought out the adoption paperwork. Lily was adopted at about two years of age, by the Evans family.”
“Oh Dear! Thank you my boy. I cannot say how vulnerable Harry would have been without those protections. Perhaps the Weasleys could…”
“The Weasleys have too many as it is. Mrs. Weasley is due to deliver a seventh…a girl this time, if I am not mistaken. She will have no time for an orphaned child. Let me take him. I will offer you my vow that he will be treated properly.”
“Severus….” Dumbledore began. “I am not unaware of your antipathy towards James Potter. Surely you don’t think I would allow you to…”
“Harry…” Snape interrupted…” Inwardly he was fighting to control his expression of disgust. “…is Lily’s child as well. What’s more, through my mother, we are more closely related than the Weasley’s, Bones’, Abbott’s, Diggory’s or Brown’s. The only ones more closely related would be Narcissa and Draco Malfoy, or Bellatrix Lestrange, as they share a common ancestor in Cygnus Black, the elder.”
“Oh dear. It would be most unfortunate should he fall into their hands.”
“Indeed.”
“What of Andromeda Tonks?”
“She and her husband are out of the country on a holiday. They are due to return just before the winter break.”
“No, that’s far too long…”
“I agree. I shall take the child and raise him in the manner you intended. Moreover, I offer this vow; I Severus Tobias Snape, do hereby swear on my life and my magic that I will treat Harry Potter properly. I will raise him to fulfill his destiny in the manner you intend.” Since Snape knew Albus intended to sacrifice Harry to eliminate Voldemort completely, he had no problem with the vow. As for treating him properly…well dogs had to be shown their places didn’t they?
Unfortunately, Dumbledore had always thought the best of those around him.
“Very well I shall place him in your keeping. Since you will have your hands full with Harry, I suppose I should retain Horace as Potions Master.”
“He is one of the most skilled potions masters in the world.”
Dumbledore handed the sleeping child to the Death Eater and returned to his office, feeling inordinately pleased with himself for avoiding such a disastrous complication. With Severus to raise the boy, he’d be ready for Albus’ masterful plan when he came to Hogwarts.
What he didn’t’ know was that Snape had other plans in mind.
******
November 16th 1981 Malfoy Manor
“Master.” Snape knelt before the roiling black phantasm. “I have the key to your return!”
“And what is that key, my faithful servant?”
“Harry Potter.”
“He lives?” Voldemort’s shade was astounded.
“He does. However, there is a ritual requiring the bone of the father, the flesh of a servant and the blood of an enemy. And a rather complex potion to tie them together. that ritual will return you to your body and then you may take your revenge.”
“How long before it is ready?”
“We have several months. The ritual must be performed on the summer Solstice.”
“Aah, yes. The time when the darkness conquers the light. How fitting.”
“Indeed.”
“Can you have the potion ready? I do not relish the idea of remaining in this form for longer than I have to.”
“It will be ready. There are other ways to stabilise your…essence, as it were.”
“And those methods are…?”
‘The most efficacious one would be to perform another ritual. First, we must locate a newborn magical child, kill his mother and force his soul from his body, leaving yours free to inhabit that body…but it must be done immediately upon birth.”
“Is there such a child available?”
“Indeed. Several families are due within the next few months. The one closest would the Creevey’s, a muggle couple descended from the Gryffidor line.”
“A mudblood?” Voldemort spat, furious that any servant of his would dare to suggest such a thing.
“Descended from the Gryffindor line.”
******
June 21st 1982 Little Hangelton
Harry wailed in fear as Severus dropped him onto the altar. “Be silent you stupid bastard! I cannot abide your caterwauling!” He swung his fist hard enough to knock the baby out. There was nothing in the ritual that required the child to be awake, after all. Turning to his accomplice, he spoke in his softly dangerous tones. “The master will be most pleased with your cooperation. We each have our parts to play. Now, the potion is ready. Have you everything you need?”
“Y…yes, Severus.” Wormtail gingerly held the bundled creature. They’d taken the muggleborn child and killed everyone in the delivery room, before performing the evil rite to force the babe’s soul out and Voldemort’s in. With all the death around, the transfer was simplicity itself. Dennis Creevey had ‘died’ before he was named.
Snape took over once more, nodding his head to prepare the homunculus for immersion.
“Good. Be ready.”
As the moon hit its zenith, he began the ritual.
“Now.” He ordered.
Wormtail eased the disgusting thing into the cauldron. It settled to the bottom of the cauldron with a soft thump. Severus was thinking ~A shame he won’t drown; but then, his soul would be freed and I’d have to do this again.~
Flicking his wand at the grave marked ‘TOM RIDDLE’, he cast a spell and cracks appeared in the decades-old mound of earth.
“Bone of the father, unknowingly taken, you will renew your son!” A gesture with his wand, and a fine sprinkling of duet rose from the newly opened fissures over the grave.
The dust fell softly into the cauldron; the potion instantly became a poisonous blue and its diamond-like surface roiled and spat, and sparks of eldritch fire flew every which way.
“Now, Wormtail!”
Peter approached the cauldron. “F…flesh…of the servant… w…willingly given, you will revive your master.” He couldn’t stifle the scream of pain as, with a swift stroke, he cleaved off his hand. The severed appendage fell into the cauldron with a sickening splat.
The hissing, spitting potion became a brilliant red, blinding anyone foolish enough to look. Wormtail staggered back far enough for Severus to complete the ritual.
“Blood of my enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe. With a nasty smile, he plunged the dagger into Harry’s chest, stilling the heart within forever. Cutting the babe’s throat and holding the still-twitching corpse upside down, he shook the boy allowing his blood to flow into the cauldron. Done, he cast the body aside like a gnawed bone.
The Potion became a blinding diamond white.
Then it grew quiet. The potion stopped its hissing, spitting fulminations. Both Death Eaters waited.
******
A surge of steam so thick neither terrorist could se a yard in front of them erupted from the cauldron.
In the mist, a skeletally thin body rose from the cauldron.
Lord Voldemort had arisen.
“Robe me!” He commanded.
With a whispered curse, Peter died. Turning to Voldemort, he said; “Your time has gone. Avada Kedavra!” and the shocked Lord Voldemort fell backwards into death.
******
June 22nd 1982 Hogwarts School.
Albus Dumbledore was enjoying his tea, when a knock came at his door.
“Enter”
In stepped the very last person he thought to see. Severus Snape. The man had a grim smile on his face.
“Aah! Severus. How is Young Harry?”
“See for yourself.” He reached into the bag he carried, withdrew the baby’s corpse. And flung it onto the headmaster’s desk.
Dumbledore was so shocked he missed the ‘Incarcerous’ Snape cast.
“Severus!” He exclaimed. “What have you done?”
“I have taken my revenge on James Potter. He was cruel to me, and so, I was cruel to his spawn.” He smiled a vicious smile.
“How could you? Harry was as much Lily’s child as James’. You gave me a vow to treat him properly.”
“I’ll get over it. As for the vow, I treated him as he should have been treated…as a worthless mongrel! I knew you meant to sacrifice the brat to destroy the dark lord. I merely did it a bit sooner than you intended. By the way, you won’t be needing this.” He reached into the headmaster’s robes and pulled out the Elder wand.
“I am now master of the Deathstick…and the new Dark Lord. Say good-bye old man. Avada Kedavra!”
And thus, began Severus Snape’s reign of terror. Whole families were wiped out, starting with every one of Dumbledore’s supporters, he’d killed the Weasleys personally, and followed by all the mugglebornes in Britain. Those of the Death Eaters who’d escaped prison faced a choice. Swear an oath of fealty to Snape or their families would die, root and stalk.
******
Four years later, Liam O’ Lorcáin, a first generation mage, attached to SEAL team seven, waited on a rooftop in Diagon Alley. They had been tasked for this mission when the British Government in exile had requested aid from the United States. Next to him were two of his teammates. The other four were waiting on the rooftops across the alley. Seven deadly assassins, who’d been assigned to deal with this dark lord. Each held their weapons ready. Below him and in front of the closed goblin bank across the square, a stage had been set up.
And it began. Lucius Malfoy ascended the platform and called out, “All kneel and bow your heads before his Excellency, the dark lord, Venificus!” He turned to the side and dropped to one knee as a dark haired man with a roman nose climbed the steps. Liam looked closely at the man’s face until he was certain it was his target. It was. The tiny mark just at his hairline, burnt into his forehead by a marking laser the year before, was clearly visible.
He triggered his microphone and whispered; “Target confirmed. We have a green light.”
Two clicks answered.
He sighted on the dark man’s head and stroked the trigger. His weapon bucked with a sharp crack. Half a second later accompanying cracks sounded from the two rooftops. In his sight, he watched the dark mans’ head explode, before he turned to the next black clad terrorist…the blond. Aiming and shooting again he shifted to another target. Within thirty seconds it was over. Fifty-one terrorists were dead, and the British army, had blown the gateway from the Leaky Cauldron and were storming down the alley.
The Ministry of Magic was overrun at the same time, with a casualty count of seventy three. Not all were Death Eaters, but such collateral damage was to be expected. St. Mungo’s hospital lost the fewest. Only twenty two. Fortunately all but five were Death Eaters. Hogwarts had evicted Snape and all the students when he attempted to make it his base of operations. Those students who’d survived had either fled the country or had been schooled in the ‘authorized indoctrination facilities’ Snape had designed. It would take another eight years to purge the students there of the controlling potions and the long-term behavioral compulsions. Half would die in the process.
On the authority of King Charles, all treaties were declared void, and the Ministry of Magic became just another part of the crown’s government.
FINI
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