Categories > Books > Harry Potter > The Slayer, The Avatar And The Guardian Of Light
Chapter 51 - The Peoples Champion
Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 27h August 2001 AD
Country: France - The French Riviera - Marseeleveyre Mountains
Location: Chateau Delacour
Time: Morning
The next day when Harry and Fleur came down to breakfast they were greeted by a grinning Dimitri.
"What?" Harry asked worriedly.
The elder man just smiled and handed them a French paper.
The front cover was dominate by a picture of the Granger's street, the Dark Mark hung in the air above it, the cloaked figures of the Death Eaters and their group fighting in the background and the masked form of Harry in the foreground, sword in one hand while casting a wandless (or so it appeared) spell with the other, the pair looked down at the article.
MASKED HERO DEFEATS DEATH EATERS
Yesterday disaster almost struck Wizarding Britain as the home of Muggle-Born Hermione Granger, one of the brightest students at Hogwarts, one of those from the British Ministry when You-Know-Who tried to break into the Department of Mysteries and close friend of the famous Harry Potter was attacked by Death Eaters along with the homes of all the other students at the Ministry that day, save Harry Potter himself whose whereabouts are still unknown.
While the mass attack itself is worthy of the front page, the events at the Grangers House were even more extraordinary, the following extract is Miss Granger's description of the battle given to a fellow reporter:
"It started off as a perfectly ordinary day when all of a sudden the alarm signal from the wards sounded (Miss Granger informed me that Albus Dumbledore himself had erected wards around their house to protect them from such an attack), taking my wand I ran to the window and saw over a dozen Death Eaters attacking the wards. Running downstairs my parents (Muggle's) and I prepared to defend ourselves when the wards fell (they were only designed to hold until help could arrive), due to their numbers the wards went down very rapidly and we were forced to fight."
Miss Granger and her parents managed to take down most of the dozen using her wand and various Muggle household devices until the Death Eaters gained entrance to the house by blasting the front wall apart.
"I got thrown back down the hall by the force of the explosion (my parents by this point had moved to the upstairs windows to give them more than one target to worry about and had been throwing knifes at them), when I got to my feet I was surrounded by four Death Eaters (others had arrived during the battle), one disarmed me before I got the chance to fire. I though that was it, my parents were probably dead and I was about to die at the end of my own wand. I closed my eyes waiting for the end when a strange thing happened. I heard the Death Eater begin to cast the killing curse, I moved to attack him but when I knocked him to the ground I was shocked to see that he had been decapitated, turning around I saw that the other Death Eaters were also dead, their blood was sprayed all over myself, the hall and the robes of my saviour."
"Standing in their place was a masked stranger with a sword, he asked if I was alright, told me he was a friend and handed me the wands of the dead Death Eaters before running out of the house towards the sounds of battle, I followed him an came face to face with an extraordinary sight, the Death Eaters were engaged in battle with the masked figure and four others wearing cloaks."
"I had no idea who my saviours were but I was not about to start asking questions, they were badly out numbered but despite this they were easily the more skilled fighters, one was deflecting spells with a strong shield with one hand while he used the other to fire back at a large group of Death Eaters, he was doing both wandlessly, the others cloaked figures were all using wands but were still very skilled, but most terrifying was the masked figure himself, he was casting spells wandlessly and was wielding a deadly pair of swords without mercy and with an incredible speed and manoeuvrability."
According to the eyewitness reports from Mr Bill Weasley of Gringotts and Auror Nymphadora Tonks (who arrived shortly after in response to the ward alarms) Miss Granger, her parents and the five strangers had managed to take down almost twenty five Death Eaters by themselves, only leaving a couple for the pair to deal with, but what happened next was the most surprising event of the day.
"When we believed we had defeated them all, a single Death Eater jumped out from cover and tried to attack the masked figure, firing a blast of fire at him. The figure brought his swords up to block the flame but far from being burnt the fire separated over his swords and just wafted over him as if it were no more than smoke, he was completely unharmed and to my knowledge he did not use any magic to protect himself from the attack."
"Before anyone could react the Death Eater summoned me to him and used me as a human shield, but my father hit him over the back of the head with a golf club (a long thin metal Muggle club that is used to hit a ball over a distance) and I was able to incapacitate him. Just after that the Aurors started to appear and our five saviours Apparated out."
It had taken the Aurors (with the exception of Auror Tonks who had been of duty) almost twenty five minutes to arrive; this reporter wonders if the British Aurors are always this incompetent or whether they would have responded quicker if Miss Granger were not a Muggle-Born.
At the same time as the Grangers were attacked, so were the homes of all the other students present at the Ministry:
Ronald Weasley
Ginevra Weasley
Neville Longbottom
Luna Lovegood
Harry Potter is not among this number as he is still missing and who the British Ministry have still proven unable to locate.
Luckily none of these attacks were successful either due to the skill of the defenders or the incompetence of the Death Eaters for attacking homes where the residence were not even home. This reporter wonders how desperate He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named must be if he considers five children to be a threat worthy of being attacked by over seventy Death Eaters, over half of whom are now deceased or in British Ministry custody but after this debacle how long do we think it will be before they escape. The British Minister of Magic has failed to comment on the slackness of the British Aurors. Amelia Bones, the Head of Magical Law Enforcement in Wizarding Britain is reported to be furious at the incompetence of her Aurors and has ordered a full enquiry.
Luckily for us it seems that we have a Hero to protect us, to whoever the masked stranger was who saved the Granger's, you have this supporters thanks.
"That's even better than I hoped." Grinned Harry.
"It gets better Arry." Smiled Fleur as she flipped through the paper "There are three pages on the incompetence of the British Ministry, one on your friend's background, another on the attack at the Ministry and another on the details of the attack at The Burrow and the other homes."
"That's just the French papers;" added Dimitri "The British ones are slaughtering Voldemort and Fudge. That was an excellent idea Harry, to ask Miss Tonks to get Miss Granger to talk to the press about what happened."
"We had a message from Miss Tonks earlier," explained Delphine as she entered "Apparently the Quibbler's yearly profits more than doubled overnight with all the British and international papers buying pensive recordings of the interview from them. Miss Tonks will be coming around in a few minutes to tell us what the Order and The Ministry have done."
"No she wont, she will be coming over now." Grinned the Auror as she walked into the room, her hair now a vivid blue "Wotcher Harry."
"Hey Nymph." He grinned back happily, waiting for her inevitable reaction.
She stopped and scowled at him "Watch it mister, Bill barely gets away with calling me that, I don't recommend you do it again....or you will be on the receiving end of an Aurors wand."
"Only if you can catch me." He grinned back "How hard was it to convince Hermione?"
"Very easy actually, she already thought of the idea and was going to visit the Lovegood's when I arrived; she liked the idea of the Ministry actually doing something about V....Vold....Voldemort....as well, not to mention the fact that she wanted to show the world that Muggle-Born's are more than a match for Pure-Bloods."
"I should have guessed," smiled Harry "What's the news from the Ministry?"
"Fudge is flailing around like one of Hagrid's Blast-Ended Skrewt's on its back, yesterday he charged into the D.M.L.E...."
"Pardon?" asked Fleur.
"The Department of Magical Law Enforcement," she explained "Where was I?....Oh yes, he barged in and tried to fire anyone that couldn't explain yesterday's embarrassment, he only stopped when Madam Bones stormed out of her office and informed him very loudly and firmly that he could not fire Aurors without her permission and if he didn't leave immediately she would have him charged with harassment and attempted wrongful dismissal, she then added that if he tried to have her fired for contradicting him she would also sue for wrongful dismissal and she would ask for a complete investigation into the Ministers Office by the Wizengamot." Tonks paused for a moment as she resisted the urge to laugh "You should have seen his face, bright puce, I don't think I have ever seen him more scared in my entire life."
"Blimey, I wish I had seen it, why was he so scared of an enquiry?" Harry asked.
"There have been many rumours surrounding Fudge, especially his association with people like Lucius Malfoy, but unfortunately the Director does not have enough evidence to conduct such an enquiry without risking her position and reputation if he turns out to be clean, which I doubt, at the moment it is more of a standing threat."
"Do we know why the Aurors took so long to respond?"
"Well, when a large concentration of spells is used the Ministry has detectors that pick them up but either they didn't go off, they were sabotaged or the Auror watching them was a Death Eater sympathisers or just didn't care because she was a Muggle-Born."
"If itz not caring or the alarmz not going off then vhy didn't they react to the attacks on the otherz?" asked Fleur
"Well the Lovegood's and Longbottom's only had a couple of spells cast at each location as there were no fights and The Burrow is under heavy wards so they would not be able to detect the attack as we tricked the Death Eaters by letting them through the wards then closing them behind them leaving them trapped, if it was sympathisers or not caring then they wont be Aurors very long, Madam Bones is probably the most respected member of the Ministry."
"And for good reason," contributed Dimitri "She's a very good Department Head, very honest, reliable and firm, not to mention intelligent, its impossible to pull the wool over her eyes, that's why she was appointed as Acting Head of the British Wizengamot when Dumbledore was removed from the position."
"Do you think she would join us?" asked Harry.
"No," replied Dimitri and Tonks simultaneously.
"Definitely not, she does things officially," explained Tonks "She would probably agree with our cause but would not openly support us, but if you want an ally in the Ministry and the Wizengamot she's the one to have."
________________________________________________________________________
Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 27h August 2001 AD
Country: England - London
Location: Ministry Of Magic - Head Of Magical Law Enforcement's Office
Time: Afternoon
Madam Bones was fuming; Fudge had been stalking around her department since the Granger incident and he was getting right up her nose, if he tried to fire one more of her Aurors or one of her normal Magical Law Enforcement Officer's (L.E.O's)she would use her wand to expel him.
The only good thing about the last twenty four hours was that now ever single member of the Ministry knew NEVER to get on her bad side, not many people had ever stood up to the Minister and even fewer had done so and kept their jobs. Now they all knew that she was a definite force to be reckoned with, or rather even more so than ever before.
She had just interrogated the L.E.O. who had been watching the Mass Magic Detectors (MMD's), he had been stunned and the alarms disabled; he had taken no part in the sabotage, after over forty years as an Auror and five as the Head of the Magical Law Enforcement she could tell when someone was lying and when they were not, also the fact that he was very new and terrified that he was about to lose his job was a fairly good indicator. There was also no evidence of memory charms so they were completely lost as to whom had sabotaged the detection systems, but rest assured there would be hell to pay when she found out.
The papers were investigating every aspect of the Granger Attack and luckily she wasn't in the firing line yet, her reputation for discipline and efficiency were protecting her but she knew it would not be long before a squirming Fudge pointed the finger at her and she would need a very good answer as to what happened.
It would be even better if she could discover the identity of the hero of the hour but she had even less idea as to his or her identity than she did to the MMD problem.
There was a knock at her door.
"Enter."
"Professor Dumbledore's here to see you." Explained her secretary.
Amelia inwardly groaned.
Brilliant, just brilliant, as if she did not have enough problems. The old man mighty be a very powerful ally but she always got worried when he came to visit in person, it never meant anything good.
"Show him in." she sighed.
"Good afternoon Amelia." Greeted the aging Headmaster as he entered, his usual charming smile on his face as he took the seat opposite her "How has your day been?"
"Albus, I am really not in the mood for the usual games and banter, please get to the reason for your visit so I can get back to work."
Dumbledore looked momentarily stunned before continuing
"Very well,"
Not many people were ever able to take control of a situation away from Dumbledore, one day she would find a way to properly wipe that smile of his face for longer than a second....one day "I am here about the Granger incident."
She was right, this couldn't be good.
"What about it?"
"How long do you think it will be before Cornelius tries to make you responsible?"
"Less than twenty four hours at my guess, why?"
"How do you plan to counter his attack?"
"The only way I can," she replied "By discovering the source of the MMD sabotage, you know I don't play politics." This was not true, there were other things she could do and was indeed doing but she was not about to tell the old man more than he needed to know.
"It would be my recommendation that you try to find out where Voldemort got the addresses of the Granger's and the other students homes."
Oh yes, this was definitely not good, there were very few places that information could have come from:
Hogwarts,
Her department,
Or the Minister's Office.
She had already though of this problem but as Dumbledore was here it could not be Hogwarts, the Headmaster always knew whenever someone came onto the grounds, which meant it had to be the Ministry.
To enter her department was suicide as you had to walk through a room full of over thirty Aurors to get the Security Records Office, even an invisibility cloak wouldn't work. Breaking into The Minister's Office was no walk in the park either, which meant only one thing....
The saboteur had to be an employee of the Ministry.
"Albus, it is at times like this that I am sure you are more trouble than you are worth."
"Possibly so Amelia." Smiled Dumbledore standing "Good day."
Twenty seconds after Dumbledore left she calmly drew her wand, aimed and then threw the most powerful blasting hex she knew at the nearest wall.
The bricks cracked, the magic holding them in place barely managing to hold up against the assault.
Breathing slowly she calmed herself back down before pointing her wand at the door and firing off red sparks which rattled the door against its frame.
A few moments later her secretary knocked and entered.
"You called Director Bones."
"Get Shacklebolt in here."
"Immediately Director." Replied the young woman nodding and exiting the room.
It took less than thirty seconds for her to re-enter. That was one of the very few things that she found annoying about her secretary, she was far too good at her job, more often than not she would ask for a file and her secretary will already have it in her hands before she even finished asking, and when in a bad mood such efficiency could be extremely annoying.
"Auror Shacklebolt Director." She introduced letting the Auror in before backing out of the room and closing the door.
"You wanted to see me Director?" Asked Kingsley standing to attention.
"At ease....Dumbledore has just been to see me." She announced "He told me in his customary manner that the locations of the student's homes involved in the recent Death Eater attack were not discovered from Hogwarts."
"So they have to have been got from the Ministry." Concluded Kingsley.
"And considering the security precautions regarding confidential information,"
"The saboteur must be an Auror, an ordinary L.E.O or a Ministry official."
"Exactly." She nodded "Find out which Shacklebolt."
"Yes Director." He nodded and exited the room.
Amelia respected Kingsley; he was a very capable senior Auror who had been in many dangerous situation and showed wisdom and skill beyond his years of service, despite the fact that he was barely out of his thirties. If anyone could discover who was responsible it would be him.
She was also aware that he was a member of Dumbledore's 'Order', an organisation that she didn't officially know about and was therefore willing to ignore for the present as it could do the things that she as a Ministry Director could not officially do to fight Voldemort.
Appointing Kingsley meant that not only was the job in question in safe hands but Dumbledore would also know that she was looking into the matter and thusly keep his interfering hands out of her department; hopefully Kingsley could do that same to the Minister and allow her to actually do her job without interference.
________________________________________________________________________
Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 27h August 2001 AD
Country: England - London
Location: 12 Grimmauld Place
Time: Evening
As Dumbledore entered the kitchen at Order Headquarters the members present fell silent.
"Please be seated." He said moving to the end of the table.
"What's the latest Albus?" asked McGonagall.
"I went to see Amelia today, she is spending most her time trying to discover the identity of whoever sabotaged the detection equipment rather than how the addresses were discovered as that almost certainly has to be someone in her department, whereas the addresses could be got to by almost any Ministry Official and I agree with her."
"But Albus, the students...."
"I know Minerva, but a Death Eater Auror is far more dangerous than a Death Eater official."
"The Madam Bones gave me the task of following up on the address mystery." Explained Kingsley "I have ordered an investigation of the Records Section of the Ministers Office....Hopefully that will keep Fudge out of the department for a while."
"What do you know so far?" asked Bill
"Well if the insider got his information from the Aurors Record Office then he is very clever. There are charms on the door that record the true identity of anyone entering the room whether disguised or concealed. Every person on the record for the last two weeks has been an Auror or a normal L.E.O and each has had a valid reason to enter the room, we're looking further back and interviewing everyone who has entered the room but so far we have drawn a blank."
"What is Amelia doing about our cloaked hero?" asked Tonks.
"She's heading up that investigation herself but quite honestly we have no idea who he was."
"How is Amelia reacting to Miss Granger's interview?" asked McGonagall.
"It's hard to say how she is actually feeling about it," replied Kingsley "Madam Bones is very good at concealing her feelings though if I had to guess I would say that she privately and unofficially approves of the story as it means that Voldemort is loosing credit, but officially and professionally she disapproves as it means that this small group of vigilantes are embarrassing her Aurors and are technically breaking the law not to mention the amount of trouble Fudge is causing her because of the story."
"Agreed." Growled Moody "She contacted me earlier about coming back as an instructor to get the Aurors into shape, they are a complete disgrace."
"Thank you Mad Eye." Tonks replied slowly, glaring at the ex-Auror.
"What's being done to increase the protections around the Granger's and the other houses?" asked Remus.
"I have personally erecting stronger wards around the Grangers house on the off chance that Voldemort attacks again."
"Why didn't we see this coming?" asked Molly "Surely we could have foreseen the possibility."
"Unlikely," replied Snape "This is a new tactic for the Dark Lord, from what I have heard from the other Death Eaters, only those that took part in the attacks, mostly new followers, were aware of the attack, even Lucius did not know about it."
"But even if you weren't told surely we could have anticipated this."
"Not necessarily Molly," replied Dumbledore "Like Severus said, before now Voldemort and his Death Eaters have been so convinced of their own superiority that they never really bothered with tactics, they only ever attacked single targets with just as many Death Eaters as they thought they would need, now with James joining them is obvious that Voldemort is learning how to better plan his attacks using proper strategies rather than just throwing Death Eaters into the fray, rest assured we will not make that mistake again."
"I will be staying with the Grangers until September first," explained Remus "Just encase it happens again and they're fireplace has been made into a flu connection so they have a second escape route."
"In addition I will offer all the other families attacked my assistance in strengthening their wards," contributed Dumbledore "Hopefully that way we can prevent this from happening again."
"Would it not be better to bring Hermione and her parents here?" asked Arthur.
"Possibly but the Grangers have to work and they seem to share Hermione's stubbornness," grinned Remus "They want to show people that they are not afraid."
"What ever possessed Hermione to talk to the press?" asked Molly.
"Perhaps she is seeing how few people pay attention to her now that she does not have Potter near her all the time," sneered Snape "So desperate for the fame that she would talk to a paper with a reputation like the Quibblers."
"Severus, really," chastised McGonagall "We both know Miss Granger is hardly the sort to want fame just because she is friends with Harry Potter."
"Did she hint of her intentions to you when you where there Tonks?" asked Remus.
"Not really, when I went back to check the new wards she told me she was going to visit the Lovegood's to see if her friend was ok, she never mentioned anything about doing an interview, though from what I understand I don't think Miss Lovegood's father is complaining about the massive influx of wealth that the company has just received."
"Is it really a bad thing that she talked to the press?" asked Fred before his brother took over.
"I mean it was entirely positive, it showed Fudge to be an idiot,"
"It made V....Voldemort look desperate, and his Death Eaters to be incompetent."
"His side has just suffered a major loss in moral,"
"How can that be a bad thing?"
"Will you two stop that!" shouted Molly, most of the others trying to hide either their smiles.
"I agree," replied Dumbledore "This is a blow against him and accordingly as I have said the wards have been strengthened around the Granger's house, I am more worried about how Voldemort will react to this blow."
________________________________________________________________________
Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 27h August 2001 AD
Country: England
Location: Unknown
Time: Evening
Voldemort roared as the charred remains of the Daily Prophet went hurtling across the room.
"I told you this could happen." Sighed James from his position leaning calmly against one of the stone walls, his arms crossed casually in front of him.
"You said nothing of this." Hissed Voldemort.
"Oh yes I did, I told you how committing such a large inexperienced force to such a mission would be perceived. Now far from the public being afraid of speak out against you for fear the consequences, they now think that you are desperate and that your Death Eaters are incompetent."
"Silence."
"I told you to accept my help, though the attack did yield quiet a few entertaining articles."
"SILENCE!" he roared.
"Though slightly inaccurate I think the one entitled 'Dark Lord's Finest Defeated By 15 Year Old Girl And A Pair Of Saucepans' was the best read."
Voldemort aimed his wand, firing a sickly purple curse at his ally.
James idly unfolded an arm and swatted the spell out of the air, making it crackle against the wall like electricity.
"Surely you can do better than that, what was that supposed to do tickle me? Your problem Tom is that you are too easy to aggravate."
"Do not call me Tom!" shouted Voldemort.
"See what I mean." Smiled James standing up "Now, will you accept assistance?"
"And prey tell me what help you can be, you don't even have an army of followers."
"I don't have an army of followers in this dimension yet." Corrected James "They will take time to arrive but in the mean time I can offer you this."
Turning to the shadows he gestured something forward.
Heavy breathings and heavy the footfalls echoed through the chamber as the creature approached.
As the creature crept out of the darkness the expression on Voldemort's face turned from fury into an evil smile.
"Perhaps you are more useful than you appear."
AUTHORS NOTE: If you have not visited my homepage please do so as I have uploaded pictures of celebrities that I believe best represent my characters, I would appreciate feeback.
Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 27h August 2001 AD
Country: France - The French Riviera - Marseeleveyre Mountains
Location: Chateau Delacour
Time: Morning
The next day when Harry and Fleur came down to breakfast they were greeted by a grinning Dimitri.
"What?" Harry asked worriedly.
The elder man just smiled and handed them a French paper.
The front cover was dominate by a picture of the Granger's street, the Dark Mark hung in the air above it, the cloaked figures of the Death Eaters and their group fighting in the background and the masked form of Harry in the foreground, sword in one hand while casting a wandless (or so it appeared) spell with the other, the pair looked down at the article.
MASKED HERO DEFEATS DEATH EATERS
Yesterday disaster almost struck Wizarding Britain as the home of Muggle-Born Hermione Granger, one of the brightest students at Hogwarts, one of those from the British Ministry when You-Know-Who tried to break into the Department of Mysteries and close friend of the famous Harry Potter was attacked by Death Eaters along with the homes of all the other students at the Ministry that day, save Harry Potter himself whose whereabouts are still unknown.
While the mass attack itself is worthy of the front page, the events at the Grangers House were even more extraordinary, the following extract is Miss Granger's description of the battle given to a fellow reporter:
"It started off as a perfectly ordinary day when all of a sudden the alarm signal from the wards sounded (Miss Granger informed me that Albus Dumbledore himself had erected wards around their house to protect them from such an attack), taking my wand I ran to the window and saw over a dozen Death Eaters attacking the wards. Running downstairs my parents (Muggle's) and I prepared to defend ourselves when the wards fell (they were only designed to hold until help could arrive), due to their numbers the wards went down very rapidly and we were forced to fight."
Miss Granger and her parents managed to take down most of the dozen using her wand and various Muggle household devices until the Death Eaters gained entrance to the house by blasting the front wall apart.
"I got thrown back down the hall by the force of the explosion (my parents by this point had moved to the upstairs windows to give them more than one target to worry about and had been throwing knifes at them), when I got to my feet I was surrounded by four Death Eaters (others had arrived during the battle), one disarmed me before I got the chance to fire. I though that was it, my parents were probably dead and I was about to die at the end of my own wand. I closed my eyes waiting for the end when a strange thing happened. I heard the Death Eater begin to cast the killing curse, I moved to attack him but when I knocked him to the ground I was shocked to see that he had been decapitated, turning around I saw that the other Death Eaters were also dead, their blood was sprayed all over myself, the hall and the robes of my saviour."
"Standing in their place was a masked stranger with a sword, he asked if I was alright, told me he was a friend and handed me the wands of the dead Death Eaters before running out of the house towards the sounds of battle, I followed him an came face to face with an extraordinary sight, the Death Eaters were engaged in battle with the masked figure and four others wearing cloaks."
"I had no idea who my saviours were but I was not about to start asking questions, they were badly out numbered but despite this they were easily the more skilled fighters, one was deflecting spells with a strong shield with one hand while he used the other to fire back at a large group of Death Eaters, he was doing both wandlessly, the others cloaked figures were all using wands but were still very skilled, but most terrifying was the masked figure himself, he was casting spells wandlessly and was wielding a deadly pair of swords without mercy and with an incredible speed and manoeuvrability."
According to the eyewitness reports from Mr Bill Weasley of Gringotts and Auror Nymphadora Tonks (who arrived shortly after in response to the ward alarms) Miss Granger, her parents and the five strangers had managed to take down almost twenty five Death Eaters by themselves, only leaving a couple for the pair to deal with, but what happened next was the most surprising event of the day.
"When we believed we had defeated them all, a single Death Eater jumped out from cover and tried to attack the masked figure, firing a blast of fire at him. The figure brought his swords up to block the flame but far from being burnt the fire separated over his swords and just wafted over him as if it were no more than smoke, he was completely unharmed and to my knowledge he did not use any magic to protect himself from the attack."
"Before anyone could react the Death Eater summoned me to him and used me as a human shield, but my father hit him over the back of the head with a golf club (a long thin metal Muggle club that is used to hit a ball over a distance) and I was able to incapacitate him. Just after that the Aurors started to appear and our five saviours Apparated out."
It had taken the Aurors (with the exception of Auror Tonks who had been of duty) almost twenty five minutes to arrive; this reporter wonders if the British Aurors are always this incompetent or whether they would have responded quicker if Miss Granger were not a Muggle-Born.
At the same time as the Grangers were attacked, so were the homes of all the other students present at the Ministry:
Ronald Weasley
Ginevra Weasley
Neville Longbottom
Luna Lovegood
Harry Potter is not among this number as he is still missing and who the British Ministry have still proven unable to locate.
Luckily none of these attacks were successful either due to the skill of the defenders or the incompetence of the Death Eaters for attacking homes where the residence were not even home. This reporter wonders how desperate He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named must be if he considers five children to be a threat worthy of being attacked by over seventy Death Eaters, over half of whom are now deceased or in British Ministry custody but after this debacle how long do we think it will be before they escape. The British Minister of Magic has failed to comment on the slackness of the British Aurors. Amelia Bones, the Head of Magical Law Enforcement in Wizarding Britain is reported to be furious at the incompetence of her Aurors and has ordered a full enquiry.
Luckily for us it seems that we have a Hero to protect us, to whoever the masked stranger was who saved the Granger's, you have this supporters thanks.
"That's even better than I hoped." Grinned Harry.
"It gets better Arry." Smiled Fleur as she flipped through the paper "There are three pages on the incompetence of the British Ministry, one on your friend's background, another on the attack at the Ministry and another on the details of the attack at The Burrow and the other homes."
"That's just the French papers;" added Dimitri "The British ones are slaughtering Voldemort and Fudge. That was an excellent idea Harry, to ask Miss Tonks to get Miss Granger to talk to the press about what happened."
"We had a message from Miss Tonks earlier," explained Delphine as she entered "Apparently the Quibbler's yearly profits more than doubled overnight with all the British and international papers buying pensive recordings of the interview from them. Miss Tonks will be coming around in a few minutes to tell us what the Order and The Ministry have done."
"No she wont, she will be coming over now." Grinned the Auror as she walked into the room, her hair now a vivid blue "Wotcher Harry."
"Hey Nymph." He grinned back happily, waiting for her inevitable reaction.
She stopped and scowled at him "Watch it mister, Bill barely gets away with calling me that, I don't recommend you do it again....or you will be on the receiving end of an Aurors wand."
"Only if you can catch me." He grinned back "How hard was it to convince Hermione?"
"Very easy actually, she already thought of the idea and was going to visit the Lovegood's when I arrived; she liked the idea of the Ministry actually doing something about V....Vold....Voldemort....as well, not to mention the fact that she wanted to show the world that Muggle-Born's are more than a match for Pure-Bloods."
"I should have guessed," smiled Harry "What's the news from the Ministry?"
"Fudge is flailing around like one of Hagrid's Blast-Ended Skrewt's on its back, yesterday he charged into the D.M.L.E...."
"Pardon?" asked Fleur.
"The Department of Magical Law Enforcement," she explained "Where was I?....Oh yes, he barged in and tried to fire anyone that couldn't explain yesterday's embarrassment, he only stopped when Madam Bones stormed out of her office and informed him very loudly and firmly that he could not fire Aurors without her permission and if he didn't leave immediately she would have him charged with harassment and attempted wrongful dismissal, she then added that if he tried to have her fired for contradicting him she would also sue for wrongful dismissal and she would ask for a complete investigation into the Ministers Office by the Wizengamot." Tonks paused for a moment as she resisted the urge to laugh "You should have seen his face, bright puce, I don't think I have ever seen him more scared in my entire life."
"Blimey, I wish I had seen it, why was he so scared of an enquiry?" Harry asked.
"There have been many rumours surrounding Fudge, especially his association with people like Lucius Malfoy, but unfortunately the Director does not have enough evidence to conduct such an enquiry without risking her position and reputation if he turns out to be clean, which I doubt, at the moment it is more of a standing threat."
"Do we know why the Aurors took so long to respond?"
"Well, when a large concentration of spells is used the Ministry has detectors that pick them up but either they didn't go off, they were sabotaged or the Auror watching them was a Death Eater sympathisers or just didn't care because she was a Muggle-Born."
"If itz not caring or the alarmz not going off then vhy didn't they react to the attacks on the otherz?" asked Fleur
"Well the Lovegood's and Longbottom's only had a couple of spells cast at each location as there were no fights and The Burrow is under heavy wards so they would not be able to detect the attack as we tricked the Death Eaters by letting them through the wards then closing them behind them leaving them trapped, if it was sympathisers or not caring then they wont be Aurors very long, Madam Bones is probably the most respected member of the Ministry."
"And for good reason," contributed Dimitri "She's a very good Department Head, very honest, reliable and firm, not to mention intelligent, its impossible to pull the wool over her eyes, that's why she was appointed as Acting Head of the British Wizengamot when Dumbledore was removed from the position."
"Do you think she would join us?" asked Harry.
"No," replied Dimitri and Tonks simultaneously.
"Definitely not, she does things officially," explained Tonks "She would probably agree with our cause but would not openly support us, but if you want an ally in the Ministry and the Wizengamot she's the one to have."
________________________________________________________________________
Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 27h August 2001 AD
Country: England - London
Location: Ministry Of Magic - Head Of Magical Law Enforcement's Office
Time: Afternoon
Madam Bones was fuming; Fudge had been stalking around her department since the Granger incident and he was getting right up her nose, if he tried to fire one more of her Aurors or one of her normal Magical Law Enforcement Officer's (L.E.O's)she would use her wand to expel him.
The only good thing about the last twenty four hours was that now ever single member of the Ministry knew NEVER to get on her bad side, not many people had ever stood up to the Minister and even fewer had done so and kept their jobs. Now they all knew that she was a definite force to be reckoned with, or rather even more so than ever before.
She had just interrogated the L.E.O. who had been watching the Mass Magic Detectors (MMD's), he had been stunned and the alarms disabled; he had taken no part in the sabotage, after over forty years as an Auror and five as the Head of the Magical Law Enforcement she could tell when someone was lying and when they were not, also the fact that he was very new and terrified that he was about to lose his job was a fairly good indicator. There was also no evidence of memory charms so they were completely lost as to whom had sabotaged the detection systems, but rest assured there would be hell to pay when she found out.
The papers were investigating every aspect of the Granger Attack and luckily she wasn't in the firing line yet, her reputation for discipline and efficiency were protecting her but she knew it would not be long before a squirming Fudge pointed the finger at her and she would need a very good answer as to what happened.
It would be even better if she could discover the identity of the hero of the hour but she had even less idea as to his or her identity than she did to the MMD problem.
There was a knock at her door.
"Enter."
"Professor Dumbledore's here to see you." Explained her secretary.
Amelia inwardly groaned.
Brilliant, just brilliant, as if she did not have enough problems. The old man mighty be a very powerful ally but she always got worried when he came to visit in person, it never meant anything good.
"Show him in." she sighed.
"Good afternoon Amelia." Greeted the aging Headmaster as he entered, his usual charming smile on his face as he took the seat opposite her "How has your day been?"
"Albus, I am really not in the mood for the usual games and banter, please get to the reason for your visit so I can get back to work."
Dumbledore looked momentarily stunned before continuing
"Very well,"
Not many people were ever able to take control of a situation away from Dumbledore, one day she would find a way to properly wipe that smile of his face for longer than a second....one day "I am here about the Granger incident."
She was right, this couldn't be good.
"What about it?"
"How long do you think it will be before Cornelius tries to make you responsible?"
"Less than twenty four hours at my guess, why?"
"How do you plan to counter his attack?"
"The only way I can," she replied "By discovering the source of the MMD sabotage, you know I don't play politics." This was not true, there were other things she could do and was indeed doing but she was not about to tell the old man more than he needed to know.
"It would be my recommendation that you try to find out where Voldemort got the addresses of the Granger's and the other students homes."
Oh yes, this was definitely not good, there were very few places that information could have come from:
Hogwarts,
Her department,
Or the Minister's Office.
She had already though of this problem but as Dumbledore was here it could not be Hogwarts, the Headmaster always knew whenever someone came onto the grounds, which meant it had to be the Ministry.
To enter her department was suicide as you had to walk through a room full of over thirty Aurors to get the Security Records Office, even an invisibility cloak wouldn't work. Breaking into The Minister's Office was no walk in the park either, which meant only one thing....
The saboteur had to be an employee of the Ministry.
"Albus, it is at times like this that I am sure you are more trouble than you are worth."
"Possibly so Amelia." Smiled Dumbledore standing "Good day."
Twenty seconds after Dumbledore left she calmly drew her wand, aimed and then threw the most powerful blasting hex she knew at the nearest wall.
The bricks cracked, the magic holding them in place barely managing to hold up against the assault.
Breathing slowly she calmed herself back down before pointing her wand at the door and firing off red sparks which rattled the door against its frame.
A few moments later her secretary knocked and entered.
"You called Director Bones."
"Get Shacklebolt in here."
"Immediately Director." Replied the young woman nodding and exiting the room.
It took less than thirty seconds for her to re-enter. That was one of the very few things that she found annoying about her secretary, she was far too good at her job, more often than not she would ask for a file and her secretary will already have it in her hands before she even finished asking, and when in a bad mood such efficiency could be extremely annoying.
"Auror Shacklebolt Director." She introduced letting the Auror in before backing out of the room and closing the door.
"You wanted to see me Director?" Asked Kingsley standing to attention.
"At ease....Dumbledore has just been to see me." She announced "He told me in his customary manner that the locations of the student's homes involved in the recent Death Eater attack were not discovered from Hogwarts."
"So they have to have been got from the Ministry." Concluded Kingsley.
"And considering the security precautions regarding confidential information,"
"The saboteur must be an Auror, an ordinary L.E.O or a Ministry official."
"Exactly." She nodded "Find out which Shacklebolt."
"Yes Director." He nodded and exited the room.
Amelia respected Kingsley; he was a very capable senior Auror who had been in many dangerous situation and showed wisdom and skill beyond his years of service, despite the fact that he was barely out of his thirties. If anyone could discover who was responsible it would be him.
She was also aware that he was a member of Dumbledore's 'Order', an organisation that she didn't officially know about and was therefore willing to ignore for the present as it could do the things that she as a Ministry Director could not officially do to fight Voldemort.
Appointing Kingsley meant that not only was the job in question in safe hands but Dumbledore would also know that she was looking into the matter and thusly keep his interfering hands out of her department; hopefully Kingsley could do that same to the Minister and allow her to actually do her job without interference.
________________________________________________________________________
Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 27h August 2001 AD
Country: England - London
Location: 12 Grimmauld Place
Time: Evening
As Dumbledore entered the kitchen at Order Headquarters the members present fell silent.
"Please be seated." He said moving to the end of the table.
"What's the latest Albus?" asked McGonagall.
"I went to see Amelia today, she is spending most her time trying to discover the identity of whoever sabotaged the detection equipment rather than how the addresses were discovered as that almost certainly has to be someone in her department, whereas the addresses could be got to by almost any Ministry Official and I agree with her."
"But Albus, the students...."
"I know Minerva, but a Death Eater Auror is far more dangerous than a Death Eater official."
"The Madam Bones gave me the task of following up on the address mystery." Explained Kingsley "I have ordered an investigation of the Records Section of the Ministers Office....Hopefully that will keep Fudge out of the department for a while."
"What do you know so far?" asked Bill
"Well if the insider got his information from the Aurors Record Office then he is very clever. There are charms on the door that record the true identity of anyone entering the room whether disguised or concealed. Every person on the record for the last two weeks has been an Auror or a normal L.E.O and each has had a valid reason to enter the room, we're looking further back and interviewing everyone who has entered the room but so far we have drawn a blank."
"What is Amelia doing about our cloaked hero?" asked Tonks.
"She's heading up that investigation herself but quite honestly we have no idea who he was."
"How is Amelia reacting to Miss Granger's interview?" asked McGonagall.
"It's hard to say how she is actually feeling about it," replied Kingsley "Madam Bones is very good at concealing her feelings though if I had to guess I would say that she privately and unofficially approves of the story as it means that Voldemort is loosing credit, but officially and professionally she disapproves as it means that this small group of vigilantes are embarrassing her Aurors and are technically breaking the law not to mention the amount of trouble Fudge is causing her because of the story."
"Agreed." Growled Moody "She contacted me earlier about coming back as an instructor to get the Aurors into shape, they are a complete disgrace."
"Thank you Mad Eye." Tonks replied slowly, glaring at the ex-Auror.
"What's being done to increase the protections around the Granger's and the other houses?" asked Remus.
"I have personally erecting stronger wards around the Grangers house on the off chance that Voldemort attacks again."
"Why didn't we see this coming?" asked Molly "Surely we could have foreseen the possibility."
"Unlikely," replied Snape "This is a new tactic for the Dark Lord, from what I have heard from the other Death Eaters, only those that took part in the attacks, mostly new followers, were aware of the attack, even Lucius did not know about it."
"But even if you weren't told surely we could have anticipated this."
"Not necessarily Molly," replied Dumbledore "Like Severus said, before now Voldemort and his Death Eaters have been so convinced of their own superiority that they never really bothered with tactics, they only ever attacked single targets with just as many Death Eaters as they thought they would need, now with James joining them is obvious that Voldemort is learning how to better plan his attacks using proper strategies rather than just throwing Death Eaters into the fray, rest assured we will not make that mistake again."
"I will be staying with the Grangers until September first," explained Remus "Just encase it happens again and they're fireplace has been made into a flu connection so they have a second escape route."
"In addition I will offer all the other families attacked my assistance in strengthening their wards," contributed Dumbledore "Hopefully that way we can prevent this from happening again."
"Would it not be better to bring Hermione and her parents here?" asked Arthur.
"Possibly but the Grangers have to work and they seem to share Hermione's stubbornness," grinned Remus "They want to show people that they are not afraid."
"What ever possessed Hermione to talk to the press?" asked Molly.
"Perhaps she is seeing how few people pay attention to her now that she does not have Potter near her all the time," sneered Snape "So desperate for the fame that she would talk to a paper with a reputation like the Quibblers."
"Severus, really," chastised McGonagall "We both know Miss Granger is hardly the sort to want fame just because she is friends with Harry Potter."
"Did she hint of her intentions to you when you where there Tonks?" asked Remus.
"Not really, when I went back to check the new wards she told me she was going to visit the Lovegood's to see if her friend was ok, she never mentioned anything about doing an interview, though from what I understand I don't think Miss Lovegood's father is complaining about the massive influx of wealth that the company has just received."
"Is it really a bad thing that she talked to the press?" asked Fred before his brother took over.
"I mean it was entirely positive, it showed Fudge to be an idiot,"
"It made V....Voldemort look desperate, and his Death Eaters to be incompetent."
"His side has just suffered a major loss in moral,"
"How can that be a bad thing?"
"Will you two stop that!" shouted Molly, most of the others trying to hide either their smiles.
"I agree," replied Dumbledore "This is a blow against him and accordingly as I have said the wards have been strengthened around the Granger's house, I am more worried about how Voldemort will react to this blow."
________________________________________________________________________
Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 27h August 2001 AD
Country: England
Location: Unknown
Time: Evening
Voldemort roared as the charred remains of the Daily Prophet went hurtling across the room.
"I told you this could happen." Sighed James from his position leaning calmly against one of the stone walls, his arms crossed casually in front of him.
"You said nothing of this." Hissed Voldemort.
"Oh yes I did, I told you how committing such a large inexperienced force to such a mission would be perceived. Now far from the public being afraid of speak out against you for fear the consequences, they now think that you are desperate and that your Death Eaters are incompetent."
"Silence."
"I told you to accept my help, though the attack did yield quiet a few entertaining articles."
"SILENCE!" he roared.
"Though slightly inaccurate I think the one entitled 'Dark Lord's Finest Defeated By 15 Year Old Girl And A Pair Of Saucepans' was the best read."
Voldemort aimed his wand, firing a sickly purple curse at his ally.
James idly unfolded an arm and swatted the spell out of the air, making it crackle against the wall like electricity.
"Surely you can do better than that, what was that supposed to do tickle me? Your problem Tom is that you are too easy to aggravate."
"Do not call me Tom!" shouted Voldemort.
"See what I mean." Smiled James standing up "Now, will you accept assistance?"
"And prey tell me what help you can be, you don't even have an army of followers."
"I don't have an army of followers in this dimension yet." Corrected James "They will take time to arrive but in the mean time I can offer you this."
Turning to the shadows he gestured something forward.
Heavy breathings and heavy the footfalls echoed through the chamber as the creature approached.
As the creature crept out of the darkness the expression on Voldemort's face turned from fury into an evil smile.
"Perhaps you are more useful than you appear."
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