FicWad

Chapter Eighteen: Out in the Night

To say the Ministry of Magic had a chaotic atmosphere at this moment would be a rather prominent understatement. The truth was many of the Ministry employees were running around in a state of confusion, with those who attempted to get a grip on the masses become frustrated in their own right. Most of this frustrated rested around the area of the Auror Department, as Scrimgeour had been missing for the last weekend. Despite their best efforts to keep it contained, word of Scrimgeour’s untimely disappearance leaked out to the Daily Prophet.

Harry arrived at the Ministry right in the middle of all of the chaos as a Ministry official moved by, muttering underneath his breath.

“Third damn howler and the Daily Prophet’s only been out for a couple of hours,” said the official. “Don’t they realize that there wasn’t any way that we could have seen Scrimgeour getting snatched right out of the Floo like that?”

The official hurried off, arms full of paperwork, not bothering to acknowledge anyone as he made his way through the Ministry, blowing right past Harry as the Boy-Who-Lived made his way up the stairs to the Ministry, towards the office of Madam Bones.

As he arrived that level of the Ministry, Harry looked around, seeing many high ranking officials rushing away in a hurried, slightly panicked manner. Harry dodged around them, before reaching the half opened office door. Without a word, Harry knocked on the door.

“Enter,” commanded the weary voice of Madam Bones and Harry did so, entering her office. “Ah, Mr. Potter, I suspected you have heard about the unfortunate disappearance of Auror Scrimgeour.”

“Yes, me and the whole entire world, although I might have found out eventually without the help of the Daily Prophet,” replied Harry. “Still, I found quite the interesting correlation between the recent Azkaban breakout and Scrimgeour’s disappearance.”

“A correlation?” asked Bones. “I must say, everyone else is baffled at why those particular Death Eaters were broken out of Azkaban, while others were left. Greyback is the easiest one to see, but the others…”

“At least two of them worked for the Regulation of the Floo Network and it’s highly probable that the others have as well, as this does smell of a multi man job,” interjected Harry. “If my theory is right, Voldemort’s found someway to manipulate the Floo Network and the only way to stop this is to shut down the entire system.”

“Stop the Floo Network, Mr. Potter, with all due respect, isn’t that a bit drastic?” asked Madam Bones.

“Drastic yes, but if Voldemort starts snatching civilians from the Floo System in mid travel, the Ministry would look bad in retrospect, knowing they could have stopped these abductions,” said Harry.

“If it was up to me, the Floo would have been shut down as soon as I left this office,” replied Madam Bones in a resigned voice. “Unfortunately, Ministry protocol indicates that we have put a matter on the scale of shutting down the Floo Network, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named or not, to a vote, and it has to be voted in by a majority for it to even happen.”

Harry sighed; the Ministry’s laws once again were their own worst enemy.

“Not to mention the fact that first and foremost, we need to declare an interim head of the Auror department,” continued Madam Bones. “At best, it could be days or even weeks before I could even propose a drastic measure as shutting down the Floo System. Still, I will look into your theory about the Azkaban breakout and Scrimgeour being snatched from the Floo.”

“Okay,” said Harry calmly. “I have no doubt that that the Ministry has their hands full and at any rate, I need to get back to Hogwarts at any rate.”

Madam Bones absentmindedly waved Harry off and Harry quickly departed, as the scene at the Ministry seemed to get more chaotic as more people filed in on all levels of the Ministry, as Harry moved his way outside to return to Hogwarts to make it back in time for his first class.

As it turned out the Ministry of Magic’s troubles were only beginning, as on Thursday of that week, the Daily Prophet broke news of a potentially crippling event to the Magical World.

“In all the chaos, it appears the Ministry overlooked a clause in their peace agreement with the goblins after the last goblin rebellion,” read Daphne as she turned through the Daily Prophet, as she, Theodore, Ginny, and Harry were eating breakfast. Hailey hadn’t joined them this morning, as she was in the hospital wing after a practically rough Quidditch practice.

“Really?” asked Harry in a curious voice. “Exactly what did the Ministry do to break this clause?”

“It doesn’t really say any specific details, other than goblin representatives were seen storming from the Ministry in irritation,” replied Daphne.

“Irritated goblins, that’s about all we need,” commented Ginny. “The goblins aren’t going to bend, not even a little.”

“Who’s to say this breach is minor as far as the goblins are concerned?” suggested Theodore.

“No breach of agreement is minor for goblins, Bill said that many human employees have been discharged from Gringotts for not following company policy laid down to the letter,” answered Ginny.

“Goblins do leave no room for argument in their dealings, which is why there have been so many goblin rebellions,” added Daphne.

“Do you really think there could be another goblin rebellion through?” asked Theodore.

“Could be, don’t know what the goblins would have to gain as the Ministry is in shambles as it is with what’s happened recently,” replied Daphne. “I’m personally more worried about them joining Voldemort.”

“Not all of them might,” said Harry, interjecting himself. “Some will, hell perhaps a majority will if Voldemort chooses actions carefully regarding the goblins. Most are anti-human in general but for the right cause, goblins will form a temporarily alliance, but it will be shaky at best and there’s always a chance that they will betray Voldemort before he has a chance to betray them.

“You’ve really thought this through, haven’t you Harry?” asked Daphne.

“Of course,” muttered Harry and he waved his wand to put up a privacy barrier. “Out of all the groups of magical creatures out there, the goblins are the best fighters. If I could find someway to get them on my side, on our side, I would, but the few attempts I have made with meeting them have been made with disinterest, saying that this is a human war and not their fight.”

“Voldemort’s killed goblins through,” said Ginny.

“Yes, he’s killed vampires, werewolves, giants, and many other magical races that have representatives that stand by him as well,” replied Harry. “Let’s just say that the Ministry aren’t the only one’s that have selective memory.”

Harry sighed, it had been easy to get witches and wizards on his side, magical creatures were an entire matter entirely. Voldemort had wormed himself in well with many of them, forming alliances long before Harry was born. Harry didn’t want to give up hope but Voldemort had said the right things long before it could be helped. Other magical creatures had chose to remain neutral, preferring not to join Voldemort or any group against him, including Harry, as much as it pained. Whenever he could, Harry tried to pursue any opportunities for alliances that he could manage, but at the same time, he wanted to coordinate the plans involving those who he was absolutely certain that were on his side, as Voldemort’s attacks seemed to be growing in violence on each passing instance.

Daphne skimmed the paper for a few more seconds, before she reached an interested item.

“Scrimgeour’s still missing, but they have announced a new interim head of the Auror Department,”

“Really who?” asked Harry curiously.

“Some bloke by the name of Pius Thicknesse,” responded Daphne.

“Thicknesse, the name does ring a bell,” muttered Ginny with a frown. “Dad mentioned him a couple of times, but if I remember rightly it wasn’t in a favorable light.”

“Wait, a minute, I know who you’re talking about,” said Theodore with sudden realization. “Thicknesse had some very controversial opinions during Voldemort’s first reign of power.”

Harry racked his brain, remembering something that he had read in passing on one occasion.

“Wasn’t he the guy who said that the Ministry of Magic should find some common ground and perhaps align themselves with Voldemort, instead of fighting him?” inquired Harry.

“The very same guy, but from what I remember he backtracked on the statements rather quickly once he was questioned under the Wizengamot,” explained Theodore who had overhead all of this from conversations between his father and friends in the past. “He’s stayed in the Ministry, he spent quite a bit of time as an Auror before the scandal and his family has worked for the Ministry for generations, while maintaining a view that many of the older pureblood families do about how Wizarding Britain should be run.”

“Seems like perfect death eater material to me or at the very least a Voldemort sympathizer,” concluded Harry. “Not that I’ve heard his name come up as a potential Death Eater, but that doesn’t mean anything. Voldemort has hundreds of Death Eaters, both here and abroad, and I’ve maybe only accounted for about fifty of them, maybe slightly less.”

Harry lowered the privacy barrier around him as he saw an owl rapidly approaching, with a bit of last minute post. As the owl approached closer, Harry saw that it was a message from the Ministry of the Magic. The owl dropped the message down on the table, before flying off as quickly as it came.

“C’mon,” muttered Harry, as he motioned for Daphne, Theodore, and Ginny to follow him from the Great Hall, away from prying eyes and Harry didn’t even trust a privacy barrier to work in this situation.

After a little bit of a walk, the four Slytherins reached an empty class room. Harry locked the door, before putting silencing spells and a slight Confundus spell on the door. Without a second’s pause, Harry ripped open the envelope, allowing the piece of parchment inside to fall out into his hands. Lifting it up close to his face, Harry began to read it to himself.

“What does it say, Harry?” asked Ginny.

“Speaking of Thicknesse, it’s from him,” answered Harry with a bit of a frown as he reread the letter. “He wants to meet with me about what I’ve been doing to help out the Ministry, to update him on anything new and to bring him completely up to speed. He says he’s looking forward to the meeting and requests that I come at quarter till five tonight.”

“That’s a rather odd time for a meeting,” replied Daphne.

“I don’t like this Harry,” said Ginny in a worried tone of voice. “This reeks of a trap. It also confirms that he might be in the league with Voldemort.”

“I know,” remarked Harry grimly. “It’s a trap, a set up, and hence the reason I’m going alone.”

“Harry, no!” yelled Ginny looking at her boyfriend with an absolutely mortified glance. “There could be more Death Eaters than even you can handle.”

“Ginny, I need to maintain the illusion that I’m not wise to this latest plot,” said Harry. “I have the Portus-Amulet, I can Apparate and if worse comes to worse, I can duck around a corner and turn into my raven form.”

“See Ginny, Harry really does have everything planned out,” said Daphne with a smile.

“Not that we would expect anything less,” added Theodore.

“I still don’t like this,” said Ginny in a resigned voice.

“No more than I do, but it’s necessary to lure Voldemort into a false sense of security and if I can by some miracle thin his forces by a few more, than that would be all the better,” concluded Harry and for the briefest second, he turned as if to get Hermione’s opinion, but then with a pang of painful realization that his best friend still wasn’t speaking to him. Harry coughed, before shaking his head to clear it. “Don’t think I won’t be ready for anything.”

“I trust you Harry, it’s just everyone else that I’m worried about,” said Ginny darkly.

That afternoon, literally just moments after his final class, Harry arrived at the Ministry of Magic, outside the visitor’s entrance. He could have popped into the Ministry and right into Thicknesse’s office, but if there was any trapped laid, it would defeat the entire purpose of playing along with Voldemort’s plans. It was a drastic, nearly Gryffindor, measure for a Slytherin but it was absolutely necessary.

Harry looked around, as the cold breeze whipped around, and Harry spun around to hear a twig snapping under someone’s foot in the distance. He pulled out his wand and his double-edge sword, ready for anything and anyone.

Leaves seemed to have crunched underneath someone’s foot and Harry stood ready for action.

“Show yourself!” demanded Harry and surely enough, the very ragged form of one Fenrir Greyback stepped out of the shadows, with a sinister grin on his yellowed teeth.

“Harry, I must say this is an expected pleasure,” remarked Greyback with a predatory smile as he stood, staring down Harry with a hungry look on his eyes.

“Okay, Greyback, where are the others?” asked Harry.

“What others, Harry?” responded Greyback sharply.

“The other Death Eaters,” said Harry.

“There’s no one here but me,” stated Greyback.

“A bit foolish of Voldemort to send just one person after me, isn’t it?” taunted Harry. “Perhaps he is losing his touch.”

“Quite the opposite,” said Greyback calmly. “Don’t you realize what time of the month it is?”

Harry’s eyes snapped up at Greyback, looking at him, as it was getting rather dark by the moment and the moon would be up at any moment, the full moon.

“Don’t look so worried Harry, there’s still a bit of time to get yourself to safety, far away from me, I certainly won’t stop you,” continued Greyback softly. “There are others within the Ministry that will have to substitute for my hunger for flesh instead.”

Harry stood his ground as Greyback smirked.

“And your master authorized this plan, I take it,” remarked Harry coolly.

“He told me to capture you, giving me Wolfsbane Potion to control my more animalistic urges,” admitted Greyback. “Not that I bothered to take the potion, because I am fully comfortable of what I am, unlike that traitor, Lupin.”

“What will happen if you go too far and maul me to death?” demanded Harry as he mentally made plans how to keep a fully transformed werewolf in line. “What will your master say?”

“I’ll send him the scraps,” rasped Greyback as the cloud cover vanished and the moon began to rise.

Harry leapt backwards, before shooting thick cords from wand at Greyback. They magically wrapped around the werewolf, binding his arms and legs together. It was only a temporarily measure as Greyback fell to the ground, before his body shifted, clothes ripping from the transformation and fur growing on his skin. In seconds, the werewolf used his strength to rip the ropes cleanly off him, before turning to face Harry and began to stalk his prey on all fours, before giving a mighty howl.

Greyback sprung up at Harry, jaw wide open and Harry only had enough time to dodge out of the way. Turning around, Harry turned around, seeing Greyback land firmly on his paws, before the beast turned around and Harry removed a three shuriken from his sleeve, before throwing them at Greyback from different angles. The werewolf angrily deflected two of them with his front paws but the third one stuck in the ground, before glowing brightly and exploding right at the werewolf, sending pieces of jagged metal flying towards the beast.

A moment’s pause but Greyback sprang up after Harry. Harry cursed himself mentally; he hoped that some of the metal would cut his opponent and inject silver into his bloodstream. Contrary to Muggle folklore, silver wasn’t completely lethal to a werewolf. Granted an extremely large amount was, but small amounts would only slow the werewolf down.

Greyback knocked Harry, before pinning his paws to Harry’s throat, putting the Boy-Who-Lived on the ground. Harry gasped for air, reaching up with his weapon and attempted to stab it into the mouth of Greyback, but the werewolf had foreseen this, taking the sword into his mouth, before he broke it clearly in half with his massive jaws, before the sword clattered to the ground just beside the werewolf and his prey.

This was the diversion Harry needed to activate his Portus-Amulet and get to safety.

The werewolf’s head snapped up in confusion once it realized its prey had disappeared and promptly gave a mad howl of anguish before it turned its attention towards the Ministry of Magic entrance. It smelled fresh blood from within.

Before Greyback could rip open the entrance and enter, a large burst of flames appeared from in front of the Ministry, blocking the beast’s entrance. Greyback turned slowly, before he stared down with his prey, having returned from its temporary disappearance.

Harry aimed his wand carefully right between Greyback’s eyes and conjured a razor sharp dagger, before sending it right at Greyback, but the werewolf leapt up out of the way before he sprang up right, jaw opened, right at Harry. Harry concentrated before turning into a raven and Greyback landed to the ground, sniffing around and pawed the ground angrily, ripping rocks from the ground. His prey had once again eluded him and the bird hovering above his head didn’t seem like it would fill his appetite. The wolf hungered for human flesh and while the building behind him had an ample supply of edible flesh, he sensed something else off in the distance. Flesh that wasn’t tainted by magic appeared to be near. While magical flesh tasted appetizing, the werewolf’s system had more trouble digesting it than non-magical flesh.

Harry became alarmed when he saw that Greyback was heading right towards the nearby Muggle city. A werewolf running unchecked in a city could be a catastrophe of epic proportions so Harry had no choice but to follow the rogue werewolf into town.

The werewolf looked up at the moon, before howling as he entered the city. He sniffed around, before spotting a group of children playing happily in the distance. With a feral look, the werewolf moved towards the children, stalking them before he prepared to pounce.

A thick chain shot from Harry’s wand, wrapping around the front legs of Greyback. Another chain whipped out, wrapping around the hind legs. Greyback moved forward angrily, but collapsed to the ground, legs trapped and the werewolf locked its eyes on its prey, before it howled madly.

Harry loaded up a Fukiya with a poison dart that was so potent that it would kill most normal humans, but he suspected it would just stop Greyback in his tracks.

The werewolf snapped the chains after a moment of struggling and went after Harry. Harry quickly blew the dart at the werewolf but in his haste, the dart had only sailed over Greyback’s back. The werewolf gave a mighty howl and Harry leapt over, two parked cars, with Greyback matching the speed and agility of the young ninja. As he moved quickly, Harry managed to put up Muggle repelling charms across the entire street, before an idea reached his mind, one that he hoped would work.

The beast sniffed, he sensed his prey was rather close and looking up, his sight confirmed what his smell had told him. The form of Harry Potter was sitting in the seat of the empty taxi, hunched over, and looking rather worn down. The werewolf sprang up before shattering the windows and pinned Harry to the seat of the taxi. Harry struggled, but the werewolf would not be denied his flesh this time.

Greyback clamped down on the boy’s right arm, but the boy in the seat exploded into dust, and the werewolf looked up in absolutely confusion, right before a large Muggle truck collided with the side for the taxi with Greyback still inside, causing the taxi to flip over several times across the street before the werewolf cold realize what had happened. The taxi skidded to the start right beside a light post, causing the light post to fall over and smash right onto the taxi.

The door of the truck swung open, revealing the real Harry Potter. Harry looked down, almost certain that move finished off the werewolf. The only spell he could have thought of that effected a werewolf was the Killing Curse and Harry wasn’t quite ready to travel down that road yet, unless absolutely necessary. So since his regular weapons didn’t work, Harry had to use bigger weapons to subdue Greyback.

Harry’s glory was short lived as the bottom of the taxi ripped open and Greyback popped up, dripping blood but still alive and still with an obsessive taste for human flesh. The werewolf sprang out and Harry cursed himself. The only thing more dangerous than a vicious werewolf was an injured, vicious werewolf.

Harry felt panicked, a rare emotion for him and he raised his wand, but an idea struck Harry, hoping it would work. Just as the werewolf leapt, Harry conjured a large stream of liquefied silver before willing it towards Greyback just as the werewolf was inches away from his face. The silver completely covered Greyback, causing the werewolf to give a painful, anguished howl as he clattered to the ground. Before Greyback could work his way out of the silver, Harry whipped his wand, solidifying the silver, trapping Greyback.

Holding his breath, Harry heard frantic smashes from inside the silver structure, as the werewolf attempted to bust free, but Harry was pleasantly surprised to see that Greyback was unable to break free from his self contained prison. A few more pained growls and Greyback grew painfully quiet.

Harry looked around, before using his wand to clear up the mess he had made in his efforts to stop the werewolf, before he made his way to the Ministry. Admittedly he took his time, as he wanted to make sure that no one else had been following him just in case Greyback had failed. He hadn’t seen anyone all night, but that meant very little. There could have been subtle spying spells, monitoring the conversation for afar.

Many hours later, nearly into the morning as the moon began to go down; Harry arrived at the Ministry of Magic, with the silver structure containing Greyback floating above his head. Most of the Ministry had been cleared out for the evening, but Harry occasionally saw a few Ministry officials roaming the corridors, but Harry paid them little mind whatsoever as he arrived at the office of Pius Thicknesse.

“Enter,” rasped a voice from inside after Harry knocked and Harry entered the office, dragging Greyback behind him. “Ah, Mr. Potter, you’ve arrived.”

“I do apologize for being late, I ran into some rather prominent difficulties on my way here,” said Harry and Thicknesse looked at the silver object behind Harry.

“Might I ask what that is?” asked Thicknesse in a raspy voice as he looked over Harry’s shoulder at the silver case.

“A gift for the Ministry, containing one of the most notorious fugitives, I’d suggest you’d send for people to help you open it, because I doubt one person could open it,” answered Harry. “So, you wished to speak to me.”

“Nevermind, Mr. Potter, I found the information I was looking for, you must have not received my message in time,” said Thicknesse quickly, as he aimed his wand over his shoulder to call for some Aurors to help him open the case. “Perhaps you can explain to me a bit more about this little…gift.”

“Well, it just so happens that tonight a werewolf by the name of Fenrir Greyback attempted to attack me,” proclaimed Harry and Thicknesse looked at Harry with a searching look. “I was very lucky not to get infected, but in the end, Greyback was completely subdued by my magic.”

“I see,” replied Thicknesse in a completely skeptical voice and with that two Aurors entered the office, looking rather befuddled. “Help me crack this structure open, Mr. Potter here claims it contains Greyback.”

The Aurors gingerly cracked the silver structure open with high frequency vibration spells as opposed to a Reducto, as they were prohibited from using lethal force unless being directly attacked. After several minutes of hard word, the case cracked open and the half transformed body of Greyback slumped to the ground. There were still fur on select places of his skin but he wasn’t fully transformed anymore. He was covered in yellowed cuts that looked disgustedly infected.

“That’s Greyback alright, man Potter, you really worked him over,” informed one of the Aurors.

“He’s injured, with trace amount of silver poisoning by the looks of things,” continued the second Auror. “Damn lucky to be alive.”

“Send him to St. Mungos so he could get treated and then back to Azkaban,” ordered Thicknesse who looked a bit disturbed at Greyback’s condition and the two Aurors did as they were instructed.

“What perplexes me the most is exactly how Greyback knew I was here tonight,” said Harry casually.

“Yes, that thought is rather perplexing but what are you trying to suggest?” asked Thicknesse.

“Someone must have caught word of my meeting here and relayed the word to Voldemort,” replied Harry. “Not on my end, but perhaps someone overheard something they shouldn’t have. For all I know, there are leaks from within the Auror Department. I’ll be watching everything rather closely.”

“Of course, Mr. Potter,” said Thicknesse, surveying Harry with slightly narrowed eyes.

“I must be going, it’s been a long night,” added Harry as he walked out. “I suspect we’ll be meeting all too soon.”

“I await it,” responded Thicknesse with a nod.

Harry exited the office, with a searching glance towards the new Head of the Auror Department. Greyback attacking him on that night was premeditated from the moment he was broken out of Azkaban and Scrimgeour was abducted, then replaced. Hell, Harry wouldn’t be surprised if Voldemort had been planning this for months on end.

Unfortunately, Harry had no concrete evidence other than his suspicions, suspicions that were formed by a number of strangely linked coincidences but still no solid evidence. At any rate, he would be keeping a close eye on Pius Thicknesse.