Auror Headquarters:

Walking along the corridor with Rufus Scrimgeour, James felt a sudden apprehension settling inside him. The war was raging on and the pressure on them was mounting. They were the country's finest warriors and yet they were failing in their job to protect the people .On top of it, their enemy was growing in both his power and army.

James looked at the man beside him. The head of the Auror division wore a stoic expression. The man who was both inspiring and terrifying . Bold and powerful, James had never seen Rufus Scrimgeour accept defeat. Neither when Voldemort burnt down his house with his parents and brother inside it nor when the Dark prince and his army had completely destroyed his team of aurors. If anything, it had only made him stronger. He had single handedly organized the Auror force into a powerful military force. He was the perfect general to oppose Voldemort's rising power.

As they entered the hall, James saw a large oakwood table inscribed in various runes at the center. The room in itself was a piece of work with vivid frescoes of battle outlining the ceiling and the walls. Scenes from ancient battles depicted in great detail. At one end of the table sat Amelia Bones, the head of the Department of Law enforcement. If anyone thought women had no place in a war as this, they would reconsider after seeing Madam Bones. Tall, with a golden-rimmed monocle, she had proved herself time and again to be capable of holding her post. Her decisions and management of the Law enforcement was what had prevented Voldemort from taking over the ministry so far. Once an Elite Auror and head of the Auror division herself, she was well versed in the ways of warfare. She was also on the advisory committee of the general council of the ICW where her actions had brought her international accolade .Her experience in dealing with dark wizards dated back to the time of Grindelwald where she had fought alongside Albus Dumbledore. Though not as powerful as she used to be in terms of magical prowess, her bold personality and exceptional intelligence made her a formidable witch.

Also sitting on the table were his comrades, his fellow Elite Auror division had been divided into five regiments, each with their own team of specialists in every field be it magical or hand to hand combat, stealth, wards, curse breaking etc. Every Auror regiment was led by an Elite auror, who was handpicked by the head of Auror division and the head of DMLE. The elite aurors were considered the finest of the Aurors, specialists in nearly every field and possessing both power and the ability to lead. Four of them were currently seated at the table. On his right was Damien Macmillan, a man in his 40s who was unmatched with a wand. However, his strategies were what made him an elite auror. With an uncanny ability to predict the enemy's movements, he could draw out plans that would ensure their victory. Beside him was Marcus Wright, a slightly aging man. Although he seemed a bit old, but the people who have seen him fight would gladly agree that he still had the energy of his youth in him. Known to be merciless with dark wizards, his speed and the power behind his spells had made him a formidable enemy of the dark side. Over to his right sat Robert Miles, who was elder to James by 5 years. Robert had initially begun his career as a professional duellist. His dueling skills had earned him the title of British Dueling Champion. After the championship however, he decided to join the Auror unit. His experience in duelling combined with his natural leadership skills quickly raised him through the ranks of aurors. He flashed a smile at James on seeing him. But as James' eyes fell on the last two members seated at the table with a vacant seat next to them, he couldn't help but feel depressed.

They were what were known as the Knights. When the ICW was formed, the first law it passed was that no wizarding nation would be allowed to form a military of its own. This was done to ensure that there would be no wars among wizarding nation, since the result would be catastrophic. However to maintain peace inside the nations, each magical government would be allowed to train and maintain troops for domestic purposes other than the Law enforcement officers. These troops called the Auror unit would not be allowed to fight in foreign grounds and would remain under the complete control of the magical government of their respective nation. After this decision however the ICW was left with no military power of its own. And situations, which demanded the military attention of two or more nations, could not be dealt with successfully. Thus, it created what was known as The Knights.

The Knights were extremely powerful sorcerers, their magical strength unmatched and their knowledge unparalleled. Not only in terms of magical abilities, but also in other forms of combat. It was said that a knight could feel the magic flowing through them. However the main characteristic of the Knights was that they were not ambitious. They had no desires to overthrow the existing system and have people under them. They were modest yet the most powerful amongst all. They had just judgement abilities and the power to carry out their decisions. Each Knight would have to be handpicked by the High masters, the supreme head of the ICW, and trained by an already existing knight. Then they would have to undergo a series of tests that would put not only their power, but also their mettle, morale and personality to test. After being thoroughly evaluated by the high masters and the other knights themselves, they would have to duel the Knight which trained them and only if they proved themselves as equal or superior then their master would they be enshrined with the Sword of Apocalypse-the mark of a knight. Due to this, there were a few knights in the wizarding world. As a result being a Knight was considered the highest honor second only to being a High master. The process of choosing a knight was exceedingly tough, but so were the rewards. The Knights were highly paid by the ICW. No government had any control over them, not even the governments of their own nation. Even the general assembly of the ICW could not dictate their actions. They were answerable only to the High masters. Having a Knight was considered as a great honor in the family.

Yet with great power comes great responsibility. The knights were responsible for enforcing laws of peace throughout the wizarding world. During any international crisis, the Knights had to handle the situation and command the aurors of the nations involved. Even when none of the above situations occurred, the Knights were called in to help the law enforcement and domestic crisis of their homeland. Thus it was considered a great honor and benefit to have a knight from your nation. Magical England had been fortunate in that regard in having three knights from the nation

… Two presently, James sadly corrected himself. What made James apprehensive was that as powerful as Knights were, one of them being killed by Voldemort ,symbolized his greater strength. The deceased knight, Joseph McGonagall, was one of the most powerful sorcerers James had ever known and he could not help but feel weak at his murder at the hands of Voldemort.

Seated on the table were the two remaining Knights –Cassius Vaughn and Nicholas Ashdown. They had their heads down still mourning the loss of their friend. Being a small organization, the Knights were a tightly knit unit and the three Knights of England had been closer than brothers. He could see Cassius glancing at the empty seat beside him every now and then and a distant look in Nicholas' eyes. Both of them, it seemed, had taken a severe blow from their friend's death.

Soon the doors opened once again and in stepped a man with scars all over his face. He walked confidently towards the table nodding his head in acknowledgment to those present. Many knew this man to be a bane for death eaters. Fierce, courageous and powerful, he would not hesitate to kill any death eaters. Known for his ruthless battling techniques was the last Elite Auror-Alastor Moody.

As the entire council sat down, Amelia Bones spoke up," As most of you are aware, the ICW could not give us any assistance in response to our request for aid in defeating Voldemort and his army". While other people would rather cut their right arm than say the name of the dark lord, the people inside the room held no fear for him. The only emotion that they felt for him was hatred, dark and furious hatred.

"The Confederation can do nothing in this case. The laws are set in stone .", the rich baritone voice of Cassius Vaughn came.

"We all knew this was going to happen. No use of discussing it now.", Scrimgeour said in a hard tone.

"That is correct. We do not have time gentlemen. The attack on Cenarus village has shown us that." Amelia continued, "We shall need complete information on the attack. Marcus and Robert, you were present during the attack from the beginning. Inform us about the proceedings of that day."

Marcus straightened himself, "On June 22nd, Robert and myself were at the headquarters. Alastor had gone to oversee the wards being cast at the hogsmeade station for the safety of the students. Damien and his team were at the auror academy. That was when we received an emergency signal from Auror James ", he motioned to James.

James continued from Marcus,"I was at Diagon Alley ,more specifically at Gringotts,when I heard cries of people.I immediately ventured out to find seven full grown male mountain giants and twelve trolls attacking people. I immediately called the headquarters and informed Auror captain Sirius Black to arrive at the site with my team. Then, I began setting up wards and material shields to enclose the giants. It was at this moment that Knight Nicholas showed up. Together, we managed to contain the giants. Soon enough, my entire team arrived and began fighting off the trolls. No sooner than they had arrived, a fresh horde of twenty trolls and four giants appeared on the spot with what we assume was a portkey. We began fighting it and I called for assistance to the headquarters only to hear that the other teams had gone to fight off another attack. However Alastor Moody and his team arrived on the scene and our teams managed to take down the trolls, while Nicholas, Alastor and myself managed to control the giants. As soon as Nicholas chained them, they disappeared via a portkey that we believe to be magically keyed to the giants' magic. We realized this to be a distraction and immediately apparated to the attack site, the village of Cenarus "

Marcus then continued, "We at headquarters received James signal and were preparing to leave for the alley, when we received another signal, that of Joseph McGonagall ", everyone's face turned a shade pale, Marcus recovering himself continued

"The signal gave us information that the village of Cenarus known for housing the ancient tower of Celtic knot was under attack from the death eaters led by the dark prince. We understood the attack on the alley to be a distraction and apparated immediately with our teams to the village .On reaching there, we immediately engaged the enemy. There were too many death eaters along with more than twenty giants and fifty trolls. We were greatly outnumbered. I was engaged in a duel when I heard the dark prince's voice .On sparing a glance at him, I found him dueling Joseph. It was then that Alasor and James' teams arrived and the forces evened out for a while. After a vicious battle that ensued, I saw the inner circle of Voldemort appearing near the tower with Voldemort himself at the center. "At this he gestured to James.

"On seeing him, I quickly cast a spell that scattered the inner circle leaving Voldemort at the center. On seeing me, Voldemort raised his wand and I found myself frozen to the spot. He then sent a killing curse at me. Joseph saved me just in time by placing a stone slab in the path of the curse. He freed me and I looked at Voldemort's direction to find both him and the dark prince staring back at us. Suddenly three giants leapt in front of us .We effectively dealt with them and found Voldemort's wand pointed at the tower of the Celtic knot. Understanding what he was about to do we ran towards him and engaged them in battle. Joseph took on voldemort himself while I dueled the Dark prince. The battle between us was going on when two cloaked creatures collided with us. Getting on our feet, Joseph gestured me to take care of them while he pursued Voldemort and the dark prince .I took on both the hooded attackers, but they proved to be quite elusive. In the end I managed to incapacitate one and was taking on the other when out of the corner of my eye, I managed to catch a glimpse of Joseph dueling both Voldemort and the prince. I continued to fight the last hooded creature and finally when I incapacitated him, he fell to the ground and his body burst in black flames. Turning back to Joseph, I found him on the ground, with Voldemort standing above him. Suddenly a huge blast echoed through the grounds and I looked around to find that the Dark Prince had managed to destroy the tower. Voldemort then looked around the battleground and cast the dark mark. Before I could act, him along with all the other death eaters disappeared."

As James finished the tale, everyone present had gone into a somber mood. Amelia took charge of the situation.

"There shall be a time to mourn his demise but this is not it. He would want us to act."

All present nodded their assent. Scrimgeour spoke up in a professional manner

"Our prime fault lay in the fact that we easily fell victim to the distraction. Voldemort has found a way to distract us and we can do nothing about it. The giants and trolls cannot be ignored and need atleast two regiments of Auror force to control them. He shall use this tactic again for his next attack as well, and we would be left with no choice but to separate our regiments and weaken our forces."

Nicholas Ashdown spoke for the first time, "However we do know the setup of their distraction tactic. And we can use this to our advantage."

On having the undivided attention of the room he continued, "Voldemort shall definitely target a public area for distraction. In Britain we have a few such areas –Diagon Alley, Srebius Alley, Burrette Lane to name some of them. These places can be properly protected."

"What do you suggest we do?", Alastor Moody asked.

"Cassius and myself will design wards around the place that shall trap any creature that Voldemort sends or atleast immobilize them for a certain period of time. That shall provide us ample opportunity to handle the primary attack."

"But to magically ward and set up traps for giants and trolls will require massive amounts of energy given their natural resistance to magic", Damien voiced his concern

"Yes", Nicholas continued," However it is necessary that such a step must be taken. Both of us are more than capable of handling it."

Damien seemed to think for a while and said, "From what we have seen and assumed ,Voldemort used some sort of portkey to transport the giants. We can use the same tactic. After the giants have been immobilized, we can attach portkeys keyed into them to transport them into some sort of holding facility of our own away from any public area. That way ,the diversion tactic would completely fail and if we could ward the holding facility and prevent them from escaping back to Voldemort's lairs, then we could also take them as prisoners and reduce the strength of his army without any damage to our side."

Everyone seemed to appreciate the idea . Amelia Bones and Rufus Scrimgeour began discussing the possibilities of a possible holding area. After a short debate , they decided on an abandoned island.

"I shall divide my troops into smaller units and have them constantly patrol the targeted areas until the warding is complete." James said. "Even while you are warding the place, my units shall stand on guard. Voldemort has managed to instill fear in the hearts of the public with the destruction of the Celtic tower and Joseph's death. We cannot afford another attack like that."

"Very well, now that this is done, we shall go on to further issues."

"Although we have suffered quite a few losses but we have managed to capture and imprison many death eaters. Some of them from Voldemort's inner circle ."

"Richard Denizen,Octavius Wingston and Flambert Wingston have been captured during the attack and are being held at Azkaban as we speak.", Damien told everyone.

"Did you get any information from them?", Amelia asked.

"Bloody scoundrels don't open their mouth. And the lower death eaters do not know much, not even the identity of their fellow death eaters. We have even tried veritaserum coupled with imperius, but their will is too strong. All they scream is that their master and prince will rescue them.",Alastor replied.

"Which is very likely. Those three were some of his finest death eaters. And above that we have managed to capture many of his prized followers. I believe Azkaban is his next target."

"I agree. We shall station a permanent Auror unit there."

"Sir, I and my team shall stand guard over Azkaban", Marcus spoke.

After some thought Nicholas spoke up. "I shall remain near Azkaban as well. It is too likely to be a target and Voldemort shall attack the fortress with maximum strength.".

"We need to address the most important issue –that of the dark Prince. From what we have seen, he has been leading most of the attacks .If I am not mistaken Voldemort's heir is at present the greatest threat. Marcus, present us the information we have on him."

Marcus, who had taken up the case of the dark prince spoke with a scottish accent ."From what we have gathered Voldemort, then known as Tom Riddle, was an apprentice under the dark wizard Zahrais when he first met young Kassegra Silas. Kassegra was an orphan, abandoned on the streets and was employed as a servant to an innkeeper who worked for Zahrais. Not much is known after that, but it is said that Tom took Kassegra under his wing. After a few years, Tom Riddle killed Zahrais and went on to explore the world and learn sorcery. Not much is known after that about both Tom or Kassegra although Professor Dumbledore once came across an inn in Tasmania where Tom had spent a few months and the innkeeper had said that there was a young boy with him whose characteristics matched that of Kassegra. It can be assumed that Voldemort apprenticed him and taught him the ways of sorcery. On his return to England ,he amassed an army and began attacking. Even then there was no mention of the boy, although several of our prisoners claim to have seen 'the dark lord's heir' as they put it. However one year from now when the aurors and the inner circle death eaters were engaged in a vicious combat, he had appeared and announced himself to be the dark prince."

Marcus paused at this point since the rest of the history pertaining to his activities for the last two years were known to everyone.

"However, along with Professor Dumbledore, I had been researching on the fact as to why Voldemort chose him as his heir. Voldemort as we know, considers himself fairly superior than others and looks down on everyone including his death eater inner circle. He prides himself in being the heir to the great Slytherin .So why did he choose to have a servant to become his heir when he could have chosen anyone? After a lot of digging around, we found the answer in the pages of history. ", Marcus paused for a breath and continued.

"The Silas family was a rich pure blooded family residing in a remote village of Greece. They, in fact, were hiding from the Greece government to escape the charges on Dalaras Silas. Dalaras Silas was known to be a notorious wizard . He took pleasure in torturing the muggle villagers, but they could do nothing, as they believed the Silas family to have supernatural powers. They were regarded as reincarnations of devil in the superstitious village. One day, Dalaras crossed the limit as he lost his temper on a muggle child and in a fit killed him. The villagers were infuriated and rounded on him .He tried to defend himself, but they snatched his wand and broke it. The villagers beat him to death yet their anger did not diminish. They marched in huge numbers to the Silas manor, and destroyed everything there. Dalaras' wife Abigail tried to escape but could find no way to do so. In the end she frantically created a portkey and sent her daughter Karmen who was around five months old. Where she sent her, we have no idea. But after that, the villagers killed Abigail thinking her to be a devil as well. Their only son, Kassegra, on seeing this, fled as far as his feet could carry and was eventually found by the innkeeper who took him as a servant. The portkey creation spell performed by Abigail however was done in a panicked and emotional state, which resulted in a vast magical oulash. This drew in the Greek law enforcement officers who arrived in the village and managed to record the events from the villager's memories before obliviating them. They tried to find the boy and the girl but they were nowhere to be found .The boy had been taken by the innkeeper to the Slavic states. Now what is really important is that the Silas were not just any pureblooded family. They were one of the direct descendants of Salazar Slytherin. "

The look on the face of every person present conveyed the shock that they had got on hearing this.

"So, Voldemort somehow found out that Kassegra was a descendant of Slytherin and trained him to be his apprentice.", Scrimgeour said recovering from the shock.

"This doesn't change anything.",Damien said.

"Oh yes, it does ",Cassius replied in a voice not higher than a whisper.

As everyone turned to look at Cassius in bewilderment, Nicholas explained.

"Although, we know that blood doesn't matter in terms of magical abilities. Yet in some cases, pureblooded sorcerers have greater power ".He went on to explain, "Many sorcerers gain magical abilities like metamorphmagus through their birth, while others gain and may expand their magical talents through practice and training. However, in an exceedingly powerful sorcerer, his magical prowess is so deeply entangled in his soul and blood, that when he produces an offspring, the ability to harness such powerful magic passes on and is within the grip of the child. The magical core could possibly be greater than a child of any average wizard. That is the reason Slytherin's line produced so many powerful dark wizards and Griffyndor's line produced some exceptional wizards before it was lost. However the fact remains that the said child must himself or herself possess enough strength to unlock the power. Say, a child from Merlin would have the ability to access great magical power, but without training and if he doesn't try hard enough to do so, he would be far more weaker than a muggleborn child who has had ample training in the ways of sorcery. This is the reason that not all Slytherin's descendants prove to be powerful sorcerers. Similar is the case for sorcerers like Godric Griffyndor ,Rowena Ravenclaw ,Circe and Salazar Slytherin. Their descendants would possess the ability to unlock and harness highly powerful magical cores within them. This would take extreme training and strength on the part of a wizard which cannot be inherited or passed on."

"However, with the strength displayed on the battlefields and Voldemort's training, we can assume the dark prince to be an extremely powerful sorcerer. "

"He has become the general and leader of Voldemort's army. We need to take him out if we intend to even out the odds against us". Alastor Moody spoke in a gruff voice.

"However there is nothing we can do about him at the moment.", James told the harsh truth.

"That may be true for the time being. I am currently on the lookout for his base and any information on his operations. We shall soon have some lead." Robert said in a confident voice.

After further discussions entailing the security of Azkaban, Scrimgeour put up his hand to silence everyone.

"Now I know that Joseph's death was a major setback for us. What I want to know is that if Voldemort had planned on his death", Scrimgeour questioned.

Amelia Bones answered his query. " The law enforcement officers have investigated into the matter. With Minerva's statements we have managed to conclude a possible scenario. According to her, Joseph was supposed to visit 's that day for the checkup of his wound received during one of the previous missions. We inquired at the hospital and found out that Joseph had indeed visited the place. However he left the place after taking his reports from Head healer Apostle Drewden who had declared him to be in perfect health. According to Healer Drewden , he seemed to be in a hurry .He apparated from the apparition point in the hospital. However the elves in the McGonnagal house claim that he did not return to the house. What confuses us is that the attack took place half an hour later and from the local population we gathered that Joseph arrived on the battle scene as soon as the battle had begun and immediately signaled the headquarters. What transpired in that half an hour, we have no knowledge of. "

"From the battle, I would say that Voldemort only intended to destroy the tower. Joseph somehow managed to arrive at the spot on time.", Robert put forward his view.

"James ,you were close to him in the battle .What would your opinion be?", Nicholas asked.

James who had been replaying the events of the battle in his mind suddenly realized something and spoke, "Now that I remember clearly, Joseph appeared to be a little weak. I mean I have witnessed him fight on several occasions, and although his spells were fairly powerful that day, yet they were not as strong as his magic usually is. While fighting Voldemort, he seemed to be a bit strained. Then I had just dismissed it as a sign of fatigue of fighting a vicious battle for so long, but he had never shown any signs of tiredness, not even when we fought off the werewolves, giants and inner circle death eaters for a continuous five hours during the battle of Ackerley a few months ago. He usually had exceptional stamina and I am surprised that after only a few hours of battle he seemed exhausted especially when the healer had declared him to be fit."

At this, both Nicholas and Cassius' eyes flashed in rage. "He had been tricked! Voldemort had somehow sucked away his magical energy. ", Cassius roared in anger.

"This is a grave matter. Joseph must have met someone in that half hour who did this to him.", Nicholas added.

"James, Damien. You shall immediately investigate the matter and find out the person responsible. Find out what happened in that half hour and how Joseph became weak. This needs to be addressed immediately. Inform us as soon as you get a lead. Meanwhile the rest of us shall attend to our duties. Voldemort shall not hesitate to attack us when we are weak. Gentlemen. Amelia."

With polite nods, they went on their own way, with James and Damien immediately flooing over to the Mcgonagall manor.

James and Damien arrived at the waiting hall in manor. Suddenly a house elf appeared.

"Yes sirs,who are you lookin for?"it spoke in a small voice.

"Can you call madam Mcgonagall and tell her that James and Damien are here to see her."

"Right away sir, please be seated." With this the elf vanished.

Within moments the door opened and in walked Minerva Mcgonagall, transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts. James was shocked to see her in a state that he could never imagine her to be in. Professor McGonagall , the strict and fair transfiguration teacher who always maintained her composure and radiated an aura of knowledge and power was long gone. Standing before him was an aged woman ,wrinkles furrowed on her forehead, and worry and tiredness pasted on her face. The death of her husband had been hard for her.

On seeing her once favorite student she forced a small smile.

"James, Damien, what brings you here?", she inquired in a voice that was strained .

But James couldn't answer. Seeing Minerva in this state brought down the harsh reality in his mind, the painful truth of the war they were in. Who were they kidding? If Voldemort could defeat even Joseph, then there was no way that they had a chance against him.

Damien replied for him. "Ma'm , as much as it pains me to inform you, we have reasons to believe that your husband ,High Knight Joseph McGonagall's death was preplanned and that he had been set up by Voldemort's forces ."

Minerva's face registered shock .Yet it soon dissolved into that pained expression.

"How can I help you?"

"If you could tell us if Joseph had been interacting with anyone or any of his recent activities that could be linked to this, we might have a clue on who is responsible.", James said ,finally recovering from his shock.

Minerva sighed and looked down. Damien merely looked at James carrying a helpless expression. Both of them had been her students at some point of time and though their professions had brought them closer to her, they had no idea how to deal with the current situation.

"I do remember that he once spoke to me about getting a lead on the location of various dark artefacts possessed by Voldemort from a source. He had been also in touch with an informant for a few months regarding the location of the creatures the death eaters use in was what had been keeping him busy for the last few months.", she said.

James immediately caught on to this. "Have you seen the person? Do you know why Joseph trusted him? "

"Yes, I do believe I once caught him leaving the house .I just flooed into the living room when I saw him leaving via apparition. As for Joseph trusting him, he said it was a close person. That's all I know."

"Can you give us the pensieve image of the man?", Damien asked.

Minerva nodded and asked the house elf to fetch a pensieve. She poured her memory of the encounter with that person into it. James and Damien both dived into the memory.

After a while, both of them reappeared with haunted looks on their faces. James was the first to speak.

"It was initially a doubt Minerva, but now I feel confident that Joseph was tricked .Do not mention this meeting to anyone. If the culprit gets a whiff of this we shall not be able to find him. We will get back to you as soon as we find him."

Minerva could only stare as the two Aurors flooed through the fireplace, thoughts of her late husband swirling in her head.

James and Damien immediately flooed back to Auror headquarters. James immediately rushed to Sirius and both of them went over to the apparition point and vanished with a pop. Damien rushed to find Scrimgeour and inform him of the proceedings. He found him in his office with Moody .

"Joseph was tricked ! And you wont believe who the culprit is.",He spoke in a breathless manner.

Meanwhile James and Sirius appeared in front of an ancient looking house. The house seemed to be in a broken condition with loose tiles and peeled wallpaper. It looked as if it had been abandoned for years, but James knew better. This was the hideout of an ex-Auror who had been relieved from his services. After his parents died in a muggle accident, he had lost control and had attempted to murder the muggles involved .For this he had been removed from the ranks of aurors. However he still worked and provided valuable information to the Auror forces. The Auror forces hadn't trusted him after that incident but Joseph had vouched for this man and had asked him to remain as an unofficial aid to the law enforcement department.

.James disabled the tripping wards all over the house. Warding had been his specialty in his first year at Auror academy and these wards were amateurishly made and were relatively easy to disable. Sirius opened the door silently as James cast spells for stealth. As they entered, James heard a faint noise coming from upstairs. He motioned to Sirius and they moved towards the stairs. On reaching the first floor, James looked at Sirius and nodded. He pointed his wand at the door and a faint red beam sped towards the door.

"Aegis Viscera", Sirius yelled as soon as the door opened from James' spell.

Sirius' curse moved through the open door and with an orange glow moved towards the two men in the room and trapped them in a full body bind. James and Sirius moved towards the fallen body of the first man. He was the person who they had seen in the penseive and had led them here. Not many knew him, for he was one of the secret informers of the Auror force and was in contact with only one auror. But being the Elite Auror, both James and Damien had recognized him. Dorian Gauss, as was the man's actual name, was once an informer to a single Auror. But after many of his given leads were found to be false, the Auror he was in contact with was told to turn him in. However the Auror, being a childhood friend of the man, refused to comply and instead told the department that he had fled. Only a day ago evidence had surfaced that the man was a death eater. James knew that there was every possibility that Auror who was with him would be one too. And it was the same ex-Auror that lay beside him now. The second man's black hair and almond eyes was all too familiar to them. This was the man who Joseph had saved from facing imprisonment in Azkaban after his attack on the muggles. This was the man who was offered a job in the law enforcement department even after the incident on Joseph's recommendation. This was the man who along with his sister was the subject of Joseph's care and love ever since their childhood. And this was the man who ultimately betrayed Joseph. This was Elan Bailey ,Joseph McGonnagal's godson.

Pure hatred coursed through the veins of the two men as they stared at the helpless body that was the reason for their mentor's death. Although the entire department was against him at one time, James had supported him because of his respect for Joseph. And Joseph on recognizing this had told him of Elan's hideout should anything happen to him and had told him to always be there for Elan. Joseph loved Elan like his own son as he was the child of his best friend and cousin, and that made this betrayal all the more painful.

"Why?" James asked eyes blazing in fury canceling the spell on his face.

"He promised me revenge against the muggles. I was a fool to join him, but by the time I realized this, he had already taken hold of me. He threatened to kill my sister if I didn't kill Joseph.",Elan cried out, eyes wide in fear.

"So, you decided to murder the one person who believed you and proved his belief to be false?", Sirius screamed in rage.

"I didn't kill Joseph.I couldn' knew that I couldn't kill him. He gave me an artefact that would suck the energy of a person and asked me to use it on Joseph .I didn't want to,but he forced me. I had to ..I didn't… ",he trailed off looking fearfully towards the door.

"Who knew of your involvement with the death eaters?",James asked .

"Only Dorian. He was the one who asked me to join the dark lord's power and have my then the prince came, and threatened my sister. But after Joseph's death he was disappointed in me. I knew too much about him. He then killed my will..",then as if realizing something, he frantically began struggling and shaking.

"I should not have told you this. He will know. But I did not want to kill Joseph. He told me will kill me..",he began hyperventilating at this.

James catching on his repeated use of 'he' asked him."Are you talking of the dark Prince?"

"He shall kill me, yes..And then Dorian. I did not kill Joseph. I had to…but I told him..told you..he will realize this." He babbled on in fear.

James and Sirius shared a look. "We can offer you safety if you give us information We can keep you safe..", Sirius was cut off by Elan .

"You know nothing of him. No place is safe. He will find me .his eyes are the shadows. He sees everything. I already know too much. He will kill me. He killed my sister ", at this his tears began flowing freely from his eyes, "tortured and then killed her. I tried to hide her, but he found out and killed her. He is invincible, but I know about him…he is not all powerful". Then as if fighting an internal battle he began struggling with himself. James and Sirius looked on as his face went through various emotions. Finally he looked up with resignation, tears staining his face.

"His armor…"he said in almost a whisper as he looked at James. "He fears you". Then with a moment's hesitation, he dislodged something from his teeth, and swallowed it.

"Run", he said with eyes wide open

Almost immediately after this, his entire body erupted in flames and James and Sirius immediately cast powerful shields to protect themselves and ran from the room .The magical fire enveloped the house and James and Sirius managed to get themselves out just in the nick of time as the fire charred the entire building.

Apparating to a safe distance, the two could only stare as the house burnt with flames licking the sky.

"What could be so horrible that he was willing to suffer such a painful death than face it?" Sirius said in a dazed voice.

James couldn't reply, lost in his thoughts.

Peter Pettigrew lay in his bed at the 's hospital. The severe case of dragon pox that he was suffering from for the past three weeks, made him unable to even get up. He could only stare at the ceiling. No one had come to visit him for the past week. A small part of his mind consoled him saying that they were too busy fighting the war. James and Sirius must be busy in their Auror duties and Remus in the activities of the order. But Lily, she worked at the hospital, albeit as a researcher but she could come and visit him. Maybe Hayden was taking up too much of her time. First James and then Hayden. Peter was never the subject of her affection. Squashing the thought from his mind, he returned to sleep.