Merry Christmas, and a happy new year. Please review my story.
Malfoy Manor is burning down, burning down.
Albus Dumbledore was watching the sun sink below the lake 2 days after the incident in Hogsmeade. Dumbledore enjoyed this view, with classical music of the muggle composer Beethoven playing in the background, the headmaster felt he could relax. Besides the music and the view helped by the music helped him to think about the latest events.
Dumbledore was by now absolutely certain that Selina Potter had returned to Britain by now, completing whatever it was that she'd finished. Albus had realised that he couldn't use the old ' wait until your ready ' excuse like he had with Daniel, who'd swallowed the excuse without question. Selina was nothing like her brother, but the sisters example made Daniel drop out of Hogwarts and leave the country himself, probably never to return.
Dumbledore sighed as he realised the scale of the mistakes he'd made; in casting aside one child and fixating on the other, he'd ignored the possibility that the girl was the one. He had never bothered to train the pair of them, seeing which one of the twins learnt magic the fastest and which one didn't, which he should've done from the if not all his plans had failed. Daniel wasn't the one to defeat Voldemort, and the girl that did defeat Voldemort was stubborn, and now it looked like she had vigilante tendencies. Dumbledore noted the hypocritical way he'd just summarised Selina's method of attacking the death eaters. His own Order weren't perfect, Dumbledore knew that. He knew it well. Look what happened in '81 when Pettigrew sold the Potters out. Granted it was all part of his plan, the climax of all his manipulations and scheming, but after all that he hadn't bothered keeping the Order activated. Instead he'd shut it down rather than simply recover the Order's wounds, recruit new members and indoctrinate them with the knowledge he had, the knowledge that pointed out clearly that Lord Voldemort was still alive. It had been a foolish mistake, one which was now costing Dumbledore dearly. The Order was a mess. Recruitment was down, thanks to two major factors; first, Voldemort now had a stranglehold on the wizarding world, and the public were scared. Second, the fact that Daniel Potter wasn't the chosen one was why recruitment was down. The magical world, Dumbledore was ashamed to admit it, even to himself, enjoyed elevating heroes into their line of sight. When it was discovered that Daniel wasn't the hero, the one to defeat Voldemort and rid the world of the blight he represented. The real hero was a girl that magical world had pushed aside and neglected with only one person having the courage to actually care about her. Dumbledore frowned. Selina Potter was a wildcard, her abilities frightened many of the Order because they didn't understand their full power. Who knew what the girl had learnt after vanishing from his office like that? Worse, Dumbledore had no knowledge of what the girl had learnt abroad, yes Dumbledore was sure that Selina had studied abroad. The question was what had she learnt? That was the important thing. It had been the issue of learning that Dumbledore had originally kept Daniel Potter away from the harder parts of magical training. Fighting Voldemort wasn't like fighting off a school bully, the dark lord had half a century of knowledge on nearly everyone. There were of course witches and wizards that could probably fight Voldemort, not to a standstill, but they would give him a good fight. Dumbledore remembered that part of the prophecy that said Selina would have a power the dark lord didn't know. That part had always stymied the old headmaster, he had no idea what it was. Daniel hadn't shown much proficiency in magic, and Selina's knowledge was unpredictable. Her break in at the department of records had been a surprise, but as Dumbledore thought about it he could see the plan. Clearly Selina had wanted information, and a few barriers weren't enough to stop her. The Ministry had managed, somehow, to keep most of the break in hushed up. Fudge was in a lot of trouble, and he looked set to lose his job, not that many save the death eaters would miss him. The Ministry was a joke because of Fudge taking bribes. James and Sirius, banding together as Heads of their houses, were destroying all of Fudge's credibility, not that there was any left. The subject of their daughter was a sore point for the Potters, they knew what Bellatrix and Selina said to them was true; they had neglected their only daughter, forcing her out of the magical world and making her see the muggle world as a haven.
Catwoman...such an unusual name. Albus couldn't recall the girl ever liking cats, but just because he hadn't seen it didn't mean it hadn't happened. Already Catwoman had stopped a death eater raid on an old family, raided the Ministry of magic of important files and finally foiled an attempted rape and showed the limitations of the aurors.
Albus knew that by now Voldemort was aware of Catwoman. It was the addition of this mysterious man Severus described in his report that concerned Dumbledore, clearly Voldemort had found a new ally. He'd ordered his potions master to get closer to the man, but so far Severus hadn't had much luck. Just like their luck with finding out if Selina was indeed living with her godmother. Selina wasn't stupid, she must know by now that she'd left so many clues that Dumbledore would know she was here. The theft of her own file was a dead giveaway, putting paid to the theory Fudge had had that death eaters had bided their time. Voldemort had never shown any interest in that wretched file, why would he wait for it now when he'd had many attempts to steal it thanks to his spies?
Dumbledore was disturbed by a knock on the door, " Come in."
An embarrassed Kingsley Shacklebolt walked in, " Bellatrix found out we were watching her. She got us to investigate the house to see for ourselves if there was anyone there. You were wrong, Albus. The girl wasn't there."
Selina looked around her hotel suite, booked for an indefinite amount of time. She'd decided to move to London after she'd felt the presence of witches and wizards around Bella's property. Surprised the Order was catching on now, Selina had taken all her stuff and left, leaving the humiliated Order to search Bellatrix's house. Selina was ashamed that she'd even stayed with her godmother; she should've found a place like this before she met her godmother. It was in the past now, and no matter what Selina would want to do she couldn't change the past.
Selina took the mound of files and carefully placed them on a table. She'd been going over these files for the last few days, and had already worked out what she intended to do.
Catwoman at the moment was an idea, but Selina intended to take her other self much further in the mess Voldemort and Dumbledore had created for themselves. Selina had turned to crime when she'd been a small girl, she'd stolen money from her parents and her brother. Daniel and her parents had so much money that stealing a few Galleons and sickles would make no difference, besides they never bothered to check their change. Selina left the table and walked to the window. From here she could see over most of the city, and Selina knew that not far away the Ministry of Magic was based underground like the goblin bank.
The five years spent abroad had done wonders for her, but that didn't mean she was left out of the loop. With access to the American magical media services Selina had learnt much about what was happening in her country, and what she saw and read made her grim. The ICW had pretty much quarantined the country from people going in and out right after that moron Fudge had those foreigners killed. Now she'd had time to think clearly she could see that Fudge was acting like a typical wizard of Great Britain.
That irritated her no end, just like the first hand knowledge that Fudge and his cohorts had held her file in a place where the death eaters could easily get at. Were Fudge and his ministry that incompetent? Selina realised the question was rhetorical, of course the British Ministry were incompetent; they closed their minds to anything new, and Catwoman was certainly new.
The thought of her alter ego brought a frown to Selina's face, by now the magical world must be aware of Catwoman's existence. She wondered briefly what their general reaction would be. Deciding to take a look for herself, she prepared to leave her suite...
An hour and a half later, Selina found herself at the entrance of the Leaky Cauldron and pushed open the door to the pub. People in Britain said this place was famous, but truly...Selina couldn't see the attraction of a mid medieval pub that desperately needed decorating. Quick. Selina marched in, a hat covering her head as she passed inside. Fortunately the patrons were too busy drinking and laughing themselves stupid to notice this young lady move with the sleek agility of a panther. When she reached the bricks, Selina mentally tapped them in the same way that she'd seen her aunt and her..parents do it. The gateway opened, revealing the magical street in all it's splendor.
There may've been a war on, but that didn't seem to worry or concern anyone, much to Selina's surprise. Sneering at the apathetic attitude she was getting, Selina carried on with the task in mind.
Spotting a vender selling newspapers, Selina grabbed one and started to read it. As she expected, the Ministry hadn't bothered to announce that one or more of the departments hadn't been broken into, but she'd expected the Minister and his fools had stopped, probably via magical coercion, anyone from telling the outside world about her presence that night.
The story on her...other self, however, was much more expanded on. There wasn't a picture on Catwoman, not yet anyway. But Selina knew it was only a matter of time before someone got lucky and snapped a picture at her.
Fudge was condemning her efforts, which pissed her off no end. In truth though, she had a good idea of why Fudge was saying she was ' hindering our aurors great efforts,' and Selina thought about the wording and found it containing too much propaganda for her tastes.
" Hey, girl," The vendor grunted irritably. Selina looked up curiously into his eyes, " What?" she asked, grateful for her disguise.
" You gonna pay for those papers?" He asked before carrying on in his obnoxious tone, " This ain't a library."
Selina smirked, " You ever been in a library?"
" Well, no..." The vendor grunted after a moments thought, making his already ghoulish face even more unattractive.
" Then how would you know what a library looks like?" Selina shot back before walking away. As she walked back out of the magical world and back into her real world, Selina listened to the wolf whistles that followed her. She sighed. Some things never changed.
Lying on her bed, Selina went over the files she'd stolen from the Ministry, sifting through them, a notepad nearby with a pen in her mouth, jotting down notes. Selina had been doing this for hours, and she was making a list of plans and counter plans. It was clear from the newspapers that the magical world wasn't doing well from the war with Voldemort, but they had no ability to actually fight it. Holding off the death eaters was one thing, fighting them was a different matter, and Selina knew it wouldn't be long before the Order and the aurors lost the will to fight.
If you could call what the Order did fighting, Selina had gathered from Aunt Bella that the Order didn't fight so much as run away. Shaking her head at the stupidity of the wizarding world, Selina focused on her planning, and saw ways of fighting the death eaters; Selina wasn't melodramatic enough to call it the darkness, not like Dumbledore.
Already Selina had made 7 plans, but she knew she would need to make more.
As time passed and days turned into weeks, Catwoman's name was being spoken more and more by everyone. Her name was bringing hope to those without it, but the Ministry wasn't happy that a vigilante was taking the hope that should be the Ministry's making. The death eaters were starting to fear leaving the confines of their bases and venturing out to attack, Catwoman's strikes were unpredictable, and the results of those foolish enough to meet her were becoming the stuff of legend. For the death eaters, that legend was deadly. Not even Dumbledore had an image like that, and it was becoming increasingly clear the polished sheen of Dumbledore's legend was tarnished.
Catwoman was enjoying all of it, laughing at the pathetic promises of the Ministry, especially Fudge's, which were just plain empty and stupid. The one thing she did love was that Lord Voldemort himself seemed to become more...cautious. Selina had installed sensors in and around Britain, warning her of a Death eater raid, focused on the dark mark magic imbued in every death eater. But there hadn't been any new attacks, making the wizards hopeful that the war was in someway over. It was laughable.
Selina wondered why Voldemort wasn't lashing out like he'd done in the past, but she shrugged. Selina wasn't going to waste time by thinking about what ifs. She had to finalise her plans for tonight.
Later that day, Selina opened the trunk that held her Catwoman outfit. Carefully putting on the trousers, then the shirt, then the jacket, the transformation of Selina Potter to Catwoman came when Selina put on her clawed gloves, her boots and lastly her utility belt. The transformation ended when she put on her mask/ helmet and her goggles.
Malfoy Manor was a big estate. It consisted of thirty acres of gardens, orchards and an enchanted maze. There were stables with prize winning horses. The Malfoys had made a quarter of their fortune in breeding prize winning horses and other animals, but their primary sources of income came from prostitution, potion smuggling and so on. Selina had studied enough of the Malfoy family file to know that the House she was about to break into was the home of gangsters. Catwoman had decided to break in when the Ministry had a gala, which was stupid seeing how close Fudge was to being kicked out.
Mentally and magically calibrating her magical core to match the ward frequency, Catwoman slinked onto the Malfoy grounds. Since magical wards were similar to magnetic fields, it didn't take much to understand, from a muggle point of view, that magical wards and magical cores were like magnets of different poles. One pole met another pole of magnetic attraction, and repelled one another whilst being attracted to another. Selina had gone close to the ward perimeter and simply felt them before she teleported herself inside the wards. Now, with the grace of a panther, Catwoman slinked closer to the manor, keeping her eyes and ears peeled. She didn't know if there were any death eaters or housekeepers out this time of night, even though the latter was unlikely, but you never knew with people like this.
As she got closer, she noticed that the windows were dark, and there wasn't a sign of life. Creeping up to the walls took a long time, but she got there. Flexing her hands, Catwoman's claws extended, and she started to climb up the walls, listening for any sound other than the sound of the claws cutting their way into the stone of the bricks. She arrived at a massive window, and saw that the curtains hadn't been drawn yet. With her goggles, Catwoman scanned what she could see of the room, and she saw nothing. Using the pitons on her boots to keep her steady, Catwoman cut a hole into the window. The job took her a while, and whilst she could've used magic to break in, she didn't know for sure if there weren't other nasty curses on the house to prevent such a thing from taking place. Besides, Selina preferred taking the more challenging option, it helped keep her reflexes alert and in check.
For 5 minutes Selina cut a way into the window, carefully climbing inside and holding onto the circular piece of glass she'd cut to stop it smashing on the floor.
Catwoman walked around the manor, searching one room after another before she finally came upon Lucius Malfoy's study. It was full of books, and taking one from the shelves Catwoman saw that the book was dedicated to vicious curses and spells. Carefully putting the book aside, she moved on, searching the room. She checked the drawers on the desk for spells, and to her surprise there weren't any. Clearly the Malfoy arrogance thought no one would dare go through the drawers. Catwoman found one disappointment after another, there was nothing incriminating in any of the drawers, but she should've expected it. Lucius Malfoy had been one of the most violent and dangerous death eaters; he was unlikely to leave anything lying around that might see him been snogged by dementors. It was just so discouraging.
Catwoman walked around the room before she came across a section with a massive ornate rug draped all over it. Glancing down at it, Catwoman paid it no mind until she noticed that the rest of the room had highly polished wooden floorboards. So why was the rug here, in this part of the room? Bending down, Catwoman rapped her knuckles on the ground nearest to the rug, a wooden clang echoed. If this rug was innocent, then the sound coming from it would be the same. Catwoman repeated the procedure on a part of the floor covered by the rug. It sounded hollow. Catwoman smirked, this was more like it. Whipping the heavy rug off the ground, Catwoman saw what she'd discovered.
It was a trapdoor, covered by the rug, it concealed the evidence. No one outside the family would even know of it's existence. But Selina had read that a couple of years ago there had been raids on various family properties, one of them was Malfoy Manor, looking for anything suspicious for the Ministry. It was clear that the searchers sent to Malfoy manor hadn't made the connection of what the rug was covering, as the saying went the best place to hide something is in plain sight, but the Malfoy's could've been a bit more imaginative than a trapdoor.
Catwoman found the catch, and opened the entrance, but not before she placed a little gadget to stop the door from falling on her and locking in here; the door had been quite heavy and Selina worried that if she was trapped then she'd be a ripe picking for the death eaters. She also placed an explosive near the steps that led downwards.
The underground room she was in was quite dusty, Catwoman felt the neglect. The Malfoys had obviously believed this room was best left untouched by anyone. Catwoman used her night vision lenses to see and saw without any disappointment the gold she'd found, this place was a treasure trove for some of the most vile and hated magical objects from around the world. Selina remembered how James Potter had taught Daniel that it was rumored that the Malfoy family had this rare and precious collection of dark arts artefacts, but the hard part was discovering it. No Malfoy would stupidly reveal the secret of this hideaway.
Removing a stubby grey cylinder from her utility belt, Catwoman carefully placed the bomb near the stairs before she removed two more and placed them at different points in the room. Getting out of the underground store, Catwoman went towards the Hallway where the main Floo connection was. Catwoman knew the gala would last for another hour, but when the Malfoy's got back then they'd be in for a warm reception.
Catwoman chanted in the Wiccan language under her breath, then she turned and left for the direction of the room where she'd broken inside.
An hour later.
At the Order of the Phoenix's HQ in Potter Manor, half a dozen brightly robed and dressed witches and wizards came out of the floo looking absolutely shattered. The gala had been a waste of time, but Fudge, being his usual self, ignored it. Fudge didn't seem to grasp that he was wasting money, but his fate was sealed. Fudge had hoped the gaudy gala would stop him from being kicked out of power. Unfortunately, it only hardened the resolve.
James and Sirius, fed up with the constant ceremony, were going to enjoy themselves tomorrow when the Wizengamot would be in session. Tomorrow would see the end of Fudge.
Lily Potter whipped off her headband, glaring at her husband, " Please save me the memory of the meeting tomorrow, James. I want to treasure it always, Cornelius Fudge being kicked out of power. I swear, I have had enough of these never ending galas and fundraisers. We know that Fudge's squandering the money for himself."
James felt the same as his wife, agreeing with the request she'd made, " No problem, darling. I intend to make a little ceremony tomorrow night when the meeting's over."
Lily nodded, " Good," Then her mind turned to more immediate matters, " Any sign of her James, is there any sign of Selina?"
James sighed, " No. There's also no sign of Bellatrix. That doesn't mean she's not around," he added.
Lily nodded again, Bella wasn't the sort to run away.
Albus looked around the Order members with an aged look on his face, " Tonight we saw just how wasteful and extravagant Cornelius Fudge was, tomorrow hopefully we'll never have to deal with him again."
" Or his foul wife," Lily spat angrily, remembering the snobbish way Beatrice Fudge had spoken to her, " I wont be sorry to see the back of him or her."
Albus's eyes twinkled, " Yes, your right Lily."
As they laughed, a younger Order member rushed in from the Ministry, " Albus, Malfoy manor," the young man gasped and panted from the unexpected exercise as the Order waited patiently, " Malfoy manor is ablaze!" he gasped out.
Dumbledore's eyes widened, " What?" he hissed, " What's happened?"
The young man shook his head, " The family wards sent out an alarm 6 minutes ago, and a team was sent. They found the manor on fire. The fire was started a minute after the Malfoy family was seen leaving for their manor."
" Then...their dead?" One of the Order said in a horrified voice. For the life of him, James didn't know why they were horrified, the Malfoy family had caused a lot of pain to many people.
The young man had regained some of his breath," Yes, all three of them. Dead. We can't get near the blaze."
" Why not?" Dumbledore demanded; surely as wizards they should be able to put out one fire?
" You don't understand, the house isn't just ablaze, all of the estate's on fire, the gardens. Everything. All of it. We can't put it out. We've tried blanketing the area with a fire field to remove the air, but the fire's too big. We need help." The young wizard said earnestly.
Dumbledore sighed, wishing for once these people would be able to do their work without relying on him to get them out of their problems. " Very well. All of you, please come with me. We need all the help we can get."
Reluctantly the Order members left.
Twenty minutes later, James sighed in exhaustion as he held the field, channeling all his magic into the field. It had taken them 10 minutes to reduce the fire away from the Malfoy grounds, but the flames were still there, burning the house. James tried looking into the blaze, and he just caught what he thought was the front of the manor, but he couldn't focus on it due to the heat and smoke.
" Once again, everyone." Dumbledore ordered via a sonorous charm. James panted in exertion. This wasn't difficult magic, but whoever had set this up had been good when they created it. The fire had torched the manor and destroyed it already, James could see that from the view he had. Bracing himself from magical exhaustion, James was able to recast the field charm. It took them another 10 minutes before the fire dissipated, but Dumbledore was driving them on. The old wizard didn't know for sure if the fire wouldn't start again once they removed the field, and even when the last of the flames died down, Dumbledore ordered his people to keep up their parts of the field for another two minutes.
When they lifted the field, Dumbledore pointed his wand into the sky, and a bright blue spell was spat out of his wand. Rain fell on everyone until it was a cooling wetness on their faces. James sighed in relief, looking up into the sky with his mouth open. He closed his eyes, enjoying the wetness.
Dumbledore shouted, " Look!"
James opened his eyes and followed his mentor's outstretched arm as it pointed into the sky. There in the sky was a cat with it's claws stretched. It was followed by the message, " Hear Me Roar!"
Dumbledore looked at his Order, " It seems Catwoman has made her move."