Discussions and Action

Attack on the Ministry

By

Yogi Bear

Ministry officials have confirmed that an attack by the followers of You-Know-Who took place this afternoon. Serious injury and damage was taken during the opening seconds of the attack, with hundreds dead and injured. Amongst those who have died where Minister Rufus Scrimegour and DMLE head Kingsley Shacklebolt. The Aurors who responded to the attack took on overwhelming odds at the cost of many of their lives, but no exact figures have been released. After an emergency meeting of the Wizandgamot, Nymphadora Tonks has been sworn in as the new Minster for Magic. Her first action was to appoint Alastor Moody as the new DMLE chief, and also to make Vellouette Harrison the new Senior Auror and head of the Auror Corps. After making these appointments, Minster Tonks then awarded Order of Merlin medals to Harry Potter, Hannah Abbot, Susan Bones (niece of the late Amelia Bones), Neville Longbottom (son of the famous Aurors Alice and Frank Longbottom) and Luna Lovegood. The five where present at the ministry on an unrelated matter, and joined the battle without being asked to. During the fight, several Death eaters were captured including Bellatrix Lastrange and Peter Pettigrew. Their mission appears to have been the rescue of Draco Malfoy (the sun of Lucius Malfoy – now a confirmed Death Eater). However with the capture of two of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's top followers, it will set the Dark Lord back a little while. After her appointment and the awarding of medals, Minster Tonks spoke about her new policies concerning Death eaters and You-Know-Who.

For the interview and further information please go to Pages 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20.

Harry read his copy of the Evening Prophet and snorted at the story on the front page. One thing that made him smile was the notice that was printed at the bottom of the bottom of page one.

We wish to announce that one of our reporters, Rita Skeeta, has been arrested on charges of making false accusations and treason. She was released following the payment of a 1000 Galleon fine. The Daily Prophet has suspended Miss Skeeta for two weeks with out pay, and she has expressed a wish to write a Good Housekeeping column upon her return.

That had made some of the bad feelings evaporate from Harry. He was alone in the common room of their tower, as Hannah and Susan had returned from having dinner after they had woken up from their daytime sleep. When they had got back both of them had been so tired still that they had gone back to bed. Harry glanced at the clock on the wall and saw it was nearly half past nine. He put the paper on the coffee table and lay back on the sofa and thought of the upcoming days ahead. Harry nearly didn't notice the door open and Luna and Neville walk in, with Neville looking better then when he had left.

"Hi you two" he said as they sat on chairs.

"Hello Harry" Luna said. Luna's hair looked a little more messed up then it normally did, and Harry could only make a guess as to what they had done.

"Hi mate" Neville said. His hair looked messy as well, and there was something odd about his clothes as well. Something that Harry found odd, but couldn't put his finger on.

"So, what did you do?" Harry asked hesitatingly.

"We went to the Room of Requirement, and I comforted Neville in private" Luna said.

"Luna is a real friend" Neville said, giving Luna a glance.

"I am?" she asked surprised.

"Of course" Neville said and Luna's cheeks tinged red.

"Do I need to ask what else you did?" said Harry as he raised his eyebrows.

"What you mean?" asked Neville.

"Did you … I mean did you have …." Harry tried to think of a polite way to ask the question.

"That is not your business" Luna said with a gleam in her eye. "But no we didn't. We just took our clothes of and lay in our underwear together on a bed the room gave us" she said. A look of amusement passed over her features. "We just kissed and hugged a lot".

"So you just took off your clothes and kissed and hugged?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, just that" Neville said, going slightly red as well.

"So that explains why you are wearing Luna's socks then does it?" Harry said as he figured what was wrong with Neville's clothes. He smiled as he saw the look of panic on Neville's face as he realised he had the wrong socks on.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he spluttered to Luna.

"You never asked" she replied serenely.

"At least you didn't end up wearing Luna's skirt" Harry added for maximum damage.

"There was no danger of that" Luna said matter of factly.

"Why?" asked Neville curious.

"You don't have the legs" delivered the blonde. Harry simply rolled off the sofa in complete fits of laughter.

"You owe us something" Luna added, and Harry managed (after a while) to regain the power of speech.

"What is it?" he asked.

"The hot chocolate" the girl told him.

"Ah that" Harry said and leaned over with his wand and flicked it at the large wooden table. Three large mugs and a massive teapot came floating over. The smell told Luna that Harry had kept his promise.

"I thought it would have been cold by now" Neville said as he rearranged the mugs.

"I used a warming charm on the teapot. I am a wizard you know" Harry said chuckling. "Shall I play mother?" he asked, and he poured the contents of the teapot into each of the mugs. They drank deeply and then settled down to talk.

"What do you think is going to happen, Harry?" asked Luna.

"About the attack today you mean? I don't know to be honest with you" Harry said thinking hard. "It's going to take a long time to rebuild from an attack as big as this, assuming of course that Tonks can. The first thing to do is to build up the Auror Corps again and that's the hardest thing to do" he added.

"How can she rebuild it?" asked Neville.

"Well she could hire some recently retired Aurors to cover until they get some new trainees. What she might do is to look at the results of those who trained but didn't make the grade and hire the best of them and then train up the lower ranking ones" Harry sighed. "What a great way to start your first day as minister" he added.

"I think Miss Tonks is going to be very good" Luna said as she took another sip of her hot chocolate.

"Being good at the job does not mean we will win" Harry warned, and at that moment there was a little tapping from the window. Hedwig had come back from another mission Harry had sent her on, and he took the letter from her beak. "Thanks Hedwig. Go enjoy a night time hunt" he added as he ruffled her feathers and watched as she flew off to hunt for mice.

"Whats the letter about?" asked Neville as he poured himself a second mug. He and Luna waited until Harry had opened it.

"It's from Tonks" he said at length.

"Whats it say?" asked Neville again.

"Tonks has decided what to do with some of the Death Eaters we captured" Harry said, and he looked slightly sad.

"Whats she doing? Sending them to Azkaban?" Luna asked, but Harry shook his head.

"Those senior Death Eaters we captured have been taken to the Department of Mysteries and pushed through the veil" Harry said, and he was quiet for a moment.

"Wow" breathed Neville. "Does she name names?" he asked.

"No" and Harry looked up at him, and sounded only vaguely happy.

"Theres something else, isn't there?" Luna said and Harry nodded slowly.

"They used truth serum on them all before pushing them through. Three of them said that there was a group of Death Eaters on a muggle warship near the coast of Mexico" and Harry had a hard time thinking of the situation that had been suggested.

"But?"

"But they can't get hold of anyone at the Mexican Ministry" Harry said. "According to the confessions, they have two ships, one was for quick use, and the other is to make their proper escape on. They where just going to abandon the first ship and create a mystery" and Harry threw the letter onto the table and it landed next to the teapot. Neville took a look at Luna and the girl nodded once.

"Lets go" Neville said and stared at Harry's confused look.

"What you mean?" he asked.

"Let's go and get them" Neville clarified. Harry weighed up the pros and cons of what Neville suggested.

"What about Hannah and Susan?" Luna asked.

"Theres no time" Harry said jumping up and grabbing his wand and transfigured three cushions into cloaks. "We'll tell them when we get back" he added, and he called for Dobby.

"What is required of Dobby?" the hyperactive house elf asked. Harry gave the elf some instructions and had him repeat them just to make sure. The three stood together and, at Harry's nod, Dobby clicked his fingers and the three students vanished from Hogwarts.

When they popped back into existence, their nose where assaulted by the smell of the open sea and the sound of waves hitting something solid. Harry looked around and confirmed what his senses told him. They arrived on what looked like an old muggle battleship and in the distance; they could see another ship leaving them.

"That's them" Harry said, as he pointed the other ship out to Luna and Neville.

"Can we hit them with spells?" asked Luna.

"I think we wouldn't do any damage" Neville said judging the distance.

"Neville's right. We'd might as well fire snowballs at them, the distance is too far" Harry said and looked round the deck of the ship. It was what Harry knew to be a Battleship. He went over to one of the turrets and peered inside to see if any one was in, but nobody was. The compartment was empty except for the fact on one side, was a small stack of shells.

"What can we do, Harry?" asked Luna. When she didn't get an answer, she and Neville turned to see Harry with a big smile on his face.

"What?" asked Neville, looking over his shoulder at the fleeing Death Eaters.

"I just had an idea about fighting them" Harry said, and he rushed off towards the main part of the ship. The other two looked at each other and raced off after Harry.

A/N: So, Tonks is now "disposing" of some of the Death Eaters, and Rita is suspended. Harry, Neville and Luna are on the open seas on a boat left behind by Death Eaters and Harry has a plan. I'm not going to give clues, but I suggest that people look at Steven Siegel's films the one called "Under Siege". When you read or see it, then you will understand what is going to happen in Chapter 25.

A few clues: Rafael reappears in the fic, guns are fired and theres action on the high seas.

Have Fun

Regards;

Pixel