"There's something you two should know, which is that I already know all about Project Starkid."
What?" Albus said, gasping at his father's words in complete shock and bewilderment. "You already knew about all of the terrible things that Project Starkid has done? Why haven't you tried to stop them, then?"
Uncle Harry got a strange look on his face and got to his feet, walking over to one of his filing cabinets. He pulled the top drawer open, rifling through it for a moment before pulling out a thick packet and handed it over to Albus and Roxy.
They opened it up to find photographs and entire pages written full of information about all the known members of Project Starkid, along with every single known victim that they had taken over the last thirty years. Over the faces of the ones that had died, someone stamped a large red 'X', so dark and morbid that Roxy had to look away, not wanting to look at the faces of kids who had died because no one moved fast enough to save them.
"How long have you been keeping files on everything, Uncle Harry?" Roxy asked quietly, glancing up at him. "And why've you only been keeping files instead of doing anything to stop it?"
"I've been trying," Uncle Harry confessed, dropping back into his office chair and stared down at his desk. "I've had agents keeping track of what Project Starkid has done nearly since it began. But no matter what evil things they do or how many time we try to bring the situation in front of the Wizengamot, Starkid continues chugging forward year after year. I've done everything I can think of to stop them, but whatever it is that Starkid is working on specifically, our own Ministry apparently wants to keep it going for as long as possible."
Roxy couldn't understand why the Ministry would let such an awful program exist in the first place, not to mention allowing its continuation for so many years and to take so many yeas.
"Do you know where they keep the children that get taken? Even if we can't shut down the program, couldn't we at least do that much, to get Aniya to safety and to rescue as many of the others as we possibly can? We owe them that much, don't you think, Uncle Harry?"
Albus nodded, leaning forward and placing his hands on the desk. "Dad, we have to do something—this isn't fair to all the people they've stolen away and the families they've ruined over the last three decades."
The elder Potter male let out a deep sigh, gaze falling onto the file resting just out of his son's reach. His eyes seemed sad as he slowly moved one of the photos towards himself. He held it up, showing them a picture of a small boy of nine or ten years of age with dark brown hair and blue eyes that held the observer captivated.
"This was Brett Ancrum. He was the youngest child of Scott Ancrum and Viola Richmond. Brett was three years old when he was kidnapped from his home one late night. His parents implored me to look for their son and I spent another four years doing all that I could to find him. By the time I actually did locate him, he was not the boy his parents had lost. Brett was under the control of people like Phuong Itawa and Rafael McClane; he used the powers they'd help him uncover to kill all four of the Aurors I'd brought along with me and landed me in St Mungo's for two weeks. I tried to bring this discovery before the Wizengamot, but they rejected every proposal I gave them. I had Kingsley on my side but before I could ask him to help me, Brett Ancrum's dead body was found on his parents' doorstep. He was only ten years old."
Roxy looked at the picture once more, imagining the kind of boy that Brett Ancrum have become if he hadn't been corrupted by the likes of Itawa and McClane.
"So what are you trying to say, Uncle Harry?" she asked quietly, keeping her gaze on the photo on his desk. "That we shouldn't save those people because it won't do anything to help?"
Harry shook his head and smiled gently at her, a firmness to his jaw. "No, Roxy, that's the opposite of what I'm saying. It's because of people like Brett Ancrum, who had their entire lives stolen away from, that I am going to take the two of you along with a team of Aurors to the headquarters of Project Starkid later this week and we're going to rescue your friend along with every other kid they've hurt over the years."
Roxy couldn't help but smile; they were going to do something, finally. She was going to make a difference in the world.
Ginny Potter didn't agree with the idea of her husband "setting out" on a mission—which is what he'd told her he was doing since the whole thing was meant to be a secret—especially since the whole thing would be occurring on the same day as his forty-ninth birthday, but Harry assured her this wasn't even that much of an important birthday in the grand scheme of things, especially considering he'd missed his first ten birthdays as well.
Harry had picked his small team of Aurors personally, choosing people that he felt could be trusted implicitly. According to him, a lot of the older members had stopped caring about their jobs long ago and began focusing more on the pay checks they received, which was why he had bypassed people who might have more experience and years under their belt but certainly wouldn't have put everything they had into this unofficial mission.
First was Harry's godson and a favourite of all the Weasley cousins—Teddy Lupin. There was also Isaac Baumann, Vikram Jhingade, Hannah Jankowski, and Aubree Wu; all five were amongst Harry Potter's most well-respected and highly dedicated Aurors, the team he trusted the most to keep what they were doing under wraps and stay dedicated to their job.
The ones being brought along who weren't Aurors were Albus, Roxy, and Jo, who had insisted on coming, claiming that Aniya was just as much her friend as Roxy's, even if the two girls didn't really get along very well.
"Alright, everybody," Uncle Harry said, looking around at them all.
They were gathered in one of the briefing rooms with the Project Starkid file sitting in the middle of the table where Aubree had thrown it in disgust after she finished reading it, glaring down at the stack of papers like it had personally offended her.
"So as we now are all aware, Project Starkid has been going on since September of 1998. There have been somewhere between seventy eighty children that we know of, amongst which nearly half of them had died at the hands of those who have been working on turning them into human weapons. Today, it is our mission to go to the headquarters of Project Starkid and rescue their unfortunate victims. Does anyone have any further questions?"
"Yeah," said Hannah, raising her hand. "So is this an 'unofficial' mission because the Ministry and the Wizengamot don't approve of what we're going to do—and if so, why don't they?"
Harry looked grimly in her direction. "I believe that the Wizengamot were the ones to sign off on this project in the first place. Phuong Itawa, even beyond her Legilimency and Occlumency skills, can be quite persuasive. Her lineage is long and fairly pure of blood and it would not be the first time that Galleons were exchanged to get a favourable vote in court. It is likely she posed it as a means of 'protection' against future Dark Lords, using a mockery of my own actions to argue that children were the best means of accomplishing her goals."
"And if we do rescue these children?" asked Hannah. "What's going to happen to them? Some actually are still children with no memories of their real families but even more of the names on these lists are Hogwarts-aged or are adults. Where will they go after a life of knowing nothing other than Starkid?"
The senior Auror hummed thoughtfully, his lips twitching slightly as he considered her question. "We will work on reuniting who we can—that's stage two. Anyone else, we'll put through a form of rehabilitation to help them become adjusted to the real world and help them become acclimated to how to use their magic in a way that is positive and appropriate."
Hannah leant back in her chair and made a small humming noise, but said nothing more; the other Aurors were also silent, watching their Head of Office pick the file up from the middle of the table, shrinking it down before he stuck the whole thing in his robes' pocket.
Roxy, her back against the wall, looked over to where Albus was sitting. The younger Potter had dug his fingernails into the palm of his hand and there was an anxious fluttering pattern to the movement of his eyes. She did not need Aniya to look through Al's head and determine that he was feeling nervous about going with his father on a real, albeit unofficial, Auror mission.
She flashed her cousin a reassuring smile, which he responded to with a shaking thumbs up and then buried his head in his hands.
"Alright," Uncle Harry told them loudly, waving his wand so that little images of the various people in the room appeared on the table. "Teddy, I want you to come with me as surveillance—we'll be stationed here and here—" The little figures moved around a rotating map of the Department of Mysteries, though it was not an area that Roxy recognised from the last time she broke in "—while Vikram, Aubree, and Hannah will be decoys here, here, and here, as well as herding anyone they find to the main room." He punctuated each here by jabbing the little figures across the table. "Isaac, you will take Albus, Roxy, and Joanne and go here, where the sleeping quarters are. If it's safe, I will send Teddy to meet up with you and all five will work to sneak as many people out as possible. If they resist, small Stunning and Silencing Charms will be sufficient; however, if they start to make noise then move on. And please remember to have your wand on you at all times. Is everyone clear on what to do?"
"Yes, sir!" said the Aurors in unison; the other three mumbled in agreement and got to their feet, following after Harry and the other adults.
When they had left the Aurors' office, Uncle Harry turned to look at them all, quietly telling the group, "Project Starkid goes on in the bowels of the DoM in rooms built so far underground that they don't show up on any official maps of the Ministry—mostly because the people who drew up the maps didn't know these rooms existed in the first place. The only reason why I have a model of the place is because of a confidante that was placed into the area who has dutifully worked with me over the past fifteen years to take Starkid down."
He led them to an elevator, where the nine of them squeezed between the passengers who were already there. Everyone fell quiet, not wanting to accidentally give away what they were doing or where they were going in case anyone else in the elevator worked for Starkid's benefit.
Roxy felt her heart thudding wildly as the elevator doors opened on the entrance to the Department of Mysteries; the last time she had come to this area of the Ministry, Roxy has become possessed by a prophecy and made the discovery that her cousin was potentially a Seer.
What would happen this time?
Uncle Harry led the group towards the doors of the DoM, knocking briefly before he turned back to look at them. "I have a friend inside who has agreed to lead us as far as she can go. After that, we'll have to move on our own. If you are spotted and someone asks why you're here, simply tell them you're part of the monthly Auror inspection. That, or a Stunning spell if they start asking too many questions."
They nodded; Roxy suddenly understood why Uncle Harry had told her to dress like a junior Auror. Now she, Albus, and Jo would blend in with the others.
Just then, a medium-height auburn haired woman, roughly the same age as Harry, opened the door and smiled at them. "Hello, Harry," she said sweetly, kissing his cheek. "Please, hurry inside, all of you, before anyone catches on that I'm gone."
"This is Lisa Macmillan," Harry explained as the woman led them into the atrium and put her hand on one of the doors, muttering a quiet spell right before the room began to spin around.
Once it had stopped, the glow from the candles illuminated the correct door and they followed after Mrs Macmillan into a narrow, poorly-lit hallway of which Roxy could see no end. The woman moved quickly, urging them to keep their voices lowered and to not look behind them for any reason whilst they were walking.
"All the rooms are cleverly designed," she explained to them, "but this one in particularly is quite tricky. It will try to force you into turning around but no matter what happens, you have to keep your eyes on what's in front of you or else you'll fall victim to the room."
"This is a room?" asked Hannah. "It looks more like a hallway that leads to nowhere. Are you sure you know where we're going?"
She asks a lot of questions, Roxy noticed, but shook it off. That was probably why Uncle Harry had invited her along—because she noticed things no one else did and wasn't afraid to speak her mind when things were questionable.
Mrs Macmillan nodded, still moving quickly, as though slowing down in any way would bring unbearable suffering upon them all. "Do you hear the noises yet? Can you hear them calling out to you, begging you to turn around and face them? If so, ignore them as best you can, no matter who it may sound like. Those voices are no friend of ours."
As though the room had heard her words, it suddenly seemed that Roxy could hear her brother's voice begging her to turn around, to run back to him, where they could both be safe and sound together for the rest of eternity, if only Roxy would look behind her and acknowledge him.
But, instead, she kept her gaze firmly forward, still angry from her discovery a few weeks ago about her brother. Roxy would not fall prey to any dumb tricks here in this hell hole known as the Department of Mysteries. She would not be trapped this time—not like with that stupid prophecy and the hallucinations.
The group kept moving forward even though it felt like there was no possible end in sight.
Roxy could see Hannah sweating nervously, clearly wanting to look behind her, but just as it seemed like she was about to, Vikram reached out and took her hand, guiding her further down the hallway to safety.
Finally, after they had walked for several minutes and Roxy was beginning to seriously question whether this was a trap, there was a light that glowed brighter than all of the other torches on the wall. It was the outline of a door, slightly cracked so that the begging voices were drowned out by a soft humming noise.
"This is as far as I go," Mrs Macmillan sad, opening the door wide enough to let them in. "Harry, you'll need to set someone on this door to make sure no one comes down this way while you're here. And I told you where to go when you're getting everyone back out, didn't I?"
Harry nodded. "I'll keep myself here—Teddy, you can stand on the other end of the walkway, where it splits into Project Starkid."
"How's she gonna get back?" Hannah asked, jerking her head in Mrs Macmillan's direction. "If you aren't supposed to go back and face the hallway, then how in the name of Merlin are any of us going to get out of here?"
Mrs Macmillan smiled and tapped her wand on the dark stones next to her, mumbling under her breath. A second door, this one identical to the one they'd initially seen in the atrium, appeared, pushing away at the stone so that it sat there, just waiting to be opened.
"This is how I will return and how you will get back to the outside world once you've rescued everyone. Harry knows what to do, so simply don't get lost and everything will be fine." With that, she opened the other door and disappeared inside, leaving them all alone to blink in confusion and wonder what was supposed to happen next.
Harry shut the door that they had come through and turned to look at Teddy. "Lead them out of this part of the room. You'll hit a hallway that ends in left and right options. Teddy, you will stay there and wait while Aubree, Vikram, and Hannah will go to the left door and Isaac, Albus, Roxy, and Jo will go to the right one. On the left is where the staff and testing area of Project Starkid is—it's your job to grab as much information as you possibly can and Stun anyone in your way. They'll think that's why we came here because the right way is difficult to navigate and the kids will be hard to find. When you four do, though," Harry turned to look at his son, employee, and the two girls, "then you will bring as many of those kids back with you as possible without resorting to violence. Again, a simple Stunning spell is all that's needed for anyone who becomes a problem—don't bother with them they're too far gone for us to save right now. Does everyone understand what to do?"
They all nodded; Harry directed for them to go further on and the group complied, though no one felt exactly comfortable leaving the Head Auror behind. It didn't feel right to walk away from someone so powerful but whenever one of them looked back, Harry waved his hand for them to keep going.
When they reached the fork in the hallway, the three Aurors went to the left and disappeared from sight; Teddy leant against the wall and pulled out his wand, looking around attentively. He waved his hand at Isaac, encouraging them to move forward.
"Follow me," Isaac said to Albus, Roxy, and Jo. "Keep your wands drawn at all times. If you feel threatened, don't hesitate but don't use any dangerous attacks—Silencio, Expelliarmus, Stupefy—those are all the sorts of things you want to stick to, nothing more. For the most part, though, I want the three of you to stay behind me and follow any orders I give you. I don't like having civilians with me, especially since two of them are related to Mr Potter, but if he tells me to bring you along, then that's what I'll do on the grounds that I respect Mr Potter whole-heartedly, and not because I have my faith in your ability to protect yourselves."
"We'll keep that in mind," Roxy replied coldly, looking sternly at Isaac. Sure, she could understand why he might be reluctant about bringing along 'civilians', as he called them, but he didn't have to be an arse about it. "I suppose this means we can't really trust you to defend us, then?"
Isaac didn't respond, instead choosing to push the door open and wave them on. The door slammed shut behind the group, plunging the group into darkness.
"Oh," Albus said; he muttered a quick, "Lumos," and a small light shined against his face, illuminating the worried panic of his features. "Where do they keep the children, Isaac? Surely not here, in the dark? Not in some dark hole with no light at all—not here? That's inhumane."
"This is all inhumane," Isaac said shortly, lighting his own wand. "But no, we still have one more door to get through before we actually get to the living quarters." He turned to look at them all. "Stick close to me and keep your wands lit. There's no telling what's in here and I'd prefer to not be caught unaware."
They moved forward slowly, hesitant, and freezing any time there was a noise, convinced that each shadow was an enemy coming to steal them away or else some unknown attacker that would fire curses and take the group down while remaining unseen and therefore unhurt.
Isaac pushed Albus to the front, telling him to use his 'Potter genes' to be brave and stand up in defence. Isaac himself stayed in the back, wand held up and moving slowly back and forth, sweeping his beam of light around the room to make sure that no one else was about to sneak up on them.
When they reached the second door, Isaac raised his hand, indicating for the other three to fall motionless. He lifted up his wand, running it across the dark wood, muttering to himself as he checked to make sure that there were no curses or traps placed on the door that might prevent entry into the next room. He must have found it acceptable, though, because Isaac leant away from the door and looked towards them.
"Remember to follow after me and stay behind me, you got it?" he warned then took his wand and whispered, "Alohomora," smiling when it clicked and opened wide.
The group moved through the door, wands held aloft, prepared for anything that might come leaping out at the four of them.
There were rows upon rows of beds, a bit like a hospital ward, each one neatly folded with a fluffed white pillar resting on top of crisp blue sheets. A line of cribs was pushed against the wall furthest away from where they were standing. There were small dressers by each bed, with a few personal items such as a book or a small toy. On the walls were posters and photographs of people that Roxy didn't recognise, though she suspected they were probably not anyone from the old lives of those who lived under Project Starkid.
There was also a girl, who was a few years younger than Roxy; she stood in the middle of the room, wearing grey, shapeless clothing that entirely hid her gender. Except for her shoulder-length blonde hair and slightly feminine lip shape, the girl could have just as easily passed for a male.
She blinked at them in shock, looking from person to person like she'd never seen anyone that looked like them in her whole life. Her eyes grew wide at the sigh of Isaac's wand, but she made no noise as she gaped at them.
"Er, hello," said Isaac, waving at her with the hand that wasn't holding his wand. "My name is Isaac Baumann and I am with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement as an Auror. I have come here with these three to rescue you, along with everyone else in this project. Does any of this make sense to you? Feel free to nod or shake your head in response."
The girl only continued to stare at them in bewilderment, tilting her head and furrowing her brow, obviously trying to make sense of what Isaac had just told her.
"Can you speak? Do you know English?" Isaac asked her, reaching out to touch her; the girl pulled away, looking frightened by his movements.
Roxy, watching the girl carefully, slowly dropped to her knees in front of the girl, letting her wand fall from her fingers and roll across the floor as she looked up at the girl. "My name is Roxy," she told the girl softly. "We want to help you, yeah? We're here to be your friends because you're no longer safe here and we want you to be safe."
"I'm fifteen, not five!" the girl snapped suddenly, looking cross. "You don't have to talk to me like I'm an idiot, you know. I don't need to be coddled like all the adults treat me."
"Oh." Roxy stood back up, sticking her hand out, which the girl grasped and shook firmly. "So do you have a name, then?"
The girl nodded, puffing out her chest. "I'm Chloe. I'm part of Team Delta and I've been living here with the majority of Team Delta since I was four years old. And I don't want to go anywhere, even if it is supposedly safer. This is my home, my family. You can't just take me away. No one here will agree to something like that."
It was Isaac's turn to gape at the girl, unable to comprehend that someone wouldn't want to get out of this place as soon as possible. "But don't you want to see your family again? Don't you want to return to a normal life? You're a victim here, held against your will! Why would you want to stay here when there's so much outside of these walls?"
Chloe shook her head. "But this is my home," the girl replied, just as confused as the rest of them, though for entirely different reasons. "This is my family. Why would I want to leave?"
"Aren't they running tests on you guys all the time?" asked Albus, lowering his own wand. "Haven't you ever noticed kids who were here one day and gone the next—their disappearance never acknowledged? Believe us when we say that, as much as this may feel like home, Project Starkid doesn't care about you. They don't love you. You're just a weapon to them to be manipulated and used for their own diabolical means."
She frowned and turned to Roxy, the only person that Chloe felt was actually interested in her well-being. "This is the only home I know," Chloe told the older girl, not sure why she was confiding in this stranger. "I don't want to leave my family or my home."
Roxy tried to give her an encouraging smile as she moved forward, placing her hand on Chloe's shoulder and speaking softly. She could understand why it might seem scary to be ripped away from everything the girl ever knew, but Chloe and the others weren't safe staying here. They needed to leave, to go somewhere they could be properly loved and cared for.
"You've had friends, right, who trained along with you but were never quite good enough or fast enough or smart enough to keep up with everyone else until one day you woke to find their bed empty and that no one would acknowledge that they were ever there in the first place?"
Chloe nodded, eyes growing wide.
"We've come here to make sure that sort of thing never happens again. We want to take you guys away somewhere else to live normal lives like any other witch or wizard. I know this is your home and you don't remember anything else, but we're only here to help you, okay?"
She reached out to take Chloe's hand, giving the girl a smile that Roxy sincerely hoped conveyed the honesty and hope she had of improving their lives. Chloe held her hand up, fingers brushing Roxy's softly—
And then the doors exploded, sending them all flying backwards.
