2.
Greengrass manor was rumored to have one of the best gardens in the world, and the rumor was not baseless. Various plants, trees and bushes could be seen surrounding the manor and providing a beautiful view when the the sun shone over it. Their colors varied, but similar ones were organized in the same parts of the garden, creating a big, colorful circle that seemed perfect from the sky.
Three girls walked through it, admiring it and enjoying the summer sun.
"Have you made up with Apollo?" the tallest one asked. She was a pale girl, with blond hair and blue eyes. She had high, prominent cheekbones and soft, yet elegant features which made her one of the prettiest girls of their age in the whole magical Britain. Her voice, however, was cold and collected and her posture sharp and straight.
"Why are you asking me that every few days, Daphne? You don't even like him," second girl answered. She was short and petite girl, with wide, blue eyes and long, dark hair. She had innocent expression on her young-looking, soft face.
"Because we are allies now. Father wants me to stay close to him while in school."
"You with him and Astoria with Malfoy?"
"Tracey!"
"What?" Tracey bit back, while Daphne looked scandalized. However, it was third girl who explained it further. Next to the other two girls, she looked plain, average. She had brown hair she liked to wear in a ponytail and light, brown eyes. Unlike the other two, however, she carried herself naturally, with hidden confidence, like a successful woman.
"It's politics, Tracey. Daphne's uncle was traded for her sister and now that lord Greengrass changed his allies that deal is fragile. She'll stay with Malfoy till they find out how to void the contract that bounds Astoria," she finished and both Tracey and Daphne stopped and looked her astonished, and she defended herself," What? Paul likes to know that kind of shit and you hear things."
"Right," Tracey scoffed as Daphne reprimanded Morag for her language.
"So," blond girl insisted, "have you made up?"
"No. He's hypocritical bastard. I don't see us making up any time soon if he doesn't change."
"What do you mean change?" Morag wanted to know.
"Stop being fake," she shortly replied and Morag nodded thinking about it. She thought that Tracey got it all wrong. Everything till now was Paul faking, but now he started to show his real self and if Tracey doesn't see it, she wouldn't tell either.
"He's powerful," Daphne whispered, as if someone could hear them, "Even father respects him because of that. All of his allies does."
"So what?" Tracey asked.
"So he might end up as a political giant. As a new powerhouse. It was Dumbledore for like 50 years, but he is getting old."
"I still don't see how that matters. Why does that give him right to be an ass? And Dumbledore looks the same as ever."
Morag sighed, shaking her head in disbelief, "Think about it, Tracey. In our world, power makes up for everything. It's just how the things are. I mean, if Dumbledore walks in Hogsmeade and kills someone, who would judge him for it? Who would imprison him? They'll just nod along and say the man was a dark wizard or something," she explained.
"And he is getting old. Father says that's the reason why he doesn't make many public appearances nowadays," Daphne added.
"So he is just better than us and that makes it right?" Tracey asked again, ignoring her.
"It's not about you or me," Daphne responded, "He has to fake it till everyone recognize him as a leader of this generation or something like that. He has to appear strong all the time, he has to show others not to mess with him and he has to outshadow Potter. He can't do that if he's fooling around or acting childish."
"So what now? I should just make up with him because it's easier? Just forget that he will continue to lie to me and manipulate people around in a way he sees fit?"
"Yes," Morag and Daphne responded simultaneously.
"Why couldn't he just act normal. Be a kid for a bit longer," Tracey whined.
"Maybe he can," Daphne started carefully, causing Tracey to look at her hopefully. Morag narrowed her eyes, observing the blonde, "You can try to undermine him publicly. Show him that he has no real power in our house and maybe he'll just drop it."
"You think that will work?" Tracey asked, looking at both girls now, but Morag opted to remain silent, still looking Daphne with unreadable expression on her face.
Daphne's eyes flickered to Morag before she simply replied, "Who knows. Maybe if you aren't the only one that thinks he changed too much..."
'It is not enough to have the title of lord. You have to act like one. You have to be one,' Yaxley remembered his father words as he tried to hide smirk that threatened to break out. Young Apollo looked as bored as possible as lord Burke drawled about his safety, risks that came along since he joined them and Lucius' pressure on him. Others looked bored too, but they were veteran politicians and used to such a speeches so they just waited for him to finish, but young lord was ready to burst.
"...and with current situation hanging from above our heads, it would be prudent to retreat in a safer environment for time being," Burke finished, looking very pleased with himself as he looked around to see if someone agreed with him. Davis and Fawley both avoided his eyes, Greengrass purred himself more whiskey, old Abbot was openly chuckling and Yaxley himself was observing Carrow. He was glaring at Burke in disbelief and his mouth opened few times, but no words came out. Yaxley finally lost it and joined lord Abbot in laughter as everyone else looked at him strangely.
"Just what are you thinking you are doing?" Apollo finally found the words. He leaned forward as Burke squirmed in his seat and his neck started to redden, "The reason of this meeting was to evaluate the best direction for the future and you have a gall to propose a retreat?" Burke looked around once again, hoping for some help, but none arrived.
"I'm talking to you, Burke," he hissed dangerously, disrespect clear to everyone in the room, "And you will look at me when I do so."
"Why you little - " he tried, but was quickly interrupted.
"Silence! I'm not sure how thick you are so I will explain it slowly. My gold, which was given to you, had a simple quest. To strengthen your position and to save your collapsing business. Moreover, it wasn't given freely. To speak in terms you understand, you were bought and paid for and your non-existing loyalty and useless vote are the part of our fucking bargain, aren't they?" he finished, glaring at Burke whose face was purple at this point, but he remained silent.
"Seeing that you are unwilling to fulfill your part of a bargain, I'll have to assume you feel safe and protected. Since that protection isn't coming from us, I'll once again assume that you bought it from someone else and I wonder, now, with what have you paid for it? Was it maybe my gold? Was it information about mine whereabouts?" he continued quietly, but everyone was listening now. Yaxley himself hadn't reached the same conclusion. He merely thought that old fart went back to Malfoy for some gold. Yaxley was curious to see how would it play out and judging by the looks of others, they wanted the same. Burke, in an impossible manner, changed color from purple to white.
"No," he said loudly, with a note of hysteria in his voice, "I didn't even know that you were in Knocturn that day! How dare you accuse me like that!?"
Apollo slowly nodded, still calm and collected, in his spot, "I see. You haven't mentioned the gold though," he noticed and Burke once again opened his mouth, but when he evaluated the situation in the room he closed them again.
Silence stretched as two lords glared at each other. Burke was visibly upset and sweat could be see on his balding forehead.
"Nothing to say in your defense?" young lord finally whispered, pulling his wand out in a less than a second, resting it innocently on his thigh, "Very well, then, should we let your wand speak for you?"
"Alright, that's enough," Farley loudly interrupted as Burke paled even more, "We will deal with this in appropriate manner."
"And what is that?" Greengrass asked, sounding curious, seemingly not bothered with current situation.
"I'll tell you what it is," Apollo started, "We will meet here in a week. All of us. Burke will bring us every single galleon given to him since the foundation of our little party and we will shake his hand and wish him good luck in his future endeavors. Isn't that right, Burke?"
"Now, wait a minute," he tried, but Paul interrupted him again.
"I think you overstayed your welcome."
"We will see each other," added Abbot.
"In a week," Farley finished and Burke stood up, trying to look dignified, but failing to do so.
"Ah, that went well," lord Davis commented.
"To be truthful, it was only matter of time," Farley sighed loudly and continued, "but nothing to do here. We'll have to look elsewhere for allies. What about Amelia? Apollo, Henry?"
"Ah, she won't openly side with us, but we can expect some support if our demands are somewhat reasonable and in accordance to her sense of justice and honor," Henry said.
"Her power in ministry is decreasing. Fudge is personally in charge of half of her aurors due to security risks of incoming events. His support group is becoming bigger, his authority is getting stronger and his power over ministry grows. As much as I hate to say so, that shit Burke was right. There is nothing we can do at the moment, but wait for an opening," Apollo added, scratching his cheek and Yaxley grunted.
"Well, I have heard something interesting," he stopped to see if he has gotten everyone's attention, "Lucius is organizing small gathering after the final match and I received an invitation."
"What kind of gathering?" Greengrass spat, with obvious disdain in his tone.
"Something along the lines of celebrating the old ways and reminding the society that some of them are still at large, without fear of authorities."
"Oh," Davis said stupidly and Abbot's face wrinkled, revealing his real age.
"That's not all," Yaxley continued once it settled down, "There are rumors."
"Yeah," Apollo said unhappily, "I've heard them too."
"What are you talking about?" Farley started to look concerned as Yaxley exchanged look with young lord who nodded to him.
"Slightly increased activity in Knocturn alley, werewolves in Europe started to migrate west and the lack of dark presence in Albanian forest."
"Albanian forest? What in the Merlin's name was there?" Davis asked.
It was Greengrass who answered, "A spirit, shadow with no name terrorizing local villages," he stopped to take a big sip of his whiskey, "It is rumored that the spirit is a remainder of Dark Lord, too weak to continue, but still there, slowly collecting and regaining his strength," he finished and Farley dropped his glass, Abbot's face hardened and Davis looked scared as Yaxley exchanged another look with Apollo.
"It, it might be just a rumor," Davis whispered, trying to reassure himself.
"It might," Yaxley allowed, "but there is a problem called Bertha Jorkins. She works for Bagman, in Department of Magical Games and Sport and she took a time off some time ago. Currently, she is missing and was last seen in Albany."
"What? Why aren't we aware of that?" Greengrass demanded.
"Bagman told me himself. Idiot said she is forgetful and doesn't care at all, but still, it is too much of a coincidence to me."
"It could be," Davis tried again as Apollo sighed again saying, "Just show them, Corban."
He nodded and pulled his left sleeve up, revealing the faint tattoo everyone quickly recognized, it was a Dark mark. Yaxley watched it with disdain, cursing himself for his stupidity, but quickly broke out of a stupor.
"It faded on 1st of November, 1981. It lost most of its color and stopped to burn. I haven't felt anything from it since the day Potters defeated him somehow. That is until few days ago. Just a short burning sensation and faint change in color, but enough for me to notice. Even if you dismissed all of the sings pointing in his direction, this one you can't ignore. Believe me when I say that he is getting stronger."
His words were met by silence and looks of disbelief as they observed his tattoo, as if they were mesmerized by it. Yaxley could see the wheels turning in their heads, but didn't comment. He waited for them to process it before he continued.
"Dumbledore knows," Apollo beat him to it, "And if he succeeds to return to his previous strength, he will form his little gang of self-righteous Gryffindors immediately.
"We should just sit it out," Davis offered, but Farley shook his head.
"It barely worked last time. If he comes knocking on your door, you either join him or you die. It's simple as that," he said unhappily.
"How long?" Abbot finally spoke his mind.
"No idea. It could take years, decades. I've no idea what kind of magic he used to keep himself alive."
"Don't bullshit me, boy. How? Long?" he spat forcefully and Yaxley had to admit that old man still radiated enough power to make him concerned. He thought for a second before he replied.
"Few years if we are lucky. He is remarkable wizard."
"And if we are not?"
"Yaxley glanced at his left forearm and responded in a defeated voice, "Few months. Half a year if he is particularly careful."
"Shit," Abbot breathed out, "We all have to think this over, I think. We'll talk more in a week," he said, standing up. Others quickly agreed and escaped the manor as fast as possible.
Paul, however, stayed behind and waited till he was alone with lord Farley.
"Is Gemma home?" he asked older man.
"In her room. Upstairs, second door on left," was his brief answer.
Gemma was impatiently waiting in her room, on her bed. She knew Paul would visit as soon as he was over with a meeting. She almost squealed when she heard two sharp knocks on the door and ran to open it.
"Hi," she said, letting him inside and felt heat rising in her cheeks, "How are you?"
"It is nice to see you too," he responded with tired smile and she felt her blush getting worse as he checked her out and ignored her question, "You look nice."
"Thanks," she said quietly, sitting down on her bed. He sat next to her and leaned to the wall in half-lying position.
"Good summer so far?" he asked.
"Yeah. I'm exchanging owls with madam Pomfrey and doing some studying on my own. She's been very helpful."
"She's a good healer," he replied, "Are you going to the finale?"
"No. Father declined the tickets. He is not fan of Quidditch."
"Neither am I, but I heard the stadium will be magnificent. They spend thousands of galleons on it," he said and she smiled. Figures that Paul would enjoy more the magic around the sport than sport itself.
"So, I got myself few tickets," he continued, "but no one to go with and I was wondering if..."
"YES," she interrupted him louder than she wanted to and immediately blushed, "I mean..."
"Nice. I'll ask your father later then, okay?" he asked, not reacting to her earlier outburst and she was glad he didn't.
"Okay, but what about Hestia and Flora. Or Blaise?" she asked, suddenly feeling insecure, but he shrugged casually.
"They don't care much about it. Anyway, I have to run now. See you in a week or so."
"Okay, b-bye," she said, a bit perplexed with his sudden departure, but it was quickly replaced with strange feeling in her stomach as he pecked her in her cheek before he left. Her cheeks remained red for quite some time as she rested her hand on the place where his lips were not so long ago.
Whole ministry was in a rush, Paul noticed, as he walked toward the elevators. Memos were flying and people were running around murmuring quietly and rushing somewhere. The part where DMLE was, however, was almost empty. There were only few clerks doing some paperwork and madam Bones' secretary.
"I have an appointment," Paul said bluntly, not in a mood for small talk, and girl jumped in her seat, startled.
"I, of course, sir," she quickly responded, going trough the pages of small notebook in front of her and Paul managed to get a good look at her. He recognized her long, curly hair, but couldn't quite place it.
"You were perfect few years ago, right?" he asked, trying to remember.
"Um, yeah. Last year. I just finished, sir," she responded, looking at him for the first time and he was startled by foreign picture in his mind, showing him one of Weasley boys.
"Weren't you dating Weasley?" he tried and her cheeks reddened.
"Yeah, but we broke up," she quickly replied, and added, "Sir."
"It's not that I care much, but you should learn proper titles if you are about to work here. Some people might get offended otherwise," he said casually as her eyes widened in horror when she noticed ring on his finger and he slightly bowed.
"Common mistake among muggleborns. Lord Carrow, at your service, miss."
"Sorry, my lord, I just started few days ago," she said quietly, looking down, but he shrugged it away.
"Apollo is fine. I just wanted to give you friendly advice," he added with a wide smile when new voice interrupted them.
"Carrow, stop chatting up my secretary and get in. You, Clearwater, kindly return to your duties."
"Yes, ma'am," girl called Clearwater immediately responded as Paul entered Amelia's office with small smirk.
"Sit, please," she said sighing, "There isn't much people who want to work as my secretary so it's always someone fresh out of Hogwarts."
"How so?" Paul asked curiously.
"I'm a busy woman, Carrow, and I want my people earning their salary."
"Sure," he chuckled, "Do you always choose meek ones? To make people drop their guard and then eat them alive in here?"
"All muggleborns are meek when they start in ministry. They aren't used to so many grown up wizards and witches and everyone treat them as trash."
"So you always end up with muggleborns?"
"Mostly, but they switch in useless departments as quickly as they can, bastards."
"You should scout among poorer purebloods. Like Weasleys," Paul said and she looked at him sternly, unimpressed.
"Weasleys are good people. I'd be honored to have one as my secretary."
"If you say so. One in my class isn't that bright."
"I assume you didn't make an appointment with me to talk about Weasleys or my employees," she finally got to the point and Paul sighed. He wouldn't mind more of small talk.
"No, I didn't."
"Carrow, I warn you, if you are wasting my time..." she said angrily.
"Lord Carrow," he corrected her, barely hiding his smile. Hufflepuffs were always easy to rile up. When she began to raise he quickly continued, "Alright, alright, I'll get to the point. Firstly, I'm here to inform you that I will not be able to finance your department anymore."
"Is that so?" she asked, looking disappointed.
"I'm afraid that at this point it would be same as financing Fudge and that is something I want to avoid," he reasoned his decision and she sighed tiredly.
"I see your point. He's getting paranoid and he was always afraid of his own shadow. He thinks we are after his position."
"Are you?" Paul was curious, but Amelia's face was collected as ever.
"Are you talking about treason, lord Carrow? There are still few archaic laws around to deal with it so this will be your first and last warning," she calmly replied and he nodded.
"Ambition isn't treason, ma'am. Even so, lets not talk about semantics. Have you got the report about werewolves from ICW?" he asked and she crossed her arms, looking him suspiciously.
"And how do you know about it?"
"Good friends," he shrugged, "and to improve our own friendship, I came to offer some friendly advice."
"You used 'friend' too much times there, Carrow, and it stinks. Spit it out," she said, her eyes narrowing, but he didn't show any signs of discomfort.
"Are you in charge of security during World's cup?"
"That's not for you to know!"
"So no," he deducted, "But you will be needed. Slip one of your aurors in the team, disguised Tonks preferably, and tell her to be ready."
"Ready for what? What are you talking about?" she asked, sounding annoyed.
"I want to work with you sometimes in the future and to ensure that I have to establish trust between the two us," he replied, standing up, "First step towards it is this warning. World's cup, after the match. Be ready."
As she opened her mouth again, he left the office and left her alone in her thoughts. She was still musing it over when Robards entered her office.
"Yes?" she asked curtly.
"We have a lead on Zabini case, ma'am."
"What have you find out?"
"It was stupid overlook, really, we would figure it out much sooner if Fudge didn't push it on Black so fast."
"Spit it out, auror," Amelia demanded.
"Trace caught dozens of diagnostic and warding spells."
"So? Her kid practiced some magic earlier that day," she dismissed the theory, but Robards pulled out a paper and gave it to her.
"He remained at Hogwarts. This is the list of those that went home. It isn't a long one," he said as she accepted the list. I truly wasn't a long one and she only recognized one name. Judging by the look of auror, he reached the same conclusion.
"Is it enough for warrant?" she asked, defeated and he hesitated a bit, scratching his head.
"So far, it is just the speculation. He organized adoption too fast and no one really knows where he lives so no alibi either. Enough for questioning, I gather," he reasoned.
"Shit," she cursed, standing up and nervously pacing back and forth, "Who is aware of this? she asked, pointing at the list.
"Rufus knows. Hopkirk from Improper Use of Magic Office might have an idea too," he responded with a thoughtful face, waiting for orders.
"Keep it that way. Tell Rufus to organize questioning of everyone from the list and do it quickly."
"We don't have the authority to question a lord without concrete evidence. It has to be issued by Wizengamot or minister himself," auror argued.
"Leave that to me. You worry about the others from the list. And not a single word to press. Merlin help us if Skeeter finds out we are questioning children."
"Got it, boss," he nodded and left the office, leaving Amelia in much worse mood than before. She thought about the boy she met more times than she would prefer to, the boy she saved, the boy that started to be a constant headache.
"There has to be something," she murmured under her breath and decided to head to the registers. When she arrived, she was warmly greeted by older woman.
"Hello, director, we haven't seen you down here for some time."
"Been busy, Mrs MacDougal. Can you get me the file on lord Apollo Carrow?"
"Sure," she smiled back and used some kind of tracking spell designed specifically for this office, but it just produced red cloud.
"Oh," she said with puzzled look on her face, "It seems I have no access to his file. Here, sign this and I'll try again. You should be permitted."
Amelia signed it and waited for woman to repeat her spell, but it yielded the same result.
"This isn't right," other woman said, and tried again, but to no avail, "If you would wait for a minute, I'll call someone to fix the enchantments."
"Sure," Amelia nodded, but kept her suspicion to herself. It seemed to her that someone went far to ensure that file never reaches her. A minute later, a guy from Magical Maintenance department entered, nodded to her and started muttering diagnostic spells under his breath.
"Can you show me the problem?" he asked when he was done and Mrs MacDougal happily obliged, causing another red cloud. He inspected the paper Amelia signed, used a few more spells on it and loudly signed.
"There is nothing wrong with the charm itself. Your level of clearance isn't enough to reach the document you requested. For some reason, the said file, is saved as 'classified'."
"What does that mean?" Amelia asked, confused. She never encountered such a file.
"It means you have to speak with minister or with DoM, depends who's hiding its contents. There is another file you can access listed as Apollo Carrow, but if you add the prefix lord it becomes classified so see if that one has the info you need."
"Okay," Amelia nodded, "Let's try that one. Apollo Carrow," and soon enough, the file appeared and she opened it curiously. It read:
NAME: Apollo Carrow
DATE OF BIRTH: 31/06/1980
BLOOD STATUS: PUREBLOOD
FAMILY: /
MARKS / SCARS: Dark, red hair is family distinctive trait (males). Thin, straight line from left eye to the corner of the mouth
SCHOOLING: HOGWARTS (4th year)
WIZARDING FIELD: Member of Wizengamot, lord
WHEREABOUTS: /
SECURITY STATUS: /
ADD. INFO: /
Amelia read it twice in disbelief. The files of newborns were more useful than this peace of paper. She folded it and saved it for later, going over it in her mind. It was clear to her that fields that weren't filled were the information she needed. She could explain the bottom of it, but why would his family members be classified. How bad could it be?
Finally, she asked herself, what the hell was going on?