Amelia steps up to the security clerk ready to see what sort of shambles the DMLE had fallen to during her two weeks 'holiday'.
"Wand" the clerk says sounding bored.
"I don't have one."
The clerk looks up and gulps as he recognises her, "I'm afraid that I'm going to need you to relinquish your sword Ma'am, new rules you understand."
"I'm afraid I don't understand."
"They came down from the Ministers office, no weapons are allowed in the ministry."
"Ah, I thought I saw a bowler hat and pink cardigan yesterday. But now I know. May I see the rule?", she said staring at him with the same look she gave recruits that had just screwed up.
"Certainly, here you go Madam Bones."
To: All security personnel
From: The minister of magic
As of today, no one is to be allowed to enter with a lethal weapon.
Cornelius Fudge
P.P. D Umbridge
"Very well, I can see how that could be an issue. I've been asking for them to tighten up on security for a long time. I'll stay here to provide the authority you need in order to implement this."
"Thank you, Ma'am, but I'm confused, why do I need authority for this?"
"We're finally going to be putting the storage room attached to your booth to use."
"But Ma'am that's for storing wands."
"It is indeed."
"But, they're wands."
"What seems to be hard to understand?"
"The memo said lethal weapons."
"Yes, which is why you're going to take everyone's wand away, as well as any knives, walking sticks, staves, or swords."
"Why do I need to do that?"
"Do I need to remind you that a wand is a weapon?"
"It is? but it's my wand!"
"And without it you can't cast a cutting spell. Therefore, by definition it's a weapon."
"Don't worry, I'll get a few Aurors to get the weapons you let through already today."
She conjures a sheet of parchment, quill and ink before writing a note to Moody to meet her by the wand check point. She then take the memo and using a sticking charm affixes it the wall beside the booth. After carefully placing her sword in the storage room she stands beside the guard with her badge on display as he reluctantly starts to store ever witch and wizards wand as they enter.
Moody stumps up, "What did you need Madam Bones?"
Indicating the memo on the wall Amelia briefed him, "There is a new security edit from on high, I'm stuck here as this is the main entry. I need you to get Tonks in to be on internal duty today and ask her if her squeeze would be willing to come too, make her a temporary deputy. I know she's not due back till tomorrow, but you may need some backup, especially when you get to the DMCC. Oh and make sure that everyone in the department knows about the new edict as we don't want to be found contravening the laws that we're trying to uphold."
"Very well Madam Bones, I will go and stow my wand and then get right on it. I'll start with the more numerous offices, and then do the DMCC."
"You might want to see the secretary for the Minister to get some more copies of the memo."
"Yes, Madam Bones." He replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
The queue moved slowly after that, as there were lots of very loud arguments about the necessity of having to give up their wand. Amelia being there was of immense relief to the security guard, who really wasn't equipped for these sorts of confrontation. He was also unused to needing to hand out the receipts and keep the wands, though he adapted quickly.
Surprisingly, it wasn't until mid-afternoon that the unrest got so bad that Cornelius himself came to see Amelia, along with a couple of Aurors.
"Amelia, what is the meaning of this?"
"What is the meaning of what Minister?"
"These Aurors are demanding that I surrender my wand."
"Oh, good you're here to do that. If you wish I can take care of that personally."
"What! No! I'm here to tell you to stop taking peoples wands away, do you know how many people have been hounding me all day about it?"
"I have absolutely no idea, I've been stationed here all day you see. As I'm currently one of two full time Aurors that can still perform their duties without their focus."
"Well, I demand you give everyone their wands back."
She indicates the memo stuck to the wall, "I'm sorry I can't do that sir."
"What do you mean you can't do it."
"Well, as I'm sure you're aware, having sent out this memo this morning, it would be in contravention of the rules."
"But that memo had nothing to do with wands."
"Can you cast a cutting spell sir?"
"Yes, of course, everyone that's allowed a wand can."
"Can you do it without your wand?"
"What? No!"
"Then by definition, your wand is a weapon."
"But you can't take away my wand, how am I supposed to get any work done?"
"The same way everyone else is, by walking around or having a secretary do it for you."
"OK. Fine, I'll get it redrafted to say swords."
"You're welcome to do that, but it won't stop Tonks or myself from walking around the ministry with our sword shaped focuses."
"What! Whyever not?"
"Because the law says that we can't unfairly deprive a magical of their focus. It's one that's enforced by the ICW so that we can't take talismans away from the Chinese, fetches from the Africans, Staves from the Russians and Indians, or bones from the Voodoo practitioners of America. My sword is my magical focus, so any rule that you make that excludes wands also excludes my sword."
A parchment bird flew into Amelia's hand, opening it she quickly scanned it.
"Ah, it seems that some of the DMCC objected to the need to hand over their weapons, so we've now got three of them in custody, including the head of the department, MacNair. They are currently cataloguing all of the trophies that they've found in his office."
She conjured writing materials and sent a note back telling them to priorities identifying whether the trophies were from Sentient or protected species first. Then send someone to check for the legal records for all of the protected species. Also, get a statement from him confirming that all of the trophies in the office are his personal kills.
Once it was winging its way back to Moody, Cornelius picked his jaw up off the floor and went very pale.
"I'll have the order rescinded by the morning."
"Please don't, it's probably the best thing you could have done to improve the security of the Ministry."
"But I have to." He whined,
"The Wizengamot would crucify me." He finished.
Amelia responded innocently, "I don't see why, this was an inspired move. After all, there should never be a reason why we need a wand in the Ministry unless we've been attacked. And I'm sure that if it's interdepartmental memo's that you're worried about, we can get a Runecarver to make something that people can use to form the birds and planes that we use.
"Of course, we'll need to include some exemptions, but they shouldn't be problematic, as I can only think of a couple of departments that might need their wands on any sort of regular basis. So, needing a signoff from the head of department shouldn't even be an issue. It being a blanket ban means that it applies to all focuses equally, including those from other nations, and thus it's a fairly applied standard."
"But what about Dementor control?"
"There's absolutely no reason we should ever have a Dementor on premises, as the only reason to administer the kiss in the courtroom is for the spectacle. In fact, I'm going to send out an interdepartmental memo praising your initiative in closing such a long-standing security hole."
In order to do just that she placed her sewing onto the counter, drawing attention to it from all of the witches and wizards spectating this conversation. Then she started to wandlessly summon and write said memos to each of the heads of department.
I must congratulate the minister for taking such a strong stance on security after witnessing the graduation demonstrations that happened at Hogwarts yesterday. It was truly inspired of him to exclude all weapons from the ministry after it was made abundantly clear just how much devastation magic could wreak in a short space of time if people chose to do so.
Please bear with him while those of you who need your wands in order to actually do your jobs have reasonable paths created that will allow you to request the usage of your wands for the duration that you need them before returning them to the security check in.
For those that have suggestions on how life could be made more efficient, please direct them to the Ministers office.
Amelia Bones
Head of the DMLE.
With a worried look on his face, Cornelius hurried back to his office to try and do some damage control.
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Harry and Hermione walked hand in hand up to the school, Daphne to her other side. The Weasleys were heading home today, and Bill's team had learnt enough to be safe using the glyphs, including the fact that they should keep a very close eye on the time until they'd been through the warlock training, as without it this was very dangerous if you forgot for any reason and you were caught off guard. It had taken some searching, but they'd managed to find an intact pensive in one of the government buildings and had made all of them watch the omniocular record that they'd seen of what happened to Lockhart. It drove home just how dangerous it would be to a group of people that were used to taking such dangers seriously.
Once they arrived they all went to the Library, Hermione was the one to start talking though.
"Hogwarts! Come and look at what we found in Egypt."
"Children, I wasn't expecting to see you until September."
"I know, but we've been helping explore Egypt, and we were given these for the school."
They each hold out a tablet, Harry holding the only white one. Hogwarts face drops and becomes ashen as she sees the white tablet.
"Take them back to the Nest NOW!" she screams at them.
Shocked they scramble back to the Nest and look at each other.
Hogwarts rushes off to find Minerva or Karen. Not being able to find either of them, she comes across Bathsheba reading some of Rowana's notes in McGonagall's office.
"Beth, I need you to find the children in the nest, they've discovered some very dangerous artifacts and I need you to examine them to see if what I fear is true. It's the white tablet that is the problem."
Surprised at Hogwarts panicked expression, she places the book down and is in the Nest before she can ask where they are. Returning to the library she finds out they're in the entrance hall.
"Come all of you, Hogwarts wants me to look at what you've found. We can probably do it best in my classroom where I can look stuff up if I need to."
They spent the rest of the day watching as she poured over the three tablets the pile of reference books rising as she scribbled notes everywhere. What could have been quite boring to watch was made interesting as she gave an impromptu lesson on what each part of the tablet meant and would do. By evening Karen and Minerva had returned and spoken with Hogwarts. Beth had also managed to separate out the runic array and the ritual instructions and had duplicated all three onto large sheets of stone.
"OK, it's clear now that I've got the arrays separated, that these two are the same, while this one is different. However, it will take me a few weeks to work out what the arrays are supposed to do, and thus what the differences do."
Minerva nods, "Thank you, I need the three of you to take Karen and I to the place you found these tablets, once we've been there I need you to take us to Egyptian magical government offices."
"It's the Ottoman Government." Hermione pipes up.
"Oh Merlin, I forgot about that, that's going to complicate matters. Still, I need you to take us to the Government offices in Egypt that you visited."
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While the children did that, as well as dropping by the base camp that Bill is currently living at, Hogwarts asked the house-elves if they would clear out her Audience chamber and move all the stuff in there to the upper levels of the Armoury for storage. She also drafted a letter to the ICW using her official titles even though they'd probably been forgotten calling for an emergency meeting to be held in Hogwarts.
She then sealed it with her personal seal, the seals granted to her by Scottish Kings before the statute, and also her Arch Magi ring. She then asked a house-elf if they could get Beth.
"Bathsheba, I'm really sorry to ask this, but I have a letter that I need to have sent to the, ICW I think it's now called. Everyone else that could do this is away doing other important things. Which leaves you and Penelope in the castle that are on the Magi track. I know your magic hasn't fully settled from reaching the Library, but I would ask you to attempt to come to the Sanctuary to get the letter. It will be hard, and leave you unsettled as your magic expands far more than you can possibly imagine at the moment. But it's far from impossible.
"If you don't feel ready, I'll understand, but I'll just need to ask Penelope instead, and as there's an apprentice link through Minerva I know that she'll say yes even if she's not ready."
Beth thought for a moment, "What do I need to do?"
"You need to meditate until you can visualise your magic. Once you've got it, you need to open it up slowly. At your level, most people only have one thing in their visualisation. Normally this would be part of the test, but I need you to have the best chance of success. Once you reach this world, your magic will expand at least tenfold, and your visualisation will also grow correspondingly. The biggest challenge that you're going to have is in keeping all of it at the same level. As your magic isn't yet settled from it's previous growth you'll probably feel ill too, you'll need to stay in control. The final thing, you'll also notice some physical changes, yours shouldn't be too obvious as you're still young. But the changes that you saw in Minerva came from this."