Chapter 2
Updated; 4-18-2021
Morning Staff Conference
Department of Magical Law Enforcement
December 24, 1992.
9:15am
Amelia grimaced as she took a drink from her coffee mug, black coffee tasted wonderful but after too short of a night, the caffeine was not having its usual invigorating effect. She would still rather be home in bed. She looked around at the dozen senior aurors in the conference room. By the way many of them clutched their teacups, and the three empty pepper up potion's bottle among the small plates of scones, piles of parchment work and breakfast muffins, besides her own that she could see, she doubted many of them would feel any differently. By and large they were a good lot, though several of them she had her questions about their ultimate loyalties, and several she was certain very close held beliefs they squashed in front of her and their fellow aurors, by and large they were as good and professional you as could find in magical Great Britain. She looked at her standouts, men and women who brought passion to law enforcement.
Kingsley Shacklebolt, a black pillar of hard slabs of muscle with lightning-fast wand skills, he had just made senior auror the last year. Normally a leader of one of the response teams, he was heading the administrative side the accident case now, though he was slow and mumbled a little bit as he winced in obvious pain. The bandages on his arm and across the side of his face mute testimony to his own fight with those damned plants and why he was on light duty doing the paperwork for the investigation. He had a mild pain potion vial was one third empty by his overlarge steaming teacup. He was also one of the ones with an empty Pepper up potion by his tea. Long hours and healing potions draining even his redoubtable stamina.
Rufus Scrimgeour, her lion maned head auror, as good as men in a spell fight and as loyal to the ministry and Great Britain and the law as any of the men in the room. Amelia generally delegated day-to-day operations of the aurors to him, a bit of a stickler for rules and appearance, and very much a believer in the purist line, but not one of their hardline fanatics. He just thought because of he had pureblood he was better.
In this case though unlike the majority of the death eaters during the last war or purebloods in general he could actually back it up in the field and the Salle. A very able administrator of the Byzantine ministry back channels, a master of the favor, he got things done. But he was also ambitious, she was just lucky he didn't want her job, he wanted Fudges. They could do worse as minister, if he was only a little bit more flexible and open to new thoughts.
Constance Hamner, her short, black-haired, blue-eyed half-blood section chief for forensic services, a skilled able witch with wounds from the last war which kept her out of the field. But her wand paired with a mind like a steel trap and superior observation skills were still first-rate even though she couldn't move very fast or without a cane. Her father was the head of the ancient and most noble house Hamner, and Alastair Moody was her uncle. Which explained why she hadn't been let go at the war's abrupt end. That and nobody else could get as much information out of a crime scene as the forensics teams she led and trained. And if anyone else wanted to try and ride heard over the eclectic personalities of swots and geeks that composed them, she was happy to let them try. She got them to work, the last pureblood Umbridge had sent in as 'observer' had been taken out screaming and in suppressors as the technicians had first found the man's dark mark then started to question him, for twenty hours before they turned them over the do the aurors.
Copies of the interrogation report were stashed about England. And had accompanied a note to Fudge and Umbridge that had seen both of them voting for the increases to auror manning and the budget at the fall solstice meeting. Amelia had not gotten her hands on the report yet, Constance had said something about plausible deniability, but suspected that with Fudge keeping his head down and Umbridge in the hospital she might be able to get a copy. And make sure that when that toad of a woman was released from the hospital her next stop would be Azkaban, if they could keep Fudge out of the way. Problem for another day.
Like many veterans from the last war, Constance had a passion for seeing every death eater legally sent to the dementor's. Though killed resisting arrest would do in her book. She couldn't fault many for that especially with what had been done during the last war.
Allain Vance, the pretty boy of the bunch, tall shoulder length blonde hair, gray eyed, very scrumptious looking, one of the few purebloods Dumbledore had tried to get rid of after the last war. She had just promoted him back to senior auror rank after reviewing the file that Yaxley had so carefully doctored and removing several obviously false reports and a damning letter from Dumbledore that had nothing to do with his skills as an auror. That was a conversation she was going to have with the old goat at a later date.
Vance had taken over both administrative duties for the aurors office and led the sections going through the captured documents. He had a knack of seeing what others wanted to kept unseen in the patterns of the documentation. Kingsley had just finished evaluating his wand work before this incident and it was excellent.
That had led to her nearly firing two of the purebloods senior trainers Yaxley had put in place, 'because no others qualified' the those two and five others had been sent back to do standard law enforcement patrols. She needed skilled thinking wands, not thugs in aurors uniforms these men, and they were all men, had turned out. She wondered how many incidents between purebloods and the Muggle born and witches could be placed at Yaxley' feet since the war because of the training program he had so deliberately screwed in favor of Voldemort's cause. And the way he seems to have filtered out the competent and conscientious not to mention tolerant, in the aurors rank and file if they didn't support Voldemort had been a good clue once they could break the magics he had set around the files. The Unspeakables were having a grand time tearing it all down. Not to mention several persons who were responsible for the warding of those files had not reported to work for one reason or the other and could not be found anywhere. Warrants were out for them.
Alastair Moody, she had brought him back to do two things one lead the prosecutor's office she was reforming that would present all cases going before the tribunals and the Wizengamot, the second task would be to find her a set of trainers and act as lead evaluator for all the aurors she had. Sisyphus would have had an easier task but he actually looked forward to it.
Armand Pike was head of the Academy now, the previous head had been trying to fire him because he was being too hard on 'good upstanding auror candidates', he was not here, he was having a meeting with his remaining trainers laying down the new laws according to Pike and Bones. No longer would they tolerate half trained slipshod wand work from trainees coming out of the Academy. She had to winnow the level of incompetence. That was going to be bloody, they needed to enforce the law for everybody in England. And it had to be one law for all magicals, not two sets of laws, those for the pureblood and those for everyone else.
The rest were good just not… flexible or passionate. Good at their jobs, plodders not out-of-the-box thinkers or outstanding leaders willing to buck the system if it got the job done or went against the powerful and the Wizengamot. Those had been the first targeted for the draw down at the end of the last war by Fudge and his lot.
And she was going to by God and Merlin reinstitute the aurors/law enforcement patrols split that had characterized the department prior to the last war. The plodders were good they just weren't going to be good enough to do the more complex investigations and could take care of most of the common mission to maintain the peace. She needed that going forward.
Time to stop wool gathering, the caffeine and mild pepper up potion in her system was as effective as it was going to get, and she had enough food in her belly to keep her stomach from heaving up the pepper up potion, time to start the meeting. She turned and looked at Shacklebolt "Any new results from the ongoing searches of Nott Manor? Or the accident site cleanup?"
"Three more dead from the original accident, Lucius Malfoy died just after dinner last night, one of those vines had eaten into his brain stem and the healers finally lost the battle to repair it, Parkinson and Bulstrode died of general organ failure from the poisons this morning. Just too much damage from that damn black triffid, nasty way to go. And were still getting small pockets of the thing as we go through that complex under the lawn. We are having to work in full armor as we open up sections." He gulped down some of his own coffee then looked at some more notes on the case.
"Arthur Weasleys in St Mungos, he was injured getting a couple of the ministry workers we drafted in to help us away from a black triffid outbreak before we realized we needed the full armor. He's going to be fine but a least a month in the hospital getting the damage repaired, the other two idiots are just fine. Auror Dawson Goodspeed has taken charge of the on-site investigation, has both the idiots working for more senior aurors doing paperwork, which appears to be all their good for. Regardless of their excellent personnel skills." The last was said with more than a bit of irony in his voice.
"Boss, we're still finding more of that damned vine. Especially in that complex of cells and storage rooms under the East lawn. We were lucky the warding was much better than the rest of the manor otherwise that black triffid would've gotten down in there and spread out and killed the sixty people we found in the cells down there so far, or worse spread out into the Muggle village nearby. Stopping it then would be a nightmare and require Crown intervention. Plus, there are indications that there are more sections of the complex we have not been able to break into yet and possibly another level or more. Especially with the way that damn vine is acting, it appears to be attracted to the more complex magical wards and is actively digging into them, sort of like organic ward breakers."
"Not surprising," said Amelia. "Distilled essence of that vine sap is the basis for the ward breaking potion we use in our ward breaker cannon."
"I didn't know that," said Kingsley tiredly. "It explains quite a bit. Like how it is pointing us to more and more sections of a larger complex. During our initial interview with young Miss Flint said we absolutely must burn out or acid wash all that damn black vine as we go or it will pop up behind us and kill us, we're going to need more Unspeakable help and aurors in armor for this going forward, we can't draft in workers from the ministry they just don't have the equipment or training for hazardous areas." Amelia nodded and turned to the eight section heads who each policed a district of Great Britain.
"Each of you give up a squad for complex clearance, muggleborns and half-bloods by preference. Also give up an evidence team each for documentation purposes." All the heads grimaced the case was big enough that they made no comment. They would just have to do without for a while.
To most of the aurors present the selection had been made because the people chosen were extremely expendable and no loss if the cleanup killed them, to Amelia that meant they wouldn't be talking to their spouses or heads of house, she needed to keep this site contained and the results she was getting secret to be of any use. She had enough problem already with calls from Wizengamot members with contacts in the labor draft from the general ministry. She wanted those gossiping twits offsite and any further details to be closely held. She turned back to Shacklebolt and nodded firmly.
"I'll talk to Croaker about releasing some of his people to work the site. Since they're the ones who make the ward breaker cannons anyway. As for the plant itself, talk to Pomona Sprout, Maleficent seems to have been her prized student the last couple years, and didn't you say that she got the original cuttings for her plants from Pomona? Let's see what she has to say about methods for keeping those plants in check and keeping our people out of the hospital shall we?" Shacklebolt and several others around the table nodded at the order and made several quick notes. Amelia sipped her coffee for a moment before continuing.
"What else have you found?" Shacklebolt grimaced and looked down at his notes.
"As for the people we found; eighteen are Muggles, young girls or boys kidnapped and being reprogrammed for the local sex slave trade to Muggle criminal elements for high-end clients in on the Muggle side. The rest are Muggleborns or half-bloods kidnapped and being held there before resale by the house of chains on the international magical market or being shipped here for sale locally. Some are just scared and hungry as they spent most their time and under an imperious curse just sitting in the cell. They don't appear to have been processed yet. The others, well it's bad many don't even remember their names. We're having to take pictures and aura signatures and send them out for possible identification.
"The real prize appears to be the records vaults; because of that damned vine we have them completely intact." There were exclamation surprise and several feral grins around the table. Many times when slaver dens were raided there had been no records or they had been destroyed by quick thinking of the perpetrators. Everyone knew there had to be records, businesses were businesses.
"My crew is evacuating the records to a secure site," an out building for Bone's manor under a fidelius charm with Shacklebolt as the secret keeper, "not reading them, too dangerous to do that on-site with that vine around.
"We're being careful about looking for traps as we break the security of the individual vault cabinets but it appears the security wards for entire complex was cut off by some of that damn plant, it was… well it's like it was attracted to the magic of the runes. If that makes any sense. And the file destruction ward seems to have been paralyzed by the vine before the guards even knew it was there. Again, I don't know why a plant could affect runes but it appears to be able to do so. But it has allowed us to slowly clear and empty the records vaults and they are possibly a bonanza. That's all I have for now."
"Allain what do you have so far." Asked Amelia over her cup at the man she had put in charge of exploiting the information gleaned from the records in what appeared to be the main administrative office.
"The records are pretty damning. What files I did skim appears to be very detailed and goes back at least a hundred years by the dates I was seeing. We also have their accounts books with; names, dates, vault numbers, amounts paid to whom and for what, who bought what and where it went. This will be a major break in destroying the slave trade in England and Europe if the information is true and we can exploit." There were nods of approval around the table. Amelia expected that.
Nobody openly liked the slave trade in the DMLE, not if they wanted to keep their jobs, and the effects it had on a society if practiced openly or like they were in this country ignored and not talked about, were socially and legally corrosive in the extreme. But she knew some of the men in this office had supported or at least looked the other way while the slavers operated. The one she most suspected would be the ones her watchers would have interesting reports on.
"This complex appears to be a major part of the house of chains operations in Western Europe and was managed by House Nott as its local factor. From the records we have read most sales were to brothels in Knockturn and a couple other private clubs both local and on the continent both the Muggle and magical world. There have been some sales to individuals and not a few to what appears to be St. Mungo's, probably illegal fertility potions or surrogates, infants were especially lucrative for them.
"They also did a lot of private purchases from the death eaters and some from others I would have thought wouldn't be involved with this lot. That list is being closely held until we can corroborate. At the very least we can add a great deal of information to a lot of missing persons, now kidnapping and illegal enslavement, cases with what we're finding here. But it's slow going there's a lot of paperwork and a lot of the folders are individually warded." He paused and nodded at Shacklebolt then picked up his breakfast muffin and tea.
"We were lucky we got those intact," said Shacklebolt. "Six of what appears to be nine guards and two of the four on-duty clerks were killed by the black triffid that broke into the central security zone and consumed them while some of those poor bastards in the cells watched on. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch in my opinion but the watchers were slightly shellshocked as they watch that plant try to get into their cell for several hours before we could burn it out. The staff members who survived locked themselves in a cell and let the warding keep that plant out, waiting for a rescue. They were only marginally grateful for our rescuing them and immediately attempted to escape. They're in cells being questioned by Alastair Moody, who is having a grand old time doing the special prosecutor bit." He nodded at the master auror who was sitting at the other end of the table.
"How's that going Alastair?" Amelia asked over a swallow of coffee chasing a bite of an egg and ham scone sandwich an American friend had introduced her to.
"Not bad director not bad at all. The last one we caught coming out the back door the first day of the response and put a stunner into his face. We didn't want him or anyone spreading any of that damned black triffid around or leaving the party as it were. Now he wasn't very forthcoming about information or keys to the wards, at least until we pumped him full of veritaserum. He did tell us where we could recover a set of master keys from the guard room and that has been helping. Since then, he's been trying to come up with enough further information to avoid getting a date with a dementor." Said Moody. Allain continued speaking when the gruff auror stopped speaking.
"His clerk friends have been much more forthcoming they appear to be victims of the same trade and once we pulled the implants the Unspeakables found in them sang arias as it were. That gave us people willing to help who had access and knew the procedures. They're going back into the complex tomorrow with Kingsley's people to open the remainder of the records vaults and evacuate the materials. But they were low level and working through their memories and confirming names they've identified is slow going as there's a lot of obscuring magic used in their day-to-day operations. There giving us as much information as they can but it's going to take a lot more time getting confirmed or a lot more people cleared to see the information." Amelia nodded as she ate the rest of her breakfast scone and washed it down with coffee, then spoke up.
"I didn't know that about the clerks, reclassify them as victims being held under protective detail by the ministry. As for the guards, if they aren't in the same boat as the clerks, and please check to make sure they don't have something like the implants the clerks had, and give us a lot of information, they will do hard time, how much depends on how much they give us. If they did this willingly take a hard line, tell them I would prefer their next date be with a dementor but will settle for them being off the streets and in jail until they are old and gray and mindless and only leave their cell for the funeral pyre. Go soft or go hard, your call. Bottom line is they must give everything up to avoid that kiss. See if that inspires them to help more. Work them until that well is dry. Any help from the House Nott Regent?" She said refocusing on Shacklebolt.
"No," said Shacklebolt. "She doesn't have access. All business was handled by the adult menfolk of the house, none of whom survived the accident. We only have what access we have because whatever spells they had on this girl, Marlene McKinnon of the ancient and most noble house McKinnon." They were startled oaths in a general rustling around the room. If it was true she was the only known survivor of that house and she had disappeared off the Hogwarts express her fifth year back in 1975 and her family's home had been assaulted and leveled at the same time. "The spells keeping her loyal died when Caracatus Nott and his son Barnabas and grandson Theo dissolved in that fly trap and the magic seems to have backlashed through the bracelets and implants they had on her and the three other concubines they had in the house. From the residue they would've made them a living doll to all three men's perversions.
"The other three are from overseas and are working under some pretty heavy mental conditioning that is only just beginning to lift with the implants removed, again we've taken identity pictures and magical signatures and we're waiting back to hear from anyone who could identify them. Between them they have had seven daughters under Hogwarts age for House Nott. But the family magics are patriarchal and protective and because Marlene is four months pregnant with the only male heir, not from Barnabas but from his son Theo she has control of the manor and the family magics until the sprog is old enough. While his official wife, that dried up hag, Andrea Flint-Nott was ejected from the wards. We arrested her and we have her under silenced protocols in cells. Damned witch just wouldn't shut up about her being a pureblood."
"If she was Barnabas's wife, shouldn't she be Regent?" Said Dawlish quizzically.
"You would think so," said Alastair Moody "but it appears she's sterile and could never have children. Apparently, she knew this going into the marriage and allowed her husband to have the concubines and was waiting till they were old enough to blood adopt the sprogs. He kept her for window dressing at society events and the money from her father, and had her boy Theo conceived in Ritual using a muggleborn as surrogate. All the girls appear to have been ritually conceived with one of the concubines as surrogates for them. And she'd be in cells anyway with what we already know. Marlene and the other concubines told us Andrea Flint-Nott had a catamite up until the morning before the incident when she killed him over failing to please her and was just waiting his replacement. So were holding her on murder charges."
"They didn't dispose of the body?" Asked one of the other aurors incredulously.
"She couldn't be bothered. Lazy witch had Marlene and one of the others put the poor boy in the back garden's compost heap. The body was still there when we looked and had enough magical signature from the killing curse that we could trace it back to her wand. She had two wands one she carried publicly and was registered with the ministry, it's pure as the driven snow. And the other one which was also blood bonded to her she kept in the sideboard and that had the killing curse on it and quite a lot else on it that would earn you prison time. The boy himself we identified as a Muggle born who disappeared off the Hogwarts express the day he graduated back in '89. Allain has the records of the capture, training and sale to the perpetrator, complete with vault key signatures, and we will annotate that to the case. Bit of an open and shut case for her really. Life in Azkaban." Pontificated Moody with a smile.
"That's another reason we're having problems keeping the damn vine from spreading," Shacklebolt continued "it appears House Nott was never very good about getting rid of bodies, and had a pit inside the complex where they threw bodies and parts of bodies. That vine seems to be spreading out from what the clerk remembers as the location of that pit next to what he tells me his the kill chamber, where they got rid of slaves they were having too much trouble with or couldn't resell, and the harvesting room which went looking through the bodies for pieces and parts they could sell for the potions and organs trade. That's fueling the vines spread and we won't be able to recover anything from that pit but bones is what Ms. Flint has stated but it will continue to fuel the vines growth into the flesh is all gone and the magics absorbed."
"Furthermore what with the menfolk dying like they did," Moody continued "and the things they did to her, she doesn't have a hell of a lot of loyalty to the Nott family but has claimed its assets for her unborn son. And is claiming the under aged children and their mothers as wards." Moody paused and took a swig of hot tea from a tall mug in front of him.
"On recommendation of counsel, we got her into contact with the McKinnon family solicitors after she and the three others had there and implants removed, they've been giving us details and names from the time of their kidnapping to today. Including everything they saw or participated in while in that house. Plus, we have full access to anywhere in the house and she has had the elves helping us. The elves have been a godsend tracking that black vine in the manor itself but were never allowed into the complex under the lawn. She and the concubines didn't know anything about what happened in that complex or what the family did to raise its money. They had their suspicions but no firsthand knowledge. Mostly disjointed inuendo from Barnabas's wife's cackling and lording it over them while she was drunk, which appears to be most of the time."
"I would think she and they would've seen a lot over the years." Said Rufus Scrimgeour contemplatively. Amelia shook her head.
"And they probably would have Rufus in a normal family, but that's part and parcel for what that… Old Man…," She spat out the last in a deeply pejorative tone. "Has spouted off about a witches proper place over the years." Her voice dropped into breezy and pompous upper crust pronunciations. "A witch has no place in the business of wizards, their place is for keeping the house, raising his children and seeing to his pleasures in the bedroom." Her voice resumed a normal tone, disgust plain on her face. "This just tells me he practiced what he preached assiduously at home."
And many of the other men around the room grimaced or nodded. Some of them may have thought that way but none of them would've said so in front of Amelia. They wanted their balls still attached thank you very much or at very least to keep their jobs. Shacklebolt grunted and continued.
"That explains the screwy set up. The wards between the complex itself and the house are separate from each other and are not blood warded, they required either a key or to have a magical signature on file to be let in. McKinnon allowed us to subvert the outer wards so that any outgoing and incoming portkeys or apparition are redirected to a controlled landing point and to search the main house especially the East wing. But can't help us with that underground complex." Shacklebolt took a strong drink of coffee and continued talking.
"The redirect was made easier as the complex we discovered is under the manor grounds wards. The double obscuring effect from both explains how it's escaped detection for so long. At least two maybe three hundred years if we've got the age of construction right."
"Yes, we knew the bastard's were part of the slave trade and smuggling. But we kept focusing on the manor looking for hidden entrances when they were actually well out onto the side lawn." Says Amelia bitterly. "Clever but now we know that trick. We can share with other law enforcement agencies and they can apply it elsewhere." She smiled wryly. "Even if we have to find a better method of ward breaking then that damn black vine." There were grim chuckles around the room.
"She has already said she's going to level the manor after the search is complete. That's gonna be nasty especially as the Ancient and Noble House of McKinnon can legally absorb the Noble House of Nott until that boy is 25 years old. If not permanently, if he decides to take the McKinnon name…."
Senior Auror Duquesne' pocket started to buzz with an emergency priority alert signal from a hand mirror. He promptly pulled it out and set it flat on the table in projection mode the ghostly head of Silas Jones, duty auror for the Ministers security detail, appeared above the mirror. "What is it Jones? It's morning conference call."
"Sorry sir I would have waited but we can't. Minister Fudge is dead, as of two minutes ago." There's an eruption of shocked voices and questions around the room. "Quiet!" Amelia said as she slapped her palm flat on the table.
"How did he die Jones?" snapped Amelia Bones in the ringing silence to follow.
"I'd say karma," he said with grim humor. "The direct cause appears to be death by potion misadventure and blunt force trauma. From all appearances he was under the effects of that damn precursor drought that men take for the more extreme versions of the dark maidens rites last stage."
Faces around the office grimaced or were stone-faced. The broad details of the gang rape at the last stage of the ceremony were well known, if despicable, and they didn't have to be handheld through that kind of detail.
"Instead of taking off and going to one of his floozy's or hiring in a professional to work off the effects, he apparently suppressed it trying to keep his wife from finding out he was there. Instead, he was found by his wife as she was leaving the house this morning raping their 14-year-old daughter over the end of the couch in the parlor in a potion induced feral state. She hit him with a banishing hex to get him off her and he snapped his neck against one of the doors, edge on. Dead nearly instantly, nothing I or any of the guards on duty could do. The on-call healer says it was a perfect hangman's drop, whatever that is but says he was essentially dead the minute he hit the edge of the door. Currently processing the site for evidence and request a coroner and investigative backup be dispatched."
The silence in the room was profound.
"Sweet Merlin," said Rufus Scrimgeour with feeling. "The Wizengamot is going to go of its rails!"
"Especially as it's another case of a witch being protected by the law against the actions of a wizard." Smiled Alastair Moody horrifically at the room. "Just from what I've heard right there, there's not a court room in this world, magical or Muggle, that would convict her of anything. More so as there's a mother defending her children from a pedophile." Amelia smiled tightly and hoped that Moody's prediction was right.
"All right Silas," Amelia said. "We'll get a team your way immediately. Sit tight follow procedures Scrimgeour will be there shortly." Silas's head disappeared from the mirror.
"If Fudge is dead and his chief flunky is in the hospital long-term whose minister?" Said Shacklebolt. Profoundly grateful that witch was totally incapacitated it at this time. There'd be no telling what kind of damage she would do even as acting minister. Then again there was no telling what she'd done already. Everyone paused and blinked at that question. Amelia Winston-Bones nee Crawford thought that question through herself and ran down the list as outlined in the succession laws. Then she closed her eyes before putting her head in her hands and speaking at the desk in front of her.
"The oldest living member of the Wizengamot not already holding a ministry directorship. That would be Merlin help us, Lord William Bruce."
"Who?" Asked Dawlish said the clearly confused senior auror but he wasn't the only one. Kingsley and Rufus looked at Amelia all three rolled their eyes. Like many aurors even these men could be very head down and job focused at times.
"I doubt you've ever met him," Shacklebolt said calmly "Augusta Longbottom has held his proxy on most occasions, for at least thirty years. But for your information he's the staunchest supporter for the First-Generation Society on the Wizengamot. Only shows up when we have a case against one of their people or a witch, always votes against conviction and for a lenient sentence if there is one." The face of every pureblood auror in the room fell.
"He is also a member of the ancient and most noble houses and holds the title of Duke of Virki and cannot be arrested or even have his house searched without a two-thirds majority of the ancient and most noble houses, not the full Wizengamot, voting for it. And then only on a felony charge. He and several of his allies in the Wizengamot didn't join the death eaters or support Albus's faction and were and are for the most part powerful enough to keep people out of their affairs." Moody was the one who spoke next into the silence.
"The Society has been very quiet since '81, very circumspect and very little evidence pointing to their activities, nearly all of which we have identified are defensive and perfectly legal in nature or to ambiguous to press charges. They also have excellent legal defenders when some busybody at the ministry waggled their finger at them. Which was why Albus and Fudge could only harass him and the society. We suspect he and several allies in the ancient and most nobles shelter the organization's activities on their properties. But there is no evidence of illegal activities." Amelia spoke next.
"Another reason we don't go after him is numbers. He and his allies could bring nearly three hundred wands, most trained as hit wizards led by several war mages, he had them on call against the death eaters during the war. We know he has doubled that number since then, most of new hires the society has for 'security details' used to be the hit wizards Albus and Fudge had us demobilize or downsize after the war."
Several of the faces went white, the wizards and witches Fudge had targeted for removal had by and large been their most effective combat fighters or the most diligent of the more numerous law enforcement patrollers during the war. What was left of both groups in the ministry today was a mere shadow of what it had been with morale that was below abysmal, a second year could walk past most of them given the equally steep cuts in their training programs funds. Rufus Scrimgeour was the one who spoke next.
"I suspect there are several hundred more we never saw. There were several times when we'd detected combat spell fire and found a lot of blood and blood trails. Other times it was just the dead or very near dead death eaters. I know they were far more aggressive than we were ever allowed to be and have far fewer constraints on spells or other weapons, used. Only the Unforgivables appear to be off their repertoire but firearms certainly were. Proving the use of firearms wouldn't be hard. Proving they were the ones who operated them that's going to be tougher, we have no evidence linking bullets to users."
"And we haven't seen them on the attack since the war," said Amelia At least not that we are aware of she thought with satisfaction. "But and I stress this is a warning to you all, they don't like us or the ministry, Fudge and Umbridge made sure of that. Lord Bruce and his allies ensured those Muggleborn and half-bloods we had to fire had a job waiting for them, they walked right out the door and joined the FGS security groups or disappeared into the areas they've warded. So, if there's a wizard in Great Britain who could raise a loyal and trained army on their own its Lord Bruce."
What Amelia did not say aloud was that if there was a wizard more opposed to the death eaters remaining on the streets or continued purist domination of the Ministry. Or the suppression of witches rights the traditionalists and Dumbledore tacitly approved, she had yet to meet them either.
"Great, and with Albus in the hospital in Geneva we have no clue who's going to be chief warlock so we can have the Wizengamot sit in open session and elect a new one!" Snapped senior auror Proudfoot.
"Who's next in line the succession after Albus for chief warlock?"
"And do we call Bruce minister or should we say his grace?" Said one of the senior aurors sarcastically.
"Watch yourself with that around his Lordship he can be a stickler for protocol and yes it's his grace," snapped Amelia "Or merlin help us Minister, he is a full Duke of Great Britain under the ancient and most noble protocols. Duke Virki may be very nearly four hundred years old, but he is still not somebody I would ever want to cross on dueling pitch and even less so in a dark alley." They all blinked at his age clearly shocked at what she knew. Moody wasn't surprised but he did grimace.
"No, he doesn't use Nicholas Flamels elixir I had the temerity to ask one time. But I know he's not dark but gray. And has forgotten more combat magic and is quicker with a wand than anybody I know. Even Albus didn't want to go against him on the dueling pitch. So, watch yourself around him." Then she continued speaking.
"And to answer your question the next in line of succession for chief warlock if I remember correctly is Pellinore Crabbe the Wizengamot's chief solicitor for the last three years, and he is the senior most member of the Wizengamot who is not a member of the ancient and most nobles or a sitting director in the Ministry," Amelia said deadpan.
"Isn't Lord Crabbe dead? Didn't he get eaten by that plant?" Said one the district leads with a raised eyebrow.
"No, I'm talking about Pellinore Crabbe, third cousin to Victor Crabbe, the one that just did the world a favor by becoming plant food, he inherited a family seat without noble title from his mother and with her blessing separated it from the rest of the family. Shocked everyone when he applied for the seat in the Wizengamot and the magics and law allowed it.
"And he has held a mastery in magical law since he was twenty. Then he went through the process to get certifications in Muggle law where he is a Queens Council, which are the solicitors and barristers the Muggles make into trial judges, equivalent to a Wizengamot Elder of Law, for those of you don't keep track of our professional colleagues on the other side. He is a stickler for the rule of law and proper procedure in the courtroom.
"He's been a thorn in everybody's side since he became head of the legal affairs committee three years ago. Very nearly every single piece of legislation since he became head of the committee has been sent back to the originator to be written again after he's made extensive redlines through it. He's made sure all the loopholes the purebloods want to close off for everybody but themselves have remained open even if nobody tells him about it. He's also jacked up about a third of the aurors for improper procedure or excessive force since he took his office."
"And he's good with a wand, he put Lucius Malfoy and his lot on their asses a time or two during the war. I've sparred with him in the dueling Salle a few times since just because I felt I needed a challenge. As least as good as I am. A tricky opponent on his worst days and somebody you would get nightmares about fighting on his best." Growled Alastair Moody with a grin.
"That's just wonderful," Rufus Scrimgeour, "so for the next ninety days we have a by the book stickler as chief warlock and a wild-eyed reformist as minister. We can get through this. They can't do much damage to the government in that amount of time." Most of the purists at the table nodded in agreement, but Amelia and several others rolled their eyes or drank coffee or tea to cover grimaces and Dawlish groaned and spoke before anyone else. Closing his eyes and looking at the ceiling as if reciting from memory he had to dredge up.
"No Rufus its thirty-five months not three." Every jaw in the room dropped open in shock at what he said next. "The law of successions as laid out in 1720 and not amended but reconfirmed twice during the last war alone, says that if any minister dies in office less than thirty-six months less one day before the expiration of their term no by-election need be called. Fudge was elected the year before Albus that's winter solstice December of '82. Bruce's in until Fudges second seven-year term for minister expires that's in December '95, less than thirty-five months from now but it is Duke Virki office until then. It's the first time a member of the ancient and most nobles has set in that office since… I want to say 1905? Furthermore, the same laws of succession say Albus has ninety days, or one hour into the next scheduled legislative session, which ever comes first, to get his health back otherwise the chief warlock's office is declared vacant due to ill health and the Wizengamot must hold a by-election for that office. I've been studying for my mastery in magical law and read about them two weeks ago. A by-election I might add which Crabbe would probably win, historically that's been the pattern before the last two dark lords tore everything up, if one was held by a noble the other was held by a commoner and preferably somebody with a mastery in law is preferred as chief warlock, which Crabbe qualifies for, as a balance of sorts. But that's the letter of the law as I remember it."
The room was silent for several minutes as everyone digested that information. Amelia spoke up firmly and looked up to them with an expression of Stoic determination.
"Rufus get the messages out to both of the gentleman immediately and have Crabbe call a special emergency session for the Wizengamot as acting chief warlock so we can swear in Duke Virki as the new minister."
"What about the headmaster of Hogwarts post?" Asked one of the senior aurors.
"I know this," said Amelia holding up a finger before the others to get started. "Albus has thirty days from when he was last on the grounds to get back to Hogwarts. Until then it's Minerva McGonagall, and if he still isn't back after thirty-one days, then she's headmistress, unless the board of governors and the Board of Education meeting in joint session decide either grant an extension to Albus or to bring in somebody else." Silence filled the room several men seem to relax others grimaced and drank their coffee or tea. Others weren't so sure, politics was a fact of life in the ministry at their level and appeared there was a major sea change in effect.
"All right everyone," said Amelia firmly. "Let's wrap this up and do our normal jobs. Just because a man has died and we have a big mess elsewhere and we are understaffed, doesn't mean the normal stuff gets dropped, keep on your aurors about patrols and their paperwork. I want a full blackout on the ongoing investigation at Nott Manor and anything detailing what is found. We will put out a statement that there has been an incident and it is being investigated nothing else." She turned a gimlet eye at the senior aurors in charge of the districts until they all nodded in affirmation. She then turned to look at the others.
"Those with special assignments keep me informed as things progress. Above all remember everyone goes home at the end of their shift. If anyone has anything else, they should now speak up," she looked around the room and there didn't appear to be anything they wanted to bring up.
"Good let's get back to work," she said firmly.
Emergency Wizengamot Meeting
General Assembly Chamber for Magical Great Britain
December 24, 1992.
12:05am
It had taken very nearly an hour for Pellinore Crabbe to open the session and get through the preliminaries. Mostly due to various members of the Council to finish yelling and screaming, and in some cases laughing uproariously, Lord Black and Madame Fourth have been the first, but far from the only ones, to begin cackling madly, about Fudge's untimely fate and Albus being… Unavailable.
Amelia could practically see the calculation running through the minds of many. And the beginning of at least three different runs at the minister's office, just from the wizards in the room for the moment, when word got out… with the gutting of the pureblood block and the voice of Albus Dumbledore stilled for the moment by a heart attack of all things, everything could be in flux.
Power beckoned, only to be snuffed when Pellinore Crabbe had dropped the laws of succession on them by having Madame Fourth read it aloud to them. It provoked howls of outrage by the light and the dark taking half an hour to quell and seeing three members of the body censured and silenced by the chamber bailiff.
Crabbe's first act was to disqualify the man sitting the McKinnon seat and passed all its votes over to Marlene McKinnon, as she was of age, along with the House Nott votes making her a powerful and very tempting target politically and socially. Amelia expected a lot of suitors to be coming her way starting almost immediately. She herself had sat quietly after making her report. Just watching the power blocs completely realign, the dark had shattered and the light was foundering and the moderates were being quiet and speaking to both sides during the break after the first hour while Crabbe got his staff into place. The Regency block was already a force, seven witches sitting in a single block among the tiered seating, representing a fifth of all the votes in the Wizengamot not already aligned with one faction or another. It was interesting to see who was and was not happy about her survival. By their expressions several of the wizards would bear watching.
Before the meeting several wizards had tried to put themselves forward as the blocks 'natural proxies' but each witch had made it plain that they would be voting the seats not a proxy. While the dark faction wizards tend to be angry at a rejection even if they hid it well, the light fraction wizards tended petulant, confused, or mournful at being rebuffed. Both factions tend to be condescending and dismissive of the witch's abilities and confused about what was going to happen next.
She knew several things were afoot, a score of wizards in dark blue robes had followed Duke Virki in to the ministry building and broken off heading toward the ministers offices.
Then at the direction of the acting chief warlock, William Bruce had stood up and announced he would take the legally required oath of office. Something that had confused a lot of the Wizengamot elders, and shouldn't have. But then again, few wizards had publicly taken the oath of office, relying instead on published decrees with the ministerial seal on it. It had been an emergency measure put forward at the height of the Grindelwald's war. When Reapers had attacked a Wizengamot meeting where they were swearing in a new minister after he assassinated the last one. That 'return to traditions this body has used since it its initial formation, that had been dormant since the late unpleasantness,' as the acting chief warlock put it seemed to mollify a lot of the men in the room. Amelia realized later that was the point at which everything came off the rails for the men who had been playing fast and loose with the law.
Lord William Peter Bruce, Duke of Virki was an older wizard in traditional robes of somber blue and red tones, dark of hair with liberal amounts of grey, with piercing blue eyes, that showed a lot of intelligence. He stood up on the floor of the Chamber and put his one hand on the Merlin Orb, brought in from the Unspeakables vaults just for this occasion, the other with his wand pointed to heaven.
"I, Lord William Peter Bruce, Duke of Virki, do swear that I will well and truly serve Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the second in the office of Minister of Magic, as prescribed by the laws and bound treaties of the Wizengamot between her most royal house and the magical people of Great Britain. So help me God." The orb had lit up as for the first time in nearly seventy years as the oath of office was recognized by the magic of the chamber and the sovereignty magics of the realm flared to life after long disuse, she feel the tendrils of the magic flow through the room and then out…beyond.
Several minutes passed before the magic and light display had died. Then the man turned and spoke in a low voice to the acting chief warlock. Crabbe listened intently the nodded ascent to the new minister of magic. Minister Bruce turned to them.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it is mid-winters break, and we would all rather be home with family and friends at this joyous time of year. So, before I would ask that the acting chief warlock dismiss this assembly until its next scheduled time for meeting on January 3, 1993… I must ask all directors and deputy directors of the Ministry of magic to report to a general meeting of the directorships on the 28th of this month, and be prepared to bring in such of the staff as to be able to open their offices for more then the limited Holiday functions. Duty is heavy gentlemen if you didn't want your holidays interrupted you shouldn't have applied for the job."
There was general laughter from the gallery and seating tiers at the comment and not a little grumbling from some of the men who had just been told that half their mid-winter vacation had just disappeared.
"Furthermore, I ask that the acting chief warlock, the director of magical law enforcement, and certain others who will be notified before they leave the building to meet in my office immediately after this assembly is disbanded. That is all I have to say currently. Thank you for your patience and diligence in witnessing this requirement of law. May you enjoy your time with friends and family. Mr. acting chief warlock the floor is yours."
"Thank you, Mr. minister," the acting chief warlock turned to face the Gen. assembly and spoke loudly and clearly. "If there is no further business before this assembly," Crabbe looked around with a stern and no nonsense 'don't you even think of it' expression on his face. "Then, witches and wizards of the Wizengamot this emergency session of the Wizengamot of magical Great Britain is hereby closed. Enjoy the rest of your winter vacation. I am off to what I hope will be a quick meeting and then to my sons where I can bounce my first grandson off my knees to his delighted giggles and to wrap myself around a truly scrumptious Christmas goose his mother is making." The Wizengamot laughed at the last part, it truly was a good thing to do this time of the year; family, good food and good cheer called to all and they left on a happy note.
The gavel came down with a crash. And Amelia didn't know what to think other than great happenings were afoot and that both of these men very able and very good at working the room. Wizengamot meetings tend to be contentious and dark in her living memory, especially with far too many deaths during the last war. This was her first meeting that actually broke up on what was a high note.
Emergency Meeting
Minister of Magics temporary conference room
December 24, 1992.
13:15pm
Amelia had been quite surprised to be pulled aside for minister's official office and into an obviously space expanded closet with very simple table and plain but serviceable padded chairs. The closets contents were still along the walls. A timed jamming stone sat in the middle of the table, but no amenities or glasses of water. A roll of parchment, several wells of ink in different colors with a funny crystal top, along with the glass ever full pens, linked to the ink wells she herself preferred to use but the ministry would never spring for. Minister Bruce was obviously of a similar mind when it came to the use of quills, why use them when something better existed.
Bruce paused at the door talk to low voice to several of the men who had been waiting there, including a couple of the senior aurors she had been forced to let go at the end of the war, downsized as Fudge said. And several men he knew to be contract curse breaker's, their leader a dark-haired blue-eyed man she thought might actually head the curse breakers guild for the society nodded once and passed several things to and from the minister before the minister entered and the door was closed. Before he sat down the minister set a box she knew contained the ministry seal in it on the table. Then he reached over and tapped the jamming stone and it glowed brightly jamming all forms of magical and electronic eavesdropping as it burned through the magical charge inside of it. Amelia loved them but they were expensive and the ones the ministry bought could only be used once per stone, thus could not be used often without impacting their budget. They also had a one-hour time limit, further limiting their utility.
"Ladies, gentlemen forgive the melodrama but there's a lot of things we need to do that most of this building doesn't need to know about yet. Not if we are going to actually get things done. We are obviously under a time constraint today so I'm going to be quick about these things." The new minister turned to Amelia Bones.
"Unless you want to retire at this time madam Bones, I'm going to keep you on as head of the DMLE, is that all right with you?" Amelia nodded her head vigorously.
"I don't feel like retiring right now there's a lot of things that Fudge and his cronies did to my department that I want to correct and would like a few more years to make sure things are fixed before I retire."
"So you want to begin with the reversals of just about everything Fudge did to your department since he came to office and the damages from the war? Do you have a list of what that might be?"
"Yes, I do sir," she said firmly "I can prepare a copy for you…" And stilled at his raised hand.
"That's fine I want you to prioritize your needs wants and desires for the department going forward. Things you need to have soonest to keep functioning, things you would want to have to make the job of law enforcement easier but within the law, and the things you desire for the future going forward. I might not be able to do a lot or even anything this budgetary year but you can expect at least a doubling if not order of magnitude expansion of the law enforcement force patrols and tripling of the aurors training and recruitment budgets. I know that it will take time but you will be authorized to rehire peoples that Fudge and Umbridge, shall we say let go because they didn't have the right fathers and mothers? I don't care who someone's fathers and mothers are or how big their daddy's vaults are, just that they're willing and able to do the job in a levelheaded and evenhanded manner."
"What about those blacklisted by the Wizengamot?" Said Amelia "can I rehire them?" It was Crabbe who spoke first.
"Actually, the Wizengamot only has that authority when the emergency powers decree is in force and only for those accused of or convicted of felonies. And what was considered a felony, and the evidence for presenting charges, under the emergency powers decree was given an over wide latitude then that defined by statute law." He turned back to the new minister. "Are you going to continue to use the state of emergency decree signed in 1968?"
"No, the state of emergency decree is hereby rescinded." Lord Bruce took a document from the folder in front of him, opened the seal box took out a wax wafer put it at the bottom of the prepared document, then signed it and affixed the seal of the ministry to the now glowing document. Then passed it over to the acting chief warlock who looked it over himself countersigned it and affixed his own seal that he removed from a coat pocket. Crabbe smiled and created magical copies for all the men in the room with a flick of his wand and passed them around the table. Minister Bruce looked at Amelia.
"There you have it madam Bones you can hire whomever is qualified, within written law and policy pre-1968. I'll send a copy to your office since I doubt one remains there, given who has held your job prior to your appointment. And the Wizengamot will have to come up with a criminal felony conviction as reason why a person can't have any job they are qualified for going forward."
Amelia smiled it reminded everybody in the room of a shark looking at a fish. Both men made note of her smile. Several others shuddered as they realized many things were really going to change and that there would be no help coming from the Wizengamot.
"Happy to make your day madam." Said Minister Bruce brightly then his demeanor changed to a more serious tone. Then he continued in a more serious tone. "otherwise, you are to maintain and continue operations, the Nott Manor accident has priority and the Unspeakables will provide any support needed," He turned and looked at Croaker "any problems with this?"
"I am already preparing a large team to go to the Nott Manor this afternoon. I have been sure to remove both purist supporters and any members of the Order of the Phoenix from the current team. And while they may report to me after they are released from the project, they will make no reports to me until then, unless something pertains to DORAM. That should maintain confidentiality for the prosecution's case."
"Agreed, any problems with that Amelia?"
"No that sounds just fine thank you for the help Croaker."
"What is DORAM?" asked Titus Quicke head of International Magical Co-operation. Bruce and Croaker groaned, Crabbe winced. As Bruce spoke up.
"I see past ministers perchance for secret keeping, even within the ministry for things we should all know, has not been exaggerated. DORAM is the Defense of the Realm Act, Magical. It's the Crown laws and treaties that outlined situations and crimes that require notification between the Ministry of magic and the Crown Magical Representative."
"I don't understand I thought we represented the Crown when it came to magic?" Bruce and Crabbe laughed so did several of the other strange men in the room, men Amelia was not familiar with and she was a generally familiar with most of the people who would have been expected to be a part of any of these meetings. In this case she could recognize a dozen of the thirty or so in the room. Several others she thought she recognized from the wartime aurors ranks.
"No, we don't, the Ministry of magic represents the families that broke away from direct Crown rule during the English Civil War, they generally supported Parliament and wanted an end to the nobility. And for your information many of those who had power and position under the British government, especially that same magical nobility who had fought for the crown, did not cross back over to the Ministry of magic with the end of that conflict and could not be disbarred from sitting the Wizengamot by the enabling acts of the statute of secrecy without restarting the war.
"And not without breaking the sovereignty magics that allowed us to form the old warlocks council under Alfred the Great and which are the basis fort the Wizengamot's authority. But there is far too much bad blood there, especially with what those houses would lose if they followed the enabling acts and most have not taken their seats. Some have sent a proxy but those who have generally don't push the fact they have noble titles. Many of those nobles are directly responsible for the Glorious Revolution and in the fall of Cromwell in the mundane world and several pieces of paper that followed signed by William and Mary that allowed them to keep their titles if they chose to come to the Wizengamot and instituted the tiered voting system among the ancient and most nobles. To add to the complications a great many of those without noble titles who did not register with the ministry under the enabling acts of the statute of secrecy are vassal oath bound to the crown."
Amelia and several others blanched. That would mean the Crown had access to magic users who were loyal to the muggle government! What that meant and for how long it had been going on made Amelia pale. Then she stopped and thought for a moment relaxing and she went along. If the Crown had wanted to persecute magical people for being magical they would've had the power to do so since the beginning of the statute of secrecy. That they had not, at least not openly, said a great deal for the accuracy of the history books about the causes and implementation of the statute of secrecy.
"And that group joined with the houses of Avalon and their alliance that allow them to sit out most of the Civil War and the last 300 years of ministry rule, or bumbling as they would say, and barely interacted with the old warlocks council before that, not to mention most of the skullduggery between the Avalon and the rest of Great Britain and Ireland between Arthur the Pendragons death and today. They represent a good four out of five magic users in Great Britain's recognized borders as a whole." At Amelia's and many of the stunned expressions around the table, minister Bruce snorted and continued quickly.
"The British Ministry of magic has never been able to really count all magic users unless they're actually using magic regularly, outside of warded spaces or they use some other type of foci rather than registered wands. Good part of that because most don't like paying ministry taxes as they don't benefit from them or intrusiveness into private affairs. Because of this the ministry has been lying to itself about what it could control since soon after the enabling acts for the statute of secrecy where signed and while it has done a decent job within general public spaces, their treatment of individuals who refuse to sign the citizen rolls is execrable. So anybody who could get their properties warded against lay well spells, especially with the low power of the sovereignty magics the ministry only partially control, and against scrying is essentially independent of just about everybody."
"We are just lucky that for the most part most of the magic users who could do this remained loyal to Great Britain and the rule of law as a whole and the Avalon alliance in particular. And actually, the way the statute of secrecy is enforced allows them to blend with the non-magical population," Said acting chief warlock Crabbe "but the key point of this little sidebar is that the Department of mysteries has retained a reporting function under DORAM, that is the Defense Of the Realm Acts Magical. There's seven of them dating back as far as King Edward I time and reaffirmed and expanded by Queen Elisabeth the second in 1955, with several codicils since."
"Furthermore, the British Ministry only has control over the research department budget within the Department of mysteries, the rest of their operations and budget, except for special appropriations raised by the Wizengamot, is funded wholly by the Crown and we have damned near no control of most of what happens there. That is something most ministers try to hide from the general public." Minister Bruce continued.
"Why isn't this general knowledge already?" Asked William Ackerley one of the younger department heads in the room, in his case he was acting finance director with the death of his boss at Nott Manor.
"Simple the Wizengamot hasn't printed and updated a regulations book since 1922 when the Irish broke away." Said Crabbe. "Budgetary constraints don't you know, and it allowed certain people to do many things that were blatantly illegal. And allowed others to, shall we say 'creatively interpret' a number of the laws and the Ministry organization, not the actual written laws and procedures."
"And as far as the Department of mysteries actual standing, I consider it confidential only so far as it takes us to codify and survey everything the ministry does. That we have to do this is not an official secret but not for general publication, that is legal if I read the laws right Mr. Crabbe?" Crabbe nodded.
"That is correct it's not something that historically we've talked about, doing the laundry in public as it were. But as acting chief warlock and every department head here must know and recognize that under the law the Unspeakables work for the Crown and if you really followed along with the oath the minister just took and I had to early in the day, we do as well. If at one remove through the laws of the Wizengamot, which has to conform to Crown law as laid down in Parliament for many things."
Amelia nodded her head a little shocked, the position the Department of mysteries had always confused Amelia especially as they always wore the same concealing hood's and magics. And their budget seem to be ridiculously low. And she was never certain about their loyalties, now she was absolutely certain not only were they not loyal to he-who-must-not-be-named but that Dumbledore and the Ministry was equally frozen out of their ranks. This could've been a problem but most Unspeakables just tended to be so damned competent and their calm in the face of disasters or on battlefields had helped turn the tide against the dark Lords forces a dozen times. Minister Bruce turned to Balthazar Cragenmoor head of the department of records.
"Cragenmoor, I want you to give up a dozen clerks, the ones who don't talk, set up in a shop with Amelia's people and go through and help them sort through the take from Nott Manor. They are to remain there until those files recovered have been gone through and they have squeezed every last bit of intelligence they can get out of them. Be sure to get confidentiality oaths from them, they don't talk to you or anyone off the team about anything they've seen or read or may have heard until after a trial." Amelia smiled Bruce was a man of action and but also discretion it looked like things could be turning around the British Ministry of magic, she clamped down on that thought not wanting to jinx the moment.
Bruce turned and looked at this Dick Cresswell, head of the goblin liaison office, and the only Muggle born to Amelia's knowledge in the Fudge government at his level. He had kept the job only because of sheer competence and the fact that none of the ministry leadership had wanted the job for any of their pureblood relations. Most had a disdain for 'dealing with beasts' as they had said.
The minister took another prepared document out of his folder set it down perusing it for a second assuring himself that is the correct one, then signed and sealed it before passing it to the acting chief warlock. Crabbe smiled read the document quickly then affixed his own signature and sealed to the bottom.
"Here's your first job Mr. Cresswell. Take that to Ragnok, I want the audit outlined in it done before January 3, every galleon, sickle and knut spent and where it went since the last audit. I suspect Gringotts has been keeping a running tally of the ministry's financial misdeeds for some time. This ministry will be returning to the rule of law not the cult of personalities and 'because I said so' all the political parties have used since well before 1920."
"An audit? Isn't that something the ministry has to do itself?" Asked Andrew Perkins head of the smallest department in the ministry. Acting chief warlock Crabbe spoke to this question.
"No, it's perfectly legal under the law and required at the start of every new ministry being formed as Minister Bruce has done today. After all you can't take over a business and not know how much money it you have going forward can you? The books must balance my good man, otherwise you go under eventually. And that's the rub there hasn't been an audit since 1960, when the last pre-blood war minister took office. Can you agree with me that thirty–three years without balancing the books is not a good thing?"
Every director of a department in the room grimaced they knew none of them were going to be coming out smelling of roses after all they had taken the accounting of their predecessors as fact. And several had been caught out short of operating funds over the past two decades. The Ministry finance department, had simply told them to shut down and go home until a specified calendar date, then they had to play catch-up on their assigned tasks for however long the shutdown time was. This happened most in the Department of Education.
And it had the spry Griselda Marchbanks grinning mercilessly as she now had a shrewd idea why Dumbledore had taken over the department's books when he came to office in '82 and regularly shut down the department operating only during the yearly testing seasons and the short weeks of intake during the summer. And they wondered why she had hard time keeping a hold of staff. Most simply found a new job and only worked the department part time to keep building up their pension. Most regular reports simply hadn't been filed because her staff had been sent home without pay and she had regularly wrote reports on that effect to the minister's office since the start of the blood war. She only hung on because she knew that if she walked away a crony of Dumbledore or the Dark families would come in and the children would suffer more than they already were.
"Madame Marchbanks," Gisele startled in her seat as the minister addressed her. "I'm taking you out of head of Department of magical education and giving you the supreme mugwump position for Great Britain on the European Council of magical states. Gisele startled that was a position that had never been held by a witch from Great Britain.
"You've been back channeling around Dumbledore so long to get funding for the non-Hogwarts schools and testing support from the European Educational Council so long I am certain you know where most of the bodies are buried and where the pressure points are. So, knowing that I'm going to put you in place of with immediate effect, congratulations Madame. Your first job is to see how far out of compliance magical Great Britain is with the councils' educational standards, how those standards stack against the Avalon protocols for education, and how much money and help can we get going forward correcting any discrepancies. Cragenmoor is sending a team with you, several legal clerks and a few good Undersecretary's to look at what else Albus has been dropping the ball on." Griselda smiled and thought for several moments before speaking.
"You don't believe in doing things by half, all right I can do that but whose to be taking over my department?" she asked crossly her Scottish accent flaring a little "not one of Dumbledore's ivory tower 'a wizard need only do magic' crowd?" Bruce snorted and Crabbe grimaced and handed over a sickle to the minister which he promptly pocketed while Crabbe looked at her darkly.
"Nor a Death Eater espousing blood purity, blood is only good for being in one's body and keeping one alive that is the official policy of this administration going forward Madame," the new minister nodded emphatically "I will be appointing, Lord Richard Middleham Duke and head of house Middleham, to the directorship of magical education for the Ministry of magic. He will have a similar mandate as I have just given you. Our focus for next few months must be control of our finances and making sure the children are educated properly. Law enforcement will take a second seat to those goals I'm afraid Madame Bones. But law enforcement is not being pushed aside you will get the funding you need to keep going forward with current investigations and the various duties the Wizengamot has set you. Some of which will be reevaluated to see if others could do the job more effectively or if they need to be done at all. Funds will be made available from law enforcement functions that have been hived off to other departments for various spurious reasons and both personnel and funds will be returned to you."
The blonde-haired gentlemen, with an expression of determination on his face, further down the table nodded to Griselda and the old witch smiled, this Middleham had been a thorn in Dumbledore's side about education for thirty years. And had regularly voted with Griselda to block changes to curriculum and cutting any funding for schools on the Wizengamot. And somehow came up with the galleons for critical programs and scholarships for Muggle born's and half-bloods to the secondary schools when the ministry did cut the budget or the funds set aside for Muggle born's mysteriously 'ran out' or were given to 'destitute' purebloods. There were few besides Augusta Longbottom she would rather have seen in her previous position. And she knew education was about to change as both Middleham and she espoused the Avalon protocols for education. Dumbledore would hate it and she would love every minute of his discomfort and his minions ranting.
"That will be quite satisfactory minister." Griselda primly, stifling a cackle at the thought of what Middleham would do to Dumbledore. Couldn't happen to too soon in her opinion, she got little enough entertainment in this world as it was.
With that minister got down to a quick hard series of orders given to the score of men there and ended the meeting as the suppressor died. As she filed out Amelia saw several wizards and witches filing in. Several were part of the ministry dedicated staff for the minister, others apparently were brought in by the new minister. Amelia wondered how that would fall out going forward.