Ms.45 - Part 2.

Kingsley Shacklebolt was standing in the background of the scene, it wasn't entirely the best place to be but because the muggle authorities had mobilised in Trafalgar Square and discovered blood, they had gone mad even if they hadn't found any kind of human body. The tall, dark-skinned Auror had been sent out into the muggle world as he was one of the few wizards who could, with some work, survive in the muggle world to investigate what was going on.

When he and Hestia and Emmeline arrived, they had agreed to examine the whole scene from top to bottom in the hopes of discovering what happened and the dark-skinned auror had discovered enough to be very, very worried. Unfortunately, he had only been able to do so much because by the time he had arrived, he had been forced to take a back seat, and he was due back in the Ministry soon with his report about what was going on.

The Ministry of Magic's primary objective was the maintenance of the Statute of Secrecy which was an international magical law forbidding and restricting the use of magic in non-magical areas. Events like this were the Ministry's worse nightmare, and the response was supposed to be immediate but Shacklebolt wished he'd gotten here first before the muggles had. Now it was too late. As he stood in the background, keeping to the shadows and augmenting his camouflage with a disillusionment charm so if anybody did look his way, they'd see nothing, and knowing he would need to perform his own examination and he knew he would do a much better job even if the muggles were screwing it all up, Shacklebolt wondered how this latest act of chaos had happened.

An hour ago the Ministry had received notification on the detectors of dark magic being used in Trafalgar Square. Curses like the killing curse were being used, worrying the DMLE who'd despatched him, and two other Aurors to Trafalgar Square and to compose a report on what had happened. Shacklebolt wanted nothing more than to go over there and discover what had happened, but he knew if he did that there was a strong possibility of the muggles spotting him and if that happened it would be a disaster.

But who was responsible for this in the first place? The Ministry was still examining the magical signatures they'd gleaned from this place, but he doubted anything would come from it; with Fudge as the Minister, there was a chance he would be bribed and let them off on a technicality if he discovered they were purebloods, but what would make anyone come out here in the first place?

But as he had examined the place, Shaklebolt had discovered the clear signs of someone apparating into the Square, and as he had walked around the place he had discovered two more points.

As he was pondering this, Emmeline Vance's voice whispered in the gloom, "Shack? Are you here, Shack?"

Sometimes the disillusionment charm caused more trouble than it was worse. "Emmeline, keep your voice down. I'm right here."

"Okay. I'll put up a silencing ward so we can talk."

Kingsley felt the tingle of magic in the air.

"It's up," Vance said.

"Where have you been? Where's Hestia?" Kingsley asked.

"She's on the other side of the square - don't worry, she's disillusioned and silenced like us - she's trying to find out what happened. What were you doing here?" Vance asked.

Shackelbolt had no intention of telling one of his partners what he had found until he knew what she had discovered."Taking a look. What've you two found out?"

"Some of the curse's energy hasn't dissipated yet. There were some really nasty curses. Some of them haven't been used by anyone except for a real dark wizard or a Death Eater."

Shacklebolt stiffened at the mention of the vermin who'd plagued Britain and parts of Europe throughout most of the seventies. "I think it was a group. I found signs of apparition."

"How many?"

"I found 3 points of arrival. They were scattered around the square in different areas, we're near one. It's over there."

"And…they went over to where the muggle aurors are-."

"Police."

"What?" Vance asked, her voice confused.

Shacklebolt really wished muggle studies was a compulsory course at Hogwarts and at the Ministry. It would really help if witches and wizards knew more about muggles and their slang. "The muggle aurors, as you call them are called police."

"Okay, but anyway when I was over there that's where the magic is focused on, so three apparition points at different parts of the square within easy walking distance…. It almost sounds like they were searching for somebody and they found them. They must have come here specifically for someone."

Shacklebolt stiffened. If that was true and the muggle police hadn't found that person, they could be anywhere. But why would dark wizards target a specific muggle, if it was a muggle when none of them had been as picky about it in the past? "There was nobody over there when we arrived, so they likely got away. They could be anywhere by now."

"Do you think we'll have enough evidence to find out who it was?"

"I hope so, Emmeline, I really do. We got here really quickly before the magic of the spells faded, so that means we would have found something to take back to the DMLE. But I'm more interested in is why a bunch of dark wizards would come here at all. Who were they after?" Shacklebolt asked.

"I don't know," Vance said before she took a deep, shuddering breath. "Kingsley, these dark wizards, could they have been Death Eaters?"

"I hope so, if it is then we might have an excuse to get rid of some of them at last, but I dunno if we'd get a conviction. You know how slick some of them happen to be," Shacklebolt told Vance so she didn't become too optimistic about their chances of scoring a conviction and investigation. "Take down the silencing ward. I want to get over to where the police are and get some scans in."

"Hestia's likely still over there, Shack."

"I don't care. I'd still like to run some other checks before we go in."

"Alright, but I'm coming with you."

The two aurors walked over to the other side of the square, at the same time the police were beginning to pack up their gear and move on. They hadn't found anything, and there were no bodies to go with the gunshots and the weird flashes of light but the signs of blood on the ground had garnered a lot of worries but there was nothing they could do. They had collected their samples for their forensics but there was nothing here. But as nobody was hurt, they saw nothing to investigate anymore, so they were forced to pack up.

The sight of the muggle police packing up gave the two magicals hope, but as Kingsley and Emmeline walked closer they could hear two of the detectives talking.

"Has door to door revealed anything?"

"No, sir. Many of them were asleep, hard to believe when you think where we are in the city, but we are questioning a passerby."

"A passersby? At this time of night?" A detective yawned, wondering how anyone could be awake, especially at this ungodly hour. But while the muggles were surprised, the wizards were worried, but because of how close they were to the muggles they couldn't say anything.

"She was out partying tonight with friends but she didn't have the heart for it tonight, so she was heading home. She spotted a bunch of guys dressed in black standing right here."

"Did she give a description?" The aurors tensed when they heard this. If the muggles had this information, it was both good and bad; good because they had a lead on what happened here, and bad because if the muggles had this information it was a dent in the Statute. There was a chance Fudge himself would have to do damage control, and that was something the Minister was really not going to like.

"She didn't see their faces, and she didn't want to get too close, but she saw one of them with really long hair. There was enough light to tell her it was a light colour, like a shiny blond."

If the aurors could look at each other, they would be seeing the grins on their faces. That was a good description for Lucius Malfoy. Hopefully, this would ensure the end of the slippery Death Eater.

"And the others?" The detective on charge didn't sound convinced they had anything.

"Not really. The woman who passed nearby said she didn't get too close because when she overheard what they were saying she realised they didn't want to get too close. She spotted something shiny and metal on the back of one of the men, it looked like a scythe or an axe of some kind."

"What?"

"That's what she said, Inspector and I believe her, she was terrified out of her wits when she saw what happened and she was close enough to hear them talk. They were looking for someone, and they found her."

"Her?"

"Yeah. She gave us the names of a few of them. Lucius. Yaxley. She overheard one of them say 'That's Potter, this street urchin.' And then she said the same man said something clearly about traitors of some kind."

The police were becoming more and more confused, but the aurors listening in felt as if their insides had been transfigured into ice as they listened in shock. Shacklebolt placed his invisible hand on his friend's shoulder and whispered, "Don't" both of them feeling the same trepidation, but this was not the place or the time to speak about it.

"A street urchin? That sounds like a kid. Did the woman get a good look at what happened?"

"Yeah, she said she saw flashes of light. And then she spotted a small figure, likely a kid."

Kingsley heard a sharp hiss of breath to his side. This wasn't good.

"Flashes of light?"

"Yeah," this was even worse. The ICW was really not going to like this if they heard about this and if they heard Fudge was ignoring the knowledge one of his benefactors had gone out one night with some of his Death Eater friends to kill a witch who was hailed and heralded as a hero, "after that the kid, who was clearly sleeping rough, fired a gun at them, wounding a few of them and the woman was frightened and ducked out of sight, but she was worried they'd see her and she waited for us. One last thing, she heard the kid, this girl shout out 'That's for trying to kill me, you bastards' and the men after her threatened her, said something about a Dark Lord"

"A Dark Lord?" A female detective said for the first time, her voice showing incredulity and puzzlement but the listening wizards were becoming more and more horrified at the scale of the disaster hitting them head-on. "God, what the hell are we dealing with now, some kind of cult?"

"Perhaps. Is the witness still here?"

"Yes, we've got her."

"That's a relief. Where is she?"

"She's in an area car. I'm planning on speaking to her at the station to get a statement."

"I want to sit in on that interview," another detective said as he looked around, "Are we gonna go when a kid's out there with a gun?"

"There's nothing they can do. Is there any CCTV here, we can check the recordings from the cameras and see what happened?" A detective asked.

Kingsley wished the ground would just swallow him whole when he heard that. It was bad enough they had descriptions of the Death Eaters, and a woman had seen flashes of light, with camera recordings they could discover enough for the ICW to kiss goodbye to the Statute of Secrecy.

Merlin, what the hell were Malfoy and the rest of those idiots thinking?! But Kingsley had other things on his mind as well when the muggle police left. When the last of their vehicles left, Kingsley felt it was safe to counter the disillusionment charm. Hestia, who had been standing a good few feet away, appeared along with Emmeline.

The two witches were looking at him in horror. They knew the implications of what they had just heard, and if it got out then it would be a massive blow.

"Charlotte Potter, the Girl Who Lived and the last of the Potter family, another family who was virtually wiped out in that pointless war," Kingsley shook his head as he puzzled over the implications of what they'd found out. Charlotte Potter was here, and if the muggle witness was telling the truth, she was apparently homeless? How was that possible? Kingsley didn't always believe the rumours, but he had assumed the Girl Who Lived was being raised in a loving home, only for them to discover the opposite. How long had this been going on, and why hadn't anybody noticed or done anything about it?

Hestia couldn't believe it and unknowingly she voiced Kingsley's thoughts. "Death Eaters were looking for Charlotte Potter, they found her and she fought them off. I thought the girl was protected by Professor Dumbledore?" She looked between her fellow aurors for clarification, reassurance, but there was none.

"There are dozens of questions we need to ask and answer, but what I want to know is if Malfoy and those bastards are going to get away with this."

"Not if I have anything to do with it," Shacklebolt said as he turned to Hestia. "What was with this witness?"

"I didn't see her. If I had I would have tried something," Hestia replied.

"Maybe it was good you didn't; with how alert the muggles were when they were here, that would have caused more trouble for the Statute," Emmeline commented.

"Yeah, perhaps you're right," Hestia nodded.

"When are we going to go back to the Ministry?" Emmeline asked hesitantly, and the other stiffened. They had been sent out here based on the assumption a couple of rowdy idiots, tired of the Statute and the control the Ministry had come out drunk and thew a few curses out before buggering off to wherever they came from, but what they discovered now shattered that belief.

"Now, and I can tell you both I not looking forward to telling them what we've found out; when they learn Malfoy came out here with some of his pals after the Girl Who Lived, that's gonna be a shock enough. But when they hear that the last of the Potters is living rough on the streets it will send people into a frenzy," Kingsley privately wondered if Fudge would just brush this whole mess under the rug, although he hoped that the DMLE tried to find ways of mitigating it.

He knew Bones and Scrimgeour were going to be pissed off when they learnt what had happened and how they hadn't stopped the muggle police from finding a credible witness and one who had seen more than they should have done, but hopefully they could find some way of mitigating the worst of this disaster.

"What do we do about Charlotte Potter, Shack?" Hestia asked hesitantly.

Kingsley sighed. "Well, if you want to go through the whole of London, be my guest. We've lost her for now, but she will be found sooner or later."

Shacklebolt sighed wearily. It was times like this he wondered why he had become an auror. "Come on," he said, casting another look around before he disapparated away from the Square, mentally praying that Charlotte Potter survived.

Once the aurors had gone the square was silent besides the lapping of water in the fountain before a small figure crawled out from underneath a parked car perched on the curb. Charlotte stretched and grimaced as she popped a couple of bones in her body. She had hidden underneath the car when she realised the coppers were too close and there was no time to run. Ideally, she would have run away; she might be a kid, but she still had a stolen gun and she didn't want to be caught with it, but she had been curious about what they would do when they investigated the scene.

Charlotte had watched and listened as the men who'd attacked her vanished taking their fallen fellows with them - she didn't know if they were alive or dead, but she didn't care. She had heard the incredulity in the police's voice as they heard what the witness had described but she didn't know if it would go anywhere, although she doubted it would. There were no bodies and she was not here as far as they knew. With luck, the police would just dismiss what they'd heard although the blood they'd found would likely warrant some kind of investigation, she doubted it would get them anywhere.

She had been about to crawl out from underneath the car when those other people had appeared out of thin air. Apparently, they had been there the whole time, and while she didn't completely understand everything that they'd been talking about, they had known her. Apparently, she was called 'the Girl Who Lived' and her family was wiped out in a war. What war? She didn't understand it. Who was this Dumbledore, who was supposedly protecting her? If he was he was doing a lousy job of it.

No matter. She looked around the square and sighed. She'd had enough of sleeping rough on the streets, especially if she ran the risk of being attacked by 'Death Eaters' (god, what a crappy name) she could do with a much better life right about now. And besides, she would love to get back to school and sort herself out.

She would go to a police station tomorrow.

The only problem was she would have to change her second name.