"You're joking…right?" Draco asked looking completely perplexed.
"Nope," replied Albus before taking a bite of his toast.
Draco, Albus and Scorpius were sitting around the Malfoy kitchen table, tucking into breakfast while the wireless droned nonsense in the background. The phone that Nemesis had given him was sitting on the table next to his plate.
His meeting with Bloggs and the secret squib army had been pretty shocking to him too, at least at the time. Now, after a few hours of sleep he was actually feeling pretty good about it. One of the worst things about knowing that Nemesis would resurface eventually was also knowing that no one in the wizarding world believed him and was therefore ignorant of the threat she posed. But now he had secret allies out there. Men and women hiding behind the scenes who may just end up turning the tide in his favour.
Bloggs hadn't told him to keep their existence a secret, mainly because he didn't have to. Albus was fully aware of what it would mean if anyone, especially Nemesis found out about them, but he was also aware that Bloggs probably knew he would confide in Scorpius and Draco and had unofficially allowed it.
Besides, Draco could make an amazing full English and he always felt indebted to him for that so sharing a few secrets about a covert national security agency made them even.
"Squib spies?!" Scorpius blurted in equal disbelief.
"Nobody calls them spies anymore. It's…agent or operations officer or something that sounds less hammy," Albus said conversely.
"And they've been tracking her the entire time?" Draco asked.
"Yep, which automatically makes them vastly more capable than the ministry."
"I never considered the ministry to be capable, even when there isn't a homicidal immortal possessing your girlfriend," Draco remarked.
"She's not my girlfriend!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, possessing the woman whose love you pine for day and night," Draco corrected with a smile.
"I don't…pine…" Albus mumbled before cutting into his bacon.
"Oh, please! You were practically drooling the moment you saw her," Scorpius joined in.
"Alright, fine! The woman I love is being held hostage by an immortal entity that wants to destroy the wizarding world! Thanks for rubbing it in!"
"Nobody is rubbing it in, Albus, but you can't deny that it's having an affect on you. Otherwise you wouldn't be sleep walking. She's trying to keep you off balance. And I doubt you would have derailed a damn train if you had your head on straight." Draco said.
"She put the bomb on it! I just responded! Besides, now we know that the whole thing was just misdirection."
"There's a cheerful thought," Scorpius remarked before finishing off his eggs.
"Even the dar…Voldemort didn't have the means to control someone the way these squibs are describing. I've never heard of anything like it," Draco admitted.
"I have, but it never actually worked."
"What?" Scorpius asked.
"An American muggle program done by the CIA back during the Cold War called MK Ultra," Albus explained, "It was touted as an advanced interrogation method but what they were really doing was trying to create sleeper agents. A form of mind control, subliminal messaging, stuff like that. Implanted commands inside the brain that only activate when a code word is given, otherwise, the poor sods just walk around believing that they are normal. One moment they are your cheerful next-door neighbour, the next they've picked up a rifle and assassinated the leader of a country. But it failed spectacularly, a whole bunch of test subjects died, and bunch of others went mad. They shut the whole thing down back in the seventies."
"Well, no one can say that the muggles aren't creative," Draco said grimly.
"And the Prime-ministers has always known about us. I suppose it was only a matter of time before the muggles put something like this into play…but recruiting squibs, didn't see that one coming," Scorpius nodded.
"Makes perfect sense. I mean we've all met Filch. I expect there are a lot of very bitter squibs out there that we've never known about."
"No mind control needed to ask them to take a hard line against the wizarding world," Draco agreed.
"Well, Nemesis clearly needs mind control to get these poor saps to do whatever it is she's planning."
"You said she intends to take the veil but we know her ultimate goal is the destruction of the wizarding world. She's made that clear. But we don't even know how many people she's already got under her control," Draco sighed.
"Well, maybe you could have a sniff about. See if anyone has ever heard of anything like this, but very quietly. Nemesis cannot find out that we know what she's doing behind the scenes."
"Obviously."
POP!
"Hello Gerty," Albus said without needing to turn around.
The nervous house elf was indeed standing just behind him, shaking a little more than usual. No doubt being in the house of a former death-eater was taking a bit of a toll on her.
"Master D-Draco, the Ministress request –"
"Gerty, I've told you before," Draco interrupted, "don't call me master…call me emperor of Malfoy the magnificent…something like that."
Scorpius chuckled. "He's just teasing you, Gerty."
"The ministress request permission to disapperate to your home," the house elf said.
"Always so official. Your dad never asks permission," Draco remarked.
"He's an auror, he doesn't have to."
"Oh, that's right, aurors are trained not to have manners. Yes, Gerty, the minister may enter my humble abode," Draco said before taking a gulp of his coffee.
The house elf disappeared and a second later three more pops sounded the arrival of Harry, Ron and Hermione. Harry immediately began scrutinising his son, a bit concerned at the cuts and bruised on his face from the train crash.
"Draco," Hermione nodded. "Albus, how are you?"
"Sated, this bacon is delicious."
"Any word from Nemesis?" Harry asked.
"Not yet. Maybe she's having breakfast too," he shrugged.
"The auror office is on stand-by so –"
"That's pointless. She'll either forbid you from getting involved or her next challenge will be something you can't help with," Albus said. "Which is why going back to the ministry is equally pointless."
"You don't know that. We might be able to help," Ron offered.
"You mean professional help?"
All three of them sighed in frustration.
"Albus, we were concerned about you, that's all," Harry tried.
"Really? Because according to the Prophet, I'm a delusional nut-case that's making this whole thing up because I got dumped," he scathed.
"I can't tell the Prophet what to write, Albus," Hermione said.
"Why not? Ministers have been doing it for years. They're practically FOX news," Albus remarked.
"You could always do what Harry did and give an interview to the Quibbler," Ron suggested.
"There is an immortal evil genius on the loose that wants to commit wizarding genocide but you think Albus should focus on dealing with his PR problem with Looney Lovegood?" Draco asked incredulously.
"Don't call her that!" Ron growled.
"Well, 'inconsistently sane Lovegood' doesn't have quite the same ring to it," Draco snapped back.
"'Inconsistently sane Albus' sounds okay. Maybe you could the Prophet to call me that from now on?"
"Albus, we are on your side. Don't push us away just because your bitter," Harry pleaded.
"There is nothing you can do to help and nothing she'll do that is even remotely within your sphere of control, that much I can guarantee. These challenges are specifically designed for me and to a lesser extent, Scorpius since she knows he won't stay out of it even if I try to stop him," Albus said quickly.
"Yeah, bravo on your choice of friends again, Scorp. Well done," Draco remarked dryly.
"You should be more worried about yourself," Albus warned. "She won't risk harming him because she knows I would forgive her for it, you on the other hand, can make no such claim."
"But you can forgive her for putting a bomb on a train?" Ron asked.
"I'm over it…still a little annoyed at myself that I didn't see it coming. When you think about it, given how she displayed her distain for the school before, the train is actually the most obvious target she could have picked, except for the ministry of course. So maybe, instead of being useless here, you should go and be useless there."
"Albus we –"
Harry's retort was cut off but the phone suddenly vibrating on the kitchen table. The whole room held its breath. Albus picked it up and unlocked it with his thumb print. It was a text.
"Huh," he said before putting the phone down and going back to his breakfast.
"Is it her?! What does it say?"
Albus sighed in annoyance before picking up the phone and reading the text out loud. "Good morning, Albus. How is your head?"
"Wha…that's it?"
"Yep."
They all looked shocked, except for Scorpius who knew that she simply craved Albus' attention.
The phone buzzed again.
Sleep well?
Albus ignored it. It buzzed again.
You look sexy when you haven't shaved.
He rolled his eyes. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco where on tenterhooks waiting for some kind of explanation.
"You're not going to reply?" Hermione asked with apprehension.
"She just wants attention and I'm not playing."
The phone buzzed again.
I just got out the shower. I'm all wet… Followed by the wink emoji.
"You do realize that she's planning to strike the ministry. You remember what an asset it was to Voldemort during the war, I'd say it's a forgone conclusion that its her ultimate target," Albus said, trying to steer them back on track.
The phone buzzed again.
None of the adults seemed to be able to focus on what he was saying while that phone kept going off.
Need your opinion on something…
Albus stopped himself from typing a reply about her mental state.
"Unlike Voldemort however, she's in no rush to get it done," Albus continued.
The phone buzzed again. This time it was a picture. It had been split down the middle to show two images side by side with the caption: Red or black?
The pictures were of her or rather Alex, posing in nothing but lacy underwear. One black set and one red. She was also blowing a kiss at the camera.
"Oh, for God's sake!" Albus growled.
"What?! What's wrong?!" Harry gulped.
"Nothing, she's sending raunchy selfies," Albus said before putting the phone on the table. The others leaned over to take a look. Ron received a sharp elbow when Hermione caught him staring at the picture for a bit too long.
He couldn't really be blamed. Alex had actually been voted one of the sexiest women in the entire wizarding world and now here she was with her incredible body on display like a glamour model.
"So, yesterday she commits an act of domestic terrorism and almost gets you two killed and now she's sending you pictures of her in her underwear. She really is insane, isn't she?" Draco said.
"The red," Scorpius said then immediately regretted it. Under Albus' angry gaze he turned bright red. "I mean…because…it matches her hair…" he turned away and tried to focus solely on his breakfast plate.
He wasn't wrong. The red underwear did match the streaks in her hair but that didn't mean he wanted his best friend perving over the woman he was in love with.
"Like you said, she wants me off balance," Albus admitted to Draco.
"I'd say she's doing a damn good job of that."
The phone buzzed again.
Albus was almost tempted to just throw it across the room but morbid curiosity got the better of him.
It was a good thing he did look.
The second image was of a man. A regular looking guy in his mid-thirties that Albus had never seen in his life. Slightly balding with stubble on his jaw, posing next to a woman whom had been deliberately moved out of shot in front of a coffee shop.
Know him? The caption read.
The phone buzzed again.
He dies in one hour. Better get a move on, toddle-pip. X
Albus immediately held up the phone to the others so that they could see the picture. "You know him, anyone ever seen him before?!"
They shook their heads.
"Terrific…I have one hour to find one person using nothing but a picture in a city of fifteen hundred square miles and ten million people. Game on…" he said grimly.