The fact that the Minister for Magic wanted to see them all in Hermione's office felt ominous to Harry. Nothing was said as they entered the room and took their seats. The door was shut and magically sealed and Harry cast a Muffliato charm to deter any possible eavesdroppers. Dennis was with them, having returned from taking Phyllis Eggington to St. Mungo's hospital. Ginny and Ambrose had also been invited and were already seated as Harry, Ron and Dennis had arrived. Ambrose nodded to them. Hermione jumped up and hugged Ron. She drew out her wand and fixed his broken nose. She turned and glared at Harry. Ginny waited for Harry to sit beside her. She reached out and held his hand.
"Thank you for coming to this meeting," said Kingsley. "I have invited Mr Ward as we need to decide what we might tell Lydia, if anything.
"I must begin with some very grave news. The… remains of Senior Auror Tempest Savage have been returned to us. A packing crate was left outside the visitor's entrance. Though he was killed with the Avada Kedavra curse, his body was not treated with dignity. I prefer to say no more than that. He shall be treated and regarded with honour from now on, as befits the fine man and auror that he was. The remains of Lewis Kettleburn are still missing."
Kingsley stood in silence for a moment, his head bowed.
"I do not intend to dissect this operation. By the nature of the circumstances, it had to be mounted quickly and had to make use of individuals who understood the background. The Head of Magical Law Enforcement is in agreement with me on this. What Mrs Granger-Weasley, the private individual, might say I neither know nor care. Mr Creevey, could you tell us about Phyllis, please?"
Dennis nodded and cleared his throat. "She is at St Mungo's and in a stable condition. The knife which injured her leg, the one used to… kill Agent Kettleburn was cursed. I picked it up and brought it with us, just in case. The healers are using it to try to work out her treatment."
Kingsley held up a finger. "I have arranged for an expert to examine the knife and, hopefully, deal with the curse. There are no guarantees if Old Magic is involved, but if anyone can help it will be this expert. Thanks to Dennis's foresight we have the knife."
Harry frowned. "Who's this expert?"
Kingsley looked him in the eye. "I am not at liberty to divulge that, at this time, Harry."
"What we need to focus on," Hermione said, "is what we do as a result of these events. We need to think about what we can learn from them and about where we go from here."
Harry shuffled in his seat. "My observations would be that they are using mostly High Magic, with some Old Magic, as the knife may prove. They seem to be well-organised but, so far, we have no indication of how many people or places are involved. And we know they're prepared to be ruthless. The killing of Lewis Kettleburn was brutal and unnecessary. Even Tem was shocked, and that took some doing."
"The treatment of Tempest's body," Kingsley observed, "was similarly brutal and unnecessary. They are trying to intimidate us. We cannot afford to be intimidated. In fact, this level of barbarism makes me more determined to oppose these people."
They all nodded their agreement.
"We will need to dedicate more resources from the Auror Office," Hermione said. "I suggest Harry be allowed to form a core team of aurors on this case. If there is anything my staff can do to free aurors from other cases, let me know."
"Thanks," said Harry. "Minister, I would like to put six of my best people onto this. I suggest for now that, outside that team, we explain our work as 'looking for Tem's killers'. We can all get behind that without having to go into details."
"I agree with all of that, Harry" Kingsley told him. "Ambrose, how do you think we should present this to Lydia, if at all?"
Ambrose narrowed his eyes. "Lydia knew Tempest. She also needs to know that these people are becoming active, once more. I do not feel she would benefit from knowing the details of this operation at this juncture. There is a chap by the name of Kettleburn in her class, I believe. Do we know if he is any relation?"
Harry nodded. "Lewis was Wyndham Kettleburn's second cousin. Tem told me when he briefed me about the undercover agents we were planning to use. They were aware of each other but I don't think they were close."
Ambrose nodded his appreciation. "I presume you will be able to prevent the family from knowing too much or, at least, from being able to spread what they know?"
"This is all in hand," Kingsley confirmed.
"Then there should be no risk of Lydia hearing further details, if we do not tell her," Ambrose said. "Or, if she does hear anything, we will know it to have come from a source within that deplorable organisation. If you provide details to our Hogwarts people, please let them know they are not to pass it on to Lydia. At least, not until there is a very real and immediate need for her to know."
"That seems sensible," Hermione agreed. "Minerva, Draco, Filius and Stephano should have the details. They need to know what we are up against if they're to keep Lydia safe."
She looked to Dennis. "How are you, after all this?"
Dennis thought. "I can't say I'm not shaken. What they did to Kettleburn… But I'm also more determined than ever to stop these murdering barbarians. I don't imagine you or Harry will let me help in the field again but if I can help with my potions or my contacts, or if you need an article writing, just let me know."
Harry turned to face him. "Dennis, I hope never to put you in that sort of danger again. But you worked well with the team. Without your potions we would never have got in there; without your ingenuity we would never have got out. Your actions saved Phyllis, not ours. Your different viewpoint has proven useful more than once. I would like to run my team's ideas by you when I can, if that's OK with you."
Dennis gave him a tight-lipped smile. "Anything I can do to help, Harry, though Weasley's Wizard Wheezes deserve a mention. It was Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder and Ron's Flee Powder that got us out of there."
"Hmm," Harry frowned. "A mention they can have but there is no way Ron will be called on again. And before any of you say it, yes, I am terrified of what Hermione would do to me. And Ginny, and Molly, and Arthur. And George."
"To summarise," said Kingsley. "We step up the activity against these new Death Eaters. We continue our efforts to infiltrate their operations. Yes, Hermione, we continue to use undercover agents."
Hermione was clearly not happy with this particular item, but remained silent.
"Obviously," Kingsley continued. "We are trying to discover what went wrong in order to avoid making the same mistakes again. Phyllis Eggington, I hope, will help us in this regard. We keep the knowledge of our investigations between those of us who already know. We expand it by no more than the aurors Harry will select for his core team. To the public, we are investigating the murders of Lewis Kettleburn and Tempest Savage."
Kingsley sighed and shook his head. "I cannot believe that Tempest is dead. We were aurors together for many years. And Kettleburn… They will pay dearly for this."
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