The Bodyguard
"Have a seat, Cesar," Harry said to the Head of the Personal Protection Unit whom he had summoned to his office. Cesar Anderson was a picture-perfect bodyguard: Tall, athletic, and although the increasing grey of his buzz cut indicated his advanced age, his movements were still smooth like a cat's. Like Harry, he was a Gryffindor, but twelve years older than his superior, so they had never met in their school days. He owed his responsible post to his imagination that helped him anticipating virtually every conceivable attack on his Minister so as never to be taken by surprise, his analytical intelligence and his fabulously fast reflexes, which didn't seem to decrease even with almost fifty.
Harry had Apparated in the Ministry only about ten o'clock, after the conversation with Ginny had lasted until dawn, and had spent an hour thoroughly studying the guidelines for the Minister's personal protection.
"I've just reviewed our standard procedures," he started the conversation getting straight to the point. "As for the defence against magical attacks, I've asked Aurel to take a close look at them. He will join us in a moment. Let's first talk about the dangers of attacks by non-magical means. Because there are some things that are unclear to me."
"Which is?" asked Cesar.
"It says here that you will turn all explosives within 200 yards of the Minister into sand," Harry said. "Does this really cover all explosives, including those that are secret even among Muggles or known only to the military and intelligence services?"
"Yep," said Cesar, "we updated the list a just quarter of a year ago, the MI-5 colleagues were – extremely cooperative."
He said it with a strange undertone. Harry looked at him suspiciously: "What did we do to repay this kindness?"
"I'm sorry Harry, I can't tell you without Hermione's explicit permission."
Harry looked annoyed for a moment, but after all Cesar just obeyed Hermione's orders. Strange orders though.
"Good. Next: In addition, you create a protective dome of about ten yards radius around the Minister. The dome is mobile, so that she's always right in the centre of it. Everything will bounce off this dome, not only curses, but also material objects, provided they move at a speed of more than about 100 yards per second."
"Against bullets from firearms fired from a distance of more than 200 yards. Ammunition from weapons within this radius is already rendered ineffective by the magical deactivation of explosives."
At that moment there was a knock at the door. At Harry's "Come in", Aurel Mercey entered the office.
Aurel, Head of the Dark Magic Defence Unit, differed from Cesar in almost every respect except age and hair colour. He was short, chubby and short-sighted. He had dedicated his life to the study of Dark Magic, which he himself never practised. He was a walking encyclopaedia in which all known information about Dark Magic was recorded, but he was anything but a Snape, who had pushed forward deep into unknown realms with his experiments.
Harry gestured him to take a seat. "I'll be with you in a moment, Aurel. What if," he turned back to Cesar, "someone uses a mechanical distance weapon, a slingshot for example, a blowpipe, a crossbow or a bow?"
"There might be a gap at that point," Cesar admitted.
"Lower the defence threshold to 10 yards per second," Harry ordered, and Cesar made a note of it. "But if such a weapon is fired within the ten yards radius," Harry continued, "the bullet will not be stopped unless you throw yourself in between and die a hero's death," Harry said with a smile. "You will therefore create a second protective dome with a five feet radius, with the heart of the Minister as your point Zero." Again, Cesar made a note.
Harry asked: "What does MI-5 say about defending against attacks with radioactive materials?"
"MI-5," Cesar replied, "was kind enough to lend us a Geiger counter that we can use to locate sources of radioactivity near the minister."
"Poison?"
"The Minister gets a potion cocktail every morning through which she can recognise every magical and non-magical poison by taste, including any manipulative potions. Just early enough to spit them out. If someone tries to force it on her, he'll have to get past us first, but even then, we'll still have a Bezoar with us."
"Ineffective against snake, spider and insect venom," Harry said.
"At least as far as snakes are concerned, we carry antidotes developed by Muggle researchers. Another kind gift from MI-5."
"Have you noticed any other vulnerabilities?" asked Harry.
"I would have fixed them already if I had noticed them," Cesar replied. "But maybe Aurel has found something else."
"Thank you for your patience, Aurel," Harry now addressed his Dark Magic specialist.
"Oh, don't mention it, Harry."
"You reviewed the magic part of the rules?",
"Yes, I did. The protective dome repels almost every known spell: Killing Curse, Cruciatus, Stunning Spell, Body-Bind, Locomotion Charm, Imperius..."
"I prepared for this meeting," Harry interrupted him gently, "and read the regulations again, too. Please don't list what's in, but what you think is missing."
"Well, the only thing missing, at least from the spells that directly target the person, is the Anti-imperius. If it is abused and cast at an uncursed person, it is a fatal weapon."
"All right," said Harry, "then the Anti-imperius will be added to the list of spells to be warded off by the protective dome. One thing is not quite clear to me: Do we need a narrower radius for the anti-curse protective dome, either?"
"This is something I would strongly recommend," Aurel replied. "These curses bounce off when they come from outside, but can certainly be performed inside the protective dome, at least some of them."
"Cesar ..." began Harry.
"Noted," said the latter.
"Very good," Harry said with satisfaction. "The last question is about the unnoticed approach of unauthorised persons. I read that all kinds of Invisibility spells, confusion spells and so on are lifted by the protective dome, that is, anyone who enters the protective dome becomes visible or identifiable. But what is missing is an effective defence against persons who have changed their appearance through Polyjuice Potion or as Animagi. Also, Invisibility Cloaks are not covered."
"I'm afraid there's no protection against that, at least none that works automatically," Aurelius said. "Certainly, you can transfigure people who have drunk Polyjuice Potion into their original form, as you can do with Animagi, but you have to do so actively by pointing your wand at them and applying the appropriate spell. But there is no way to integrate these spells into the protective dome."
"As far as Polyjuice is concerned," Cesar now said to Aurel, "we Aurors test each other before every mission to make sure that all of us are clean. Apart from that, we have to consider anyone suspicious who is approaching Hermione, with or without Polyjuice Potion. Animagi? Well, we can include as a standard procedure in the regulations that every animal that comes near the Minister is to be tested. There aren't that many. And as for Invisibility Cloaks: Since they are no longer manufactured, old cloaks are no longer being replaced, and since they cannot be patched, the few remaining are all badly tattered and of only limited use. There is only one immaculate and ageless Invisibility Cloak in England – your own."
"As far as we know," Harry corrected him. He would have to ask Roy again how exactly the Calorate spell worked. Absurd! he thought. The Head of the Aurors has to ask a Hogwarts student suspected of being a public enemy how to protect the Minister because that student is able to apply a Charm the Department has never heard of.
"Well. Cesar, you will show me the draft of the amended Personal Protection Directive this afternoon. That's all for today, as far as your job is concerned. For the rest of the conversation, I need Aurel alone, thank you very much, Cesar."
The chief bodyguard left the office.
"May I ask you why you are so interested in personal security matters, Harry? Is Hermione in danger?" asked Aurelius.
"I don't have any concrete evidence," Harry replied, "but Hermione's policies are highly controversial in parts of the public. The recent events at Hogwarts could be the prelude to a drastic escalation of domestic tensions. In an abstract sense, Hermione is more exposed now than she was a few days ago. So I wanted to play it safe."
"I see."
"One aspect is still unconsidered. What if a Dark wizard took control of a Bodyguard Auror?"
It was a cover story. He did not want to inform Mercey that he was actually regarding Hermione herself, rather than one of his Aurors, as the possible victim of such an attack.
"The classical means to do so would be the Imperius Curse. But all Aurors are specially trained to repel it, aren't they?"
"Of course," Harry confirmed. "And they are also trained to notice and react to signs they perceive in others. The Imperius is old hat. I wanted to know what other spells there are."
"Well, there is the intrusion of a non-corporeal being that eliminates the will and consciousness of the person concerned. These persons then do things that they can't remember later."
"Yes, my wife was affected by it once as a child."
"Such intrusion, however, requires intense, prolonged physical and mental proximity between the attacker and the victim, and the victim's trust. This is something that shouldn't happen to an Auror."
"OK. What else?"
"Closely related to this is penetration via eye contact. So far it has only been used to spy on the mind of the person."
"But theoretically it would be possible ..."
"... that the attacker is taking roots so strongly that he can not only read memory contents but also control the person. However, no such case is known so far. Moreover, Aurors are trained in Occlumency. I don't think you can crack them that way. And only a non-corporeal being can permanently control a person. Persons who have a body may intrude but can never stay long in the mind of another."
"If Aurors notice that someone else is trying to control them," Harry said, "they can always do something about it. Is there any chance of a Dark wizard, with or without a body, taking control of a stranger without the target person realising it, that is, in such a way that the person takes the other person's will for her own?"
"I think this is impossible. When an Imperius is applied, the target persons do as told to because their own will is switched off, but they know that they are carrying out the will of another. They just don't care. Even with penetration spells of the types mentioned, they either know or notice it afterwards from their memory lapses. The word 'impossible', of course, is a relative term in this context. You have to be aware, Harry, that we only know the spells that have been used before. In a way, we are dependent on something happening before we can do anything about it for the future."
"So, against a previously unknown spell we can do ..." Harry looked questioningly at Aurel.
"Nothing."