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Love of a Wicked Heart

Chapter 9

1995, Ministry of Magic, England

Amelia Bones was currently sitting in her office, wishing she could just go home and drink away the headache that was currently threatening to break open her skull. She was currently trying to figure out how to get word to Dumbledore about multiple attacks that happened within moments of each other. She easily knew that it was not the work of You-Know-Who as she found the Dark Mark on Corban Yaxley's left arm. She began to think about how the day had started out horribly.

Flashback Start

Amelia had just arrived in her office when she received an alert that a body was found in the office of Cornelius Fudge. She gathered her most trusted Aurors and headed to the office, only to hold back the urge to vomit at the sight of the body. It was completely torn apart with the eyes gouged out, ears gone as though they were ripped out, and remains of the tong that suggested it was torn apart and ripped out.

It took a bit of time but the body was soon identified as Rufus Scrimgeour, Head of the Auror Department. The most shocking thing was the note in the mouth that was addressed to Fudge, saying, "Did you really think throwing me through the Veil would stop me? I told you I that I will find a way back and when I do, you will all wish to be held under the Cruciatus Curse cast by Voldemort because I will make your lives pure hell."

She asked Moody what he knew about the crime scene and all he said was that it was a dump job and that Rufus had been killed somewhere else. Upon hearing that Fudge paled and practically ran away, stating that he needed to talk to some people before he told her anything due to security reasons. After Fudge left, Amelia received an alert that four more bodies were found in a horrid state in Diagon Alley. She left Alastor Moody in charge of the crime scene at the Minister's office to see what the issue was in Diagon Alley.

She arrived moments later to find out Kingsley Shacklebolt had positively identified the bodies as Aurors John Dawlish, Albert Runcorn, Corban Yaxley, and Pius Thicknesse. She stayed to help with the scene and keep people away as very skilled Aurors had been viciously butchered. When she asked what happened, Kingsley said that they looked to have been ambushed by a group of highly skilled duelists. He also mentioned that somebody looked to have been tortured but there was no sign of the victim anywhere and that they should put an alert out of a possible survivor. Amelia sighed and said not to bother as she knew the victim was Rufus Scrimgeour and his body was found in the office of Cornelius Fudge with a note in his mouth. Amelia had wondered if things could get any worse, only to curse her luck and fate as she was called to another murder scene.

She arrived on the scene to find Nymphadora Tonks had been first to respond to the scene. She noticed Tonks' hair was a horrid shade of green, indicating that she was not prepared for the state of the victim. She looked at Tonks before walking into the flat, only to see the body of Rita Skeeter lying on the floor. Amelia noticed that it appeared Rita had dried blood around her eyes as though she cried tears made of blood. She also noticed that Rita had her eyes burned out.

Amelia looked at Tonks and asked, "Auror Tonks, can you tell me what happened here?"

Nymphadora sighed and tried to fight the urge to vomit before saying, "The person who found the body of Rita Skeeter usually met up with her for breakfast at a small restaurant in Diagon Alley every morning for the past three years. When Rita failed to show up, they got worried and arrived to check on her. They noticed that nothing was out of the ordinary and knocked to see if she was alright. When they didn't receive an answer, they entered for fear she was possible in some form of trouble. Since it is known that Rita has damaged many people's reputations over the years, they feared one of those people may have done something to her. They unlocked the door and carefully entered the flat to make sure she was alright. They found her body and immediately used her floo to contact us."

Amelia nodded and looked around to see if anything was out of place and noticed that Rita's desk had papers and quills all over the place, indicating that someone was looking for something. She also noticed a small pile of ash not far from the desk. She looked at Nymphadora and said, "Auror Tonks, can you come here please?"
When the young Auror stood next to Madame Bones, she was asked, "Have you recorded that there is a small pile of ash not far from the desk and have you checked to see what it was?"

The young Auror nodded and said, "Yes ma'am, I recorded that there was ash not far from the desk and after checking around, I believe it is Rita's infamous green Quick-Quotes Quill. We believe whoever did this, knew about her quill and knew that it might record who was here last night."

Amelia nodded and said, "Either Rita was meeting someone last night and things turned south, causing whoever she was meeting to attack her and take whatever would be used to identify them, or they broke in and sought revenge against her for something in the past she did against them. Either way, this person was careful and left no real evidence to identify who they are or where they can be found. Have her taken in for an autopsy to determine the cause of death and make a list of all the enemies that would like to see her dead."

The young Auror nodded and said, "Understood ma'am, but I hope you can be patient on the list of suspects that would want to see Miss Skeeter dead. She had a lot of enemies and I am going to have to prioritize of who had the most motive to see her dead to the least."

Madame Bones nodded and apparated back to her office to begin the paperwork for these deaths. She knew she was going to be working through her lunch break if things keep up the way they were. She could only hope that these cases would be solved quickly before Fudge and the members of the Wizengamot began to put pressure on her to solve these murders.

Flashback End

Amelia was brought out of her thoughts as she heard a knocking on the door. She asked the person to enter and had to suppress a groan and wonder if she had been cruel in a past life to disserve such a horrid day as Lucius Malfoy, Delores Umbridge and Cornelius Fudge entered her office. She composed herself and keep a professional voice to hide her annoyance as she asked, "Minister Fudge, Madame Umbridge, Lord Malfoy, to what do I owe for this unexpected visit?"

Fudge removed his bowler hat and said, "We are here to discuss the recent murders of five well respected Aurors, which one was the head of the said department and found dead in my office this morning as well as the murder of Miss Rita Skeeter. We wish to know what is being done about this."

Madame Bones nodded and said, "I am truly sorry but there is nothing I can give you at this moment. For the murders of Head Auror Scrimgeour, and Aurors Dawlish, Runcorn, Yaxley, and Thicknesse, all that is known is that they possibly happened all around the same time last night and that we might be looking at more than one culprit who is capable of sneaking up on and ambushing skilled Aurors without leaving evidence. And for the murder of Rita, all that we know is that the culprit was able to kill her without leaving evidence and stole something, possibly able to identify who they were. We have a theory that whoever killed Miss Skeeter was possibly she wrote about whose reputation was destroyed and wanted revenge."

Umbridge asked in her sickly sweet voice, "Who do you have to investigate these heinous crimes?"

Amelia resisted the urge to vomit on the pink toad and said, "Aurors Moody and Shacklebolt are working together on finding out who killed Scrimgeour and the others. I asked them to quietly look into any past criminals who were arrested by them."

Amelia sighed and continued, saying, "As for Miss Skeeter, I ordered an autopsy to be done on her as her cause of death was unknown. I am also having Auror Tonks write up a list of those with the strongest motive to kill her and decreasing in motive strength. Until then, I cannot give any information on what is going on as I am in the dark just as much as you are."

Fudge, Umbridge, and Malfoy nodded and left the room, leaving Amelia to wonder how she will break this news to the Order of the Phoenix at the next meeting. She could only hope that her day would not get any worse than it already had.

1995, Diagon Alley, England

A tall, beautiful woman with flawless pale skin, midnight black hair and cold green eyes walked through Diagon Alley, only to stop and look at a tall, bald, black man talking to a blonde-haired woman with a monocle on her right eye. They seemed to be talking about the bodies lying in the street which caused a small smirk to appear on her face. The woman quickly schooled her features and continued on to the large white building with Gringotts on it.

Thea entered and walked up to a teller, saying, "Good day Master Goblin. I am here to check over my family vault and I would also like to make sure my finances are in order."

The goblin looked at Thea for a moment before saying, "Name, and please hand over your key."

Thea places a small slip of parchment in front of the goblin, who picked it up and read it. The goblin's eyes widened at what was written on the parchment and said, "Very well. Would you please come with me?"

Thea nodded and followed the goblin to a door that read, "Master Goblin Arkor, Potter Family Accountant."

The teller knocked and the door and led Thea in when they heard a gruff voice telling them to enter. The teller closed the door and said, "Master Arkor, I have a woman with me who claims to be Theodora Potter. I brought her here to make sure it was not a trick."

The Potter family accountant dismissed the teller before turning to Thea and saying, "If what you are saying is true, then you will not object to signing your name on a piece of parchment?"

Thea grabbed the blood quill from the goblin and signed her name, causing the goblin's eyes to widen as the parchment showed that the woman before him was telling him the truth. He looked at Thea and said, "Lady Potter, I am so glad to see that the Ministry charged you for the crimes of killing the young Diggory Heir. Lord Diggory explained what was going on and how he wished to protect your money from the corruption of the Ministry. You vaults have been on lockdown since we discovered you to still be alive but unable to locate you."

Thea nodded and said, "Thank you Master Goblin Arkor. I have been in hiding since I faked my death, hoping that the Ministry would not find out about it."

Arkor gave Thea a twisted smile and the two discussed her finances and what was going on. He told her that her trunk from Hogwarts was placed in her family vault while her wand was unfortunately taken by the Ministry. He also mentioned that her owl Hedwig was said to be living with her god-father who was in hiding somewhere. After talking about her finances, she asked if there was a place that sold battle robes. The goblin told her about a shop in Knockturn Alley and how to get there.

She also asked if the goblins would be willing to make armor and a sword for her. She told them she would pay handsomely for the armor and sword, in which the goblin laughed and said, "Very well. I do hope that in the coming times, you will wear the armor with pride. I also ask that you let the Goblin Nation stand beside you when you are ready for the war ahead."

At this, Thea nodded and left to the shop the goblin told her about after she arranged for the payment for the goblin-made armor and sword. She did have to wonder if the goblin knew about whom she truly was and what she was planning but she ignored that thought for the time being. Right now, she had some family that she was excited to visit.

Here is Chapter 9. Please leave a review and let me know what you think of the story so far. If any error in grammar is noticed, please let me know so I can fix it as soon as possible.