Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot and anything you don't recognise.
The Light at the End of the Tunnel
Chapter five: The Assassination.
Harry ignored the stares of the people in the Great Hall, although many of them were supportive and full of admiration, though a few were hostile, and strode from the Great Hall. A minute later Ron and Hermione were sprinting after him, leaving behind the excited and stunned conversations that were beginning to spring up.
They caught up with Harry on the second floor. Ron grabbed Harry by the shoulder and spun him around,
"Mate, that was bloody brilliant! Snape humiliated like that! Harry, you are a genius!" Harry felt his face break into a slow grin as he watched Ron go into a raucous peal of laughter. After he had recovered somewhat Ron looked up into Harry's face.
"You kicked the shit out of him! You picked a fight with Snape!" The thought caused Ron to double over in laughter again. Hermione, however, was chewing her lip thoughtfully,
"Harry I'm not saying it wasn't funny. It was. But, don't you think it went a bit too far?" Ron looked up at Hermione,
"Jesus, you really know how to suck the fun out of everything, don't you?" He asked her incredulously. Hermione sent him a death stare Vernon Dursley would have been proud of.
"No, she's right Ron. I did go too far," He looked at Hermione, "But it wasn't my fault. He was the one who insulted Sirius like that. He caught me off-guard." Harry let his mind wander back to the incident. He felt his blood boil. He knew he should not be thinking about it but the audacity of Snape, insulting Sirius like that, Harry could have killed someone right now. He felt a grim satisfaction at having gotten his own back like that.
Wrenching his thoughts back to the present Harry continued walking towards the Room of Requirement. He was meant to be meeting the Guardian lieutenants there.
The short walk to the Room of Requirements passed in haze of emotions for Harry. He now fully understood the phrase 'blinded by fury'. He could see nothing in front of him. Everything he saw was in his head, of the incident earlier on. He shook his head, trying to clear it, but to no avail. The scene played over and over again in his mind. Behind him, Ron and Hermione were talking in hushed voices. Harry strained to catch some of their conversation but they were talking too quietly.
The tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy loomed closer and Harry checked his watch. Five minutes to two. He walked past the tapestry three times until the door appeared. He pushed it open and stepped inside.
Inside was a long table with eight seats, seven along the side and one at the head. On the table in front of each seat was a piece of parchment, a quill, an inkpot and a glass of water.
The five Guardians inside got to their feet as soon as Harry entered. He waved them down again. He walked over to the place at the head of the table but did not sit down. The Guardians must have sensed something was wrong as Athena spoke up,
"Anything wrong, sir?" Harry looked down at the floor.
"Explain, Ron." Ron did so quickly. The five Guardians looked at him surprised.
'You kicked the shit out of a professor, sir?" asked Titus incredulously.
"Yes."
"Professor Snape?"
"Yes." Harry was weary of this conversation and it must have shown for the Guardians asked no more questions but looked stunned and faintly impressed.
"I'll get straight down to business. There will be no exercise today. Not when I feel like this. Secondly, for now you will be posted around the castle. War has broken out inside. A war I have started and you are fighting so I apologise. The Slytherins are not going to be happy at the treatment of their head of house, lest of all at the hands of a Gryffindor, especially at the hands of me. So they'll be out for revenge." The Guardians looked at each other uneasily, they knew what this meant. A civil war inside the stronghold of the people opposing Voldemort was not good "I need you to make sure that doesn't happen. Samia, make sure a roster is drawn up. I want it in my dorm by tomorrow." She grinned at him.
"A proper leader already, sir. That won't be a problem. I'll have it done by tomorrow."
"Thank you. That will be all. Tomorrow here at the same time, please. Thank you." Harry turned and left the room.
Fate has a habit of throwing one problem straight after another. Everything seems to get on top of you until you collapse from the strain of it all. Or manage to solve them all. Either way involves a great deal of pain.
No sooner had Harry stepped out of the room then someone came running up to him. An adult, not a child. And not one of the professors either. Had Harry not recognised him from the Guardians then the man would be on the floor a second after Harry had spotted him.
"Sir!"
"What?" Harry snapped impatiently, there was urgency in the man's voice that unnerved him.
"Fudge, has found out about the Guardians," the man paused, panting for breath.
"Well?" demanded Harry. This was scaring him. Fudge finding out about the Guardians was not going to be good.
"Two hundred Aurors coming this way this evening. Orders are to kill or capture." For a minute Harry was rendered speechless.
"What the hell does he think he's playing at? Can the blind idiot not see that that is exactly what Voldemort wants? He's an idiot! That's exactly what Voldemort wants, Fudge fighting us instead of him! Why the hell is Fudge attacking us and letting Voldemort do what he wants? I almost think he hates us more than Voldemort." Harry was working himself into a rage. He was infuriated by Fudge's stupidity, Fudge seeing them as a bigger threat to his position as Minister of Magic then Voldemort.
"You know what you've got to do? Go to Dumbledore. There's no other option." Hermione interrupted. Harry was inclined to disagree. He felt that he and the Guardians could fight off the two hundred Aurors, but not without two thirds becoming casualties. He needed the Guardians to fight Voldemort, not Fudge.
On the other hand, he felt he could not really rely on Dumbledore anymore, especially after what happened this morning. He was beginning to see himself as a tool of Dumbledore's, like a pawn in some giant chess game and, understandably, he was less than happy with it. He didn't want to give Dumbledore another opportunity to use Harry as a pawn.
However, he knew that there was no other option. He couldn't afford to lose most of the Guardians this early on and another pitched battle at Hogwarts was too much, so, the only other option was to go to Dumbledore and hope that it wouldn't turn into another stand-off.
"Yeah, let's go to Dumbledore. I don't like it though." He said finally.
"I know you don't." said Hermione. "But it's the only option left."
"Sir? Is there a problem?" asked a voice from behind them, Harry turned around recognising the voice. The five lieutenants had left the room of Requirement and were walking towards them.
"Calartius. Go get the Guardians formed up. Await further orders. Something has come up. He will explain it to you." Harry said, nodding towards the Guardian who had brought the message. He turned to Ron and Hermione and led them off towards Dumbledore's study. He heard raised voices and shouts of anger come from the Guardian lieutenants behind him, then the pounding of footsteps as they ran towards the Entrance Hall.
They arrived at Dumbledore's study and Harry gave the password to the stone gargoyle. He ran up the revolving staircase and opened the door. Dumbledore was sitting at his desk inside. He looked up when he heard someone enter.
"Harry? Is there a problem?" In that split second Harry decided to keep his voice even.
"Yes, there is." Harry wasted no time in telling him the problem. Dumbledore nodded but did not interrupt him.
"Yes. I feared this would happen." Dumbledore turned his back to them and did something; Harry could not see what, and a few seconds later Lupin came bursting through the door, flushed and out of breath.
"You called, Albus?"
"I did Remus, I'm afraid there is a problem." Dumbledore repeated what Harry had told him a few seconds before. Lupin stood there stunned.
"So what do we do?" He asked eventually. Dumbledore sighed and looked sad.
"Exactly what I feared we would have to do. The other five are ready?" Harry watched Lupin's expression change to disbelief and horror. He recovered eventually.
"Yes, yes they are."
"Then bring them here." It suddenly struck Harry what was going to happen. He felt a feeling of dread settle in his stomach. A wave of icy dear swept over him. He sat stunned, not knowing what to do, unwilling to do anything. Dumbledore sensed Harry's mood and, as Lupin left, he turned and looked at him.
"I'm sorry, Harry. I really am." Harry nodded mutely; he understood that there was no other option. He sat there, feeling like he was drowning in the fear that was sweeping over him. He shook his head, trying to clear it. Ron looked at Harry.
"Harry, what's going on?" Harry shook his head. If he opened his mouth he'd refuse to do it. He was fighting a vicious battle with the fear that was attempting to drag him down. He checked his sword was secure in its scabbard and that it could be drawn easily and quickly. He heard Hermione's breath catch in her throat and knew she'd made the connection. He heard her whispering to Ron and heard Ron gasp.
"Harry, we want to come. The DA will come. We need to be there in case something goes wrong." Harry turned on him viciously.
"No! This is not some petty skirmish. This is an assassination at the highest level. The more people that come, the more chance there is that someone will get captured and the more chance there is that we will be discovered. This is not some petty fight. This is professional. You can't come." Harry snapped.
"But we're good enough!" Argued Ron.
"You're not. You can hold your own in a fight but you are not suited to this. Don't argue with me, this is too dangerous. If you go you almost certainly won't come back. This is for me to do alone." Ron opened his mouth to argue again but Dumbledore held up a hand to silence him,
"I'm sorry Mr Weasley, but Harry is right. I forbid you to go. Now I must ask you to leave." Said Dumbledore, seeing Lupin and five cloaked figures appear in the doorway. Ron had no option but to allow Hermione to lead him out of the Headmasters office. Hermione looked as angry and unhappy about it as Ron but they both turned and gave Harry looks that clearly said 'good luck'. Harry was grateful for that.
When they had left Dumbledore turned to the seven of them. He handed Harry and Lupin a black hooded cloak each, like the ones the five other people in the room were wearing. Harry and Lupin put the cloaks on and pulled the hoods up over their heads, hiding their faces from view.
"Now, before I explain what you have to do I will just make one thing clear, you are not to ask each others names. If you get captured than if you are unsure of your colleagues' names then you cannot betray them." The seven of them nodded.
"Secondly, I will get this point out of the way as it is one of the more brutal aspects of a high level assassination. If somebody falls then you incinerate the body, you do not try to get them out of there. You burn the body and leave no trace." The nods were not quite so eager this time and were shallower.
"Finally, there is no set plan for this assassination. We have not had time." There were intakes of breath; usually an assassination was planned meticulously to the last detail to prevent anything going wrong. The plans were then gone over repeatedly until they were fixed firmly in their minds. Not having a plan could jeopardise an entire mission. Dumbledore continued, "We have not had time to do much, this was out of the blue, we expected to make the assassination much later. All I can tell you is this. Fudge's office is the only room on the first floor. It is guarded by about twenty Aurors. Whatever you do, do not let the Aurors touch the red panels on the walls. They are alarms. There is nothing else I can tell you." The five people that had joined them began shaking their heads and muttering. Harry caught the words 'bloody impossible' several times. Dumbledore conjured a portkey and held it out to them.
"This will take you to outside the Ministry of Magic. You have thirty seconds. Good luck." They all put their hands on the portkey, a scrap piece of parchment, and began a mental countdown. Harry heard their breaths quicken. At three he closed his eyes and hoped that he would survive this. A few seconds later he felt the familiar tug at his navel.
Fudge was about to learn what it meant to piss Harry Potter off.
For Death was going to London.
Fudge was doomed. After all, Death never fails. Especially if it's Harry Potter playing the part.
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Harry felt himself slam into the concrete path outside the telephone box. Momentarily disorientated he struggled to his feet.
"Come on." He muttered to his companions. The seven of them squeezed into the box, barely fitting. Lupin, who was closest to the receiver dialled 62442.
"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business." Announced the cool female voice seemingly beside them. Harry turned to Lupin.
"Now what? Fake names?" Lupin looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Have to won't we?" Each of them gave a fake name and stated that their business was 'visiting'. The calm female voice informed them that they were required to submit to a search and present their wands for registration at the security desk. They attached the badges to the robes and pulled the hoods more firmly over their heads.
"What do we do about the search?" Harry asked Lupin quietly as they approached the security desk. He noticed that the golden fountain had been restored and he reached in his pocket for a galleon before flipping it into the pool
"Trust me. I have an idea." Lupin strode up to the desk and the official held out his hand, looking extremely bored. Lupin made to hand over his wand but at the last second spun it around and muttered "obliviate". The official blinked, looking confused. The seven of them took the opportunity to walk past quickly.
Harry quickly realised that, against his earlier fears, their cloaks were not going to attract attention. There were a number of other people wearing them. As they walked to the elevator Harry felt the feeling of anxiety increase and the fear take a greater hold on him. He took a couple of deep breaths as he arrived at them and pressed the down button.
"This is it." He muttered to his companions as the lift arrived. The seven of them stepped inside and one of the pressed the one button. The lift, rather than going downwards, felt as if it was travelling sideways. It travelled a long way and came to a stop.
Harry took a deep breath as the doors opened. Here they were about to assassinate the Minister of Magic. Getting in had been the easy part. That had been no problem. Harry had barely given it a thought. Now it got difficult. The doors slid open and Harry stepped out. He sucked in his breath. The plays looked as though it was teeming with Aurors when, in actual fact, there were alone about twenty, as Dumbledore had said.
They were in a long simple corridor. It was made of plain stone and was about fifty metres long and twenty five metres wide. There were no windows only torches lining the walls. At the far end of the corridor was a simple wooden door with two Aurors standing outside of it. Lining the walls were eighteen Aurors, nine on either side.
They had barely taken two steps when four of the Aurors were upon them. They looked like tough men, scarred and used to fighting.
"Who are you?" demanded one of the Aurors. No one answered him. No one knew what to say. This but was the bit Harry had been most worried about. Without a plan they had no way of knowing how to get past them.
"Escort them away from here." Ordered the Auror. The other three stepped forward, Harry felt himself roughly grabbed and pulled towards the lift. Harry began to panic, No! It can't end now; we've got to kill him! He thought about struggling but the Auror holding him would probably stun him and then Harry would have no chance.
Lupin bent his head down to Harry's and whispered to him,
"Create a distraction. I have an idea." Harry nodded. He let his hand drift casually to his sword. In one fluid motion, he had drawn it and plunged it into the Aurors stomach,
"What the-" exclaimed another as he saw his mate fall to the floor, blood pumping out of his stomach. Before he had time to push an alarm Lupin had cast a powerful sleeping spell on the Aurors. They slumped against the wall.
The seven of them sprinted down towards Fudge's office. They burst through the door. Inside was Fudge with two Aurors standing either side of his desk, two of the assassins pointed their wands at one of the Aurors and two at the other. One assassin stood by the door keeping guard. Harry and Lupin walked over to Fudge and stood in front of him. Lupin kept his wand trained on Fudge.
"What the-? Who are you?" Demanded Fudge angrily, but there was a trace of fear in his eyes. Harry didn't answer.
"Who are you?" Fudge asked again, but this time there was a tremor to his voice. As an answer, Harry drew his sword and pointed it at Fudge's throat. Slowly he removed his hood.
"You!"
"Me."
"You're with You-Know-Who!" Harry laughed out loud.
"Don't be stupid Fudge. I'm firmly against Voldemort. I'm the one who is actually fighting against him." Fudge didn't miss the implication. He bridled angrily.
"As am I!" He announced pompously. Harry laughed again.
"By attacking me and my men?" Harry was angry. All the hate and anger he felt for Fudge was coming out now. He had no respect for the man any more. He was determined to get his own back, to insult him before he killed him. Fudge glared at Harry.
"I will not have you stealing my Aurors!" Harry's expression grew angry.
"I did not steal them! They came to me of their own free will. Any way, it's not like you did anything with them."
"They are mine. Now, enough of this. You are to go home and send the Aurors back to me." Harry's eyes flashed angrily. Fudge was attacking as if he was still in charge. His pompous demure was getting to Harry. He snapped. For no reason at all he remembered that it had been Fudge's refusal to believe him that got Sirius killed.
Harry plunged his sword into Fudge's stomach, deliberately missing his heart. Fudge choked and coughed up blood and stared up at Harry with fearful eyes.
"It's over Fudge. You screwed up once to many. This is what I can do. You pushed me too far and now you've paid the price. You refusing to believe Dumbledore and me last year put thousands of lives at risk, humiliated me and got my godfather killed. This is my revenge. You screwed up last year, refused to give Dumbledore and me aid in our battles, battles that we fought on your behalf. Battles we nearly died in, battles that thousands have died in for you. And you only make it harder. Well it's over Fudge. You went one too far. Goodbye." Harry twisted the sword and ripped it upwards, Fudge spewed up a mouthful of blood which poured out of his mouth, and slumped forward. Dead. The two Aurors gave a cry and Harry stood there breath, only just coming to terms with what had happened in the past hour. It had all happened so quickly. There had been no time to think. It had just happened.
Suddenly one of the assassins shouted "No!" a second later a piercing wail flooded the building. Figuring he had nothing left lose one of the Aurors had dived at the wall and hit the alarm. Lupin killed him and his companion. But there was no way of turning the alarm off.
"Shit!" swore Harry vehemently, "The whole place is going to be fucking crawling with Aurors!"
Fudge had died but the worst was yet to come.
For they were trapped.
And Death had not claimed its last victim.
Not yet.
A/N VERY IMPORTANT PLEASE READ,
First off, I'm sorry this chapter was a couple of days late. Half term is nearly upon us and, as a result, the teachers have decided that it is time for an overload of work. I apologise. I got nothing written last week so this has been written over three days. Fairly good considering it usually takes me seven.
You may have noticed that leading up to and including Fudge's death, it was rather vague. There is a reason for that. Harry had only just found out that he was to kill Fudge and so had not really come to terms with what he was doing, therefore he was not completely aware of what was going on so everything would have passed quickly and vaguely. I was trying to echo that in my writing. It was an experiment and I don't think I will do it again as I have not enjoyed the result. Next chapter will be more detailed.
Finally and most importantly. As I have said half term begins on Friday. For two weeks I will not have access to the internet and therefore will not be able to update. I aim to update next on the seventh of November. I apologise profusely but I can promise you will definitely see an update on November the seventh.
And there we have it. Fudge is dead.
Colm – Thanks for the review. I'm glad you enjoyed that bit. I enjoyed writing it.
sugarnspice3729 – Thanks for the review. You will find out what Voldemort is up to soon.
MystikalMagic - Thanks for the review.
The Enchantresses - Thanks for the review. Hardly research... Just knew. I stole a couple of names from Titus Andronicus, Titus, and Lavinio came from Lavinia, did you spot that? In what way is Harry OOC and I will see if I can sort. I think I can see what you mean, but I am happy with the way he is, but let me know anyway. Thanks.
HoshiHikari - Thanks for the review. I'm glad there was tension, it is what I intended. I will say nothing about duels!
Dark Phoenix Mortals - Thanks for the review. I'm really glad you said that. I actually hated that chapter, not as much as I dislike this one though, as I thought that is how they would not react, but it is really encouraging for someone to say that so thanks.
Goddess Usaqi - Thanks for the review. I'm glad there was tension. It was what I intended. Hope you enjoyed this chapter aswell.
The Phoenix King - Thanks for the review. I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's funny you should mention inter-house warfare, because there is a far bit coming up...
FSI - Thanks for the review.
Keep reading and reviewing 'cos I'll keep writing.
Fireboy.