Author's Note: This has been far to long in coming. Sorry for leaving you with a cliffhanger as well. I hadn't expected to take this long as the fight scene had already been written. At this point its safe to say that this is more or less abandoned. I'd like to say that the next chapter will be ready in a month but it will more likely be a year or never. Thanks for reading along.
Chapter 9
"Evenerate!" Harry jolted back into consciousness, his senses reeling. Remembering the situation that had knocked him out he tried to stand, only to find himself unable to move. Looking around, Harry took in the situation around him, and none of it was good. He was seated in a plain wooden chair-sticking charms must have been keeping him in his seat-and, likewise, his arms were stuck to the table in front of him. A bracelet of unknown origin was clamped to his right wrist; it must be a suppressor of some sort.
What was most disturbing about the room was that he couldn't see even halfway across the table. Apparently his captors were using the same shadowing charm that the Death Eaters had used.
Come to think about it that's probably how they ambushed me.
"Good, you're awake." A voice said. Harry looked around for the source but it seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. He was certain that the shadow charm hadn't done that the last time. Harry chose to remain silent.
"We are very disappointed with you Mr. Darracun, but you know that don't you? That's why you didn't contact us when summoned. Yes?" Deciding that lying would get more information out of his captor than remaining quiet Harry spoke up.
"I was going to contact you, really. I was."
"Of course you were, right after you finished reporting to that muggle-loving fool. You see our lord remembered you from Azkaban, he was most displeased with you. In fact as soon as our enchanter gets done with the portkey, you're going to be meeting with our master face to face. I can assure you that your death will be most unpleasant." Harry heard footsteps echoing around the room as the voice paced back and forth.
"By the time our lord is done with you... Well, you'll be begging for death." The pacing stopped.
"But I could help you. I have the ear of the dark lord, I could put a good word in for you, if of course you were to make it worth my while. The location of Dumbledore's base perhaps?" At that Harry laughed.
"You're trying to do a good Auror/bad Auror routine by yourself?"
"Look boy," The voice growled, "the portkey will be ready in a minute. You can chose either to tell me what you know and earn a quick death, or my master will torture it out of you."
"Hmm." Harry took on a contemplative look, all the while gathering magic around him.
"How about option three? I just kill you all." Harry transformed and used his magic to stand regardless of the restraining spells. Or at least he tried; all that happened was that he flopped back in to the chair gasping.
He couldn't transform!
Harry's eyes franticly darted back and forth before coming to rest on the bracelet.
It's an animus suppression bracelet. I should have recognized it before. Animus bracelets didn't stop spell casting per se but made it impossible to attempt an animagus transformation.
"That's killing us all." A second voice said. "Just stun him, he might try something." Inwardly Harry cursed, an animus suppression bracelet would not only stop him from transforming, but it would also significantly reduce his wandless abilities, and there was no way he could get it off at present without taking his arm off. The locking mechanism was too complex for the brute force approach that came with wandless, magic and even with a wand it would take him a good couple of minutes to unlock it. Of course if he could get the wand that locked it, it would be a cinch.
Suddenly the shadow ward fell. He was in an empty stone room, a pair of chairs and the table being the only pieces of furniture. There were three black-robed men standing around him, one of them leveling his wand at him. When the man began the wand motion for the stunning spell, Harry acted. First a wandless finite incantum canceled the sticking charms, then Harry jumped to his feet and lunged to his side, grabbing the nearest man and spinning around behind him. The finite incantum had practically drained him, he'd not be able to cast another spell for several minutes. He needed the bracelet off or a power boost.
A power boost.
Overcoming their shock at his sudden movements both men raised their wands and Harry's hostage started to struggle. Not giving them any more time Harry bit down into the hostage's neck, hard. Fangs had grown at the idea and he easily punctured the man's neck. As his victim went into shock Harry wrested his wand from him and used it to block the spells that were being sent at him. As the blood coursed down his throat Harry could feel the very life force of the man draining in to him, his life, his magic was his. His!
"Dear Merlin!" one of the others managed to get out. The third simply regarded Harry with a cool expression before shouting out "Avada Kedarva."
Jumping backwards Harry allowed his victim to take the killing curse and responded with a ribbon severing curse. The pink streamer that the curse caused tore right through the shield that one of his attackers had erected and removed the man's wand arm when he tried to use it to shield his body. As the first man fell to the ground screaming Harry turned the curse on the other man, only to have it the streamer wrap around a cylindrical pale blue shield the man created around his wand. With a tug the man just about ripped the wand free of Harry's hand, off-balancing him enough that he had to dive behind the table to avoid the next curse. The Death Eater took the time Harry was under the table to cauterize the bleeding stump of his partner's arm and take the wand from him.
"You're resourceful, I'll give you that. But I'm certain my lord will understand when I deliver your carcass to him, sliced to ribbons!"
The man cast a wide beam-severing charm that Harry blocked using the rather specific shield needed and then dived aside to dodge the more general cutting curse that his foe launched with his other wand. Most people who fought with two wands used them the way you'd expect from knights of old. The one in their good hand concentrated on offense and they shielded with their off-hand wand. Not so in this case; the man essentially wielded two swords. This was especially true since he seamed to favor the hard-to-block cutting curses almost completely. They quickly feel into a pattern, him casting wide beam slicing, severing and cutting curses and Harry blocking some but being forced to dodge more. Even then Harry found himself taking hits to his limbs to avoid a potentially lethal hit. All Harry needed was a second or so to gather his wandless magic about him and he could launch an offensive, but at the rate the battle was progressing he wouldn't even have that.
Transfiguring what was left of the table into a sheet of metal Harry flung it at his assailant. While it never got close enough to damage him, it intercepted a pair of rending curses and gave Harry the breather he needed. Harry twisted around and threw himself in front of a raking charm to avoid the decapitation hex that had come with it. Twisting in mid air the hex caught him in the shoulder blades, shredding his robes and leaving claw-like gouges down his back. They hurt but wouldn't be lethal. It didn't matter though, the time that he hadn't been casting had been enough. Still falling to the ground Harry focused a spike of his power through the stolen wand and into the animus suppression bracelet. Even as Harry hit the ground and pain shot through his every limb, power flooded into him as the wet blanket effect of the bracelet was removed. Harry transformed and teleported several feet back, just missing the two curses that tore the floor he'd been laying on until a second before to pieces.
Unfettered by Harry's sudden movement the Death Eater raised both of his wands to an en-guard stance and began to incant another spell. Not giving him the time to finish casting Harry unleashed his full aura and directed it at the man. The Death Eater staggered backwards and fell over as if hit by a psychical force, as the luminescent charm in the room flickered and died. His companion, whom, Harry assumed had fainted earlier was now screaming but Harry ignored him and floated towards the fallen Death Eater. Harry was tired, hurt, but more importantly, pissed and this man's soul would make fine penance. So focused on that single-minded goal of feeding he was that he let his aim drop as he crossed the room.
Harry reached down to grab the fainted Death Eater, morbidly wishing he was awake so Harry could hear his screams when the man's eyes snapped open. It was then when Harry realized he had walked right into the man's field of fire. Before he could do anything the man spoke.
"Expecto Patronum!" Harry vaguely noted that the partonuss was a dog the size of a Great Dane before it head butted him. Some-where in his mind he knew that a partonuss would pass right through solid matter, but that somewhere was drowned out by every single nerve in his body firing at once, in pain. Harry was flung backwards into the wall with a force that broke at least a few bones. If the cruciatus was agony this hurt like every molecule in his body was trying to tear itself apart. Harry might have blacked out but when he finally came back to himself a few seconds had passed and the Death Eater was struggling to his feet. As the man raised his wand and began to mouth the words that would end him Harry tried to move, but nothing happened. It was like the world was moving in slow motion, and he wasn't moving at all. He tried to teleport but only received more of the mind-numbing partonuss pain as a reward.
The Death Eater finished the first word and his wand was now glowing a definitive green. Harry tried to move once again before slumping back. If blood lust and anger had got him here then maybe he should die with what little of his humanity remained. Slumping his head and resigning himself to death Harry transformed back to himself. And time suddenly sped up.
After all of that the caster made a rookie mistake and aimed for his head instead of his chest. When Harry dropped his head in defeat the spell sailed over him and into the wall behind him. The backwash of the curse was close enough to cause him to bleed out of his ears and nose but he was alive. Everything seemed frozen for that instant. Harry could have laughed but instead he acted. Whipping his wand upwards Harry caught the stunned Death Eater with a wave of raw force.
The man went flying backwards, landing against the far wall with a thud similar to the one Harry had just made. As Harry struggled to his feet, ignoring the fact he couldn't feel his right leg the Death Eater did the same. Harry's blast of magic had opened a deep gash in his foe from his mid-thigh to collar bone that would bleed out if he didn't get medical attention immediately. Of course Harry was in no better condition. The man smiled but didn't speak as he twisted his wand in a half moon motion that Harry recognized. As Harry raised his wand to the appropriate counter position the man completed the movement and cast what Harry assumed must have been his ace in the hole.
"Fulgaris!"
The Fulgaris lightning spell went by another name in the few circles in which it was known, the hand of Zeus. It came from a subset of spells that rather than utilize the ambient magic that existed in the air like most spells it used a casters inner magic. The magic from their core or, more precisely, their soul. The magical core of a wizard was extremely potent but at the same time very dangerous to tap. Unlike the low voltage sparks caused by most lightning elemental spells fulgaris called open something equivalent to a true lightning bolt, which could flash fry anything in less than an instant.
Harry countered the spell the only way anyone could, by catching the colossal spark on his wand and using his own magic to steer the massive amount of energy through him and into the ground where it could dissipate harmlessly.
To an onlooker it might have looked like two wizards wrestling with a lightning bolt but that really wasn't it. True the energy was leaving superficial burns across his body as it passed through him but that was not the true battle. The true battle was one of will and magic. If the Death Eater could overwhelm Harry's siphoning abilities he would win and the lightning would cook Harry in an instant, but if he ran out of power before Harry broke he would collapse and wouldn't have anything left with which to defend himself.
For his part Harry hurt all over, just because he wasn't dead didn't mean that it didn't hurt. The magic he was channeling through himself was keeping him alive but did nothing to deal with the pain, from his previous wounds nor from the surface of his skin, most of it was cracked like a really bad sunburn. Feeling an intensification from his opponent Harry screwed his eyes shut even tighter as the arc of blindingly bright plasma between them increased in size. His muscles where jerking from the energy flooding his nervous system, his heart probably was beating irregularly. It didn't matter he was still alive by sheer willpower now, and more willpower was all that would save him. He was tired and it would be so easy to give up and let the pain end, but he couldn't. He had things to do, a promise to keep, and miles to walk before he could sleep. So he endured.
After what seemed like an eternity of pain, but was really about ten seconds, the magic at the other end began to trickle out. The Death Eater made a few attempts to maintain the current but the arc of lightning shrank to a spark and then it flickered and finally died. He sagged to the ground and then, as his legs gave out from under him, fell in a heap. Harry fared a little better, only falling to his knees and vomiting everything he'd eaten today. The lightning had actually helped him, it had closed all the wounds that he'd accumulated. He still was going to have to take a bath in burn cream and regrow most of his hair but he wasn't in any danger of dying from blood loss, he hoped.
Stumbling over to the other man, he felt for a pulse but found none. Harry let himself fall then and sat beside the corpse of his enemy while trying to gather his bearings. The man had poured everything he had in to that spell. It was the danger of using the very soul of your being to power a spell. Overuse didn't cause exhaustion, it caused death. Looking around Harry noticed that the other man in the room had caught a stray tendril of lightning and was now nothing more than a charred mass of carbon.
The deathly quiet of the room was broken when the door opened admitting the man who must have been the enchanter. He was holding a piece of cloth that must be a portkey, Harry figured. He was young and clean-shaven, and currently gaping like a fish and grabbing at his wand. Harry pulled him self to his feet as the man leveled his wand at him. It was shaking so that Harry assumed that he'd never be able to cast a spell.
"Wha... wha..." He tried again. "What a... are y-ou?" Harry shifted and locked eyes with his interrogator, the man practically pissed himself, dropping his wand, screaming and turning to run.
I must look a total fright.
Harry made a gesture with his wand silencing and summoning the man to him.
What to do with him?
I could just stun him and obliviate him...
But he's a Death Eater and that might come back to haunt me. I should dispose of him.
He's just a kid though, not much older than I am.
He'll grow up.
True. The book said that blood could increase healing.
Grabbing the flailing man Harry sunk his fangs into the man's neck. His victim went limp as Harry drained the life out of him. He still couldn't transform, but he wasn't bleeding and the magic of the blood he'd just consumed was knitting his bones as he moved.
Had anyone survived they would have told a tale of a demon stalking through the halls of the safe house--Some sort of deformed avenging angel. Of course that would have only happened if someone had survived to tell the tale. Harry drained everyone he had found in the safe house and then burnt the place to ground to cover his tracks. He had probably left a good deal of his humanity behind but couldn't really bring himself to care at this point, especially since he spent the next several days re-growing most of his skin and hair. When Dung had questioned him about where he'd been Harry's only response was that he'd gotten into a fight with a lightning bolt.
Harry rose from his crouch stretching his legs as much as one can when they are perched on a railing. The position was uncomfortable but it couldn't be helped. Two weeks of research had pointed to this place, the only chink in the armor. It had been two weeks since his recovery from his almost disastrous encounter with the Death Eaters in Diagon Alley. It had been hard enough to vanish while he healed, but since he'd taken that impromptu vacation Dung had been pushing him to make up the time. It was only luck that he'd happened across this building.
Well not this one, which he was sitting on, but the squat warehouse across the street. That was the ministry's environmental annex. All the air that ran through the underground office complex came through that building. Said building had been warded well to prevent any attacks, like the one he was preparing. There was no way to even get close to the environmental annex using magic without setting off an alarm. Harry had found one way in though; as the ministry had placed muggle aversion wards they hadn't even bothered setting up a defense against muggle intrusion.
So he continued to crouch on the roof of his current building, which sadly didn't have enough flat space to sit on. From here he had been able to see just about everything that was happening across the street. Right now the evening shift was on in the annex, but in a few minutes the graveyard shit would start and Harry was sure no one was watching the intakes during the shift change.
Right on time the rear door opened and two wizards came out. They would be the tail end of the last shift, walking outside for a smoke before they got off for the night. Harry had been staking this place out for the past week and the men who worked here moved like clockwork. As the door closed behind them he hefted the over-sized launcher over his shoulder. A spell could have done the same thing with much less work, but that would have set off an alarm.
With a metallic twang the zip line slammed into the concrete rooftop, its barbs expanding and holding fast. Harry gave the assembly an experimental tug before tying it off. Nodding to Dobby Harry grabbed the rig and jumped off. The trolley slid silently across the zip line, dropping dangerously close to the workers below when Dobby followed suit. When Harry reached the other side he held the line down so it wouldn't snap up and send the house elf flying.
The house elf stared up at Harry after letting go of his trolley; he clearly wanted to do it again but thankfully didn't shout it out like he normally did. Creeping across the roof to the skylight Harry removed the glass cutting equipment from his satchel. Vanishing the glass would have caused all sorts of problems so this was much more practical, if unwieldy. The device attached itself to the glass by a large suction cup and then cut a circular hole around the area. When this was done Harry lifted the glass out, careful not to lose suction and drop the pane to the ground below.
Lying flat on the roof Harry inched over to the hole and looked inside. The workers were either outside or in the office, good. Motioning Dobby to follow, Harry jumped through the hole he'd just made. He'd much rather have used a rope of some sort for this part but there wasn't enough time to get down and hide the rope before the next shift began. The information he'd gotten about this place had said the primary portal was uncovered so he'd just have to trust. The primary portal was a massive yawning pit in the centre of the floor that he was currently falling into. Air for the entire ministry was sucked in here. If he was right, the spells and filters that kept the air clean were in other rooms or inside the ministry proper. If he was wrong this was going to be a very short fall.
As it turned out he was right and he and Dobby plunged into the inky blackness of the portal. After a brief sensation of disorientation that signified he had passed through the portal, Harry hit the ground. Thankfully portals didn't transfer motion so he only fell a few feet from the other end of the portal into the duct, not the close to thirty from the roof. Harry started to rise only to be knocked back to the ground as Dobby landed on top of him.
"Dobby is so sorry Master Harry."
"Quiet!" Harry hissed. "There may be monitors here." The elf rolled off him and stood, as best he could. It was cramped in the ducts and Dobby had to stoop, clearly Harry would be crawling the majority of this trip. The elf waved his hands around and closed his eyes as he put his unique brand of magic to work.
"It is safe to talk, Master Harry."
"Good. You lead the way." The elf nodded and the unlikely pair set off through the stone ducts of the ministry. After what seemed an eternity of crawling on his elbows that must have actually been about ten minutes in reality Dobby stopped in front of a grating.
"This is the one, Master Harry." Dobby moved back, squeezing past Harry so his master could enter first.
"How long will we be safe?" Harry asked pulling the potion he'd brought along just for this job. The grating was disillusioned to look like the rest of the wall and spelled to the wall, so there were no screws to remove. Vanishing the grate would set off an alarm.
"At least five minutes Master Harry," Dobby replied as Harry poured the magic nullification potion on the grate. It wouldn't have worked on a ward with a dedicated power supply but the grate was simply attached with a permanent sticking charm. The green potion hissed as it contacted magic, but the grate came lose and would have fallen to the ground had Harry not caught it and pulled it back into the vent.
"Are we ready?" Harry asked straining to look over his shoulder. At Dobby's nod Harry pulled himself through the opening and landed in a crouch in Fudge's office. Dobby followed suit but Harry was already at the back wall, turning the life sized portrait of Merlin over so that it faced the wall. The vault's door was made of obsidian, a single keyhole the only feature of the monolithic portal.
Setting down his pack, Harry removed the lock picking devices he'd brought. The key itself was less important than the magical signature of the person using it. As long as Dobby was properly masking the two of them he should have no trouble opening the door. Of course no one had bothered to mention that to the door. Several minutes latter Harry was still fiddling with the final tumbler when Dobby started to tug on his sleeve. Harry ignored him, he could tell he almost had the lock.
"Master Harry we must be leaving, I's cannot be hiding us much longer!"
"Shhhss!" Harry hissed as the final tumbler clicked and the door soundlessly swung open.
"Huh? What was that? Why am I facing the wall?" The portrait had woken up. Grabbing Dobby Harry pulled him into the vault, ignoring the sounds of the waking portrait. Silencing anything Dobby might say, Harry motioned to the file cabinets that were stacked up amidst the gold and treasures that Fudge stored in here.
"Guards! Guards! We have an intruder." Harry cursed under his breath as the portrait started making a ruckus.
"Accio Harry Potter's File." A drawer of a cabinet on the far wall shot out of its home and veered to towards Harry only to fall short as a thick blanket of a magic nullification field activated. The wards were on them. Harry ran forward and garbed the file as the vault door swung shut. Transforming, he shrank the documents and stuffed them in his bag. As the wards began to react to his change in magic Harry grabbed Dobby and teleported them back through the vault door. The wet blanket effect got even stronger as he reappeared in the office. The ward was now fully canceling his abilities out. Of course Harry had one last trick left that he hoped would get them beyond the office and out of the range of the ward.
The Semtex had been difficult to acquire but there was enough in here to probably take out a small building. Harry placed the package against the wall door and wished that he was back in the vault again. He was using the simplest trigger he could to avoid any issues that the magically-saturated ministry might cause. Hiding behind Fudge's massive desk he signaled to Dobby who raised his hands in a protective gesture. The house elf hadn't used any magic since the alarm went off so he should still be able to cast a spell. Hopefuly it would be enough as Harry was counting on the ward expending itself trying to contain the blast. Covering his ears the best he could, Harry pushed the plunger. And then the world exploded.
When Harry opened his eyes the first thing he noticed was that he could barely see--well that and the bells wouldn't stop tolling. Thick clouds of smoke obscured the office, or what was left of it. Drawing his wand. Harry cast a bubble-headed charm, when he saw that the wards didn't stop him Harry was pretty certain they wouldn't be a problem. With a wave he vanished the smoke and took in the office, correction the scorched out shell that had once been the minister's office. Apparently the wards hadn't managed to protect anything.
"Sorry about that Merlin," Harry told the section of wall where the portrait used to hang. Dobby was saying something, but seeing as how they were both deafened by the explosion, Harry didn't even bother trying to listen and instead grabbed the elf and pulled it through the crumbling hole in the wall.
The wards had apparently directed a large amount of the explosion through the external wall because huge potions of the cavernous administrative wing were damaged. Debris had been scatted at least ten meters from the wall and small fires were burning much closer. Ignoring the destruction Harry pulled Dobby through the wreckage as fast as he could. At this point ever Auror in the building would be converging on his location momentarily. Wasn't it lovely how the minister had placed his offices on the opposite end of the building?
As Harry walked across the wreckage that once had been the administrative wing he marveled at how easy it was. As soon as he was past the security barrier up ahead, he was certain nothing would bar him from simply teleporting past any aurors to the surface. Of course just to spite him the floor started to glow. In front of the security barrier Harry saw three red pools of light, each one enlarging like an opening portal. Harry and Dobby skidded to a stop as something began to rise from the floor at those spots. They had wide shoulders and barrel chests that tapered down to a small waist but no legs at all, just smoking, glowing tails. Each of the three creatures regarded him from their skull like faces, flames dancing over their bodies like a fiery parody of a Dijnn. Heliopaths.
"Of all of the awful times for Luna to be right!" Harry swore and then hurled himself to the side as each of the fire demons raised their hands at Harry. This proved to be a good idea as each one launched a pair of fireballs at him, incinerating the furniture near where he had been standing. The creatures blazed so hot that many things were catching on fire and it was getting hard to breathe.
Transforming Harry re-cast his bubble-headed charm. Even with his magic and heat-draining abilities on full, it was hot enough that he was sweating from every pore in his body. As he rose Harry conjured a shield that deflected the fireballs they creatures where throwing. The heliopaths were spreading out, trying to flank him while the lead kept him pinned beneath his shield. Moving to keep them all in front of him Harry returned fire, with a spear of ice.
This turned out to be a bust as the spear had mostly melted by the time it impacted the heliopath. All it ended up doing was to make a lot of steam and upset the creature, which raised its hands above its head and started to collect a massive fireball. Well at least it wasn't attacking right away Harry noticed. Focusing on another one Harry landed a chain of banishing and bludgeoning hexes to the things midsection. It drove it back a little but not through the wall like he had hoped. Its response was unleashing a veritable geyser of continuous fire. Jumping out of the way with the help of a banishing charm Harry let loose with his darkest and most powerful array of curses.
"Avada Kedava! PeroStagia! Septanclus Mitigma!" Apparently they aren't immortal Harry mused as he watched the heliopath's reaction. Sadly it just tossed a fireball at the incoming curses. When the killing curse hit the fireball it exploded into a green tinged wave of fire that Harry wisely shielded against. The implosion and soul nova curses both met similar fates.
A high pitch keening sound was the only warning Harry got before the previously still Heliopath acted. With a flash a of light, a thin stream of light shot out of the ball it was holding and began to trace a line towards Harry. Well trace wasn't the right word, the beam of fire flew across the ground slicing everything in its wake in half as it bore down on him. Harry flickered and vanished immediately before the beam would have bisected him, reappearing on the other side of the room. Thank Merlin he had learned the trick Dumbledore and Voldemort had used in their last duel. Flickering was very short line of sight movement but there was no ward that could stop it. The beam changed directions and headed towards him, slicing cleanly through one of the other heliopaths as it did so. The flame demon shrieked in agony and fell to the ground in two rapidly darkening pieces. The remaining two creatures paused, apparently stunned by the death of their comrade.
Taking the opportunity presented by their pause Harry started to chant. This particular spell might take a bit of time but it would certainly deal with at least one of his attackers, he hoped. The center one hadn't stopped casting its laser attack yet and the laser began moving towards Harry again when the floor started to collapse around the hole of molten stone it had burnt while standing still. The second one woke from its stupor as well and started hurling fireballs at Harry. The first one missed, and the second one caught his robes vaporizing a section of them, but Harry didn't raise a shield, he was almost done casting.
"Eternus Obscurum!" Harry yelled twisting his wand and stabbing it at the lead heliopath. This spell essentially created a rift in space time in a very small location. The breach was only momentary but the closing rift had a gravitational potential similar to what muggles called black holes. Harry had been aiming at the creature's heart but a blast of one of the fireballs threw his aim off. His miniature black hole hit the orb of fire the heliopath was using. Everything seemed to stop as the miniature sun the thing was holding started to collapse upon itself, almost as if time had stopped. The reactions of the fire demons was almost comical Harry mused, one threw up its arms and if their expressions could be compared to humans Harry was certain the leader was mouthing 'oh fuck.' Then the ball of fire exploded and everything stopped being comical.
"Master Harry Potter! Master must get up!" Harry struggled to open his eyes, only to be rewarded by a bright light. Crying out he slammed his eyes shut and felt around for Dobby.
"What's going on Dobby?" Harry managed to slur out, even with his eyes closed everything was spinning.
"There be a big boom, Dobby is protecting yous from the worst but we must be goings now." The elf was grabbing at him insistently.
"Allright, just give me a sec."
"Dobby doesn't think we has a second. Dobby cannot be holding ceiling up much longer."
"Wait the ceiling collapsed?" Harry asked. Hearing an affirmative from Dobby, Harry reached out with his magical senses. He couldn't feel the pull of the wards any longer. That didn't mean they were gone, but if things were as desperate as Dobby said…
"Dobby, the sock in my pocket, it's a portkey." Harry tried to find it himself but his arm had this annoying prickly numb feeling and he wasn't sure he could feel his hands. Harry could hear the sound of someone fumbling around.
"Dobby has its." Harry felt something pressed to his face.
"Veranda." With a sharp jolt Harry felt himself dragged away from the collapsing room.
Ameila Bones collapsed into her chair, exhausted. She had been at a party until about midnight and had just been getting ready to call it a night when the floo call had come in. That had been seven hours ago. She expected a lot of things when the floo had flared red, since it was only used for emergencies. Learning that someone had destroyed the entire administration wing had not been one of them.
She had been one of the first to tour the cavern that had been the administration wing and it looked like London had after the WWII blitz. The devastation was complete, nothing recognizable had remained. Not even the wards had managed to survive. Hell, the wizards that had done this had even killed the creatures the Department of Mysteries had provided for defense. She had seen those efreets in action and had previously thought they were immortal. As she sat back and rested her legs she was quite glad that Fudge had snubbed her department all those years ago when he had decided to move the administrations offices rather than give the DMLE a new office. Fudge was back in the old offices on level nine now, not that it mattered: at this point there was no positive spin on what must have been millions of galleons worth of damage to one of the most secure buildings in England. The investigators wouldn't even be able to piece together what had happened for another month or so. Ameila shook her head and summoned her tea caddy from its spot on the wall.
Thoughts of her tea were distracted though by the arrival of a paper airplane. Snatching the plane out of the air she unfolded and read the letter. She had recived a rather large package and the delivery owl was refusing to hand over the bundle to anyone but her. Sighing, she rose and walked out to the mailroom. Sure enough a common barn owl was waiting for her.
"Do we know who's it from?" She asked the auror on duty as she came in, Higgins she thought.
"No Ma'am, I wouldn't have bothered you but the owl has no identifiers and is under some heavy charms." Her attention piqued, Ameila cast a few spells on the owl. It had been charmed to cover not only the sender but even the flight path. She could see safeguards set into the spells that would likely kill the owl and destroy the package if she tried to dispel the protections. It was very good work, not insurmountable, but as the package had no such charms on it, she decided that accepting the delivery would be more useful in the short run. Shaking her head as she reflected on the happenings of the night before she walked up to the bird and held out her hands. The bird turned towards her and dropped the bundle in her outstretched hands after recognizing her magical signature. Once back at her desk Amelia opened the bundle. It was a stack of file folders that had been tied together. Picking up the cover letter she began to read:
Director Bones,
The documents you have before you were taken from the personal files of Minister Fudge. They point to not only him but to a well orchestrated conspiracy by himself and members of his cabinet to defraud and bamboozle the public. Everything before you has been sent to every major newspaper, as well. As these stories will run tomorrow morning you will have the choice to act on this information or to silence the truth. I can only hope you make the right choice.
The message was unsigned.
Amelia cursed and began leafing through the files. Each one bore the ministry seal and had most likely been stolen in that attack on the administration wing earlier that night. There was a lot here, things that she'd been digging into for years. If these were truly from Fudge's records they were very meticulous. Fudge apparently had been ready to sell out everyone around him if necessary. Most of the documents were from around last year at the trial. Then she read over the transcripts of interrogations that had been omitted during Potter's trial. This was the type of thing that brought down governments. If these files had already been sent out to the Prophet, it was only a matter of time, she would need to be in position when the shit started to fly.
Rising she headed over to the floo. A flick of her wand banished the tea kettle and summoned a coffee pot. She was going to need something stronger than tea for what was to come. Possibly some pepper up as well for she couldn't see time for sleep anytime soon.