Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Harry Potter story or characters. I do, however, reserve the rights for any characters I develop and the plot of this story.
AN: Wow, I am amazed by the number of people who were shocked by the ending. I will say that no one got it exactly right, but a few people came close. The answer presented here, while complicated and stretching the limits of magic as presented by JKR, is, as far as I know, unique.
AN2: And for those of you who say that the idea of Monologues during battle is impossible to believe, I point you toward the graveyard scene. Let's just say that Voldemort is a very bad evil person who did not learn the downsides of delivering (or allowing someone to deliver) a monologue during combat. Or just suspend your disbelief for half the chapter.
Harry Potter and the Veela Life Debts
By Jojobevco
Chapter 22
The Only Ones He Ever Feared (and the House-Elf He Should Have)
August 31, 1995
10:00 PM
Office of the Ministry's House Elf Lead Principal (The HELP)
Level 1a, Ministry for Magic
London, United Kingdom
The Lead Principal, the Ministry' House-Elf Head Elf groaned at the ridiculous reverse bacronym his staff had come up with for his position. They felt that calling him 'The HeHe' was sort of demeaning.
They didn't realize how 'the help' is a demeaning human term for people in their position.
His musings were disrupted by a knock at the door.
"Enter."
Two house elves walked in. A young male elf in his prime and a rather attractive young female elf.
"What can I do for yous?"
The young male elf passed him a manila envelope, a common envelope used by muggles that was tan in appearance and durable. Often used for interoffice memos. The name originated from the manila hemp out of which the envelopes were originally made.
As delivery experts, house-elves knew their envelopes.
"I is Dobby, these is being orders from Highest Authority."
"Minister Fudgems?"
"Higher."
The Help's eyes widened in shock, never had he had the honor of touching something from the True Highest Authority. He recently opened the envelope and started going through the instructions inside. He reached the end and asked a question, "They is wanting this tied into the Main Glowing Stone Reset? But the Main Glowing Stone Reset never goes on."
"If they say it will, it will."
"We will carry out the orders. Thank you."
The two elves nodded and popped away. The Help felt his 'master' calling him he popped up out of his offices, into the office above, "Yous be calling me, Minister?"
"Elf! Get me tea! Now!"
"Right away, Minister." The Help, or as the humans knew him Elf #0001 bowed and left.
October 31, 1995
6:10 PM
Atrium
Level 8, Ministry for Magic
London, United Kingdom
Bellatrix, for her part, smiled manically, pointed her wand toward Harry, and screamed, "Avada Kedavra."
To her credit, he almost missed it. Instinctively, he stepped to the side and was halfway through a counter before his mind caught up with his training. He blinked and looked back at Bellatrix. He was expecting to see a formerly attractive crazy bitch, like he had a moment ago.
Instead, Lord Voldemort was faced with a much younger-looking, much hotter, and very much sane Bellatrix Lestrange.
Who was wearing the uniform of a Commandant in the French Auror Corps and had rather clearly not 'accidently' thrown a killing curse at the Dark Lord.
Even for a very eloquent and evil man, there was only one thing to say, "What in the name of Merlin's Saggy Left Buttock?!"
"Mr. Riddle, By Order of the Joint Magical Counterterrorism Taskforce you are under arrest. Drop your wand and put your hands on your head!"
Voldemort, was shocked, "Why, Bella?"
Bellatrix smirked, "I am not the woman you knew as Bellatrix Lestrange. I killed her three months ago in Azkaban. For I am Bellatrix Black, of the French Auror Corps."
"Bellatrix Lestrange is Bellatrix Black!"
"Not exactly. Let's take a little walk down memory lane, shall we, my lord?"
Bellatrix started pacing. Anyone who knew 'Bellatrix Lestrange' would see where she got her mannerisms from. On the carefully composed and exquisitely sarcastic Bellatrix Black, they looked natural.
"Back during the 1970s your Death Eaters were especially attracted to me and my sisters. Narcissa had already been promised to Lucius Malfoy. My father,and I use that term lightly, was in negotiations with Andre Lestrange, a former schoolmate of yours, to give me and Andromeda to his sons Rodolphus and Rabastian. Andromeda ran off with Ted Tonks before the contract was finalized, so it was changed so that it would only be between Rodolphus and myself.
"Now I knew Rodolphus, he was a rather sadistic bastard. I had heard of his exploits at your parties; I knew that he would not treat any wife well, especially one as good looking as me." Here she flourished a bit. Both Harry and Voldemort had to agree that she was good looking.
"I decided my best option would be to run like my sister. I closed out my trust vault and grabbed a portkey to France, where I ran into Robert Delacour, a high up member of parliament, and your wives' grandfather, Harry.
"This naturally created a bit of a situation for dear old daddy. With the contract already finalized, he was expected to deliver me to Rodolphus Lestrange. He knew that Lestrange would not take kindly to my disappearance and neither would you. So he hatched a plan.
"He kidnapped a muggleborn by the name of Florence Smithton, who had a resemblance to me and was comparable in magical power. He then hired a wizard by the name of Royton Lockhart, who was relatively weak but one of the world's foremost experts in memory charms to completely erase, not just block, but erase Smithton's memory."
Harry, even though he was about to engage his nemesis, couldn't help but be curious, "How did that help him?"
"The Black Family was composed of some of the greatest magical researchers in history. Most of the research they did was into the darkest of arts, some was into not so dark things, and some was both.
"Pensives were invented a long time ago. The Blacks however, had improved on the idea, they had the capability to 'backup,' if you will, the memories of an entire lifetime. Just the memories though, not the soul or the feelings, or the personality, just the memories. Improvements in this system were the basis for what eventually became Brain Storage down in the Department of Mysteries.
"Lockhart transferred the memories into Smithton's now quite empty brain right before my father killed him. Then, he suppressed her soul and crafted a personality like my own on the surface but much more submissive and loyal to the Lestranges and Mr. Riddle over here."
Harry eloquently answered, "Oh"
"Yes, well, the spells were supposed to be renewed regularly by my father, but he died. So, slowly, 'Bellatrix' went insane and the Crucios didn't help matters.
"So, Mr. Riddle, you've not just been had, you've been completely and totally bamboozled, by my sperm donor and me. So, I once again ask you to drop your wand and put your hands on your head!"
Voldemort laughed, "You think you can bring me in, Auror? Well, you're welcome to try. Let's duel!"
"Yes, Tom, let's."
Tom turned to see Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore stride into the room in a bold manner. It was a stride that oozed power, it was a stride that scared his enemies.
"Dumbledore!"
The Duel in the Atrium
Voldemort snapped off an Avada Kedavra at Dumbledore, who twirled and apparated to the other side of the room. Bellatrix then struck back with a series of confinement and stunning spells, while advancing, trying to keep Voldemort pinned down. Voldemort blocked all of them and fired off an AK at Bellatrix; who unsuccessfully attempted to conjure a concrete slab to block.
By the time the spell was out of Voldemort's wand, Harry was already reacting, pulling the Centaur off the Fountain of Magical Brethren and swinging it into the curse's path, successfully blocking it. Unfortunately, he had slightly miscalculated and the shrapnel knocked Bellatrix unconscious.
"Well, Potter, that was not bad."
"You will find, Tom, that I am a lot better than not bad." Page 57 of Epic Class Dueling- Goading your enemies into making mistakes and sounding overconfident at the same time.
"The Aurors are on their way, Tom, both the British and the French ones."
"By which time you will be dead."
As Dumbledore and Harry were about to reengage, all twelve elevators dinged at once and an Auror Squad stepped out, led by Fleur, Gabrielle, Tonks, and Sirius. The other squad was occupied guarding the captured Death Eaters.
Dumbledore then waved his wand at the fountain, causing a great tide of white, magic infused, water to gush out at Voldemort, who transfigured it into black smoke and sent it spreading throughout the Atrium.
"Bubbleheads!" The Magicals snapped bubbleheads into place.
Dumbledore waved his wand turning the smoke into pink bubbles, just as Harry struck, targeting Voldemort with a very high level burst of magic, that made everyone's hair stand on end. Voldemort conjured a great silver shield and sent a Killing Curse at Harry, who conjured a slab of ornately decorated marble, to block it, countering by dragging one of the security grates off the Fireplaces and sending it, spikes first, toward Voldemort, who quickly batted it away.
While this brief action scene had been happening, no one noticed the silent metallic noises coming from the Security desk, and other places around the Atrium.
Auror Smith discussed the Muggle involvement inside the ministry, "Inside, we have assembled two Special Air Service troops of 16 men each, codenamed 'Sparks' and 'Standard'. Sparks is composed of magic users that we found within the British Army. Standard is composed of squibs and knowledgeable non-magicals such as the families of Muggleborn. They will be stationed in the Atrium. Their goal is to engage threats that make it to that point.. We also have a troop from the Special Boat Service, codenamed 'Torrent' this is a mixed unit of knowledgeable non-magicals and magic users that will be deployed as needed."
Dumbledore gave an almost imperceptible nod. Standard clicked the safeties off their M4s and started firing, their gas masks making them look like terrifying beings. Oddly, a dozen carbines didn't produce the noise they should have, in fact they produced no noise at all. Magic was wonderful for being able to hear yourself think in battle.
Sparks had emerged from their invisibility cloaks at conveniently equidistant points surrounding Voldemort and started engaging them with a combination of Auror tactics and pistols. They were joined by their French counterparts, who had instructed them in these tactics just weeks before.
To say that Voldemort was overwhelmed was an understatement. This situation was what Epic Class Dueling referred to as "Extreme Tactical Superiority," or in the vernacular, overkill. Voldemort was attempting to conjure, shield and dodge so fast that, had he not been evil, it would have been a sight to see. He had already managed to disable most of the muggle guns in the room and blow up the security booth, sending half of Standard scrambling, but that had cost him precious time with dealing with the magicals. He disappeared under a massive amount of spell fire.
Harry grimaced briefly before quirking an eyebrow, flinging Voldemort out of his mind and back into the physical world. Suddenly, directly in front of him, Dobby appeared, looking angry and dressed in a black turtleneck and black pants, with a million pockets between the two.
"You shall not harm Harry Potter!"
Voldemort was so shocked by this little elf standing up to him that he forgot to block it as Dobby snapped his fingers, sending Voldemort head over heels into the Visitor's Entrance which closed with a loud ding and started ascending.
Dobby crossed his arms and stood there, smirking, with a loud, "hmmph!"
Meanwhile, the muggle commander was screaming into his radio, "Target is in the booth, I say again, target is in the booth, ETA 45 seconds!"
Upstairs, on street level, the muggles were getting ready to show Voldemort why they weren't as simple as he thought.
AN: Please review! Thanks to those who have!
AN2: A few notes on Bellatrix's story and how it ties into canon.
Andromeda Black did run off with Ted Tonks and was blasted off the family tree for her trouble. It is easy to assume that Bellatrix would have done the same.
Andre Lestrange is the Lestrange seen in the Slug Club pensive memory.
Florence Smithton, is the girl that Bertha Jorkins saw kissing in the memory and identified as "Florence."
Royton Lockhart is the father of Gilderoy Lockhart
For those of you who object to the telling versus showing of the story, I might show it later on.
AN3: The next chapter will be named: The Muggle Blockade and The Fall of the Ministry of Magic.