The power he knows not.
After taking the ministry, very little resistance to the Dark Lord remained.
The Order, while still leading the resistance, was not properly structured for combat; Dumbledore had used it mainly as an information-gathering tool in the past. With Dumbledore's death, the Order lacked the direction and training to do anything more than watch Voldemort take over.
Mere months into his rule, Voldemort had slowly grown tired of the old Ministry building.
For years, the Ministry of Magic had been a constant thorn in his side. In his mind, the building itself was a monument to all the light wizards and Aurors that lay in his wake; mocking him even from beyond the grave.
He destroyed it one day when he was in a particularly bad mood.
Those high in the Dark Lord's favor debated endlessly about possible locations for the new Ministry. Many places made the list.
Hogsmeade was a decent location. It was an all-wizard town, and it was in close proximity to Hogwarts. Sadly, after a little math, it became apparent that it was just not feasible to construct a new structure of the required dimensions from scratch, not without any new taxes at any rate.
When the financial ramifications of a new ministry building struck, they were left with few choices.
Hogwarts was certainly large enough, but it was a place of learning, and they did not want to displace a thousand years of tradition just for that. Purebloods love their tradition.
An old abandoned castle was strongly considered for a time, but it just seemed too muggle for many of their tastes.
The only building large enough that was without a tenant and was designed by a proper wizard was also a place where many of the dark lord's loyalist followers had already spent a large amount to time. Not by choice of course.
Azkaban.
It was large; had to be to fit all the prisoners the old ministry convicted.
With the dark lord's reforms, no prison was needed. Mudbloods were killed on sight, and most of the petty criminals were given small fines.
Azkaban lay dormant.
The fact that it was on an island was an added bonus; an island is easily defensible. Any assault on the new Ministry would be very difficult if it were on an island.
It was a cool autumn day in the north of France.
The British prime minister was reluctantly attending an EU conference on climate change. It was cold now, and at the same time last year it was warm; how was that global warming?
The French were rattling on about carbon emissions or something equally inconsequential when one of his aids handed him a note.
It simply said, 'The president of France requests a private meeting.'
He penned a reply, 'At the next intermission,' and handed the note to his aid.
He watched as the aid handed the note to the president, and seconds later the French representative immediately stopped the sprawling speech about whatever they were rambling about and called for a half hour break.
Rather confused with the abrupt stop, the prime minister rose and made his way out to the hall.
The President was waiting for him at the door.
"Mister Prime Minister."
"Mister President."
"Let us take this somewhere more private."
They were silent as they made their way to an unoccupied conference room.
As soon as the door closed the Brit asked, "If I could be blunt, what is going on? Why all the secrecy?"
"Have you been kept aware of the recent developments in your Ministry of Magic?"
"Developments?"
"As I thought. Your Ministry of Magic has fallen and has been replaced in a coup d'état."
"What?!"
"Lord Voldemort, having risen from the dead, has led his followers to victory. As we speak, the dark lord is slaughtering every person of so called 'lesser blood' he can find. Men, women, and children."
"Why was I never notified? Fudge said that he or his successor would keep me notified to any changes!"
"The Minister of Magic was a fool and felt that he had a lid on the problem. He's dead now, and Voldemort is in total control."
"What can be done?
"I brought with me as part of my entourage the leader of the British resistance. He got in touch with us through our Minister of Magic via his daughter Fleur. I give you Harry Potter."
"Hello mister Prime Minister," the short teen said.
"The leader of the resistance is a teenager?"
"Harry Potter is celebrated as a hero and freedom fighter by most, if not all, light wizards in the world. Despite his age, he is one of the most powerful wizards alive, and given his closeness to the situation, I thought he had a place at this meeting," said the president.
Properly cowed the Prime minister said, "Well then, what are our options?"
The young man looked around and asked, "If I may?"
Seeing nods from the other two in the room, he continued, "In his new Ministry there is no room for those the dark lord cannot trust. As such, every single member of his ministry is a marked supporter; everyone from the minister and his cabinet, all the way down to the janitorial staff."
"Marked?"
"His most loyal supporters take the dark mark."
"What does that mean for us?"
"All our bad eggs are together in one basket. With a tactical strike, we could take out his entire terrorist organization. You see, as a part of the ritual to receive the dark lord's mark, one must first murder an innocent; all of them are guilty of at least that. Even without the murders however, they are all still collaborating with a mass murderer and terrorist; the loss of them would be insignificant compared to the possible gains from the end of Voldemort's reign."
"Are you seriously suggesting we carpet bomb a large section of London's downtown core?"
"No, I am suggesting we carpet bomb an otherwise empty island kilometers away from the nearest muggle settlements. Collateral damage would be minimal."
"I thought the ministry building was hidden downtown and under the ground?"
"It was, but the dark lord, in his complete ignorance of muggle weaponry, moved his center of operations from a place where any non-magical attack was practically impossible for fear of mass civilian casualties, to a place where he could be destroyed with a single bomb, all without any risk to non-combatants."
"A single dropped – You can't possibly think that we would use nuclear weapons for this?"
"Wizards can teleport instantaneously from one location to another, Sir. If you were to use numerous small ordinances then it would give them time to escape. That, and given that they are using dementors to guard his ministry, I would very much like to see if the beasts could survive a nuclear blast."
"Dementors?"
"The beasts are invisible to muggles, but they still can float on by and suck the souls out of you just the same."
"...Souls?"
"Over the past year under the dark lord's control, they have killed hundreds of muggles, leaving behind soulless husks."
"That was them?! We thought there was a new disease..."
"Most of them are defending the island now, but if the dark lord were to die, they would be without masters and all of the dementors now stationed at Azkaban may decide to attack the general population as they so please."
"Jesus Christ..."
"That's why we need to make sure they perish in the assault."
"Yes, no beast that dangerous should be allowed to roam free."
"Something needs to be done soon. Every day the man is alive and in power is another day that the man continues to kill innocents."
"I'll need some time to think this through, and if I decide to use a nuclear weapon, then I'll need to notify some other leaders..."
"Just remember that time is of the essence." he said, and as the prime minister turned to leave he quickly added, "Oh, If you do decide to use a nuke, could I be the one to press the button or whatever you do to launch?"
"Why?"
"The man killed my parents, that, and an annoying prophecy would be fulfilled if he is to be vanquished by my 'hand'."
"I'll think about it."
After a short time of consideration and after consulting with the leaders of many NATO allies, the muggles agreed to Harry's plan.
A threat of Voldemort's caliber was worth any collateral damage that may arise, and given that the only people affected by the blast would be either a dark lord, or a willful supporter, then they were disposed to spare a low yield nuclear warhead.
The dementors may have made an aerial assault by broom virtually impossible, but a muggle bomber could drop a bomb from thousands of feet in the air. Dementors could not float that high.
Harry, riding in the bomber, pressed the button that released the warhead, and the bomb dropped.
The blast annihilated Azkaban; the unimaginable heat was more than enough to vaporize any trace of the dementors. If the dementors – beings thought to be unkillable – were destroyed in the blast, then it was fair to say that no wizards survived the blast either.
Even if the dark lord somehow survived with his horcruxes, it was doubtful he would rise again anytime soon, as few (if any) of his supporters were left alive.
What witch or wizard would have ever thought that the power the dark lord knew not was nuclear?
But then again, wizards are stupid.
AN: I was considering making a fic where the power he knows not is electricity as he accidentally clips a power line with a cutting curse.
He knew not that a power line was above his head.
That just might be too silly.
Thanks again to DemonicNargles who betaed this chapter. Without this help, this chapter would have royally sucked.
-Lineape
