The Voldemort War Begins

A/N: So yeah - just in case anyone missed it up to now - THIS IS AN AU. Things are going to go VERY differently from canon from here on out.

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1974 March

While Arcturus raised hell with his family, and Cedrella, Callidora, and Dorea made increasingly disturbing lists of what they'd like to do to Voldemort and his followers, the elder Marauders hit the Wizengamot like a triad of pissed-off mama dragons.

They stormed into the courtroom in full battle dress, rather than in their Wizengamot robes. Charlus was in the lead, with Septimus a half step behind and to the right, and Harfang a half step behind and to the left. They planted themselves in the center of the room. The speed with which the room went silent was almost amusing to Septimus. More amusing was the confounded look on Dumbledore's face. Better still was the expression on the Chief Warlock's face when the three of them refused to be seated. Eventually, the Warlock gave up and the triad had the floor.

"How many times." Charlus bellowed. "How many times, in the last four years, have Lords Longbottom, Weasley and myself attempted to alert this body to the actions of magical terrorists in the muggle world? How many times were we ignored? Told that the troubles in the muggle world were solely muggle problems? Or worse, had the severity of the situation downplayed, ignored, or dismissed as 'random but deplorable muggle-baiting' despite having submitted proof that the incidents showed common roots, indicating a far more severe situation was at hand? How many times?"

"Even when Muggleborns were being attacked, this body refused to listen." Septimus snarled, taking up the verbal baton as they'd planned. "After all, they were 'mere' Muggleborns. Hardly worth the bother." And if it was possible to pack more disdain and disgust in his tone, Septimus didn't know how. "Worse, this body was up in arms because someone dared to defend the lives of those Muggleborns against these terrorists, these blights on magic ... and the terrorists were found to be purebloods. Their deaths were worthy of note when the deaths of their victims were not. As if, because of the circumstances of their birth, these terrorists had a greater right to life than other sentient beings, whether magical or not."

"That it is only now." Harfang growled, taking his own turn. "After a pureblood was struck down defending Muggleborns, that this body is bestirring itself to respond to this threat disgusts me. Disgusts our entire Alliance. The dragon has been at the gates for FOUR YEARS and because the dragon wasn't eating the king's relatives, it was ignored. This is unconscionable. Every life, magical or not, is precious and cold blooded murder cannot be condoned no matter the target. Anyone who is willing to commit such cold-blooded murder forfeits their lives in return, for they are beyond any possibility of redemption. That this body clearly thinks otherwise makes me question its right to govern so much as a pile of rocks, never mind living, breathing beings of any description."

"Make no mistake." Charlus bellowed. "We are at war. We have *been* at war for four years. Before this day is out, this body *will* ratify wartime measures. That means doubling the budget for all law enforcement branches. That means authorizing the construction and raising of war wards on private residences and public venues alike. That means ensuring the general public know and can perform at least the most basic self-defense spells. That means ratifying the formation of a squad dedicated to the pursuit and destruction of this terrorist group and its leader. A refusal to do so will result in a vote of no confidence not only of the Minister but of this entire body. If we must, we will go to the Queen herself to adjudicate this mess."

To their surprise, one by one the Neutral Lords got to their feet, wordlessly indicating their agreement with the Marauders. Lord Greengrass, one of the more influential of that group behind Arcturus, finally spoke up.

"I find I am in agreement with Lords Potter, Longbottom, and Weasley. That this body is willing to ignore a significant threat to our world in favor of petty bickering is disturbing in the extreme. That this body was willing to condemn those that rose up in defense of helpless muggles and muggleborn *children* is despicable and intolerable."

And with the entire Neutral part on their feet, it became clear to the Dark faction and Dumbledore's faction just how few in number they were in comparison. The Neutrals comprised fully half of the seated Lords, perhaps a bit more. Better still, while Septimus was firmly of the belief that Dumbledore was trouble with a capital T, his was a less lethal form of trouble, and he had slightly more than half of the remaining Lords on his side, leaving the Dark faction as the smaller faction, at least for now. Hopefully, it would remain that small permanently. Sadly, Septimus knew that even if Voldemort never managed to get any other Lords on his side, he could and would get individual family members from both the Neutral and 'Light' factions. Still, that was better than him getting entire families. Especially in the case of the Blacks. The thought of Voldemort with Black Family backing gave him the willies.

It was only at that point that the elder Marauders took their seats. The rest of the day was ... quite interesting. Up until now, the Neutrals had largely been content to sit back and let the Dark and Light factions squabble and be idiots. Now, however, they were forcibly ramming measures through the Wizengamot despite more than slightly vociferous complaint on one side or another. The brutal fact was that the Neutrals had a majority vote - not because they comprised more than half of the Wizengamot, but because the Dark and Light factions would never even consider working together to keep the Neutrals from getting the majority vote needed for any law or measure. With some or all of the Light faction ending up voting for the various measures, they had a two-thirds majority without hardly trying.

By the end of the day, the Marauders had their measures ... and one more besides. It having been discussed that the so-called 'dark mark' was seen at most of the latest attacks, creating or possessing anything that bore that mark became a jailable offense. The Marauders had hoped to get something of the sort passed, but had opted not to even bring it up in their list of demands because it was, in the scheme of things, pretty darn minor at this point.

Of course, Dumbledore was incapable of leaving things alone. He'd not been able to vote against any of the measures - if he had wanted to. Septimus was honest enough with himself to admit that Dumbledore had only looked displeased at two measures. The first one decreed that cold blooded murder - whether committed via Unforgivable or any other means - was an automatic death sentence. He'd also looked less than thrilled at the measure that declared killing someone in defense of your own life or the life of someone else who was actively being attacked would not result in jail time.

The second measure had been the most hotly debated, because most people were uncomfortable with killing, even in self defense. Septimus had eventually pointed out that they weren't saying that everyone ought to aim to kill when they were defending themselves, but if it came to that, they weren't going to get in trouble for it. That had silenced most of the arguing at that point.

At any rate, at the end of the day, Dumbledore followed them out. The Marauders wordlessly led him to one of the meeting rooms. Once in, Harfang hit the room with every privacy spell he knew. Septimus settled leaning lightly against a wall, one hand 'casually' near enough to where his wand holster sat to allow him to grab his wand in a hurry. Charlus focused on Dumbledore.

"Let's save the pussyfooting around, shall we, Lord Dumbledore?" Charlus growled. "We will not be ashamed for suggesting the measures we did today. We will not be ashamed for forcing them through. We will not change our minds and ask for any of them to be recalled - unless it is to make the punishments listed more severe still, which will be hard to do in at least one case. These measures should have been on the books at least a year ago, if not earlier than that. It's a damn poor state of affairs when the *Neutrals* have to step in and do the 'Light's' job. One might question what you were actually doing with your time, talents, and leadership."

Had Septimus mentioned that the Marauders were just *done* with pussyfooting around? That they had declared war? He wondered how long it would take some folks to wise up. The smarter ones would have smelled trouble months ago. The medium-smart would have caught the clue today, as blatant as they'd been. Sadly, there were bound to be a few who didn't understand, and probably wouldn't until things got even bloodier than they already were.

Dumbledore sighed. "Your actions today were most unwise." He said in that patented 'disappointed grandfather' tone.

Charlus snorted. "No, no they weren't. Because this Voldemort guy, and his followers? They'd have just kept going. Would have kept escalating. What we did today? Will serve notice that that sort of bullshit won't be tolerated. That we will fight back. Those of his followers who are not as enamored of his politics and schemes as they pretend to be might - might - decide to give themselves up and walk away from him, knowing they face death or heavy jail time if they get caught. It'll make lawbreaking seem a lot less appealing at the very least. The ones that keep on as they have until now? They are irredeemable already."

Septimus gave a toothy grin when Dumbledore looked startled at the inclusion of the 'redeemable' comment. "What, Lord Dumbledore, you didn't realize you were that predictable? We all know that would have been your next try at getting us to back down. Unlike you, we do not believe that everyone is redeemable. There are some folks who just won't stop hurting and killing others, no matter how many opportunities they're given to change their ways. The ones that are inclined to change their minds will find ways to either surrender or keep from committing crimes that will end up with them dead or in Azkaban for life. The rest are fair game."

"And before you go there." Harfang said. "No, we are not lashing out irrationally in grief. That'd be Cedrella and Callidora. Voldemort better pray those two never get their hands on him, because the sorts of stuff they're planning to do to him in retribution for their sister's death is bloody scary. Dorea is only slightly less scary." Harfang gestured in the direction of the courtroom. "We've had this planned since shortly after Voldemort and his followers started attacking muggles a couple years back and no one cared. We knew that he'd eventually do something the Wizengamot couldn't ignore, and planned to take full advantage of it when it happened." He sighed. "We just didn't count on that act being quite so ... personal." He snorted. "If we hadn't planned in advance, this would have been a whole lot uglier, because we *would* be acting out of grief, and not with clear minds."

Charlus laughed at Dumbledore's shocked look. "Don't look so shocked, Lord Dumbledore. We've kept in fighting trim. Well, as much as is physically possible in my case." Charlus gave his game leg a sour look. "And you know our record in the war. It took entire companies to stand against the six of us when we put our backs into it. Voldemort and his crew are just lucky our wives don't know where or even who they are. If they'd had known, there would have been a pile of bodies in the courtroom this morning, and all six of us would have been guilty parties. After all, none of the three of us are dumb enough to gainsay our wives. Not on something like this. It'd have been *us* dead on the floor if we had." Charlus sounded more amused than anything else by that last fact.

"What neither you nor most of the rest of your contingent seems to have realized." Septimus said. "Is that Voldemort and his band of idiots are a very real threat to the safety and secrecy of our world. They've been running around hexing muggles for years. Just how many of those people did the Obliviation Squad miss? How many people are out there that not only know magic exists, but know that there are magicals that want to hurt and kill 'normal people'? Just how long do you think it will take before they find each other, and begin to form some sort of group designed to fight back? There are a lot more muggles than there are wizards, Dumbledore. The odds against us in pure numbers are something like a hundred to one. Possibly more than that. And muggles have weapons that magic cannot hope to combat. Explosive forces that make bombarda maxima look like a squished bug in comparison, just to name one possible venue of attack."

Septimus took a breath. "Hoping for the redemption of these criminals, and thus permitting them to go out - again - and commit crimes against muggles - again - risks yet more muggles escaping obliviation and retaining their knowledge of us. The faster we take them down, the safer we'll be. The redemption of a single individual, or even a handful of individuals, is *not* worth the death of our people as a whole through muggle warfare. The sooner you understand that and start backing us and our measures, the better."

"Though to be brutally honest, as today showed, we really don't *need* you, or your vote. We have enough people on our side to force things through as it stands." Harfang said. "And are likely to gain more from the fringes of your group and the Dark contingent as they realize what they're risking by letting Voldemort run rampant."

"If we're going to save our world, this is the way it has to be." Charlus said. "Whether we like it or not."

They didn't wait to see what, if anything, Dumbledore had to say about all of that. They just turned and left the room.