Chapter 14: With enemies like these...

For disclaimer and author notes please see chapter 1.

1986-03-01 08:00 UTC, Grunnings board room

Sirius was not a Black for nothing. The Wizengamot drama with Dumbledore was the day before yesterday. He had spent yesterday investigating Grunnings, and found not only that it was privately owned, with a single owner, but that it's US operations needed both an infusion of operating cash as well as a change in management. This made his day.

So he had Gringotts arrange a meeting with the owner, through their bankers. When they met, they first went through the niceties observed when two men of money meet for the first time. Then they got down to business: Sirius would invest in the US arm, but had one condition: a person of his choice would be appointed as the manager for that unit. That choice was Vernon Dursley. Sirius merely explained that he had heard the man was somewhat abrasive, but he believed that was precisely the kind of man the US market wanted. (Sirius didn't know much about the muggle world in the UK, leave alone the US; he was basically bluffing, and hoping that the offer of an investment would hold the man's attention enough to gloss over this!)

Dursley was called in, and told the good news. For some reason, this investor wanted everything done as soon as possible. They decided that 10th March, Monday, was far enough to get his move organised and close enough to satisfy Lord Black.

At that point, Vernon started to look uncomfortable. It was clear to Sirius, even without being able to read minds, that he was wondering what to do about Harry.

Sirius took Vernon aside, and quietly confunded him to not worry about this, since it would be taken care of.

Then he left. He'd already arranged with the goblins to help speed things up as and when needed, and generally make sure there were no snags.

(Kreacher told Hobby all this when they next met. Hobby was overjoyed. He would have loved to get some revenge on the Dursleys, and thought they had gotten off far too easily, but he decided not to dwell on it. He was just happy that Sirius was so proactive, and that, come the 10th, Harry would be free of the Dursleys for good and be safe with Sirius. He decided to watch over Harry the first few days; somehow he would have to make the time to be here full-time.)

1986-03-03 14:00 UTC, Crouch residence

Hobby had a very simple plan. Right now, Fudge and Malfoy were in a huddle, trying to figure out how best to take advantage of Dumbledore's behaviour a few days ago. Malfoy and Narcissa were discussing this at lunch; that is how Hobby knew.

Hobby decided he would give them - and a few others in the Ministry - something more interesting to talk about. It was high time the Phantom put in another appearance anyway; the fat cats seem to have forgotten about him already.

He popped into the Crouch residence, found and stunned Winky, stunned Crouch senior, woke up junior and cancelled the imperius on him (using Crouch senior's wand), and stunned him again. Then he turned himself invisible and popped off with Crouch junior.

1986-03-03 14:00 UTC, Ministry of Magic, Minister's office

Amelia, Shacklebolt, and Robards barged into the minister's office. Malfoy and Fudge jumped, recovered after a second or two, and let fly.

"How dare you barge in on a private meeting. This is the first time I have seen any of you behave like this, what is the meaning of this?", shouted Fudge.

Amelia was not the kind to be impressed by the likes of Fudge. "Well this is the first time we ever received word that the Phantom would be here. He apparently doesn't like your ilk, Malfoy, so perhaps you should leave; why give him a chance?", she taunted.

Malfoy gave her a dark look. "So where is this Phantom", he sneered.

At that precise moment, Hobby - invisible - popped in with Crouch junior to just outside the minister's door. He opened the door, shoved Crouch junior in, then quickly moved off to a corner to watch.

1986-03-04 08:00 UTC, Ministry of Magic, Wizengamot meeting room

For the second time in a week, the room was packed. And for the second time in a week, a death-eater that was thought to be dead, was discovered to be alive.

Junior was a walking talking pile of abusive pureblood arrogance - in fact his language would have given any public latrine an inferiority complex. He had to be repeatedly silenced just so that people could think.

For a lot of others, though, it was the fate of Crouch senior that was more interesting. Here was a man who had been the hard-light's voice (as opposed to the soft-light, like the Weasleys, who much preferred Dumbledore). He was a hard man, honest to the core - it seemed! - and then it turned out he had helped his own son escape from Azkaban?

Unfortunately, Dumbledore was back as the Chief Warlock, since this case had no conflict of interest for him. He started the questioning.

"Barty Crouch junior, you have been found guilty of having escaped Azkaban after having been lawfully sentenced and placed there. How do you plead?"

Junior was, of course, not yet fully recovered, although he was well on the way. He did not know about Fudge's "release all death-eaters" fiasco, so he simply pleaded guilty. However, Malfoy was having none of that. "Chief Warlock, I must register my objection to this. His father needs to be tried for doing this. As for Mr Crouch junior, consider that if he had stayed in prison, he would have been released last month when we discovered what an injustice had been visited upon them."

There was a huge debate about this, but unfortunately, Malfoy won, mainly because Fudge had some discretionary powers and decided Malfoy's logic was sound (though, as before, it was really the sound of Malfoy's galleons!)

So Crouch junior walked free, just like the Lestrange brothers. In fact, even better, because they - along with the others released in mid-January - were still in St. Mungos, recovering. He was actually out on the streets, free as a bird.

And the lingering after-effects of being stunned and mind-controlled had left, leaving just anger to mix with the malice he had always been made of.

Hobby decided enough was enough. The root cause, both times, was Malfoy. It would be very simple to get rid of him - he could even do it himself (and let's face it, even one vision of Malfoy's torture victims would clear away any feelings of guilt).

But he would lose his source of information. Malfoy did not keep any secrets from his wife (as far as Hobby could see), and discussed everything with her, and she would come up with ideas on how to deal with the problem.

This knowledge was something that could not easily be replaced, and he decided not to mess with that unless something really bad happened.

He'd have to eliminate Crouch junior, and the two Lestranges, at least. The sooner the better.

He started making plans.

Curiously, Malfoy did not say a word in favour of Crouch senior at his trial for springing his son and keeping him under the imperius. They gave him 25 years in Azkaban, but Reiter (Sirius's lawyer) jumped up like a rabbit.

"Chief Warlock, if the sentence for escaping Azkaban - as I understand were the orders served on my client by Minister Fudge - is to be put through the veil, regardless of who you are, then any person who helps someone escape has committed a bigger crime. And when that person is widely believed to be a paragon of virtue, head of the DMLE at one point, then he must be held to a higher standard.

Therefore I demand that Crouch senior must be sent through the veil.

Let me also remind people that Crouch did not even give my client a trial. What we are doing here is nothing like what he has done. We have not yet dropped our kidnapping case against the ministry, but since one of the two architects of my client's illegal incarceration is Crouch, we will drop the case if he is sent through the veil right now."

People were a lot more blood-thirsty here than Hobby remembered. He wasn't sure if he had changed something - perhaps indirectly it was him. The more direct cause, he thought, must surely be the release of all those death-eaters. That really seemed to have hardened a lot of attitudes.

Meanwhile, Dumbledore was having none of this; he was all "mercy and second chances". "Mr Reiter, we need to show ourselves to be better than them; there is no need to indulge in petty revenge. What is past is past, please forget it and move on."

"Chief Warlock, this is not about mercy or second chances. This is simply about justice. He has sown, so he should reap.

I leave it to the Ministry if our lawsuit against it should continue or be pulled back."

Really, when you put it like that, there was no option. Reiter could easily pull several inconvenient truths, like rabbits out of a muggle magician's hat, in that trial. The less time Reiter spent in court, the better for all concerned. (Except Reiter's clients of course!)

And so Crouch senior, protesting vehemently about his innocence (how do people do that with a straight face, after all is said and done?) was pushed through the veil.

1986-03-05 15:00 UTC, St. Mungo's

"Name please", said the bored voice, without even looking up.

"Barty Crouch, junior". Then again, I can probably skip the 'junior' now, he reflected.

"Visiting whom?"

"Rudolphus Lestrange and his brother".

She gave him a badge of some kind to pin to his short pocket, saying, "Ward 1, room 12; they appear to be in the same room".

Crouch mumbled something that could, with some imagination, pass for "thanks". His minuscule quota of being nice had been exhausted long ago, and he was itching to lash out with a crucio or two.

Hmm, there's a thought... aren't they also right here? He resolved to find out where they were and see if they could have a... reunion, he smirked to himself.

Now, while it was assumed that the Lestrange brothers were in St Mungo's recovering, only half of that statement was true now. They were indeed still in Mungo's, but they had already recovered enough to go home. They had decided to bide their time for a little while, pretending to still be having some problem or other, so that they could see what they could dig up, catch up on four years of news and events, figure out who could be trusted and who had sold out, etc. The best place for this appeared to be the hospital itself, both because there were several of their own comrades here, as well as because, when not in the middle of a stressful medical procedure, medical staff loved to gossip. Or so it seemed anyway.

So when Crouch walked in to their room, expecting a couple of invalids, he actually found that they were in decent shape, and the three were overjoyed to be together again. It was also amazing how quickly they all realised they were thinking of the same thing: we need to make a statement of some kind. The only question was, how soon, how visible, and so on. Rabastan was inclined to be a little careful, Rudolphus was a little more enthusiastic, and Barty was ready to go right now.

They spent a few minutes mourning Bella, and all agreed that if she were there, there would be no question of waiting; she would go straight up to the Janus Thickey ward and finish the job.

At this point Crouch said he had been considering just that while he was walking up to their ward.

This restarted the debate, and pretty soon they had rabble-roused each other to a high fervour. High enough that they all did go straight to the Janus Thickey ward.

Unfortunately, none of them were in great shape, and their reaction times weren't the best. Still, they could have easily taken down the token auror presence on the ward entry, if they had stuck to normal spells. But Crouch was, as we have already stated, frustrated and itching to lash out, so he started with an unforgivable.

The ward locked down, four more aurors portkey-ed in right behind them and that was that.

Hobby, when he found out about this later, was aghast! He went straight to Nick and Penny.

"I failed! I did not protect the Longbottoms well enough."

"Why do you say that? I would have thought you'd be happy Crouch and company got caught without your involvement!"

"That's not the point. I swore I would not give them even a first chance, and then this happens? I have failed! Maybe I should rethink my plans and just go all Rambo on them - all of them - and be done".

Nick looked at him seriously. "Well, Hobby, you always had that choice, but you chose not to take it. Would you like to remind yourself why?"

Hobby sighed. "Yes yes, I know. Drawing too much attention may magnify any slip ups I make, and in the worst case may directly impact Harry himself".

"But", he continued, "the fact that nothing actually happened to them is just luck; if that moron Crouch had not used an unforgivable, they would have done a lot more damage."

Nick was not seeing it as a failure. Or at least, he was not going to say so. "Hobby, is this part of the blaming yourself for everything that comes from the Harry side of you?"

"I suspect the Dobby part also has some of that, but mainly Harry I guess."

"Look, stop this funk. First, ward the ward!", Penny said brightly, as if she had invented the pun.

It was a measure of how deep Hobby's funk went that he could only manage a weak smile.

"Next, make a list of who else you think are targets or could be targets. Individual families: Tonks, Weasleys, Bones, Longbottoms, Lovegoods, etc. Groups: muggle-borns like the Creeveys. Then buildings: St. Mungos, and you said he hit his old orphanage last time - ward the whole area. Actually, scratch that; I'll get the goblins to do those; it may be too much for one person. And finally, special cases, like Luna's mother."

Hobby had started smiling, and Penny was happy to see that, but she couldn't quite understand specifically what she had said to make him smile.

"You remind me so much of Hermione - making lists is something that is so her!"

That lifted his mood quite a bit. He may be an elf now, and incapable of romantic feelings towards humans, and anyway this Hermione was not his Hermione. But he could at least remember his Hermione affectionately, feel good about it, and - when the time came - treat this Hermione with at least an avuncular form of love.

1986-03-06 07:00 UTC, Ministry of magic, Minister's office

For the second time in less than a month, the pleasing tones of Minister Fudge screaming his guts out filled the halls of the Ministry. And as before, about three-quarters of the people who heard him were hoping he had been hurt in some permanent way.

This time, Shacklebolt and Bones rushed in. And Shacklebolt went straight to the foreheads of the three dead wizards to see if something was written.

Nothing was, though. All there was, was a note, clutched in Crouch's hand, saying "wait for the evening edition of the Prophet. Sincerely, the Phantom".

Well that wasn't going to go down too well. Ministers and heads of the DMLE and auror offices don't like to get their news from the papers; they'd rather it was the other way around.

Bones, meanwhile, ordered Shack and Terrill (a young auror, just joined), to investigate exactly how three under-trials, held in the most secure holding cells they had, guarded with at least two aurors always on duty, were spirited away, killed, and then dumped on the Minister's desk.

(Privately, she didn't care. These people had dared to try and kill Augusta's son and daughter-in-law, and whoever culled them from the herd deserved an award of some kind. She was very surprised that she could think like this - siding with vigilantes! - but in a world where all the political advantages seemed to tilt toward the bad guys, she would take what she could get!)

1986-03-06 08:00 UTC, Ministry of magic, Minister's office

And, as if on cue, Malfoy was there by 8am, making a lot of noise about the Lestranges, and how eliminating an old family completely was apparently worth the veil. He was demanding, loudly and animatedly, that Bones should immediately do something and capture this Phantom.

Bones was having the time of her life. She sneered at him and said, "Malfoy, I think you are top of his list now, but if it makes you feel any better, he thinks you're more valuable alive than dead. I'm not sure why, maybe it's the comedy value of watching you go apoplectic with rage every time he kills one of your death-eater buddies, or destroys something of yours."

Malfoy was incensed. She has been taking pot-shots at me since her failed attempt to arrest Black, he thought.

And while the things she said that day were are least rooted in advice, this one was a pure taunt with no redeeming value, and seemed to have no other purpose than to laugh at him.

Well, it's funny how the most stoic Slytherin has a weak spot that breaks down their stoicism; in Malfoy's case that was being laughed at.

And he made his first, big, mistake. A really big one.

He pulled his wand on Amelia.

Now, the DMLE was an interesting organisation. Amelia Bones was the head, but she had risen from the ranks and considered herself perfectly able to defend herself. But the ranks loved her so much - taking over as she did after Crouch (internal code name: Grouch) - that the aurors, by unwritten agreement, had decided there would always be someone with her. Despite her orders saying she did not need a bodyguard.

This time it was Robards.

Robards, standing right next to Bones, fired off an exploding hex at Malfoy's wrist, then followed it up with a cauterising spell. Well, the first was standard procedure, the second was only required by the auror corps' field manual if the recipient of the exploding hex was in danger of bleeding out before he or she could be taken to St. Mungo's.

That was clearly not the case here, but Robards claimed he got confused and panicked, and there was nothing anyone could really do about that.

(The few people who knew that the last time Robards had panicked was - well, never, actually! - got a big laugh out of this. By a complete coincidence, utterly unrelated to this appalling tragedy, Bones stood drinks that evening for anyone on the auror force who could make it to the pub they all frequented.)

1986-03-06 17:00 UTC, anywhere in magical UK

Witches and wizards were staring dumb-struck at their newspaper. Never had they seen something so... frank and unvarnished! Rita Skeeter's lead article was simply a letter from the Phantom, printed as-is, no editing (or editorialising!) It read,

I am sorry to say that things have not changed much. Yes, the six whose manors were burnt down have stopped imprisoning and torturing muggles and muggle-born, but now I am thinking - perhaps I was too specific?

Let's recap. Lucius Malfoy gets his buddy Fudge to release a dozen death-eater chums, and before they're supposed to be recovered, two of them start killing people again!

Lucius Malfoy argues that someone who was sprung from Azkaban should be allowed to go free, and he joins the above-mentioned two criminals.

Finally, the only person Lucius Malfoy tries to argue is a genuine death-eater, and tries to put him through the veil, Sirius Black, turns out to be innocent of everything, as conclusively proven in public.

I already told you I will be taking the law into my own hands, and I explained why. Fudge letting Crouch junior go was the absolute last straw, and I am upping the ante.

So here's the deal: any one with a dark mark on his arm so much as sneezes in the direction of someone who does not have one, I will kill him, any other death-eater with him at the time I find him, plus Lucius, Narcissa, and Fudge. Why Narcissa, you might ask? Because she is the one who tells him what to do, gives him ideas, and works out how best to use a given situation to their advantage!

Again, please note what I said carefully: if even ONE death eater does something nasty to someone I consider innocent, these three will also die!

Oh and Madam Bones, I am still waiting for you to kick that corrupt bastard out and become minister, so I can stop doing all this!

The Phantom.

PS: Malfoy: I just found out you tried to curse the head of the DMLE right in front of the Minister. I'll let that one go, because it happened before you got this letter. Oh and could you please tell Cissy Bella is waiting for someone to make a wrong move so she can join her!

The fact that he had permanently lost his wand hand was not mentioned.