Chapter 27
When Draco arrived on scene, he really wasn't all that sure what he should have been expecting. On one hand, he was extremely terrified that there would be a lot of property damage for him to deal with, alongside several injuries, and possibly even a death count starting due to the riot.
But he was sincerely hoping that it was nothing more than a bunch of idiots running around yelling in protest about the Magical world taking advantage of everyone like a bunch of lunatics. And if he were extremely lucky, the ones in charge would be involved as well, and he would be able to haul all of them off to Azkaban, then boom, case shut.
Because all he wanted to do was be at home with Hermione and Scorpius, and the rest of his weird new surrogate family. In another version of events, he could have been dating the now mother of his child, and they could have been well on their way of becoming a family.
Not that he would trade having Scorpius in his life. The little boy had brought in hope to his life when he was so sure there was none left for him. But that didn't mean he didn't wish the circumstances were somehow different.
So when Draco arrived on scene, after getting the message when he was in at work, he and several other Aurors immediately grabbed their wands and apparated to the site of the riot, ready to face whatever was thrown at him.
The first thing he noticed was the streets outside the Ministry of Magic was not apocalyptic. The sky was not dark as spells were being cast left and right with no sense of direction. There weren't bodies littering the hard stone ground with mangled parts and missing limbs. There were no screams of terror from innocent civilians who were caught in the line of fire.
Yet it was not the light scene of simple yelling he had been wanting it to be.
Instead, there was a large group of a hundred or so witches and wizards, cloaked so their faces were masked. And they were chanting in unison, demanding truth and justice. They were demanding a change. Yet it was not all that calm. There was a tension in the air, and Draco could tell that initially they weren't called on scene to use force to put an end to it, but they were here to see if they could peacefully end it. Plus if Draco could somehow figure out who the ring leader was, and bring them in, that would definitely be a positive.
However looking onto the crowd, there was no sign of anyone being a particular leader, or that it was simply a crowd following one person. Instead, they stood together like a crowd, united. And when there was a change in the phrase they were using, it was somehow as if they were picking up on the cues of the situation and changing together.
He could tell that the protest was gathering a large crowd of people watching on, wanting to see what happened, but also out of curiosity about the entire situation. It wasn't every day that a group of people gathered like this in an attempt to spread their words of poison and falsities. Which was half the reason it was so important to put an end to the protest, and to do it soon.
The group was already far larger than he could have anticipated. It seemed that while he and the rest of his team were busy trying to find out who was responsible for the events of the future, the other side was hard at work spreading their lies and recruiting others to join their cause.
Draco moved into position as part of protocol for this sort of mass gathering situation, alongside the rest of his Aurors. The trick was to assert dominance, yet not pose a threat.
He stepped forward as he began to talk to those beside him, as the other Aurors started to do as well.
"I'm going to need you to either remove the hood or to leave the scene," Draco commanded with a firm voice. "You cannot be here."
"And what are you going to do about it?" one of the protesters, a male, said with a firm voice. "Arrest me?"
"I'll give you one more chance," Draco repeated. "Then yes, I'm going to have to bring you in."
"Let's just go, Julian," a female said as she yanked her hood off. She looked young, like she was fresh out of Hogwarts. So what was she doing at a protest like this? "It's not worth ruining our futures for something we barely believe in."
The male looked conflicted, but at her insistence as she pulled him out of the crowd, he slowly followed.
"We're not doing anything wrong!" the next female he approached angrily protested. "We're fighting for our rights to demand a change. And seeing how the Ministry barely listens to us as it is, don't you see how you're giving in to them? You are part of the problem! We need to demand it together. The more of us who ask for change, the harder it is for them to sweep us under the rug."
"If you're going to stay, then you need to pull off your hood," Draco said. "It's easy to resort to mob violence when you can't be identified. If something happens and this escalades, then the responsible parties need to be brought in. It's simply a safety precaution for everyone."
"Gobshite," the male voice from beside her spat out, "We all know it's simply because you want to know who to bring in after all of this. When you see our faces, you know exactly who we are. Sure, protesting peacefully isn't a crime, but that doesn't mean that you can't pin some other shite on us."
Draco wanted to burst into laughter at how ridiculous they were being. Did they honestly believe what they were spewing out, or was it what they were brainwashed to say in retaliation before they arrived on scene?
"You want to talk about people manipulating you? Look what side you're on. The person who claims to be trying to help all of you, is really manipulating you in an attempt to bring down the government so they can take over. They're playing you," Draco tried to explain.
"Wait is that true?" a female asked as she pushed forward.
"Of course it's not true," the same male said, but Draco could tell that he was starting to sound uncertain.
Draco looked over to see how the other Aurors were holding up, and to his dismay, they seemed to be doing no better than he was. Sure, a handful or so of people were leaving the scene, but the majority of them were staying and ignoring the Aurors attempt of causing peace.
"Whatever guys," the second female said again, "I'm out."
"What are you doing, Kaleigh?" the man asked, grabbing her wrist. "Do you really want these Ministry losers to win? We need to fight up for our chance to change things."
"Let me go, Mark," she pulled away, as she left the scene.
"Do you mean it?" the first woman asked again, "Is that what all of this is about? Some lunatic trying to bring down the Ministry so he or she can be in charge?"
He nodded, "I'm afraid so."
She sighed as she discretely pushed a sheet of paper into his hand, "Contact me," she whispered to him, "I'll tell you everything you want to know."
"WE WANT A CHANGE," the shouting got louder as those remaining began to raise their wands into the air, causing Draco to push the girl gently to the side, so she could leave before things got worse. Their wands began to glow white as the light pulsed into the air. He could hear shouts from the bystanders as it caused lighting to being striking down on several spots, narrowly missing where people were standing.
The Aurors began pushing forward, trying to dissipate the crowd before they caused someone to get hurt, yet they were barely able to make it past the first few lines of people. The group had their wands raised still as the continued to pulse shots into the air, changing the sky to a glowing orange colour form the amount of magic being emitted simultaneously.
"You need to stop!" Draco tried to shout out to the crowd, "You don't know the truth!"
But the crowd ignored him as they continued pulsing light into the air. He could see lightning strike a nearby post, causing it to shatter to several pieces. It was only a matter of time before a pulse hit a person, causing their death. Turning to the bystanders, he could already see them fleeing out of fear, and he felt a small amount of relief knowing they would hopefully be out of the way if the current situation escalated any further.
"This needs to end," an Auror nearby said as he tried to charge forward into the crowd, trying to break into it and disrupt the protest. However the crowd did not break formation as they instead pushed him straight back to the outside, and causing him to fall onto his arse.
BRING BACK THE COUNCIL!" the crowd changed their chant. The pulse from their wands turned to a purple colour as rain began pouring down from the sky. He quickly casted a water repelling charm on his body, so it would not provide a distraction from the task on hand.
As the rain came down harder, he noticed more Aurors charge around him, filling in the gaps, to make their numbers more evenly matched. They were armed with their wands, yet also had some magic repellant cloaks on, ready for what was to come next.
"Give this up!" he heard a voice boom out. He looked up to see Kingsley standing there, with an amplifying charm on his voice. "There are other ways to get what you want. If you want a change, follow the protocol. Submit your request to the Wizengamot, and if it is reasonable we will pass it. That is how we've been proceeding for the last few centuries. And that is how we will continue to do so. But acts of terror like this only harm others. If you really want a change because you think our system is corrupt, then maybe you should take a long hard look at yourselves."
Draco could tell the energy of the crowd was slowly reducing as the Minister of Magic took the stage and began to talk to them with his words and using logic which seemed to get to them more than anything they had tried to this point.
"So your precious council can reject our suggestions without a second thought?" a robotic voice coming from the centre of the crowd sneered. Draco was assuming that it was their leader speaking, trying to mask their identity through charms, "The only way to end corruption is to strike it down the entire tree from the root."
It happened so quickly; before Draco could even tell what was happening. Kingsley must have been caught off guard as he seemed to have no idea either where the person speaking from the crowd was located.
All Draco really saw from it was while the rest of the wands were still lit purple, one of them shifted to a blue colour, and instead of hitting the sky like before, it seemed to be travelling straight to the Minister.
What happened next made the world seem as if it was spinning slower. The crowd clearly didn't expect Kinglsey to have been injured. And when he fell to the floor of the balcony he had been standing on, it was a changing point for the majority of the people in the crowd. Suddenly, as the Aurors began charging forward in an attempt to bring in as many people as they could, chaos began to ensue, as the crowd began to apparate away from the scene. An anti-apparation charm was quickly put up, however it was too late as the majority were gone.
Draco charged forward, trying to go after the person in the centre of it all. But instead of apparating away despite how easily they could have done so before, they simply leered over at him, before sauntering away
He sped up after the perpetrator, who from the body structure he assumed to be male. But there were still far too many people in the way. Draco pushed by them, chasing after the man who he deemed to be responsible, trying to find out who it was.
If only he could get close enough to see the person; then maybe he could recognize a distinguishing feature so they could finally end this once and for all.
As Draco ran through the crowd of people, he saw the man go around a corner into an alley way, and Draco sped up his pace, trying not to lose him.
He could feel his heart beating in his chest, as he knew he was getting closer. When he swung around the corner, he stopped dead in his tracks, as he was met with a dead end.
"Dammit," Draco swore. The man he had been following must have made it just far enough out of the anti-apparation zone. Hell, he probably ran this far simply to toy with him.
As he looked back to where the crowd had been, he couldn't help but wonder what had happened and f Kingsley was okay. He just hoped it wouldn't be too late, and that their side wouldn't have been faced with their first casualty.
Hermione was pacing back and forth. It had been a few hours since the boys had gone off once receiving news about the protest, and all she had was a quickly scribbled note from Ron that Kingsley had been admitted to the hospital.
She wanted to go straight to St. Mungos to see if he was okay, but Ginny was firmly refusing to let her leave. She insisted that Hermione was still recovering and that if she went, she wouldn't be allowed take a shift yet as she hadn't been cleared yet. And that Scorpius still needed her, and if something happened to her because she wasn't fully recovered, he wouldn't be able to handle it.
She knew that logically nothing would happen to her because her life had never been in danger anyways, but she remembered the look on her son's face when she was admitted to the hospital.
Plus she barely knew how Draco was, and if something happened to him as well, Scorpius definitely would not be able to handle it.
Hermione tried not to think about the fact that if something happened to Draco, she probably would not be able to handle it either.
So she continued to pace back and forth, because it was the only thing that she could do.
When she heard the floo activate, she all but ran over to see Draco standing there, looking exhausted. His face was dirty and his hair out of place.
Hermione all but launched herself into his arms, as she wrapped her own around his neck and held him closely.
"I thought something happened to you," she said in a shaky voice. "I didn't hear a single thing, and I had no way of knowing if you were alive or if you were dead, and did you know what that did to me?"
He looked surprised, but his eyes softened at that as he held her tightly, "I'm okay, Hermione," he insisted. "A few Aurors were injured in the protest, but it's nothing serious."
"And Kinglsey?" she asked, staying close to him. She refused to let go until she was ready.
"I don't know," Draco admitted, "He was unconscious when I left St Mungos, but I asked Harry to let us know the moment anything changes."
"So it was all for nothing?" she couldn't help but ask, "You could have been hurt because of a stupid protest gone awry? You all could have been!"
He had a strange look in his eyes, as he cupped her face and tilted her face forward. He had a questioning look on his face, and she felt the breath catch in her throat. She saw warmth in his actions, and all of a sudden it was like everything she had been trying to deny for so long was now being shoved in her face, making it hard for her to ignore.
So she leaned in, about to kiss him, as he moved in to do the same thing. As their lips were about to touch, they jumped apart as Harry's voice carried through the house.
When Harry came into the room, he looked at the both of them suspiciously, but didn't say a thing.
"How's Kinglsey?" she asked her friend, a little embarrassed that he nearly caught her about to kiss his partner, and that she nearly kissed his partner.
"He's going to be okay," he told her softly. "The spell was an offensive one, and it could have been lethal if it hit him square in the chest, but lucky for us it just grazed him."
"Thank Merlin!" she exclaimed, as she sighed with relief. Draco shifted uncomfortably beside her, and she found herself unable to breathe at his presence. She needed air and space.
"Well if that's all for the night, I think I'm going to get some rest," Hermione said quickly as she practically ran out of the room. She could tell Draco wanted to try and talk to her, but she didn't give him time to say a word.
For a woman whose entire life revolved around rationality and thoughts, Hermione Granger refused to think about what nearly happened a few moments ago, and what could have happened had Harry not interrupted them.