A Calm Mind Prevails
July 17th
10:21pm
Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire
Voldemort
All had turned to his favour, besides the remnant loyalists that made nuisances of themselves, Britain was his. The combined forces of Dark wizards, witches and creatures were too mighty to be overcome by the rabble left in the wake of his attacks and the populace that hadn't feld immediately were either paralysed by fear or smart enough to keep their heads down.
'I could not have hoped for a smoother transition, it would only have been more complete if the aurors had been crushed on Azkaban… no matter.'
"..minimal losses we incurred at Azkaban. The trainees are still on the mainland and have been tasked to cross the channel in case of ICW interference." The head of the Giant's fist, Lukas Waters, must have been reporting on the cost of the Azkaban battle, much of his force had been involved in the first phase of puncturing a hole in the defences, as such they were relatively uncontested considering they got the drop on the ministry.
"And will we be expected to pay these trainees in full?" This question came from the son of Avery senior, Tiberius Avery, who had inherited his fathers frugal mind but not his diplomatic prowess. With the… unfortunate end his father had met at the hands of either Potter or Greengrass, the boy wished to prove himself.
Lukas gave the boy the blank stare of a man not above murder, however the boy would not be cowed, whether by bravery or foolishness he met the look head on. "The trainees," Lukas began with a modest amount of anger in his voice, "are worth ten of you, child."
"My allegiance is not bartered with," Avery said as he stood with a superior expression. "Last I checked, naught by ten is still naught."
"Tiberius," Lord Voldemort intervened with a tone implying a warning to behave, "you toe the line of my patience." Avery humbled himself quickly and sat back down in his seat without another glance at Waters. Voldemort however, focused his attention on the big Scandinavian man, "Lukas, perhaps Avery could duel one of these trainees, if he fails to defeat the person of your choice, we shall pay them in full. If not, then a reduced fee will be negotiated."
Lukas smiled at the proposal, "ja, this is acceptable."
"Good, please take your seat," the Dark Lord was polite but it was clear he wasn't asking. Once Waters had complied, he turned to his most loyal servant, Severus Snape. "Severus, have you taken control of Hogwarts yet?"
Snape, with his usual deadpan face, answered swiftly and precisely. "The castle is under your control, my lord. The teachers have been… most cooperative in this transition."
"Truly?" Voldemort asked with unabashed surprise, not expecting the likes of McGonagall to be submissive so quickly.
Snape's mouth twitched downwards before he continued, "the Carrows have proven persuasive enough that any rebellious activity is minimal and the culprits are soon flushed out for fear of collective punishment."
Voldemort smiled a toothy smile, one that looked uniquely unnatural on his misshapen face. "It seems my suggestion was prudent then?"
Snape bowed his head almost imperceptibly, "indeed, my lord."
"This is good news," Voldemort now said, addressing the long black marble table his most loyal sat at, "with the country's future at our mercy, the remaining rats will hesitate to cause disruption."
A failed choked back cough broke the momentum that Voldemort had been trying to create causing nearly all at the table to stare at the source. Pius Thicknesse, the man handed the Minister of Magic office, was fumbling with something in his jacket pocket, all the while being oblivious to the stares and pitying looks of his 'colleagues.'
"Pius," Voldemort almost whispered, containing his rage to sate his curiosity, "do you have something to share?"
Thicknesse looked up from his mad scramble to hide whatever it was in his jacket to finally realise his predicament. With wide, terrified eyes he subconsciously flicked them about, trying to find an escape from the situation before controlling his nerves enough to speak. "Um… there's been a small uh… issue at the ministry."
Voldemort's eyes narrowed and he rose from his high-backed chair, "what kind of issue?"
July 17th
9:42pm
Ministry of Magic, London
Daphne
For a long time she wondered how exactly any of the stories that floated around Hogwarts about Harry could have possibly been true. In her first few years, she could barely sneak out of the dorm without being seen, let alone the entire castle. But now, having gotten used to the invisibility cloak, it was safe to say the mystery had been solved.
Sure, they were only dealing with the night shift in the atrium, but the simplicity of just sneaking right past felt much too easy. Tonks, who was in the form of a scrawny male janitor, had walked right up to the two 'aurors' on duty and told some bs story about leaving her credentials in the Leaky cauldron and waltzed right on through as well.
'Let us hope it is their arrogance that made this so easy and not some elaborate trap to cripple the resistance.'
Tonks barked some kind of farewell in a ridiculously embellished Irish accent and walked away from the guard stand. Daphne fell in step behind her, tapping her hand twice to let her know she was through as well. The group had taken convincing, but just because Harry was captured didn't mean they could let up, thus their presence in the ministry and soon a whole host of other places.
"What in the merlin is that?" Tonks whispered, disgust laden in her voice.
As they progressed through the atrium they had reached the new monument that had been erected in the wake of Scrimengour's removal. A huge marble statue depicting a wizard standing on a platform, crushing a various array of magical creatures from elves to goblins to centaurs. An ugly summation of the pureblood fanaticism, presented in a heightened form of grandeur suitable for elitist old men.
She didn't answer Tonks' question, for she couldn't get over the shame that she was related to the people who erected the abomination. Instead they continued on in silence, through the atrium and onto the elevators at the far side. They reached a line of ten elevators, some going to specific departments, and Tonks pressed the button on one of the elevators on the far right. From reading the signs above the lifts, this elevator only went to floors five and six, their target was on the sixth. Being just after closing time, the elevator didn't take long to arrive, nor was it packed to the brim of sweaty middle aged people racing to their desks.
"If only it were so easy every day," Tonks muttered as she pressed the right button. "You all good?"
"All good," Daphne whispered back. She reached into her back pocket and pulled a galleon out, a galleon enchanted by Hermione Granger to communicate across the country. "Sending the signal now to prepare for the attack." She held the coin in front of her and willed the side of it to say 'get ready' just as the ding for the elevator reaching its floor went off.
A feminine voice rang out and said, "Department of Magical Transport," as the metal doors pulled open to reveal the office that controlled all magical transport in the country.
Daphne took the invisibility cloak off and stood straighter now that she didn't have to crouch to conceal herself. "Lead on," she said to Tonks. Unfamiliar with the layout of the department, Daphne had no idea where to look for what she was trying to find. Tonks, on the other hand, dealt with this place on the regular.
"It's up the back, green door."
To say it was disconcerting to see Tonks in the form of a man would be only half true. The rational part of her mind knew that under the stubble that the heart faced auror was still there. But reconciling the forms she took with the main one she occupied proved an odd challenge. The trust was still there though, without a second thought she began scanning the area Tonks had pointed out and sure enough a green door could be seen at the back of the office suite.
They advanced swiftly, much of their plan relied on speed above all else so they couldn't afford to delay. Each cubicle was passed faster than the last until they reached the door of note with the name 'Floo system,' engraved on a brass plate beside it. Daphne took the lead this time, hovering her wand over the handle to check for any alarm wards and, finding none, twisted it and entered the room.
It was like nothing she'd ever seen before, the outer edges of the room had tables and files but the centre was empty besides a web of green lines forming connections and interlocking with one another seemingly at random. The web didn't spin but instead remained oddly still and whilst many of the points at which lines intersect remained unnamed, some carried names such as 'Ministry,' 'Hogwarts,' and 'St Mungo's.'
Brought to a standstill by the spectacle, Daphne caught herself and stepped to the side for Tonks to gain entry. She didn't waste any time and instantly took her place for the plan. Daphne brought the coin out again and changed the message to 'now' and waited with bated breath.
One heartbeat…
Two..
'Arrived.'
Once the reply was visible she nodded to Tonks who aimed her wand at the point that was labelled 'Ministry' and cast "praudere atemp." All aurors were given access to such a spell in the case of a ministry incursion as it locked down a floo system until such time the counter is cast. For the time being, the ministry was on lockdown, with only two defenders left to put up a fight.
Tonks scrunched up her face and her normal look returned. Daphne gave her a questioning glance which Tonks answered. "It messes up my balance," she explained a little defensively before asking, "phase two?"
Daphne didn't reply again, instead she spun on her heel and made for the elevators they came in from. The new target was on level two, where they would ransack the auror headquarters for all the valuable information they could find and leave with a nice finishing touch. She got on first and pressed the ground floor button and held onto the provided handle just in time for the elevator to lurch downwards, back towards the atrium.
Tonks struggled not to fall on her arse as the lift came to a sudden stop, spitting out in the same sweet feminine voice from before, 'atrium.' The second the gates opened the pair were met with ten wands pointed in their direction, owned by their comrades and allies selected for the mission.
Tonks raised her hands into the air and asked cheekily, "gee Madeye, gonna curse your best student?"
Daphne remained impassive, this theatre was wasting time and she preferred to get along with the plan. "Any trouble?" she asked, directed at Moody, as she completely ignored the wands and walked out of the elevator.
"None, all teams made it to their destinations." Moody's staff and stump clacked against the tiles, criminally contrasting with the small army of footsteps that were happening simultaneously. "Good work with the floo, we'll handle the HQ whilst you two head on."
Daphne nodded and waited with everyone else at the left side of the lift line for the ones that went to the first few levels. There were three for these levels, which made sense considering the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was the largest of all the departments, with several sub-departments integrated in. The lifts came to a stop together, with four people now piling on each one the fit was a little more snug this time. Moody and Kingsley joined the pair and they all took the journey in silence.
The doors opened and they exited into a curving corridor, lined with old wooden doors on either side. The group stepped out of the elevators and made their way to the right, passing several of the doors labelled various departments within the D.M.L.E. until they reached a set of stately wooden doors which could only be auror headquarters. The aurors rushed in and Daphne caught a glimpse of a sea of cubicles before the doors shut in their wake, leaving only Moody and Kingsley to touch base with Daphne.
"We won't be long," Daphne told the two, "you lot have got until we get back to scoop up anything valuable and then we're leaving."
"I'll get 'em going, you two hurry," Moody said with a sadistic glint in his eye. Whatever he was going to do to get those aurors moving Daphne didn't care, as long as they maximised the time they had, that was what mattered.
Daphne and Tonks took off in a brisk walk down the corridor, Tonks once again knew where she was going so she took point. She came to a stop at a door near the end of the corridor, derelict it may have been, but what lay beyond was immeasurably valuable.
"No wards on this one," Tonks remarked as she saw Daphne go to check, "the bloody thing would scream."
Before Daphne could ask what that meant, Tonks bashed open the door and pieces of wood splintered off of it as it slammed into the wall inside. This office was much smaller than many of the others Daphne had seen, only a single desk sat in the room with a machine on its top. A small box with parchment sticking out of it held a crystal in the side of it, the crystal itself was engraved with runes Daphne could vaguely recognise. They were old, some of them were used by druids in the dark ages of Britain but others were from Rome, she didn't understand enough of them to paint a clear picture but she knew what the machine was.
"I had the same look," Tonks commented with false nonchalance at Daphne's confusion, "but this box here… this is the trace." Tonks leaned on the wall and pointed at the crystal, "this thingo detects the magic somehow, sends the information into the machine which then prints out the information." She scratched her head and continued, "kinda like that muggle computoid–"
"I know what a computoid is," Daphne took her eyes off of it and looked at Tonks seriously. "Why is it not more heavily guarded?" The question had come to her as Tonks waved off her concerns about the wards, surely Voldemort would want it protected if he was using it as a way to catch trouble makers.
"Something to do with modern magic interfering with the crystal's ability to detect stuff, the wards around the ministry are old so it's got no problem there but anything from the last hundred years screws it up if it's too close." Tonks wasn't exactly the best person to ask about the intricacies of ancient magic but, when it came down to it, it didn't really matter anymore.
'Bugger me, why can a plan never just go perfectly well. What does it say about me that the only plan that's gotten close to perfect was murdering a professor…'
Daphne drew her wand and took aim at the crystal, seconds later a blasting hex crossed the distance and the crystal burst in a shower of shards. "You're right," she responded monotonously, "it doesn't respond well to modern magic."
Tonks' comedic look of utter shock preceded her equally hilarious outburst. "What have you done? That thing was nearly a thousand years old!" Tonks stepped forward slightly and searched for the possibility of repairing the, apparently, millennia old artefact. "The plan was to reprogram it, not blow it to a thousand little pieces!"
"Plan changed," Daphne replied ruthlessly. She waved her wand and the remaining box, impaled with crystal shards, came alight by Daphne's wordless fire spell. "We can't take it back to the chateau and use it because the wards we placed last year would interfere with it, nor can we leave it here for Voldemort to erase whatever programming we do because things go back to normal. This way, he can't use it and that saves lives."
Tonks' wide eyes flickered left and right as she took in the information Daphne had just shared only for them to stop and become downcast as she sighed. "Bloody hell," she looked at Daphne and said, "you're mental… you know that right?"
Daphne couldn't help but see a resemblance of Harry in Tonks at that moment. 'He used to be so surprised by my decisive nature, it may be that there is some truth in her words.' She furrowed her brow as she cleared her thoughts roughly, she couldn't give herself the luxury of thinking about him right now, it slows her down and makes her vulnerable in more ways than one.
Instead she replied to Tonks with a mere, "perhaps," before motioning for her to lead the way out of the room. The aurors met them in the corridor, resizing the final boxes of files to make them portable and putting them in their robes. If Moody's grim smirk was anything to go by, they had a good haul coming back with them. It wouldn't just be files though, many of the aurors present and back at camp asked for photos of loved ones and significant paraphernalia to be brought back with them. They were in for a burst of information and morale, just on time. They had scored a victory that day and yet Daphne couldn't help but feel it was hollow, for without Harry Potter, she lost more and more of herself each day.
July 18th
5:21am
Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire
Harry
Everything ached, not a single nerve was spared with the cruciatus curse and so Harry was experiencing the after tremors literally all over. Every few seconds a cool breeze would blow through the cells sparking another wave of discomfort that had him shivering and wincing.
Yet his spirit remained strong, if only for the glimpse of hope he had discovered in the past twenty four hours. Voldemort, in his hubris, had assumed he couldn't do wandless magic, Voldemort was right, in a sense, he couldn't do wandless magic at the moment, but all of the components were there. Harry did his best not to waste a moment of his time in between the interrogations, calming his mind and looking inward towards his own magic.
He wouldn't call his positioning traditional, head tilted back and leaned up against a stone wall, but he was low on options. He closed his eyes despite the discomfort and focused on the flow of his magic. What fascinated him most was that even though he was physically very weak, his magic still maintained its strength as though it were any other day. He listened closely, determined to hear the way the magic sung when it flowed back and forth through his body.
He had thought connecting with his magic was powerful before, but now, with the leech removed, he couldn't fully describe the way it made him feel. Euphoria came close, not the overwhelming kind though, more just the surety in what he was doing was right. He reached deep, immersing himself fully in the back and forth of his magic, revelling in the feeling of it being washed over him. Subconsciously his arm extended, palm up as he searched in his mind for the right spell to try first. In the end it was obvious, nothing was simpler than the one he had in mind and he hoped and prayed that this would work first try otherwise it could be a while until he could break out. So, with everything in place and the spell in mind, he focused his intent and thought the word;
'Lumos.'
His prayers were answered, his luck was tallied and spent and brought forth from his hands, a small ball of light formed before his eyes. He could only celebrate in his mind though, for footsteps were fast approaching down the staircase to his left. His keen ear told him that his ex Potion's professor was his next visitor, likely bringing the first dose of sorely needed meds to prolong his ordeal.
The cell popped open and the door screeched as the rusted hinges grated against each other. Harry had been leaning against the back wall for most of the night, but for Snape, he made a special effort to present the remnants of his physical strength. He sat cross legged with his back straight and gave the worst stink eye he could muster to the least likeable man in his life.
"Pathetic," was all Snape offered to his efforts as he crouched down and pulled various vials from his robes. "Do you understand why you're still alive?"
"Potter charm."
"Stupid boy," Snape growled at him, halting his inspection of one of the vials to scold him. "The Dark Lord thinks you weak, days from breaking. As long as that prophecy sits in your head he will try to keep you alive here."
Harry leaned back onto the wall and sighed, "to your great amusement, I'm sure."
Snape glared at him and handed over a maroon potion. Harry took it and drank it freely, if it killed him then Voldemort would kill Snape so win-win really. But what Snape said as he drank the potion confused him thoroughly. Snape leaned in and whispered, "there are always two guards at the top of the stairs."
Harry sputtered as he choked on some of the potion and coughed out, "what?"
Snape pulled out his wand and ran it down just above his skin on his arms and legs, not answering Harry's question. "The nerve damage will be alleviated by this," he said, handing over a green potion. Harry gave him the side eye before downing the potion that tasted like grass in one go. As Snape held one of the bottles to the moonlight he muttered, "take a right into the gardens."
'You gormless git, you meddling old fart,' Harry thought angrily, 'one final moment being the puppeteer, you couldn't help yourself.' Of course, Dumbledore engineered his death, he might have come to that conclusion himself but he'd been ridiculously busy being tortured since the death he hadn't even had a chance to think about Snape.
"Focus," Snape commanded as he handed over another potion, purple and extremely thick thus time. "That one will help with the tremors andhugging the wall until you reach the hedge."
"Sounds magical," Harry sarcastically replied, fighting the urge to gag when the heavy liquid assaulted his throat. "Nothing will stop it after that's done?"
"No," Snape answered, momentarily surprised he was capable of subtlety, "you will be… free to live longer."
Snape stood without another word and turned his back on the boy-who-looks-like-his-father and contemplated the consequences of his actions. Harry gave him no peace of mind and did something he never thought he'd be capable of doing.
"Snape," he hoarsely addressed the cloaked man, receiving only a twitch of his head to indicate he was listening, "thanks for trying."
Snape didn't move, didn't speak, didn't even breathe it seemed. He just stood there, his cloak flowing slightly with the light breeze, until he raced out of the cell like a man on fire. Harry couldn't care in the slightest, for now he had a plan to end his torment, a way out. And he was damned sure going to make that plan a reality.
An: Hello! We are back with another chapter, a little bit of world building in this one which is always fun. I wanna thank everyone for their engagement on the past two, I seem to be hitting milestone after milestone and I'm loving this new flux of reviews!
Pleasantries over, serious author face on now to the reflection. If anyone can remember, Avery was the bloke on the receiving end of blasting curses on either side of him which pretty much squashed him like a bug. Pretty gruesome aye, I've gotten some reviews expressing concern and shock at the deaths in this haha. Snape's stuff is canon rehashing and Pius is screwed no doubt. Lukas Waters will have a bigger role to play in this one… I think.
Daphne hits them where it hurts. I'm enjoying writing this dynamic with Tonks and Daphne, Tonks who's a little more goofy and Daphne is probably at her worst mentally right now. We might see some cracks and a budding friendship… ikr Daphne having friends she doesn't plan to use somehow? Crazy. You'll hear more about the other attacks in the next chapter.
The way I imagined the floo system actually comes with some lore. The floo system was created but people were concerned with the ministry shutting down their private properties so it was made illegal to mark privately owned floo fireplaces in the network, only public places could be marked and regulated. Thus the web points remain unmarked for all of the manors and shops and that.
Praudere is "to stop" and ad tempus is "for a time" so I sorta squished them together for the lockdown spell.
The trace though, that one is completely made up too. I don't actually know how it works in canon and I don't think JKR does either (would anyone be surprised) so I just free-balled it. Having Tonks there to explain it honestly allowed me to be a little lazy cause if its two characters who don't really understand it then I don't even need to understand it.
Was just havin a bit of fun with the "computoid" comment, they were still developing in importance for the muggle world and Daphne is a pureblood/Tonks has been living as a magical.
Next up: Pulling a GRRM
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All the best everyone :)