"I hereby call to order this emergency meeting of the Wizengamot." Dumbledore said in a loud voice as he banged his gavel on the desk. He had been reinstated into his role as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot after Voldermort appearance at the ministry during the battle at the Department of Mysteries.
After successfully convincing Amelia Bones to take over the position of minister of magic, he had called for an emergency meeting of the Wizengamot to address Voldermort's latest attack on the Ministry of Magic and the death of the Minister. He had also gone around to all his allies and called in favors to ensure they had the necessary votes to get Amelia into the seat of Minister.
The most important faction he had to convince was the neutrals led by the Greengrass family Patriarch, Damian Greengrass. The neutral faction controled 42 votes. While they didn't have the number of votes the progressive and traditional factions had, their support was needed to declare a state of emergency and appoint an interim minister without a public election. To declare a state of emergency and appoint an interim minister, two-third of the active votes in the Wizengamot was needed. Neither the progressive nor the traditional faction had the votes to pull it off alone so they needed the co-operation of the neutrals.
Dumbledore had to make several concessions to Damian Greengrass to get his support in the Wizengamot. Damian Greengrass was a very shrewd negotiator. He had built the Greengrass fortune and elevated their standing in the British Wizarding society since he took over the family leadership 30 years ago. He had expanded the families fortune by making smart investments in Agriculture, potion supplies and fashion. The Greengrass were the largest importer of food into Wizarding Britain.
The chambers of the Wizengamot an imposing and intimidating place. It had thick stone walls, a black marble floor with high ceilings, even the lightest footsteps reverberated around the circular room. The Wizengamot was the most full it had been in a while despite it being an emergency meeting. The only absent members were those that had been captured as death eaters such as Lucius Malfoy. They were wanted criminals and the aurors were actively looking for them so their seats on the Wizengamot were inactive and empty.
The members of the Wizengamot slowly took their seats as Dumbledore announced the start of the Wizengamot session. The traditional faction which consisted of the dark families sat on the left, the progressive faction which consisted of the light faction sat on the right, while the neutrals were sat in the middle.
"We shall be observing a minute of silence in respect of former Minister Cornelius Fudge who was killed senselessly in Voldermort's attack on the ministry." Dumbledore said. The hall of the Wizengamot was silent as a minute of silence was observed for Cornelius. Dumbledore banged his gavel to signal the end of the minute silence.
"Thank you all. The purpose of this emergency meeting of the Wizengamot is to resolve several important issues currently facing our society." Dumbledore started his openings address.
"We are in dangerous times. We are faced with a dangerous enemy that has infiltrated our ranks. The enemy has attacked right in the heart of our government and caused unimaginable damage and panic in the public. It is our duty as members of the Wizengamot to protect the public from this menace and restore the confidence of the public in us." Dumbledore paused for dramatic effect as he watched the faces of the members of the Wizengamot. He was certain that despite the absence of Lucius Malfoy, the dark families had a plan to get their candidate in as minister. His spy in the Dark Lord ranks had not been able to provide him with any valuable information on what their plan could be. The Patriarch of the Yaxley family was leading the traditional faction in the absence of Lucius Malfoy.
"In light of the recent attack on the Ministry of Magic that led to the death of our Minister, I hereby call for a vote to declare a state of emergency and nominations to appoint an interim minister of magic." Dumbledore said concluding his opening address.
"Why do we need to declare a state of emergency. A state of emergency gives the executive excessive power which can be abused. I believe we can resolve the issue at hand without resorting to such means." Theophilus Parkinson said as he stood up to counter Dumbledore's suggestion. Declaring a state of emergency gives the minister of magic veto power to bypass the Wizengamot in taking critical action. This was something the traditional families were against, except the minister was their man.
"I disagree, the minister of magic was killed right inside this building. If we do not take action now, we might as well surrender to the dark lord." Augusta Longbottom countered.
"Lord Parkinson, as you are well aware, it is my duty as the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot to decide if the conditions necessary for a state of emergency has been met. And I believe all conditions have been met. So this is not a suggestion that you can counter, all that is left is to take the vote." Dumbledore said putting an end to all arguments.
"To protect the authenticity of this vote, it will be an anonymous vote. Tap your wand on Yes in support of a state of emergency and No if you are against the declaration."
In front of each member of the Wizengamot, there were two options, yes or no. They were only visible to the member in the seat so other members could not spy on the option their neighbor chose.
After a few minutes the voting was completed, Dumbledore waved his wand and the numbers floated into the air.
"The votes are in. Yes – 78 votes, No – 32, 12 – Abstain from voting. I hereby declare a state of emergency effective immediately." Dumbledore said as he banged his gavel.
"Moving on to the next item on the agenda. Appointing an interim minister of magic to lead us through this dark times. We shall be nominating candidates and voting on the nominations today."
Lord Yaxley stood up to counter Dumbledore. "Why the hurry Dumbledore. The law allows for up to 30 days before appointing an interim minister in a state of emergency."
"Yes, the allows for up to 30 days to appoint a new minister but it doesn't insist we must use up the 30 available days. The nation is in dire need of leadership and we must provide it as soon as possible." Madame Longbottom said in a serious tone.
Dumbledore had met with Madame Longbottom before the Wizengamot meeting to discuss their strategy. Madame Longbottom was one of the most respected witches in the Wizengamot, particularly in the progressive faction. They knew that Voldermort would also be making plans to put his puppet in the minister seat so they had decided their best approach was to rush the process as quickly as possible before Voldermort could get around to threatening and bribing the Wizengamot members. Lucius stay in Azkaban had put a hole in Voldermort's resources as he couldn't access the Malfoy fortune. Draco was only allowed access to a small portion for his trust fund until he was seventeen, and Narcissa couldn't withdraw huge sums from the account without raising eyebrows. Also Lucius silvery tongue was very useful in persuading unwilling wizards and witches to join their cause. No other member of his inner circle was smooth enough to carry out such tasks, they were all about brute force with no finesse.
"Aye aye." Other members of the Wizengamot said in support of Madame Longbottom.
"I nominate Amelia Bones for the position of minister of magic."Lord Henry Boot said.
All eyes turned towards the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Amelia Bones. Amelia Bones was in the meeting both in her capacity as the Head of Department and as the proxy for the Bones seat which would pass on to her niece, Susan upon attaining her majority.
"I second the nomination." Madame Longbottom said.
"Amelia Bones has been nominated for the position of Minister of Magic. Do you accept the nomination, Madame Bones?" Dumbledore asked as he looked towards her.
Amelia Bones stood up and said "I accept the nomination."
"Thank you. Are there any more nominations?" Dumbledore said as he looked around the room. The members of the traditional faction looked at each other unsure of the action to take. They had not expected Dumbledore to rush the proceedings this quickly.
Amelia Bones surviving the attack on the ministry had put a wrench in their plans for the ministry. She was currently the highest ranking member of the ministry and the obvious choice for minister. Had she died in the attack there would be no clear and obvious choice for minister, thus causing a delay in the appointment of a new minister. They could have used this delay to position their own candidate to take over the job. With her still alive, there was no reasonable cause to delay the appointment of a new minister.
Dumbledore waited for a few seconds and looked around to see if the traditional party were going to nominate a candidate.
"Any further nominations?" He asked again.
"Since only one candidate was nominated, there is no need for a vote. I hereby declare Amelia Bones the Interim Minister of Magic." Dumbledore said, then banged is gavel on the desk. There was a round of applause, mostly from the progressive faction of the Wizengamot. The members of the traditional faction looked on with disappointment on their faces.
"I shall be giving the floor to our interim minister of magic to give her acceptance speech." Dumbledore said as he stepped down from the podium and made way for Madame Bones to give her speech.
"Firstly, I would like to thank you all for the opportunity given to me to lead our nation in this time of great conflict. For too long we have suffered from terrorists and blood purists who want to see this country divided and destroyed. They have preyed on the weaknesses and corruption of the past administration to instill fear and panic in the populace. For over 15 years they have held this nation to ransom. No longer will this happen. Not under my watch. To that effect, I am giving authorization to use deadly force in the apprehension of Death Eaters to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and its partners including the hit-wizards. The term Death Eater refers to every supporter of the so called Dark Lord; whether they have his mark or not. This authorization takes effect as of this moment."
"No, you can't do that."
"This is unacceptable"
"It is a gross abuse of power and we will not allow it." The members of the Wizengamot were up in arms about the new policy Madam Bones just announced. She had not discussed implementing the policy with Dumbledore because she knew his attitude when it came to more dangerous and dark spells. Normally she would have agreed with his stance but they were at war and didn't have the luxury of being squeamish about violence. They would not win by casting stunners when Voldermort had proven he was very capable of freeing his fighters if they were arrested. Fighting death eaters with stunners was like fighting with one hand behind your back, she would not have that for her aurors.
"We would never win the war casting stunners and disarming spells, Voldermort has proven that he is capable and willing to go to any length to free any of his captured followers. It is time for us to level the playing field." Amelia said after the noise had subsided.
"Agreed. Perhaps now his would-be followers would think twice before following a terrorist." Madam Longbottom said in support. She had lost her son and his wife to the violence of the death eaters at the end of the last war and was quite eager for them to get a taste of their own medicine.
"This is a very sllipery slope, the minister cannot have unrestricted power to pass unlawful policies." Lord yaxley countered.
"It doesn't matter what you think or believe Lord Yaxley. We are in a state of emergency, by law the minister has veto power to take whatever action is neccessary to win the war. Besides only followers of the dark lord would be worried about this policy. Are you one?" Dumbledore said as he looked pointedly at Lord Yaxley.
"O-o-of course i am not." Lord Yaxley stammered in reply before taking his seat.
"If there are no further agendas to discuss I shall closing this emergency Wizengamot session. The full transcript of the minister's speech shall be sent to The Daily Prophet. I believe this will help in boosting the morale and confidence of the populace." Dumbledore said as the Wizengamot session came to a close.
"Sorry, I am late. I was sending a letter to my friends." Harry said as he entered the abandoned classroom. Harry had become fast friends with Athena after the duelling match they watched together. She had introduced him to her group of friends, Kane, Sammie and Paulo. The group of friends had found the abandoned classroom a while ago and had made it their sanctuary.
Harry missed Ron and Hermione in the few weeks he had spent at Emry's but he was happy to make new friends from all around the world. Kane was a home schooled wizard from England, Sammie was from Australia while Paulo was from Brazil. Paulo was the oldest among the group having graduated from Durmstrang the previous year. The group of friends met regularly in the abandoned classroom to study and practice magic. Harry had been late for their current meeting because he he was replying to a letter from Ron and Hermione.
It was September 1st and for the first time in a long while Harry would not be riding the Hogwarts express with his friends. He decided to send them a letter with Hedwig, who had been bored by the lack of activity. Harry was reluctant to use her to send messages to England due to the distance but after a lot of pestering from the vivacious owl, Harry had given in to her demands.
The 5 friends were all part of the fresh batch of newly admitted student at Emry's. They met each other in their first class the beginning of the Emry's schooling session in April while Harry joined at the beginning of Summer after his fifth Hogwarts year.
"Glad you could join us." Kane said cheekily. Apart from his regular school work, Harry had been taking time to study the books given to him by Professor Morgan on being Gifted by the Gods. He had not shared this information with his new friends, he was also receiving additional lessons from Professor Morgan who seemed to have taken a special interest in his education.
"I wouldn't miss seeing your ugly face for anything in the world." Harry replied.
"Yeah yeah, keep lying to yourself. You wish you looked half as good as this." Kane retorted.
"That's enough of your squabbling. The way you go at it one might think you are in love with each other." Paulo said causing to the rest of the group to laugh at their expense.
"They'd make a cute couple." Athena added
"Can just imagine them feeding each other grapes under the tree shade."
"That's enough, I am going to have nightmares for the next week because of you all." Harry said.
"Yes. Anymore talk of this nonsense and I am going to challenge you all to a duel to defend my honor." Kane added putting an end to the banter between the friends.
"So what did Professor Morgan want from you?" Athena asked changing the topic of the conversation. Professor Morgan had asked him to stay behind after the last Blood rituals class. This was the second time she had asked him to stay behind that week. She had taken a particular interest in his studies, Harry wondered if perhaps Headmaster Gabriel had asked her to keep an eye on him. He had not seen Headmaster Gabriel since he accompanied him to Emry's, he was a very busy man.
"She just gave me some reading materials so I can catch up with the rest of the class." Aside from giving him materials for him to study, she had also spent some time discussing the progress that was being made on the ritual to remove the horcrux. Any day from now the ritual to remove the horcrux from Harry's scar would be ready. Harry had decided not to tell his new friends about the horcrux in his head, even Ron and Hermione didn't know about it. He considered it too sensitive to talk about over post mail.
"But you have already caught up with the class. You got all the questions right on the last quiz." Sammie said. Harry had been studying intensively to catch up with his peers since he came to Emry's Academy. While he was still behind in Ancient Runes because he had never taken the class at Hogwarts, he had caught up in the rest of the classes. His favorite classes turned out to Blood Magic and Rituals and Battle Magic, those seemed to be the classes that would help him the most in his fight against Voldermort.
"Yes, but she thinks I can do even better. Remember we are going to be performing our first individual rituals soon. I need to be prepared." The beginners ritual class were going to be performing their first individual rituals soon. To be promoted to the Intermediate class, they had to complete at least 3 rituals on themselves. They had several options to pick from and would be supervised by the professor. They would only be performing simple basic rituals since it was the first individual ritual they would be performing.
"What ritual are you choosing?" Athena asked.
Harry replied "I am thinking of doing the basic endurance ritual. It's simple enough and the materials are easy to source." Harry chose the endurance ritual mostly because it would give him a boost in stamina when fighting Death Eaters.
"That's a good choice, I plan on doing the memory enhancement ritual." Paulo said. The memory enhancement ritual gave the user better recollection and prevented forgetfullness. It was a basic ritual but all the benefits from the ritual could also be gotten by practicing Occlumency.
"You definitely need it." Kane said, causing everyone to burst into laughter.