Summary of last chapter:
- The misunderstanding is cleared up and it is revealed that as James' girlfriend Lily's safety is important to Fleamont and Arcturus, she is told she will by taught in charms by Alphard Black
- Upon being asked why he would help Lily at all, Arcturus reveales he will not bow down to Voldemort who is currently on his way to destroy Magical Britain and thus finds it not impossible to help her,
- Lily asks why he and his allies aren't doing anything and when Arcturus admits that it is likely only a matter of time before Voldemort wins she asks why they aren't using guns, When Arcturus dismisses the option immediately because of his outdated information she takes him, Melania and Orion to a tour through Leicester
- The tour absolutely stuns the trio and Arcturus is dismayed at how stagnated Magical Britain has become
Chapter 17:
7th July 1976, England, Leicester:
The Black trio stood outside the Evans family home as they listened to the ever energetic Lily who was currently talking to her parents.
„Mum, Dad, I told you that the family of one of James' friends would be coming over at some point didn't I?" asked Lily her parents. Patrick and Liah Evans glanced at eachother.
„Yes you did Lily but you never said when exactly that would happen. But since you bring that up again now, can we assume that this family is now standing outside our front door?" Liah asked with a raised eyebrow. Seeing her daughter nod she sighed.
„You could atleast have told us that they would be coming today"
Lily smiled in embarassement.
„Sorry I forgot mum" she said ducking her head.
„Sooo guys these are my parents, Patrick and Liah Evans. Mum, dad, these are Lord Arcturus Black, his wife Lady Melania Black and their son Heir Orion Black who is Sirius' father. He hasn't told me why yet but he was insistent on coming here today."
A rund of greetings was exchanged.
„Your daughter is right Mr. and Mrs. Evans, there is something very important I have to tell you. Normally I wouldn't bother since I am quite frankly not really interested in your world but today has kinda opened my eyes and you are her family so there's that. Have you heard about the attacks on several of your villages at the start of the year?" Arcturus asked Patrick and Liah who glanced at eachother again.
„Attacks? You mean incidents right? But yes, why are you asking? Is it important?" asked Liah.
„You bet it is Mrs. Evans. Listen closely to what I am going to say. You might have already suspected this but there was more to these so called incidents then your papers reported. A magical terrorist group that call themselves the death eaters has been terrorising Magical Britain for 6 years now and they have started to infiltrate all three branches of the Ministry of Magic. What happened was their first attack in your world and more have followed and they won't stop anytime soon. Because that's who they're targeting. Folks without magic like you two and folks that were born to people with no magic like your daughter. They view you as little more than animals and want nothing more than to exterminate your kind. The Ministry is basically ineffective against them as a sizeable percentage of Ministry officials are either death eaters themselves or sympathizers. As time goes on the Ministry will fail more and more at containing the attacks and the less effective it is the bolder the death eaters will become. At some point you too will be targeted because young Lily here is one of the most talented witches of her generation and they will seek to hurt her. Which is why I am advising you to pack your bags and to leave towards the Americas or Australia as soon as you can which will probably be as soon as Lily and her sister have graduated from their respective schools." Arcturus explained while Patrick and Liah paled more and more as he went on. Patrick looked at his daughter who avoided looking at him.
„Lily why have you not told us of this before?" he asked her sternly.
„I'm sorry but I just didn't want you to worry and to take me out of Hogwarts" she mumbled apologetically.
„Well you certainly won't go back there young lady. Lord Black? Thank you for your advise, we will follow it quite soon." Liah said but Arcturus help up a hand.
„Please trust me when I say that pulling her out of Hogwarts won't be necessary. Hogwarts will soon be the only safe place from the death eaters in the country, Headmaster Dumbledore is besides Lord Sayre pretty much the only one who can keep up with the Dark Lord who calls himself Voldemort and who leads the death eaters. Lord Sayre is neutral in the conflict though so it is unlikely he will oppose Voldemort anytime soon. I can assure you that Lily will be fine in Hogwarts for the remaining two years" he said.
17th July 1976, England, Rubisheart Family Home:
'What an amazing day' thought Burton Rubisheart, Lord of the Noble House of Rubisheart
It was finally done, he had finally managed to upgrade his seat on the Wizengamot from a electory to a heridetary one.
'It's just unfortunate that the Gibbons are now a permanently on the Wizengamot aswell' he thought with a grimace but that fact couldn't really dampen his joy. House Gibbons had been uplifted to a Noble House as they had managed to expand their wealth quite a bit during the past few years.
But that wasn't the only interesting thing that happened early that day.
House Jenkins lost their electory seat but that was to be expected after the forced resignation of former Minister Jenkins. What was more surprising was that Dumbledore hadn't managed to prevent the Wizengamot from dismissing House Sprout.
'Anyway it will be interesting to see where the new houses Bell, Bagnold, Robins and Jones will end up' he thought.
Don't be confused if you saw the new houses on the list of the Wizengamot members in the past chapters, I had already updated that list. This part was meant to come earlier but a few more ideas fell into my head.
29th July 1976, England, St. Mungos:
On this day House Black gained a new member. On the 29th of July in 1976 Vega Walburga Black was born in St. Mungos. Her parents were Cygnus Black and Druella Black nee Rosier who decided to honour Cygnus' dead sister not knowing that her death had been caused by their pater familias.
The newborn Black would be cherished by her parents who had already pretty much lost 2 of their daughters. One because she had been cast out of the family after she married a muggleborn and the second one because she had joined the Dark Lord and Cygnus and Druella knew that Bellatrix had been lost as soon as she became a death eater. Not that they weren't proud of her at the time. Back then they still strongly supported Voldemort's actions. But each pureblood family that went extinct changed their opinion more and more. Voldemort didn't know it yet but his actions were slowly alienating the Black family.
5th August 1976, England, Black Manor:
Arcturus had received quite the interesting letter from Atticus Sayre yesterday. His old comrade had invited him to Sayre Manor for a private meeting between the two only.
Later in Sayre Manor:
„It has been quite some time, hasn't it Arcturus?" asked Atticus cheerfully which caused Arcturus to chuckle.
„It certainly has old friend" he replied. Despite being members of different Alliances their ideologies were quite close and they had kept in contact with eachother after they contributed to the defeat of Grindelwald in the 1940s.
'Ahh the good old times' Arcturus thought immersed in nostalgia.
But that wasn't the only thing that linked the two families together, Arcturus and Atticus were brothers in law and had been since Atticus married the late Lycoris who had been Arcturus' sister. Her sudden death had impacted both of them a lot and only made their companionship stronger. It was no wonder that they pretty much voted the same in every proposal.
„So Atticus what have you called me here for? Not that I didn't appreciate the invitation but something must have happened for you to call me here suddenly." he asked his friend who looked at him with a serious expression.
„My grandsons Arndt and Bertram have joined Voldemort" Atticus said after a short silence.
„Huh well that is certainly some news, I take it you tell me this for a reason? This could tarnish your house's reputation after all, not that I would tell anyone but you know what I mean" Arcturus said and Atticus nodded at him with respect.
„Yes Arcturus there is a reason. Apparently Voldemort attempts to have Minister Minchum assassinated by the end of the month" said Atticus.
„Well it seems as Minister Minchum has gotten Voldemort quite worried for the dark wanker to make such a step so soon. Tell me more my friend"
„I am sorry Arcturus but that is all I know" said Atticus and the topic changed to other things like their families, their adventures in the 40s and Arcturus' recent exposure to the advancements of the muggles.
24th August 1976, England, Ministry of Magic:
Harold was currently in his office and looked at the latest reports by Crouch that seemed to take more and more of his time to review.
'And I had hoped that I could make more of a difference, well atleast the attacks on prominent pureblood families have stopped for now' he thought with a sigh.
Minister Minchum's family found dead at their home
Everytime he looked at the headline immense sorrow welled up in his heart. Harold had never married but he had a brother and a sister who each had founded a family of their own... and now they were dead.
'Those bastards are gonna pay' Harold thought hatefully. But it would probably take some time. He was slowly gaining more allies in the Ministry but it was a slow process and the Wizengamot proved to be immensely ineffective. Dumbledore's faction was firmly against You-Know-Who and the Light Moderates often voted in line with the Ministry but that hadn't been enough to push through the Budget Extension Proposal V3 or the Auror Leeway Act of 1975. Atleast the Dark Moderates around House Black had somewhat stopped voting in line with You-Know-Who all the time but said Dark Lord was increasing his followers in the Wizengamot as could be seen with the increasing numbers of Houses in the Traditionalist Faction.
The door opened and 5 people entered Harold's office. Looking up he could see five of his Aurors standing in front of him.
„Aurors Thicknesse, Dimeshore, Khanna, McKinnon and Cornfoot what can I do for you five? Have you seen my secretary Mrs. Montague? She should have mentioned that you were coming and... wait what?" he had just enough time to recognise the milky eyes of his aurors and managed to throw himself on the ground as spells rained down on him. He managed to push the panic button and escape through the back door that he had made one of the staff install a while ago. The door lead to a short corridor that ended up in the room he would normally escape to if things outside his office were looking bad but now things inside his office were looking bad.
He managed to dodge 2 killing curses and shield against 4 other spells he didn't recognise in his panic. Reaching the room he put up the strongest barriers he could and transfigured multiple vases into lions that attacked his imperiused Aurors. The fight went on and while Minchum was on the defensive constantly these five were only Junior Aurors, not too skilled and would alone be no match for him. It was a 5 vs 1 however and if Harold hadn't had a mastery in Transfiguration (that was kept from public record however hehe) he would have lost the fight and so he only just managed to survive the onslaught. Aurors Cornfoot and Dimeshore went down as he could see Aurors Moody, Prewett, the other Prewett, Shacklebolt, Longbottom and Goldstein run through the corridor. Help had finally come.
The next day:
Failed assassination plot on Minister Minchum!
5 Junior Aurors imperiused, Who are the true orchestrators?
No claims by death eaters yet, was You-Know-Who not behind the assassination this time?
Ministry increases safety measures in all vital areas, will this be enough to prevent more disasters like this?
The press was having a field day after the failed assassination attempt on Minchum. Some of the smaller papers were questioning the competency of the Ministry or making outright fun of the Minister's administration but papers like the Daily Prophet were surprisingly factual in their editions. The headlines didn't bother him, no they amused him even, except the one where the Prophet doubted Voldemort's involvement in the matter. Who else besides him had the capabilities and the followers to start an assassination plot on the Minister of Magic? Right, noone. The whole situation was starting to annoy Voldemort a little however if he had to be honest. This wasn't the first time his death eaters failed him and like always the ones responsible for the failure had been punished accordingly but it wasn't satisfying Voldemort in the slightest. No, people had to fear him as much as possible... something big would have to be done and soon.
**End of Chapter**
- Lily Evans (5)
- Liah Evans (1)
- Patrick Evans (1)
- Arcturus Black (11)
- Melania Black (3)
- Orion Black (8)
- Cygnus Black (2)
- Druella Black (2)
- Burton Rubisheart (2)
- Atticus Sayre (1)
- Harold Minchum (3)
- Voldemort (4)