It was a pleasant day, cool and overcast but not raining. A light wind stirred the water of the quickly flowing Thames. The river was engorged with spring runoff and smelled more of mud than anything else, which made for a positive change in Sirius' opinion. Sirius and his team stood in the shadows beneath the Hammersmith Bridge, their presence masked by muggle-repelling charms. It was doubtful the cheering crowds would have noticed them anyway, all completely focused on the two rowboats racing along in the center of the river. He had to admit, he was impressed with how quickly the muggles were able to propel their watercraft. If he were here for any other reason, he probably would have quite enjoyed watching two sets of excited, athletic, and rather pretty young women rowing their boats. He took a deep, steadying breath. "Ready?" he asked quietly of Audrey, Ingmar, and Gloriana.

"I've got your back," Audrey said. The other two nodded. He didn't know them very well, had only met with them a few times, but he trusted Audrey to keep an eye on them. Ingmar's job at least was very straightforward: he was substituting for Richard as their spokesperson today.

Sirius nodded. "Then let's do this."

Audrey and Gloriana raised their wands and pointed them at the boats. "Baubilious Incitatus Infrarubius, Impedimenta, Immobulus Totalum." The two rowboats suddenly stopped, their rowers frozen in place. Simultaneously, a silent and invisible pulse of magic expanded outwards to scramble the muggle telly vision cameras.

Sirius donned his mask and apparated to the middle of the nearer boat. Caught by Audrey's charms, it didn't even rock. He felt rather than saw Audrey's shielding charms rise up around him. One would protect him from magical attack. The other was a solid barrier to block muggle bullets. They even knew it worked; Audrey had stolen several guns from a military base to test it, much to Richard's shock and alarm (and Sirius' own, though he'd hidden it at the time).

Sirius pointed his wand in the air, making a noise very much like a gunshot. As the first few muggles shouted in alarm, Ingmar, now standing high atop the bridge, started declaiming his speech, his voice magnified to echo all across the water. The middle-aged and overweight Swedish wizard's accent was usually rather charming, but today it made his threats sound all the more frightening with the unusual cadence and certain words bent out of their native shape. "WITNESS! THE SAERVANTS OF DARKNESS ARE AMONG YOU. YOUR MEANINGLESS REVELS ARE ENDED! BOW BEFORE THE EMISSARY OFF THE DARK LORD..." One by one, Audrey and Gloriana released the freezing jinxes on the muggle rowers and replaced them with Imperius curses. The athletes shuffled around in the motionless boat, clustering closer and bowing their heads in supplication. The boat was too narrow for them to form a circle, so the ones in the back were bent over the ones nearer to him. Sirius twirled his wand, vanished the fabric covering their shoulders, and started cutting. He ignored Ingmar's thundering sermon. He ignored the horrified cries from the other rowboat, and from the nearest spectator boat. He had to work quickly and trust his team to keep the muggles off him. If he was too slow, it would be worse for him, because someone from the magical world would notice them soon enough and either go vigilante or notify the Ministry. Moody could not and would not delay the Ministry response, even if Sirius were still on the scene.

The runes in the muggles' shoulders were complete. The rowing team raised their right hands to him in unison under Gloriana's direction, and he carved the requisite linking rune in each proffered palm. It was so much easier doing this with someone else guiding the sacrifices' preparatory movements rather than having to position them himself. Each rower pressed her bloody palm into the sliced shoulder of her neighbor, forming an ersatz circuit around him. He cut the final rune into his own left hand and laid it down on the nearest set of shoulders. "Sanguis noster miscet. Sanguis tuus meus est. Me capiat..."

"YOUR BLOOD IS OURS, AND I TAKE IT! YOUR BLOOD IS THE WATEER OFF A NEW AGE, A NEW EMPIRE..." Ingmar shouted distantly. This part of the speech was loosely based on the words of the ritual. Loosely.

Sirius continued his quiet chant, the profane words coming to him with the ease of repetition. He felt the power building and channeled it expertly, forcefully pulling life and its magic from his victims. The blood did not merely flow but burst out as if repelled from the veins with a blasting curse. Droplets rained into the Thames in a wide radius, and his magic followed, diving into the bloody water, seeking out the many corpses hidden in the murky depths. It didn't take long to find them. As soon as the evil magic reached the first body, the final ingredient, the whole river as far as Sirius could see turned black. What had been merely water became a vast volume of potion. Every human corpse the black potion touched shuddered to unnatural life, and Sirius could feel every one of them: a dozen, then a hundred, then several hundreds, too many to track with only the vague estimate of his magical senses. "Tua vita mea est. Me capiat. Tu manus mea est in aeternum."

"YOUR LIFES ARE OURS..."

Sirius lifted his left hand from the Inferius' back, balled it into a fist, and raised it over his head, using the motion to draw the underwater Inferi upwards. He could feel their weight dragging at him, feel the roaring magic threatening to pull him apart. It would be so easy to give in and allow his mind to be shattered into hundreds of pieces, to become one of the sacrifices and inhabit the horde fully. It would mean his death, but also a gruesome rebirth into a new mode of existence, each revenant an extension of his own body. It was what the Dark magic fundamentally wanted of him, but he planted his feet and held firm the edges of his mind and body against it. Finally, the flood of power lessened; the wound on his hand dried up and scarred over. Again. He'd carved that same rune so many times now, he was sure the scar would never fade, and he would have to conceal it with glamours the rest of his life.

With his right hand, he started casting the spells on the rowing team to control the horde the hard way. He started with the enchantments to give the Inferi vision and hearing and carefully removed an eye and an ear from the nearest rower so he could access those senses later. Fortunately, he only needed one of each body part, since the blood and bodies of the nine sacrifices were functionally all the same now. He transfigured the pilfered sensory organs into a pair of rings and slipped them on his fingers even as he kept incanting the next slate of spells. These creatures would have no designated allies but rather would attack anything living - to injure and maim, not to kill per se. As Voldemort had instructed, the rower-Inferi would conceal themselves in the riverbed except as needed. Also as Voldemort had instructed, half of the horde would aim directly for the riverbanks, while the rest would spread out up and down the river before emerging from the water, to divide the aurors' attentions and prolong their distraction. He severed the foot of another rower and made of it another ring, his totem to control the direction of the horde.

He was so focused on what he was doing, he missed the first few pale heads poking up out of the black water. When he was finished and looked up, he realized the first thing going wrong: Moody had said the motorized boats would be able to outrun all the threats on the water. That might have been correct if Audrey's interference spell and/or Sirius' ritual had not, clearly, blown out the motors in the nearest few boats. There must have been electronic components controlling them, not just oil-powered engines. And now what was supposed to have been the rescue boat for the second rowing team was dead in the water with a dozen Inferi scrabbling at its hull. Sirius did not have to turn his head to know the rowboat was already under attack as well.

Sirius could not do anything about it, not now with Audrey, Gloriana, and Ingmar all watching him. So he looked away, closed his ears to the panicked yells all around him, and growing sounds of rending flesh behind him, and raised his right arm. Nine Inferi stood in the boat next to him and, as one, stepped into the water, sinking straight down into the depths.

There was a loud BOOM and a visible ripple across the water. His magically stabilized boat even shivered. Sirius turned slightly and was only a little surprised to see a column of fire and smoke blazing skyward from just past the bend upriver. That would be the squib. Already he could see a line of fire sweeping along the southern river bank. Sirius raised his wand again and shouted "Morsmordre!" The Dark Mark glowed sickly green against the gray sky and reflected eerily off the still-black water. That was the signal to end the operation. Sirius glanced around one more time. He swallowed. Even with everything he had done this year, he had never wrought this kind of chaos before. Already it looked worse than any of his previous missions, both in terms of visible casualties and in terms of panic. The river was slowly recovering its normal brown hue, but he could see several injured muggles struggling in the water, their movements churning a brilliant red foam. On the banks, the crowds were jostling in multiple directions, some attempting to flee, some attempting to help people that had fallen in the river, some laying down barriers against the encroaching fire.

It was awful, but he would have to trust Moody and the squib whose name he didn't know to have it in hand soon enough. He turned in place and disapparated.


The Dark detectors in the auror department activated all at once at 4:09 pm on 25th March. Normally, that would have meant the department/Ministry itself was under attack. Thus, even though Alastor knew the massive outpouring of Dark magic was several miles away on the Thames, he immediately activated emergency lockdown procedures by sketching the runic passkey on the heavy ward stone tucked beneath his desk. The ward stone flashed gold. The gold flash darted across the walls and floor, spreading all over the building within seconds, carrying the lockdown charms and alarms with it. People could leave the Ministry through the Atrium, but it was impossible for anyone but aurors to get in. He had several aurors currently conducting inspections in Diagon Alley for exactly that reason: someone had to be outside to see Sirius' Dark Mark and report what was going on out there while Alastor was tied up running the fastest security sweep of his life.

"Two hit wizards per auror. Scrimgeour, level one. I've got level two. Robards level three. Dawlish level four. Williamson level five. Prewetts levels six and seven. Longbottoms take eight and nine. Move!" Everyone but him and two hit witches scurried towards the lift. "Tessy, stay here and monitor the Dark detectors, in case they give us anything more specific. Anika with me. He raised a shield charm and strode out into the hallway, efficiently clearing each room. Barty's office was last. Alastor could see that Barty had gotten up and was waiting with wand drawn next to the door, ready to attack whoever might try to come in. Good man. Alastor knocked on the door and announced himself before opening it.

"Alasotr Moody. Piano."

"Bartemius Crouch. Puzzle."

"Pickles."

"Paprika."

"Pizzicato."

With the last of their agreed-upon code words for the morning, Barty nodded and lowered his wand. "What is the nature of the attack, Alastor?"

"I'm not sure. Level two is clear."

Just then, there was a distinctive crack of apparition behind them. Alastor, Anika, and Barty all whirled towards it, wands ready. Millicent Pettigrew conjured a shield and grimaced. "Lockdown procedure? The attack's not here, sir."

"Where then?" Barty demanded.

"The river. Some Death Eater just raised a shit-ton of Inferi, right in the middle of a huge muggle event."

"Go, Alastor. I can lift the ward in my office long enough for you and Millicent to get out from here. Then I'll alert the Minister," Barty said. "He'll need to inform the muggle Minister as soon as possible. Lockdown stays at level one for the time being."

"Anika, go back and tell Tessy what's up, then call in the rest of the aurors and look through the files for the Inferi protocol. Barty, Sccrimgeour's on level one. Send him back down to run things from here while I check out what's happening on the ground."


They rendezvoused back at Headquarters. All three of Sirius' helpers were rather subdued. None of them said a word or even looked at him as he left them in the atrium and headed into the meeting room where he knew the Dark Lord would be waiting with the Inner Circle. He opened the double doors and strode inside. He bowed at the waist. "It is done, my Lord."

"How many?" Voldemort asked.

"I estimate somewhere between eight hundred and one thousand Inferi are now loose on the Thames. I have nine sacrifices with which to direct them." He raised his right hand with its three new rings.

Voldemort smirked. "You have done well. Bella, Antonin, you know what to do. Sirius, sit by me. I wish to see what is happening..." Sirius obeyed. He took the seat Bella vacated at Voldemort's right hand and met the Dark Lord's gaze, allowing the delicate legilimency probe into his surface thoughts. Then he twisted the ring on his index finger. With a jolt, his awareness returned to the river, vision only. He didn't want to hear this if he didn't have to. His viewpoint was of the muddy riverbed, naturally. He wrinkled his nose in disgust at all the muggle garbage, then urged his current avatar to ascend. Their eyes breached the surface, and Sirius paused to take in the chaotic scene, his avatar slowly rotating in the water. The fires on the south bank were well and truly ablaze. Sirius immediately twisted his third ring to redirect the Inferi headed in that direction, knowing Voldemort would expect him to. Inferi did have some instincts of self-preservation when it came to fire, but they reacted to the heat not to the sight of it. He sent them diving underwater and swimming towards boats or other less flammable-looking areas instead.

"How did the fire start?"

"I'm not sure," Sirius said honestly. It was clearly more complicated than just oil and a spark. "There was an explosion upstream just as I was finishing the ritual, and a lot of black smoke. It did not look magical. Part of the muggle panic, I suppose."

"Hmm. Depending on how the fire progresses, you may have to oversee this more actively than originally intended. Divert more of them upstream, past the source of the fires, and keep a portion in reserve underwater in case the aurors prove more efficient than anticipated."

"Yes, my Lord." Their avatar looked around again, and Sirius flicked their field of vision through another few Inferi by line-of-sight until he settled on one climbing onto a boat. Confusingly, a human hand reached down to pull them up, and Sirius realized with a jolt that some ignorant muggles were actually trying to rescue the Inferi, believing them to be ordinary, frightened and injured people rather than monsters. Their current host pounced on its would-be savior and tore the man's hand off.

"Although Ministry efficiency doesn't look like it will be a problem," Voldemort observed. A trio of aurors had just apparated onto the boat and were basically ignoring the Inferi for the time being in favor of extracting the muggles. The aurors were apparating in and out rapidly, but piecemeal rescue work was still a delay when it came to actually containing the undead. Sirius pulled the Inferi off this particular boat before the aurors could take the time to burn them.

There was a peculiar feeling like a... mental caress. Then Voldemort withdrew from Sirius' mind. "I'll leave you to it. Do not tire yourself too much. I believe Bella has a treat planned for you later. For your anniversary."

"My anniversary?" Sirius questioned, eyes still on the horror of the Thames. He sent his awareness down to the other eight Inferi avatars and set them to spread out along the riverbed, so he could use them as access nodes to control the rest of the horde as needed. He might try to slip one out of the river to hide in an elevated position, actually. Much easier to keep an eye on the whole field of engagement that way, since unlike Voldemort, he actually wanted to limit the casualties. Voldemort wouldn't care if he turned this into a game of cat-and-mouse anyway if it still appeared to achieve the results the Dark Lord wanted.

Voldemort laughed. "You didn't remember? It was a year ago last Tuesday that you were expelled from Hogwarts. It was a year ago today that you accepted Bellatrix's invitation to join us. She has a party planned for you and everything. Don't tell her I ruined the surprise."

Merlin, how had he missed that? Of course, it didn't feel like a year. It felt like ten. He shrugged as nonchalantly as he could. "Time flies when you're having fun. And I'm sure she'll still manage to startle me somehow. She usually does."


Alastor had known what to expect, but he was still taken aback by the scale of what Sirius had done. About a mile of the River Thames was teeming with hundreds if not over a thousand Inferi. True to the plan, Arabella had already set fire to one side of the river and was likely working on the other side right now. Unfortunately, it also looked like the engines had failed in every single muggle boat in this stretch of the river. That wasn't part of the plan, and he swore softly. "Detectis Magi..." The only magical people in range were himself and Millicent. "Looks like the Death Eaters are gone. Thank Merlin for small mercies."

"They're probably using this to hit somewhere else," the aging witch said shrewdly.

"Probably. We'll deal with that as it comes. Construct a secure apparition point for the others. As soon as they get here, priority is getting muggles off the water and away from the banks. I'll erect a wide perimeter to contain the muggle witnesses for now. And get in touch with Hogwarts. We'll need a charms master for a Protego horribilis this massive." Assuming even Albus Dumbledore could make one this big. They'd need to encompass an area many times the size of the Hogwarts grounds, which was the largest warded plot in Britain, excluding dragon preserves which only needed muggle-repelling and dragon-containing wards.

"Yes, sir." She immediately leapt to her assignment. Alastor looked around for a high vantage point and apparated to the top of a church on the other side of the river. From there, he cast a wide, muggle-repelling loop, one that would both contain the muggles inside and prevent more muggles from wandering in until he could get the muggle police and military properly organized. Then he sent a patronus to Albus, letting him know the Inferi ritual was complete, before apparating back to auror headquarters. It was remarkably busier than when he'd left it. Alice Longbottom was distributing spare wands from the safe. Fabian Prewett was distributing goblin-made arm- and leg-guards and other protective equipment. Rufus Scrimgeour was bent over a desk, frantically reading through a pile of parchment and enchanting memos to other departments as he went; must be the Inferi protocol.

"Rufus!" he barked.

"Ministry's clear," Rufus said instantly.

"Millicent's making an apparition point. Send everyone we've got as quick as you can..."

A huge silver phoenix flew through the ceiling and landed in front of him. It spoke with Albus' voice. "Professor Flitwick will depart for London immediately. I will follow once Hogwarts is fully secured."

Rufus raised his eyebrows. "I asked for a charms master," Alastor explained. "I put up a muggle-repelling field a mile wide, but that won't hold for long. And we might actually need something even bigger, plus assistance with shielding against the Inferi themselves."

The other auror nodded, face grim. He picked up his sheaf of parchment and handed it to Alastor. "The Inferi protocol. I sent a copy up to Barty and Minister Minchum already. I also updated the Obliviators but told them to stand by until we've determined it's safe for them to go in. And I sent a notice to St. Mungo's to prepare for casualties. Aurors are ready. Hit wizards will follow. Also you should know, regulation for mass casualty Inferi event requires coordination with the muggle government, and not just afterwards. Since this falls under our department, one of us has to go with the Minister to talk to the muggles. Apparently."

Alastor scowled, mostly for Rufus' benefit. He had forged that part of the protocol a little over a week ago. He grabbed the papers. "I'll do it. They'll get freaked out looking at me and let me go sooner. Another perk of the eyeball. Get everyone to the river and get the muggles out of the way ASAP."

Rufus snorted, nodded, and shouted at the other aurors to move out. Alastor ran to the stairs, taking them two at a time up to Level one. He burst into the Minister's office without knocking.

"Alastor. How bad is it?" Barty asked, without looking up from the protocol he was reading.

"Massive."

Barty frowned and looked at Minchum, who looked both stressed and at a loss. "Which means we have to alert Minister Callaghan now, Harold."

"I don't understand why our own regulations should require us to consort with muggles in a time like this," Minchum mumbled, passing a hand over his eyes.

"Well, you can either blame Nobby Leach or the muggle-protection activists after the end of Grindelwald's War. Regardless, the law is clear. The Muggle Minister must be told what is happening and be permitted to use his own resources to secure his own people."

"Honestly, I could use whatever help I can get," Alastor growled.

"From muggles?" the Minister scoffed.

"In this instance, yes. There's hundreds of Inferi in the river, Minister, and thousands of muggle civilians far too close to them. And no doubt the Death Eaters are planning something else while we're distracted. I need all the help I can get."

"Then let's go," Barty said decisively. "I've reopened the floo here already, and Minister Callaghan's office is cleared for our arrival."

Barty took charge of briefing the muggle prime minister. Thankfully, this did not actually take that long. The poor man already knew something was happening: the smoke from the fire was visible out of his window. And he was well aware of the secret wizarding war that was slowly destroying his political career. He accepted the existence of Inferi with barely a whimper. He did seem genuinely angry when Alastor informed him the action was centered near the Hammersmith Bridge, immediately making the connection to the very boat race Sirius had targeted.

He laughed bitterly when Barty informed him that the official Inferi protocol required coordination of magical and nonmagical resources in the event of a massive attack such as this. "What do you expect us to do? Can we even do anything against these things?"

This was what Alastor had been waiting for. "Yes, you can. It is essential we keep the Inferi contained so my people can hunt them down. Your military can help with that."

"So what, I lend you a company of marines to fight a bunch of zombies, and then you wipe their memories afterwards?"

"Pretty much. I'll also need the assistance of your police or military or both to protect and regulate the crowds of muggles at the scene who already saw what happened and will require obliviation."

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom sighed. "What'll it be this time?"

"What will what be?" Barty asked.

"What cockamamy story are you going to feed my civilians to explain away the deaths, injuries, and however many days of fear it takes you lot to clean this up? Another stampede? Another accidental fire? Maybe a blown up bridge or a political riot? You know what, I want you to make it a political riot. Make it a mob protesting the way I run things, and then an illegal use of the military against civilians, and then when old Maggie finally wrests my seat from me, the joke will be on her when she has to pardon my 'abuse of authority' after all."

Alastor rolled his eye. He could sympathize with the muggle's frustration, but "I don't have time for this right now. Tell me who I'm working with, and let me do my job."

The muggle nodded tiredly. "Go to Horse Guards in Westminster and have them take you to the Chief of the General Staff. I'll call and tell him to clear his office for you."

Author's note: Happy bonus chapter day! Turns out, it's very hard to write a Swedish accent, since the biggest difference is actually in the prosody and pronunciation of vowels, with only a few consonants affected, not necessarily the ones included in Ingmar's speech. You'll have to use your imagination. Pretend it's Stellan SkarsgÄrd talking. Apologies to fans of the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race; I did use the real dates from 1979. I think they used the same course back then, but I might be wrong. In other news, Audrey basically invented the magical version of an EP pulse by changing the energy frequency of the standard Baubilious charm to infrared. Her bulletproof shield was an adaptation of an Impervious dome. And yes, if you do a big enough Inferi ritual wrong, you end up becoming an Inferi king yourself... which is why Voldemort doesn't have just any of his Death Eaters learning this skill, and also why he preferred to teach Sirius to do it fresh rather than have someone more senior do it: Sirius may be trusted Inner Circle now and steadily rising in the ranks, but he's still more expendable than someone like Bella, Rodolphus, or Dolohov for example. Of course, becoming a one-man Inferi army raises his value yet again...

Thanks to my faithful reviewers, the feedback is always appreciated. Next update will be Saturday as usual.