Chapter 14:
August 5th, 1993, started at an ordinary Thursday. However, at midnight while the Daily Prophet edition was being prepared, Sirius Black, the new owner held an all staff meeting. A similar meeting would be held later in the day at the Wizarding Wireless Network. He said with an amplified voice, using the Sonorus spell, "Hello everybody, I am Lord Sirius Black, the new owner, and there will be many changes in our content. I hope each of you will be willing to work with me, but I'll be offering a severance package for any who decide not to. Any who agree today to work with me, but go against my decisions later, will leave with no severance package.
You will not be accepting any pressure from any sources, including the Ministry on what to print, what not to print, or how to print. If you receive any such request, send it to my office. Mark it urgent if it effects the next edition.
My office will decide on editorial direction, and on the focus of investigations.
Any investigations will result in printing supported information that we believe to be true, even if against an enemy of mine.
My office will decide what goes on the front page, and the direction of articles.
Initially I will be directly involved, but as a new routine is established, I plan to have employees that show they can understand the new direction, make those decisions."
Just afterwards, Sirius asked Rita Skeeter to meet with him. "I know that you are an unregistered Beetle Animagus, and I'm OK with that. As you probably know, I was an unregistered animagus also, but needed to register due to testimony at my trial. Here is what I require of you. No more false quotations. When you do special investigations, from your unique perspective, you first get my approval. Do not get caught being a beetle, it would be embarrassing to the paper, not just yourself. I can get you training on not getting caught. Besides that, follow the rest of the rules I gave to the staff. I decide who gets attacked in the press, and even then, only with true information."
The Daily Prophet, later that morning, had a lead article,
Bribe taking by Minister Fudge and Undersecretary Umbridge.
On August 7th, The Quibbler had an article by Luna Lovegood.
Fudge's corruption, facts and hypotheses.
Here are some facts, printed in the Daily Prophet.
Here are some of my hypotheses. For each I'll explain the underlying facts that led to those hypotheses.
For instance, I can say with a 96.1% probability that Minister Fudge knows that Lucius Malfoy was a Death Eater and committed serious crimes of his own volition. I'll explain how I calculated that probability.
See my other new and regular feature in the Quibbler, teaching logic and its applications.
Before this edition was distributed, the Lovegood and Picard families went into hiding.
The special Wizengamot session went about as expected. Fudge tried some threats, but when the numbers were against him anyway, he resigned just before the vote. Amelia Bones easily defeated Pius Thicknesse, who Lucius Malfoy's contingent were backing.
They say that a plan doesn't survive contact with the enemy, and this one was no exception. However, one of the contingencies that Mad-eye Moody came up with, was critical in overcoming one enemy surprise. Lucius Malfoy had a battle outfit that blocked all of the attacks against him, and he quickly apparated away. However, the darts that were strewn around everywhere, designed to knock out anyone hit, also had a sticky charm and tracker charm. A strike team instantly got to where he apparated, before he could find and remove the trackers, and he was captured. He was severely injured, but the field medics stabilized him so he could be interrogated.
There were two other Death Eaters who had similar armour, but neither were as fast with the bubblehead charm, or with apparating away, so each was rendered unconscious by the gas.
Avery Junior didn't have any special armour, but with lighting reflexes shielded himself from all of the traps. Four order members fought him. Dedalus Diggle, an Order the Phoenix member, was hit by 2 curses during the battle and was seriously wounded, but survived. Avery Junior died from his injuries before he could be stabilized.
29 Death Eaters arrived, 28 were captured, none escaped without being recaptured.
Lucius Malfoy was resistant to interrogation. Even Dumbledore couldn't get past his occlumency barriers to mind reading. Potions didn't work. Some alternative methods couldn't be used, due to his frail condition after being narrowly saved from his injuries.
Trying to convince him didn't work either. He said, "I assure you gentlemen, that the Dark Lord will return, and you will regret your actions today. If I were to be so foolish as to help you, far worse would happen to me than anything you are willing to do."
Dumbledore met with Lucius Malfoy privately, and he emerged with the information needed to get the diary. He didn't explain how he did it.
The raid on Malfoy manner started. They isolated the location and broke a hole in the wards and in each of the next layers, including the traps. Dobby appeared, and looked very conflicted.
Dumbledore said calmly to Dobby, "We are here on behalf of Harry Potter, for exactly one purpose, to remove an object, the diary of Tom Riddle, that could cause death to students at Hogwarts, and otherwise help Voldemort in rising again."
The team setup barriers to the rest of the manor, from the area they were in. They had not yet encountered anyone else, who they would have stunned if they had.
Dobby, was hitting himself, while standing over a particular spot in the drawing room, and looking at Dumbledore.
The strike team, concentrated on that spot, found a way to unlock the hidden room below it, retrieved the diary, and got out through the holes in the wards.
After the quick meeting we had to discuss the plans to have the public and the Ministry on the lookout for any possible revival of Voldemort. We also discussed convincing the new Minister to upgrade the security of Azkaban prison, due to what happened in canon. I reminded Dumbledore, "Remember that any indirect action that would lead the department of mysteries towards looking into our knowledge would be contrary to our magical contracts."
Dumbledore replied, "Yes, I understand that. That is why I have been referring an anonymous seer, whenever I refer to information from canon. One danger, however, is that it could be discovered that I have meetings with you and Luna. Some suspect already that Luna is seer."
Luna looked serene and answered, "That is acceptable headmaster. Soon I will become very famous. I'll tell you all about it, sometime after our little war ends."
After the brief meeting, Luna and I had nothing to do with the next phase, which was organizing strike teams to capture the rest of the known Death Eaters, including ones learned through interrogations of the captured ones. The new Minister was told about the ones working for the ministry.
I asked Luna, "What was that about being famous?"
Luna said evenly, "I am going to contact the Vulcans."
I changed my appearance to a Vulcan, similar to that of Leonard Nimoy, using the charms and transformations that Luna had taught me, and answered the way Spock would, "Fascinating. I would like to hear the logical reasons behind your plan."
Luna answered in her logical tone of voice, "The Wizarding world will not easily accept the theoretical presence of aliens, or just the testimony that they exist. The non-magical world will not easily accept the Federation concept with just the groups presently on Earth. I can contact the Vulcans as one who already understands their culture and explain our plan. There will be much convincing to do, on all three sides. Remember, that despite the Statue of Secrecy, the non-magical governments already have communication with their magical counterparts."
The next day, D+2, an additional 37 Death Eaters were captured. 12 the day after that. None after that, the remaining ones on the suspect list seemed to have escaped, maybe to Fidelius protected places, or maybe abroad. This group of 49 were interrogated. Since they didn't answer the apparent call by Voldemort, they were given the choice of giving the same oath as the others were offered, or being turned over to the DMLE, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The testimony of others who implicated them would be sent over with them, but not their own involuntary confessions. Dumbledore got very exacting on how far he would go.
The next 2 days, the group of 28 Death Eaters faced their choices. They were shown moving pictures of the capture of the other Death Eaters, and a simple explanation of how Voldemort's soul anchors were being destroyed. A lengthy explanation of what the oath would entail was given to them. It was explained that they wouldn't lose their wealth, but would lose some control over how it was used. It was also shown to them, in detail, the background of Voldemort, how he was Tom Marvolo Riddle Jr., and that his father was a muggle. It was also shown that the two most powerful wizards, Voldemort and Dumbledore, were both half-bloods. They were all shown the prophecy and how it fit Harry Potter, who with the power to defeat the dark lord, was himself a half-blood. Finally they were told that they would be giving their oaths to be vassals of Sirius Black, who, at least by ancestry, would be an acceptable ruler for them.
16 accepted the oath, and they were kept confined for the moment in the equivalent to hotel conditions for a few days, then they would be given the instructions that they would be magically bound to follow.
12 dueled Dumbledore. He tried to make each duel fair. He had Lucius Malfoy fully healed before dueling him. In each case, he disabled his opponent and then repeated the oath option. 4 more accepted it at that time, leaving 8 who were killed, including Lucius Malfoy.
The day after, all the strike teams were directed to Albania. They found and killed Nagini. They also found evidence of recent possession by Voldemort, but could not find him.
The same day, the procedure to remove Harry Potter's Horcrux was done. It was a lengthy and delicate procedure, but he came through intact, and with the Horcrux destroyed. He couldn't speak Parseltongue anymore, but the curse breakers thought there might be a way for him to eventually recover that ability.
The next morning, what would be D+6 in the plan, the Lovegoods and Picards were sitting in the library in Sirius Black's fidelius protected house at Grimmauld Place. I was talking to Luna under privacy spells and said, "Shouldn't Dumbledore's appearance have been changed by now? He still looks like Richard Harris."
Luna thought about it and said, "Maybe it is always the first actor that is used, so not too many discontinuities happen in our timeline. If we were to live long enough to meet Spock, I would guess he would look like Leonard Nimoy, not those other two actors."
I asked "Raven or Eagle?"
Luna smiled and said "Eagle! In the films you could not say for sure it was a Raven as the mascot for Ravenclaw, so it stayed with the book version which was an Eagle. Also blue and bronze for our colors, even though the movies had blue and silver. There is meaning behind them, so the books take precedence."
The house elf, Kreacher, came up to me and said, "Young Mister Wine, these are for you." and handed me a bunch of newspapers.
I answered, "This time we actually did bring wine, as a host gift. Would you like to try some?"
Kreacher turned up his nose and said, "Kreacher only drinks elf-made wine."
The Daily Prophet had a full front page article with large headlines and a pictures of Death Eaters being arrested, that is those in the second group that didn't accept taking an oath, and the bodies of the 9 who were killed.
Return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named Thwarted
Death Eater Organization Defeated
Minister of Magic Amelia Bones, formerly the head of the DMLE, wasted no time after assuming office in putting an end to the continued threats by Death Eaters and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named himself. Editors note: we are refraining from using his name due to the sensitivity of some of our readers, but we think his assumed name and original name should be used.
A highly skilled set of strike teams have captured a large portion of all marked Death Eaters. They were given a choice to give a magically binding oath to turn a new leaf, and most agreed to that, according to Albus Dumbledore. It is unfortunate that 9 died during this time, but it should be noted that no aurors or their helpers were killed.
At the same time, the soul anchors that allow He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to become a wraith that can possess animals and willing people, and potentially be restored to a body, have been destroyed.
Minister Amelia Bones stated, "We dealt a very heavy blow to him and his organization. While, we cannot be sure that he can never return, we made it much more difficult for that to happen. To continue to prevent his return, we'll need the cooperation of the public, and the international Wizarding world. Any who suspect possession of people or animals should report it. Any who see marked Death Eaters or apparent sympathizers should report it. We will nip in the bud any such return. We will need all Wizarding nations to do the same, to prevent this threat from rising in a different place."
When asked how she plans to protect the people of Great Britain and Ireland, Minister Bones said, "We will be increasing the budget of the aurors, and their level of training. We will also be offering classes for the general public to become voluntary deputy aurors who can respond to threats before aurors arrive and be called upon to work effectively with aurors when dangerous situations arise. We will also be voting on new laws making it clear that good faith efforts to defend are lawful, even by minors."
A little later, Sirius Black stopped by and Xenophilius Lovegood greeted him with "I would like to welcome you to news publishing business. If you were to find yourself with information that you do not think you can publish, I would like to offer my services of running with the story in a more speculative manner."
Sirius replied, "I'll keep that in mind. I actually was very impressed with Luna's article showing that Fudge knew about Lucius Malfoy's willing crimes. I would be agreeable to turning over information to Luna for future stories that I do not have enough evidence to publish."
We all understood the subtext, that he would agree to Luna writing stories, but not Xenophilius.
Meanwhile, the Lovegoods were preparing the next day's Quibbler. Luna interviewed Albus Dumbledore.
Luna asked, "Would it be fair to say that yourself, Amelia Bones, and Sirius Black are the leading figures of Wizarding Britain?"
Dumbledore answered, "I suppose you could say that. However, you are omitting a critically important young man both in the recent victories and in the future leadership of this land, Harry Potter. He was directly involved in every step of the way in the elimination of Voldemort's soul anchors."
Luna asked, "I noticed in the interview with Amelia Bones she said that the soul anchors were eliminated, but also said we should still be watchful for a return of Voldemort. Can you elaborate?"
Dumbledore answered, "While we think we got all of them, it is always possible one or more eluded our knowledge. What the public should be aware of, is that in that unlikely case, his powers would be very restricted. To gain strength again, he would need significant help from a supporting army. By eliminating that army, we have blocked that avenue of restoration, if we somehow missed in eliminating that possibility."
Luna asked, "Many people are upset that so many Death Eaters are avoiding justice. How can you justify this outcome?"
Dumbledore answered, "Our aim has been to create a brighter future, not revenge. Letting people who have done horrible things become productive members of society again, and under watchful magically enforced tutelage, best serves that purpose. In the last 12 years the same people have not been convicted, but were free to re-offend. Now they are still not convicted, but are not free to re-offend."
Sirius met with Harry Potter and spoke seriously with him, "I've had to do a lot of growing up recently, at the age of 33. I'm afraid you'll have to at the age of 13. You are now my heir, and you have to be ready to assume the responsibilities that have just multiplied, at any moment. In 1981, after Voldemort appeared to be defeated by you, everyone celebrated and relaxed. A few days later the Longbottoms were attacked. The same sort of thing can happen now."
Harry Potters said, "We have to have constant vigilance."
Sirius said, "That goes without saying, but someone can still get a lucky spell in. The role of Lord Black now includes a large number of vassals and helping to shape the future of Wizarding Britain. I've written my will to name you my heir, with an encouragement to have Andromeda Tonks to be regent, a role which you can reduce or eliminate as you want. After you is her daughter Tonks, who doesn't use her first name. Then Andromeda.
With your agreement, I'd like to write your will for the Black part of your inheritance. You'll need to modify it over time. You'll need to pick Black heirs who will keep the changes we are making. After the Tonks, you should pick people who have Black blood, such as yourself, for a variety of reasons. Those could include the Weasleys or Longbottoms. You can also research squib lines that resulted in those with magic or distant branches of the Black family.
Under no circumstance, should it be Draco Malfoy, no matter how much he reforms, or for that matter, Narcissa."
Sirius added in a teasing tone, "I've been seeing how you and Hermione look at each other. Maybe we'll have some new heirs."
