Disclaimer:

I solemnly swear that the literature and works of the Harry Potter Verse belong to JK Rowling, Bloomberg and Warner Bros. The only thing I own are the one-shot ideas that popped into my head and whatever OCs I would create for them. This is a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life or fiction are purely coincidental. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...

Mischief Managed Damn It!

Title: The Oath of a Flame Mage 2 (Working Title)

Posted Date: August 24 2023

Tags: Pyromaniac Harry, Bad Dumbledore, Street Smart Harry, Bad guys go crispy quickly, Interference Order of Phoenix

Possible Challenges: Harry going to a different school, Harry forced into TWT

Possible Pairings: Harry x Tonks, Harry x Fleur, Harry x Susan

Amelia Bones let out a tired sigh as she paused with the reading of documents to remove her monocle and rubbed her eyes. When she was granted the position of DMLE Director, she knew there was going to be more desk work than field work, but she did not realise the mountain of paperwork that went into it. Amelia had wondered back then why a few of the seniors back then looked grateful for her taking the position instead of them, she was so naive. She would swear that there was a multiplying rune designed to increase the paperwork if it got down to a certain level! She was tempted to burn the entire stack into ashes!

And currently, there was a fair amount to deal with for the past few years outside of the usual report of skirmishes, drunken antics and paperwork that should not be handled by her in the first place but the department heads were incompetent.

There had been a string of disappearances since the year 1988, a fair number involving certain "upstanding members of society". They were also the ones who had gotten off the death sentences or even avoided trials by claiming the Imperious Curse and liberal amounts of backroom deals and money, a few being the worst sort to walk off scot free. A fair number had retained their positions or worked their way into the ministry and had set their roots deep into the system enough that any attempts to remove them would have them rebuffed by that buffoon of a minister, Cornelius Fudge. She could honestly say that she was not that heart-brokened at the possibility of them missing.

When the first few months had passed without answers, some of the family members related to the missing men went to Gringotts to confirm their life-stones. The goblins had checked and confirmed their deaths, with a few now having underage heirs and their mothers or respective guardians serving as regents. It was them who made the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, and by extension her, increase the search and change some of the cases to murder cases.

For the family lines that had no known heirs, the ministry toads who were hoping to take the gold from the vaults were made sorely disappointed that the families have new heads shortly after their deaths. In private, the goblin in charge of tracking their deaths told Amelia that the houses in question were transferred by way of Battle Conquests, meaning those men had attacked someone who had dealt with them hard and thus obtained their lordships by Right of Conquest. That at least narrowed down the search to wizards or witches since muggles cannot gain the vaults, but it did make the situation more problematic as Cornelius and his puppet master Lucius were demanding who the new heads were to hand the vault contents over.

It was from one of her muggleborn Aurors who had suggested checking with the muggle police to see if they had any recent attacks on their end. Amelia went to check with her contact in the police division and found her answers in the morgue that showed their charred bodies. From what she could tell, they were fighting against someone who was proficient with using flame spells, and appeared to be refining the technique since the newer bodies were showing less burns but having them focused on certain areas. For those too charred to see their faces, only a blood test with the goblins determined their identities.

This only made her more confused regarding the identity and purpose of the assailant. While a good number of the Death Eaters were thugs, those people were still no push-overs for the Aurors, and at least three were rumoured to be part of the Inner Circle, Voldemort's personal fighters and confidants. That someone was able to take them out was interesting, more so since they obviously survived the attacks.

But who?

"Knock, knock." Amelia's thoughts were broken by her personal Auror Guard, Connie Hammer who mimed the door knocking as she entered the office. "Bad time to come in?"

"Nope, good time. I needed a break." Amelia went to ask her secretary for a tea set while Connie came to sit down in the chair provided. After the tea set got delivered, the two briefly enjoyed a break and silence.

"So how is Susan?" Connie asked as she placed her cup down.

"She is doing fine. Most of her complaints are on the idiocy of some of the students along with the pains and unwanted attention of having a more developed figure than her classmates." Amelia commented with a smile.

"Ah yes, puberty sure hit Susan quite hard." Connie snickered as she thought of the last time she visited the Bones Manor and met the young girl. One would have a hard time associating a fourteen-year-old with a body like hers.

"You should know, Miss Hogwarts 1979." Amelia snarked while poking fun at the nickname her Auror got from her last year of Hogwarts by some students who had watched the muggle show about women's independence but adapted it for the most attractive females in Hogwarts. Connie was evidently a late bloomer for her year group so got teased a lot until she got the growth spurt midway in fifth year, and suddenly all the guys wanted to go out with her to Hogsmeade. She had to beat them off with a stick and a few hexes to get them off her back.

And to be blunt, Connie got more attractive after joining the Aurors, with many men bemoaning her figure being hidden behind the robes. There was even an attempt to create an Auror pin-up calendar only to get squashed by an exasperated Amelia. Why can't they use that energy for something more productive?

"Don't hate me for that, Madam." Connie mock-pouted while striking a pose in the chair just to prove a point, only to get scrunched up paper thrown at her. "Hey, that's abuse."

"Nope, just making sure you don't get a big head." Amelia retorted back before both of them laughed. Connie looked around before looking at the file holder for missing persons, with one folder marked red for high importance.

"Still no luck finding him?" Amelia sighed knowing whom she was referring to, the one folder being one of her personal badges of shame at not completing a case.

When Susan wrote back on the first night in Hogwarts back in 1991, it was with the news that Harry Potter did not come to Hogwarts that day. Amelia knew that she was going to be besieged with requests by the minister in the morning, and lo-behold, Fudge was in her office with the Toad-Who-Wears-Pink, with an early copy of the Daily Prophet in his hands once she arrived. They talked, with Umbridge being very unhelpful, before Amelia sent out a notice to get Dumbledore to answer some questions. Thankfully she got Cornelius to let her do the questioning, with the implied thought that with him being the supposed guardian, he should know about this.

He came to the office with that irritating air of assurance that nothing could go wrong as long as they listened to his words, but Amelia abused him of that idea as she also revealed what she knew from the Aurors she had known to be working for him on the sly, and forcing him to reveal that he had no idea where the young boy had disappeared to shortly before his eighth birthday. Further checks and questioning revealed that he had not once visited the child to check on him since dumping him with the muggles like an unwanted package. She set forth to learn more about the case and ended up opening up a can of worms that made Cornelius look very green.

For one, the muggles in question were Harry's relatives through Petunia Dursley nee Evans, supposedly the sister of the late Lily Potter nee Evans. (Privately, Amelia had doubts about it, they do not look alike at all, and there was the oddity about Lily being the only one in the family to have magic when Petunia did not even register as a Squib.) They were supposedly a normal family with nothing wrong aside from having a nephew, that being Harry, being a "trouble-making youth bound for prison". But on the day Harry disappeared, their house blew up spectacularly with the family and another relation dead along with the dog. Further checks revealed Harry was treated badly with his bedroom being a cupboard beneath the stairs, the space that managed to survive a fair bit of the damage done to the house and thus saving the blood spots found there.

Secondly, the guardianship was never Dumbledore's despite the claims. Magic had shown that it was supposed to be Sirius Black's, which many were claiming to be wrong since he was sent to Azkaban. Except there was no official conviction, just a piece of paper saying that he was to be moved to Azkaban with a note stating that he was pending a trial, but the date was left blank, thus leaving Sirius in a prison limbo for 10 years with a trial. Amelia went to pull him out of Azkaban to get answers despite Dumbledore's and Cornelius's objections, the latter dealt with by telling him that the whole mess was Dumbledore's in the first place and that she wanted to ensure there were no loopholes for him to use against them.

Sirius was granted an emergency trial with him downright begging for Veritaserum which certainly set the tone, and with it, it revealed what happened on the night that led to him getting sent to Azkaban, along with the thorny issue of him being Harry's oath-sworn godfather which meant he literally could not betray him, and that the actual Secret Keeper and traitor was Peter Pettigrew, facts that Dumbledore knew yet kept silent to gain control over Harry's guardianship. The Dark Faction could not very well vote him guilty with all the facts he had spilled out, and in fact were appalled that proper procedures were not followed, although she wagered it was the fear that they could be subjected to the same deal. Sirius was set free and sent to a private wing of Saint Mungos to ensure privacy and security, while a warrant for Peter Pettigrew was issued with descriptions about his animagus form. Surprisingly a few days after that, Arthur Weasely approached her with a pale face and a cage containing a rat scrambling for freedom, revealing that the criminal had stayed with them for all those years and was previously with his youngest son Ronald for his first year at Hogwarts.

A few drops of Veritaserum and Peter sang like a canary, revealing a tale of betrayal and cowardice that had the Wizengamot and the public listening in baying for his blood. He was sent to Azkaban and given the same cell as Sirius Black for his troubles.

Needless to say that at the end of the debacle, Dumbledore lost much political favour with the dismissal from the Wizengamot and the ICW, but he held on to Hogwarts after lots of favours and possible bribery or blackmail. And the man dared to insist that Harry needed to be found for the good of all. And so she ended up having to do the investigation but was not hopeful due to how long the time had passed that the trail would likely have gone cold.

"Tomorrow night is Halloween." Cornie let out a sigh, breaking Amelia's thoughts. "Wonder if we will have any more surprises for the night?" Amelia groaned at that.

"Please don't jinx me, you know about the drawing of names using that blasted device." Amelia almost sounded like she was whining. "Not to mention all the weird instances that have been going on there for the past four years." Connie nodded at that as she considered all that went on in the academy.

While Hogwarts had some autonomy to not follow the Ministry, there had been incidents for the past few years that made it suspicious for Amelia who was peeved at Dumbledore's attempts to sweep matters under the rug to ensure that the school's reputation was not tainted. And the past four were certainly the most suspicious in her opinion, and not helped with the incidents beginning on Halloween for each year.

In 1991, a troll had managed to breach the castle, injuring a muggleborn girl severely enough that she had to be hospitalised for sometime, and later transferred out to Beauxbatons by her parents. Then the then DADA professor disappeared supposedly due to the curse set on the position by Voldemort by the end of the year, with rumours of the unicorns being hunted in the Forbidden Forest.

In 1992, a series of attacks on the muggleborns and half-bloods that left them in a petrified state lasted the whole academic year, but they were only notified after three pure-bloods were petrified with one Ginny Weasely taken hostage by the culprit, whoever that was. Dumbledore was briefly ousted by Lucius only for the latter to be kicked off the School Board of Directors when news of him strong-arming the others to throw Dumbledore out became known. Gilderoy Lockhart, the then DADA Professor, turned out to be a fraud plagiarising others' works along with obliviating them and some of the female students to hide his discretions. The headmaster claimed to have removed the threat but it came with the death of Ginny Weasley. Poor Arthur was inconsolable and Molly was catatonic for a good while. Both Hogwarts and the Ministry also got some flack from the students who were pissed that action was only taken after pure-bloods got involved, and there has been an undercurrent of anger directed at the staff since then.

In 1993, Peter Pettigrew somehow escaped Azkaban with the Lestrange Trio, resulting with Cornelius having the brilliant idea of stationing Dementors at Hogwarts based on ramblings that Bellatrix Lestrange was coming to Hogwarts to find the missing Harry Potter and to finish the job of ending the Longbottoms. The Dementors ended up being more dangerous than the escapees with their detrimental magical effects affecting the school populace severely and almost getting Neville Longbottom kissed along with a few others. The poor boy did not recover well from having his soul sucked out briefly before getting saved by the next DADA Professor replacement, Remus Lupin, and the boy got pulled out by Augusta who proceeded to tear strips out of Cornelius and Dumbledore, with the aid of other parents whose children were attacked. Both managed to hold on to their positions by the skin of their teeth with lots of bribery and favours.

Now this year was having the Triwizard Tournament, a tournament involving the top three schools of Europe and having a bloody history with a high enough death toll to get cancelled last time, yet somehow it got resurrected with the promise that the challenges would be reworked to be safer and that the candidates need to be willing and of-age to compete, the last to be enforced by the usage of an artefact designed to create a contract with the selected champions. And this came about after the disaster that was the Quidditch World Cup hosted by Britain that saw riots and supposed Death Eaters coming out of the woodwork to attack the civilians, and there were reports of several kidnappings regarding the Bulgarian Cheerleaders.

And Cornelius dared to claim that she was fishing for trouble when she asked for the budget increase to get more Aurors!

"Boss, you are torturing your quill." Connie dryly remarked while watching Amelia grip the quill so hard that it broke. Amelia took in a deep breath and let it out slowly before putting the quill down.

"I just want to have a Halloween that has no issues for Susan to celebrate in Hogwarts, just one. Is that too much to ask?" Connie hummed at the near whine Amelia gave.

"With Dumbledore around? That may be a fool's hope." Amelia groaned at that reply.

She just knew this Halloween was going to suck.

~ooOOoo~

Sounds of spellfire rang about the outskirts of London, where a group of wizards were fighting for their lives against someone who was raining literal hellfire on them. They were out and about wanting to have a sport of fun with muggle baiting like the good old days when this fellow came out of nowhere and started attacking them with fire while getting the muggles out of the way. Of the seven who had gathered for the evening, four had perished to this fool. But they would not let him get the better of them!

"Jawson, get him on the right!" The one with one bleeding eye called out to his friend. "Bane, you and I will be hitting this one with Bombardas!"

"Got it, Tanner!" His partner then started to fire off the curse at their assailant who was dodging all the spells raining down on him, the flames making it look like he was dancing on the flames themselves. What little they could see, their attacker was quite short, making it likely to be a young man in his teens. He wore those muggle clothes with a jacket on, and had a beanie on his head and some cloth to cover his face to show only the eyes. He was clearly a wizard with the wand that was in his hand which he had used to fire off what might be piercing hexes, but the fire appeared to be issuing from the air itself to protect him from their attacks. Even their best fire repelling charms or flame freezing spells were acting as mild irritants that would get swept away.

"Eat this! Sectumsempra!" Jawson cast the curse that was popular with the Death Eaters right at the youth only for him to drop down to the ground and let the curse hit the wall. For his troubles, Jawson got a tidal wave of fire to the face, incinerating him within seconds without giving him time to even scream.

"Jawson!" The apparent leader glared at the young man. "Damn you! Avada Kedavra!" The deadly green light left his wand at the young man who appeared to push off the ground with his feet and flew straight up to avoid the spell. Mid-way, the boy spun and did a drop kick on Bane who tried to fire off another spell, hitting him squarely on the head and face planting him to the ground. Another stomp got him screaming as the fire covered him completely and he was made into a human torch. "Bane!"

"Now there is only one." The young man spoke for the first time since the entire fight. "You should have left when you had the chance."

"Damn you bloody Mudblood!" Tanner yelled at him in frustration. "Why should we bow down to these filthy muggles? They keep multiplying like rabbits, a few dead ones would be a drop in the pond. And those were fine girls who could serve us!"

"Filth like you are not welcome on my turf." His attacker's eyes appeared to glow while the flames spread and congregated behind him, forming what appeared to be a nightmarish skull from hell with glowing eyes. "You are the one that needs cleansing."

"Fuck you! You want to fight with fire? Try this on for size!" Tanner waved his wand in a specific pattern before calling out the name of the curse in mind. "Pestis Incendium!" A spark appeared from his wand before the signature dark orange flames of Fiendfyre burst forth to create a giant dragon's head that roared at the assailant, who to his credit took a single step back before his own flames exploded and rushed forward to fight it head on. The roars and sheer violence of the flames were more akin to that of wild animals fighting for supremacy, and Tanner was legging it out of the alleyway after discarding his wand that won't stop issuing out the cursed flames.

A small price to pay to get rid of this interloper.

Tanner let out a crazed laugh as he watched the flames rampaging and the two entities trying to overpower the other, with his dragon having the advantage. "You fool! You think your parlour tricks can beat Fiendfyre, you fucked up big time! I win! HA!"

"PISH!"

Tanner staggered forward slightly, feeling slightly short of breath and tasting blood in his mouth. He looked down to see his shirt getting stained with blood and started feeling woozy. He stumbled about to turn and found the young man standing there with his wand aimed at him, part of his clothes singed and the cloth covering his face having the most damage from the flames.

"You talk too much." The young man remarked while lowering his wand. "You called my flames a parlour trick, but I think yours is the one." He pointed behind Tanner who turned and watched with growing horror at the flaming skull which was actually chewing on the draconian representation of Fiendfyre. The dragon even sounded afraid as it was consumed by the skull, then with a loud crunch, the Fiendfyre was consumed and the skull appeared to gain horns from it. Tanner sank to his knees, both from the loss of blood and from the fear growing on him.

"I was honestly expecting better." The young man walked closer while watching the flames come closer to them. "But thank you for the meal."

"What… are you?" Tanner spat out blood as he tried to keep conscious.

"If I have to be lyrical?" The attacker tilted his head, making the cloth break off even more to show some of his left cheek. "I am the wrath of those left forsaken in this cruel world. The desire to burn all who had ignored our pleas for help." A quick step forward and Tanner was raised off the ground, a surprising feat by one shorter than him. The action along with the wind blowing about from the corridor caused the cloth from his face to fly off, revealing a young face that had seen some action and emerald eyes that shone with a cold radiance from the fires that was coming up from behind Tanner. "I am the cleaner of this side of town. Any who attack me will be met with force. An Eye for An Eye. A Tooth for A Tooth." The wind blew his fringe briefly, and in the light, Tanner saw a scar shaped in a lightning bolt, and his eyes went wide at the recognition.

"And Devil's Flames for the Wicked."

With that, the young man threw him hard, and Tanner barely had time to scream before the jaws of the flaming skill snapped shut around him and immediately incinerated him to ashes within seconds. The young man watched the flames for a moment to calm down before waving his wand to gather up whatever survived the fight into a sack he pulled out from his pocket. With another wave, the flaming skull let out one last roar before dispelling itself, leaving behind small fires on the bodies of the attackers. He kept his wand safely before making his way to the manhole and dropped down just as the sirens of the fire brigade were getting louder in the distance.

Another night of defending his turf.

Another night of mysterious fires burning people with no identities.

Another night of the devil claiming the criminals on the streets.