XIII: The Conspiracy
By: Tellemicus Sundance
The Assassin, Conspiracists, and Defenders
Conspiracists
Number 1—Rufus Scrimgeour (Senior Auror)
Number 2—Dolores Umbridge (Senior Undersecretary of the Minister)
Number 3—Bartimous Crouch Sr. (International Magical Cooperation)
Number 4—Gornuk (Goblin)
Number 5—Lucius Malfoy (prestigious Pureblood)
Number 6—Aberforth Dumbledore (Hog's Head owner)
Number 7—Alastor Moody (Retired Auror)
Number 8—Walden Macnair (Disposal of Dangerous Creatures)
Number 9—Mundungus Fletcher (Unspeakable)
Number 10—Fenrir Greyback (Werewolf)
Number 11—Rita Skeeter (Daily Prophet journalist)
Number 12—Barty Crouch Jr. (Assassin)
Number 13—Harry Potter (Boy-Who-Lived)
Number 14—John Dawlish (Auror)
Number 15—Amos Diggory (Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures)
Number 16—Kingsley Shacklebolt (Auror)
Number 17—Severus Snape (Potions Professor)
Number 18—Dirk Cresswell (Goblin Liaison Officer)
Number 19—Madam Edgecombe (Magical Transportation)
Number 20—Hestia Jones (Auror)
Number 21—Bill Weasley (Cursebreaker)
Number 22—Ginny Weasley (Hogwarts student)
Defenders
Albus Dumbledore (Hogwarts Headmaster/Defense General)
Nymphadora Tonks (Auror/CIA officer)
Amelia Susan Bones (Head of Auror Office/Interrogator)
Fleur Delacour (Daily Prophet editor)
Harry Potter (Number 13/Assassin)
The Conspiracy
Scrimgeour is a power-hungry Auror who's disgusted with how the Ministry is run by corrupt politicians and bureaucrats who accept bribes and threats to further their own agendas. During the Dark War, Scrimgeour starts secretly recruiting various witches and wizards from all levels of society and power to stage a coup d'état. This coup was accelerated considerably after Voldemort's apparent death, which allowed Scrimgeour to recruit high-level Death Eaters with promises of increased fortune, godly prestige, and heightened influence in the Wizengamot. Once he had assembled a core (2-5) and an inner circle (6-10) of believers in his coup d'état, he unveiled his 'true' plans and intentions for revolutionizing the Ministry and the Wizarding World when he finally took office as the Minister of Magic.
When Fletcher revealed that he knew where Dumbledore had hidden Harry Potter and he knew how to breach the blood wards and protections, Scrimgeour was overjoyed at the possibility of using the famed Boy-Who-Lived as the scapegoat for the coup. He had Harry Potter's relatives send him off to a military boarding camp where he'd be trained to be a soldier in the name of the Queen. When Harry demonstrated an unusually high level of skill in his training at age 9, Scrimgeour had Harry's commanders transfer him to an elite, top-secret division of the British Army, the mostly unknown Special Magical Regiment (SMR). The SMR trains magical children discovered in the ranks of the soldier candidates how to use their magic without the use of wands or other focus points. The SMR is responsible for keeping the peace between the Muggle government and the Wizarding Ministry during times of war or ethnic conflicts (like the Dark War). Because Harry had already been accepted by a magical institution for higher learning of his free will, Harry's name was removed from the Hogwarts' list and thus didn't receive an acceptance letter. Harry's disappearance was the first true indication that something was afoot in the world and caused a massive stir for the confused wizarding public.
Shortly before Harry's First Year, Scrimgeour catches wind of Dumbledore and Flamel's plot to move the Philosopher's Stone from Gringotts to Hogwarts. Seeing an opportunity at immortality, Scrimgeour discreetly sends some of his men to watch the vault and intercept the carrier before it reaches Dumbledore. Planting a fake in its place and memory wiping Hagrid of the brief fight and theft, Dumbledore unknowingly uses it in an attempt to draw Voldemort out of hiding to confirm his death or continued existence. Although Voldemort succeeded in obtaining the Stone, he was furious to discover that it was actually a fake and he was forced to abandon Quirrell and find a new place to rest and recover his lost power. When Dumbledore shares his concerns and theories about Voldemort's continued existence with Snape, Scrimgeour begins a hunt for the Horcruxes. Within two years, all but one is destroyed (Harry).
During one of his days off, Harry is allowed to meet with the 'family' of one of his mysterious wizarding benefactors. Harry gets introduced to Bill and Ginny Weasley, both of which are recruited into the conspiracy for their skills (Bill) and being able to monitor one of Dumbledore's top Light families (Ginny). Harry becomes friends with Ginny simply because she's the first person outside his training unit that he's been able to meet. Ginny is unaware of Harry's identity as the Boy-Who-Lived.
Harry continues his magical and military training with the SMR until his 15th birthday when he graduates at the top of his class in all fields. Immediately, Scrimgeour puts his plan into action. He finally recruits Harry and talks him into joining the coup to help Scrimgeour 'modernize' the backwater Wizarding World. Harry agrees and is finally assigned his serial number of XIII. Harry's role in the coup was to assassinate the current Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge. However, Harry underestimated the wizarding protections surrounding Fudge during that year. Fudge's paranoia over Dumbledore trying to take his seat as Minister by lying to the people about Voldemort's supposed return (which occurred during the Triwizard Tournament and with Cedric's death) caused him to go to extreme lengths to protect himself. Umbridge (Number 2) could only offer Harry a very brief window of opportunity, but he missed it through no fault of his own. Regardless of his failed attempt, Shacklebolt, Macnair, and Crouch Jr. still tried to kill Harry to appease the populace with the body of the assassin. They failed and Harry escaped with his life, going into hiding immediately.
However, the failed assassination still worked in Scrimgeour's favor as it caused Fudge to immediately assume that Dumbledore had been behind the attempt. Fudge immediately began a campaign to discredit and remove Dumbledore from all offices of power that he held (except for Hogwarts, which he had no true power over). Umbridge played along with Fudge's schemes for taking over Hogwarts because it helped serve Scrimgeour's plans of discrediting Fudge later on. Content to let his plans play out as they'd prepared, Scrimgeour had his people start launching numerous terrorist attacks and bombings on public and governmental areas to further increase the state of civil unrest and paranoia, something that Voldemort and his slowly returning Death Eaters only helped to further increase.
When Harry had finally come out of hiding to confront Scrimgeour, he was betrayed by them when he tried to set up a meeting between them. Although Harry managed to escape again, he was badly injured and amnesiac from being hit by a powerful Memory Charm. He was found by a simple, elderly magical family in the wilderness of Wales. They were able to nurse him back to health and help provide him with some clues to rediscovering his identity. However, when the Conspiracists finally tracked Harry down, Harry's instincts and old training reflexes kicked in and helped him escape them once again. On the run again, Harry journeyed to Diagon Alley to meet with a Daily Prophet editor to help him track down the address of a picture of himself and some girl in the picture with him.
When Harry journeys to the Burrow, he finds the Weasley family during their winter holidays. The family is overjoyed to discover that the amnesiac boy is actually the Boy-Who-Lived. They are fast to contact Dumbledore about Harry's appearance at their doorstep. Unknown to them, Ginny had also contacted Crouch Jr. when she recognized him (still unaware of his identity). But Fudge has also had the Weasleys secretly put under close observation on the condition of suspected treason. When they intercepted Arthur's Floo call, they sent teams of Aurors in to storm the house and capture the family/boy. Crouch Jr. arrived first but killed Ginny when she was about to compromise the conspiracy. Moments later, the Aurors arrived and took the family hostage. They recognized Harry as the assassin and quickly accused Harry of murdering Ginny.
Transporting Harry to the Department of Magical Law, the Aurors put him through extensive and horrific torture. They had come to believe that someone was staging a coup d'état and they believed that Harry knew who they were. During a brief break, John Dawlish (Number 14) attempted to kill Harry, but Harry was able to break free and escape from the Ministry with help from Tonks. Tonks took Harry to meet with Dumbledore, who he was finally able to reveal the conspiracy he seemed to find himself caught up in. But because of Harry's Memory Charm, they couldn't learn anything about what had happened to Harry after he'd disappeared. Dumbledore was able to talk Harry into helping him uncover and apprehend the conspiracists.
Harry returns to his old training camp for the SMR where Dumbledore had detected strange magical occurrences happening. Harry finds that the camp had been taken over by the soldiers whom were under the Imperius Charm to be the foot soldiers of the coming conspiracy. They were constructing a powerful Muggle chemical bomb that could wipe out the Ministry of Magic. While there, he overhears a meeting between the core and inner circle of the conspiracists, identifying several of them but he quickly draws the assumption that Umbridge was Number 1. Before he has a chance to escape, he gets into a fight with Crouch Jr., Fletcher, and Jones (killing Jones). Returning with Tonks, Dumbledore is horrified to realize that some of the conspiracists could potentially be members of his own Order.
Meanwhile, Voldemort has finally made himself known to the Magical World when he enters the Ministry of Magic to get the prophecy. Fudge, no longer able to deny the truth, is forced to step down from Minister and the wizarding world and Wizengamot begin voting for who should be appointed next. Scrimgeour's promises of weeding out the corruption that's plagued the Ministry for centuries received very high praise and relief from the public who were sick and tired of being scared and oppressed. Contrary to Pius Thicknese who's only promising to fight Voldemort and bring order back to the Wizarding England.
After guaranteeing Tonks' allegiances, Dumbledore sends them into the Ministry to stop the chemical bomb before it can go off and influence the vote further. After finding Bill and Snape guarding the bomb and defeats both of them, Harry is just barely able to stop it before it blows. Tonks is able to alert the Aurors of the attempted terrorist attack and they're able to capture Bill and Snape, who quickly commit suicide rather than talk. The Aurors quickly lockdown the Ministry and begin a sweep of the building. As the chaos unfolds at the Ministry, Harry is able to walk right into Umbridge's office and catches her red-handed about to trigger an emergency back-up bomb (ignorant of its purpose and destructive power). Though she fails to start the bomb, she kills herself as well. When the Aurors come upon the scene, they arrest Harry but find the evidence of Umbridge's attempt in the bombing.
After extensive questioning, with a little help from Dumbledore and a pardoning from the new Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour, Harry is released from custody and forgiven in his part of the earlier failed assassination. Harry decides that he's had enough war and politics in England, choosing to leave the country for a vacation. Dumbledore assigns Tonks to be his bodyguard and companion during his travels.
It isn't until Harry goes to see a Memory Charm specialist in Italy that Harry finally recovers his lost memories and comes to the horrified conclusion that the real Number 1 (Rufus Scrimgeour) had actually succeeded in his coup d'etat by becoming the new Minister of Magic. Furious at realizing he'd unknowingly helped Scrimgeour's plans all along, Harry vows to return to England and stop Scrimgeour at all costs.