Story Arc 6, Chapter 2
Amelia had been busy since she'd left the Department of Mysteries. When she went to the holding cells to check on Pettigrew, she saw the DMLE Healer on Duty in the cell. When she asked the Auror in charge of the holding area what was happening, she discovered that about ten minutes ago, he'd grabbed his left arm and started screaming.
The Healer came out and said, "There's nothing I can do for him. Something is siphoning off his magic. If it continues at this rate, he'll be a squib by morning."
Amelia thanked the healer and he went on his way. She turned to the on-duty Auror and said, "Put a silencing spell on that cell. Not one word about this is to get out. I suspect he's the first of many tonight."
She went to her office and dug out her list of suspected Death Eaters. She'd see how many checked into St. Mungo's in the next few hours. Then she got on the floo to the Warden at Azkaban. She had to wait a few minutes for him to come to the fireplace.
"Madam Bones, I hope this isn't a social call as I've got my hands full at the moment," he said.
"Would I be correct in guessing that all of the Death Eaters are now screaming in pain and grabbing their left arms?"
"Why yes, how did you know? Did something happen?" he asked.
"You could say that. All I can say at this time is that there is nothing you or your people can do to help them. Monitor them. Let the duty Auror know if anything further happens."
"You're expecting something more?" the incredulous warden asked.
"I expect all of the Death Eaters to pass within the next few days. Now, I've got to take care of things here," she said, then closed her floo.
Her next call was to the head of St. Mungo's. Unsurprisingly, he was already up but hadn't gone into the hospital yet.
"Amelia, I don't have time for you right now, I've got a crisis at Mungo's," said Octavius MacTavish.
"I realize that. And it's probably going to get worse. You are probably going to get quite a number of individuals who are suddenly losing their magic. I think you'll find they're all former members of the black tattoo club. I'm going to send over a squad of Aurors to help keep the peace as I think you are going to have crowd control problems."
"Thanks, Amelia. I'll let the Welcome Witch know to expect them."
Amelia went to the desk Auror and said, "I want a full recall of all Aurors and Auror trainees. I want the Go Team lead in my office an hour ago. I expect the rest of them here within a half-hour. I'll brief everyone at the same time. I'll call Rufus."
Amelia went back to her office and floo'd her Deputy, Rufus Scrimgeour. While not the most likable of people, he was fair-minded and thorough. He'd be there quickly.
There was a knock on her door, "Senior Auror Robards reporting, Ma'am."
"Robards, take your team to St. Mungo's and provide security. I'll send you help once the recall is complete. I'm giving you a list of names and I want you to check off those who show up. They will all be complaining of excruciating pain. If anyone not on this list arrives with the same symptoms, write them down and send them back to me. You are the only one to see the list. Am I clear?"
"Yes, Ma'am," said Robards.
"Gawain, I think this is the end of the Death Eaters. We need to be very careful with this information. I'm sure there will be quite a few people getting black envelopes from Gringotts over the next few days. We can't let this get out of control."
While stunned over the possibility of no more real or suspected Death Eaters, this could lead to riots, especially by the overly-entitled purebloods. He took the list and went to take his team to Mungo's.
- Scene Break -
By 8 o'clock, Amelia had a better picture of how things were going. Of the ten Death Eaters in the high-security ward in Azkaban, the only one still alive was Bellatrix Lestrange. She was enjoying the pain way too much so the guards had put a silencing spell on her cell. Of the seventeen "Imperioused" Death Eaters, almost all of them had reported to St. Mungo's. The only ones missing were Severus Snape and Fenrir Greyback. There were several others who'd shown up who weren't on their list of known or suspected Death Eaters. Delores Umbridge was one of those and Amelia was quite happy about that.
She didn't know about another former Death Eater that was living in Bartemius Crouch, Sr.'s house – his son, Barty, Jr. When Barty, Jr., started screaming, Senior silenced him and watched him until he died. He then transfigured his son into a log and tossed it on the fire in his sitting room. There would be no evidence left for anyone to find, even though no one, to his knowledge, knew that Barty, Jr. was alive.'
Amelia decided it was time to call Minister Fudge and let him know what was happening. He was still in his dressing gown when he got to his floo.
"Good morning, Minister. You are needed at the Ministry as soon as possible," said Amelia.
"I'm sorry, Amelia, but I have other plans for today. I have a fund-raising luncheon being hosted by Lucius Malfoy. It will have to wait until tomorrow," said Cornelius.
"Well, I am sure your luncheon will be canceled. Lucius is currently in St. Mungo's and is not expected to last the day. He has quite a lot of company. I will brief you on the entirety of this when you get here," said Amelia, and closed the floo. Cornelius should know by now that she didn't cry 'werewolf' over every little thing.
An hour later, a paper airplane from Cornelius summoned her to his office. Rufus Scrimgeour went with her. She took her pensive with her to show him the memory from last night.
When they pulled out of the pensieve, Cornelius was ashen. How could a person do that to themselves? Thinking he could become immortal by splitting his soul? Everyone knew that the soul was the source of their magic. To abuse this gift so horribly, well the man/thing deserved what he got. Inhabiting a baby? Cornelius did not have a strong constitution so it didn't surprise the others in his office when he began to sick up.
Once she thought the Minister had regained his composure, she led into the next bit of news.
"Minister, both the goblins and Unspeakables believed that the dark mark Riddle branded his followers with contained slave bond. Riddle could siphon magic from his followers through it. Once he was dead, the bond siphoned the magic from his followers. All of the prisoners in Azkaban, minus Bellatrix Lestrange, are dead. She shouldn't be alive much longer. At last count, more than fifty wizards and witches have shown up at St. Mungo's in horrible pain and clutching their left arms. All are either squibs or on their way there. There is nothing St. Mungo's can do for them."
Cornelius wiped his forehead. All of the former Death Eaters were either dead or dying. There goes his retirement fund.
"We also have Peter Pettigrew in custody thanks to the goblins. We weren't able to question him before he passed on. Just his presence, however, confirms what we learned at Sirius Black's trial. We need to make a statement to the Daily Prophet." said Amelia.
"I'll have Dolores write something up when she comes in," said the Minister.
Amelia tried to hide the chuckle, "Oh, Dolores won't be coming in today or any other day. She's one of the ones in St. Mungo's."
Cornelius knew this was the end of his time as Minister. He would have to go home, grab the hidden stash of funds, and head to his bolt-hole in Crete. He didn't have time to go to Gringotts. His wife would just have to make do.
"Do you think you could write something up, Amelia? Something that won't cause mass hysteria?"
Amelia pulled a scroll out of her robes and handed it to him. He quickly read through it and nodded his head, "Yes. Yes. This will do nicely. Get that to the Daily Prophet as soon as possible. I'd like another report at noon," he should be out of the country in two, but this would keep her out of his hair to give him time to leave.
As Amelia and Rufus were heading back to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Rufus asked, "How long do you think it will take him to pack up and leave?"
"A conservative estimate is three hours, but knowing Cornelius, he'll be gone in two and will forget half the things he was going to take with him," said Amelia.
"Too bad that portkey he bought from Gringotts for five thousand galleons won't even take him five miles," said Rufus.
"Yes, King Ragnok was quite helpful in that respect," she said.
- Scene Break -
At noon, Amelia and Rufus went back to the Minister's office to give him an update. They found the office completely empty. In the middle of his desk was a single piece of parchment. All other correspondence had been dumped on his assistant's desk. The parchment was a simple, "Due to unforeseen circumstances, I resign the office of Minister for Magic immediately. I appoint Amelia Bones as Interim Minister until the Wizengamot can appoint an acting minister."
Amelia sent Rufus back to the DMLE while she set other things in motion. Her first stop was to the Wizengamot Administration Services. Since it was a Sunday, no one was there. She used the floo there to contact the department chief, Barney Fife, and told him he was needed immediately. When he tried to weasel out of it, Amelia told him as acting minister, if he didn't have himself in his office within thirty minutes, he would be looking for another job. She then went to the Department of Magical Transportation and told the floo network manager on duty that all floos in the Ministry were to be shut down except the floos in the Atrium and the DMLE. This meant everyone would have to pass through the security desk first.
Deciding there really was no way to do this but the hard way, she went back to the DMLE and told the Desk Auror to initiate a ministry-wide recall of personnel, code Merlin Orange. Ministry workers had two hours to report. She would have a department head meeting at three and set the Wizengamot meeting for four. She sent two Auror trainees to help at the security desk. They had a list of department heads and letters for each. She poked her head in the fire and called the Hogwarts headmaster's office.
Albus said, "What can I do for you, Amelia?"
"That's Acting Minister Bones, Chief Warlock. I've called an emergency Wizengamot session for four this afternoon, or I will once the WAS gets in."
"What happened to Cornelius?" he asked.
"That will all be explained at the meeting. Good day, Headmaster," and she closed the floo.
Just as she finished that call, a rattled Barney Fife was ushered into her office. She gave him his marching orders and he went down to his office to send out the notices. He had pre-prepared notices that just had to have the date and time written in and then duplicated. He went to the owlery to send them out. He had twelve letters that the owls refused to take, so he took them back to Madam Bones to handle. She didn't seem surprised, so he went back to his office to prepare for the emergency session.
At two, she went down to the Minister's office to find the office staff had arrived. She gave a quick summation of the departure of the previous minister and her assumption. She wanted all the current business that the minister had been working on separated into piles – Action needed immediately, action required, but can wait, and information only. She then went into the office to see what Cornelius had left behind. Luckily, there wasn't much in there. He'd taken all of his personal effects (and probably a few that weren't personal) but hadn't taken the time to destroy anything that could incriminate him. She'd have one of her investigators go through everything while they built the case against him.
The Department Head meeting was relatively uneventful. As all would be in the upcoming Wizengamot meeting where she presented the full story, she just let them know that there had been a change in administration for now. She wanted a roll call of all departments done and a list of anyone absent given to her as soon as possible. She already knew several ministry workers such as Walden McNair, Corban Yaxley, and Albert Runcorn would be missing.
She made a quick floo call to Sirius and discussed how much to implicate Harry in this. She would mention the prophecy that was driving his presence. Croaker would be there and she had sent Dirk Cresswell with a message to King Ragnok inviting him, or a representative, to attend the meeting. Once that was complete, she donned her Wizengamot robes and headed down to the Wizengamot Chambers. It was show time!