Harry Potter: The Making of a Dark Lord

Ministry of Magic, outside the DMLE Office

Amelia Bones hurried out of her office, Junior Auror Brendan Mockridge in tow as her security. Brendan was the nephew of Cuthbert Mockridge, the Head of the Goblin Liaison Office and one of Bones' important allies in the Ministry. She and Mockridge had just received reports of fiendfyre and the Dark Mark in Diagon Alley, and she wanted to see the scene for herself.

So it begins, thought Amelia in dread as she strode quickly toward the elevator on her floor. The Dark Lord has finally announced his return.

For the past few days she and Croaker had been working feverishly behind the scenes, trying to prepare for the coming conflict. Bones had personally warned the likely enemies of the Dark Lord, and three of her most trusted Junior Aurors were warning the families of muggleborns. Senior Aurors Proudfoot and Savage had copied the DMLE's files and placed time-sensitive devices that would incinerate the originals in case of invasion.

While Croaker worried over safe houses and the situation with Harry Potter, his personal assistant prepared special portkeys that could be used to remove the most precious and dangerous artifacts in the Department of Mysteries. Unlike other departments, the DoM could be virtually locked down, but Croaker was taking no chances.

He had even proposed assassinating the imprisoned Death Eaters as a precaution, but such an operation created insurmountable legal obstacles for them. There would be a record of whoever visited the prison to dispatch the Death Eaters, and Bones was unwilling to sacrifice the reputation of a valuable Auror at this point. Her years as an administrator made her accustomed to playing by the rules.

On top of everything else, she and Croaker had to decide who could be trusted within their own departments. Almost everyone was theoretically opposed to Voldemort, but if the Ministry were taken over through political means, it would be harder to judge what people might do.

Overall, it was a very precarious situation, and they both blamed Dumbledore for it.

As Amelia approached the elevator doors, flanked by Mockridge on her right, her sense of danger suddenly flared.

It was too quiet in the corridor. There was no one else present, and none of the noise typical of this part of the Ministry.

"Wait," she commanded, holding up her hand to stop Mockridge and drawing her wand. "Something isn't—," she began, but was stopped short as spell fire erupted from both sides of the elevator.

His attention on Bones, Mockridge was caught unawares as a vicious slicing curse impacted his upper torso and neck. He fell like a stone, his carotid artery severed and spurting blood wildly on to the smooth stone of the hallway.

Bones stared in horror, but had no time to render aid to her fallen colleague. A nasty-looking purple spell forced her to throw up a hasty shield. It deflected at the last possible second.

"Bloody hell," Bones muttered, dropping to the ground and backing away as two slicing curses flew over her. There were clearly two attackers, and both were invisible.

Acting on instincts that took years to hone, Bones moved her wand in a wide arc, launching a deluge of blue paint at her invisible attackers. At the end of the movement she muttered and tapped herself on the head, making herself just as invisible as they were.

One of the attackers was able to dodge the paint and stay on the offensive, but his partner was forced to raise a protego to avoid the paint. Bones was now aware of his position. She dodged three recklessly aimed curses and sent a chain of vicious offensive spells at the first attacker, hoping one of them would hit its mark.

Her final 'confringo' did.

The blasting curse battered down the man's shield, and she heard a muted scream as it connected.

His disillusionment faded and she saw a masked Death Eater flicker into existence. He had been hit in the stomach by her blaster, and there was now a gaping and bloody hole in his midsection. The Death Eater, young by the sound of him, whimpered and tried to hold in his intestines, no longer focused on the fight. He ripped off his mask, and Bones noted distractedly that it was Phillip Nott, a young man who had failed out of the Auror Academy over a year ago.

Bones' attack revealed her location to the other attacker, so she darted quickly to one wall and flattened her back against it as two curses sailed past her. She was breathing heavily, and took a second to take stock of her situation. One opponent was down but not totally out of the fight, and the other was still disillusioned. This could get tricky.

Her brief respite was ended when a powerful bludgeoner sped directly at her. She raised a strong shield and cursed herself for forgetting about her breathing. She was panting like a race horse, and her attacker must have heard her.

She knelt in the center of the hallway, ready to move quickly, and fired a chain of blasting spells at the area surrounding the elevator.

One of them was deflected by a shield, and Bones prepared to launch a more precise volley when she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her left arm and shoulder.

She stared in confusion as her arm skittered down the corridor away from her, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

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