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Emmeline Vance considered what she had just been through, and for the first time in many, many years, was not certain what to make of it.
The explosion at the stadium was a shock, both on a personal level, and as a Ministry personnel. As Head Obliviator, she had been on a first-name basis with many of the DMLE, especially the Senior staff. Hell, Amelia Bones made it a point to run the new recruits through her psychic evaluation before giving them the nod for Cadet-ship. Seeing so many of them lying dead, including Amelia Bones, Emmeline reminded herself, not that the statement would remain true any time soon.
And that led to the second shocking event of the evening.
Harry Potter was resurrecting Amelia Bones. From the dead. True, she had seen him do some truly spectacular things recently, both magically and up close, but this was on a league beyond anything else. Absorbing the raw necromantic energy from the corrupted form of Hermione Granger was one thing, but to keep someone from passing on, to put a stopper on Death and force someone to return into her broken, sundered form and draw breath again, that was something else. It was evil, it was wrong, and yet… It was beautiful. A true miracle. And wasn't that what Magic was truly about? Not just defying a couple of physics' rules or altering biology, but actual resurrection after the body had perished?
It was Magic with a Capital M.
Emmeline had a solid affinity for magical sensing, and the powers she had sensed back inside the burning stadium had been very… intriguing. Twisted, chaotic, bizarre, familiar….
And powerful. Terribly so.
She watched as Hestia followed her directions, shutting her eyes and receding into the safety of her mind. As an Obliviator, she had seen some pretty dangerous hexes, curses and enchantments over her years in and out of office. But not even she had ever come across a defensive spell that was so… dangerously offensive. And if she had learnt this from Harry Potter's private books…
Emmeline licked her lips.
Emmeline as a person had always been attracted to power. Not just raw strength, but esoteric, mind-melting, abstract forms of power. The kind that she had only read about in books, and on very, very rare occasions, watched with her own eyes when Albus Dumbledore had faced off Lord Voldemort.
So yes, say what you will, but she rather liked this new incarnation of Harry Potter. She would take great joy in watching him run wild, exploring his abilities, both as an Incubus Lord, and a Necromancer and turn the upcoming war on its head. Already he had made made changes, gathered quite a number of ladies from influential Houses under his banner, including herself — Head Obliviator, Anastasia, Lady Greengrass, and would be married to Susan Bones, the Lady of House Bones, and while he hadn't quite put it out there, Amelia Bones as well. The 'Iron Lady' was no doubt one of the most formidable entities in the entirety of Wizarding Britain, but that didn't make it any less true that she had a body mature enough to put Emmeline herself to shame. And with Harry's nature as an Incubus, and the sudden familiarity with the DMLE Director only made it more evident that yes, Harry Potter was indeed 'boning' Amelia Bones.
Emmeline had, of course, heard of the stories of James Potter being an old fling of the DMLE Director. To think that James Potter's son would finally dislodge that stick up her arse brought a smile to her face.
All she had to make sure now was that any of these ladies didn't end up playing Harry and use him as a tool.
She glanced at Hestia. The girl was standing utterly stiff, as if under some kind of petrifaction, and Emmeline would have been worried, if not for the fact that the teal flames around them were slowing down, getting smaller and smaller. Truth be told, she had theorised that she and Hestia could attempt freezing charms together, after Hestia cut herself off from this flame spell. It would likely damage further areas of the forest, but at least both of them would be alive. She had not expected… well, this.
She glanced up at the massive flaming boar, roaring and grunting and wanting to escape the flaming domain, only to be held back in place by an invisible hand. Emmeline didn't know what Hestia was doing, or how she had learnt to control the spell with such finesse, but it was working. Holding her wand in a vice grip, she stabbed it into the ground beneath her, yelling —
"FINITE INCANTATEM!"
The general counter spell. An invocation that had no general wand movement, had no standard for energy costs, and had just one and one purpose alone — to dissipate existing magical energies, spell, enchantment, curse or otherwise. She winced as the counter-spell literally guzzled through her reserves, creating a perimeter of white light around her, before spreading radially outward. The flaming boar let out a last defiant roar before being completely subsumed into the flames, which flickered and died, leaving a large area of burnt foliage with both of them in its centre. Emmeline fell down to a knee, while Hestia suddenly unfreezed, and looked at her in surprise.
"Emmy, it's — uh, it's gone. Just as Harry promised!"
"Harry?" Emmeline felt a surge of irritation mixed with surprise at her words. "Have you gone crazy, Hestia? I just —"
No, you don't understand," Hestia said earnestly. "Harry… Harry helped me. In my head. He —"
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"
Emmeline looked up at the sudden voice, absolutely surprised at the mask-clad Death Eater. Firstly, because it was a female, and second, it was a voice that she knew very well, having had to deal with its owner's obnoxiousness every single day at the Ministry.
"Alecto, is it?" she asked, tilting her head. Alecto Carrow, sister (and lover) of her brother Amycus Carrow, was the Head of the Sub-Department of Regulation of Intoxicating Substances. Her department contributed to about a quarter of headaches for the Obliviation Office, because of their absolute, or perhaps she could call it intentional inefficiency.
"Head Obliviator," said Alecto, vanishing her mask with a wave of her wand. "What is the Lady of the House of Vance and Abbott doing here all alone with that halfblood?"
"Do I know you?" Hestia asked politely, pretending she had not gone through the Order files that registered Alecto and her brother Amycus as 'Marked' Death-Eaters.
"I should hope not," Alecto scoffed, sticking her nose into the air. "I would be abhorred if I was known by someone as lowborn as yourself."
"If you don't like me…. And you think I'm beneath you, and I don't know who you are… then why are you talking to me?"
Emmeline stood up, taking deep breaths. She was already occluding herself, running multiple pathways to consider multiple avenues while also performing psychic exercises to cool her body down and prepare herself for the fight that was quickly approaching. "Speaking of…." She turned to Hestia. "Allow me to introduce you, Alecto Carrow. Head of the Sub-Department of Regulation of Intoxicating Substances. Oh, and her brother is an Obliviator. I swear, both of them are literal nightmares."
"I am a nightmare?" accused Carrow. "You're the one that's being a boot-up my brother's arse."
"Bet he likes it," Hestia quipped.
Alecto turned to Hestia and gave her a look akin to eyeing a particularly nasty worm. "I believe I'll take your tongue after I've torn that head off. Filth like you have a nasty habit of climbing to places you do not deserve. Trust that mudblood filth's son Harry Potter to take a halfblood as his secretary."
Hestia gave her a flabbergasted look. "You hate me… because I am Harry Potter's secretary?"
"Obviously. Harry Potter is the latest of a line of traitors and disappointments. But not to worry! Not to worry! It's to exterminate uppity vermin like you from this world that we began this Purge tonight. With the entire world as witness, we shall take our world back from all those who are unworthy, from those mudbloods and halfbloods who would contaminate our world with their filth!"
"You're being quite boisterous tonight, Alecto," said Emmeline. "Showing up in a Death-Eater attire. Speaking of mutilation and murder and sedition. What? Did hiding your psychopathy become a little too much for you?"
Aleto sneered at her. "Haven't you gotten it already? The stadium is burning, and with it, Britain's reputation and any faith the world has in this government. Tonight has been a demonstration of what we are, and what we can do. And when the Dark Lord returns to power, we shall serve him this world on a silver platter, to rebuild it and shape it in his image. It's really sad that you wouldn't be here to see it, Emmeline Vance. Your blood is just as pure as mine."
"Really?" asked Hestia, raising an eyebrow. "You and what army?"
As if to answer her question, four more figures appeared behind her, their masks gleaming in the darkness. They could also hear the rustling in the trees. Clearly there was more than one werewolf hiding in them, waiting for orders to pounce. No doubt these were from Fenrir Greyback's pack. There was no other way the beasts would follow the likes of Alecto Carrow otherwise.
Emmeline drew a long suffering breath. "You had to ask!"
Alecto turned around at her compatriots who shed their masks. As expected, her brother Amycus was one of them. The other two were Thomas Jugson and Timothy Warrington. Jugson was a Ministry worker in the Department of Transportation, while Warrington ran some shady businesses in Knockturn Alley. His elder brother Nathaniel was the Lord of his House and had a seat on the Wizengamot. The last one was….
"Walden Macnair, she called out aloud. "I didn't think it was possible to see you without that axe of yours. Rumour has it you have it on your person even when sleeping."
Walden gave her a hungry leer, one that made her stop all trains of thought.
Humans shouldn't look at other humans the way he was looking at her. His gaze… something about it sent chills rippling on the nape of her neck. He was analysing her in some way, laced with nefarious intent. A Marked Death-Eater in the last war, Walden Macnair served as the Ministry executioner for the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. He also had the impeccable record of never missing a single job and carrying them out with an almost religious fervour, enough that he had bagged multiple Employee awards and several pay hikes. Personally, Emmeline believed that it was less because of his work ethic and more because he just liked butchering on general principle.
"Madam Vance," said Amycus with a little bow. "Your blood is just as pure as ours. Why not kill the bitch next to you and join the right side?"
"The right side?"
Next to her, Hestia gripped her wand tighter.
"What are you doing?" Jugson asked. "That's Emmeline Vance! She was high on the list of—"
"Shut up," said Amycus, turning to Emmeline. "She's a respected foe, not some muggle garbage you can take out with the trash."
A foe? Emmeline thought furiously as her mind ran a hundred miles a second, her blood turning to ice. Did that mean they knew about her affiliation to the Order? Impossible. Part of the reason why she supposedly turned a blind eye to her husband's activities was that apart from merely skirting the line, Gideon spent a lot of time hanging around Broderick Greengrass, a man that frequented Lucius Malfoy's business circles. Access to the Greengrasses gave Emmeline a lot of intel that she wouldn't gain otherwise, especially with Anastasia inviting her to parties with the majority of the ladies representing the traditionalist and extremist families. It allowed her to keep a 'proper' public presence while secretly serving the Order's interests. Did that mean someone from the Order had given her away?
Either way, there was a time to converse and a time to fight… and the line that bordered the two was quickly approaching.
"Just one question," she said slowly. "Just what are you aiming to get from this? After the stunt you pulled, surely you can't expect any mercy from the Ministry."
Macnair let out a contemptuous snort.
"The Ministry?" cackled Alecto. She was always the less level-headed of the two. "What Ministry? Look around, Vance. Your vaunted International Cooperation is in shatters. Most of the Aurors and the Hit-wizards are dead. Those that are still living will be butchered by our army before the night is over! Our army is currently targeting all the blood traitor families — the Longbottoms, the Weasleys, Potter," she sneered the name out. "Too bad our Lord wants him alive! I'd have loved to tear his head off with my own hands."
Yeah, good luck with that. Emmeline thought wryly.
"We're the bringer of the changing tide, Lady Vance. Despite your adherence to the law, you are still a valued pureblood. A descendant of an old family. Cut down that filthy halfblood next to you and join us. Someone of your pedigree and skill would be an excellent lieutenant to the Dark Lord's forces."
"Really? You'd do that for me?"
"Of course," said Amycus, completely missing the mockery in her tone. "None of us is ignorant of your prowess. That is why all five of us are here. You can either go down fighting us, expending the last vestiges of your wrath to protect this inconsequential rat," he eyed Hestia with disgust. "Or you can join us. With the DMLE in shatters, perhaps you can be the next DMLE Director, commanding the forces in the Dark Lord's name."
Emmeline opened her mouth to retort, but then she paused, and smiled softly.
"I'm afraid Madam Bones might take offence to that. The Iron Lady is known to be quite the vindictive woman."
Alecto let out a callous laugh. "Amelia Bones is dead, Vance. She was in the centre of the stadium, right where the explosion went off. She did not survive."
"Strange…." came an amused voice from behind Alecto. "I feel pretty alive."
The silence in the forest clearing was deafening as everyone turned to stare at Amelia Bones. She stood at the edge of the forest cover, her body just a little more than a silhouette, but with enough depth to prove that she was no apparition.
Alecto stared at her in shock. "It… can't be."
"Alecto Carrow," said Amelia Bones. "Amycus Carrow. Thomas Jugson. Timothy Warrington. Walden Macnair. This is quite the group. No doubt planned to take out the more skilled witches and wizards if they see through your psychopathy."
Macnair even made a funny little bow at her, his lips twisted in a hateful sneer.
"You… you're dead!" whispered Alecto. "You are DEAD! I made sure you were standing there right when the explosion happened! I — I killed you!"
Amelia Bones tilted her head, and took a step forward. At closer look, Emmeline was able to make out her battle-robes, worn above her Auror robes that looked completely fine. She looked like she had just walked out of her office, not someone that had perished and been resurrected back by a necromancer.
"Strange… I don't remember dying," said Bones softly. "Perhaps you'd like another attempt to kill me for good this time around?"
"You are dead!" Alecto shrieked. "Dead, dead, dead!" She lashed out with her wand and sent a blasting curse at Amelia, which sped harmlessly through her form. Alecto smiled, and then laughed as she spoke. "See?" she said with disdain and a hint of relief. "If you were alive, that would have hurt you! Be gone, ghost!"
"Ghost or…." came an amused voice from behind. "An excellently cast illusion."
The Death Eaters turned around, realising that they had been fooled. There, standing next to the halfblood and Emmeline Vance, stood the DMLE Director, with not a shred of blood on her. Emmeline would never admit it aloud, but seeing the woman like that, with that infectious grin of pure joy on her face left her feeling slightly uncomfortable. Knowing that she was resurrected didn't help matters either.
"So," said Amelia Bones, taking a step forward, her wand already emitting sparks of vengeful crimson. "I noticed quite the body count around this place. Clearly these two witches have been more than what you and your ragtag army could deal with. I'd have thought you'd have learned your lesson."
"Clearly they are not known for their genius," Hestia quipped.
"Clearly," Amelia drawled. She held her hands out. "Well then, shall we dance?"
Emmeline said nothing. As much as she hated to admit it, the body count had less to do with their personal spellwork and more to do with the esoteric spell Hestia had cast. The last time, it had taken the enemy off-guard and unprepared, and they had paid dearly for it. It was clear they were not about to make the same mistake again. No doubt they recognized that a spell like that must have exhausted both of them, which was why they had the audacity to reveal their faces.
Amelia Bones was powerful and skilled, but she was just one witch. Even with everything Emmeline could offer, two witches could not face an entire army alone. It would be stupid to expect Hestia to contribute to the spellfire, and her biting words weren't helping either.
She noted the way the Death Eaters and their pet beasts were encircling them in their unforgiving embrace. They would leave no gaps, follow no rules and attack without mercy. The anti-apparition wards would prevent them from escaping, and the Death Eaters would exploit that to their advantage. And even if just a single werewolf came close, it would slaughter all three of them before they had the chance to blink.
It was a flawless strategy, simple in both plan and execution. There was no reason to believe it would not work, but for some reason Emmeline couldn't bring herself to believe that. She didn't know why, but a subconscious instinct honed from her years of serving in the field warned her that the Death Eaters had already committed a serious blunder. A fatal error that would cost them both their victory and their lives.
That they should have ran.
"KILL THEM ALL!" yelled Alecto.
Streaks of silver, blue, red and purple came from the Death Eaters. Emmeline quickly raised the strongest shield she could conjure, while Hestia tapped on the ground to raise a wall of rock to deflect their attacks. It blocked the spellfire, but also cost them a way out.
"Stupid, now they're gonna come from above —"
The deathly resonating howl erupted from the branches of the trees, as three werewolves leapt into the air, swooping down at them. Emmeline prepared to cast the severing curse Hestia had taught her, but Amelia Bones had other plans. She levelled her wand in the air and called out to the heavens.
"FULMINATA HORRIBILIS!"
In response, a bolt of pure lightning burst out of her wand, branching out in a multitude of tendrils, Faster than the eye could follow, it struck the three werewolves, freezing them in mid-air, their bodies convulsing like a beating heart before they exploded into blood and gore, and only a quick shielding kept all three women from being bathed in werewolf blood.
The other tendrils of lightning streaked towards the trees, and set them up blazing in flames, causing the other werewolves to leap off and seek shelter into the flickering shadows. The sudden force of destruction had gotten to their instincts. The predators knew they had become prey.
And Amelia Bones had just gotten started.
"CONFRINGO MAXIMA! DEFODIO HORRIBILIS! EXPULSO MAXIMA!"
Emmeline watched with a strange mix of fascination, horror and outright envy as Amelia Bones unleashed Hell upon the Death Eaters. Blasting curses that tore the ground apart, hurling the Death Eaters away. Banishing curses that used the aforementioned destroyed terrain as projectiles to crash against the attackers. Gouging curses that impaled through vital organs, and at times, literally decapitated the victim. These were deadly curses, amped up to the sheer destructive power of the Horribilis suffix, an addendum, she idly remembered, was forbidden for any DMLE personnel to use, unless the situation was absolutely a do-or-die situation.
Then again, it is a do-or-die situation, Emmeline mused. For the Death Eaters anyway.
Speaking of Death Eaters, her attackers were momentarily stunned into inaction at the DMLE Director's most vicious response. Amelia Bones had the reputation of a war-hardened veteran, but someone that believed in efficiency and self-preservation over flamboyance. An expert on runecraft and warding that utilised her magic to cast traps to weaken her opponents and neuter them before capturing them with the minimum resistance.
She wasn't supposed to be this insane, maniacal berserker rampaging the field leaving blood and chaos in her wake. She was —
"PROTEGO MAXIMA!" She yelled, her thoughts forgotten, quickly raising a bright silvery shield, as a plethora of spells splattered against it.
"SECTUMSEMPRA!" cried Hestia. The severing curse hit Amycus in his left shoulder, cutting the entire arm off.
"DELETRIUS," said Emmeline lazily. The eradication spell hit the amputated arm and instantly incinerated it to dust. Amycus looked up with vengeful eyes, and —
"AVADA—"
"FLAGRANTE!" said Hestia. "DEFODIO MAXIMA!" said Bones.
Amycus yelled as his wand burned his palm, only to walk right into Bones's gouging spell. His head rolled off into the forest floor, surprise vivid in his eyes.
"Good thinking," said Bones to Hestia. "You've got talent, girl. After all this is over, we should talk."
"I work for Harry," Hestia clarified.
"I know," said Amelia. "But Harry spends the majority of his time at Hogwarts, and I'll pay you better. I've already lost a lot of my men and I'm in need of a new assistant. Interested?"
Hestia blinked. "But… uh, I need to consult my employer before I can —"
"If Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore knew that you gave up the opportunity to become the direct assistant of the DMLE Director with the ability to relay everything you see and hear to them respectively, both will throw you out themselves. Pick and choose, and I don't like to be kept waiting."
"Are we really doing this now?" snapped Emmeline, raising a wall of Earth to shield against multiple exploding curses from Macnair and Alecto.
No time like the present," grinned Amelia, unleashing more forks of lightning at the werewolves that were unfortunate enough to come her way. And there were many, rushing at them like the jaws of a black dragon, a dozen fangs and claws lashing from the darkness that allowed them to attack faster than they normally could. Every single one of them was capable enough of ending a witch's life easily before crushing their body to sticky paste, assuming they didn't eat it afterwards. With the blood resonance in effect, they were a force capable of killing anyone on the planet.
Or so one would think from looking at them anyway.
Amelia Bones charged, ducking under the first werewolf, avoiding its claws that came to decapitate her from above, dragging her wand along its body, a brilliant blue light impaling through the werewolf's body and slicing it in half in a single smooth motion, black gore flooding out at each step. She leaped and spun in mid-air, her wand swirling around her, entrapping two more as the ground erupted, swallowing a leg from each. She spun with the grace of a ballerina, and a hurricane of severing spells erupted out of her wand, hacking and slashing the beasts apart into pieces. She twirled her wand in a flourish, casting a quick Packing charm that captured all the dead werewolf parts and dropped them in a nice heap.
The entire exchange had taken three seconds at best.
"INCENDIO!" She said, turning to Walden Macnair, she locked eyes and whistled. "I can see why you love your job, Macnair. There's something greatly therapeutic about this."
"Are you… enjoying this?" Emmeline couldn't help but ask.
Amelia blinked. "Are you not?"
"Madam Bones," said the man with a twisted grin. "I knew there was a dirty bitch behind that facade."
"You're right," said Bones conversationally. "But the credit for unleashing this bitch goes to someone else. It's really a shame, Macnair."
"Being on the mudbloods' side?" offered Macnair. "Someone of your skill should be on our side, Madam Bones. The Ministry has clipped your wings. The Dark Lord would set you free, to create a mountain of corpses behind you."
"A mountain of corpses…." Amelia mused. "Why does that idea turn me on?"
Her smile grew cold and vicious. Magic swirled around her and a wind began to howl, a sudden, strong gust that seemed to come from everywhere around her and yet, all it did was cocoon her while focussing the majority of its impact upon Macnair, who actually had to brace himself to avoid being pushed back.
"Vance! Jones! Can both of you deal with the riff raff while I deal with Macnair?"
"Madam Bones, this is hardly —" Emmeline began.
"Oh hush, Vance!" Bones chided. "Why don't you pull that stick lodged in your arse and indulge yourself a bit? All those Ministry decrees about limiting yourself to certain spells? Consider them waived off for the night."
"...this is the strangest conversation I've ever had with you," admitted Emmeline. "And please, stop smiling that much. It's disturbing."
Amelia's smile only widened at that. She whipped her wand, and an arc of lightning shot out at Alecto Carrow. The Death Eater screamed and rolled away further. The lightning grazed through the foliage, creating a line of fire, separating her from Macnair.
"Well Macnair? Why don't you let baby Alecto on her own and take on someone of your own size?"
"HA!" cackled Macnair, levelling his wand. "I knew there was more of where that lightning came from. Shall we play, DMLE Director?"
"But, Madam Bones —" Emmeline interjected.
"Don't worry, Vance," Bones gave her a twisted smirk. And when she spoke next, her tone was one of a judge pronouncing a final sentence.
"This game will be short."