The Ministry of Magic released an official statement as the investigation of the terrorist attack last Saturday during the Quidditch World Cup was completed. The destruction of the Gringotts Bank Stadium led to the tragic deaths of 487 wixen and 6 muggles. The number of total injuries has risen to an estimated 17,600 - 300 of which remain in St. Mungos Hospital undergoing treatment for injuries ranging from smoke inhalation, to severed limbs, to curse damage.
The ministry revealed that the terrorists used several high-output potion-enhanced explosives powered by an illegal spell of a similar makeup as the fire curse 'fiendfyre'. This obscure curse (whose incantation was redacted in the formal parchments) has the ability, according to the ministry report, to manipulate the earth and earthen materials - such as the steel used as the primary construction material in the Gringotts Stadium. This spell has reportedly fallen out of use even amongst Dark wizards for its highly volatile nature, a higher percentage than even its cousin 'fiendfyre' which is infamous for accidentally starting the Great Fire of London back in 1666.
According to the report, we are, in fact, lucky that the damage was not worse and that there was a significant risk of the entire stadium collapsing into a massive sinkhole approximately 30 meters deep. The report inconclusively assumes that the intricate runework on the bomb fragments that were uncovered had some way of limiting its scope and power.
The next several paragraphs outlined the rest of the investigative report, which was mostly the Ministry insisting it wasn't Voldemort behind the attack when it obviously was, even to the usually stupid minds behind the Daily Prophet. Alabasandria skimmed to the end of the article.
Having read the complete investigation parchments, I ask the Minister one question. Where were the Ministry's auror forces during this attack? The investigation reports that there was minimal security outside of the stadium, which is where the explosives were placed. The investigation also reports that 90% of the Ministry's workforce were watching the match off-duty when the attack began. The ARROWW Division (Auror Response and Rescue Operations for Wayward Wizards) - the Ministry's first responders in situations of large-scale crisis and disasters, was not mobilized on the scene until over one hour after the attack, allegedly after the perpetrators had already escaped. It took the work of several hundred volunteers over fifteen hours to liberate all the survivors from the rubble, supervised largely by private civilian, ex-Auror Sirius Black. Where was the Ministry leadership during this time? Where was Minister Fudge?
"You made the front page again," she told Sirius as he entered the room, yawning deeply.
He took a peek at the page and rolled his eyes. The papers had been cycling through the same ten photos they'd gotten from that day. For today, there was an extremely disrespectful shot of the bodies hovering over the skyline, their forms too far away to discern in detail. The next photo was a faraway shot of the crumpled stadium, smoke billowing from the distance, and small outlines of people digging through the rubble. The last one, one of the Prophet's favorites, featured Sirius front-and-center, pacing the length of the photo, his hands gripping his hair and an angry, exhausted look on his face. The scene was interrupted by an out-of-focus group moving a stretcher across the foreground, a limp hand visible for a second before the image looped back.
"You'd think you were the Minister, with how they've framed this. You could run tomorrow, and I bet you'd win," she said with a laugh.
"Well he was a bloody coward and was escorted to safety the second things went down," he groaned and poured another cup of coffee. "They could hardly get any heroic shots of that, could they? Fuck, at least if I were Minister, we could hunt down the terrorists with no problem."
"You'd make an awful politician."
"Hey! I have charisma!" He complained.
They were interrupted by a knock on the door. It had been a tense week since the attack, and this was the first day that Ron and Hermione could be pulled from Molly's protective arms to come for a visit. It was still very early, though, and she had not expected them until that afternoon. At the door was Luna.
"Hullo Miss Adams, may I come in for a while?"
"Of course," she said, mildly confused as Luna had a heavy backpack and a broom slung over her shoulder. "Harry's still asleep and breakfast is cooking. Is everything alright? Your father didn't drop you off?"
"Oh um, yes. It's just that daddy's left to go do some reporting on scene, and I couldn't stand to be alone at the house any longer. Is it alright that I came here?" She shuffled her feet.
"Your dad is an ass," she said succinctly. Harry had clung to them for a couple of days, requiring extra comfort. Luna, being much less used to traumatic events, had to have been faring worse than her own kid. "Would you like a hot chocolate?"
"Yes please." Her shoulders relaxed from their tense posture. They headed into the kitchen and Sirius pulled up a chair for her.
"Hello, Luna, he said. "You'll be staying a while then?"
"If you don't mind."
"You'll stay until he bothers to notice you're gone," Alabasandria decided. "Did you want me to have a talk with him?"
"No, no. It's fine. Daddy didn't mean to be hurtful, he just - he just -"
"- Has different priorities?"
"Yes."
"Why don't you go wake up Harry, dear. Surprise him and send him down for food." After the girl left, Alabasandria muttered, "I could kill Lovegood and replace him with a golem. I don't think Luna would notice."
"Yes she would. Merlin's beard, now I know where Harry gets his stupid ideas from. No murdering anyone around Luna!" Sirius swatted her playfully with the newspaper.
She grumbled under her breath and stabbed at the scrambled eggs with her wooden spatula. Sirius watched her pretend to not be bothered, and filled with a sudden thought, (surely the best thought he'd had in a while) Sirius snuck up behind her and swept Alabasandria off of her feet into a hug.
"What are you doing!?"
"Clearly you're being emotional," he cackled. "So I thought you'd appreciate a hug." She kicked his shin with all her strength.
"Put me down! I do not have feelings!" They were swarmed by a smaller body joining them, then another, more hesitantly. Alabasandria was not going to accidentally kick the children so she braved her suffering like a true hero.
"The pancakes are burning!" Luna shouted.
The rest of the minions rolled in after lunch, escorted by an exhausted-looking Mr. Weasley. Despite it being the weekend, he was heading off to work again. The Ministry was all hands on deck to deal with the fallout of the terrorist attack.
"Is Fudge still denying it was Death Eaters, even behind closed doors?" Sirius asked him.
"It's a 'rogue group' and nothing more, he insists. Most people don't exactly believe that, I mean they were seen in their Death Eater uniforms by almost a hundred thousand people. But people also don't want to believe they were acting as anything other than an independent force, that there's any chance that Voldemort may be returning to power." Arthus said with a heavy sigh. "It's all a bit of a madhouse right now. Malfoy has somehow convinced the DMLE to not release the identity of the dead Death Eater."
"Merlin, I'd bet he was one of those masked fucks," Sirius growled.
"Very likely," he sighed. "And now I must go play nice with him at work." He bid them farewell.
Harry decided everyone could use more hot chocolate and they all settled around the dining table.
"Before you run off, kids. We should talk about the upcoming year." Alabasandria said.
"What about it?" Ron asked.
"Obviously Voldemort is trying to regain his power," Sirius explained. "And I mean that literally. We interrogated the Death Eater from the World Cup - Bulbous Crabbe - and he insisted that Voldemort has some plan to regain his physical body. He must be pretty sure of this plan to resume his wartime activities so suddenly and at such a large scale. Crabbe confirmed he ordered the attack and has been gathering his forces, although unfortunately, Crabbe had not been privy to most of them."
"All four of you will be at considerable risk once in school. Voldemort is not playing around. We've destroyed two horcruxes of his, and he's weak, desperate, and angry. I need you to be alert for any further attacks." Alabasandria said. "And not just from Death Eaters. Unfortunately, the Ministry has made it clear they've taken an interest in you, Harry."
"Oh, like from those weird letters from Fudge to Umbridge?" Harry asked. What on earth could the ministry want from him?
"Yes," Sirius said. "I'm not sure what their goal is, exactly, but it seems that now, after all this bad press, Fudge very well may expect you to support him publicly."
"But why me?" Harry asked. "Just because I'm the Boy-Who-Lived?"
"Because if you told people that Fudge is right, and Voldemort isn't coming back, they would believe you. Because you are the most famous wizard of our age outside of Dumbledore and Voldemort. You have a lot of political power if you wanted to use it."
Harry frowned. He hadn't really been concerned with any of that nonsense before now.
....
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