Twenty Death Eaters Found Dead in Azkaban
Dementors Flee
Ministry In Chaos
By Rita Skeeter
Selwyn placed the Daily Prophet on the table in front of him. This was not good for his appetite. It wasn't surprising that the convicted Death Eaters were still a target. Most likely a couple of the guards decided to take revenge. It wasn't like someone killed twenty of them in one night. The deaths were probably discovered because of an inspection or something.
The pureblood couldn't figure out how they had gotten rid of the Dementors. More fanatical surviving Death Eaters had wanted to bust out their captured comrades. The only thing stopping their plans were the Dementors. At least he wouldn't have to listen to their half-baked plans.
Selwyn wasn't a fanatic, or an idiot. He didn't believe that Voldemort was ever coming back. The Dark Lord had a good run. He was the rallying point for the purebloods, the real progress was now. The wounds were fresh enough that as long as their plans weren't overt almost certainly succeed. The 'Light' would hem and haw, but behind the scenes deals would push the agenda through.
"Pert!" He yelled for his house elf.
He waited a moment. The creature didn't appear. He gritted his teeth. The elf was going to pay for this.
"PERT! GET OUT HERE NOW YOU DISGUS-" The words froze in his throat as the door to room opened.
A young man stood in the doorway with a wand pointed at him. Selwyn tried to speak, only to find that he could hardly breath.
"Not very sporting, is it?" Harry lowered his wand, releasing his hold on the Death Eater.
"Who are you? What are you doing in my house?" Selwyn spat the words and pounded on the table.
A flick of his wrist brought his wand into his hand. Selwyn moved smoothly, aiming it at the intruder. A cruel smile crossed his face as a cloud of blood filled the space between them. His expression changed from victorious to confusion as the air cleared. The young man was in one piece without a single drop of blood anywhere.
Selwyn moved to cast another spell. It was then that he realized he wasn't holding his wand. That required a hand to hold it and hands needed arms to attach to a body. He had neither. The table in front of him was covered in crimson.
Harry kept his arm level. He tilted his head to the side, studying the man. Having to constantly hold his magic back had made him a bit sensitive to the natural flow. Right now, the magical energy within Selwyn was leaking out of the wound. It drifted out of him, mingling with the ambient magic in the room.
Reaching out with his own magic, Harry latched onto the thread. He pulled, drawing the magic from Selwyn's body. The man began to scream, his skin lost turned ashen, shrinking. Harry twirled the string of magic closer. Time seemed to freeze as the thread touched the tip of his wand. The slow drift of the magic shifted into a storm, racing along the Elder Wand and into his arm. Harry could feel the new magic mingling with his own. He felt a small surge of power as it settled into place.
The husk that was Selwyn dropped back into the chair.
Harry looked from the drained corpse and the Elder Wand. He had always heard about people dying when their magic was taken away. Harry wondered what that process entailed.
"Death." Harry called.
The girl appeared. She was lounging one a nearby chair at the table.
"These are nice seats." She wiggled in the chair.
"What just happened?" Harry asked.
Death looked over to the husk. "Oh, you absorbed his magic."
"Did the wand do that?" Harry nodded toward the wand.
"Nope." She shook her head. "That was all you."
"Can everyone do that?" Harry spun the wand, it disappeared once it finished the second rotation.
"Yeah." She hopped up from the chair and strolled over to the body. "It's risky though. You have to reach out with your own magic and try to pull it from the other person. The stronger one wins, but you don't know who that is until the connection."
Death held out her hand. A mote of light drifted out from the husk and settled into her palm. She tucked it into her pocket before turning back to him.
"You're a powerhouse." She plopped into another chair. "Finding someone stronger would be rare, but I wouldn't chance it."
Harry nodded.
"Who's next on the list?" Death asked.
"No one for now." Harry sat down with her.
"Oh?" Death leaned forward. "Why not?"
"Voldemort comes back this year." Harry said. "A bunch of his followers are there. There will all be in one place. Hopefully, Nagini will be there too. I destroy the last horcrux and take out a few of them at the same time."
"You're confident you'll be able to take more than one on at a time?" She asked. "Not to mention Tommy Boy?"
"I was able to hold him off and escape last time." Harry leaned forward, dropping his voice to a whisper. "Don't tell anyone, but I'm stronger and I've got years of experience as an auror."
Death motioned to zip her mouth. "How much trouble were you in?"
"Dobby covered for me." Harry smiled. "I love that little elf."
"Oh?" Death smiled. "What did he say?"
"I had to go to talk to the goblins." Harry shrugged. "It was simple enough to work. Petunia said that I needed to check-in if I was going to be later than ten."
"I would have thought he'd pile up the blankets in your bed to make it look like you were sleeping." Death chuckled.
"He did." Harry shook his head. "It didn't work so well since I had been gone since lunch and Petunia caught him bringing more blankets in from the laundry."
Death gave a happy sigh. "Things are going to start picking up this year."
"Yeah." Harry nodded.
"Are you going to change the tournament?" She asked. "You can take out Crouch before he sets it up."
"Last time I was terrified." Harry thought for a moment. "I'm actually looking forward to it this time. I want to work out the tasks in a different manner. Flying a broom against a dragon was a really bad idea. So was the gillyweed. The only thing that I actually did well in was the maze."
"Are you excited for the world cup?" Death pressed.
"I'm excited to spend time with Sirius when he's not a wanted criminal." Harry countered. "What happened to him last time? I mean, after the veil."
"He died protecting you." Death patted his hand. "To him, there was no greater thing he could do. He passed on to whatever comes next."
"Whatever comes next?" Harry asked.
"I'm Death, not Afterlife." She shrugged. "Come on, let's get out of here before the house elf wakes up."
"Good idea." Harry pushed the chair away from the table.
With a thought he was gone.