Chapter 29
Narcissa entered the Great Hall with a heavy heart and eyes rooted to the ground, and unlike the time before, she no longer had the courage to look up at the boy sitting at the Gryffindor table. It had been weeks since she had last met his gaze, when they had last brushed fingers secretly while walking past one another, and she wondered if she would ever get the opportunity to do the same.
She quietly came to her seat, not noticing the missing faces from the table or the sheer tension within the Hall, and it was only when she began to pile on the food that one of her Housemates nudged her on the shoulder.
"Narcissa! Narcissa," and she finally glanced up, still taking note to avoid the Gryffindor table.
"Yes," she called out, and it was one of her classmates, who seemed rather nervous as she asked worriedly.
"Are you fine?" she asked, and Narcissa frowned at the question.
"Yes," she answered, hoping that the crying had not left a mark on her face.
"Just a little under the weather," and something in her answer must have surprised her, for the girl's eyes widened.
"You don't know, do you?" she asked, and she shrugged.
"Know what?" she asked, and the girl turned around and nearly ripped a copy of the Prophet from her friend's hand.
"The Aurors, they made a raid last night...." and as soon as her eyes fell on the headlines, her heart stilled as she read the words.
~TWO DEAD AND MULTIPLE ARRESTS MADE IN AN AUROR RAID TO CAPTURE THE CULPRITS BEHIND THE RECENT MUGGLE KILLINGS!~
And her heart stilled as she read those words, and she finally gathered the courage to look up the table and saw the missing people. Lucius was not there, nor was Rebastan, and quite a few of their friends were missing as well, and she turned to the newspaper once again.
~WHO IS DARK LORD VOLDEMORT! WHO ARE THE DEATH EATERS!~
~MINISTRY IN MAYHEM! CLASH BETWEEN THE MINISTER MINCHUM AND BAGNOLD! EMERGENCY SESSION CALLED!~
~VOICES RISE AGAINST THE DMLE! ABRAXUS MALFOY CALLS THE RAID A 'SHAM'~
And never had she seen the Prophet so filled with news, and from what she was able to skim through the DMLE had made a move against the Dark Lord, which had sparked a near civil war within their society, for the Aurors had arrested half a dozen pure blood students.
Yet that did not matter to her, for her mind was focused on but one thing.
Lucius was gone. Gone.
And the looming specter that had haunted her life was gone just like that. She couldn't even believe it, and though the paper did not mention any names of the people arrested, she knew that he was amongst them.
And as she was still lost in the paper, she felt a small tap on her shoulder and turned around to see her sister standing there, with a subtle smile on her face.
"We need to talk," she said, and she rose from her chair without another word, as Andromeda led her out of the Hall and to the gardens, as Narcissa slowly called out.
"Did you do this?" she asked, for the timing of it felt highly suspect, and yet before her sister could say anything to her, the answer came from a different voice from the side.
"No," and it was that all too familiar and soothing voice, the one which had introduced her to the wonders of Muggle theatre and cinema and a dozen other things she had no idea about.
"I did," Alder admitted, much to her surprise, and suddenly it all clicked together.
"You told him," she turned to her sister, who seemed a bit apologetic yet nodded nonetheless.
"I had to," and with that, she backed away, leaving her alone with Alder, and she had tried her best to avoid him, for she had no idea how to face him.
She hesitated to look up and into those hazel green eyes of his, expecting to find anger and indignation, yet as she slowly looked up, she gasped as she saw none of that.
They were kind and bright as always, and she felt her eyes tear up at his next words.
"I waited for you," he uttered, and a tear slipped down her face.
"I am so sorry, but I had no choice," she pleaded, hoping to make him understand her predicament.
"I was so afraid," and he nodded.
"I know, but you don't have to be. Not anymore," he assured her.
"I just did not want it to end, and if I came to you that night, I did not know if I would ever have that opportunity," and that was why she had chosen to stay back, for despite her predicament, she was hoping for a miracle.
She was hoping that there was still a future for her.
"He was blackmailing me..."
"I know," he said, cutting off her tirade.
"But he won't anymore. Lucius is done now...."
0000
EDGAR BONES
Anger filled him to the brim as Edgar stood in the office of the Head of DMLE. He had planned the entire operation with great caution, selecting only the most trustworthy and skilled aurors for the job, yet despite that, he had failed to account for the Prowess of the Dark Lord.
There were whispers about how the leader of these so-called 'Death Eaters' was a very powerful wizard who could perhaps even rival Dumbledore, but he had thought it all a myth and an exaggeration.
But he was wrong.
He was wrong, and this had resulted in the death of two of his fellow Aurors. The mission itself had been but a partial success, for quite a few of the masked bastards had managed to escape, yet for the first time in months, the wizarding world had opened its eyes to the war brewing in its shadows as they realised that they could close their eyes no more.
Edgar was being hailed as a hero by some, and an overzealous and corrupt wizard by others as the old blood purist families tried to tear him down.
"The Minister wants me to free all the suspects you captured," and he grit his teeth, but he had expected nothing less of the man who had been happy to ignore the signs of the impending disaster brewing in their shadows.
"Minchum still thinks that he can close his eyes to the danger in front of our eyes," and Milicent Bagnold was an old and powerful witch. She was the first witch ever to become the Head of the DMLE, and was considered by many to be the natural replacement for Minchum, who had only ever risen to become the Minister because of his non-combative attitude.
"I am afraid I cannot stand for that," Edgar refused the order outright, for doing so would be a betrayal of not just his own Aurors and friends, who had put their lives on the line, but of the entire society that turned to the Ministry for justice.
Bagnold raised a brow, her brown hair had hints of grey in it, and she slowly slid off her glasses, before she leaned back.
"He believes that some leniency is in order. That most of the people you arrested are young, impressionable boys who were simply turned astray because of bad company," and he grit his teeth.
"They killed two of my Aurors," Edgar lashed out.
"You have read the reports yourself. You know what they were doing! What they have done!" he nearly screamed, yet held himself back through great restraint.
"If they are old enough to do that, then they are old enough to suffer the consequences for their actions," he challenged, and saw her brown eyes narrow as silence hung in the air.
"This comes straight from the Minister, Edgar. Will you not even consider it?" she asked again, and he shook his head without wasting a second.
"No," he answered, and he saw her lips turn up.
"Neither should you," she said, leaning forward.
"For too long, Minchum has been comfortable sticking his head into the sand, but I am afraid we cannot do that anymore. Young as they may be, they have all committed heinous crimes, and I will see them rot in Azkaban for that," and it lifted a great weight off of his shoulder to have her support.
"Minchum knows that he cannot force my hand, so he will come after you and your operation. He will have it put under a tribunal, so you better make sure that all of it was above board," and he had already expected that.
"It will not look good for him," he added, and Bagnold was not blind to his implication.
"And that is why there are many who think that time has come for Minchum to leave," and it need not be said that they wanted her to replace him.
"You will make a fine Minister of Magic, Madam," he added, and Bagnold smiled.
"We will see about that, but you need to walk me through the entire operation so that I know if there is something that I need to bury," and he nodded, and began explaining everything to her, and it took the better part of an hour to give her everything, and by the end of it she seemed rather impressed.
"So, you got the tip about the location from a source?" and he nodded, not mentioning his sister's involvement in the whole affair.
"Yes," he agreed.
"Who was it?" she asked, and he hesitated to answer.
"I need to know, Edgar because I can assure the tribunal will ask you the same question," and he knew that.
"It was a boy from Hogwarts. A student by the name of Alder Evans....."
0000
MARLENE MCKINON
The Auror caused such a commotion that the teachers had to suspend classes for the day, and all of the students were confined to their dorms as Hogwarts reeled with the consequences of this event.
They had heard rumors year-long about the heinous activities of Lucius and his group, yet rumors were one thing. Getting caught in the act was another.
A few Muggle-born students had even lost friends, relatives, and neighbours to these attacks, and finding out that the ones responsible for these heinous crimes were their own schoolmates had shaken them to the core, making the atmosphere within the school Halls extremely tense.
"I cannot believe the rumors were true," Black added, but she could.
"One of the attacks happened in my neighborhood just a few streets from where Severus lives," and hearing that broody bastard's name irked his mood, but Lily did not care as she continued to stare at her copy of the Prophet as they all sat in the corner.
But Marlene had little concern about the past. No. She was more concerned about the future.
"Will no one here mention the elephant in the room?" she broke the silence, she uttered as the four of them, all of them, looked at her with uneasy gazes.
"This will not go unanswered," she added, and her grandfather was a former Auror. Her family had been much involved in politics in the past, and as a member of the pure blood society, she was not blind to the rising tensions in their society.
"What will they do?" Remus asked innocently.
"Strike back," James answered, as he held his girlfriend's hand tightly.
"This just might turn into a full-blown war," and that was the chilling realization that had stunned all of Hogwarts.
The truth was that a war had been going on for some time now. Yet it was one that was being fought in the shadows, but now the Ministry had struck back.
"But how did they even know about the attack?" Peter chimed in, and the question seemed really dumb, but Marlene had a suspicion about how exactly, and given the way Sirius and James exchanged glances, she was definitely right, as Remus added silently.
"How indeed..."
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0000
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