Changes To Come

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James and Sirius exited Rufus Scrimgeour, the Head of DMLE's office, closing the door behind on the meeting with the Head Auror and a couple of Captain Aurors. They walked in silence through the ebony marbled halls.

"Well. . . they made Scrimgeour come down," said Sirius, looking at his watch, which showed a time much after the working hours.

"Yeah," James pursed his lips. "He didn't look about it. I don't think I had ever seen him come down this late, even when he was the Head Auror."

Sirius shook his head with a sigh. "I don't think his mood is going to get better tomorrow when he meets the Bones, and then I reckon George West going to come down to make his presence known. . . ugh— it's going to be horrible until we put the bloody fools to trial and throw them inside Azkaban and chuck the keys into the ocean."

"And all of that would only be the start. I don't think George West will take an attack against his grandson sitting down. He's going to retaliate in some way. . . I just don't know how he will enact his revenge."

"I think some people are going to lose their jobs. Remember what Dumbledore said? Voldemort is going to want his people inside the Ministry in important positions" — Head of Houses of Wizengamot were just a side of influence, the Departement Heads represented the other side— the actual changes happened on that level — "and if George West starts to pull strings, the blood supremacists who are suspected to be connected to Voldemort may have a difficult time. But, I don't think Scrimgeour and Bones are going to let him interfere with the Ministry and DMLE. . . ."

"Or, I think he's going to attack businesses. It's his forte, after all," James recalled how his father used to do business with George West. "He might want to pull out the funding for Voldemort's operations. I just hope things don't get difficult for the common folk because of the fighting."

"That's one naive thought. There will always be some collateral damage; it's usually the common folk who face the brunt of it."

"Remember when I told you about Moody telling me about bringing Quinn to our side. The reason I invited Quinn to dinner."

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Do you think this would end up being the tipping point for that? But instead of coming this way, the Wests will join themselves in some form with the Grey Faction. George West does business with Jacob Greengrass, and Quinn dates his daughter. . . I fear that our chances took a hit today."

James sighed. Things had derailed before he could even try.

"Well, we got one thing cleared," said Sirius.

"What?"

"That kid can use magic without a wand," the tone of Sirius' voice was a mix between weighty seriousness and respect. "You know what that means, don't you? The fact that we are just finding this out, and even Dumbledore doesn't know about it, means that the kid has been hiding it for who knows how long."

". . . Moody said that we could be looking at the next Dumbledore," said James, "but I don't know if Dumbledore could do that at Quinn's age, I definitely couldn't, I still can't. . . . Maybe Moody was right. . . ."

"How do you think Dumbledore will think of that?"

"I don't know. Who knows what Dumbledore is thinking. We will only know when he tell us."

Sirius groaned, "I guess now we have to attend an Order of Phoenix meeting."

"Dumbledore will want to know what happened, so yes."

"Can't it wait till the morning?"

"We won't be free from tomorrow," said James before sighing. "I'll also face Dumbledore about moving, he has been hounding about it quite a while. . . ."

"Do you plan to move?"

"After today, Lily would want to move somewhere safer."

"What about you? What do you think?"

". . . Maybe, I'll have to talk about it with Lily and the children."

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In the Potter House, the Golden Squad sat in the room Harry's room. Harry sat by his study chair, Ron sat on another chair, with Hemione and Ivy sharing the bed. After making sure they weren't missing anything, the four teens had just left the small gathering downstairs (after making sure they weren't missing anything) and had come to the room to have a quiet place to talk.

"Did you see all the. . . people," started Ron, his body hunched forward, "they were just sprawled over the ground everywhere. Did he really do all of that?"

The other three pursed their lips. They could recall the scene of carnage that had happened outside Gordic Hollow. Uprooted trees, barks with chunks missing, the carved ground, scorched soil, the smell of burning in the air, the slight tingle on their skin as they arrived there. . . and all the bodies that look they had been thrown haphazardly.

". . . He was on top of the person when we got there," said Hermione. She recalled Quinn's back as his fists repeatedly cocked up before going down. . . on the bloody and broken face that she only saw afterward. It didn't look there was someone else down there other than Quinn and the Death Eaters.

"Dad told me when I was getting kidnapped," started Harry, "and when they came upon him, he was on top. . . 'changing the face' of the person."

"He has big arms," said Ron, "they're smaller than Charlie, but they're up there." The Dragonologist Weasley had developed a burlier physique than his leaner brother due to his demanding work with difficult dragons in the pits of Romania.

"I mean, I knew he was strong with magic, but today. . . that was, I wasn't expecting that," Hermione trailed off. They had looked at it first hand and had heard what was being talked about downstairs— the amount of damage that Quinn had done and what was done to him. . . it was astonishing.

"Do you think he used Dark Magic?" asked Ron, raising some eyebrows in the room.

"What rubbish are you talking about?" Ivy immediately rebuked Ron with a frown.

"They were saying that Dark Magic was used in the fight," Ron pushed back.

"Of course, there would be Dark Magic! There were Death Eaters fighting, for god's sake!"

"Alright, don't fight," Harry broke the fight before it could escalate. "But it did come to surprise that Quinn could do that. There were thirteen Death Eaters and just one of them, and the fact he looked fine when we saw him— it was rather shocking to me. . . and the others."

Ivy slumped back against the wall that was beside the bed and sighed. She was trapped. She wasn't allowed to go out of Godric Hollows without someone accompanying her, and now, after this, she was sure things would become stricter even though it wasn't them that was targeted. She glanced at the door— just outside, on the other side, was her room, and inside there was the two-way mirror that she shared with Quinn. She wanted to leave here and try contacting Quinn but knew she wouldn't get the chance now, probably not until late at night.

She would only be talking to him tomorrow, she thought. And that too only through a mirror.

"Are you not surprised?" Harry asked Ivy.

Ivy turned a lazy eye to her brother, "I am, but at the same time, I'm not. He always looked so calm during DA, and he's always doing some strange and fascinating things, so I guess, while I didn't think about it, it was always at the back of my head."

"What kind of strange and fascinating things?"

"This and that. I don't know. He's always doing something; some of them are bound to be interesting. "

Harry stared at Ivy, but she didn't seem in the mood to talk, much less answer, so she let it go. Quinn was always doing something, he thought too. He has seen a couple of those interesting things as well.

"What's going to happen now?" asked Ron.

"The Death Eaters will be put to a trial," said Hermione, "and because they got caught in the act, with ample proof, they're going to be put in Azkaban. Because they're Death Eaters, and I assume they are going to be marked as one, that's going to open an investigation on their lives, their work, their families— the Ministry under Amelia Bones is aggressive against Death Eaters. It's just the start. . . this is going to be big."

That was something that didn't need to be stated.

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Voldemort tapped his boney finger on the mahogany table. He looked at his 'generals,' his inner circle, those he expected to handle his organization. But right now, none of them could match eyes with him.

"I will ask again," he said, "when I said I wanted Quinn West to be brought, what didn't you fine wizards and witches didn't understand." He watched them cower, turning their beady little eyes, looking to pass the blame. "All of you are of noblest of backgrounds, the purest of magical blood, the rulers of this country— so did you not understand what the West name means? Was I expected to explain to all of you fine people what failure would mean in this situation? Do you not understand now that we don't have Quinn West in our grasp? We don't have the opportunity to put George West under our palms."

The room started to shake as Voldemort's blood-red pupils deepened, emitting an ominous glow as he stared at the people around the table. He hissed in his serpentine tongue, and a deeper hiss was returned, one that reverberated in the room, making people jolt. He glanced at the opposite of the table as his beloved familiar slithered on the table with her strong green-scaled body, representing his proud Slytherin heritage. One glance at his Nagini was enough to set fears in the heart of even his own Death Eaters. She was a part of himself and had a piece of himself.

"M-My Lord," said a short, stout man while sweating bullet, "we didn't think the child would be able—"

"To take on twelve people?" he cut the man off. "Yes, that would be a correct assumption, but did you not think the West child could have bodyguards with him? What then? Do you think that twelve people, of whom I never trained a single one, would be able to bring him here?"

He had seen a great future when he heard that the West child would be visiting the Potter House. It was an opportunity. If Quinn West had shown his face outside, they would make a move and abducted the child right under Potter's nose, not only bringing George West under his control but also turning the Wests against the Potters and Dumbledore by making George West resentful and blame them for the abductions of his grandson.

"We are well aware that Amelia Bones, the blood traitor, has been a persistent bug against our advance in the Ministry. I wanted this to be a change to that situation. We could've established a foothold and then grabbed control in one fell swoop, but now, George West is going to look in our way.

Why did none of you esteem wizards add yourselves to the plan? Were you afraid of what would happen if George West found out," he sneered as they couldn't answer.

Voldemort stroked Nagini's head, making her hiss in pleasure. He wondered if he should let her feast on one of them to set another example. But decided against it, now was not the time.

"Break out the people who were arrested. I don't care when you do it, but I don't want them to reach Azkaban. Embarrass the Ministry, the Minister, the DMLE, everyone involved— I don't want George West to be chummy with Bones— put a fault in that relationship before it could grow."

"But wouldn't that offend George West more than he's now?"

"We offended him enough when we tried and failed to abduct his grandson; doing this won't make any difference," said Voldemort. He looked at his Death Eaters before announcing, "I will be leaving the country for a few days. I need to remedy this embarrassing situation that you have put us in. I expect you not to make the situation any worse in my absence. If I hear that there had been some unnecessary complications when I return, be prepared to face some punishment."

Nagini hissed in pleasure, her long body curling wider on the table, almost touching the people who jerked back.

Voldemort waved his hand, and all left with haste as there was a plague they had to run away from. He fell into thought while stroking Nagini's head. The situation with Wests was a roadblock that needed to be cleared as soon as possible, or else it would stop his conquest of Magical Britain and the subsequent plans of expanding his rule.

It was time to call in some 'favors' and meet some old 'friends' to see how they were doing.

"Quinn West, huh."

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Ivy Potter - Stuck at home - Thinking if there are ways to meet Quinn.

James Potter - Senior Auror - Maybe it's time to move. . . .

Voldemort - Dark Lord - Time to go travel.

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