Chapter 785: The Offensive and Defensive Battle of the Ministry of Magic (Edited)

Just as Fish arrived in the Little Whinging area, Kingsley was driving Tonks and a couple of Aurors under his command out of the Auror Office and towards the elevator.

"Where are you going, Shacklebolt?" Savage suddenly appeared and stopped them.

Kingsley looked down, let his guard down, and smiled kindly. "Oh, I heard that the fugitive Sirius had shown up, so I wanted to check it out."

"I'm afraid you'll have to leave that for later," Savage said. "The Minister has called a meeting with the heads of departments, and he needs us to maintain order."

"In that case, lead the way," Kingsley said lightly after a moment of silence.

Savage led them to an elevator, pressing the buttons for the third and tenth floors as he spoke. "I have to inform the others, so I'll leave you alone since the meeting will be held in the Wizengamot Chamber on the tenth floor due to the large number of people."

Kingsley nodded and remained silent, watching him leave quietly when he reached the third floor, and then continued taking the elevator up to the tenth floor with Tonks and the others.

When they entered the Wizengamot Chamber, there were already several people seated there, heads of various departments, except Kingsley wasn't sure how many of them had secretly defected to Voldemort and how many had been placed under the Imperius Curse.

Arthur Weasley, the Director of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, was among them, and Kingsley exchanged a furtive look with him before he and Tonks dispersed to fulfill their duties as guards.

Shortly after, Savage arrived, accompanied by the Director of the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad and several directors from his department.

As they entered, Savage separated from the group, smiling and approaching Kingsley's right with a friendly greeting, while John Dawlish remained silently to Kingsley's left.

Kingsley glanced at Tonks and the others, and saw that they had been quietly surrounded by other Aurors, and that some of them had fallen into the same situation unknowingly... They were not yet under control either.

But...

Although he had been prepared for it, he didn't expect the Death Eaters to have infiltrated the Ministry so deeply, with almost two-thirds of the Aurors already under their control.

As he casually conversed with Savage, he silently held his wand in his hand under the cover of his sleeve.

"We're all here, Minister, what's the matter?" urgently inquired the Head of the Memory Charm Department as soon as everyone had arrived. "Are you finally going to send someone to deal with the Dementors?"

With the recent increase in Dementor attacks, the department had been so busy that they hardly had time to rest, and they had become quite disgruntled with Pius, who had only been saying nice things and hadn't bothered to address the Dementors.

Unperturbed by the rudeness of the Department Head, Thicknesse glanced around the room, then gave a sinister smile and said grimly, "Why bother with the Dementors? The dead are just worthless Muggles anyway."

This comment caused an uproar.

"Do you know what you're saying, Minister Thicknesse!" the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement stood up and sternly interrogated.

"Have I said something wrong?" Still smiling, Pius spoke slowly, "Those Muggles deserve to die for attempting to steal our knowledge and demean our lineage! Ah... I remember now, you're a Mudblood, of course you would speak for them."

"You, you, you..." The Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement trembled with anger, unable to speak.

And the clamor in the room grew louder, the members still under control unable to understand why Pius would say such a thing.

Sigh...

The Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and former superior to Pius, Mrs. Amelia Bones, let out a heavy sigh and slowly rose from her seat.

As an absolute authority figure in the Ministry of Magic, all of Mrs. Bones' movements were monitored, so when she stood up, the noise around her faded and everyone looked at her to see what she would say to her former subordinate.

"Pius," Mrs. Bones said with a tinge of disappointment as she looked at the current Minister of Magic, "I told you a long time ago that those of us in this department may not be skilled in any other spell, but we must be skilled in Occlumency, and it seems you haven't listened to me."

The smile on Pius' face disappeared, and a sense of foreboding washed over him.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked coldly.

But in response, Kingsley bellowed, "Do it!"

Arthur, Tonks, and a bunch of other members of the Order of the Phoenix intervened, and after taking down some of the clearly Voldemort-aligned Aurors, they quickly regrouped to secure the unharmed officials, including Mrs. Bones.

The Death Eaters and the controlled wizards also drew their wands and attacked Kingsley and the rest of the group, oblivious to the attack, only freezing for a moment before being mostly taken down by Pius' side, with the few remaining drawing their wands and siding with Kingsley.

Having taken down some of the controlled Aurors from the start, Kingsley's side was small enough to contain them, but not enough to escape and find further assistance.

Both sides ceased casting spells when they realized they couldn't harm each other, and simply took separate sides and faced off.

"What the hell is going on here?" the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, who hadn't been able to comprehend what was happening, asked.

"In short, they have either defected to Voldemort or been placed under the Imperius Curse," Tonks quickly responded.

"God, Voldemort? Isn't he... isn't he already... dead?" the Director of the Muggle Liaison Office staggered.

Tonks rolled her eyes. "Do you still believe the nonsense from Fudge and the Daily Prophet?"

Just then, another group entered the room, led by a short, plump witch who resembled a toad.

When Umbridge and the others joined them, the gap between Kingsley's outnumbered side grew even wider.

"Hm hm hm..." Pius chuckled as reinforcements arrived, "I advise you to surrender, my master is merciful to pure-bloods."

"Do you think you can win?" Kingsley snorted, reassuring the terrified officials surrounding him.

The true Death Eater, Yaxley, returned the snort and said, "You don't believe there's anyone out there who would help you, do you? I'm not afraid to tell you that our comrades had the others under control while we were in the meeting, and if anyone else comes, they'll be our men."

"There are times when it's best not to speak too much, Yaxley."

A soft voice came from the door as Percy Weasley and some Ministry staff surrounded a tall figure entering.

"I'm sorry, it took me a little while to subdue all your colleagues and make them wait. But... I believe I've arrived just in time..."

Dumbledore said with a smile to Kingsley and the others, after ensuring that those lying on the ground were unconscious and not dead.