C083 - Corruption

[POV Amelia Bones, Umbridge's home]

"Give me an update," I ordered after apparating near the home of Fudge's Senior Undersecretary.

"Director Bones," one of the senior aurors under my employ greeted to get my attention as the one who had been here longest. "Mister Gregory Locke reported a fire coming Madam Umbridge's home. Through the badges, we learned Auror Gruff had already been near, so we directed the distress call to him, but he was unavailable. Senior Auror Moody and his trainee had been on patrol on the other side of Hogsmeade and answered in his stead. They were unable to confirm that anybody still living inside would be able to stop the fire and broke through the wards to extinguish the flames after repeated calls for the inhabitants of the home."

Auror Gruff again. How I hated hearing that name.

"Go on," I ordered as I regarded the still smoldering home in front of me. The lawn and the gardens were in absolute disarray, testatement to the force Moody probably had to use to get through the wards. Three of the windows were entirely blackened by flames, though the rest of the house seemed fine - from the outside anyway.

"As Trainee Tonks was made to put out the fire, Senior Moody went to find Madam Umbridge, dead, in the kitchen of her home. She was killed by a knife to her neck. The kitchen had seen a short battle. Her ministry-issued pouch, her wand, and two of her rings are missing. As of yet, we were unable to locate them anywhere," the auror continued.

"The fire is still not dealt with?" I asked as I watched the billowing black smoke coming from one of the windows in a steady stream.

"Senior Moody suspects Wyvern Ichor. The study is lost completely and with it any documents she might have kept inside."

Gruff not answering the distress call. The study having been lit aflame. With Wyvern Ichor again. The attacker being able to enter despite the wards even Moody could barely break... this was a hitjob and either an extremely clean one or the sloppiest one ever. I hated the man, but Gruff was smarter than that.

Walking inside to see one of the coroners working his diagnostic spells on the corpse of Umbridge, I walked over to Mad-Eye Moody.

"Bones," he greeted gruffly, his magical eye swirling around madly.

"Alastor. Tell me something the others can't," I instructed as I took in the smell of burnt wood and leather still coming from upstairs.

"Fireplace was used to floo in and out pretty much around the time the fire was reported. I'd put my salary of the year on that bastard Gruff," he spat with gritted teeth.

"So he did it?"

Alastor shook his head and answered, "Maybe. Maybe not. Found two hairs on the way from the kitchen to the fireplace. Had Tonks run down the lead with the egg-heads as Sworten and Leftman deal with the fire. Definitely not Gruff's hair, though."

"Anybody can lose a hair when they visit," I pointed out with furrowed brows.

Moody gestured wildly with his hands and countered, "Umbridge would not have allowed a stray hair to dirty this sanctuary of gaudy kitsch and tasteless love for the color pink. But that is also a very apparent fact that someone could have used to frame someone."

He had a point. The woman was way too anal to leave about stray hair in her home.

"What of Gruff?"

Moody's visage split into an even uglier frown than usual as he argued, "With his little masters, I reckon. The fact that he isn't in Azkaban together with everyone shielding him is a disgrace, Bones."

And didn't I know it.

"Unless he fully complies with the investigation and has a solid explanation for everything amiss with this place, you'll get your wish," I answered, though followed it up with a silent, 'I dearly hope so. For my own sanity.'

"Has Fudge been informed?" I asked the senior auror who had followed me inside but stood away a respectful distance.

I received a nod in return.

"Then where is he? Umbridge was his... pet," I pointed out with distaste in my voice.

As regent for a more moderate family in the grey faction, Umbridge had been a constant source of outrage and annoyance. The legislation she tried to have implemented made my skin crawl at the best of times. I wanted to curse her plenty of times as I was forced to sit in the Wizengamot to listen to one deranged law after another...

-----

Two days later, Moody, Scrimgeour, and Shacklebolt stood in my office. It was time for some upheaval now that Gruff never got back for questioning.

Clearly, the bastard didn't take this office seriously. And why would he? So far, he got away with everything.

But I decided to change that. Some fish might slip through the nets, but I couldn't take the blatant disregard of law and order any longer. Fudge barely even cared for Umbridge's death and he instead appointed another corrupt bootlicker to her position that same day her death was announced.

A corrupt bootlicker that had been in my crosshairs for years.

"I need you three to arrest some high-profile targets. Seven lords from all three factions, an heir, nine Hogwarts students, and plenty of magicals hiding out in Knockturn Alley."

Moody didn't look too surprised. He had been in the know of my investigation that I started two years ago. The investigation that turned up more evidence than ever the moment Talion became a part of the magical world because of his mere existence.

Shacklebolt especially looked like the world was about to end instead of remaining as composed as Moody or as thoughtful as Scrimgeour.

"Director Bones, are you sure?" asked Scrimgeour with his usual sour expression.

Moody scoffed and countered, "No, she made those numbers up."

"I think what he's trying to say is that he would like more information," Shacklebolt added after firming his mind and trying to fish for more information.

"Alastor. Kingsley. If a certain headmaster or other magicals from a certain order learn of what I am about to say before that headmaster has to know for the next emergency Wizengamot session I will call when you finish catching all these people, you will be in the holding cell with these criminals. Rufus, the same goes for you. If you so much as talk to another lord or lady to get political points for the information, I will make sure that instead of getting my job or the minister position, you'll charm the airplanes for the mail department until your retirement. Now is not the time to play for more than one master. This is serious," I spat as I invoked all my hard-earned gravitas to get my point across.

Moody rarely strayed from his loyalty to the DMLE and the law, so I was reassured that he wouldn't run to Dumbledore anyway. Shacklebolt and Scrimgeour seemed to understand, too, so I took out a heavy stack of folders from my desk.

"Enslavement of magicals, kidnappings and massmurder of muggles, illegal ritual sites used with blood offerings, bribery, treason... the list is almost unending. A circle of lords and ladies has been allowed to fester in our society who view themselves above the law. Quite a few of these leads led to the now-dead lords who died wearing the Death Eater Regalia during the Quidditch Massacre - but they are only the tip of the iceberg. Hypocrites from the Light faction, Opportunists from the Grey faction, Leaders from the Dark faction. This mountain of evidence has everything we need to have all these people I mentioned get thrown through the veil in a just society. I want all of them caught and interrogated without anyone seeing a pattern. Without anyone being able to destroy evidence or collude to have these charges I'm bringing to them thrown out," I ordered with a deep-set frown.

Standing up to don my own battle-robes, I handed over three parchments with names and likely locations to all three.

"Where are you going?" Moody asked as he watched me put a second wand in a hidden holster.

"I'm going to get Gruff and his master back here personally. Their disdain for this office was left unchecked for too long."

-----

[POV Talion Macnair]

I just came out of the hospital wing where I spent some time with Madam Pomfrey - but more than that, I just wanted to see how Bletchtley was doing after I put him down.

He had dared to insult Luna in front of everyone despite my warnings - and though I feared that my intervention would make me the obvious suspect, I was sure I didn't leave any evidence behind. Well, the attack looked like harmless pranking in the hallways anyway, just that I used some nightmare inducing curses that I learned Pomfrey wasn't able to clear in one go.

After arriving at the library, I joined Isobel, Isodora, and Natalie for some study time.

Done with our assignments an hour before dinner, Natalie suddenly pointed out, "Hey, look. Isn't that Alastor Moody with Professor McGonagall?"

We all turned our heads and saw Moody hastily limp half a step ahead of the transfiguration professor with a deep frown on his face. Through my eagle vision, I noticed another two aurors standing at the entrance of the library with seven clearly cuffed students. I couldn't make out their identities. I only learned through their posture that their hands were bound and suspected them to be fully grown adults, so fourth years or above.

"Hmm, he's taking Tristan Comebort and Rex Astley into... custody? Why?" Isobel commented, and I was surprised she knew the names of those two. I hadn't known.

"Well, we all know what's written under those headbands the two wear. Maybe someone finally investigated what that is about? But why only those two?" Natalie added while looking at the two older Ravenclaws getting disarmed and cuffed by a scowling Moody.

"There's seven more at the door to the library," I said in a low voice, though only Isobel heard me.

"Well, I never liked either of those two. They were acting real shady even before they were marked. They wooed like half a dozen witches throughout the years, and Comebort especially was described as a huge creep by all of them. Well, Marianne Nighy anyway..." Natalie commented in a conspiratorial whisper. I didn't know these two boys in any meaningful capacity, but I did know Marianne in passing. She was a N.E.W.T. student this year and from House Slytherin. She was part of the greenhouse extra studies that I started to attend with Longbottom last year. Sprout seemed to like the witch well enough.

"What do you think that is about, Talion?" Isodora asked as she spoke up for the first time. She might not have heard my whisper from before, but she had looked at my expression ever since Moody entered.

I was apprehensive at first, fearing he was here for me. Then I turned thoughtful until seeing the other wizards who were cuffed outside the library - and ultimately, I started to comprehend in part what was going on. Despite my Occlumency, I didn't usually mute every single emotion, and it seemed Isodora had seen it all.

"Something big at the DMLE. Some students getting caught for whatever surely isn't the only thing that happened... by Moody's annoyed scowl, I'd guess he had been doing arrests for at least the entire day. Maybe even since the start of the week? Dunno, haven't seen the man often enough to make a better guess," I explained while watching Moody drag those two silenced Ravenclaws outside.

"Always found it weird that despite the marking nothing ever happened to those pigs," Natalie offered thoughtfully. "You'd think someone would at least come to question them... but I guess Professor Dumbledore intervened?"

-----

[POV 3rd person in Dumbledore's office]

Another floo call failed as the headmaster looked angrily at his fireplace. Alastor Moody had been a good friend since before the last war with Voldemort, a member of the Order the headmaster personally led, but now the scarred auror dared to do Amelia's bidding without giving the wizened Chief Warlock a full account.

Two contacts at the DMLE didn't know what was happening, three didn't answer the floo, one dared to openly defy him to his face... not that Moody was usually more agreeable. This did not bode well for a pupeteer like Dumbledore. He usually had more clues, more information. Information he could use to his advantage, to steer society to his greater good.

Just as Dumbledore wanted to go to the ministry personally to meddle and see what was going on, the door to his office opened.

"Horace, this is not a good time," Albus chided, his frown only decreasing by a little bit as he looked at the door.

"When is it ever," Slughorn commented and sat himself at the headmaster's desk, uncaring for Dumbledore's obvious impatience. "Albus, you must know what is going on."

"What do you mean?"

The potion master narrowed his eyes and eventually decided to indulge the headmaster's method of interrogation. "Nine students were arrested by Mad-Eye just now and taken to the ministry. Just yesterday, he brought a good friend of mine in for questioning. That friend hasn't been heard from since, according to his nephew. Even Shacklebolt led a team to arrest the entire adult Yaxley family earlier this morning. Bones was seen running around in her battlerobes ever since Dolores Umbridge died and personally went out to take Lord Fawley into custody..."

Dumbledore's eyes widened for a moment.

So much had happened without him knowing? What were all the little spies and confidantes doing that he hadn't learned of this before it happened? Or at the very least while it happened? Lord Fawley had been one of his most ardent supporters together with the Longbottoms and the Abbotts after the headmaster made all three of his sons headboys back to back and helped those three find their wives in somewhat underhanded means by arranging for those boys to be the knights in shining armor for damsels in distress while in Hogwarts...

"Now. Out with it," Slughorn impatiently coaxed as his fingers rapped on the desk's surface.

"I have been left in the dark as much as you. I suspect a major investigation came to its dire conclusion. One I was not privy to, unfortunately," the headmaster commented darkly. He didn't begrudge the malicious elements of their society to get their just deserts. He disliked not knowing about it beforehand and being able to get the full picture for his own goals.

"I'll reach out to my acquaintaces. Make sure to fill me in if you find out anything else," Slughorn suggested, though it sounded barely more polite than an order. The potion master seemed impatient. "I'll leave Talion's lessons to be self-study tomorrow to find out more."

With that, the pot-bellied man left the office to contact more of his allies. He hadn't been a head of house with countless carefully groomed connections for several decades for nothing. Someone ought to know what was going on.

Dumbledore, once more alone in his office, walked over to his shelves. His wand tapped against a rapidly spinning yet silent silver artifact, and the momentum of the moving parts slowed down by quite a bit.

"Harry Potter," the headmaster mumbled under his breath and several minutes later scrunched his eyebrows. "Talion Macnair," he whispered again, but nothing seemed to happen. So, with some reluctance, the headmaster whispered, "Lord Gamp."

For anybody else, nothing changed since the professor made his way to the silver artifact. The hat wasn't privy to see any changes. The portraits saw nothing either. Not even the two consciousness of the founders way down below the school next to the central wardstone could make out any changes.

But as if in a trance, Dumbledore kept staring at this silver artifact with complete focus.

"That is not possible," the headmaster eventually mumbled under his breath.

With a lost expression that seemed much too empty for someone as smart and calculating as Dumbledore, the centennial made his way to his own bedroom.

He decided to visit someone else out of the blue instead of going to the ministry.

He needed to ask his old friend what he just saw meant.