172 CHAPTER {212-214}

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****ENEMIES-ON-ALL-SIDES (I)****

Harry finally returned to Rita and Katerina who were still waiting for him outside the Ward line with the Minister's head in his hand still looking like Voldemort. Rita gulped before turning a bit green when she noticed the severed head and Katerina was looking somewhat dissatisfied.

"Ah… I see, you are unhappy with me" Harry decided to state the obvious while staring at Katerina as his form and robes started to shift back to their original state.

"Well, I was hoping to have some fun" Katerina admitted, looking a bit sullen. Though thankfully, Katerina was nothing like the real Bellatrix.

"What did you do to the rest of the family?" Rita asked worriedly.

"I simply knocked out everyone else… I am not a good guy by any definition, but I am not a monster" Harry defended himself even though his defense sounded pretty weak. "And Kate, I will let you have fun some other time, the war isn't over yet" Harry assured Katerina that there will be a lot more action for her in the coming days.

"I will hold you on to that" Katerina nodded her head with a grin. "So, what now?" Katerina asked since the sun would be coming up within the next couple of hours.

"We are done for the night, so Rita, why don't you pay Cuffe a visit and convince him to publish your exclusive interview with the Dark Lord?" Harry suggested and Rita nodded her head after hesitating for a bit. She needed to hurry if she wanted to publish the interview in the morning edition of The Daily Prophet.

"Okay, wish me luck" Rita said with a shaky chuckle after taking a long breath, but she didn't wait for either Harry or Katerina to reply before she disappeared with a loud crack.

"She didn't even give us the chance to say anything!" Katerina exclaimed in bewilderment.

"Well, it was a difficult trip for her, so I can't blame her" Harry mused with an amused look on his face. "By the way, we have to make another stop before we finally return" Harry said and Katerina hummed with a nod as she clearly remembered the plan. She already knew where they were heading, so without waiting for Harry, she disappeared from her spot with a loud crack and arrived inside one of the alleys near Diagon Alley.

Moments later, Harry arrived beside her with a soft pop. "Give me the head" Harry told her and Katerina removed Dolores Umbridge's head, which was hanging from her belt and held it out, but instead of grabbing the head with his hand, the severed head started to float in the air.

"Do you want me to wait here?" Katerina asked curiously.

"Yes, even though you aren't well known, the Aurors would be able to recognize you pretty easily and even if they do manage to recognize you, it would take them long to connect the dots" Harry explained, and even though Katerina looked slightly disappointed, she nodded her head in understanding as once again, Harry's form and robes started to transform.

Moments later, he looked just like Voldemort… The Diagon Alley was supposed to be empty right now, except for some homeless people, but Harry wasn't taking any chances, just in case someone saw him putting the Minister's and his senior undersecretary's heads on a pike. After that, Harry strode out of the alley like he owned the place…

Just like he expected, there was nobody in sight as only criminals and such scum were active at this time of the night and they mostly stayed within the limits of Knockturn Alley… Harry jabbed his bone-white Wand toward the ground and started to Conjure a couple of pikes. When he was done with the pikes, he put the heads on the pikes one by one before he decided to leave a message carved into their foreheads.

Well, it was something Voldemort would do…

'They denied my RETURN' Harry quickly carved those words on their foreheads with pretty ease before pointing the Wand in his hand toward the sky. "Morsemordre" Harry didn't need to utter the Spell, but once again it was something Voldemort would do. The dark sky was lit by the eerily glowing Dark Mark floating in the sky.

Satisfied with his actions, he turned around on his heel and returned to the alley where Katerina was waiting for him. There were still quite a few matters he needed to attend to, but he was too tired to deal with them right now. With that decided, he started to shift back to his original state.

"It was quite a productive night" Katerina said as she yawned and stretched her body.

"Yes, it was… We got quite a lot done tonight" Harry agreed as he started to open a portal leading them back to their base. "I wonder how the aftermath is going to be" Harry added with a grin as he offered Katerina to enter the portal first.

"It would be pure chaos and I am going to love every moment of it" Katerina cackled as she stepped through the portal. Harry simply inclined his head in acknowledgement as he was also going to enjoy the aftermath quite a bit… To be honest, he would be surprised if the Ministry didn't collapse during the aftermath.

While pondering how to take advantage of the situation, he also stepped through the portal and the portal closed behind his back as soon as he was gone…

<Line Break>

~~Washington D.C., Columbia Heights~~

Inside a normal-looking single-storey house, a woman sleeping was roused awake when the telephone started to ring. The woman groaned in annoyance while shifting in her bed, but she finally got up even though quite reluctantly and picked up the telephone. "Yes?" The woman asked.

"Ma'am, you are needed" A male voice said from the other side.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" The woman asked with a frown as she stared at the clock hanging on the wall. Even though her head was filled with gray hairs, her eyesight seemed to be still quite sharp.

"Yes, I know, but this is an emergency. I have already arranged a pickup for you" The voice from the other side spoke in a grave tone, and the woman finally released a deep sigh at that before she cursed Keller inside her mind. She was a happily retired woman… Well, not as happily retired as she would like to say because she missed the action, but she was still retired.

"What happened?" She asked, removing the duvet.

"You will be debriefed when you arrive at the Headquarters" The voice from the other side answered, making the woman frown.

"You are the Director, it wouldn't look good on you if you keep asking for help from your predecessors, you know?" The woman asked, but there was no heat or contempt in her voice. In fact, she sounded mirthful.

"Leave that to me and I believe we will be needing your help on this" The voice explained with a sigh.

"Alright, I will be there" The woman said before she finally put down the receiver. The woman cracked her neck before she finally climbed out of her bed. She picked up the revolver which was resting beside the telephone and started to fiddle with it. After inspecting the bullets, she put the cylinder back into its place and nodded her head in satisfaction.

The woman stared at the wall where all of her pictures were hanging. The wall was filled with various types of pictures, all of her achievements and medals that she could at least show off… After checking out some of the pictures, her eyes finally landed on one of the pictures. That picture was taken when she joined the agency.

She looked so young and she had come such a long way after that. So much has happened since then. That particular picture was a stark reminder of that fact…

'Margaret Elizabeth Carter' She read the name of it and snorted in amusement before she finally decided to get ready…

By the time her pickup arrived for her, she was already dressed and ready for action. The small pickup took her to the airport where a private jet was already waiting for her. The private jet took her to New York and when she landed, there was already a chopper and a familiar face waiting for her.

"Good morning, Agent Coulson" Margaret Elizabeth Carter or usually known as the woman Peggy Carter, greeted the man waiting beside the chopper with a pleasant smile on her face.

"Good morning, ma'am" The man now known as Coulson greeted her back with a pleasant smile on his face before opening the door for her. Peggy gave him a grateful smile before she climbed into the chopper and he followed her into the chopper after that. It was already morning now, and from the dark bags she noticed under Coulson's eyes, she was certain that he was yet to get any sleep.

"So, what happened?" Peggy asked after putting on her headphones.

Coulson, instead of answering her, signaled the pilot to put them on a private channel and when it was done, Coulson turned back toward Peggy, who was waiting for an answer. "Ma'am, we have finally located Grindelwald and his missing followers" Coulson answered and Peggy leaned back in her seat as the realization finally set in.

She finally understood why she was being called back…

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****ENEMIES-ON-ALL-SIDES (II)****

~~SHIELD Headquarters, New York~~

Peggy entered the meeting room with Agent Coulson leading her way and found that there were a lot of people already in the room, waiting to be debriefed. She noticed some of the respectful looks she was getting, but except for two people inside the room, she didn't recognize anyone else. Agent Coulson had already warned that she was somewhat of a legend even though she didn't have any superpowers.

"Director Keller" Peggy respectfully greeted the Director. Yeah, he might have asked for her help in this case, but he was still the Director and she wanted the others present inside the room to know that. Sometimes, young people can really get really weird ideas.

"Agent Carter" She received an equally respectful greeting from him.

After that, Peggy finally turned toward the other occupant she knew. "Fury" She gave him a respectful nod, only to receive the same in return. After that, there were no more greetings as Peggy didn't know anyone else and they also did not want to waste the time of important people with inane things, though they vowed to introduce themselves to The Peggy Carter in an appropriate moment.

"Ok, then let's get moving" Director Keller said as he clapped his hands and signaled an Agent at the back to turn on the Projector. The light inside the office dimmed on its own as the projector turned on. There were some rustles inside the room as everyone shifted in their seats to get a better view of the projection screen. The operator turned on the first slide and a picture of Gellert Grindelwald appeared on the blank screen.

From the whispers, it was obvious that not many people recognized the man in the picture and the picture itself looked pretty old, but it was more than good enough for them to correctly identify the madman. "This is Gellert Grindelwald and I am sure that not many in this room would know this man" Keller explained as he pointed at the picture. Even Keller didn't know much about the man, so he simply pointed at Peggy to continue.

Keller wasn't even born when World War II came to its conclusion, so it was obvious that he had never dealt with the man personally and he didn't get to learn much from the files as there wasn't much on them. Much of the information was either removed or blacked out as SHIELD didn't want anyone to get any ideas, like springing him out of prison, since the man was still alive and kicking.

Peggy got the cue and started to explain from where Keller dropped off. "This picture was taken in 1944, and besides Hydra, he is the reason why the second world war began in the first place" Peggy spoke as she quickly stood up and moved beside the projector screen, and by the time she was there, she saw one of them she didn't recognize raise her hand in the air like she was still in class, but Peggy decided to give her a chance.

"I know him, I have read about him in books at Ilvermorny" The woman revealed with a flush on her cheeks when she noticed that right now, she was the center of attention. "Are we really going to talk about him here?" She added nervously as more murmurs broke out in the room as most inside the room didn't even know about the Ilvermorny, much less why they shouldn't be talking about the person who was responsible for the second world war.

"Ma'am, if he was so important then why don't we know about him?" Another of the new faces asked.

"That is a good question" Peggy nodded her head. It was hard to talk about the Wizarding World since it was a tightly kept secret even within SHIELD. Then she turned toward the girl who spoke at first. "And yes, we are going to talk about him and his people" Peggy addressed the girl before turning back toward the rest of the room. To be honest, there was no easy way to say this.

"He belongs to an extremely reclusive part of our society" Peggy explained slowly while sorting the correct words inside of her head. "Tell me, do you people believe that magic is real?" Peggy asked with a straight face and even though she was receiving disbelieving looks, she was thankful that nobody laughed at her. She knew how it sounded to a normal sane person and people had laughed at her before for saying the same.

"Then, let me tell you that Magic is real" Peggy stated firmly before turning toward the girl who spoke at first. "Thankfully, we have someone among us who can show us if magic is real or not" Peggy declared and the girl realized that she shouldn't have said anything. If the MACUSA came to know what she did, then they would be out for her blood, but she somehow managed to gather her courage and pulled out her Wand.

"That is a Wand, these people use that to cast their Spells" Peggy continued her explanation.

"Sounds like something from a fairytale" Someone commented and some snorts were heard, but all of the people who didn't know about Magic flinched back in shock when the girl twirled her Wand in the air and turned the jug sitting in the middle of the table into a live cat… They looked around at each other unsurely before they finally calmed down. They worked for SHIELD, and dealing with weird things was a part of their jobs.

If Superpowers and Superhumans can be real, then why can't be Magic? With that thought in their minds, they decided to accept that Magic was real. "Good, now that we have established magic is real, let's move on. Gellert Grindelwald was the leader of a group that believed in Magical superiority and they considered us, who don't have Magic to be inferior to them. So, obviously, they wanted to enslave us" Peggy deadpanned.

"Although since we outnumbered them by 100 to 1, he decided to use our kind against us. Hence Hitler" Peggy finished the explanation. "Unfortunately, unlike Hitler or Johann Schmidt, he was never killed. He was defeated and he was imprisoned in a prison called Nurmengard" Peggy continued but she stopped when someone else raised their hand. She pointed at the person.

"Why wasn't he killed?" The Agent asked and it was a valid question, considering his actions and crimes.

"We don't get involved with Wixen matters unless we really have to. You see, even though Grindelwald and his followers were hardliners, the rest also consider us to be beneath them, even if they aren't hostile to us. So, if we had tried anything, it could have kicked off another war. They don't like taking orders from people who don't have magic" Peggy clarified.

"The problem is, he had escaped from prison a couple of months ago along with his followers and now they are back in action" Keller decided to intervene and decided to move on to the next slide.

Another picture of Gellert Grindelwald appeared on the screen, but this time he looked slightly younger. "This was taken yesterday at Hogwarts when he attacked the place with his followers" Keller explained gravely and Peggy was the one who looked the most shocked. The others were shocked too, but she reacted in the most extreme fashion.

"How can he look like that?!" Peggy blurted out, looking shocked out of her mind. "Are you sure there aren't any mistakes?" She asked Keller, who gave her a grim nod.

"Apparently, he along with all of his followers were rejuvenated by the person who broke them out and they are currently working for him" Keller explained sourly.

"Motherfucker! That's bad news!" Nick Fury blurted out, but nobody decided to chastise him for his crass language as they also thought the same.

"Wait! Wait! You are saying that he is working for someone?! That is so very unlike him!" Peggy exclaimed in shock. She wasn't able to regain her bearings after Keller dropped the last bomb, so it was obvious that she lost her bearings when he decided to drop another bomb.

"Yes, that is the report we received and he himself admitted to that" Keller confirmed and Peggy didn't know how to feel about that.

"Looks like I didn't know as much as I believed to" Peggy mumbled before she finally regained her bearings.

"Or he could be lying to throw us off" Fury suggested and both Keller and Peggy nodded at that. That was quite possible too…

"Do we know anything about the person who he is supposedly working for?" Peggy asked curiously and Keller gestured for the operator to move on to the next slide and Peggy's eyes narrowed at the picture of the teenage boy. He looked kind of familiar, but she wasn't able to place a name on it. Disbelieving murmurs broke out within the room and someone snorted in disbelief before they decided to speak.

"If he is telling us to believe that he is working for a teenage boy then I call it bullshit" The man grumbled and the others seemed to agree with him on that. Even Peggy was starting to believe that Grindelwald was trying to sell bullshit.

"I also thought the same until I read the full report" Keller spoke up after clearing his throat. "His name is Harry Potter and he is fourteen, but yesterday, he killed 50 people just to prove a point and from the reports I have read, nobody was able to do anything about it even after he gave two warnings before he acted" Keller finished and once again the room was filled with not but disbelief…

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****NOT-A-CATASTROPHIC-AFTERMATH (II)****

~~December 24th, 1994~~

The Dark Mark was first noticed by a couple of Aurors on patrol when the sun was halfway up. The sight of the Dark Mark terrified them, so they immediately reported back to the Headquarters, and by the time the backup arrived, there was already a fearful crowd gathered under the Dark Mark. It was the Christmas season, so nobody was expecting an incident like this. At least not under the terror-inducing Dark Mark.

The sight of the Minister's severed head along with his Undersecretary's severed head simply terrified the people and the Aurors even more. There were already some rumors about You-Know-Who returning and the sight in front of them simply cemented the idea even more. During the last war, You-Know-Who was considered something like a boogeyman, and to most people, it wasn't surprising that the boogeyman could return from the dead.

After a lot of arguments and considerations, it was decided that heads and pikes were going to be removed from the middle of Diagon Alley. The Aurors were barely functioning as they didn't have a proper chain of command. With Amelia Bones' dismissal last night, the DMLE was without a Director, which left the decision-making to Senior Aurors and all of them were suggesting a different course of action.

The Minister was going to appoint a new Director today, but thanks to the severe case of lacking a head, it was no longer possible, which meant that right now, the Ministry didn't have a Director of DMLE, and a Minister… With everything going on, Umbride was left for an afterthought. In fact, most of the Ministry Employees were glad that the unpleasant woman was finally dead.

It didn't take long for rumors to spread within the population of Wizarding Britain, especially with such a barbaric display and the Dark Mark floating in the sky, but the rumors didn't get to fester for long as a special edition of the Daily Prophet finally came out with the grim interview of the Dark Lord Voldemort, sending the whole population of Wizarding Britain into a panic.

It was obvious that nobody wanted to believe he was back, but especially with the interview and the Dark Mark floating above the severed head of the Minister, people were forced to believe that You-Know-Who was finally back…

Overall, it was a really bad day to be born in Wizarding Britain…

~~Nott Manor~~

Voldemort's eyebrows would have twitched in irritation if he did have any eyebrows in the first place, but he didn't, so he simply settled on his throne with an annoyed look on his face as he could hear a couple of people mumble behind the door. Sleep didn't come to him last night as he was busy wondering how Harry Potter was so strong… To be honest, a part of him felt scared when he witnessed the power the boy possessed.

Though the rest of him was still certain that it would be him who would come out on top at the end… After all, he was immortal and even if the boy managed to kill him, he would return to try again. Alas, he refused to be bested by anyone. It would be very bad for his reputation. That was why, he was scouring through tomes to find anything he could use to gain such overwhelming power.

He did manage to find something which would let him take the boy's Magic for his own, but for that to work, he would need to defeat the boy and conduct a ritual. Unfortunately, the idea didn't seem to please him as he didn't want to steal anyone's power. He wanted to come out on top with his own power, otherwise, how was he supposed to prove himself better than Harry Potter?

His reputation had already taken a hit when he lost his body to the boy back in 1981, and a lot of his followers didn't believe he could win even if they were never going to admit that upfront, but still, he needed to prove them wrong… If for nothing else, then he needed to win just to soothe his own ego. The boy was the only black mark on his reputation and he wanted it gone, especially with the Prophecy still hanging on top of his head.

It looked like he needed to have a chat with Rockwood as soon as possible as once again, everything was coming back to the Prophecy, their fated battle…

'Finally!' Voldemort hissed furiously inside his mind when someone finally dared to enter the room with a newspaper in their hand. It was Gregory Goyle Sr. and Voldemort was certain that the man didn't enter the room willingly. From the look on the man's face, he wanted to be anywhere else rather than here… Voldemort couldn't help but feel himself becoming curious.

The man came and kneeled in front of him before holding out the newspaper to him… He could see that the man was already trembling in fear and the sight made him ecstatic. Though he couldn't help but wonder what was in the newspaper for the man to be scared like this. So, without wasting any more time, he simply took the paper from Goyle Sr.'s hand with a casual look on his face, but that didn't last long.

As soon as he read the heading on the front page, his eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared. He could feel his temper rising, but he didn't lash out immediately… His return was no longer a secret and apparently, someone had made a mockery of him while doing that… He had rarely felt this angry in his life… With Dumbledore kidnapped and Grindelwald working for Potter, only Potter would dare to do something like this.

'Harry Potter! You will pay for making a mockery of me in such a manner!!' Voldemort vowed cruelly inside his mind before he decided to go for easy targets like Rita Skeeter and Barnabas Cuffe. He would bring such a horrific death to the two of them, that it would give the rest of Wizarding Britain a nightmare and the fate of Harry Potter was going to be even more horrific than that.

Though there was something else he needed to do before that… He slowly lowered the paper and glared at the trembling man at his feet… "CRUCIO!!" Voldemort snarled in rage and the screams finally started…

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