More Purebloods Eat Death

Thursday, 7th September, afternoon 26 days after Harry's trial

Still Manchester Magical Academy

Harry had not looked at the western brick wall (where all the noise had been coming from) since he had dashed out of the General Magic building. On some level, Harry expected that none of the adults here would do anything about the Death Eater attack except to wait for the Chosen One to solve their big problem for them.

So now when Harry and Hermione, on his Firebolt, rose up high enough to see over MMA's various buildings, Harry was shocked.

The brick guard tower at the south west corner was a wreck, but fortunately the western wall and the southern wall both seemed intact.

But the loss of the guard tower was not the disaster it could have been, because now the western wall and the southern wall had five moveable guard towers, so to speak.

Parked by the southern half of the western wall were four blue lorries, and parked by the western half of the southern wall was a fifth blue lorry. Behind the driver cab, each lorry had a raised scissors-jack and a diamonds-shaped frame that together raised a bucket—four feet tall, four feet long, and as wide as the lorry—high above its lorry. Each bucket at the moment was raised such that the top of the bucket was level with the top of the brick wall that the bucket was next to. Outriggers by each lorry's tyres, along with the tyres themselves, kept the diamonds-frame and bucket from tipping over.

Curious, Harry slowly rose on the broom and slowly moved over to where he and Hermione could look into a bucket. He saw nobody there—but how could the bucket be operated if nobody was in it? Right then, Harry heard a gasp.

Harry wandlessly improvised a Parseltongue spell, §Enable Hermione and I to see anything Disillusioned, invisible and glamoured.§ Now Harry could see two blue human shapes in the bucket.

"Hello," Harry said lowly to the Disillusioned people in the bucket, "Hermione and I are here to help you fight."

BOOM—the western brick wall trembled but, so far as Harry could tell, suffered no damage.

Harry heard scuffling in the bucket, then the two people in the bucket dis-Disillusioned themselves. Revealed were Professor Sharpton and a man whom Harry did not recognise. The man said, "You can't be fighting Death Eaters, you're students!"

Hermione said, "Actually, Professor Milward, Harry and I have much more experience with Death Eaters than any of you have. I've personally killed one Death Eater, and Harry has

killed—how many personally?" Harry shrugged. "Twenty."

Hermione startled, and gave Harry a sidelong glance, then she returned her attention to the two professors in the bucket.

Meanwhile, Professor Sharpton was showing a small smile on her face. "I trust that Headmistress Norwood knows what you two are up to?"

Harry replied, "She does. She isn't happy with us, but she reluctantly gave permission."

Then Harry's voice turned commanding. "Hermione and I will talk to the other four buckets, then we'll turn invisible and we'll scout the Death Eaters out there. Anything we should know before we fly over the wall?"

BOOM—the wall trembled again.

Hermione added, "Besides the fact that Death Eaters like to shoot spells at the wall."

Professor Sharpton said, "Those inbred morons out there have never heard of titanium. They've no idea that the brick walls are reenforced with it—not to mention all the runes and enchantments on the walls. It's funny to watch them try and fail to punch holes in the wall."

Hermione asked, "Then how was the guard tower in the corner destroyed?"

Sharpton sighed. "One Death Eater cast some sort of overpowered family curse. But then Professor Armstrong promptly put him down."

Harry asked, "What else can you tell us?"

Sharpton replied, "This school is surrounded by at least four wardstones, but the Death Eaters are trying to destroy only one of the wardstones: the south west one. Which makes our job, defending the school, much easier."

The man (Professor Milward) replied, "What should you know ahead of time? Professor Armstrong"—the Defence teacher—"is on the roof of the boarded-up petrol station, Disillusioned. He's either got a sniper rifle with him or he's doing something advanced with the Banishing Charm. DEs are getting holes put in them, but there's no sound and no muzzle- flash. The Death Eaters still alive are pissing themselves. The DEs are trying to destroy that south west wardstone, but"—professor Milward's smile was cruel—"these mudbloods aren't making life easy for them."

****

Harry and Hermione slowly and visibly flew towards the other four buckets and introduced themselves. Each bucket had two Disillusioned MMA professors in it. The other eight professors told Harry and Hermione that their job at the moment was to lean over the brick wall and to cast curses down on the Death Eaters, then to duck back to safety. These Muggle- born professors were not interested in Stunners, Disarming Charms or Incarcerouses—the

spells that the MMA professors cast at the Death Eaters were intended to make the Death Eaters die screaming.

Harry and Hermione were told that in the ruins of the brick guard tower at the south west corner was the corpse of Professor Weston, but nobody could spare the time at the moment to bring him down from there.

Whilst Harry and Hermione were speaking with the other professors, the Death Eaters hit the wall with spells three more times. The spells made loud noise but, so far as Harry could see, accomplished nothing. Harry did not even see cracks in the mortar.

****

When Harry and Hermione again were floating by Professor Sharpton's and Professor Milward's bucket, Harry cast §Make invisible§ on himself, Hermione and his Firebolt, then asked the two professors to confirm that the spell was working as intended. It was.

With this done, Harry slowly guided his broom over the western wall.

Thirty or forty Death Eaters, in robes and masks, had gathered west of the western wall. More specifically, the Death Eaters had gathered on the eastern side of the boarded-up petrol station's lot and they were a few feet beyond the torn-down chain-link fence.

But now over half of the Death Eaters were on the ground and unmoving.

A bit outside the south west corner of MMA's brick building, two of the surviving Death Eaters were aiming Blasting Hexes downwards, presumably trying to destroy the wardstone there. They were surrounded by five other Death Eaters, facing north or east, who were firing spells back at (where they guessed were) the sources of the defending professors' attacks.

What have we here? Harry thought. He whispered in Hermione's ear, "Don't speak, and try not to breathe too loudly." He slowly guided his broom to directly above the five Death Eaters who were acting as the ward-busters' protectors.

Then Harry slowly and soundlessly backed his broom away. When he was far enough away that he was certain that no Death Eater could hear him, Harry whispered to Hermione, "Notice how two of the five are much shorter than everyone else? I sense no Dark Mark on them. I think we've found Crabbe and Pansy."

She whispered back, "Should we spare them?"

Harry's voice grew hard. "No way. The rest of these clowns are here to kill the professors here, the students here, and mainly are here to kill you. Vincent Crabbe is here to kill me, and Pansy Parkinson is here to kill both of us. So they die, and anyone who raises a wand against you dies. If Gregory Goyle hates me afterwards, such is life."

Hermione sneered, "Putting down Pansy Parkinson won't be a hardship for me."

As Harry and Hermione were whispering together, Harry noticed that twenty feet away from the fighting Death Eaters was someone Disillusioned; Harry sensed that this person had the

Dark Mark. Harry guessed that this person was Demodocus Cooper, the supposed leader of this attack.

****

Harry and Hermione flew a bit north, over to the roof of the boarded-up petrol station. By whispers, the teens conversed with Disillusioned Professor Armstrong.

Armstrong had transfigured broken pieces of glass into lead pellets, had conjured an invisible rifle, had put a Silencing Charm on his conjured rifle, then he kept using an overpowered Banishing Charm to move the lead pellets through the rifled barrel and out. The Banishing Charm was intended to stop when the lead pellet had moved to an inch from the end of the barrel. The disadvantage of the setup: it was not deadly beyond a hundred-yard range. The advantage: no muzzle flash and no spell flash; so to the victims, the lead pellets came seemingly out of nowhere.

Because of this trick, the boarded-up petrol station had much spell-damage at ground level; but the roof (where Professor Armstrong was lying prone) was completely undamaged. Meaning, the Death Eaters could not locate for sure where the sniper was, they could only guess where he was, and their guesses were wrong.

Now invisible Harry said to invisible Professor Armstrong, "I'm enjoying this conversation, but it's time to wrap this up. In a few seconds, Hermione and I will become visible—and when this happens, we'll do our damnedest to be quite visible. Talk to you later."

Harry slowly and noiselessly guided his broom over to where he and Hermione were a few feet away from magically camouflaged Demodocus Cooper—whom the two teens could see just fine, thanks to Harry's earlier Parseltongue spell.

Harry whispered to Hermione, "First thing you do, after I hiss: chop his wand-arm off. After that, indulge yourself."

Then Harry loudly hissed, "§Make Hermione, my broom, me and this Death Eater all visible!

"

****

"Surprise, surprise," Harry said to Cooper, as Harry stared into Cooper's eyes.

Harry sensed Cooper's thoughts: That's Potter and Granger the mudblood! The letter says—

"Lumos laseri," Hermione murmured. One second later, part of Cooper's right upper arm, most of his right hip, his entire right leg, and part of his left upper leg all were simultaneously severed and cauterised.

"Just as a guess, I'd say he's dead," said Hermione. "Or soon will be."

Then Harry heard a shout from the mob of Death Eaters: "Oi, look! By Cooper, it's—"

****

Harry, Hermione and the Firebolt zipped, quite visibly, thirty feet higher in the air. Then the teenagers and broom moved anticlockwise above, and a bit south of, the Death Eaters—all as fast as a hummingbird. Then, just like a hummingbird, Harry abruptly stopped, hovering in place.

Harry was in that spot for only two seconds. But before the Death Eaters could target him and those Death Eaters' spells could hit him, he had hummingbird-zipped backwards and to his left; now he was almost directly above the Death Eaters.

But what happened during those two seconds that Harry had been hovering, before he moved backwards?

Harry was stationary in all three dimensions. Specifically, he and Hermione and the broom were stationary thirty feet above, and a bit south of, the two Death Eater ward-busters and their five Death Eater protectors—protectors who now were on the wrong side to protect the ward-busters. Hermione's wand still was acting as a superpowered ruby laser; now she pointed her wand at the ward-busters, at the height of their underarms, and made a well- planned sideways slash.

Two alive Death Eater ward-busters became, in an instant, four Death Eater corpse-parts. "Corpse" mainly because each evil wizard's heart was sliced in two.

Hermione then pointed her wand down at the two shorter Death Eater protectors—Vincent Crabbe and Pansy Parkinson—and incanted, "Nox. Frutch ot soushp! Frutch ot soushp! Frutch ot soushp!"

Three pink blobs, one after another, came out of Hermione's wand-tip and moved down and a bit north to where Vincent and Pansy were standing. The blobs were a pale pink that would make any girl under age ten, smile in delight.

The blobs looked harmless.

Each blob expanded as it moved down and over, so that by the time a pink blob had spell- travelled to Vincent and Pansy, the blob was as wide as Vincent and Pansy side by side.

Vincent and Pansy each had thrown up shields—such as they were. (Neither Slytherin student was a magical powerhouse.) Yet the evil teens' shields stopped the first pink blob.

The second pink blob shattered the shields of Vincent and Pansy. The third double-wide pink blob hit both Vincent and Pansy.

But by then, Harry and Hermione were hovering thirty feet above the main group of Death Eaters, and Hermione was incanting "Lumos laseri" in a whisper.

****

When the pink blob hit Crabbe and Parkinson simultaneously, the evil teens turned to grey- stone statues, as though they had just been hit with Petrificus Totalus. Yet Crabbe and Parkinson were not completely petrified; their stony faces showed shock.

Meanwhile, a pink ring formed round each teenager's feet, at ground level.

Then Crabbe and Parkinson began sinking into the concrete—so an onlooker at first would think. But whilst the two Slytherin teens were "sinking," a ring of gravel was forming right outside each pink ring. Now Crabbe and Parkinson each were silently screaming. As the two teens "sank" more and more, the gravel-ring that was just outside of each pink ring grew taller and wider.

A minute later, when only Crabbe's and Parkinson's heads were above the pink ring, their stony faces showed agony. Their mouths both were open in silent screams.

Since Parkinson was shorter than Crabbe, the top of her petrified head was ground up into gravel a few seconds before Crabbe's was. When Parkinson's pink ring had finished its work, the pink ring vanished, leaving the ring of Parkinson-gravel behind. A few seconds later, Crabbe's pink ring likewise finished its work and vanished, leaving behind the ring of Crabbe-gravel.

****

Meanwhile, the surviving Death Eaters in the mob were having problems. Before Potter and the mudblood even had shown up on that Merlin-damned broom, MMA's mudblood defenders, after Disillusioning themselves, had picked off their attackers. Mudbloods weren't supposed to fight back; this was outrageous!

The mudblood wizard in the brick tower, before a Death Eater had killed him, had yelled, "NEVER AGAIN!" None of the Death Eaters had any idea what the words had meant, but the words had sounded disrespectful.

The Death Eaters had only about fifteen of their number still alive when Potter and the mudblood beheader of the Dark Lord had shown up on that broom. Then the first thing that the two lesser-blood teenagers had done was to kill Cooper, Harris and Smythe (the two ward-busters), and Crabbe and Parkinson, all by spells that the Death Eaters never had seen before.

The surviving Death Eaters should have left the field of battle then. With their leader (Cooper) dead, with no consensus about who should replace Cooper as leader, and with the ward-busters dead, the smart thing at that time would be to go home. But such was unthinkable for the surviving Death Eaters—zipping back and forth, above them, was Potter and Granger, and those two had to die!

Which was a worthy goal, perhaps; but then the mudblood bitch made the red line come out of her wand again, and more Death Eaters died.

Death Eaters discovered, to their horror, that magical shields blocked the red line for only two seconds.

****

Professor Mark Armstrong, MMA's Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher—and at the moment, the Disillusioned sniper of Death Eaters—realised that he was seeing something that had never happened before in Wizarding Britain: a broom used in magical combat.

Back as an MMA student, Mark had been taught the rules of Quidditch, and had played a few pick-up games of Quidditch. He had played ineptly, because he lacked experience, but his Muggle-born student opponents had been just as unskilled, for the same reason. But according to transfer-student Hermione Granger, Harry Potter when playing Seeker was sheer artistry in the air. And indeed, now Harry Potter on his broom was making the broom zip about in all six directions, then stop, in ways that Mark could not begin to match.

Not only would anyone who ever had played Quidditch be envious of Harry Potter's moves on his broom right now, Mark realised, but any helicopter pilot would be sick with envy.

But Harry's nearly-instant moving of his broom during this battle was only half the reason why Mark knew that history was being made here today. Harry and Hermione now were thirty feet above the heads of the Death Eaters and never came lower, so those two teens always could dodge whatever spells the Death Eaters cast at them; but Hermione Granger was not casting regular spells in return. Regular spells would have moved at spell-speed— about the speed of a car on the motorway—which the Death Eaters easily could shield against or sidestep. No, Hermione Granger was using the Lumos laseri charm—and Death Eaters discovered that they could not sidestep red photons that attacked them at 186 thousand miles per second! The result of Harry's and Hermione's combined efforts was one-sided death; and Mark had never seen anyone sliced in half from top to bottom before.

In the meantime, the (surviving) Death Eaters were focusing all their attention on the two broom-riding teenagers above them, and were ignoring both Mark and MMA's five other Disillusioned defenders. Mark picked out a big man who was looking straight up at Harry and Hermione—and whose back was to Mark. Mark silently sent a lead slug over to the big man's head.

At the same moment this Death Eater died, another Death Eater was dropped by a yellow- orange spell that came from the top of the brick wall.

****

Harry was frightened for the first minute he and Hermione were up in the air—Hermione could be killed! The only reason that Harry allowed Hermione to be on Harry's broom now, instead of stashing her someplace safe, was because Ghost-Emily had implied that God, or the Fates, or Whoever would keep Hermione alive if she battled the Death Eaters with Harry.

But now Harry—when he was not making his broom flit about, then hover, all like a hummingbird—watched Death Eaters die, and his worry about Hermione lessened.

After Hermione killed the two ward-busters and Vincent and Pansy, Hermione lasered four more Death Eaters in half with the magical-laser spell. Other Death Eaters were killed by curses that came from the top of the wall—curses that the victims had made no attempt to shield against. One Death Eater was shot in the head; another, shot in the back.

Less than a minute after Harry and Hermione had attacked Demodocus Cooper, all the Death Eater attackers were dead and Harry was landing his broom.

The first thing Harry did, once both his feet and Hermione's feet were on the ground, was to snog Hermione mightily.

When Harry finally broke the l-o-n-g kiss, he said to Hermione, "You're alive! You're not hurt! Thank God!"

Then Harry and Hermione removed each silver mask and—Lancia! Lancia!—put two holes into the forehead of each dead Pureblood.

As Harry and Hermione double-tapped the enemy dead, they counted the corpses. Thirty- seven Death Eaters, including Vincent Crabbe and Pansy Parkinson, had come here today intending mass murder; but now they themselves all were dead, whilst the "lesser bloods" had suffered only one casualty: Professor Weston, the Nonmagical History teacher.

Harry double-tapped sliced-up Demodocus Cooper, then Harry stuck his hands into the dead man's pockets.

"Why are you checking his pockets?" Hermione asked.

Harry replied, "Just before you attacked him, I picked up a thought from him, that a letter had mentioned you. I'm hoping—is this it?"

There was indeed a letter in Cooper's right pocket. The letter had been lasered into two pieces. Harry brought the two pieces of the letter together—and snarled.

Just then, Professor Armstrong walked up. "Harry, Hermione, what you did today was amazing. I don't think you know just how amazing it was."

Pop-pop-p-p-pop. With all the magical fighting done, now five Aurors showed up.

****

To Harry, four of the five Aurors looked barely old enough to legally drink. The oldest one said pompously, "I am Senior Auror John Dawlish."

Then Dawlish looked at Professor Armstrong and said, "You there, man. Are you a wizard or nonmagical?"

Professor Armstrong replied, "I'm magical. Why?"

But instead of answering the professor's question, Dawlish asked another question: "Are you a half-blood?"

"Say what? I don't know that word."

Harry translated: "He's asking if you have one magical parent, as opposed to either two magical parents, or none."

Professor Armstrong stood straight and said to Dawlish, "I'm a first-generation wizard, sir. I was born to two loyal and nonmagical subjects of Queen Elizabeth the Second. I'm a first- gen, as is our headmistress and all but one of the professors. As are all of the students here, except for Harry Potter, our school's only 'half-blood.' And I thank God for all that!"

Dawlish said, "Aurors! Arrest Potter, Granger and this mudblood wizard, for the murder of Purebloods."

"Erm, sir?" said a youthful Auror. "All the Purebloods here are dressed as Death Eaters."

"Doesn't matter," Dawlish said. "They're Purebloods, these lesser-bloods killed them, and the law's the law. Arrest them."

"I think not," said Harry. Wandlessly and wordlessly, Dawlish was silenced and tied up with ropes. Harry did not attack the other four Aurors; nor did the four Aurors attack Harry or attempt to free Dawlish.

"Dobby!" Harry called. Pop.

Dobby was sent away to find Minister Amelia Bones and to ask her to come here with the house-elf. Harry's message to Minister Bones: "Hermione and I are here at Manchester Magical Academy. The MMA professors and Hermione put down thirty-seven Death Eaters. Senior Auror Dawlish wants to arrest us for 'the murder of Purebloods.' "

A minute later, Dobby—pop—showed up with Minister Bones. She looked angry.

Harry wandlessly and wordlessly undid Dawlish's Silencing Charm. Dawlish said to Harry, "You're in big trouble now, Potter, and don't think Bones will save your arse."

****

Normally, the idea that a house-elf would pop in and Minister for Magic Amelia Bones would drop everything she was doing and would go off with the house-elf, merely because a teenaged boy asked the Minister to do so—the mere suggestion was insulting.

But not in this case. Amelia was here, just outside Manchester Magical Academy, because the house-elf had mentioned two names: Harry Potter and John Dawlish.

Amelia admired the first wizard, and loathed the second one.

Why "loathed"? If Amelia ever were asked What is an Auror?, she would not reply, "An Auror is a wizard or witch with a badge and a blue wand"; no, she would answer, "An Auror is someone who's paid to solve problems that nobody else can solve." But Auror Dawlish did not solve problems, he caused them. He was a martinet and a blood-purity bigot, who never should have been promoted from Auror Second Class. But thanks to Dawlish's Uncle Cornelius, all of Amelia's efforts to discipline Dawlish had been undone, whilst Dawlish had received undeserved promotions that Amelia could not stop.

If indeed Death Eaters today had attacked the school for Muggle-borns, but had all been killed, the Muggle-borns at MMA would not be inclined to meekly submit to a wizard who

talked as offensively as any Death Eater, just because this wizard was wearing a badge. Dawlish, and whatever Aurors he had ordered to come with him, might all be slaughtered today, unless Amelia acted now.

****

Once Amelia was elf-popped to Manchester, she at first did not speak to anyone there. She glanced at the trim man in his forties who was wearing Muggle clothes, then she glanced at tied-up and red-faced John Dawlish.

Dawlish's face showed anger, presumably at Harry Potter, but Dawlish showed no fear of Amelia herself. Clearly Dawlish had no inkling that Amelia might rightly find fault with his actions here, and might discipline him for those actions.

Then Amelia walked about, looking at the dead Death Eaters. Several times she squatted down or bent over, in order to take a better look at a particular corpse.

After a while, Amelia returned to the loose grouping of the four youthful Aurors, Dawlish, Harry and Hermione, and the Muggle-dressed man. Amelia's first words since she had been elf-popped to just outside MMA were, "A few of the spells I recognise. A dozen Death Eaters look gun-shot—but how they were shot without all of Manchester hearing the shots, I can't guess."

The Muggle-dressed man smiled at that.

Amelia continued, "Some of the other spell-damage, I don't recognise—and you would be wise not to teach those spells to anyone outside this school." Raising her voice slightly, she said, "The Aurors do not need to know how these Death Eaters died, only that they died. Am I clear?"

The four youthful Aurors agreed quickly, whilst Dawlish agreed with clear reluctance.

Amelia walked up uncomfortably close to still-roped Dawlish and said, "Listen to me, John Dawlish, nephew of our worthless previous Minister. These magicals here killed thirty-seven Death Eaters who intended rape, Unforgivables and murder, and you ordered them arrested? Merlin on a mushroom, what were you thinking? Or were you thinking at all?"

Dawlish jutted his chin out. "The law is the law, ma'am. It's against the law to murder Purebloods, especially by mudbloods and half-bloods."

"It's also against our laws to murder Muggles and Muggle-borns, and these laws has been on our books since 1642. Let me guess, you're not so zealous at arresting those sorts of murderers"—she waved a hand to mean the thirty-seven Death Eater corpses—"or otherwise every Death Eater would've been tossed into a holding cell years ago."

Amelia then looked at the youthful Aurors. "From now on, any and every killing of a Death Eater in costume is 'justifiable homicide'—no exceptions. From now on, if someone other than an Auror kills a Death Eater, you don't need to record the killer's name—no exceptions."

Grinning Harry said, "Minister Bones, I'm glad to hear you say all that, but I don't think you need a contingency plan for ordinary wizards battling Death Eaters. Today I think the last of the Death Eaters were wiped out."

The Muggle-dressed man, and Hermione too, now grinned to match Harry's grin.

Harry, still grinning, said, "Today's battle definitely will get a big write-up in the first edition of MMA: A History."

The Muggle-dressed man looked confused. Hermione huffed, then smacked Harry's arm.

Amelia was looking at Harry in amazement, then she turned back to the four Aurors. "Take these corpses to the DMLE morgue so that their relatives can claim the bodies, then you're done here, because there's no need for interviews, understand? But don't begin that work just yet."

Amelia turned towards the two teenagers and said, "Mr Potter, would you vanish Dawlish's ropes, please?"

When Dawlish was free to move, the next thing that Amelia said was to order him, "Push up your left sleeve."

Surprisingly, Dawlish's left forearm was unmarked. He snarled, "You thought I was a Death Eater?"

"Why not?" she replied. "You think like one. John Dawlish, you're sacked, and ineligible for rehire. Return to the DMLE and hand in your red robes, your badge and your blue wand to Scrimgeour."

As soon as scowling Dawlish apparated away, Amelia sent off a messenger-Patronus to Rufus Scrimgeour.

Meanwhile, the four youthful Aurors began the process of portkeying the corpses to the DMLE morgue. One of the Aurors said to another, "We need more Portkeys."

Harry had been holding a parchment in each hand; each parchment had a diagonal edge. Harry brought the two parchments together so that the diagonal edges lined up, then showed the resulting cut-parchment to Amelia. Harry said, "This attack that these Inbreds made on MMA? Dumbledore suggested the attack in a letter to Cooper. In the letter, Dumbledore also wrote, 'Kill Hermione.' "

"Dumbledore suggested the attack?" "He did. I recognise his handwriting."

****

Your father left this [the True Cloak of Invisibility] in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you.

Use it well.

A Very Merry Christmas to you.

****

Amelia said to Harry, "Dumbledore has written orders as Chief Warlock. It'll be easy to compare those handwritings to this letter."

Harry immediately handed her the two pieces of the letter.

Later, back at the Ministry, Amelia soon discovered that the letter to Cooper had no magical signature at all—which meant either that a Muggle had forged Dumbledore's handwriting, or that Dumbledore had erased his magical signature from the parchment, after he had written the letter.

Amelia's next action was to nonmagically analyse the handwriting in the letter. The writing in Cooper's letter looked the same to Amelia as in orders that had been written by former Chief Warlock Dumbledore; but Amelia had to be sure, so she paid an after-hours visit to a Muggle parent who was a police expert on handwriting analysis.

The handwriting-expert's conclusion: former Chief Warlock Dumbledore wrote the letter to Demodocus Cooper.

Amelia thought, Gotcha, Albus.

Now Minister Amelia Bones held the future of Albus Dumbledore in her hands. But surprisingly, she did not order the Aurors to arrest him.

___________________