Chapter 22: Bloody Office

Hogwarts Castle, Somewhere in the Scottish Highlands

November 23rd, 1992, 9:08 AM

Erik soon arrives at a Gargoyle Statue, and it just jumps aside, granting him passage to the Headmaster's Office. Climbing the stairs, he arrives at the Office's door and opens it. Stepping into the office he immediately pauses. Erik then looks at a shelf with dozens of silver knick-knacks on it. Some of them were whirring, some were puffing colored smoke, and some were swinging. His senses focus on the items and his suspicions were confirmed: Items with blood magic for monitoring. That's definitely not a legal thing to do.

"Whatever… I'll just let the DMLE take it."

Erik shrugged and finished walking into the office. It was a large and well decorated circular room. About half of the walls were covered with tall bookshelves. It even had its own open second floor with a table and a comfortable looking armchair as a reading area. To the open second floor, two symmetric stairs lead to it. In one of the shelves, a shabby looking wizard hat was sitting on it, the Sorting Hat. Between the foot of the stairs was a huge office desk made of wood. It looked old, and was engraved with tons of figures decorating it. Behind the desk, another bloody golder throne-like chair. The man seemed to really have a 'king' complex. The office had a sitting area too, with a sofa and some armchairs around a low round center table, probably to receive friends for an informal talk. A fireplace was present in the room too. The rest of the office's walls were covered with portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses, all of whom were soozing gently in their frames. But what really got Erik's attention was the red-orangish bird sitting on a golden perch with a tray under, Fawkes the phoenix. The bird was looking at Erik, and when he was noticed, he sang a song of 'welcome' and 'joy'.

"Hello, Fawkes. How are you doing?"

Erik said to the bird with a smile on his face. The bird gave another thrill of joy and disappeared in a flash of fire from its perch, just to reappear, with another flash of fire, above Erik's shoulder. Fawkes then gently landed, firming his grip with his talons. It then immediately started to rub his head on Erik's cheek.

"Good to see you too, Fawkes."

Erik raised one hand and started to pet the phoenix. The commotion seemed to wake up the old headmasters and headmistress in the portraits. They immediately started to talk.

"Lord Ravenclaw! Welcome back!"

"Welcome!"

There was a cacophony of sounds with all the portraits trying to talk at the same time. Erik just stood in place looking at them and petting Fawkes. When the talking diminished, Erik finally addressed the portraits.

"Good morning, ladies and gentleman. Nice to see you all again, I just wish it was under better circumstances."

"Yes, Lord Ravenclaw, they have butchered the school's education."

Said an old headmaster.

"And the Headmaster didn't even listen to us."

Said another old headmistress. Erik was nodding at their speech.

"I am already aware of some of these things, ladies and gentlemen. And will address it very soon."

Erik said to the portraits.

"I just have some more urgent business to solve first. I solved some already, yesternight, but there's still some to do."

Erik said again, and turned to walk to the file cabinets in one of the walls. Putting a hand on the handle of a drawer of the cabinet, a 'click' sound was heard, and Erik pulled it open. Inside it were hundreds of files. Erik then picked a group and brought them to the center table in the 'lounge area' of the office. He then sat on one of the armchairs, picked the first file and started to read. It was the files on the current staff of the school. Fawkes, at this point, had already flashed back to its perch. Time passed and Erik was speed reading through the files of the staff when he was alerted of the arrival of visitors. He looked at his watch and saw that it was almost time for the meeting with Director Bones. He put the file that he was reading down and got up. Erik quickly walked out of the office and climbed down the stairs. The Gargoyle had already jumped to the side to open passage, and as he got out, he found Albus Dumbledore with bruised cheek open mouthed looking at him. Erik observed the bruise, looked at the Gargoyle, and then he laughed.

"You really tried to force your way into the Office, didn't you? Greg doesn't like stubborn people, and tends to react violently to adults trying to force him to move."

Erik said and moved out of the entrance. Greg, the Gargoyle, quickly moved back in place, closing the access to the Headmaster's Office. Ignoring the bruised 'old boy', Erik walked through the corridor and down the stairs. Erik entered the Great Hall in time to see Director Bones and her entourage being guided in by Hagrid. He recognized the two Aurors accompanying her, Master Auror Alastor Moody, and Trainee Auror Nymphadora Tonks. The three looked tired, but just the young woman was looking tired, Director Bones and Auror Moody had more experience in hiding the signals. Erik then greeted and welcomed them to the castle.

"Director Bones, good morning and good to see you again. You too, Aurors Moody and Tonks. Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Good morning, Lord Ravenclaw."

Director Bones greeted back, and her Aurors nodded at the greeting.

"Thank you for guiding them, Hagrid, I will assume it from here on. Come, let's go to the Headmaster's Office."

Erik made a gesture with his arms, signaling them to follow him. They were soon climbing the stairs and heading to the office, passing by students chilling around and enjoying their unplanned free day. Half way into the corridor where the Office's entrance was located, the group encountered Albus Dumbledore. One of Director Bones' eyebrows went up seeing the bruise on the old man's cheek that was already turning purple. The Director looked at Erik as if asking what happened. Eric chuckled at that and said.

"Greg, the stone gargoyle that guards the Headmaster's Office entrance, doesn't take well of adults trying to force their way through him and reacts in accord."

Hearing that Director Bones got a face of amusement, Auror Moody barked something that sounded like a laugh and Auror Tonks had some difficulties in holding her laughter.

"I was trying to access my office."

Said an undignified Dumbledore.

"It's not your office anymore, Mr. Dumbledore. Yesternight you were removed from the position. If you don't remember it, then I suggested that you get your head checked in the magic hospital, you could have developed Alzheimer's syndrome."

"Alzheimers?"

Erik said to Dumbledore, and Auror Tonks asked from behind. Dumbledore seemed to have been slapped by the comment. Erik turned to Auror Tonks and answered.

"Alzheimer's Syndrome is the name of a disease that affects mainly old people. It affects their brain and makes them forgetful. It affects magicals and muggles alike. The difference is that magicals had found a cure a long time ago, the wit sharpening potion. The muggles are still looking for a way to treat the disease, but with the speed that they are developing, they will find one in the next fifty years max."

Erik started walking to the stone Gargoyle. Director Bones and her entourage were after him. Dumbledore shook his head to recover, and followed after them.

"I need access to the Office, Lord Ravenclaw. I need to recover my personal items inside."

Dumbledore said as Erik arrived at the Gargoyle. 'Greg' jumped aside to give passage and Erik invited the Aurors to go up first. He then looked at Dumbledore and said with a smile on his face.

"Don't worry, Mr. Dumbledore. I will ask a house-elf to deliver your personal items back to you AFTER Director Bones and her Aurors had combed the entire Office."

EriK then started climbing the stairs, with the Gargoyle closing the way behind him. Dumbledore had adopted a pale face hearing that. That was not good for him.

Erik entered the office and found Director Bones and her Aurors waiting for him. He puts his hand inside his blazer and retrieves three little bottles from an inside pocket. The bottles were transparent and had a screw cap. They could hold around 250mL of liquid volume, and had a red-purplish liquid inside. Erik then offered the flasks to Director Bones and the Aurors.

"Drink it."

Director Bones looked at the flasks and back to Erik. Her question was evident in her face.

"Juice of Dragon Fruit cultivated by True Dragons. Better than coffee and pepper-up for normal humans. You guys seem to need it. It will give you all about twelve hours of energy."

Erik explained to them.

"I heard about it…"

Said the gruffy looking Auror, Alastor Moody.

"That stuff is very rare."

He took one flask and started casting diagnoses on it. Erik shrugged the comment.

"Not if you are friends with them."

Director Bones and Auror Tonks choose to ignore the comment, while Moody was still casting diagnoses. Thirty seconds later, he unscrewed his bottle and drank the red-purplish juice. The cold liquid quickly arrived in his stomach and started to radiate a warm feeling that spread through all of his body.

"Ahhh… I feel like I'm forty years old again."

Said Auror Moody unexpectedly. Auror Tonks then took one of the bottles and drank its contents. She saw the way that Director Bones was looking at her and said.

"If Moody drank it, then it is safe."

Director Bones took one of the bottles and drank too. And just like Erik said, her tiredness was gone and she found herself full of energy again.

"Thank you, Lord Ravenclaw."

"Your welcome, Director Bones. You guys seemed to need it. And your tiredness was partially my fault."

Director Bones thanked Erik, and he replied to her. Erik then made a gesture, like he was pointing to the entire office, and said.

"Go ahead, Director Bones, have fun. I suggest starting with the silver knick-knacks. Then the office desk."

He said to her. Director Bones gave him a predatory smile.

"Moody, Tonks, You heard the man."

The Aurors immediately walked to the silver knick-knacks and Moody started to cast his diagnosis spells while talking to Tonks about each spell that he was casting.

"Can I offer you some tea, Director Bones?"

Erik said to the woman, signaling to a tea set that was already waiting for them on the center table in the lounge area of the office. The school's house-elves were very efficient. Erik walked to the set and served him a cup.

"I will accept your offer, Lord Ravenclaw."

She walked to the lounge area after Erik. He offered her the first tea cup and served him a second one, then took a seat, signaling Director Bones to take a seat too. She sat, and they sipped the tea, taking a moment to enjoy the flavor of the hot liquid infusion. After some minutes of silence, Erik started the talk.

"So, Director Bones, I was reviewing the files of the current staff, and concluded that we will, indeed, need some help with the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. The actual Professor, Gilderoy Lockhart, has no place in teaching this class. The does not even have a NEWT in the subject. So, his employment contract will be terminated and we will need a temporary substitute. Not in immediate, of course, Selene and I can cover it for the rest of the week."

"I'm sure we can work something out, Lord Ravenclaw."

"Please, call me Erik when we are not in an official meeting."

"Only if you call me Amelia, then."

"Of course, Amelia. My offer is to cover the costs that the person would receive as if he was working his normal hours as Auror, and to add an extra for the hours taught with the amount that a normal Professor would receive."

"That is a very good offer, Erik, and, like you imagined, we can't provide anyone for this week's classes, the 'Pettigrew case' is 'drowning' all our personnel."

Erik and Amelia discussed while sipping more of their tea.

"Like I said yesternight, Amelia, I'll offer the DMLE access to the Room of Requirement for training purposes. The room will be free to use during the school holidays, summer and winter. If the DMLE wishes to use between these periods, I will ask that you schedule a time with the acting Headmaster, just so that we can be sure that there is no other person using it."

"Your offer is greatly appreciated, Erik. The room will certainly be very useful in training new recruits and team exercises."

They continued talking about sorted subjects while sipping tea. Then the talk entered into the 'Pettigrew case'.

"Any repercusion to the arrest of yesternight?"

"None, we managed to keep it under the wraps. I conducted an official interrogation after exiting here, and signed an order to get Black out of Azkaban. He is at St. Mungos, receiving treatment for his prolonged exposure to the Dementors."

"Foul creatures that one."

"Yes, but he seemed to be very lucid when I visited him this morning. And joked that he was getting tired of waiting for his trial and was nearly deciding to escape himself."

"Waiting for his trial?"

"Yes, it seems that the forces in power at the time didn't see it as necessary to give him a trial, and just signed out his transfer to Azkaban. He wasn't even questioned under truth serum."

"So they just shipped him to prison?"

Erik asked and Amelia nodded in confirmation.

"That's strange. Someone must have whispered in the right people's ears, because since the Ministry was founded, one of its bases was to assure that everyone had a just trial. As just as politics can get. But someone must not have wanted to see him free."

"And I agree with you, Erik. The mess will be gigantic well the press gets its hands on this news. Sirius Black is the presumptive Lord of the Black family, as he is the last living male Black. His grandfather, Lord Arcturus Black, passed away last year."

"Yes, I can see it. 'Heir Black is thrown in Azkaban without trial'."

Erik made a gesture with his hands, like he was reading a big banner. Amelia nodded at that. She knew that just like Erik said, the press would be very... 'happy'.

They were then interrupted by the presence of the Aurors. They had just finished their job with the silver knick-knacks and the office desk, and were ready to report.

"Report, Auror Moody."

Director Bones said, putting down her now empty cup of tea.

"The silver items are all monitoring items made with blood magic. They are a combination of health monitors, life monitor, tracking and status monitor. All of them are made with the use of blood magic."

Auror Moody reported. Amelia groaned and raised a hand to her head, starting to massage her temples. The headache was coming back.

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