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Chapter 33: The Battle of the MinistryNotes:

Good morning everyone. Here is the latest chapter, I hope you'll like it. It's even quite a bit longer than the others.

From now on things will be escalating even more, and that rapidly, but don't think that we're anywhere near the end of A Whole New Life ;)

Have fun reading!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

The days following the Greyback attack Hogwarts was in mourning. Remus Lupin hadn't managed to reach the students in time, in fact, no one did.

At least not to save all of them. Cho Chang and Michael Corner hadn't survived, they were ripped apart by Greyback himself. Ernie Macmillan would probably never walk without a crutch again, one of the other wolves had hit him pretty severely in the left leg, and even though it hadn't been full moon the wound would never heal completely. And neither would the long cut across Parvati Patil's face.

The luckiest of those that got hurt at all was Sophie Roper. The Hufflepuff girl had a scar from a werewolf's bite in her right shoulder, but since she was left-handed that would hinder her not so much. 

Lavender managed to defend herself with a well-aimed overpowered stinging jinx, enough to find cover. Michael Corner had fought together with Marietta Edgecombe, which saved Marietta but cost Michael his life. 

Remus then arrived to defend the students, with Minerva and the others following him. A werewolf was just very fast even without the transformation, so he was easily first. Feeling that they succeeded in sending a message, the wolves and Death Eaters all portkeyed away, except the wolf that killed Michael. He was still standing above the body of the Ravenclaw boy when Remus hit him with a blasting curse in the chest, hoping he could save the boy.

Unfortunately that killed the unidentified werewolf and they had no chance of tracking them to wherever they went.

Classes were cancelled for the rest of the week and they held a memorial service with both Minerva and Filius holding speeches to remember the two students. Even Amelia and most of the Lords and Ladies were in attendance for the service. And against all odds even the press wasn't too hard on Hogwarts, because the staff's intervention had saved lives and they followed protocol in regards to missing students. Investigations showed that the students were all Imperiused by an unknown wizard or witch. The staff members were all officially exonerated, so everything pointed to a student using a second wand, because the priori incantatem test showed nothing.

The return of Lord Voldemort (they used his name now) and his murder of Augusta Longbottom (whose funeral was visited by over three hundred wizards and witches) was one of the main topics of the week too. It certainly caused a lot of fear, but the public believed in Amelia Bones. No minister ever had such a high approval rating like Amelia did in the week following Voldy's return. She appeared strong and determined, united with the strongest voices of the Wizengamot (Potter, Black and Greengrass, and apparently the new Lord Longbottom too if one could believe reports coming from Hogwarts) and was working on expanding the auror force and changing protocol. It was no longer all about stunning the Death Eaters and convicting them. They were also pleading for assistance from the ICW. And since they had recovered some of the memories from Azkaban prisoners showing Riddle possessing Gabriel Delacour, at least the French were immediately ready to assist.

When Apolline Delacour got the news about her husband, she and her kids were sitting at the breakfast table. She had gained permission for Fleur to floo into school every day since her father was missing. And when the owl from the French ministry arrived, Apolline broke the seal with shaking hands. 

"They…they know where he is. That British Dark Lord has stolen his body and they think he's gone forever. Voldemort is possessing him."

She dropped the letter and started to cry. Yes, the news was not unexpected, but to know it was something different. Gabrielle, crying too, came over and hugged her mother tightly, while Fleur ran off. The elder of the two Delacour daughters had inherited much more of the veela blood than her sister, it was even more dominant than in her mother. She certainly had a temper, and that hardly ended well with the Veela traits. 

On her way out into the garden she felt the familiar feeling of the partial transformation, her face getting sharper and looking more and more like a harpy. She knew that she'd end up throwing fireballs around without being able to control it, that had happened a few times when she got real upset. That's why she left the house, not wanting to leave even more scorch marks on their walls. 

But this time it was different, because the moment her feet touched the grass two gigantic wings burst from her shoulders. She transformed completely, something that is very rare in half-veelas, nearly unheard of in quarter-veelas like her. Only moments of great emotional distress could cause that. 

And so she flew, feeling the wind in her face like on a broom, but much more intense. She had never been much of a flyer, but that might change now, because she felt the wind and the way it acted. That connection to the air that most full-veelas had was now part of her too. 

Far away from the Delacours, up north in Hogwarts, Harry was spending time in the Chamber of Secrets, talking to the basilisk. All the incidents of the past few days, the deaths of Augusta, Cho and Michael and the return of the Dark Bastard in a new and younger body were not really cheering him up, much the opposite. And he couldn't help feeling guilty to a degree, because they changed things. Yes, they might have saved Sirius and weakened Voldemort's position, but every death hurt. Fleur's father was another one of those cases where he felt guilty. And what if his reaper had been right and after Voldemort another Dark Lord came along. What if the prophecy was really unclear and in the end he had to face Dumbledore?

He sat next to the huge basilisk, who was now free of Tom's influence and a very nice partner for a conversation. Originally he had wanted to bring him to Potter Castle during the Summer holidays, but he had honestly just forgotten about that. He hadn't even visited the castle.

Maybe he should just change that right now. He could try to use his status as descendant of a Hogwarts founder and Lord of one of their houses (or three of them in that case) to circumvent the wards against apparition. It might work, because since claiming the rings he had felt the castle's own magic much more than in his previous life. And the castle wasn't so far away too, relatively speaking. It was on a small and unplottable island off the Scottish coast, so might be able to apparate. On the other hand, passing through the wards here wouldn't be easy so the distance of the jump could be too much. 

But he could just…

It was worth a try, and he really wanted it. 

He closed his eyes and took a step back into the shadows of Salazar Slytherin's statue. And then he vanished.

Just moments later he appeared in the shadow of a suit of armour that stood on a pedestal. Harry grinned. He had finally managed to shadow travel, it was all about determination. 

Then he began looking around. From the looks of it (and looking out of the window proved that) he was in a tower of Potter Castle. Some legends said that Hardwin Potter, Iolanthe Peverell's husband, built the castle based on Hogwarts, just smaller. Obviously, because the island wasn't that big. And while not every tower and every wall was identical, Harry saw the similarities. 

The reason for the castle looking like Hogwarts was probably to commemorate the Potters' ancestor Godric Gryffindor, who had owned the castle that one day became Hogwarts. Sure, they had expanded the original building, but parts of it were still from Gryffindor Castle, like the Main Courtyard and the Great Hall.

Harry started walking around in the castle that did remind him so much of Hogwarts, but at the same time it didn't. The old walls, the cold corridors and the many hidden corners were so familiar, and so was the feeling of ambient magic, but Potter Castle was much…quieter, one could say. The few magical pictures with figures in them were ancestors, mostly in the "ancestors' hall". Thanks to some of the paintings back at the Manor and the family magic he knew already a lot about that building. The catacombs, the ritual chamber, the meeting chamber (with THE round table in it, something that one of the Peverells managed to grab during the fall of Camelot, he had been a knight himself) and the secret tunnel to the island's small harbour. Truly a magnificent place. 

And since the dungeons were massive and part of a tunnel system under the whole island, it was an ideal spot for the basilisk. He just needed to relocate her at some point.

Though, he could do that just now actually. He was able to create a portkey after all, and since it would be going out of Hogwarts and not the other way around it wouldn't even be hard. 

Harry went to the closest storage room (truth be told, he just opened a random door) and grabbed a piece of rope that he then enchanted to be a portkey. The destination of it would be the dungeons. Sure, it wasn't the easiest piece of magic, but doable. 

The shadow travel back to Hogwarts was rather easy now, after managing it once it seemed just so…simple. Now he told the basilisk about his plan, and she was looking forward to her relocation, especially because Harry promised that the house elves would feed her. 

He gave her the rope to bite on it and spoke the activation phrase to send her away. Hogwarts was now officially basilisk-free. 

Tom Riddle was sitting in his manor and finishing up his next, big plan. The prophecy was still in the DoM, and that would be his next target. And because he was enjoying the sight of it, he had his prisoner Dumbledore tied up in the room with him.

"You know, Albus, I never expected you to fall so low. Evil mastermind, that I did know, but wow. What you did to Potter is even worse than what I did. Weakening the prophecy's boy for me, how nice of you. Not that it really worked out though, he escaped his family."

Dumbledore tried saying something, but Riddle's silencing spell was too strong. That was a truly hilarious sight, Voldemort thought. And because he was enjoying that very much, he continued to tease the old wizard.

"And the best thing is, Albus, that I found a way to get to the prophecy without stealing it myself. The unspeakables do have a few very nice tricks. By the end of this day I'll know what the secret is, the lines you didn't tell anyone."

The old wizard was shocked. Yes, he believed Tom when he said that he could recover the prophecy without going himself, and he couldn't let that happen. Harry and the others might hate him for his…unconventional methods of reaching his goals, but he still wanted Riddle to fail. 

So he closed his eyes and channelled his power into a rebellious flare of magic that broke both the silencing and the incarcerous charm and set him free. Albus had always been good at wandless magic, but a skilled wizard with a wand (or a handful or aurors) would still win against him. His hope had been the element of surprise, but not with Tom Riddle.

Lord Voldemort saw it coming, he even wanted it to happen. Just killing Dumbledore, as a prisoner and not as an opponent in a fight, felt wrong. As much as he hated the old man, Albus deserved more. 

And so Tom Riddle easily deflected the stunners and cutting curses with which Dumbledore started off. The noise made some of his Death Eaters come into the room, watching a showdown between their Lord and Albus Dumbledore. 

It wasn't a long fight, the captivity had weakened Dumbledore. Still, he used quite some impressive elemental magic, which normally would have been very dangerous, but after months of dementor exposure it was much weaker. Any normal wizard would have probably been defeated by that, but Tom Riddle wasn't normal, and so he just sent the spells back at Dumbles.

Albus Dumbledore stumbled backwards, but he didn't fall. Not yet at least. With all the power he still got he summoned angel's fire , a less destructive and wild variation of fiendfyre. He surrounded himself with it to block all incoming spells and let the flames lash out a few times, but not too successful.

Tom's counter attack was violent and harsh, because he was getting annoyed by Dumbledore. His fiendfyre consumed Albus' protective flames and surrounded the old wizard. He, the Dark Lord, knew that he was strong enough to keep the fiendfyre controlled while casting another spell, and that is exactly what he did. 

"Avada Kedavra!"

Yes, it wasn't too special, but it would keep the old meddler's body unharmed so he could send a message. Besides, it was kind of his signature spell and if he didn't manage to kill Potter with it, then at least Dumbledore.

The green spell went right through the fire and with a loud popping sound, apparently breaking the last shields Dumbledore still had, they all heard the sound of a body hitting the ground. And then the flames stopped flaring and died down, only to reveal the body of the once so great Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. His beard had taken a bit of damage from the flames, but aside from that he looked unharmed. 

Augustus Rookwood was the first to rush forward and check if he was dead, and indeed, Albus Dumbledore was dead. 

Now the Dark Lord could and would enact his grand plan.

Harry, after checking that the basilisk had reached her destination (which she had), shadow travelled into Minnie's office. The Marauder's map had told him that she was together with Remus and Severus, so he thought he could just startle those three.

"...and you two do agree that we need to implement more security measures? After that werewolf incident we need to be even more careful."

Remus and Severus both nodded, the headmistress was indeed correct. While the wards were strong and improved now, they still had secret passages (probably more than the marauders knew of) and other weaknesses, especially spies within the castle.

Before either of those two could reply though, the portrait of Dilys Derwent interrupted. 

"Mr. Potter! While I appreciate it that you study a lost method of travel, it is not proper to just shadow travel into the headmistresses office."

"Harry?"

"Hey Uncle Moony, Severus, Minnie. Thought I'd drop by to tell you three that I managed to shadow travel. I visited Potter Castle. Reminds me very much of Hogwarts."

The three of them began congratulating him, and so did most of the portraits. Headmistress Derwent did so too after he explained the Marauder's map and that he knew who'd be up here, and that they'd allow him to do so. 

"Oh, and before I forget it: I solved your basilisk problem. Made a portkey and brought her into my castle."

That did indeed lead to confusion and surprised exclamations (portkeys into Hogwarts were even more complicated, but out of Hogwarts were anything but easy either. Basically impossible for someone who was not headmaster - or a founder's heir apparently). The absence of the basilisk did certainly make the castle an even safer place - and it enabled them to restore the Chamber of Secrets for educational purposes. Once Harry managed to disable the parseltongue wards they could go there and visit it with Professor Bagshot. Besides, Professor Babbling too wanted to look at it and decipher the runes that kept the whole place undetected. 

But before Harry could continue talking about that, he felt a strong buzzing in the back of his head.

"Oh god, what's that?"

"Harry?"

"Sorry, my head's buzzing…FUCK! That bastard is making his move and going for the prophecy."

He stepped closer to the fireplace and grabbed a handful of floo powder, but then Severus and Remus were standing next to him, both wanting to accompany him.

"No, just one of you please. With the ministry strong this time around he won't make a big assault. It's probably a distraction either way. You really think he'd invade the ministry during the day? Minnie, please inform Amy and check Mione's map for intruders. I don't think Voldy is really going after the prophecy."

Remus knew that he would be the better choice to stay here, both because of the map and if Greyback were to show up again. And so Severus and Harry flooed into the Ministry.

The first thing they did was hurry to the next elevator and head to the DoM. During their ride with the elevator they heard Amy's voice, informing all personnel to be careful. What Harry and Severus didn't know was that she had already sent a group of aurors into the Hall of Prophecies too. Others were dispatched to Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade and the Manors and homes of who had been declared a "likely target" (Greengrass, Bones, Black, Shacklebolt, Scrimgeour, Weasley etc.).

And Harry had been correct. There was no sign of a big assault, in fact it was pretty quiet in the DoM. An unspeakable, a man who introduced himself as Croaker, had already heard of the potential intruder and welcomed Harry and Severus.

"But, Lord Potter, how could you know about it? We haven't found anyone down here up until now, just us unspeakables."

"Uhm…I might have sneaked down here and put an ancient alarm spell from my Grimoire on the prophecy orb. The Potter invisibility cloak does come in handy quite often. I'm absolutely certain that someone touched it. And since just those that are subject of the prophecy can touch it, it must be Riddle."

Croaker shook his head in disagreement.

"First of all, good job. Not many people can get in here undetected. And what you're saying is not entirely correct. We have a way to move the prophecies. We can't listen to them, but move them. Though only the leading unspeakable for the hall of prophecies can use the gloves of Delphi…"

They all realised at once what that meant. Either Tom Riddle himself was hiding down here or that unspeakable was a traitor.

"Shafiq! Unspeakable Shafiq once worked with Rookwood back in the day, but after we found out Augustus was a traitor we checked for Dark Marks and performed Legilimency sweeps."

Croaker started running towards the hall of prophecies, Harry and Severus following him. Every time they passed another unspeakable Croaker yelled "Detain Shafiq!" and other orders to limit Shafiq's access to the DoM.

Once they reached their destination, Harry stepped forward and wanted to guide them to the right spot, but then accidentally bumped into a shelf with his shoulder, causing a prophecy - the first one ever put into the hall of prophecies - to fall down and break. And the voice of an old man spoke a prophecy:

The Master of Death walks amongst the prophets,

His enemy leading an attack.

The one-armed and the one that doesn't speak,

They follow the Chosen into the fight.

Death and destruction are what they will face.

And the Bonded shall fight twice and not once, 

For only together they will succeed.

The three of them hesitated. It was more than obvious that this could very well apply to them, with Severus being the one-armed and Croaked an unspeakable. And that Prophecy led Harry to draw his third wand, neither the Phoenix one nor Ignotus' wand, but the Elder wand. Croaker gasped, because now he was understanding what the prophecy meant with "Master of Death". Especially since the ring and cloak just appeared out of nowhere on Harry's hand and back respectively.

"I guess that means we'll face the dark bastard himself?"

"Maybe we will, Lord Potter. But let's not overinterpret the prophecy. Especially not one that has been here since before the Statute of Secrecy. But…Master of Death? Anyway, let's please focus and ignore that prophecy for a while."

Harry nodded, Croaker was correct. Maybe it would mean something completely different. Now he had to focus on the main problem: Unspeakable Shafiq.

Samael Shafiq had been an unspeakable for many many years. As a member of the sacred twenty-eight family Shafiq (even though not the main branch) he was easily able to climb the ranks in the ministry. Besides, he was a powerful wizard. He and Augustus Rookwood had once been a formidable team, and it had been Augustus that introduced him to Tom Riddle. A brilliant and strong man, even though sometimes a bit insane. Though never an official member, he had been an asset of the Death Eaters all along, and once he had heard of the resurrection he had contacted the Dark Lord. For him it was no problem to retrieve the prophecy, and he hardly cared who was in charge, as long as he would get support for his experiments, most of which were very immoral.

He knew that his cover was blown the moment Unspeakable Jackson had attacked him, but he didn't care. Samael was brilliant, and he had a backdoor into the ministry, a secret passageway. Riddle would send some of his minions and he could go and deliver the orb.

Once he reached the Room with the Veil, he stopped running. No one but him had ever made any success in dealing with the ancient artefact, at least in the last three centuries. Sure, he didn't know what it really did, but he had managed to create a device that could manipulate the veil's energy and create a portal to whatever location he wanted. And with the coordinates of Riddle Manor he did just that. The white energy turned blue and he stepped through. Just moments later Bartemius Crouch Jr., Augustus Rookwood, Antonin Dolohov and Rodolphus Lestrange appeared. 

They were ready, wands drawn and in duelling robes. Augustus retrieved the device Samael had created and started guiding his fellow Death Eaters towards the hall of prophecies.

The twenty aurors Amelia had sent into the DoM, led by Alastor Moody, had met up with Harry, Croaker and Snape and started searching for Shafiq, which wasn't easy at all. 

After a few minutes an unspeakable approached Moody and Croaker.

"I have something! One of the alarms triggered, none of the usual ones though, a special creation of mine. Shafiq couldn't have known about that one. I'll take you there."

Half the aurors and four unspeakables (Croaker and three that were battle-trained) as well as Severus and Harry all followed the man while the rest of them secured the DoM. Little did they know that the man circumventing all the usual DoM wards and tripping only an unknown, special one, wasn't Samael Shafiq but Augustus Rookwood, accompanied by three very dangerous and powerful Death Eaters. Crouch Jr. was just as brilliant as Augustus and Nathaniel, Antonin Dolohov was ruthless and a cold-blooded killer and despite being an idiot sometimes, Rodolphus Lestrange was nearly as brutal and crazy as his wife. 

And because they weren't expecting four Death Eaters but one Unspeakable, the aurors got ambushed and lost five of them within seconds. 

What then followed was much more impressive than the last battle in the Department of Mysteries, Harry thought. After the first moment of surprise, they all got into a defensive formation, half of them putting up big shield charms, while the rest started firing. Yes, only Moody, Severus and Harry were a match for the Death Eaters' skills and experience, but they were outnumbering them. 

Severus began duelling Rodolphus Lestrange, and while he would have normally finished him in under a minute, his left arm, or rather the lack thereof, was a bit of a hindrance. He was slowly getting used to it, but to oversimplify it, his balance was off, so he needed to readjust. 

The potions master completely ignored the madman's comments about his betrayal of the Dark Lord and proceeded to push Rodolphus further towards a wall, eventually taking him every chance of movement. Still, both of them were vicious fights and neither backed down or fell.

Harry and Croaker, with additional auror assistance, were taking on Rookwood and Dolohov. Well, truth be told, Harry duelled Rookwood on his own because Croaker, while knowledgeable, was struggling against the battlemage Dolohov and needed auror assistance.

The duel between Harry and Augustus was by far the most impressive one, nearly as insane as the fight against Diary-Riddle. Yes, Harry had fought on the run, he had infiltrated the ministry once, he had won the Triwizard Tournament and duelled Riddle, he had war experience, but Rookwood was much more trained, and probably just as skilled in magic. In some areas even much more skilled. But Harry was an accomplished elemental magician and Master of Death, which evened out the fight.

After blocking a killing curse with a conjured rock Harry stepped back and vanished into the shadows before appearing behind Rookwood. That element of surprise gave him the chance to hit the former unspeakable with a blasting curse in the back, which succeeded. Harry then deflected an organ dissolving curse from Dolohov, which was distraction enough for Rookwood to get back up. He spat out blood and while they exchanged curses he began talking to Harry.

"Shadow travel? You can't be older than thirteen, and no one in centuries has even managed that. How, Potter?"

Harry laughed while beginning to put a bit more energy into his spells. He couldn't keep that up for long, but he wanted to end that quickly. 

"Hah, you'd like to know that, don't you? I'm the fucking Master of Death."

Yes, Harry was gloating, and he was actually having fun, because he could not only keep up with Rookwood, but actually defeat him. And yes, he was a little bit arrogant, but for the most part that was justified. 

Still, that had negative consequences.

Because the other big duel was Alastor Moody against Bartemius Crouch Jr. And while that seemed to be rather balanced, Barty was younger and just as competent.

Neither of those two held back at all and both used the occasional Unforgivable (because Moody thought it was justified, and well, Barty had no hesitation whatsoever). Some of those curses hadn't been seen in action since Grindelwald's war and not even the Dark Lord knew them. Moody and Crouch Sr. though had studied those as high-ranking aurors, and Crouch Jr. had more than once looked into his father's hidden spellbooks.

It was a demonic flame curse combined with transfiguration of the floor underneath Moody (into quicksand that changed back into stone once the old wizard's feet were trapped), followed by a bone liquifying curse, a nasty scarlet flash of light, that ended the old auror's life. Barty's laughter combined with the painful scream from Moody followed by the sight of his body collapsing due to the liquified bones, got the attention of nearly everyone in the room.

 Severus just snarled " Sectumsempra!" and beheaded Bella's husband before rushing over to Moody and sending off half a dozen curses onto Bary Jr. Sure, he had his issues with Moody, but he was a more than competent fighter and after Damage Control he came to visit him in the hospital wing after hearing that he cut off his arm with the Mark on it. They were at least friendly and respected each other.

Harry, who had still been gloating during his fight with Rookwood got distracted by Moody's death, giving the former unspeakable the chance to throw a gigantic blasting curse into Harry's and Croaker's direction, giving himself and Dolohov the chance to make a run for the Veil. Barty was a lost cause by then, Severus had cut him down without hesitation, but not before hitting him with the Cruciatus to break his defences.

After his ears had stopped ringing from the blasting curse and he got up again, Harry scanned the room briefly, seeing that Crouch and Lestrange were dead and ran after Rookwood and Dolohov. Shadow Travel was pointless because he had no idea where they were going. He nearly got hit by a part of the ceiling falling down, aftermath of the blasting curse. The DoM had taken quite some damage from the fight.

Death and destruction are what they will face.

Harry couldn't help but remember that prophecy and realise how accurate it was.

Once he caught up with the two Death Eaters he just saw them disappear into the blue shining veil before reverting back to its normal colour. A small magical device next to it exploded, due to a delayed self-destruction spell by Rookwood. 

The two Death Eaters were gone and Moody was dead.

Harry screamed loudly out of frustration, exhaust and sorrow. 

A while before Rookwood and Dolohov stepped through the veil, Samael Shafiq had done so too, carrying the prophecy for the Dark Lord.

But instead of meeting Riddle himself he saw Rookwood, Dolohov, Barty Crouch Jr. and Rodolphus Lestrange step into the blue light of his portal, heading to the DMLE. The only other person left in the room now was Amycus Carrow.

"Carrow? Where is the Dark Lord? I have his prophecy for him."

Amycus just laughed.

"Oh, Samael, the Dark Lord isn't here anymore. He will want to listen to the prophecy too at some point, but right now that was just a distraction. I'm the only one left here, I'll portkey away with the others once they'll return. Until then I shall look after that orb there."

"And where is He?"

"He's making his move."

At Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry a seventh year student, disillusioned of course, sneaked up behind Argus Filch and whispered "Imperio!" before commanding the old squib to open the secret passageway that led into Hogsmeade, into the basement of Honeydukes. The headmistress had locked that one for anyone aside from the staff. Afterwards he told the squib to go outside and open the main gate, so the Dark Lord could approach the castle much easier. Sure, the wards were still up, but an open main gate made them easier to attack, or so the Dark Lord's message had said. 

Marcus Flint smiled diabolically.

Hogwarts would fall.

Notes:

So, that's it for today, and you all can imagine what will be going on next week. I do hope you liked this week's chapter, let me know in the comments what you think :)

Then, see ya all next week