Chapter 35: Uneasy Feelings (Part 2)

3 DAYS BEFORE THE INVASION:

This time the meeting was taking place in the Potter manor. Leonard was pacing worriedly in the hall while the rest just watched in apprehension. The reason he was so worried was because his daughter Amelia had gone to investigate a possible lead on Alexander Fortis with her partner Alastor Moddy.

Arcturus, " Sit down, Leonard. We are also worried but walking a hole in the carpet is not going to help."

Before Leonard could reply, the Floo flared and Amelia and Alastor stepped out of the Floo, into the hall. Leonard made a beeline for Amelia and started checking her all over like a mother hen.

Amelia sighed, " I am alright, Father. I am just tired."

Alastor said in sarcastic tone, " Thank you, Mr. Bones for worrying about me."

Leonard in the same tone answered, " You are welcome, Auror Moody."

Charles, " Did you find something?"

Amelia sighed, " No, we didn't find anything. The man looked similar him but he was a muggle."

Charles, "Damn!!! That man has been missing since 7 months. The answer he gave to our letter was that he was facing family emergency. I had not seen such an obvious like in my life. That guy didn't even had the decency to lie properly to us. At least he could have made a believable excuse."

Leonard, " This is not the time for talking about his decency, Charles. A powerful man like him, has gone silent for this long. It doesn't bode well for anyone. That man's opening salvo to war led to death of thousands of living beings."

Arcturus, " The incident of Gringrots was not the opening salvo to war. It was just an impulsive action on his part. His opening salvo has not come yet. I don't know when he would launch this upcoming war but this war is going to be much worse than Grindlewald's war."

Ophelia, " What do you mean, Arcturus?"

Arcturus, " Every powerful wizard or witch has his or her own pride. They don't take disrespect from their weaker counterparts well let alone from beings of other races. This is something that is in our blood. Even Dumbledore is the same though he tries to hide it underneath his grandfatherly persona. Alexander Fortis is probably the most powerful wizard of the world or one of the most powerful if we also count the old monsters hiding in the east. He also should have immense pride on his power. That goblin made him wait unnecessarily, according to Dorea, so he took revenge on them. But that didn't mean that he was ready to wage war at that time. He started making preparations to build himself an army after the disappearance of the werewolves."

Fleamont said in embarrassed tone, " Can you tell me what happened in these months? I didn't pay much attention to your letters as I was busy inventing a new potion."

Charles, " How could you do this, Fleamont? We are probably going to war."

Arcturus, " It was not his fault. I asked him to concentrate on developing stronger potions that can be used in war."

Dorea, " What kind of potions?"

Arcturus, " Healing potions, potions that can be used as poisons, stamina recovery potions, magic recovery potions, etc. I must admit that Fleamont is a brilliant potioneer."

Delia asked, " Why?"

Arcturus, " We are going to be at war with probably the strongest wizard, who also has unknown amount of followers including werewolves at his back and call. We need all the advantage that we can get."

Leonard nodded and said, " He is right, Delia. We know nothing about him but he knows about us as shown to us by Dorea and Charles' memories."

Arcturus, " Let's discuss again about what we have discovered in the past months. It will also help us in discovering something that we may have overlooked."

Alastor Moddy took a deep breath and said, " Then, I will begin the report." Everyone nodded him to continue. Alastor continued, " According to some werewolves that escaped his capture attempt, the modus operandi of Alexander Fortis is like this, he had put up various wards around the perimeter then send a team of wizards and house elves to capture the werewolves. If the sleeping ward doesn't work then they throw some bottles containing some muggle substance called chloroform that makes people faint. After which they transport the werewolves to a different place. We still don't know where the werewolves are being kept. Then, there was no moment on Alexander's side for one month. We had during that month, already alerted the various foreign ministries and these ministries alerted the various werewolves packs and also several Aurors were also guarding the packs."

Fleamont, " What is the present condition of the the werewolves packs in Europe?"

Charles snorted, " There are no werewolf packs left in Europe."

Euphemia, " Did he killed all the werewolves?"

Alastor, " No, they joined him."

Fleamont, " Why? Did they not learn something from Grindlewald?"

Arcturus, " Alexander Fortis offered something that they cannot refuse."

Fleamont, " What did he offer?"

Dorea said in awestruck voice, " Alexander Fortis offered them a cure for lycanthropy."

Fleamont, " WHAT? There is no cure. How did the werewolves believed him? How do you know all this? Does anyone else knows? If this is true then this would open new doors in the study of potions."

Charles, " There is a cure. Well!!! It is not a complete cure but an upgrade to their bloodline. These were the words said by Alexander Fortis to the werewolves he had first captured. I had sneaked in a werewolf campsite using our family cloak."

Euphemia, " Why did you sneak in?"

Dorea, " We had all the werewolves identified unofficially and when some unknown werewolves showed up at various packs at the same time. We guessed that they were the envoys of Alexander Fortis. We observed that the werewolves were very happy after the visit of the envoys. We tried to track the envoys and nearly got caught once but we managed to fool them. As we had already marked all the werewolves campsites known to us, we simply had to wait for the envoys to come to us. I had remained on the campsite for one week before the envoys reached my location. It was there that I came to know this. I didn't tell anyone else about this except the people present in this room. Sorry to disappoint you Fleamont but the cure is done by a ritual."

Fleamont, " What does this cure do?"

Arcturus said in a grim voice, " It gives them full control over their change. They would also remain sane."

Euphemia, " That's horrible. It is not a cure but a way to further use those poor fellows. The hate and fear that normal public has towards werewolves would increase manyfold if this is revealed."

Charles, " That's why, we didn't tell anyone."

Amelia, " We also found that someone was offering jobs to the muggleborns during the past few months."

Fleamont," That's a good news, isn't it. These fellows were always exploited by the blood purists. "

Charles, " Someone is offering jobs to all the muggleborns in the Europe simultaneously. Apparently, the contract is a contract which merely allows the signee to attend an interview. No muggleborn would tell us who was taking the interview or what was the job."

Arcturus, " I personally think that we are dealing with a new variety of dark lord. A dark lord who would wage war to eradicate blood purity."

Fleamont, " How can you say that?"

Arcturus, " No a single noble house of wizarding world was approached by this fellow."

Delia, " If the muggleborns rebel then the wizarding world would truly be in danger. The muggleborns outnumber us greatly on a global scale."

Leonard, " I know, Delia. I, Charles and Arcturus has decided to keep ourselves and our families neutral in upcoming war."

Amelia stood up and angrily said, " Why was I not told anything about this? I can't accept this. I will fight to save the thousands of lives that will be lost if this war occurs."

Leonard sighed and said, " I knew that you would say so. I will take your mother and Edgar into hiding. You want to fight then, fight but I won't risk the lives of the rest of the family because of your headstrongness. I am proud of you, Amelia but I cannot bear the loss of our family. I am not abandoning you, Amelia, I know that you will survive this war. Mr. Moddy, please take care of my daughter."

Charles, " Don't take us as cowards, Amelia. We are old souls who don't have the courage to face the horrors of war again. We lost many friends and loved ones in the last war and we cannot afford to lose more."

Amelia simply nodded with tears in her eyes and hugged all of the people present as this may be the last time that they would see each other."

Amelia stepped into the atrium of the Ministry and thought, " I will stop you, Alexander Fortis, even if I would have to sacrifice my life for this."

Amelia heard Alastor ,who was standing next to her, say, " We should inform the head Auror of all this."

Amelia nodded and they both moved towards the Auror Department. They had to be fast as a war was on the horizon. A war which would change the whole world.

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