A Coded Parchment

Chapter 2: The Message in Code

It was night. The half moon shone down on an abandoned Warehouse just outside of Southern London. Three hooded figures huddled on the roof of the warehouse. Their manners suggested that they were discussing something secretive.

Suddenly, a bright light bathed the roof! The three figures pulled the hoods of their black cloaks lower so as to hide their faces. They turned to the origin of light.

Standing there, a tall young wizard with messy raven black hair, emerald green eyes, and round rimless glasses. He was all black and his trench coat like cloak gave him a near sinister and intimidating appearance. But his most obvious characteristic was the scar on his forehead shaped like a lightning bolt!

"Well, well, well," sneered one of the hooded wizards. "If it isn't Harry Potter himself: stooge for the Ministry!"

"For the Department of Mysteries to be exact," said Harry. He pointed his wand and started advancing forward. "Now could you kindly state your business here or shall I take you in for questioning?"

The hooded wizards remained silent for a while. Suddenly, the one whom appeared to be leader of them drew his wand and yelled "Avada Kedavra!" Harry rolled and dodged the killing curse. He pointed his wand at the leader and yelled "Expelliarmus!" The wand flew out of the leaders hand and landed fifteen feet behind Harry. Before Harry could make another move however, another one of the hooded wizards tackled him. Harry keeled over but he still managed to place a kick in the wizard's midsection. Another swift kick to the jaw knocked the wizard off his feet. Harry quickly scrambled up as the third wizard sprang from behind him. Before the wizard could attack though, Harry spun around and backhanded his opponent. He placed a right hook and a left uppercut and sent the wizard flying back.

During the confusion, the leader had managed to recover his wand. He pointed his wand and was about to fire another killing curse at Harry when...

"Expelliarmus!" The leader was flung back as his wand flew out of his hand again. Harry looked up to see who had shot the disarming spell.

It was a young man riding a broomstick, a Nimbus 2500. He was quite tall, had long red hair that was pulled back in a ponytail, and freckles all over his face. He was wearing red, gold, and gray robes, black slacks and boots, and a black cloak that billowed behind him like a cape.

"Ron! What are you doing here?!"

Ron Weasley looked down toward Harry. "I'm an Auror. Hunting down dark wizards is my job; especially if they're fighting an Unspeakable. Want some help?"

"Thanks, but I can handle this." Suddenly, Harry blasted backwards by one of the hooded wizard's curses. "OK, maybe I could use some help," he said as he scrambled back up to his feet. Ron swooped in to help but was suddenly flung off his broom as he was hit by a curse. He quickly got back up to his feet and knocked the leader out with a roundhouse kick. Harry tackled one of the hooded wizards while shot a stunning spell towards the other one. Suddenly, there was an explosion and both Harry and Ron were flung off the roof.

The two wizards tumbled down the grassy hill that the warehouse was standing on. By the time they had made it back to the rooftop, the hooded wizards were gone.

"DAMN!" shouted Harry. He seemed to be livid about the dark wizards' escape. Ron wasn't all smiles either but he had more curiosity on his mind than anger.

"All right, Harry. Now what was that about?"

Harry remained quiet for a full minute as he studied Ron. He seemed to be pondering on whether to let Ron into the loop or not. Finally he opened his mouth to speak.

"For the past three weeks, the Department of Mysteries has been monitoring activity amongst certain dark wizards in Britain. Nothing big seemed to be happening but it still got some of the people at the top a little worried. Then, three days ago, I intercepted this," he handed Ron a crumpled piece of parchment that had runes written all over it. "Its written in code, but I've managed to decode small bits and pieces of it. There was something mentioned in it about Voldemort..."

"What?!" gasped Ron, his eyes wide and his complexion paling. "But you defeated You-Know-Who during our seventh year!"

Harry nodded. "I know. My theory is that this is some kind of back up plan Voldemort left behind for his Death Eaters in case he was ever defeated. Anyways, I've managed to figure out that the dark wizards are planning something for the Minister of Magic elections."

Ron snorted. "Oh yeah, Draco Malfoy and my brother Percy. 'Best' candidates available." He sighed, "What is this world coming to?"

Harry couldn't help but grinning. "So anyways, I also found out that some of the dark wizards involved would be meeting here tonight. I was hoping to capture them and take them in for interrogation but guess that's not going to happen." He sighed. "Oh well, I suppose I could try to decode the rest of the parchment."

"Anything I could do to help?"

"Keep an eye out for dark activity. Also, owl Percy and advise him to be careful. But don't let on to much, if the public found out that there was some happening with the Minister elections, the panic would be chaotic to say the least."

"Gotcha. Accio Nimbus 2500!" Ron's broomstick flew into his outstretched his hand. He mounted it kicked off. "I'll get a hold of you later, OK? Keep me posted."

"Right. I'll owl you if something comes up."