Reconstruction of a Death Eater

At one o'clock Harry arrived in the Great Hall and tapped Hermione on the shoulder, passing her a small piece of parchment which caused her to rise and hurry out to where Professor McGonagall awaited her by the staff door.

"What was that all about?" Ron asked suspiciously as his head swivelled between his girlfriend and his friend.

"Hermione's extra credit study stuff came, and she had to report to the library," Harry muttered then grinned when Ron looked scandalised. "I don't know why she does it but she does."

Ron pulled a disgusted face and turned back to his meal.

On their way to afternoon lessons someone tripped Malfoy, who pitched headfirst down the steps and lay in a still heap at the bottom. Professor Flitwick levitated the unconscious youth to the infirmary where Madam Pomfrey diagnosed a broken skull and fractured shoulder. He would be kept in seclusion for five days and should be allowed a couple of visitors by the Tuesday but not before.

By three o'clock the whole school was in panic as Aurors flooded the building, surrounding the grounds, guarding the main doors and swarming through the gardens, wands seeking clues to the desecration of the headmaster's memorial. Scrimgeour stormed around the school demanding answers and trying to bully students into letting something, anything, slip in relation to the vandalism. Headmistress McGonagall was aghast at the damage the Aurors were doing to the grounds, but they didn't seem to care as they literally uprooted trees and plants for no apparent reason. Madam Pomfrey was equally furious but did allow the raging minister to see the unconscious Malfoy in the infirmary to confirm that he was not involved. Harry, Ron and Hermione were called to the office and catechised over their whereabouts until Hermione was absolutely livid and actually managed to 'lose control of her magic' which resulted in turning all the Aurors robes in the room a disgusting shade of lilac pink.

Clumps of students muttered in corners, even the Slytherins angry about the desecration of a grave, although a few were thinking seriously about necromancy. Professor Snape came in for a hard questioning session but there was irrefutable evidence that he was with Headmistress McGonagall discussing issues of student curriculum most of the morning then in the Great Hall for lunch and finally conducting an investigation into the harming of one of his students after lunch with Professor Flitwick.

The Aurors took up posts all around and inside the school on Scrimgeour's orders, snarling at the students and harassing the teachers until the professors were wondering what would be more disruptive, Aurors or Death Eaters? Dinner on Friday night was a strained affair and Professor McGonagall instructed all students to go straight back to their common rooms immediately after dinner. Aurors patrolled the corridors and grounds, wands drawn, grim and dedicated to making sure no one went anywhere.

"A bit like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted, don't you think?" Ron muttered when he peered out the portrait and almost put his eye out on a wand point. "And where is Hermione? Harry, aren't you even vaguely worried about her?"

"Nope. She has extra credit to study for so the teachers are giving her a special dispensation to use a guestroom near the library so she doesn't have to attend meals or get caught by those oafs," Harry replied, nose deep in a Quidditch magazine.

"How the hell do you know?" Ron demanded huffily.

"She told me, ad nauseum, but you didn't listen as per usual." Harry smirked at his best friend who had the grace to blush.

"Typical! So what are we going to do about these prats Scrimgeour's sicced onto the school, and how are we ever going to find out what happened to the headmaster?"

"We wait until they lose interest then we do our own investigation," Harry said quietly but refused to look up from his magazine no matter how much Ron huffed and puffed.

~~*~~

The young witch smiled at the Auror on the desk, gently rocking the tiny baby in her arms. The Ministry building didn't see too many customers on such a cold and wet Saturday morning and the girl was compellingly pretty, so the young trainee Auror thought nothing of having a chat with her over the counter. She wanted to know if anyone had handed in a small stuffed toy, rather scruffy but still important to her, after all it had been hers before it had been given to her new daughter. Very obligingly, relief watchwizard Sandiman cast a 'find me' spell which seemed to point to the Auror Division of the Ministry. Still enwrapped in flirting with the beautiful young woman, he did not realise she was changing as he led her down the corridors deeper into the heart of the building.

Glancing over his shoulder to smile at her, Rupert Sandiman suddenly realised he had made a terrible mistake when the beautiful young face was revealed in all its opposite glory, a harpy who was about to lose her temper, no more sex appeal. He let out a strangled scream of horror as the woman's clawlike fists fastened into his shoulders and dragged him back against her. A flick of the wrists and his neck snapped like a rotten twig.

A movement to the left made the harpy's head whip around, the edge of a cloak vanishing around a corner and the wail of an alarm spell sounded all through the building. Snarling, the harpy retrieved her 'baby' from an inner pocket and hurled it down the corridor, ducking around the same corner as an explosion rocked the building on its foundations.

In the Apparition Test Centre, a young man checked his pack, fiddling with the buckles and drew his wand as if ready to take the test. Instead, he whirled on a heel and slammed the old attendant with Avada Kedavra then bolted out the door as the pack exploded, taking the ceiling and all the offices above out in the blast.

"They can't be explosions! This building is especially warded so that no detonation spell can go off within its confines," Percy Weasley assured his undersecretary pompously when the concussions shook even the executive offices.

"Perhaps not, sir, but I would say, based on the plaster dust now floating down around us, that something went off with a bang," the young woman replied harshly, covering her mouth with a flap of robe.

Percy shot her a look, testing for mockery but the young woman seemed entirely sincere as she made her way to the door and pulled it open a crack, to peer out. She eased it shut again and turned a very pale face to the slightly older man she worked for. "There are Death Eaters in the corridor," she gasped almost soundlessly.

Shocked, Percy hurried over and peered around the door too, his insides clenching when he saw the back of a black robe disappear around the corner. "Oh dear, this is very bad. What on earth are they doing, invading the Ministry? Destroying the infrastructure is not a strategically advantageous thing to do, everyone needs infrastructure," he muttered indignantly, ignoring his secretary's gasp of, whatever.

Sally Nobel glared over her shoulder at the man's back wondering what she had done to deserve such a prat for a boss. Really, she was a highly qualified administrator, and if a hex hadn't crippled her she would have passed her final Auror's exam and been an Auror rather than a glorified secretary to a complete moron.

A third explosion shook the room, tossing them both into the far wall. Sally shook her head to clear the dust and realised her boss had effectively broken her fall. Rolling off him, she stabbed a hand down and hauled him to his feet. "Come on, we have to get out of here before the roof comes down on us," she snapped, dragging him along behind her as she made her way over the rubble and made him help force the buckled door out of their way.

The corridor was empty but the sounds of shouting and curses came from further down. Sally went to move forward but was caught by the back of her robes and dragged back into the room. "What do you think you are doing?" Percy hissed angrily. "The nearest exit is out the other way."

"People are fighting down there; our people may be able to use another wand. What's wrong, Weasley, scared?"

"Of course I am scared, anyone with half a brain would be!"

"Very well then, you slink out and see if you can alert someone to get help, I'll go offer immediate help, how's that?" she snapped contemptuously and slipped away, leaving Percy grinding his teeth in his dilemma.

The corridor was ill-lit, half the spell globes shattered on the floor and most of the window spells broken. Sally was half tempted to test the Anti-Apparition wards but had enough training to know an enemy would probably have some sort of magic use detectors on the area. Percy had obviously taken her offer and bolted as she couldn't hear him behind her as she crept toward the noise, making use of the cover the debris in the hallway offered.

Peering around the corner, she pulled back silently to reassess what she was seeing. There were at least two Death Eaters with their backs to her, and it looked like they had some of the Ministry personnel pinned down near the lift bank. Reconnoitring again, Sally marked the positions in her mind's eye, made sure there was no one else to surprise her then gathered herself carefully. Her instructors had always told them: Keep It Simple, Stupid, so she had a double Stupefy ready as she eased her wand tip around the corner. They didn't know what hit them, going down like ninepins. Sally ducked back, flattening herself against the wall in case a spell chased her around the corner but nothing came.

"Hey, by the lift bank, this is Sally Nobel, who are you?"

"Department of Magical Accidents," a voice called almost cheerfully. "Did you get both of them?"

"Yes, with Stupefy."

"Well done! Come and join us, we were just trying to make our way to the Atrium and from there out to the street, but unfortunately we seem to be suffering a plague of Death Eaters."

Sally giggled at this drolly delivered assessment of their situation and made her way carefully down the hall to where an all too familiar red head was leaning over someone on the floor. "Mr Weasley?"

"Oh, just Arthur will do, pleased to meet you, Sally. Do ye' know anything about hex damage, young Borgia here seems to have been cursed quite nastily."

Sally shook her head then perked up. "I have a first aid kit in the office, hang on a moment." She managed to get there and back in a minimum of time and only stumbled twice which was good for her. "Here," she said breathlessly, opening the lid and passing over a roll of bandage. "Put a wrap around him and tap it with your wand, it will portkey him straight to St Mungo's. It's a special perk Junior Ministers get, but my Junior seems to have deserted the ship."

"Oh well, how unfortunate. Still, we have five healthy bodies here; we can make a difference, now can't we? So, let's get you off to hospital, Kincaid, shall we? Well done. Now, let's see what we have. We raided the Misuse office and came up with some corkers! Here, sunglasses, very useful. When there's too much light, they take half of it and keep it ready until there is no light, then they let it out again so the wearer can see in the dark. Clever, humm?"

Sally grinned at the older man's excitement, quite amazed at the interesting twist on sunglasses. She was Muggle-born and could appreciate the irony. "Very. And what is that?" She indicated the brightly coloured child's pump-up water pistol with interest.

"Oh, now this is a nasty piece, you fill it with water then pump it up and within five minutes the water turns into acid, not just any acid but Bubbling Green Dissolution Solution. I thought we might need something horrid." Arthur shivered slightly.

"Cool, we can surely find a use for that today." Sally grinned tigerishly. "Er, just one thing, we had better do something about our robes so that we don't get mixed up with the Death Eaters." She eyed their conservative, dark blue business robes then flicked a wand over them, turning all their robes to Auror red with a cherry red armband. "That's better, now we won't get mixed up."

"Good thinking, that girl," Arthur nodded, then nodded again, more decisively. "Let's head for the Atrium, there are more exits there."

The four men and Sally moved cautiously through the rubble strewn passage, the sunglasses coming in very handy when the lighting failed completely in a couple of sections. Sally's legs were aching fiercely by the time they reached the upper balconies of the Atrium and peered down between the balustrades. Below, near the Fountain of Magical Brethren, newly re-commissioned after the last battle in the Ministry, a group of perhaps twenty civilians were penned against an alcove by four Death Eaters while a fifth took great delight in torturing a man in the middle of the area. Arthur's good-natured face turned as hard as stone as he signalled everyone to move back a little.

"How are we going to get them all? One slip and those children will be history. Did you see the person they have tossed in the fountain, all that blood?"

"Steady, Heathcote, now is not the time. We need to get at least one of us over to the other side of the area but it will not be easy. The Department of Mysteries is on the other side and that is a locked section. If we had a broom, we might be able to fly across..."

"I'll go," Sally said fatalistically.

"What, fly across?" Aristotle Trelawney asked incredulously.

"No, I'll climb; I do have an advantage, sort of." Taking a deep breath, she dropped the illusion charm she always kept on her legs and waited for any comments.

"Goodness gracious, how useful! Greater ape, isn't it? Gorilla or Orang-utan, perhaps?" Arthur asked enthusiastically.

Sally looked down at her legs, one terminating in a very human foot and court-shoe, the other was definitely still an ape's hand-foot. "St Mungo's was pretty sure it was chimpanzee actually," she commented ruefully. "I'm lucky I ducked when I did or I might have been all chimpanzee instead of just one leg."

"A curse?"

"Humm, during training we were attacked by a party of Death Eaters who were feeling playful. I got this, one of the guys was transfigured into a dolphin, and he still is. No one seems to be able to reverse the effects, something to do with calling up our inner animagus."

"Still, it would make climbing across a lot easier for you," Arthur enthused then blinked. "So that's why you were limping, it would make your legs different lengths, wouldn't it? Er, off the wall, I know, but why don't you just transfigure the other leg and be done with it?"

If he hadn't been so earnest and hopefully smiling, she would have hit him. "Because I am human, not an animal!" she snapped angrily. "The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures wanted to have me registered and restricted like a werewolf, but because it was only one leg, they decided the percentage of human out weighed the animal."

"Good God! This Ministry has a lot to be accountable for! Apologies then, I take it back." Arthur patted her hand consolingly.

Sally sighed. "Actually, it was a very good idea," she temporised and tapped her foot with her wand. "Don't tell anyone, but I often do it at home to make housework easier," she stage whispered as the other foot transformed. "Alright, pick a Death Eater and let's get the monsters!"

"Right, once Sally is at the other side..." Arthur quickly assigned the targets and consolidated the rough plan he had been working on.

It only took a few moments for Sally to work her way around the balconies with her extra pair of hands and a touch of Wingardium Leviosa to help. She had been assigned the Death Eater who had been partially hidden behind the statuary, but when she managed to get a clear view of him, she saw another who had been completely hidden until that moment. Taking a deep breath, she planned her assault and waited for the signal. As soon as it came, she sent two Stupefies winging out, the first hitting cleanly, the second only grazing the target. About to cast again, she was pleased to see one of the captured men step forward and throw a beautiful right hook that lifted the black clad figure off his feet and sent him sprawling across the tiles unconscious. Arthur whooped in excitement as they all withdrew, hurrying down to the Atrium floor while Sally climbed down the façade with ease.

The majority of the people below were milling uneasily as the five Ministry people came out of the shadows, one woman kneeling beside her badly mauled husband and the other wading in the fountain trying to retrieve the body of her son. Arthur and Trelawney immediately went to help pull the body out of the fountain while Sally checked the pulse on the tortured man, finding it thready and weak. Deftly wrapping two circles of her bandage around the man's torso, she instructed his wife to hang on as she activated the portkey.

"Well done, girl," an old man said heartily as he hobbled across. "Who's in charge of the unit? And where are the rest of you?"

"Er, Arthur Weasley is in charge and we're it just now. I don't know where the Aurors are, they all took off yesterday, stripped the place bare even of trainees," Sally told him gently.

"Damn fool, that young Scrimgeour! I told him, you can be a Minister or a Head Auror but not both! Stands to reason! So, Young Weasley is in charge, is he, good man but a little soft at times."

Arthur flushed vividly but greeted the old man respectfully, obviously knowing who he was. In an economy of words, the old man agreed to guide the civilians out of the building and raise the alarm as soon as possible. He also told them that more Death Eaters had headed off toward the Department of Mysteries.

"Right, let's go," Arthur called and his four colleagues came over immediately, followed by the man with the wicked right hook who introduced himself as Peitro Uttson, a visitor to the country from Lithuania who would be happy to join in the fight. Arthur looked a little sceptical but allowed that another wand would be useful in the upcoming skirmishes and began to lead his small party down toward the inner levels.

~~*~~

Percy Weasley escaped the Ministry building and immediately Apparated as fast as he could. He had no conscious destination but he found himself on the doorstep of the Burrow almost by instinct. Unfortunately the place was locked up, no sign of any inhabitants and no one had been home for some time by the look of the garden. Still, Charlie had shown him how to get into the house without disturbing his mother's wards when they were just teenagers with the need to sneak out at night, so breaking in was easy enough.

He was surprised to find his room was undisturbed, his things still where he had left them despite the coolness between himself and his family. He still couldn't understand why they were so adamant about lining themselves up with crackpots and doomsayers, but they were his parents even though they had never been particularly sensible. When the Ministry won this silly war and proved there was no such thing as Voldemort, only some disgruntled souls using the Death Eater bogymen for their own ends, he would graciously forgive his family for being so distant and not taking any notice of their most sensible son.

Secure in these comforting thoughts, Percy fell asleep in his own bed.

~~*~~

Pietro, 'just call me Pete', attached himself to Sally, following her every move as she crept down the corridor after Arthur. They ran into a small party of Death Eaters harassing a dozen civilians in the Apparition Testing area and demolished them, setting the civilians free. Trelawney, who had managed to take a nasty curse to the arm in one of the skirmishes was told off to guide the people out and make sure the alarm was raised as soon as he was out. Aristotle didn't want to go, but he knew he was a liability rather than an asset if there was a further fight. Wishing him good luck, Arthur's group pushed on deeper.

The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures was utterly demolished, bodies strewn everywhere. In the holding tanks four alleged werewolves had been torn to pieces and a fifth gutted and left to die slowly. She managed to tell them that there were twelve Death Eaters in the party that had raided the department and they had taken two of the werewolves with them. "Some of us will follow anyone who promises the earth and the stars, but the rest of us know very well that Snake-on-Two-Legs is a false god and we paid the price for not blindly following," she gasped. "Shame it's not Moon, I could have done a better job tearing throats out." The woman's predatory laugh was her last breath.

"It's so unfair what they do to the werewolf population," Sally remarked grimly as she laid the woman's head down again and pulled a fold of robe over her face.

Pietro, who had not come into the cells, shook his head and fastidiously did a cleaning spell on her robes before offering her a hand to step over the bodies. Arthur tried the fireplace, but it had been cut off the Floo system so he feared no one had escaped the Department alive, detainee or staff.

The Department of Mysteries looked untouched as they crept along the corridor, but voices came from the area which they assumed housed the Unspeakables. There were also a few muffled screams and someone laughing in huge amusement over something. Arthur slid along the floor and peered into the room, shuffling back on his charm with a grimly set expression.

"There are three Death Eaters in there, and they have strung up a couple of people for a bit of fun."

"How stupid can you get?" Pillinton muttered. "Well, I mean, who goes on a raid then gets sidetracked? It's not exactly professional, now is it?"

Sally nearly laughed at his aggrieved tone but managed not to. Arthur merely sighed and began planning ways to get around the problem. Before they could implement the sketchy plan there was a shout and a curse sped over their heads, scattering them into the offices lining the hallway. Sally blasted a curse back in the general direction then yelped as something hit her in the back. Spinning clumsily, she stared in horror, but before she could yell a warning, she was slammed back into the wall, her consciousness gone at the blow.

"So we're not very professional, are we?" the voice asked nastily and someone screamed, something wet hitting her face and making her struggle into consciousness again. Her arms were shrieking in agonies from being pulled over her head while a dull throb had localised in the back of her skull. Her eyes would not focus properly and for that she was rather glad. The place was not a torture chamber, but it was being used as one. Gloating, black clad menaces moved jerkily in her fractured sight, pale bodies suspended with her own, blossoming redness as knives sliced and hooks tore.

Pillinton's guts were already spilled, hanging heavily down his thighs and bleeding sluggishly, the muted moans from his open mouth were slowly dying as his life left him. It was Arthur's blood on her face as he was slowly spun by the wrists, a knife held against his rotating body to carve a long, shallow trench around his skin, painful, messy but not deadly. Death Eaters at play. She wondered how long she had been out for, obviously longer than she thought, her detached little logical self said in the back of her head, floating above the horrific scene, analysing and recording, keeping the nausea at bay. Suddenly a thought caught her and she stiffened, an involuntary snarl twisting her face for an instant. Pietro behind her casting a curse that slammed her into the wall. The bastard was one of them!

There was a commotion by the door and another pair of Death Eaters came in causing a cessation in the torture. The smaller of the new pair smiled happily to see the bodies strung up but the taller merely grunted.

"We're supposed to be looking for something, you idiots. The Lord wants it and if we don't find it, you know this will be just a foretaste of what he will do to us all, don't you?"

"Oh, honestly, Dolohov, you are no fun," the smaller one muttered in disgust, pulling her wand and transfiguring it into a fine edged blade. "Just a little bit, we can spare half an hour."

"No, Bella, we can't, we have to find the stupid stuffed dog, the Lord only knows why. Kill them and let's get out of here," Dolohov muttered, lifting his wand but Bella was quicker, she lashed out at the first hanging body, parting Elflock's throat in one slash. She spun on her toes as light as a dancer and almost removed Heathcote's head. Arthur didn't stand a chance, her slash was true and clean, and he died in a few moments, no reprieve, then Sally knew it was her turn. She stiffened, waiting for instant death and it came, fast and bright across her throat, burning like ice rather than fire.

Giggling wildly, the Death Eaters were gone and the world grew quiet once again. Sally drifted in and out of consciousness, finding it hard to breath but still breathing, much to her amazement, just hanging around, her inner voice said madly as she drifted off again.