Year V

Chapter Fourteen

"Ministry Mayhem"

It was about five in the evening on that Friday. Many people were returning to their homes from a long day’s work while others were preparing themselves for the weekend and hitting the pubs early. Already, the people that made up the bizarre nightlife and pub-scene were starting to make their appearance…or so that’s what anyone would think if they saw Nicholas St. John-Dupuis and his two fellow misfits come out of the small pub and make their way back to the vacant lot they had visited the night before.

“Are you sure about this Nicholas?” asked Lucas as they stopped across the street from the telephone booth. “I mean…we’re talking about Azkaban here, not some normal jail.”

Nicholas gave his friend a smug grin. “C’mon, Lucas. You’ve been to one Wizarding Prison, you’ve been to them all.”

“Yeah, but they got Dementors-”

“Yeah, but they got Dementors!” screeched Nicholas in a whiny imitation of Lucas before pretending to shudder in terror and breaking into a fit of laughter. “Ooooh…all the happy memories are gonna’ get sucked out of me, only to be left with the really bad stuff…wow, as if I never dealt with pain and agony before on a DAILY basis.”

“Will you two shut up, already?” said Marie. “I swear you sound like a bitchy married couple.”

Lucas rolled his eyes. “Uh-oh…I forgot it’s time of the month for her, isn’t it?”

Nicholas nodded and suddenly grinned. “Yeah, but I just realized something…I won’t have to deal with it! I’ll be in prison!”

“Thanks a lot bud,” grumbled Lucas as he realized that Nicholas was right. A full moon cycle was coming and Nicholas would probably be in prison during the worst of it.

“I can handle my problem on my own, thank you very much,” said Marie through clenched teeth.

“Oh yeah,” said Lucas who didn’t bother hiding the sarcasm in his voice. “Like you did in New Orleans last year when you killed all those people? Have to admit though, I never thought you had it in you…I always thought you were just the quiet and cold potions-mixer type.”

“Very funny, Lucas,” hissed Marie. “Keep it up and you’re going to get hurt.”

“Promises, promises,” chuckled Lucas. “You always raise my hopes and then don’t follow through.”

“That’s because you don’t pay her,” said Nicholas who caught Marie’s hand as she tried to take a swing at him. With a simple twist of the wrist, he brought her arm down and pulled her in close, almost as if it were some sort of elegant dance move. “Promise me you won’t be too bad,” he said softly, his voice barely more than a whisper.

A cold smirk formed on Marie’s lips as she twisted out of Nicholas’ grip before stepping back into him. “You know me during this time of the month, I can’t make promises.”

Nicholas smiled back at her and nodded. “Yeah, I know.” He then looked over at Lucas. “I guess you’ll have to use the big gun, Lucas.”

“Oh goody,” said Lucas. “The big gun.”

“Shut up, Lucas,” snapped Marie before she turned her attention back to Nicholas. “And you…you take care of yourself, okay?”

“Why…Marie, I never thought you cared.”

“I don’t, but if you die, I lose one of my better customers.”

“And if you die,” said Nicholas, “I lose the only person who can make that Elemental serum.”

“Symbiosis, Nicholas…we need eachother.”

“Yeah…too bad we hate eachother, we’d make the perfect couple.”

“Yeah,” snorted Marie. “Beauty and the Beast.”

“Well, what can I say,” said Nicholas with a sly grin. “I’ve always been beautiful.”

Marie punched him in the shoulder as he stepped away from her. “You’ll pay for that,” she called after him as he started walking backwards across the street.

“Charge me when I get back,” Nicholas called back before suddenly jumping out of the way of an oncoming car.

Lucas and Marie laughed at him and clapped in mock applause.

“Very smooth, Nick!” shouted Lucas. “Very smooth.”

Nicholas’ only response was giving Lucas the finger over his shoulder as he reached the vacant lot across the street.

Lucas pretended to wince in pain and clutched his chest. “Oh, the pain, pain!” Then he straightened up and pulled a couple candy bars out of his cloak, offering one to Marie. “Well, the show’s about to begin, chocolate bar?”

Marie took the offered candy bar and smiled. “Might as well, it’s going to be a hell of a show.”

“Hell indeed,” chuckled Lucas as he ripped open the wrapper and took a big bite. “Damn…”

“What is it?”

“I forgot to buy some popcorn.”

As Nicholas made his way towards the red telephone booth, he couldn’t help admiring the Ministry’s attempt to hide the entrance in plain sight. It was a good idea, but he could also tell from the lack of security measures around the area that the Ministry had gotten complacent in the last decade.

Well…they won't be complacent for long, he thought with a grin as he entered the phone booth. He closed the door behind him and smirked as a loose pane of glass fell off the door and shattered on the ground.

Oh yeah…definite signs of complacency here.

He hummed softly to himself as he pulled the phone off the receiver, then stopped when he saw something that caught him completely off guard.

“You have got to be kidding me,” he said in disbelief, looking at the rotary dial phone in front of him. “I don’t believe this, hasn’t anyone heard of touch-tone around here?”

He shook his head and pulled out a piece of paper that had some written instructions on it. “Okay…where’s that damn number, ah…six,” he dialed the number, “two…four…four…two…oh, duh…it spells ‘magic’. I don’t freakin’ believe this.”

When the dial finally whirred back into place, a cool female voice sounded inside the entire phone booth. “Welcome to the Ministry of magic, please state your name and business.”

Nicholas rolled his eyes in annoyance…this was too much for him. “I’m a very bad man, and I’m here to do very bad things,” he muttered under his breath.

“Thank you,” said the cool female voice. “Visitor to the Ministry, please take the badge and attach it to the front of your robes.”

“What?” Nicholas couldn’t believe it, did the booth actually hear him? There was a click and a rattle and he saw something slide out of the metal chute where returned coins usually appeared. Curious, he picked up the square silver badge and examined it. Sure enough, it had A Very Bad Man, Very Bad Things engraved on it.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” said Nicholas as he pinned the badge on the front of his coat.

“Visitor to the Ministry,” said the cool female voice again, “you are required to submit to a search and present your wand for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the atrium.”

Then the floor of the telephone booth shuddered and Nicholas couldn’t help laughing as booth started to sink slowly into the ground. “Okay…this is really sad,” he said, listening to the dull grinding noise as the box sank even further into the ground. About a minute later, the darkness of the earth surrounding the phone booth was replaced by a blinding golden light. Nicholas grabbed his sunglasses out of his coat and put them on.

The booth suddenly came to an abrupt stop and the cool female voice spoke again as the door to the booth suddenly swung open. “The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant day.”

Nicholas stepped out of the booth and looked around in amazement at what he saw. “Okay,” he said to himself, “I’m impressed.” He continued down the splendid hall, taking it all in…the many gilded fireplaces on opposite walls, the peacock blue ceiling with shifting golden symbols, and the large fountain that stood in the middle of the hall. He paused to look at the fountain and let out a soft whistle.

“Damn,” he muttered as he examined the golden statues of the witch and wizard. “They’re certainly full of themselves here, aren’t they?” He had seen the fountain in the blueprints he had studied, but he didn’t expect it to seem so…arrogant. Next to the fountain was a small smudged sign that read:

All proceeds from the Fountain of Magical Brethren will be given to St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

“Hmmm…I guess I should make a donation,” said Nicholas, reaching into his left pocket and pulling out what appeared to be a silver Sickle. “After all, they’re gonna’ need it.” He grinned as he tossed the silver coin into the fountain then turned and headed for the desk in the atrium. Behind him, the water in the fountain slowly started to bubble as the coin hit the bottom of the small pool and began to dissolve.

He continued down the great hall at a slow pace, singing softly to himself as he approached the security desk that was up just ahead on the left.

“London calling upon the zombies of death

Quit holding out-and draw another breath.

London calling-and I don't wanna shout

But when we were talking-I saw you nodding out

London calling, see we ain't got no highs

Except for that one with the yellowy eyes…”

He paused for a moment to look around one last time at the beautiful hall and it’s blue ceiling.

“The ice age is coming, the sun is zooming in

Engines stop running and the wheat is growing thin

A nuclear error, but I have no fear

London is drowning-and I live by the river…”

Nicholas smiled as he approached the security desk where a bored looking wizard put down his copy of the Daily Prophet and sighed at the prospect of having to deal with yet another visitor.

“May I help you?” asked the guard in a bored voice.

“Yes,” said Nicholas, “I am here to conduct some business with the International Affairs office.”

“Step over here, please,” grumbled the guard.

Nicholas did as he was told and the guard held up a long golden rod, thin and flexible as a car aerial and passed it up and down Nicholas’ back. The golden device suddenly shuddered and bent at several angles.

“Merlin’s beard! What are you wearing?”

As if in response to the guard’s question, the fountain of Magical Brethren suddenly exploded sending golden fragments and water flying across the hall, hitting several bystanders or embedding golden pieces into walls. Before the guard could react, Nicholas’ wand had slid out of his coat sleeve into his right hand and he was already spinning on his heel as he brought the wand up. Half-way through his spin, his wand had already lengthened and transformed into a sword before it reached its target.

“What-“ was the only word to escape the wizard’s mouth before the blade sliced through the side of his neck. A second later, his head fell to the floor followed by the rest of his body.

Nicholas stood over the dead wizard’s body and shook his head. “Okay, now this is really sad,” he said. “Lax security, slow response time…pathetic.”

Suddenly, there was a the loud ominous ringing of bells and red lights began to flash through the great hall. The cool sounding female voice was back, but this time, it was louder and a sense of urgency could be heard.

“Warning, intruder at the Ministry, Aurors be advised…the intruder is armed.”

Nicholas heard several loud pops behind him and grinned as he turned around. Over a dozen wizards were standing there, wands drawn and pointed at him. “Now this is more like it,” he said.

“Drop your wand!”

Nicholas shook his head and grinned. “I don’t think so.”

“Stupefy!” four of them shouted and white blasts of light shot out of the end of their wands.

Time seemed to stand still for Nicholas as he saw the white magical bolts of lightning zig-zag towards him. For an instant, he had contemplated on standing there and taking the stunning spells, but he wasn’t quite ready to trust Lucas’ spell-guard just yet. Instead, he jumped up in the air, sailing over the group and landing a few feet behind them. For him, it seemed like several seconds, but to the wizards he was facing, it was like he had become a blur and vanished, their stunning spells impacting the security desk and knocking it aside.

It took a second for one of them to turn around, but Nicholas had already willed his wand back to its true form and was waving it at them.

“ARISTAFRIO OMNIUM!” he hissed as he made a slashing motion with his wand. A sinister red arc of energy exploded from his wand, hitting them all at once. There was a sickening crunch followed by several cries of pain as bones were broken and limbs were twisted at extreme angles. Nicholas watched in satisfaction as they all dropped to the ground, writhing in agony. He noticed that one wizard was motionless, but that was probably due to the fact that his head was now on backwards since his neck had been snapped.

”Damn,” he said as he lightly kicked the head of the dead wizard, “I never got a neck-breaker on a group attack before.”

There was a whooshing sound and Nicholas looked up to see several wizards emerge from the fireplaces lining both sides of the splendid hall, wands out and ready. He shook his head again, his eyes glowing a deep crimson. “Bad Move,” he said.

The green flames of the fireplaces suddenly changed color, becoming an almost solid white as the temperature increased. There was some screaming as a couple wizards emerged from the fireplaces, covered in flames, crying out in agony as their flesh was seared to a crisp. Then the fireplaces suddenly exploded, sending waves of fiery debris into the middle of the hall and slamming into the wizards that were still standing between them.

Back outside in the Muggle world, Lucas and Marie were sitting on a bench across the street from the vacant lot, sipping some butter beer and eating peanuts when they suddenly felt the ground beneath them shake. Then they saw part of the vacant lot and the street in front of them start to cave in.

“DAMN!” yelled Lucas as he watched one of the small buildings across the street erupt in flames before collapsing. “He must have hit their Floo Hub.”

“Okay,” said Marie as she nodded in approval. “That was definitely cool. I wonder what he’s doing now?”

“Knowing Nick, he’s probably laughing his ass off,” said Lucas before he took another swig of butter beer.

Back down in the smoky atrium of the Ministry of Magic, Nicholas was laughing as one wizard, some nerdy looking guy with red hair and horn-rimmed glasses, nailed him with a disarming spell. “Hey, not bad,” he said. Then he waved his hand and sent the wizard flying across the hall and into two others who were starting to emerge from the golden gates at the end of the hall. “Too bad I don’t need a wand to fling people across an open space.”

He snapped his fingers and his wand flew back into his hand. “What a bunch of amateurs.”

An injured wizard tried to get up, reaching for his wand, but Nicholas kicked him in the ribcage and then brought his foot down hard on the other man’s arm which snapped under the pressure, causing the wizard to scream in pain. He would have finished the man off, but changed his mind when the red-haired wizard with the horn-rimmed glasses apparated a few feet in front of him, wand pointing in his direction.

“Stupef-“

Nicholas cut the other wizard off by punching him in the throat. While the punch wasn’t strong enough to crush the wizard’s larynx, it did make him stagger back a few feet, coughing up some blood before he dropped to the ground.

“I can’t believe this!” snarled Nicholas as he pointed his wand at the choking wizard. “I would have thought the Ministry would take security more serious-“

He was cut off as two stunning spells caught him squarely in the back, knocking him forward over the choking wizard and landing on top on the charred remains of an earlier victim. He rolled back to his feet and was greeted by a large black fist slamming directly into his face, forcing him to drop his wand. The impact sent him staggering a few feet before his vision cleared and he saw a large black wizard with a shaven head standing in front of him.

Nicholas reached up and rubbed his jaw. “Ow…damn…good hit.”

The other man glared at him, intensity and recognition in his eyes, but the ice in his voice said it all. “A Guilder, we should have known.”

Nicholas was actually surprised, not many British Wizards were familiar with Guilds. “Wow…you know what I am?”

“I know of your kind…assassin,” replied the other. “Stand down or you die here.”

Nicholas smiled at him and raised his hands over his head…his gaze resting on a piece of rubble a few feet behind the black wizard. “Ooooh, so ominous,” he said, making sure he kept his voice laced with enough sarcasm to keep the other wizard’s attention from the pieces of rock that were starting to levitate off the ground behind him. “If you’re so familiar with my kind, then you know that you’re only way out of here is in a shroud.”

“Don’t bet on it,” said the other who suddenly spun on his heel and used his wand to deflect the oncoming debris.

Nicholas lashed out with a kick that caught the black man in the side, knocking him off balance and allowing Nicholas a chance to recover his own wand. In the two seconds it took the other wizard to recover, Nicholas had managed to grab his wand and was pointing it at the Auror.

“Shivis!”

“Stupefy!”

A jagged shard of red energy shot out of the Nicholas’ wand and impaled the black man in the shoulder while, at the same time, Nicholas felt like he was being electrocuted as the powerful stunning spell sent him sailing backwards several feet before he hit the wall. He could feel a burning sensation on his arm where he wore Lucas’ magical spell-guard. Apparently, it was strong enough to absorb most of the power from that last stunning spell, but Nicholas seriously doubted the item could take another hit like that. In fact, Nicholas was certain that if he had taken the full brunt of that spell, he probably would have been in a coma.

“Damn,” he winced as he got back up off the ground and looked over at the other wizard who was writhing in agony from the shard of mystical energy protruding from his shoulder. He walked over to where the Auror was lying on the ground and couldn’t help smiling as the man shot him a look of angry defiance despite the burning agony that was tearing through his body. “You got a lot of power there, buddy. Not many wizards can come up with a stunning spell that can knock me on my ass like that.”

“The Diagon Alley attack…the fire,” said the wizard, his face a mask of pain and determination, “it was you.”

Nicholas nodded as he willed his wand back into a sword. “Yep. You know, you seem pretty sharp unlike most of the other amateurs that work here. I guess that makes you an actual threat in my book.”

“But…you’re not a Death Eater.”

Nicholas smiled and winked at the man. “Shhhh…that’ll be our little secret, okay?” He raised the sword high, preparing to strike. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m giving you a quick death because I think you’re cool and don’t deserve to suffer as much.”

“ABLEGOMANO!”

The curse sent Nicholas flying several feet through the air before he hit the wall. The impact dazed him for a moment, but it wasn’t enough to make him drop his sword. He shook his head for a moment to regain his bearings. “Damn, that felt familiar.”

When his vision cleared, he saw another wizard several feet away, running over to where the large black wizard had fallen. Nicholas arched an eyebrow as he recognized the newcomer as one of the wizards he had fought on the roof of Flourish and Blotts a few weeks earlier. “Oh…it’s you again.”

“Yes,” said the other wizard, “it’s me again.” He tilted his head to one side, a smirk on his face. “So, you going to run off like last time?”

Nicholas couldn’t believe it, he had just killed a bunch of other wizards, and yet here was one standing there, mouthing off at him like he didn’t have a care in the world. “Last time it was tactical retreat. This time however…”

His eyes glowed as he suddenly brought up his left hand and sent several fireballs hurtling towards the wizard.

“PROTEGO!”

Jason Morgan barely had time to conjure up the magical wall that shielded himself and Shacklebolt Kingsley from the fiery attack. “Damn Elementals,” he muttered as the last of the flames dissipated against the shield. That was when he noticed that the other wizard was no longer standing against the wall.

Where-?

Before his mind could finish that question, Jason was already acting on instinct, spinning on his heel and dropping low, just in time to feel the sword whiz over his head. He lunged forward with a punch, nailing his attacker in the stomach and then following it up with a kick that sent the man stumbling back. He was about to follow up on his attack with a disarming spell, but his opponent recovered quickly and retaliated with a kick of his own, catching Jason in the ribs.

Jason heard a couple ribs crack and winced in pain, but he managed to hold on to his wand and bring it up, just as other wizard did the same with his sword which suddenly turned back into a wand.

For a moment, neither of them moved. Jason kept his gaze on his enemy while the other wizard simply chuckled. “Wow, talk about your bad case of deja-vu.”

“Drop the wand,” said Jason, “or I take you down hard.”

“You’ve got to be joking,” replied the other wizard. “Take a look around you, buddy. I just wiped out a large chunk of the Ministry’s payroll. You think I have anything to fear from a second-rate Auror like you?”

Warning bells went off in the back of Jason’s head. He wasn’t sure what tipped him off…instinct or the evil sneer tugging at the corner of the other man’s mouth before he started the curse.

“CRUDUSCE-“

“CRUCIO!” screamed Jason.

“ARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!” screamed Nicholas as what felt like millions of needles of electricity stabbed through his body. The Spell-Guard on his left arm shattered under the intensity of the spell, allowing Nicholas to feel the full effect of the curse.

“Stupefy!”

Three stun blasts hit him, one on each side, another one hitting him in the back…sending more pain and then…blackness.

“Kinsgley, are you okay?” asked Jason as he walked over to the fallen Auror. He suddenly stopped short as he saw the large black man painfully sit up, a glowing red spike protruding out of his shoulder.

“Blood hell!” said Arthur Weasley as he and Nymphadora Tonks joined them. “Kingsley, don’t move, let me get help.”

Shacklebolt Kingsley shook his head, though the look in his eyes told Jason that he was in severe pain. “No…” gasped Kingsley as he reached with his other hand to grasp the shard of energy. There was a crackle of red sparks when he grabbed it and he grunted again in pain as he started to pull. “I…can…get…it.” With a cry of defiance, he pulled hard, yanking the jagged shard completely out of his shoulder.

Before Jason could react, there was a flash of red light and the glowing shard of energy in Kingsley’s hand had vanished. Kingsley had drawn himself up into a sitting position, a bemused look on his face as he examined his hand. “Hadn’t seen one of those for awhile,” he said.

Tonks, a young woman with spiky pink hair helped Kingsley back to his feet. “Shacklebolt, your shoulder…there’s no wound.”

Kingsley laughed, apparently amused by the looks of astonishment on the faces of the other three. “Of course not…it’s a Shivis curse, it wasn’t really there exactly.”

“A Shivis curse?” repeated Tonks. “Never heard of it.”

“Neither have I,” said Arthur Weasley, “but I’m not an Auror so I doubt I would even know what you were talking about.”

“It’s sort of an illusionary variant of the Cruciatus curse,” said Jason. The others looked at him in surprise at his sudden burst of knowledge. “I read about them in South Africa,” he quickly added, noting the sudden look of suspicion on their faces. “Never actually saw one though.”

There was an awkward silence for a moment before Arthur Weasley spoke up. “Speaking of the Cruciatus curse, what was the deal with th-“

Before Arthur could finish his sentence, he was cut off by his son, Percy, who approached them. “Yes, Morgan,” he said, his nasally voice and pompous manner a contrast to the fragments of dried blood around his mouth. “You used an unforgivable curse here, of all places. The Minister will not be pleased with this.”

Jason couldn’t believe it…the Ministry had just been attacked and some moronic bureaucrat was admonishing him on using an unforgivable curse. “Um…well…take a look around you, Weasley…I think it’s safe to say that there were extenuating circumstances.”

Percy Weasley looked around at the rubble surrounding them and nodded. “Perhaps, but it’s still going into my report. Besides, you were temporarily attached to the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office during your probationary period and both you and…Arthur Weasley…were supposed to be investigating a regurgitating toilet at Chesterson Green.”

“No,” Jason snapped, finally having enough of Percy’s snobbish attitude. “I was attached to the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office to spy on your father and report anything suspicious to you so you could be a good little puppet and report back to the Minister.” He didn’t bother looking at Arthur or the others, but he took some satisfaction in making Percy Weasley flinch. “Oh, and in case you didn’t notice,” he continued, “if your father and I weren’t here, you probably would have been killed.” He turned his back on Percy and started to walk away.

“Now see here!” said Percy, his face starting to turn almost as red as his hair. “You are no longer a Hitwizard, Morgan. You work for the Ministry of Magic now and any more of your belligerent attitude will be reported back to the Minister and you will face punishment-“

Percy Weasley never saw the punch coming. All he saw was Jason suddenly spin before the fist slammed into the side of his face, knocking off his glasses and sending him to the ground. Jason unclenched his fist, glancing momentarily at Arthur, Kingsley, and Tonks before turning his gaze back on Percy. “You can put that in your report,” he said, then he turned and walked off towards the elevator at the end of the atrium.

When he reached the elevator, the flaring pain in his side reminded Jason of his broken ribs. He was definitely going to need a Healer…or perhaps attend to the injury himself, probably the best option since any Healers at the Ministry were probably involved with more serious cases at the moment. As he entered the elevator, he couldn’t hide the tiny smile on his face. He knew that Percy Weasley would report his actions to the Minister, but that didn’t bother him in the slightest. He could always argue with the Minister that he was merely trying to gain Arthur Weasley’s trust. The Minister would see the value of the plan and would perhaps even help Jason out by pretending to “permanently demote” him to Arthur Weasley’s department.

Getting close to Arthur Weasley had always been Jason’s main objective since he first arrived at the Ministry. Voldemort, after consulting with Lucius Malfoy, was convinced that Arthur Weasley was in Dumbledore’s inner circle. The Minister believed that as well and Jason found it amusing that both wanted him to spy on Arthur and report back any suspicious activity. Of course, Jason had decided that he would have to be selective with how much information he gave to either of them. Crossing either of them would mean either prison or death.

Then again, Jason really didn’t fear Cornelius Fudge or Voldemort. After all, compared to his true employer, the Minister and the Dark Lord were amateurs. The elevator doors closed behind him and Jason pulled out a small piece of parchment. He unfolded the parchment and tossed it into the air. The piece of paper stopped in mid-air and then began to unfold even more, glowing as it kept unfolding until it formed a glowing doorway. He stepped through the doorway and it folded up again, before disappearing in a flash of white light.

* * * * *

Benjamin DeBoer was standing in the mausoleum at Highgate Cemetery when the fold-gate became active. He grinned as he watched Marie and Lucas step out of the gateway. “Well, I suppose the mission was successful?”

“Yeah,” said Lucas who was munching away on a chocolate bar. “The Muggle police are going crazy. They’re saying it was a gas explosion.”

“Yeah right,” snorted Marie. “I don’t see gas explosions causing sinkholes like that, but I guess the Muggles will believe anything.”

“Yes,” said DeBoer as he imagined what the Muggle press would be printing in their newspapers. “It’s amazing that in this world of ‘advancements’, people just don’t want to face the truth…” He paused as the gateway flashed to life again and someone else stepped out of it. “And sometimes,” he added, “the same can be said of wizards as well…you just need to create the perfect illusion for them to believe.”

“Believe me, sir,” said Jason Morgan as he joined DeBoer and the others. “Nicholas and I put on quite the act…he snapped a couple of my ribs and cut me open.”

“You didn’t take the fold-gate here directly, did you?” asked DeBoer.

“No,” replied Jason. “I stopped at a couple places along the way in case I was being tracked, but I doubt it. I stopped at home briefly to heal myself as well. Remind me to never get into an actual fight with a Guild Assassin. Nicholas may have been holding back, but it still hurt.”

“How big of a body count?” asked Lucas.

“A lot. Let’s just say that the Ministry staff is going to be stretched thin for the next few months. Not only that, but he pretty much destroyed most of their floo hubs in the main atrium.”

“Yeah, we saw that,” said Marie. “Quite impressive, it took down half the buildings on the block.”

“So everything is going according to plan?” said DeBoer. “How about your position with the Minister?”

Jason smiled at his boss. “Relax, as far as the Minister is concerned, I’m a hero. Granted, he’ll probably reprimand me for punching out his little sycophant he refers to as an assistant, but I can deal with that.”

A thoughtful look appeared on DeBoer’s face. “His assistant? You wouldn’t be referring to one Percival Weasley, would you?”

“Hmm…red hair, glasses, annoying nasal tone, and constantly whining about rules and regulations…yep, that’s the one.”

DeBoer chuckled and patted his agent on the back. “Nicely done. So where is Nicholas now?”

“When I left him, a couple Aurors were locking him in chains and taking him to a holding cell. They’ll probably keep him there for questioning and then ship him off to Azkaban.”

At the mention of the Wizarding prison’s name, Marie and Lucas tensed up a little and even Jason felt a slight chill, but DeBoer only laughed some more. “Well…that’s probably the most pleasant news I’ve heard.” He turned and looked at a corner of the mausoleum that was still completely hidden shadow despite the fact that there were several torches lighting the place up. “Okay boys, go follow our rabbit.”

Several points of glowing red light appeared in the shadowy corner, then the shadows suddenly moved as the vaguely humanoid creatures made their way towards the door, hissing or growling in anticipation of the hunt. Some went through the door, others simply melted onto the floor and oozed underneath.

Even Jason, who had seen Shaders before, couldn’t suppress a shudder. He hadn’t seen that many at one time. “You’re sending them after Nicholas, aren’t you?”

DeBoer smiled again. “It was his idea. Besides, I think it will make things interesting when Azkaban is destroyed and all those locked up Death Eaters are on the loose.”

Jason nodded in agreement, but there was something nagging at the back of his mind and he felt that it should be brought up. “There is one thing, sir.”

“What is it?”

“One of the Aurors recognized Nicholas as a Guilder. If they suspect-“

“Suspect that Voldemort has Guilders working for him?” finished DeBoer. “Relax, Jason…that is exactly what we want the Ministry to think.”

“I don’t understand, sir. If you do that, they’ll think the Guilds from America are involved and…” Jason’s eyes widened in realization at what was happening. “You’re using this to upset the status quo in America, aren’t you?”

DeBoer shrugged and gave a look of feigned innocence. “Hey, if the British Ministry makes some accusations and the Colonial Ministry jumps to conclusions…well, it’s not my fault if they’re so gullible.”

He laughed again and there was a malicious gleam in his eye when he spoke. “That’s the beauty of it, Jason. You simply throw a few tiny ingredients into a stable potion and it suddenly gets the cauldron boiling out of control. Sometimes, manipulating the world is too easy…but then again, I’ve been around for almost four thousand years. If I didn’t enjoy my work so much, I’d have died of boredom a long time ago.”