Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 92: The Useless Leader
As soon as Kingsley Shacklebolt got off his broom, he glanced at the luxurious manor in front of him and frowned deeply.
The cause for this was the large number of Auror agents that had been placed all over the property.
"Sir!" One of the Aurors near the door came to greet him.
"What is going on here?! Why is half of the department guarding this house? I haven't authorized any of this!" Shacklebolt exclaimed with clear annoyance.
They were in the middle of a war and short of personnel. Now he found out that half of the Ministry forces had been diverted to another task, leaving important magical communities completely unprotected.
The young Auror in front of him grew very nervous. "But… we were following the Minister's orders…"
This only served to exacerbate Shacklebolt's fury. "I am the Director of the Auror Department! You follow my orders!"
"But sir…" Another Auror approached. This was a veteran whom Shacklebolt was very familiar with. "You know that we can't just disobey a direct order from Minister Fudge."
"And he ordered dozens of my men to come here and keep his house safe?"
"That's right." The Auror nodded solemnly, as he was well aware of how wrong this was, but couldn't say no to the Minister.
Shacklebolt sighed. "Move aside. I'm going to speak with him."
The Aurors exchanged a quick glance before opening the door. They had no reason to deny entrance to the Director of the Department.
Shacklebolt went inside, still wearing a furious expression, and began to call the Minister's name.
Eventually, a house-elf appeared and guided him to the living room where Fudge had been passing his time.
Shacklebolt found the man sitting on a comfortable sofa and drinking some expensive cognac.
"Cornelius! What is the meaning of this?!"
"Kingsley?... w-what are you… What are you doing here?"
It became immediately obvious by looking at his face and hearing his slurred words that the Minister was inebriated.
"Cornelius, in case you have forgotten, we are in the middle of a civil war! You are misusing half of our forces by keeping them here."
"Misusing them?!" Fudge looked outraged. "How dare you? They are protecting their Minister! What better use is there for them?"
"What better use? We just lost Azkaban!" Shacklebolt hadn't meant to shout that loudly, but couldn't control himself. "You were meant to send me some forces to help take it back… but no one came."
"Ah… that…" The Minister shrugged and took another sip of his drink. "What's the point? We were going to lose that anyway… the Dementors stopped listening to us, and without them, we can't keep that cursed fortress."
Shacklebolt clenched his fists with fury. If this man had sent the people he'd promised, they might have avoided losing Remus to that monster.
"Then what is the plan? To hide here forever? The citizens of Britain are suffering, not just the magical side but also the Muggles."
"You-Know-Who…" Fudge's body trembled and he finished the glass.
"No… the one causing more trouble right now is not Voldemort. It's the other one—the one who took Azkaban and now controls the Dementors, along with other demons. He should be our priority," Shacklebolt said.
"Is he really Harry Potter? That can't be right… How can that boy be worse than You-Know-Who?"
"Don't let the looks of that boy deceive you. And that 'thing' is no longer Harry Potter. Something dark took over the boy's body after he died at Voldemort's hands. We believe this started at the end of the Triwizard Tournament."
The Minister reached for the bottle again and filled another glass before bringing it to his lips with trembling hands.
"So we have two Dark Lords trying to take over our country… and what would you have me do?"
"To begin with, allow those men outside your house to return to their duty. Right now, we need every capable wizard and witch we have available."
"I will be left unprotected!" the Minister yelled.
"Then keep a few. Two or three Aurors will be more than enough to serve as security. I will reassign the rest to their proper duties."
Shacklebolt was fairly sure that Harry had no interest in taking the Minister's life, and Voldemort was dead, so the man was quite safe for the time being.
However, looking at the trembling Minister, it would be an impossible task to convince him otherwise.
"Absolutely not!" the Minister shouted. "Those Aurors belong to me, and they will stay here to keep me safe!"
The Minister ended up throwing his glass in a fit of anger.
It was then that Shacklebolt realized that they would need to get rid of this person somehow. Because otherwise, with a leader like this, their country was going to fall without even a proper fight.
And he had the feeling that things were only going to get worse from here on.
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Ely, a small city in Cambridgeshire, 14 miles northeast of Cambridge. Population: nearly 20,000.
"A Muggle city?" Hermione glanced at the houses and buildings in the distance, wondering why Harry had brought them here, along with a large group of demons.
"Is this the city we are going to exterminate?" Luna asked with curiosity.
"Wait… what?" Hermione exclaimed.
"Perhaps 'exterminate' was not the right word…" Harry considered as he glanced over the horizon. It was very early in the morning, and the sun was just starting to appear.
"We have an important task to complete, and it must be finished before dusk." He took out a piece of parchment and shared its contents with the others.
Half a dozen Kobalos and the two succubi were the only demons he had brought along for this.
The Dreagnauts and imps would be useless, and the shadow demons couldn't move properly during the day.
Harry showed them an intricate drawing of a pentagram with many symbols written on both the outside and inside of it.
"What we need to do is write this up on the ground. And it must cover the entire area of the city."
"What… for?" Hermione asked with hesitation.
A cruel grin appeared on his face. "I think it's better to leave that as a surprise."
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