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Power Plays Chapter 15
🕑 Added 2023-04-08 15:59:01 +0000 UTCHarry wasn’t quite sure what he expected Amos’s office to look like, but it certainly wasn’t this.
Hundreds upon hundreds of manila folders were stacked all around the room, bursting at the seams with what must have been thousands, if not tens of thousands, of pieces of multicoloured parchment. The grey wall behind the folders was barely visible. Bits of scrap parchment littered the floor, as though someone had painstakingly measured out the exact area of the floor and shredded up enough parchment to cover it completely. There were a few spare bird droppings on the parchment too, presumably courtesy of the Jobberknolls and Fwoopers who were sat up in rafters above.
The magical world tended to be impractical in many curious respects, but it was rare to see a place so poorly maintained as this office was. Harry didn’t exactly feel comfortable stepping into the room, especially with the smell of rotting feces and cheap candles filling his nose, but he had little choice in the matter. He and Susan stepped inside, and as she closed the door behind them, Harry pulled out his wand to cast a quick Vanishing Charm to get rid of some of the mess so he’d have somewhere decent to stand.
“No!” Amos yelled from behind his desk.
Harry froze as he watched Amos dive underneath his desk, sending a pot of ink flying onto the floor behind him. Harry could just barely see the man’s foot underneath the desk tapping nervously.
“Put that away,” Susan whispered urgently to Harry, but he was already in the process of doing it. The birds up above all focused their attention on the two interlopers, and none of them looked particularly friendly. Clearing her throat, Susan tried to calm Amos. “Mr Diggory, sir? It’s me, Susan Bones.”
“Yes, yes, thank you for coming,” Amos replied through chattering teeth. The desk started to rattle in a rhythmic pattern, and Harry realized that the man was rocking himself under it. “Just leave whatever it is you have on my desk.”
“We don’t have anything sir,” Susan said gently. “We were just hoping to talk to you.”
“We?” Amos asked.
“Yes, we,” Susan frowned. The man knew both of them, and he had seen them when they entered his office. “Susan Bones and Harry Potter.”
There was a little peep followed by the sound of Amos’s head thumping the underside of his desk. “P-p-p-potter, you say?”
“Maybe I should go,” Harry murmured to Susan, but she shook her head no.
“Yes, we just wanted to talk to you,” Susan called out. “If we could just have a couple minutes of your time, then we’ll be out of your hair. Could you come out from under your desk, please?”
There was a beat of silence as the rocking ceased. “I might,” Amos replied tentatively. “But no magic!”
“No magic,” Susan agreed. “We’ll keep our wands holstered and out of sight, won’t we Harry?”
“That’s right,” Harry agreed.
“Oh, alright then,” Amos sighed.
The tall, ruddy-faced man crawled out from under his desk. He grabbed onto his chair like it was a lifeboat and physically pulled himself up back into his seat. It was perhaps the strangest thing Harry had ever seen a grown man do. Once he had twisted himself around and was fully seated in his high-backed chair, Amos sucked in a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and then let it out again.
Susan put on her most charming smile as she took a cautious step forward. Amos’s eyes locked onto her the second he spotted her movement and they didn’t leave her until she was settled again.
He’s like a spooked animal, Harry realized. Everything in Amos’s behaviour screamed that something was wrong. Surely if he was normally this poorly off, someone would have noticed it by now and got him over to St Mungo’s to see a mind healer or at least reported it to Amos’s superior. Even Arthur Weasley should have mentioned something the last time Harry spoke to him. This change had to be recent. At least, Harry hoped it was.
“We’re sorry to bother you, but we were wondering if you had any records on permits the Ministry gave out for the importation or sale of Augureys, or any recorded cases of smugglers bringing Augureys into the country,” Susan explained.
Amos’s head bobbed up and down as Susan spoke. He had a glassy look in his eye that told Harry he wasn’t really paying that much attention to them.
Something was wrong. Harry could feel it.
“No,” Amos replied quietly, still bobbing his head.
A disbelieving look crossed Susan’s face, but she disguised it quickly enough with a more caring expression. “Really?” She said gently without any sarcasm in her tone. “I’m sure your department keeps records like this though.”
Amos bit his lower lip and shook his head. “We do,” he said, contradicting his own body language.
“And you’re the head of the birds section of the Beasts department, right?”
“I am,” Amos answered, shrinking further back into his chair.
“So, are you sure that you don’t have any documentation?” Susan asked with a smile.
Amos’s eyes instinctively looked over to a pile of folders to his right. Harry’s eyes tracked his gaze and spotted the stack of manila folders with red, violet, and orange parchment sticking out of them. Then, Amos’s eyes went wide as he saw Harry looking right where he was.
“Susan!” Harry shouted just as Amos jumped to his feet with a roar.
Susan leapt backwards as Amos lunged at her over top of his desk. His hands grabbed nothing but air, but then he scrambled up and over the desk and landed on the floor in front of Harry and Susan.
From the demented look in the man’s eyes, Harry thought that Amos was about to attack them. Instead, Amos dashed over towards the stack of folders as he tore his wand out from his waistband. There was barely enough time for Harry and Susan to draw their wands before Amos screamed “Incendio!” as he jabbed his wand at the stack of folders.
“Accio!” Susan countered, moving faster than Harry. The Summoning Charm yanked half of the stack of folders towards her, and the rest tumbled to the floor as the slower-moving Fire-Making Charm soared overhead. The ball of flame exploded on the wall behind where the folders had been and sent tiny flames all around the area.
“Petrificus Totalus!” Harry called out, catching Amos in his side before he could fire off another spell.
The birds up above squawked angrily as Amos toppled to the floor, and Susan had to bring up a Shield Charm as one of them dove down and tried to take a swipe at them with its talons. The Jobberknoll bounced harmlessly off of the translucent shield and flew back up to the rafters where it glared balefully at Harry and Susan.
With Amos frozen in place on the floor, it didn’t take more than a few seconds to put out the small fires that had started. Harry and Susan worked diligently, saving all of the documents around the room other than a few unlucky ones that were too badly charred to be saved.
“What the hell was that about?” Harry grumbled as he helped Susan collect the stack of folders she had summoned over to herself. Without Amos able to protest, he made liberal use of the Vanishing Charm to clean away the remnants of bird poop and grime over everything around them.
“I don’t know,” Susan muttered. “He clearly doesn’t want us to see something here.”
“Well,” Harry said, lifting up his collected stack and placing it on top of Amos’s messy desk. “Let’s see what it is then.”
“Help me get him back in his chair first,” Susan ordered.
She cast a levitation spell on Amos and lifted his petrified body into the air. Harry pulled Amos’s chair back and waited until Susan had him positioned right above it before he canceled the body-bind curse on the man. Amos didn’t even have a chance to speak before Harry followed it up with the Incarcerous spell, which conjured thick ropes that lashed Amos’s arms, legs, and torso to his chair. The man thrashed and snarled at them, only to suddenly make a dramatic shift and sag back against his chair when he realized he wasn’t able to move.
“Sir?” Susan prompted, the niceness on her face replaced with the stern professionalism that Harry had grown to expect from her aunt. “Why did you try to burn these?” She asked him, gesturing down at the folders on his desk.
“I didn’t!” Amos protested futilely. “I swear I didn’t!”
“Right,” Harry drawled disbelievingly. He turned back to Susan. “We need to get him to St Mungo’s. Something is obviously wrong with him.”
“In a minute,” Susan held her hand up to stop Harry while keeping her eyes focused on Amos. Suddenly, her brow crinkled and she leaned in closer to the man. Amos squirmed uncomfortably as Susan’s face got closer and closer to his until their noses were nearly touching. “There!” Susan exclaimed as she pulled back.
“What?” Harry asked in confusion.
“He’s under a Compulsion Charm,” Susan explained as she stowed her wand. “I thought I spotted something off in his eyes when we came in, but I couldn’t place my finger on it.”
Harry stepped forward and looked deep into Amos’s eyes himself. Sure enough, he saw the telltale swirls of smoky-white wisps in his irises. They were faint, swirling around slowly as they drifted in a counter-clockwise pattern, but they were distinct enough if you really focused in on it.
“Damn,” Harry grimaced as he pulled away from Amos. Amos didn’t deserve any more pain or misery in his life, but it seemed like trouble was gravitating towards him. “We can’t dispel it until a healer checks him out, can we?”
“Nope,” Susan shook her head sadly. “We can’t risk it without knowing how long he’s been under someone’s compulsion. Who knows what damage has been done to his brain? And who knows what additional damage we could do if we don’t unravel the magic carefully.”
Amos couldn’t have been under the compulsion for more than a few weeks, but even that was enough to cause permanent damage if the caster wasn’t a particularly competent witch or wizard. There was a reason spells that targeted the brain were so closely monitored and regulated by the Ministry. Some, like Cheering Charms, were perfectly safe under normal uses, but others could ruin your entire life.
As Susan picked up a stack of folders off of Amos’s desk, the man’s body seized forward. The ropes held him still, but the man seemed determined to grab those documents from her. “Stop!” He demanded in a choked tone. Tremors started to wrack his body, making the chair vibrate against the floor. “Please!” He called out, desperation and sadness tinging his voice.
Harry couldn’t take it anymore. “Stupefy,” he murmured, and Amos slumped down unconscious.
“Thanks,” Susan told Harry. He could see from the dark look on her face that she was just as disturbed over what happened to Amos as Harry was. “Let’s get him out to St Mungo’s, and then we can go over these documents.”
“Right,” Harry nodded.
Together, they gathered up the remaining folders. They didn’t have time to sort through the entire stack Amos had tried to set on fire, so they just grabbed all of them. Once they were shrunk down and stored inside of Susan’s robes, Harry undid the bindings on Amos and levitated his body behind them. The birds squawked menacingly in protest, but they seemed to have learned from the first Shield Charm that they couldn’t physically stop Susan and Harry so they remained in the rafters.
Upon leaving Amos’s office, Susan and Harry retraced their steps back down the long corridor towards the stairwell.
“Earplugs,” Harry reminded Susan as they got closer to the staircase. He pulled out his two pieces of cork the young man had shown them earlier and went to put them in his ears when he paused.
Susan took note of that. “What’s wrong?”
Harry frowned, listening quietly for a moment. “I don’t hear any of the animals anymore,” he said. They were close enough to the staircase that they should have been able to hear them by now.
Susan just shrugged. “Maybe they were transfered out?”
“Maybe,” Harry agreed. But he couldn’t hear any sounds of workers either. Offices weren’t exactly loud, but surely he should be hearing some type of activity. “I’ve just got a weird feeling.”
Susan nodded and pulled out her wand. That was one of the things Harry loved about her: even if he couldn’t explain why he thought or felt a certain way, she always trusted his gut instincts. “Stay behind me and keep Amos safe,” she ordered him. “Just in case.”
“You got it,” Harry nodded. He reduced the height of the Levitation Charm on Amos so that his unconscious body lowered until Harry’s mostly obscured his.
They continued forward with more caution than before, listening closely for anything. But even as they reached the base of the staircase that led up into the main office of the Beasts division, they still hadn’t heard a thing.
“Wait here,” Susan told Harry as she crept silently up the stairs. Harry watched her move up until just her head poked up above the top of the staircase. Her head turned slightly as she scanned the room.
“Anything?” Harry murmured as Susan slunk back down the stairs to him.
She shook her head. “The whole office is empty,” she whispered back. “I don’t like this.”
“I can send a patronus to your aunt,” Harry suggested.
“Good idea.”
So, Harry waved his wand with a whispered “Expecto Patronum.” He let the memories he had of the spirits of his parents speaking to him in the Forbidden Forest right on the eve of the war fill his mind. A rush of emotion soared through his body and funneled out of his wand as a silver stag Patronus appeared before them. Harry quickly whispered a message to the stag and directed it to find Amelia Bones.
The Patronus dipped its head before it bounded off, kicking through the air as though it were running on solid ground. Harry and Susan watched as it rushed up the staircase and into the office above.
Two seconds later, chaos erupted as jets of green light shot overhead. The spells soared harmlessly through the Patronus before careening into the sloped ceiling above the staircase. Large chunks of white plaster rained down on Harry and Susan as they choked on the fine dust that the Killing Curses made.
“They’re downstairs!” A deep male voice called out from the office. The sounds of pounding footsteps rang out.
Without needing to even speak to coordinate, Harry and Susan snapped into action. Harry propelled Amos around the corner just in time as the first black-cloaked figure appeared at the top of the stairs. The figure had their wand raised and a bone-white mask over their face. A bead of magical energy was forming on the tip of their wand, but it dissipated the instant that Susan’s stunning spell sent the figure spiraling backwards to the floor.
Three more figures appeared above, all with their wands raised, all dressed in the same black cloaks and bone-white masks.
“Death Eaters,” Susan spat as she twirled out of the way of a vicious-looking violet curse. It struck the polished tile behind her with a loud cracking sound as though the earth had been ripped open.
As concerned as Harry was that Death Eaters were in the Ministry dressed in their full regalia, he knew it wasn’t the time to speculate. He fired off a silent cutting curse that slipped past a slowly cast Shield Charm. The left sleeve of one of the cloaked figures was sheared off completely, as was the figure’s arm at that point. A thick splatter of blood hit the ground as the Death Eater recoiled backwards, too stunned to even cry out in pain. They just clutched the stump where their arm had been, slipped on their own blood and hit the floor, before scrambling back onto their feet as they ran away from the stairwell. It took another few seconds before the man’s screams started.
Knowing that Amos was safe around the corner, Harry pushed up a few steps as he created the strongest Shield Charm he could. A couple of the remaining two Death Eaters’s spells splashed harmlessly against his shield, giving Susan the chance to counterattack with carefully-aimed stunners. Her jets of red light soared around Harry’s shield, but this time the Death Eaters were ready. One of them physically threw themselves out of the way while the other brought up a Shield Charm of their own to block the stunner. A thick crack formed into the shield as Susan’s spell struck it, but it held for now.
“Stay with me,” Harry called back over his shoulder as he carefully climbed up another few steps, always wary that one powerful spell against his shield could send him tumbling back down the stairs. He planted his feet carefully with each step as a few more spells rained down against his shield, and thankfully he managed to keep his footing.
Susan did exactly as Harry suggested, falling into place a few steps behind him. With him on the left side of the staircase, she stood right in the center so that she could fire off spells around his shield. It was a wonderfully effective tactic as nothing the Death Eaters threw at them was able to penetrate Harry’s shield, and Susan was fast enough with her counterattacks that the Death Eaters didn’t dare risk using the Killing Curse when they might not be able to get it off in time. Instead, both sides simply fired fast but effective spells at one another as Harry and Susan slowly progressed up the stairs.
When they neared the top, Harry saw the Death Eaters’s resolve break. The two remaining fighters dashed for cover behind some of the nearby desks, firing blindly behind them as they ran. Harry dropped his shield half a second before the spells struck the walls on either side of the staircase and fired off a lightning-fast stunning spell. It clipped one of the Death Eater’s hips, and they sprawled out on the floor in a state of unconsciousness.
“Give it up!” Susan called out to the last remaining Death Eater. Harry could just barely see his black hood poking out over top of one of the desks halfway through the office. It was a desk just to the left of the wide center aisle, so there was no cover for him to his right.
The Death Eater didn’t respond, but in the quiet room, Harry swore that he could hear their panting breath.
Susan drew Harry’s attention and gestured subtly with her eyes. Understanding her meaning, Harry slowly prowled towards the left side of the room while Susan took the right side. They were both crouched low, gaining as much cover as they could from the desks that lined the center of the room.
“Surrender!” Harry called out loudly, trying to draw the Death Eater’s attention his way so that Susan would have a better chance of catching him unawares. “You’ve got nowhere to go.”
“No, I don’t,” the female Death Eater replied sadly.
It took a moment for the woman’s tone to process through Harry’s mind, but by that point it was too late. A raging inferno in the shape of Nundu, a large African beast that looked like a leopard, burst out of the woman’s wand and took to the air above her.
“Fiendfyre!” Susan shouted over the crackling sound of the spell.
Harry grimaced as the intense heat of the fiendfyre washed over him. He’d hated this spell ever since he saw what it did to Crabbe in the Room of Requirement at the end of the war. It was destruction incarnate, and it would tear through the Ministry if left unchecked.
“Accio Ministry documents!” The Death Eater shouted as the flames stopped spewing out of her wand. Flames fell from the fiendfyre above her and ignited her cloak, but she didn’t seem to care; her sole focus was on Susan.
Through the haze of the intense heat, Susan grabbed her robes and held them tightly against herself to stop the documents from flying out of the inner pocket.
Realizing that her summoning spell wasn’t having the desired effect, the Death Eater leapt over the desk and charged towards Susan.
Thick smoke was starting to fill the room as the Fiendfyre burned through the cages and nests high up along the walls, and Harry’s visibility was getting worse. He needed to deal with these flames as soon as possible, but he couldn’t just abandon Susan as she was still struggling to maintain her grasp on the documents.
“Stupefy!” Harry shouted as he jabbed his wand at the Death Eater. His jet of red light missed her by an inch as she rolled forward, using a nearby desk as cover.
The Death Eater canceled her Summoning Charm and quickly fired off a Killing Curse at Susan with a desperate lunge forward. With the Summoning Charm no longer making her struggle, Susan was able to throw herself to the side and dive behind a potted plant for cover. The Killing Curse went wide and shattered a portrait hung on the wall in between a pair of thick, steel cages.
Harry’s eyes watered as he dashed forward through the smoke to get closer to the Death Eater. It was hard to see, and he kept tripping over the corners of desks and chairs that were strewn about, but he never fell down.
“Susan!” Harry called out, finding it harder to see now that he was right under the raging inferno. The heat was making him dizzy, and even a quickly-cast Cooling Charm did little to resolve the issue.
“Harry!” Susan called back. Harry’s head snapped to the right in the direction Susan’s voice came from. Apparently, she was on the move too, only she seemed to be retreating back towards the staircase.
Suddenly, a burning chunk of wood plummeted from the bottom of a cage high above. Harry jumped to his left to get out of its way, only to grunt as he smacked right into something. A feminine shriek sounded from below him as he went tumbling to the floor with the Death Eater.
Harry’s fist pummeled the bone-white mask of the Death Eater. The skin of his knuckles broke open, and there was a cracking sound as a terrible burst of pain shot through his hand, but the punch had the desired effect of stunning the Death Eater momentarily. With his uninjured hand, Harry shouted another “Stupefy” and rendered the Death Eater unconscious.
Unfortunately, the Death Eater wasn’t the biggest threat anymore. The Fiendfyre continued to rage uncontrollably, and it was starting to make its way down the walls towards the floor. There was maybe a minute or two before the entire room would be engulfed, and Harry and Susan would be caught up along with it.
“I’ve got her stunned!” Harry shouted before letting out a hacking cough due to all the smoke he’d inhaled. He grabbed onto the arm of the unconscious Death Eater and tried to tug her along, but between the smoke, dizziness, and intense heat, Harry felt himself struggling.
“Forget her!” Susan called back out, sounding distant. “I’ve got Amos! We need to get out of here now!”
Harry didn’t even bother arguing. He knew that the lack of oxygen was making him sluggish and he wasn’t thinking clearly. However, he still had the foresight to snatch the mask off of the woman’s face as he staggered over towards the sound of Susan’s voice.
He bumped into her after just a few steps, accidentally popping the Bubble-Head Charm she had placed around her face. She hacked as she suddenly inhaled a bunch of smoke, but still managed to replace the charm on herself and place another one on Harry as well.
Clean air filled Harry’s lungs as the Bubble-Head Charm protected him from the thick, black smoke. He was able to see a little better too, but the tears continued to flow from his eyes as his body tried to rinse out the accumulated smoke on him.
“Ventus!” Susan called out as Harry regained his wits. A thick gust of air shot out of the tip of her wand, blowing away the smoke that obscured their vision.
There was a clear path in front of them now directly to the exit, and Harry and Susan made a break for it with Amos floating closely behind. Flames licked at their heels as the desks around them were engulfed in the inferno.
Just when it looked like they’d make it, the massive Nundu-shaped Fiendfyre leapt in front of their path, blocking the exit. Harry and Susan came to a skidding halt as the magical fire prowled towards them. Harry didn’t even have to look around to know that they were trapped on all sides by the flames. They’d be burnt to a crisp in a matter of seconds and all of this would have been for naught.
Fiendfyre couldn’t be put out by water, magical or otherwise. At best, magical water could stop the spread of it if the caster was incredibly talented, and possibly even redirect. However, there was only one surefire way known to force Fiendfyre away from you.
Putting himself in front of Susan, Harry readied his wand as he felt the magical energy bubble up inside of himself. “Pestis Incendium!” He shouted, and a massive, flaming phoenix exploded out of his wand.
Immediately, Harry felt the pull on his magic as his Fiendfyre Phoenix sought to break free of his constraints, but he held firm. He knew that his will would win out; all he had to do was trust in himself and his control. The phoenix raged in front of him as though it were trying to break out of chains that were binding it in place, but it still had the effect of preventing the Death Eater’s Fiendfyre from getting any closer.
“Harry,” Susan said warningly, fear tinging her voice. “The fire’s coming up behind us fast!”
Closing his eyes for just a split second, Harry forced his will through the connection with the Fiendfyre Phoenix and commanded it forward. There was one last attempt to resist his will before Harry felt the Fiendfyre succumb.
Suddenly, the Fiendfyre Phoenix let out a screech. It flapped its wings and surged forward, crashing right into the Fiendfyre Nundu. Harry knew that the Death Eater’s Fiendfyre was no match for his; he was just too magically powerful. The Nundu Fiendfyre tried to push back against the Phoenix, but that simply let the Phoenix drive forward with its beak and split the Nundu in two.
“Now!” Harry shouted to Susan as he started to run forward. He trusted her enough to know that she was following after him. He followed the Phoenix forward as it opened up a path for them. The heat was incredible as they passed through this tunnel of Fiendfyre, but it didn’t last more than a couple of seconds before the Phoenix burnt straight through the doors out of the Beast division and into the corridor beyond.
Harry forced his Phoenix up to the ceiling as he, Susan, and Amos burst out of the room. They ran a few feet towards the lift, only to see it open up right in front of them and a dozen Aurors spill out of it. They all looked ready for a fight, but that look turned into amazement as they saw Harry wrestle his Fiendfyre Phoenix back into the Beast division room. He set it there to block the exit and prevent the uncontrolled Fiendfyre Nundu from wreaking havoc anywhere else.
Senior Auror Proudfoot was at Harry’s side a moment later, his wand drawn. “There’s loose Fiendfyre in there,” Harry explained as sweat trickled down his face. “I’ve got the entrance guarded with my own to stop it from escaping.”
Proudfoot nodded, quickly understanding the situation. “Fairley, Perks, get over here and help me with the wards!”
Two Aurors hustled over and Proudfoot started directing them to paint runes along the edge of the doorway. It was hard work due to the extreme heat, but they managed to get it done in under two minutes.
“We’re going to suck the oxygen out of the room,” Proudfoot told Harry. “There’s no one in there, right?”
“No one alive,” Harry answered.
Proudfoot nodded. “Perks, activate the wards!”
An older man tapped the bottom right rune and, suddenly, a glowing blue shield erected itself over the doorway. A loud sucking sound followed, like someone was trying to get the last bit of juice from a cup with a straw. It lasted little more than a few seconds before the sound faded.
Harry felt his Fiendfyre try to rebel again as it had no more fuel to work with. Without oxygen in the room, it wouldn’t be able to sustain itself unless Harry maintained the magical connection. It tried to break through the walls to escape, but the old wards placed on the foundation of the Ministry held firm.
Harry wrenched his magic away from his Fiendfyre and broke the connection. There was a terrible, inhuman scream as the Fiendfyre died out. Then, silence fell.
