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BS - Chapter 81: Disturbing News
🕑 Added 2025-09-17 10:33:13 +0000 UTCDisclaimer:
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 81: Disturbing News
One month later
The Order of the Phoenix was having another one of their routine meetings while sharing all the information they had collected.
Moody walked in, accompanied by Tonks, while others waited at the table.
The only members missing were Molly Weasley and Snape, who was still at Voldemort’s side.
“What is that?” Sirius pointed at the large paper roll under Moody’s arm.
“A map,” Moody responded, denoting the bad mood he was in. “I bring a map, and more bad news. As usual.”
Tonks sighed and helped him unroll the map on the table so everyone could see.
“More Death Eater attacks?” McGonagall asked. They had two raids in the last month on medium-sized magical communities. The number of casualties was still small, but everyone was extremely scared.
Not even the Minister of Magic could deny the return of the Dark Lord at this point, no matter how much he had tried to do that.
Moody took his wand and pointed it at the map. “Village of Clovelly, in Devon. Population used to be…443. Now it is zero,” he said with a grave tone.
Everyone present gasped in horror.
“You don’t mean…Did You-Know-Who massacre an entire Muggle village?” Sirius asked.
“They haven't touched any Muggle villages yet. And even in the previous war, the Dark Lord never did something this big,” Mundungus pointed out.
“I never said this was Voldemort’s doing,” Moody responded.
“But then…wh—” Before Hagrid could finish, Moody interrupted him by tapping his wand somewhere else.
“Village of Mousehole, Cornwall. Population used to be…697. Now it is zero.”
"Another one?!." Sirius exclaimed.
“Every single person was killed?” Remus asked with dread. “How can that be?”
“Are you sure this is not a Muggle thing? Like a…war between them?” Hestia Jones added.
“The Aurors and the agents from the Department of Magical Catastrophes who investigated the area found undeniable traces of magic in those two villages,” Tonks commented.
“And I didn't say that the inhabitants were killed either,” Moody said.
“Hold on, Moody. Then what happened to those villages?” McGonagall looked confused. This was an unprecedented event if it were done by a wizard.
Raiding a Muggle village to terrorize them and kill a few was one thing…but making an entire population disappear was on a different scale.
“They are gone.” Moody shook his head. “Over a thousand people…gone without a trace. All disappeared in one night, and no one has any idea how. Not the Muggle authorities nor ours. But what we do know is that magic was involved somehow. So, this was definitely a wizard’s doing.”
“And you don’t think this was done by You-Know-Who,” Remus stated.
“You think it was Harry Potter?”
They still had absolutely no information on Harry. No one had seen him during the last month. The same could be said about Susan Bones.
“What I think…matters little right now,” Moody said. “The fact is that we are under attack. Our entire nation is under attack by two very dangerous wizards and we are at a great disadvantage. If we can't find a way to turn things around…we are not winning this.”
“That’s so pessimistic…even for you,” Hestia huffed.
“Can’t we request help from other wizarding nations?” Sirius suggested. “Surely the I.W.C. will not stand idle when someone is putting the status of secrecy in such a blatant manner.”
“That may be our best chance, yes,” Remus agreed.
“But for that, we will need to convince the Minister of Magic that this is the best choice. That would be difficult…that man is stubborn and only cares about his personal image. Requesting aid from others will make him look weak and incapable,” McGonagall pointed out.
She also thought of how much easier this would be if either Dumbledore or Amelia were alive right now. The remaining members did not have the important connections they had.
Sirius noted that Tonks was still staring at the map with a strange look on her face. “Did something else happen?”
“Well…” Tonks glanced at Moody.
Moody nodded. “Tell them.”
“Right…” Tonks cleared her throat. “We don't think this is related to the same person, but two Muggle weapon shops were completely emptied overnight. It happened a week ago, on the same night on two opposite sides of the city.”
“Muggle weapon shops? You mean like those guns they use?” Hestia asked, wondering what this had to do with anything else they had spoken about before. Wizards were rarely interested in Muggle tools and weapons because they were seen as inferior.
“As I said, we don't think this is related to that same wizard. But once again, the Department for Improper Use of Magic was involved because they detected an unusual spike of magic in those areas and…”
“Are you saying that a wizard is stealing Muggle guns?” Remus asked. "That doesn't sound good."
“That does seem to be the case,” Tonks responded.
“We can be sure this is not something You-Know-Who would do. From what we know of him, he detests Muggles and anything made by them,” Mundungus commented.
“No one should underestimate what those weapons can do,” Arthur Weasley added. “I have read about what they can do…it's not pretty.”
“No one is underestimating anything, Arthur,” Moody spoke. “But we do have bigger concerns than a few missing guns. Yesterday, I managed to finally find someone knowledgeable about that particular demonology book that went missing from the Ministry’s museum a month ago.”
“Yes, the daemonium something,” Sirius said.
“The Codex Daemonium,” Moody corrected him.
“And? What did this expert have to say about it?” McGonagall asked.
“He said that if that book were to fall into the wrong hands…into the hands of someone with no morals and insane enough to make deals with demons—well…he said, in the worst possible scenario, that book could bring doom and chaos into our world.”
