Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
The Time Meddlers
Chapter Twenty-Eight - Britain Falls Into Shadow
"Well, I guess it's time," said Ulysses Sangleton to his partner, Francis Vladamour. Both were mercenary purebloods working for the Shadow. She was able to pay the highest wages around, due to her possession of the Philosopher's Stone, and therefore was easily able to attract any mercenaries in Europe. However, she did only hire purebloods to be her minions.
The mission they were on was very simple yet important to Umbridge. Throughout the day, several mercenaries had visited the Ministry of Magic under different disguises for different excuses, and had placed certain magical devices at key positions on every floor of the building before disillusioning them. After planting the devices, the mercenaries left, making sure to check out at the front desk.
It was now exactly 2 a.m. on July 3rd, which meant that it was time to enact the plan. All they had to do was activate the devices, which had the Protean charm on them. Once activated, the devices would perform a wide-area-stunner, knocking everyone near them unconscious, to be sorted out later after interrogation by the Shadow.
Obviously, not every single person in the building would happen to be in the right place to be stunned, so the mercenaries would storm the building immediately afterward, killing anyone who tried to interfere with this takeover. The next morning, the majority of Ministry employees would find out their work environment had changed.
Ulysses took his wand out, pointed it at the control device, and muttered the activation phrase a moment before flooing into the Ministry building, followed by his partner. As they began running toward the elevator, others began appearing in the many floo entrances. After determining that the few people on that floor had been stunned, as many mercenaries as could fit into the elevator entered it while the others, a hundred in total, took the stairs.
It didn't take long for them to locate and kill the people who had been out of range at the time, as there weren't very many. A few had been in the bathroom at the time while others had been walking between departments, but were quickly subdued. The skeleton crew that stayed at the Ministry in the middle of the night was small as it was, but with ninety percent of them unconscious, it was an easy takeover. All the stunned employees were put into cells where their loyalty would be determined by the new boss when she arrived. They'd either join her or die.
--TM--
The next morning, Minister Amelia Bones woke up in her bed as usual, got ready for work and had breakfast with Susan. After saying goodbye and wishing her niece a good day, she Apparated into the atrium of the Ministry building.
The sight that greeted Amelia was not what she expected. She saw no less than fifty strangers, all of whom had their wands out. As people flooed into the place, they were immediately stunned. It was only her years of experience as an Auror that alerted her to the fact that a red beam of light was headed her way. She shifted to the right just in time to avoid it as she pulled out her wand, silently stunning the guard who'd attacked her.
"It's her! The former Minister!" one of the Shadow's mercenaries shouted while Bones tried to Apparate out, quickly learning that wards were up that didn't allow people to leave. She barely managed to dodge a green beam of light as she formulated an escape plan. Obviously, they were stunning the normal employees, hoping to make recruits out of them, but she was wanted dead. Amelia's mind fixed on the visitor's entrance, the one that didn't require magical means of travel. If she could get there, she might be able to escape.
Moving faster than one would expect a woman of her age to do, she started running, while shooting reducto's over her shoulder for cover. From the sound of things, she'd hit at least one of them as she kept changing her position so she wouldn't be easily shot. When she got to her destination, she turned around, shooting about ten reducto's at the mercenaries before jumping into the fake phone booth and dialing the numbers to be taken to the street.
She had her wand ready and blasted her way out of the phone booth, exploding it to pieces and killing the five mercenaries waiting for her when she arrived, before they knew what had hit them. She Apparated away before anyone else could attack her.
--TM--
"Auntie, what are you doing back? Did you forget something?" asked Susan as Amelia Bones reappeared at their home less than five minutes after she'd left.
"The Ministry's been taken over, come with me!" She grabbed her niece and Apparated away mere seconds before some of the Shadow's people arrived outside to destroy the house.
Susan looked around at their new location, recognizing it immediately. "What are we doing at Hogwarts?"
"Right now it's the best defended location in Britain."
--TM--
Harry and Hermione were doing something they rarely did these days - relaxing. They'd gotten up early and decided to talk. They planned to start exercising in a few minutes, but for the moment, they were just enjoying each other's company while sitting together on a love seat.
"So," said Harry, "this year we'll officially start dating."
"Not until at least after your birthday. Once you're thirteen then it should be acceptable."
"But what difference does a few weeks make?" he argued playfully. "I'm not any different now than I will be then." He scooted closer to her and whispered in her ear. "Besides, you know how old I really am."
"I know, but for appearances sake…"
"Come on, Hermione. I think we've waited long enough. You keep getting more and more beautiful each day, and I know how gorgeous you'll end up. You know I love you."
"I know," she said softly.
"And you do love me, don't you?"
"You know I do." He put his arm around her and leaned closer, making her feel light-headed. "I suppose it won't hurt to start a little early," she said before leaning forward and kissing him passionately.
POP! A loud noise filled the room.
The couple sprung apart to see Susan Bones and Winky, who presumably had brought her. Susan had decided to see them as soon as she and her aunt had settled at Hogwarts, where the government-in-exile was being set up. It would also be a refuge. While Amelia was contacting every Ministry employee she could find, Susan decided to break the news to her trainers and rescuers. The girl found herself relieved to have some reason to be happy on this terrible day. She smirked at the young couple who'd been snogging a moment before. "It's about time."
"What?" they asked together.
"I'm glad you've finally admitted your feelings. It's been obvious for ages."
Smiling brightly, Harry replied, "Yes, we have, and I couldn't be happier."
"Me, neither," agreed Hermione, who found herself a bit relieved to be able to show her affection for Harry as she put her arm around him. "Did you want to join us for our workout?"
After taking a deep breath, she responded, "Sure, but first I have terrible news."
The young couple's expressions changed from happiness to concern immediately. "What's happened?"
"The Shadow took over the Ministry. Auntie barely made it back from work alive. She's using Hogwarts as the new base."
"What?!?"
--TM--
Later that day, this message from the Shadow could be heard across England through the Wizarding Wireless Network.
"Hem hem. Upstanding citizens of Britain who hold to traditional values, I have wonderful news for you. The radicals, who had taken over our government, forcing us to accept uppity mudbloods in our workplaces and schools, have been defeated. No longer will you have to work side-by-side with those of impure blood. No longer will we have muggle values brought into our world by those enemies of tradition.
This victory brings with it opportunities for proper witches and wizards to prosper under new leadership that understands the value of proper upbringing. We will no longer have to compete with the mudbloods who have been favored by the former government, which means there are far more jobs available. Society will be restored to the way it was in the golden age of Howarts' founders, where time-honored ideals reigned supreme.
It is unfortunate that the Hogwarts castle itself is currently in the hands of traitors to those values, but that will be rectified soon enough. For now, it is time for you to declare your allegiance to the long-established ways and let us know of any mudbloods infesting your area. We suspect that they have been somehow stealing magic from pureblood children, turning them into squibs, and wish to determine how they're doing it. For that purpose, we have established housing for them, where we can do proper research into this matter.
It is a time to celebrate - tradition has finally won the war!
--TM--
Within a week, Hogwarts, which was being left alone while the Shadow established her rule and grew her army, had truly become a functional Ministry-in-Exile. It didn't have all the amazing magical devices that the actual Ministry building enjoyed, but Headmistress McGonagall made sure that functional offices had been set up on the first floor for the most important departments. In addition to that, the castle began serving as a refuge for everyone fleeing the Shadow, who'd created concentration camps that sounded worse than Azkaban for muggle-borns and any others who resisted her that weren't immediately killed. Susan couldn't remember the castle ever being this full. Not surprisingly, Draco Malfoy and his goons had joined the Shadow's group.
Unfortunately, those that did join the government-in-exile did at least as much harm as good. Many of the Wizengamot members who'd arrived at the castle were hindering Minister Bones' making plans to take back the government with their constant complaining about the accommodations. She knew they were used to living in mansions, but thought they were grown-up enough to adapt to the situation.
Harry and Hermione were staying in Ireland, although they did meet Susan every day via house elf express, but it seemed that every other family had fled to the castle. Cedric Diggory arrived with his mother after they found out his father had been killed when he refused to join Umbridge. He immediately restarted the DA secretly with every student at the castle, training them without the adults knowing. Susan clearly remembered the first meeting of the summer. Cedric gave a speech that motivated them all.
"The adults say that we're too young to fight, but I say different! We're not too young to be victims. We're not too young to lose our families. Why are we too young to resist the Shadow?
"She wants us to be helpless victims that she can kill at the drop of a hat. The adults seem to want the same thing, though for different reasons. They don't seem to realize that we don't want to wait around while they decide our fate. We want to fight this war! We want to win this war!"
He then started teaching them a lot more lethal spells then any D.A. meeting had ever had demonstrated before. It was because of this that Susan decided to suggest to Harry and Hermione that they let the Defense Association fight with them.
--TM--
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