243 Chapter 243: Broken Secrets
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15 August 1994, Ministry of Magic, London
Saul Croaker sat in his office, feeling his migraine grow with every moment. To say that this was a clusterfuck would be an understatement. Someone had broken into the Department of Mysteries. That alone would have been a headache. Their security system was one of the most sophisticated ones they could have ever built, while still staying in the ministry.
They couldn't afford to use powerful wards, so they made up for it with ingenuity. The ward patterns shifted very quickly, so much so, that without the head of the Department, which was Saul himself, adding them into the wards, they could not be bypassed without breaking the wards, which would have activated other protection charms.
That meant that it was an inside job. He had sent the Department's own security force to investigate what happened, whose head was sitting in front of his looking unsure, "What do you have so far?"
"It wasn't an inside job. We used scrying to verify the location of every single one of our Unspeakables during the break-in. They weren't involved."
"But the wards…" Saul hesitated.
His subordinate interrupted him, "…were bypassed somehow. We still have no idea how, but whoever broke in was able to recognize the shifting frequency of the ward, analyse it, and send a counter to modify it to not scan for magical signatures, in a fraction of a second before the frequency shifted again. That kind of ability, that sort of mental processing is like nothing I have ever witnessed before."
Saul Croaker froze at the thought. He was right. The fact that the Ministry of Magic was in the same building meant that the Department of Mysteries could not use any wards with too much power. It was something that was annoying but was part of the deal with the Department that joined the ministry after its formation. The Unspeakables made up for it by using layered wards that would have worked faster than ever possible.
For centuries, not a single person had been able to break into the department. Many have tried, yes, but their measures had worked easily, and with magical research being slowly put down by Dumbledore, they had never expected anything like this.
"Do you have any leads?" he asked hoping for the best.
"Yes. The intruders had used anti-scrying enchantments when they reached the department, but they would have alerted the ministry if they entered with them. We don't have any sound but at least we have a lead…"
The head investigator waved his wand, and an illusion was the familiar form of Broderick Bode and Olivia Green walking together towards the elevator and leaving just as the explosions started being set off, "I thought you said that it wasn't an inside job."
Yes, the only way someone could break into the Department of Mysteries would have been if they were already allowed in. This was proven by Augustus Rookwood, who after they investigated, ended up sneaking various cursed artefacts to Lord Voldemort, that's not to mention some very sensitive research and a few rare books.
Even now, they had no idea just how much of their research was compromised. There were rumours of the Americans having made some kind of experimental time-turner, something that their department has worked on for hundreds of years.
Still, Saul did not like the look on his subordinate's face, "We checked, they were both dosed with a very potent sleeping potion. They weren't involved. We suspect Polyjuice was used."
"So, we have nothing…"
"We're looking at the people who knew that Green and Bode were Unspeakables and anything that connects them. Whoever had done it knew exactly how to get past our security. Considering that the entire break-in took less than thirty minutes, this was planned for a very long time."
The head of the Department of Mysteries groaned, "Let me get this straight, someone from outside our department snuck inside our headquarters under Polyjuice, somehow out-thought our wards enough to disable them and proceeded to blow up our archives and half our sensitive rooms. And now, I have that idiot Fudge asking for an explanation since the explosion shook half the ministry!!!"
The investigative unit stayed silent at this, and Saul took a deep breath, "What's the damage then?"
"Well, some of our archives were destroyed, but we have back-ups in our black sites. There was some damage in our Time room, but nothing substantial. Half of the prophecy orbs were destroyed, but we don't have a lot of people working in that department, so that's not a huge loss… we don't think this was meant to be a critical blow. They could have done a lot more damage."
Saul was experienced enough to know that they were holding something back, "There's something else."
"There's only one project that was destroyed as thoroughly as possible. We have nothing left of it. When we tried to revert the damage, we also noticed that the back-ups were also destroyed."
"Which project was it?"
The head investigator looked hesitant, "We don't really have clearance for it, sir. But it's something called Project Athena. I've never heard of anyone mentioning it…"
Well, shit.
Saul froze and paled in fear. Project Athena was one of the shadows of the Department of Mysteries. He never wanted it to become a reality. It was supposed to be the epitome of the Unspeakable…
Ever since the Great War, when the world truly saw the devastation a battle between two Archmages could bring, everyone wanted to get their hands on one. The Unspeakables did not want to risk being pressured and started working on creating one.
Unfortunately, making a wizard with certain specifications, like immense intelligence, magical capacity, and control, was very unpredictable. The magic just did not stabilize for some reason, creating monstrosities instead of the epitome of mages. Afterwards, the project was officially scrapped, and their people were reassigned.
Except it wasn't. A few rogue members reopened it, firmly believing that it would succeed. They called themselves the Foundation, and they started to experiment on living people to create their perfect weapon.
They started getting more success by modifying an already living wizard or witch, even if the results were more pronounced in females. They found a way to make certain simulations on who it would work on the most, and after decades, they found their most promising match, a muggleborn called Lily Evans.
They only planned on taking muggleborns anyway, out of convenience more than anything. The department was able to hoodwink her parents easily enough, and the girl seemed like a great success. Her intelligence was boosted to a ridiculous degree. She was taught magics that were almost lost to time. She was taught arcane spells, curses, and even blood magic, and she soaked everything like a sponge.
She was their weapon. They gave her missions to wipe out threats to the populace, steal certain artefacts, and destroy certain strongholds. She was their countermeasure against Dumbledore's plans, and Lord Voldemort's madness. Evans was so successful that they called her the Red Witch.
Saul found out about her after she wiped out a pack of mercenaries that were under Voldemort's employ, and he scrapped the project, stopping her from getting any missions. He had discreetly killed off the leader of the Foundation, but he never knew just how deep the rabbit hole went.
However, he ended up with a very powerful asset that he just couldn't discard. Instead of subjugating the girl to more horrors, he wanted her to become a public figure, a recognized genius of magical Britain that would have spread the influence of the department politically…
She was on her way to become their greatest victory against Dumbledore, the man who had literally crippled their influence after his victory over Grindelwald.
However, one day, she just refused to answer any summons and married the Potter scion, putting her firmly under Dumbledore's radar, exactly where they didn't want them to be. After his parents' death, probably at the hands of a former member of the Foundation, Saul still kept tabs on her. Every projection predicted her behaviour to end up with her taking revenge on the department since she found out that the Foundation and the Unspeakables were connected somehow.
And so, Saul decided to neutralize the threat by arranging for the attack on Godric's Hollow to be far larger than it should have been. He had hired mercenaries to offer their services to the Lestranges, and everything was going according to plan.
Until the damn village blew up, of course. He had tried getting people to use time-turners to see what happened, but they turned into ash the moment they used them…
After years without any sign of the Red Witch, they proclaimed the attack to have been a success. Sure, they kept observing her son, but Dumbledore was oddly interested in the boy, and then the Black Patriarch adopted him, putting him out of reach permanently.
Over a decade after the fire of Godric's Hollow, they were offered a girl, who had her soul sucked into a diary, a muggleborn who they discovered to be just as good as a match to the project as Lily Evans. With the way Dumbledore was acting, they needed a trump card.
And it wasn't like they had done anything to the girl. They were literally saving her life, giving her a future. They did not know how to move her soul back to her body. The best they could have given her would have been a way to animate her body, like some kind of phylactery. No matter the result, she would have ended up as nothing more than an abomination, a lab rat in the department. Project Athena was her only way out.
They had been able to add memories into the diary, specifically, the spells to animate her body. The soul used the diary as a medium to somehow absorb the instructions as if it were learning. Tom Riddle might have grown to become a madman, but the way he had created the diary was brilliant, to say the least.
They experimented on her body, and then after a lot of research, found a way to enhance her cognitive functions so that her body's animation would seem natural. After months of hard work, Hermione Granger's body woke up, and she could interact with the world.
He would not disagree and say that they hadn't manipulated her, but he was telling the truth. Becoming the Department's asset was probably her best bet forward. Saul could easily see her become the minister in a few years which would be a boon for the department. And with the diary in their possession, they did not have the risk of rebellion that happened with the Evans girl.
Wait a minute, the diary…
"Did you notice a small black diary in the room that had Project Athena?"
The investigator looked perplexed, "No. The entire room was burned to a cinder. Even the backups were destroyed. We think that they were hit before the attack. It's either that or whoever did it, somehow used the magical link with the back-ups to destroy them."
Saul paled and quickly used a scrying spell on the Granger girl. He relaxed when he saw her talking normally with Neville Longbottom. She was still alive, but that meant that the Diary wasn't destroyed. And if it wasn't destroyed, then it was taken.
Someone had taken the soul of their greatest asset.
He practically ran out of his office, towards the ward scheme, the investigators following him. He removed every single bit of access Hermione Granger still had in the department. He quickly sent a Patronus message to every single Unspeakable who worked on the project.
Project Athena was definitely the target of the attack. The rest was just a destructive smokescreen. Someone knew about the project intimately, enough to know they kept backups, enough to break into the room and find the hidden office.
The head investigator spoke up, forgoing any of the formality he had previously, "Saul, with all due respect, what the fuck is Project Athena?"
"Let's just say that we need to find whoever is responsible for this and get the diary back. You have the entirety of the Department of Mysteries behind you for this. You can use any method you want, just find them. I'll run interference with Fudge and the rest of the ministry. Let's get back to my office so that I can give you a proper briefing on what's at stake."
Saul Croaker expected many sleepless nights ahead of him.
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AN: Not sure about how I built up the Department of Mysteries and Lily's connection to it. I'll be honest here and say that I'm kinda conflicted about it. Also, as for why Lily hadn't done more damage to the department, she could have, easily in fact, but this is part of a larger plan. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any recommendations.
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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.
