The-Enemies-Who-Planned (IV)

~~Wizengamot Chambers, Ministry of Magic~~ (November 6th, 1994)

Amelia Bones entered the Wizengamot Chambers and gave a nod to the Auror guards standing at the door out of habit when they greeted her. She looked around at the gathered faces before she started to make her way toward the seat reserved for the Head of the DMLE. There was a Bones Family seat too, which was being occupied by her trusted Connie Hammer at the moment.

Susan was still too young to occupy the Bones Family seat and Amelia was already occupying the Head of the DMLE seat, which meant that she couldn't occupy both at the same time, so she had to get someone else to occupy that seat who would happily support her views and opinions. Connie Hammer was such a woman… She had known Connie for years and even though the woman was almost a decade younger than her, she had earned her trust through her own hard work.

Amelia finally took her seat and looked around… The Chamber was quickly filling up and she wondered what this meeting was about. This meeting was supposed to be on November 2nd, but the meeting had to be canceled due to Gellert Grindelwald escaping prison after almost five decades, which meant the meeting wasn't about Grindelwald.

Grindelwald was another sour topic in her mind, which made her grimace internally. Until a few days ago she didn't even know that Gellert Grindelwald was still alive.

All of them had assumed that Dumbledore had killed Grindelwald after their so-called legendary duel, and Dumbledore never bothered to correct them… She knew Dumbledore quite well, and from the way he fought the Voldemort war, she should have known that the man couldn't have killed anyone… Alas, it was too late to play the blame game. Gellert Grindelwald was somewhere out there along with his followers, doing Merlin knows what, but that wasn't the end of her miseries…

Apparently, Voldemort wasn't killed during that fateful Halloween night like they assumed. Apparently, the man was still alive even though he was in a much weaker state, but he wouldn't stay like that for long… According to Avery, the Dark Mark was getting darker and the Death Eaters believed it to be a sign that the Dark Lord was finally regaining his power and he would soon make his return.

The damage both Grindelwald and Voldemort could do to the Wizarding community was simply unfathomable for her and the prospect of two of them joining hands was not something she even wanted to think about…

Amelia was broken out of her musings when the Chamber grew completely silent thanks to the arrival of the Minister and his entourage… Albus also entered the room along with the Minister, but it was clear that he wasn't a part of the Minister's entourage. Cornelius seemed to be intentionally keeping some distance from Albus. All of them stood up from their seats as a show of respect.

Cornelius finally climbed up to his podium and took his seat with her personal pink toad following him. Amelia hated the despicable woman and she would have loved to knock Umbridge a few pegs down, but she couldn't make a move thanks to Cornelius. Albus also took his seat and banged the gavel on his table as a formality before he finally started to speak.

"Wizengamot has gathered for an emergency meeting on behalf of the Minister" Albus declared to the Chamber before turning toward Cornelius. "Minister, if you please…" Albus requested in his usual grandfatherly tone.

The Minister didn't even give Dumbledore a look before he stood up and cleared his throat. "Ladies, and gentlemen, we have been played for fools for fourteen years" Cornelius passionately declared and murmurs broke out inside the room.

"What are you talking about Minister?" Lucius Malfoy asked innocently and Amelia immediately realized that it was a staged performance and she wasn't the only one to realize that.

"Oh, yes, I am talking about Harry Potter" The man declared, earning some gasps and screams of outrage from the gathered crowd while most simply looked confused. Cornelius banged his gavel on the table to get the crowd in order. "Only a few days ago, we discovered that Harry Potter isn't his real name. It is a fake name and he had been openly using that fake name to make a fool out of us" Cornelius declared and another round of murmurs broke out inside the Chamber.

"That's bullshite and even you know that" Sirius Black screamed at the Minister as he stood up from his seat with a look of outrage on his face.

"Mr. Black, you will not speak to the Minister like that" Dolores Umbridge spoke shrilly as she also stood up from her seat and glared at Sirius.

"That is Lord Black to you, you glorified pencil pusher. What the fuck are you even doing here? I clearly remember that you don't have a Family seat in Wizengamot, neither is a secretary allowed to seat in Wizengamot within the voting block" Sirius growled, and at his words, Umbridge was practically fuming as her face started to turn red.

"I agree with Lord Black, what is she even doing here Minister?" Cyrus Greengrass asked with a calm look on his face. The Minister seemed to fumble at the question.

"Well… You see…" The Minister tried to explain, but there wasn't much he could say as most of the Wizengamot was now paying rapt attention to him. First of all, Umbridge wasn't a well liked person by any of the Factions as the Dark Faction knew about her true origins and it was kind of self-explanatory for the Grey Faction and the Light Faction.

"My brothers and sisters, we are not here to talk about Madam Umbridge, we are here to talk about the crime that had been committed against our society" Lucius Malfoy declared passionately when he realized that the meeting was going off-topic. Cornelius threw him a grateful look.

"Yes, we will talk about him, but after the glorified pencil pusher is dealt with" Augusta Longbottom declared sharply from her seat. The Light Faction was further divided into two parts… The Flexible Faction which idolized and lived by Dumbledore's ideals. They believed the dogma that 'everyone deserves a second chance' and they would happily fight a war with Stunners and Disarming Charms even if they were going to be killed left and right.

Then came the Hardliner Faction, which consisted of people who wanted to deal with the Death Eaters in a more permanent manner and Augusta Longbottom was the leader of the said Faction. Amelia wondered if she should bring the old battle-ax into their small group. Her involvement would definitely help their group in all the fields… Augusta Longbottom was old, but nobody could deny the fact that the woman was still very dangerous.

Then there was the fact that the woman would rather die than ever support Voldemort…

Cornelius fumbled with his hands nervously as he looked around the Chamber before he finally turned toward Umbridge. "Dolores, please leave the Chamber" Cornelius requested weakly and Amelia thought that Dolores would protest, but she threw Augusta Longbottom a venomous glare before she started to leave the Chamber with a huff. Augusta completely ignored the woman with an indifferent look on her face.

"Well, now that she is finally gone, can we finally return to the original topic?" Theodore Nott. Sr. asked, looking somewhat irritated.

"Yes, yes…" Cornelius eagerly agreed but before the man could continue, Sirius Black decided to interrupt him again.

"I will like to stop you there Minister. My Godson was only one year old when he became famous, and I am certain that he was never interviewed by anyone, which means that he never told anyone that his name is Harry Potter. The Wizarding Community simply believed that his name is Harry Potter, so my Godson lies completely blameless on this matter" Sirius Black pointed out as he glanced toward Albus from the corner of his eyes.

While Amelia would like to point out that he wasn't completely blameless as he never bothered to correct them, unfortunately, the last time she checked, not correcting a misunderstanding was not a punishable crime, otherwise, Dumbledore would be in one of her cells, waiting for his trial, not sitting among them. Additionally, the boy was still a minor, so while using a fake name was a crime, pinning the crime on his shoulders was going to be a completely different matter.

Though on a personal level, Amelia didn't know what to make of the boy… The boy was extremely cautious and cunning. A very dangerous combination… The only thing he was lacking right now was power and political clout, but that wouldn't matter as everyone would be looking in his direction to defeat Voldemort. For the first time, she was finally starting to buy into Alastor's claims. She already believed him on the matter that the boy had killed his Muggle family, not that they could prove that, but she never believed that he was some sort of mastermind.

"Yes, Lord Black, I already know that, but while we can't blame him for the initial misunderstanding, we can't declare him completely blameless as he could have fixed the misunderstanding anytime in the last couple of years with a simple interview, but he didn't do that" The Minister declared smoothly with practiced ease. Amelia felt a pit form in her stomach when she realized that Cornelius and Lucius weren't planning to charge the boy for using a fake name, they were aiming for something else.

She glanced toward Albus from the corner of her eyes and noticed that the man didn't look much surprised at this development and the dread she was feeling intensified…

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