~~Director's Office, DMLE~~
Alastor stepped into Amelia's office and looked around. His Magical eye started to spin wildly as he inspected the whole room, before both of his eyes finally fixed on the woman, who was rummaging through one of the cabinets, with her back turned toward him.
The scarred ex-Auror growled in anger and flicked his Wand in the air, casting several Stinging Hexes at the woman's rear…
A translucent shield shimmered behind the woman's back and the Stinging Hexes harmlessly splashed against the shield. The woman turned around with a lopsided grin on her face. In one of her hands, she was holding her Wand while in her other hand, she was holding a firewhiskey bottle.
"You are becoming predictable, Alastor" Amelia pointed out with a grin as she made her way toward her chair and slumped down.
Alastor snorted derisively. "Never turn your back to your enemy, lassie! Did you forget everything I taught you?" Alastor growled in anger as he stamped forward.
"I knew it was you as soon as you walked out of the Floo… I have added some extra Wards. I bet you missed them" Amelia rolled her eyes in exasperation at the man's excess paranoia, but she couldn't call it excess when it had saved his life multiple times throughout the years.
"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Alastor screamed, but he did turn around to get a look at the Floo entrance.
He mentally kicked himself for not noticing the Wards, but he couldn't help but feel impressed at the ingenious idea of placing Wards at the Floo entrance, and then once again, he mentally kicked himself for not thinking of this method himself before everyone else. He prided himself for being ahead of everyone else…
"What was the first thing I ever said to you?" Alastor asked with a sniff as he pointed his Wand at Amelia.
Amelia simply rolled her eyes at him as she pulled out two glasses from one of her drawers and placed them on her desk. "You praised me for not keeping my Wand in my back pocket" Amalia drawled blandly as she poured drinks for herself and her guest.
Alastor huffed in acceptance before putting away his Wand. He intently stared at one of the chairs and finally sat down without any more complaints. Alastor grabbed one of the glasses and stared at the liquid intently before taking a sniff. He took a small sip and savored the liquid for a few moments before finally gulping it down…
He nodded his head in satisfaction. "This is some good stuff" Alastor admitted sharply. "So what's the occasion, lassie?" Alastor asked gruffly as he took another sip from the glass, but this sip was much bigger than the last one.
"How is your protegé doing?" Amelia asked, taking a sip from her own glass. If someone told her a couple of years ago that Alastor Mad-Eye Moody is going to choose his protegé from a fresh crop of cadets, then she would have laughed at them…
She had a really hard time believing the fact that Alastor had decided to choose Nymphadora Tonks as his protegé. The girl was quite good, but she was clumsy as fuck according to the examiners. Yes, the girl is a Metamorphmagus, which made a huge asset to her Department, but the girl's clumsiness was simply ridiculous… According to the examiners, the girl could trip on her own shadow.
"She is doing fine… She has been progressing much faster than I was expecting. She is a natural when it comes to combat" Alastor revealed with a bit of reluctance, making Amelia's eyes grow wide in shock. Those were some really high praises, especially when those were coming from a man like Alastor… Now, Amelia was looking really forward to having the girl in her Department.
"Now, only if I could curb her clumsiness…" Alastor mumbled with a displeased look on his face. "I am worried that someday she might trip on the stairs and break her fool neck" Alastor grunted unhappily. Then all of a sudden, he gave Amelia a sharp glare. "Now, cut the crap, Amelia. Why the fuck did you call me here?" Alastor snapped impatiently.
Amelia stared at the man, looking completely unbothered by his outburst. "Have you heard anything from Albus recently?" Amelia asked, sounding completely indifferent. "The two of you are pretty tight from what I know" Amelia added with an accusing look on her face.
Alastor stared at her impassively for the next few seconds. "Hah!" Alastor sighed and drained the remaining drink from his glass. "We had a falling out back in 1991. I haven't talked with him since then" Alastor revealed as he stared at the empty glass in his hand.
"Why?" Amelia asked simply as she grabbed the bottle to pour him another drink. Alastor grunted and extended the glass toward her. She poured him another drink.
Alastor took another sip from his glass… He was still deciding if he should tell her the truth to her or not, but at the same time, he knew that Amelia was probably the only one who could help him get the answers he was looking for and he also knew for a fact that she could be trusted.
"Albus lost Harry Potter back in 1988 and he wanted me to find the boy?" Alastor revealed and Amelia's eyebrows almost disappeared into her hairline in complete incredulity.
"What the fuck do you mean Albus bloody Dumbledore lost Harry Potter? He is a boy, not one of his bloody sweets!!" Amelia snapped, sounding completely bewildered.
"After the Halloween incident back in 1981, Albus shipped off the boy to live with some Muggles… Petunia Dursley née Evans was the last living relative of Lily Potter. He believes that Lily Potter sacrificed herself to cast some sort of protection on the boy, which saved the boy from the Killing Curse, and he also believes that the protection extends to the rest of her family. Hence, he sent the boy over to the Dursleys" Alastor explained with a huff.
At first, he had believed Albus' words, but later he realized that there was more to it than Albus ever told him…
"Was?" Amelia asked curiously. She didn't miss the fact that he used past tense when he referred to Petunia Dursley.
"Yeah, they were monsters… They pretty much abused the boy regularly for almost six years. When he was eight, the boy was somehow able to summon the Potter Family house elf, and then with the help of the house elf, he ran away. I have to give the boy the credit he deserves, even I wasn't able to find him" Alastor grunted and drained his drink in one go.
"What the fuck, Alastor? Why didn't you inform me about something like this? I could have helped. I don't care about his bloody moniker, but if the truth comes to light, then my Department will be hanged!" Amelia hissed as she drained her own drink.
"That would have been the most idiotic thing I could have done" Alastor drawled as he glared at Amelia. "Your Department is full of leaks and if one of those upstanding Imperiused Death Eaters would have found the boy, then the boy would have been dead" Alastor griped unhappily.
Amelia didn't have any retort to that. As much as she wanted to protest or defend her Department, she knew she couldn't… She was quite aware of the fact that there were leaks in her Department, but there was nothing she could do to fix it… Her Department was already understaffed and underpaid, if she tried to clean the house then she would have found herself thrown out of the office the next day.
"Well, moving along… When the boy turned eleven, he decided to pay the Dursleys another visit and murdered them. After that, he packed everything up before anyone realized what was happening and somehow buggered out of the country" Alastor scowled unhappily.
Meanwhile, Amelia lost all color from her face when she heard that the boy murdered the whole Family… How? "Wh…" Before Amelia could say a word, Alastor decided to cut her off.
"The boy is smart and if he is half as smart as I believe him to be, then we wouldn't have been able to pin anything on him. The clues I found would have been thrown out of court by any decent lawyer" Alastor grumbled unhappily. For the next few minutes, neither of them said anything…
Amelia didn't even know what to say. When she decided to speak with Alastor, she wasn't expecting to open a can of worms…
"Albus told us that he sent Harry Potter over to the States for protection… I believe he was lying through his teeth" Amelia muttered to herself as she pinched the bridge of her nose. She was somewhat surprised that her monocle hadn't fallen off her face. Alastor grunted in acknowledgment. "The juvenile murderer aside… What the fuck is Albus planning?" Amelia asked with a groan.
To be honest, she didn't want to put the topic of the juvenile murderer aside, but when even Alastor Mad-Eye Moody admitted that there was no way they would be able to make any of the charges stick, then it was a lost cause… That is why she decided to guide the conversation back to the initial topic.
"I don't know… Did he do something recently? I did hear that he has been visiting our dear Minister regularly…" Alastor huffed and extended the glass toward Amelia. She poured him a drink before pouring one for herself.
After that, she started to tell him about the recent events… Alastor started to tap his fake leg on the floor with a thoughtful look on his face.
"I think he is planning to use Sirius Black to bring the boy back to Britain, which means Sirius Black can probably claim over the boy's guardianship… James and Sirius were pretty tight, so I wouldn't be surprised if James named Sirius as the boy's guardian, in case something happened to them" Alastor mumbled thoughtfully.
"Do you know if James or Lily ever made a Will?" Amelia asked with a frown, only for Alastor to shrug dismissively. He wasn't close enough to the Potters to know if James had made a Will or not. Regardless, Alastor decided to get back to the topic.
"Amelia, I am not kidding, Albus is obsessed with the boy and I might have some clues behind his motivations" With that, Alastor finally finished his explanation. Amelia also reached the same conclusion after listening to the whole story. Albus seemed to have some sort of unhealthy interest in the boy.
"What clues?" Amelia asked with a clear interest in her voice.
"We had a falling out the last time we talked. He was really angry at me and in his anger, he slipped or at least I believe he slipped… He said 'There are bigger things at play… Magic you simply cannot fathom or understand'. So, I started researching. I started to look for Magicks I possibly can't begin to fathom or understand" Alastor explained in a gleeful tone.
Amelia also leaned forward on her desk with an excited glint in her eyes…
"Love Magic, I don't have a fucking clue how that works. Space Magic, once again, no fucking clue even though I know how to Apparate or create a Portkeys. Time Magic, once again no fucking clue. Death Magic, except for the Killing Curse or how to kill my enemies, no fucking clue… And finally, Prophecies" Alastor revealed and Amelia had to nod her head in agreement, even she didn't know a single fucking thing about the Magicks Alastor just mentioned.
"Through deduction, I was able to narrow the list even more… It might be Love Magic since Lily Potter sacrificed herself to save her child. If that's not Love then I don't know what Love is… Death Magic, since the bastard tried to use the Killing Curse to kill the boy, but I have a gut feeling that it's not Death Magic" Alastor shook his head with a grimace.
"And finally, a Prophecy. I don't know much about Prophecies, but I have a gut feeling that Prophecy might be our best bet. To be honest, I don't believe in the hogwash, but Albus clearly believes in it and I don't believe in Prophecies because I probably don't understand how they work" Alastor revealed excitedly and Amelia rapped her fingers on her desk.
Amelia hummed thoughtfully and drained her drink in one go… "Whoo! You have clearly given this a lot of thought… I would have agreed with you if I had known anything about Love Magic, Death Magic, or Prophecies, but I do know someone who might be able to help us…" Amelia hummed thoughtfully and Alastor immediately grimaced.
"Spooks! You are going to call fucking spooks?" Alastor practically snarled. "They are worse than Albus in some regards!" Alastor snapped, looking at Amelia like she had lost her freaking mind.
Amelia shrugged unhelpfully… "They are the only option we have. I might be able to get Croaker to help us" Amelia said slowly and Alastor looked like he had sucked an extremely sour lemon. He hated working with the spooks, but he also realized that they were the only ones who could possibly provide him with the answers.
"Alastor, there is obviously a reason he wants the boy back in Britain and I believe it has nothing to do with the murders. I want to learn everything I can about his motivations" Amelia added warily and Alastor had to admit, she was right.
"Fine! Fine! Call that bastard!" Alastor snapped unhappily and downed his drink in one go…
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