Chapter 180. A Radical Step. Part 1. The Attack.
London. A Black Star Division.
Charles knelt with his head bowed before a mirror, his short green hair falling forward. Looking back at him was Witold, about ten years older, with similar features and the same color hair that fell to his shoulders. Witold looked grim, his sullen gaze fixed on his brother.
"Brother, I followed the plan..."
"Idiot!" Witold snapped, barely keeping his temper in check. Everything had been going so well. He had managed to bribe one of the Department of Mysteries workers, who had been feeding him information and gradually working his way into the most classified facilities. Thanks to that, Witold himself had finally been transferred to headquarters. It could not have been better. But today, the leader had contacted him and given him three days to clean up the mess his little brother had made, or he would be sent back to London.
Although... I'm no better. I should have trusted Robert's instincts back then and not sent our people into enemy territory. But what's done is done. We'll have to deal with this as fast as possible.
"Brother, what about what I suggested that day? You said it was too soon, that if it went wrong, it could turn everyone against us." Charles swallowed, suppressed his fear, and met his brother's eyes. "We don't have a choice. And Laur is with us. He only needs one hand for this."
"Hm." Witold frowned and spent a long moment weighing it. In the end, he had to agree: they were in a stalemate with nowhere to go. "Fine. But I trust you know who must not be harmed." His eyes narrowed.
"Of course! I may be somewhat ruthless, but I still have a brain!"
"Then get started, and report everything to me, no matter how slight the change in the enemy's movements. And don't try to hide things from me again, the way you did last time when the Ministry found out about our informants!" His quiet, bone-chilling voice, paired with cold, hard eyes, made Charles tremble. He had never seen his brother this angry.
"I just... I didn't want to distract you. I wanted to handle it myself." He gave a nervous smile.
"At least don't lie to me. Or have you forgotten I'm your older brother, and I know you better than anyone?" He regarded Charles with an indifferent look, then let out a tired sigh. "Charles, envy never leads anywhere good. Remember that."
"What do you mean by..." But before he could finish, the mirror showed only his own reflection again, his expression shifting from exaggerated surprise to irritation. "Tch! Always acts like I owe him something. Arrogant..." He stopped himself, snorted, and turned toward the door. "Summon the commanders."
"Yes!" A voice came from behind the door, followed by the sound of retreating footsteps.
"I'll prove I deserve this place just as much as you do, brother!" He stared at his reflection, eyes burning, fists clenched tight.
That same evening, late into the night at Hogwarts, Severus set his pen aside, feeling two eyes drilling into the back of his head. He gathered his papers into a neat stack and turned to face their owner: Nagini.
"All right, all right. You win tonight." He raised both hands toward her, palms out, exhaling with tired amusement. "And I thought you'd be staying with Eileen today. Why did you come back?"
"Did you think I'd leave you alone?" She lifted her nose. "Without me, I genuinely doubt you'd ever go to sleep."
"Hm. Fair point." He nodded in agreement, shed his clothes, used a Cleansing Charm, and headed toward the bed. "But I really was planning to go to sleep early tonight, so you came back for nothing." He tapped her on the nose and earned a sour look. "I'm not a zombie. I do feel tired." He waved a hand and turned off the light.
"I'd argue with that last part," she said slyly, settling onto the pillow beside him.
"Hey, that's actually..." But the next moment he went still, and after a few seconds he frowned.
"Did something happen?" Nagini asked, puzzled by the sudden change in his expression. It didn't even occur to her that she might have offended him with her harmless joke.
"Someone is killing my informants, both in the Ministry and among the Death Eaters." He sat up sharply, swept his hand through the air, and conjured a translucent screen divided into numerous sections, each showing a different person. Some were asleep, others working, others fighting at that very moment. He focused on one of them and opened a separate screen: a wizard in a Death Eater mask, together with several others, was holding off unknown attackers in dark robes who were pressing the attack, intent on killing them. "That clothing." He recognized the Black Star assassins' uniform almost immediately. "They must be truly desperate to take a step like this."
"They're dressed like Gerald's people, back when they still worked for the Black Star." Nagini recognized it too, remembering the day Severus had drawn them onto the manor grounds and let the creatures deal with them. "But why would they do this?"
"They have no choice. They've lost all their advantages, and a leaderless herd is far easier to control. Most likely, they want to sow chaos and exploit it to take back what they've lost while their enemies fight over the vacant positions. Though it's also worth considering the possibility that they want to bring those leaders to heel. Either way, it's too early to say exactly what they're after." He swept his palm through the air again and brought up another screen: the Minister's office, where Harold was still at his desk, working through paperwork. "Look. He's burning the midnight oil, too."
And what does that have to do with me?" Nagini sniffed dismissively. "He can sit there all night for all I care. You're the one who needs to rest more."
"Yes... it seems I've been a bad influence on you. You used to be so innocent." Severus sighed mournfully, earning a jab in the ribs from an offended Nagini.
"Are you going to get involved?"
"No. Let things run their course. Though it's a shame to lose so many informants. And I doubt that old man will die so easily."
At that very moment, a shadow appeared on the Minister's ceiling and shot down toward the man absorbed in his work. It stopped several meters short as a blue dome erupted around the desk and the shadow slammed into it. Blue tendrils separated from the barrier and coiled around the assassin, who struggled but could not break free.
"How bold of you," Harold said, his voice expressionless. He had perhaps been surprised by the assassin's appearance, but showed none of it. "People have been trying to kill me for months now. Don't expect it to be easy."
The Black Star member gave no response. In the next instant, three more shadows materialized in the room and attacked the Minister at once. Each held a dagger that Severus recognized immediately.
The moment all three drove their blades into the dome from different sides, it dissolved. That genuinely shook Harold and finally forced him to fear for his life, though he could not understand why no one had come to his aid, given the noise they had made should have drawn the attention of the guards outside.
He kept his composure nonetheless, drew his wand, and tried to block an incoming dagger with a Shield Charm. The shield lasted less than a second before collapsing, and he felt a sharp pain in his chest as his white shirt began to darken with blood.
As the assassins moved to drive two more blades into his back, the door simply flew off its hinges and a dark-skinned wizard burst into the room. He took in the scene in an instant and sharply leveled his wand at the wounded man.
"VENTUS VULUM!" A surge of wind erupted from the tip, faster than the assassins could react, and wrapped around Harold in a swirling air barrier that resembled a small vortex. It rapidly expanded outward, forcing all four attackers to fall back.
"Minister!" Brusber appeared at his side, then turned furiously on the unknown figures. "Don't think I'll allow it!" He pointed his wand at a small candle. Its flame shot up and expanded dozens of times over, and with a circular motion of his wand, it obeyed him like a trained animal, wrapping around the attackers before spreading rapidly in every direction.
The assassins farthest from the flames managed to Apparate out of the room. The last one, unlucky enough to be cornered nearly three meters from Brusber, conjured a barrier, but the fire proved far stronger and tore through it quickly before swallowing him.
Seconds later, the fire went out. Not a single object in the room remained intact: the floor, the walls, and the ceiling were entirely black. Only a small space around the two wizards had been spared.
Brusber tore open the shirt of Harold, who was breathing heavily and pale-faced, and saw a violet border around the wound, from which blood was flowing freely. His expression darkened.
"Magical poison." At that exact moment, a group of guards burst into the room, stricken by what they saw. They stopped dead and went pale at the sight of the wounded Minister.
"C-Captain Brusber..."
"What are you standing there for? Get the Healers!" He looked toward the figure in the corner and added with cold fury, "That one goes to the interrogation room. Extract everything he knows. You may use any methods you see fit. I want the name of whoever hired them and what organization they belong to by ten o'clock tomorrow morning. Move!"
"Yes!" Two guards ran off immediately. Three more carried out the body from the corner. The rest formed a perimeter around the two men in the room, while several others took up position at the entrance.
Brusber stared grimly at the wound, but there was nothing he could do. The poison was unknown, and how it would react to a Healing Potion was equally unknown. For now, all he could do was hope for a miracle and a fast antidote, since treatment could not begin until the poison had been identified and neutralized.
He had been quietly having a beer with his deputy in a pub after a hard day's work. The moment they walked out, five unknown wizards came at them almost immediately. If he had been alone, the attackers might have stood a chance, but together with his subordinate, they dealt with them quickly enough.
His deputy stayed behind to watch over the captured assassins, while Brusber headed to headquarters to report. When he arrived, he learned he was not the only one who had been attacked. Travers, captain of one of the Auror squads, had been killed along with four of his subordinates.
He went straight to make his report, but as he approached the Minister's office, he felt something was wrong. The guards barely reacted to his arrival, which made him even more uneasy, and without pausing to think, he blew the door apart.
A minute later, a group of four people in white coats swept into the office, led by an elderly wizard in a gray robe carrying a case.
"Stand aside!" he barked, spotting the violet border around the wound almost immediately. He didn't spare a glance for the ruins of the office.
He set the case on the floor and snapped it open, revealing a steel plate with a handle inside. He grabbed the handle and pulled. It slid out, proving to be not just a plate, but the lid of a massive, seven-tiered steel cabinet packed with vials, instruments, and potions of every kind.
He seized a second handle between the first and second shelves and pulled out a small steel worktable, then began moving rapidly through each tier, pulling out unmarked vials, small dishes, flasks, and more.
All of this took him no more than ten seconds. But then:
"Mr. Tracy!" His assistant's alarmed voice cut through the room. She was staring at Harold's wound in astonishment.
"Don't interrupt me. We need to neutralize the poison as fast as possible."
"B-but the poison...!"
"What about it?!" He snapped his gaze to the wound and froze, eyes wide, watching the violet edge slowly begin to fade. Standing just inches from Harold's body, Tracy felt warmth radiating from him. "H-how? How is this possible?" He whipped out his wand and cast an analysis charm. To his utter shock, the poison was indeed receding, as if something was burning it away. The strain on Harold's face was gradually easing, every trace of tension dissolving.
The other wizards in the room were equally stunned. Tracy desperately wanted to study this phenomenon, but there was simply no time. He threw everything back into the cabinet, wand in hand, and conjured an invisible barrier around the two of them.
"We begin the operation!"
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4.Harry Potter: Reborn as Draco Black = CHAPTER 143
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