Chapter 181. A Radical Step. Part 2. The Death Eaters.
An interested smile played across Severus's face as he watched the screen.
Another high-ranking Master, fairly young and with considerable skill.
"You said you weren't going to interfere." Nagini looked at him in puzzlement. She had grown somewhat accustomed to the sight of blood by now, and if she had still been human, she would have done little more than furrow her brow slightly.
"I changed my mind. Harold is someone I'm used to working with. And who knows what the next Minister of Magic will be like."
On the screens, the fighting continued. It was not going in favor of either the Ministry or the Death Eaters. In the time he had spent watching Harold, four people had already been killed, all of them on the Death Eaters' side, while the Ministry had lost only one, and that one by Brusber's hand. In all likelihood, the casualties were considerably higher; Severus could not watch every wizard on both sides.
He didn't particularly want to keep watching, and with a snap of his fingers, the screens disappeared.
"All right, enough. I'll be having nightmares after this."
"Severus, you're really not going to do anything? All those innocent wizards are going to lose their lives."
"These aren't our problems. I've 'helped' them more than once already, including tonight." He reached out to Nagini and rested his palm on the top of her head. "I'm not their guardian angel; they can't expect me to pull them out of every mess. They have more than enough strength to manage this themselves, and there are level-headed people among them. I even saved one of them. He should be back on his feet tomorrow, so Black Star's plan has already failed by a third."
"A third?"
"As I said, killing the leaders was supposed to destabilize the country. There would have been a power struggle, and after that you can fill in the rest." He fell back against his pillow, yawned broadly, and closed his eyes. "And I doubt Voldemort is easy to kill. He's a slippery one, not a weak wizard, and never alone." He created another screen in front of them. Nagini watched a battle between nearly twenty wizards in a half-collapsed building: five wore Death Eater masks, while three others stood unmasked but were also repelling attacks from Black Star members in dark robes carrying staffs. Those three were the Lestrange brothers and Lucius.
Twenty meters away, Voldemort himself was fighting three opponents. One was Laur, recognizable by his missing arm. The other two were wizards whose skill might rival Brusber's.
It was impossible to say for certain who was winning. Even at full concentration, Lucius's observation radius extended no more than ten meters, and he could only see Voldemort's fight against several Steel Division commanders through the eyes of the aristocrats themselves, who stood back to back and stole glances at their master from time to time. The Dark Lord was not winning: he was being pushed back.
The fundamental problem was that Voldemort simply lacked the physical strength and close-range combat skills to match his opponents. His magical core was at the Master rank, but his body was barely stronger than a Muggle's. He was doing everything he could to keep the staff-wielders at a distance: wizards who could both cast spells and fight with the weapon itself.
Laur was the most dangerous: he attacked in moments of maximum pressure, like a true assassin, using wand and dagger in combination. Voldemort hadn't had a single moment to breathe since the fight began.
He couldn't even use his beloved Killing Curse and had to rely on non-verbal, quick-cast area spells: just enough to clip each opponent and prevent them from closing in while still keeping up with all three. Even so, the fact that he was holding his own against three strong wizards at once, one of whom was essentially his equal, was genuinely remarkable and showed exactly why he held the title of the Darkest Wizard in Britain.
The Death Eaters as a group were faring considerably better: they were holding their ground admirably. Those surrounding Voldemort were not ordinary wizards.
The battle itself was a spectacular chaos of light and power. Every spell had its own color and property. The Black Star wizards relied primarily on elemental magic that required minimal expenditure, while the Death Eaters used simpler, more immediately practical spells: ones that could be cast instantly and could repel, throw back, disarm, disorient, or kill outright.
Severus snapped his fingers again, and the screen vanished.
"Hey! That was actually interesting!" Nagini protested, fixing him with a disgruntled stare.
"You'll have nightmares. The show is over for tonight. We'll find out the results tomorrow." He tapped her on the nose.
"Master, the Headmaster has left the castle."
"And there goes another wizard joining the fun."
"Hm?"
"Dumbledore has left the castle. He's probably going to help someone. It seems Black Star decided not to limit itself to the Death Eaters and the Ministry."
"Then turn it back on! Where else will you ever see something like this?!" she hissed plaintively, like a small child whose favorite toy had been taken away.
"And who was it, just a few minutes ago, who told me to go to sleep earlier?" He smiled knowingly into her eyes, and she quickly looked away to hide her embarrassment. "Fine."
He conjured the screen again. The situation had shifted dramatically. Roughly ten more Death Eaters had arrived and joined the others, and now Abraxas Malfoy and Corban Yaxley stood beside Voldemort, each facing a separate opponent.
But that was not all. Every minute, more wizards were arriving at the battlefield and rushing to join the fight right away. What was most striking was that every single arrival was a Death Eater.
Watching the confrontation, Severus found much he could not account for: where were the other Steel sub-group commanders, and where was Charles himself? Even the assassins sent after Harold had come from the Gold Division, from Laur's group. That was understandable, since the Ministry of Magic was deep underground and reaching the Minister's office required at least some degree of stealth. But why ordinary assassins had been sent instead of Laur himself remained a puzzle.
He had a theory: Laur had been meant to kill someone else, and then simply finish off an exhausted Voldemort. But how Charles had acquired such confidence that his assassins would succeed, Severus genuinely could not understand. It was Ministry headquarters, with hundreds of wizards and a substantial guard presence.
The more he thought about it, the more questions surfaced that simply had no answers.
Severus had no mark on Abraxas or Corban, so he was still forced to observe their side of the battle through Lucius's eyes and those of the other branded wizards. The fighting was fierce. The shockwaves from the exchanges were reaching even the informants, who had no idea they were informants. Making sense of what was happening through the chaos and smoke was nearly impossible. All they could see were flashes of color, predominantly green and dark, shot through with fire, water, and ice.
Gradually, the aristocrats were gaining the upper hand. And Severus was finally beginning to understand what was wrong with the whole situation. It was this: the Black Star side consisted of only a handful of members, with no reinforcements at all after the last three had arrived. And the group was led by Laur himself, who was not on the best terms with the rest of the Steel sub-group. The whole thing looked far too much like a trap, at least to someone who understood the finer dynamics within the organization. Most people would not have thought of it. What kind of fool willingly sacrifices a wizard as powerful as Laur?
But a few seconds later, Severus's expression sharpened and he sat up abruptly. Nagini looked at him in surprise.
"Crouch," he hissed the name with cold anger as the screen showed two new arrivals: Bellatrix, who immediately cast the Killing Curse and killed one of the attackers, and Crouch himself, who plunged into the battle and joined the three aristocrats.
Severus had been deliberately suppressing the Dark Mark on Bellatrix to prevent Voldemort from summoning her, as he did with his other servants. But Barty had crossed paths with her in Knockturn Alley, told her about the attack, and they had Apparated to Voldemort together.
The situation was beginning to irritate him. He quickly suppressed his anger, forcing himself to settle down. This was not the time. He needed to think and decide what to do.
From the very beginning, he hadn't wanted to help the Death Eaters, not even for Lucius's sake. There was a fundamental difference between helping Harold, a man who, whatever his faults, genuinely wanted peace and stability in the country, and a fanatical Dark wizard who wanted to exterminate all Muggle-borns, enslave Muggles, and seize total control of the nation.
But the choice had now been taken from him, and that infuriated him to no end. He could not let Bella die, and there was no telling what Crouch had prepared.
Crouch. Merlin willing, we never meet face to face. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the mark inside Bellatrix's body.
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