Chapter 761 - Culling Aftermath Ⅱ

With the Head of the Department of Magical Enforcement, Elphinstone Urquart finally gone, Mrs. Prim purses her lips and says, "Please enter, the Minister is waiting inside."

"Why thank you, my dear," a jovial voice replied coming from the much shorter of the two hooded figures. The second hooded figure does not bother to reply and directly enters the Minister of Magic's office.

"How crude," Mrs. Prim thought to herself at the lack of manners but quickly turns back to work. She had much to accomplish before the press meeting. She had a reputation to uphold!

The stout bobbed-haired witch, Minister of Magic Eugenia Jenkins does not even have a chance to speak when the tallest of the figures removes their hood to reveal the cold, stern face of Reginald Prince. "Please have a seat," she gestured to the two chairs before her as the second shorter hooded figure firmly shuts the door behind him.

The second hooded figure removes the cowl to reveal a white-haired head, and a weathered face with wolfish eyes, Sanderson, the former Potentate of London. "Don't mind if I do, Minister," he murmured, before settling down into a chair.

Reginald Prince ignores the offer and instead stalks over to the bookcase to study the books with his back turned from them. Seeing that the old Prince has no intentions of sitting down, Minister Jenkins folds her hands and rests them on the desk before her. "Sanderson, I thought we had a deal. Just what was the ploy with Mulciber Sr.? Have you gone mad!"

"Well, I do believe that we are all a bit mad, Minister," Sanderson calmly replied causing Minister Jenkin's face to tighten with anger. "However, that being said I did not act without reason, let me elaborate."

Sanderson paused for a moment waiting for permission as Minister Jenkins motions to him to quickly do so. "As I was saying, the former underworld could be split into 3 groups. The first being those that did so to survive and were mostly innocent of severe crimes. These individuals I permitted to go free, forgiving all past owed debts. Most were simply afraid of retaliation and now that I have forgiven their debts, most will surely go on to become productive members of society."

Sanderson holds up two knobby, weathered fingers into the air in emphasis. "The second is wanted felons from thievery to murder, but all of these individuals share one common trait. They all have a record, and all are wanted for more than one crime."

"And the third and last group," Sanderson said as he held up three fingers. "This particular group have either committed crimes so heinous that even I find unpardonable or have never been caught for their vile crimes. These are the worst of the worst the underworld has to offer and the only reason that I never killed them myself was that they are all tied to those in power, Minister. I could not safely dispose of them as I would have liked, but I could not permit them to roam free either. Therefore, I did what I could do and that was to keep them under watch at all times."

Though he did neglect to mention that this group also housed lesser criminals, who would betray Sanderson at any turn. And well, Sanderson never did like loose ends. It was better to leave things neat and tidy as they were.

"Very well, suppose that I accept that explanation," Minister Jenkins growled. "Then explain to me, why the need for such a horrific massacre and especially at the hands of Mulciber? I've had to actually order my Auror's to destroy all reports on the atrocious act, and erase any evidence pertaining to that vile crime!"

"Mulciber is involved with an organization that perpetuated the attack on Damocles Belby," Sanderson truthfully answered.

Minister Jenkins thoughtfully taps her fingers across the desk. "Tying Mulciber to a crime was a good idea, Sanderson, but if he is indeed involved then so are other purebloods. They will not fall so easily nor permit such an investigation to occur even with the aid of Reginald Prince as no doubt families or relatives may also be involved."

"However, by removing Mulciber from the dark organization others will cease to follow," Sanderson persuasively replied. "Not to mention a most vital piece of information detail that we were able to discover as a direct result."

"And what is that?" Minister Jenkins dubiously asked.

Partially lying, Sanderson replies, "We learned that the so-called Dark Lord or Lord Voldemort is the one and the same, but furthermore the true identity of said dark wizard." Well, Sanderson had in fact learned the truth from a pureblood just not directly from Mulciber's lips.

Minister Jenkins lets out a soft gasp, before hardening her face. "Who was the perpetrator that cost the lives of so many of our loyal Auror's?"

"A wizard by the name of Tom Marvolo Riddle," sharply interjected the voice of Reginald Prince. Turning to face the Minister, he coldly continues, "A half-blood at that. The produce of Merope Gaunt and that of Tom Riddle Jr. via a love potion, Amortentia. Her crime alone would have sentenced her to a term in Azkaban, however, she perished during childbirth. Tom Marvolo Riddle was proof of the perpetuated crime, and we all know that children born under the effects of the Amortentia are born less than. Twisted from birth. And as to the reason why Amortentia is so tightly regulated by the Ministry of Magic."

"By Merlin's beard," Minister Jenkins swore as she rubbed her brow. "A half-blood, and an orphan at that." She let out an even louder sigh. "Yes, the unspeakables (from the Department of Mysteries), the Love Chamber would have missed the conception of such a child. Half-bloods and muggleborn children fail to appear on the list of conception via Amortentia."

For it was forbidden to use Amortentia, but even worse to conceive a child under the love potion's effects. Any child born under such spell was born without the capacity to love. The Department of Mysteries kept a list where the minute a child was born, the child would appear on the list. Upon birth, the Department of Mysteries would do two things. Free the wizard or witch under the potion and take the child. The child never lived long after that, but it had to be done. Monsters were only ever born under such conditions. And here was an example of their worst fears coming to life, a half-blood, a wizarding child incapable of love nor remorse.

Removing her stubby hand from her brow, Minister Jenkins raises her gaze to them. "Assuming we ignore the fact of Mr. Riddle's conception and the fact that he is wanted for the murder of another student while at Hogwarts and that of the Riddle family, which happen to be parental muggle side of things. What else is there to learn?"

"A parselmouth," Reginald replied with great distaste. "It would seem that he is a very distant cousin, but a cousin nonetheless through the Gaunt family line. A descendant of Salazar Slytherin through the daughter, who wed into the Gaunt lineage."

After learning the truth via a letter from Sanderson, Reginald had investigated on his own and discovered that his granddaughter had revealed the information during her first year at Hogwarts, (from an unlikely source, Lucius Malfoy. Not Lucius had much of a choice). He was furious and would have strong words with Rowan, but he also understood. Had he learned this information in the past, he would still have turned his back on the information for Sirsa's sake. In the end, the result would have been the same with the difference being that some deaths could have been preventable such as that of Damocles Belby.