Chapter 43 - Hallows Eve Ⅱ

It was close to the witching hour and yet the Atrium is deadly silent except for the faint sound of the trickling of the waterfall from the Fountain of Magical Brethren. The usual night-watcher seem to be away as the peacock blue ceiling seems somewhat ominous this evening as the moving golden symbols offer little comfort.

Hiding beneath enchanted invisible cloaks, Alastor Moody clenches his wand at they lay in wait at the only entrance of the Department of Mystery, the stairway in the Atrium. A few feet away also in hiding are Fabian and Gideon Prewett including two trusted Auror's, and a secret member of the Department of Mystery, an unspeakable.

Despite the lack of information and the late hour none of the three questioned Alastor Moody's request. Auror Sara Vinovich narrows her owl-like eyes as her face shows a running scar from under her right all the way to her cheek. Her salt-peppered hair is kept short and cropped to her face as to not be used against her.

On the opposite side of the room is Auror Percius Clements, a round-faced man with dusty colored hair and lukewarm blue eyes. Despite his round like size, Percius is quick on his feet and even quicker with his hand. More than one dark wizard had miserably underestimated Percius to discover the deadly charms wielder he was.

Further back is a tired dark-haired man with dark eyeshadows and gaunt cheeks much resembling the older haunted Sirius Black of the future, the unspeakable, Alphard Black. Alphard and everyone suddenly ceases to breathe as they finally hear the long-awaited dreaded footsteps. For no one truly wanted to believe that there would be such traitors within the Ministry of Magic.

Augustus Rockwood is known to all within the Department of the Mystery as a good-natured man with humor-filled eyes and a jolly smile. The figures appear via the front door as the voice of Augustus Rockwood can softly be heard whispering the password for the night, Time, Love, and Death. Augustus Rockwood cautiously peers inside to see that as promised there is night water in the Atrium. The gilded fireplaces are silent as is the rest of the Atrium is empty.

Satisfied, Rockwood motions for six other hooded figures to enter inside.

A loud nasally Death Eater's voice can be heard snickering loudly. "If I'd known it was this easy to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic, I would have done so ages ago," the Death Eater sneered.

"Quiet," another Death Eater hissed as he uneasily glanced around the Atrium unable to shake the feeling of impending doom.

"So, what exactly are we searching for?" A boorish looking Death Eater asked.

Rockwood strides forward and says, "The Dark Lord is seeking for an object of power and it is our duty as his loyal followers to find that which he seeks."

Suddenly Rockwood halts mid-step as his senses scream at him to move. Augustus rolls to the side and shouts too late, "Attack!" As blue bright blue sparks crashed onto the floor.

The Five Auror's and one single unspeakable step out as their invisible cloaks fall to the floor. "Petrificus Totalus!" "Expelliarmus!" "Impedimenta!" "Expulso!" The four successful spells cause the first Death Eater to becomes petrified, while another loses his wand, while the third is suddenly slowed down, and the last is blasted through the air into the wall.

The other two remaining Death Eaters instantly release Hexes as Augustus Rockwood rushes for the Department of Mystery stairs. As long as he reached the first room, he would be able to attack and escape. However, suddenly the gaunt figure of Alphard Black appears before him.

Rockwood comes to a halt and says, "Well, Black, out of all of our colleagues, you would have been the last I would have ever expected to be present tonight."

"Likewise," Alphard countered.

The two colleagues stare at each other for a moment, before pointing their wands at each other and crying out, "Confringo!" "Crucio!"

The red sparks from Rockwood smack into Alphard to cry out in pain as his body is wracked with excoriating pain. However, the dark opal colored sparks crush into Rockwood as a large gaping wound appears on Rockwood's chest.

Both men fall to their knees as Rockwood presses his hand to his wound and says, "Your hex lacked killing intent, Black. That has always been your weakness, let me show you, what a real killing curse is like."

Rockwood raises his wand too late as Alphard had already tremblingly closed his eyes and uttered the forbidden killing spell, "Avada Kedarva!"

Green like sparks shoot out of Alphard's wand and smack right into Rockwood's chest. Rockwood in disbelief sees the green like sparks image in his eyes as he falls over as the breath and life entirely go out of his eyes. Rockwood's dull eyes stare at Alphard in disbelief and something else as a pool of blood begins to form underneath him.

Alphard grits his teeth as he opens his eyes and struggles to his feet as his body still shook with nerve-wracking pain. Ignoring the corpse and the realization of what he had just done, Alphard limped over to where the Auror's were still fighting off the remnants of the able-bodied Death Eaters. Alphard weakly holds to the wall as he slowly makes his way over.

Alphard tiredly raises his wand, when the round figure of Percius Clements appears before him. "Rest, we'll take it from here," Percius coolly said as he stood before Alphard in defense.

Alphard weakly nods his head and tiredly leans against the wall for support. A spam of coughs soon wracked his body a symptom of his incurable illness. Alphard with trembling fingers reaches into his pocket and clumsily removes a can with white flowery smelling pills. Alphard grabs one and drily swallows as the pill painfully goes down his throat. However, not much time was needed as almost instantly the enchanted effects of the pill go into effect as Alphard's burning cough ceased only leaving his lungs as though feeling on fire.

The Atrium is silent as five Death Eaters are dead except for two. Although among the surviving Death Eaters one is fatally wounded. "Auror's really do know how to get the job done," Alphard weakly commented.

"We only took so long, because we were trying to capture them alive," Sara Vinovich grumbled as she looked down at the sniffling Death Eater before her. "Stop your sniveling, you won't die from such a puny wound," Sara snapped causing the Death Eater to quiet down as she firmly poked the Death Eater with her boot.

The fatally injured Death Eater lets out a last gurgling breath as Alastor Moody bends down to get a closer look down at the Death Eater's faces. "I can't believe it," Fabian Prewett muttered in disbelief as he recognized two of the Death Eaters as prominent members of the Wizarding community.

"Like I said, neither did I, but yet here we are," Gideon Prewett grumbled.

"We need to clean this up, we can't leave a trace of this behind," Alastor crisply instructed.

"But isn't this actual proof of your conspiracy theory?" Percius exclaimed.

"No, this is only the start," Alastor replied. "The Ministry has already been infiltrated and it will only get worse with time. No, we do this on our own, we can't trust anyone else."

"Surely it can't be that bad?" Percius cried out.

Fabian and Gideon glance at each other as Sara's owl eyes catches their shared look. "I fear that it's already that bad, Percius," Sara slowly said. "If not for our actions of tonight, who knows what would have happened."

Percius furrows his brows and gravely said, "Then what will you have us do?"

"We can't leave any trace behind," Alastor grunted, before turning his eyes to the sniveling Death Eater. "And as for him, we interrogate him in a safe place, we can't risk being found here with him."

They all nod at each other and swiftly get to work. In front of the sniveling Death Eater's fearful eyes, the Atrium is wiped clean of all spell scorch marks and of blood. The Death Eater corpses are turned into ash before being swept away into a jar to be disposed of later. Donning on their invisible cloaks the bound Death Eater is silently taking away as Alphard Black relocks the Ministry of Magic's front door before they leave. In the depths of the shadows, they sneak away in pairs leaving the Ministry of Magic as same as before. In fact, come morning not a single witch or wizard would notice a thing.