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zelda_queenProjection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
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Chapter 7: Unintended Consequences (Part 2)
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
September 1, 1980
ZeldaQueen: (Angsty Harry) "Dear Diary, today I kidnapped and tortured some people. It was fun!"
A gray bearded man sat in his office deep inside the Ministry of Magic. He was appointed by no Minister of Magic.
ZeldaQueen: He was just a hobo who wandered in to spend the night
He answered to no Wizengamot Elder. He was a bit of a law unto himself.
Everything that happened inside the Department of Mysteries was his responsibility.
ZeldaQueen: Fantastic, again with this bull. Just because the Department of Mysteries is secret doesn't mean that they aren't under the authority of the Minister of Magic!
I really do think that DW is one of those CIA conspiracy folks
Colleagues called him Tasker, just as every previous head of the department was known as Tasker. His wife knew none of this, of course. Wives were never told. She believed he still held a position with the Committee on Experimental Charms.
ZeldaQueen: And sometimes she figured he was having an affair with his secretary. It's all good
Tasker did, of course, continue to work for the Committee…in an advisory capacity. Most of his time was spent on Level Nine.
ZeldaQueen: Circle of Hell for, ironically enough, treachery
Heading the Department of Mysteries was a lot of work.
Today, and for the last several weeks, Tasker had been attempting to put together the pieces of a mystery.
ZeldaQueen: That there's a strange guy with no identification who has been kidnapping, mindwiping, and killing people willy-nilly
That locket mess – what with the Slytherin locket exploding when that poor man had been working on it – hadn't seemed too odd at the time.
ZeldaQueen: What? So they apparently know enough to realize that there's some Dark Magic at play with the locket but think it's perfectly normal that it randomly explodes one day?
But things only kept getting stranger.
ZeldaQueen: I'd go with "stupider", but that's just me
The disappearance of a few people, including the recent Hogwarts graduate Peter Pettigrew, was remarked upon on a few other jots of paper. He also had the recent killings of those who had spoken before the Truth Commission written down.
ZeldaQueen: Okay, not that I mind that people are finally going to be noting Harry's horrible deeds (although all bets are off that he's never actually called out on them), but why would some uber-secret dude working in the Department of Mysteries worry over the disappearance of Pettigrew, a guy who has really done nothing to make him particularly noteworthy? Same with the killings. Those would just be chalked up to rogue Death Eaters and have someone like the Aurors go after it. The Department of Mysteries looks into stuff like Time and Death, not strange crimes
He had a newspaper clipping with the image of a massive dead basilisk.
Then he had a page out of the Prophecy Ledger. The entire page's contents were destroyed – seventeen entire prophecy spheres were now inaccessible to his researchers because of the error.
ZeldaQueen: Well done Harry, well done
It seemed the most interesting recent prophecy concerning Voldemort and someone labeled the Master of Time and Death – a much more disturbing title, Tasker thought, than Voldemort
ZeldaQueen: Excuse me, what? How is "Master of Time and Death" scarier than "Voldemort"? Please keep in mind that Voldemort was actually around and performed horrific crimes while this Master of Time and Death thing could just be some blowhard making up names to sound cool. No one knows him, so why would people be afraid of him? Anyway, as I said before, the Department of Mysteries research Time and Death! Why would that freak them out?
– had utterly disappeared onto one of the hundred-plus shelves in the Hall of Prophecies.
People who had made their way up the ranks of the Unspeakables didn't believe in luck or coincidence or chance. They believed in the actions of man…in the own things they had done to secure their positions.
ZeldaQueen: Great! So please figure out that there's a psychopath on the loose and that you need to capture him and lock him up before more people get hurt!
Tasker thought he saw the glimpse of one or more men in these latest happenings. What they meant, he didn't know. Could it be the rise of a new dark lord? Setting a basilisk on a rampage seemed to suggest it, but doing so when Hogwarts was empty seemed to say something else…
ZeldaQueen: Oh hell no. DW, you are not. You are not.
What is that? Are you actually attempting to handwave Harry letting the basilisk loose on Hogwarts? It makes him different than Voldemort, since Harry waited until the castle was mostly empty before letting a huge and deadly serpent out to attack, all in the name of petty revenge
The clues were very confused.
ZeldaQueen: Um, no they're not! Why not assume that Voldemort's followers are still around and trying to regroup?
Slytherin's locket had obviously been cursed with a variety of dark enchantments, but no one had determined what they were. That prophecy sphere spoke of a new darkness…and it too was gone. How had someone twice infiltrated his department, assuming these 'accidents' weren't accidents. The people who knew about the locket wouldn't know how to access the Prophecy Register…
ZeldaQueen: Don't worry buddy, it's not your fault. Your department was only infiltrated twice because the author had to make your security completely lame and Godmode Sue Harry
Were there other clues Tasker hadn't identified? And what did a new Hogwarts graduate have to do with any of this?
ZeldaQueen: Again, why would Peter factor into this at all? He hasn't done anything noteworthy!!! Why would they assume his disappearance is even connected to this case? If the police were trying to track down a drug ring and find out that some completely random dude disappeared across the state, no connections to what they were doing, would they think that the disappearance had something to do with their searching? No! They'd figure it was an unrelated disappearance!
And why did the Prophecy speak of 'unhinging the world' and 'countless time lines.' Did they now have a time walker in their midst? It was rumored Merlin could move forward and backward through time, moving and changing things at will… Tasker had never believed stories like that before, but he'd never had such odd things happen. He'd never heard a prophecy like the one from a month ago.
ZeldaQueen: The amount of shyt in this is staggering.
So first of all - of course DW has to have Harry sued up even more. Never mind the fact that there are means of traveling through time *cough*timeturners*cough*, no they have to make it like Harry's some bastardized version of the Doctor.
Second of all - "moving and changing things at will". There is no way, no way, someone who works in the Department of Mysteries would be impressed by that. Know why? Because they've studied time and know full well the dangers of meddling with it! Seriously, a DOM official would be more like "Dear God, there's someone running around, screwing up time! We must find and stop them!"
Third of all - This is the first time this Tasker guy has had weird stuff happen to him? Even though he works in THE DEPARTMENT OF FUCKING MYSTERIES??? A PLACE WHICH, ACCORDING TO CANON, HAD A JAR WITH AN EGG THAT GREW INTO A BIRD AND BACK? AND A CURTAIN THAT LEAD TO DEATH? AND TIME TURNERS? AND PROPHECIES? AND HE STUDIES TIME AND HAS TIME TURNERS AND STILL DIDN'T BELIEVE IN TIME TRAVEL UNTIL HARRY CAME ALONG AND ENLIGHTENED HIM? BULL, I SAY!!!
Tasker decided to devote some resources to the problem. Perhaps he'd find some more clues. Perhaps he'd uncover some additional oddities or find a new Mystery to research and solve.
ZeldaQueen: Because it's not like he would have other stuff to do, heading the Department of Mysteries
Perhaps he'd get to the bottom of all this nonsense. He didn't like people mucking around inside his department. No, not at all.
ZeldaQueen: Dude, I'm totally on your side here. Arrest Harry and throw the little buttmuncher in Azkaban
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September 20, 1980
Septimus Crouch, a distant relation to that awful, imprisoned Barty Crouch,
ZeldaQueen: God damn you, will you leave Crouch alone?
apparated onto the road outside what was listed as an old magical estate. The Department had recently noticed renewed magic emanating from the place.
ZeldaQueen: Magic...doesn't work like that.
Seriously, the Ministry can tell if an underage witch or wizard has performed magic, but other than that, nothing
Like all mysteries, this one deserved an explanation.
ZeldaQueen: What about the mystery of how DW thought this would be a good series ending? What's the explanation for that?
He surveyed the grounds. Everything looked neat and tidy. Either the place was unoccupied, but had a groundskeeper, or someone had taken up residence in the former White Estate.
Septimus pulled out an old Invisibility Cloak and walked up the long road to the massive building. A Muggle named Thomas Franklin owned the place…and there was definitely someone living here. No automobile…
ZeldaQueen: And ellipses spewed everywhere
Septimus was excited. He hadn't had a genuine magical mystery in quite some time.
ZeldaQueen: Oh yeah, who is this guy? Does he just break into houses for a living?
He opened the door and walked inside the building. He wordlessly cast a few detection spells. There was definitely faded magic inside here – some wards of ancient design and a few other unclear magical signatures.
ZeldaQueen: Again, magic doesn't work like that!
He walked down the hallway until he came to the first set of wards. He walked inside…and was immediately taken back to his days at Hogwarts when Madam Purcell had taught him to read tea leaves.
ZeldaQueen: I really wish that the author would stop making up cheap canon knock-offs
Septimus didn't have an ounce of divinatory ability, but the class had been amusing, far better than History with the young, dreadfully boring Binns.
Septimus never noticed another person sneak up behind him. He never even saw the wand that stunned him.
He slumped forward, unable to move. His investigation had come to an abrupt end.
ZeldaQueen: Sorry buddy, Harry got a hold of you. You're screwed
Harry Potter had felt the other wizard's presence the moment he set foot on the White Estate – the wards didn't keep anyone out, but they did warn Harry as to what was going on.
ZeldaQueen: It also made them thirsty for water, with only a pond filled with dead bodies nearby
"It seems someone has cottoned onto 'Thomas Franklin' buying the White Estate…" Harry was working through the implications out loud.
ZeldaQueen: You don't say?
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September 21, 1980
It took Harry a while to seal up the White Estate and head for his safehouse with his stunned prisoner in tow.
ZeldaQueen: And he's kidnapping someone else! Why am I not surprised?
He would obviously need to hide himself better if he'd already been tracked down. Hiding in plain sight seemed like a good idea, but it rarely worked as planned. Too many fiction writers had embraced the concept…leaving even wizards the world over underprotected.
ZeldaQueen: Yes, how dare fiction writers use a concept that has actually been known to work. There's a reason people us it, you know
He bound his prisoner into a chair and administered truth serum before waking the man.
ZeldaQueen: Jesus, you going to bring out the garden hose to whallop him while you're at it?
"What's your name?"
ZeldaQueen: Arthur, King of the Britains
"Septimus." He clopped his mouth shut to avoid saying anything else.
ZeldaQueen: I really wish people would get it through their heads that truth potions don't always work. I mean really! I would love for someone to write a Harry Potter character who relies heavily on truth potions, only for the crucial interview to come and them to find out that the captive was lying
"Last name or first?"
"First name."
Harry had to hold back a smile. The veritaserum was working, but this man had been taught how to work within the truth serum to say as little as possible.
ZeldaQueen: Ho ho, aren't you all so clever
"What's your last name?"
"Crouch."
"Any relation to Bartemius Crouch?"
"Second cousin."
ZeldaQueen: Twice removed, mother's side
Harry decided to use loaded questions as much as possible.
ZeldaQueen: I DON'T CARE!
"How long have you worked for the Department of Mysteries?"
"Twenty-nine years."
ZeldaQueen: Ah, so that's where he's from.
Why the hell are these people all from the DOM? They wouldn't be investigating an old house, I'm fairly sure!
Harry nodded briefly. "Why were you investigating the White Estate?"
"We investigate mysteries." Even through the drug, the man's tone was hateful.
ZeldaQueen: Good for him
"Explain the mystery that brought you there."
A moment passed. He was considering what to say….
ZeldaQueen: Um, that doesn't happen under truth potion. DW, remember the fourth book, when Crouch Jr. just spoke in monotone and clearly wasn't thinking?
"Old, formerly magical estates rarely get new magic flowing into them."
ZeldaQueen: MAGIC DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT!
"You track magic throughout Britain?"
"Yes."
ZeldaQueen: Why?
"Why didn't you track Unforgivables during the war?"
"We did."
ZeldaQueen: Oh hell. Like the author hasn't invented enough reasons to show the Ministry is EVIL. Honestly, what evidence was there in canon that the Ministry could track magic? Where? All they knew was if magic was cast in the presence of an underage person, and even then they didn't know who exactly cast it!!!
Harry got off track for a moment; this was a genuine curiosity of his. Why had the Ministry fared so poorly in both timelines when dealing with Voldemort.
ZeldaQueen: Because Voldemort was immortal, because he and his followers were actually clever and used tactics dealing with lies and deceit and emotional manipulation, dividing up the people of Britain so they remained uncertain and divided, because the Ministry can't track Unforgivables? Pick one?
"Explain why the Ministry didn't act on the information."
"It never left the Department…"
Harry gritted his teeth. "You tracked the use of the Unforgivables. Other offices tracked other information, including underage magic, and no one shared. Correct?"
"Yes."
Harry loathed bureaucracies. It was a shame that he'd helped foist his grandfather into heading the current mess of a Ministry of Magic. Nothing could destroy a bureaucracy: things could infect and twist them, but never destroy and end them, save for the ending of a civilization.
ZeldaQueen: Holy hell DW, have some government issues, do we?
And I bet you wish you'd have thought of all of this before you forced your "beloved" grandfather into the Ministry, don't you, Harry?
"How many mysteries outside the department are people dispatched to investigate in any given month?"
"It varies. Five or twenty…"
ZeldaQueen: That's enough. Give the barber a pinch of snuff
That was a low number. The name Thomas Franklin and the White Estate might stay inside people's memories for quite some time…plus there was this new prophesy in effect. Harry did not like his life right now.
ZeldaQueen: Neither do I, but he only has himself to blame for it. No sympathy from me
"What did you expect to find at the White Estate?"
"A magical vagrant, perhaps. Or a clutch of Death Eaters living there. We haven't caught them all, of course."
ZeldaQueen: At least, some logic!
What should he do, Harry wondered. He'd somehow attracted the attention of the Unspeakables – but not for the right reasons. Harry had used the Imperius Curse on two Unspeakables to force them to steal from or otherwise sabotage the Department of Mysteries, but this man was here investigating merely why an old magical estate was putting out magic again.
It was the littlest things that foul up the world…. Harry frowned.
ZeldaQueen: Oh shut up! It's your own fault that you're in this position! Someone actually has caught you after all of the horrible things that you've done and you're whining that you aren't getting your way for once
"Why were you looking at the White Estate in the first place?"
"The Head Unspeakable, Tasker, had us comparing every instance of magic with known wizards and witches. We're investigating every place not known to the Ministry as the registered home of a magical person…"
Harry felt a smile creep across his face. Perhaps these people were looking for him – for the right reasons.
ZeldaQueen: Why do I get a bad feeling about this?
"Why?"
"I've never understood Tasker."
"It was a random decision to have Unspeakables searching Britain for unexplained magical signatures?"
"If you say so…"
Harry had to chuckle to himself. Whoever had trained Septimus Crouch in anti-interrogation techniques had done a good job. But very few could resist the Imperius Curse.
ZeldaQueen: Oh Jesus Christ, what a bully! Just stop it, will you! Leave him alone!
The curse settled into Crouch. One could resist Veritaserum if one knew how to answer little or misdirect. No one – save those who could throw off the Imperius itself – could avoid answering under the Curse.
ZeldaQueen: So he gets impatient with Crouch for answering in roundabout ways and thus casts and illegal and unethical curse on him, just to get his way a bit quicker. How wonderful
"Tell me why you came to the White Estate."
"Tasker is looking for someone."
"Who?"
"Someone who had been interfering in the internal department operations."
Confirmation. It made Harry extremely nervous.
ZeldaQueen: Ha! Enjoy getting your comeuppance there?
"Why the White Estate?"
"It's one of nearly a hundred places we're looking into…"
That made Harry feel a bit safer. It had been sheer bad luck that the White Estate had been added onto a bureaucratic list.
ZeldaQueen: *groans* And of course he's going to escape and not actually be caught or called out for his crimes. How lovely
"Tell me who this Tasker is."
ZeldaQueen: Who is John Galt?
"I do not know. No one does."
Harry believed that. There had been a Tasker at the Ministry when Harry had been Head Auror – and no one knew who that man was, either.
Harry stunned Septimus Crouch. He had to think and decide on his next actions. It wouldn't be right just to kill or maim this man because of his unluckiness in drawing the White Estate.
ZeldaQueen: WHAT THE HELL? WHAT THE HELL???
SO THE ONLY REASON HE ISN'T KILLING OR TORTURING THE GUY IS BECAUSE IT WILL BRING UNWANTED ATTENTION? I JUST... I REALLY...AURRRRGH!!!!!
But he couldn't just Memory Charm the man and send him on his way.
Memory charms could be broken, of course, and folks like Unspeakables might even be regularly tested for them.
ZeldaQueen: Yes, imagine that, safety precautions
He's used the Imperius Curse to force two Unspeakables to forget what they'd done for Harry…but no one had expected them to have any memories of breaking into the Department of Mysteries. Septimus Crouch was on an official mission – he couldn't just return with a huge hole in his memories, could he?
He needed to think… He was being hunted and didn't intend to get caught. He had to slow things down a bit, be cautious, be cagey.
ZeldaQueen: Whatever. I'm still hoping against hope that you'll be locked up forever
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October 31, 1980
Harry Potter had gone into exile in America temporarily. Septimus Crouch was currently inside a magical trunk accompanying Harry.
ZeldaQueen: *sputters* What? I'm sorry, what was that?
So he basically just did what Crouch Jr. - one of the Death Eaters closest to Voldemort - did. He kidnapped a man and has imprisoned him in a trunk. And is taking him to a strange location, with no plans on when to let him go.
Incidentally, how would this factor in to the whole "being noticed" bit? Wouldn't kidnapping someone from a very prestigious position get you more attention than just mindraping him?
He still had not decided how to handle the wizard who'd come to the White Estate. There were no good solutions…. The man was alive but was no longer free to do as he pleased, not unconscious in a trunk like a certain Auror Harry had known much earlier in his life.
ZeldaQueen: *snarls* And of course that makes it so much better! So he's conscious in a trunk, kidnapped and unable to see his family, and essentially a slave to Harry with no way of knowing where he's off to or when he can get home again
He sat in the small apartment he'd arranged in Queens. This was the first time he'd set foot inside since he'd arranged for it.
He was doodling on a scrap of paper as he tried to decide how to make it safely back into Britain. He really wanted to lower his profile…but hiding at the White Estate hadn't exactly worked, had it?
ZeldaQueen: I give up. I'm so glad this tripe is almost over
Perhaps he needed a more public persona, one registered with the Ministry, one no one would think to investigate….
ZeldaQueen: Yeah, good luck with that one, darling. Like they wouldn't have ways of detecting fake identities
It shouldn't be too hard to create some credentials that would withstand scrutiny, should it?
ZeldaQueen: It should, but you make people utter morons to fit the story, so oh well
Harry stood up from his rickety table and threw a coat on. He needed to walk off his excess energy. He decided to head over to Magister Avenue, the wizarding section of New York City. It was only a few dozen blocks. In the cold morning air it would help to calm him and clear his mind.
He walked into the wizard library first. He was trying to finalize a few details on his new persona before venturing back into Britain.
ZeldaQueen: Wizard library? What?
He grabbed a stack of annuals from Australia's Gandyturn School of Magic and was heading for a table when he spotted a copy of the Daily Prophet.
He almost dropped the books from his hands.
Kantor Line Massacred; Werewolf Greyback Involved, Killed
He snatched up the newspaper and read. He hadn't thought of Daphnis Kantor – Voldemort's rumored wife – or her child in quite some time.
ZeldaQueen: That's because neither of them ever existed!
The Death Eaters had been premature, it seemed, in assuming her dead.
A bloody scene confronted this reporter, Rita Skeeter writes, when I arrived at the Kantor Estate in Moribund Westley, Devonshire, yesterday. Seventeen members of the Kantor family, including famous dark witch Daphnis Kantor, were found dead. Ranging in age from one hundred-plus to a toddler still in nappies, the entire Kantor line is now extinguished.
ZeldaQueen: At least that makes sense!
Voldemort's child…Voldemort's child was dead. But, this massacre was another jolt to the calm. First the witnesses at the Truth Commission – then the prophesy that few knew about – then this.
ZeldaQueen: Why? Harry knows what the Death Eaters are like, he knows that there would surely be some who would hate Daphnis or want her and her baby dead for reasons of power or whatnot. Why would this disturb him?
The only sign about who might have committed this heinous act was the presence of the vile werewold Fenrir Greyback, known for his attacks on children and his support for the vanquished You-Know-Who. No Auror would comment officially, but several mentioned that they firmly believed Greyback had been part of the attacking force.
What no one at the Ministry of Magic has yet suggested is a motive for this attack.
ZeldaQueen: *points to reasons above* Which isn't even going into the idea that Daphnis tried to abandon the Death Eater cause or something and thus got them angry with her
While much of the Kantor family remained neutral in the last war, a few notables followed the call of the Ministry and a few followed You-Know-Who, especially Daphnis Kantor, rumored paramour of You-Know-Who himself. I, for one, do not expect a satisfactory answer any time soon given the general intellectual apathy of the entire Auror force – but I know my rabid readers would wish for a clear and immediate answer as to who has done such a thing….
ZeldaQueen: So wait, why would she take up with Voldemort? Ignoring the very prominent canon fact that he never loved anyone, the only way I could see her being able to get his attention would be if she were particularly high ranking. And apparently no one heard of her, so...?
Harry Potter also wanted an answer to that question.
ZeldaQueen: Because he so often agreed with Rita in canon
The prophesy Sybil Trelawney had uttered was undoubtedly in force. History had changed, but it hadn't changed into peace. Something Harry had done or not done in this new timeline had unsettled something. Voldemort was surely dead, but a new form of evil had just firmly announced itself.
ZeldaQueen: And its name was Harry Potter
Something wicked this way comes.
Harry sat in the library, his Australian research into possible new identities forgotten. He tried to piece together what the newspaper article meant…and got nowhere. It was maddening.
ZeldaQueen: As was this fanfiction!
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ZeldaQueen: That is it, this is done, done, done! I move full force with Bree Tanner, now!
Back to: Chapter 7: Unintended Consequences (Part 1)
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