A-New-War-On-Horizon? (III) [Chapter 293]

~~Incant Alley, Edinburgh~~

Tonks arrived just outside the bar named The Bards and tried to enter the bar only to be stopped by the bouncer. Tonks rolled her eyes at the lanky man before changing the color of her hair. “Ah… Tonks. Right this way” The man grinned at her before opening the door for her. Tonks handed a Galleon to the man as she walked by.

The bar was almost empty, but some people could be seen hanging around the pool table… However, Tonks was looking for someone in particular, and after looking for a bit, Tonks finally managed to locate the said person. Connie Hammer was sitting at the corner demurely while nursing a drink in her hands.

Tonks walked up to the woman and plopped down in front of her… “So, who kicked your puppy?” Tonks inquired, trying to lighten the mood.

Connie snorted at the question before downing her drink in one go. “Was last night really that bad? I heard some stuff from Harry, but I didn’t hear much from him” Tonks asked worriedly as she stared at the woman, pouring another drink. “No. No. I just drank a Sobering Potion before coming here” Tonks denied when Connie offered to pour her a drink.

Connie simply shrugged and put the bottle away… “Yeah, last night was really bad. Almost half of the Diagon Alley was leveled last night. If it wasn’t for the Lost Garden then we would still be scouring through the rubble for dead bodies and survivors” Connie explained with a grimace before downing another drink.

“I see… So, what’s up? You said you wanted to talk about something” Tonks asked, feeling worried for the woman sitting in front of her.

“Yeah…” Connie nodded her head. “You see, half of Diagon Alley was leveled. Now, the Ministry needs to pay reparations for all the damage, but we don’t have the funds to cover all the damage. Now usually, the Ministry would have cut a deal with the business holders to cover all the damages, but the Ministry is no longer as strong as it used to be” Connie grunted.

“Which leaves us with only two options, we could either increase the taxes-” Connie paused as he raised one of her fingers “-which we can’t do since we don’t want the people to leave” Connie added sarcastically before moving on “-or we could take a loan from Gringotts” Connie finished with a growl.

“Ouch” Tonks mumbled as she gave the older woman a sympathetic look.

“Yeah, ouch” Connie agreed with a mirthless chuckle.

Tonks nodded her head in understanding but frowned nonetheless. “I can see why you are frustrated, but I can’t see how I can help you. If you think I have thousands of Galleons hidden under my bed then you are wrong. However, if you simply want me to listen, I can help with that” Tonks explained with a frown.

Connie stared at the younger girl for a moment before pouring herself another drink… She was way too tired to deal with Tonks’ insanity. “After Amelia managed to become the interim Minister, she started an audit, which led us to discover that the Minister and the Undersecretary were stealing gold from the Ministry-” Connie continued to explain.

“Why am I not surprised?” Tonks muttered.

“-While we have managed to track the gold back to some offshore Gringotts vaults, the Goblins have refused to cooperate” Connie finished while ignoring the younger girl.

“No surprises there” Tonks mumbled as she slumped down the table. “Bonesy must be pulling out her hair, right?” Tonks asked with a snicker and Connie seemed to agree with that. Tonks and Connie were never close until the two of them joined that little group to oppose Dumbledore, but Connie was still more of Amelia's friend than anything else.

“Yeah…” Connie agreed with a snicker, but she slowly trailed off solemnly. “Scratch that, we are in a lot more trouble than that. We are in deep shite, Tonks” Connie revealed as she chugged down the drink in one go. “However, Saul has managed to come up with a solution-” Connie paused and stared at Tonks.

“But… There is a ‘but’ somewhere in there, right?” Tonks asked warily.

“Yeah… There is a but. We need a scapegoat to take the fall” Connie finished gravely and Tonks internally cursed before a look of realization appeared on her face.

“You want me to take the fall?” Tonks asked, horror dawning on her face. Connie blinked at her in surprise before she started to laugh, surprising Tonks.

“No. No” Connie easily denied. “I don’t want you to take the fall or anything. It wouldn’t have worked since you no longer work for the Ministry and you were never high up on the ladder” Connie quickly waved her hands to dismiss the younger girl’s concerns. “What I want from you is to arrange a meeting with Narcissa Malfoy and Harry Potter” Connie finished.

“What?” Tonks asked dumbly. Here she was ready to bolt, but then Connie threw her out of the loop with her words. It was confusing as fuck.

“Yes, a meeting with Malfoy and Potter. Can you do that?” Connie asked, looking desperate before pulling out some parchments from within her robes. “Look, I have all the warrants and the Contracts here. If you can simply get them to meet me so I can explain everything” Connie continued hurriedly.

“You are planning to take the fall for whatever shite Saul has managed to come up with, aren’t you?” Tonks asked, looking aghast. “Bonesy agreed with this?” Tonks asked. The two of them were really close, so she couldn’t see how Amelia allowed Connie to do this and while she didn’t know what the whole plan entailed, since they needed a fall guy, it must be something really dangerous and foolish.

Connie seemed to avert her gaze when Tonks asked about Amelia. “She doesn’t know what you are doing, is she?” Tonks whispered in a horrified tone.

“Look Tonks, this is much bigger than me. The Ministry is barely scraping by-” Connie paused and looked around before erecting another set of Privacy Wards around the table. “-If the people discover that we no longer have the gold, the Ministry would lose all control they have right now. People would start leaving the country in droves-” Connie paused to take a breath.

“-Aurors, who are still working, would decide to leave since the Ministry no longer has the means to pay them any salary. The same is going to happen with the Hitwizards and every other Department in the Ministry. Most of them would have left already, but they are only staying because they have a family to feed” Connie finished.

“If they realize that they aren’t going to get paid then they would simply leave” Tonks mumbled, looking horrified at the situation. “Is the situation really that bad?” Tonks asked in a low tone, now feeling really bad about leaving the Ministry at such a bad time.

“Yeah… It is really bad, but we can’t show that to the common populace. We need to keep a strong front for them. We need to look like a pillar to them…” Connie trailed off and Tonks nodded her head as she understood what the older woman was trying to say. Tonks poured herself a drink and chugged it in one go, surprising Connie.

“Come on, let’s go!” Tonks screamed as she started to drag the older woman, but Connie only allowed herself to be dragged away after she emptied her own glass and left some Galleons on the table…