Forging-Alliances? (III) [Chapter 183]

Harry had to admit, the Aurors were pretty decent. The Junior Aurors were definitely well-trained, but they lacked experience, which was quite obvious as they were making mistakes here and there while the Senior Aurors were easily covering for those mistakes. Altogether, it was a well-functioning unit.

“I will rate your group 6 out of 10” Harry declared before batting away a Bone-Breaker. “Come on, this is getting boring. Don’t tell me this is the best your group could do… I haven’t even moved a step yet!” Harry finished with a disappointed look on his face and all the Aurors seemed to take offense to that.

Rufus subtly made a gesture with his hand and one of the Junior Aurors disappeared to the back and placed the tip of his Wand over his Auror Batch. “We need reinforcements at Malfoy Manor! I repeat we need reinforcements at Malfoy Manor!” The Junior Auror exclaimed, but he received no answer from the Headquarters. He wasn’t even sure if the message went through in the first place.

Meanwhile, Harry started to chuckle in amusement as he didn’t miss the fact that the Aurors were unable to contact their HQ. “Did you really think I would allow you guys to call reinforcements?” Harry asked rhetorically. “Forgive me, but there will be no reinforcements for you guys” Harry revealed with a manic grin on his face before stepping forward.

The Aurors, including Rufus and Alastor, immediately found themselves on the backfoot. The situation was completely surreal for all of them, after all, a fourteen year old was pushing them back and they were a group of highly trained Aurors. Anybody in their shoes would have found the situation surreal.

Harry took another step forward and knocked out the Junior Auror at the back, the one who tried to call for reinforcements, shocking the rest of the Aurors. They didn’t even see Harry move his hand, but they were sure that he was the one who cast the Spell… The Spell was simply too fast for them to do anything. Then there was the fact that the Junior Auror was at the back, which meant that Harry could have knocked out any of them, but for whatever reason he decided to knock out that particular member of their group.

“Well… That’s one down” Harry declared in an amused tone before leaning his head to the side to dodge a Stunning Charm, which harmlessly passed by his head while he batted away Knock-Back Jinx with his Wand. Then Harry turned around on the back of his heel in a smooth motion and cast another Stunning Charm, knocking out another Junior Auror. Harry didn’t even give the remaining Aurors the time to regain their bearings before he knocked out the rest of the Junior Aurors, leaving only Rufus and Alastor.

“Looks like it is only the two of you…” Harry sniped at them in a mocking tone, making Alastor growl. The scarred man was moving flawlessly, which should have been impossible with his body in the first place and Harry had to admit, there were only a few within Lost Garden who could probably beat the man. So, Harry decided to knock him out first as he wanted to have a chat with Rufus.

Harry flicked his Wand toward the floor, ripping it apart, making the two Aurors stumble on their feet as they weren’t expecting such an action from Harry. Not being one to miss such an opportunity, Harry easily knocked out Alastor, leaving only Rufus to face him. The man tried to fight him, but it wasn’t long before he was disarmed by Harry. Rufus slumped down on his knees with a look of complete disbelief on his face.

He looked around at the destruction and the knocked out colleagues, and everything still felt like a dream to him… After a few seconds of complete silence, Rufus finally turned back toward Harry, who seemed to be expectantly waiting for him to say something…

“How?” The man asked and Harry simply quirked his eyebrows in confusion.

“How what?” Harry asked, giving him a confused look, but he could easily guess what Rufus was asking and Rufus also knew that.

“How are you so strong?!” Rufus screamed in frustration. He never expected to be bested by a fourteen year old and he expected the others to feel the same too. Rufus would admit that he was never a hardened fighter like Moody, but he wasn’t a novice… He was a Senior Auror, and he had years of experience under his belt, but now, all of that felt completely useless.

Harry gave him a knowing look before he finally started to speak. “Some people are simply that strong. Dumbledore, Grindelwald, Voldemort, me… We are simply in a league of our own” Harry explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

To be honest, Rufus didn’t know what to say to that… He knew what Harry said was true. After all, in the eyes of Magic, everyone wasn’t equal. Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Voldemort were truly in a league of their own… Normal Wizards and Witches could gang up on them, but their chances of victory would always remain close to non-existent.

Yes, some people still believed that they could win by ganging up, but Rufus considered them nothing but foolish… They simply overestimated their own abilities while underestimating the others to deal with their own fragile inferiority complex… After all, in theory, ganging up might sound like an extremely sound plan, but in reality, it was much more complicated than that as the death of only a couple of members was enough to drop the morale of the others.

“What do you plan to achieve by doing this?” Rufus asked with a growl.

“It was a simple show of power to stop the Ministry from doing anything foolish, but if I am being honest, then I don’t expect much from the Ministry in the first place with people like Cornelius Fudge being the Minister and don’t make me start about his pet froggy” Harry huffed in annoyance and Rufus almost ended up cracking a smile when Harry referred to Dolores Umbridge as ‘Froggy’, but he somehow managed to keep his scowl.

“So, what exactly do you want? Take over the Ministry?” Rufus asked incredulously. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen to him, but they probably weren’t going to get killed or Harry could have killed them already. He only intended to send a message… At least, that is what Rufus was hoping for, so instead of freaking out, he decided to use this chance to collect as much information as he could…

Yes, Harry could Obliviate all of them at the end, but hey, at least, he tried…

“Nothing of that sort. It’s too much work for my liking… I simply want to do whatever I want and finish the upcoming War as soon as I can” Harry revealed, only for Rufus to blink in confusion.

“War? What are you talking about?” Rufus asked while giving him a weird look. Harry already knew that Rufus wasn’t a part of Amelia’s group, so he simply needed to guide the conversation in a specific direction and voila! Now, he could sow some discord within the DMLE to stop him from trusting Amelia and her group members completely. Rufus would always wonder if Amelia was keeping anything else from him even if she came clean.

“Ohh! So they didn’t tell you?” Harry asked while pointing at Alastor before he started to cackle and Rufus growled menacingly at the implication. “Oh boy!” Harry heaved and finally started to calm down. “Since they never bothered to tell you, I am not going to tell you their names… They must have their own reasons why they never bothered to tell you anything” Harry decided to rub more salt in his wounds.

Rufus gritted his teeth while glaring at Harry. “I get it! Now can you tell me what you are talking about?!” Rufus snapped at Harry but he didn’t seem to take any offense at that. He simply raised his hands in the air in a placating manner.

“Whoa! Whoa! No need to get your undies in a twist” Harry chastised the man mockingly. “Well, Voldemort never died back in 1981. He was simply… …incorporeal and now he is already back. If you think I am spewing bullshit then you can always confront him” Harry finished with a roll of his shoulders when Rufus started to give him disbelieving looks.

“...If he is really back, then why did you kidnap Snape?” Rufus asked with a frown as he narrowed his eyes at Harry.

“I have my reasons” Harry answered cryptically as he wasn’t ready to reveal the cards he held. The War needed to start and alliances needed to form. That way he would be able to get the best impact with all the skeletons he knew Snape had buried in his closet.

“...So, what now?” Rufus asked as he glanced toward the downed Aurors.

“Now, you take them and leave” Harry answered before he tossed the Wand back to Rufus, who dumbly caught the Wand on pure instinct.

“Just like that?” Rufus asked in bewilderment.

“Yes, just like that… What else did you expect? I am not your enemy” Harry revealed with a dismissed wave of his Wand.

Rufus didn’t want to look into the mouth of the gist horse, so he quickly started to gather the downed Aurors so that he could take them with his Portkey. All Aurors carried emergency Portkeys. Yes, there were Anti-Portkey Wards, but it was still better to have an extra means to escape than not having it when you need it, and Portkeys were your only option if someone was injured.

“Can you lower the Portkey Wards?” Rufus requested.

“Before that, I want one of your badges” Harry extended his hand, and Rufus stiffened.

“I can’t do that” Rufus denied in a hard tone, but chills ran down his spine when Harry’s eyes started to glow.

“I wasn’t asking” Harry bit out coldly. “Now, you can hand one over while I am being nice or I will take one by myself” Harry added while glaring at Rufus. This was the problem with Authorities… Give them an inch and they will ask for a mile. He was really interested in those badges. He knew that it was impossible to create a duplicate or forge a fake even with Magic involved, so he was obviously interested.

Then there was the fact that the Junior Auror tried to use the badge to contact their HQ, even though unsuccessfully, but it was probably their primary means of communication with the DMLE HQ. He wanted to see if the badge worked like the two-way mirror and if he could tap into their network to monitor their activities. Rufus continued to glare at Harry and he simply raised an eyebrow at the man, and the fight somewhat left the man.

Rufus reluctantly pulled out his own badge and tossed it over to Harry. “You know, this isn’t the end. We will be back for you with even bigger forces” Rufus growled while glaring at Harry.

“I know” Harry answered without even looking at Rufus. He was already inspecting the badge in his hand. Without saying anything else Rufus activated the Portkey. “Good luck” Harry added mockingly just before Rufus disappeared with the rest of the Aurors…