An-Ill-fated-Attack (I) [Chapter 277]

~~Meeting Room, Ministry of Magic~~

Alastor Madeye Moody stepped inside the room and immediately started to inspect the room with his Magical eye. Unable to find any traps or any surprises, he huffed before walking up to an empty chair. He had no idea why Amelia had decided to call the meeting, but he preferred to be here rather than sulking alone inside some random alley with a rookie.

“It nice to see you, Moody” Rufus greeted dimly as he slowly turned around to stare at his most unsubordinate like subordinate. While the man technically worked under him, Moody rarely listened to his orders. However, he was the best Auror on the active roster and the man never shied away from facing a dangerous criminal, so Rufus could look past all of his inadequacies.

“Rufus” Moody greeted the man gruffly as his magical eye continued to roll around creepily. He never liked Rufus too much, the man was way too much of a politician rather than an Auror, but he trusted the man to do the right thing when push came to shove. “Do you know what the meeting’s about?” Moody asked, leaning on his staff, not expecting an answer.

Whatever Amelia wanted to talk about, she was quite secretive about it…

“No. The Minister-” Rufus ground out and Alastor could practically feel the bitterness in the man’s voice from here. It wasn’t a secret that Rufus wanted to become the next Minister until Amelia came and stole the mantle from under his nose. Amelia never displayed any ambition to become the Minister, then out of the blue she was there, nominating herself for the mantle. “-never informed me” Rufus finished lamely.

Alastor simply hummed as he decided to drop the matter while he started to wonder what could have made Amelia change her mind and nominate herself to become the Minister of Magic even if the arrangement was quite temporary. Amelia was different after he returned to Britain from his small stint inside the MACUSA cell, but he was unable to comprehend how, at least not completely.

Amelia had been avoiding him since he returned to Britain, which was not good in his books. Their little alliance to thwart Dumbledore and kill Voldemort might have collapsed, but that was not a reason to avoid him. He knew that Augusta had joined Potter, but he didn't know what happened to the alliance after that, since there were no more meetings.

“Moody, Rufus, what a pleasant surprise!” A cheerful voice rang out from the doorway and a man dressed in a Greycloak stepped inside the meeting room.

Alastor practically rolled his original eye in exasperation while Rufus simply closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, looking really tired. Neither of them wanted to deal with an extremely cheerful Grreycloak, especially when they knew that the man was acting cheerful just to annoy them. Saul entered the room with a spring in his step and plopped down across Moody and Rufus.

“How are you, Moody? It has been some time since we met” Saul asked cheerfully with an amused grin on his face, in an attempt to annoy the grizzled Auror, but his attempt failed as Amelia along with Connie arrived before Alastor could give him an answer. Saul, Alastor, and Rufus stood up at her arrival, but Amelia simply gestured them to take a seat.

“I am really glad that all of you are here at such short notice and Croaker, thank you for joining us even though your Department is not under my purview. We are going to need as much help as we can get” Amelia addressed the whole room while looking around before her gaze focused on the Greycloak and she decided to address him professionally, instead of addressing him familiarly.

“I have received information that tonight Voldemort is planning to attack Diagon Alley and Muggle London” Amelia revealed before anyone else could say anything. Rufus and Alastor paled at her words, but Saul didn’t show any outward signs of distress.

“What do you need me to do?” Saul asked, breaking the silence, but sounding extremely focused and serious.

“I want you and your buddies to patrol London. From what I have managed to learn, Voldemort is planning to use Dementors to attack Muggle London, which saves us from the headache of worrying about the Statute. If nothing happens, then all is well and good, but if shit hits the fan, then I want you and your people to deal with it as quickly as possible” Amelia explained sharply.

“Alright. I will head there right after we are done here” Saul accepted the mission even though it wasn’t his job. Amelia gave him a grateful look before she decided to continue.

“Alastor, I want you to take a team to the Knockturn Alley and keep an out there while Rufus, I want you to keep an eye around the Diagon Alley with men you could trust completely” Amelia ordered sharply. Rufus nodded his head in understanding, but Alastor gave Amelia a suspicious look. He started to wonder how Amelia managed to learn all of that when Severus was out of commission.

‘Did she somehow manage to get someone from the Inner Circle to become a spy for her when I wasn’t looking?’ Alastor wondered suspiciously, but he decided to go along with her orders for the time being as there were other important things they needed to deal with. “Alright. Is there anything else or should we head out there?” Alastor asked gruffly as his Magical eye continued to spin around creepily.

Amelia seemed to hesitate for a moment, but she decided to speak up… “If the Lost Garden arrives to help, then don’t antagonize them” Amelia said and alarm bells started to go off inside Alastor’s and Rufus’ heads as soon as she finished speaking, however, the two of them decided to go along for the time being.

‘Is she somehow connected with the Lost Garden? Potter did help her when the Dark Lord came for her…’ Rufus mused thoughtfully as he started to wonder if he could somehow use her connection with Potter or the Lost Garden to dethrone her and become the Minister. However, he knew that he needed some proof if he wanted to dethrone her. The woman had too much support…

‘Did she join Potter when I was in the States? Or did Potter coerce her to join him by some means?’ Alastor wondered but decided to keep his thoughts to himself for the time being…

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A/N: Here are the results for the Poll I hoted. There were 73 votes and 63% of them voted "Yes" while 37% of you voted for "No". So, there is going to be Dimensional Hopping and World Travel... I hope, none of you are offended by the results...