Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Wait	By : Meggie Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female Views: 2055 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Chapter Four
Crimes Against Wizardkind

Dudley Dursley blinked several times, feeling woozy and sick to his stomach. There was a foul taste in his mouth, and his ears rung incessantly. After a moment the sound seemed to clear, and he could make out the sound of muffled screams and shouts in the distance. Had he been caught? Cautiously, he opened his eyes fully, squinting at the force of the sunlight in his eyes. As his eyes focused, he found himself staring at a gold-rimmed woman, with short cropped hair and green eyes. She was infuriated, he could tell, and from the wand which she pointed at him, she was also a witch. And on her left side… Harry Potter, looking equally as angry, if not a bit startled as well.

"Dudley," he began, then fixed him with a stony gaze, "What the hell is the meaning of this?"

Dudley worked his mouth a few times, opening and closing it wordlessly, without answering Harry.

"Answer me!" he hissed, "there’s a street full of injured and dead people back there, Dudley. People. And if you don’t tell me why you did this and who else was involved, so help me God I’ll lock you away for life!"

When Dudley whimpered and again refused to answer, Harry lunged at him, drawing a fist back to punch him, but Diana reacted quickly to restrain him. "Harry," she said forcefully, "take him back to the ministry." Harry paused, then nodded reluctantly and stood, aiming at Dudley with his wand.

"Dudley Dursley, you are under arrest for muggle crimes against Wizardkind, conspiracy to murder, and conspiracy to terrorize civilians. You will come with me." With his wand, he bound Dudley’s hands and feet, then grabbed his shoulder. With his free hand, he reached to his neck to touch a glowing silver pendant there, and instantly vanished.

Diana stared at the empty space for a moment, absentmindedly clutching a similar silver pendant on her neck. The Auror’s instant portkey and identification marking. In addition to serving as an instant portkey to the ministry, if anything should happen to an auror wearing this pendant—and they all wore the pendants—it would transmit an instant emergency signal back to headquarters. She sighed, then turned, grabbed the discarded Firebolt III, and jogged back towards the main street to see the damage that had been inflicted.

It was catastrophic. There was a fifty-foot wide crater in the middle of the street in front of Flourish and Blotts. All around it were scattered bodies and the injured figures of Diagon Alley shoppers. As it was late August, a number of the figures were wearing Hogwarts robes. She had to turn her head for a moment, closing her eyes so she wouldn’t be sick. Aurors were scrambling around, white-robed figures wearing the traditional red, blue, or green sashes that denoted their level and class in the order. Diana's eyes lingered on a young woman with a crimson sash tied tightly around her waist. On each shoulder was a single golden star. Diana had once worn the red sash, but she had had three stars on her shoulder before she retired. Sometimes, she almost wished she was still active…

When she opened them again, she unclasped her cloak and laid it over the nearest figure she saw. It was a Hufflepuff, she noted, and there was no way she could still be alive. Quickly, she did a mental note of the people around her. Only a few were alive. Of those three or four, all but one had critical injuries. Calling for an auror to assist her, she began to frantically attempt to save as many lives as she could.

Advanced healing spells were reserved for medi-wizards, but Aurors by default had to be taught the most basic to prevent unnecessary deaths in the field. Blood clotting, Burn healing, and broken bone splints were the only ones Diana was familiar with. Unfortunately most of her patients were beyond auror assistance, and badly needed medi-wizard aid. In a few moments they arrived, hoards of yellow-robed witches and wizards, spreading out to assess and control the damage. Stepping back, Diana caught one of the medi-witches as she passed. "You can have space in my shop. I can get some of the aurors to clear it out—"

The witch turned around. "Diana?" The redhead blinked.

"Ginny!" Diana managed a weak smile. "Do you need my shop? To get people inside?"

She smiled slightly. "That would be a big help." Diana nodded and hurried off to recruit a few of the aurors into clearing out the front of her shop as temporary clinic. It was not safe to portkey patients in the condition that many of these were in; they had to be stabilized first. She sighed, and pulling out her wand, began levitating cases of supplies and flowers into the store room in the back of her shop.

***

Draco heard it on the Wizarding Wireless network as he was settling in at his desk to go over a few contracting bids for the solarium he was planning on building over the summer. The announcer was solemn and grave, and he knew right away that there was a big problem.

"Diagon Alley," he began soberly, "has just been the site of a major terrorist attack on England’s wizarding citizens. Eyewitnesses say that it seemed the work of muggle explosives rather than from any magical source. First count leaves over fifty dead and another hundred injured--"

Draco leapt up, grabbed his cloak and wand, and was out the door of his office in less than ten seconds, taking the broad stairs which led down to the mansion's foyer two at a time. When an emergency like this happened, he knew, the ministry shut down apparition abilities for all but the most crucial of wizards, so there was no point in reaching Diana that way. His heart was pounding in hisoat oat as he grabbed his racing broom from the clo closet. He also grabbed an invisibility cloak, an old relic of his father's, and swung it over himself. As he burst out the front doors, he mounted the broom and rose into the air, shooting off across the island towards London.

Diana sat in a darkened room beside Harry as the two watched Dudley being interrogated. Diana had to give the wizards questioning him a great deal of credit-- they were obviously furious, but were managing to restrain their tempers. A bottle of veritaserum was set on a table next to the door, and from the way Dudley's questioning was going, they might have to use it.

Dudley was sweating now, shaking his head desperately as, again and again, the wizards asked him who he was involved with, who had planned the attacks, and how he had gotten into Diagon Alley in the first place. Finally, Harry signed and tapped on the glass separating himself and Diana from the interrogators. The glass disappeared for a moment, and Harry sighed. "Use the veritaserum." The glass returned and one of the wizards retrieved the bottle, forcing it down Dudley's throat.

After a moment, his pupils dilated, and he gazed up at the interrogators.

"what is your name?"

"Dudley Dursley."

Diana dutifully began a transcript of the questioning with a blood red quick quotes quill, which, Harry noted in relief, was actually recording *only* the words spoken and not allowing room for commentary.

"What is your residence?"

"Number seventeen, Abbott Drive. Surrey"

"How did you gain access into Diagon Alley?"

"A Wizard let me in."

"Who?"

"I don't know his name. He never told me."

Dudley's voice was monotone and quick to answer, without hesitation. Harry had no reason to disbelieve him.

"Why did you attack us?"

"They told me-- They told me to."

"Who?"

He was sweating now. "I don't know! People! in cloaks with wands."

"What kind of cloaks?"

"Black, all black. And they had these mask things... I couldn't see their faces."

Diana sucked in a breath. "Death Eaters," she hissed.

Dutifully, the Quick Quotes Quill took this down.

"What did you use to attack us?"

"I don't know. A bomb thing.. I don't know. They just gave it to me."

Diana tapped on the glass. "Do a priori incantatum on him."

"Him?" The interrogator looked at her.

"Yes, just do it."

The man nodded and pointed his wand at Dudley, who whimpered and shrunk back. "Priori Incantatum."

***

Draco strode into the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, attempting to appear calm and imposing at the same time, but feeling frantic. If Diana was alive, this is where she would be.

He knew she hadn't really retired from her job as Auror-- she had merely transferred her service to field work. Diagon Alley had been her jurisdiction, and should anything happen, he knew she would report straight back to Auror Headquarters.

He paused as he rounded a corner. Sitting at Harry's desk and sipping a cup of coffee and looking considerably pale was Hermione Granger. Now, he had made a serious effort to, if not be nice to, at least tolerate Granger over the past year. He couldn't remember having called her a mudblood, or insulting her hair, but there was certainly no love between the two.

She looked up and noticed him, and his first reaction was to narrow his eyes. Then, remembering why he was there, he burst out the question he had been thinking since he'd heard the radio report, forgetting his attempt at composure. "Is Diana All right?"

Hermione looked almost touched at this, and gave him a curt nod. "She's fine. She's in the interrogation room."

Draco allowed himself a relieved sigh and sunk into the nearest chair. "Thank God."

She eyed him for a moment, taking another sip of coffee and looking thoughtful. "You really care about her, don't you?"

Draco blinked. "Of course I do! Why the hell would you think I didn't?"

Hermione looked a bit taken aback. "I don't know-- I just thought..."

"You thought," Draco said, insulted, "That because I'm a jerk and an asshole and a Slytherin that I am also incapable of loving someone. Is that it?"

"I didn't mean that--"

"You thought it. Listen, I'm an ass. I know this. But at least I'm not a malicious ass anymore."

She thought about this for a moment. "so you've changed?"

"To some extent." He watched curicuriously. "certainly, I don't support the people who did this, if that's what you're asking."

She nodded. "I know." She paused again, hesitantly, then offered him a small smile. "Diana has sense, and if she's going to marry you, then I trust that you've changed."

"Look, Granger," he said quickly, trying to salvage a bit of his dignity. "I didn't say I wanted to go have a pow wow with all of you in the woods or something. I'm just saying--well, if you need anything, I'm there. Well, as long as you promise not to tell anyone about it." She looked about to say something else embarrassing, so Draco barged on, changing the subject. "So who did this?"

"We don't know yet. Dudley Dursley's in questioning right now, but I highly doubt he'll be the only one responsible."

"Dudley Dursley? That fat idiot muggle cousin of Potter's?" He blinked. "I mean, he's fat and an idiot and just happens to be a muggle--"

"I know what you meant."
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