A Bend In Time

With careful planning, Moody finally arranged for a meeting at one of his safe houses as there hadn't been a chance with the aftermath of Hallow's Eve. Five Auror's and one unspeakable meet up in a small flat on the outskirts of a lesser than savvy area. Before they even begin to discuss the topic at Alastor Moody sternly asked, "Have you all verified that you weren't followed?"

"We did the standard three jumps plus walking about to different areas to throw off any pursuers after every jump," Sara Vinovich matter-of-factly stated.

Instead of sitting down each one of them take a position against a window, the door, and the fireplace with the exception being Alphard given his illness. Looking much better than on Hallow's Eve night, Alphard takes a seat in the only chair in the room, while Alastor Moody remains standing in the middle of the room.

"I know I have been vague with the current ongoings of that night and all of you were loyal to a fault by coming to my aid without many questions. But now is the time for your questions to finally be answered," Alastor bluntly said.

"Who is this Dark Lord, we are fighting?" Alphard pointedly asked.

"His name is Tom Riddle, a Slytherin graduate. He is the son of Merope Gaunt, who used a love potion to on a muggle, Tom Riddle Sr. to force him to love her. As usual, the tragic tale did not end well as Tom Sr. left her the moment, she ceased to use the love potion on him. Heartbroken Merope lost her ability to use magic, and while giving birth Merope Gaunt passed away," Alastor said. The six of the frowned at the already tragic circ.u.mstances of which no doubt lead to an orphan boy so easily being filled with darkness.

"His army call itself, the dark army or better yet, Death Eaters. As for him-," Alastor paused as he raises his wand and writes the name of Lord Voldemort in glowing letters in the air.

Gideon opens his mouth to read the name out loud, when Alastor hastily says, "Don't say it! To some degree he can sense those who call out his name!" Gideon Prewett shuts his mouth with a snap as Alastor adds, "From now on we shall simply refer to him as Tom Riddle."

Percius Clements nods his head and thoughtfully says, "It is rather uncommon for such a trait to be possessed by a dark wizard but not unheard of. Although I am more curious to come to know how such knowledge came into your possession. Is there an informant on his end?"

"I cannot reveal the identity of my contact for now, but you will come to them come soon enough, please be patient until then, "Alastor carefully replied.

Fabian glances out the window in watchfulness and mutters, "Very well, what about the list?"

Sara's sharp eyes gleam as she pointedly inquires, "List, what list?"

Alastor removes a list from his pocket and says, "Everyone please memorize the names on the list as it will shortly be destroyed. Every listed name has already been confirmed personally by me and the Prewett brothers as Death Eaters. Unfortunately, these names are only the ones we know of."

Alastor hands over the list to Alphard and continues, "We must watch and keep an eye on them, and if need be, kill them. I cannot emphasize this enough, Ladies and Gentlemen, we are not dealing with simple-minded dark wizards, but a united army of dark wizards with a sole purpose of destroying the Ministry of Magic and killing any that they deem as muggles."

Alastor gazes gravely at all of them. "For now, we trust no one beyond this room for as previously shown, the Ministry of Magic has already been infiltrated," Alastor quietly reiterated.

Alphard solemnly passes the list to Sara, who lets out a cry of anger and shock at recognizing a few names on the list. "We couldn't have been infiltrated this badly without anyone noticing, could we?" Sara exclaimed.

"Who knows maybe someone did notice and even if they didn't, we can't be sure if memories have been altered or just who has been put under the Imperio curse" Alphard sadly said. "I would never have suspected Augustus Rockwood myself given his good nature. I would have easily picked hundreds of others before him such as-." Alphard stops lest he reveals the names of other unspeakable department members.

Percius quickly changed the subject, "On that note, has anyone noticed Rockwood's disappearance?"

"Not yet as he was supposed to be on vacation, but I'm sure it is only a matter of time before Auror's are sent to investigate," Alphard truthfully replied.

"We took care of the scene, we should be safe," Sara murmured, before passing the list to Percius, whose mouth flops open, before snapping shut. "Besides, I doubt there is anything for an Auror to find given how much time has passed and how trafficked the Atrium is."

Gideon clears his throat and says, "I have one question, how do we know the Death Eater's won't try again?"

"An excellent question," Alastor plainly responded. "We can't be certain what it was that they are after, but I for one am certain they will try again as they are loyal fanatics. However, that itself poses a problem as we were very lucky this time around as we caught them unawares. I'm certain that we shan't be so lucky next time. That is exactly why surveillance and any intel we can get our hands on is of the utmost importance."

"Then how about we set a bait that the Death Eaters can't possibly ignore?" Percius grumbled as he destroyed the handwritten note.

Everyone turns to stare at Percius who darkly says, "If attention is what they want, then why not let them have a go at the Minister of Magic?

"What do you mean?" Alastor said with an intrigued look.

"Well as we can safely assume that the Ministry of Magic has already been infiltrated, then let us use that our advantage. Allow for a few well-known gossipers to open their mouths with the specific dates and time of the Minister of Magic's schedule," Percius suggested. "We control which functions the information is released for and simply wait for the fish to take the bait. It doesn't matter how wary the Death Eaters may be as long as we keep releasing said function information, eventually, a reckless Death Eater will be willing to try it out. And that is when we not only attack but have the rest of the Ministry of Magic Auror's attack as well."

Percius stops for a breath and evilly adds, "Very quickly it will become known that there was a conspired attack against the Minister of Magic Eugena Jenkins, who will have no choice but to set the dogs loose. We will be effectively tying their hands that much more and possibly even using the regular branches to do our job for us. Because with everyone looking for the treacherous criminals, good leads are bound to pop up."

"No that won't work," Alphard mused out loud. "Even if it is a good idea, Percius, we mustn't forget that the Minister of Magic has no shortage of enemies. And even if said proposal would work that would only serve to force those sitting on the sidelines to choose a side that much sooner. We've seen this done before with Grindelwald." The room is stark silent as Auror's they truly understood what those words meant.

Sara loudly clears her throat and interjects, "It is a good idea, but one that carries too much of a risk, Percius."

Seeing Percius's nod, Alastor firmly says, "I will see you all in December as promised until then we have no further contact beyond our usual crossing at the office and at social events. I don't want to see any sort of contact made unless it is urgent or viable information, is that understood?"

Everyone nods in experience understanding as Alastor says, "Alrighty then, we'll use the fireplace and let us scatter forth." With a flourish, the fireplace begins to burn and then turns green as each one of them departs via the Floo Network. Much like before the safe house grows empty and cold as the enchanted fire goes out. Yet all that lingers behind are embers as if in a sign of the fiery embers of war that were slowly brewing on both sides of the shadows.