Power Plays Chapter 73 (Patreon)

Harry whistled quietly as he stared at the distant clock on Big Ben. St. James’s Park was fairly busy this evening with locals and tourists alike walking through the park or sitting down but none of them came to sit on the bench that Harry was sitting upon—not that they could even see him. Covered by his invisibility cloak, the bench looked completely vacant, but everyone’s eyes glossed over it as though they weren’t even able to notice it.

At the top of the hour, the bell atop Big Ben rang out noisily. It was eight o’clock now, and that meant that the Ministry of Magic was about to settle into its nighttime shift. All of the workers who had to stay a bit later than normal would be clocking out now, and their replacements would be signing in.

“Another tedious night,” he muttered to himself as he stood up.

Night after night for the past week, Harry had been travelling to the Ministry to scout out the locations on the blueprints he found in Nott Manor. He didn’t know the timeline that Rhys Orpington had set for this plan of his, but if Harry had to guess, it was tied to the election. Whether it was meant for one of the public debates or perhaps the ceremony where the new Minister was crowned, Harry was uncertain, but what he did know was that he needed to put a stop to whatever it was that these fools were trying to do.

After ensuring that his cloak was properly in place, Harry turned on his heels and apparated away to the Ministry.

Harry arrived just in time as the atrium was a hub of activity. Hundreds of workers were leaving for the night while several dozen were arriving for their shifts. He quickly stepped out of the apparation arrival area and stuck to the edges of the atrium as he steadily made his way forward.

Thanks to Gabrielle’s knowledge that he was still alive, she made sure to leave a deliberate security gap for him to slip through. Harry had a special badge that allowed him to bypass the security wards at the security desk at the back of the atrium. The logs would record that a pre-approved visitor entered the Ministry, and Gabrielle had so kindly volunteered to oversee the security of the atrium for the next few weeks, so she was able to make sure that no one became aware of his comings and goings.

It was tricky timing his movements through the queue that were waiting to have their wands registered, but he managed to slip through without any issues and took one of the vacant lifts down to the lowest level: the Department of Mysteries.

None of the blueprints indicated that any bombs would be planted on this level, but there were several markings around the courtrooms on the level below.

As soon as the lift arrived, Harry stepped off and quickly made his way down the stairs to the Courtroom level below. This was where Daphne and several other Wizengamot members had their offices, but there were only a handful of aides scurrying about at this hour.

“She doesn’t have the votes,” one of the young men muttered to his companion as Harry silently crept past.

“Then what is she going to do? There’s no way that the debate will go in her favour.”

Harry didn’t know if they were talking about Daphne or Amelia, but he couldn’t let himself get distracted by this. He bypassed them and hurried around to the long, circular corridor that ran the length of this floor. All of the Wizengamot offices could be found in this corridor, and there were several corridors that spoked off of this one to spread out to various courtrooms or other private areas.

Hurrying along, Harry turned left and walked all the way down to the first spoke. It was quiet and barely lit by these poor, sputtering oil lanterns. He drew his wand and walked forward carefully until he found the small alcove that had a marking on the blueprint.

Silently, Harry went through four detection charms before he determined that no explosives or magical traps had been put in place here.

“Another boring night,” Harry sighed to himself.

He took his time checking the other areas on this floor, but nothing unusual had been done. As strange as it was, it annoyed Harry to no end that Rhys and his cronies had yet to enact their plan. He didn’t want the people within the Ministry to be at risk, but he also hated this constant waiting game.

Back upstairs, the lift carried him to the Department of Magical Transportation floor. Parvati had probably just gone home—after the explosion at Nerys’ flat, he’d been sure to check up on her to make sure that she was still alright. Harry wished that he could tell her that he was still alive, but he knew that he had to wait until he’d dealt with Rhys’ plans first.

The Floor Network offices were the busiest of the bunch on this floor. There were quite a few workers busily overseeing countless fireplaces in their office, ensuring that the network was operating at peak efficiency. The Apparation Test Centre and the Portkey Offices were both closed right now, and there was only a dim light on in the Broom Regulatory Control office.

But just as he was about to head to the lifts, an angry cry alerted him.

“No, no, no!” Percy Weasley shouted from around the corner.

Harry stepped out, certain that his cloak would hide him, and stared down at Percy. He was clearly just leaving the office, but a young maintenance worker was suffering his ire first.

“This is completely unacceptable!” Percy declared angrily. “You cannot simply dig into the walls of the Ministry without the proper permission!”

The young woman, who was on her hands and knees in front of a pile of shattered bricks and a ruined wall, sighed like a weary worker. A pile of supplies sat next to her, including a fresh can of paint for the walls once she was done. “Sir, I can assure you that we’ve received proper permission from the Minister’s office. I have the work requisition form right here.”

She reached within her brown robes and plucked out a scroll of parchment. Percy held out his hand expectantly, and the woman rolled her eyes in annoyance before reaching out to hand the scroll to him. He took his time unfurling the scroll and reading it three times over before he decided that it was legitimate enough.

“Fine,” he said curtly, rolling the parchment up tightly and handing it back to her. “But you’d better not disrupt any of my workers. If I hear a single complaint from any of them, I’ll be taking this matter up with the Minister himself.”

Whether calm or simply uncarring, the worker shrugged her shoulders. “Whatever,” she replied. “Just don’t keep me from my work.”

Percy stormed away, muttering angrily under his breath. The worker stared down his back, waiting until he was gone, and then quickly glanced down Harry’s direction and then back to Percy’s before she drew her wand again.

“Defodio,” the woman said, and then there was a thick blast that rattled the corridor. Sharp chips of stone and brick shattered outward from the wall, smashing into the magical shield that the woman brought up quickly after casting her initial spell. A few bits made it through and left blood-red lines along her face, but no real damage was done.

What was she doing, Harry wondered. He started down the corridor and watched as she repeated her spells several times over until an actual tunnel had been built into the wall. The woman actually climbed inside of it and continued with her spellcasting.

There wasn’t a ward here. Harry frowned in thought, watching the woman work for several minutes before he pulled out his duplicated copies of the blueprints and started examining them. He flipped through to the documents covering this floor and then found the marked sites. The two wards were on the other side of this floor. There was no way that she was going to get to them.

But just as Harry stashed his documents, the woman, who still had her legs dangling out of the hole, rolled onto her back and pointed her wand upwards. “Defodio Maxima!”

A heavy shake rocked the floor as a ton of debris fell down from above the woman. She pulled herself out, coughing and shaking off the dust that now covered her body.

“Wish the Bubble-Head Charm wouldn’t break after every spell,” the woman coughed loudly. She doubled over at the waist and started hacking up phlegm mixed with dust and dirt. Once she spat up enough on the floor, she went right back in.

What madness was this? Harry pulled out the documents again and flipped through to the floor above this one, and that was when everything made sense.

In between the Department of Magical Transportation level and the Department of International Magical Co-operation level was a small level of bedrock that held one of the ward stones. Each blueprint clearly dictated which direction was north, and once Harry lined the two blueprints up, it was clear that the woman was digging up towards the ward stone.

While it would be easy to capture her and take her in for questioning right away, Harry waited. Instead, he reached into his robes and pulled out the omnioculars that he kept on his person at all times. He quickly set them to record mode and began documenting the woman’s work.

It was slow-going and tedious work, but the woman kept digging upwards and moving out all of the debris into neat piles in the corridor. Harry sat and watched for the better part of an hour before the woman finally completed her task.

As she slid back out into the corridor, she double checked that no one was around again before she reached within her cloak and pulled out a small orb. Anyone looking at it would easily mistake it for a simple crystal ball, but there was a strange multi-coloured shimmer to it that made Harry second guess himself. His questioning was rewarded when he saw the woman smile and crawl back into the hole in the wall.

This was when Harry decided that action was needed.

“Stupefy,” Harry murmured, and the bolt of red light struck the woman’s feet and rendered her unconscious.

Quickly, Harry followed up with a Disillusionment Charm to make the woman turn invisible, and then he dragged her out of the hole. He laid her down carefully amid the piles of debris and snatched the crystal ball-looking object from her hands.

A few detection charms later, and Harry was certain that what he was holding was a bomb.

It was a clever invention. The crystal ball itself appeared utterly normal besides the shimmering aura within it. Any simple detection spell would only bring up the beauty and colour charms affecting it, but a deeper inspection revealed that there was a magical ward within that was containing several spells that were very much akin to the Weasleys’ Wildfire Whiz-bangs. These orbs would explode into ten pieces and then explode again, ensuring a wide blast radius that would definitely catch any ward stones nearby. The worst part was that this crystal ball only required a single trigger to activate it. Much like how Voldemort was able to summon his minions with his Dark Mark, a similar spell would trigger these explosives.

Harry hid his amused laughter as he pocketed the orb and then began filling the hole back in. He didn’t recognise the witch who’d done this, but he knew her face now. He made sure that his omnioculars recorded her as he finished placing the debris back into the hole in the wall and then using a bit of magic to securely strengthen it. Once he was sure that nothing would accidentally collapse, Harry sealed the tunnel back up and used the materials that the woman brought to make it look like no one had dug into the wall in the first place.

Turning on the woman, Harry pointed his wand right at her temple. “Obliviate,” he said.

The use of the spell made a shiver run down his spine, but it was ultimately necessary. He replaced the memory of being unconscious with that of her placing the orb within the hole and then repairing the damage that she’d done. Harry used his own actions as the basis for the memory that he implanted within her, and only once he was satisfied did he release the spell and help the dazed woman to her feet.

When she finally came to her senses, she looked around and saw no one nearby. All that remained was the faintly-off shade of paint on the walls where the hole had been dug.

Without realising that anything was wrong, the woman smirked to herself and walked off, certain that her job had been done.

Harry watched her leave, pleased that he finally knew what to look out for.

Carrying himself up floor by floor, he made his way to any potential space where someone could’ve dug into the walls, and he found three more places where someone had clearly worked. He dug back into the walls himself as quickly as he could, using every ward he knew to prevent anyone from noticing anything he was doing, and removed every single orb that he found.

It was almost comical as to how easy it was. He’d only needed to replace the memories of one other of Rhys’ followers. The rest had already completed their missions and left for the night.

By the time it was nearly three in the morning, Harry had triple checked every single location that was marked on the blueprints. Only half had actually had an explosive planted within the walls near them, so he knew that he’d have to return another day. Still, this was quite the boon, and he now knew exactly what to look out for.

Content with his work, Harry travelled back down to the Courtroom level where he found Daphne’s office. He gave it a very quiet knock, and then the door opened silently.

Stepping inside, Harry closed the door behind him and tore the invisibility cloak off of his body. “I’ve uncovered everything about Rhys’ plan,” Harry smiled. “His first batch of explosives have been dealt with, and I’ll take care of the rest that his men and women plant. Now, all you need to do is win the election.”

Daphne looked up from the parchment on her desk and stared into his eyes as he shed his invisibility cloak. “And when are we going to reveal that you’re still alive?”

“Whenever is most prudent,” Harry answered. “The second it becomes most beneficial for us, we let everyone know.”

“You’ll need to be ready to appear if I decide to announce it,” Daphne replied.

“Don’t worry,” Harry told her. “I’ll be by your side from now on. With Rhys’ plan finished, all that matters now is the election.”