Sirius frowned and quietly asked, "Oh?" "Well, I just killed over a dozen 'fine and upstanding citizens', didn't I?" he asked. "If it was discovered I was willingly taken there... then someone is going to come up with the bright idea I murdered all those people.
"By being kidnapped and taken there―"
"Then you were just exercising your legal right of trying to escape from a deadly situation; therefore, it's self defence," nodded Sirius. "Clever."
"And no one, but us three, knows any different," said Luna. "Except for the house elves; and no one asks them, anyway."
"That's because a house elf can be ordered by their Master or Mistress to lie," Sirius explained.
"Next point," said Harry. "Madam Bones has again confirmed for me she's tried to contact me in the past and hasn't been able to. I've just told her she can contact me via Luna." "Was that wise?" asked Sirius.
"She needed some way to do so and I'm not yet prepared to let anyone, but us three and Remus and Tonks, know I'm Harry Potter."
Before she even left the manor, Bones had her aurors briefed on what they needed to do as soon as they arrived. "I do not care if you believe them to be friends and or comrades-in-arms," she firmly stated. "There are now four... four... we believed to be such downstairs in those sets of cells. That's four out of fourteen that accompanied us. That's over a quarterof those who accompanied us here not being who we thought they were.
"Everyone is to be immediately stunned. There is to be nothing of any, 'I'm sorry about this'... or 'I'm afraid I'm going to have to stun you'... or any of that nonsense! As soon as you spot them, stun them. Got that?"
"Yes, Ma'am," was chorused back to her. "These bastards have been using Polyjuice to take the places of our friends and comrades. And, in some cases... as we discovered with John Peters and Adrian Wilkes now downstairs... they're not our friends, after all.
"Lord Peverell suggested we conjure metal shields strapped to our off arms when we portkey in to a hot zone. Well... we're going to do that going back to the DMLE. The offices of the DMLE, until we clear it out, is currently considered a hot zone.
"We'll also be using the shields as a way to identify each other as someone who's already been checked. So, everyone conjure one up now."
Putting deed to word Bones was the first to do precisely that. It added a little bit of weight, but that was soon sorted with an additional featherweight charm and well worth it for the obvious, though possibly short, protection it would be. She also wondered why none of them had thought of it before, as it made perfect sense.
Once her aurors were all bearing a shield she conjured a large soft hoop of rope, enough for them all to grab hold, and said, "Right! Let's go do this!"
As soon as they arrived in the portkey point at the DMLE, Bones and the aurors quickly got to work.
The two aurors already in the portkey point were quickly stunned, de-wanded and bound; as the rest deliberately, but carefully, made there way through the offices and cubicles. Another two went to the doors out of the DMLE offices, locked them and then magically locked them. They wanted no one in or out until they were done.
Only one tried to fight back, but their decidedly dark curse was fended off by a shield before they were quickly taken down and bound. Within five minutes all the aurors were either carrying a shield or were down unconscious and bound. That included the ones on guard duty in the cells area.
"Right!" said Bones, once it was apparent they'd succeeded. "Bring them all up to the front of the bullpen area and we'll go through them one at a time. Someone stay on the main doors and make sure no one comes in until we're done."
"Ma'am," nodded on of the Seniors, before he grabbed a lower rank and headed for the doors.
It didn't take long. By the time they were done they had two more found under Polyjuice and one more with the Dark Mark. Bones had been cursing up a storm under her breath the whole time. The Chief Auror was found to be another Marked Death Eater. With the last one checked, she barked, "Right. Strip those three down and put them in cells. Once that's done... Proudfoot!"
"Ma'am?" asked a solid, swarthy-skinned man.
"You're currently Chief Auror. Once those three are in cells, take the portkey Peverell left with me and take eight aurors back to that manor. Bring those four back here."
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Don't forget to manacle them before you do."
"No, Ma'am," he replied. "I'll get 'er done."
With a firm nod back she continued, "Once they're back, I want one of the Masters to start summoning the off-duty aurors in, one at a time. While we've discovered this lot, I'm horrified to think about how many there are that are currently off-duty."
When she saw they'd heard that, she said, "By the way: That He and his Inner Circle are now dead... is a DMLE high secret. Anyone... and I do mean anyone... who is thinking about making a few galleons on the side by selling or giving that information to anyone, including the media, outside the department... well, you will be going to Azkaban; even if I have to take you there, myself! No excuses!
"Yes, Ma'am," was chorused back.
"Even if I have to Veritaserum your arses myself, I will learn who was responsible... one way or another."
Again, she got a chorus of, "Yes, Ma'am"s.
"Let's get it done!" she snapped out.
Aurors moved.
The one thing the already years long undeclared civil war had caused, even if it was not legally recognised as a war, was that the aurors all knew that what they were told was a secret was to be kept a secret. At least, they thought they did... until they'd just learned just how badly they'd been infiltrated by the enemy.
At Grimmauld, Sirius had called in Remus and Tonks, but only Remus could turn up.
"Tonks got called into the DMLE," he explained.
Once Moony was sat down with a drink, Harry then spent what felt like twice as long as his 'adventure' took to tell of it. However, part of that was the oft interruptions by either Sirius or Remus to clarify something or rant at him about something else.
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