If you want to read by 20+ Chapters from here you can visit my Patre-on.
[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]
[email protected]/Makimafic
••••••
"It wouldn't hurt to establish a preliminary strategy and keep the animals we have close. Atalanta and Crookshanks can alert us if something turns wrong."
"It can't hurt. It will be more useful anyway than Lockhart barging to rescue us!" Smiled Alexandra, lifting a bit the sense of doom which was present.
"His blonde hairs were a bit green this morning weren't they? I wonder what the Weasley Twins pranked him with this time..."
19 December 1992, Oxford, England
"I thought we were not supposed to meet before the 23rd?" Grumbled Gilderoy Lockhart entering the café and sitting on an unoccupied chair, his blonde hair and general appearance a mess which would have destroyed the minds of many of the witches included in his fan-club.
"The plan changed, unfortunately." Replied Hendryk Jones, on the seat in front of him, a newspaper in his hand and the rest of a meal on the table.
"I had no idea my august presence was having such an effect on world events." Remarked the member of the Defence Against the Dark Arts League.
"It hasn't." Said the fifth highest ranking member of the Magical Intelligence Bureau in a humorous tone. "Did you have the opportunity to read the foreign newspapers at Hogwarts?"
"Alas, no." Regretted the blonde wizard, ordering a cup of hot chocolate to the waitress. "Ordering fashion and cosmetic magazines from France is the best I can do without raising any suspicion on my cover. And it's not the rubbish written in the Daily Prophet that helps having a clear view of the political arena."
"In that case, you're going to love this." Affirmed Jones with a frown. "First, we have been put in probation by the ICW."
"Again?" Lockhart laughed. "This must be the what? The seventeenth time in half a century?"
"Eighteenth actually." Corrected Jones.
"May I know what prompted this unpleasant state of affairs?"
"Of course." Said amicably the man who was responsible for all secret operations made by the Union of the Magical American States in Europe. "In October, one of our elite teams of wizards discovered a cell of British wizards infiltrated in Philadelphia. They were busy stockpiling quite a few explosive magical weapons."
"Not very nice of them." Noted Lockhart.
"No, not nice at all." Agreed Jones. "It is our understanding they intended to arm some of our less sympathetic wizard-first supremacists. Naturally, we objected and we stormed their caches, arresting sixteen wizards and witches, four of them British and the rest our own citizens."
"And you've charged all of them, not just the Americans." Told Lockhart. It was not a question. Similar operations had occurred in the past, only for the criminals to be released once they were back on British territory.
"There wasn't any point to give them back to our dear Minister Fudge." Snorted Jones. "The British we put our hands upon were quite happy to sing they had friends in high-places."
"Friends like Lucius Malfoy?"
"Of course not. Nothing links them to Lucius Malfoy. His good friends Nott and Avery have left their imprints all over the place though. If they step one foot on American soil ever again, we will personally arrest and execute them for their crimes." The smile of Jones was rather carnivorous, although there was a point of frustration in it.
Gilderoy Lockhart understood it. Lucius Malfoy was a wizard the MIB had spent a few decades mounting a pile of files upon. Despite a stupendous amount of work, the American investigators were no closer to obtain proper evidence of wrongdoing, crimes and misdemeanours on him. Time and time again, the MIB had launched legal and not-legal operations, only to catch small fry, thugs and Death Eaters of minor importance as the Lord of the Malfoy House made a slippery escape and burnt any relationships he might have had with those arrested. The hands of Lucius Malfoy always came back clean. No one, not the French, not the Italians, not the Americans nor the Germans had managed to find enough proof to arrest and charge Lucius Malfoy in front of a tribunal. There were only a few tangential proofs, some low-level bribery at the level where he played politics and some conflict of influence they could accuse the Malfoy patriarch of, who was also by the way a respectable ICW diplomat member representing the British Isles. It was enough to force him to pay small fines every couple of years. It was however nowhere near what was required to pump him with Veritaserum, break his Occlumency barriers and finally send it to the prison cell this platinum-blonde-haired criminal so justly deserved.
"I suppose Malfoy led the charge to put us in probation?" Gilderoy's question was rhetorical and disabused.
"No, he did not. This honour went to our estimate Supreme Mugwump." Replied his boss.
"Ah." This simple of Gilderoy spoke volumes about his contempt of a man he had once ago long admired and worshipped like the reincarnation of Merlin. "What was the second point?"
"It's not official, but there are talks to reinstate the Tri-Wizard Tournament in the short-term future."
"Tell me you're kidding!" Lockhart felt in spite of himself his visage grow livid. "This Tournament has killed more witches and wizards than the last British Civil War!"
"They are speaking of new rules and new methods to choose Champions." The tone Jones had used to make this weak protest showed how much he believed in it.
"I'm sure it will be a relief for those who die in it." Sighed Lockhart, taking the hot chocolate from the waitress with a muted thanks. "Well at least the Hogwarts students will have experience to handle this tournament of nightmares."
"Is it really that bad?" Asked the MIB agent in a disappointed.
---+---
A/N: If you want advanced chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/Makimafic