She gave her all she could, with the Prime Minister being busy with writing down the details, so that things could be done to prevent anything unusual from getting out to the public.
It was kind of a wild tale from the things that were known. Of a family friend turned traitor, which caused a tragedy, and the strange survival of the young toddler boy. There would be a manhunt for the traitor, which was made more difficult because he could turn into a rat of all things. Bagnold promised mugshots so that the traitor would be entered onto the terrorist list of the UK.
It took some time before all details were worked out.
"Thanks, it's a relief that you promised that the bodies would be released so we could give them a proper funeral," Bagnold finally said after all was agreed on. "At least that's something that can be done without uncertainties."
"What do you mean by that, Minister?" Thatcher asked her.
Bagnold sighed. "It will be a nightmare to find out who is guilty, and who was forced into it. I have no illusion that many of them will lie to save their skin and it will be next to impossible to prove that they are lying. Sometimes I hate my job."
Getting up, Bagnold walked to the fireplace, then remembered something. "Ah, yes. We managed to keep the news under wraps for now, but I expect it to have leaked by Tuesday. I know my people, they will act stupid in their relief, so your security apparatus should be forewarned."
That said, the Minister for Magic took some powder out of a small bag she carried and threw it into the fireplace, vanishing in green flames to return to her own ministry. Margaret Thatcher was left alone in her office. Leaning back in her office chair, she tried to collect her thoughts on what had been revealed to her by the other minister.
While that finally was one headache less, she was no idiot. Bagnold had revealed enough that she knew the upper echelons of these terrorists would lie and bribe their way to freedom, perhaps even continue to have influence over magical society. She was no pessimist when feeling this was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off, and that Bagnold was naive to think they could clean house.
She knew Monday would be a very exhausting day for everyone, from her down to single police officers.
While starting to write up the needed memos at the trustworthy people in the apparatus to clean up the mess Bagnold told her of, she was already with her thoughts at the bigger issue and how their plans would need to get another boost, considering the news. The Ministry of Magic were quite narrow-minded, and wizards in general were always underestimating people with no magic of their own.
They knew far more than the Ministry of Magic could ever imagine and were well aware of the big picture. The magical government had little idea of their activities. Today had proven that things would go sour; in her mind this at best was a 20-year armistice, as the root cause of the conflict was still present, festering under the surface.
Once this paperwork is all out, I need to contact MI-X. We need to step up our game if we want to be ready once this fragile peace breaks down, she thought.
...the next day, November 2nd, Privet Drive...
How did Albus convince me to do this? Minerva McGonagall wondered while sitting on the garden wall of Privet Drive No. 4 as a cat, watching her targets.
She knew she should be in Hogwarts, keeping an eye on young Harry, who currently was in the care of Madame Pomfrey. The school itself currently was under lockdown, with all students being restricted to their house dormitories and lessons being suspended until further notice. Yet, here she was, watching people that, in her eyes, were not very nice: Petunia Dursley, her oafish husband Vernon and their little son Dudley.
Over the years she had heard small things from Lily that hinted how her relationship with her sister Putunia had deteriorated, but to see with her own eyes how this family was the bad counterpart to the Potters had come as a very unpleasant surprise.
I still can't believe Lily and James are dead, she thought in sorrow, then concentrated on her observations.
Still, the memories came anyway.
She remembered how she'd been woken up in the middle of the night, only to hear the news of the tragedy. She was not embarrassed how she had dissolved into tears at these news. Even worse were the news of who had sold them out, especially since it had only been a few years since she had been Peter Pettigrew's teacher. The Ministry officials had been set to arrive soon to verify Sirius' claims, but he needed her help first.
She had given him a serious scolding for invoking the Animagus transformation as a teenager, and she only then had agreed that there was no other way than to inform the Ministry of his animagus ability as well, if he wanted to tell them about Pettigrew's. She would spin it that these two only recently achieved the feat with her help, but didn't register yet due to the ongoing war situation.
That surprisingly had worked out perfectly and after the Ministry had confirmed the truth of Sirius' report, they had fed them the story. Considering the chaos magical Britain was in, they accepted it with no further questions after a quick demonstration and would set the proper procedure into motion.
She finally concentrated back on her task. Each of this family of thee she was observing was unpleasant in their own right.
Vernon Dursley was not only heavily overweight, he also carried around an attitude she had seen in many pure-bloods from lesser families: nasty social climbers that would walk over corpses to be successful. The way he had interacted with the milkman and the postman - with both men clearly trying very hard not to let it get to them - raised the frightening question how he treated those he felt were to be treated with scorn.