Published at 27th of May 2024 12:15 am

Chapter 248: Change in Management

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27 August 1994, Ministry of Magic, London

Saul Croaker entered his office looking like a normally calm man. He activated the privacy protections the moment he closed the door and yelled out in anger. His magic automatically threw every part of his office away telekinetically, "AH!"

His tantrum took a good half an hour to end. After all, he needed to calm down after the joke of a meeting he just experienced. Fucking Nott and his traditionalists… He knew that the man was dangerous, but he was far better than any other candidate for the traditionalist factions.

The Nott Patriarch had proposed a bill in the Wizengamot to put an ICW overview committee on the Department of Mysteries, to make sure that they didn't dabble with dangerous magics. Which was a joke because the department's whole purpose is to experiment with dangerous magics…

Ever since the Wizengamot accepted the ICW's interference in Magical Britain's affairs, Saul knew that their nation was in for a hard time. It was the correct decision, without a doubt. Even if the ancient wizarding families helped pay the reparations for the mess that was the Quidditch World Cup, it would have put magical Britain in an untenable position. Their economy was barely surviving through the investments of these families, and stopping this investment would halt the entire economy, which would have inevitably led to the ICW interfering, only with Britain being in a far weaker position.

Either way, the outcome was the same.

He had hoped the rest of the population, at least the educated ones, to realize that the Unspeakables were going to be Britain's last line of defence against the ICW. They would be able to operate secretly, slowly reversing the ICW's decisions until they would inevitably retreat in a generation or so.

Saul only needed to put his department back into order, fix the damages from the previous attack, find whoever did this, and start plotting. He had already asked the infiltration division to start gathering more information about major ICW representatives. Nothing moved the world more than leverage, after all.

Britain would be reborn, anew, but under the influence of the Department of Mysteries, which wouldn't really be a bad thing. They could restart a culture of exploration and experimentation that Albus Dumbledore had made sure the stifle, but that was in the far future.

Unfortunately, the Wizengamot being dumb pieces of shit, decided to actively let the ICW control the Department of Mysteries in everything but name. It was insane, a suicidal move from their culture and their greatest assets, but they did it anyway…

What the fuck had Nott been thinking, proposing such a bill, one that was being voted in just a couple of weeks.

He groaned in exasperation, "This job will be the end of me…"

"That's a surprisingly accurate statement, Croaker," a familiar voice responded.

He turned and looked down, hoping that if he didn't see her, it would have been just his imagination speaking. The voice turned angry and demanded, "Look at me, Saul!"

The head Unspeakable looked up to the corner of his office and saw the living manifestation of his nightmares, "Hello, Lily."

"Surprised to see me alive?" the redhead asked mockingly.

"Not as much as I should have been. You've always been a tricky one. I was never going to consider you fully dead without seeing your cold dead body myself."

"Isn't that nice? You definitely tried, didn't you? You made sure to send a small army after my family."

He shrugged, "It wasn't just me. Dumbledore also wanted you off the board. The funny thing is that if he knew you were the Red Witch, he would have probably done it himself. But no, he just wanted the Potters and Longbottoms gone to fully control the variables of his precious prophecy. It's funny just how many people wanted you dead at once. It feels almost like destiny, doesn't it?"

He wasn't lying about Dumbledore's desire to control the prophecy. The man was completely obsessed with it for some reason. He had almost wiped out two old families for it and he would have killed Augusta Longbottom too, if it wasn't for the fact that she had put on some preventive measures to prevent people from gaining access to her grandson in the event of her death. Saul wasn't sure what those were, but the few seers in the department felt dread at the suggestion. It probably involved her family crest or something similar.

The redhead looked undisturbed, "Yes, destiny. Quite the interesting concept, isn't it?"

Saul looked back at the events of Godric's Hollows and came to an epiphany, "Oh, you bitch. You killed your own husband, haven't you? You broke a prophecy hoping to use its power somehow. Do you have any idea what the ramifications of something like this are?"

"Yes," she answered without any hesitation, "And normally, I would have fought my way out. Unfortunately, I didn't know if I could do so and keep my son safe. I deemed my son's life to be worthy of the risk, and it worked."

"Why are you here, Lily?"

Lily Potter's return made a lot of things clearer. For example, she was clearly the one who attacked the department. She was knowledgeable of their protection measures and had the increased intellect to bypass them. She had deliberately gone after Project Athena, her project, and destroyed any copy they had of the experiments.

The Red Witch was planning something far more extensive than revenge and Saul couldn't help but feel dread at the thought. The witch in question giggled, "After all this time, you're asking what I want? You owe me answers, Saul. And depending on what you have to say, I'll decide how to proceed."

Saul nodded, feeling defeated. He had no chance at fighting her, and he knew that the witch probably had enough measures to stop them from being interrupted, "What do you want to know?"

"There are a few things missing from the files regarding Project Athena. Why is that?"

"The Foundation. They tried to hide what they had done when we discovered their subdivision in the department. They were everywhere, not just in your project. Do you seriously think you were the worst off from their actions? They made raids, and precision strikes, against third-world countries that had natural deposits of Orichalcum. They committed genocides and so much more. You were how we found them. Your actions were rarely subtle, but I think you did that on purpose. We couldn't afford to have anyone snooping and finding one of our greatest shame, so I personally removed any of their shady actions from any official documentation."

"I want their names, Saul," the redhead insisted.

"What did you think happened to them? Did you think I just let them commit atrocities without any reprisal? Every single member of this group was killed by the last mage. We were just subtle about it."

"What about the names on the list."

Saul smirked at that, "Couldn't find them, could you? They're pseudonyms of the researchers on the new project Athena. Everyone on that particular project had to drink Polyjuice potion during their time. We did not want to risk another agent Athena like you… After all, you caused quite the stir when you... defected."

"Wasn't that what the Diary was for, keeping her soul hostage?"

Saul shook his head, "We do some very unethical experiments here, I'll admit that, but everything we do has a purpose. We didn't feel the need to use her soul; outside of the Department of Mysteries, Hermione Granger wouldn't have a life to consider. The moment anyone would know of her condition, they would hunt down the Diary to take control over her. And that's the best-case scenario. She could be hunted down as an abomination like they used to do to liches thousands of years ago. We gave her options, potential, the possibility of life, by making her the new agent Athena, and that's far better than anyone else could have done."

The Red Witch shook her head, "You didn't need to. You could have just helped her and just hid the Diary. So, why did you even recreate Project Athena."

This was a very dangerous question, one that Saul could turn to in his favour. He took a deep breath, "We were afraid. The Great War, the war between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, you have no idea just how devastating it was. We've never experienced anything like it since the Statute of Secrecy was put into place. Normally, light and dark champions did the same thing; they fought their wars, each one gaining a bit of influence over society until they were inevitably defeated. So, we adapted, and we learned to work around them. It was a cruel and vicious cycle, but it was one we could predict… Until those two freaks of nature fought."

He was breathing hard at the memories, "Do you have any ideas what it was like, seeing those two people going at it? They changed landscapes, and literally wiped out villages and entire cities. You couldn't even trust your minds, with Grindelwald's timed compulsion charms and his abilities as a seer. They call it a Great War, not because of the people involved, but because of the two leaders, the two Archmages in charge. We waited for one of them to win, and thankfully they did. But then, that Tom Riddle came about. He wasn't a dark champion, with Grindelwald still alive, so, we ignored him and assumed Dumbledore would kill the upstart. However, for some ungodly reason, he didn't. We think he wanted to make magical Britain desperate enough for security that it would trade in anything he wanted in return. We decided to deal with him ourselves, but what we didn't expect was just how powerful Voldemort was. We hadn't seen anything like it. He wasn't as strong as Dumbledore or Grindelwald, but he could definitely challenge a few of the weaker Champions…"

The redhead murmured, "You had proof that you could create something that could challenge an Archmage without being a Champion of the Light or Dark."

Saul nodded, "Yes. We were unsuccessful at first and decided to prioritize other avenues, but a group inside of the department wasn't convinced and did them regardless…"

"The Foundation."

"They thought we still needed our trump card, and you know what happened next."

Lily nodded, "And the attack on Godric's Hollows?"

"That was me. You would have gone after the department. I couldn't allow that. The work we do here is important."

"It's a shame the Wizengamot is not realizing that…"

Saul growled, "So, the proposal was your handy work?"

"Nott is an associate of mine. And I needed him to pressure you a bit. After all, there's a reason why I did very little damage when I was here last time. There are so many useful toys here that I could use."

"And you destroyed the records of Project Athena to stop people from finding out where you came from."

The redhead giggled, "Of course. A copy destruction spell. Did you know that Copying Charm still has a small link to their original document, a link that could be used to destroy any copies of the document that exist? It's at these times that I love how lazy wizards and witches can be…"

It wasn't hard to realize where this conversation was heading, "You're building a power base. You want control over the Department of Mysteries and if I refuse, you're going to let the bill pass and the ICW will destroy this department and everything I've ever worked for."

"I really love dealing with you, Unspeakables. I don't even have to voice my threats to make my point…"

"It's a very good threat, I'll admit to that. Half the Wizengamot, the Department of Mysteries, and Merlin knows what else, will be compromised, under your command, and no one even knows that you're alive. The Department alone will give you enough foreign agents and a discreet task force that could perform almost any operation. That's impressive…"

"I never did understand why Dumbledore and Voldemort had so much trouble conquering this place. I'm almost halfway done, and I've been at it for just a few months."

"Yeah, good luck with that," Saul responded with a smug smile on his face.

He wasn't an idiot. Evans would have checked for any traps inside his office without stepping in. Of course, she never checked him. With a smug smile, he activated the small rune inside his very body that he kept powering during the entire conversation.

It was very painful. Far more painful than he ever expected it to be, but just as he was being shredded on a molecular level, every drop of magic inside his circuits combined into a ball.

The last thing he saw was Lily Evan's wide eyes, as she realized that she was about to be blown up. It probably wouldn't be enough to stop her, but all that Saul Croaker felt as he passed away was satisfaction…

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