2,655Ch. 56 — Minister? Horrors!
The DSF would continue to use it until the insurgency on this side of the Mirror was dealt with, and their people were ready to deal with the SGA and the rest of their world on their own. That would probably take a month, possibly more.
Because the SGA had been experimenting with their Mirror, previously, what the SGA did with it after that was up to them. Harry did suggest they work closely with this world's version of the DFS to help prevent calamities.
Harry and Hermione did not explain their plans for the SGC's Mirror once the DSF had it, beyond using it to assist this Reality's version of their people.
When they came back through the Mirror tomorrow, they told Hammond, they would bring four platoons of Marines from the Dogon with them to deal with the insurgency.
They explained that the platoons currently in the SGA facility would return to their Reality.
They didn't explain that by that time the Requirement's platoons should have cleaned up the muggle-born camps, as well as cleaned out the "safe" houses and secret supply locations. If things went well, they would have all the Death Eaters and prisoners aboard the Requirement Two.
Hopefully, by that time, they would also have control of the Ministry.
If not, then that became the Dogon's Marines first objective. They would land in the destroyed part of Knockturn Alley, then use the floos in some of the surviving stores to slip into the Ministry, just as they had planned.
It would be more difficult, at first, but with the invisibility tech, they should be able to do it rather quickly.
Once the Ministry fell, they would leave one platoon there and the other three platoons would move on to secure Hogsmeade and then Hogwarts.
That shouldn't be that difficult considering both of those locations probably had only a few Death Eaters in place and were depending on getting reinforcements from the Ministry.
After bringing the Major General up to date, they went through the Mirror and updated Lieutenant General Hammond with the story they had told the other Hammond about an insurgency.
There was news waiting for them when they returned to the Requirement. "It's Ma'chello, the Dendred S.G.-One found on the planet Tonnem," Commodore Jordan told them. "He's apparently been quite busy over the last month since his waking from stasis and rescue. Between the time of his agreeing to help S.G.-One and now, he has been hard at work on a new way to combat the Goa'uld.
"His previous method of delivery to his targets was too cumbersome. With our help, he has managed to create a virus that is undetectable by the Goa'uld, and thus, unable for them to resist once infected. As we had hoped to do, he and his team, along with our experts, managed to make it render the Goa'uld brain-dead so that only their autonomous abilities are functional. So, any infected host renders the adult Goa'uld incapable of conscious action, and the host regains complete control."
He grinned. "Prim'tas who reach the end of their juvenile period and start to wake in Jaffa are stopped as soon as they begin to 'wake,' leaving the Jaffa unharmed and with an intact Goa'uld immune system."
He sighed. "Unfortunately, S.G.C. doesn't want to use it because of the impact on their potential allies, the Tok'ra. But in this other universe? Maybe it would be worth releasing there?"
He paused, then continued, "Once we get it in production, we could inject it in the captured Jaffa who don't want to join the resistance. We could start by going to one of the 'dead' worlds and dialling up all the known addresses for Goa'uld worlds and sending through groups of infected Jaffa. We could memory charm them to think they were fleeing an attacking force to an Apophis-friendly ally, but they misdialled."
They could almost hear his grin over the comms. "The virus is airborne and highly virulent, so all they need to do is spend some time with other Jaffa to ensure it spreads. Even if where they go ends up executing them for 'daring' to come to that world, the virus would still have a foothold. With a gestation time of only a few days, there would be plenty of time for it to spread quite far before any of the Goa'uld began to notice."
Harry and Hermione exchange looks. "I suggest we keep that in mind if things go tits-up in our Reality," Harry said, "but we'll need to discuss this with the other Harry and Hermione to see what they say."
Hermione frowned. "How about using a drone to fly around a facility and spray the virus? How long can the virus remain viable in the air? A drone could cover more territory quickly, especially if we equip it with an infra-red camera to track where the most activity is. Give the drone a small computer to seek out places like mess halls and barracks, or even just stay close to the Stargate to infect people as they enter or leave. With invisibility tech, it could basically hide there until the battery died — which we can make last months."
"I'll see if I can put a priority on that using drones to spread the virus," Lee said.
Then it was their turn to give Lee a briefing on what they had done with their Alternates, and the tentative plans they had made on the way back from London.
Especially those regarding beginning the search for Riddle.
Unfortunately, they knew from previous experience that the Requirement's computers could not distinguish Death Eaters from other magical wizards and witches. Adding to that difficulty was that Voldy appeared to be staying at Malfoy Manor, which was currently unplottable and, thus, invisible to the Requirement Two without a beacon emplaced. They would have to wait for Riddle to reveal himself, somewhere else.
On the other hand, could they plant beacons around the permitter and maybe beam the entire plot of land, house and all, into space?
Once the DSF had the Mirror, they intended to use it to take back any of the Alternate Earths the Goa'uld controlled, or prevent the Goa'uld from succeeding if they were in the process of invading. While it was debateable if the Goa'uld could find the Wizards and Witches, why take the chance? Now that they had some experience in dealing with Alternate Realities, tiny though it was, they could get a jump on what they needed to do in each one.
Besides, it made for excellent training for their Reality's pilots and Marines – and possibly others.
Lee and the rest of the command group would flesh-out those plans, as needed, overnight. Not to mention improving them.
Then it was time for the two to head for bed before they collapsed. The Invigoration Draughts were about to wear off!
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Despite the very early morning start to their day, changing time zones back and forth, the lateness of the night in England, and the hours spent in briefing and debriefing, Harry and Hermione woke in mid-morning, Cheyenne Mountain time. During their quick breakfast they discovered that Lee had sent the Dogon's Marine's through not long after Harry and Hermione had returned. The night-staff at the Ministry had been easy for a platoon of the Requirement's Marines to take over. Then they had captured the other employees as they had shown up to work. By the time work at the Ministry was scheduled to start they had all four platoons there, with several Marines at each entry point. In the meantime, the Dogon's Marines had been more than happy to handle taking over Hogsmeade and Hogwarts.
The alarms the Death Eaters had set in Hogsmeade in an attempt to catch "Undesirables One and Two", or anyone out past curfew, played right into their hands. The alarms were quite handy in directing the Death Eaters right into the ambushes set by the Marines. Most of the Death Eaters had never even realized they were under attack before being stunned and marbleized.
The operation had been rather quick, as the Hogsmeade residents had been asleep until the alarms sounded. That meant most had been still groggy from sleep, allowing for quick and easy infiltration. Also, most of those responding had come from the Ministry, whose pool of responders had been radically reduced due to the Taboo-ambushes. Once that was finished and they had marbleized another dozen, both Death Eaters and their active helpers, they had called on Dobby for assistance.
He had been more than happy to POP one of them to the Room of Requirement, who then made a portal to Hogsmeade. In short order they had three platoons of Marines in the castle, and quickly rounded up the Death Eater "Professors" in residence, including Snape. Again, an easy task as everyone in the school had been asleep. They had simultaneously invaded each of the Houses, and immediately started interrogating everyone to find out who had been imperiused, who were quislings, and who were supporters of the Death Eater agenda. Veritaserum was used. Anyone with a Dark Mark, or who had actively helped the Death Eaters, had been marbleized.
Special attention was paid to students as to who had been reluctant to harm other students and who had relished the power given to them by the new professors. If they enjoyed casting the Imperius, the Crucius, and other curses meant to harm on students, or they demanded sexual favours, or other unsavoury favours, to not cast those on particular students, they were marbleized and put with the Death Eaters.
The same questioning was being administered to the people in both Hogsmeade and the Ministry.
This was a simple, yet tedious process; they had known they would be interrogating everyone and had brought through more than enough veritaserum. As with the students, the ones who had voluntarily used unforgiveables on others were quickly marbleized and set aside for trials under the laws as established before the Death Eater rebels had taken over the Ministry.
A large number of students from Slytherin were going to be spending the rest of their lives with all the Death Eaters in a prison ship orbiting Uranus, Harry knew. No easily escapable Azkaban for them!
The students would be sent there because if they hadn't wanted to hurt the other students, they couldn't have cast the crucio, for example! As Bellatrix had told this world's Harry, "You need to mean them, Potter! You need to really want to cause pain — to enjoy it — righteous anger won't hurt me for long . . .." The veritaserum would reveal if they had enjoyed torturing their fellow students. If they did, then they were too dangerous to not be in prison.
Naturally, there might be mitigating circumstances, such as a victim being happy to cast the crucio on someone who had been a bully to him or her, as this alternate-world's Harry had tried to do that one time in the Ministry.
The Imperius, likewise, might be excused if the student feared the punishments from their "Professor", depending on the exact circumstances and the actions commanded.
As a result, between the Dogon Marines taking Hogsmeade and Hogwarts and the Requirement Marines baiting the Death Eaters and then taking over both the Muggle Camps and the Ministry, the DSF Marines had reduced Voldemort to being trapped in the Malfoy Manor with only a handful of followers in attendance.
They thought he hadn't even been told, yet, of what was happening. No one wanted to the bearer of such bad news, the punishment would probably be death by crucio.
Interrogating the students at Hogwarts had allowed them to find those who knew where Malfoy Manor was. It might be unplottable, but that didn't mean no one knew where it was, just that you couldn't find it on a map.
As soon as they finished their interrogations, they had more than one volunteer who was happy to show them the Manor's location via a pensieve. Two platoons quickly surrounded the Manor, and set up location beacons.
Just as the Death Eaters had known that the Black house was on Grimmauld Street, just not exactly where on the street. They knew the manor was inside their perimeter, just not exactly where.
Shortly before Harry and Hermione woke in the morning that day, the Ministry, Hogsmeade, and Hogwarts were all under their control. Hogsmeade and Hogwarts had a platoon each, the Ministry had two platoons to maintain control. The other four platoons of Marines, one hundred and twenty-six, had managed to cast anti-apparition, anti-portkey, and a stasis charm over the manor.
Voldemort would not be going anywhere to either cause problems or escape.
The Goblins had not been idle that night, either. According to them, an hour later, there were no more horcruxes outside of Malfoy Manor. The Marines cancelled stasis for the few seconds needed for the Goblins to verify that all the horcruxes except the locket and snake were, indeed, gone. The Marines re-established the stasis charm. The Goblins went back to Gringotts and destroyed the locket.
Later, Harry and Hermione decided, after telling the alternate world's Harry and Hermione what was planned, to move the Requirement to its maximum beaming range from England. Marines would cancel the stasis once more and have the Requirement beam every snake inside the ring of transponders into space to the other side of its maximum beaming range. Well beyond the range of any conventional portkey or apparition. At the same time, they would have Dobby check the Mansion for any prisoners, and rescue them. He would know if Voldemort was trying to fool everyone by taking over one of the prisoners.
Even if the snake-horcrux somehow managed to portkey back to a safe location, the magic holding the horcrux from passing on would be gone. Seconds later, so would be the horcrux.
That would leave Voldemort mortal.
Then they would broadcast that information via sonorous into the Manor, and offer one million galleons and total amnesty to the wizard or witch who killed Voldemort. The only condition would be that the survivors would have to swear on their lives and magic that they were not Voldemort, nor a host to Voldemort's wraith.
They doubted that anyone would get the drop on Voldemort, but it would reduce the number of opponents they found when they stormed the Manor. While several might team up, as soon as they verified Voldemort was dead, they would probably turn on each other rather than share the bounty.
With luck, he would be the only one alive by that time.
If he was the only one alive, then they would have the Requirement beam him into space. Having his magic stripped from him during the beaming should do the trick!
So, at the moment, one platoon of Dogon Marines patrolled each of Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, and Hogwarts. Two platoons of Requirement Marines patrolled the Ministry, with the other two watching Malfoy Manor.
The Marines from the Su Song and Galileo were getting a good-night's sleep after preparing to take over at the thirty-six-hour mark, which would be in another eight hours.
Harry and Hermione spent an hour loading up vials with memories of the missions they had covered, as well as many of the discoveries they had made about the Requirement, Stargate Command, and things they had done in their world to integrate with the muggles.
Armed with a pensieve and a set of computer records and plans for the other Requirement, they headed back to England. This time, rather than in London, they landed in a partially complete Landing Bay on the other Requirement, and apparated to the Bridge.
Dobby, when called, was more than happy to see if the other Harry and Hermione were awake, yet — they had had a rather late night and weren't in the best of shape, either. While the other two were getting themselves together, Hermione-Alt updated the ship's library on what its counterpart already had in its files, including all the items, both magical and not, that they had scanned into the replicator in their universe.
The rune stones to protect their spaceships were one set of very important items for the replicator. They would have to wait for the Requirement to be completely made over into its Battlestar configuration before they could be activated. Fortunately, that wasn't a dangerous situation, given that the Goa'uld ha'taks had been captured
Harry-Alt informed the Marines that they were in the ship but wanted to update this universe's Harry and Hermione before proceeding to eliminate Voldemort.
The XE-wing pilots had not been idle after the Asgard ship left. As soon they couldn't pick up the ship on their instruments, they had started broadcasting prepared messages on multiple frequencies. The messages announced that they were part of the Defensive Space Force and interested only in driving off the attacking Goa'uld. They rotated the broadcasts through the top fifty languages known around the world. They also broadcast that they had medical units that could treat any disease and restore lost limbs to victims of violence or accidents. For that, they said, the governments should contact the Stargate Agency, currently associated with US government, for instructions on getting the units delivered to them.
The US, England, Europe, and India had already started getting deliveries of those items.
Areas needing food assistance were also told to contact the SGA, and food would be delivered.
Plus, they explained that a world government would be needed to deal with the Goa'uld and other galactic civilizations going forward. Any nation that didn't want to abide by the new laws regarding their citizens' rights to life, liberty, and their pursuit of happiness would have their access to the PiMPS removed, and would not share in the other benefits. Wars with other nations were not allowed. If they couldn't stay inside their current borders, or they couldn't obey the new laws, they would be taken over and a government that could obey them would be installed. It might not happen immediately, but it would happen.
Ginny and Luna had been busy, too. They had swiftly recruited their counterparts into the core of this world's DSF. With the help of the house-elves and professors they had managed to contact the families of the half-bloods and bring them to the castle.
Most of the surviving muggle-borns and their families had been treated by PiMPS for their physical injuries, but many would need to spend years in therapy.
The Marines, of course, had been bragging about the things they had done during their interrogations of the obvious non-Death Eaters. They loved the incredulous looks they got when they said they were muggle-borns, half-bloods, and squibs who had been forced out of the wizarding world. They had joined the DSF when they discovered that they were wanted, no needed, to clean up the wizarding world, as well as fight the invaders from space. The squibs, especially had loved becoming full-wizards and witches.
It was their 'subtle' way of recruiting.
They had a lot of volunteers.
Ginny and Luna had brought televisions across the mirror that were shielded from magic. They had reflected the screens onto mirrors several yards across and placed them in Hogwarts' Great Hall and The Three Broomsticks, and the Leaky Cauldron. It took only a few hours of watching the broadcasts from the BBC to convince everyone of the reality of an invasion from space.
That and the XE-wing fighters parked on Hogwarts' lawn, in at the edge of Hogsmeade Village, and in the destroyed section of Knockturn Alley. A demonstration strafing run at the edge of the Forbidden Forest from an XE-wing so high they couldn't see it had proven to the students, and adults from Hogsmeade, that muggles could not be ignored. Especially when the XE-wing went invisible.
And all this was while both Harrys and Hermiones had been sleeping.
Harry and Hermione were amazed at the pensieve made by the ship. Weeks' worth of rune carving done in seconds! All it needed was powering up with magic.
The memories, on the other hand, were simply astounding. Watching a duel between Luna-Alt and Ginny-Alt was jaw-dropping. It was here that Hermione had an epiphany. "Let me see if I understand this right," she started. "You can't stay here more than forty-eight hours if, and only if, you have an alternate already here." She waited for their nods. "So, what if our Ginny and Luna go to your world while your Ginny and Luna come to ours? That would give us your Ginny's and Luna's continuous expertise in our world while our Ginny and Luna learn everything they need to learn in yours without interruptions of having to rush back and forth, without having to worry about any restrictions on their time!"
The two Alts shared chagrined looks. They could easily do that with many of the XE-wing pilots!
Hermione-Alt promptly exited the memory they were in to pass the suggestion to the DSF and see if everyone else thought it a good idea . . . and to have someone relay the option to Lee. Harry-Alt stayed in the pensieve to help the other two work their way through the important memories, such as how they had convinced the Jaffa that their gods were fake, and converted them back to humans. He also told them about the virus they had developed, and that it could be offered to the Jaffa as a way to keep their current sleeping Goa'uld until they died a natural death. Which, could be a very long time away! The infected Jaffa would have to stay in quarantine for several weeks, but that would be the only drawback.
He also shared that the ship could make anyone a magical by adding the proper gene groups. As a result, they should hunt up all the squibs they could find and recruit them with the promise to make them full magicals, The Marines were already doing with the ones they had freed . . . and made them magicals, first, so they would know they weren't being conned or scammed.
It took hours to tour all the memories. On the other hand, the memories were days long, altogether, so it was a great time-saver.
Three-quarters of the way through, Hermione-Alt returned to the pensieve.
"It's done," she said. "Voldemort is no more. I even checked the Prophecy Sphere in the Ministry. It's dark."
All three of the other exchanged celebratory looks, with both Harry and Harry-Alt exclaiming, "Yes!" at the same time.
"Also, most of the Wizengamot is marbleized as Death Eaters or Death Eater sympathizers. Unfortunately, all of the werewolves are also marbelized, most for things they did while the Ministry was under Voldemort, the remainder for safety's sake until we can get can get a Base station at Uranus."
She sighed. "At the moment, we have wizarding Britain under martial law." She looked at Harry. "Sorry, Harry, but it looks like you are gonna be the Minister for Magic for the foreseeable future." She looked at Hermione. "And you're the Senior Undersecretary."
Harry sat down in shock. Hermione nearly joined him.
"Minister?" Harry said wonderingly.
She shrugged. "Every time someone asked who was in charge, the Marines said Harry Potter. When they asked further, the Marines said you were sleeping after convincing the ICW to cancel their invasion plans for England for all the incidents of the Statute of Secrecy being broken by Voldemort."
"ICW?" Hermione said, aghast.
"Apparently, according to Ginny, they were slowly building up a consensus to do just that late this coming Summer." Hermione-Alt sighed. "As soon as the Marines had control of the Ministry, she apparently went to the French Government and talked to Fleur Delacour's father. He contacted the French Minister and relayed that Voldemort was being taken care of, and that the chaos from the invasion from space by the Jaffa would keep the muggle governments occupied for some time. That was when she learned that the ICW was considering it." Hermione shook her head. "They knew a war of some kind was going on in the muggle world, but not that it was an actual invasion from space.
"She told them we already controlled the Ministry, as well as having his headquarters completely surrounded. Naturally, she's telling them right now that Voldemort has been verified as not only merely dead he's really most sincerely dead, as a Prophecy regarding him being alive had gone dark."
"But," Harry said, "Minister?"
Hermione-Alt smirked. "It'll be easy, just require that every Ministry employee sign a magical contract that they won't accept anything that might be considered a bribe, that they will deal honestly and fairly with any magical being that they come into contact with, that they will try to execute their duties as honestly and faithfully as they can manage, and that they will not join or encourage any group or organization that wants to violently overthrow the Ministry or unfairly discriminate against any magical beings."
"Unfairly discriminate?" Hermione said.
Hermione-Alt shrugged. "Refusing to hire a merfolk to install Floo connections is reasonable when they can't manoeuvre on land."
"Then, anyone elected to the Wizengamot must sign a contract that they will work for the betterment of all magical beings, and to laws that treat all magical beings the same, where possible." She paused. "Lee has a team working on both those contracts right now. He should have something ready by the tomorrow." She smiled.
"That, and in every Wizengamot trial the accused will be given veritaserum and have to give a magical vow that they are telling the truth, with copies of any pertinent memories being displayed." She smiled. "No more will pure-bloods have the advantage, all laws will be applied to every being, equally, in the court. The jurors will have to sign a magical contract that they will base their trial decision on the facts in the case and not on the individuals involved. Unless such facts are pertinent to the case, such as a serial shoplifter, thief, rapist, arsonist, et cetera, of course. Again, so Pure-bloods won't have the advantage."
The other two stared at her.
"Well," she concluded, "let's get back to these memories." She waved her hand at the frozen scene currently on view. "We'll be leaving these with you for reference, this is just so you know what they contain."
"Tomorrow," she said, "Harry, you'll have to make an appearance at the Ministry."
Harry looked properly horrified.
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They had the full complement of Marines from the Dogon in the Ministry that day. Ten Marines were posted on eight floors, twenty in the Department of Mysteries (the Unspeakables were very annoyed at that, but the alternative was to be locked out completely. Several had tried to confuse the Marines to allow them in, and had been very surprised that their spells did nothing. Those Unspeakables were marbleized. The rest complied with instructions), and the remaining twenty-seven Marines were on Level Eight, most of whom were in the Atrium.
And the Atrium at the Ministry was packed with reporters, Ministry personnel, and important English, Scottish, and Irish wizards and witches. There were also a couple of wizards from continental newsparchments.
To say Harry was nervous was a drastic understatement. Harry-Alt was on the stage with him, but with his helmet closed so no one could see that he was also a Harry. Both Hermiones were on the stage as well, with Hermione-Alt's helmet up, too. Naturally, Harry and Hermione were wearing their new combat suits, with armour, under their robes.
Harry took a steadying breath. They had spent hours on the speech he was about make, and his suit was projecting a copy of it in front of him that only he could see.
"Last August, Tom Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort," he paused for his audience to finish their shock at hearing the Wizard's name instead of a euphemism, "took over the Ministry. As you know, I was immediately branded as Undesirable Number One, with Hermione as Number Two. It didn't take him long before detention camps for muggle-borns were established under the accusation that they had 'stolen' their magic from 'real' wizards and witches. A stupid accusation, as if a non-magical could steal a magical's magic! How could they even do that? Plus, if a non-magical muggle can steal your magic, doesn't that prove they are better at magic than you are?
"Then the persecution began for anyone who was deemed 'not good enough' for the new Ministry-approved wizarding society.
"He was destroying magical society in England, because that is what he was doing . . . without muggle-borns, who would replace them as the clerks in stores, the manufacturing workers, the farmers? Can you imagine Mr. Malfoy, for example, letting his son take a job as a menial because there is no one else to do the work and all the management positions already had pure-bloods in them?
"Besides, if everyone is a pure-blood, then being a pure-blood means nothing!"
He paused as the crowd took that in.
"While this was happening, Hermione," he turned to look at her, "Ron Weasley," who was nowhere in sight, "and I were searching for a way to destroy Voldy. After all, it was said that only I could do that . . . and they were the only ones directly helping me."
He stopped again.
"Sirius Black named me his heir. I explored the Black family library, even the tomes and scrolls hidden from any but the Head of the family.
"And I found a secret there. Something the pure-bloods had ignored for thousands of years because they didn't understand it. It was a book so old; it was written in primitive Egyptian hieroglyphics. That book spoke of things that the pure-bloods simply didn't believe, they thought it all a fantasy, a flight of imagination. Which is where I found it, stored with other ancient scrolls and books of fables that predated Greece.
"But I recognized what they were talking about. And it was impossible. Either the person who wrote this book was a seer of unparalleled ability and clarity, or it was a piece of history so old, it predated the pyramids.
"So, I followed the clues left in the book to a repository. I won't tell you where I found the repository, just that it wasn't in England. What I found there was a remote control . . . for a starship . . . and it was packed with a number of surprising discoveries."
The audience began to murmur at that.
"Because almost everyone here today grew up in the wizarding world, I will explain that," Harry continued. "A starship is a ship designed to fly between stars and visit other planets."
That brought a lot of disbelief.
"Let me show you some of what I have discovered." He turned to the third suited person on the stage. "Colonel?"
It was Luna-Alt, not that anyone else could see her face through her face-shield. She reached to her back, released the hoverboard, dropped it to the stage, and stood up on it. Then she silently began weaving back and forth behind them.
"The interesting thing about that hoverboard," he said looking at Luna-Alt, "is that it isn't using magic yet it can fly as fast as the fastest broom."
Then she pulled up the strange tube hanging at her belt. A second later, the familiar whoosh and hum of a lightsabre was heard for the first time by magicals. Almost none recognized it.
"That doesn't use magic, either. It can cut through steel as easily as you use a knife to cut through soft butter . . . it can also block magic."
He nonchalantly cast a stunner at her.
Almost as nonchalantly, she used her lightsabre to redirect the stunner into the ceiling. Then she faded from view as she cut off the lightsabre.
"Invisibility is also available." He looked back at the audience.
"Then I started recruiting, mostly muggle-borns, but there were a few squibs. They spent weeks training.
"That is how we took down the Death Eaters. Late at night two days ago, we started. The idiot Dark Lord made his name a Taboo! So, we surrounded a field with a dozen people, and someone in the middle said his name. When the half-dozen Death Eaters showed up, the troops zoomed close on their hoverboards, invisible and completely silent, and took them out with stunners at near point-blank range. They never knew they under attack until it was too late.
"Once the Death Eaters stopped coming in response to them saying his name, they moved on to Hogsmeade and triggered the out-past-curfew alarm until those Death Eaters were all captured. Then they moved into Hogwarts, and took care of those Death Eaters and their sympathizers.
"From there, they moved to the Ministry, which had only a night-crew at hand, and they quickly took over – invisible and silent. Then they just captured wizards and witches as they came to work. By mid-morning, they had captured every single person who worked in the Ministry, which includes all the Death Eaters and their supporters here.
"It was still early morning, so they moved to Malfoy Mansion, which Voldy had made his headquarters, set up anti-porkey and anti-apparition spells. The Dark Lord was not going anywhere.
"And here's where the genius of Hermione came through. We used a sonorous to announce that we had taken over the Ministry, Hogsmeade, and Hogwarts, as well as shut-down the muggle-born detention camps and raided all their 'secret' safe houses and caches. We proved the first by naming the Death Eaters that we had captured, and the addresses of the safe houses and caches. Then we announced that we would give one million galleons to the person who brought us Voldy's head."
He chuckled. "Nothing happened for a long time, until they finally figured out that no one was coming to rescue them, that we were telling the truth. Which meant, if we controlled the Ministry, we could actually pay the million-galleon bounty. Then, as the muggles say, 'All hell broke loose.'"
He laughed. The memory he had seen had been quite fun. "When the dust, settled, half the Mansion was destroyed and the rest was on fire. Unfortunately, no one brave enough to try to collect the reward survived. Then the ones remaining tried to escape.
"None of the Death Eaters had a chance, not with the Marines being invisible and on hoverboards that can move faster than a wizard can fly a broom. Voldy tried to escape at the same time, but with over a hundred invisible wizards moving faster than he expected, he didn't stand a chance. Especially when he was seeing spells at normal height, he never expected the six spells coming from almost directly over his head."
The invisible marine from before reappeared several feet above Harry's head, pointing her wand nearly straight down.
"How many Death Eaters survived?" one person called out.
"All of them. A stunning spell was used on each and every one. We are a nation of laws, and where possible we try to stun our opponents. Then to prevent them from waking, the Marines routinely transfigured their captives into marbles.
"Unfortunately, the Wizengamot is compromised with a majority of the members being Death Eaters or their sympathizers. Once a legal government is in place, and the laws have been fixed to remove bias, they will be restored and given trials. In the meantime, no resources are wasted taking care of them, and none of them can escape."
"Fixing the laws?"
"Yes. Gone are the days when pure-bloods get preferential treatment under the law. From now on, every accused person will sign a magical contract that they will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth while giving testimony under veritaserum. If they lie, then they lose their magic."
"Effective immediately, any laws that show preference or discrimination of a magical being based solely on their blood status are invalid. Laws the reference blood-status are modified to remove such language from them."
That set the audience to grumbling and talking.
"Do you consider yourself the legal government, then?" someone yelled out, angrily.
Harry paused a moment to listen to what his advisors were saying.
"I'm as legal a government as Voldemort's government. The Death Eater's routinely used the imperius, coercion, and replacing Wizengamot members with their own supporters to get their way . . . and his." He paused again. "I am the temporary head of the government, the Minister for Magic, until a properly constituted Wizengamot is emplaced. And that Wizengamot shall be by election from the populace of wizarding England, Scotland, and Ireland."
He then outlined the requirements for taking a seat in the Wizengamot, based on what Lee and the others had managed to work out as a fair system. After that, he explained the contract that all current, and any aspiring, Ministry workers would have to sign to retain their positions.
The magical contract solved the problem of bad actors getting into the Wizengamot or Ministry. For the Wizengamot, the contract specified they wouldn't take bribes or exchange favours in trade for "donations" to their re-election campaign, favourite "charity", or any other entity or organization. Nor would they use their position to discriminate against other races or people, especially if it happened to be a race or someone they simply disliked. They would not claim the achievements of others as their own, and would act as fairly as possible in executing their duties.
The Ministry workers had a similar contract except they would not accept bribes to expedite, delay, misplace, misfile or otherwise interfere with the proper execution of any actions required by their departments and the Ministry at large.
The Aurors had a special contract allowing them a bit more freedom in their decisions, based as they might be upon often incomplete or incorrect information at any given time.
No one wanted someone to lose their magic because of a misunderstanding.
"Oh, and as a last note," he concluded, "Azkaban is going to be closed down, and the Dementors will be destroyed." He shuddered. "Those creatures have no reason to exist."
He shook himself. "A better alternative prison is already being constructed.
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