Harry Potter The Final Straw

Stepping into the shop two things hit her immediately, the stench of death and the fact that all of the shelves were bare. "Bullocks!" she growled before turning to Kingsley and asking, "I take it that whoever did this left nothing behind?"

Kingsley's deep voice reverberated in the empty shop as he spoke, "Not even a scrap of paper. They were very thorough. The question is why would they take the wands?"

Amelia conjured a chair and sat down heavily. Her body was feeling the aftereffects from the terrifying fight and the loss of two of her people. Letting her thoughts track back to the last time Voldemort was in power, she began looking for any snippets of information that might help them in their current situation.

Realizing that his boss was thinking hard about what this attack meant, he began to prep Auror Steven's body for transport back the Department. He had heard her order of no burning of the bodies even though he was inside the now empty shop.

The thought was so random that she almost let it slip by without considering it. As she began to toss the idea around in her head, Amelia's knuckles were turning white because she was gripping the arms of her conjured chair so hard. Concerned, she asked, "Kinglsey, how many other wand makers are in Great Britain?"

The tall auror immediately grasped the situation as he looked around the empty shelves that once housed thousands of wands. "There are a few others, ma'am. There is one wand maker in Ireland and one in Scotland. The other one that I know of has a small shop in Knockturn Alley."

"Damn." Amelia muttered as she stood up and vanished the chair with a casual flick of her wand. Looking Kingsley straight in the eye, she said solemnly, "Get the two legitimate wand makers out of their shops and under our protection. Make absolutely sure that the people you are using to guard them are not former Death Eaters."

Confused and slightly concerned, Kingsley asked softly, "What's really going on here, ma'am?"

Amelia drew her wand and erected some privacy spells before speaking, "You-Know-Who returned at the end of the Triwizard tournament."

The implication was staggering, and Kingsley actually rocked back on his heels slightly as he tried to comprehend this new and very dangerous twist. Warily, he asked, "Are you sure, ma'am?"

"Positive." She replied before continuing in a very serious tone, "Now do you understand why we need to secure the remaining wand makers?"

"Absolutely, I'll get on it right away." Kingsley replied as he headed out the door to complete his task.

Shaking her head ruefully, Amelia reflected upon how quickly a nice day had gone pear shaped. Two Aurors were dead and the other had fled the scene with no regard for his fellow co-workers. She stepped out of the empty shop and exhaled loudly when she saw the large group of bystanders gathered around the remains of Ollivander the Inferious.

There was a telltale whoosh and pop of a flash bulb going off as Bozo took a picture of the carnage. Thoroughly disgusted, Amelia snapped, "Seize that man's camera! We will want those photos for evidence." Before Bozo could protest, she snapped, "If you don't want to end up in a holding cell for the evening, I suggest you comply with my orders."

Reluctantly, Bozo handed over his camera to one of the aurors, grumbling the entire time about how the people needed to know the truth. Had his comment come from any legitimate photographer or reporter, she would have just made a copy of the picture and returned the camera to its owner. However, her department had been under fire from Rita Skeeter's articles with quite a few of Bozo's photographs accompanying them.

Stepping over to the newly arrived Auror Tonks, she whispered, "I would not be upset if his camera were to suffer an unfortunate accident once we get the film out." Seeing Tonks nod in understanding, she continued speaking in a hushed tone, "When you're finished, take a group of people you trust and grab the wand maker in Knockturn Alley. I want him spilling all of his secrets and revealing his clients by the end of the day."

"I'll take care of it immediately." Dora said seriously before snapping off a salute and heading off to the Ministry to retrieve the film then dispose of Bozo's camera. As she walked, she was formulating a plan to snatch the wand maker in Knockturn Alley as quickly and quietly as possible.

...

While Harry and Hermione were wandering around the castle and grounds enjoying their last day at Hogwarts for the year, Albus Dumbledore was preparing for the Order Meeting and revising his plans.

He needed to handle the situation with Severus and Sirius very delicately. Snape was his eyes and ears in Voldemort's camp while Sirius held potential sway over his most valuable asset, Harry Potter.

With that thought in mind, he planned to keep Black out of the majority of the Order business. He didn't want Sirius to tell Harry any Order secrets and then have that information fall into Voldemort's lap through their connection.

Albus suspected that the young man was a horcrux, which brought the confirmed number of them to three. Dumbledore was pretty sure that Tom had made seven of the foul soul vessels. Unfortunately, he needed a memory from the elusive Horace Slughorn to confirm his hypothesis. The big question remained though, 'What to do about the Horcrux inside of Harry?'

He felt that his original plan of having the boy to blindly sacrifice himself was still the best one, but one that Albus was quickly realizing would never happen. However, he was pretty sure that Harry would make the ultimate sacrifice if he thought it would protect those he considered family and friends. With those ideas in mind, his thoughts turned to luring Voldemort into the Department of Mysteries to hear the full prophecy.

...

Remus was sitting in the study watching a very livid Sirius pace back and forth, the silence only broken by the occasional bout of swearing from the Head of the Black Family. He had just told Sirius that Dumbledore didn't want him at the meeting under the excuse that he hadn't told Severus or the rest of the order yet.

Bemused, Remus chuckled and said, "Now that you've gotten that out of your system, would you please sit down and listen for a moment?"

With a huff, Sirius flopped down on the couch and put his feet on the coffee table and grumbled, "Okay, I'm calm. What did you have to tell me that was so important?"

"Tell me why Dumbledore doesn't want you at the meeting, please." Remus asked in his teaching voice from his time at Hogwarts.

Before Sirius could answer, he explained, "We know exactly where Snivellous is going to be this evening. Dumbledore said you couldn't be at the meeting, he didn't say anything about being in the castle."

A malicious smile broke out on Sirius's face as he thought about catching Snape alone again. Happily, he said, "I'm actually glad I'll be suck here at headquarters, nowhere near Hogwarts!"

Remus' only response was to roll his eyes before they began laying out their plans for Snape.

....

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