HP (AU) : Wizard with a Mutation

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Diagon Alley, Magical Britain [1980]

–Albus 'Too many names to type' Dumbledore–

"I see." He told Moody who nodded at him and went right back to ordering the rest of the Aurors to help clean everything up. The Diagon Alley was officially closed for now and it was termed as a terrorist attack for now, with the identities of the assailants yet to be disclosed.

Yet he had a hunch that even if the Auror department figured out their identities, they couldn't do much to their families because they would swiftly be disowned by Tom's people. He sighed at the count of dead people, 17 dead with only a single assailant alive, that too barely. He was missing both his arms and had part of his chest caved in with what was most definitely a punch.

"Jesus!" He heard more than a few exclamations and some vomiting as he crouched and examined each and every one of those bodies. There were only a few near the entrance of the alley. The majority of the bodies were gathered near…

"Gringotts. They closed shop at the first sign of trouble after force evacuating all wizards. Also, they claimed to have seen nothing and–"

"We can't force them to reveal anything because of the Banking Treaty, I know." He intoned to one of the other senior Aurors who was accompanying him. 

"Sir, we have never seen anything like this. According to all the reports we were able to get from eye witnesses plus our analysis tells us that it was just one man."

He nodded at that. After looking at the wound angles and the damage done to the surroundings, he was sure of that as well. "It would seem so, Mr.Robards"

"The victim?" He asked Robards who hesitated at that part. He peered at the man, from his kneeling position as he examined the traces of magic used. He didn't like to exert his authority over such trivial matters but this was no longer a trivial matter, it was something that might make or break the nation, if it was someone other than Tom who did this.

"Sir, the victim…she is in a coma, sir. Heavy exposure to Unforgivables has damaged her nervous system. We found her unconscious, surrounded by dead bodies with various gruesome wounds."

He sighed sadly, "I see. I have a meeting with the Minister now. Please tell Alastor to come meet me once this is all cleaned up."

"Yes, Headmaster."

.....

…..

"How could this happen, Albus?" He sighed internally as he tried to console the Minister who was still new to all of this. Harold Minchum knew the reality of what was happening outside and what it would lead to, he was not blind to the aftermath of the war that TOm was waging on Magical Britain.

A hollow shell of a nation that would soon be discovered by muggles, leading to either planetary destruction or the destruction of Magical Britain by the ICC. Alas, that man knew where the tide was turning and abandoned ship, knowing what awaited him should he continue to go against Tom now that Tom's agents had infiltrated all parts of the Ministry.

Bagnold was only elected because both sides knew she was untouched, by either party and was recommended by him. Had he recommended anyone actually competent, it would have never passed and they would have had to go through this whole war without someone at the helm.

Something was better than nothing, was what he thought when he helped Bagnold get elected, hoping that even if she did bend, it would take time for Tom to sink his fangs into her, mostly because he had been remarkably restrained about using only soft power to manipulate the highest authorities of the Ministry. 

He had a free hand when it came to committing atrocities elsewhere but at least that meant that Bagnold was relatively safe. It also meant that Bagnold was simply unaware of many things.

At this point, while magical Britain did know about Voldemort and his terror, it was subdued by the sudden periods of inactivity that Tom enforced, just so he could get the breathing room from the ICC who had begun taking an active interest in the killings of the muggle-born, leading to the creation of a program in the MACUSA that he wholeheartedly approved yet couldn't condone simply because of the posts he held.

"Relax, Minister Bagnold. We will have a full report from Alastor soon then we can think of how we want to proceed from here. Here, have some Lemon Drops." He told her, leaning back after keeping a few of his favourite candies on the minister's table, his mind already thinking of what Tom's response would be after this, even as he smiled at Bagnold who took the candies with a shaky smile.

Tom would not sit still, he was certain of that. This short lived period of shaky peace was only obtained because both sides had gotten credible information about something that might mean upheavals in the British magical world itself, irrespective of the light and dark sides.

An Archmage, a wizard so far above the average wizard that they fell into a classification of their own. There was not an official exam or certification that one had to get to be called as an Archmage.

Archmages just…were.

They just existed and the way they interacted with the world made it abundantly clear to anyone watching that it was an Archmage. Wizards who can decide the fates of smaller nations and bolster the might of larger ones.

One such large nation was MACUSA. Up until now, they only had a single Archmage. Charles, while an excellent combatant, still fell short of him as he was armed with the Elder Wand. Also, Charles was old, something that allowed Magical Britain to thrive because while he took down Grindelwald and gained the allegiance of the Elder Wand, Charles couldn't do anything because MACUSA depended on him and also, he was old.

He was old back then and he was much much older now. That meant that while the ICC had rules that most member states abide by or at least tried to abide by, the ones with Archmages at their helm could bend or break a few of them without getting any meaningful penalties on them.

Magical Britain was one such nation. There were many ICC rules that he had flagrantly violated and so had the Ministry, all because he was the recognised strongest member of the ICC. Tom, in his wisdom also knew that the only reason he was able to target and tragically kill so many was because Magical Britain had two Archmages with them, allowing them to outright ignore some of ICC's rules, such as the rule where member states would have no choice to accommodate the armed forces of other member states if any threat began to spill over into the muggle realms.

Tom's actions most definitely did spill over into the muggle world and had even forced multiple visits from the current Minister of Magic to the Prime Minister to help smooth things over, another red glad in ICC's rulebook.

But up until a few years ago, that was the situation but now? Now the situation had changed, irrevocably.

MACUSA now had a new Archmage, someone who was rumoured to be much younger and also more powerful than Charles, or rather, more powerful than the very old Charles. He was sure that had Charles been in his prime, even Tom would have been hard pressed to defeat the old man with his usual tactics.

No, he knew and had checked with his contacts within MACUSA that yes, they had a new Archmage now and he was much younger, the youngest one to ever be recognised, according to some of his contacts.

That gave MACUSA a lot of power they had lost previously, allowing them to pressure Magical Britain into solving its issues before MACUSA, along with other member states, sent in their own Archmages to resolve the issue one and for all. That would be…disastrous, in a word.

There was no scenario where they would have foreign Archmages on their land in a military operation and not have a bloodbath, on both sides. 

That would all mean all but the destruction of Magical Britain. Something that both sides wanted to avoid, hence the ceasefire.

Why Tom felt the need to attack Diagon Alley in broad daylight, he didn't know but he knew that it was the start of something, something that might end up changing the whole of Magical Britain, for better or for worse. 

He didn't know but he was certain that he was going to find out.

After all, someone capable of the violence he had witnessed earlier was sure to be an Archmage or at least someone infinitely close.

He sighed as a headache reared its ugly head. He feared that the ICC or MACUSA had already gotten involved in their situation and the shadow war that he had been fighting for so long was now going to spill out into the open, spilling even more blood in the process.

"Albus, we are ready for the briefing." Moody popped into the office and exited, without even addressing the Minister at all, let alone with some respect.

Something that the Minister noticed, judging by the grimace on her face. He offered a consolation smile, "Please don't mind Alastor. He is the best man for this situation, he just doesn't do…well with authorities."

Minster Bagnold stood up, smoothing out the creases in her dress, "I know that Albus. Now, let's get to the meeting."

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