One-Faction-Down (II) [Chapter 196]

Harry arrived where Gellert and the rest of his followers were in a pillar of flames, and the fighting stopped at his arrival… Harry started to float up in the air as he wanted to look down at the Aurors from above and Unsupported Flight was not something common at all… It was a psychological tactic from Harry’s side. He wanted to intimidate the Aurors as much as he could.

Thanks to the missing ceiling, he managed to rise up quite a bit in the air before he finally decided to stop… He looked around and furrowed his brows when he noticed their numbers. He understood why Gellert called him to save their asses… There was no way his followers could have won against such odds… Yes, if Gellert wasn’t occupied by Albus, Minerva, and Filius, then it might have been a different story.

As of right now, only a hundred Aurors and two hundred Hit-Wizards are employed by the Ministry. The number used to be a lot more during the last War, but after Cornelius Fudge was elected, he kept cutting the budget of the DMLE, which forced the DMLE to cut down on the number of their forces, and the Ministry used to employ even more Aurors and Hit-Wizards before and during the Grindelwald War.

Not that Harry was complaining in the first place, but he couldn’t help but wonder who was guarding the Ministry and DMLE if almost all of their forces were right here… If someone broke into Azkaban right now, then there was no way the DMLE would be able to send backup before it was too late… He wondered if Voldemort somehow planned this development, but he quickly shook his head.

Lucius didn’t know anything about his attack, which meant Voldemort couldn’t have known about the attack as he didn’t have any other leaks. Well, now, he could start hunting down the Death Eaters in earnest and he didn’t need to worry about breaking into Azkaban to kill them. Voldemort was probably already on his way to Azkaban, after all, that is what he would have done in the same position.

A translucent barrier appeared around Harry moments before a barrage of Spells cast by the Aurors could hit him. Harry looked down at the culprit and smiled…

“Mad-eye Moody, I will get back to you and your posse, but it seems that the esteemed Headmaster wants to say something before that” Harry grinned as he glanced at Albus, who was glaring at him with a complicated look on his face from the corner of his eyes. Moody seemed to scowl unhappily, but he wasn’t displeased at being called out, he was displeased by the fact that his surprise attack failed.

Now, Albus, who was staring at Harry in anger, sadness, and disappointment, perked up. “Hadrian! Where is Severus?” Albus’ voice thundered. It was clear that the man was angry right now. A lot of people flinched at his tone as they had never seen him angry. Harry was a bit peeved at the fact that the man revealed his real name, but he decided to ignore it since he was already planning to reveal it by the end of the War.

“Back at my base… Since you are missing him so much I would have told you where my base is, but I am not the Secret Keeper” Harry shrugged with a ‘what can you do?’ look on his face. Albus was completely furious, the look on his face was a dead giveaway, but the man didn’t attack. Harry was half expecting Albus to attack him, but he didn’t fly off the handle.

“Hadrian, I do not know why you turned out like this, but this cannot go on… It is still not too late, Hadrian” Albus said in a grave tone, trying to suppress his anger. “You need to turn away from the dark path you are walking on… This will only lead to death and destruction. Look around you-” Albus finished and waved his hands around. “This is a school, and see what have you wrought here” Albus finished in a low tone.

His eyes were filled with genuine sadness at the sight of destruction inside Hogwarts. “Whatever Gellert has promised you is simply not worth it, my boy… It is still not too late” Albus pleaded, no longer looking angered.

Meanwhile, Gellert and the Lost Garden members who clearly heard everything Dumbledore said, stared at the man, before someone finally burst out laughing with the others soon joining him. Even Gellert started to laugh, surprising everyone as they couldn’t understand why all of a sudden the Dark Lord and his followers were laughing. It took them almost half a minute to calm down.

“You think he is working for me?” Gellert asked in an amused tone and after getting no reply from Albus, who was looking at him dumbfoundedly, he decided to continue speaking on his own. “Wrong!! All of us work for him! He is the Leader of Lost Garden!” Gellert declared with a chuckle and Albus immediately turned toward Harry, including all the members of his staff and the Ministry forces and found Harry smirking at them.

“Well, I can’t honestly blame you for thinking like that, after all, I am only fourteen” Harry declared with a mocking grin on his face and Albus and along with everyone else except for the Lost Garden members simply gaped at him.

Even Alastor didn’t expect a development like this… When Harry showed up, he also thought that Harry was working for Gellert and he came here to help out his master, but it was the other way around… Who could have thought? Harry slightly lowered himself from the sky, so that he could address everyone without any problems. Even though there were a lot more Ministry forces along with the Hogwarts staff, he was planning to do the same thing he did on Durmstrang ship.

He would show off his power and then he would ask them to surrender… He wasn’t planning to do anything to the Hogwarts staff, except for Albus… He wanted to see if the man knew anything about Horcruxes or not… The only reason he was playing the game before discovering Severus’ role in the death of his parents was because he didn’t know the location of the Horcruxes and Hela would only teach him even the basic Soul Magic after he became a second step Martial Artist.

So, he could do nothing but wait… So, he decided to play a game as it would have been perfect for the situation…

“Since the time for games is over… I am going to ask all of you to drop your Wands and surrender, if you don’t then I will kill you” Harry said and stopped holding back his Magic, and a lot of Aurors and Hit-Wizards dropped down to their knees due to the overwhelming pressure from the get-go. Albus, Minerva, and Filius who were standing close could only stare at Harry in horror.

Albus was the one who was the most shocked as he never expected Harry to be this powerful… Harry was easily stronger than him and Gellert combined even in their prime. While the others were also scared and whatnot, none of them were scared as Albus was… They didn’t know the existence of the second Prophecy, nor did they know what it said. There was something all people in power were afraid of and that was ‘Change’.

According to the Prophecy, Harry would reshape the world according to his image and now that Albus has witnessed the overwhelming power he possessed, he was certain that the second Prophecy was also about Harry… “I repeat again, drop your Wand and surrender to me and I will let you live” Harry repeated and the pressure increased by another notch and some more people dropped to their knees.

“I will never kneel to the likes of you!!” Alastor snarled, but the next moment, he was forced down on his knees when Harry glared at him. Alastor could clearly see through his fake eye, but the vision from his real eye started to blur.

“If it was anyone else then I would have simply killed them, but no… Not you. I am going to keep you alive” Harry declared coldly before he looked around and saw that almost 90 percent of the Ministry forces had already surrendered to him. He smirked at the sight… There were a couple of reasons why he didn’t kill Alastor. While Alastor would never surrender to him, he was a strong-willed man.

He would need people like him after the War to rebuild the system, after all, he didn’t have any plans of staying in this ditch after Voldemort and everyone else was dealt with… “Hadrian!! Stop this madness this instant!” Albus roared as he cast a Spell at Harry with the Elder Wand, expecting the Elder Wand to break the barrier around him, but the Spell harmlessly splashed against the barrier.

The Elder Wand might be the strongest Magical Focus on earth, but it wasn’t infallible and it was only as strong as its owner… “This is not madness, Headmaster. This is the reality… Good and evil are nothing but excuses, the only truth is power…” Harry declared as he held out his arms wide open and moments later, purple beams started to shoot down from the barrier.

The purple beams twisted and turned around in the air before raining down on the Ministry forces who were still standing, killing them in an instant without giving them any chance to fight back… A few did manage to raise shields before the beams could reach them, but the beams pierced through the shields like a hot knife through butter before hitting their target and killing them instantly…