Drafts & Other things

It started when Edgar was called to his boss's office on a bright day of July, 1974. Edgar went by dragging his feet, already exhausted to hear what his boss was going to talk about. Perhaps it was the department's fund again. Or the media. Or the trials going haywire as always. Or those families who demanded the ministry accountability for all that was wrong in their society -

His expectations, Edgar thought as he listened to the man, was not met.

In a good way.

"Pardon? Could you repeat that, sir?"

"Lead this operation," Crouch grunted. "I'll become the bait and be the face of our fight against those pests - i'm already a target with how many times the media covered my words. But you'll lead the true operation."

Edgar was speechless. His boss actually wanted to take actions and not just speaking grandly to the media? But -

"But what is it that you want this operation does?" Edgar inquired. "Because we're already trying our best locating the missing people. And we're collecting underground informations to migitate His actions, and we've captured some of their members.."

Crouch huffed.

"Don't be dull. You know those are only childplay. The members we caught? Just tails, cut off at the slightest sight of danger. And there is also the main problem we have - though i believe it won't be our problem much longer." He pushed some parchment at him. "Thief's downfall. Gringott's best security measure aside from the dragons. It could break the imperius curse."

Edgar almost jumped from his seat, eagerly taking the parchments.

They know since a couple of years that the so called Dark Lord liked to throw the unfogivables arround. Among the three, the imperius curse was currently the most dangeous. They couldn't trust anyone, and though they were already being cautious, info leak became so typical that he was always just glad whenever his aurors didn't run into an ambush and managed to come home.

But this..

Edgar cleared his throat. "It must be hard for you to gather this information by yourself, sir. I apologize for my lackings as the head of auror office."

Crouch face contorted.

"Not hard at all. It was actually my daughter who proposed the idea."

Edgar spluttered, "you talked to your daughter about our department's issue, sir?" Edgar couldn't even imagine to talk about these issues to Mel, let alone his son!

Crouch sneered. "Of course not. She just saw the enchantment when we came to open a new account for her at Gringotts." - isn't that just another can of worms? Just what kind of kid had a gringott account that needs Gringott's highest protection measures? - "Being as smart as she is, she figured the implications of the enchantment right away. The only thing left for me to do is test her theories. With how she urged me to test her theories though, I'm sure she did some experiments by herself. Too precocious, that kid is. Reading at the age of four. Casting magic non-verbally  - "

Edgar smiled cordially as he listened. This was just another part of every job there was: listening to one's boss's bragging about their children. No matter how unlikely their stories were, he just had to listen and praise them here and there.

When Harrold reached hogwarts age, Edgar would surely demand repayment of his time by bragging his son to his men.

.

The thief's downfall was finally installed on late August, after the DMLE paid an exorbidant amount of money to the goblins. 

Their operation was running smooth. The general ministry workers were not told in great details about the enchantment, only that it was supposedly to wash away dark magic. Only those who came from old families noticed its similarity to thief's downfall, and even if they did notice it, they wouldn't know that the enchantment could break away people from the imperius curse. Edgar supervised each of ministry worker in their department that passed by the downfall with his trusted team, and found no less than 15 people who looked confused after they passed it.

Six of them were from his office.

They did some rehabilitations, set security measures for the victims of the imperius and their family, and everything was going so well for once that Edgar was reconsidering his decision to join his old headmaster's vigilante group.

Just before, he was tempted to join them because it seemed pointless to fight from within the ministry. But now, with all the changes Crouch had in their department... perhaps it had become possible for their department to properly do their job.

The ministry would also need him more, so he couldn't possibly divide his attention now.

Of course, when one problem was solved, another problem quickly appeared. That was just the way life was.

But weirdly, this time, the problem seemed like it had been anticipated.

"What's with the surge of dark wizards from the auror school?" One of his aurors, who was working over-time again to capture another dark wizard from the auror school, grunted. 

"The instructor is just doing his job," another man said.

Indeed - now that they did not worry for imperiused people, Edgar figured that the Dark Lord would only send his loyal cronnies here. He was already discussing this possibilites with Crouch when this phenomenon started. The auror school, unlike the other office, rejected many reqruits on the grounds of high affinity to dark magic.

Then on the investigation office, they found out from the rejected recruits' wands that some had casted the torture spell. Some also had this weird tattoo on their arm - those particular people were suddenly killed on the spot once they had shown willingness to talk about the tattoo. Definitely the work of an unbreakable vow.

Together with Crouch, Edgar met the infamous instructor of the auror school.

William Baddock was delight to work with. Straight to the point, sharp, and did not shy away from asking critical questions. He agreed to teach a mandatory class for all offices in their department readily, and once they had finished their discussion, the stern man suddenly turned jolly.

"Ah, Lord Crouch, how is miss Madeline these days?"

Edgar blinked.

The two men started talking about Crouch's daughter, and anyone who listened would have thought that the girl was also Baddock's daughter, with how proud and fond he sounded when he spoke of her.

He knew that Baddock was a former teacher for DADA in Hogwarts. But Mel was a Hogwarts student too, yet the man didn't even mention her. Which means that the relationship between Crouch's daughter with the man was much deeper.

And then it all came to light.

"Please pass on to her thaf she is always welcome if she ever needs more private tutoring in defense - though i'm sure she doesn't need it. I'm always thankful that miss Madeline recommended this place to me - Hogwarts was too tame for my liking."

"That was clear from your resume."

Yeah, the man used to eat wizards from the continent for lunch.

But never mind that - Madeline Crouch recommended him to their department? The man clearly would be an integral part of their operation against the Dark Lord, but to think that Edgar's whole operations were all connected to this Madeline Crouch...

At Yule, Edgar finally questioned Amelia about Madeline Crouch.

His sister frowned. "Madeline Crouch? She's the school's darling even though she's in Slytherin. I received a chocolate from her once. It was a bit random, to be honest. What is it?"

"A school darling from the Slytherin house?" His brother quipped. "There's no such thing."

True. The general population of the Slytherin house were cold and unapproachable. Not everyone was arrogant, but the other houses could see that the Slytherins thought lowly of the other houses.

Mel frowned. "I'm telling you, she is. The professors call her the brightest witch of our age. She has friends in my house, and even in Gryffindor. The Ravenclaws likes her because she gives them book references, and the Slytherins - well, some of them like her."

Edgar tilted his head, "Tell me about why she's called the brightest witch."

Amelia frowned, not understanding why her brother was so interested. Her family was not one to gossip.

"I heard she succeeded all spells in her first try. Slughorn bragged that her essays are all NEWT-level, though i doubt that claim."

"No, there might actually some grounds on his claim," Edgar said.

Graham raised one of his brows. "Really, Ed? Why? What do you know?"

But Edgar was silent as he processed this. Brightest witch of her age. Was it a coincedence that she played a part behind every each of his operations, or perhaps...

Edgar stared at his sister. Amelia was in her OWL year, and she already said that she wanted to join their department.

"Mel, do you still want to join our department?"

Both of his siblings frowned.

"Of course."

Edgar nodded. "Then listen to me, both of you."

Unlike Amelia, Graham already knew about the operation, as he was also working in the auror office. But he didn't know anything about Crouch's daughter involvements in it.

"So you're saying, a fourteen year old girl, might have plans to defeat the Dark Lord that has been terrorizing us in past decades?"

Graham's doubt was expected.

"Or she will make them in the future," he said, then turned his sister. "Which is why i want you to approach her, Mel. First, confirm whether she is deliberately involved in our operation or was she unaware of it all. If it's the later, then just befriend her. But if it's the former... ask her if she's willing to be in contact with me."

A silence pause.

Then Mel started to speak, stern and bold.

"No. If it's the later, than you will contact her through me. I want in."

"Mel.."

"What are you worried about?" Mel said sharply. "Is it because I'm still too young? If so, then you already lost your argument before you started. Madeline Crouch is even younger than me."

Edgar exchanged glance with his brother.

Graham sighed, "It's your call."

"I'm not asking for permission," Amelia folded her arms. "You need me. So let's go with my terms. I will also join Operation Downfall once I enter the ministry. For the time being, i'll relay messages between you and Crouch if it turns out that she's really involved."

Edgar sighed. He really brought this on to himself.