We arrived at the Fountain of Magical Brethren. I contemplated the golden structure with absolute indifference. I had seen it several times before. Not only did I find it visually pretentious, but after having sired daughters of non-human races, that image representing the "benevolence" of the wizard over the centaur, the house-elf, and the goblin seemed to me a monument to unearned arrogance.
"Dazzling, isn't it?" Kingsley commented, misinterpreting my silence as childhood wonder. "It's real gold, but it's enchanted. No one could steal it even if they tried."
He chuckled, convinced he was standing before a boy marvelling at the Ministry's opulence. He had no idea that, to me, that gold was nothing more than enchanted scrap metal compared to the things I would obtain after all of this.
Ignoring Kingsley's words, I stepped up onto the fountain's ledge. From that elevated position, my figure dominated the Atrium, allowing me to observe the tide of wizards who came to a dead stop upon noticing my insolence. I pressed the tip of my wand against my throat.
"Hey, Red! What are you doing? Get down from there right now, it's forbidden..." Kingsley's voice was laden with genuine concern.
"Listen!" I roared. A Sonorus charm, amplified by the wild nature of my wand, echoed in every corner of the Ministry, vibrating the glass and stopping the hearts of those present.
"Red!" Kingsley startled, stepping forward. He had no idea of the magnitude of the wildfire I was about to ignite.
"Who is that boy?" "What is a child doing up there?" "Where is security?"
The murmurs of bureaucrats and visitors rose like a swarm of wasps. Indifference, contempt, curiosity... a thousand emotions were fixed upon me. Kingsley, fearing the situation would escalate into an arrest, tried to grab my legs to pull me down from the fountain, but I dodged him with the fluidity of a specter. I couldn't allow him to stop me before I delivered the final blow.
"I, Red Weasley, of the House of Weasley, challenge Lucius Malfoy, of the House of Malfoy, to a wizard's duel for the grave offenses committed against my family!" I shouted, while letting a sealed parchment fall; it hit the marble floor with a sharp echo.
The silence that followed was absolute. Incredulity was painted on the faces of the high-ranking officials watching from the upper balconies.
"What on earth are you doing?!" Kingsley exclaimed, in a total state of shock.
The dark-skinned Auror, seeing how grave the situation was becoming, drew his wand with astonishing speed to immobilize me. But I was faster. Before he could utter a syllable, a red flash erupted from my wand. It was an Expelliarmus so swift it intercepted his wand in mid-air, sending it flying several meters away from its owner.
It was a movement of terrifying perfection. The few dueling experts witnessing the scene were left speechless; what that child had just done was the technical gesture of an expert with vast experience.
"Let my challenge be recorded!" I continued, projecting a dignity and authority improper for my age. "Let no one dare say a Weasley lacks the nobility to defend his blood. I challenge the head of the Malfoy family. I shall return in two days to agree upon the terms... or die trying. Spread the word: let my enemy maintain some honor and show his face."
Kingsley was already lunging toward me, and several members of Magical Security were rushing from the lifts. It was time for my exit.
I dropped a seed from my pocket and, with a barely audible whisper, roots and shrubs erupted from the marble in an explosion of violent nature. A blast of dry leaves enveloped the fountain, creating an organic smoke screen that blinded my pursuers. When the air cleared, there was no trace of me left.
To them, it was an impressive escape. To me, it was simply the moment to dissolve the clone, leaving the Ministry mired in a chaos they would take days to process.
The Atrium exploded into a deafening clamor. Murmurs transformed into shouts of indignation and wonder that bounced off the black-tiled walls. The commotion was such that Cornelius Fudge himself emerged from the golden elevators, bowler hat in hand and an expression of poorly contained fury, followed by a retinue of secretaries and department heads trying to grasp the chaos.
"May I know what the devil is going on here?!" Fudge roared, his voice trembling between authority and frustration.
Kingsley Shacklebolt remained motionless, still processing the void Red had left behind after his flight. Despair began to gnaw at him; he couldn't believe Arthur's son had orchestrated a scene of such magnitude. This was an absolute disaster for his father, who was already walking a tightrope after the flying car incident. Kingsley knew he had to contact Arthur immediately before the narrative escaped his control, but the damage was already done. A grudge between the Weasleys and the Malfoys was common knowledge, but a formal challenge, shouted to the four winds in the heart of the government... that was a declaration of war.
Silence fell over the Atrium again, but this time it was a heavy silence. A Ministry official picked up the parchment Red had dropped and, after reading the first lines, turned pale. The document passed from hand to hand until it reached the authorities.
"Kingsley, I am told you brought in a boy who was shouting insults against the Malfoy family," Fudge questioned, approaching the Auror with narrowed eyes. "Explain yourself."
"Minister... I..." Kingsley searched for the right words, trying to downplay the act to protect the Weasley family, but his trained Auror mind found no elegant way out of such a display of rebellion.
"Minister, this is much more than a tantrum," one of the department heads intervened, holding out the parchment with trembling hands. "It is a formal challenge to a duel to the House of Malfoy. And the signatory is one of Arthur Weasley's youngest sons: Red Weasley."
"A challenge?" Fudge blinked, incredulous. Then, his face turned from bewilderment to a purplish red. "Who does that brat think he is?! This is the Ministry of Magic, not a playground for children to come kicking and screaming! Does Arthur Weasley have not the slightest control over his brood? First, one of his sons risks the International Statute of Secrecy with an enchanted car, and now this... this juvenile delinquent causes a riot and insults a citizen as distinguished and generous as Lucius Malfoy!"
Fudge spat the words with ill-disguised venom. He saw in this incident the perfect opportunity to reaffirm his authority and look good in front of his benefactors.
"What kind of father allows such savagery!" the Minister continued, raising his voice so all present could hear him. "I think it is high time for an exhaustive investigation into Arthur; perhaps someone who raises such insurgents is unfit to work in an institution as respectable as this."
He did not miss the chance to fire at his other great target: Hogwarts.
"And what is Dumbledore doing in the meantime?" Fudge let out with an acidic smile. "His students escape the school to cause political riots and he doesn't even notice? Or was this instigated by him to hinder the work of the noble and humble servants of this Ministry who strive day after day for the stability of the magical world? Well, I will not allow it. This is the center of our community, and no child will come with his delusions of grandeur to insult our integrity—"
"Minister..." his secretary interrupted him, his voice, though low, carrying a seriousness that cut through the air. He held out the parchment with hands that did not hide a slight tremor. "This is not a childish tantrum."
Fudge shot him a look full of reproach. He hated being interrupted, especially when he felt he had the crowd in the palm of his hand, drinking from his rhetoric. He was about to explode at the subordinate so as not to tarnish the image of the firm leader he had just projected, but the expression of contained panic on the secretary's face stopped him.
Without wasting a second, and to prevent the Minister's resentment from sealing upon him, the secretary unfurled the parchment before his eyes.
Fudge opened his mouth, ready to resume his speech and dismiss any technicality; he didn't care about the nature of the paper, only its political utility to sink Arthur. However, as his eyes roamed over the neat calligraphy, the red wax seals, and the runic marks bordering the margins, his movements became slow, almost mechanical. The color began to drain from his face.
Other officials surrounding the Minister craned their necks to read, and expressions of shock spread like a forest fire. Finally, someone couldn't contain the cry.
"It's a formal declaration of a duel between Houses!" "It bears the heraldic seal of the House of Weasley!" "It is drafted according to the ancient protocol of blood challenges!"
The exclamations hit the crowd like gusts of wind. Incredulity gave way to an electric murmur. Kingsley Shacklebolt, completely forgetting protocol and his subordinate position, stepped forward and snatched the parchment from the Minister's hands to read it for himself.
"Kingsley!" Fudge bellowed, recovering part of his indignation, but the Auror paid him no attention whatsoever.
His hands, large and steady, were trembling now as his eyes devoured the text. The atmosphere in the Atrium changed drastically; the "school scandal" vibe evaporated, replaced by the gravity of a law that preceded the Ministry itself. The more veteran workers straightened up, understanding that what had just occurred was not an infraction of school rules, but the activation of a code of honor that even the Minister could not ignore.
"Everyone calm down!" Fudge exclaimed, waving his hands in a desperate attempt to regain control of a narrative that was slipping through his fingers. "This is nothing more than a crude attempt by a child to get attention. There is nothing impressive about a piece of paper."
As he spoke, employees from other departments continued to converge on the Atrium, drawn by the echo of the challenge. Wonder spread like a shockwave as the details of the parchment filtered through the crowd.
"Minister, with all due respect... this is a formal challenge between Houses," one of the employees from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement ventured to comment, eyes fixed on the document.
"It is not!" Fudge retorted, his voice rising an octave in frustration. "It is just the game of a kid who hasn't the slightest idea of what a true wizard's duel means. A childish tantrum, that's all."
"You are mistaken, Cornelius..."
Amelia Bones's voice cut through the air with the precision of a blade. She had arrived moments ago and now held the parchment in her hands, examining it with a professional rigor that chilled the Minister's blood. Her brows were deeply furrowed.
"It is drafted with impeccable precision under our ancestral laws," Amelia stated, without looking up from the text. "The parchment is duly enchanted, and the seals are legitimate. This, Minister, is a full-fledged legal challenge."
Amelia could not believe what she was seeing. It was easier for her to believe the boy had acted only as a messenger for his family, but the idea that the Weasleys—always so far removed from aristocratic pretenses—would resort to such an archaic rite disconcerted her. Duels between families were relics of a dark age that many considered forgotten. Amelia herself had tried to reform those laws in the past, seeing them as dangerous vestiges, but pressure from the "pure-blood" families to preserve their "nobility" traits had kept them in force. Now, that same archaic system was becoming an inescapable problem in the very heart of the Ministry.