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Hogwarts
–Damian Hawthorne–
The ripple effects of his actions last night were amusing to witness, as he watched the entire Great Hall work itself up in a tizzy, trying to process the fact that the most feared prison of the British Ministry no longer existed, with the feared creatures guarding the creature in a state of inaction.
After all, while Dementors could not be killed, he knew that they could be hurt, injured, and damaged, if someone used something that had more magic than any wizard could simply have, enhanced with a little enchantment that basically pumped out light in all its glory. A simple enchantment lifted from one of the Master Corven's enchantment books, creating a knife that was seemingly purpose-built for light averse creatures like the Dementors.
"...Did you see the aftermath? It was like someone dug a giant hole in place of the Main prison building…."
"...My brother, who's in the DMLE, told me that even the Dementors couldn't stop the attack….."
"...My father told me that the DMLE couldn't even find the bodies of the prisoners."
"....My Uncle told me that even the Unspeakables were involved this time. The Headmaster was also with them late at night."
He smiled at that, before stabbing into his mashed potatoes, seasoned with just enough salt and paprika, in accordance with his eating -preferences, an additional burden on their usual food preparation process that the House Elves were simply thrilled to take over.
His gaze went to the faculty chairs and saw the absence of everyone. Most likely in a meeting somewhere. Or more probably, they were hounding Dumbledore for answers as the old man was known to be someone who kept secrets until the last moment.
Now, he had left more than enough evidence of him being the reason for that attack, leaving the Deputy Warden, a man strong enough to stay in that place for decades and never once fall for the multiple vices that the Warden himself used to keep himself sane, so hopefully, the DMLE will get that from his testimony and memories, declaring his latest string of actions.
He really did not want Wakandan wizards near him. Something about them made him want to lash out and do stuff that would usually be unreasonable for him, as the shadow of that Disintegration curse refused to move on from his mind.
Even tonight's actions, he had a plan to take the prison out ages ago, with everything mapped out for his convenience, with the steady trickle of information from the Black Market giving him a near perfect chance of success. But he had planned this for later, when he was already a wizard and before his training in Kamar Taj, as he assumed that he couldn't undertake a major bombing campaign against a government holding while training to keep the planet safe.
Tommy's reveal of the tunnel as a convenient entry/exit plan and Wakandan presence here gave him the push necessary to just go in and out, with a weapon that he would have loved to keep for later, but when thought about it, it was not the biggest or the most dangerous weapon he had in his arsenal so he just let it be.
He smirked at the thought. The mere notion of f*cking with the Unsepeakables and Dumbledore by using what amounted to a non magical weapon to just wipe out Azkaban in its entirety and dig a large crater into the island, was just hilarious to him.
Who could've known that a focused outlet for months of accumulated sunlight hitting his Lair, on top of the conversation from magic to light, could create a ray of sunlight so devastating, it just punched through the island as if it were made of paper. He actually had to shut it off prematurely, as he had a good 40% juice still left, but using that would mean glassing the whole thing, and as powerful as he was, he was sure that his protective enchantments over the employes would be found lacking in the face of the fucking sun.
God, he loved using the littlest amount of magic to create the most devastating of effects. It tickled at the parts of his mind that just gave him far more creative ways to do so without prompting, like the thought of procuring a thermonuclear weapon, detonating it in a Vibranium container, and then harnessing that energy in the form of lasers for decades or single use, depending on the use case.
Banishing those thoughts, he looked up as the prefects finally got off their asses and told everyone to go to their assigned classes, as the Professors should be with them. They had Herbology for their first lecture, a simple one, that mostly focused on Memorisation and a little bit of practical knowledge to atleast pass. Of course, not everyone could be prodigies like Neville was, whose wand had been changed, by the way.
The rumour mill told him of a confrontation happening inside the Castle, between the Head of the House and Neville's Guardian, an old, grieving mother. Props to Mcgonall, though, he didn't think she had it in him. As a result of that, Neville's magical practice had shot up to reach Hermione's levels. Still nowhere near Harry's levels though, so over time, he could see Harry definitely throttle his own output, probably out of a misguided desire to fit in with the rest of the student populace, not knowing that it was an impossible venture
Shaking his head, he walked to his first class, Terry right behind him, whispering with the others about the attack and who could have been behind it. The mentions of You Know Who leaving behind a secret weapon being used for the prison breakout had him frowning minutely. He hoped the Ministry got over itself and declared that every prisoner was dead, save for one, but they had no way of identifying who, and the identity of the attacker as well. There was a reason he made sure he was identifiable, and even told the Deputy Warden who was looking at him with his body trembling.
It would be a terrible waste if all this clout he generated went to the wrong person. He reserved his judgement and next course of action for the rest of the week, though. Enough time to see if the Wakandans had left or not. Tommy should be able to help him out there. He hoped that even if the Ministry did not make a public announcement, Dumbledore, being the gracious host that he was, informed his Wakandan guests about the perpetrator behind the most significant terrorist attack on British soil in over a decade.
___xx___
–Dumbledore–
"I assume you're leaving?" He asked Kato, who was in his office, sipping tea, looking far more haggard as the days went by. It had been just over a day since the Giant Killer decided to attack Azkaban and destroy the prison, in a way that was impossible to reverse.
Even if the Dementors could be healed, if such a magic existed anywhere, the island itself had been compromised, which meant that if they wanted to rebuild the prison, it would need constant magical support to keep the whole thing above water. All in all, they were looking at the closure of Azkaban, for good this time, not like the temporary halt he had managed to bring about to make sure no extra prisoners were added to the current population.
The Giant Killer managed to do something many people had been clamouring for decades now, and he did so in a way that made him the biggest Enemy Magical Britain has ever had since Tom's banishment. For a moment, he'd thought that Tom was back and was breaking out his most loyal soldiers, with an intention to blitz and overwhelm the Ministry, but after reaching there, he had come to the conclusion, even before Deputy Warden Aurelius's memories had confirmed it, that Tom was not the one behind the attack.
The attack used light magic, however minutely, for one, an element that he was sure Tom would never use, if he was even capable of doing so, especially on such a large scale.
"We are retreating for now," Kato confirmed, "The current political climate has been deemed too volatile for our operation now, which is why both Ministries have agreed to pull back for now."
Which meant Wakanda saw the result of that attack and decided that the current forces were not enough, which was fair in his opinion. Even he had not expected the Giant Killer to be capable of something like that. He just held the hope that it was a relic from the Ancient Ruins and not a spell that did that, because if that was the case then Magical Britain might have yet another insurmountable Dark Lord on their hands, and this time, no Prophecy to bind them.
The image of Hogwarts' wartime wards being under siege by a bright white light that burned everything wherever it landed, had him thinking of the worst. Even though unlikely, if such a scenario ever came….
Merlin help them all….
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