"It is merely Transfiguration!"
The female Auror spoke up suddenly, her tone absolute and unyielding. "He is bluffing. Do not let him intimidate you!"
The three skeletal warriors advanced with loud clicks and clatters, swinging their massive, rusty blades in unison, tearing through the air with a vicious howl.
"Protego!" Both Aurors cast the Shield Charm simultaneously.
The heavy blades smashed against the shimmering barriers with a deafening screech of grinding metal, sending sparks flying in all directions, but failing to shatter the magical defense.
Protego was traditionally highly effective against purely physical strikes.
"Diffindo!" The male Auror seized the opening to counterattack. The Severing Charm struck the ribcage of the skeleton on the left. The undead construct immediately shattered, sending bone fragments clattering across the damp cobblestones.
"They are incredibly fragile! Offensive spells are highly effective..." The male Auror's face lit up with triumph. He opened his mouth to instruct his partner to concentrate their fire on the remaining targets, but his sentence was abruptly cut short.
A brilliant beam of scarlet light had struck him squarely in the chest.
His eyes rolled back into his head, and he instantly pitched forward, collapsing onto the pavement completely unconscious.
"What?!" The female Auror gasped in absolute shock, her head whipping around to stare at Maurise.
Maurise was standing completely relaxed, his wand leveled calmly at them. A faint wisp of red magical energy was still dissipating from the tip.
"I am not strictly a summoner," Maurise chuckled softly. "Do not worry yourself. It was merely a standard Stunning Spell."
The female Auror opened her mouth to shout a response, but the remaining two skeletal warriors suddenly accelerated without any prior warning. They closed the distance in a fraction of a second, swinging their massive weapons down with terrifying speed. Her pupils shrank to pinpricks.
She had falsely assumed the undead constructs were sluggish and cumbersome. She was catastrophically mistaken.
"Impedimenta!" An invisible kinetic force blasted the skeletons backward, buying her exactly half a second to breathe.
Unfortunately for her, this was a highly coordinated, asymmetrical beatdown.
Another Stunning Spell shot out from a perfectly calculated, completely unavoidable blind angle. She only had time to let out a muffled grunt before her vision went black and she collapsed in a heap.
Total silence returned to the dark alleyway.
Maurise lowered his wand and casually fished a hard candy from his pocket, popping it into his mouth.
He had no idea where these two ranked within the Auror Office's internal hierarchy, but judging by that abysmal performance... well, they were terribly mediocre. Their combat experience was glaringly insufficient, and their tactical coordination was practically nonexistent. He had barely broken a sweat.
As the sweet flavor of the candy bloomed on his tongue, Maurise strolled forward, raising his wand. "Lumos."
A soft white light illuminated the two unconscious bodies. They both possessed rather young faces, looking to be merely in their early twenties.
'Ah. Rookies,' Maurise nodded in understanding. 'That explains everything perfectly.'
He glanced around the filthy alley, his eyes landing on a pile of ratty burlap sacks discarded near the wall. He walked over, selected a relatively clean, massive sack, and shook off the worst of the dust.
"My sincerest apologies for the indignity," Maurise muttered smoothly.
With a casual flick of his wand, the mouth of the burlap sack stretched open. Under the influence of a precise Hover Charm, the two unconscious Aurors slowly lifted into the air and slid neatly into the oversized bag.
After all, the damp, filthy cobblestones were hardly an appropriate place to take a nap.
---
Meanwhile, inside Room Eleven of the Leaky Cauldron.
Harry was sitting rigidly on the edge of his bed. Directly across from him, Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge was nervously twirling his bowler hat between his hands.
"Do you fully comprehend the severity of my words, Harry?" Fudge asked, his tone incredibly paternal. "For the immediate future, you must absolutely refrain from wandering about aimlessly. Once the term begins, I will personally ensure you are transported safely back to Hogwarts. Trust me, my boy. This fugitive will be apprehended very soon, and you can resume your normal life."
Harry had no choice but to nod in agreement.
Fudge had just finished explaining the terrifying objective of the escaped convict, Sirius Black. The Minister had utilized a barrage of horrifying adjectives to describe the man's sheer brutality: Voldemort's most loyal servant, a mass murderer with over a dozen lives on his hands, the first wizard in history to break out of Azkaban... the list went on.
"I will cooperate fully, Minister," Harry replied quietly.
"Excellent. Excellent," Fudge nodded in deep satisfaction, though his eyes remained fixed sharply on Harry. "Now then... would you care to explain exactly where you vanished to for the entirety of today? Under normal circumstances, I would never dream of restricting your personal freedom. However, given the current crisis..."
Harry swallowed hard. "I completely understand, sir. As for today..."
He suddenly froze, entirely at a loss for words.
'I was whisked away by a classmate using highly advanced spatial magic, boarded a magical wooden galleon trapped inside a colossal glass bottle, and flew thousands of feet in the air to visit the Weasley family for lunch.'
Right. There was absolutely no way the Minister of Magic would believe that ridiculous story. Even to Harry's own ears, it sounded like a delirious fairy tale.
"I was merely wandering aimlessly through the various shops in Diagon Alley," Harry ultimately opted for the safest, most plausible lie.
"Is that so?" Fudge did not immediately expose the lie, merely stroking his chin thoughtfully. "That is rather peculiar. I personally questioned numerous shopkeepers along the alley, and not a single one recalled seeing you today. Furthermore, the Aurors assigned to patrol the perimeter reported that you vanished without a trace... Ah, well. Perhaps I simply need to assign more personnel to monitor this immediate area to ensure your absolute safety."
Harry forced a tight, highly uncomfortable smile.
Knock, knock!
The sharp sound of knocking echoed from the door.
"I will get it," Harry stood up quickly, eager for any distraction. He twisted the brass knob and pulled the door open.
Standing in the hallway was not Tom the innkeeper, as he had expected. It was Maurise.
"Good evening," Maurise said cheerfully. "The innkeeper mentioned that the Minister of Magic was currently occupying your room... Ah, spot on."
His gaze bypassed Harry entirely, nodding politely to the Minister sitting inside.
"What on earth is that?" Harry blurted out, staring wide-eyed at the massive, bulging burlap sack floating behind Maurise. It was so large it practically blocked the entire hallway, and the fabric was stretched taut over several highly suspicious, human-shaped lumps.
"Let us discuss it inside," Maurise said seamlessly.
With a flick of his wand, the massive sack floated obediently into the room behind them. The already modest bedroom instantly felt incredibly cramped.
Fudge stared at the boy, his brow furrowing in confusion. "Good evening, Maurise. What exactly is the meaning of this?"
Maurise let the heavy sack drop to the floorboards with a muffled thud. He looked at the Minister with a perfectly crafted expression of earnest honesty. "Minister Fudge, I was just accosted in a dark alley by two highly suspicious individuals impersonating Ministry Aurors. I came here immediately to report the incident to you."
"Impersonating Aurors?" Fudge's eyes narrowed sharply, a deep sense of foreboding settling in his stomach.
"Indeed. Their behavior was incredibly shady and highly aggressive," Maurise nodded firmly.
Suddenly, the massive burlap sack on the floor violently twitched. A muffled, desperate whimpering sound echoed from within.
Fudge's face darkened drastically. He stepped forward and aggressively yanked the drawstring open.
Revealed inside were two highly familiar faces, both tightly gagged with strips of cloth.
They were the exact two junior Aurors he had specifically assigned to monitor the Leaky Cauldron.
"Ah, it appears they have regained consciousness," Maurise noted, looking entirely innocent. "They pursued me with such aggressive intent that I was forced to utilize a Stunning Spell in self-defense. Minister Fudge, please tell me these two incompetent thugs are not actual Ministry Aurors."
Fudge's frown deepened into a ferocious scowl. He waved his wand, silently banishing the gags and magical bindings.
The two Aurors scrambled awkwardly out of the sack, their faces burning a vibrant, humiliating crimson. They looked absolutely furious, yet thoroughly mortified.
"Explain yourselves. Immediately," Fudge demanded, his voice dangerously low.
Terrified of disobeying a direct order from the Minister, the two Aurors rapidly recounted the events in the alleyway.
"This student returned to the Leaky Cauldron alongside Harry Potter. We intended to conduct a standard background check and brief interrogation. However, the suspect immediately fled the scene, forcing us to initiate standard pursuit protocols..."
After listening to the pathetic debriefing, Fudge remained completely silent. However, from the look on his face, he was absolutely livid.
In truth, the Aurors had not technically violated any protocol. Tailing suspicious individuals and pursuing fleeing suspects were entirely within their legal jurisdiction.
What made Fudge so unbelievably furious was the sheer, unadulterated humiliation of the outcome. Two fully trained, officially licensed Ministry Aurors had failed to subdue a single schoolboy. Worse still, they had been effortlessly neutralized, stuffed into a filthy potato sack, and casually dragged back to the pub by said schoolboy.
It was an absolute, unforgivable disgrace!
If word of this pathetic defeat ever reached the public, how on earth was the Ministry of Magic supposed to maintain any semblance of authority?