There, Lys examined the newly acquired wanted posters, then donned her coat and retrieved the half-empty bottle of Veritaserum.
Since the Dark Lord's return, she'd witnessed him act only twice—both occasions involving that unreasonable manner of combat against a child.
She knew he was powerful.
But she yearned to understand more...
Even Snape could eliminate Dumbledore...
So what precisely had been wrong with Dumbledore...
Or had youthful terror obscured her vision?
Were those storm clouds truly boundless?
Why did the 'moon' perpetually hang overhead?
Exploiting her official position, she located information on individuals who'd applied for entry across four or five countries recently. Cross-referencing with the wanted posters obtained from that Death Eater, she selected two candidates.
When she brought two foreign fugitives under her Imperius Curse to confront the entrance of the Dark Lord's ancestral mansion, she witnessed...
Boundless...
Full moon...
After three days of recovery, Lys once again sat obediently in her office.
She recalled Bellatrix and another Death Eater unable to swiftly conclude their battle, the Dark Lord raising his wand, and those two spells he cast.
Afterward, she'd even located a forest to test how she might withstand them.
She was certain she could deflect those two spells—no difficulty there.
But...
But Lys felt dejected, because those were merely casual strikes from the Dark Lord.
And he still possessed Horcruxes...
Covering her forehead, which continued throbbing and twitching from the violent destruction of her Imperius Curse—a spell she'd never particularly mastered—she surveyed her surroundings. With no one nearby and the portraits blank, Lys quickly sipped some potion, then settled at her desk staring vacantly at a random tome.
After a while, a red-haired young man wearing a bowler hat approached with an armful of documents requiring Lys's signature.
Lys was drawn from her boundless despair, her wand already raised though her mind hadn't engaged. She looked up woodenly at the document pile.
A minute or two later, she realized these were documents she'd signed incorrectly throughout the past month.
"No one investigates. You needn't be so meticulous."
Lys intended to dismiss him.
But the young man appeared exceptionally conscientious. Even recognizing the masked figure before him as a notorious Death Eater, he insisted upon proper procedures and standards.
Lys reluctantly extracted the split-tipped quill from her desk and carelessly scrawled some ink marks. She observed the young man stamping each document with a seal from her desk.
Lys had no comprehension of that stamp's purpose on her desk. Puzzled, she inquired, "Why are you so serious about this?"
But the red-haired young man had already departed with the document stack.
He would preserve evidence of these individuals' criminal participation. Every name he would record flawlessly when possible, leaving no omissions, making these records powerful evidence for their eventual trials.
He'd made the wrong choice, but when he couldn't retreat without endangering his family, he had to accomplish something himself.
He believed the current situation would never be permanent.
Someday he'd slam his resignation letter onto that manipulated fool's desk!
Lys exited her office and asked the ordinary Ministry employee at the door: "Who was that person who just requested signatures?"
The employee nervously stood, respectfully answering: "That was Percy Weasley, the Minister's assistant."
Lys regarded the nervous employee, unconsciously comparing herself to him. How were they different...
To alleviate his nervousness, Lys simply left the office and completed two additional circuits through the Ministry to clear her thoughts, but unexpectedly felt worse with each step.
Everyone in the Ministry of Magic was extremely polarized emotionally—those enjoying themselves enjoyed immensely, those terrified were utterly terrified, those numb were completely numb.
Nearly every two corridors, Lys encountered Death Eaters and Dark Lord faction members.
The original Ministry employees or those summoned to the Ministry trembled under their surveillance, not daring to breathe heavily.
Even now, those employees dared not submit resignation letters, because those who resigned had vanished—no one knew their whereabouts.
The Death Eaters had excessive ambitions now. They required subordinates to handle mundane tasks.
Before possessing sufficient energy and personnel to replace the existing framework, they still needed people maintaining basic departmental operations.
They employed fear to coerce those minor employees into remaining and serving their activities.
They overthrew everything and reconstructed everything. Two specific Ministry floors even echoed daily with pleading and weeping.
Everything Dumbledore had maintained while alive was gone.
Muggle-born and half-blood individuals were required to prove their magical bloodlines. Those unable were charged with illegally stealing wizarding power.
The lightest punishment involved wand destruction; the heaviest was the Dementor's Kiss.
Dementors...
They'd been deployed to the Ministry as well, though they only wandered the two floors of the Muggle-born Registration Commission. For this reason, Lys had never set foot on those commission floors.
The rights and interests of Muggle-born and half-blood wizards that Dumbledore had once guaranteed completely crumbled.
Those mixed-bloods who'd once held high positions were now struggling for survival—how could they still bring equal benefits to themselves and their communities?
Speaking of Dumbledore, Lys had even asked Lucius whom the school governors had appointed as headmaster now.
Unexpectedly, Lucius informed Lys that the Dark Lord had dispatched two Death Eaters to Hogwarts as teachers and designated Snape as headmaster.
And Snape was actually just serving as headmaster.
Lys couldn't help internal grumbling:
She'd always thought Hogwarts was dangerous with Dumbledore there.
But now it seemed Hogwarts had only been safe when Dumbledore was present.
Then she acquired a new objective—her second target after being forced to abandon the mysterious hunter identity when it was compromised...
She placed Imperius Curses and Memory Charms on all the Muggle-born she discovered, whether listed or not, and secretly transported them all to France.
Because Lys believed that if she could locate them, those Death Eaters certainly could too.
So she waited there for the Death Eaters' arrival.
Using this as cover, Lys once again harvested several Death Eaters' lives.
She even experienced a vague sensation of forcing herself toward a decision.
This brought her soul-deep pleasure, no longer resisting the satisfaction killing provided her.
Among those Lys had expelled, even the timid ones or those seeking to inform and return home for clemency were prevented by the other wizards.
They dared not reveal themselves, and fearing deportation back to the British Ministry of Magic by French wizarding authorities, they could only band together and live secretly in those dense forests.
The wizard Bellatrix had assigned to search for and capture these Muggle-born, because he captured one and one disappeared, searched one family and one vanished, couldn't fulfill his quota and earned the Dark Lord's displeasure.
And because he couldn't determine whether the personnel losses stemmed from resistance or the Order of the Phoenix, he was subjected to the Cruciatus Curse by Bellatrix before the entire meeting room.
To this, Lys merely sat on the steps embracing her knees in silence.
She listened to the Dark Lord's displeased emphasis to Bellatrix and everyone regarding blood purity's importance.
"Magic is power, and power should be wielded by those with unified interests!"
The Dark Lord stared at his followers, his voice cold and soft yet carrying unyielding hardness.
Lys couldn't determine whether she agreed with that statement.
But the more displeased the Dark Lord became...
The more displeased Bellatrix became...
The more pleased Lys became...
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