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Knockturn Alley
–Damian Hawthorne–
He appeared with a silent whoosh sound, right on top of the busy street that was Diagon Alley, the normal citizens mingling below, unaware that he was floating silently on top of them, invisible and undetectable to the wards present.
He had long since cracked the wards placed on Diagon Alley. They were a work of art, the original wards, but it was clear that someone who had no business being anywhere near the pristine ward structure had messed with it, adding additional wards haphazardly, not caring if the additions properly synergized with the existing ward structure.
The original structure left behind very little to exploit, resulting in a structure that would remain steadfast until the end, with only its destruction allowing one to slip through. One would have no chance of being stealthy or modifying them without anyone's knowledge.
The added functionality? That was just hideous in his opinion, breaking many of the original ward structures, requiring additional wards to be put on top of that one, creating a feedback loop that gave birth to the abomination that he cracked over a year ago.
Not only did it make the wards horribly inefficient, but it also allowed someone to slip through the cracks, something that would have been impossible without bringing the whole thing down with the original ward structure. They should have just stuck with the original design or just hired someone to do an entire rehaul properly.
Instead, they probably hired some noble schmuck who barely knew anything about wards and got the job based on who his sperm donor was.
Which is how he was able to go in and out of Knockturn Alley with ease, evading capture, not that he had any issue beating the shit out of anyone that tried to hurt him. It was amusing at first, but after the umpteenth time that he had to burn away the belongings of Aurors, and be exposed to their indecency, he preferred to remain anonymous and slip away before anyone came after him.
The ministry was relentless as well, he had to give them that. Despite having their asses handed to them multiple times, they still continued to track him, hoping to win this time, somehow.
Their refusal to call upon Dumbledore out of a misplaced sense of pride and ego would have been confusing if not for the fact that most of the Aurors, especially senior ones and in positions of command, were stuffy nobles who thought it beneath them to call upon the muggle loving Albus Dumbledore, despite the man clearly being the strongest wizard they could call upon.
He knew that it was an ambush, just like last time. He was just wondering what gave them the confidence this time, to bait him like that. Calling upon Dumbledore was a possibility, but it was Knockturn Alley.
They were out for his blood, not for him to be defeated, sent to prison, hoping that he would reform. No, they would much rather call upon an even bigger army of Dark Creatures, with the naive hope that it would hold him down.
Last time, he had only killed that single Giant, and the two wizards who cast the Killing Curse towards him, the rest he let go after what he thought were crippling injuries, but he made a minor mistake of forgetting that wizards have much more potent methods of healing.
He had hoped that displaying both, his physical and magical superiority would have been enough to sway such thoughts but as it turns out, he was wrong.
His suspicions were proven correct when he saw an inordinately large number of people heading into Knockturn Alley, most of them being Aurors.
His eyebrows rose as he recognised one of them, "I'll be damned."
Albus freaking Dumbledore, in the flesh. SO, they finally called in the cavalry, huh?
His first instinct was to just turn around and run, having made it a rule of his life not to mess with the old wizard guy. He had plenty of protections but he was still running around with basically very little information on the kinds of esoteric magic that he expected someone as well connected as Dumbledore to have.
Frustratingly, he was still forbidden from accessing the real Sorcery knowledge in Kamar Taj, and all he could get from the books in the open market was elementary stuff. Nothing against soul attacks, or Blood rituals, or something like that.
But then, he grinned as he looked at the clothing he was wearing. At 10 years old, he already had the height and build of a teenager, and the strength of multiple grown men.
With his hermetically sealed suit, he had no fear of leaving behind any part of himself. No dead skill cells, no hair, nothing.
Plus, he was curious about who Dumbledore really was and while a public gathering like this would not be his preferred method of it, he would really love to know just what kind of Dumbledore he was dealing with here.
The Bleeding Heart?
The Naive Fool?
The Greater Good Mastermind?
It would really help with his plans moving forward, especially since he was planning on getting his OWLs and NEWTs as soon as possible, preferably within the same year of being forced to go to Hogwarts.
The library within that place was also something that interested him and knowing what kind of person Dumbledore was, would help him a lot in planning everything.
Would he need to be subtle about it? Not raise a ruckus and get all his goals accomplished.
Or would he be as loud as possible, paint Dumbledore as someone incompetent, and mess with him because he was not of the proper moral alignment? From what he saw of Harry's living conditions, they were not the worst, but not the best either, and if someone could knowingly do that, they had to be somewhat bad, at either their moral compass or at decision making.
His mind made up, he grinned and donned his cowl, sealing his suit as he slowly landed on the ground and began walking to Knockturn Alley.
Let's see what excuse Gregor Vale has in store for him. Missing a shipment was one thing, but having a hand in planning an ambush like this?
Well, that certainly warranted for some permanent injuries, depending on the Unforgivables cast towards him.
__xx__
–Albus Dumbledore–
It had been over an hour since they were sitting in one of the emptied stores in the middle of Knockturn Alley. The amount of Dark Magic, Cursed Objects, Suspicious Potions, and frankly, Magical creatures in disgusting living conditions he had seen in the past hour had him contemplating walking out of this operation.
Alas, his hands were tied by law.
Most of the stuff he could see here was illegal to sell, but only in set quantities. The quantities here were lower than that, of which he was certain. Dark Magic itself was not illegal, and the Ministry had invoked an old law to stop the law from investigating anything from this scene, as it was offered as a place to capture a notorious criminal.
He sighed once more, as the Ministry was dead set on capturing the Giant Killer, and it was not because he was most certainly a dark wizard. No, the Ministry was going to make an example out of the wizard for killing purebloods, with magic that no one could explain.
They hungered for that magic and for their damaged pride to be restored. That was all there was to it.
He was just here to make sure that no side went too far and to reduce any casualties.
"We tried to contact him," He looked to the side, to see Aurora Kingsley looking out for someone suspicious, as if most people who came here were not suspicious by default.
"Moody," Kingsley explained, "We tried to bring him back, but he outright refused and shut the door on me."
He smiled at his old friend's behaviour. Even he could see this was just a witch hunt and opted to stay out. It was just unfortunate he couldn't do so, not without risking someone being seriously hurt and he did not want that on his conscience. Not when he could have done something about it.
There was movement from the Aurors around him, as they all leaned forward, seeing a man, below average in height but no less imposing with his dark suit that seemed to meld in with the shadows, who walked into the shop that they had trapped beforehand.
Purveyors of Rare Arcana, the name of the shop read. A fancy name for a store that dealt in the preserved body parts of magical creatures, sourced in who knows what manner.
He sighed in relief as the man stepped into the store, the traps hidden within being the first and hopefully, only action necessary to subdue the—
He sighed as the entire store, including the ward stones placed strategically to contain the fire and siphon magic from that area, crumbled and exploded, creating a bright flash of light. When the light subsided, he opened his eyes, stunned to see the shop gone.
Not burning, not smoking, or in shambles, but gone. Disintergated, with the man in black standing in the middle of it, looking straight at them.
"GO!" He swallowed the unease within his heart and followed the Aurors as the entire street was suddenly flooded with Aurors, juniors and seniors alike. They had pulled quite a few Active Aurors off their cases for this operation and it showed, as they encircled the Giant Killer.
The lone wizard didn't care, leisurely walking out of the fire, to stop in the centre of the alley, looking at the encircle of Aurors.
"Halt! You are under arrest for murder, assault, robbery, attempted murder, and more. Drop your wand!" The Senior Aurors shouted, not advancing as they aimed their dozen wands at the single wizard who made no indication if he heard them or not.
"I said," The Auror repeated, "Drop your–"
"I heard you fine the first time, Auror." The Giant Killer spoke, and his voice was obviously altered. It sounded quite deep, and felt as if someone had melded two voices together crudely.
While the voice itself was faked, what caught everyone's attention was not that the man spoke but where the man was looking. He was looking straight at him.
Getting the message, he stepped into the encirclement, palming his wand, as he regarded the unknown but dangerous wizard.
"Albus Dumbledore, Vanquisher of Grindelwald. It is an honor to meet you," The wizard bowed at him, purposefully showing vulnerability, an opportunity that none of the trained Aurors missed as a sudden plethora of spells were cast towards him.
Impedimenta!
Petrificus Totalus!Expelliarmus!Stupefy!Expulso!
A volley of spells seemed to hit him from all sides, whilst the man straightened up from his bow, doing nothing to stop the onslaught of spells. His eyebrows rose as a blue shield appeared around him in the shape of a sphere, stopping all the spells.
—Damain Hawthorne–
Welp, he was not going to get Dumbledore to slip here, which was too bad but it didn't mean he couldn't have some fun. It would be nice to have some notoriety in the internal magical world, for his goals for the magical world as well.
Yes, he had plans for the wizards as well. For one, they couldn't remain as isolated as they were right now, not without being corralled into some pocket dimension for total isolation. Remaining with non magicals whilst casually using mind magics to hide their existence was just a situation waiting to blow up.
He was sure that the Ancient One had some plans as well but his mind liked to stray, so he inadvertently had multiple plans at multiple difficulty settings, for multiple ways of integration.
Banishing those thoughts, he looked around him as multiple spells, some curses struck his shield which rippled but held on, the strain of blocking those spells not even worth mentioning, as he looked straight ahead at Dumbledore, who was looking at the shield with a curiosity he could recognise.
Smiling slightly at the magic nerd, he swiped his hand in the air, snapping his fingers, as a pressurised wave of air, generated because of the kinetic force exerted on a small volume of air trapped in between layers of forcefield, burst from all sides of the sphere, staggering the Auror Force surrounding him.
"Not joining them, Headmaster?" He tilted his head and asked Dumbledore who sighed and took out his wand, aimed it at his shield. He noted that it wasn't the Elder Wand. For one, it did not have the bone like decorations around the wood and secondly, it did not feel anything special.
His enhanced senses for magic allowed him to sense stuff like that, just like it told him that the man himself was extraordinary, and he even had some things on him that reeked of old magic but not his wand.
It was painfully ordinary and yet, being on the other end of that wand made him feel slight danger, as if he could pierce through his shield with his spells, which was nonsense because it was designed to block what it could, absorb what it couldn't and reflect back what it couldn't contain.
A perfect shield for people below a certain level of power.
He straightened up, snapping his fingers, as he willed for his magic to surge forth, suffusing the area around him in his magic, preparing to analyse the magic being used.
Before Dumbledore could fire his spell, though, another spell hit his shield as he slowly turned his neck, looking at a sheepish looking young Auror.
Then, his neck snapped back towards Dumbledore who had already fired his first spell, completely silently, obviously. It slammed into his shield and his eyebrows rose at the sheer difference between Dumbledore's Expulso and the other's spells.
It exploded on impact, making the shield ripple as it blasted apart the street below him, raising a cloud of dust, impairing his vision.
He grinned as he slammed his hand on the ground, from the safety of his shield as a small earthquake rippled through the air, some of it hitting the air, which transferred that kinetic energy in an omnidirectional wave that cleared the air, revealing the retreating form of Aurors as Dumbledore was nowhere to be seen.
He turned around, and had to jump back, shield included, as another volley of spells hit his shield, the action instinctive as he had no intention of staying in one place and testing the spells from someone like Dumbledore.
Some no name schmuck Auror? Sure. But not him.
He floated mid air, reveling in the shock in Dumbledore's eyes, as he readied yet another elemental attack, a laser of sorts. Concentrated light focused into a single–
Calm Mind slammed itself at the forefront of his mind, activated at the High Setting as an otherworldly pressure slammed into his mind, making him stagger mid air as he looked at Dumbledore holding onto something, looking intently at him.
The f*ck?
He dropped down from the sky, landing on the ground in a crouch, looking at the shining rectangle in Dumbledore's hands, something that was exerting a pressure so heavy, he could feel it even through the Calm Mind being activated at its second highest setting.
He had never dared activate the highest one, fearing its effects on his mind.
An absolutely calm and clinical mind? Without emotions or EQ to hold back any sociopathic tendencies that might emerge from such a mind? No thank you. It was very clearly a bad idea.
And yet, now? He could find himself contemplating activating that, just to escape this pressure. An attack on the soul itself?
His eyes widened as Dumbledore looked ready to attack once more. Fearing any more esoteric mumbo jumbo, he activated Kinetic transfer and unleashed 10% of stored impacts in it, converting all magical energy into pure kinetic energy.
He only saw Dumbledore's wide eyes, before the entire air around him was superheated and then thrust back, burning and melting through the street, the stores, and everything around him as he turned himself invisible and turned on the spot, apparating to his London safehouse.
Before he left, however, he saw the very distinct flash of Phoenix Fire appearing on the other side, leaving behind nothing but a scorched Knockturn Alley.
What a disaster.
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