Arrival of the Ghost King [PJO x HP]

XII: The Ministry Strikes Back

Back in 1977, a week before the end of the school year.

Emily was becoming worried. Two days, and no word of Nico having a trial in front of the Wizengamot Council had reached her ears or the Daily Prophet. An odd play for a Ministry, considering all of their cases were very public, and she doubted they would execute a condemned dark wizard without spreading the word.

She wrung her hands as she sat in her large plush armchair in her small office. Unlike most people, she didn't pace back and forth- rather, she sat down, anxiously thinking and sitting there hours on end.

The miniature wooden cuckoo-clock on the tableside struck eleven, the little bird chirping eleven times. It looked like she wouldn't be having any breakfast; she hadn't left the office all morning, and the elves cleared all of the breakfast plates at the time. Luckily or unluckily, it was a weekend, so it was probably likely Emily wouldn't leave the office all day.

Some time passed as she continued her routine of sipping tea, wringing her hands, and sighing until a banging on her tower window startled her.

Emily's owl, a simple brown one, named Barn, screeched and tapped on the window pane once again. Emily didn't really want to open the window. She just wanted to sink in her armchair until she disappeared from the world, never to be seen again, but she wasn't about to leave her poor bird stuck outside with a heavy load of mail, so she got up and opened her small window.

As soon as the window was open wide enough for Barn to fly through, he climbed in and pecked in annoyance from keeping him outside so long, but sensing her anxiety, he decided to spare her from any bleeding cuts.

She hurriedly sifted through her mail, ignoring advertisements promising to "Remove warts with a single potion, NO dreaded daily doses!" and "Does your frog keep running away from you? Try taking this 2-week course on how to bond with your feisty frog!" along with letters pestering her to come to family reunions she had skipped out for years (her mortal side of the family), desperately searching for the Daily Prophet.

Where was it, where was it... aha! Emily triumphantly grabbed the rolled up pile of newspaper and hurriedly started unrolling it. As soon as she got a good look at the headline she was paralyzed with shock:

CHILD DARK WIZARD ESCAPES MINISTRY CUSTODY

Written by Elizabeth Hansen

On May 15th, two nights ago, a teenager guessed to be 14 years old was apprehended at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry after Headmaster Dippet sent an owl to the Auror office. "I awoke at two in the morning from the alarm noise of the protective charm activating, and then performed a complicating to determine who was the perpetrator, and it turned out to be him!" Dippet said in comment. The child suspect was actually a visiting student from another school, presumed to be Ilvermony or a private American institution.

"One of my professors, she said that he was a relative of hers and came for a school project. His name was Nath di something- I don't quite remember. Nath sounded exactly like a dark wizard name, and I wouldn't have had let him stay unless I wanted to remain on good terms with the Americans!" Dippet explained.

The teenager was apprehended by trained Aurors the morning following the alert. "The standard procedures for apprehending a dark wizard include shining light so they can not try to summon shadows," the Head Auror said.

The group of Aurors, the best five in the Ministry (excluding Head Auror) went through the standard proceedings of apprehending someone in Hogwarts. Since there is a charm that prevents Apparating, they took the suspect all the way down to the edge of Hogsmade, a nearby town, and prepared to Apparate.

"According to our records, they did Apparate, but they then disappeared of the planet. Our Find-a-Person potion is going crazy when we try to locate one of our missing Aurors, and it says that the child dark wizard doesn't even exist!" Head Auror reports. "For now, we are planning on questioning the dark wizard's supposed relative: Emily Thompson, Charms teacher at Hogwarts."

A picture of Dippet accompanied the paper:

Emily wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or even more anxious. Perhaps Nico had gotten away from the Aurors and was now spending time in the Underworld, or maybe the shadow realm. Maybe that's why the potion was saying Nico didn't exist.

But now, she was a suspect. If she couldn't present the information that the Ministry wanted she would surely lose her job and be sent to Azkaban.

Emily had to run off. It wouldn't matter that much, since it was the last week of school after all. And besides, it would give her time to reunite with her old cabin mates from Camp Half-Blood.

She quickly grabbed a knapsack she had prepared in case she had to run off., like she was now. It was filled with supplies, including nectar (but not ambrosia, she didn't want wizards asking questions), a dagger, dried beef jerky, several water bottles, a blanket, a glass prism for Iris-Messaging and money in several currencies including drachmas, galleons, American Dragots, and mortal money of England and America.

Emily slung the shoulder over her pack and opened her office door, coming face-to-face with three Aurors, probably wanting her for questioning.

"Going somewhere?" the middle one asked.

"Actually, yes," Emily replied, putting charmspeak in her voice. Her voice flowed like honey: slow molasses rivers made of gold. "So don't you mind stepping aside for me?"

The three Aurors reluctantly parted ways for Emily to pass through. The moment she turned the corner, she broke into a sprint, running towards the secret passage to Hogsmeade that she once found.

She was approaching the witch statue when a spell hit her square in the back, the force of the spell flinging her forward several feet and onto the ground. When she got up, she saw the three Aurors looking down on her.

Emily tried to say something with her charmspeak, but nothing came out. No vibrations were moving through her voice box.

"Come on now," said the Auror on the right, grabbing one of her wrists, "time to follow us for a bit of questioning."

"And Headmaster Dippet was kind enough to temporarily lift the no-Apparition charm so we don't have to tromp all the way to Hogsmeade to get to the interrogation room," the Auror on the left said, grabbing Emily's other wrist.

With the sound of a tree branch cracking, the four apparated to gods knew where.

1124 words.

I was on vacation, so.... late update. sorry bout that

school is starting for me in two whole weeks. TWO!!