Kassandra Bauer and the Deathly Hallows. (Book 7)

Chapter 12: Operation Purification.

"Ah, Mafalda!" Umbitch looked at Hermione. "Travers sent you, did he?" 

"Y-Yes." Hermione squeaked.

"Good, you'll do perfectly well." Umbitch spoke to the wizard in black and gold. "That's that problem solved, Chancellor, if Mafalda can be sparred for record keeping we shall be able to start straightaway." She consulted her clipboard. "Ten people today and one of them the wife of an Imperial employee! Tut, tut... even here, in the heart of the Imperial Center!" She stepped into the lift beside Hermione, as do the two other wizards who were listening to her conversation with the Chancellor. "Still no sign of the Bauers? Or their ex-Circle of Khanna members?" She asked.

"Not a one." Thicknesse said. "That whole Auror Department is completely deserted." 

"Peculiar. Ah, no matter." Umbitch got back on track. "We'll go straight down, Mafalda, you'll find everything you need in the courtroom. Good morning, Elanor, Albert, won't you two be getting out?" 

"Yes, of course." Harry said in the commanding voice of whoever he was. While it took me all the power in the world not to straight up sucker punch Umbitch.

Harry and I stepped out of the lift. The golden grilles clanged shut behind us. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Hermione's anxious face sinking back out of sight, a tall wizard on either side of her, Umbitch's velvet hair bow level with her shoulder.

"What brings you up here?" The Chancellor asked. His long black hair and beard streaked with silver, and a great overhanging forehead shadowed beneath his glittering eyes, he looked like a crab overlooking out from beneath a rock. 

"Needed a quick word with Arthur Weasley." Harry said quickly. "Someone said he would be up on level one."

"Hmph." I grunted trying to sound like what Elanor Parkinson would say at that moment.

"Ah." Thicknesse said. "Has he been caught having contact with an Undesirable?" 

"No." Harry answered. "No, nothing like that." 

"Ah, well. It's only a matter of time." Thicknesse replied. "If you ask me, the blood traitors are as bad as the Mudbloods. Good day, Runcorn, Parkinson." 

Both Harry and I nodded our heads. 

We watched Thicknesse march away along the thickly carpeted corridor. The moment the Chancellor passed from sight, Harry tugged the Invisibility Cloak out from under his heavy cloak and threw it over us. 

"Malaka. That was close." I commented.

"Did she have the Horcrux?" Harry asked.

"I don't know." I answered. "I didn't get a good look. I was too busy trying to look away from her repulsive face." 

"Well, I can understand that." Harry replied. "What did your visions say about where the Horcrux was?" He asked.

"All that it was in front of a pink fabric." I answered. 

"Maybe it's just not on Umbitch right now." Harry suggested. "Let's check her office. Wherever that is." 

We passed gleaming wooden door after gleaming wooden door, each bearing a small plaque with the owner's name and occupation on it, the Might of the Empire, it's complexity, its impenetrability. And it seemed to me that our plan that we've concocted over the past month was childish. Just goes to show that anything that can go wrong will. 

Hermione was stuck with court proceedings, which would last hours no doubt. Ron was struggling to do magic that was sure to be beyond him. Or Anubis was going to do whatever he was going to do.