Wand-Leader & The Spy

1- The New Britain

Wiltshire, Britain, July 29th, 1999, 03.15 hours

Hermione, youngest Wand-Leader of Britain, looked at the smoking ruins of what used to be Malfoy Manor. The field of rubble, illuminated by several globes of lights floating around, formed a stark contrast to the impressive building she knew from her first tour as a guard, before she had been promoted to the Investigative Branch of the Wands of Britain.

She cast several detection spells, frowning at the results. Fiendfyre. That explained the ashes, but given the strength of the walls, erected in medieval times, not even Fiendfyre would have reduced them to rubble. Someone had destroyed the house with Blasting Curses before setting the ruins afire - quite a lot of effort, especially with the Minister's family not at home. She wondered what kind of person would do such. And who'd leave the Dark Mark floating over the remains.

A flash next to her had her in a crouch, wand out, before she realised what had happened. "Colin!"

"What?" The young man blinked at her, lowering his camera.

"Warn me next time!" She shook her head at her fellow Wand. Colin was still a rookie, having graduated just a month ago from Hogwarts' special course for muggleborns, but he was a member of the Wands of Britain. The Ministry's elite didn't make such mistakes.

"Alright!" Colin started to take more pictures of the ruins.

Once again she reconsidered his assignment to her team. A tour as a guard would have taught him a lot about how to act in the field, but then she'd have had to wait six months before having him working for her, and she wanted him as soon as possible - given how rare pensieves were, and how often a pureblood commandeered their use, having the best photographer she had found in her team would help her a lot. He'd shape up soon enough, she told herself. Just like she had told herself for years when she had been tutoring him.

"This is an outrage! A scandal!"

She didn't flinch when she heard Draco Malfoy's whiny voice behind her. She had expected the pureblood wizard to show up. It was, had been, his family home after all. And even if his presence would make her work more difficult, it also meant that the area was now deemed safe by the Wands surrounding it. And that meant the Minister wouldn't be long in coming.

Lucius Malfoy. She smiled thinking of the Hero of Britain. He had saved the country from the blood traitors whose corruption had been ruining it. He had saved her from parents who had abused her so badly, St. Mungo's healers had removed her memories of her earliest childhood. And he had saved the country from the Dark Lord's madness ten years ago.

And there he was, talking to his son. Hermione ground her teeth when she spotted his gloved left hand. A few weeks ago, a dark artifact had been slipped into his room, no doubt the work of Dumbledore's blood traitors. The Minister had been cursed and while he had survived, he had lost his left arm, which had been replaced by a prosthetic. If she ever caught the ones responsible for the attack… but it wasn't her investigation.

The attack on the Malfoy Manor, however, was her case.

She couldn't hear what the Minister said to his son - spells protected their privacy - but it was a rather short discussion. Draco apparated away with a visible scowl, and the Minister called out to her: "Wand-Leader Hermione!"

She hurried over to him, touching the tip of her wand to her chest to salute. "Sir!"

"What did you find out about the attack so far?"

"It was conducted with Blasting Curses, very powerful ones, before Fiendfyre was unleashed. Judging by the blast radiuses, it was the work of a small group at most - there was little variation in the amount of destruction per spell. We haven't found the wardstone yet, so we do not yet know how the wards were broken." Hermione didn't mention the other possible way for an attacker to get past wards: Treason. Only the Minister's family could have done that anyway, and they were beyond suspicion.