The Fall of Dumbledore: The White King

Proving Ground

Warning: Smut at the very end, avoid if it makes you uncomfortable

The tip came, as Hades had expected, through one of the younger Hufflepuffs – a half-blood whose muggle-born friend had tried to recruit her into a "resistance movement." It had taken less than two days for their carefully placed surveillance charms to pick up the time and location of the first meeting.

"Ready?" Draco asked, standing beside him in the shadows of the astronomy tower.

Hades nodded, his fingers brushing over his wand. "Remember – we need them to expose their whole network before we move."

Below, figures were slipping into the abandoned classroom one by one. Hades recognized several seventh-year Ravenclaws and a handful of Gryffindors. No surprise there. What did surprise him was the presence of two pure-blood students, though he supposed there were always those who thought rebellion made them special.

They waited until the meeting was well underway before triggering the surveillance charms. The voices filtered up clearly:

"...can't just accept this! They're trying to segregate us, can't you see?"

"My little sister is muggle-born. They're saying she'll have to go to this 'special school' first..."

"We have to fight back while we still can!"

Hades felt Draco tense beside him as the voices grew more heated, but he placed a calming hand on his boyfriend's arm. "Not yet," he whispered. "Let them incriminate themselves fully."

It took another week of surveillance, carefully tracking meetings and identifying collaborators, before they had the full picture. Twenty-three students total, with connections to similar groups forming in Hogsmeade and London.

"It's time," Hades announced during their morning briefing with Tom and his father. "We have all the names, including their outside contacts."

Tom nodded approvingly. "Handle it as you see fit, but remember – this is an opportunity to demonstrate our true methods."

The raid itself was almost anticlimactic. Hades and Draco led a team of trusted prefects in simultaneously securing all the conspirators during breakfast. There was no violence, no dramatic showdown – just the quiet efficiency of prepared minds outmaneuvering chaos.

Hades stood before the captured group in the Great Hall, Draco at his right hand and his father at his left. The rest of the student body watched in tense silence.

"Did you really think we wouldn't notice?" he asked, his voice carrying clearly through the hall. "Did you think we'd miss your little attempts at rebellion?"

"You're just going to kill us anyway," one of the Ravenclaws spat. "Like you killed Dumbledore!"

"Kill you?" Hades laughed softly. "Why would we kill you? You're exactly what we need – living proof of why our reforms are so necessary." He began to pace before them. "You plot rebellion not because you've seen any actual oppression, but because you don't understand. You've never tried to understand."

He stopped before the group's leader, a seventh-year muggle-born witch. "Tell me, Sarah – did you even read the full proposal for the Merlin Academy? Did you look at the curriculum? Or did you just assume that anything changing the status quo must be evil?"

The girl's defiant expression wavered slightly.

"You'll all be attending special cultural integration seminars for the remainder of the term," Hades announced. "Not as punishment, but as education. Show us you can learn, that you can understand why preserving magical tradition matters, and you'll be free to continue your education. Fight us..." He let the threat hang unspoken.