The Son of Lord Voldemort

Chapter 138

Dumbledore's eyes were narrowed in thought, his lips in a tight line, and his body so rigid it looked as though she had been petrified. His demeanor was that of a man deep in serious thought, and only his deathly pale skin gave away the worry he felt.

Tonks looked around the room, and everyone else wore a similar expression. Tonks' hands were shaking and she shoved them into her pockets. She could scarcely believe what had transpired. Even for Voldemort it was a sickening display of depravity.

Twenty five. That was the number of men and women murdered in the Ministry interrogation rooms in less than twenty minutes. People from various departments in the Ministry, of different age groups, and backgrounds. All had been found to own illegal objects, and suspected to be Death Eaters. All without a doubt, murdered on the orders of Voldemort. And that didn't include the aurors who had been killed. Two men with wives and children, who were merely doing their jobs.

Tonks' stomach twisted as a horrendously vivid memory from that morning flew unbidden into her mind.

***Six hours earlier***

Tonks rounded a corner and pulled open the door leading to the hall that housed the interrogation rooms. Immediately the smell of copper flooded her nostrils, and dread flooded her body. On instinct she pulled her wand out and her eyes landed on the bodies of two aurors, their wands laying at their sides. Tonks cursed and flicked her wrist, her wand swishing through the air, and an alarm sounded. A door at the end of the hall opened and several aurors flooded out, their wands at the ready. One of the aurors stopped dead in his tracks, his mouth fell open, and he was only shocked back into reality when another auror crashed into him.

"Check the interrogation rooms, and secure the suspects," Kingsley ordered sharply. His eyes flashing with pain momentarily when they landed on the dead aurors.

Tonks ran to the nearest room, pulling the heavy metal door roughly and sending a shooting pain up her arm. She bit her tongue as she stepped into the room, where she froze in shock and horror. Tonks' stomach flew into her throat and she stumbled sideways where she fell on her knees and dry heaved, never more thankful for skipping breakfast.

Tonks steadied herself with her left hand and slowly pushed herself up. Blood and something sour filed her nostrils and her chest heaved. Her breathing came out in ragged bursts. She swallowed hard and forced herself to turn around, her left hand flying up to her cover her nostrils.

Tonks couldn't bare to look at the eviscerated body for more than a few seconds, but she had seen enough to realize that whoever killed this woman had taken pleasure in it. Her intestines had been yanked out of her, and placed around her body, neatly, as though she were a piece of art on display. Her tongue had been sliced out of her mouth and tossed off to the side like garbage.

Her hand hardly helped block out the smell, and she could taste the copper in the air. She turned around quickly, stumbling over her own feet, and threw herself towards the door.

***Six hours earlier***

"We look like bloody fools!" Moody barked.

His harsh tone pulled Tonks back to the present.

"Alastor," Kingsley said calmly, but with a slight warning to his tone.

"No!" Moody yelled. "I will not be patronized, Kingsley." Moody slammed his fist onto the table and Tonks flinched. "Somehow Voldemort or his Death Eaters were able to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic and kill every single person we arrested. The Ministry is supposed to be secure now, how did they get in? How were two of our aurors slaughtered before they could sound the alarm?" Moody looked at everyone in turn, his good eye boring into them with suspicion. "These new laws were supposed to work in our favor, instead we now have Fudge demanding answers from Amelia, blaming her for what happened, and the citizens of Britain clamoring for answers. Merlin knows what the Daily Prophet will be saying about this in the morning!"

"As much as I hate to say it," Sirius said, his arms folded over his chest, and a sour look on his face "the old man's right." Moody's good eye narrowed on Sirius.

"Sirius," Remus sighed. "This isn't the time."

Sirius held up his hands.

"Alastor has a point," Arthur said. He took off his glasses and ran his hand down his face. "I too would like to know how the Ministry was infiltrated. It had to have been an inside job. No one from the outside would've known that the Ministry had moved two aurors to station that hall, when before it wasn't monitored. Had they not known, they wouldn't have made it past the guards."

"You think it was an auror," Tonks said in horror.

"Maybe," Arthur said, "or maybe it was someone who had gained inside information from an auror."

"As much as I don't want to admit it," Kingsley said, "Arthur is most likely right. We've all suspected that there are Death Eaters amongst the aurors, and this cements that."

"Who can we trust?" Tonks asked.

"Ourselves alone," Remus answered. "Anyone outside of the Order is suspect."

Moody grunted. "Pettigrew was in the Order."

Sirius jumped to his feet. "Don't you dare bring him into this."

Remus put a hand on Sirius' shoulder. "Sirius, he didn't mean anything by it. He just meant that anyone can be a Death Eater. That's something you know just as well as anyone."

Sirius' hands clenched into fists, but he didn't say anything.

"What are we going to do?" Tonks asked in a bid to defuse the tension.

"Once she's done being reprimanded by Fudge," Kingsley answered, "Amelia's going to increase auror patrols, and once again increase recruitment efforts. And I'll be calling an emergency meeting for this evening, I don't want aurors to patrol in less than a group of three."

"That's all?" Sirius asked incredulously. "More auror patrols? This will be the third time this year Amelia has done that, and look how much good that has done."

"Unfortunately, there isn't much we can do," Kingsley admitted. "We can attempt to increase the number of auror members, but we need to be careful when doing so."

Dumbledore, who had remained silent until now, stood up and said, "I think that's all we have to discuss for now. You all know what you're supposed to do." He turned to Kingsley. "May I have a word?"

Tonks' brow wrinkled at the hesitant look that flashed in Dumbledore's eyes, but she said her goodbyes.