Once and for All

Chapter 10

The next day Harry went to the Ministry along with Percy and Mr. Weasley. He stumbled out of the fireplace in the main level, feeling as if his insides had twisted together. His visits to the Ministry had never been pleasant, so he wasn't sure what to expect from this one. He was going to be following an Adam Wiffler, whom he had strangely never heard of before. Once again, he wished that Mad-Eye or Tonks had survived so he could follow them instead. He was tired of meeting strangers.
Slowly, he made his way to the office and sat down. He had expected it to be like Mad Eye's, with strange objects cluttered around and such, but instead it was shockingly empty, with picture frames turned around on the doors and a messy pile of papers scattered across the desk. Uncertainly, he sat down in the chair, glancing at the door. Was he early?
Suddenly a voice said from above, "Didn't even bother to wait outside. You got spunk, kid."
Harry jumped at the voice and squinted at the ceiling. "Wha-?"
Suddenly what he thought was the ceiling dissolved, and a whole other level was revealed above the desk, like a loft. Leaning over the banister above him was a tall, skinny man with sleek hair in a ponytail and a large scar that went across the left eye, now white, and looked unnerving when he grinned. He reminded Harry vaguely of Bill, but in a more sinister way.
      Mr. Whiffler descended down the spiral staircase towards his desk. "Aurors like to enchant their offices with concealing spells," he explained. "It's best to not leave any evidence, in case anything goes amiss."
      "What's up there?" Harry asked, looking curiously at the loft.
       "Mostly evidence from cases," he replied. "Among...other things."
      Harry wasn't sure if he like his tone. "Like Mad-Eye's office?" He regretted the question as soon as he said it. He wasn't sure how well whiffler knew Mad-Eye.
     To his surprise, he laughed. "No, I'm not as paranoid as he was, though some would say so. But you've already failed your first test."
      Harry's eyes widened. "What-?"
      "You should have done a perimeter scan of the hallway and this room before entering. Going into a place with blind trust is foolish. I assume you at least took notes about the room?"
     "Er, kind of," Harry said, wishing Hermione were here. "Not on paper."
     "Of course not, you didn't bring any and then if you said you did take notes you would have stolen them from this desk. Either way it would have been a lie."
     Harry felt rather like a pawn who had just been used in a checkmate. "Um, right. Well, your pictures are turned around."
      Whiffler raised an eyebrow. "Because...?"
      Harry desperately searched for answers in his mind, and suddenly remembered the many cat pictures in Umbridge's office, and then of Phineas' picture. "Because pictures can travel and see in your office. And if they can do that, they can spread information."
      Whiffler nodded approvingly. "Anything else?"
      "Well..." Harry admitted, buying time to think of something. "I thought it was odd your office was left unlocked, and when there was hardly anything in it. I just thought you didn't keep your stuff here so people wouldn't find anything if they snooped around."
     "A rookie move," he commented sympathetically, and Harry felt a sting of annoyance. "That would work for tracking down Muggles, but for wizards and witches there are countless concealment spells yet to be discovered. The key is constant-"
     "-vigilance," Harry finished, grinning. "Right. So what can I do now?"
"We don't have any pressing cases at the moment," Adam informed Harry grimly, as if he was announcing a funeral rather than a lack of Dark wizards running around. "But there's a few suspects we're tracking down with this map." He jerked his thumb behind him, and a large faded yellow map with many writings and lines suddenly appeared behind him. "You wouldn't have seen this kind of map before-"
      "It's like the Marauders Map!" Harry blurted our before he could stop himself.
       "The what?"
        "Nothing. Who're we tracking?"
        Whiffler looked slightly suspicious but continued anyway. "Someone named Nicholas Bluffer-a former Death Eater. He's been popping up in crime scenes all over Europe along with a bunch of others."
     Harry squinted at the map, which did indeed seem very chaotic. "How do you know it's him?"
     "Unlike the other death eaters, he has no intention of staying hidden. He keeps attacking anyone not supporting his former master-muggleborns, and strangely 'disloyal' pure bloods."
     Harry glanced at him, an ominous feeling coming over him. "Is he a leader or a follower?"
     "Follower," Whiffler said grimly. "He's definitely working for somebody. Like Voldemort, leaders are rarely seen in public, so they do other things like leave their signs or marks. There's been this inscription on almost every crime scene." Here he pointed out a symbol that formed in the middle of the map: a snake wrapping around a body and eating its head.  "If I had to guess, I'd say it has to do with Salazar slytherin's policies. I've been tracking Bluffer's movements for months now, and I'm getting closer to his next target ."
"So you've found the pattern?"
"Yes, or a vague one. It appears he does not keep the same followers in the same spots, but instead has them constantly switching around. Still, the groups remain the same, and the radius of destruction is clearly with a purpose." He tapped the map, and suddenly it zoomed in to London, where points were plotted in seemingly random places. "Here we can see that this is a professional, because while the points seem random, they're still killing off and torturing his targets successfully." He seemed to stare off at the map, his voice trailing off as he said, "there are so many dark wizards to find...so, so many, and so little time...how is it possible?"
Harry recognized the start of a ramble when he heard one-talking with Dumbledore had taught him that much. "How has the paper not covered this?"
Whiffler answered faster than Harry would suspect. "Because they don't want to sell a worldwide panic like last time. If it's a big issue they'll report it, but if not most of these cases don't make it to the press-not without Kingsley's permission at least."
He stopped talking for several moments after that, his eyes scanning the map, then suddenly widened. Soon he was mumbling to himself, as if in a trance "...if it was a common trait among the targets and not their locations, perhaps...everything's common, it's pointless to go down that road-"
"Sir?" Harry asked, and Whiffler started at his voice.
"Hmm? Oh right, I forgot about you. You see, I'm not used to working with other people. You can...ah, let's have you look over the suspect's backgrounds for now. I'll be up there-" he pointed upstairs. "investigating...other things."
And with a loud crack he disappeared upstairs, still muttering to himself, and Harry was left downstairs to tediously sort through his pile of papers. He picked up a piece of paper half heartedly, his heart falling as he saw the beginning list of the victims, most of which were pureblood "blood traitors". Were the Weasley's next?

So here's Harry's new job-FINALLY finished this😅
Some random-ish questions:
1. Are you a dog or cat person?
2. What house is your favorite?
3. What do you guys think of Whiffler? Friend, foe, or in the middle?

Comments are appreciated!