Dumbledore rushed down the stairs of St. Mungo’s as the alarm finally went off showing that his escape had been caught. It had quickly become apparent to Albus that his obliviation charm on the boy over a year ago had failed. No doubt some unknown magical reaction in relation to the boy’s coma and subsequent recovery.
No matter the reason, Albus casting that spell on the young Mr. Potter would be enough to send Dumbledore to Azkaban for many years. Casting too many memory charms on those below magical maturation could interfere with their magical growth if done in excess which is why it was so severely punished. But a single such charm should only do a little harm, not nearly enough to impact someone with Harry Potters potential. His raw amount of magic growth wouldn't have been impeded even if Albus had sealed dozens of similar memories. Those years that Dumbledore would be in Azkaban would allow Voldemort to stage his return to power unopposed. He would have to go abroad and hunt for more international allies to suppress Voldemort and his allies while he was wanted by the British Ministry.
Albus burst out onto the first floor and off handedly stunned the five Aurors gathered there in a few quick movements before they could even react. It seems he had taken them by surprise. Albus started making his way to the front door, occasionally stunning an Auror that came running out of one of the adjoining corridors or using a levitation spell to move one of the stunned bodies out of his way. A shame that Fawkes was in his rebirth cycle right now. He wouldn't be strong enough to teleport him out from under the anti-apparition wards for days still.
It was a good thing that Albus had set Minerva as his proxy as Headmaster. She would be a better choice for the position than one of the Ministry stooges more interested in politics than the well being of their students. The building of Hogwarts had its own ideas of who should be headmaster, but it always chose the last headmaster’s chosen successor if there was one by tradition. Minerva would have full access and Dumbledore knew she would care for the students and make sure that things were steered towards the correct path.
Albus made it through the front doors, a line of stunned bodies littering the hallways behind him. Even as he pushed open the door he was forced to deflect a stunning charm.
Albus looked forward and winced slightly at the crowd of more than fifty Aurors all arranged around the main gate and boundary for the anti-apparition wards.
He didn’t wince for himself, but for them. With so many he would have to take more drastic measures.
Albus spend five seconds muttering under his breath while casting with the elder wand while the group of Aurors watched him, none of them moving a muscle. It seems that none of them wanted to attack the great Dumbledore first.
Dumbledore finished casting and a ward burned into the stones around him all at once, throwing up a shield. Seeing him growing defensive, the large group of Aurors made their way forward and began to slowly spread out around Dumbledore’s bubble.
Albus stretched his wand towards the main gate and began muttering to use his most advanced technique. Layered spells. He cast one spell and held it place before casting the next, and next, and next…
More and more Aurors began arriving and one of them was finally brave enough to cast a stunning charm at the shield. The spell bounced off and launched itself into the sky. That seemed to break the hesitation of the rest and all of them began casting furiously, their spells being redirected into the sky. But each hit weakened the ward, Albus could feel it as his wand began vibrating in his hand as he layered another blasting curse on it. The courtyard walls and gate around St. Mungo’s were centuries old and had extremely powerful wards to prevent attack from the outside. Or to prevent escape from the inside in this case.
A blast of green light launched from the wand of the gaunt face of one of the Aurors and Albus ducked beneath it as it passed through the ward like it wasn’t even there. Someone shouted at the man, but Albus decided he could no longer take the risk that more of them would attempt the same and possibly hit one of their fellows by accident. Or hit Dumbledore either, that would a pathetic way for him to go. But the rest of the crowd continued their barrage despite the man who cast the killing curse still being admonished.
Dumbledore reconfigured the ward shield around him in an instant.
For one second all the spells hitting the weakening ward were directed straight towards the man who had sent the killing curse. The auror exploded into pieces as hundreds of spells hit him all at once. It seems that quite a few blasting curses were mixed in with the stunning spells by now. Albus had not expected to kill the man. But Albus had to escape or all his work might be lost, so with a heavy heart he reoriented the ward one more time. Now each spell the aurors cast at the ward were directed at one of their fellows.
The ward was about to fail, but it gave Albus enough time to layer another blasting curse on his wand that was now vibrating so violently it felt like it was about to fly out of his hand. Over two thirds of the Aurors around him were heavily injured or stunned as the ward sent the others spells into them. Luckily the majority of the spells being cast at Albus were non-lethal, so there were only a few deaths in the chaos or redirected spells.
Albus wished he could warn the Aurors about his next spell, but their shouting and confusion made it impossible. Albus carefully lined up his wand with the gate where most of the reinforcements were still coming through to fight him. The majority of the Aurors stopped casting at Albus directly and began layering defensive spells on the gate in preparation of the blast they felt was incoming. Albus was channeling so much magic that the wind had begun kicking up around him and his wand was glowing brightly as it visibly shook in his hand.
This layered spell did not require an incantation, but Dumbledore had added one anyway to throw off others who witnessed it on the secrets behind the technique.
“Interitus Maxima!” He boomed as he rapidly shifted his arm thirty degrees to his right away from the main gate. And pointed the spell directly into the wall to the side.
The spell launched from Albus’ wand in a massive rainbow kaleidoscope of shifting colors from all the spells contained in it. It shot forward and impacted the wall and Albus would have been blinded if he had not already looked at the ground in preparation. He cast an anchoring spell on himself as all the Aurors went flying away by the blast wave of the massive explosion. Albus looked up and saw the smoking rubble consuming a twenty meter stretch of wall, the wards sparking in the air on either side where they had been shredded by Albus’ spell.
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Albus looked up and cast a series of levitation charms on the rubble that had been sent flying upwards, precisely budgeting his power so the charm would last just long enough for them to lightly make it to the ground. Albus was panting now in exertion, even he couldn’t cast spells that powerful freely.
Albus cast the bubble shield spell and started running forward towards the gap. No one moved to stop him, all the Aurors unconscious or heavily injured by the explosion. Albus saw some wide eyed muggles on the other side of the gap gaping at the scene as Albus cast a spell to quickly clear a path through the smoldering rubble to the other side. He made his way through and gave out a sigh of relief as he felt the anti-apparition wards lift on him. Now all he had to do was…
He was locked down again, but not by St. Mungo’s wards. Who was doing this? Albus spun around looking for the culprit only to see a heavily scarred and lanky man walking towards him from the street. The muggles in the area had already fled in fear, muttering something about a terrorist attack.
The man’s scarred covered his whole body and he was smiling at Albus seemingly indulging while holding his wand loosely at his side.
“Now, Dumbledore,” the man said as he drew closer, Albus still furiously working to break through the ward the man must have placed,
“You, fleeing consequences? How… out of character. I respect you a lot, you know.”
The man’s hand shot up and he blasted a massive blasting curse at Dumbledore. Albus was forced the strengthen his shield charm in response and turn his attention on breaking through the strange man’s anti-apparation ward. Who was this man? Albus had never met someone who could place a ward this strong or complicated seemingly on a whim.
“Working at that school, doing the good work for the youth,” the man continued casually. He cast another blasting curse that left Albus panting after blocking it. Usually he would deflect the spells, but they were so powerful that he couldn’t allow them to go flying off and possibly kill hundreds of muggles down the street. It was far too powerful to risk misjudging a deflection into the sky blasting into one of the taller buildings in London.
“...Curling all of Britain around your finger,” the man said, “All of them eating out of your hand, most of your faction not even able to take a shit without your approval. Even your enemies respect you and your power. I’m not one that can cultivate that kind of loyalty, that kind of legend. I’m almost jealous of you in a way.”
“Who are you?” Dumbledore shouted as he blocked another blasting curse with a grunt. He saw in the man’s smile that he knew exactly why Albus wasn’t deflecting the spells. He was doing it on purpose to goad Albus, “Why are you doing this?” Albus shouted.
The man paused and seemed to think for a moment before suddenly sending another blasting curse at Albus. Albus grunted again and held his side as he panted heavily. His magic couldn’t take much more.
“James Kensit, nice to meet you Dumbledore,” Albus tightened his grip on his wand as James Kensit, the immortal, kept talking casually with his wand at his side. Albus was tempted to counter attack, but he knew that the man’s wand would be up and casting a new spell before Albus could even cast another spell. “I was in the area when I noticed the commotion around young Harry’s accusation, which I think we both know is true,” Kensit said, “Now, you free and on the run in the wider world… that is boring. I’ve seen it a thousand times. But you are a man of convictions and ideology, who has created a legend around your inherent goodness and vision for the brighter future. I want to see how you manage to salvage that reputation from this…”
Kensit gestured to the gaping hole in St. Mungo’s wall and all the incapacitated Aurors inside. The man smiled wider,
“Oh, I just can’t wait for the trial. Will you manage to convince them and maintain the legend? Or will you demonstrate your power and just force them to listen to you and build your better world as so many others have throughout history. Oh, the irony that they will fear you despite everything you have done to improve their backwards little lives.”
Albus furiously dived into the anti-apparition wards and thought he saw an opening and began to frantically widen it as the man spoke. He was almost there.
Kensit shook his head, “A good attempt, but that’s not how this little show will end. Stupify.”
Before Albus could react a massive red beam blasted at him. His shield held for a full second, but the red beam just kept coming at him as Kensit stood there with one arm pointed at Albus, looking completely relaxed.
Albus’ shield gave out and the stunning charm struck him, knocking him unconscious among the rubble.
— — —
James Kensit walked over to the unconscious Albus Dumbledore and checked him with a few spells. A few quick healing spells fixed the low heart rate and other health issues from Kensit’s overpowered stunner. He inspected the man and considered for a moment before adding a decaying protective spell. The man would remain unconscious and untouchable for three hours or so even to the three ‘unforgivable’ curses. Kensit almost laughed at the terminology of the British Ministry.
Those three soul based curses were no better or worse than all the other terrible ways a wizard could kill or manipulate. Only less understood by these backward people. It still amazed Kensit the knowledge and ingenious techniques that had been lost to the world over his thousands of years of life. Kensit was familiar with thousands of other ways to accomplish something similar to what the three ‘unforgivable’ spells could accomplish.
The killing curse, Avada kadavra, to sever the soul’s connection to the body.
The torture curse, Crucio, to damage the outer layers of the soul to cause extreme pain.
And the puppeting curse, Imperio, to manipulate the connection between the soul and body so the user was forced to follow the caster’s orders.
Their only advantage to using these spells was that these modern day wizards had too little understanding of the soul to develop a spell to shield their souls from such manipulation attempts or attacks. After some consideration, Kensit cast a more general soul shield on the unconscious Albus Dumbledore that would last for a week or so. That should keep him alive long enough for a trial and ward off any ill advised assassination attempts. Kensit was sure the man could deal with any other attacks with his own magic or any allies he had left. Kensit didn't want to make things too easy for the man.
James Kensit looked around and considered if there was anything else he had forgotten. His isolation spell was still holding back the massing Aurors that had been trickling in after apparating just outside the range of James Kensit’s quick anti-apparation ward. Feeling the attempts of the Elder wand to bond to him, James Kensit shut it down hard. It would be a waste putting it in his trophy room when it was doing so many more interesting things in Albus Dumbledore's hands. After another few attempts, the wand gave up and reverted its allegiance to its old master. Excellent.
After a moment, Kensit nodded to himself. That should be all. He would just have to make sure to find someone good to impersonate during Dumbledore’s trial. He wanted a front row seat for this. He lifted the anti-apparition charm and quickly apparated away himself, sensing a squad of Aurors apparating in even as James Kensit left.
‘Britain is becoming quite the interesting place,’ James Kensit thought to himself as he appeared back in his laboratory. ‘I should check in on it more often from now on. My experiments can wait for a few months.’