It was the twelfth of March and the Ministry building was bustling as always. As the heart of the government the place was always bustling as people rushed to navigate the bureaucracy and little cricises that happened to people all over the country every day.
But today someone stepped through the fireplace through the floo network into the main lobby and the bustle stopped. The figure walked with their wand raised as they strode forward confidently. The whole left half of their body was covered in a gray gunmetal, but it didn’t disguise the obvious burns and pits crawling across that entire half of their body. Their leg swung and clicked as they walked, clearly a prosthetic along with the metallic arm. In small gaps in the joints a brighter almost liquid silvery metal could be seen flowing beneath the surface.
The figure walked forward and the silent crowd parted around him as he walked until he was in the center of the great hall. He looked around disdainfully with his remaining eye, the other half covered in a silver mask.
“I am Lord Voldemort! Returned!” he shouted loudly as the crowd stared at him, ”I call for a rematch with Dumbledore. A battle here and now among the seat of the Ministry. I shall kill one of you every minute that he does not appear along with any of the Aurors that attempt to stop me.”
With a flick of his wand he sent a green beam from his wand and impacted a woman in front of him wearing glasses. She fell went limp and the papers she was carrying spilled out over the floor. Her dead body hit the floor, her glasses cracking as she hit the ground.
The crowd panicked and several people started screaming as many started to flee through the floo network.
The man let them flee, looking impassively as they ran from him, not a single one moving to fight. But there were many people, so many that in the chaos not all of them were able to flee in time.
He sent another green beam into the crowd casually and an older man fell backwards, his eye open and staring blankly at the ceiling in death.
Blue robed Aurors ran forward and several shot several cutting and blasting curses at the man. He flicked his wand and they were redirected into the fleeing crowd. Seeing this, some managed to cast weak bubble charms and block the attacks, but they looked exhausted in doing so. The bystanders had nearly all left, and the man sent another green beam into the crowd randomly. A young man in his twenties collapsed half way into the floo fireplace, caught just before he could flee.
The last of the bystanders had fled and the self proclaimed Voldemort turned to the growing crowd of Aurors.
“You think you can take on the whole Ministry?” one of them shouted angrily, “You’ll pay for that, whoever you really are!”
“We’ll see,” the man said before walking towards the crowd of Aurors, “Lord Voldemort will not go silently to his end!”
He leaped into the air and his body became shrouded in dark smoke. Then he began to fly in the air and flew forward, dodging and weaving around the barrage of spells flying at him. It had been another minute, so he sent another killing curse straight into one of the Aurors that didn’t move fast enough to dodge. He had to conserve his magical strength for the battle ahead.
He didn’t even notice at first, but the fireplace in the hall flared with green flames and Dumbledore strode out. As Dumbledore raised his wand, the black cloud began to disengage from the Aurors and move in Dumbledore’s direction. Dumbledore cast his first spell, and the true battle began.
— — —
Dumbledore frowned internally as he and Lord Voldemort furiously battled each other. He was at a disadvantage in some ways, having to defend all the Aurors swarming in to join the battle. But at the same time Voldemort was also being constantly pressured by the growing ranks of Aurors casting offensive spells at him all at once.
Most of the Aurors were weak, barely even to cast a few spells before starting to sweat. But there were so many spells being fired at once that even Voldemort was forced to summon various physical shields constantly to defend himself even as he simultaneously dodged mid air with his wandless flight spell.
This was unlike Voldemort, he liked to work from the shadows not strike out in the open like this, let alone so brazenly. Dumbledore looked for the trap, but he didn’t waste the opportunity to prepare to finish the battle quickly, now that Voldemort was so pressured in avoiding the other spells from the Aurors.
Dumbledore pointed his wand towards Voldemort's dodging form and cast a gravity spell on the area. Voldemort went down like he was slapped down by a massive hand, but recovered before he hit the ground. Voldemort began to rise back into the air again although his dodges were much slower again as the spell pressed him downward.
Dumbledore twisted the elder wand in his grip slightly and channeled even more power into the spell, causing Voldemort to be slammed into the ground like he had been slapped down by a massive hand again even harder. Dumbledore kept increasing the power on his spell as the Aurors behind Dumbledore took advantage of Voldemort being pinned down to blast him with every spell imaginable.
The area where Voldemort had laid was obscured as the Aurors kept firing blindly into the area as Dumbledore kept channeling the gravity spell even harder to keep the Dark lord pinned in place. They had to finish him off before he could escape or regain his bearings.
Suddenly there was a shout behind him and Dumbledore turned. A cloaked figure stood on the edge of the crowd Aurors, his wand turned not to Voldemort but Dumbledore.
A strange clicking inhuman sound came from under the persons hood and a green killing curse came bursting out of their wand. Dumbledore wanted to dodge, but he was still channeling the gravity spell on Voldemort. It caused him to hesitate for an instant as the green beam approached him.
“Fawkes!” he called at the last second and his companion teleported in front of him in a burst of flame. The killing curse hit the phoenix, and it let out a mournful cry before being reduced to ashes.
Dumbledore turned to the new intruder, and one of the nearby Aurors turned and tried to blast the person with a stunner. The intruder ducked under the spell and without any obvious motions the Auror that had attacked fell to the ground foaming at the mouth and having a seizure.
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The hood of the intruder, no creature, fell back, revealing it in its full form. Everyone paused in shock for a moment, even Dumbledore. The being looked like a human, but had a reddish brown plating over its body and a grotesque insect head proved otherwise.
Its mandibles clicked as it pointed its wand at Dumbledore again, shooting another killing curse at him. It was wearing some sort of black crown on top of its skull just behind its two large antennae that had sprung upwards now that they were freed from being pressed down by the hood.
Dumbledore went to dodge the curse, but suddenly was blasted by a massive legilemency attack on his defenses by at least two masters at once causing him to slightly misstep. He could feel the source somehow being from the crown on the creature’s head and something sitting on its non wand hand. Enchanted items? Where had the creature found artifacts so powerful…
Dumbledore’s occulemency shields held, but they were falling fast and he couldn’t divert his attention while the killing curse approached him. Dumbledore managed to twist his body to the side to dodge the curse just barely.
He desperately wanted to check Voldemort's demise and capture his spirit before his spirit escaped once more to find another body to inhabit. But he had to keep all of his focus on his new combatant as the creature sent killing curse after killing curse after him while simultaneously shredding through his occulemency shields.
Luckily, Dumbledore was not alone. The Aurors seeing this new person attack Dumbledore started casting their own spells into the mix. One of the minds pushing through his occulemency shields stopped and the Aurors around the creature began to drop one by one, twitching as the artifact appeared to target them in sequence.
It was only a brief respite from the mental attack, but it gave Dumbledore the time to rally and push back on the physical battle. In a quick barrage of spells he sent powerful blasting curses around the creature, creating large pits around it to make uneven footing and prevent it from properly dodging.
The creature kept sending killing curse after killing curse at Dumbledore, largely using its enchanted items to take out any Aurors that tried to attack it, focusing its spells fully on countering Dumbledore. The spasming Aurors were being dragged away by their fellows, only decreasing the numbers of fighters in the room more as they continued.
Realizing he only had a little time, Dumbledore began spraying the area around the creature with giant gouts of flame, impeding it options to dodge even more. The creature whirled its wand in a circle around it and the flames began swirling in a tornado under its magic. In response, Dumbledore seized control of the water in the fountain to the side. He pulled the liquid to him and formed it into a half dome shield as the fire shifted into a massive flaming beetle that charged him.
He waved his wand and the watery half dome instantly flipped around and launched forward to push down and smother the flaming beetle after stopping its initial charge at him. The two of them struggled to boost their constructs for a few moments, but Dumbledore managed to snuff the beetle in short order with his water. As soon as it was defeated, Dumbledore had his water construct leap forward until the insect man was submerged in an orb of water that floated into the air, carrying the creature up with it in its center.
Dumbledore siphoned more water from the fountain, causing his construct to grow larger. He began swirling his wand in a circle and the orb of water began rapidly spinning like a top, causing the aim of the killing curses from the creature inside to be thrown off.
The Insect man’s two enchanted items stopped attacking the Aurors and both focused on breaking through Dumbledore’s mental shields. He didn’t have much time before he was defeated on the mental battlefield at this rate despite his advantage on the physical one.
He held his off hand out and used wandless magic to form a weak barrier around the exterior of the orb of water.
With a flick of his wand the orb instantly shrunk to a third of its original size around where the creature floated. The shield shrank with it and kept the water at extreme pressure. Dumbledore saw the creature’s antennae flatten and several of its chitin plates cracking. It thrashed briefly, seemingly surprised.
Dumbledore grunted and began breathing heavily. He had massive reserves of magic, but such high intensity battle was wearing even him out.
With a heavy grunt he cast the same spell again. The magically infused orb of water compressed again until it was barely five meters in diameter around the creature. Its chitin plates began to buckle and fracture and portions of its insect head began to crumple inwards and break. One of its large compound eyes was leaking fluid to taint the water.
‘You win this time, Dumbledore,’ he heard in his mind, ‘Maybe I should go after that school next. I’m sure you care about at least one of those students in there. I guess we’ll find out soon. Can't take any chances, I suppose I'll just have to slaughter them all just to be safe.’
The creature met Dumbledore’s gaze even as it struggled to move. He saw it reach for something around its waist, and pull out a golden galleon that it pulled out to show him with some difficulty through the crushing water. Dumbledore saw a ring on its finger that looked strangely familiar, the sight of it tickling at the back of his mind. It was launching mental attacks at him even now, one of the two sources of the mental assaults on him.
‘So long, Dumbledore. I never go anywhere now without a good portkey ready for an escape. I’ve timed it perfectly,’ the creature gloated telepathically.
Dumbledore's eyes widened and he quickly swept his wand and slammed the orb of water hard into the ground. But the creature managed to keep a grip on the coin and before Dumbledore could act again it vanished with a loud pop as the portkey whisked it away.
Dumbledore released the compressed orb of water and it exploded in a large wave that washed across the room. The insect man was gone. Lord Voldemort had used himself as a distraction to give that creature an advantage in battle.
That was worrying.
He cast spells checking for invisibility and such as well, but there was nothing. It really had been a timed portkey. One that must have been rather powerful to get past the anti-apparition wards. Portkeys were a little different in mechanism to apparition, but anti-apparition wards were usually enough to stop them and cheaper than setting up an entirely different set of wards just to encounter this one specific scenario. Perhaps the Ministry would reconsider that policy now...
He went over to the crater where Lord Voldemort had fallen earlier in the battle. The body was down there, and Dumbledore approached cautiously. The Aurors slowly crept back towards him, with the bravest watching him from the lip of the crater as he climbed inside. Dumbledore levitated the body and it was immediately clear that the man was dead. There were huge gouges cut out of him and several bits fell off as Dumbledore lifted the corpse from the ground. He cast a quick few spells to track where the spirit had escaped to in the chaos. And he got back… nothing. He kept casting, brow furrowing as no matter what he cast it became apparent that there was no trail of such a spirit flying away from the corpse.
Dumbledore looked down at the body as he lowered it back down, frowning down at it in consternation. Was Voldemort truly dead? What of his possible horcruxes? Something tickled at the back of his mind. The ring, on the creatures hand... It had looked familiar. Something was off with this whole situation, he would have to do some research to determine what it was exactly that was bothering him.
Dumbledore walked out of the crater and looked to the assembled Aurors gathered around him, seeming unsure what to do.
“He is dead,” Dumbledore said shortly, “I will be going now, I’d suggest warding against port keys specifically from now on, it is how that insect man managed to escape in the end. Good day.”
With that Dumbledore walked to a fireplace and left through the floo network before anyone thought to question him.