Chapter 167: After the Riot

 

The Daily Prophet called the World Cup attack a disturbance caused by a small number of irresponsible celebrants.

The photograph beneath the headline showed trampled tents. It did not show the Muggle family suspended above them.

Edward laid the paper on the alliance table. Draco placed a second edition beside it. That version acknowledged the Dark Mark but described it as a tasteless imitation.

"My father says the Ministry is leaning on the editors," Draco said.

Hermione had brought a Muggle newspaper. It reported an unexplained fire in Dorset, road closures, and several people treated for shock. No names appeared.

"Two worlds, two incomplete stories," she said.

The alliance met with Sirius and Remus present. No magical objects lay on the table. Their task was to compare what each person had witnessed and decide what warnings they could responsibly share.

Harry described losing his wand. He remembered putting it in his pocket during the confusion, then finding the pocket empty. Winky had been discovered near the place where the Mark rose. Bartemius Crouch dismissed her despite her denial.

"She was terrified of him," Harry said.

"Fear does not prove innocence," Theodore replied.

"It does not prove guilt either," Hermione said.

They entered both facts.

Draco had seen masked wizards laughing before the Mark appeared and fleeing afterward. Pansy's family had left before the riot. Daphne and Astoria had watched from a different camp and saw Ministry teams reach the Muggle victims only after attackers moved away.

Samuel knew a security wizard who claimed the eastern lane had been blocked under a forged order. The claim remained second-hand until the wizard gave a statement.

Edward summarized the Albanian warning without revealing restricted evidence. Peter had an unidentified accomplice. The figure near the Mark might be that person, but no one had seen enough to identify him.

"Then what can we do?" Blaise asked.

"Verify travel arrangements, use meeting points, and refuse to investigate alone," Edward said. "We can also press our families to support Bones's inquiry."

Draco grimaced. "You make conspiracy sound like paperwork."

"Paperwork is harder to duel and easier to preserve."

They drafted letters asking why Portkeys failed, who ordered the lane closure, and how Harry's wand reached the tree line. Each member sent a separate version to a family or Ministry contact. The questions contained no alliance language.

Hermione insisted that they identify which answers would actually resolve each question. A reply saying security measures were appropriate would explain nothing. They asked for the time the interference began, the office that authorized it, and the names of officials responsible for restoring travel.

The exercise exposed another weakness. Several members had relatives in the same Ministry departments they were questioning. Each disclosed the connection before choosing a recipient. Pansy rerouted her letter through a neutral records office rather than send it to an uncle who could quietly bury it.

Adeline, still an observer, recommended a shared response table. The group would record whether an office answered, refused, redirected, or contradicted another reply. No answer would be treated as proof of guilt, but patterns of evasion could support a formal request from Bones.

Within two days, the first results arrived. The Portkey office claimed the campsite security command came from Magical Games and Sports. That department denied issuing it. Both supplied document references. The numbers pointed to the same copied form from Crouch's old files.

The letters had not solved the attack. They had converted a rumour about Ministry incompetence into a traceable conflict between records.

Hermione proposed a fourth question about the Muggle family and their right to treatment before memory alteration. Draco objected that it would distract from the magical security failure.

"It is part of the failure," Astoria said. "They were selected because the attackers assumed no one important would care."

The question stayed.

The meeting then addressed Hogwarts. Dumbledore had confirmed that an interschool tournament would be announced at the opening feast if the three Ministries approved new protections. The alliance did not know its tasks or selection method.

"No one enters on our behalf until we know the rules," Edward said.

Draco looked offended. "You think I need permission?"

"To commit alliance resources or claim alliance support, yes. Privately, you may take whatever foolish risk the rules allow."

Pansy laughed. Draco voted for the restriction anyway.

Sirius reviewed their return-to-school arrangements. Students would travel in pairs through King's Cross. Parents or guardians would confirm arrival. Each alliance member carried an ordinary brass whistle charmed to sound only for the group, not a weapon or amplifier.

The whistles had been made by a licensed shop and tested by Flitwick. Edward had not designed them.

"Progress," Sirius said.

After the meeting, Draco remained behind. He stood before the confirmed-facts wall and read Bertha's name.

"My father recognized some of the masked people," he said. "He will not tell the Ministry without proof."

"Did he participate?"

"No."

Edward waited.

Draco's jaw tightened. "He knew gatherings like that happened after the last war. He said he left because the Mark meant the game was no longer safe."

"Was tormenting the family safe before the Mark?"

"No."

The word came quietly.

Edward did not use Lucius's failure to force a promise. "What do you want to do with that?"

"I do not know."

"Then start by not repeating his excuses."

Draco looked younger than he had at the stadium. "You were raised by portraits that praised worse."

"And I am responsible for which lessons I keep."

They joined Sirius in the kitchen. He had received a reply from Amelia Bones. The lane closure order carried Bartemius Crouch's office seal, but Crouch denied issuing it. The charm used a legitimate Ministry form copied from an old file.

Bertha had once worked in that office.

The link sharpened without becoming proof. Someone who had taken information from Bertha could have forged the order. Peter and the unknown servant now had a plausible role in the campsite trap.

"Why trap people inside?" Draco asked.

"To spread panic, conceal movement, isolate a target, or all three," Sirius said.

"Harry's wand may have been the target," Edward added.

Dumbledore's next message complicated matters again. Alastor Moody, the incoming Defence professor, had reported an attempted break-in at his home. He claimed to have repelled the intruder and would arrive at Hogwarts as planned after Ministry questioning.

Sirius knew Moody from the first war. "Paranoid, difficult, and usually right after everyone stops listening."

"Could the break-in be connected?" Edward asked.

"Yes. It could also be exactly what Moody says. Someone tried the house of a famous retired Auror and regretted it."

Dumbledore had verified Moody through shared memories and magical checks. That reduced the immediate concern without eliminating the need for attention.

At dinner, Edward read the Prophet again. The language irritated him more than an open denial because it made terror sound accidental.

He wrote a private account of the night and sealed it beside the Albanian record. Facts could be suppressed, softened, or forgotten. Preserving them was not glamorous work.

It was one way to resist.

The shared response table went to Bones with sources attached. The alliance asked her to verify it, not to accept student deductions as official findings.