A quarter of an hour later, Scrimgeour stepped out of the meeting room, his expression still somewhat grim. He radiated the chill of cold steel.
Apart from Amelia Bones, none of the department heads approached him to talk—he was the first Head of the Auror Office to have his authority carved up by the Minister. However tough he might once have been, he was now nothing more than a toothless lion.
"Don't worry, Rufus." Amelia Bones walked beside Scrimgeour. "We're on the same side. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement will always stand behind the Auror Office."
That was certainly true. After all, the Auror Office was a subdivision of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
Scrimgeour gave the department head a slightly surprised look, then shook his head. "I'm not worried, Madam Bones."
He genuinely wasn't worried. So what if the Minister for Magic had taken a share of the Auror Office's operational authority?
Fudge wouldn't be in office much longer. He knew Fudge trusted no one these days. The number of Aurors assigned to guard Fudge alone had doubled, and those Aurors were only responsible for protecting him within the Ministry of Magic.
Lately, Fudge disappeared after work, and no one knew where he went—the man seemed to have used the Fidelius Charm.
But that didn't matter. Scrimgeour was putting everything in place...
Seeing Scrimgeour's still-grim expression, Amelia Bones assumed he was struggling to let it go. She said little more; something like this was hardly easy to accept.
Even an ordinary political reshuffle could unsettle people, let alone the first stripping of the Auror Office's authority since the Ministry's founding, with Scrimgeour at its head.
It was only natural that Scrimgeour couldn't accept it right away.
For her, however, this was actually a good thing—the Auror Office,