"Sir." The middle-aged Auror checked several times that the door was locked before lowering his voice, his face grave. "The teams have been selected. I'm sorry I couldn't complete the assignment sooner."
Scrimgeour's expression remained as cold and hard as steel. His thick brown hair was finally no longer as dishevelled as it had been a few days earlier, and his sharp eyes were no longer bloodshot. At the middle-aged Auror's words, a glint flashed through them.
"Good, Kane, very good." Scrimgeour nodded. "None of that was your fault. Fudge and Umbridge were the problem."
Lately, Fudge had been interfering directly in the Auror Office. Deploying personnel was nowhere near as easy as before; in fact, they were being thwarted at every turn.
"When Team A and Team B finish their assignments, don't let them return. Remember—"
Bang, bang, bang! Scrimgeour was cut off mid-sentence by a knock at the door.
Scrimgeour exchanged a glance with the wizard named Kane, then looked towards the office door.
A faint voice filtered through it. "Rufus, it's me, Arthur Weasley. We need Aurors."
Scrimgeour breathed a sigh of relief. It was Weasley, head of the Ministry of Magic's Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office. More importantly, Arthur Weasley was a key player in his current plan.
Scrimgeour gave Kane a meaningful look, and Kane hurried over to open the door.
Arthur looked rather anxious. The first thing he said upon entering was, "Rufus, are there any Auror squads available?"
Scrimgeour's expression softened a little. He and Arthur knew each other well. The Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office often needed the Aurors' help, particularly when large-scale incidents occurred. Of course, "large-scale" was relative.
Although Arthur was the head of the entire Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, there were only two people in it: himself and