Good or bad, does it matter?

Malfoy mansion.

A gloomy, pale-faced man, sitting on a red chair at a long table, almost in the very centre of the hall, monotonously knocked on the wooden surface while not taking his eyes off the trembling Lucius, next to whom was his father, looking calmer, although he was still very afraid that the Master might try to harm his son, because in such a state he could do anything, so under the table, Malfoy Sr. tightly clutched his wand, preparing to protect him in an emergency.

Although Abraxas Malfoy was unconditionally devoted to the Dark Lord, and was also one of his most ardent followers, he could not allow his own son to suffer, whom, although he raised in the most severe severity, he still loved, because, same as of other purebloods wizards, for him the race was above all. 

The rest of the room also sat as if on pins and needles, while not one of them even dared to look in the direction of Voldemort. 

"... we were able to obtain some information from our spies in the ranks of the Aurors, they managed to find out what kind of organization decided to intervene in our war, they call themselves "Black Star" and are mainly based in Northeast Europe, their main activity is sales dark artifacts…"

 Malfoy Jr. swallowed nervously, feeling the Master's searing gaze on himself, but still continued, "In total there are about four hundred wizards on their side, we were not able to get the exact numbers," after hearing this, many pure blood wizards began to look at each other in amazement, they didn't expect that the enemies would have so many people, because the Death Eaters themselves numbered no more than two hundred, not counting magical creatures, and the advantage was no longer on their side, so many immediately became worried, after all, the Ministry of Magic is okay, but if they also have to face them, then this will definitely be the end of the organization, after all, by nature, most purebloods are quite cowardly and it's one thing to drive Muggle-born wizards away in groups, but another to have a open confrontation, where they could easily lose their lives.

"Likewise for us, we managed to discover some "traces": several small gangs of twenty people suddenly united and began to terrorize the rest, and even enter our territory, from the person we placed with them, I managed to find out that this started a week ago, when unknown wizards appeared , who provided all possible assistance to the small group "Ink" and I assume that it was they who intervened…"

"Anything else?" Tom asked him coldly, feeling a slowly growing irritation, since everything was not going according to plan, but still he tried to restrain his "impulses", because in a short few weeks, they had lost too many people and the man could not allow his madness to scare off even more more.

 "My man also said that something strange is brewing in the ministry, since a huge number of Aurors were called back from vacation, and some patrols were also recalled back to headquarters... that's all."

"Crouch?" As soon as Lucius heard these "magic words", at that very moment, as if having lost all his strength, he fell onto a chair, and Abraxas, sitting next to him, exhaled with relief. 

"Lately, my father is almost never at home, but yesterday he returned and I was able to find out something, during his conversation with the Minister of Magic, it was connected with some kind of plan, they mentioned: the Dark Star organization, recruitment to the department office "Magical Law and Order", which will take place tomorrow, and also so that he was ready for battle, I couldn't find out much, fearing that he might notice me..." a young man in a leather jacket and of around same age as Severus, said with confidence in his voice. 

"My Lord, Harold is very cunning, perhaps this is a trap," at the same moment a slightly elderly man with a strand of gray hair on his head stood up. 

"Continue."

"Yes, I assume that the Ministry was able to find out from the memories of those captured, the faces of some members of the "Dark Star" or some way to identify them and most likely, they may try to detain them tomorrow, and the recruitment is only a cover, I suggest not to interfere with this, let them gnaw each other's throats themselves," upon hearing his words, the rest of the wizards nodded in unison like dummies, fully supporting him, they still didn't really want to get involved in this matter, but they understood that the last word belonged to their leader. 

Seeing the fearful faces of pureblood wizards, the Dark Lord, in addition to irritation, also felt contempt for them, because most of all he hated such cowardly people, but at the same time they were the easiest to manipulate, because each of them wanted only one thing - power with wealth. 

"So we'll do that, what about the Lestranges?"

"These dogs are clinging to them too tightly, even though they paid the fine, but I'll try to think of something to get them out quickly," Abraxas stood up and said calmly, causing Voldemort's right eye to twitch and the sound of his finger colliding. with the table only intensified, as if he intended to make a hole in it, "You have a month," another thing that the Dark Lord hated just as much as failure was the failure to follow orders.

At that second, he most wanted to try his beloved Crucio on this aristocrat and watch him suffer, but he again restrained himself. 

Abraxas was one of the most loyal of his subordinates, whose loss would be an irreparable loss, therefore, quite often during the punishments of Lucius, he tried to restrain himself and not turn the boy into an idiot, the same applied to the Lestranges and Blacks, because in addition to skills , they had enormous connections, influence and wealth. 

"Yes, My Lord," bowing, the man sat back down at the table and breathed a sigh of relief for the second time that day…

 Half an hour later, the meeting ended and to everyone's amazement, everything went off without casualties, because usually, at least a few people would have been hit with crucio by the Dark Lord, as if as an edification to others. 

And, as soon as everyone left the hall, the chair on which Malfoy Sr. had previously sat shattered into splinters, and Tom's eyes turned purple… 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

London. Whitehall Street. Headquarters of the Ministry of Magic.

Deep underground, in a huge bright hall in green tones, the gloomy Moody under the polyjuice potion, in the guise of an elderly lady, stood in front of a huge crowd of wizards and with the help of his artifact eye, he examined each person passing by him into a small room where " interview". 

"I want to smash my head against the wall..." only this thought was spinning in his head for quite a long time, looking at the completely naked people in front of him, and it would be nice if they were pretty girls, but no, mostly only men, and at most ten percent of women, and among them these were only ladies over the age of fifty.

 The captain had never felt so terrible, and all his pride as an Auror had long since disappeared. 

"Madam, my name is Ronald Wiggins," an obese man introduced himself to "her" with a bright smile, causing Moody's right eye to tremble.

 "Of course, come in," he stepped aside with a tight smile, while writing down the name in a notebook and adding a "+" to it, which disappeared from the sheet after a few seconds, "Pray to all the gods that you don't end up in my squad!" 

Although this set was only a stage show to attract spies from the Black Star, there were still not enough people in the ranks of the Aurors, so they actually accepted some, and Moody, over his long service life, had an eye for such people, the "+" sign next to his name meant he could be given a chance.

And when the next person approached him, the captain was both happy and a little sad. 

In front of him stood a young woman with a mane of dark hair and a stunning figure, but what upset the wizard was the sign of a black star under her chest on the left side.

 "Hello, my name is Betty McLaughlin," she introduced herself, to which he just nodded silently and wrote down the name, but adding an "×" at the end. 

"Come in," this morning, the sorceress was not the last of this organisation, although they tried to disguise the star with the help of some kind of charm, it was simply impossible to deceive Moody's artificial eye, capable of seeing through any charms and illusions, as well as objects , 

 "Fourth..." looking around the crowd, he noticed three more people with this sign, - "There are not enough of them, maybe they guessed?" 

At the same time, a confident smile appeared on Betty's face and she unbuttoned the top button of her blouse. 

The first one who passed almost immediately conveyed that the judges would be three men, among whom was Crouch. 

After all, she was specially chosen because she was very similar to his wife in her youth, and the woman's task was quite banal, to seduce the head of the "Magical Law and Order" department. 

And as soon as she entered the office, she almost immediately felt the wizard's searing gaze on her, and the others were also attracted by her beauty. 'And the task turned out to be easier than I thought…'

---

Half an hour later, the Minister of Magic, one could say that he was watching the "interview" almost from the front row thanks to a charm that allowed him to broadcast a picture from the room directly on the wall, calmly studied the report on the progress of the operation. "So, they guessed it, we still had to wait a little more...," he muttered, gloomily rubbing his left temple, biting his pipe and putting the parchment aside, "Only twenty people out of four hundred... that's almost nothing... apparently, we'll have to wait."

' Moody's squad, the duty shift, as well as fifteen other people know about the incident in the park, but everyone has already made an immutable vow of silence, and as long as we know about all the spies, we can safely feed them false information…" Harold hit himself on the forehead with his palm. , shook his head wearily, "Leaky head, I should have done this from the very beginning, eh... I'm getting old... call Chester and Miller to me!"

 "Yes, Mister Minister," a voice sounded from behind the door and the sound of retreating footsteps…

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Thank you.