u/Lucky_Owlette

Harry Potter was, in fact, lying flat on his back in a flower bed outside that same window. On the whole, he thought he was to be congratulated on his idea of hiding here. He was not, perhaps, very comfortable lying on the hot, hard earth, but on the other hand, nobody was glaring at him, grinding their teeth so loudly that he could not hear the news, or shooting nasty questions at him, as had happened every time he had tried sitting down in the living room and watching television with his aunt and uncle.

The opening notes of the music that heralded the seven o’clock news reached Harry’s ears and his stomach turned over. Perhaps tonight - after a month of waiting - would be the night -

"Well, folks, today we have an absolutely sensational mystery! Today, Cornelius Fudge, eccentric middle-aged man of forty-five, was found stabbed to death in his bedroom!"

Harry's mind went blank with horror. He had only met Fudge a half-dozen times and had come to quietly despise the man, but to think that he was just gone...

"Detectives are confounded by the fact that the room was locked on the inside, and has no windows. I suppose that unless the criminal was able to teleport out, he must have left the scene of the crime by the flue!

"The prime suspect in this case is a forty-one-year-old man named Lucius Malfoy, a reclusive billionaire who reportedly visited Fudge just before the body was discovered. Malfoy's whereabouts are currently unknown.

"Passerby have reported an eerie green shape in the sky above his house..."

The Dark Mark. Harry had only seen it once himself.

Harry had known that the Death Eaters would start acting soon, but now that the time was finally here... he felt sick. The Minister of Magic had just been murdered. Who was going to die next?

~࿐~࿐~࿐~

Severus kept his face neutral with an ease that came with long years of practice. Still, as the owl flew into the room, the Daily Prophet dangling from its talons, he had to hide his trembling fingers underneath the table. He watched Albus take the newspaper from the owl, unfold it, and blanch.

And then Albus' head shot up, blue eyes finding his own with unerring accuracy.

Severus didn't blink. So Albus knew he had murdered Fudge. That was not a surprise.

Albus would certainly have words for him later. Words about morality, boundaries, tactical wisdom and the chain of command. But Severus didn't care. He was sick of sitting around in both sides' meetings, recompiling information and strategizing and preparing and doing nothing. It was time to go to war.

Could Skirk be a good burst DPS for Lohen? She's really strong (especially with her supports) and can do a lot of dmg fast with her burst. How good would Lohen-Skirk-Furina-Escoffier really be?