Father Paul was sitting in his study, doing the daily paperwork. The study was extremely spartan room, a simple wooden desk, two hard metal chairs in front of it, exactly the same hard metal chair behind it and a small wooden kneeler under a metal crucifix. This was the exact same inventory every single other person in the 12th Order had. The only personal possession the father had in his room was a small white rosary, currently resting on his desk. Looking at the office, your first thought would be poverty.
Hidden away from the sight however, were two fighting knives magneted under his desk, right next to a Mini UZI. When you fight an enemy you cannot see, hear or hit, you can never be ready enough.
And there was of course the camera and the security system. One of the few things that might give them a chance if the wizards really do attack the base. The automatic defense system didn't have eyes the wizards could trick, or bodies they could attack, not to mention the fact that wizards would probably never even think that machines might be gunning them down automatically with no humans involved.
As he was going through the daily report of their spy network, the door opened. Not too strongly, but strong enough to send a message without actually being rude. Father Sarnowski walked in, without waiting for an invitation, but at the last moment decided that sitting down uninvited would be pushing it too far. Instead, he chose to stand right behind the chair and show the old man at least some amount of respect.
"Laudetur Iesus Christus, Father Paul"
Full greeting, thought Father Paul, this is going to be interesting.
"In saecula! Amen. What bothers you brother? Please, sit down."
"Why did you order the prisoners to be left untied? This is against the practices of our Order. The heretics must be shown no mercy."
"They are important, Piotr. You know who they are. They have information, information about the upcoming battles. Information that is not commonly known, not even in their world. We need them to share with us."
"But they are wizards and a witch! They should be questioned and then sent back with fire to their black master in Hell!"
Father Paul was wondering why the bishop had sent this man to be his promotor fidei. Sarnowski was a devout priest, and you could see his strict Polish catholic upbringing, but he had a mind that only knew black and white. Hopefully, he will learn in time that good leaders need to be more flexible than that.
"Piotr, have you forgotten the History of The Order classes from the seminary? Most of the unfortunate burning was done by the heretical Protestants, not us. We have not burned a witch in 500 years."
"Still, you are endangering the Order by letting them be untied and ungaged. And what were you thinking, going in there without the full guard to talk to that witch? And you even told them that we were watching them through cameras!"
"I was not in any danger Piotr. We confiscated their wands, and you know that the security system alone is enough to stop them. Going with the full guard when they were all awake only resulted in us wounding Mister Weasley."
"What about the others? You know that they will be looking for them. The werewolf managed to survive the first strike. IR scans confirmed it. Eventually they will figure out what happened. Are they worth it?"
"I believe they are. The girl is exceptionally smart, the scarred one is strong and the redhead is fiercely loyal. Torture would not break any one of them. With time, we can get them to volunteer information."
"The practices of the Order must be followed! I am sorry, I shall have to inform His Excellency of this!"
"Ah, so that is what this is about", though Father Paul, "Planning to take my place."
"It is your right and duty Piotr. Inform His Excellency of the situation. Now please leave me, I must go through my midday prayer."
As Sarnowski left, Father Paul took his rosary and knelt in prayer. He found prayer to be his time for meditation, and this time he focused on the events of the morning. As he mouthed the words, he was thinking about the arguments Sarnowski put through. Was he endangering the Order by leaving them alive? He was certainly going against the established practice of dealing with wizards. But these three were different, the girl showed as much. And Sarnowski was not there 53 years ago when the last great war was fought. A war in the wizarding world spills over into the normal world every time. Allies in the wizard resistance might be a much needed asset to the Order.
