Alison Moon
AN: Thanks again for the responses! Remember to review~! This chapter is in a random part of sixth year. Even with Snape as a competent defense teacher. Harry decided to continue the DA, because Blaise and Ron both suggested that the War would definitely come to Hogwarts, because it is the centre of magical civilization and that when it comes, the DA should be able to fight. Harry's outsized the Army, increased silencing charms about mentioning the DA and hired Colin Creevey as their Secret Keeper, with Hermione casting the Fidelius charm. (I'll be writing about that after I've finished my character profiling chapters!)
Harry sighed as he hoisted his bag over his shoulder. Even though he was taking far less subjects this year, each book was three times the size of Hogwarts a History and Harry's bag was close to splitting open with the heavy parchment he needed to take to every lesson. Luckily, it was the free period from 5-6pm now and Harry was planning to get some Potions homework done in the library. It all seemed much easier with the Half-Blood Prince's help.
Harry was about to head down the stairs to the second floor from the common room when he heard a loud cry. Harry quickly whipped around and started running towards the source of the noise. He was literally sprinting down the corridor when he rounded upon Alison on the floor, her glasses snatched by three Gryffindor boys that were in seventh year, clutching her stomach.
"Bloody Slytherin! It's your fault that You-Know-Who's back! You're all pureblood filth!" came the voice from Harry's replacement Keeper, Cormac McLaggen.
"Back off, McLaggen. She doesn't deserve that." Harry said angrily as he aimed his wand at the three boys.
"You a Slytherin supporter now? She's the reason that You-Know-Who has Death Eaters at all!" said McLaggen furiously.
"No, she's part of a neutral family and she is on our side." Harry retorted. "Give her the glasses back."
McLaggen scowled. "You don't know shit! Make me, Potter."
"Maybe we should go," said Connor Daniels, looking nervous, 'Harry's usually right about these kind of things. He is the Chosen One."
Harry suppressed a sigh at the ridiculous moniker but was glad for the opening. "Connor's right, McLaggen. I may not want to hex you because I'll get in trouble, but I have the power to remove you from the Quidditch team reserves altogether. Now stop bullying Alison. You're a Gryffindor, why don't you live up to it? If I hear about another incident again, I'll go straight to Dumbledore."
McLaggen sneered but made to walk away. "Glasses McLaggen. And her wand too." Harry said, realizing that if Alison had been in possession of her wand, the whole incident wouldn't have happened. Daniels nodded and dropped the wand in Alison's lap. When McLaggen didn't move to give her the glasses, Harry summoned them away from him and handed them to Alison.
McLaggen and the other Gryffindor boy whom Harry couldn't name, stalked away but Connor stayed behind. "His mother died yesterday. Death Eater attack. I told him this was a bad idea but…"
"But you didn't have the backbone to stop him? If you couldn't do it, you should have told Hermione or Ron. They're prefects, they'll deal with it." said Harry, fiercely reminded of Remus Lupin's inaction in the face of the Marauders' antics and hated himself for the comparison.
"Rat out a friend?" asked Connor, sounding flabbergasted.
"To stop him from getting into serious trouble or hurting someone innocent? Always. Neville Longbottom had more strength than you in his first year. You disgust me. And anyway, a dead relative is no excuse for hurting someone innocent. That's the path to becoming a Death Eater. Tell McLaggen that, will you?" Harry spat in Connor's rapidly paling face.
Connor Daniels stalked away and Harry held out a hand to Alison. "Are you okay?" Harry asked as she leant against the wall. "Injured anywhere?"
"McLaggen kicked me in the stomach." said Alison, her voice slightly choked. "It hurts a lot."
Harry frowned. "Hospital Wing, d'you reckon?"
"Where else?" asked Alison, her voice strained and sarcastic, "The Forbidden Forest? A muggle hospital?"
"Sorry, sorry!" Harry said as he took her stuff so they could slowly make their way to the Hospital Wing. "Has this happened before?" asked Harry, frowning.
"Yeah, a couple of times. Usually it was just hexes though. Jelly Legs, Leg Locker, Silencer. Nothing much. It was a pain to get rid of the splinters from a missed Reducto, though." said Alison, almost casually.
"You got sent a reductor towards you in school?" Harry asked incredulously.
"I think they were aiming for my brother, but yes." said Alison as they climbed down the Clock Tower steps.
"Blimey," Harry said as they drew near the door of the Hospital Wing, "That's almost worse than getting stuff from Death Eaters."
Alison shrugged. Madame Pomfery bustled over to where they where. "Ah, Mr. Potter. What happened this time?" she asked, in a long-suffering tone.
"It's not me this time. It's Alison." said Harry and Madame Pomfery pursed her lips.
"Come and sit on the bed, dear. What happened?" she asked as Alison eased herself onto the white covers.
"A Gryffindor, that wasn't Harry, kicked me in the stomach. It really hurts. I don't know if it's internal bruising or worse." said Alison, her voice, low.
Madame Pomfery scanned her wand over Alison. "Hmmm, no lasting damage. Bruising, yes, but that's easily fixed. Let me just go find you the potion." And with that, Madame Pomfery bustled off.
Harry sat down next to her bed. "Look, all I can say is that I'm sorry."
Alison frowned. "Why are you sorry? You didn't attack me! You've been nothing but nice to me!"
"Yeah, but the people who attacked you were Gryffindors, weren't they?" said Harry, feeling angry.
"All of the houses, really. Apart from Slytherin. I am a pure-blood, after all." said Alison, scratching her nose.
"Here you go," said Madame Pomfery, coming out of her office with a bright orange potion and a purple one. "Just drink that up and you should be okay by tomorrow."
"By tomorrow?" Harry asked, looking a little annoyed.
"Yes Mr. Potter. Tomorrow. She'll need time for the second healing potion to take effect. The first potion will numb out the pain. It will also take out any inhibitions, so I trust you will not take advantage of this." recited Madame Pomfery, a beady glare settled on Harry.
"She's my friend, of course I wouldn't!" protested Harry as Alison finished the second potion.
"Hmm." Madame Pomfery said, before sweeping away to go look at the fourth year that had sprouted fur.
Alison placed the two vials on the side of the table and looked at Harry, quite intently. "The Hat told me that I could belong to any house, you know." She started.
"You don't have to tell me this." said Harry, feeling more than a little awkward as he perched on her bed.
"No. No, I don't." she said bluntly. "But I want to tell someone, and I trust you."
Harry nodded and Alison took a deep breath in and continued. "Well, it asked me to choose, and I wasn't sure. I mean, I had been a pureblood, but you might have heard the story of my growing up?" Harry shook his head. He'd heard bits and pieces, but never the full story. Alison looked a little surprised but dived right in.
"My eldest brother, Richard came across plans for our entire lives from our marriages to our OWL grades to the dress robes we'd wear at parties. The Moons have always had a rather 'obsessive' streak in our family, but Richard couldn't bear that all of our lives were planned out like that. Conner was six at the time, while I was four. Richard was nine, and quite a sensible nine. He hatched some plot about abuse, it's quite fuzzy in my memory now, but he managed to spring us from our parents' care, into our cousins in America, before the court could decide where to place us. My parents were given restraining orders against us."
Harry smiled. "Good on him."
Alison grinned back. "I thought so too. Richard was my idol while growing up. But there were…problems. Like when Richard's Hogwarts letter came. We assumed that he'd be going to the Salem Academy. I mean, it says that it's a witches academy, but it's for both genders. They just wanted to be feminist."
Harry laughed. "Hermione would approve!"
"She campaigns for a lot, doesn't she?" pondered Alison before continuing, "Anyway, we found the fee for Salem was far too high. And the Hogwarts fee had been paid when we had been born. So, Rich had to go to Hogwarts and there, Mother and Father managed to sink their claws into him when he was in Diagon. They had managed to bribe the judges to overturn the ruling for the restraining order, because they missed their daughter and sons and wouldn't be making the same mistakes again because they took 'counseling'. Rich wasn't fooled of course, but our aunt and uncle are kind of gullible. So now we have to go to them every summer holiday because of some Blood Quill contract thing that Rich has to uphold. Conner and I didn't want to abandon him, so we go too. I can only see Auntie and Uncle at the other holidays now and when we get the occasional week away from my parents. They're quite…constricting."
Harry blinked, feeling a little annoyed. "Do none of the Slytherins have normal lives?" he asked, "Blaise's mother is a murdering manipulative harlot, Theo's Dad is a Death Eater and basically ignored Theo for all of his life, Tracey's Mum and Dad divorced when she was little and she's got some mental illness, and now this?"
Alison chuckled a little. "It's the magic. Magic and Logic don't mix together very well. That's why the muggle world and the wizarding world don't mesh very well. The ideologies are completely different. Magic has rules that don't follow the rules of the universe that muggles have devised and guessed. Theo goes on about the Laws of Motion by Newtie?"
"Newton." corrected Harry, "He's the one who figured out how gravity works."
"Right, and gravity is the force that keeps us on the ground, right? As long as we're on some planet or another 'satellite'?" she asked, pronouncing the unfamiliar words tentatively. Harry nodded. "Well, magic doesn't apply to that rules, because what is 'Wingardium Leviosa' doing but defying the laws of Gravity?"
Harry frowned. "See, I was debating this with Anthony Goldstein the other day when we were in Charms. Somehow the topic of it popped up and he said that technically it doesn't break the laws of physics. We can lift objects up, yes? That's defying gravity. He argues that Magic merely provided a lever or surface underneath so that the object can hover above it. He also argued something about magnetism and polarities being reversed, but he lost me there. I'm not dumb, but I'm not Ravenclaw standards either."
Alison grinned in an exasperated manner. "Theo should have been a Ravenclaw. I'm fed up of being the one he turns to with the Muggle philosophies that he reads about. Thank God, he and Granger managed to be civil to each other and now can conduct entire conversations in this breathless high-pitched tone that the rest of us cannot be bothered to focus on."
Harry snorted, Alison was rarely this candid normally. The potion must have been kicking in already. "Anyway, you were saying about the Hat?"
"Oh yeah. It said I could be in any house, but I wasn't sure about which house I wanted to be in. So, I asked it to tell me what being in each house would be like for me personally. At first, it blustered, saying that it wasn't a crystal ball or a teacup. Then, after some arguing, it told me that in Hufflepuff, I'd have been happy. I might not have been famous, or rich or even remembered after death, but, that I'd have been happy and I'd have had friends and fitted in and that no one would care about my past."
Harry nodded, keeping his gaze firmly on her. She looked quite contemplative and seemed to emulate a feeling that he'd only really got from Luna. "Go on."
"Yeah, right. It said that in Ravenclaw, I'd be content. I'd be able to find out the answers to everything I wanted to know, and I wouldn't know the definition of limits."
Harry snorted at this. "That sounds like something Luna would have been happy about."
"What, the spacey blonde girl who talks about nargles and mistletoe and blibbering humdingers?" asked Alison, looking a little confused.
"Yeah, the one who saved my life when the DA stormed the Ministry. And the one who's dad the editor of the Quibbler. You know, from the DA meeting at the start of this year?" said Harry, gently prompting Alison to remember.
"Oh yeah. I suppose it is." said Alison. Harry understood that they didn't have much contact, but it surprised him that his close friends didn't know Luna that well, when she had been able to help him so much last year with Sirius.
"Also, it said that in Gryffindor, I'd be famous and find like-minded people who'd understand me more. It would be rewarding to me. And that appealed to me, it really did. After everything my brothers have—had done. Had done, I really wanted to surpass them." said Alison, clearing her throat, as she trailed off into her nothing.
Harry remembered with a sharp stab, that when he'd been at Ron's house that summer, that one of the casualties in the Daily Prophet had been a boy called Conner Moon. Harry merely gripped her shoulder and she nodded gratefully.
"But then, I asked about Slytherin. It said that it would be the hardest path. I'd persecuted at every turn, that people would hate me for my house and my affiliation. I'd likely not get a choice in much; I'd probably be forced into my houses' stereotypes. But it also said that I'd be able to make the most change to that house. Because a time of reckoning was coming. I'd be able to change the future and make my mark on history simply by being there. And I was sorely tempted at that moment to choose Hufflepuff or Gryffindor, but a part of me, wanted to change something. I didn't want others to be persecuted for what they were. So I choose Slytherin, because I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to change the world for the better."
At this, Alison took in a deep breath. "I suppose, I knew what was coming, but it didn't quite occur to me fully until some Ravenclaws a year younger than Conner were bullying me in the corridors in my first week, just what I was putting myself into. And, I should be used to it by now, but it rankles, that people judge me by the colours I wear, the friends I have. It hurts here," She indicated towards her heart, a few tears escaping from her eyes as she dictated, "And there are days I wonder whether I made the right choice. Then I remember that the Hat said that it was proud to have sorted me. And then I have the strength to get back up again and keep walking."
Harry knew that telling her she should have been a Gryffindor or a Hufflepuff would be insulting her choice and saying that she was any of their traits would be undermining exactly what she had just confided in him. So instead he said, "There shouldn't have been houses in the first place."
And he knew that she understood what he was trying to say, trying to emulate; that what she was doing wasn't in vain, that people were starting to see that Slytherins weren't evil. That her struggles and her blood and sweat and tears would be worth something in the end. That everyone's blood and tears and sweat would be worth something in the end.
He didn't need to tell her this. She understood. She was Slytherin, with all that entailed. Instead, he squeezed her hand, wished her some rest, then walked out of the hospital wing.
Alison's struggle to do the right thing would one day be one part of many incidents that would inspire the final speech that Harry made as he led an army to war, but neither of them knew that now.
(X)
"Harry! Harry!" Harry turned around. He'd tried again today, to try and get Slughorn to talk to him and had been met with a slammed door and another dent in his confidence of his own persuasive ability. To his delight, Alison was running towards him, her bag flying in all directions.
"Alison! You got out of the Hospital Wing!" he said.
"You sound surprised." said Alison, "I was only put in yesterday for a minor wound."
"Yeah, but Madame Pomfery keeps you in Hospital Wings for ages, even if it is nothing." said Harry.
Alison frowned. "What are you on about? She does nothing of the sort."
Harry scowled. "She does for me. Anyway, how are you feeling now?"
"Good as new, thanks." said Alison, smiling gently. "Have you got some time to spare?"
Harry quickly contemplated. He had to meet Blaise, Ron, Theo and Hermione and some others in the Room of Requirement in half an hour, but he was pretty much free of obligations for that. In Slughorn's haste to escape Harry, he hadn't given them homework. "Sure. I have to go to the Room in half an hour, but apart from that, we're okay.
Alison sighed in relief. "We can go to the room now. Might as well get some privacy on this particular idea."
Harry nodded, and she started to sprint up the staircase. Harry followed reluctantly; he may have been physically able to sprint all the way up and down the great staircase without breaking a sweat, but it didn't mean that he liked doing it. She started panting and stopped at the sixth floor. Harry merely looked amused.
"Come on, Alison. It's not that tough." He said, flippantly.
Alison scowled and spat at him between gasps for breath. "Easy for you to say, you have practice. I don't feel the need to attract every dark creature in the vicinity!"
Harry cocked an eyebrow. "You were there in the Ministry, weren't you?"
"Oh, shut up." She snapped as she straightened, looking even more disheveled.
"Just one more flight of stairs Alison." said Harry calmly and they started walking up to the seventh floor corridor. He waved to the trolls in the tapestry, who were by now, used to Harry being there.
He walked by the blank spot in the wall three times and strode into the room they knew as the Map Room. In the centre was a large, raised topographic map of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade with parts of the Forbidden Forest marked. It was glowing like a hologram and was currently set with stratagem three, the defensive positions they would maintain if the Death Eaters wreaked through Hogsmeade to get to Hogwarts. Harry saw his own figure in the front lines and Ron's back inside the castle with Blaise on the battlements.
Harry then turned to look at the large, magnified and modified version of the Marauders Map that Daphne and Theodore had combined with Hermione to create. This not only marked the names and positions of every person inside Hogwarts and the secret tunnels, it now displayed their house by the colour of their name and their affinity to either Death eaters, Dumbledore or neutrality. It was designed to be easily readable, to Harry's relief. Of course, there was a lot more information on said person when their name was selected and it now had a search feature that Ron had demanded for 'plotting' purposes.
The rest of the space was filled with topographic maps of the area of Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley, Godric's Hollow and other wizarding towns and shopping locations whose names blurred together in Harry's mind. The room made Harry's head ache, but there was a smaller meeting of the people that Harry trusted the most always happened in here as they devised new plans and strategies (Blaise called them contingency plans, Ron called them being over-prepared.)
"So, what did you want to say Alison?" Harry asked, as he dragged one of the comfy chairs the room always conjured to the map table.
"Something occurred to me when I was talking to Astoria." started Alison, as she raked her fingers through her knotted mousy hair.
"Who?' Harry asked, feeling a little offput by not knowing.
Alison threw him a dark look. "Astoria? Story? Daphne's little sister? Same age as Phyllis Zabini? In second year now?"
Finally it clicked and Harry remembered the Italian girl with a penchant for singing being accompanied by a blonde girl whose appearance was always impeccable and unremarkable. "The girl with pigtails who never looks like she's ever done any hard work in her life?" Harry asked.
Alison nodded. "Yes. And she looks that way because she probably never has. Magic and house-elves spoil wizards more than they know."
Harry scoffed. "You're one to talk, Miss 'I-can't-even-climb-the-stairs-without-panting'." He pointed out.
Alison rolled her eyes. "Well, I never exactly claimed to be the picture of health." she said, motioning to her scrawny figure and glasses. "And for your information, my aunt and uncle were muggles, so we did a lot of physical stuff. Well, Rich and Conner did."
Harry snorted. "We're tangenting again." He said, a word that he had made up with Anthony after a session of Potions 'study' had ended up being an hour long debate about whether they celebrated Beltane and Samhain with as much vigour as the festivals deserved, and whether DADA teachers were all secretly in a league to destroy Harry Potter.
"Right. Yes. You're right." She said absently as she adjusted her glasses. "Well, Astoria is firmly neutral, She doesn't want to be part of the War at all, because she doesn't have an opinion either way about Muggle-borns and Purebloods. All she wants to do is live without that kin of worry on her shoulders. And she's terrified that she'll get dragged into the war because of Daphne's position. And she doesn't want to be a target of Death Eaters or of us when it comes down to it. And it occurred to me that we need somewhere for people to be safe from both Voldemort and the Order."
Harry felt more than a little curious and angry at this. "Why do you think they'd need protection from us?"
Alison laughed. "You really can't see it?" When Harry shook his head, she threw him a fond, exasperated look that Harry was sure she had copied from Hermione. "Imagine peoples' reactions if a known death eater wanted to defect and not be judged. He'd need somewhere where he could hide from both sides and to be frank, if it was someone like Severus Snape or Bellatrix Lestrange, even you would want to stop them."
As Harry made to deny it, Alison merely threw him a skeptical look. "Don't lie to me Harry. It only makes you look sillier."
Harry sighed. "Fine. Continue in your brilliant idea." Harry said, as he sunk into his chair.
"Well, if we created safehouses all over the world where people could stay without fear of being persecuted by either side, wouldn't that be better for all of us? You know, less people fighting, less people dying. And you know one of the contingency plans that Weasley has is for the Ministry collapsing. It seems likely, especially with how much influence the Ministry has over everybody. We all remember last year's slander. If it does collapse due to pressure from Voldemort, wouldn't having this particular contingency plan help people escape his grasp?" said Alison, as she played with her fingers, looking nervous.
Harry scowled. "It sounds like a fine idea, but what if someone abuses it? They go to the safehouse, promising compliancy and then they kill everyone there or reveal our secrets to Voldemort?"
Alison smiled, a cruel smile that starkly reminded Harry that she was a Slytherin, with all that entailed. "We'll make them swear a vow. A magical vow to ensure their loyalty to the safehouse. And the Fidelius, of course."
Harry winced. "Aren't magical vows intensely painful?"
Alison shrugged. "Do you want safehouses, or not? A little pain for the safety measures, that cost your parents their lives when implemented improperly, should be nothing."
Harry didn't wince. He was sure that Sirius would have and Remus would, but he had never known his parents, and stories were nothing like memories of people. They were tainted by the feelings that the teller had of the person. He had wondered about just how much his parents had trusted in people. Harry trusted people only after he was sure of their loyalty, nowadays. He was sure, that if it weren't for the War restarting, he would have been more open, more free.
No chance of that now. Everyone was either overcompensating for what they had believed last year, still attempting to stick their head in the sand or being deliberately unhelpful. Apart from the DA, of course. Membership had shot up this year, after he'd let Lavender and Parvati loose on the school, spreading tantalizing hints about a secret club run by him. Harry'd then got Ginny, Katie Bell and Padma Patil on checking whether they were trustworthy with the secret or not. And once they were in, they were an army.
A proper one now, not just in name anymore. Not only did they learn the spells necessary to defend themselves, they made themselves healthier and built up their stamina. They planned attacks and listened out for information amongst the school and amongst the adults of the society. The Order was doing next-to-nothing offensive nowadays, and the DA had vowed to change that.
Valentines Day was coming up soon, and with it, rumours of an attack on Hogsmeade from the Slytherin Common Room. Harry, Blaise and some of the Hufflepuffs had already set up warning alarm systems through the shops of Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, but Harry wanted them in other major wizarding towns and housing areas. However, while shopkeepers and landlords were usually happy to have extra precautions for their investments, everyone was more reluctant about installing them to their own homes.
Perhaps Magical Vows and warning alarms on homes were a little extreme for the majority of wizarding people, but Harry didn't want to die like his parents. "We'll want them set up soon then. What would we use though?"
Alison frowned pensively. "I hadn't got that far yet. To be honest, I thought you'd shoot me down immediately."
Harry lifted an eyebrow. "Alison, I didn't shoot down Justin Finch-Fletchley's ideas about a Potions-Water Gun, did you really think I was going to shoot down something much more plausible?"
Alison laughed as Ron and Blaise walked into the room, in deep conversation about who knew what.
"Hello Harry, hello Alison! What're you doing here?" asked Ron, as he noticed that there was one extra person than required.
"She's presenting an idea I think has some merit." Harry said, as he tapped his robes quickly to temporarily transfer them to the replica of the general clothes he wore at the DA, the soft dragon armour and cape to divert spells. Unfortunately, it was flawed and Harry found, that while the appearance was exact, the clothing still felt like the thick wool of their unform.
"You can't transfigure dragon skin." said Ron, looking amused as Blaise drew a chair.
"And how exactly do you know that, Weasley?" asked Blaise dryly.
Ron rolled his eyes. "I do have a brother in the business of dragon taming. I know a bit about dragons. Charms, Hexes, Curses and Transfigurations don't work on dragon hide. You can't change anything into dragon hide either. That's why it's so useful as armour in battle. Remember?" Ron said as he checked over the map of Hogwarts.
"Yeah, yeah!" Harry said with a laugh as he turned outwards to face the door.
"So what is this miraculous idea?" asked Blaise, looking at Alison.
"I'll tell you once everyone's here," Harry interrupted, "It'll save poor Alison's voice."
Luna, Neville, Anthony Goldstein, Hannah Abbot and Ernie Macmillan all walked in together, looking respondent in their Lieutenant outfits, despite the awkward looks they all displayed.
"Hello everybody!" Luna said, looking happy, her protuberant eyes magnified in their wonder at the Room's appearance, despite this being the sixth meeting this year. "How are you all?"
There were a chorus of 'good's and 'fine's from everybody as they took their seats.
Anthony looked particularly happy. "What's up Anthony?" Harry asked, as Anthony ran his fingers through his brown hair.
"Su Li finally agreed to go out with me!" said Anthony, looking very happy.
"That's great news, mate!" said Harry, recalling the pretty Chinese girl with large glasses and a diminutive figure.
Anthony merely beamed and started humming. Harry mused that this was odd behaviour for Anthony, who much preferred to recite the laws of thermodynamics rather than even touch music with a barge-pole, but for some reason, he seemed to be humming Michael Jackson's music. In particular, Billy Jean.
"You know, that isn't really the song you'd want to hum when talking about love." Harry commented as Daphne and Theo came into the room, looking suitably gloomy.
"That's all of us, then!" concluded Blaise, looking animated.
"Not quite," said Ron, "We're missing Hermione. Harry, could you do the galleon thingy?"
Harry nodded and pulled out his fake galleon. It was a lot more complex Protean Charm compared to last year. Now Harry could specify to whom the message reached. He sent a quick message telling to get here, uniform or not, before pocketing the coin and nodding to Ron who sat down again.
Harry smirked in amusement as Blaise started to interrogate Theodore about what Malfoy's agendas were. For all of his might as the leader of the DA, he was barely involved in the day to day running of the organization. He left that to his lieutenants. He supposed, that to anyone from the outside, it could seem like he was a puppet or figurehead, when in reality, Harry was building the others' self confidence.
Hermione burst into the room, bringing Harry out of his musings, quite sharply. "Sorry I'm late, the library was so crowded. All of the NEWT students were in there for Snape's class. I couldn't get out."
Anthony smirked. "We still got here. You should be ashamed about your tardiness." Anthony and Hermione had something of a hate-despise relationship, where both of them insulted the other in as polite a way as possible. Harry found it terribly amusing, but Hermione was continually irked by it all.
"Come on." Blaise whined, "Get it over with. I want to know what Alison has for us."
"She has something for us?" asked Hannah looking confused.
"Why did you think she was here? Entertainment value?" asked Theo, looking amused.
"Actually, I was here to propose an idea. Safehouses. Places where neutrals can stay without fear of being harmed by either side. Ours or His." said Alison, standing up as if she had rehearsed it (and who knew, maybe she had?).
"Why would our side harm people?" asked Ernie, looking most flustered by this announcement. Neville nodded in agreement.
Luna looked less dreamy. "Didn't you hear, Ernie? The Aurors are now permitted to use Unforgivables against those they deem a threat to the society. Daddy takes it as proof of the Heliotrope conspiracy coming to light. Minister Scrimgeour is going the same way as Minister Fudge."
"At least Scrimgeour isn't eating goblin pies like Fudge." quipped Blaise and Daphne snorted and almost fell out of her chair with suppressed laughter.
"I put it this way to Harry, If Bellatrix Lestrange wanted to truly defect, most people on our side wouldn't allow her to. These safehouses would protect her from both sides' revenge and the people we considered dangers to society, would have to swear magically not to fight in this War again." said Alison, orating calmly, despite Ernie and Lunas' interruptions.
"Okay, that makes sense," said Ron, "But where would they be? And how would we get supplies to them? An who would sponsor them? We'd need people that Voldemort would be afraid to stand up against. Or at least, aware that playing along is better than fighting back."
"I'd say houses that aren't being used by the rich families of the wizarding world would be ideal." said Neville, looking worried. "The family homes, things like that."
"The Moons have three houses. One in England, one summer home in Florida and another in some remote island off the Indonesian Coast. I'd be happy to pledge the last two over to be safehouses. I'm sure my parents would disagree about it, but I'll win them over." said Alison, looking fierce.
"The Greengrass Manor would be open to anyone who needed refuge. We may be purebloods, but we aren't bigoted and we aren't Voldemort supporters. My parents and my younger sister want nothing to do with the war. If they can be under the agreement, Greengrass Manor and all it subsidiaries are open to the neutral scheme. Anyway, if we supported it, the Death Eaters, if not Voldemort would be wary about standing against he neutrals; we Greengrasses are a formidable business force." said Daphne, looking haughty, as she tossed her short blonde hair behind her.
"My mum's got plenty of houses from all of her husbands. And she doesn't really care about this whole blood thing. In Italy, it's about whose got the most money, than anything you can't help, like your blood." said Blaise, shrugging, "I'm sure if I tell her that I can guarantee her neutrality and her marrying habit, she'll help us with the houses. There are three of them excluding our actual house."
"So that's six houses so far," said Harry.
"Seven." said Ernie, "Macmillan Farm isn't large in the house space, but we grow 75% of British Wizards' food. We have a lot of land. Most of the food goes towards Hogwarts and the Ministry. If we cut the Ministry out of the equation, we could probably feed all of the safehouses."
"Might I suggest house-elves?" asked Hannah. When Hermione crossed her arms and huffed, Hannah hesitantly continued, "I know that Lydia Fawcett's family breed house elves and there are so many families extinguished now, that she has a surplus of elves. We could buy them potentially, and use them to help cook, clean and generally upkeep the houses." At Hermione's look of wrath, Hannah quickly added with a weak tone, "With payment and days off work, obviously."
"Where's all of this money going to come from though?" asked Anthony, quite sensibly. "It's a lot of money to buy house-elves and while we could potentially get discounts for the food from Ernie's Uncle, if we're paying the house elves too, we're going to run out of money fairly quickly."
"That's where I come in." said Harry, looking quite pensive. "I have a lot of money in my account. I asked the goblins around how much, and they estimated that I had around 500,000 galleons in cash and plenty of investments in major businesses that get me lots of money. Of course, it has been sitting there gathering interest for about 10 years before I showed up, but the Potters were very rich before that. I'll fund all of this. I'm the last Potter, and I can't think of a better way to use it."
Ron looked overwhelmed and even Blaise lifted his eyebrows. "Blimey mate," Ron exclaimed after a few moments of awed silence, "You could buy Hogwarts, the Ministry and Professional Quidditch teams and still have money to spare!"
Harry looked unimpressed. "Well, I'm not spending it on any of those. I'm funding the war effort. End of."
And Alison grinned at him as they got back to discussing other things they meant to do with the DA. Harry had a feeling that these safehouses would come in handy.