Chapter 11: Adapting

They sat together in silence till the sun went down. Harry got up and fetched a piece of parchment and quill. He sat back down and looked at his brother and sister.

Dear Ship, he began. "What do we tell them?" He asked, still in a very quiet tone.

Hermione and Ron both looked up with blank expressions on their faces. "Tell them to ignore the paper," Hermione answered shortly in a quiet hoarse voice.

"And that we're fine," Ron added, obviously concerned about what his siblings would think.

Dear Ship,

The paper isn't telling the truth. It's merely to get them off our back. We're fine.

Your friends,

Will, Henry, and Jane.

Harry stared at the parchment for a while. "It's short."

Ron grunted in agreement but neither of them did anything. Eventually Harry put the short letter in an envelope and gave it to Hedwig, disguised as a barn owl.

They sat there for about an hour before Harry spoke again.

"We did the right thing. We can't stop our lives because we took his. This is a war," he said with conviction.

Ron shook his head a little, "James is right, we did what we had to do. I may regret the need to take a life, but we shouldn't regret the fact that we did."

Hermione nodded in agreement. "Who knows how many people he killed? We're going to have to accept that people die in war, and this is war."

"Covert war," Harry said with a small smile, "just us and our circle of spies against the Death Eaters."

"We've totally got this," Ron joked. "We're unbeatable!" They all laughed a little.

"So yes, taking a life isn't something we should do if we have another option," Harry summed up, "but it's not unacceptable – sometimes it is necessary."

They sat for a short while longer. "It still feels wrong," Hermione stated quietly after about ten minutes.

"Yeah but, what was it you guys said to me? 'It'll take time to get over it'," Harry reminded her. "We can't just expect to get over it right away. So we continue on with our life, we can't change what we did."

"So what's the next step?" Ron asked.

"We need to decide who to include in the Warden's circle," Hermione stated matter-of-factly, putting Karkaroff's death out of her mind for now.

"I've been thinking Ron, and I think we should include your dad. He's got a lot of friends in the ministry."

"I understand, as long as I don't have to actually speak to him I think we'll be good. I've heard him talk about someone else I think we should invite, Amelia Bones, she's head of the Department of Law Enforcement."

"Alright," Harry had taken out the piece of paper with Moody's and Snape's names on it. He added Arthur Weasley and Amelia Bones to the list.

"What about other teachers?" Hermione asked. "I think we should add McGonagall and Flitwick."

Harry added their names to the list, "What about Remus, I think he could be useful – as long as I don't have to speak to him."

The others agreed. So far the list had seven names. They decided against Sirius, since he was an outlaw there wasn't much he could do to help. They also decided against Dumbledore, for one thing he had stated that he believed that Harry was evil, so if he received a message there was a chance he could trace it back to them. He didn't become the most powerful wizard by eating Muggle sweets. Harry was trying to convince Ron to allow his brothers to join.

"Bill and Charlie aren't even in England! Your parents may have been quoted in the paper but none of your siblings have – we already know that Ginny, Fred, and George don't believe it, why should Bill, Charlie or Percy!"

"Besides," Hermione added, "this isn't about whether or not they believe Harry is innocent, it's about changing society for the better."

"Alright," Ron finally conceded. "But Percy is practically obsessed with the Ministry, he's not going to help us. I say just Bill and Charlie."

"If Percy knows about Junior's capture then he'll be pretty shaken, if we can get him against the ministry now then he could be a major help," Harry insisted. "From what I've seen Percy is very loyal, unfortunately right now he's loyal to the Ministry. If we can change his mind and convince him that the Ministry isn't all that great then he can be loyal to our side. He may still believe we're guilty, but we're not trying to convince him we're not. Technically we aren't even involved."

Ron still looked uncertain.

"I know you didn't get along that well with Percy but James is right, if we can sway your brother's loyalties now then he'll be a valuable asset."

Ron nodded hesitantly, "All right, we'll add all three of them." He looked around the group, "Anybody else."

Harry couldn't think of anyone, he shook his head at Ron. Both of them looked at Hermione.

She spoke hesitantly, "No one in specific but I think it would be great if we formed an alliance with the goblins, as well as other underrepresented groups. I don't think we should do it now, because first we need to plan the Warden's Circle, but they could also help us a lot."

Ron nodded, "Goblins are tricky, so we'll definitely have to wait till we have more time to work on that, but if we're trying to change the world we need to represent the minorities." Harry saw him chance a glance at Hermione, though luckily she didn't see it.

"Alright," Harry said, looking at the list, "we'll need code names and phrases for each of these people.


It took about an hour, but eventually the deed was accomplished:

Moody Eye The eye always spins.

Snape Chemist The bat flies silently.

McGonagall Mistress Strict and stern works best.

Flitwick Dueler Be gentle and kind.

Bill Weasley Fang See the World while you can.

Charlie Weasley Burn Save the earth.

Arthur Weasley Inventor How does this work?

Percy Weasley Pencil Organization is key.

Amelia Bones Lawyer Justice and truth prevail.

Remus Lupin Scar Life is short, get out and live.

"Man it's harder than I thought to come up with code names and phrases," Ron complained.

"And we're just getting started," Hermione answered with a small smile.

They retired for the night and the next day they began working on the letters.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait again but this time I have a valid excuse - I was on vacation. While on vacation I didn't have internet access but I was able to write so the next chapter should be up tomorrow.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Thanks to ChristianGirl56 for reviewing every chapter!

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