Going To War

1940

Bit by bit, month by month, Septimus and Cedrella's financial situation improved. Zartang, as Septimus had predicted, worked his tail off to ensure that their investments brought in the most profit possible in the shortest amount of time … with as little risk as could be managed. It would be a long time before they approached even the lower end of the 'usual' pureblood level of wealth, but they were making good progress towards that goal for so early in the game.

Over that same time, the situation in Europe continued to devolve. Hitler and Grindelwald were smashing their way through everything in their paths. Hitler had invaded and defeated what seemed like half of Muggle Europe and Grindlewald had done much the same to Wizard Europe. People, both wizard and non, were dying in droves. There were days when it was all Septimus could do to restrain himself from heading over there and trying to help, consequences be damned.

Then a day came when he didn't have to fight that urge so much. Because Hitler started bombing England cities. Especially London. And more than one of the bombs got entirely too close to the Ministry and Diagon Alley for anyone's comfort. That alone had been enough to bestir the Ministry. Then one of the bombs went off directly over the Ministry and it was discovered that some or all of the bombs had a magical component. That bomb hit the Ministry wards with a Siege Engine spell. Worse, it wasn't the only such bomb, as several wizarding homes and St. Mungo's took direct hits.

The Ministry, so long willing to ignore the problem in Europe, abruptly shook off its unconcern and started howling about something needing to be done to stop the madness. Incontrovertible proof of a magical conspiring with a muggle to destroy magical enclaves? Such must be stopped, and the muggles in the know killed or obliviated. Septimus wasn't the only one to think there was more of an emphasis on killing the muggles than simply obliviating them.

Half the existing Auror corps was sent out to protect the UK enclaves, though what good they'd do against bombs falling from the sky, Septimus couldn't figure. Rigging and reinforcing wards wasn't what Aurors *did*. They all knew how to break wards down, and to cast anti-apparation and anti-portkey wards, but only a few had the knowledge and ability to cast wards that could stand up to a Siege Engine. The Ministry would have been far better served sending out ward smiths, but them doing the wrong thing in order to look good was pretty much par for the course.

The rest of the Aurors, and to Septimus' ill-disguised relief that included the Marauders, were to be sent to Europe to provide more firepower. They were given two weeks to make any arrangements needed before they headed out. Septimus was not at all surprised when Cedrella and Callidora insisted on going with them. They even had a logical reason for it.

"I am quite sure that a great many Dark spells will be being thrown about." Callidora said when everyone met up to talk about it. "Cedrella and I both have a lot of knowledge of those spells, and how to counter them, where counters exist. And what we don't know, we can quickly discover through Sirius. But we'd need to *be* there to correctly identify the spells or catalogue the effects before we ask for information."

And, it went without saying, neither woman was anywhere near all right with sending their husbands into a war zone without that sort of assistance. Nor were their husbands stupid enough to try to force the issue. Septimus for one knew damn well that Cedrella would just leave after he had, and track him down. The end result of that would be exceedingly painful. For him. And he was pretty sure that Callidora would do exactly the same to Harfang.

Charlus dug up a tent for them to use. It was fairly small and unremarkable on the outside. It could pass for a Muggle tent, which could only help if they found themselves working with muggles. Even if they didn't, having a small, unremarkable tent would make them less of a target than some of the utterly ridiculous tents wizards came up with. The inside, however, had space enough for the two couples and Charlus to live without problems.

Harfang, Callidora and Cedrella spent the better part those two weeks prior to their departure cooking up huge vats of potions that were then carefully bottled. Harfang then crafted belts for them to wear that would hold a number of vials of potions, the vast majority of them meant for battlefield healing, though a few held poisons and the like to use if opportunity presented itself.

While those three were busy, Charlus and Septimus took care of the rest: the shopping and packing needed to supply them while they were abroad. Spare wands from the Weasley, Longbottom, and Potter vaults were brought out and tested by everyone. The wands that responded to one of the party were carefully labeled: Which family they had come from, who the wand responded to, and a number that indicated how strongly. This way, if someone lost or broke their primary wand, they'd have multiple backups available.

Further raiding of the Potter and Longbottom vaults (the Weasley vault had long since been stripped of such valuable items) produced sets of armor for everyone, as well as a number of viable backup weapons. With the number of knives and other small, easily concealed sharp implements Callidora and Cedrella snapped up, he truly pitied anyone stupid enough to attack them under the assumption that a female made an easier target. He knew for a fact they'd both appealed to Sirius and been permitted to remove who-knew-what from the Black vaults for their use. Unfortunately, much of the Black family items were either Dark or be spelled to only be useable by full-blooded Blacks to prevent spouses and more distant relations from making off with Black possessions. As a result they couldn't use much of anything from that source.

Clothing for both winter and summer was packed in plenty, as was a large supply of food. One of the Potter elves, Jinx, volunteered to go with them to cook and clean. The clothing had necessitated some shopping as while everyone had plenty of clothing, none of it was any good for sustained travel or fighting in a war zone, not even their Auror robes, since wearing bright red on a battlefield was a really, really dumb idea. They took care with their food supplies as well, concentrating more on practicality than indulgence.

Once they had everything ready, the five of them reported to the Ministry and were immediately portkeyed to the French Ministry. From there, once they'd checked in and gotten their assignments, they portkeyed to one of the training camps where they would meet the rest of their group and have their fighting capabilities assessed so the Magical Europe Generals would know how best to use them. They joined a group of about twenty other men and women, only two of whom Septimus recognized from the UK.

They were greeted by a grizzled, scarred man who looked to be in his fifties or sixties and was dressed in a military uniform. Septimus strongly suspected the man was a Muggle. There was another man with him who looked all of twenty and was dressed in a dueling robe and armor.

"Right." The grizzled man said. "M'names Georg. I'm in charge of teaching you lot about the stuff you're going to run into out there that you might not be familiar with. Which of you lot know what a gun is?"

All three Marauders raised their hands, as did Cedrella. Septimus had learned about guns in his forays into the muggle village as a kid, and the other two Marauders had learned about them over the summers after Hogwarts started. Cedrella of course had learned about them from Muggle Studies, and Septimus had filled her in on a few of the changes the class hadn't known about. About half of the rest of their group also indicated they knew what a gun was.

"And of you lot that know what one is … how many've seen one?" Only one or two hands were dropped, none in the Marauders group. "And of you lot, how many have actually fired one?"

Every hand but those of the three Marauders went down. Even they had only a few lessons in that art, having wanted to know what to do with a gun if they had to deal with it in the execution of their duties. Guns were tightly controlled in the UK, but they did exist and were occasionally used, and not all Auror cases stayed solely in the wizarding world. The elderly muggle they'd gone to in the village near Septimus' parent's house had insisted on teaching them not just how to handle a gun safely, but to fire it, since he was under the assumption that they were muggles themselves.

"Right." Georg said. "At least now I know what I'm working with. You three, I'll talk to later. I want to see how good you are." He said, pointing to the three men before returning his attention to the rest. "Everyone, come with me."

They were led to a tent, which held a myriad of guns and other muggle implements. Septimus recognized a few, but most he didn't.

Georg proceeded to give everyone a basic rundown on guns, grenades, and other muggle weapons they might come across. He told them which to avoid touching at all cost (mostly mines), and how to safely handle the rest.

"I'll be teaching you lot how to shoot." Georg informed them. "I know you've got your wands, but if you ever don't, but have a gun handy, you'll thank me for it."

"On the other end of things." The young man who'd been partnered with Georg spoke up for the first time. "I will be assessing your magical abilities, so that we can assign you to where you'll do the most good. I have notes on who is used to working in a particular group – do not worry that you will be forced to split up. Such partnerships will be kept intact."

That was a relief to Septimus. He hadn't been too worried they'd be split up, but it had been a possibility. There had been stupider decisions made in the past, to be sure.

After that, it was time for a meal, and then they reconvened, this time for their magical evaluation. This, Septimus watched with great interest, as most of their group was not from the UK, and might therefore know and use spells unfamiliar to him. It also behooved him to know who the weak links in the group were.

Surprisingly, despite their general lack of knowledge of muggle weaponry, the group was otherwise quite solid and capable. A pair from Switzerland that Septimus initially thought were fraternal twins but were actually (somewhat creepily, given their near-identical looks) a married couple were the real standouts of the group. Like the Marauders, it was clear the pair had worked together extensively, and knew each other inside and out, allowing them to flow around each other seamlessly in a fight. They also had quite an arsenal of spells Septimus had never seen before at their disposal.

Karl, the wizard doing the evaluations, was nearly as surprised by the Marauder triad as the Aurors initially had been, but he hadn't been able to argue with the results. With the vast majority of magical fights taking place either between single opponents, mass free-for-alls, or between duos, most defensive measures had been developed to deal with single or paired opponents. The third leg of the Marauders was a loose end that most defensive stratagems couldn't immediately account for. It gave the Marauders an advantage, at least in the initial minutes of any confrontation. Sooner or later, their opponents would manage to compensate, but in the meantime, the Marauders weren't shy about taking ruthless advantage of the resultant initial confusion.

Needless to say, everyone went to bed exhausted that night. The next day, the Marauders were pulled aside by Georg, who took them to the firing range and had them show him what they knew. Given it wasn't much, that didn't take long. At the end, Georg nodded.

"All right. Not enough to pass you out of the class, so to speak, but you're a step up from the rest. I want you three to start practicing every day with one of these. Make sure one of us muggles is with you until you're cleared to practice on your own. The others will start joining you on the range as they pass the 'safe handling' portion of the course. You lot still have to attend that, by the way. Modern guns handle a little differently than old hunting rifles."

None of them were about to argue with that.