The War So Far
By Matthew W. Quinn
Author's Note: Happy Mother's Day to everyone to whom this applies (I'm thinking Mother of Tears and Duj, although there might be others).
July 21st, 1978
6:45 PM
CRACK! CRACK!
Severus Snape and Lily Evans materialized in an alley near the Hog's Head saloon.
Snape looked at his watch. "We're early."
Lily nodded. "Yep. Now to get there."
They walked over to the Hog's Head Saloon and went inside. Snape's eyes floated across the cramped establishment — which, he noticed, reeked of goats — but did not see any doors that looked like they led to the basement.
"I don't see anything," Snape said.
"Why don't we ask the barkeep?" Lily suggested. She pointed at the tall, grumpy-looking old man with bright blue eyes who was organizing glasses behind the bar.
"Good idea."
The two of them approached the bar.
"You must be looking for Albus," the old man said. "He's downstairs."
"Of that, we are aware," Snape replied. "The thing is…"
"We're looking for the entrance to the basement," Lily cut in. "We can't find it."
Thanks, Lily. Snape had the sinking feeling he might have said something insulting.
"The door's out back," the old man said.
"Thanks," Lily said.
Snape nodded and the old man nodded back.
He and Lily left the bar and made their way to the rear of the building. Hidden amidst a pile of junk was a small door.
Snape reached down and tugged on the door. It was unlocked and Snape opened it, then stepped back.
"Ladies first."
Lily smiled at him and ducked inside. Snape followed and the two of them made their way down a cramped, rickety staircase.
Careful. Snape put one foot in front of the other, sounding out each step before putting a second foot on it. Lily moved down the steps with more confidence.
She's lighter than you, although not by much. She's less likely to fall through.
The two of them made it to the bottom of the stairs without incident and turned a corner.
"Boo!" someone shouted as they leaped into their path. Lily yelped and Snape immediately drew his wand.
This would be bloody lovely, murdered by a Death Eater before the meeting even starts.
"Gotcha," Sirius Black said with a grin.
Lily laughed, but Snape scowled.
"Given the circumstances," Snape said. "That wasn't that funny."
Black snorted. "As usual, no sense of humor. In any case, welcome to the Order of the Phoenix."
"Thanks," Lily said. Snape merely nodded as the two of them stepped forward into the larger room beyond.
I have landed in the lions' den.
If the people assembled in the room represented the Order of the Phoenix, the organization was most definitely Gryffindor-heavy. Snape recognized a good many Hufflepuffs and a smaller but still respectable number of Ravenclaws, but close to half the people in the room were Gryffindors.
His dark eyes probed the crowd. He recognized only one other Slytherin, Sam Danvers, who was three years ahead of him.
Didn't really know him that well — he and Malfoy had a feud for some reason.
One of the Ravenclaws was none other than Ian Jewell, who sat on a bench near the corner and practiced his guitar.
"Ian!" Lily called out. He looked up and smiled.
"Hallo, Lily."
His dark eyes found Snape.
"Snape," he said, with a bit less enthusiasm.
Jeez, if he's friendly with Lily, he knows I didn't do his sister wrong.
"Sev and I were just listening to your album. It was really good."
"Thanks."
Lily was about to say something else when a new voice caught their attention.
"Welcome, Mr. Snape and Miss Evans," Albus Dumbledore said.
Through the crowd, Snape saw a large table and seated at the head of the table was the Headmaster himself. Several people Snape did not recognize were seated next to him, but there were some empty chairs close by.
He has exactly the same eyes as the barkeep, Snape thought. They're connected somehow.
"Thank you," Lily replied. She continued chatting with Jewell. Snape made his way to the table and picked out an empty seat, saving one next to him for Lily.
"Hallo," an older man with a strange, tall hat who was seated to Dumbledore's right, said. "My name is Elphias Doge. I'm an Auror."
He reached out his hand and, after a moment, Snape shook it.
"Pleased to meet you," he said.
Over the next few minutes, several more people filtered in. John Anderson was first, with James Potter, Mary Macdonald, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew coming in next. Two young Aurors, John Dawlish and Kingsley Shacklebolt, arrived after them, and last to come was a tall blond woman named Marlene McKinnon.
"The Longbottoms can't come tonight," she said. "They've been posted to Oxford to watch for Death Eaters there."
Once the last stragglers arrived, Dumbedore raised his wand and set several wards on the door. Lily took her seat before the older wizard began speaking.
"Now that we're all here," Dumbledore said. "I think we can begin the meeting. Shall we begin with the good news or the bad news?"
"I think, Albus, the good news," Doge suggested.
Dumbledore nodded. "Very well."
He gestured with his wand and an enormous floating image of Great Britain materialized over the table. Some reddish blotches scarred the far north of Scotland and the more rugged regions of Wales, but most of the islands were clear.
"The first good news is that the giants have been largely crushed. Fourteen giant tribes in Britain have been destroyed in their entirety" — Snape sensed regret in the old wizard's voice — "and twenty others have thrown themselves on the Ministry's mercy. Mercy that may be somewhat lacking, given the atrocities the giants have been implicated in."
He's definitely not happy about that.
Snape's gaze crept over to Lily. She too looked horrified, her green eyes wide.
Her too.
"The remaining giants are withdrawing to the coast and taking ship to Scandinavia and the Continent. Aurors are reducing their remaining strongholds one by one and, per the Ministry's directive, are taking no prisoners."
That was enough for Lily.
"Sir," she began.
"I am no longer your headmaster, Miss Evans. You may call me Albus, or Dumbledore, if you prefer."
"All right…Dumbledore. Did you say the Ministry is taking no prisoners?"
Dumbledore nodded sadly. "Yes, Miss Evans. I think the goal is drive them out of Britain entirely."
"But why?"
It was Dawlish who answered the question. "Not only are the giants among the most brutal of the Dark Lord's supporters — they have a tendency to grind Muggles' bones to make their bread — but their actions are the hardest to cover up. We can disguise a Death Eater attack as terrorism or a riot, but if we want to cover up a giant attack, we need to suborn the Muggle weather services or scientists to get them to report it as a storm or earthquake."
Lily locked her green eyes on Dawlish. "The giants cannot all be evil, Mr. Dawlish."
Dawlish sighed, his hard expression softening somewhat.
"We're at war, Miss Evans. There are no good options."
Lily scowled but did not argue more. A moment passed and Dawlish rose from his seat. He gestured with his wand and the red splotches vanished, replaced with a scattering of red dots corresponding with cities.
"On other fronts, we've destroyed Death Eater cells in Oxford, Dover, Birmingham, and Inverness. We've killed around a dozen of them and put twenty more in Azkaban. Several of those cells were involved in protection rackets, extorting money from honest businessmen to fund their operations."
"If that's the good news, what's the bad news?" Potter asked. "Sounds like things are going well so far."
Dumbledore sighed. "That news is that for every Death Eater we kill or capture, two more join the Dark Lord's ranks. They use the Imperius Curse to multiply their numbers, while others join because they're afraid of being murdered themselves or because they think that Voldemort is going to win."
Dawlish provided more information.
"We believe the current number of wizards serving Voldemort is in the neighborhood of 300, while total membership in the Order of the Phoenix is roughly 50," he said. "We have the numerical advantage if you count Aurors and Magical Law Enforcement, but we're spread too thin and the Death Eaters have the initiative most of the time."
Silence fell across the room.
"And although those extortion scams have netted thousands of galleons for the Death Eaters, we believe that most of the Death Eater funds come from powerful Pureblood families who want to turn back to the clock to when the old families governed our community."
And I know one of them.
"Malfoy," Snape said. "Lucius Malfoy. The Malfoys are definitely one of those families."
Muttering ran up and down the table.
"We've suspected Malfoy for quite some time," Dumbledore said. "Unfortunately, we haven't gotten the proof the Wizengamot is willing to accept — only circumstantial evidence."
Well damn.
"What sort of evidence will they accept? Once upon a time, when I was in his good graces…"
"Testifying that you attended a party or two at Malfoy Manor where there were known Death Eaters present will not be enough, Mr. Snape."
Hmm. Ah. I've got one.
"Or that a few months after he told me the Death Eaters would kill my parents, three of them showed up at my house?"
Dumbledore shook his head. "Your word against his, I'm afraid."
Double damn.
"However, there are benefits to not being able to reel him in immediately," Dumbledore said. "We can see who he sees and what he's up to, which will in turn give us leads on others whom we can reel in."
Hmm. That's a clever way to make the best of a good situation.
"As it stands," Dumbledore said after a moment. "Voldemort's power grows among the wizards, even if the giants have been largely suppressed. What are we going to do about it?"
A man who reminded Snape very much of an old dog leaned forward.
"Yes, Dung?"
What a lovely name.
"By the way," Dumbledore said. "This is Mundungus Fletcher. He's a useful source of information about…certain quarters…of our society."
"Thanks," Fletcher said.
"The Dark Lord's been recruiting werewolves, promisin' 'em gold," the dirty-looking man said. "I think it might be a good idea to recruit some of our own."
Snape raised an eyebrow. He remembered the attack by Mulciber's werewolf quartet from some months before.
Dawlish snorted. "Let me guess. You want the Ministry to give you gold to hire werewolf thugs."
"Oy!" Potter said, anger in his voice. "Nothing's wrong with werewolves!"
Dawlish turned his attention to Potter. "Maybe you're partial to one werewolf, who perhaps is worthy of your kindness" — Lupin paled slightly — "But most of them these days are criminals. Might be better to let the Dark Lord use them as cannon fodder, thin them out a little bit."
"Thin them out!" Lily said. "You talk as if they weren't human!"
Dawlish scowled at Lily. "One might wonder about your loyalties, Miss Evans, given that this is your first Order meeting and you've already defended giants and werewolves."
Snape leaned forward. If you keep running your mouth, Dawlish, I'll curse your bloody tongue off.
"Enough of this!"
All eyes locked on Dumbledore.
"Voldemort is gaining more and more followers by exploiting the divisions in our society. We cannot squabble like this if we hope to win this war."
Dumbledore turned his gaze to Fletcher
"Tell us about your plan."
"Well," the man said. "The Ministry's probably got more money than You-Know-Who and his followers. If you gave me some gold, I could hire some of them myself and…"
Dawlish rolled his eyes. "Give him gold? Albus, that would be dreadfully unwise."
"I am aware of Mr. Fletcher's strengths and weaknesses, Mr. Dawlish. Continue, Dung."
"And that means we'll have werewolf muscle ourselves, if we need it. I think we do, given You-Know-Who's boys outnumber us."
Dawlish leaned forward. "And what's to stop the werewolves taking the money and remaining loyal to Voldemort. More and more of them are following this fellow who calls himself 'Fenrir Greyback.' The man thinks himself the bloody werewolf messiah. Good luck wooing them away from him."
Fletcher leaned forward. "That's why we get 'em before they go over to him. And I can do more besides recruit werewolves — You-Know-Who's men are buying up Dark artifacts on the black market. If I can get to 'em first, I can get 'em into your hands, but I need gold to do that, y'see…"
The debate went on for awhile and Snape found himself less and less inclined to pay attention.
"All right," Dumbledore said. "Dung, Dawlish, and I will discuss the matter further. Mr. Snape, Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, and Miss Evans, I need the five of you to remain on-call for combat duty. Mr. Pettigrew, Mr. Jewell, I need you to remain on-call for medical work."
On-call? It would be really awkward for a Patronus to arrive in the middle of a job interview, or if I'm spending time with Lily.
His cheeks burned a little when he remembered the arrival of Black's Patronus.
"Oh, and I need to teach Mr. Snape, Mr. Lupin, Mr. Pettigrew and Miss Evans how to use the Patronus as a means of communication. I will contact each of you individually."
July 21st, 1978
9:45 PM
"I can't believe they're giving all of the giants the choice between exile and death, Sev," Lily said as they climbed out of the Hog's Head basement. "That's wrong, Sev, wrong."
Snape drew in a breath. "We are at war, Lily."
And bad things happen in war.
Lily looked at Snape. "You wouldn't like it if all Slytherin were held responsible for the actions of some members of the House, would you?"
No, I wouldn't.
"Do you have a proper means of sorting the wheat from the tares, so to speak? It's hard enough to do that with the Death Eaters, given that the Dark Lord uses the Imperius Curse."
Lily frowned for a moment. "Well, I suppose the giants could be interrogated on an individual basis, the ones that have been captured. That would of course, require actually capturing some instead of just massacring them."
Snape raised an eyebrow. A practical plan, although it might need to be worked out further. Idealism was well and good, but it did little good if it couldn't be applied.
"Let's hope there are still giants left in Britain by the time you can persuade the Ministry to change its policies."
"Yes. Let's."
Silence hung on the air for a long moment.
"Given that we're both on call, it would be prudent to practice dueling. Want to meet up tomorrow?"
Lily nodded. "Assuming Dumbledore doesn't need us to do something."
True.
"It's unlikely he'll call on us to fight before he's taught us how to use the Patronus as a messenger," Snape said. "Tomorrow after lunch?"
"Sounds good to me." She smiled. "Good night, Sev."
Lily Disapparated and a moment later, Snape did the same.