TEAM 13: DISTRICT 2

Ron : Roman

Team Meeting

It was surprisingly easy, in the end, to convene as one group. Immediately after breakfast they had simply been led to a room specifically set aside for Team Meetings—room 13, in their case.

It was even easier to decide what to do after that.

The Second Voldemort War (or the Second Riddle War, as Harry liked to call it) had not been fought on battlefronts with matching uniforms and nice deep trenches and a home base to run back to. That wasn't necessarily to say that traditional wars were any easier—Ron wouldn't know, he'd never been in one—but it did lend itself to a certain... appreciation for the ability to do things covertly.

While that had, at the time, implied at least some amount of magic, the DA had also come up with dozens of ways to communicate non-magically in muggle areas without their true enemies or innocent passers-by any the wiser or, even better, completely convinced of a false truth.

Step One was, as always, to start as they thought you would.

Therefore, with the exception of Fred/Sean and Alicia/Anna (who had, in only a day, become so convincingly a love-at-first-sight couple that escorts and beauticians alike swooned when they walked by holding hands), the rest of the 12 were careful to keep from seeming too familiar.

It was difficult, but not impossible. They'd certainly done worse.

After a few minutes of awkward recon-masked-as-getting-to-know-you chit-chat the team quickly elected a leader—himself, because he was who the Capitol would think would be chosen—and then turned to him for what to do next.

That was Step Two. Have one person in charge of creating the thrust of the disparity between what they were doing and what they were doing, so that that way you could rely on your knowledge of the person to guide you through.

"I think we should start by splitting into three main groups," Ron said, "One led by me, another by Jon here, and the third by Antwan. I'm up for suggestions beyond that."

Everyone took a second to ponder the implications.

First, there were two obvious ways to divide a group of twelve into more manageable segments. That he said that one out loud meant that they were actually going to switch to the second when acting directly against the Capitol. Second, his leader choices were blatantly who the Capitol would have expected to have chosen, and easily allowed some of their better tacticians—such as Angelina—and their actual leader (Harry, it was always Harry) to slip by unnoticed. His request for suggestions was just that: based on their own information, what did they think would work best in terms of both achieving their goals and keeping under the Capitol's radar.

Fred spoke first. "How about me, Jon, Anna here, and Katie? That's a pretty good mix of districts—I think it'll be pretty important to spread the people with training and the people who are sponsor magnets out; Jon's from the lumberjack district and I'm pretty tough myself, and Anna and I might as well be candy with the way people around here treat us." What went unspoken was that the four had already had years of training together and remained close long past that; their team would be great in terms of unspoken synergy.

Neville—that is, Antwan—proposed the next team after Oliver's had been agreed upon. "For my team, then, I think it'd be best if it's me, Malie, Anika, and Luna." That team, more than any of the others, had clearly been built with the others in mind. That is to say, with the team as he laid it out that would leave Ron with Harry, Hermione, and Percy—the Golden Trio back again, with an expertly trained manipulator and undercover-man to brush up any of their weak spots. That was not to say Neville's team was a bad one—he and Ginny had done a lot of work together in the DA, so they already knew they battled well in a pair, Ginny had always been close with Luna, and Angelina (as well as being able to work with just about anyone) was also a far better tactician than any of them, which would make up for Luna' and Neville's complete lack of skill in that area. Not only that, but it would also keep the spread of (relative) strength (Antwan and Malie, Roman and Fin) and sponsor-magnetism (Malie, the couple, and Roman) pretty even too.

"Sounds good to me." Malie said.

Everyone else nodded.

Step Three: test to make sure everyone got the real message. Two of the future teams were clear right from the get-go: The Golden Trio and the chasers, both triumvirates that were hard to beat. Out of the remaining six, though, a team of Quidditch players or family members or something else entirely could also make sense.

In this case, shockingly enough, Fred's suggestion—and, more to the point, his emphasis on roles—made it the last that everyone just agreed to.

Luna, Ginny, and Oliver would be one party (Luna providing the unconventionality, Oliver the leadership, and Ginny just about everything else) and Fred, Neville, and Percy would make up the other—with their roles in the same order, actually, except that the leadership in their case would be less of a "I'm making decisions" sort of deal and more of a "I'm going to put myself between the two of you and the dangerous thing while you sort out what to do next" sort of deal.

A lot of shit had happened during the war.

Just to confirm that he—and everyone else—had interpreted it right, Ron said, "Your team's a bit girl-heavy, huh? Well, no issue there. Just don't be surprised if you turn around and we've reorganized and now you've got only guys standing beside you."

Neville made a face at him: interpretation confirmed.