After the news had arrived that Snape was the new Headmaster of Hogwarts, Hermione had promptly rushed upstairs to fetch the portrait of my ancestor that I had only just spoken to a mere hour or so before and stuffed into her purse so that Nigellus couldn't be used to spy on us all. I wondered if this was the right thing to do, however just before the top of the portrait could disappear, Nigellus himself appeared. Thankfully, only I could see him as I was the only one sitting in front of Hermione, Ron and Harry sitting at the far end of the table, so when Nigellus lifted a finger to his lips with a rather imploring look not to say anything, I kept my mouth shut. I had decided to trust Snape, as Dumbledore seemed to have planned a great deal more than anyone else knew. My instincts told me, at the very least, to trust him, and that was exactly what I planned on doing.
We then moved onto the subject of infiltrating the Ministry, though Hermione was now having a go at Ron because he'd omitted to tell her the fact that everyone who wore navy blue robes were part of Magical Maintenance. That was when Harry announced he wanted to go through with the plan the very next day and I almost spat out the rather excellent soup Kreacher had made for us. Hadn't seen that one coming. "Tomorrow? You aren't serious Harry?" Hermione's voice had never been so squeaky, staring at Harry like he'd gone mad.
"I am. I don't think we're going to be much better prepared than we are now even if we skulk around the Ministry entrance for another month. The longer we put it off, the further away that locket could be. There's already a good chance Umbridge has chucked it away, the thing doesn't open."
"Unless, she's found a way of opening it and she's now possessed." Ron mused, to which Harry responded it wouldn't make one jot of difference since Umbridge was evil anyway. Harry continued with his reasoning, that we knew as much as we'd probably ever know, and that we even had a rough idea where Umbridge's office was because of something Hermione overheard, and that we had to get in using tokens.
"Harry has a point. There is such a thing as over preparing." I mused thoughtfully as Hermione then turned to me.
"Well, what about you? You're going after something which arguably could be even more difficult to get a hold of. The entire Muggle Registry! That'll be closely guarded, very well protected…I don't like it Mia, it's too dangerous…"
"At the very least, I'll provide a good distraction and worse comes to the worse, I can blast my way out of there." I reasoned simply as I finished my soup, Kreacher hurrying over to take my bowl away in order to supply me with dessert, fresh fruits with cream. "And besides, even if we can't apparate or disapparate out of the Ministry, I'm betting house-elves can. Kreacher will come and rescue me, won't you Kreacher?" Turning around, Kreacher dutifully bowed his head low.
"Of course Mistress Mia, Kreacher will always protect his mistress." He confirmed before hopping away cheerfully, my uncle's old locket swinging around his neck which he lovingly polished morning, noon and night.
"See? If anything, I'll have it much easier than the rest of you."
"Alright, let's say we go for it tomorrow…I think it should just be me and Harry." Ron announced, his concern for Hermione's welfare making him rather overprotective, though she heatedly protested.
"Oh don't start this again! I thought we'd settled this." Grabbing an old newspaper, Ron pointed out that her name was on a list of muggle-borns that had not presented themselves for interrogation. I couldn't help but chuckle at this. Most of them were there because myself, dad, Moody and other members of the Order had already helped them and their entire families escape. It was rather satisfying, like shoving the middle finger up at Voldemort and the Ministry. "And you're supposed to be dying of spattergroit in the Burrow! If anyone shouldn't go, it's Harry, he's got a ten thousand galleon price on his head."
"Fine, I'll stay here." Harry announced blandly and sarcastically. "Let me know if you ever defeat Voldemort, won't you?" As the others laughed, Harry hissed slightly and his hand jumped upwards, but he caught himself before he could clutch his scar and hastened to run his fingers through his hair to move it away from his face.
"Well, if all of us go, we'll have to disapparate separately. We can't all fit under the cloak anymore." Getting to his feet suddenly, Harry moved out of the kitchen as Kreacher hurried over, worriedly asking if Master Harry was dissatisfied with his soup.
"Not at all, Kreacher, he'll be back soon. I expect he just needed the bathroom. I'll go and check on him." I reassured the elf who nodded, looking satisfied he had not disappointed anyone with his cooking as I got up and moved to follow Harry where he'd disappeared into the nearest bathroom. I waited for a few moments but then I heard Harry cry out so I launched myself at the door. "Harry! Harry!" Slapping my hands against it, I then drew my wand and was about to blast it open before I heard the bolt slide back and Harry appeared, looking at me and feigning surprise as Ron and Hermione also rushed to join me, looking at him with concern.
"What's the matter? Why are you pointing your wand at me?" I scowled, stuffing it back up my sleeve as I then placed my hands on my hips.
"Don't play innocent. What happened? What did you see?" Harry tried to pass it off but we all knew that his scar had hurt him, so he reluctantly told us about Voldemort murdering a woman and her children. Hermione argued that he shouldn't be letting Voldemort in, so I gently touched her shoulder to make her calm down. "I don't think Harry exactly has a choice. We've established he's rubbish at occlumency, and Voldemort's emotions might be just too overpowering to him, especially if he's angry."
"Thanks Mia." Harry drawled so I flashed him a grin.
"You're welcome. Now, what else happened? Only, let's talk back in the kitchen. You'll hurt Kreacher's feelings if you don't finish your soup." Also seeing that Harry probably needed food now more than anything, I practically marched him back to the table and made him take some of his soup as well as a good chunk of buttery bread before he continued, telling us that Voldemort was looking for a man called Gregorovitch and the name struck a bell in my head.
"The wand maker? The one who made Viktor Krum's wand?" I recollected, briefly remembering the wand weighing ceremony back in my sixth year. "And you're sure that's who he's after? You mentioned the vision back at the Burrow, but I was so busy with the wedding I didn't…I should have made the connection, I'm so sorry Harry."
"It's not your fault, you don't have to have an answer for everything Mia." Harry told me kindly so I smiled at him gratefully. "Besides, you were overwhelmed with the wedding, I didn't want to worry you too much."
"You're so sweet, but next time, grab me and make me sit down and listen. Every little detail could be important, and this helps us too. You're sure he was somewhere else? Looking for the wand maker? That means he's not in Britain. It's the perfect opportunity to get into the Ministry, he won't know what we're up to, and more to the point, I can contact dad and the Order, we can make a little more noise now, try and pin down some more Death Eaters and take them out. This is good, really good. Sorry you were in pain, Harry, but this really is dead useful information. Thank you." Giddy with the prospects and opportunities that came with Voldemort being out of the country, I sprung up to send some messages, though Ron frowned at me.
"So, are you leading the Order now?" He asked me, making me stop and look back.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Are you in charge now? It's just, it seems like you're the one calling all the shots. Is that why Dumbledore left you Fawkes? Because he wanted you to be the next leader of the Order of the Phoenix?" To be honest, the thought had never really occurred to me, and it was slightly alarming the possibility that might very well be the case, but I brushed it off with a smile.
"Of course not, it's nothing like that. I'm just helping keep everyone in the loop. Communicating is one of my strengths and I can send messages that will never be found out by anyone other than their intended recipient. I can keep an eye on everyone, plot their movements and also keep an eye on the enemy too. Moody is the one pulling most of the strings, he's got a lot of experience organising operations, and dad is in charge of keeping people off the grid since he's particularly practiced at it. It's a joint effort." I explained before then dashing off to convey said messages. It was a strike of luck, and we needed to seize it whilst we still could.
I returned to find the others intently planning their infiltration of the Ministry and I joined in to tell them my own plan so that we wouldn't overlap or get caught. It was vital that everything went smoothly, and we'd decided that since our goals were separate, we would have separate plans. Harry worried about me operating on my own but I promised him that I would be alright and, all being well, I'd see him briefly in the afternoon when everything was over before I'd then be disappearing off back to the Order in order to use the information. Kreacher kept us steadily supplied with tea and biscuits as we planned, pottering about with general cleaning before getting dinner ready for us all where we ate at the table, still planning.
Knowing exactly what I was going to do, I made sure to help smooth out any possible errors in the plan and also provide some suggestions on countermeasures or backups, just in case things went wrong. "All else fails, I'll cause havoc and mayhem to throw everybody off. It's something I'm good at. We'll use these coins to transmit messages to one another. Remember, the code for diversion is 'swamp'. Just remember Fred and George's diversion in your fifth year, you won't forget." I told them as I passed out small golden disks almost identical to the ones Hermione had made that same year for the DA to be able to find out the next meeting date. I'd charmed them myself, and the rest of the Order also had objects linked by an identical charm to keep in contact with each other, something I'd suggested to Moody and he'd agreed after a little persuasion and a great deal of deliberation.
We all went to sleep that night a little anxious, and as I gazed up through the canopy of my bed, I couldn't help but feel concerned. There wasn't any room for error, and if any one of us got caught, then it would be all over. None of us would be left unpunished, and I expected we'd be handed over directly to Voldemort to be dealt with. Myself and Harry in particular, though I wasn't sure if I'd prefer to face Voldemort or my sweet cousin Bella. Both would be bad, but I have a feeling Bellatrix would want to stretch out my suffering for as long as possible before killing me. She was one of my top targets in a list I had constructed of supporters who were too dangerous to be left….well. Alive. She was a threat to my family, all of them, and I wasn't going to run the risk of her going after my dad, or my parents, or Tonks and her family. No matter what happens, I have to protect all of them. No matter what.