Chapter 27 – What Is Now Ginny's Committee
From the Journal of Ginny Potter – 28 September 2013
Fred had been through so much lately and part of his struggles really had been the result of our secret keeping. He'd have had a hard time in any case, just because of whom he is and what Barnabas Cuffe was plotting, but I don't think that is how he sees things. As his mother, I know I should be stronger, but I just can't stand that he blames Harry and me for so much of his difficulty. So… I decided on a grand gesture: I would invite him to attend my committee meeting and learn all there is to learn first-hand. Of course, this isn't my decision to make. Harry is no longer Minister. I need to talk to Hermione.
Hermione's answer surprised me. "Not all the attendees may agree, but I think there is value in having input from the students. Fred and his friends are very observant. We add some support in our and the general British community if we also include Scorpius, Iona, Rose, and Elvis – he is Mrs. Tom's guy, after all, but he has been loyal to our side. He is picking up magic extremely fast. I've asked Neville to keep me appraised of his progress. I agree Fred needs a boost. More than you realise – Neville told me he is ending Quidditch for the year. He says it is just too dangerous, with an unknown second wave of attackers hiding out somewhere. I freely admit that I want Rose at the meeting. It would be an exceptionally large meeting, so the students will hardly be noticed, unless we need their input."
Break
From the Journal of Freddie James Potter - 28 September 2013
Headmaster Longbottom stopped by our part of the Gryffindor table, just as we were finishing breakfast. He said he wanted to see Rose, Scorpius, Elvis, Iona, and me in his office as soon as we finished eating. "I have an adventure for all of you. One I think you all will enjoy, but you must be on your best behaviour."
We had already read the Quibbler. The delivery owls for The Prophet just dropped the barest note beside our plates: "Due to Unforseen (I'm not the idiot, that's how they spelled it) Circumstances We Are Not Publishing A Paper Today. Expect an Expanded Edition Tomorrow or the Day After." I suspect that the circumstances weren't entirely unexpected by everyone at The Prophet. I'll leave the description of the Quibbler stories for Rose to journal. Mum says journal is a proper verb.
Mum's Covenant Committee! Wow! I'm finally going to be treated as at least a semi-adult. I'd rather do this without Iona, but I'll take it. Iona has at least backed off and is keeping her hands to herself. Rose must have spoken to her after I told Rose that it was all too much, and I don't want a girlfriend. Girls who are friends is great, but I don't need or want a very handsy girlfriend.
The committee meeting was at Aunt Cissy's castle. Since it was a bright, sunny, rather warm day the meeting was in her backyard garden. We took sweaters to wear atop our robes. Of course, Neville took us to the meeting. He was a permanent member of this committee. I was surprised that Aunt McGonagall wasn't coming with us. Neville just mumbled an explanation that "Cissy and your Aunt McGonagall have never been the best of friends. They fought when Cissy was at Hogwarts." I had been to Aunt Cissy's castle twice and had met her husband Henry-Alice. They are twins.
The meeting started with a review of the invasion by Uncle Neville, the lead auror of the aerial force, and Mrs. Longbottom. I already knew most of what was said, but there was new information: almost every attacker said they did it for the money; Barnabas Cuffe had exchanged gold bars for money - nobody knew where he got the bars, his paper was losing money; four of the attacking students, including the dead Hestia had been poisoned with the illegal love potion; Barnabas and the Veneran had failed to lower the Hogwarts defences, because they couldn't bypass Neville's personal lock on the controls - no more could be said about this lock. The best information came from the five attackers whom our group 'Off!'ed'. They were true believers, not paid fighters. Their goal had been to kidnap Rose and me and to kill Scorpius to avenge the traitorism against Voldemort by Draco, Lucius, and Narcissa. They planned to hold the rest of the Hogwarts students and faculty hostage until Hermione resigned and Barnabas was appointed to replace her. Their biggest grievance was that they couldn't bear to be ruled by a filthy Mudblood.
David, the British Prime Minister, wondered why Hogwarts most secure spot happened to have a seid-travel-ribbon running through it. The others thought this a most important question. This gave Percy a chance to talk...
"I've already met with Veneran representatives. They have been very open, and my truth tellers say they have been honest. The official government wants peace. An almost equally strong coalition of the old-line priests and priestesses and not much less than half the military oppose the government and blame our intervention for them not being in power. The spies sent by the prior Veneran government and our seid activities have caused many Venerans to view us as dangerous and in need of being stomped out before we get any stronger. They let slip that they are able to redirect the path of the seid travel ribbons by at least a small amount. A ribbon already passed through Hogwarts, but not the control room."
"I know," Mum acknowledged. "We walked that ribbon back to a decades ago Hogwarts. It did not pass through the control room."
"That ribbon must be strongly defended." I don't know who said that. Many said virtually that. Aagog volunteered to send more spiders.
David wasn't satisfied by Percy's explanation. "Even if they could shift the ribbon. How would they know where to shift it? They must have known the location of the control room. And, if they just hopped off a seid ribbon inside the control room, how did Slytherin know that Mr. Cuffe and the Veneran were inside?"
Everyone thought that was a great question. They wanted to hear from Slytherin. Would they be safe in his presence? Would Cissy be safe if he visited her castle? What did we actually know for sure about him? It was decided that the group must hear from Mr. Ollivander. Was he healthy enough for us to meet with him? Mum checked with Dr. White, who brought Mr. Ollivander to us. Ollivander stated that he and Slytherin had crossed paths with two different Venerans and with Barnabas Cuffe, during the time the minor Gods held them captive. No, Slytherin did not seem to be an ally of these people. Yes, he and Slytherin shared a body. Yes, he sometimes was able to read his stronger thoughts and emotions. No, he doubted Slytherin was able to sense the presence of Mr. Cuffe or a Veneran. He could only do that with the minor Gods. Yes, the Gods gave off a unique emanation. Since as a wandmaker he could see magical force lines, he also could see a sort of halo surrounding the heads of their God captors. He could sense their presence, when they were out of his sight, but within perhaps fifty feet. Slytherin was a lot more adept. That's how they knew when they could escape.
The group did meet with the ghost of Slytherin. He gave us the answer which we all now expected. "Two of the Gods were with the Veneran and Mr. Cuffe. He was surprised to find them in the Hogwarts control room. He had come to the control room to make sure the defences were strong. Yes, the control room was in the exact place where it had been when the school was built. He had designed it, himself. He knew that the Gods intended to drop the defences. He also knew he couldn't kill the Gods. He was surprised to find the other two. What did he do? He killed Cuffe and the Veneran and quickly sabotaged the controls. He escaped before he could be recaptured. Well, that wasn't exactly true. "They were stunned to see me and they Apparated an instant before I did. Likely they thought Cuffe had betrayed them. My arrival must have been quite the surprise, as was seeing Cuffe and the Veneran dead or knocked out. It took me just an instant to pass through the two non-Gods and they were dead and half an instant to break a crucial, but fragile part of the controls."
To Rose, my hand hurts.
Break
From the Journal of Rose Weasley - 28 September 2013
At some point, the talk changed to most of the attendees demanding that we must strike back at Venera.
David said that he understood why we wanted one of his big bombs. This came after Mum and Aunt Ginny described how most of the opposing soldiers were in one exceptionally large base and most of the opposing priests and priestesses in the main temple complex. If we had a suitable plan of attack, he would supply the bomb.
Aagog said that the spiders were more than willing to lead an attack upon the temple complex. The Venerans had killed too many spiders for her to ignore their actions.
Percy objected that we were moving too fast to war. The Veneran leader was willing to meet with Mum and Aunt Ginny - wherever they chose to meet. She knew how serious the situation was. The majority of Venerans want peace. "you left Anile in charge; she remains in charge; she has strong challengers."
There were shouts of "far too dangerous," but Mum said it was a risk she must take. It was her job as Minister. War was awful. If we attacked, especially with a big bomb, we would inevitably need a second big bomb to sever the seid link between Asgard and Venera. That would seriously damage seid-space. It must truly be a last resort. The group agreed to the meeting if it could be set quickly. She thought she knew and understood Anile and was willing to trust her. She would agree to meet with the Venerans, but only if it were Anile and no more than two others. Was Supreme Leader Bison still alive? Percy didn't know. Mum said she was willing to meet with him, but not until after she had met with Anile.
The second last discussion was of the Centaur traitor. He had been recruited for money and the promise of help to overthrow Firenze and make himself Leader of the Herd. His grievance was that Firenze was too much the thinker, too much the friend of Witches, and too poor a fighter to be a rightful Leader of the Herd. The Centaurs, given the less than huge size of the herd, were very reluctant, but the traitor had been executed. Mrs. Longbottom had interviewed him. His recruiter was Barnabas Cuffe, who knew a surprising amount about rivalries and intrigues within the herd. Firenze's professorship was viewed as suspect by a quarter of the Centaurs.
The last discussion was of the supposed second wave of attackers, who never attacked. Mrs. Longbottom thought the weight of the evidence from her interviews suggested that this force did exist, but that it was a lot smaller than the first force. It had been hiding in the forest near Potter's Forest and bordering upon the Forbidden Forest. One family of settlers in Potter's Forest were involved. They had been arrested and would be questioned.
The question of the prophecy, which might be valid and might refer to us, was largely set aside for the next meeting. Mum said it was rather vague and it was unclear which of the children it referred to.
We left the meeting without speaking, apart from Freddie and Scorpius giving a couple sentence description of the battle from their perspective. Headmaster Neville asked if we thought we had learned enough to justify missing the one class we missed. Of course we did - what a silly question from such a smart headmaster! Most of what was happening at Hogwarts was counselling and clean up.
Freddie said that I must write about what the Quibbler had to say this morning. They knew that Barnabas was the head bad guy. Mr. Lovegood wondered how such intelligent leaders could have let him off so lightly after the Wales attack that he felt free to attack another Wizarding school. He hadn't heard about the Veneran or that the two of them had gotten into the control room. He did know that the ghost of Slytherin had saved us. He railed against the band of malcontents from the bar in Leeds. He knew most had done what they had done for money. He didn't know about the gold. He didn't know about the plan to hold all the students until Mum quit her job as Minister. It was reasonable in approach. Nobody could argue that mistakes were not made.