Grimmauld Place was silent which was unusual in days that have followed since the Battle of Hogwarts. There was a sudden cracking sound which Harry had gotten used to.
"Master Harry must take some food and rest, this is bad for him" grumbled Kreacher, Kreacher hadn't realised till now that sustenance for harry requires very little effort."This elf is all that remains from my old family, awful!" the woman in portrait whined, Harry gave a glance towards that portrait and gestured to Kreacher.
He vanished as he had come."He is a good elf" Harry said to no one in general. The portrait grumbled something which didn't seem to bother Harry.
"You seem to spending an awful lot of time alone these days, It is not good for a young wizard of your age" Lycoris suggested.
Lycoris black was a great aunt of his late godfather. Harry had trudged her up while going through some old decaying manuscripts in the Black library. She was relentlessly begging to have some company so Harry bought her to his study, sometimes he wondered if it was a right idea.
"Are you planning an attack hmmmmm, that would be nice but you haven't convened you henchmen in past few days so that can't be it. Maybe you are planning something big and drastic." Lycoris baited.
"My friends are not my henchmen first of all, and I am not going to tell you since you gossip with Hermione and Ginny a lot" Harry finally broke,.
Lycoris had once come to know about the girl he was seeing for a brief period and spread it to Hermione the second they got some time together.
Harry had also seen some benefits in keeping Lycoris close since she was a part of an old family she knew some connections that Harry could dig up which the Black family had maintained and lost touch with. She was the one who suggested some parallel investing options besides Gringotts to keep his funds safe and growing which the Black family used. Gringotts had the monopoly over the Magical financial system but it didn't mean that there were no alternate avenues to park you funds albeit risky.
"I think I am done for now" Harry yawned,
"Finally! your ability to keep quiet for so long bores me" Lycoris snipped. Harry smiled and collected all his parchment and filed it. He had finally learned some benefits of organization after his school years and to the delight of Hermione.
"Lycoris tell Russeldorf to meet me tomorrow morning at 9 , ask Pushkin to meet me at 8 in the evening tomorrow. Leave a message to Molly that I want to see Ron and Hermione tomorrow at 6 in the evening."
"I am an Aristocrat and not an Owl! I am Lycoris Black" Harry knew it was one of those days,
"Lycoris we both know how much you love snooping in other potraits now please finish this task and let me have some rest".
Lycoris grumbled and moved out of her frame to deliver the messages. Harry sent Lycoris to deliver only very private messages, he had asked Pushkin to have some frames for Lycoris made from which she could move in and out of. Pushkin was now part of Harry's core team to manage his war against Voldemort. During one of the raids by Death Eaters on a predominantly muggleborn residential area Pushkin's family was killed. Pushkin was a visiting researcher in Ministry from Indo-Tibet region and now had nothing to return to since he had lost everything. He had aided Harry as a make-shift medic but Harry had come to rely on him. He was an intelligent wizard with a specialty in Potions. Hermione had kept a close watch on his research and approved his acumen.
Harry had come to really like solitary moments such as these, the battle against Voldemort was intensifying everyday and he was trying his best to maintain his sanity.
He had never liked being a leader but life had a way of pushing him into situations he would deny in all sanity. It had been four years since the battle of Hogwarts, death of countless friends, families, children and Snape.
"Kreacher! get me a pint in the kitchen" Harry yelled as he picked out a fag out of the breast pocket of his shirt.
And Snape, yes, Snape and Dumbledore. Harry had gone through a train of emotions after knowing the truth about him being the Horcrux and Dumbledore's plan of sacrificing him. For some reason he still couldn't hate the man and since he has been in the role of the leader of the Order he had come to understand some reasoning or at least the sentiment behind the old man's actions. "Thanks Kreacher, you can go to sleep now", Harry lit the fag and took a deep drag and pondered on his plans and future.
The Ministry was thoroughly controlled by the snake, Harry still had a network of men in some key positions but there were still bottlenecks of information which made him take risks he was growing aversions for.
Harry had come to realize the importance of finance in sustaining wars. He was fortunate with the Black fortune but he still couldn't compete against the combined fortunes of ancient Dark families. Contrary to popular beliefs Potter fortune was enough to sustain a family but not a war chest. Harry took a swig from his beer and a deep drag. His allies with deep pockets were not as forthcoming as the followers of Dark Lord but Harry didn't wanted to milk his allies with fear. He knew the value of disgruntled men with information. The condensed water trickled on his palm, as he smoked and let his mind rush through all these amalgamation of thoughts. He had stopped taking firewhiskey with a fag since it weakened his occulumancy defences. He took butterbeer or some muggle beer but it was getting hard to give up smoking and hiding it was even harder.
He had prolonged the war more than he wanted to or can afford. He and Voldemort both knew that Harry didn't have enough capital to sustain this war for a second innings. Harry knew he had to end this fast and hard. He was a wanted man for 5 years now and his friends were no better. He had an inkling of a plan but the execution was not even in its first draft. He took any deep swig of his beer , another deep drag and flicked it.
All things considered he still had no idea how to get the damn snake destroyed which was latched onto his soul. Only three people were privy to this information. Hermione , Ron and Pushkin knew about his affliction and Harry knew that the solution seemed far fetched. So he had to factor in his demise in the equation too.
"Will you go to sleep boy!" Lycoris cried,
"I think you've had you daily dose of angst and now you should sleep. Russeldorf will meet you tomorrow morning , the henchmen will arrive in the evening and Pushkin was in the lab so I left a message with Violet".
"Thanks Lycoris, I'll head over to bedroom now".
"Don't forget to get a nice present for Ginny and Neville's wedding , how much are you going to delay it!".
"Bollocks and piss" , their wedding was in a week and he had zilch to show for,
"How do you know I haven't bought it already?",
"Yeah and Walburga is the sanest person I knew" Lycoris snipped.
"I am going to sleep, Merlin's pants, Blacks will be the end of me if Snake-ass doesn't end me first" Harry grumbled.
"I heard that!".
Before going to his bedroom he checked the rota that Bill had sent. Bill was in charge of managing the night patrols this week. Tonight Tonks and Lupin were on the prowl with Rankin on support. This was a dependable trio. He came out of the study and climbed for the bedroom. "Good Night Harry" Phineas Nigellus quipped.
Harry took off his shirt and plopped on the bed and was asleep.
-o-
"MASTER HARRY!" Keracher shouted, Harry woke up with a start and immediately sensed something was wrong.
"Master Bill requires urgent support in Devon at the order sector" Harry was listening as he put on his amour and ran down the stairs.
"Lycoris! activate this night's support team. Kreacher , connect me to Bill", Kreacher bought the two way mirror near him to listen.
"Harry! we are taking hits from little snakes. we can contain this situation but we are expecting more company."
"Understood, the support team is responding , activate the portkey transponder." Harry could hear the spellfire in the background. this was one of the most competent teams on the ground. But he still wanted to make sure they had backup , he could take no casualty at this stage in the war.

Tonks and Lupin were going against four little snakes in the back to back formation which they had perfected. Rankin was returning as good as he was getting against a Death Eater, Bill was alone taking two Death eaters. "Isn't your little Master going to come to your aid Weasley ? or is he too coward to fight now a days ?" The snake behind the mask taunted as he spelled dirty purple curses towards Bill and the snake's partner was furiously throwing shield breakers. "Those white masks of yours really can't hide your bad breath, believe me It is far more lethal than these curses" Rankin gave a laugh and Bill released the intense yellow blast shield which pushed the death eaters and stumped them which gave enough time to Bill to raise a counter attack. Both Death eaters were now on back foot and sweating to maintain shield against Bill's Focused Crater spells.
Just a few meters away there was a battle going on which was akin to a well practiced dance when you looked at Remus and Tonks in the middle. Lupin was raining spells on two death eaters he was facing who were cowering and waiting for a change to attack, Tonks was alternating between dismemberment spells and quick deflectors. Tonks was one of the best fighters in the Order whose skills would amplify her magical prowess.
"I think you're cooking is getting better" Tonks quipped as she was attacking and defending with her back to her Husband,
"Really! now is the time you want to critique my cooking skills ?!" Tonks laughed and a green afterglow released from her wand took out one of the little snake. Seeing his comrade dead the lone death eater launched a barrage of bone breakers and blood gurgling curses which put Tonks on defensive.
Rankin was now bowing to the pressure of attack from the death eater and Tonks noticed it. She was ready to break the formation from Remus when suddenly the Death Eater against Rankin fell dead to sweeping red beam from a corner of the field where the fight was going on. The Death eaters must have realized the backup for the Order was there because they started to disapparate too as the Rankin's combatant dropped dead on the ground.
The shields of the two death eaters against Bill blasted with a loud bang as Luna fired bright lighting arrows, her specialty, at the shield's of Death eaters. "Thanks Luna, we have this under control though"
"Its no problem Bill, I knew the Nargles were behaving differently" Luna reasoned.
Lupin was alternating between cursed stingers and deflectors against two of his opponents when both of them dropped dead in a spatter of blood and smouldering flesh. It was Lavenders favorite spell now. It could pierce through multiple bodies and required high precision.
Rankin was holding his shield and knew the play by heart as he had practised mutiple times in drills, but before Ernie could initiate the capture the remaining Death eaters vanished.
One thing that Harry was genuinely proud of himself was this. He had turned the Order into a well oiled machine. Dumbledore had created an information network primarily. Under Harry he had created a well oiled fighting machine. He had prompt response time of his first responder team and had Backups ready to go. Sometimes even when the first responder team didn't need the backup he'd send the backup just to see their response time and coordination. This was made possible in large part by Ron's ingenuity and developing a commutation system with high redundancy. His fighters when in the field were battle hardened killers when they were pointed in the right direction.

"Lavender how many times have I told you not to use that curse in close combat! We could both be dead!".
"Give me some credit Professor, you taught me this and you know I am as good as perfect with my shots" Lavender quipped calmly.
"How am I going to put Teddy to sleep If I am covered in blood and bones of a Death eater!" Lupin wallowed,
"It's a good thing then I put him to sleep early" Tonks laughed.
Bill was inspecting the battle ground "I don't think we have any prisoners unfortunately. Rankin! burn the snakes and everyone portkey to safehouse for debrief, let's not linger here." After assisting Rankin in decimation, both teams apparated to safe house.
Back at the Grimmauld Place Lycoris informed Harry that both teams and Bill had reached the safe house safely. It was half past three in the morning, he could hear the birds chirping.
"Kreacher, connect me to Bill" harry instructed. On the two way mirror Bill appeared in a calm demeanour.
"I know it's been a long night Bill , just a summary of events would suffice" Harry said in all seriousness,
"Good to see you too Harry! But anyway , Tonks's team was against 7 snakes in white mask, so there were definitely not the most elite snakes but still they had numbers. Tonks stinged me on the activity monitor about the number of Death Eaters so I went for backup. I informed you about the situation before entering the fray. We had the situation under control without the Lav's team but they held their own".
Harry was absorbing all the information, "Any prisoners ?" ,
"None" ,
"Hmmmmmm, Its been an eventful night, initiate Lav's team for rest of the night and relieve Tonks' team. We can have a debrief tomorrow. Nice work Bill , we'll talk later."
, "Later Harry!" the two way mirror went blank.
"Why are you not more concerned Harry ?" Lycoris chimed but Harry ignored her with a smirk and went back to bed.

AN: I am no writer but I had this Idea of a fic. I tried to find something close to it but didn't find it . I took up the job of writing it. It is cathartic experience for me to get it out. I'd love to share this work with people. Hope you enjoy this reading as much as I enjoy writing this. Please review .