There was no time to mourn for Zoey or even reflect upon how they could have prevented her tragic demise. As soon as Oskar finished telling him about the events that had transpired following the pack's departure from Bleidd, Draco was contemplating strategies to ensure the safety of his pack.

Upon considering all his options, Draco concluded, with the pack as vulnerable as it was, he did not have the luxury of time to execute the silent coup he and Theo had been working towards all this time. 'The hand which strikes also blocks,' was a tip Oskar often gave pups while sparring. Oskar had been right all along about the necessity of war. It was time to go on the offensive.

A plan of action decided, Draco summoned Mipsy and asked the elf to take him to his sons. As per Draco's instructions, the elf had rented a wizarding home near Lake Victoria. To Draco's relief, the modest abode was secure enough that in the event of an attack the inhabitants of the house would be alerted and able to disapparate to safety long before its wards were breached.

When Draco had charged Mipsy with hiding his sons from Fenrir and the Death Eaters, he had not anticipated needing to keep his pups away from the pack for more than a couple of days while they adjusted to their new surroundings. As much as he disliked being separated from his family, in light of recent developments, it was safer to continue to hide his sons until the threat had passed.

Despite the urgency of the situation, Draco took a moment to reassure himself that Wilbur and Martin were doing okay. He knelt on the floor beside the bed so his face was in level with his sons and ran his hands on each of their heads. Previously bald, their heads now sported a light sprinkling of that signature shade of Malfoy blond hair he could have sworn had grown overnight. It could have been a simple case of his memory playing tricks on him, but these days it always felt like the twins had achieved some new milestone while he was preoccupied with something else. He was missing out on watching his sons grow and he hated it.

While Draco spent time with his sons, he sent Mipsy to Pansy with a request. He needed to speak with Theo over a secure connection on an urgent basis.

As was typical of any wizarding home, the house at Lake Victoria possessed a fireplace connected to the floo network even if it was currently warded shut. Before readying the fireplace to receive calls, Draco hastily scribbled a short note for Mipsy to deliver to his mother, his first direct communication with her since he was disowned. Quill in hand, Draco realised there was a lot he wanted to say to his mother, none of it relevant to what he needed from her at the time, so he stuck to the bare facts.

Mother,

I have left Bleidd Castle. I cannot say where I am, but I am fine.

Ginevra Weasley miscarried last month; she was returned to the Order a few days ago.

Greyback is still alive and plans to use Lucius to find me.

I have a plan but I will need your help.

Love,

Draco.

His clever mother would read between the lines and understand that his request involved a degree of risk for her. Considering what he knew from Theo of his mother's recent actions, she would no doubt agree to help. However, he expected her to place some conditions, or at least set limits to how much she would be willing to help. Her simple three-line response came as a surprise.

My dearest boy,

You only have to ask.

Your ever-loving mother.

Draco was stirred to tears. It occurred to him that, as far as his mother was concerned, nothing had changed between them.

He carefully folded the note and put it away for now. He wrote a short response thanking his mother and asking her to block all forms of communication between Fenrir and Lucius for the day and to do whatever it took to ensure Lucius did not leave the Manor until they received news of an attack on Malfoy Potions.

Malfoy Potions was not exactly the cash cow of Malfoy Enterprises, but it was the sole company charged with the commercial and wholesale production of Fero. With so many of their local and international policies now dependent on the trade of Fero, the formula was a closely guarded secret. Any disruption in the supply chain would have far-reaching consequences. At the very least, Lucius Malfoy would have his hands full, answering the Dark Lord and working on producing replacements, if their entire stock of Fero was destroyed.

Draco took out the two-way mirror he needed to contact Potter. The Order did not know it yet, but if he had his way, they were going to have a remarkably productive day.

"Draco," Potter greeted.

"Harry," he returned. It was strange to refer to Potter in such a familiar manner.

Potter looked far worse than he did the last time they spoke. Tempting as it was to tell Potter to start using glamour spells if he did not want to be mistaken for an Azkaban escapee, Draco opted to ask about how Ginny was faring.

"She's...um... Well, let's put it this way, I wish we had listened to your healer. She was right about Ginny and we were wrong. We just assumed we knew better because, we're the ones who know Ginny best. Instead I think—" he paused and shook his head. "We've made it worse. She's pulling away from us. We can all feel it."

Potter pulled at his hair, making it look even more dishevelled.

"The Weasleys have always been a lively bunch but they have to walk on eggshells around Ginny now for fear of startling her and setting her off. Molly's hurting because she can't understand why Ginny won't talk to her. She doesn't get why Ginny felt comfortable talking to one of her captors, but refuses to talk to us."

Even with the recovery made at Bleidd, the alterations in Ginny would have been a shock to her loved ones. Potter, clearly still in love with Ginny, was hurting from not knowing how to help her. The situation, tough enough for any normal person, was probably devastating for Potter, who suffered from a massive saviour complex. Draco wondered how he would cope if he found himself in a similar position with Hermione.

"Just give her time and space ... and follow whatever advice Cora gave you. Even Hermione couldn't get through to Ginny in the way Cora did."

Draco could not think of anything else to say to reassure Potter, they weren't exactly friends.

"Have you figured out who set up Ginny to get caught that night?"

Potter shook his head, the dismal expression on his face changing to something much darker.

"Each of the suspects on the list we narrowed down is a trusted, long-time member of the Order. We don't have access to veritaserum so conducting interrogations is a bit of a challenge—"

Veritaserum had always been a controlled substance, but at least the ingredients used to be freely available before so any skilled potioneer could brew a batch should they wish to do so. That was no longer possible.

"As a precaution Ginny's staying with Arthur and Molly. No one's allowed to visit her, apart from her brothers and me."

Draco nodded in approval. "Well, I called because I have news on Hermione and a mission for the Order."

—

"That bastard Greyback, I'm going to kill him," declared Potter with a cold glint in his eyes after hearing what Fenrir had done to his best friend.

"Get in line, Potter," he replied stoically, then gave a brief summary of how he had ended up in Uganda and what he discovered since.

"Thank Merlin, she's alive! When we couldn't find her I was so sure she was—" Harry wiped at the corner of his eyes, tilted his head back and sighed. "But she's alive and that's all that matters. She's alive," he repeated, eyes crinkling and the corners of his mouth turning upwards. "Let me know what I can do to help find her. Is the mission you mentioned related to Hermione?"

Draco shook his head and told Harry about Zoey, the Lestranges and Fenrir's plan to use Lucius to come after him.

"And that was supposed to be Ginny?" asked Harry in a choked voice. This was perhaps his first inkling of the kind of hell Ginny had survived.

Draco nodded.

"They have all the power and this is how they choose to wield it"—Harry gritted his teeth—"by torturing and killing a little girl." H looeked away and shook his head. "Ever since the Death Eaters gained control of the Ministry their bloodlust has only increased. I'm so tired of hiding, being safely tucked away while Riddle and his followers destroy everything we care about bit by bit."

Listening to Harry practically growl in frustration, Draco was certain his plan would be wholeheartedly welcomed. "I have a mission for the Order," he said, "perhaps more than one, which you should find quite satisfying."

Draco gave Harry the Order's first task of the day: Attack Malfoy Potions and destroy their supplies of Fero. Growing up, Draco had spent enough time around Lucius' businesses to be familiar with the layout of his factories as well as their vulnerabilities. The Order only needed a skilled curse-breaker in their team to deal with the wards; otherwise, acting on his intel, any of their members could successfully carry out an attack on Malfoy Potions.

At the sound of the floo chiming in the background, Draco concluded his call with Harry. They would talk again once Harry put together a team for the task. With the limited amount of time they had to act, Harry wanted Draco to brief the team himself. Draco agreed, no longer concerned about word of him working with the Order getting out.

Draco crouched before the small fireplace and was greeted by a grumpy-looking Theo Nott.

"Do you have any idea how early it is?"

In fact, Draco had forgotten about the time difference, but given the circumstances, he would not have shown Theo the courtesy of waiting even if he had remembered.

"Is this secure?" he asked referring to the call.

"Yes, I'm using Pansy's floo," replied Theo, adding in a stage whisper, "And unless Eugenie wants her husband or the Ministry to find out about her illicit use of the contraceptive potion, she'll strike this conversation from their records."

Draco snickered at Theo's underhanded manner of ensuring compliance by implicating the witch at the very start of their call. Still, they would need to be careful about what they said, lest she consider it safer to come clean about her own activities than risk being caught up in any obvious scheme to commit treason.

"Greyback's alive."

"So you're still at Bleidd?"

Draco shook his head. "I'm where I said I'd be."

"But, Greyback's still around? I take it not everything went to plan."

"I underestimated him... Anyway, he plans to use Red to make them come after me."

"How?"

"Lionel Mayfield."

"Wait, it's still too early for this," complained Theo and summoned the encrypted parchment with the list of codenames they had previously agreed upon.

"Ah," he said, realising Draco was referring to Lucius. "But, with junior out of the picture why would he care?"

"He doesn't know it yet. He'll want to recover his belongings."

"And Greyback plans to convince them you're the thief who's taken off with his goods?"

Draco nodded again.

"Hmm. That's tough. Greyback may not have the resources to find you, but Lionel does... What's your plan?"

"Nothing," said Draco, faking nonchalance. "I figured Lionel's going to be too busy putting out fires in his own backyard to bother me for a while."

"Sounds like you have this handled, what do you need from me?"

"Time to start knocking down some pillars," said Draco, referring to the Dark Lord's key supporters, who were pivotal players in the Death Eater organisation as well as the Ministry.

"And you wish to start with me."

It wasn't a question. Theo would have understood that Draco meant to start with his father.

"Figured it would be the easiest one," said Draco with a slight shrug, "given the lack of time."

"When?"

"No later than tomorrow."

"Fuck!" Theo screwed his eyes shut. "I thought we'd have more time..."

"Me too."

Theo exhaled loudly then looked at Draco with resignation. "Well, at least Pansy will be happy."

"I can imagine."

"Will you be sending your people?"

Draco shook his head.

"I'm going to ask the scarred one to handle it."

Any damage done to the Death Eaters would have twice as great an impact once the Dark Lord learnt it was carried out by Harry Potter and his merry band of misfits.

Theo nodded.

"Send your elf to Pansy in an hour. I'll get you the schedules by then."

"Thanks, Theo. You know you'll have to get that seat at the table now."

Theo did not exactly roll his eyes, but the expression he wore, he may as well have. "Goes without saying, Draco."

Raised as Pureblood elite, they were taught about power dynamics at an early age. Both men knew that in a power vacuum one needed to be the first to act. Theo was going to have to do whatever it took to ensure he became a part of Voldemort's inner circle once his father was out.

"You've been around non-Slytherins for too long," ribbed Theo, expressing Draco's own unvoiced thought at the time.

By the time Potter called, Draco had sketched the layout of the factory, highlighting the areas to focus on and the ones to avoid. Introductions were quickly made by Potter before they jumped into discussing the plan. It was a surprise that no one commented on Draco being the one to brief them, despite the number of Weasleys in attendance. The Weasel himself only spoke to ask questions about the layout as he copied Draco's map.

Draco wanted them to attack during operational hours so they could move freely inside the factory by blending in with the rest of the employees; something easily achieved by transfiguring their robes to look like the ones worn by the workers. However, Potter was concerned about workers ending up as collateral damage. At Potter's insistence, they amended the plan. They would enter the factory during the day, but destroy the potion stocks at night, when no one was likely to be around.

Draco could not grasp the specifics of everything Harry said, what he broadly understood was that the Order, low on resources after they went into hiding, had learnt to use Muggle explosives. Arthur Weasley, who was fond of tinkering with Muggle devices, along with his sons, the prankster twins, had figured out how to build simple bombs that could be triggered by a timer.

The Weasel asked all kinds of questions about the structure till it became clear they planned to blow up the factory itself, something Draco had no qualms about. The bigger the problem they could create for Lucius right now, the better it would be for the Order's image.

Sometime during his briefing with the Order, Mipsy returned with a set of schedules for Nott Senior and other high-ranking officials. For a while now, Theo had his contacts watch the movements of members in the Dark Lord's inner circle, as a result he had information on when and where these men and women were likely to be at their most vulnerable. Studying the schedules, Draco was able to identify two other prominent Death Eaters they could successfully ambush that evening.

Draco's plan was simple—attack, and if possible kidnap, the worst offenders, thus forcing the less-zealous-and-more-easily-scared Death Eaters like the Parkinsons and Greengrasses to reconsider their choices. The Death Eaters had used a similar strategy to garner support when they first began. So many had joined their ranks only because it had been far more dangerous to refuse the Dark Lord. The influential few, who continued to support the Dark Lord just because they did not suffer under the new regime, would be convinced through fear-mongering tactics to join the revolution.

Draco looked down at the twins struggling to get their father's attention by grabbing at his hands. He placed a finger within each curled up chubby fist and smiled fondly when they squeezed at the same time. Draco took a short break from his plotting to play with his sons. After all, when it came down to it, everything he was doing was meant to secure a better future for them.

Hermione needed a place to hide the pack until she re-established contact with either the Order or Draco's newly formed pack.

Can't imagine any place in Britain safe for the pack. Gunnolf's words echoed in her head.

Hermione disagreed. She could think of one place in Britain where the Death Eaters would both, fear to venture into and would definitely be unwelcome.

If there was any truth, to the things she had heard during her time at Bleidd, it wasn't just the werewolves Voldemort had conducted his twisted experiments on. And while the werewolf experiments had borne fruit when she fell pregnant, the rest of the creature experiments ended up being just a more methodical form of torture.

Even though the Death Eaters had taken control of Hogwarts, the Forbidden Forest, with its abundance of dangerous creatures, would be out of their reach despite its proximity. It seemed safe to gamble on the assumption that the Forest's creatures were disgruntled enough to provide her pack refuge.

And so, alpha Hermione decided it was time for her to return to Hogwarts or more specifically, the Forbidden Forest.