Narcissa Malfoy stared at the bracelet on her wrist. Gifted by Lucius on their wedding day, the goblin-made, princess-cut diamond and emerald eternity bracelet wasn't the most extravagant piece of jewellery she owned, yet it was very dear to her and something she rarely took off. Narcissa absentmindedly fiddled with the clasp as she admired the intricate beauty of the bracelet that was a token of Lucius' love and commitment to her.
Lucius himself lay asleep on their bed a few feet away from where Narcissa stood. It was rare to see her husband sleep so peacefully anymore, not without the help of a sleep aid anyway, she thought just before she noticed the empty vial on the bedside table. How things had changed in the last few years, her life gone from being almost perfect to a perfect nightmare she could not awaken from however hard she tried. Once at the pinnacle of their society, the Malfoys were both feared and revered—that much had probably not changed, except she no longer felt like she was at the top of anything. How could she, after all the indignities heaped upon her family by the Dark Lord?
The biggest change was in her husband's personality. Lucius Malfoy had always been the sort of man people feared more than adored, but Narcissa had fallen in love with him all the same. Her husband was an intelligent man who had dedicated himself to growing his family's wealth and power. He loved his family and was completed devoted to them. Much like his own father, Lucius was a harsh taskmaster, especially when Draco failed his expectations, but he did not love their son any lesser than she did. And when it came to Narcissa, there was nothing Lucius would not do for the love of his life. However, the Lucius Malfoy asleep on their bed was not the proud and powerful wizard she had enjoyed being married to until Lord Voldemort returned and cast his dark shadow on their lives.
The changes in her husband had been so gradual Narcissa had seen no cause for concern until too late. These days Lucius was little more than the Dark Lord's puppet; he would deny his master nothing, including disowning his heir and throwing him to the wolves. Narcissa's heart had broken that terrible night, seeing her husband watch in silent impotence as their precious son was condemned to the life of a half-breed by that Halfblood usurper, Tom Riddle. However, Narcissa was not the kind of witch to sit idly by while her son's birthright was stolen.
Since Lucius was duty-bound to provide his family with an heir, so long as he did not produce any other children, he would be forced to accept Draco as his heir again someday. With that outcome in mind, Narcissa had secretly fed Lucius contraceptives to ensure he could not sire any other children. Therefore, news of Ginny Weasley's pregnancy came as a complete shock.
Narcissa was in a rage when she realised all her careful planning had been foiled; there was no way for her to let on that the baby could not belong to Lucius without confessing to her own deception. She suspected the baby's father had to be either Rabastan or Rodolphus. Both men were frequent visitors to Malfoy Manor and—thanks to some of Bella's mad rants—she knew the brothers had developed a fancy for the young Pureblood beauty after the Godric's Hollow revel.
Thinking only of securing her son's future, Narcissa had insisted Lucius relocate the pregnant witch to Chateau Lestrange; given how obsessed the Lestrange men were with the redhead, she hoped it would not take too long for Ginny Weasley to miscarry. However, Narcissa discovered that nothing went the way she hoped anymore, and the Weasley girl continued to pose a threat to her son's future.
Lucius had returned home a few hours ago suffering from convulsions, the after-effects of taking yet another Crucio from his master. The Dark Lord was unhappy that, three days later, Lucius had made no progress in locating the witch carrying his heir. According to Draco's note, the Weasley girl lost the child and was back with the Order; Lucius' mission was entirely pointless. Still, Narcissa did not pity her husband's situation; instead, she worried about what the Death Eaters may do to her son once they discovered the girl was gone.
Narcissa was willing to do anything for her son, so great was her love for him. It did not matter to her that he was no longer a Pureblood—Draco's new status, as well as the existence of his half-breed sons, were things she chose not to acknowledge. As far as Narcissa was concerned, this was all just a terrible phase of their lives, one they could move past once the Dark Lord fell. Narcissa was confident that free from his master's influence, Lucius would return to being his former self. Subsequently, Draco's status as the heir would be restored; he would find a respectable Pureblood witch, preferably one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight; and then finally, provide her with the grandchildren she longed for.
Narcissa was proud of Draco for actively working to overthrow the Dark Lord's rule, unlike so many Death Eater kids and his own father. Draco was doing his part to end the nightmare; she needed to do hers by helping him.
Narcissa stepped outside the room; out of view of the hallway portraits, she called for Mipsy. In his last note, Draco had requested for a personal item of hers; he wished to spell it with the protean charm so they could communicate directly without raising suspicions or risking discovery. For the first time in years, Narcissa unclasped the bracelet from her wrist and handed it to the elf.
Hermione decided to remain in the Forbidden Forest for the time being. Her pack could rest and properly recover from their recent injuries while she mastered control of her wolf. Hermione was also waiting for Gunnolf to return. Through the pack bond she knew her beta was alive and not in distress; she imagined whatever was keeping Gunnolf away had to be of vital importance to the pack.
Hermione also resumed her research on the horcruxes; it was the best way she could be of use to the Order right now. All of her previous findings indicated that there were definitely two more hotcruxes left, one of which was Voldemort's pet snake, Nagini, but they still had no clue for the final horcrux.
Harry did not seem to care about the final horcrux; he was more focused on finding ways to get close enough to kill Nagini and progress to their final confrontation with Voldemort. There was nothing odd about Harry's outward behaviour, but anytime the horcruxes were discussed, his heart rate increased like a person engaging in some form of deception. Knowing Harry, if he was being secretive it had to involve something that would endanger his life. Hermione resolved to keep a close eye on her friend.
"This is ridiculous," declared Hermione, looking at copies of the Daily Prophet as well as some other publications of prominence in front of her. It was the third day in a row with no news of the attack.
"Look at this one—" She angrily jabbed the offending article with her finger. "Nearly half a page dedicated to talking about Bertha Taylor's bold choice to wear white robes to last month's Ministry gala. Who on earth is Bertha Taylor and why would anyone care two knuts about her choice of robes?" asked Hermione, her voice turning shrill with her rising indignation.
"That is bold... everyone knows 'Ministry gala' is just code for Death Eater revel," said Harry, attempting to placate his friend.
Hermione continued as if Harry had not spoken at all. "Why is anyone talking about so-called fashion crimes when there are real atrocities taking place at these gatherings? And this"—she pointed at another article—"blithering idiot has written an entire page complaining about the Department of Magical Games and Sports for committing a grave offence against the wizarding public of Great Britain by suspending the Seeker of the Wigtown Wanderers from playing in the upcoming match of the League Cup!"
"That is a travesty; he was their only hope—"
"Argh!" Hermione screeched in frustration cutting off Harry. "No one's talking about what is actually going on."
"This isn't new, Hermione," replied Harry dully. "They own the news agencies, so they control what gets reported."
"Yes, but how will people know what's going on if the news won't report it!"
"How could they not know? The Death Eaters are hardly discreet about their crimes," countered Harry. "The general public may not want to do anything about it but they know," he said reassuringly.
Hermione shook her head.
"No, Harry. People have forgotten—or they've bought into the lies," said Hermione, recalling some of the conversations she had overheard at Bleidd as well as her discussion with Babjide.
It seemed a good time for it, so Hermione shared with Harry what she had learnt from her talks with the Supreme Mugwump of the ICW. Of course, she left out the part about how or why she had ended up meeting such an influential wizard, but Harry was too stunned by the revelations to notice the missing details.
"How can this be?—How can anyone be so blind?" he asked no one in particular. "They've killed, no, slaughtered, dozens of Muggleborns that we know of—and who knows how many Halfbloods are serving as slaves in Death Eater households across Britain... Surely, news of this—" Harry snapped his mouth shut seeing Hermione shake her head.
"They don't know."
"They don't know," repeated Harry. He pressed his forehead to the wall and leaned into it for support. "I thought no one was helping us because they had their own problems... But you're saying they don't know...?"
Hermione could understand what Harry was feeling in that moment. They had all believed the Death Eater propaganda of their successes overseas; they were convinced magical beings everywhere were fighting for their survival, same as them. It was primarily why the Order had decided against taking the risk of leaving Britain and seeking help from outside.
"Yes. The Death Eaters only have control of Britain; everyone else succeeded in beating them off... They don't even suspect the Death Eaters to be responsible for the attacks on their nations."
Hermione told Harry everything she had found out about the Death Eater operations overseas. As she spoke, Harry turned around and stood straight, his eyes slowly began to light up.
"This is good news then," he claimed excitedly. "We just need to get word out of what Riddle and his followers have been up to then we can get the international community to come support us in our fight!"
Isn't that just what Babjide asked her to do—get the ICW evidence of what was happening in Britain?
Hermione shook her head. While she had no reason to doubt Babjide's sincerity, in her experience bureaucrats in the wizarding world rarely acted until too late.
"We've got to spread our own propaganda... The wizarding public in Britain has been lulled into believing that the world as we knew it has not ended. The Death Eaters have been cleverly whitewashing their crimes for years so instead of feeling outraged, the public is now able to carry on with their lives pretending like it's normal for non-Purebloods and for those who oppose Riddle to get tortured, raped and killed—The public needs to be reminded this is not normal," said Hermione.
"I see what you mean... We need to highlight everything wrong with the current situation so people feel outraged by what is happening because then, maybe, they will join us in the fight."
Hermione nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, and we need to let them know that the Order's still alive and kicking butts," she added. "People need to know they have a real choice—support us or continue to do nothing, in which case they're just as culpable because they're passively supporting this evil regime. This is a war, and it is time for people to pick a clear side... No more sitting on the sidelines."
"How do we do this—how do we tell our side of the story?" asked Harry.
It was not as if they had not known the importance of publicising the misdeeds of Voldemort and his followers before... Luna Lovegood, in her own peculiar manner, had repeatedly warned them of the potential danger of letting the Death Eaters take complete and unchecked control of the narrative; but years ago, the Order had decided they could only afford to focus what little resources they had on hunting for Voldemort's horcruxes. The Order thus succeeded in destroying all but two of the horcruxes, however this was done at the cost of being labelled as terrorists and having their struggle forgotten by society.
Hermione could not come up with a suitable answer herself but she could think of a witch who may have an idea or three.
"Let's talk to Luna," she told Harry.
Harry owled Luna and arranged for them to meet the same day in a busy Muggle zoo in Cheshire. It was soon evident they had made the right choice in contacting Luna; the witch had more than a few ideas. One idea looked particularly promising, so they decided to call for a meeting with other Order members to plan their mission properly.
It was a productive meeting, but one that left Hermione feeling unsettled; Luna kept smiling at her in that odd way of hers as if she knew something no one else did. It did not help that the animals of the zoo behaved strangely anytime Hermione got too close to their enclosures; Harry may not have noticed their unusual reactions but someone like Luna, who studied creatures as a hobby, did not miss a thing.
"I'm so glad you called for me, Hermione," Luna said just as they were about to part ways.
"It was good to see you too, Luna," said Hermione with genuine affection for the younger witch. Though Luna's eccentricity took some getting used to, Hermione appreciated how considerate, intelligent and absolutely dedicated the witch could be.
"Motherhood suits you, Hermione—but then again you did have children with your mate. You were fortunate to find your mate, even if it was in such terrible circumstances—"
Turned out most of the Order were aware of certain aspects of Hermione's life at Bleidd thanks to the information Ginny had shared when she first returned. Thankfully, Harry had kept a lid on what had happened to Hermione afterwards.
"—I don't think people realise how much of what we know about werewolves is false ... Father used to say they can be very protective of their mates ... But you could not have known that; it must have been quite scary for you at first, especially when you found out you were pregnant," Luna stated in her typical dreamy tone.
Unsure of how to respond Hermione remained silent.
"I hope you will let me paint you some time before you leave—I'm trying to be more diligent when it comes to documenting my findings."
Luna already had portraits of all her friends in the Order, including Hermione; she could only be referring to Hermione's wolf. And Luna could not have known about her current status unless Harry said something.
Hermione looked at Harry and let loose a growl before she remembered where they were.
Harry—who was too busy staring longingly at the families visiting the zoo—failed to see the angry looks his friend was giving him; Luna did not.
"I can see why Remus is afraid of you," uttered Luna when she was done laughing.
The sound of Luna's tinkling laughter had drawn Harry's attention back to his friends. "What! Remus isn't afraid of Hermione," he said.
"Did Remus tell you that?" asked Hermione at the same time.
Luna flashed Harry a smile—the kind used by a patronising adult when dealing with a dim-witted child—before she turned to answer Hermione.
"Tonks mentioned it—I visit others sometimes, even though I know we're not supposed. I just get so lonely sometimes," she said smiling at both her friends. "Tonks thought Remus was keeping a respectful distance and avoiding eye contact because he was worried you may react the way Ginny did when they tried to approach her... I suspected there was more to his submissive behaviour."
Tonks and Remus were among the few Order members Hermione had met the night the Order attacked the Death Eaters. The she-wolf had noted the presence of another werewolf in the room, but beyond that took no further interest in the omega who carried the stink of fear on him. It never occurred to Hermione that Remus was afraid of her.
Harry looked like he was trying to make sense of what Luna was saying. Before he asked any questions, Hermione attempted to steer the conversation away from herself.
"There was something I wanted to hear your thoughts on," Hermione said to Luna. "Is there anyone you suspect to be the one who set up Ginny to get captured?"
She already knew from Harry that the Order's investigation yielded no clear suspects and without veritaserum, they would only learn the truth if the person responsible volunteered a confession.
"No, but I believe we will know something soon enough," Luna mentioned with a distant look in her eyes.
This time, Hermione was certain the blonde knew something they did not. "Yes...?" she prompted, hoping Luna would share what she knew.
"Yes," returned Luna and resumed to stare blankly at some point behind Hermione.
Hermione had known Luna long enough to know when to give up.
They found a spot suitable for disapparition. Just before she left her friends, Luna had one more thing to say.
"You've always been a quick learner, Hermione. I am hopeful you will learn to fully embrace your true nature and stop fighting it."
Draco's pack was adjusting well enough with their temporary living arrangements. Many of them still needed to heal after the big fight, but overall the pack's morale was better than it had been in a long while. It also helped that, despite their campsite being large enough to have caught the attention of the locals, so far no one had tried to cause any trouble over a pack of werewolves squatting on their land.
The tracking teams had not come across Gunnolf's scent but they did find Hermione's in a cave within the forest on the Mountains of the Moon. It was unclear how long ago, but the trackers believed Hermione had made the cave her dwelling at some point.
There was still no news on what was happening in Britain. Desperate for information Draco finally sent Mipsy to Pansy, who did not have a lot to say—Theo's father was missing and Theo's stock with the Dark Lord had improved dramatically. Pansy learnt these things from her father since Theo was too busy to even come home.
Draco had finally resigned himself to the fact that he was going to be in the dark until he heard from Theo or Potter, when Mipsy appeared before him with his mother's bracelet in hand.
Ron and Luna may not have been too fond of each other, but they undoubtedly made a good team. Between Ron's street smarts and Luna's creative thinking, they were able to devise a plan that would allow them to hijack the airwaves and broadcast over the Wizarding Wireless Network—that was Luna's big idea, host a pirate radio program to get their message out to anyone who may be listening.
To ensure their transmission signal was strong enough to be picked up by the wireless in neighbouring countries as well, they needed to hack into the WWN's signal tower. Luckily for the Order, the WWN still operated out of Hogsmeade Village, a place they were all well acquainted with. While there had been a strong presence of Death Eaters in the early years of Voldemort's reign, these days only a few Black Cloaks manned a solitary watch-post in the all-wizard village.
Breaking into the radio station and placing the charm on the signal tower that would give them access to the airwaves wasn't the challenge; the real challenge was gaining remote access to the signal tower so they did not have to break into the radio station each time they wanted to make a broadcast. The only foolproof way they could think of achieving this was to imperius the owner of the WWN and have him perform the necessary spells whenever they needed access. Unfortunately, the current owner of the WWN was the Imperius curse specialist himself, Edmond Mulciber Jr.
There was no way for any Order member to gain access to one of Voldemort's high-ranking Death Eaters, let alone maintain control of him over an extended period. This was a job was an insider; and so it was that Harry finally contacted Draco.
"Where in Hades have you been, Potter? You've been ignoring my attempts to reach you for days," accused a justifiably angry Draco.
"There were some personal developments that prevented me from speaking with you sooner," was all Harry offered by way of explanation.
To Harry's credit he did look genuinely contrite. In light of their previous conversation, Draco suspected the personal development was related to Ginny so he did not press Harry on the matter.
"So, are you going to tell me how it went or not?" Draco asked, jumping straight to the point. He had already received a gist of what had taken place thanks to one protean charmed bracelet; nevertheless, he wanted details.
Harry obliged, telling him how they executed the plan as well as what was done with the prisoners afterwards. From the way Amycus had died, it appeared Ginny had started talking about her time before Bleidd, thought Draco; no wonder Harry had been too busy to deal with anything else.
"We need your help, Draco," began Harry. "The Death Eaters have control of the news agencies, as well as the news. We do not have the resources to print and owl pamphlets to the masses, but we could manage a radio broadcast to get everyone to hear our story ... We need help from someone close to Riddle's inner circle."
Draco approved of Harry's reasoning as well as his plan. The Death Eaters may not have forgotten about the Order because of the Dark Lord's obsession with Harry Potter, but the rest of the world had. It was smart of the Order to take some steps, at long last, to fight the Death Eater propaganda.
Draco concluded their call without mentioning anything about what his trackers had found or about Lucius and Fenrir working together to find him and Ginny Weasley.
A whole week would pass before the Order could carry out their plan for the WWN. During the week, Theo finally fire-called Draco and told him about the state of high alert at the Ministry. Theo had used his time well to test the waters and found more and more Death Eaters welcoming a revolution against the Dark Lord even if they were terrified to act against their master.
Through Theo, Draco discovered that Gunnolf was back in Britain and with Fenrir's pack at Bleidd. Draco was angry with Theo for putting Gunnolf in danger but Theo assured him, Mr. Beefcake, as he was so fond of referring to Gunnolf, was just fine. Gunnolf provided Theo with regular updates over the floo; he had expressed concern over Fenrir growing more 'feral' as leads for either Draco or Ginny continued to evade them. Theo did not understand Gunnolf's concerns, but Draco did—if Fenrir went feral, his entire pack would turn rogue.
It took Theo a couple of days to act on Draco's request but he came through, and of all the people it was Mulciber's wife who helped Theo catch the hardened Death Eater off his guard.
For a long time, witches had enjoyed equal standing with their male counterparts, performing all sorts of roles in their society. That changed when the Dark Lord decided to fix the declining birth rates by instilling his Marriage Law.
Though called the Marriage Law, its sole focus was reproduction. The law effectively stripped witches of all bodily autonomy, outlawing all forms of birth control and abortion as well as ordering them to reproduce or face dire consequences. With not enough Pureblood witches to go around, it was not long before those of fertile age began to be owned and traded by their male family members—their only purpose and value now as breeding stock. It wasn't much better for the rest of the Pureblood witches. Those too old to serve as broodmares had to watch their husbands defile their Pureblood prisoners until they got one pregnant.
The loss of independence and the intrusion of Black Cloaks—who now served as enforcers—in the intimate aspects of their lives were too much for most witches. Even the ones happily married to a wizard of their choice thought it was a terrible time to start a family.
Because of the efforts made by Pansy and Narcissa, when it came to the high-standing witches, Theo knew exactly who was most disaffected with the new regime and therefore most likely to help the other side. Unfortunately for the current owner of the WWN, his wife's discontentment had reached the point where she would have traded places with a squib if it meant being free of Mulciber and the impositions of the Marriage Law.
Theo, with assistance from Mrs Mulciber, hoodwinked her husband and turned him into an unwitting puppet of the Order. The Order then carried out their plan, breaking into the radio station and making the alterations needed to use the WWN's system to broadcast their messages. Hermione erased the memory of the incident from the minds of everyone working at the radio station that day so the break-in was never reported.
Soon the WWN began to broadcast regular messages from the Order about what was happening in wizarding Britain. Order members took turns hosting the show, reminding the public about the crimes committed by Voldemort and his followers as well as the measures being taken by the Order to fight the Death Eaters. They spoke of their dreams of a new world, free from the prejudices of blood superiority. They spoke of what they had lost, and how much more they were willing to sacrifice to achieve their dreams.
The show was a success, with more and more people tuning in for updates. The wizarding public in Great Britain was ready for a change; knowing the Order was still championing their cause filled them with hope. However, none of their broadcasts had quite the impact as the first one, when Harry Potter himself took the microphone and made his speech act. The Chosen One informed the public that as their first major act, the Order had destroyed the entire stock of Fero and taken four top Death Eaters as hostages; it was in his words, their declaration of war against Tom Riddle and his Death Eaters. Yet the words that haunted everyone who heard his speech that night was a line he had uttered in closing—it was time for them to pick a side.
AN: Updates will be sporadic because it really annoys me to login here and see how poorly this fic is faring. Jayzus, there are fics published an hour ago that are doing better.