Romania
Romania was the perfect place for Tom. It was far enough away from Britain to be safe for now. Things moved at a more leisurely pace here than in Britain. It would be easy for him to find some support here. The thing which he had wanted was to have an edge with which to persuade them to his side.
The only problem that he had was that his face was too well known in all parts of the magical world. People recognised him on sight. He had received the word from Meyer that the ICW had let loose some of its chosen hit wizards to find him and put him down when they got the word that he was out of wizarding Britain. He was amused mostly because the ICW was generally pacifist. They had not taken the violent way against anyone since Grindelwald. Butt then Grindelwald was a big threat and a bigger idiot.
Grindelwald had led a war against the magical world with an army at his back. But he lacked commanders who were as vicious as him nor did he have the undying loyalty of his followers like Voldemort himself did. When it had become apparent that Albus Dumbledore had entered the war and was leading the forces of the ICW, most of his allies had abandoned him. They had all jumped ship and Grindelwald was left with a handful of followers who had not left his side. For himself, Voldemort solved this problem by branding followers such that if they attempted to betray him, they would quickly die for their lack of faith.
Voldemort had taken his lesson from Grindelwald's defeat. Grindelwald aimed higher but without ensuring that he had the means. He should have captured territories and countries one by one instead of trying to capture the world all at once. Taking a lesson from him, Voldemort had started with a country first. Avalon had a rich history of magic. With it on his side, he would have been invincible. He had the magic of Slytherin coursing in his veins and knew of some of the most powerful bloodlines there. He had many scions of old powerful families among his followers. He would have preferred the Longbottoms on his side because he knew of their history of being magical Vikings. He had recruited as many Blacks as he could find because they were an old house having originally come from the ancient country of Kemet. He wanted Potter too but James Potter had defied him to the last. Voldemort had to appreciate his valour when he was standing wandless against him trying to save his wife and son. Such loyalty was what he appreciated but alas! They would never have swayed to his side.
When he reached Romania, the first thing he had done was to seek an old Warlord Ionut Anastase. Ionut Anastase was about 10 years older than Voldemort and he had been the one to introduce him to Master Abbadon. Ionut like him was a sadistic person who wanted to see the world burn to ashes while he revelled in the feeling. He was powerful and had a very shrewd mind. It was from him that Voldemort got the idea to start by capturing a country. During the last few decades, Anastase had won and lost his hold on the country and surrounding regions. However unlike Wizarding Britain, people here did not frown on those who practiced Dark Magic. Since nothing could ever be pinned on Anastase, he lived an outwardly respectable life, while he killed his enemies quietly. He was mostly a political person.
Voldemort had no problem finding his manor. As he was a well known person and lived very lavishly, he didn't see the need for secrecy. His manor was huge but not very impressive to Voldemort after he had seen some of the more pretentious ones like Malfoy Manor. Lucius Malfoy liked to squander his gold and to show off to everyone. Unlike him, Ionut's manor had the feeling of a well lived in home. When he approached the manor, he cast a few detection spells to find the usual arrangement of blood wards and war wards around the place. It was no surprise to him. Anyone this influential was bound to have enemies. And to live without any security whatsoever would greatly shorten one's life expectancy.
The two wizards who were guarding the main gate of the manor shuddered at the sight of him. But gathering their courage, they challenged him, "What business do you have beyond these gates that you are approaching them?"
Voldemort drawled, "Inform your master that Lord Voldemort requests an audience."
The two had run away in such haste that it was comical. About 10 minutes later, the wizards hadn't return but the gates swung open of their own accord. Voldemort strode in. At a distance beyond the gates stood Ionut Anastase with his customary sadistic smile on his face as if he was about to light the world on fire. Other than the smile, most everything about him had changed. He was old for one thing. His dense hair had gone white and had started to recede. For another he had grown a forked beard which gave him an even more sinister look. His steel gray eyes were just as devoid of any warmth and abyssal as ever.
He didn't smile or make any gesture of welcoming Voldemort but said curtly, "Voldemort, I see the years have been kind to you. You still look young for a man about to be 70 years old."
Voldemort nodded, "Hello, my friend! It has been a long time."
He chuckled evilly, "We are not friends, Voldemort. I know you too well for that. What do you want of me?"
Voldemort said coldly, "Still the sadistic, cold, cynical man, Ionut? Very well, I want some information from you."
The other wizard raised an eyebrow, "And what would that information be? I don't think there's much that I can teach to Abbadon's favourite pupil."
Voldemort showed no expression but continued in the same cold drawling tone, "I want information on the Vampire Covens. I wish to recruit them to my cause in my war against Wizarding Britain."
The other wizard gave a dry chuckle, "You have been waging a war on them neigh 40 years now. Alright if you want the location of the leeches, I will find out and let you know. Is there anything else?"
"I want you to lend me some of your followers to aid in my battle."
Ionut shook his head, "No Voldemort. This is a request I can't grant. My men are not my slaves but loyal followers. I won't put them at risk for a mere acquaintance."
Voldemort grunted, "Alright. I will make do with the Vampires."
The other wizard continued, "Is there anything else?"
"I presume you are going to Show me the hospitality of your fine home, Ionut. Is that disagreeable?", he asked in a sickly sweet voice.
Ionut refused immediately, "I am not inviting you into my home. The ICW is on your trail and I don't want anything to do with them. I already have problems of my own without having the ICW after me. I however will give you a portkey to a safe house for your own use while you are here. When I have any information about the leeches, I will send it to you".
Saying that, he tossed a ring to Voldemort who tapped his wand to it muttering 'activate' and with a tug behind his navel, he was gone.
As Voldemort disappeared, the wizard turned to one of his associates, "Gustov, inform the Vampires that Voldemort is looking for them. Merlin knows we don't need them on his side."
Hogwarts
Harry woke up before dawn. Looking out of his dorm, he found that the weather had started to turn. Mercifully he could take all of them on a run again. He picked up his wand holster and sent a message on it to everyone in the Order- "Meet me in the dungeons in the next 10 minutes. Tardiness will be dealt with harshly. Urgent."
He watched as the wand holsters of everyone in his dorm started emitting whirring noises which got louder and louder until they got up. Neville grumbled, "Mate, it's before dawn. Why do we have to go out at this unearthly hour?"
Harry walked out of the dorm while saying over his shoulder, "If I don't find you down there in 10 minutes, you're all in for a lot of pain today."
As he casually walked down to the dungeons, He met Mrs. Norris on the way. He wanted to kick that wretched cat much like every student in the castle. He knew that she would be bringing Filch over in a minute. As she turned to go and disappear into the shadows, he inaudibly and wandlessly stunned her. Then he raised his voice, "Peeves".
The poltergeist came floating to him after a minute, "Potty calls Peevsie?"
Harry pointed to Mrs. Norris, "Take her away, will you? Hide her somewhere so that she can't interrupt us for about the next 2 hours."
Cackling, Peeves picked up the cat and floated away, "Oh yes! Fun times for Peevsie and Mrs. Norris!"
When he reached the dungeons, there was about 3 minutes remaining before the time limit ran out. He conjured a wing-backed chair and sat in it.
He was expecting the Serpents to arrive first because of their proximity. He was surprised to find Luna already in that corridor, trying to find something in a dark corner.
"Luna, what are you looking for?", he asked her.
"Oh, I thought I saw a wrackspurt here about a moment ago. I was going for a walk when I received your message and taking it to be urgent, I came as soon as I could."
About 5 minutes later, the serpents were the next to come scrambling to see what the commotion was about. As they came in, they found Harold Peverell sitting in a wing-backed chair, his legs crossed upon another on the knee and his wand in his lap with a grin on his face. A grin which did not bode well for them.
He smirked while he surveyed them, "I sent a message to all of you to come about 12 minutes ago and I told you it's urgent. If it were a death eater attack, I would have been dead. Is that what I have taught you all?"
Daphne growled, "Who wakes up at this unearthly hour, Peverell? Why have you called us here anyway?"
Harry grinned, "I miss shooting spells at all of you while you run. The weather was perfect and I wanted to have some fun. So here you are."
They all groaned collectively. It was Tracy who voiced their grievances, "Most of us are in our night-clothes, Harry. How are we supposed to run dressed like this?"
Mentally, Harry shrugged. To him it was not a challenge to transfigure what he was wearing into what would serve best under any circumstances. He decided that if they couldn't think for themselves, he wasn't going to help them. Harry's grin widened, "That's even better, Tracy. We don't know when the castle might be attacked or what state of dress we may be in at the time. Think of this as an opportunity to think on your feet."
Seconds later, the Puffs were the next to arrive with Susan in charge. She looked agitated and had her wand out. When she saw him lounging in a chair carelessly, she shot a stinger at him which he waved off with his hand and stood to embrace her.
She pummelled his chest with her fists, "You idiot! I was freaked out of my mind. Couldn't you be more specific?"
The claws and the lions arrived pretty much together. Only the fifth year lions were dressed in appropriate clothes while others were mostly in their night clothes. After everyone had made their presence known, Harry started addressing them, "Alright, listen up. Most of you were late in arriving. If I had been under some real threat, I would likely have been dead or abducted by now. In short, you all fail this test. Now start running."
That day, Harry joined them in running through those corridors for about the first hour. After that, he and Neville took up their positions to train the others. They started with wide area stunners. As he had thought, most of them fell to the spell.
After they had all been enervated, he faced them, "You have all failed me twice in the same day and it isn't even breakfast time yet. That has to be some kind of record. Couldn't any of you have the forethought to have your wand out and shield against spells which you could not dodge? You have all become lax with no practice for the last 50 days. And why are most of you still in your night clothes? Have none of you learned anything in transfigurations? See me tonight in the Room of Requirement. I need to refresh your memories."
With that he walked away followed closely by his friends.
Hermione asked him, "Why are you in such a mood, Harry? Has something happened?"
Harry grumbled, "You have all forgotten everything that I taught you and that Moody taught you. I mean did you people forget that we cast spells at you while you run? I am very disappointed. If that is how you go into battle then I would rather that I go alone."
Susan said, "I know we can't make excuses for our tardiness but we can do better the next time."
When they all arrived for breakfast, most of them were sore from running after so many days off. It showed in their demeanour. Everyone was silently eating their food when owls started coming in.
When Hermione opened her newspaper, she almost dropped it in shock.
"30 Muggles dead, Longbottom Manor attacked"
In what can only be seen as growing boldness of the Death Eaters, yesterday in a slew of attacks, they killed 30 muggles in different parts of London while another 40 were taken to St. Mungo's. They are being treated for their injuries.
Sources inside the ministry have speculated that these attacks were revenge for the death of Bellatrix Nameless and other death eaters killed in the recent botched ambush in Cardiff. When the ministry forces responded, they were not able to kill or capture many death eaters. Upon the arrival of Ministry forces, the death eaters retreated immediately rather than engage. About 5 death eaters were reportedly caught in those attacks.
These attacks perhaps represented the most concerted effort yet. They forced the ministry to deploy all of its Aurors to the widely scattered locations. As it appears, these heinous attacks were only a distraction to enable the master plan of attacking the Longbottom manor, also known as Green Hues. The only one home at the time was Augusta Longbottom, the dowager Lady Longbottom.
The manor is warded with some custom made wards which were erected after the last war and the attack on the General and his wife which had incapacitated them and kept them in St. Mungo's for years. It is rumoured that the said wards were erected by the Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries and therefore to dare to attack the wards by the death eaters shows their growing boldness. The attack would not have harmed the General or his wife directly, yet if any harm had come to Dowager Lady Longbottom, it could have damaged the morale of the wizarding world by reason that Augusta Longbottom is one very well respected name in the community.
Since the ministry had no reinforcements to send to thwart the attack on the manor, things could have been dire. It has been reported that the attack on Green Hues was thwarted by the now well known Order of the Snow Leopard which as in other instances, was able to arrive within the nick of time. Their identity is still a matter of speculation. It is rumoured that the members of the said order are hit-wizards who have been hired by someone who has a grudge with the death eaters.
Alastor Moody, the chief of the Aurors had this to say, 'I suppose they have their reasons for remaining anonymous. They'll let you know who they are when they're ready. For now, I'm just glad they could be there when we couldn't. For now, their identity and their objectives are a matter for the Ministry. Be wise of you to leave it at that.'
The General could not be reached for his comment."
There was another news item in the lower half of the paper:
"Ministry approves conducting inheritance rituals for students at Hogwarts
The Ministry, in a press release issued last evening, has given permission to conduct inheritance tests for all muggle-born students at Hogwarts to determine if they descend from any of the noble houses. It is hoped that some may be found to be rightful heirs to houses which no longer exist. The ministry has conducted an investigation into the report, leaked about a month ago, which claimed that the Muggle-born are descendants of old families. Their research has found that this claim is true.
It is likely that many of those tested will be related to families which already have heirs existing. There will also be those who are descended from families considered to have gone extinct. What would happen in case there are already existing descendants is anyone's guess. If there are no other heirs, then it is very probable that we will see many of our houses being revived.
When we contacted Gringotts, the spokes-Goblin said, 'we have received communication from the ministry. We are ready to go and conduct these rituals. Headmaster Dumbledore has agreed to let us use the Great Hall for the purpose.'
When asked about how it would change anything, Gringotts had to say, 'This will lead to many accounts being reopened. The economy of the wizarding world will benefit from gold which has been lying around going back into circulation.'
We at the Daily Prophet can only speculate what the far reaching consequences of the said event will be."
When Harry read the news about the inheritance tests, he realised that the tests which were to be held about a week or so earlier had been postponed because the ministry had asked Gringotts to do so. The Ministry had said that it would allow for the tests when its investigation into the credibility of the report was finished. Apparently it was.
When she was done reading, she looked up at Harry, "Was this another of your little excursions we knew nothing about?"
Harry shook his head, "Not this time. It was entirely Neville and his team. I and Susan were only there as back-up. I can tell you that it's hard to be a spectator when you are itching to fight."
Hermione turned to Hannah, "Were you there?"
It was then Harry realised that Hannah was not so chipper this morning and for that matter, even Corner and McNaughton were quiet. He asked her, "Hannah, is something bothering you?"
Neville answered for her, "She's never had to kill anyone before. The knockback from one of her curses caused one of them to fly into the wards where he was incinerated instantly."
Harry nodded, "Meet me this evening at 4 in behind the mirror. It's about time we had one of our meetings."
Ministry of Magic
Frank was tired. He was tired of all the speculations and aspersions in the newspaper. He knew that if Harry wanted to, he could ask the Daily Prophet to cease from writing about the Order of the Snow Leopard in a bad light. But he also knew that doing so might have made them realise that perhaps the said Order had some connections with the owners of the paper. That was not something they were willing to risk revealing just yet.
Right now, he was in his chair opposite Mad-Eye who was giving his report on the incidents last night. Mad-eye was also frustrated with being tied up in the office. But, even if he were allowed to go out, there was nothing that he could do except maybe kill one or two of them. Whoever was in charge of the Death Eaters was willing to send all of their men to die. This was not something that the Ministry could afford. Frank valued the lives of the Aurors and if he had his way, he would have minimum casualties.
He turned to Moody, "Alastor, what happened to your source? We should have been informed in advance about the death eater's plans to attack Green Hues. It was luck that others were vigilant and had their own network which alerted them."
Moody nodded, "I will go and meet my source today to find out why we were not forewarned. I am also curious about how the lads are getting all the information which we don't. I am also baffled about how they can apparate out of the castle with the war wards being active all the time."
Frank shrugged, "They have young minds that think in different ways to solve any problem Alastor. They are new blood. When they join the ministry or take their seats on the Wizengamot, I will be the happiest. We could sure do with them sharing some of their ways with us. Merlin knows we need it."
"Do you require anything of me?", Alastor asked him. When Frank shook his head in the negative, he stood up, clicked his heels and was gone.
Mad-eye did not return to his office but to the torture chambers. In all the hassle of the last few days, he had no opportunity to interrogate them. Gawain had interrogated them before hand. His report had indicated who would be the first to fold under pressure. Alastor had ordered that one to be strapped to the chair in the interrogation chamber before he had gone to make his report to the minister.
When Alastor entered the room and turned the light on with a wave of his wand, he was surprised to see that it was a mere child strapped to the chair. He couldn't have been more than 20 or so. The mere thought that children as young as them were being brainwashed into serving Voldemort made him sad. That thought however only lingered for a moment before he remembered that the cretin before him had taken the mark willingly.
He took his time to conjure a chair and sat in it before turning to the death eater, "I'm not going to bother asking your name. Since the coward that you call master has returned, I have interrogated too many to care about. For me, you are just a number. I presume you already know who I am."
The death eater spat, "I don't fear the likes of you, Mad-eye."
Mad-eye sighed, "Not too bright, are ye lad? Why do you idiots bother to start posturing as if you are tough and courageous?" His magical eye bored into the prisoner, "I know that you're a coward. Do you think that I won't interrogate you? You were arrested in Cardiff where 15 of my boys were killed in a cowardly ambush at the hands of your comrades. Even if for nothing else, I want to hex you into oblivion with bone breakers. Do you realise how much pain it causes when a bone breaks?"
The death eater had clamped his mouth shut. Alastor just shrugged at the younger man's stupidity. Then to see if it would make his prisoner smarter, he shot a bone breaker at his leg. The snap and the howl from the death eater felt perversely satisfying to him, "I don't have to be careful about keeping you alive either. Should you die while I'm interrogating you, I'll simply report that you succumbed to your injuries. A fact that nobody will question. I've also gone to the trouble to learn torture the muggle ways. They are quite effective I assure you. And still, one of my prisoners refused to answer before he bled out all over the dungeon floor. It'll be interesting to see how much you'll take before you sell out your own mother. The other way is, I ask my questions and you answer them nice and polite.". He stopped long enough to rearrange his battered visage into a feral grin before he continued, "Now, we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way. I'm hoping you'll choose the hard way."
The death eater swallowed. Alastor started asking his questions, "First question. You look like you haven't been out of Hogwarts for long. Why did you join Voldemort?"
The death eater winced while he replied, "The Dark Lord promised to make the purebloods great again. He will establish a society which will be free of the impurity of the mudblood…"
Faster than thought, Alastor lashed out with the dagger in his left hand and buried in the death eater's thigh, "Remember I said nice and polite? Use that word again and the dagger will find your heart. Now continue."
The death eater howled and bawled in pain. Alastor waited for sometime before he growled, "This is just the start. If you think your cries can save you from me, you are sadly mistaken. Nobody but me can hear you in here. This room has silencing wards. If you don't start speaking again, I will teach you new ways to experience pain."
The death eater continued to howl, lamenting the wound in his leg. When Alastor lost patience with the display, he savagely plunged his blade deeper into the wound while twisting it. Between screams of pain, the death eater begged for mercy, but the Auror kept at his work for a good five minutes without any outward sign that he could even hear his victim.
When Alastor was satisfied that he had driven his point home, he said, "Here's the deal, laddy. You do what I want or I get to do what I want. The question you will answer is, why did you join the death eaters?"
The death eater finally started speaking, gritting his teeth against the pain from his ruined leg, "the Dark Lord painted a rosy picture of the world that he would make when he was strong in the first war. A world where we purebloods will rule and others will serve us. He also promised to kill those who had stolen our magic. Who wouldn't want to serve such a noble purpose?"
Alastor growled, "And what about the blood lines he extinguished? Magical blood which has been serving our world since long before Britain was a nation? What about them? Were their lives nothing? Even hundreds of your comrades have been killed since your Dark Lord has come out into the open. What about them?"
"Every war asks for our sacrifice. We sacrifice ourselves along the way to fulfil the dreams of the Dark Lord. Those who oppose us are in the way and have to be taken care of. We will have new bloodlines which will serve us."
With a great effort, Alastor resisted the urge to snatch the dagger from the prisoner's leg and plunge it into his heart. Then he snarled, "Hard as it is for me to believe, you're stupider than you look. That farce of a so-called dark lord that you serve is a half-blood that cares nothing about you or anyone else. Pure-blood, half-blood, muggle-born, muggle, it's all the same to him. He'll spend the lives of your friends and family like water if it gets him what he wants. Now, I've wasted enough time trying to smarten you up. Next, you're going to tell me exactly what your inner circle is up to in that little hidey-hole you call headquarters."
This time the death eater refused to speak. Alastor reminded him with a twist of the dagger, "You do what I want or I get to do what I want."
When the prisoner still refused to speak, he pulled the dagger from the wound and plunged it into the prisoner's other leg. The prisoner screamed, tried to reach the new wound with his hand to stop the bleeding and the pain, but his shackles held him firmly in place.
Alastor knew that he should remove the dark mark from the prisoner at this point in the interrogation. Peeling it off with his dagger or even amputating the arm with a dark cutter would be merciful compared to what would happen next. But, he wanted to see if the new restraints would be strong enough to prevent the prisoner from throttling himself when he betrayed Voldemort. If somehow his marked arm yanked free of the arm-rest it could kill him for all he cared.
"Tell me what they are planning or I will kill you… slowly.", growled Alastor.
The death eater was in too much pain to try and answer. Alastor didn't care about him at all. He only wanted answers. When he saw no answer forthcoming he Said coldly, "So be it."
He cast a numbing charm on the prisoner's entire body. Although it gave him immediate relief from the pain of his wounded legs and broken bone, He was immediately suspicious. Somewhere right at the edge of his vision, Alastor picked up an instrument from a table. With a grin, the old Auror displayed the fan shaped blade before his prisoner's eyes, "Do you know what this is, lad? It's a skinning knife. Since they put me back in active service, I've been collecting trophies. I've got dozens of hides from your fellows before you. I'm about to add yours to my collection while you watch, hence the numbing charm. I'm going to send the whole lot to your master as a gift."
He ripped the shirt open and started working below where the restraint shackles would let the prisoner see. All the time, Moody watched the marked arm for the tell-tale twitch that meant the death eater had decided to talk and was about to be choked to death by his own hand.
It didn't take long before he started begging, "No! Please! I'll tell you everything. Just don't skin me alive."
The old Auror sat back down in his chair. He watched with some amusement as important parts of the marked arm tore themselves apart with the effort of trying to break loose to kill the traitor. Thanks to the numbing charm, the hapless prisoner wasn't even aware that his own arm was desperately trying to kill him. "Well", he thought, "At least we know that the new restraints are good enough."
"Alright.", He said as he grinned, running his thumb along the edge of the bloody skinning instrument, "Start singing."
There was no sense telling the death eater that he only threatened to flay him alive. Any hard core death eater would not have broken down even half way yet. This one was still young so it didn't take much effort. Under the numbing charm, he had already stopped the bleeding from the leg wounds and repaired the broken bone, but the damage to the lad's left arm looked hideous. Bones splintered, the detached muscles still twitching with the effort to try and kill their host, it would likely have to be amputated. Well, that made little difference since the lad was going to be tried, convicted and executed as a death eater anyway.
"They are trying to get the Germans to train us or at least be able to work in co-ordination with us. I also heard about more people arriving from Austria."
Alastor was shocked, "What! How do you know that?"
"They think they are above other followers. They keep some of us to run errands. An errand boy, being practically invisible to their inflated egos, can learn much just by standing in a corner."
Moody grimaced. If there were more coming it would mean that they would need help and sooner. A meeting of the Order was in order to take this news to them. However before that he needed to see Severus Snape and ask why his intelligence failed this time.
Potions Master's Office
The floo in Snape's office roared and someone growled, "Snape, are you there?"
Severus recognised that voice. He looked at the grate and sure enough, Moody's face was sitting in the flames. He drawled, "What do you want Mad-eye? I have a class in minutes."
Moody growled, "You failed to inform us about the attacks yesterday. If others had not been vigilant, we would have had even more losses on our side."
Severus drawled, "Did it occur to you that I am a teacher and may be my responsibilities didn't allow me to leave my post?"
Moody barked, "Don't give me that steaming pile of dragon dung of an excuse. You may have convinced Albus but not me."
When Moody's head disappeared, Severus decided to go to the unknown castle and see Rabbastan. If he continued to be unreliable then Severus would have to dispose of him and find another spy.
Behind the Mirror on the 4th Floor
When the members of the Order had all arrived, Harry started speaking without preamble, "yesterday, a few members of our order were there to defeat the attack on Longbottom Manor. They fought well and defeated the death eaters without suffering any casualties. But things could have gone very differently and I am going to address that right now while you are all here.".
He turned to Susan, "Susan, since you had the chance to observe, please give me your assessment."
She took her time to reply, "They were brilliant but they used large trees for hard cover. This restricts their movement when dodging. If any of those trees had taken a hit from a killing curse and fallen the wrong way, they could have been pinned or crushed to death. The other issue was that after the first volley, everyone but Neville were shouting out their spells at the top of their lungs, giving their opponents every chance to counteract them."
Harry nodded, "That was right on the mark. Thank you, Susan. Using trees for hard cover is a questionable judgement. They are living things and can be killed outright by certain curses, including the killing curse. We can talk more about that later. Shouting out your incantations, on the other hand, is very poor practice in any combat. No spell can be effective unless it hits its target. No spell can hit its target when everyone in shouting distance knows what it is before it even leave your wand. Non-verbal spells can be a pain to cast. They also have less power behind them but a spell that is counteracted before it even leaves your wand is no spell at all.
While I know that it might be tedious to teach inaudible casting to everyone with everything that's already going on, we must do it to be effective in combat. As I see it, most of us will be there in the final battle. I want to give you every chance possible to come out of it alive. Of course, your best chance to survive is to be somewhere else when it all goes down." He paused and looked around at everyone's faces while he let his words sink in.
After some time, he started speaking again, "So how many of you can cast inaudibly?"
Most of them who had studied under mad-eye raised their hand.
Harry did a double-take, "This is surprising but great. Now can I impose upon all of you to teach it to your friends or team members? For those whose team members already know it, you can teach others. It shouldn't take long."
They agreed and Harry spoke further, "Yesterday I also noticed how deftly Neville commanded his team members and they acted according to his instructions. The highest praise that anyone can give to it was in Gran Augusta's words, 'I came out to see that mere students were fighting the death eaters and taking them down as if they were hit wizards.' I know that the members of my team have the ability to work like a well-oiled machine. Now, I want to see that in every team. Most of all, I want them to obey their leader without any questions."
Hermione nodded, "How do you propose we go about it? I mean we will need to look after everyone and not all of them are at the same level talent wise."
Harry nodded, "Indeed. Therefore it is time that we take the next step."
Hermione asked him, "What next step? What are you going to do? Are there any more secrets you are keeping?"
Harry smirked, "Hermione, I am always keeping secrets. For now, the next step is to divide them. It is time we give them their specific roles. They should know what they are to do in case of siege. The list that you prepared will be useful and we will also be able to see how correct we were in our assumptions."
He then turned to Hannah, "Hannah now that you have taken a life, how do you feel about it?"
Hannah didn't know what to say, "Harry, I am still shocked. I mean I watched in fascination when he flew back into the wards and was incinerated. On the other hand, I was nauseated when I saw their twisted bodies after the bone breakers hit them. The thing that Dowager Longbottom did with them! That was horrifying for me. I didn't know that she could move so fast or be so brutal."
Harry nodded, "Even I was amazed with it. If only she were a couple years younger, I wouldn't need anyone else to take down Voldemort with his inner circle."
Everyone had a good laugh at his statement. Then Harry turned sombre again, "Hannah I know taking life is grim business. It can lead to scarring your soul forever. Those visions may haunt you for the rest of your life but remember that it was imperative for you to do it. When it comes to your life or theirs, there is only one choice."
Unknown Castle
The Inner circle was sitting for another meeting to discuss what to do when Severus thundered into the room. His expression bore ill for anyone who dared to offend him. Except for the departed Bella, nobody really liked to antagonize him anyway. They all knew how much their Lord valued Severus's advice over their own and how useful he was to them.
Severus took his seat at the table before he asked them, "What are we talking about?"
Lucius asked him, "What are you doing here? Won't the old mudblood loving fool notice that you are missing?"
Severus said coldly, "With you idiots trying to get every last one of us killed, I had to venture out. I told the old fool that I am going to gather some information. That was the only way that he would allow me to get out of the castle." He waited for a moment before he started speaking again, "Do you have any idea how many we have lost yet? If the Dark Lord himself wasn't on an expedition to work tirelessly to augment our numbers, we would have been worse off. Do you plan to annihilate all of our followers?"
Dolohov asked, "What are you talking about, Severus? The ministry is also losing Aurors as we lose death eaters. Unlike us, they are not getting any help."
Severus looked at him as if Dolohov was stupid, "Tell me Antonin, you succeed in killing one Auror while they kill 5 of your death eaters. How does that sound to you? Before we are able to kill all the Aurors, they will have annihilated all of the death eaters. And then there is this new order about whom no one knows anything. What I have been able to unearth about them is that they are some foreign group of wizards who are being paid to fight in the war. I couldn't figure out who is their benefactor but I suspect Black is behind it. This Order shoots first and doesn't linger for questions later. They struck some kind of deal with the Ministry where the ministry overlooks their crimes in return for their services. With the ministry and this Order working together, do you think we will have enough followers left for the Dark Lord to wage his war on Magical Britain?"
Dolohov asked him, "So what do you propose we do?"
Snape looked at Greyback, "Can I trust you to harass the ministry and cause damage to it?"
Greyback grinned, "Just point me to the targets and I will get it done. Perhaps we'll even add a few werewolves to our ranks while I'm at it?"
Severus smirked, "I am sure that you all can come up with choice targets by yourselves. But, by no means are you Greyback, to go out by yourself. If something were to happen to you, the rest of them will bolt."
Greyback nodded. Severus then turned to Rookwood, "Augustus, what happened to your ward breaking skills? In your idiocy you have even cost us the ward breaker. Why couldn't you go out and assess the wards by yourself?"
Now that Severus said it, they all realised that they were indeed idiots to have kept Rookwood inside. Even if he were not sent with a group, he could have gone by himself to assess the wards. No one would even inspect a single individual. Maybe he would have found some fault in those wards.
In fact with all the suggestions that Severus gave, they all realised why the Dark Lord preferred his counsel over theirs. He was shrewd enough to know what to do. He apparently had solutions to all of their problems.
When the meeting was over, Snape found Rabbastan in his room, "Lestrange, why didn't you tell me about their activities?"
Rabbastan sputtered something incoherently then Severus petrified him. Employing legilimancy, he entered Rabbastan's mind and found that the younger Lestrange was trying to fight off the Imperious curse. Severus hadn't suspected that he could do that. The fact that he was offering resistance threw a wrench in his plans. He would have to break his mind completely to make him bow to his will.
Distastefully he closed the door with a flick, employing some strong wards around the room and locking the door with a locking charm. He then turned to Lestrange, pointed his wand at him and coldly intoned, "Crucio!"
Rabbastan withered under his spell for about a minute before Snape ended his curse. Employing legilimancy, he checked his mind again and perhaps didn't like what he saw because he levelled his wand at Lestrange again and intoned, "Crucio."
Lestrange withered under the curse, his teeth chattered and after about 2 minutes, Snape ended the spell. He checked his mind again and this time perhaps he liked what he saw because this time, he cast the Imperious curse, "Imperio."
Lestrange's eyes glazed over and Snape's voice started to echo in his mind, "You are not allowed to resist my commands or my spell. For you only my commands matter. You will do as I say and send me a report daily on the coin."
With that he ended the spell, shoved a potion down Lestrange's throat to ease the symptoms of the Cruciatus curse and then performed the obliviation curse making him forget that Snape had cast the Cruciatus curse on him.
He walked out of the Castle with some ideas in his mind and to inform a few people about the happenings in the meeting.
The Room of Requirement
When the students gathered in the Room of Requirement, they realised that Harry was not going to teach them anything straight away. He was going to talk first. They all pulled up a chair.
He started speaking, "You have all worked with dedication and it shows. Every one of you has come a long way from where you were at the beginning of the school year.
There is something that I must talk to you about today. As you might have read, yesterday the Longbottom manor was attacked. A few of our members defended the place. This reminded me that not all of you are fighters. There is no shame in that. I am sure everyone here can agree this is something we would rather find out here and now rather than when you are in a life and death situation.
I want to make a couple of things clear. First, nobody is going to be kicked out. Everything we are learning here will go towards helping you pass your exams. It will be better for you to know it if you are ever in a situation where your options are to fight or die. Second, there are things that will need to be done that do not include front-line fighting or taking lives. Specifically, we will need people to help with healing, evacuation and caring for the evacuated children when the time comes. I would like people to identify themselves and volunteer for these duties so that we can begin to specialize your training. We can be flexible. You can change your specialization at any time, but I point out that the earlier you make this choice, the better prepared you will be. I'll give you a few minutes to consider."
The students were stunned. A choice? They all thought that they were training to take on Voldemort and his minions. Until now, it hadn't occurred to any of them that they could help in any other way.
Lee Jordan raised his hand and asked, "But why? We all want to fight with you and we sure can bring them down."
Harry Sighed and explained, "Lee, I've worked with and talked to everybody here. I can't even tell you how it feels to know that any one of you would walk through fire for me. Please understand, this is not about loyalty or courage. You have all proven that you have more than enough of both. This is every one of you taking a good hard look inside and deciding for yourself where you can be the most help to our cause. We do need defenders, but we also need people to save lives by healing and evacuating those who cannot or should not fight."
Lee nodded.
Harry continued, "Before any of you make a hasty decision, one of our teams defended Longbottom Manor. I want you to hear a first-hand account of what it was like. Neville, Hannah, Michael and Rupert, please come forward.". He waited while they all made their way to his side. He asked, "Who would like to have a go first?"
Michael volunteered, "I was studying for OWLs when I received a message that I was being called for some action. Well, I won't deny that I had been itching for some action since we started learning all these spells and I felt it would be a good opportunity to know what it was like. When we got there, Longbottom told us what we were to do and then the implications began settling in. I mean we were to kill, take a life. We were deliberately going to end a life knowing the consequences of our actions. I was even doubting myself if I would be able to take the shot."
Everyone listening to him was enraptured. Harry himself hadn't had the opportunity to talk about how he felt when he killed for the first time. His first kill was in the battle in Burma where he had killed a few. Harsh hadn't stopped to ask him how he had been feeling. In fact for mystics, it was second nature so there was no one to tell his experience to.
Michael was saying, "So, there we were, mere students who were about to take on adult death eaters who could kill us. When Longbottom gave the command, we let loose our spells and three of them were knocked into the wards where they were incinerated. The fourth one looked like he'd been hit with a muggle cannon ball. All four of them died in the same moment. This was the first time that I have seen wards killing someone and trust me it was not pretty. With the next volley, I'm sure I downed one of them with a bone breaker. The odd angle at which his body was bent made me want to throw up. Then, when we thought the battle was over, Harry killed one of them who was trying to sneak up on us, with such ease as if he were walking in the garden. His spell blasted away a part of the death eater's chest and fried up the remains of his body. It is not a sight that I will ever forget for the rest of my life. I was scarred at the moment and I fear it will be long before I will feel quite myself again."
When he was done speaking, there was silence in the Room of Requirement for a while.
Harry gave people time to reflect before he spoke again, "This is the reason that I want you all to decide. I know some of you may not feel comfortable with taking a life. This is why I want you to consider helping in other ways." The students deliberated over it for a while before they made up their minds. Harry had three pieces of parchment for them on which they had to sign depending on what they had to do. When they were all done, there were about 55 fighters, 15 healers and 10 who decided to help with evacuation.
After that was done, Harry started sending them to their common rooms by opening passageways from the Room. Soon most of them were gone and only Ron, Hermione, Neville, Susan and Hannah were left.
Hermione broke the silence, "That sounded horrible. I mean we have talked about it before but I never had any one describe to me what it was like. I am not sure how would we feel when we have to eventually take a life."
"Breaking curfew again, Mr. Peverell? Why am I not surprised?", said Severus Snape who had just stepped out of the shadows of the room. "Well, well, six students out of bed and three of them Prefects at that, engaged in doing who knows what. That will be 20 points each for Mr. Peverell, Mr. Longbottom and Miss Bones. And as for you prefects, who ought to know better, 40 points each. Furthermore, detention with Professor Sprout, tomorrow at six."
He had walked in behind the last student with an intention to find Harry. Harry, in his carelessness, hadn't checked if someone uninvited had come in. He sat through everything that Michael said and it somewhere had struck a chord with him. He was also satisfied that Harry gave a chance to people to make their own choices. However he could not stop himself from pulling one on Harry.
Romania
Ionut appeared outside the safe house that he had leased to Voldemort to find him sitting in a throne like chair and contemplating something.
"Voldemort", he called him. "I have the information you need."
Voldemort turned his attention to him, "What information do you bring, Ionut?"
"The leeches are mostly in Transylvania and living in the mountains which are inaccessible to anyone except through magic. They have wards around their places but no blood wards. They have some war wards but it won't require much effort to break them down. What you need to be careful about is their numbers. There are too many in one place for even a powerful dark wizard as yourself to handle if things turn ugly. I know that body of yours is a magical construct, but who knows what would happen if they got their fangs into you.". He passed a pendant to Voldemort, "This is a locator. It will guide you to the general location near their hide-out. The rest is up to you to do. If you are successful, you will get many followers. If you fail, even I can't tell you what will happen then."
Voldemort said coldly, "And how am I to find them? I mean will you give me a portkey to the nearest location?"
Ionut shook his head, "I can't risk it. I am done with helping you. While you were hiding here, the ICW has entered the country following your trail. The tribe of wizards you clashed with on your way here are classified as 'protected' by the ICW. From them, they learned that you were heading this way. For now, I have misled them but I don't know how long I will be able to do so. It is prudent for you to leave when you still can. I also have received some terrible news from Wizarding Britain about a new Order which has challenged the ministry as well as your own. Maybe you should head home as soon as you can."
Voldemort nodded, "I have to find master Abbadon before I return home. Only he can tell me a way to vanquish my foe for good. I mean he has twice escaped the killing curse."
Ionut was shocked, "What! That is unprecedented! I guess Master Abbadon will be able to find an answer to your dilemma."
