Harry and Ron, sauntering back from Tuesday dinner and anticipating an unfortunate amount of work, ducked behind the nearest corner when they saw the group of five storm into Dumbledore's office.
"They're not there, right?" Ron asked.
"In the library, I think," Harry answered. His brow furrowed into a frown. "But they'll find them right off."
"Think anyone'll get hurt?" They were here for Jess, Ron knew.
"Oh yeah. Those were Royal Guardsmen, couldn't you tell? We better get help."
They took off down the hall.
In better days, Dumbledore reflected morosely as he looked around the library, this would have been a staff meeting. Professors Giles and McGonagall sat at one end of a large worktable, flanked by Jess and Buffy. Spike, and Tara had seats in the middle of the table; Snape sat alone at the far end. But not now.
Now it's a council of war.
As he often did, Dumbledore pushed aside the internal thunderclouds and gave the assembled group a hearty grin.
"Thank you all for coming. I know that putting the school back to some semblance of its usual order is a demanding task, and I apologize for distracting you from it, but I felt it imperative that we discuss where to go from here, both individually and as a collective."
"Shouldn't we wait for the others?"
"Others, Giles?" Buffy asked.
"Willow and Grey, perhaps."
She responded by raising her eyebrows; Jess and Tara restrained a pair of smirks.
"Think they're a bit busy, Rupert," Spike said, expelling a small cloud of smoke from his dead lungs.
"Busy? What on Earth could be more important than …" Giles stopped, realizing what they were doing, and cleared his throat. "Oh dear. Yes, busy, of course. Best that we let them … erm … yes. Busy."
Buffy chuckled and patted his arm.
"It's okay, Giles. We know these things are hard for someone in your age bracket to understand."
"Thank you, Buffy," he said sarcastically.
"Ahem," Dumbledore interjected, a smile hidden by his flowing beard. "Indeed. Now that we've resolved the issue of our absent compatriots, may we continue?" A chorus of nods circled the room. "Excellent." He looked at Jess, eyes glimmering in the firelight. He chose not to comment on how haggard she appeared or on her red-rimmed eyes. "Let me say again, Jessica, how nice it is to have you back with us. And timely, I might add, at least for my sake."
"You're more than welcome, Professor. I'm just glad I had the chance."
"You, and all of you," he went on, gesturing to the group, "did magnificent work this weekend. Incomplete though the victory may seem, we have dealt Voldemort a major blow and unraveled a goodly portion of his plans. There is still much work to be done, of course, which is why I called you together."
"He'll be back," Jess said, her voice heavy. "No doubt."
"Tell me, Miss … Jess," Giles corrected himself, "did he perhaps intimate to you anything about what his future plans might be? Anything, no matter how trivial it may seem, could be useful in planning our next moves."
"I'm sorry, Giles. Not a thing. He's maddeningly careful about security. I know he's been in contact with some nasty groups in the demon and wizarding worlds, but specifics? Nothing. Truthfully," she admitted, "I think he kept me out of it because he doubted my condition was stable."
"You'd think he have the decency to act like any normal Bond villain," Buffy said.
"Pretty much a guaranteed no there, hon. Not his way. No giant lasers or Russian satellite weapons for him, either."
"No one has any style anymore. I mean, is one decent revealing monologue too much to ask for?"
The elderly wizard smiled again. "Yes, well, I suppose we'll just have to wait for his monologue before we make any plans, then?" Buffy chuckled. She liked that Dumbledore never took things too seriously. "I, personally, would rather continue on. Miss Summers?"
"Yuh huh?"
"I don't suppose we can convince you to stay on for the remainder of the term, can we? As an assistant to Professor Giles?"
Buffy shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry, Professor. This place is cool, but the Hellmouth kinda demands constant attention. It's very needy that way. Plus I've left Xander with Dawn for too long already. I'm going back tomorrow night."
"I figured as much, but I thought I might extend the offer nonetheless."
"Well, thanks for the invite. But hey – all is not lost. Giles is having me do a little Slayer riff for the kids tomorrow. He's going to do the 'One Girl in All the World' thingy too – he loves that."
Giles gave her a small frown.
"That should be entertaining; I must come by and watch. Now, Jessica, I think…"
Before he could say more, the door to the library burst open and Cornelius Fudge stormed in. Sir Robert Grey entered a step behind with three more aurors at his heels. All three wore the red and blue of the Royal Guard. Everyone but the headmaster gaped in astonishment. Jess cringed and began reaching out for her magic.
"Good day, Minister, Robert," Dumbledore looked more closely at the other aurors, "aah, Jaret, how nice to see you again."
"Professor," Jaret said, inclining his head.
"Yes, yes, no time for pleasantries, Albus. We've come to take them away, and don't think you'll be stopping us."
"Them, Minister?"
"The O'Brien girl and the Rosenberg girl, of course! We'll retrieve them from the dungeon and be done with it."
Dumbledore looked perplexed. Giles looked shocked. Buffy looked like she might rip his head off and bowl it across the room. None of them moved, waiting for Fudge to react.
Fudge glanced around for the first time and saw Jess sitting at the table. He hopped backward, his fat body landing with an undignified thump on the wooden floor.
"YOU!" His shouting and pointing brought wands out from the three aurors; Jess ignored them. They weren't the real threat.
Sir Robert Grey's face was a mask of implacable rage. A sick feeling erupted in her stomach as she realized with absolute certainty that she was about to die.
"I'm sorry, young sir, but they are not to be disturbed," Sir Cadogan told Harry as he came to the door. Ron had gone after Hermione and the other Gryffindors.
"It's an emergency," Harry said brusquely, banging on the door.
"HOW DARE YOU?" Cadogan shouted. "I'll have your guts on my pike for this! I'll MMMFFF…" The door swung open, muffling Cadogan's epithets against the wall. Grey, shirtless and eyes aflame, stood in the doorway.
"What the hell is going on?" His cheeks were flushed and his head gleamed with sweat. "Harry, what are you doing? This," he paused and leaned down to speak quietly, using the movement to block any view Harry might have of the room, "this is really not a good time."
"Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt," Harry said, blushing, "but it's important." He explained what he had seen. Grey's icy calm demeanor returned in an instant, and he looked exactly as he had the day he broke Harry free from the Dursley's.
"You're right. It is important. We'll sort them out."
The fury in Grey's father's eyes seemed alive, like it might grab Jess and throttle the life from her before his body could even move.
It didn't, though. Leavin' it for his body to finish, she thought, watching him draw his wand.
"You should know," he said in a completely even voice, "that I intend to enjoy this. To make it last."
Jess remembered the night in Cansbury, when Grey had kicked her ass and driven her to ground. He had loomed over her, a stark image of death in the bright moonlight.
His father had the same look on his face now as Grey had then.
She stumbled to her feet and backed up against the wall, recoiling from his menace.
"Please, I …"
"Don't think I don't know that you're healed. I do." He smiled evilly, something she had never seen him do before. She had seen it often enough with Grey, though. He was insane with rage. "I just don't care."
"That's enough, Robert," Dumbledore said, rising to his feet. His wand was out. "Leave her be. You don't know everything."
"Albus, this is not your concern," Fudge broke in. "The Ministry has decided that Robert has the authority to proceed as he sees fit." The other three aurors raised their wands. Fudge chose his next words carefully. "Do not interfere with the lawful execution of that decision."
Buffy decided it was her turn to move. Sliding out of her chair, she rested one hand on the table and vaulted over it, interposing herself between the new arrivals and Jess.
"Back off, Tweedledum," she growled at Fudge. He was very much reminding her of Quentin Travers at that moment; the same sort of mindless arrogance had almost cost her Angel, and the memory made her very, very cranky.
Spike quickly followed suit, standing and stepping in front of Jess as a bulwark against an attack; McGonagall rose, wand outstretched, and nodded to Tara, who hurriedly began preparing a defensive barrier. Giles took several steps in the opposite direction, hoping to discreetly recover the loaded crossbow that he kept hidden atop the stacks.
Robert Grey narrowed his eyes. Their interference made it harder, but so what? "She as good as killed my son, Albus," he said. "If it takes a war with you to make her pay for it, than it does. As I said before, I'm beyond caring."
"I-I didn't. I wouldn't," Jess said. She slumped against the wall, assaulted by memories. I wanted to, she thought. I would have. Images of other victims flashed through her mind, some bent, others broken, all destroyed eventually. "Not him. But others," she said, her voice strangely resigned, "yeah. Sure and I did enough of them. Whatever it is you want to do … I deserve it."
Disbelief crossed the faces of her allies as she slid down the wall and onto the floor, curling herself into a tiny, teary ball.
"Your son is very much alive," Dumbledore said quietly, watching Jess' silent weeping. "Thanks to her, and her alone, I might add. As am I." He turned his head and met the auror's gaze. "Order of the Ministry or no, you will not harm that girl. She needs help, not punishment."
"Help? A monster like that? Are you out of your mind, Dumbledore?"
"Be quiet, Cornelius," Robert said, his voice thick with pain and power. To everyone's surprise, Fudge's open mouth clamped shut. "He's alive?"
"Very much alive, as advertised, but also very much pissed off," Grey said from behind him. The entire room turned and saw Grey, now wearing a blue t-shirt and wielding a broadsword, flanked by the rest of their group. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville all had their wands trained on the three Royal Guardsmen. Willow had her wand with her as well. She looked less than threatening in her pink flannel pajamas, but she was more than ready to cut loose if things got heavy. "You said you wouldn't go after her."
"You're still defending her?"
"She defended us. And saved me."
"She brought Voldemort and the Death Eaters here."
"He was coming anyway. We fought them off, with her help. If she hadn't come, we wouldn't have been able to prepare at all. We would have been killed."
"She tortured you." Unlike his son, Robert was not ready to forgive that. "He … he nearly killed you."
"It happens." His steely brown eyes locked on his father. "You need to hear the whole story."
"No," Jess said from the wall. The focus of the room swung back around. "No, let them do it. I deserve it."
Spike slapped her. Hard.
"You stupid nit. We spent a long time savin' your arse this year. I spent weeks breathin' that god-awful nancy-boy hair gel Peaches uses just to keep you from getting whacked. You think the Jedi over there's gonna let us hand you over because you feel guilty? Not bloody likely." Her eyes were wide above the red mark where Spike's hand had landed. "Now sit still and let us handle these wankers."
"Spike?" Grey said quietly. His voice echoed in a room devoid of other sound.
"Yeah?"
"I appreciate the help, but hit her again and you lose the arm."
"Right," he half-turned back to Jess and grumbled, "sorry."
"This is the most absurd spectacle I have ever been a part of," Fudge said. "You are all in very, very deep right now, do you hear me?"
No one paid him any attention.
Dumbledore and Robert were facing off, standing directly opposite one another with wands extended. Fudge might have been titularly in command, but their actions would dictate the outcome, and everyone, even Fudge himself, knew it. The tension was thick enough that you could have carved it up and served it for dinner. Jaret and his fellow aurors, who had seen Willow's power first-hand and had seen the destruction Jess had wreaked at Cansbury, knew they probably couldn't win.
"We can fight just as easily after you listen to them," Dumbledore said, "but you won't want to. I promise you that."
Robert looked at his son, standing on the far side of the other aurors. He seemed a little disheveled but in good health. Willow, despite the reports they had received, was clearly on his side. He idly and irreverently wondered where they had been if everyone else was already here. Finally, he looked at Dumbledore. He had no illusions about whether his old Transfiguration teacher could best him in a duel. It would be more a matter of how long he could hold out than if he could win. What would be the point?
"I've known you for what, thirty years?"
"Closer to forty, sadly. We're both rather old."
"We are that." His wand lowered slowly. "You've never lied to me before. I sincerely hope you aren't now."
Dumbledore smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. "As your son is standing behind you, you can see that I'm not."
"This is preposterous!" Fudge shouted.
"Minister," McGonagall said, "please. If Robert is willing to hear us out, shouldn't you as well? It is, after all, his son who had supposedly been murdered."
Fudge glanced around the room. Jaret and the others had holstered their wands, as had Harry and company. If he wanted a fight, it would be him and him alone.
"Very well. Go ahead."
The explanation took a long time.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione were asked to stay in order to explain their roles. No one made any mention of Sirius, and Ron hedged a lot about why the Death Eaters had brought the kids to Snape. Everyone else explained their own parts in turn, giving way to others when the narrative shifted away from them. It was Spike who finished up.
"Then that bastard Voldemort did his invisibility mojo and Peaches took one in the groin. Not that it should have hurt," he added under his breath, smirking when Buffy glared at him, "an' they bolted off into the woods."
"Oh my," Fudge said. The message that Voldemort had returned, this time with legions of supporters, had finally sunk in. The tale had aspects of every major attack that Voldemort had ever undertaken, and the tellers obviously had not been bewitched into imagining his presence. As stubborn a blow-hard as Fudge may have been, he was no fool. The truth had humbled him. "I've been very wrong, haven't I," he said to Dumbledore when they were finished describing the spells that had brought Jess back.
"Yes, Cornelius," the wizard said frankly, "you have."
"What happened to you?" Robert asked his son. "Obviously, the Avada Kedavra spell didn't kill you."
"Merlin's Salve," Jess answered. They were the first words she had spoken in nearly an hour. "I know how to do it."
"Thank you," he said gravely. She nodded.
"Yes," Fudge said to her, "You … you've done well. I'm quite sorry for … well, for the lot of it. I treated you rather shabbily, I suppose." Even that grudging admission surprised Grey.
"You weren't wrong about me, Minister," she said. "I am responsible for some gruesome things, don't you know. Much as some people might disagree," she glanced at Grey, who watched impassively, "you probably did the right thing. I should be locked up."
"You think so," Grey said.
"We don't. And you won't be," Willow added. Grey squeezed her hand.
"I'm afraid I have no choice in that matter," Fudge said. "She is correct; she cannot be allowed to escape punishment."
"Try it," Grey said calmly. His sword came up from the floor in an instant.
"I don't wish to fight you, Dave. I truly don't. But the rather unpleasant fact is that she has admitted her role in the Cansbury attack. 400 dead, 22 of them aurors. I can't turn a blind eye towards that, nor to the fifteen dead children in October. The people expect the Ministry to handle these matters."
"B-but she was under a sp-spell," Tara said. "She didn't act out of her own free will."
"You're guilty for stuff you do if you're mind-controlled here? Yikes. I'll take the land of the free, thank you very much."
"Buffy…"
"What, Giles? I'm just saying…"
"Never mind."
"Is it public knowledge that she attacked Cansbury?" Robert asked.
"Not … not officially, no," Fudge replied.
"And on Halloween, nobody really saw her except for us," Harry chipped in. "Everybody else was too busy running for the door, and before that, she was in costume. They mostly saw those gnolls bashing people upside the head."
"It doesn't matter." Fudge shook his head indignantly. "I must detain her."
"Perhaps I might suggest a solution?" Dumbledore broke in, eyes twinkling. He laid out a plan that, as he spoke it aloud, sounded better and better. He so loved the opportunity to be devious. "What do you think?"
"That's … that's not possibly believable."
"Come now, Cornelius, why not?"
"I like it," Spike announced. "If they don't buy it, sod 'em."
"D-definitely," Tara agreed.
"I'd buy it," Willow affirmed.
"The representative from California votes yay," Buffy declared.
"No."
Grey gave Jess a hard look. "Yes."
"Don't you order me about, you bastard," she said. She sounded on the brink of another crying jag. "It's my life, and I'm tellin' you that … that I need to pay for the stuff I did."
"You misunderstand, Miss O'Brien," Dumbledore responded. "By no means did I suggest that you be allowed to run free. I think something suitably creative might be in order, however." He turned to Fudge. "You might leave her here, Minister, where I can closely watch her and oversee her rehabilitation. House arrest, if you will, though not publicly announced."
"It wouldn't be right," she said again.
"I-it might be," Tara said, walking over and laying her hands on the girl's shoulders. She felt terribly bad for Jess, but also, with her loss of Grey and Tara's loss of Willow, somehow close to her. "If you stay here and help train s-some other kids, you can make up for what you've done. A-and if Voldemort attacks, you can protect them. If they s-send you away, what good can you do?"
"Tara knows what she's talking about," Willow said. "Yeah, okay, I never killed people with my magic, and I didn't do torture or anything either, but I did some pretty bad stuff. A-a-and this," she waved her hands at Hogwarts in general, "this has totally helped me deal with it and figure out how to make up for it. I … I still don't feel like I have, really, but I'm trying." Grey wrapped his arm around her waist, and she leaned back into him with a soft sigh.
Jess looked expectantly at Fudge, hoping he would side with her. He stared at her for a long second, blinked, then spoke to Dumbledore.
"I don't know, Albus." He seemed to be searching for something to do with his hands, and settled on twisting the loose fabric of his robe in them. "Politically, this has the makings of a disaster."
"It could be that, or potentially it could be a beautiful coup. And is the politics so important?"
Fudge raised an eyebrow, as if to say, Are you daft? "I still believe I have given you entirely too much free rein here. In the future, I expect you to follow my guidance. Especially with the crisis at hand."
"As I have said before, Minister, we are on the same side. I will continue to work towards ending it, as I have done before. Especially with the crisis at hand."
"Very well." He turned back to Jess, knowing he would have to deal with Dumbledore at a later time. "Young lady, you will be held here, by my authority, until such time as the Ministry sees fit to release you from house arrest. Should you say anything at any time about your role in the events of the past year, I expect you to adhere to the version we have just discussed. Failure to do so will bring about the most harsh consequences imaginable. Am I clear?"
Uncertainty marred Jess' face. She knew she shouldn't get off this easily, but what choice did she really have? And Tara was right. Here she could atone for what she'd done, rather than rot away in Azkaban wallowing in guilt.
"Yes, Minister."
"Well, I suppose that settles things, does it not?" Dumbledore asked.
"Hmmph … yes," Fudge replied. "Though I'm not entirely comfortable with it." He stood from his chair and motioned to the aurors to do the same. "Albus, can you make your way to the Ministry next Thursday? I believe we should discuss all of this … disturbing information in greater depth."
"Of course, Minister."
"Robert?"
"I'm going to stay for a bit, Cornelius," he said, eyeing his son. "Some matters I need to settle." Grey nodded; he knew a long talk would be in order, though it would thankfully be easier than the last one.
"I see." Fudge glanced around at the rest of the room. "Good day to you all." He departed, the aurors following closely.
When they were gone, Buffy broke the silence.
"Well, that was the most fun you can have without really having any."
Later …
The Daily Prophet
June 7, 2003
Ministry of Magic Decries Death Eater Resurgence
Warns Conflict Likely to Widen
(London, UK) – In a startling reversal, Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge revealed today that despite its oft-emphasized public stance to the contrary, the Ministry has been aware of the return of the Death Eaters for more than a year.
"Of course we knew," Mr. Fudge told Daily Prophet reporters Andrew Stoneleigh and Sarah Rothschild in an exclusive interview. "Did you people honestly believe that we would not? We are doing everything in our power to stop it from becoming worse."
When the Daily Prophet initially speculated about widespread sightings of the Dark Mark, Ministry officials suggested that such occurrences were misinformation or "fairy tales." Raids on Ministry institutions, including the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the Refuge for Unusual Wildlife, were dismissed at the time as isolated incidents.
Mr. Fudge asserted today that both were part of an orchestrated campaign of violence by a group modeled after You Know Who's Death Eaters.
"We believe that they have taken up the symbols of previous malefactors in order to inspire a greater degree of fear in the populace at large," Mr. Fudge said. "We would like to stress that the Ministry is very aware of their activities and has taken all appropriate measures to halt them."
Mr. Fudge further explained that Ministry denial of the issue encouraged these current malefactors to expose themselves rashly. "By denying their existence, the Ministry and its aurors were able to work against them more effectively," he added. "We instituted a number of deterrents, without which these attacks would have been ghastly in their scope."
When asked if 400 dead in Cansbury was not ghastly, the Minister had no comment.
While Mr. Fudge would not provide specific details of auror operations against the new Death Eaters, the Daily Prophet has confirmed independently the existence of at least two such operations. According to Daily Prophet sources, Jessica O'Brien, an auror and graduate of Hogwarts (Gryffindor '98), was placed undercover within the Death Eater ranks. Miss O'Brien had reportedly been relieved of duty more than a year ago, along with her partner, David Grey, after an undisclosed incident between the pair and Mr. Fudge.
Mr. Fudge now claims no such incident occurred. "Nonsense. Though they resigned last year, Jess and Grey remain respected members of the auror community." He went on to imply that the Daily Prophet misrepresented the facts at the time. "We had a difference of opinion. It was never more serious than that."
A Daily Prophet source with access to the upper echelons of the Ministry indicated that in fact their departure occurred only as a cover for their true activities. Miss O'Brien, our source claims, went undercover with the Death Eaters after her departure. Ministry gossip suggests that her assignment to flush out Death Eater schemes was a total success and "thousands of lives were saved," according to another source. Miss O'Brien is currently convalescing from her ordeal under the supervision of Albus Dumbledore.
Mr. Grey, who like Miss O'Brien did not return owls seeking comment, is the son of the esteemed auror Sir Robert Grey. He has spent the past year at Hogwarts as the Deputy Head of Gryffindor house. The Daily Prophet has learned that he was actually employed as additional security for the school, and in fact worked with Miss O'Brien to foil the brunt of the Death Eater assault on Cansbury and each of the assaults on school grounds.
Mr. Fudge had no comment about their activities except to affirm that neither was currently in the employ of the Ministry.