It was easy to decide to bring an end to His Lordship's reign of terror. The difficulty lay in finding somewhere to meet Smudger without being seen by Aurors, Death Eaters or anyone who was likely to tattle to Albus. Minerva had a cottage stuck in the middle of nowhere, and was happy to lend it to the cause, but it would take some serious planning to allow the three of them to be absent from Hogwarts at the same time.

She'd made sure that Albus wouldn't come within a fifteen-mile radius of the place by issuing an invitation to him to meet her there to discuss wedding arrangements, as she wanted everything in place for when the War ended.

When Albus had – at the last moment – been completely unable to accompany her, he was more than amenable to the suggestion that Hermione should go instead and had actually thanked her for taking time out of her weekend to look after Minerva.

Severus merely told the truth: that he was meeting Smudger and sounding him out on the feelings of the other Death Eaters.

Hermione and Minerva had gone ahead with a house elf, to air the cottage, put a casserole in the oven and the beer – Smudger didn't strike Hermione as a wine drinker - under a slight cooling charm. The house elf had been sent back to Hogwarts to give them all the privacy that they needed, and Hermione and Minerva had made a cup of tea and were sat round the table eyeing the chocolate cake that had been ostensibly brought for afters with longing eyes, when the sharp crack of apparition distracted them.

They took up positions on either side of the door, wands in hand; there was no point in taking risks. Albus could very well have taken it into his head to be awkward at the last minute and turn up. As Minerva said, that could be sorted out by a quick Obliviate and an Imperio, but it would be sensible to get the drop on the old goat.

Fortunately, it was just Severus and Smudger.

Smudger wasn't happy about being there, not happy at all, and his unhappiness only increased when he was greeted by two witches at wandpoint. He appeared to feel marginally better once the wands were shoved back up sleeves and – in Minerva's case – into a very daring thigh holster. Smudger certainly seemed to appreciate the glimpse of leg he was afforded, before he remembered his manners and averted his gaze.

Minerva advanced on him with outstretched hand. "Mr Smudger, how nice to meet you at last. I've heard so much about you."

Smudger wiped his hand on his robes, before shaking hands. "Please, just Smudger."

"Then you must call me Minerva."

Hermione thought that whilst Minerva's leg had gone some way to softening Smudger up, it would be best to complete the process by applying chocolate cake and tea, which meant, of course, that they would have to partake merely to demonstrate that there wasn't anything untoward in the cake.

Slytherin manners.

They needn't have worried; Smudger was only too pleased at the offer of Chocolate cake, and seemed to think that the risk of poisoning was worth it, especially since it had raspberry jam filling and melted chocolate on the top. "Ooh, my favourite," he said. "I'd do almost anything for a piece of cake, up to an including assassination." He tucked in with a will then, once half the slice had been eaten, added through the crumbs, "And I do wonder what exactly you want me to do in return."

"Perhaps you should have asked that before you ate the cake," smirked Severus.

"Nah, mate. You should know by now that there's no way on earth to get Old Smudger to do anything I don't want to, chocolate cake or not."

"Well we do have a proposition to put to you, Smudger," Minerva said. "How would you like to help us bring freedom to the Wizarding World?"

Smudger paused in the act of transferring more cake into his mouth, his hand hovering midway. "Not much," he said frankly. "It sounds risky."

"How would you like to be famous and successful and have lots of young witches hanging on your every word?" Severus asked, glaring at Minerva. Trust a Gryffindor to go about it in the wrong way.

Smudger brightened. "Now that sounds fun. That sounds much, much better." He took a large bite of cake, whilst the other three exchanged glances of self-congratulation. "Of course, I'd have to be stupid not to realise that you're talking about the same thing really. And I'm not stupid."

Hermione smiled and poured him another cup of tea. "Of course we know you're not stupid Smudger, but it never hurts to point out that there are advantages to our suggestion, does it? After all, you're not some daft Gryffindor who's going to rush out to save the world without some sort of incentive."

Smudger eyed them suspiciously, and then accepted a second piece of cake. "Alright, I can see the advantages of being the saviour of the Wizarding World. Potter seems to do well enough despite not actually doing anything for years. So, what's your plan? And where do I fit into it?"

"Well," said Hermione. "It's not so much a plan as a Strategy. I mean, there's no point going into details if you decide you don't want to get involved, and you may well have some ideas yourself."

"Makes sense." Smudger wrinkled his nose. "Is that lunch I can smell?"

"Oops," said Minerva, shooting out of her seat. "I hope it hasn't burned."

The casserole was cooked to perfection, to Smudger's evident appreciation, though he looked askance at the short rations he was first offered. "That's better," he said, as Minerva heaped another couple of spoonfuls on his plate. "I've got to keep my strength up for plotting. First things first, why do you think this is the time to move, and why are you going round behind Dumbledore's back?"

Hermione and Severus both looked at Minerva expectantly. It was for her to explain what was going on. "We feel that the Headmaster is overly cautious about the need to move onto the offensive, and that there is no reason to delay matters any further."

Smudger, having been lied to by experts all his life, could tell that Minerva wasn't telling him the truth and said so.

"Couldn't you just accept that we have good reasons for thinking that Albus has got it wrong," asked Hermione, with one eye on Minerva.

Smudger snorted. "You're asking me to risk my life for you, and you're asking me to trust you at the same time, but you won't tell me what's really going on. I don't call those good odds."

"But…" said Hermione.

"No dear, he has a right to know what's going on." Minerva flushed bright red. "Albus had promised to marry me after the War was over. It seems that he is now regretting that promise and is looking for ways to evade that prospect. This appears to have affected his judgement over what is the best course of action."

Smudger sat there with his mouth open. "No, that can't be right."

"I can assure you it is," Minerva said in a tight voice.

"Well he's a bleeding idiot – pardon my language – for turning down a fine figure of a witch like yourself. An absolute bleeding idiot."

Minerva flushed again, but for entirely different reasons.

"We think that Albus has turned down several good opportunities to bring matters to a head for that reason," Severus said. "If you remember, a couple of months ago His Lordship took it into his head to have that meeting at Malfoy Manor. We could have surrounded the place and taken everyone down so easily."

Smudger nodded his agreement. "That's true. In fact I was shitting bricks the whole time we were there, expecting the Aurors to turn up at any minute."

"I would have been conveniently ill, if that was the case. And so would the rest of The Lads. We would all have come down with something at the same time – a nasty case of Auroritis."

Smudger looked gratified at the knowledge that Severus would actually tip them off. "Alright, so you've convinced me that now is the time to make a move, so what did you have in mind?"

"Right," said Hermione, rather inelegantly with her mouth full. "Now we know that the Prophecy requires Harry to deal with His Lordship, so the basic idea is to get Harry into see him at a time when he's on his own."

Smudger nodded, swallowed his stew with an audible gulp, and said, "Makes sense. Which means you have to get past the Inner Circle, and they're all evil bastards, aren't they Severus? No offence."

"None taken," Severus said cheerfully, eating the stew with enthusiasm. "They are evil bastards, and Malfoy is the worst of them."

Smudger nodded.

"So they're all scared of him, right?" Hermione asked.

Smudger and Severus both nodded.

"So, if Lucius could be persuaded – say at wand point – to issue instructions to the rest of the Inner Circle, they'd probably obey?" Hermione continued. "Then the Aurors could pick them up one by one."

"Yes," Smudger replied, scratching his chin. "They would, but it'd be tricky to get the drop on old Lucius. He is a nasty piece of work. I don't think there are many who are strong enough to Imperio the bastard. Severus here could do it; not many others."

"And I don't fancy doing something that could get me locked up by the Ministry," Severus put in. "I don't trust Dumbledore to keep me out of Azkaban, and I certainly don't trust Fudge. Though I wouldn't mind finding out how far I could throw him, purely in the interests of determining how little I should trust him."

"You could try throwing him from a large cliff," Hermione suggested. "I expect you could throw him a very long way then, which would be really misleading when it came to working out how much you could trust him, but would have the advantage of making the issue theoretical."

Severus smirked. "That's not a bad idea."

Smudger held out his plate for seconds. "Well leaving aside the question of whether Fudge would bounce if you dropped him from a great height, how do we get round our little Lucius problem?"

"Polyjuice?" Minerva said.

"That's not a bad idea. Old Snapey here can provide the potion, and all we need do is get hold of a bit of Luscious Lucy's hair. Which won't be tricky, because he sheds like a cat."

Hermione flinched at the mention of cats in relation to polyjuice. Judging from the smirk on Severus' face he was thinking of the same episode. "Yes, but it's not just about looking like Lucius; you've got to sound like him too. The potion doesn't manage that, or, so I've been told."

"Lucius isn't difficult. All you have to do is stick your nose in the air, like there's a bad smell under it, and sneer about Mudbloods all the time." Smudger demonstrated the proper angle for the nose. "Oh, Mudbloods are dirty and smelly and stupid, and we should kill them all," Smudger sneered in a faultless impression of the Malfoy manner.

Hermione, Severus and Minerva just stared at him. The last piece of the puzzle had fallen into place.

"What?" What are you looking at me like that for? Smudger said uneasily. "Oh fuck, I've just broken the habit of a lifetime and volunteered, haven't I?"

"I'm sure you'll do a wonderful job, Smudger," said Minerva firmly.

"It's too late to back out now," added Severus.

"Well but there's got to be something in it for me," Smudger wheedled. "Allow a man his Slytherin pride."

"Something other than seeing the Wizarding World free from blight?" Minerva said in disbelief.

Smudger nodded, a calculating expression on his face. "A pet Mudblood of my own."

There was a horrified silence, and Severus' fingers clenched round his knife and fork until his knuckles were white.

"That isn't really a term we use in polite society," Minerva said gently.

"Ah," said Smudger, busying himself with his meal for a moment. "I'm not really used to polite society."

"Why do you want a Muggle girlfriend?" asked Hermione.

"Well," Smudger said, grateful for the conversational ladder extended to him so he could get out of the hole. "They seem to be so much more fun than Pureblood girls. I mean, they know about football and darts, and they don't turn their noses up at going out for the evening in a Pub… I dunno, they're just more fun."

"So you haven't got your heart set on a Muggleborn," Hermione asked. "You just want a girl who likes the same sort of things that you like."

"Yeah," Smudger said. "I'm not getting any younger, and what with Old Snapey here settling down, well, it's just got me to thinking."

"I can't promise you a Mudblood of your own, you know," Hermione said. "But I'm sure that between us Minerva and I can introduce you to a couple of girls. And, of course, if we were to let drop just how brave you'd been, and how you'd been the one to help bring down His Lordship, well I'm sure that the young ladies would be flocking to your side."

"I suppose," said Smudger doubtfully. "I've never had much luck with Girls before now."

"That was before you became a bona fide Hero," said Minerva briskly. "Look at Old Snapey here. He wasn't exactly a magnet for The Ladies until Hermione came along, but once she found out how Brave and how Clever he was, she was putty in his hands, weren't you dear?"

Severus had looked irritated, soppy, then amused by turns during this peroration.

"Absolutely right," said Hermione firmly. "Putty in his hands."

She looked up, and found Severus was staring at her with a very affectionate gaze indeed which made her feel quite flushed, rather short of breath, and quite keen that the meeting should be brought to a climax as quickly as possible.

She meant conclusion, yes, that's what she meant. Not climax. Conclusion.

Ahem.

"Blimey," said Smudger, bringing Hermione back down to earth with a bump. "It's not that I believe you, like, but it's nice to see someone prepared to lie for her man like that." He wiped an imaginary tear away from his eye.

"But Smudger," Hermione said, fluttering her eyelashes in a wholly artificial way. "I'm a Gryffindor, not a devious Slytherin; I don't know how to lie."

Smudger spent the next few minutes chortling to himself over that. "Good one," he said, in between wheezing with laughter. "That's a good one."

He only stopped laughing when he inhaled a piece of casserole, and Severus had to pat him on the back. He may have been a little more forceful that was strictly necessary; the Mudblood comment was still rankling a little.

"Alright then," Smudger said, when he finally regained his breath. "I'm in."

"So," said Hermione, "now for the difficult bit."

"What, taking on His Lordship?" asked Smudger.

"No. Getting Harry and Ron to do as they are told."

Smudger smiled uncertainly, not sure whether Hermione was having a larff.

"Believe me," Severus said fervently. "That isn't a joke."

Hermione smirked. "Mind you. I do think I've found the perfect way round it. It's beautiful."

Severus cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Simply tell them not to do it. It always worked for Albus, and they never seemed to learn their lesson."

Severus smirked. "They didn't, did they? Whatever you do, don't do this Potter, he'd be told. And sure enough, by the end of the year, the three of you would be off doing precisely what you'd been told not to do."

"Well, why not get Albus to tell them not to do it this time?" Minerva asked. "It seems to me that if you present this plot at the next Order meeting – without mentioning Smudger here – Albus is bound to poo poo the idea and that should start their minds running in the right direction."

"I'd rather we kept Albus out of it," Severus said. "He's a bloody nuisance, and a pain in the arse."

Hermione nodded. "I tell you what, I'll ask them out for a drink to catch up and sound them out on the idea. There's no point tipping Dumbledore off about our idea, unless we really have to. Then, if they're up for it, the only thing after that is how to introduce them to Smudger without them being suspicious, because we haven't got six years to persuade them of his bona fides."

"Does that mean that you have finally managed to convince those two that I am not actually still on His Lordship's side?" Snape's tone was acid.

"Either that, or they've learned not to be stupid enough to repeat their suspicions to me," Hermione replied. "I suspect that it has begun to dawn on them that if Severus were really up to no good that Harry would be pushing up daisies by now."

"Bloody right," said Smudger. "It's not as if he doesn't have a complete stockroom of nasty potions at his disposal. If he wanted to polish the little squirt off, he could have done easily."

Severus smirked at the encomium; it was well deserved. "It's always nice to be appreciated."

"Mind you," said Minerva thoughtfully, "you can't help but wonder why this hasn't dawned on His Lordship. Why on earth hasn't he ordered you to arrange Harry's demise?"

"Ah, well, that's easy," said Smudger confidently. "He wants to do it himself, doesn't he? It's what you might call a personal grudge. Which is silly really. I'm a practical boy. If you want someone dead, what's important is that he ends up dead, and not how you go about it, or even who you get to do it."

Severus nodded his agreement. "Absolutely right."

Hermione smirked. "You just keep telling yourself that when Harry is the hero of the Wizarding World….."

Severus did not look happy at the thought. "Are you sure that we couldn't Obliviate him afterwards, so that no one would ever know."

Only Minerva smiled; Smudger and Hermione knew that he meant it.