The Council of War

"Let's recap."

Roy felt that the discussion among the Incorruptibles, who had now been sitting in their secret room for over an hour, had gone on long enough and was beginning to go round in circles.

"The Ministry of Magic is consistently pursuing its plans to merge the wizarding world with the Muggle world and is now trying to nip any opposition to it in the bud. To this end, they are gradually tightening the laws until they have the instruments they need to silence virtually any opponent. As Hermie said, 'The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance'. So she will try to get Hogwarts aligned, and as McGonagall isn't supposed to comply, she's gradually being ousted; we don't know how long she is able to keep her office. She still has some time because the public reputation of a Minerva McGonagall cannot be undermined that quickly. Since the Gryffindors have been trying to provoke incidents throughout the day, we have to assume that they are out to provoke violence that will give the Ministry opportunities to intervene. The question is what we can do about this policy."

Now Ares Macnair jumped in:

"In a war, you've to always wage the strongest attack against the weakest point. Let's put ourselves in Hermie's shoes. Her weak point is the low level of active support she enjoys in the establishment, in influential circles and probably even in her own Ministry. Muggle governments with comparable goals can count on the support of more or less like-minded elites. Hermie would have to do this work of aligning them first, hence her strategic focus on Hogwarts, but from her point of view this will only bear fruit in the long term. Apart from the Daily Prophet and a few fanatics, she has virtually no one to support her resolutely. On the other hand, and this is our problem, there is no prepared to resist her resolutely. The wizarding world is passively accepting its foundations being destroyed. They all bust their heads in the sand, let themselves be lulled by her phrases and are quite thrilled to have such a dynamic young Minister. So, our only problem is the person of the Minister. Without her, this policy would not take place."

The questioning glances of the others encouraged Ares to continue talking.

"Thus, the number of options we have is quite limited: First of all, we could try to argue her out of her policy, admittedly a purely theoretical option given her fanaticism, not to mention the problem of forcing her to listen. Secondly, we could try to oust her from power and replace her with someone else. Unfortunately, she's popular and has the Daily Prophet on her side, while we have no influence at all and couldn't even present a plausible challenger. So, what's left is option number three."

He paused portentously.

"Which is?" asked Roy finally with obvious discomfort.

Ares took a deep breath, hesitated briefly, then said:

"We kill her."

No one said a word.

It had been in the air. Each of them had already thought about it, but none of them knew what they should wish for more: that someone else, or that no one else would say it. Now it was on the table. They were looking at Roy.

Roy, for his part, looked at Ares thoughtfully, without letting anyone know what was going on behind his brow. He delayed answering for an unexpectedly long time. What Ares said was logical, and to Roy, who himself used to argue logically, it was hard to refute.

"Let's start from the end," he finally said, "on the feasibility. It's very difficult to even get close to Hermie ..."

"There is a day when it isn't," Ares replied, "and she herself gave us the date. A very symbolic date for killing her, I think: On 2nd May, she will be at Hogwarts for Victory day."

"Surrounded by half a dozen security Aurors up to every trick," Roy added, "and shielding her from any Dark Magic with a protective dome. The Killing Curse, if that's what you were thinking about – just forget it."

"What a pity," Orpheus now interjected, "then what I've been considering won't work, either."

"What?" Roy said.

"Putting the Imperius Curse on her. The only thing we need to do is to change her behaviour. Whether by argument or by magic doesn't really matter."

"Yes, but it just doesn't work," said Ares. "But why do you assume it's to be done by magic? This is exactly what her Aurors will expect and be prepared for. I don't think they reckon with Muggle technology."

"Muggle technology?" asked Julian doubtfully.

"I don't think they are considering an assault with a gun."

"What if they do?" asked Roy. "They are highly trained professionals, they will expect anything, and besides, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Hermie had already sent them to MI-5 for special training. The Muggle secret service," he added when he noticed the confused glances of the others. "Let's take a step back. Orpheus has suggested to change her behaviour. Why does she actually behave the way she does? We won't be able to use the Imperius. But what if she is already under the Imperius and is being directed by an unknown person?"

"Why do you think so?" Arabella, who had hardly taken part in the debate so far and seemed rather grumpy in general today, was now showing some interest.

"Albus Potter gave me the idea. He believes that a foreign will may have taken possession of her."

"It speaks highly of you," Arabella said ironically, "to take the little one so seriously. But honestly: You don't really believe that, do you? He's a kid, loving his aunt and so far only knowing her privately. Now he has seen her politician's face for the first time, which looks quite different. Now he's trying to save his image of her by blaming an unknown. That's really cute and touching, but it's nothing that matters to us, is it?"

"I'm not that sure," Roy said thoughtfully. "I also suddenly felt so during the discussion – as if she had been replaced by another one. You weren't as close as I was. These were not just two faces of the same person, it was really as if I was suddenly dealing with someone else. It was short, but pretty scary."

"Let's suppose she was actually under the Imperius," Orpheus reflected. "In this case the solution would be quite simple: We don't cast the Imperius on her, but the Anti-Imperius! Her Aurors will take precautions against the one, but not against the other. If she is really remotely controlled, this will neutralise the Imperius Curse."

"You do know that the Anti-Imperius is quite precarious?"

"I'm only a fifth-year, we haven't done it yet," Orpheus admitted.

"Well, the Anti-Imperius Curse eliminates the will controlling the person in question. If she is under the Imperius, this is the controlling will of the one who bewitched her, and she gets free from his control. However, if she is not under the Imperius, then her own will is eliminated and she herself is destroyed as a person. Either she dies immediately, or she spends the short rest of her life in complete mental derangement."

"Well, that's perfect, isn't it?" Ares had his pirate grin again. "Either she does what she does because she is under the Imperius, in which case we free her from it. Or she does it on her own. In that case ..."

He made the gesture of cutting the throat. Arabella glanced up to the ceiling, annoyed.

"Basically," Ares continued, "this is all wild speculation. We don't know if she is under a curse. And if she is, we don't know whether it's the Imperius. If we eliminate her, we are on the safe side. No matter whether cursed or not: Once dead, she's harmless."

"But this doesn't necessarily imply that we will reach our goal," Roy countered. "You all know that I am very much into Muggle history. During the last Muggle World war, there was an assassination attempt on the Germany's ruler. It failed, and the result was that thousands of opponents of the regime were arrested and many of them killed ..."

"No risk, no fun!", Ares interjected.

Roy ignored him. "For the rest of the war, the regime was even stronger than before. If the attack had succeeded, however, the Germans would have posthumously given the dictator a halo, and he would still enjoy the reputation as a glorious, undefeated commander, having fallen victim to a despicable act of treason. Applied to our situation: If Hermie is killed, she will be made a National Saint and a 'Hermione Granger Weasley Memorial Mass' will be celebrated every 2nd May, where everyone have to kiss the feet of her larger-than-life statue. Any criticism of their policies will be considered impious. I can hear their speeches even now: 'She must not have died in vain, we have to continue her work even more resolutely', blah blah blah. Nothing will change but that they will speed up pursuing her policy, but we'ill be in Azkaban."

Ares looked at him suspiciously: "Shall I tell you something, Roy? You simply don't want to do it. You're looking for reasons not to do it!"

"And what if? I do find reasons, and pretty good ones."

"Perhaps for the old priest from whom you learned far too much for a wizard."

"I don't need a priest," Roy growled, "to think the killing of a human is a monstrosity to be considered only in self-defence ..."

"This is a case of self-defence!" Ares excitedly cut in.

"... but even then only" – Roy leapt to his feet and became loud – "when you have made sure that there is no other chance at all, you son of a hang..."

"Roy!" Arabella interrupted him.

"Shut up!" Ares jumped up as well. "At least I know who my ..."

"Stop it!" Again, it was Arabella. "You should be ashamed of yourselves!"

For a moment, the two fighting cocks stared into each other's eyes.

"I'm sorry," Roy finally said.

"Me too," Ares replied, and they both meant it. They sat down again.

"The assassination idea, I think we can establish," Julian said, "even apart from the moral aspect, is an equation with too many variables, it's basically – excuse me, Ares – a desperate solution. The most interesting suggestions so far have been those that amount to changing Hermie's behaviour by means of magic – either by a spell or curse of any kind, or by a counter-curse by which we free her from the control of an assumed third party. Do you agree that we should go on searching in this direction?"

"Yes!" answered Roy, Orpheus and Arabella, relieved not to have to become murderers.

"Yes, I do," Ares finally said as well. "Only, with respect: If you think an attempt on her life is unfeasible, how much more unfeasible is your proposal? No matter whether curse or counter-curse: In any case, we would need Dark Magic knowledge which we don't have at all."

"I don't think," Julian replied confidently, "that there's any book in the Hogwarts library that Roy hasn't read. Right, Roy?"

"I'm afraid I have to disappoint you, indeed there are such books, and unfortunately, they are exactly the ones we need now, namely those in the Restricted Section. I've never been particularly interested in Dark Magic. However, getting the books is not really a problem: As a Prefect, I regularly have to do my nightly inspection tour and can completely legally move around in the castle at night. I happen to have my night shift today, so I can look around in the Restricted Section. Just ..."

He paused.

"Well?" asked Orpheus curiously.

"I can't imagine finding more than a few hints in the books. Think about it: If you were Dark wizards and you knew such powerful spells, would you publish them for every Tom, Dick and Harry to use?"

"So," Arabella reflected, "we need a real top expert in Dark Magic as a human source of information. Where do we get him? The few prominent Dark wizards still alive are in Azkaban or abroad."

"And everyone else who knows anything about it, in Potter's Auror Department," Ares added, "that Gryffindor mafia!"

"Oh, don't say that," Roy said ironically. "Potter has beefed up his Department with three or four Poster Ravenclaws and Alibi Hufflepuffs." They laughed without smiling. It went without saying that there was no Slytherin among the Aurors whom they could possibly have confided in.

"Nevertheless, we should contact him," Roy finally said to everyone's surprise.

"And then?" Julian demanded. "Then you ask him: Hello, Mr. Potter, could you please give me lessons in Dark Magic so that I can bewitch your Minister?"

They all laughed.

"We don't know yet," Roy replied, "whether we have to witch or to un-witch her, and the latter is something he might support. In any case, it can't hurt to have a contact."

Roy counted up with his fingers: "He has knowledge that could help us, he is strategically placed in the Ministry. Apart from that, he has influence with the Gryffindors, and he's Hermie's best friend."

"Well, that's not really something speaking in his favour, is it?," Ares interjected.

"If she's under a curse, it is. Also, he is said to be quite decent and correct, I think he would at least listen to us. I just don't know how to address him. Albus could certainly make contact, but then I'd have to approach his father with a specific request, but what we are interested in so far is just taking some soundings."

If only they had known: At that very moment, Harry Potter was not fifty feet away from them. They simply could have asked him to come in.

As it was almost nine o'clock, Roy had to start his first tour, and they all felt the need to let this conversation sink in, the Incorruptibles adjourned until next evening, hoping that Roy would then already be able to present them the first results of his library excursion, and left their secret room.