Ginny Takes Over

Ginny met the Incorruptibles again the following Wednesday in the secret room. Officially, she was not allowed to leave London, but since no one could control where she Disapparated, the ban was practically only on paper.

Roy welcomed her: "I saw Harry."

"How so?" asked Ginny, her eyes wide.

"I was in Azkaban in the guise of a seagull."

"As an Animagus?"

Roy nodded. "I saw Harry doing his yard exercise; he looked good to me. I don't think the Dementors could do much to him."

"I thought so," Ginny said calmly. "As an Auror, he has learned to lock any feeling of happiness into his soul in such a way that Dementors cannot suck it off. Were there any other prisoners in the yard?"

"Not when I was there."

"There is never more than one person on the yard at a time," Julian now said. "The prisoners are strictly isolated from each other, there is not even a common yard exercise. You were very lucky to see Harry. Every prisoner in Azkaban only has one walk a week."

Julian had been at his grandfather's at the weekend and had brought with him a set of detailed plans of the fortress drawn from memory by Rodolphus, who had been imprisoned there for fourteen years.

Roy cast an examining glance at it. The plan of the outer facilities indeed corresponded exactly to what he himself had found on site; Rodolphus seemed to have an excellent memory. As far as one could tell at first glance, there hadn't been any major changes in Azkaban since Rodolphus' escape in 1996.

More important were the plans of the three basement floors with the cell wings. The door through which Harry had to pass from the yard led to a spiral staircase, which was the only access to the cell floors. All three floors were built in the same way: Coming from the spiral staircase, one first had to cross the Dementors' guardroom, from which a door led to the main corridor, which was about seventy-five yards long and crossed by eight secondary corridors of the same length, along which were the cells, forty in each secondary corridor, three hundred and twenty per floor, nine hundred and sixty in all. The ground plan of the basements extended beyond that of the castle on all sides.

The cells were tiny – about eight feet wide, twelve feet deep – with just enough room for a plank bed, a toilet, washing facilities, a small table and a chair.

"My goodness, what holes," Arabella murmured in dismay. "How can anyone stand it?"

"As for Harry," Ginny replied, "the cupboard he had to live in as a child with his Muggle family was much smaller. He's hardened to that kind of thing."

"We'll have to enter via the spiral staircase," Orpheus reasoned, "sending our Patroni ahead. I see a problem: If we send down the Patroni, the Dementors will flee, being driven deep into the corridors. Then a horde of Dementors is gathering in the cell wings, right by the prisoners. It will be hard to get to the cells then."

"Not if we're clever," Julian objected. "My grandpa told me that the cells on the first basement floor are always occupied first. When they are full, the second and then the deepest basement get filled. Since there aren't too many prisoners in Azkaban at the moment, we only need to drive the Dementors to the lowest floor and then have free access to the cells on the two upper floors."

"And if there's no other way, we'll just have to kill the Dementors," Roy added.

"Is it possible to do that?" asked Albus. "I mean, they're more dead than alive anyway, but the little life left in them is maintained by Dark Magic."

"With the Basilisk fangs, you can," Roy replied. "Harry gave them to me as late as December to avoid them to be found in a house search. They are in the laboratory. We'll arm ourselves with them."

"All right," said Ginny, "so this problem is solvable. But how do we get in?"

"One thing at a time," Roy replied. "I propose to think from the end and then work our way ahead to the preconditions. So we pick up the prisoners from the cells. We must have brooms with us, and brooms that are faster than the Aurors' ..."

"Firebolts!" shouted Julian. "We'll take the Slytherin Quidditch brooms. If we need more, the Malfoys won't be stingy ..."

"The escape route is vertically upwards under the protection of our Patroni and additional shield charms," Roy resumed planning, "until we have left the protective dome and can make ourselves invisible. What if the Aurors rise with their brooms to prevent us from escaping?"

"We'll shoot them off the brooms," Ares suggested. "Before someone can rise with his broom, there is always a critical moment when he is on show. If we have enough people on the castle tower..."

"And where do we get them?", Ginny cut in.

"I haven't been able to contact my dad yet because he had been detained at the Ministry for days, but I still stand by my estimation that he could round up a handful of old Death Eaters, provided their comrades are freed as well."

"How many Death Eaters are still in jail?"

"Around a dozen," Ares replied. "If we bring wands for all the prisoners to be freed – they won't be perfect, but somehow they'll be able to do magic with them – there will be about forty of us, protected by Patroni and shield charms, and we'll have the surprise on our side. Risky, but doable, especially when you consider that the Aurors sent to serve in Azkaban aren't likely to be the best and the brightest, rather those you don't need elsewhere."

"Yes, but they can be around two hundred, maybe even more if the squads are strengthened by then," Roy indicated. "Against that are us, the Weasleys and possibly the Death Eaters, assuming your father is really able to persuade them to join. Twenty-five to thirty people, half of whom will be busy down in the cell wing freeing the prisoners. That leaves about fifteen who have to keep two hundred Aurors at bay, and on top of that those Dementors who are not in the cell wing but up in the castle."

"Dementors can be driven away with Patroni, they are only strong against the defenceless," Ares said.

"Well, we have still to deal with the Aurors," Roy reasoned. "We have to put them out of action." He mused, then grinned. "And I think I know how ..."

Ginny raised her eyebrows. Roy continued: "If the Aurors are alerted, we will bomb their towers and the shelter with Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder. Then they are practically blind. But we can see them by applying Calorate. The few who manage to get on their brooms in the general confusion and darkness, are each targeted and knocked out with Stunning Spells. – I suppose," he turned to Ginny, "that the honourable company Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes can provide us with this powder?"

Ginny laughed. "Tons, if necessary!"

"Fine. There is still the Patroni matter. How many of your family are able to conjure a Patronus, Ginny?"

Ginny thought for a moment and then said: "All except James and Victoire."

"Then we'll train James and Victoire in it," Roy decided. "In a castle full of Dementors, we'll need any Patronus available. I just wouldn't involve them in the planning of the action. In general, further planning should be limited to Ginny and me. Do you agree?"

Everyone nodded, only Albus looked a little doubtful.

"Er, Mum..." he asked hesitantly, "do you really think you can do the job? I mean, you practically have to fill in for Dad ..."

He fell silent, for Ginny gave him a withering look without saying a word for an almost endless ten seconds, during which he felt like shrinking.

"Four hundred and fifty to one hundred and forty," she finally growled.

"Er, sorry?"

"At the end of my fifth year, we had the deciding match against Ravenclaw for the Quidditch Cup and had to win by three hundred points difference. I was actually a Chaser, but I had to play Seeker because our regular Seeker – your dad – got detention from Snape." She paused for effect. "With four hundred and fifty to a hundred and forty we swept the Ravenclaws off the pitch. Believe me, my boy, I am able to replace your father if I have to!"

This was an argument against which no objection was possible.

"Okay, okay ...", Albus murmured meekly. "Er, shouldn't we teach Scorpius the Patronus as well?" suggested Albus. "I've been practising all sorts of defensive spells with Scorpius over the holidays, he's pretty good ..."

"Scorpius won't join in!" his mother cut him off. "I don't think any first-year student but you can conjure a Patronus. And I will certainly not involve other people's children in such a dangerous action. I couldn't look Astoria Malfoy in the eyes if anything happened to her only son. It's different with you and James, it's about your dad, and your friends here are of age or almost of age."

As Albus looked rather disappointed, Roy suggested:

"Still, show him everything you've learned yourself, Al, it definitely can't hurt. However, you will not tell him anything about the liberation, understand?"

Ginny looked at him suspiciously but didn't object, and Albus nodded in relief. He was happy to be able to do something.

"Can we use the secret room?" asked Albus. "I mean, we shouldn't be seen, and if we can't do it here, we have to go to the Room of Requirement on the seventh floor."

Roy seemed a little uncertain, he looked around.

Arabella nodded: "We wanted to let him join anyway once this is over. I think he is intelligent and discreet."

"He already asked me if he can join," Albus added.

As no one objected, Roy said: "So we make him, so to speak, officially a candidate. But he should know that it is a special distinction and a sign of our particular confidence that he is the only one outside the group to know our secret room."

"What about the other Slytherins?", Ares now wanted to know. "Shouldn't we recruit some of them too?"

Roy thought for a moment, then shook his head. "The number of confidants is already precariously high. I am not insinuating anyone is a traitor, but anyone could blab or make themselves suspect. Come to think of it, we should also refrain from involving the Death Eaters, except for your dad, if he wants to join in, and Julian's grandpa."

"Are you sure we've got enough people without them?" objected Ares.

"We and the Weasleys, including James and Victoire, are sixteen persons. If we take the Death Eaters on board, we are forced to free more than a dozen prisoners instead of just one, which takes much longer, and we have many more confidants whom we don't know, who are probably being watched by the Ministry, and any one of whom could blow the whistle on the operation. Besides, I don't want to unnecessarily put your dad in danger, who also has the Ministry on his back. The Darkness Powder should be enough to compensate for our numerical weakness."

"Next point," Ginny now took the initiative. "How do we get in unnoticed?"

"We first take out the Aurors patrolling over the fortress," Roy replied. "They are invisible, but can be made visible with Calorate and are therefore easy to surprise. Then we go down in a dive."

"We'll be seen doing that," Arabella objected.

"Not on a new moon."

"And when is that?"

"The next two new moons are on 15th February and 17th March."

"So in pretty much a month and two months respectively," Ginny mused. "By mid-February we should know what our prospects are of getting Harry released at trial and whether or not we will have to get him out by force. But as long as we don't know, we are coordinating all preparations for 15th February."

"What about the alternative," Arabella asked, "of getting Harry out of the courtroom?"

"Hopeless," Ginny replied. "I talked it over thoroughly with my father. During important court hearings, the Ministry is guarded like a fortress by both Dementors and Aurors. All the entrances are virtually impassable and long queues of Ministry officials form to get to their workplaces. This is the difference to Azkaban, which is open-air and can therefore never be completely sealed off against intrusion from above. Grids with narrow passages will be installed in the Ministry. Anyone trying to get in is checked for everything, including Polyjuice and the like. The protective dome, otherwise only shielding the immediate environment of the Minister, is extended to the whole building, so that no invisibility spell works either, and even when you have passed the controls, security guards are everywhere, especially in the court wing, and particularly in front of the courtroom. You would have to fight your way corridor by corridor, against real professionals, and even if you make it into the courtroom, you can't get to Harry because the Dementors are prepared to use the permanent Portkey at any time, which is on standby for such cases and takes them directly to Azkaban with the prisoner. Since he is being taken to trial by the same route, a liberation in transit is also impossible."

"They are moving the prisoners by Portkey?" Roy frowned. "I thought Apparating and Portkey didn't work in Azkaban?"

"These particular ones do," interjected Julian, "when they are enchanted by the same people who did the protection spells. I suppose it's like our secret room: Since McGonagall set up the protection spells for Hogwarts, she, but only she, was also able to exempt this room from them."

"So it doesn't make sense to pursue the plan of liberation from the Ministry at all?" asked Roy.

"That's right," Ginny confirmed. "It's got to be Azkaban."