AN: Sorry, it's been a bit since an update. I've been super busy with work, and it doesn't seem like things will be getting much better. I'll try to update regularly. Let me know what you think, and I hope your enjoying the story.
Chapter 7
Harry and Ginny were happily talking to James and Lily at the breakfast table, when Jason and Alicia came in and joined them, happy smiles on their face, exchanging glances. Harry grinned seeing the very familiar faces. He was happy for his friends. They still acted like the same teenagers who'd been crazy in love at Hogwarts and were constantly exchanging looks after getting back from one of their "walks" looking all ruffled. It had always ended with some teasing from Dean, Seamus, Harry, Ron, and Neville when Jason finally made it up to the dorms, though Harry had been less smug when Jason had been more than happy to give it back after Harry and Ginny had gotten together. The years and hardships had only helped them get even closer.
"Good morning, you two," Lily greeted.
"Someone seems happy this morning," James said slyly, but Jason just smiled, and Alicia shrugged but shot back her own sly grin.
"Let me dish you up some plates," Lily said, getting up and walking into the kitchen.
"Thanks, Lily," Alicia and Jason said, both digging in after she set plates in front of them.
Jason turned to Harry and Ginny. "You two tell them what we discussed last night?"
Harry and Ginny sighed and shook their heads. Jason nodded, giving him a look that told them he understood.
"What did you need to talk to us about?" James asked with a frown.
Harry sighed again. "We want to change the plans slightly. We want to do the raids on the giants this morning, with us, you both, Sirius, Marlene, Dora, and Remus, if they'll join, and then possibly some Weasleys and maybe Kingsley and Rebecca if Sirius and Marlene are okay with it. We don't need the whole Order, and we think that the whole Order being involved could actually lead to more injuries."
James frowned and then said slowly, "You don't fully trust the Order to get what you want done, and you weren't completely happy with how last night turned out, is that right?"
The four dimension travelers nodded, giving them apologetic looks.
"We got lucky there were no deaths last night," Jason said matter of factly, "and the only reason there were any injuries to begin with were because Order members didn't use spells to put the Death Eaters down, or they missed and weren't quick on the uptake."
"The Order isn't fully prepared for war right now," Alicia said grimly. "This war may have been going on for nearly twenty years now, but the Order hasn't really been at war, or at least acting like it's been at war for quite a while now, or at least so we suspect."
Lily's shoulders drooped, but James looked ready to protest and would have if Harry hadn't cut him off.
"Just how you guys talked when we got here, and with how last night went, I'd say that for the most part, you've just been reactionary, fighting almost like a freedom fighter group in their occupied town, but you haven't even really been doing that actively, is that correct?" Harry asked.
James's shoulders dropped as well. "Some do," he responded quietly, "but for the most part you're right. You-Know-Who's been in power for so long, that many in our group have lost hope of actually fighting back, and our group has turned into mostly a group of people who at least don't support him. There are some exceptions. Mad-Eye still goes out to hunt lone Death Eaters, as does Aran, Barty, and the Patil's. King, us, and some of the Weasley's help out when we're needed, but otherwise not much."
"Aran?" Harry asked confusedly. "I'm assuming Barty is Barty Crouch?"
"Aran Chang," James clarified, "and yes, Barty Crouch. Both don't really have much to live for and just want to kill as many Death Eaters as they can before they finally die."
"Cho's father in our world," Jason clarified for Harry. "In this world, his wife, Cho, and his other daughter were all killed by Death Eaters. He was on my team for the dementor raids."
Harry and Ginny nodded sadly.
"Being simply killed would have been a kinder fate than what did befall them," Lily said bitterly.
"I can imagine what the Death Eaters did to them," Alicia said angrily. "As pretty as Cho is, I assume her sister and mother were quite stunners as well, and I know what Death Eaters do to attractive women when they get ahold of them. As much as they claim to be noble purebloods, working for the betterment of wizards, they certainly don't mind raping and torturing women of any blood type, be it purebloods or muggles. Women, purebloods included, are nothing but breeding stock to produce heirs and then be dealt with."
"Aran was there when they invaded his house," James said quietly, "and he was forced to watch as they raped, tortured, and killed his youngest daughter, Cho. She was only thirteen. His wife and eldest, who was sixteen were violated and tortured in front of him, but they survived and were taken to the Death Eater's brothels. Aran tried to find them, but it was too late. Most women don't last long in those horrid places."
Alicia and Ginny hissed angrily, while Harry and Jason clenched their fists, magic starting to exude from all four dimension travelers, causing Lily and James's eyes to widen in surprise and flinch slightly, before they got their emotions under control.
"I'd kind of forgotten that you said You-Know-Who makes some of his funds off brothels, but I didn't realize he was kidnapping young women and girls to fill those places," Harry said coldly. "That changes things." He looked up at James and Lily. "I still want to hit the giants this morning with just the small group we listed, but tonight we'll hit the brothels."
"As much as I would love to do that," Lily said hesitantly. "There will be a lot of women that we'd have to take care of, many of whom might not survive, but enough will survive that it will be very difficult to house them, not to mention some of them will have broken, and might even go looking for some Death Eaters and sell out whatever homes they're being housed at in return for leniency or whatever drugs the Death Eaters might have them hooked on. We . . . we've tried this before."
"Well, how about we don't put them in any homes," Alicia said, thoughtfully before smiling at Jason, and he nodded at her, seeing what she was thinking.
"What do you mean?" James asked with interest.
"We have several magical tents, and we're fairly decent with quite a few magical construction spells," Alicia explained. "We can go set up an underground bunker, similar to what Jace and I are sleeping in now, but on a much bigger scale, using our spare magical tents that we have and any other tents that people might be willing to donate. One of our tents was meant to sleep twelve, and the other can sleep eight, plus we can obviously just make a very large open area underground around the tents and conjure more beds if we need to, but maybe others in the Order have tents they'd be willing to donate. Jace and I are both fully qualified and certified medical professionals, and with Poppy and maybe Dorcas, we can help tend to them, and then the Order could just help us rotate a watch to help treat the women, and nurse them back to health. We won't be able to save all of them, but we can try to save as many as possible," Alicia finished determinedly.
"That's a good idea," James said slowly. "We have a tent, that I got out of the Potter vault just in case we had to go on the run, and I'm sure many others do have tents, so you're right, we could easily build a structure to hide and house them all, without putting anyone's homes or families in danger." He grinned. "It's brilliant!"
"Let's hold off on hitting the brothels until tomorrow then," Harry said with a sigh, getting a glare from Alicia and Ginny, and he shot them apologetic looks. "I don't like it either, but we want to take out the giants today, and we promised to still do the lessons with the girls, and then we'd need to go build this shelter, and we'd want to collect tents first, so let's ask Albus to have the Order bring and donate tents tonight before we do the original mission of hitting Death Eater and Ministry homes again, and we'll set up a giant bunker tomorrow that we can alter as needed upon getting more tents."
Alicia and Ginny sighed and nodded in agreement.
"I'm very glad you're teaching Becca, Maddy, and Gabby," Lily said. "They admire you all, and it's obvious you have a lot you can teach them. They really love that you're giving them the time."
"All three are quite brilliant," Harry said, smiling. "Besides, I-I like getting a glimpse of some cousins I might have had, should life have turned out better. Now we just need to get Remus and Dora moving along and give you versions of our godchildren!"
Lily and James laughed at that, shaking their heads.
"That would be Dora's dream," James said with an eye roll. "Remus is just so damn stubborn. She'll wear him down eventually though."
"Yeah, I think I'm going to have another talk with him about that," Harry said thoughtfully before getting back to the task at hand. "Can you guys get ahold of Sirius, Marlene, Remus, Dora, and even Kingsley if you can? It'll be up to Marlene and Sirius if they want to bring Becca with them. Ginny will go grab some Weasley's for us."
James and Lily nodded and got up to get ahold of their friends. Ginny kissed Harry on the cheek, and then she Shadow Traveled away. It took nearly twenty minutes, but finally James, Lily, Sirius, Marlene, Remus, Dora, Kingsley, Bill, Fleur, Fred, George, and Charlie were all gathered and ready for the mission. They'd also sent a note to Albus for him to ask all the other members of the Order to bring wizarding tents when they showed up for the night missions. Sirius and Marlene hadn't wanted Rebecca to come for the mission, and Harry didn't blame them for that.
"As much as I think we could split down into small groups and accomplish the overall mission fairly quickly, we're going to play it safe," Harry explained. "Mum, dad, Remus, Dora, Bill, and Fleur, you'll be with Jason and Alicia, concentrating on the giants at each location. Alicia will give you your apparation coordinates. Sirius, Marlene, Fred, George, Charlie, and Kingsley, you'll be with Gin, and I, and our jobs will be taking care of the Death Eater guards. There are no more than five Death Eaters at any site or three giants at any of the four sites, so this should be relatively fast. Any questions?"
James looked over at Jason and Alicia. "I remember a bit of what you did from the memories, but any specific tips for taking out giants?"
Jason nodded. "Surrounding them in fire hinders their movement and generally causes them to panic. Conjuring spears or other sharp weapons and launching them into the giants can actually do more damage than a cutting, slicing, or severing curse will, so stick to blasting, explosive, or fire spells and things will be okay. Like Harry said, at most we'll only have to fight three at a time. I'm going to try and surround the giants in a ring of cursed fire which will prevent them from really getting to us, but it won't stop them from picking things up to throw at us, so stay on your guard. I'd highly advise always having a shield charm around you."
Everyone nodded at his words.
"We'll hit the site in Ireland first, then Northern Ireland, then Scotland, and then finally the last site in England," Harry said.
Everyone nodded their understanding and then Ginny and Alicia gave out the apparation coordinates before they all apparated away.
**HP**
Jason appeared right outside the Potter cottage and within a second everyone else appeared with him. It had been just as quick and easy as he'd hoped it would be. Compared to trying to fight ten giants, three was hardly a challenge when you had as experienced and powerful members on the team as they'd had today. All four sites had been taken care of, and no giants or Death Eaters had survived.
"As bloody as these missions might be, it's been great having these types of successes again," Kingsley said, shooting the four dimension travelers appreciative looks. "I actually believe we're doing something, and that is something I haven't felt in years."
"Glad we could be of assistance," Harry said. "Now, everyone should try and get some rest before tonight's missions, and Sirius, Marlene, Bill, and Fleur, if you could send over the girls in a half hour, we'll start their lessons for the day."
Sirius, Marlene, Bill, and Fleur nodded smiling, happy that Harry and his friends were willing to teach the three girls, and despite doing a mission were going to stick with the lessons for the day.
A half hour later, Harry, Ginny, Alicia, and Jason smiled as the three girls came out of the Floo.
"Hey, Maddy, Becca, Gabby," Harry said
"Hey, Harry," Madelyn and Gabrielle greeted back. Becca just gave him a nod, looking a little angry.
Harry glanced at Ginny and she too had a concerned look on her face. They might not really know any of the girls very well, but so far, they had only seen them all cheery and eager to learn. Something must have happened, but Sirius and Marlene hadn't said anything, so they really had no idea what it could be. Harry looked at Jason and Alicia and nodded at them, giving a subtle gesture towards Madelyn and Gabrielle.
"Maddy, you'll be with me today, if that's okay?" Jason said, with a grin, and Madelyn nodded eagerly.
"Gabby, you'll be with me," Alicia said, smiling and gesturing for the girl to follow her as she turned around and Gabby eagerly followed.
Rebecca looked suspiciously at Harry and Ginny who gave her kind smiles.
"So, do you want to talk about it?" Ginny asked, wandlessly conjuring a couple chairs for the three of them.
"Talk about what?" Becca asked sullenly.
"Talk about what's got your wand in a twist," Harry said with a grin, getting a glare from Becca. "You're obviously angry about something. How about you confide in your elder cousins from another dimension?"
She glared for another moment before sighing and sitting in her conjured chair in a huff. "Mum and dad still treat me like I'm a child. I'm of age, and I have the knowledge to pass my NEWTs!"
"This is about you not being part of the mission this morning, isn't it?" Ginny asked, and Harry finally understood what was going on.
"Yes," Rebecca muttered. "You guys said I could come, so why wouldn't they let me."
Harry sighed. "Becca, I said you could come if your parents would allow it, but that was mostly because you helped with the Dementors, but now that I think about it, you probably only helped with Dementors."
"So what if I only helped with Dementors!" she said with a bite. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"It matters because you probably haven't had to take a life yet, correct?" Harry said softly. "They're just trying to protect you from that feeling."
Rebecca glared and opened her mouth to retort but Ginny cut her off.
"Becca, taking a life isn't as hard as they say it is, or at least it's not hard for people who believe in their fight, but the ramifications of it will stay with you," she said softly. "Harry, Jace, Licia, and I all had to take lives while we were your age or younger . . . and it's stayed with us. Sometimes I think of the people I've killed, and at this point, we've killed . . ." Ginny sighed and hesitated, "we've killed a lot of people, frankly, it's more than I even know anymore. It weighs on me how much my soul is stained with blood, and it doesn't help that I know I will likely kill many more. It weighs on Jace and Alicia too even if many don't see it. We've all gotten colder and more vicious in fights because we have to separate who we are in combat compared to who we are normally. It's one of the reasons were bitter to be here. Harry and I thought our killing days were behind us, and Jace and Alicia figured they could pick what jobs might put them in that type of situation."
Harry wrapped his arms around Ginny, giving her a concerned look. "She's described it perfectly," Harry said to Becca who was giving them a wide eyed stare. "The longer you can avoid it, the better off you will be. I don't think you'll be able to avoid it because this war will last for quite a while, probably even after the Snake faced bastard kicks the bucket, but you didn't really need to join us this morning, so your parents just tried to protect you. Gods know I understand you wanting to be considered a grown up and be trusted, but sometimes it actually is best to let your parents or guardians watch out for you for as long as they can because eventually they won't be able to."
Becca sighed and nodded. Harry and Ginny smiled at her.
"Now, how let's do some Charms work before we give you your first lesson on wandless magic," Harry said with a smile, and Becca nodded eagerly, looking more like the girl they knew.
A couple hours later after a nice shower, lessons with the girls, and a nice dinner found Jason, Alicia, Harry, and Ginny gathered in the Witcher tent updating their command center, all wearing Shadow Robes and about ready to leave to meet up with the Order.
"So tonight, we'll try and hit sixteen more locations," Harry said, talking more to himself than to his wife and friends, while he looked at the board. "Tomorrow we'll set up our little field hospital and then we'll hit the brothels. We should have a meeting with Snape for the day after that."
"Agreed," Ginny said, nodding. "He'll be able to tell us how the Death Eaters are reacting to what we've been doing and what they're trying to do to counter it."
"Alright, let's get to over to Grimmauld Place," Alicia said, and they all followed her out of the tent before they apparated away.
They found the Order already gathered and Dumbledore giving a brief overview of what the goal for the night's raids were.
"Alright everybody," Harry said, moving into the center of the room. "What with the few injuries from the dementor raids, we're going to rearrange a few teams. In addition, Jace and Alicia will be on their own, as will Gin and I." Harry used his wand to instant summon eight folders. "These folders have all the details for the missions including your targets, what obstacles you might face and apparation coordinates. Now, while they might not suspect an attack tonight, they are more likely to be on the lookout for one, so be careful, and should You-Know-Who show up or your group gets pinned down, send one of us a Patronus with your location and we'll come to give you aid so that you can get away. Any questions?"
It should be a straightforward night. They'd picked the homes of mostly mid-level Death Eaters and then some of the higher level Ministry people, but the hardest targets belonged to Harry and Ginny, and Alicia and Jason. Harry and Ginny were taking out Reginald Yaxley who in addition to being a senior level Death Eater was the Head of the DMLE, and Damocles Rowle, another Death Eater who was also Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Jason and Alicia were going to take out Matilda Edgecomb, the Head of the Department of Magical Transportation, and Corban Yaxley, the Head Auror.
"Why are you going off by yourselves?" one voice demanded. "Seems rather irresponsible."
"We can handle ourselves," Harry said firmly. "We're hitting the hard targets, and we're hoping it will attract reinforcements to us, rather than to any of your locations. We have methods of escape you all don't have, and we have some tricks that we can use."
"Merlin, you four can be arrogant wankers," another voice said scathingly.
"Perhaps we are," Alicia responded, a bite in her tone, "but we won this bloody war in our world, we've already killed or arrested all the Death Eaters in OUR world, and we're here, not because we chose to, but because you needed OUR help. Either trust us to know what we're doing, or get the fuck out of our way, so we can do what we need to do to go home. If our confidence comes back to bite us, that will be on us."
There were some grumbles in the group, but Harry could see a few looked a little sheepish, or nodded in hesitant agreement to Alicia's words.
Alicia didn't even care, turning on the spot and disappearing, Jason only a fraction of a second behind her. Harry almost felt bad for the Death Eaters. An angry Alicia was not someone you wanted to fight. He looked at his wife, and nodded, before they both disappeared, appearing in front of another stately home.
In the previous attack, they'd been trying to get in quietly, but that mostly had to do with trying to get in and have the time to search for the diary without anyone interrupting. This time was fundamentally different. Harry and Ginny were there to assassinate the Head of the DMLE, but they also wanted to draw Voldemort's forces to them, so the goal here was to make as much noise as possible.
Harry started gathering strength, as he waved his wand in a complicated fashion, over and over again, still gathering a large pool of energy to use, not bothering to conceal the presence. If someone noticed them, they'd likely call for aid, which was a good thing.
When he felt he was ready, he leveled his wand at the manor and said forcefully, "Exitium praesidium!"
His spell propelled itself from his wand like a jet taking off impacting the wards and shattering them as the ward destruction cracked open the protections on the manor. Ginny quickly placed anti-apparation and anti-portkey wards as Harry quickly shot a Floo locking curse at the home, shutting down all Floo connections.
They strode forward, through the now destroyed protections, approaching the front. Harry could Sense seven people within the manor. He knew that the DMLE Head and his wife normally had three guards, but that had probably been raised after they had killed the Malfoys. His only son was the Head Auror and wasn't likely to be visiting overnight on a weekday, so he was sure they were new guards.
Harry blasted the front door in, and he and Ginny walked in, conjuring several bricks that intercepted several killing curses sent their way. Harry and Ginny sent back a volley of curses at their opponents, all of whom shielded themselves.
The Death Eaters had attempted to set up an ambush with Yaxley, his wife, and two masked Death Eaters on the right side of the Entrance Hall, and three other masked Death Eaters on the left.
Harry shadow traveled out of the way of a killing curse, appearing behind the three Death Eaters on the left, just as Ginny launched an enhanced lightning bolt that blasted through one of the left Death Eaters shields, impacting the Death Eater. The other two tried to recover, but neither realized Harry was behind him, and went down quickly as Harry hit each with rapid heart explosion curses.
Ginny used the ethereal charm as two killing curses surged towards her and both curses passed through her. She rematerialized and launched two rapid cutting curses which hit Yaxley's wife in the throat, and she dropped, blood flowing from her wounds.
Harry and Ginny launched a volley of spells at the three remaining Death Eaters who were starting to look desperate, barely holding off the dimension travelers. Harry knew they had to end it soon though, when he Sensed nearly a dozen magical people appear outside the edges of Ginny's anti-apparation charm. They'd used some of their special tricks against these Death Eaters. They couldn't afford to let them live.
"Animo ignis!" Harry shouted and the soul fire sprang from his wand.
Yaxley tried to block it, but Harry could tell he was trying to use the same method that one would block fiendfyre, and they just weren't the same type of fire. Harry's spell would only hurt those who had committed evil, but it was a risky spell. While it was very obscure and hard to block, it weighed the crimes of the victim against the crimes of the user. If Yaxley was a more virtuous person than Harry, the spell would backfire, and Harry would be consumed.
The fire engulfed Yaxley and he screamed as the soul fire judged him worse than Harry and his body was consumed in a blaze of gold flames. Ginny launched a volley of conjured knives that embedded themselves in one of the remaining Death Eaters chest. The final Death Eater desperately shielded himself, but Harry hit the shield with a shield destruction curse which launched the Death Eater back into the wall behind him. He didn't have time to raise another defense as Ginny hit him with a concentrated explosion curse, and he died.
Harry quickly turned towards the doorway.
"Vallum sudibus glaciali," he said softly, pointing his wand at the doorway.
Ginny pointed her wand at the floor of the doorway, "Caro autem retribute!"
They ran towards the central doorway leading further into the house as the first of the reinforcements reached the doorway.
"There they are!" one yelled, and Harry looked back just in time to see one enter the doorway only to scream as ice spikes sprang from the doorway and impaled him, and he dropped dead.
The doorway was blown in by a blasting curse as three more rushed through only to trigger Ginny's flesh rending trap. No screams escaped the Death Eaters as they died. Knowing it was time to go, Harry pointed his wand into the Entrance Hall they were leaving.
"Malidicti ignis!" he yelled, and the fiendfyre sprang from his wand, spreading into the hall, engulfing all those they had fought.
Harry and Ginny left the screams and shouts of surprise ducking into a room out of sight before they shadow traveled away, appearing not far from a modest home. Damocles Rowle was a respected pureblood and Death Eater, but he wasn't the Head of the family or even the immediate heir, and thus did not live in the manors that many of the wealthy purebloods lived in.
The wards were slightly better than the average witch or wizarding family would use, but nothing on the impressive wards used on the family manors. Unlike the hit on the Yaxley's, this needed to be subtle and quiet. As the Head of the Department of International Relations, Rowle would have information on Voldemort's operations abroad. Rowle had been picked as a person to get information from, which would also hopefully keep Voldemort from suspecting a spy.
Harry and Ginny concealed their presence magically and moved up to the wards where they went through the process of dismantling the wards. It took them fifteen minutes to break down the wards, but they were finally able to slip into the hole they'd created, knowing that the alarm had been disabled and nobody in the house was aware of them.
As they approached, Harry reached out with his Sensing, and could detect five people in the home. He figured it was Rowle, his wife, and three Death Eater guards. They crept up to the doorway, and then placed the anti-apparation, anti-portkey, and anti-floo charms over the place, limiting the chance of escape. They moved to the front door and unlocked it with a complicated unlocking charm.
As they walked in, they found themselves in a formal sitting room that peered into a formal dining room, where they could see some light. The door shut behind them with a click.
"Did you hear something?" Harry heard a gruff voice ask.
"Yes . . ." a softer voice answered hesitantly. "I'll check it out."
Harry and Ginny quickly turned themselves invisible with flicks of their wands, just as a skinny man peered around the corner, his wand at the ready. He gazed around the room, not seeing Ginny or Harry, and then started moving towards the door.
Another Death Eater peeked around the corner, a fatter, shorter man. He looked around warily, but only could see the skinny man, walking in the living room.
"We're just paranoid," the shorter one said in a gruff voice. "There's nothing." He stepped into the room, and Harry and Ginny struck.
Harry hit the short man with a piercing curse in the skull, just as Ginny hit the skinny man with a heart explosion curse. Both men dropped to the ground with a loud thump.
"What was that?" A voice exclaimed in alarm from up some stairs that Harry hadn't noticed at first.
A female voice called down, "Jackson? What's going on? Graves?"
"Constantine, get down there!" A male voice ordered.
Harry and Ginny didn't wait. They approached the stairway, still invisible, and peered up to see two men and a woman all still in nightgowns, wands at the ready, one of the men already cautiously moving down the stairs. Harry took aim and launched a stunner up, hitting the man at the top of the stairs while Ginny had launched a cutting curse, hitting the man coming down the stairs in the throat.
The woman screamed looking at her fallen husband, her wand shaky, but the scream didn't last long before she was hit with a heart explosion curse and she died. Harry grimaced at the death. He didn't truly know if the woman was a Death Eater herself, or just the wife of one, whether she supported Voldemort herself, or just supported her husband, or whether she even did that. They couldn't afford to take the risk though. This was about damaging Voldemort's government, and eventually getting home. He would do whatever was necessary to get Ginny, Jason, and Alicia home.
Harry and Ginny moved up the stairs, stepping over the Death Eater, who was choking on his blood, his hands around his neck. They grabbed the stunned man, whom they knew to be Damocles Rowle, and sat him up against the wall.
"Rennervate," Harry mumbled, and Rowle groaned as he awoke. He looked up and his eyes met Harry's, and he glared.
"You're going to regret this!" Rowle yelled.
"Legilimens!" Harry said, and Rowle gasped as Harry's mental probe battered against his mind shields. They weren't bad, but Harry was a Master Legilimens, and soon they gave away and Harry slipped into his mind.
Harry methodically went through the man's memories, pulling out every bit of intel about Voldemort and his Death Eaters. When he was done, he exited his mind and gave his wife a nod. Harry stunned Rowle, while Ginny placed several traps around the room. It was cruel, but they would use Rowle as bait to draw in more Death Eaters.
They quickly Shadow Traveled out of the building, reappearing back at Grimmauld Place, where people were pouring in having finished their missions. He noticed two major looks on people's faces: accomplished or disgruntled.
Jason and Alicia appeared, just as the last team (Katie Bell's and Oliver Wood's) walked into the room
"This is great!" Savage said triumphantly, leading his group. "We finally are hitting them where it hurts, and they can't do a thing about it!"
"These successes won't come as easily after this," Ginny warned. "The Death Eaters have grown lax, and we've been able to strike hard, but with the loss of the giants and vampires in country, as well as the destruction of many of the dementors and now these attacks on Death Eater homes, they'll start figuring out how to counter us."
"What do you mean the giants and vampires?" Amelia Bones asked with a frown.
"Yeah, we haven't attacked the giants or vampires!" Hestia Jones exclaimed.
"You didn't, but we did," Harry said. "We killed the vampires loyal to You-Know-Who yesterday morning and killed the giants this morning."
"They barely had any in country!" Gawain Robards exclaimed. "With those deaths, they'll just bring back more, and probably a lot more than had been here in the first place."
"Probably," Jason said with a nod, almost being drowned out by the exclamations.
"It's bad enough fighting what they have now!" Mrs. Diggory exclaimed. "How are we supposed to fight You-Know-Who's full army?!"
"You're not," Alicia said simply. "It takes time to coordinate pulling any of his troops back from where they are positioned, especially creatures like giants, trolls, dementors, and vampires. Even Death Eaters could take a couple days to coordinate and create the portkey's needed to return, so we need to cause enough chaos that they have to constantly change their plans, which will hopefully cause them to make mistakes."
"I don't understand," Mary McDonald said confusedly.
"Right now, the Death Eaters and Ministry here in the UK are trying to figure out how to counter our efforts," Jason explained, "and the easiest way is to call reinforcements, like you all understand, but it takes time, so we need to make it hard for them to bring reinforcements, and the easiest way to do that is by causing chaos elsewhere in the world. That's why we want contacts in other countries."
"You want to either start insurrections or assist other resistances so that the Death Eaters have to divert where they send their other forces," Emmiline Vance said in understanding.
"Exactly," Alicia said.
"We have our own problems!" Mr. Diggory exclaimed. "We can't go running off to fight elsewhere when we can't even win our fight here."
"Do not misunderstand," Jason said, "We'll keep up the resistance here, but if we can elevate the fight in other places, You-Know-Who will have to divert troops to multiple locations, and since his armies were in places that the fighting was already fierce, he may not be able to so without risking losing those fronts."
"I still think we should just focus on our own problems," Mr. Diggory said stubbornly.
"If you do that, you'll lose," Alicia said flatly. "It's far too small minded." Diggory scowled. "This is a global conflict. Besides, let's say we kill You-Know-Who. Do you think that his armies will just dissipate? No, right now they own the world. You-Know-Who is something that people fear and are hesitant to fight, but even if he leaves, his forces aren't going to give up without a fight. You'll still have to fight them, and if you retake the UK, what then? Do you leave the rest of the world to deal with the Death Eaters on their own, even though the problem started here in England?"
"We can help them later," Barty Crouch said impatiently. "We'll regain our pride by dealing with You-Know-Who and then we can help the world as we deem fit."
Ginny scowled.
"Your pride?" Harry said softly, a dangerous glint in his eyes. "This is because of your pride. England couldn't contain its problems, and now your world may never fully recover. Maybe if you'd called in help from around the world twenty years ago, or if Albus had shared his theories on horcruxes, maybe others could have done the work to kill You-Know-Who. Now you need our help, and you're trying to talk to me about salvaging your pride? Ridiculous."
Barty Crouch glared along with several others, though Harry noticed some people seemed to agree with what Harry had said.
"I'm not going to argue with you," Harry said with a disappointed shake of his head. "I intend on taking the fight out of this country when needed. I don't care if you are willing to help or not. Do as you wish."
Nothing left to say, Harry walked out of the room, Ginny right on his heels.
"Some of them are just infuriating," Harry said, grimacing, shaking his head.
"I know," Ginny said quietly. "Many of them are good people, but overall, I'm not sure I like trusting them to watch our backs."
"Other than this world's versions of our family, I would agree," Harry muttered, and he sighed. "We should get back to the tent and get some rest."
"Probably," Ginny agreed.
"You guys almost left before we had gathered the tents," Jason's voice came, and they looked over to see him and Alicia walking into the room.
"Sorry, I kind of forgot," Harry muttered. "I was just tired of dealing with Crouch."
Jason grinned. "I don't blame you. Besides, Licia and I got it covered."
"How many tents did they donate?" Ginny asked.
"Nine," Alicia said. "We'll have to actually open them up to see how many beds are available between them all, but when you add in the tents that the Potters and Blacks donated, plus our own spares, then we should have quite a few beds without having to conjure temporary ones."
"That should be plenty," Harry said. "We can conjure temporary beds for extras and have people rotate between temporary beds and tents if needed."
"You guys could be a bit less abrasive" a voice said, and Harry looked over to see Lily coming in. "I understand exactly how moronic some of our members are, and I also fully understand that you four are a bit bitter to be here, but you are not making yourselves a lot of friends in this group, and you know you need the support."
Harry sighed. "I get that, but I think some of them need to hear the hard truth. As much as we might need them, they do need us more, and I refuse to bow down to every person who wants to question our choices and abilities."
"You know you wouldn't like some strangers just showing up and taking control, and in some cases, being a bit rude even if they were solving a problem that you couldn't," Lily said.
"You're right," Harry admitted, "but I won't let myself get into that situation in the first place, and that's why I get angry if they're going to start making arguments against our plans simply to save their pride. That should have left long ago."
"That's true," Lily admitted. "Barty and Amos have always been hot tempered, arrogant, and frankly egotistical bastards, but they don't represent us all, and some of your comments do hurt those who aren't like Barty and Amos."
"Alright," Jason said wearily. "We'll try to cut back on the bitter, arrogant remarks when possible."
Harry nodded in agreement, while Ginny and Alicia both gave halfhearted shrugs.
"I guess that's all I can ask," Lily said with a tired smile. "Oh, and Severus contacted me. I know you wanted to meet up with him in a couple days, but he wants to meet up tomorrow at noon. Can you make it work?"
Harry glanced at his wife and friends, who all nodded. He turned back to Lily.
"We'll be there," he said. "Can you pass the message along to have the girls come over earlier for lesson?" Lily nodded before turning and walking back into the room with the rest of the Order."
"Tomorrow's going to be a busy day," Jason said with a sigh.