Chapter 4 : A Plan and Countermeasures
"Silence!"
Professor McGonagall stood up abruptly to stop the outrage coming from the group of teachers. After the ministry's meeting earlier that morning, Dumbledore called for a teacher's meeting to be held in the great hall at Hogwarts. Some of the student benches were set out to accommodate the group of professors. To Dumbledore's amusement, almost all his teachers sat at his/her original house's tables from when they were students.
Mrs. Hooch gave a snarl, "To hell with the ministry! We should just fly in with wands at the ready!" A few others nodded in approval as she continued, "They want powerful wizards? I say let them have a taste!" The tip of her wand glowed green as if it agreed to her suggestion. Dumbledore just shook his head as he stood upon the stairs leading toward the head table.
"They are stronger than we think, Rolanda. Why don't all of you hear out the plan I have written up before we start becoming a 'ten wizard army'?"
Sitting back into her chair, Hooch gave an angered grunt but listened nonetheless. Dumbledore flicked his wand into the air above him and a large map of Hogwarts descended in front of him. Each room was labelled and transparent.
"We will start by building up the defences around the school. This school will be our safehouse if it comes to it." Some of the teachers looked at each other as the headmaster spoke as if finding confirmation that this was real. "I will be staying in Hogwarts to lead the defences here along with Madame Pomfrey and Professor Hooch. Pomfrey will be attending the injured and the rescued wizards that we will be talking in." Mrs. Pomfrey raised her hand.
"I won't have enough room in the med-wing to hold everyone."
"The hall will be set up with beds and medical equipment. We will be using portkeys, for the most part, as a main form of travel to rescue the children. Every portkey will return to the main entranceway." Dumbledore pointed to Professor Moody who was propping his elbow on the table with his hand up.
"What of the rest of us? What's the plan for the rescue?" asked Moody gruffly.
"We will first send out owls to deliver messages to the children who are still in hiding, telling them to go to one of the five pick up locations tomorrow night. At the same time, I want two of you to enter this muggle base." Dumbledore flicked his wand again and it brought up a boxed building with many wired fences and barred windows around it. "Here is where, to my knowledge, they are keeping our students along with their wizard parents. The two will enter with 10 portkeys and get the children out." He stopped as professor Sprout put up her hand.
"Which of us will be chosen for that job?" she asked nervously.
"We will be taking a vote at the end of the meeting and each of you will choose two people from this room to go on that mission. Other than that, let us move on to getting the children out of those five pick-up zones. Anyone who is left from the first vote will be attending to their own pick-up zone." Dumbledore looked down, "We need to be ready for anything and ready to sacrifice even our own lives."
Everyone in the room looked at the headmaster with a sad but determined look. Remus Lupin, who was not a teacher but still a close friend to the school, stood up.
"If I may say, I am ready to stand in the way of any harm that is pointed towards the students, even if I may die." Lupin looked at the teachers as each of them stood up with newfound courage. Dumbledore held his head up.
"I have no question that you all are ready for this. It will be up to you to find the best way to get those kids back to Hogwarts, be it portkey, apparition or broom." The headmaster then pointed his wand to each of the tables and pieces of parchment appeared in front of each of the teachers.
"It is now time to vote for the two that will be breaking into the muggle facility. You may not choose Pomfrey, Hooch, or myself." After Dumbledore said this, McGonagall stood out of her chair.
"I also wish not to be chosen since I would like to lead the team going for the pickup zones." Looking at the headmaster for approval, she sat down when he gave a short nod in her direction.
Scribbles of ink pens were heard over the silence of the great hall. The noon sun was shining through the big windows behind the head table. Sparkles of dust were uncovered and slowly moved across the room. The teachers folded their papers and put them into a floating hat that Dumbledore was guiding across the room. He then retrieved the hat and tapped his wand against it.
The small folded papers came flying out of the hat and started flying around each other in a small swirl storm.
"The first person chosen is…" Dumbledore tapped the flying cards with his wand. A name came out of the whirlwind and above the headmaster's head. "...Alastor Moody."
Moody gave a short nod and shook Flitwick's hand who was giving him good luck. Dumbledore then continued to the second name.
"The second person who was chosen is…" Making the same tap, a name appeared under Moody's name. Dumbledore frowned at the outcome. "...Severus Snape."
Snape sat up from his slouching position against the far left wall. He nodded as he saw all eyes on him in the meeting room. Turning his attention back to the headmaster, Snape saw that he was a bit uneasy with him going.
I am more than capable. thought Snape as he leaned back against the wall behind him. He would have to talk to Dumbledore about this afterwards. Dumbledore then cleared his throat.
"The rest of you should be forming a strategy that suits your magic strengths to pick up the children." He finished by tapping his wand against his leg and everything disappeared. "The meeting is over. Come to me if you have any questions about anything." He made eye contact with Snape who upon realizing, looked away quickly.
Everyone was walking out and the headmaster was close to finishing talking to Pomfrey on preparing a mass medical bay. Snape sat at his spot on the far left of the room at the Sytherens table. Once Madam Pomfrey left, Dumbledore walked over to Snape and sat down on the bench opposite.
"I think it unwise for you to go on this mission, Severus," said Dumbledore. Snape, however, scowled.
"The majority of the staff wrote my name down knowing I am quite experienced with spy-like operations! If you think it is a question of loyalty, I should let you know I…"
"It's not that Severus. I don't want you to get caught since I am planning a second mission for you when you return." Snape eyed his headmaster with uncertainty. Dumbledore continued, "It's a feeling I have that it will be a great loss for you to be thrown away so easily." Snape stood up.
"I am sure Moody and I will be able to make it out of there without any difficulty. As for the second mission, Don't plan anything before we know what our enemy will do."
"They're not the enemy, Severus." Dumbledore watched as Snape started to walk away.
"They are the reason we cower in the shadows. If not the enemy, then what?" Snape left the room with his black robes trailing behind him.
Dumbledore, with no choice, looked after him. There was no telling what would happen next.
"Where is it?" mumbled Harry to himself as he walked down for what seemed to be the hundredth line of houses he wandered down. Holding the letter, he read the address for the hundredth time and stopped to catch his bearings. At that moment a black truck rounded it's way around the corner.
Harry ducked into a bush as the truck stopped in a driveway. An officer got out and pulled out a sandwich which he started eating. It never occurred to Harry how hungry he was, from not having breakfast or lunch of course.
A loud flapping came from out of the sky as a large owl flew overhead. It seemed to have something in its beak, Harry recognized it to be a letter. Watching the bird with wonder, he didn't see the officer pull out his gun.
A loud bang, then a screech, as the owl fell onto the pavement. Harry's mouth fell open but he didn't dare to move out of his hiding place in fear of getting caught. All thoughts of hunger left his mind.
The officer jogged over to the downed owl and retrieved the letter from its mouth. Looking it over, the officer turned the open letter to the other side as if he didn't find what he was looking for.
Invisible ink. thought Harry. Only a spell could reveal what it says, and there was no way for a muggle to read it without the help of a wizard. The officer shrugged at the blank note and put it into his pocket while also picking up the dead owl by its feet, walking back towards his truck. He threw the owl into the back and hopped into the driver seat.
Harry steamed in anger as the truck rounded the corner, out of view. How could he just shoot down an owl like that?
Harry fought back tears but then continued to trudge on in search of the Granger household, hoping to find safety from this madness.
Humming from the heater on the side of the wall was the only noise to be heard in the large office. A tall man sat in the chair at the desk with his head resting on his folded hands propped up by his elbows, his eyes bore into the door ahead of him. He was waiting for the door to open, hoping to hear of some type of news. For this man wasn't just a muggle office worker, although some wizards would disagree. He was head of the whole operation involving the ban and capture of wizards.
The door opened and the man sat back into his seat.
"Sir?" Came a small voice from the door.
"Yes Mrs. Davis?" the man's deep voice asked the lady at his door.
"The pink lady is here to see you again. She says she may be able to help you with the owl problem."
He motioned for the door to be opened wider so to let his guest in. The lady that walked in was quite short but she had the demeanour of a small dog mixed with a toad. Her hair was combed with not a hair out of place and her attire was fully, and painfully bright pink. She sat in a chair opposite the man.
"Very well to see you again Dr. Willaim Hansen. I see that the operations have been, to the most part, successful." Her cheerful but condescending voice knocked around in Willaim's ears.
"The first phase has been successful partly thanks to you, witch." He flinched as she slammed her purse on his deck at the sound of that name. She then resumed talking in a happy tone.
"As you should. Now from what I hear, you require another helping hand." She eyed the blank piece of parchment that was lying on Willaim's desk. He slid it over to her to pick up and examine.
"As the order states, all my soldiers are to shoot down any owl that appears to be carrying something. Dozens of these were found this afternoon, all of them blank." Willaim watched as the pink lady pulled out a wand made of pink/brown wood.
"Not blank, rather hidden." she tapped the paper in the middle. "Revialio" she said under her breath. Inked words started to appear on the page. William snatched the letter out of her hands and started to read.
Dear Students of Hogwarts,
It is a great concern that we return you all to Hogwarts starting immediately. Starting tonight, we will be picking you up at one of the five pick-up zones. This will all happen at roughly 7 pm.
Below are the listed places of pickup.
Hyde Park, London (By the bird sanctuary)
Box Hill, Surrey (At the top)
Queen's Park, Swinton (The field across the cafe)
Hogganfield Park, Glasgow (The field)
Mandale Park, Rochdale (Just off of Manchester Road)
If you are unable to make it, please send a returning owl to let us know so we (your teachers) can take appropriate action.
I wish you all the best at this time.
Headmaster Albus Dumbledore
William put the paper down and started to type furiously on his computer. After the few minutes of constant typing, the pink lady cleared her throat. William glanced up but quickly went back to typing.
"You may go witch. I will let you know when I need more assistance."
"Actually, I would like to review my benefits as said in this agreement. You will supply me with protection and a comfortable lifestyle. A large house with unlimited supplement would do wonderfully." She watched William with unwavering eyes as he continued to type.
"Yes yes." He motioned for her to leave, "You will get what you ask, take it up with my secretary, I'm busy at the moment."
She stood up and started to walk to the door. Stopping without looking back she asked a question.
"Have those magic lenses been working on the security tapes recently?" William stopped typing, looked up at her, then started clicking open a few folders on his desktop. She walked back over to his side, a large smile on her face. He looked at it with confusion.
"Last night's tapes picked up some magic over in the lab building. I was there conducting a meeting with my fellow associates." He clicked at the other folder, opening a video. A man dressed in a dark brown suit was running down the hallways with a glowing wand held above his head. "Who is.."
"Remus Lupin." Answered the lady without hesitation. "He used to work at that school I was telling you about. He probably thinks these are regular security cameras, with him holding his wand and all."
"Remus Lupin…" William trailed off in his own thoughts then snapped out of it. "What do you mean 'used to'?" He asked the lady.
"He is a werewolf, so the Ministry of magic found it unacceptable for such a danger as he to be working with children." At this, William sat back in his chair and put his hands on his head.
"There are werewolves? What next? A vampire/zombie hybrid?" He was clearly shaken by this information. The lady reassured him.
"There is no worry. Lupin can't control it without a potion, so it is more of a disadvantage to him," she said. William waved her away.
"I need to process everything I have heard here. So it would be great if you could leave me with my thoughts." She smiled at him which caused his spine to shiver with unease.
"One more request, I can use my magic freely."
"Yes, whatever you want, can't you see I am busy, witch?" She wrinkled her nose at that name.
"It's Dolores Umbridge, and I think you should start to use it if you require more help from me." William shook his head as he glanced after her. At the moment he was just glad she was gone. Umbridge caused him a headache every time he met with her but some sacrifices must be made to get information.
He was going to be busy tonight.