Title: Code of the Griffin
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific, general for first few books.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: From a war ravaged future, someone is sent back in time to change the course of the war.
Harry sat in the Gryffindor Common Room, working on his homework with Neville, Ron and Ginny. Since his return he preferred to do his homework in the Common Room as opposed to his private study or the Library, it was the noise and the human contact. He was completing a three foot essay on the use of everyday spells in combat for Professor Moody, his example being the use of the Mobiliarbus Charm to pelt an opponent with objects from multiple directions.
He looked up as the portal opened and admitted Hermione, dressed in formal Order uniform, and Professor McGonagall entered.
"Sergeant Potter." Hermione called. "Front and centre"
Harry stood, moved in front of Hermione and McGonagall and saluted.
"Sergeant, you have some visitors." The Professor said. "Follow me."
Harry and Hermione followed the Professor down to a small room near the Great Hall.
"Sirius!" Harry called when he spotted one of the two waiting adults.
Harry raced in and gave his Godfather a hug.
"Hello, pup." Sirius said, hugging his Godson back.
The woman waiting with Sirius approached Hermione and extended her hand to shake.
"Mary Williams. Sirius has told me all about you. So, do I call you're your Grace, Lady Granger, Lady Gryffindor or Grand Marshall?"
"Mary, for the lady who has brought joy back to the mangy old mutt, you can call me Hermione." She replied, giving Mary a hug. "Mangy Mutt, get over here and give me a hug."
"Hermione." Sirius said with a grin.
"Watch it, that Mutt is mine." Mary said with a grin.
"Hello Ma'am. My name is Harry Potter." Harry said, approaching the unfamiliar woman.
"I know. Sirius talks about you all the time." Mary replied.
"Harry, spend some time with your Godfather. Catch up. Sirius, Miss Williams, I would like to speak to you after you are done." Hermione said.
"Thanks Mione." Harry said. "You think you could send West in? I want her to meet Sirius."
"Of course." Hermione said before turning to leave the room and putting her hand to her ear, with McGonagall following her out.
"So, who is the West person?" Sirius asked.
"Kate's like my Sister." Harry replied. "Actually, I wanted to ask you something."
"So, what do you want to talk about?" Jennifer Wallace asked, taking a sip from her tea.
"Harry introduced me to his Godfather." Kate West replied from the couch.
"So is that a problem?" Jennifer replied.
"I don't know." Kate began. "I mean I get why he did it. Sirius is the only family he's got. But it's strange."
"Did they make you feel unwelcome?"
"No." Kate said quickly. "He's deeply attached to his Godfather. He needs to feel like he has a family. I get that, I really do."
Kate fell silent, and Jennifer just sat there and waited.
"I assume you've read my file." Kate asked, getting a nod from Jennifer. "You know the details. My mother died giving birth to me. Dad died just before I entered Hogwarts."
"Yes." Wallace said. "I know all the names and dates. What I don't know is what you feel about those events and what effect meeting your effective brother's surrogate family has had."
Kate sighed and lay back on the couch.
"I'm not sure I know either."
"This is your show, Lieutenant." The Grand Marshall said, leaning back in her chair around the planning table, which showed a mock up of the ground floor of Hogwarts and the immediate grounds. The Squad Sergeants gathered around the table, except for Harry and Kate who were leaning against the wall.
"Alright." Cedric said, running a hand through his hair. "We will deploy as three teams for the operation. Team One, led by Sergeant Miller, will have perimeter patrol, with sweeps inside the Forrest and of the main approach from Hogsmeade, with sniper teams on covering the Forrest approach, the Main approach and the mountains."
"Who's on sniper cover?" Miller asked.
"Harding and Watts, Bollinger and Clark, Warne and Waugh." Cedric replied.
A round of nods circled the table. They were all good teams.
"Team Two will provide close order coverage. They will patrol these corridors, check ID's at the door and provide visible security within the hall. We will have static posts here, here, here and here, as well as roving patrols within the hall itself. Any signs of disturbance then the patrols move in." Cedric continued. "The Grand Marshall has command of Team Two."
This seemed to surprise several of the Sergeants but after a moment they nodded.
"Team Three will be undercover, mixing with the students and ready to respond to any threat."
"Who will command Team Three?" Bronson asked.
"Nominally command will be shared by Sergeants Fred and George Weasley, but Team Three comes under overall command of Team Two. Also with Staff Sergeant Potter, Sergeant Longbottom, Sniper Sergeant Lovegood and myself attending. The younger Sergeant Weasley and Sergeant Bones' will still have primary responsibility for personal protection of the visiting Champions." Cedric replied.
"I don't think we will have a problem there." Miller said with a laugh.
"Where will Larks and Li be, if not on sniper cover?" Kate asked from her place up against the wall, and right next to Harry.
"They will be in Team Three." Hermione provided. "Li is our best operator in unarmed and close quarters combat. Larks is not bad there and, let's face it, Li would kill the lot of us if Larks was not with her, and she has told him that if he does not dance with her then she will rip is spleen out and break his scope. I'm not sure which scared him more but I hear he convinced Marie St Clair to teach him to dance."
"Bugger." Harry whispered to Kate. "I guess I need to learn too."
"Just remember, 1, 2, 3, 4 and don't step on her feet." Kate whispered back.
"Oh you're a great help." He replied with a roll of his eyes.
"Minister, you have a meeting in the fourth floor boardroom in three minutes."
Minister Fudge looked up at his Junior Undersecretary.
"I don't recall any meeting being scheduled." Fudge replied.
"It was a late addition, Minister. Mister Crouch and Madam Bones both sent invitations."
"Very well." Fudge said with a sigh as he stood and left the office.
Cornelius Fudge hated when his department heads sprung last minute meetings on him. The only thing he really hated more was actually have to make decisions. He was a politician, damn it, not a decision maker. He fumed as he walked through the hallway. He just hoped the meeting was not about some political move that either Black or those two damn kids, Potter and Granger, were making. He had been building support for his new act slowly but surely, which would effectively outlaw Potter and Granger and their little band. He had to move slowly as he had burnt a lot of political capital during his failed opposition to the Judicial Separation Act.
That had cost him, and not just politically, but financially. He could no longer ensure the outcome of a trial, and charge handsomely for it. Since the enactment there had been at least four cases where a rich pureblood was found guilty of some crime that they usually paid him to cover up. And one case where a Muggleborn was found innocent, despite the accusation of a Pureblood… and more disturbing that accusing Pureblood was then charged with the crime and with Perjury. Unthinkable.
But he had hope for his new act. While he had to gather support slowly, it seemed Potter and Granger were not gathering support at all. Even Black had started to rabble rouse but then had stopped, as if he knew they could not win.
Fudge entered the conference room and stopped dead. At one end of the table sat Barty Crouch and that damned moral crusader Amelia Bones. It was the three people at the other end of the table that made him stop. One was sitting at the table, he looked to be in his mid twenties, with a rugged sort of face and blond hair. The other two stood behind the man. One was a very pretty blond woman with pail blue eyes and a fit lean physique while the other was a compact, but somehow lithe, dark haired woman who seemed to be made up of curves and hard muscle. But all three were in the red and yellow uniforms of Potter and Ganger's damn… organisation.
"Minister Fudge." The Blond man said. "Pleasure to meet you. My name is Sergeant Bronson, my companions are PFC Carter and PFC St Clair."
Fudge stared at the three of them the way he would stare at a Griffin sitting in his office, yet the irony of the comparison was completely lost on him. Cater, the blond woman, simply nodded but St Clair looked him up and down with a blank stare. Suddenly he felt like something she had scraped off the bottom of her boot.
"And to what do we owe this… pleasure?" Fudge asked.
"Your Department Heads, knowing how you like to stay informed of all major events, thought you would like to be included on the security briefing for the upcoming Tri-Wizard Tournament's Yule Ball." Bronson replied.
Fudge stood dumbfounded for a second.
"Since the Tri-Wizard Tournament is a Ministry run Event." Amelia Bones began. "The Sergeant and his superiors thought it prudent to advise the Ministry on what security measures they are implementing to keep both the visiting students and any attending Ministry representatives safe. Thus allowing the Ministry to assure our counterparts in France and Bulgaria that their children are not in any danger."
"I don't see any need for the… Sergeant's involvement in security at the event. A half dozen Auror's should be more than adequate to oversee the event." Fudge replied.
This earned him a glare from Crouch, a disapproving head shake from Bones and flat stares from the three at the other end of the table.
"You seem to operating under a misunderstanding, Minister." Bronson said. "You assume that you have any say in the security measures being implemented for the Ball. This is simply not the case. This briefing is simply a courtesy. And besides, Head Auror Bones does not have a spare half dozen Auror's to assign to security detail, thanks to recent increases in workload of the active Auror's, the lower number of eligible graduates for the Auror program and the systematic culling of the Auror ranks over the last three years under a policy implemented by yourself but suggested and… encouraged by Lucius Malfoy."
"How dare you!" Fudge screamed.
"Minister!" Amelia Bones interrupted. "You will sit down and shut up. As Sergeant Bronson pointed out, your presence is a courtesy, on both sides. And the Sergeant is correct. We do not have the resources and even if we did, any significant Auror presence would only cause people to assume there is something to worry about, while the Sergeant's force has been stationed permanently at Hogwarts for over a year and their presence is now routine. Besides, the only Auror I have that could blend into that kind of crowed has just finished training. "
Fudge knew that tone from the damn woman, the same tone suspects heard right as they were charged, so he sat quietly and listened to the Sergeant. Perimeter Patrols, Fields of Fire, Close protection details, fall back positions, choke points. Fudge had no idea what most of these things meant but they did not sound nice, they sounded deadly. Only Amelia Bones dared ask any questions, she seemed to be the only one of the three Ministry staff who understood any of this. Crouch simply seemed grim. The poor bloke was actually going to be there.
After a few hours, the meeting dispersed and Fudge went back to his office. He had been humiliated. Now he had even more reason to want to destroy Potter and Granger. And Bones had now been added to his mental list.
TBC…