"GET DOWN!" Harry roared.
The Healer sprinting ahead who he was covering, whom he vaguely recognized as one of the trainees who had helped to heal Mr. Weasley after his run-in with Nagini in Harry's fifth year, dropped to the floor and slid in a a football tackle Harry thought he had once seen Dean Thomas demonstrate. The Killing Curse impacted the wall over the Healer's head instead as he quickly rolled out of sight.
Inspired, Harry tried the same move as he approached the Death Eater who had burst into the hallway between him and the Healer. Before the masked figure could bring his wand to bear on Harry, Harry's outstretched foot slammed into the man's ankle, and the unpleasant sound of crunching bone rang out.
The Death Eater fumbled his wand as he fell to the floor in pain. Harry scooped it up, kicked the Death Eater hard in the masked face, yelled "Stupefy!" with both wands pointed at him, and then sprinted ahead once more.
"Come on!" he hissed as the Healer fell in beside him again. "We've done what we came for; let's get out of here!"
He pushed the Healer ahead of him toward his chosen extraction point: the Minister's private floo on the top floor of the Ministry of Magic.
"Stupefy!" Harry shouted again, pointing both wands he now carried down the hallway in each direction before quickly ducking back inside the doorway as the Healer was whipped out of sight by emerald flames.
"Colloportus!" Harry coughed out, and the door to the office sealed. Not a moment too soon, either, for sounds like cannon fire began to rattle the frame immediately.
Harry flung his own pre-measured Floo Packet into the fire, and backed into it with his wand still covering the door. Apparently the Death Eaters knew better by now than to waste time trying to unlock a door Harry had sealed, because they instead blasted out the wall surrounding it. The door—frame and all—fell inward, revealing three more Death Eaters with wands drawn. Two fired the Killing Curse, but Harry had already whispered the password and was spinning out of sight. The third cried "Somnus—" just as Harry disappeared.
Mission accomplished…he hoped. A combination of the spell he had half-avoided, the exhaustion of the previous night's lack of sleep, and the fighting during today's raid seemed to overwhelm Harry, and his eyes began to droop even as his spinning in the fireplace slowed. He had to hope that the others had finished their parts, but he had needed the password to travel, so everything should be fine, and they would be safe once they reached…once they reached…undisclosed location…
The next morning saw Draco toss a newspaper—now only obtainable by those with approved Blood Status—onto the General's Table with a scowl. Harry had arrived back at Hogwarts moments before, along with Augustus Pye, who had allowed him to sleep until dawn that day. On seeing the headline, Sirius let out a barklike laugh, and began to read aloud:
"Harry Potter: Public Menace!
As the recent attack on St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries should have demonstrated to anyone still harbouring doubts, Undesirable Number One—whose bounty has now risen to 60,000 galleons—has proved once again to be a danger to all loyal magical subjects.
Undersecretary Malfoy has decreed a Curse-On-Sight order for Potter, whose damning list of crimes includes treason, conspiracy, mayhem, kidnapping, larceny, civil disobedience; multiple counts of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter of Purebloods; multiple counts of aggravated assault and battery upon the Dark Lord's person, upon Ministry Aurors, upon Ministry Healers, upon Ministry employees, and upon Purebloods; escaping and evading Ministry arrest, harbouring of Blood Traitors and Mudbloods; and aiding, abetting, counseling, and being a willing accessory to the escape of other known criminals…"
"I notice they don't mention that none of the Healers were killed in our 'attack'," Harry observed. "Including the ones that the Death Eaters cursed or used as human shields. And there's no mention of the raid I was actually on yesterday. Not making themselves look very competent, are they?"
The raid on Saint Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, which had also taken place yesterday, had seen the recruitment of several more Healers and the evacuation of all non-permanent patients to Hogwarts, along with their support staff and medical supplies. Sadly, there was no way to move the long-term care residents safely at the moment, so that ward was carefully sealed and secured, so that the likes of Gilderoy Lockheart and Frank and Alice Longbottom could be taken to a secure location at a later date.
"The fact that you weren't even at St. Mungo's is the best part," Sirius crowed. Then a frown creased his brow. "Where were you, come to that?"
Harry caught Draco's eye, then gave his godfather a thin smile. "Sorry, Sirius, mate. That's 'need to know'." He rolled his head around at the surrounding crowd, mutely telling Sirius that the snub wasn't really meant for him.
Sirius' eyes flicked to Draco. The pale boy rolled his eyes. "Retrieving prisoners and tampering with enemy communications," he said shortly. "Then Hero-boy had to go back and save someone who had gotten pinned down…"
"As opposed to what, Draco?" Harry challenged tiredly. "I should have left him behind?"
Scowling again, Draco reluctantly shook his head. "No…you made the right call P—Harry," he corrected himself. "Particularly given who it was."
"I'll tell you one thing, Draco," said Harry, changing the subject from where the previous day's mission had been. "Either I'm getting slower, or your father is a better shot than I gave him credit for. He caught us from behind yesterday; shot a Gouging Spell that hit the ground right between us. Tore my legs up pretty good before the field medic—" he carefully did not name the man, just as Draco hadn't, "—could patch me up."
"Was he injured?" Draco asked. His voice was perfectly steady, his concern only notable in the microscopic widening of his eyes.
"No, nobody counterattacked him. I stunned him and we kept moving." It had helped that there was nobody else around at the time—from either side—but Lucius' hair was fairly characteristic even when he wore his Death Eater's mask, and everyone in the Resistance had specific instructions not to harm the elder Malfoy.
Per Harry's official orders, backed reluctantly by the other Generals—Minerva, Kingsley, Arthur, and Neville—the Resistance was to treat Lucius Malfoy as a friendly deep-cover agent, who would do anything necessary to keep his admittedly-shaky-at-present position with the Death Eaters. Enabling him to keep his cover was considered a high priority any time he was encountered on a mission—similar to how Kingsley himself had been forced to act against Dumbledore in his capacity as an Auror several years before. None of the others seemed to understand why, but Harry was adamant. The Malfoy family had spared him twice in the last two months, and Draco had fully joined the Resistance. And, in his opinion, Lucius' actions the previous day proved that he, too, was indeed friendly: his choice of curse and point of aim when not observed by the enemy indicated he was willingly not aiming to kill.
There were those who were still doubtful of both Lucius and Draco, Neville and Sirius chief among them, but Harry publicly stood by his old rival and repeated one of Dumbledore's sayings: We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.
The phrase itself had become something of a motto for the Resistance, and was a standard for graffiti anytime a mission took them somewhere semi-public, alongside the classic reminder, Dumbledore's Army: Still Recruiting, and the stylized image of a phoenix and flame which everybody had practiced enough to reliably produce. Since George Weasley was, for obvious reasons, unable to return to work in Diagon Alley, one of the Resistance's first "raids" was on Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, which they completely cleaned out. George produced and supplied most of the paints for their graffiti, as well as many of their other tools.
Two months had passed since the Battle of Hogwarts, and though the castle was essentially under martial law, everyone was getting by fairly comfortably. The Hufflepuff's basement dorms—the only ones untouched by the battle—had been expanded, and everyone slept there in sort-of barracks. The villagers from Hogsmeade and the families of the current students were brought in for their safety, and everyone not caring for small children was, for want of a better term, drafted.
Only the injured were kept above ground level, and the Hospital Wing had overflowed onto most of the surrounding floor. This had occupied many of the castle's House Elves for several days, until the entire area was sanitized to Madam Pomfrey's and the Saint Mungo's Healers' liking. Thereafter, the entire floor was sealed off as a kind of extended clean room, requiring anyone wishing to enter to undergo thorough decontamination. They had also prepared a holding area for injured captive enemies, but none had been recovered in the aftermath of the Battle, and the current set of missions were not aimed at taking Death Eater prisoners.
Massive though Hogwarts was, it was not equipped to hold thousands of people, so a large task force was enlisted to excavate part of the mountainside that Hogwarts sat upon. It would be neither pleasant nor very comfortable to live in, but worked well as a staging ground before evacuation to other safehouses, and there were few complaints given that the alternative was to risk a Death Eater attack.
The remaining Weasley Twin had taken to instructing the younger student-soldiers in the basics of enchanting clothing, for instance: The slightest sparkle, glamour, or extra billow produced even by a first year could throw off the enemy's aim enough to avoid a lethal blow, and some of the older kids were able to make the clothes fireproof, or resistant to cutting and blasting curses. Everyone in the castle was outfitted with Shield Gloves and Shield Cloaks, and an emergency Jinx-Off kit was standard-issue for all the custom-made Support Packs.
Since the Twins had always favored civil disobedience as a whole, George had also been hard at work with the help of Ron and Charlie to upgrade their already-famous Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-Bang fireworks into something truly fearsome. The newest Rollicking Rocket Box contained such beauties as the Diabolic Dare Devil, a firecracker which could knock out anyone not wearing the provided ear plugs, and the Peace Disturber, a rocket which dropped small charges that detonated to leave behind Harry's likeness, grinning and winking at anyone nearby. All of them incorporated the original Whiz-Bangs' resistance to Stunning and Vanishing, and often it only took a single rocket into an enclosed space to cause complete bedlam.
Mr. Ollivander, who had finally recovered somewhat from his long imprisonment in the secret dungeon of Malfoy Manor, had set up shop in one of the larger dungeons, and began forging wands for those who had lost them in battle. These new wands, he warned them, were not truly customized, but should serve until—at the very least—their users won a wand for themselves. The Resistance had already decided, at Mr. Ollivander's own advice, to not raid his Diagon Alley shop as they had done the Weasleys'. Before being captured, Mr. Ollivander had sealed it himself, and it was impossible to enter the premises by any known means…or to take any wand off the premises even if one somehow did manage to enter, meaning that even a wand used to break in would be unwillingly left behind.
Several of the larger families rescued or sheltered by the Resistance had brought everything they owned with them, including House Elves who were quickly assimilated into the ranks of Hogwarts' Elves as a sort of additional help. The Headmistress had made clear that repairs to the castle were the lowest priority, and that the Elves were required to sleep at least eight hours daily while working at the school unless they were under attack. Though unhappy, the little creatures were required to obey, meaning that the Kitchens, bathrooms, and other necessities were not neglected, and the Elves weren't working themselves to death.
Sirius, Hermione, and two of Neville's Ravenclaws, Anthony Goldstein and Icarus Utterson, had back-engineered the cracked Two-Way Mirror that Aberforth had used over the previous year, and had applied the charms on it to one of Lavender Brown's muggle compact mirrors, despite the latter two being bedridden in the Hospital Wing since the Battle. Girly though the overall effect was—as Sirius complained to no end—it protected the mirrors well and was easy enough to add additional charms to. Tony and Icarus added the usual warming and slight vibrations to indicate that someone was calling, as well as several other charms, while Hermione arranged for each of the mirrors to be able to call all of the others. In the end, they had a reliable and easily-concealable method of communication, even over long distances.
Professor McGonagall had then promptly recruited Sirius as an Honourary Transfiguration Professor despite his constant moaning that he was a Charms Adept, and that it had been James who favoured Transfiguration, and couldn't he at least teach Defense Against the Dark Arts since chances were the curse on the position had broken given that the school in its prior state no longer existed. Needless to say, the Headmistress was not impressed with his arguments.
In spite of his originally-stated plans, Harry, along with Ron and Hermione, had been stuck at the castle for two entire months while the communications issue was sorted out. Harry had taught some Defense lessons to help him get used to Dumbledore's wand, then accompanied Moody to the woods by the British Quidditch World Cup Stadium to retrieve his magical eye. Though Moody complained ceaselessly about dirt and worms and insects all over it, he was nevertheless extremely pleased to have it back. He even consented to allowing Sirius, Hermione, Tony, and Icarus—by now the Resistance's designated Research and Development squad—to study it in an attempt to replicate some of its effects.
Though they were unable to make the newly-charmed glass eyes spin like Moody's could, nor give them the power to see through magic or solid objects given their short time limit for research, they were able to restore basic, non-colour vision to Sally-Anne Perks, who had lost both of her own eyes during the Battle of Hogwarts. Icarus had hit upon the idea, when they were unable to reproduce the original eye's Truesight, to charm Saz's new eyes to be able to 'see' heat energy—essentially, Hermione said, slightly into the infrared spectrum—so that she wouldn't be stuck with only hazy greyscale. As it turned out, this worked even when the eyes were covered, which was just as well, because the Healers who had implanted them demanded she keep her head carefully bandaged for at a month. Elated with their success, they quickly made another one for Demelza Robbins, who had likewise been blinded by shrapnel during the Battle. Demmy mostly wore it deactivated, however, because having one eye able to move and the other not was "massively disorienting".
Nobody had yet figured out how Mad-Eye had survived at all, but after the third person to ask had been stuck to the floor by their own hair, everybody learned to stop asking…
The mission to the Ministry yesterday had been a raid on the Auror Office's holding cells, staged by Harry, Hermione, Neville, and a few other Resistance members. As Draco had revealed, the general goals of the mission were prisoner rescue and communications sabotage, but in the end it was so much more: The holding cells directly beside the Auror Office held political prisoners, high-standing "blood traitors", and the non-loyal Aurors who had not been killed already.
Between them, Harry and Neville had emptied the cells, freeing more than twenty people, before they were caught. The field medic, Pye, had healed the injured prisoners as best he could, and Neville had taken them away by Portkey. Pye was supposed to go with them, but they had been found too quickly, and he was forced to flee until Harry could catch up to him. Harry, whose other job was to ensure that the Death Eaters didn't realize that there was another Resistance group within the building, found Pye easily and directed him to Harry's own exit. The pitched battle that followed, though short, was nevertheless successful in drawing the Death Eaters' attention—though as a rule, Harry's mere appearance anywhere tended to have that effect—and Harry made sure to lead the Death Eaters upward through the Ministry to Level One on their chase.
Meanwhile, Hermione, Marietta Edgecombe, and Marietta's mother had snuck into the Floo Network Regulation Office on Level Six, with Ginny and Seamus as backup. Madam Edgecombe was a former Regulator of the Floo Network Authority, and was instrumental in their sabotage: Every fireplace within a 200-mile radius of Hogwarts was permanently disconnected, as was every known Death Eater's home and all of the Resistance's established civilian safehouses—as even the extended subbasements below Hogwarts could not handle all of their numbers. Finally, every fireplace within the Ministry itself was scrambled such that, without a password known only to the Resistance, anyone trying to leave would instead find themselves simply stepping out of the same fire they had entered, after which the flames would immediately extinguish, necessitating the use of ever more Floo Powder. Then, simply to add insult to injury, Ginny enlisted Seamus to steal the Floo Network Authority's entire stock of Floo Powder on their way out. Quickly sending the all-clear to Neville, Seamus conducted them all into the fire and eventually back to Hogwarts.
The last thing to be done was to settle the matter of the freed political prisoners…or rather, one particular freed prisoner: Sitting handcuffed before most of the War Council—which included Harry, Sirius, Kingsley, Arthur, the former Hogwarts Heads of House, and several trusted members of the D.A.—was the bruised, broken-nosed, but still handsome face of Blaise Zabini.
"Well now," he said, as though they were discussing business over a formal dinner. "Isn't this unexpected? Not only is Draco with you, but here I sit as well, with a grudge against the Dark Lord and something to offer the Resistance."
Most of the adults were impassive, and Harry held his tongue. Neville was frowning slightly, but the response came from another D.A. member: Justin Finch-Fletchley, who had returned with the reinforcements for the Battle of Hogwarts.
"Something to offer us?" he repeated lightly, his perfect RP diction seeming to dance as he sensed the potential negotiation ahead. "And what would that be, pray?"
Zabini smirked. "Come now, Finch-Fletchley; I was held for less than a week before you lot came along. Surely you heard what happened to my mother?"
As it happened, they had. Zabini's mother was a famously beautiful witch, who had been married to and widowed by many rich men. She was also a pureblood, and had been…encouraged…to marry again and have more children for the Death Eater's cause. Though she was a supporter of pureblood supremacy, she declined. This, combined with Blaise's decision not to participate in the Battle of Hogwarts, led to their house being attacked by Voldemort's forces, and burned with Mrs. Zabini still inside. Blaise had been captured until, as he had noted, the Resistance had freed him along with the other political prisoners.
"I don't see how that's relevant, Zabini," Justin replied carelessly. Harry had to admit, he was impressed with how the Hufflepuff boy was handling the situation so far. He seemed nonchalant, almost bored; the only other ones on their side who could affect the uppercrust pureblood demeanor half so well were Draco and Sirius.
"Oh, surely you do," Zabini drawled back. "I am my mother's only heir, and thus have directly inherited the…rather substantial fortune that accompanies my name. As I, like my mother, have no intention of being told who I shall marry, I find myself with both deep pockets and a target on my back."
Though he had certainly never been short of coin at school, Draco had counseled earlier that day, Zabini's preferred currency was information. During school, this usually meant homework or test answers, or even gossip, but he also had a number of useful sources outside of Hogwarts as well, and often had the latest news before the Daily Prophet. This was the reason, more than his mother's fame, which had earned him a place in the Slug Club during sixth year, and though he was unlikely to join the Resistance, Draco thought it equally unlikely that he would side with the Death Eaters after they had killed his mother.
"I still believe that is primarily your problem," Justin began, but Zabini cut in.
"Don't insult me, Finch-Fletchley," he snapped, apparently starting to lose his temper at last. "Your little rebellion is a long way from destitute, and the fact remains that I can provide an important service." He took a deep breath and released it, then continued more calmly. "I can be…induced to open a lot of doors for you, for the right price. I believe you have sent several envoys to the goblins, which have been unsuccessful for—" his eyes flicked to Harry, "—obvious reasons. I, on the other hand, have a large amount of gold held in Gringotts' trust, and I believe that I can get their attention for you."
"And what exactly do you expect to gain?" Justin asked, his bored demeanor slipping into apparently genuine curiosity.
"Oh, this and that," Zabini smiled darkly, his very white teeth gleaming in contrast. "Gold…protection…information… Really, the possibilities are quite open."
"And your proposition?" Harry cut in. Justin gave Harry a tiny frown, then his expression smoothed back to polite attention.
Zabini, on the other hand, merely turned his smirk toward Harry instead. "As the muggles say, Potter: Money makes the world go 'round." He looked back at Justin. "I address you as someone familiar with the level of…comfort to which I am accustomed." He shifted his handcuffs. "In exchange for removing these restraints, I shall provide some choice information. If you are interested in my offer regarding the goblins, I will want a new wand, as the Ministry has, most unfortunately, 'misplaced' mine."
"A wand has to choose you, Zabini," said Harry. "Any wandmaker could tell you that."
"Like the wandmaker you have here in the castle?" Zabini said slyly.
Harry just laughed. "Is that supposed to be the information you dangle in front of us to show how valuable you are? The last anyone saw Ollivander was the night he escaped from Malfoy Manor with me. It's not a stretch to guess that he might be found where I am…but then again, why would we be that obvious?" He gave Zabini a sardonic grin of his own.
This time, Justin gave Harry a slight nod. Harry had said precisely the right thing. They weren't exactly playing Good Auror, Bad Auror, but Harry saw no reason to remain silent when Zabini was being so transparent.
Zabini, for his part, looked taken aback for only a moment. "Yet, as you say, he was last seen escaping in your company. In any case, it is known among the other side that your wand has been broken, Potter, and yet I see you holding a new one quite comfortably."
Harry chose not to correct Zabini's impression of where he had gotten his new wand. Instead, he put up a Shield Charm—one of his specialities—around Zabini so that he would not hear what the Council discussed.
"Justin?" Harry asked.
Justin gave a tiny, gracious nod as Harry offered him the chance to speak first. "I am under the impression that he is being honest in his offer. I am also under the impression that he is reading our lips, so consider yourselves warned."
"Can we trust him?" Sirius asked, his hand over his mouth.
"Well," Professor Slughorn shifted his massive weight on the spot. "Given our circumstances, can we really afford not to? I mean, I may well be somewhat biased given my own House allegiance and practices, but we presently lack any kind of spymaster or information tradesman, and he does not appear to wish the enemy well."
"I agree," said Kingsley in his deep voice. "The more we know, the better."
"Still, this could be a one-time deal or an ongoing offer…so long as we continue to have something to offer him," mused a slightly gaunt-looking Susan Bones.
"What's to stop him informing the Death Eaters about us?" Neville pointed out. "It'd be easy, in his position, to play both sides. Well within his nature, too."
"It would, but something tells me that it's different, this time," Harry said slowly. Then, not bothering to cover his mouth, he added, "Besides, it's not as if we're going to agree to let him keep the memory of where we are."
Zabini's eyes widened marginally.
"I vote in favor," Harry said. "Neville?"
"As long as we take proper precautions, I suppose…" Neville temporized.
"I'll trust you know what you're doing, Potter," McGonagall said, her eyes narrowed and still focused on Zabini.
"On behalf of the Order, I agree," said Kingsley.
"This doesn't really concern the civilians, but for what it's worth, I am also in agreement," Arthur said gravely.
With another wave of Dumbledore's wand, Harry removed the Shield Charm between them.
"We have a couple of conditions, Zabini," he said bluntly.
Zabini smiled. "I had a feeling you'd say that."
Now that the matter of communications was settled by the mirrors Sirius had produced, and since Lee Jordan could now safely broadcast Potterwatch from the Astronomy Tower without fear of discovery, and especially since Zabini remembered speaking to Harry, even if he didn't remember that it had been at Hogwarts; it was time for Harry, Ron, and Hermione to set out once more to take the fight to Voldemort. Of course, they had no clue where to go, but all of them were used to roughing it by now. The Resistance was getting along perfectly well without them, so it was time to be fine.
They had acquired two new tents, which thankfully did not reek of cats, and had replenished their camping supplies. They were even able to fill both iceboxes with preserved food, so that they wouldn't be as hard-pressed to live off the land as before.
The reason for the second tent was simple: despite Sirius' easy acceptance that they needed to leave once more, and the slight resentment that most of the D.A. seemed to hold, the Order was not as easy to convince. Eventually, Harry was able to argue the Generals down, and convince the War Council with Sirius' help that in addition to using Dumbledore's Army to conduct raids and rescue civilians, that a special task force was needed to actively hunt down Voldemort himself.
"Nothing will change and this war will never end unless I can finish him off!" Harry had told them, over and over again. "And a small group stands a better chance of avoiding notice while we look for him."
"But why you?" seemed to be the answer every time, from Neville, from Susan, from Minerva, from Kingsley, from Arthur, and constantly from Molly…until finally Harry had had enough.
Slamming his hand onto the table in the private, sealed room where the Generals were holding their discussion, he recited, "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born to those who have thrice defied him; born as the seventh month dies. And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not, and either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives."
There was a roaring silence.
"Then…it was never me after all," Neville whispered finally.
Harry shook his head tiredly. "It could have been, Nev…but it isn't. He made his decision seventeen years ago."
"I remember Frank and Alice fighting Him and escaping all the same times Lily and James did, though," Sirius protested, for all the world apparently forgetting that he was supposed to be on Harry's side.
"But I wasn't marked as His equal," said Neville, pointing at Harry's scar.
After another pregnant pause, Neville spoke up again. "It shouldn't be so bad, I think, since we'll be able to stay in contact with you this time." He tapped the hard plastic case of the Compact in his pocket. "All the same, I think we'd all feel better if you took at least a little more backup."
"Like who?" said Harry wearily. "The D.A. doesn't trust me anymore, remember. You can't blame them."
"Well, for one thing," said Neville with a slight grin, "You're barking if you think you're leaving Ginny behind again."
"You'd have to convince Ron and Molly, not me," Harry chuckled.
Arthur heaved a great sigh. "We've already been convinced, Harry. Ginny's ability, and the accounts we've heard of what this year was like at Hogwarts, have done that perfectly well." He shared a look with his wife.
"We just want you both to be safe, Harry, dear," Molly said tearfully.
"We want that for all of our born and surrogate children," Arthur added, with a half-glance at Neville, who blinked rapidly. "Just…take care of each other, all of you."
"And also…" Neville added, with an air of pulling himself together, "I think you'd better take Malfoy with you, too."
Ron scowled from where he stood by the door. Harry sighed.
"It's just…nobody here trusts him, Harry," Neville explained. "I've gotten to the point where your word is good enough for me, but he spent this year of hell trying to turn us in like everyone else. Even if we're protected from him by the Fidelius Charm, you must have realized that he's always just sitting by himself in the library when you haven't dragged him in here. Without you around…I don't know how long anyone's going to listen to him, even if his information and insight have been spot-on, so far."
Harry met Hermione's eye, and they agreed silently. "All right, Neville," Harry said, with another heavy sigh. "But I think that's it. The only other people I might want with us are you and Luna, and I've got a feeling you're both needed here." He grinned at Neville. "The troops need their Commander, after all. And Luna is still our coordinator between the civilians and the magical creatures. I don't think anyone else can quite fill those shoes."
Neville chuckled, and soon the rest of the room had joined in, laughing quietly. Rubbing his eyes, Harry got to his feet. "We'll leave tonight, but let's spread the news that we're leaving tomorrow instead. I think Hermione already has everything packed up, so as soon as we tell Draco and Ginny we'll start saying our goodbyes."
"I'll have the elves set something up," said Neville. "A little party, at least. We've got to skimp on resources, but at the same time, I think it'll do everyone some good to lighten the mood a bit. That's how it was when we were camping out in the Room of Requirement before the Battle."
Harry nodded his acquiescence, let out a yawn, then set off for the library to find Malfoy, knowing that Ginny was likely to catch up to them along the way…and that she was already packed for such a trip, having indeed refused to be left behind again.
The party that evening was a cheery affair, all things considered. As Neville had said, the Resistance was going about as well as could be expected, and everyone was eager for, as Minerva had once referred to the Yule Ball, "a chance to let their hair down".
The House Elves had pulled out the stops, replacing the House Tables with many smaller ones, as they had done for the Yule Ball, and prepared as lavish a meal as could be hoped for given their ongoing partnership with Aberforth in the Hog's Head and their own personal brand of magic.
There was even a small stage and dance floor, and though several members of the D.A. made a good effort at music, they left a stool and guitar empty at the front of the stage, with a small card on the seat reading "For Stewart", and the celebration ended, as each night did for the D.A. with a moment of silence for the fallen. Tonight, Harry stood with Neville as he hadn't done since the first memorial after the Battle, and personally thanked every member of the Resistance for standing up and fighting alongside them.
Promising deceitfully to meet everyone for one last breakfast, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, Luna, and Draco retired to the War Council's conference room for some last-minute planning on how best to smuggle their newly-formed Special Operations team out of the castle, ideally without anyone realizing. In the end, they decided to sneak out two at a time under Harry's cloak, through the secret passage hidden by the Whomping Willow, to the Shrieking Shack where Voldemort had killed Snape during the Battle of Hogwarts. From there, they would be able to Disapparate, heading for the countryside for the few weeks before the Death Eaters' planned attack.
Thanks to Zabini's information, they had a solid clue as to when and where the Death Eaters would strike: the Tower of London on 31 July, Harry's birthday.
This indicated the the beginning of Voldemort's true anti-muggle terror campaign. It had been bad enough for the muggles when the worst they faced was Dementor-fogs and the occasional giant attack hastily covered up by Obliviators, but now it seemed that Voldemort—having failed to conquer Hogwarts as he had planned—was moving onto the next stage now that he had essentially subjugated magical Britain. The hidden Wizarding World was likely to have its cover blown, but the Death Eaters wouldn't care so long as they could continue to proclaim that Magic Is Might.
Of course, the muggles would put up a better fight than the Death Eaters could possibly realize, Hermione said. But that would only come once they themselves realized what was going on, and that there was an immediate warlike threat rather than a simple crime or terrorist attack. In the meantime, it would be up to them to keep casualties to a minimum, acting as a sort of vanguard to the Resistance until Dumbledore's Army could arrive to take over.
Timing the attack to coincide with Harry's birthday was deliberate, Zabini said, and Draco agreed with him.
"He knows you're alive, and he's got to know you'll be hunting him," Draco told Harry as they huddled in the Shrieking Shack, trying to decide where they should go first. "But he's hunting you, too; you're too big a symbol for the Resistance for him to ignore. This attack on the 31st? He's calling you out."
"I know," said Harry. "It's too deliberate. It's him attacking me and the muggle government at once. I mean, there's got to be something significant to the muggles about that Tower, right?"
"It's where the crown jewels are kept," Hermione supplied. "It's a popular tourist destination as well, so there's bound to be lots of muggles around for the Death Eaters to attack."
"Well, we'll have to stop him, won't we." said Ron. It wasn't really a question. "Only problem is, where do we go until then?"
"Back to Malfoy Manor, for a start," Draco answered. "The Resistance has already raided the library and father's stash of Dark Arts equipment—what little the Death Eaters didn't take for themselves, at least. But there still might be a hint to where the Dark Lord has gone."
They all knew that Voldemort wasn't at the Manor itself any longer; he had abandoned the premises as a headquarters after Harry's escape, but Draco raised a good point that it was the only place that might offer a hint at where the enemy had gone to ground. With no other plans on offer, they agreed to start at Draco's ancestral home.
Malfoy Manor was just as Harry remembered it from his dreadful trip there back at Easter, albeit now with a deadened feel to the building, showing it was no longer inhabited. Still, the five of them took no chances, appearing back-to-back, a few feet apart with wands drawn. "Lumos," they all whispered, and began sneaking quietly toward the large house.
Draco approached the gate and placed his hand on a particular stone on the right-hand column, causing them to swing silently open. He then led the way up toward the house, casting nonverbal Silencing Charms on the albino peacocks that still strutted around the lawn. When they reached the front steps they paused, and Hermione stepped forward.
"Specialis Revelio," she hissed. Her lit wand tip suddenly turned a soft blue. She scanned back and forth across the porch, but nothing seemed to happen. She moved up the stairs and checked the door as well. When she moved her wand past the lock, the light flared green.
"Charm on the lock," Hermione mumbled, continuing her search. When she moved away from the lock, the light turned blue again. When she reached the window, it suddenly flared red. "Curses on the windows." She returned to the door and checked the cracks around it, finding another charm apparently on the inside doormat. Then she whispered, "Homenum Revelio," with her wand still pointed under the crack of the door.
They all waited with bated breath, but she shook her head when the spell came back negative. She stood up and tapped at the lock with a few different rhythms, then knelt back down and poked her wand insistently beneath the door. Finally, she stepped back.
"There's a Detection Charm on the lock and a trap on the doormat," she announced. "We open the door, it calls the Death Eaters. Then when we go inside, we get stuck and can't get away. I'm not sure what the spells on the windows are, but they're much nastier, probably meant to kill us instead.
"So what do we do?" Ginny asked nervously.
"We circumvent the Detection Charm and jump past the doormat," Draco and Hermione both said. They glanced at each other, surprised.
"How?" Harry asked, getting them back on topic.
"Well, probably the easiest way is to cut around the lock," Hermione answered hesitantly. "From what I can tell, the Detection Charm will go off if the door is unlocked, so as long as the lock doesn't move we should be able to open the door."
"Go for it," said Harry.
With another glance at Draco, who nodded, Hermione pointed her wand at the right-hand door above the lock, angling slightly downward. "Defodio."
The Gouging Spell carved away the wood in a narrow strip, which Hermione guided down around the lock and doorknob, until the seam reached the inner edge of the door again. Then, with a gentle push, the door swung inward. They all shone their illuminated wands inside the door, (Hermione's turning green again), and examined the trapped rug.
"Locomotor rug," said Ron, but nothing happened.
"It's probably a Permanent Sticking Charm," said Hermione. "Both sticking the rug to the floor, and any intruders to the rug."
"Wouldn't any intruders be wearing shoes, though? How hard is it to get away if you just have to take off your shoes?" Ginny wondered as she stepped back to get a running start, so that she could leap past the rug.
"Well, assuming that you don't fall over and get properly stuck, I suppose it depends how fast the Death Eaters can get here," said Hermione. "This could easily have been one of the traps they used when they were still using this as headquarters, to prevent people from breaking in. Or, there could be an Unbalancing Charm to make you more likely to stumble and get stuck differently. Or…" she shrugged. "…maybe the Death Eaters couldn't conceive of such a simple escape from their trap. Nobody said they were geniuses, and wizards in general are pretty lacking when it comes to common sense, sometimes."
"Like that logic puzzle from first year?" Harry asked.
"Exactly."
Searching the house took hours, and though they did retrieve some extra books that Draco had left in his old bedroom, and some dried food and wine bottles that they found in the pantry, there was little sign of any apparent activity. Harry, who had volunteered to search the Drawing Room, could find no indication of any plans, maps, or notes about other Death Eater strongholds. He still had a few guesses as to where Voldemort might be hiding out, but he didn't want to entertain those ideas just yet…
Moving back into the portrait-lined entry hall, Harry saw Hermione and Draco coming back down from the second floor of the East Wing, which the latter had explained contained the library and the bedrooms, and Ginny coming in from the conservatory. All three of them shook their heads.
"Well, it was worth having a look," Ron said.
Looking around at the portraits, Harry asked, "Do any of these have a second portrait elsewhere?"
Draco shook his head. "That's something for the Headmasters, not regular citizens, even rich ones."
"Well, we've still got Phineas Nigellus, so we'll be able to keep in contact with McGonagall even if our mirrors stop working," said Ron.
"We can always just go back if that happens, though," Ginny reminded him. "It's not like Hogwarts is occupied by the enemy anymore."
As they left, leaping back across the trapped rug, Hermione twitched her wand and pulled the door closed behind her.
"Reparo," she said, mending the gouges in the door which had let them enter in the first place. "Now, let's seal this place properly; we'll show the Death Eaters how you protect a building," She added, grinning.
Five minutes later Draco was closing the gate behind them, and after a brief discussion of where they should camp, they all joined hands and Disapparated.
A/N: Welcome to the newly-revitalized Novus Ordinem Voldemort. Check out the imgur gallery in the description if you need a reminder of my original inspiration for this story, and go read Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness to see where I'm pulling a lot of my background details and characters from.
