Thank you as ever for the follows, favourite and reviews! I'm seeing a wide variety of opinions which shows the story is doing its job.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Three Plans

A council of war was in progress at the Greengrass mansion, with Harry holding court over Hermione, Rose, Lily, Luna, Emily, Kingsley, Teddy and Martin. The plan of the Ministry was laid out in front of them. "Getting into the atrium should be easy,"Harry noted. "The ministry's a public building after all."

"There's been no state of emergency declared,"Rose mused. "So security shouldn't be any higher than normal."

"There'll still be aurors stationed in there though,"Emily pointed out. "And Minister Weasley's recruited an awful lot of support. Anyone who isn't there when we attack will probably get summoned pretty quickly."

"But where exactly do we head when we get there?"Martin asked.

"We don't head anywhere,"Harry replied. "We make our stand in the atrium."

"But…what about Susannah and the others?"

"We can free them once we win the battle,"Hermione explained.

Luna considered the point. "This does seem like a very strange strategy."

"There's no strategic point to capture,"Harry explained. "We won't suddenly gain control of the wizarding world just because we take the minister's office."

"Harry is correct,"Kingsley agreed. "The minister is merely an elected official. There are no articles of power."

"What about the Purification Device?"Teddy asked. "Don't we want to capture that?"

"Destroying it will take time,"Hermione reminded him. "We need to buy that time."

"We need to take over the whole building,"Harry concluded. "And we need to overcome all opposition. Make it so that there's no-one to stand against us."

Lily considered this. "So we attack the ministry…and the workers and their supporters turn up to defend it."

"And Ron will lead from the front,"Hermione explained.

"Probably call in everyone he's got,"Harry concluded. "So we need to throw in everything we've got. The whole of the Order. All versus all. We overcome everyone who's on the Ministry's side, capture them, and then we're the ones in control."

At around the same time, a similar meeting was going on in Ron's office. Present with the Minister were Parvati, Padma, Scorpius, Hugo, Neville and Seamus. "Harry's going to come here,"Ron told them.

A series of worried looks were exchanged. "How do you know?"Parvati asked.

Ron shrugged. "I know him."

"Ron's right,"Neville agreed. "This is the sort of thing Harry would do. Take the fight to the enemy."

"Which is suddenly us,"Hugo noted.

"Never thought I'd see the day,"Seamus agreed.

"So we need to be ready,"Scorpius decided.

Ron nodded. "All thoughts welcome."

"Extra guards in the atrium?"Padma suggested.

Ron considered this. "Okay. But be discreet. I don't want it to look like martial law's been declared."

"Do you think he'll make a frontal attack?"Neville asked. "He might sneak into the ministry before revealing himself, try and take out some of the personnel."

Seamus nodded. "He'll be after the leaders, not the gate guards."

"So we have regular patrols of the corridors,"Parvati concluded.

"And we make sure everyone stays alert,"Ron added.

"Does that include our new auxilliary personnel?"Hugo wondered.

Ron considered this. "Seamus, stay in the ministry. You'll be part of the patrols."

Seamus nodded. "Okay, Ron."

"Neville, get back to Hogwarts, but stay in contact. We may need you back here in a hurry."

James looked around the Room of Requirement. Everywhere, students were duelling each other. The few that he had recruited to Dumbledore's Army had discreetly spread the word and now there was around a dozen of them. Gemini, Bradley, Beverley, Maxwell and Flavia were now joined in their practise by Verity Higgs, Terry Fowler, Amanda Willis, Edward Atkins, Nigel Peake of Gryffindor, Susan Green and Aadi Salis of Ravenclaw. Nymphadora, however, was sat apart from them. James sat down next to her.

"You know most of this lot probably wouldn't be that good in a fight,"she pointed out.

"I told you before,"James began.

"Yes, yes, I know. You don't want us to fight. We might have to though, might we?"

James sighed. "Maybe. But if we do, I'll only take those I think can handle it."

"That's fair, I suppose. Any idea what our plan is?"

"We're just waiting for the moment. Waiting for someone to make a move."

"To provide us with a diversion, you mean."

"Basically, yes."

"We're going to have to move pretty fast. And we're not exactly on anyone's owling list."

"If anything happens, Neville and Ernie will be among the first to find out,"James replied. "Watch them and we'll know when to act."