As she exited the room, she was not surprised to find father Paul waiting for her. He had two guards next to him. As soon as she left the room, they entered and escorted the prisoner away. She had to find a nice quiet place to process what just happened. Hermione leaned on the wall and just looked through the window. For once, the usually disorienting blandness of the generic line of trees had a calming effect. She didn't really care where she was, she just wanted to get lost in her thoughts. Paul said nothing. He walked up to her and looked out the window as well.

They stood in silence for at least five minutes before she spoke, "I suppose you heard everything?".

"Yes. They would have taken you to Malfoy Manor if we had not intervened. They are holding other high-profile prisoners there, and it is a base of sorts for them. At least for the darkest among them that cannot be seen publicly at the Ministry. It is a heavily protected estate, with wards that would make an attack almost impossible."

"Almost?"

"Well, we have some resources. Unfortunately, if we use those, there are two possible results. Either the wards hold and we expose our presence, or there will be no building left to capture. I would be surprised if even the dungeons survived as anything more than rubble."

Hermione didn't have much knowledge on muggle militaries. Once again she had to curse her departure from the muggle world at the age of eleven. But she couldn't get sidetracked on this. There was another question burning her mind.

"What happens now? What happens to them?". In her mind, she also added "to us?" at the end of that sentence. She decided to wait with that question for a moment.

Paul could understand where that question was coming from. She was so protective of the prisoners before, feeling guilty for their capture. Now she was faced with their evil. Not the obvious, diabolical evil of the dark lord. This was a much worse evil, the type of evil that only men that followed orders do. It was tearing her in half. She was a protector of light, adamant to protect those that she felt responsible for. On the other hand, she wanted to cause them pain for the dozen lives they had on their hands. He had seen this before, and considered it a good sign, only people with strong minds could feel this, the rest would just pick one of the options, usually the one their leaders told them to.

"Miss Granger, moral responsibility is a very difficult thing. In their minds, they have done nothing wrong. They were merely following orders, and not really by choice. You can face them with their deeds, but in their core they believe they had no choice other than give up others to save themselves."

"But their victims were real. They deserve justice."

"Yes, they do. But we have limited options here. We can kill them.", the look of horror on her face told him that wasn't really an option, "We can release them back where we collected them or we could ship them off to South America."

"South America?", Hermione did not expect that.

"There are countries there with strong catholic presence. We have a few long-term sites there. We don't use them that much for prisoners though, usually we use it for refugees. The witches and wizards who decide to come back to us spend time there in prayer and meditation."

"What would happen to the prisoners there? Would you keep them locked forever?"

"We don't have the resources to keep anyone locked. When they reach the monastery, they are stripped of all their possessions, including their wands, and given simple clothing. They are then released. Most choose to stay within the monastery, tending the garden or doing some other form of manual labor. In time, some even convert to Christianity."

"And those that don't choose to stay?"

"We find their bodies sometimes. The jungle road is quite deadly, especially for wizards that have never set foot outside the magical world."

She knew that this was no different from just killing them. Perhaps it was even worse. But it was something she could rationalize. She would give them a choice. Not an easy one, but still, more than what they gave to their victims.

"I guess it is a good thing that they don't know what happened to the team they sent to capture us. Harry won't be happy about their story though. He actually hates all this boy-who-lived nonsense. The fact that they now believe him to be some superpowered wizard that can just wish-kill a dozen wizards at once will only make it worse. And it's going to shock our friends too. Harry's signature spell is Expelliarmus, a disarming spell. That he would kill, and in such a bloody way, is going to raise questions.". She felt she had to expand on that, "Remember, the Ministry propaganda has painted him as a possible dark lord for months now. Implicating him in the murder of Dumbledore just became much easier.". She waited a bit before asking the most important question, "Does this mean we can wake him up now?"

The old priest was deep in thought. He didn't really believe this was enough evidence. If the current dark lord had a connection to his arch nemesis, it's possible he wouldn't advertise that to random foot soldiers. On the other hand, keeping the boy unconscious would only work for a limited amount of time, if at all. For all he knew, the connection would still work in their dreams. The only way to really make sure is to kill him. And there was no way he could justify killing defenseless innocent teenagers. Breaking one of the commandments was never done lightly, never. He wondered if Piotr would agree with that, or would he be able to pull the trigger. And he didn't forget Miss Granger. She was a formidable force. One that would turn against them in a few seconds from now if he said no. Of course, he was sure he could kill her without much trouble, but killing her would be an incredible waste.

"Yes. We can wake him up. We will even consider returning the wands back. But if, and only if, they vow to follow your orders, and you promise to follow mine.".

Hermione was shocked and relieved at the same time. She didn't know how long this tense alliance would last. But for now, she could rest for a few minutes. After she convinces Harry and Ron, of course. She was sure convincing Harry could be done, but Ron was a completely different story. He didn't have the muggle experience Harry had, and he had a personal reason to hate the Inquisition, embedded neatly in his shoulder.

"Whatever happens next, if you kill us or not, can you promise me something?", Hermione now turned to face the old man, "Destroy Malfoy Manor, rescue Luna Lovegood, and don't take prisoners."