Disclaimer: Harry Potter, associated characters and setting belong to JK Rowling and whoever she shares the rights with, which does not include me. This is for entertainment purposes only, with no copyright infringement intended, or profit made.

Chapter 13: Altercation

Ron looked about the seemingly empty clearing in front of Sirius's old cave. "Well, everyone ready for Tonks to come to tea?"

The twins answered first, in their usual manner. "Yes, Ronikins" said George. "We've been ready for hours. And so has the food." Fred finished.

"Mr Weasley, please refrain from using that nickname for Mr. Weasley in my presence. For one, he's your commander on this mission. For two, I wouldn't want to slip up and start thinking of him by that-"

Harry interrupted. "Thirty seconds."

Ron spoke up. "Everyone look around for visible traces of us, other than the food."

Ginny asked "Anyone know how to get rid of footprints?"

Snape's voice answered, "Tergo vestigium" and the prints in the snow disappeared.

"Cool, Professor." "We've been looking for that one for ages." "Never did manage to find it."

"It's not in the library for a reason, you two. Don't share it."

"Can we make Sneaky Sneakers?"

"I don't-"

"We'll give you a cut of the-"

"Five. Four."

The group got silent, and faced towards their target areas. Ron had someone facing in every direction, just in case.

Tonks had apparently been sitting when the portkey activated, since she came through squatting, and promptly hit the ground, sitting gracelessly.

They waited; one breath, two.

A glow appeared, ten meters behind her. She'd been followed.

The glow was stunned by three hexes. It dropped.

Tonks stayed on the ground, hands still and visible.

They waited another forty five seconds, just to make sure no one else followed.

Hermione swept off her over cloak, and summoned 'the spy.' She then summoned invisibility cloaks, and cast general finites about the cave, and at Tonks., before asking "Tonks, who am I?"

"You're Hermione, Gryffindor sixth year, and friend of the Weasleys."

"When you saw this cloak before it was part of the plan, who was wearing it?"

Tonks tilted her head, and then her eyes grew large with a moment of epiphany. "Fred tried it on, at the Burrow. We joked about little red ridding hood, and Remus. I didn't connect it... Until now."

"You're you, then."

The others, at her pronouncement, lowered the hoods on their disillusionment cloaks. Harry's floating head was the first to greet her with a 'wotcher' while Fred told her she was looking well.

A second figure in red cloak, this one with blond hair, offered to take care of the disillusioned lump that had followed her. Tonks started to nod. The others looked at her.

Luna's voice was excited. "I have an idea."

Snape smirked.

Tonks shuddered. "No offense, professor, but you smirking like that is downright scary."

Snape continued smirking. "No, Tonks, you don't know scary until you've seen this lot in full idea mode. The second red cloak over there is our propaganda officer."

Tonks looked around. "So this is your group, then?"

Snape laughed, and watched the mystery lump taken away by Luna, before he sat to poke at the tea trays. They contained more toast then normal. "No, I had no more idea than the average Death Eater until I was a mouse, sitting in the dark in a jar trying to remember how I acquired a tail. Miss Granger turned me back, using a scarily green spell, and asked for my silence."

"Professor Snape has been a great help to us, after that bad start. We did apologize for not being able to tell Death Eaters apart."

"Wait, mouse?"

"We've got them all as mice. They are easier to store, and they don't eat so much as mice."

Tonks started laughing.

Ginny made as if to move towards her.

Snape stopped her. "No, let her. Anyone required to work with you on this insane idea needs some time to adjust to their new realities."

"But..."

"Ron, look, biscuits..." With that distraction, the twins, Ron and Ginny gave the rest of the time to talk.

Tonks saved them time and angst, by telling them she'd gladly take an oath of silence about their identities and tactics. She did ask if the lump was an Auror. "Because if it it, and he followed me here, well, secret conspiracies other than you would have killed us both. I think I'll use ministry disregard for Auror's lives as a reason to quit."

Snape crossed his arms, touching his wand, in his holster, to the radio shrunken into his watchband, and asked "Miss... Propaganda. Identity on the intruder? Specifically, Auror or no?"

They all tilted their head, listening, and laughed at the same time. Hermione answered Tonks' question aloud. "He has an Auror badge, but Propaganda is waiting to see if he shifts at the end of an hour. He has written orders to follow you, but they aren't on Auror letterhead."

Tonks shook her head. "The laughing in unison is also scary, and I'm still quitting. A crooked spy is not better then a stupid department. In fact, the second can only exist in the first."

"You have to do as your conscience says."

"My conscience wants to help you lot."

Ron heard this and hook his head. "Not now. You're under too much supervision and suspicion. Wait. Be boring. Snog Professor Lupin.. Go in and tell them all about how fast the spells flew and that you're sure no human could cast that fast. Then keep your head down."

Fred smiled at her. "When you've gotten the heat off of you, we'll get you a radio, so you can play 'spot the dark mark.'"

.o.o.o.

Tonks had been followed by Auror Dawlish.

Auror Dawlish was sent back to middle of Diagon Alley by portkey, wearing a red cloak pinned with his auror badge, a sign that says ' I spy on aurors' and nothing else. He'd been dosed with a potion to make him forget the last two hours, and dosed with a sleeping draugh.

His wand was delivered next day, by owl, to Head of Department of Magical Law enforcement, asking if he was spying on Tonks for them, or if he was taking side jobs. It included his orders, and stated that, if the ministry was so underfunded that their Aurors needed the pay from extra day jobs, perhaps the goblins could arrange a loan... The note, sent 'from the desk of a mysterious yet real figure' used more Malfoy hairs as a signature and authenticity marker.

.o.o.o.

"Luna, how do you keep decorating things with Malfoy hairs?"

"Wanna come help me harvest more?"

Harry looked slightly traumatized, but agreed to go along. Hermione accompanied them, wearing her cloak, hood up.

The mice all squeaked when they came in. Hermione settled down at a table pushed all the way into the corner, and watched. She had out a muggle pen and ink, to take notes. Her wand was visible at her wrist.

Luna started her narration. "So, I've been warding up this circle, here, the one marked out in melted silver on the stone. It's got magic suppression, better then the one we've got over the cages, because we can cast into it, but spells from the inside don't work. Anyone inside has no power to draw on, so wandless or not doesn't matter."

"Luna, have you been doing this all on your own?"

"Dobby and Winky have helped. And I got the spell to melt down metal from the twins, who said they didn't want to know."

"Luna, bring a few more people when you intend to transform someone. I know the elves are powerful, but the Death Eaters like to forget that. I don't want you looking like a tempting target at all."

"That makes sense. After all, they base their ideas on their presumptions even though they know some of them to be wrong."

"Yes, well, mental paradoxes abound. But, Luna, be safe."

"Yes, Sir."

"Call me Harry."

"Yes Sir Harry."

Hermione snorted, over in her corner.

"The elves will be here in a moment. They move the cage for me. I'll open it with magic, levitate him out, then transform him."

"He won't run out of the circle?"

"The silver is electrified. I had to work very hard to figure out a muggle solution. Apparently, most electric fences just kill mice, rather then containing them." Luna bit her lip, here, looking obviously worried. "I do hope we got the voltage turned down enough."

Harry smiled inwardly at the acting."

"If not, we have beetle jars, and we'll have learned something." Harry's response silenced the mice, who were all watching, up at the front of their cages, except Malfoy Sr. who was hiding in his cardboard tube.

The elves arrived, and moved Malfoy's cage into the circle. Harry noted that neither of the creatures got fully into the circle. They just placed the cage in, and pushed it, magically, to the center.

Soon, there was a disheveled and disoriented Lucius Malfoy standing in the center of the circle. The house elves had cast... something, silently, to hold him still until Luna tied him up.

Harry smirked. "For the record, note: Grooming as a mouse does not seem to translate fully to human form. Or he takes much longer to get ready normally then I'd expect."

"It's a matter of expectations. It's like seeing two women, one who always wears makeup, one who doesn't. If you see them first thing in the morning, the one who doesn't wear makeup looks far batter, because you're used to her like that. You'll notice the makeup users every line, " here Luna gestured at Malfoy's frown lines, "the bags under her eyes, and the skin imperfections. Because you're used to seeing that person as perfect, it magnifies their flaws."

Malfoy growled "Quiet, girl!"

"Well, he's sane enough to speak, but not sane enough to think about who's in a position of power..." Hermione noted from her corner.

"That was a little growl like, though." Harry added, thoughtfully.

Luna nodded.

Malfoy took a deep breath, and the another. "I do think I am currently sane."

Hermione, every one to investigate. "Do you think continuing to live as a mouse will change that? If so, you you think it will progress at a fast or slow rate?"

Malfoy glared, but answered. "I think that the lack of intellectual stimulation will be the largest cause of insanity. We can speak to each other, in a limited way. However, the rodent language does not allow for long intellectual discussions. It lacks the vocabulary. Also, I think the attention span is affected by the form."

"You get bored easy, and there are only so many meanings to squeak."

Malfoy simply nodded.

"Are your basic needs taken care of?"

"Yes." He answered shortly.

"I noted you like your cardboard tube."

"While I know, intellectually, of it's muggle origins, it provides a sense of security to the... fuzzy instincts."

"Anything else?"

He hesitated. "...May I ask... If I may ask.."

All three looked at him, and waited.

"News of my family would be greatly appreciated."

"Your son's god-father is looking after him. He won't let us turn him into a mouse. Your wife is an adult, unmarked. We have yet to see any reason to concern ourselves with her."

Malfoy nodded, grateful. He may not have been brave enough to actually ask his captors, but he had craved news.

"Malfoy, our propaganda officer has been using your hairs to sign things we need authenticated as coming from us. We're going to cut some more off. Hold still."

Malfoy closed his eyes as he saw two wands pointed at him. Luna was good at cutting the up close to the top, getting nice long, recognizable hairs. Harry had no practice with grooming spells, and was less precise.

Luna summoned the hairs into an envelope.

"Any last words before you become a mouse for and unknown period of time?"

"The Dark Lord will ge-"

Hermione silencing spell hit him just before Harry's.

Luna giggled. "I guess that's a no."

She turned him back into a mouse, now slightly patchy, and levitated him back into his cage. She checked the latch three times before nodding at Dobby and Winky, who returned him to his spot on the shelf.

.o.o.o.

One Monday night, a call came out from Lee.

"I'm in Diagon Alley, on the edge towards Knockturn. There's a guy named Yaxley, who's on the list. He's on his own, apparently picking up every paper known to wizards, even the ones in french."

"Fred and George, here, we're with Lee, and have volunteered to stay here and delay, delay delay, but we do ask you to come quick."

Harry spoke next, from his work bench, where he was making a Ravenclaw first year 'family' clock, with times for 'homesick,' 'lost,' 'should ask a prefect' and 'should have been assigned a tutor last week.' "I declare this a quick in and out. We will apparate in illegally, stun, shoot green while pretending to summon, confound, and get out. and get out, also apparating illegally. We will do it all quickly. We will have Hermione visible. Let's hope the shock factor make it ok."

"Ah, Gryffindor planning." Snape's baritone was distinctive over the radio.

"You're in charge of confounding people, Sir, so that we look good."

"I should teach you that, shouldn't I?"

"It would help."

The students, and their professor scrambled through the tunnel to the shrieking. shack. Ginny could be heard over the radio, muttering quietly. "Silly wards. So annoying when you're breaking twenty laws in a night."

They got there to find that a double handful of. Peruvian Blackness Powder had gone off between the newsstand and the main streets, so that people don't have a line of sight on what's happening.

The proprietor was backing towards the stone wall behind him, taking in the entire scene. Snape gleefully confounded him, telling him "You hid, you saw nothing, and in the future, you will make every effort to get Potions Weekly on time. Three days late is not acceptable."

Harry decided it wasn't worth the effort to reign him on that account. Neville was guarding Snape's back. Harry and the others were blasting Yaxley's shield, trying to take him down fast.

With the whole formation working together, they got him stunned. Snape and Neville had rejoined the formation and Hermione had her wand up to cast Muskipulae, when...

"Stop in the name of the law."

Eight Aurors had emerged from the darkness, and had Hermione in their wand sights.

Harry's order over the radio was quick. "Hold bloody still." Most had frozen in instinct, and they stayed that way.

"Hermione, feel free to deal with them. The rest of us, try not to be visible."

Everyone stayed frozen for a bit on both sides. The look in the Aurors eye's told Hermione they didn't expect to find her in the middle of Diagon Alley. Hermione would have looked similarly shocked if her eyes had been visible.

Hermione slowly nodded at the Aurors. Even more slowly, moving at the speed of a glacier, she aimed her wand at Yaxley's left arm.

The Aurors didn't like the though of her casting, and she could see the getting twitchy. She carefully cast a summoning charm wordlessly at his left sleeve. His robe and shirt sleeves moved out of the way. There,the dark mark stood out clearly against his pale skin.

The Aurors collectively breathed in at the same time. Hermione moved her wand, slowly, so she was covering Yaxley, and only barely in position to defend herself. She was intentionally moving her wand further from the Aurors.

The Aurors relaxed, slightly.

Kingsley moved slightly forward, changing his wand grip to cover Yaxley, not Hermione. "You were taking a Death Eater."

Hermione, swathed in red and shadowing charms, nodded at Kingsley. She couldn't speak, he'd know her voice.

Kingsley spoke again. "We'd like to arrest him, since he's a Death Eater. He'll go to trial."

Hermione tilted her head at him. They hadn't known he was a Death Eater, so how would they have enough evidence...

Kingsley understood her dilemma. "The mark is enough reason for veritaserum."

Hermione nodded, and gestured towards Yaxley with her off hand.

"Before they expect it, apparate to the cave in three, two, one.."

As they all arrived and counted each other, Fred and George went back to their store, in order to be halfway through making dinner by the time anyone figured out they might be witnesses.

The others went back to the shack, waited thirty seconds, and then started to make their way towards the trapdoor.

Hermione, however, sat down hard on the floor of their apparition section. "Am I allowed to hyperventilate, now that it's over?"

Snape looked over at her. "You've done more today to win the favor of the Aurors to your cause than anything Tonks could do. You gave them a prisoner, showed them proof, and left. They'll like you now."

"Why is it I'm so much worse after facing Aurors then Death Eaters?"

Harry smiled at her. "It was the first time you've seen Aurors go into battle mode. We've seen Death Eaters."

Ron nodded. "Besides, with your instinctive love of rules, which we have not completely broken down, you've got issues facing down the law."

Ginny nodded. "Plus, we're keeping a huge secret. You did well. You should be proud. But if you want to hyperventilate, we can have Winky bring you a paper bag."

.o.o.o.

Two nights later, a mist filled Slytherin house. Those awake to see it coughed for two minutes before falling where they lay. Like Peruvian Instant Darkness, nothing would dispel the mist. The one Slytherin sixth year, up late studying, who though of a bubble head charm saw a figure in a red cloak, with a red handkerchief over the bottom of her face before he was stunned.

Most students, already in bed, just fell into a deeper sleep where they lay.

In the morning, when they woke, Draco Malfoy was gone.

Every student woke to a printed note on their trunk, "Dark Marks among the students. Cursed Presents in the Streets of Hogsmead. This is NOT the Hogwarts Way. Hogwarts will be Safe. Hogwarts will be Clean." It was accompanied by a scrap of red fabric.

Draco's headboard had a new carving. "Boot Licking Dark Filth"

When Harry asked Luna why he was carving that particular phrase in, Luna said it was language the Slytherins would understand. Hermione once again mocked him for following orders first, and asking questions second.

As promised to Professor Snape, they perused every dorm, not just Slytherin. (They had negotiated this in exchange for passwords for them all.) Luna made them wait to do Ravenclaw last, as"Someone will always be up reading. But somewhere around 4 am, even they go to bed. After all, one has to be awake in classes."

.o.o.o.

The panic the next day was complete and utter. A special afternoon edition of the Prophet was printed. It had student's testimonies of the Bogeymen leaving notes in every dorm at every bed, and the disappearance of a student, straight from his bed. Parents who had heard the news were panicking according to the paper.

Dumbledore issued a statement that Hogwart's wards were still up and in effect, and that no one with malicious intent could get in.

The Quibbler special edition came out two hours later, with a picture of a stunned Draco Malfoy without his left sleeve, dark mark showing. The headline read "Hogwarts will be clean."

Parents weren't sure whether to panic further, now knowing that a Death Eater had been living within the castle, or calm down and be glad that he was gone.

Luna wrote a note to Snape, asking if he'd like to have an attempted kidnapping or two, to keep his cover He snorted when he read it. Luckily, no one saw. Unfortunately for his dignity, they heard it over the radio.

.o.o.o.

Rumors were flying left and right. Draco's capture moved the fight to a new level. It brought home to the students that this was a real phenomenon, especially after the red cloaked figure had been reported. The sixth year told everyone around him how Dumbledore had watched it over and over in his pensive.

Luna came to talk to Hermione and Ginny one lunch break. "I heard Nott's mother ran off to an old school friend's place in Newfoundland, Canada. The wives and other supporters are afraid. They don't know who's next. Draco had the Mark, but he was under age. According to the old rules, he was untouchable. People are starting to think wives and kids might not be so safe."

AN Look, it's another chapter. And 10 pages long, too.

Normally, a chapter title either volunteers, or I have to go scrounging in the rhyming dictionary for it. This one volunteered, but only after I'd written the chapter. Chapter 14: Expansion named itself quickly. Expect it along promptly.

Thanks for reading. Hits make me happy.