Actions and Consequences Part 2

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May 1977

By the time Cedrella returned to their home with James in tow, the beginnings of a war council were at hand.

Septimus had lost no time in getting a hold of Harfang. Harfang, in his turn, had been quick to raise the war wards on his Manor, then flooed to Weasley Cottage with Callidora in tow. Augusta, Frank and Alice had followed mere minutes later.

Arthur had arrived alone, as he and Molly had three young children all under the age of eight at home. Bringing them was very ill-advised because such little ears did not need to hear the sort of talk that would be being bandied about at this meeting. On the other hand, leaving them alone just wasn't possible. Marcus and Phillip, Septimus and Cedrella's two younger sons, arrived hot on Cedrella's heels. Marcus

"Enid and Algie will be along in a few minutes." Augusta informed them. "They don't move quite as swiftly as they did when they were younger."

Given that Augusta was the elder of the three, and more than able to keep up with her son and his friends, this was a rather amusing statement. Then again, Augusta hadn't been called the battle-axe of her generation (well out of her earshot, to be sure) for nothing. Even in her so-called dotage, she was a firebrand.

They got a bit of a surprise, though. Just as Enid and Algie Longbottom arrived, a visitor was announced at the front door. Septimus went to see who it was, fully prepared to blast Dumbledore to smithereens if it was him.

It wasn't. It was Andromeda Tonks and her husband.

"We saw it happen." Andromeda said when Septimus let her in. "Didn't see who did it, but we saw them go down. Arcturus can't really throw the Black family into this. Well, I mean, he *could*, if he used the Head of House magics, but ... pretty much half the family or better would be fighting him every step of the way, and finding every loophole they could to wreck things or get out of doing anything."

Septimus gave an agreeing snort. "So it's on a volunteer basis?"

"Yeah. Alphard should be showing up shortly, and Aunt Cassiopeia. I flooed them about what happened. You might have your wife talk to Aunt Lucretia. The Prewetts are more neutral than anything else, but with Molly in the family ... "

Septimus nodded. "We might be able to draw them in." He hadn't thought of that angle. At least, not yet. He'd been far too busy making sure Harfang was still in one piece and would remain so, and clamping down on his grief. He could grieve later. A lot later. Right now, there was entirely too much to do.

Thank Merlin.

Alphard and Cassiopeia did indeed arrive a few minutes later, and everyone settled down, cups of tea to hand even though none of them figured they'd be all that interested in drinking it.

Septimus had been letting Cedrella do what she could to comfort James until now. The poor lad was white as a sheet, and his hands were shaking. Despite that, he had a look in his eye Septimus recognized. He'd seen that look in Charlus ...

Damn it. Septimus forced himself away from that line of thought.

"James, lad? You sure you want to be here? No fault will be laid on you if not." Septimus asked.

White face and shaking hands or not, James lifted his chin and gifted Septimus with a look that made the hairs on the back of his neck rise.

"That ... that ... that bloodless, faithless, honorless, cowardly back-stabbing warmonger just ... " James inhaled sharply, shook his head, and then continued. "This is about more than mom and dad, Uncle Septimus. This is ... he doesn't think you'll do anything about it. I mean, that can be the only reason he's done this. He must think the Alliance is a lie or something, and that either you won't do anything in retribution or that folks will try to stop you." The look on James' face made it clear he figured that second option would happen, in the shape of Dumbledore if no one else. "Too many people have been killed by this monster and his minions already. I can't ... I can't stand by and let it happen to someone else, even if the Alliance wasn't a factor."

And, Septimus knew, plotting ways to kick Voldemort's arse would give James something to do other than curl up in a miserable ball and lose himself to grief. Not that his friends and remaining family (by choice, since there were no close blood relations remaining) would necessarily let him, but James had to be feeling like he wanted to.

"Well then, we've planning to do." Septimus said.

"We still don't have any idea who Voldemort really is." Augusta said. "I think at least one of us should concentrate on finding that information. It may give us information we could use to hunt him down with."

"Like if he has a Family Manor he could be using as a base or something." Frank agreed.

"Molly might be able to find something." Arthur offered. "The Prewitts have one of the more complete lists of pure and halfblood magicals - well, one of the more complete and unbiased lists, anyway. I'm sure the Blacks have a more in depth one, but with their ideals, I don't trust them to have squibs and the like listed."

"You'd be right on that guess, Arthur." Cedrella said. "I've seen at least some of the Black records - it's all pureblood only, with a lot of names blocked out for who knows what reason."

The other Black ladies were all nodding agreement, having all seen those records as well.

"We'll help her." Enid offered, and Algie nodded. "Neither of us are fighters so we won't be much good on that end of things, but research, we can do."

"We also need to focus on Malfoy. He's Voldemort's big player, money and politics wise." Cassiopeia said. "Much as I dislike contesting with family ... "

"Leave the Malfoys to the Weasleys, then." Septimus said. "I've cousins and such enough that Lucius won't have a moment's peace, and it'll keep you ladies from having to cross wands with Narcissa." Then Septimus smirked. "Besides, I still owe that family a black eye or three in Abraxas' name."

That earned him a slap on the arm from Cedrella, but it had to be said that she did not really look put out.

"I can sic the gang on the Marked kids in school. Not like we aren't already giving them hell, but we can step it up." James said. "I'm *very* sure that Severus has a few ideas he hasn't implemented yet for various reasons, at the very least, and when we put our heads together we'll come up with a few dozen more ideas. And there won't be a damn thing Dumbledore can do about it because of the Alliance, and if he tries, as ... " James choked briefly, then forced himself to say it. "As Lord Potter, I can pretty much bury him alive."

"With us right behind you, lad." Harfang said, speaking for the first time. "Though that brings something up. With the Alliance having been breached, and our members under demonstrable threat of death, we could - and should - demand that all the children under the Alliance banner be roomed together. James, Sirius, and Remus are safe enough, but they cannot get to Lily to aid her if she is attacked in her room - which is admittedly unlikely but cannot be dismissed as a possibility. Severus and Regulus have no backup at all. And we know for a fact that some of the children of Voldemort's minions are not afraid to get violent."

"Good point." Septimus agreed. "Though I have no idea where the kids could be housed instead."

"There's bound to be somewhere." Callidora said. "That school is far bigger than the spaces being used currently, so it would not surprise me at all to discover that there are entire suites hidden away in odd corners, long forgotten by the human residents."

"But the house elves would know, so if worst comes to worst we apply to them and see what they can rustle up." Augusta said.

Before they could get any further with the discussion, a distinctly rumpled Jinx popped into the room, an unsettling, toothy grin on his face.

"Jinx is finding them! They is in Master Remus' cage now, at the Manor."

"You didn't get hurt, did you, Jinx?" James asked, looking at the loyal little elf worriedly. There weren't any obvious bruises or cuts, but that meant very little with house elves, who were both fairly sturdy and had a tendency of hiding how badly they were hurt in order to keep serving their family. Jinx was worse than most elves when it came to hiding hurts in order to be of service. Not that he ever got punished, obviously, but accidents could and did happen.

"Jinx is fine. Be having a few bruises, but Jinx is not getting hexed by bad wizard."

"Who was it?" Septimus wanted to know.

"Is Tenibrus Carrow." Jinx told him.

"Huh. He's one of the last I would have expected something like this from." Septimus said. "Then again, even a coward and a weak wizard can hex someone in the back."

Tenibrus had been a year behind Septimus, Charlus and Harfang. He'd been a Slytherin, but one of the ones that, to Harfang's mind, begged their way into the House they wanted, rather than actually belonging there. Tenibrus had never shown much in the way of Slytherin qualities, and had perpetually been in the bottom half of the school standing scholastically. He's more or less made a career out of hiding behind more powerful, ambitious, and influential wizards.

"We'll deal with him later. Possibly tomorrow." Cedrella told Jinx. "Thank you for finding him."

"Get your injuries looked at, get something to eat, and get some sleep." James ordered. "I'll call one of the others if I need anything, but I doubt I will, since I'll be staying either with Septimus and Cedrella or Harfang and Callidora."

Jinx gave James a mutinous look, but then sighed. "Jinx will do as Master asks." And popped out.

"All right, kicking the son of a bitch who cast the curse can wait for a bit. Make the bastard sweat." Augusta said, with far more relish than one would expect from an elderly lady. "Let's get back to figuring out how to make the whole lot of them pay for this."

Most of the adult men in the room gave some sign of amusement. "Augusta, you are a treasure." Septimus told her. "That said, she has a point. Back to business."

"Which phrase brings a possible avenue of attack to mind." Harfang said. "How many businesses, between the three of us, do we own outright or have majority shares in?"

"Probably most of Diagon Alley and half of Hogsmeade, why?" Septimus asked.

"Well, what if we drafted something saying none of the businesses under our banner could do business with Marked folks? We'd have to figure a way to detect and keep the bastards out - a ward or something - but it'd hit 'em where it hurts if they can't even buy necessities like normal law abiding folks."

That and other options were discussed for a couple hours before James succumbed to sleep in the middle of the talking. Septimus excused himself to carry the boy to bed - not nearly so easy a task with a long-limbed teen as it was a younger child - then returned.

"Now he's asleep, we need to talk about what will be done with the Carrows." Septimus said. While the other ideas they'd all brought up would be part of the upcoming war on Voldemort and his people, they had all kept to less bloody methods of retribution. There would be a time and place for James to get blood on his hands, but at just barely seventeen, none of the elder adults in the room were willing to push him in that direction just yet.

"We'll have to let the lad have a shot at Tenibrus." Harfang said. "But unless I've misjudged James horribly, he won't be able to bring himself to kill the man."

"I'm not so sure. Kill him quick and clean? James could quite possibly do that, especially given what Tenibrus did. Torturing the bastard or the like, however, would definitely be something James could never do." Septimus said.

"Hmpf. Good point." Harfang agreed.

"We'll have to hunt the rest of them down while James is in school. He won't be able to miss what's going on, but the less he sees of it, the better I'll feel about the whole thing. Those kids are going to have to grow up faster than I like even without that." Cedrella said.

"Agreed, and in the name of keeping this as nontraumatic as possible for the kids on both sides, we do this quick and clean." Septimus said. "And we keep it to Marked folks only in any family. Everybody else gets a pass. We don't have a beef with them, just Voldemort and his people."