The next mission started before it really felt like anyone was ready, and yet, that was how it had to be. Acting off intel they tricked out of the captives, they realized they needed to open up a secure line of communication to the enemy, like a bright red telephone, not that many of them understood that reference. The recruitment team had to draw on several others to help with training, leaving them with a total of six who could work on the current operation. Would it ever get to where they would not have to be so stingy, so careful with their assignments?

"Harry, you know, you don't have to be on every mission," Hannah said. She had volunteered, leaving Michael to teach the new faces how to act as a combat medic. "It might even motivate the new recruits if you're there training them."

"We're not hiding the fact that they're working for us," he said after a moment. "Besides, this is how it has to be. I swore I'd be fighting the whole way through."

"Have you had any time to pick up any more skills?"

"You've been talking with Luna-"

"Just answer the question."

"I've gotten better at Occlumency. That's my primary job, making sure our number one information security liability stays ship-shape. I don't honestly like it either at this point, but I can't take time to practice." He had handed some of his delegation to Ron and Susan, which was a massive relief, but even if he returned from his current mission alive, he doubted he could really practice anything.

"I just want you to be on top of things. You're a symbol. You're powerful in ways I don't think you've realized."

"Then I don't need to be much stronger academically, do I?"

He walked away from her as soon as Hermione and Blaise were in position; the former had only just come back with something on which she had been working and the latter did not generally explain his absences. Ginny and Luna were already there, with Terry sending his regrets. He apparently found it especially interesting to bounce certain concepts in the book he was reading off the recruits.

"Where are we going?" his old friend asked. "You said what we were doing, but-"

"We're going to Malfoy Manor."

"What?" Blaise asked. "Are you planning to just waltz in there and say 'we have your son'? Is that what you meant by opening a line of-"

"It's not as simple as that. We don't know what's going on there because we don't have eyes there. According to the captive, Death Eater meetings happen there. We have to approach carefully-"

"What's the objective, though?" Ginny asked. "We said that this was supposed to give us a way of getting in contact with the Ministry, but how?"

"The target is well connected on both sides. Basically, the blood purists don't really like Voldemort either. They know he's a half blood, and they're thinking that they can just use him as a way of getting some other pieces off the board. Over time, they realized that he was the one controlling them, but it wasn't as if he was going to let them leave and do whatever they want, and he started gaining real, loyal followers who would rat out anyone who started talking about turning on him. Malfoy looks like he's in a powerful position, but it really couldn't be any further from the truth. From everything his son said to me, it sounds like he's a prisoner."

"Oh, I feel so terrible for him," Hannah said, rolling her eyes.

"That's not my point. My point is that we know what he wants. He wants some kind of exit strategy. We're the only ones who can give that to him. We're the only ones who don't want more and more control and more and more suppression of everyone else." He looked over at Luna, who smiled for some reason. "Right now, he might be concerned for his son's life, but he already knows that in the long term, they're both trapped."

"Do they not have some kind of exit planned out already?" Hermione asked, briefly looking over at Blaise, who only raised an eyebrow. "I would have thought that they're trying to kill Voldemort in the long run. I would have thought that after the breakout from Azkaban, someone would have already tried. Dumbledore might still be out there, but I can't honestly see how he's more of a liability for them than their own master, to hear Draco tell it. It also doesn't surprise me that he doesn't know what the plan is if there is one."

"What's our plan in the long term?" Blaise asked, adopting an uncharacteristically obvious rhetorical tone. "Are we some underground resistance force that just kills everything that comes to it?"

"No; we've discussed this. We're here to gain information, train into a more effective all around fighting force, protect alternative voices, and ultimately kill Voldemort," Harry said. "This isn't really an objective, but we're trying to minimize civilian casualties, so we don't kill everything that comes to us, but if we already know that someone is attacking in force, then it makes no sense for us to try to spare lives." He sighed. "I admit that if it was just me and Malfoy, I'd have a hard time killing him because I know him. Even though I can do it, I'm still trying to avoid looking at the faces of the dead."

He had said the quiet part out loud. Ginny was looking around as everyone else avoided his eyes. They had all made contact with the enemy at least once, and that had meant they were in a situation where they practically had to kill someone. Was everyone struggling with it? Was there anyone else who was struggling with not struggling with it?

"This is a war," he continued. "I liked it back when it was just one murderer sneaking around trying to put his following back together, and I liked it back when there was some interest in hunting him down in the authorities. Unfortunately, we don't get that anymore. The Ministry's some mixture of incompetent and malicious, and the deciding point for that was when Umbridge sent dementors to my neighborhood in Surrey to murder me. I didn't dream about getting revenge on her, and it wasn't even out of maturity or some grander awareness that the world would be worse off if assassins got to decide who was in charge. I just wanted to keep going to school. You were there," he said, looking at Hermione. "Did it do anything for me when the centaurs killed her?"

"No," she said. "I've told everyone that you almost overreacted. To be honest, I was not sure how much you wanted me to say about it."

It was true that in a sense, he was embarrassed about it. The case of the native creatures of the Forbidden Forest could not have been clearer; she had come into their home and attacked them with a wand. At the same time, he was not at all amused about being accused of just killing random people, perhaps for fun. It was true that they had not made a lot of progress on their objectives and it was hard to settle on a clear way forward, but he always had the intention of ending the war.

"If that's everything, then, let's get going. We've been over the plan for this mission."

That much was true, and that much, they did. Malfoy Manor was not exactly hidden, but it was out of the way, so apparating to it was only a matter of a few failed attempts. The six of them split up and Blaise and Ginny quickly confirmed there was dark magic in the warding, which itself was a blanket term for various charms and curses, layered to make them harder to pass or remove. They could not simply send a letter or show up in a public place; they needed some way of only talking to Lucius or his wife without interacting with any other Death Eaters, and it was true that the building before them was used as a meeting place sometimes, but the other old families had their own estates around the country; apparently the Bullstrodes even had a castle far off in Scotland, though it was anyone's guess who had built it. According to Draco, his mother was almost always at home.

"Is there anyone coming?" Hermione asked while she was working. No expert in dark magic, she was lending her limited knowledge in ancient runes to the others. Harry did not need to be a Legilimens to know that she was probably uneasy not being a scout.

"No," Luna said. "This area is full of Coughing Bodnicks, though."

"I'll keep that in mind," Hannah said, also on the lookout. "The human revealing charm's coming up with nothing. If they're disguising their presence somehow, we're dead."

"We're through the first layer, effectively," Ginny muttered after a minute. "We'd have had our skin ripped off if we walked into that."

"Lovely," Hermione whispered. "How exactly do you know?"

"It's a feeling. There's no rune specifically for it, not even in the Theban alphabet. I look at the symbol and I know what it does."

"That's rather fascinating, as frightening as it is. Can you identify all kinds of symbols like that?"

"No, not every single one, even those that are dark in some way. I can tell that they're dark, though." She looked over at Blaise and it looked like he was at least not denying the way it worked. Luna ran off and Harry followed her, thinking that she saw something, though no one else went after him, perhaps deciding that two was enough.

"Hannah's head is full of nargles."

"Right. What does that means again?"

"She's been stealing glances at you."

He was not entirely sure if she was answering his question or just providing related information. Either way, though, he supposed he could see it when he compiled everything else that had happened. It was not really a bad thing if another member was interested in him, but it was a wonder what anyone else would make of it. The worst part of it was, he was not entirely sure if she really liked him, or if she just thought that the leader should be seen to have a girlfriend, or whatever it was she wanted. Was it so easy to test? Could he just ask someone else and see if that fixed the problem or not? If he did, was that what he wanted?

"I'm not sure what to do with that," he confessed after a moment of pretending to search around in the wood. It was practically insubordinate to use the pretense of an enemy sighting for a private conversation, but she could shrug it off if he tried to explain that to her. "I'll think about it more later. We need to get back to the rest of the team."

"That's all right with me, Harry. I just thought you might want to know about the nargles."

"Right. Thanks for that."

They broke through the rest of the defenses and were ready to approach the manor. Traitorous thoughts told him the whole thing was a trap, and that Draco must have been instructed on what to tell his captors if he were ever taken prisoners, but that seemed like too much of an eventuality, even for what should practically be assumed of the enemy to be on the safe side.

The grounds of the manor were empty. There was a fountain that startled them when they approached it, but it seemed pointless if it only went up when someone passed it, so it was more probable that no no one knew they were there, and entirely possible that it went off whenever an animal passed by. There was an ostentation of peacocks on the grass that took notice of them, but they only looked without coming over or squawking or whatever else they did. The six of them found a side door and used an unlocking charm on it, but when they opened it, they found yet another fountain.

"What the hell?" Ginny asked.

"It could just be an inner courtyard," Hermione said before looking back, where there was no door. "Homenum Revelio," she incanted, pointing backward. There was no indication that Blaise, Luna, and Hannah were behind them.

"Getting in here wasn't as simple as we thought," Harry muttered. "The outer traps were just a way of tricking us into falling for this. He's probably searching for us right now."

"We'll be lucky if it's not all the Death Eaters at once," Ginny said, agreeing that their cover most likely blown already. "We don't have a way of getting out of here, though, so it's better if they catch us alive."

"Even if some of us die here, we can still complete the mission. The hostage isn't with us. The others will probably surrender rather than fight if they're outnumbered. We'll do the same, but we'll put up a shield first so we can talk." Already, he was leaning on everything he had absorbed from Susan on shielding. Something had happened for which they could not have accounted; it was entirely possible that Draco had led them into a trap, even though they had worked him over with the express purpose that he would be punished severely if the six who were sent on the mission never returned from it, and he was guaranteeing that he would never see his parents again.

Down to three, they would not be as threatening to the enemy, even if he was alone, but they could not think of any other reason he had not already had them surrounded. Harry saw a house elf and stunned it without a second thought. It was a shame that someone had come to take the post that Dobby had occupied, but if anything, his own inclination to panic and be loud made him think that leaving the new one conscious was not worth the risk. He looked over at Hermione, but that was a mistake; she was annoyed at the implication she would have something to say about it just because he hit an elf.

"Really, if the sentry had been a rat, do you think Ron would-" She shook her head. "Actually, that might be a sore spot after Pettigrew-"

"Shut up, both of you," Ginny whispered. Something about the door they were approaching felt more real; he could feel it as well. Harry opened it magically on the first try, grateful that it was a simple spell and Terry had used it recently. Inside, there was a large chamber with what looked like a black liquid all over the floor; even a light charm would have no effect if any of them were stupid enough to use one. In what looked like the center of the room, floating torches illuminated a silver cage, where their friends were in silver chains within.

"It's not an illusion," Hermione whispered. "I can access their thoughts from here."

There was no need to ask what happened. Proceeding further forward after losing track of their friends was probably the right move, but they were probably being trapped. At the same time, even if someone was watching them, just sitting there and not getting their friends out was not going to fix anything. Harry cast the unlocking charm on the cage and nothing happened.

"Figures," he muttered. Setting foot on the black liquid seemed like a bad idea and he instead conjured a plank of wood, wishing he had thought to bring his Firebolt. Levitating the length of wood and ignoring Ginny's requests to explain himself, he disillusioned it and stepped on top of it. Hermione had her eyes closed, which meant she was either praying or scanning the area with Legilimency. Stepping up onto the wood, he had some idea that if someone was watching them, there was nothing to be done about it. Behind him, the resident dark magic specialist was casting diagnostic spells at the liquid and swearing under her breath.

Crossing the distance and reaching the cage was the easy part. It was confusing why the captives did not seem to have noticed him, but he had long since decided to trust his friend's judgement, and if she said that the whole thing was not an illusion, then he could believe her. He tried to transfigure the bars as soon as he could practically touch them with his wand, but there was no result. Technically, Transfiguration was not exclusively close range, but it was a lot easier not to have to think about targeting a specific object and in practice he almost always got in close. His magic was strong in general, as he had heard, and with his wand still up against the silver bars, he attempted to melt through them with a fire charm, and it was slow going, but he had no other ideas. As soon as a segment of the metal was weak enough on both ends, he grabbed it in the middle and yanked it outward, grateful none of the diagnostic spells had missed anything. As soon as the container was imperfect, it seemed the contents could see him, and they turned to look at him, but could be of no great help as he used the unlocking charm on their chains, allowing them to get the gags off their faces.

"What the hell is this?" Blaise asked. "I've never heard of anything like this at the Malfoys' place."

"I'm betting Draco hadn't either," he muttered. "You only see it if you sneaked in somehow." He got through another bar, but that was not nearly enough. It was probably safest to hold onto them rather than letting them hit the ground, but he was not sure how many he was going to need to grab. "What happened to your wands?"

"We just woke up like this," Hannah said. "We thought we were in some kind of dining room."

"That's probably how Hermione confirmed that we weren't seeing an illusion; it was because you were." He looked back while burning through another bar and both of his confederates were looking concerned, probably for different, but ultimately related reasons. Was there any time to worry about that, though? He moved onto the next bar without actually breaking the last one out, leaving that to Blaise.

"Let it not be said that you ever failed to properly delegate," he muttered.

"Neither let it be said that you had any respect for someone else's property."

At the other end of the room, Lucius Malfoy had entered. The black liquid avoided his feet. Harry wagered that as long as the cage was immune to most things, he could use it for cover.

"Was this all some sort of test?" he asked.

"Why presume it has ended already?"

Sending multiple spells at once was fundamentally impossible. It was for that reason that Harry knew he only needed to dodge one, and he picked the stunner, because the killing curse was going to get blocked by the very corner of the cage, and that was enough time to send a disarm back. He needed the target alive and he was not entirely sure the black liquid was going to leave him alone if he fell unconscious. Sure enough, the wand surprised him by flying toward his hand and he caught it.

"Well done, Half-blood. However, if you only look behind you-"

Hermione and Ginny were both waving both hands at him, a gesture to ask him to slow down or something. What did they know that he did not?

"We came for a chat," he said, taking the diplomatic approach. "Sorry we couldn't have firecalled ahead."

"I had suspected that it was not a random criminal who had caused the disappearance of our son," he said. "I already eliminated the Ministry and the Death Eaters, of course."

"That's what we've come to discuss," he said, looking back once more at Hermione and Ginny. What was their expression? "We can have a civilized conversation, I hope."

"Of course. I require my wand."

Making a judgement call, he tossed it back.