Chapter 10:

Susan Bones gave a presentation, entitled, "You have survived the Death Eaters. Now you have to survive the Ministry."

"I'm going to go over some aspects of fighting, you might not have considered. The reaction of the Ministry of Magic. First, what happens when the aurors arrive. Second, when they investigate YOU for criminal offenses. Third, what to keep in mind during a fight, to reduce legal trouble later.

My main source of information is from talking to my aunt, who is the chief of the department of magical law enforcement. Nothing I said would lead her to think that I am part of a group like this, or even know about its existence. We all are magically prevented from doing so.

In the aftermath of an attack, the aurors will try to control the scene. That means they'll yell, "Everyone, drop your wands!" If you don't, they'll usually use non-harmful stunning and binding spells. They are used to victims and bystanders freezing, or trying to get away. However, if you aim your wands at them, they are authorized to use deadly force against you.

I asked my aunt, how do you determine that they are actually aurors? She said, that while there are magical ways to prove that they are aurors, they wouldn't be using those in the chaotic aftermath of an attack. She said, that it isn't actually something she thought about, that people might think that the aurors were instead pretending to be aurors. She said that she will order research into adding a protocol so that people can be assured it is actually the aurors.

Then, you have to deal with the legal system. If you are under 17, you might also be charged with under-age use of magic. You are not required to make a statement alone. Ask to be with your parent or magical guardian. Make sure they know to bring a lawyer. If you are 17 or older, have a lawyer and ask for them to be part of any questioning, even if you know that you did everything legally.

First, make sure that your actions are legally defensible. The Ministry asks people to remove themselves from the scene and report an attack to aurors, as unrealistic as that sounds, but that is not a legal requirement. You can defend yourself, and even others, but not chase after an attacker. You need sufficient evidence that someone is an attacker before using force. You are never authorized to use the unforgiveables. You can be charged with a crime if you use excessive force against an opponent who is no longer a probable threat."

Hermione asked, "Should we have a lawyer ready to defend us? Does anyone know a good one?"

Luna Lovegood answered, "My lawyer specializes in libel law, not criminal defense."

Fred, or was it George Weasley asked, "Do you think we could talk to him about suing the Daily Prophet?"

Luna answered, "Here is his contact information." handing over a piece of parchment and continuing, "There would only be a conflict of interest if you sued the Quibbler."

Fred answered, "I actually liked your article, even if you did show how stupid we were in not knowing the life-span of rats."

George interjected, "I'd rather be thought stupid than evil."

I noticed that Theodore Nott and Draco Malfoy were seen on the Marauder's map, at times and places that would suggest that they were spying on our movements. It also showed that they did not have the equivalent to the Marauder's map, otherwise they wouldn't need to spy on our movements in person.

I said, "Look at the map here, do you see where Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott are? Looks suspicious to me."

Harry Potter looked at it and said, "Assume that they know about our existence, capabilities, and movements in time and space."

I said, "Assume that they will only attack at a time and place that they believe will be successful, and also have results worth the risk."

Ernest Macmillan, a second year in Hufflepuff, added, "Maybe the change in Draco, is after he kept complaining to his father, instead of using political capital for him, his father instead taught him how not to be an idiot."

Anthony Goldstein said, "Sorry to the Weasleys here, but I have to admire the pure Slytherin maneuver that Lucius Malfoy did to hurt Arthur Weasley's reputation over hosting Pettigrew. It looks to me that he is preparing the battlefield in the political sphere."

Fred and George Weasley went into one of their alternating speaker routines,

"My esteemed colleagues"

"I do believe that this is one of those times"

"where a prank is called for."

"A maddening one"

"It is not just personal"

"but is for (showing air quotes) The Greater Good"

Terry Boot called out, "I agree. I was the one who worried that we'd have to defend you two against revenge from pranks. This one makes strategic sense. Instead of worrying what sort of attack, the sons of Death Eaters plan for us, at a time they are ready, we provoke them into doing something rash and at a time we are expecting them to."

Hannah Abbot asked, "What if they never were going to find the ideal way to attack us? We'd be starting a conflict that could have been avoided."

Harry Potter replied, "I think that they are coordinating with their fathers is likely. We are already at war with them, it is just not open yet. I was the chief target of when Draco would try to annoy. Spring of my first year he suddenly stopped, as if someone told him to. Then after the summer, I could see the change in the way he carried himself, the way he became much more observant of what was going on around him. At this point I regard him as an enemy soldier, not as an annoying kid."

I said, "Let's put it to a vote, to authorize a prank that will cause Malfoy and Nott to be thwarted in their reconnaissance of us, and to be so angered that they will strike back in rage instead of in careful planning. Then we'll need a plan to win that battle, and not have legal problems from it.

Remember our voting rules. Only vote if you have an opinion."

The vote easily passed.

The next Advanced Study Group meeting had Dumbledore in attendance, as was already scheduled. I decided that the subject needed to broached with him, and in the presence of the group. I addressed him formally, "Headmaster Dumbledore, if the group came to a decision that certain actions are needed that would be against school rules, would you want to know about it in advance?"

Dumbledore showed no reaction and replied, "Absolutely. While this group is unusually responsible, I might be able to, as your friend, not as your headmaster, give you insights into possible repercussions of possible actions."

I answered, "Would you mind if the rest of the meeting was without your presence or knowledge of its contents. If there were something to talk to you about, we can reach a consensus of what to say, and then ask to speak to you?" Dumbledore agreed and left the room.

I said, "He would be limited by our magical agreement, on what he could say to anyone else. He wouldn't be blindsided by what may happen and could help with the aftermath." There was some sharp disagreement, and then a vote that narrowly passed, to talk to him, but after we would already have some things planned out.

Fred Weasley started with, "This is what we have so far. Since we know where we are going, we have a good idea where they will go, and with the map we can make sure that area is clear. Step 1, we stun them. Step 2, we hide them, with invisibility spells or notice-me-nots. Step 3, we transport them to the Room of Requirement. It will be night. We keep them there overnight. Step 4, we terrify them. Various illusions while they are frozen in place. Step 5, at breakfast time we animate them. That is, a charmed invisible exoskeleton while they are kept flexible. They can be levitated to the Great Hall. Once there, they follow crude movements, moving straight arms and legs, looking like they are marching then dancing in place while chanting. Their weight is supported by levitation. Step 6. Charms make it sound like they are chanting in their own voices. Then they chant, and so far we have, "We are Death Eater's Sons" repeated a few times. "Noone gets the mark without free will". "We're proud to join too". "We want to be puppets to a self-proclaimed Lord."

George continued, "Some challenges will be to make the charms resistant to the finite spell, which ends enchantments. It will take them, meaning Snape and older friends of theirs, some time to realize that charms are involved instead of mind control."

Fred said, "I don't like them being missing all night. It would be better if we could find a way to do this during the day a little before a meal time."

George, said, "Also, we have to make sure they have no charmed objects that can help them escape. We'll deal with that after stunning them. If they can do wandless magic, they'll never get the chance to speak. We'll have to think about how to stop silent and wandless magic, if they possibly have those hidden abilities".

We were all sort of stunned, listening to the plan.

Dean Thomas, a second year in Gryffindor laughed and said, "I'm glad you two are on our side. Remind me never to be your enemy."

Michael Corner, a second year in Ravenclaw said, "What about, instead of the Great Hall, use the Defense against dark arts classroom during second year class. The two guests are in second year. There will be no older students to help end the enchantments, and the only professor there would be Lockhart, who doesn't seem nearly as competent as Snape would be. For that matter, in the Great Hall, both McGonagall and Flitwick would also probably quickly intervene to end the enchantments. Also, that way Headmaster Dumbledore doesn't have to witness it. Also the twins won't be there to see it, so they would be less likely to be suspected of it."

Terry Boot, added, "They should have partial Death Eater masks over their mouths. That way everyone can still see who they are, but it will hide that they are not actually talking."

Harry Potter said, "If it was before class, Malfoy will be with Crabbe and Goyle. We'll need to stun them also, but I like the idea of doing nothing else to those two. That way Malfoy and Nott will figure out that they were targeted for doing reconnaissance against us."

I said, "Our group stun spell has been approved by Dumbledore. We can try it out. If Harry Potter can do it, he can test it out while he is using his invisibility cloak, with us being test subjects. Also I declare that talking about the stupefaciunt regio spell is an operational detail of this group. That means it remains secret until it becomes public. If we use it carefully, noone will actually know anything about it."

Harry Potter said, "We will have to be ready for retaliation. That means noone goes anywhere alone, and we are constantly on guard. Our bracelets should let us know about nearby port keys, but we have to remember not to catch something that is thrown at us unless you have a good reaction time. I have been practicing, especially since I try to catch the Snitch in Quidditch, and someone could add a port-key to it.

Also, sorry to Tom and Luna, I know you like running and vary your routes, but it would be too easy to setup an ambush against you."

Hermione said, "Muggle gyms have some good exercise equipment. We could duplicate those that do not use electricity in the Room or even in our common rooms. We could probable use magic to make other ones like treadmills work."

The second year Defense Against Dark Arts class watched Nott and Malfoy dancing and chanting in confusion. When they started insulting themselves, they realized that something magical was involved, and Crabbe and Goyle ran out to get help, which arrived in a few minutes.

Professor Lockhart looked disappointed and said, "10 points each from Slytherin for disrupting my class, and another 10 points for such a poor public statement. You have a public relations expert right in front of you that you should have been learning from."

He continued in lecture mode, "Class, what mistakes do you see that they made?" Everyone was silent. He continued, "1. A secret society recruits secretly. It is part of their mystique. 2. Get your message right. You did not make it sound very appealing to join your group. You went through the effort to do a public disruption, which I have done on occasion myself. However, make it count. There are public relations consultants you can hire, and at least one of you, can afford to do so. 3. Pay attention to your appearance. I was appalled at the charisma level of your physical presence. There are books that can help with that, and also consultants as well. 4. For scheduled presentations, tell them what you are going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you told them. For public disruptions, instead, you have to get your main points out quickly, since you never know when your disruption will be ended. 5. Dancing can work as part of a presentation, but only if you are skilled at doing so. It also works with a larger numbers doing a synchronized show. 6. For that matter, the same with chanting. It has power when a large number of people do it, less so with two people. You might consider singing if you have the talent for it. It takes the authority figures a little off guard, and you might get more time before your disruption is shut down."

At the next Advanced Study Group meeting, Dumbledore attended. Everyone congratulated the Weasley twins. Harry Potter said, "Lockhart's reaction was a pure bonus. It was brilliant."

Dumbledore said, "When Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Nott complained about being targeted, I said that there is not evidence as to whether they did this themselves or if it was done to them. Therefore I'll reverse the points taken from them."

Michael Corner said, "Professor Lockhart actually is talented, just not in magic."

Neville Longbottom added, "Don't underestimate the talent needed to steal people's memories and stories without getting caught. And you are right, in public relations he probably is the best we know."

Luna and I spoke to Professor Lockhart and said, we would like to demonstrate his lesson during his next class. We'd pretend to be part of a clearly fictional army.

During his next class, Professor Lockhart said, "Mr. Picard and Miss Lovegood are now going to demonstrate the points I made after the presentation of Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Nott."

We walked up to the front of the room, then silently transformed to wearing Klingon uniforms, then sang what was in the holodeck program (IKS Rotaran singing war song), which fans of Star Trek from my home timeline could easily find. We added the enhancements we discussed before, including the shock wave, deeper voices, and sounds of drums. When we finished we bowed and transformed back to our original clothing.

The class cheered, except for some of the Slytherins who were almost literally shooting daggers at us from their eyes.

Lockhart clapped and said, "Magnificiant, 40 points to Ravenclaw. Why were you singing in what sounds like a made up language?"

I said, "We didn't have a real message to say, so we didn't want to distract from the presentation lessons."

At the next Advanced Study Group meeting, Harry Potter started. "We've been carefully monitoring Draco's friends. So far there has been no sign of operational imminence. That would be sudden changes in routine, increased agitation, odd behaviours to indicate creation of future alibis. So, we'll need to remain vigilant. Actually we should always be ever vigilant."

Susan Bones asked, "Maybe you cannot answer this, but I have met aurors who work for my aunt, and you sound just like them."

Harry Potter replied, "I've been cleared to give this answer, if that question were asked by someone in this group. I've been getting intensive training from someone with extensive auror experience. The decision was made to compartmentalize information, so that person does not know about this group, and this group cannot be told who that person is. While we have what we think is a foolproof magical protection of information, experience shows that sometimes a greater fool can defeat foolproof methods in surprising ways."

I could figure out, just from the phrase, ever vigilant, that it had to be Mad Eye Moody.

I started a small presentation, "A Chinese writer from 2500 years ago, Sun Tzu, had a lot of useful things to say about war. I'm handing out a copy his book to each of you, which we can discuss at another time.

One of things he said is that you need to know both yourself and your enemy in war.

While we have tried to understand Voldemort, we also need to understand Lucius Malfoy. Draco's amusing class interruption included what gets to the heart of it, so maybe Fred and George can explain it better.

What motivates someone who is one of the leaders of our society to be a servant to Voldemort? What motivates someone who believes in tradition to follow someone with a made up lordship? If Voldemort had a true claim to be Lord Slytherin, there would have been ways to prove that."

George Weasley answered, "Despite Lucuis's bluster, he has no real title himself other than being in the Sacred 28. He could have been promised a new title under a new regime. And while he has influence in our society today, he'd never be the one in charge of it on his own. He still wouldn't be under Voldemort, but he could have promised a role much greater than his present role."

Fred added, "It might have been, that those promises were what led him towards Voldemort in the first place. Once he took the Dark Mark, it might be that Voldemort literally owned him, and started treating him with a lot less respect."

George continued, "Remember that Lucius only joined the Death Eaters when the Wizarding war was underway, maybe around 1970 or a little later. He probably didn't have full access to the Malfoy fortune at that time. He only started gaining political influence a little before graduating in 1972."

Fred continues, "So probably ambition as his original motive, and feeling he has no choice but to continue at this point. He probably left his son Draco no choice either, if Draco ever expects to be in charge of the Malfoy fortune."

At breakfast time, the owls arrived with the Daily Prophet. It had an article, "Is Headmaster Dumbledore recruiting a vigilante group among students?" There were pictures of Dumbledore, and each of the 10 of us who made ourselves visible on Valentines Day, each entering a room from a Hogwarts corridor. "A group of students has been secretly meeting with the Headmaster. Why? What are they doing? Why does that group include two well known pranksters? See the following article on what is known about the Order of Phoenix, an allegedly vigilante organization, allegedly led by Albus Dumbledore during the recent war. Does head of the DMLE, Amelia bones know that her niece, who she is the guardian of is possibly part of an illegal vigilante organization? There is at least one first year in this group."

During breakfast, Draco Malfoy, walked past, and politely nodded at us.

We each got an alert through our communication devices to meet that evening in a classroom.

Harry Potter started, "We were expecting a physical attack, instead we received a reputational and political attack. In physical terms, how did they get the photographs?"

We discussed whether it could have been a muggle device, but agreed that most that could provide the moving pictures published would require electronics. Not impossible, but unlikely. Then I asked, "There are credible rumours that the Daily Prophet reporter Rita Skeeter is an unregistered beetle animagus."

Dumbledore answered, "Since the Pettigrew as a rat business, I have upgraded the wards to detect anyone unexpected who appears as an animagus. Also, note that it isn't her byline in the article."

We concluded that it was probably some sort of hidden charm in the corridor, and then discussed how to prevent that from happening again.

Dumbledore said that he'll have to reveal some information about this group, and that will of course effect what we are now going to be allowed to say.

Dumbledore asked to meet with Luna and me just afterwards. He addressed Luna, "While you are now free to write certain information about the Advanced Study Group, any way you want, I would appreciate if the message can be helpful to our aims."

Luna answered, "While my father has final say on what is published, I can write the article myself, and tell my father that I have reasons to want the article to be unchanged. Do you want to be interviewed now?"

Dumbledore said, "Go ahead."

Luna got her dictating quill out and asked, "How do you respond to allegations that you are recruiting children, as young as the author of this article, to be soldiers in your private wars?"

Dumbledore replied, "Nothing could be further from the truth. There are some students who wish to, and have the capability of, to study magic beyond their course years. I agreed to help them do so safely, and to help guide their studies. Also, after many years of not teaching, I wanted to do a little volunteer private tutoring,"

Luna asked, "How do you decide what these students will learn?"

Dumbledore replied, "That is based on their talents and what topics interest them. I also make sure that their studies are done safely. The students themselves share with each other what they learn, and help inspire each other towards greater learning."

Luna asked, "Why the secrecy?"

Dumbledore said, "I didn't want other students to be jealous of the extra learning, and there is a limited number of students that I have the time to personally tutor. This is an experiment, and might become a more formal part of the school at a later time, perhaps with a budget for a new paid instructor. I don't want to ask for that budget until I can show what can be accomplished.'

Then Luna continued dictating, "When asked to give her side of the story, this reporter said "No comment!", in a hostile and uncooperative manner."