Chapter 13:

We had our first meeting in 12 Grimmauld Place. I floo'd in, and when I walked past the entrance area, I heard a shouted message, "Young man, who are you?".

I replied to the portrait of Walburga Black, "Tom Picard, Mrs. Black".

She yelled to me, "The winemakers? Deliveries are from the back door to the kitchen, you shouldn't be in this part of the house."

I started to say that I was not here for a wine delivery when she yelled over my voice, "It is that lack of tact, that probably sent Grindelwald after your family. Either that or you sold him bad wine and that's why he cursed your vineyard." She then started cackling loudly.

I went up to Sirius, and said, "Lord Black, sir,"

Sirius replied, "Call me Sirius."

I continued, "Sirius, can we stop her portrait from talking and also from seeing and hearing us? It might be a security issue if she has some way to communicate."

Sirius answered, "We have a curtain. I'll put it back. My cousin Tonks must have tripped over the umbrella stand and moved the curtain. I like the idea of making it a complete sound barrier. Hey Fred and George!"

They answered in unison "What can we do for the esteemed Lord Black?"

"I'll give you guys 10 galleons if you can enchant that curtain to block sound in both directions and to stick to the portrait."

They answered, "Padfoot is asking us to prank a portrait! We the unworthy marauder want-to-be's are beyond honoured."

The research and planning group sat down for the meeting.

Dumbledore spoke, "Our new approach is informing our group as to what is in progress, so that if any of us were to become unavailable, the others can carry on the plan. Our magical contracts should minimize the risk of knowledge getting into the wrong hands.

We have captured Barty Crouch Jr. and the research into the dark mark is underway. We have discovered that we need, not only a parselmouth spell, but the actual magical signature of Tom Riddle. It turns out, that we have that available in Harry Potter's scar. We have a plan to get rid of that soul fragment in his scar, but it will happen after we no longer have need of it.

On the political front, we have gathered evidence that will likely cause the no confidence vote, or resignation, of Minister Fudge, and we will maybe have the votes to have Amelia Bones replace him.

Sirius's work on the publishing world, in particular the Daily Prophet, and Wizarding Wireless Network, has been making progress. A combination of using money, blackmail and threats, shows that Lord Black is comfortable using the resources that he commands as head of the Black family and the traditional methods they used, but for the cause of good. This is certainly a change in thinking for both me and him, and knowledge of future challenges faced by Wizarding Britain and the wizarding world at large have convinced us to use tactics we formerly eschewed."

Afterward, Luna and I found a moment to talk to Dumbledore privately. Luna said serenely, "My father, and Mr. and Mrs. Picard, would like to be in on the secret. They have worked out a lot of it themselves, and would like to help, to know the rest, and to be bound by secrecy."

Dumbledore nodded and replied, "I can see the benefit of them being bound to non-disclose what they are on the verge of discovering, particularly Mr. Lovegood."

Luna evenly replied, "You do not need to worry about that. He will refrain from publishing many things without my permission."

Dumbledore nodded in understanding, "Which he understands would be limited to what you can say, since most such contracts do not allow one to get around them by authorizing someone else to reveal what one cannot."

I changed the subject a little, "Mr. Lovegood has figured out also, that Professor Snape is leading a study group, organized by Lucius Malfoy, that is providing top class training, with skilled experts, in combat, wards, potions, business, and perhaps other areas."

I continued, "My parents would like to find ways to help. Both they and Mr. Lovegood, have understood that both of us have changed. In my case, as you know, and in Luna's case by time in the Star Trek world."

Dumbledore again nodded in understanding. "I will arrange to the contracts. I'll send them to the same lawyer that Luna Lovegood has used, I presume, and for the Picards, I'll send an invitation for all the Picards and Lovegoods to meet together with me to discuss the contracts. Xenophilius Lovegood's contract would include sections about publishing rights, mostly copied from Luna's contract, and also the fact that he himself has knowledge to add, that is of use to the group."

We let the secrecy contract negotiations conclude, and then met the Lovegoods again. After seeing the memories, my parents both said, "Existential crisis." My mother continued, speaking to me, "I can agree with what you said, quoting Descartes and the concept of I think therefore I am."

My father said, "It condenses having to think about the origins of the reality we are part of, to simply accept its reality, since we are part of it, and have consciousness within it."

Xenophilius Lovegood, stated, "I would be interested in reviewing many historical and legendary tales, that have some resemblance to Q. Have members of the Q continuum been part of our history? Was your original world, where Q and the magical world, were works of fiction real in a way more than this world? Were the stories not fiction, but written by those who knew of those worlds? There is much to learn, and of course, none to publish."

While the process of including our parents into the secret was underway, strategy meetings were continuing.

The meeting was not of the Order of Phoenix. Dumbledore explained to all of us, in our D-Day planning group, that it has to be a smaller group. Snape cannot be part of it, due to his spy work. In case there is a way around the secrecy contracts, it would be better for him to only know what he needs to, and not about mine or Luna's involvement. Molly Weasley would not be included, due to my mistrust of her. Bill, Fred, and George Weasley were members. Mundungus Fletcher would be limited to meeting with particular people, as needed, and not in any places where he could steal things, as he had done in canon.

The D-Day plan continued to be refined. I asked, "If a Death Eater would accept the oath of changing sides, what would happen to them? Something like the muggle concept of the witness protection programme?"

Dumbledore actually convinced me about the benefits of second chances, although magically agreed to. He said, "Short term safe houses would be offered until the Death Eater group is broken. There is no need to use their confessions against them in a court of law, and they in almost all cases are not presently under legal sanction. Their use would be in making the magical world to what we need to face our future challenges.

Many of the Death Eaters are heads of houses. That is partially due to a wave of mysterious deaths of heads of houses who were not agreeing with Voldemort. He, in effect, took over most of the houses that even partially agreed with his cause.

We are going to do the opposite. All heads of houses who take the oath, will become vassals of House Black. That mean that Lord Black will vote in their stead, in whatever deliberative bodies that their house has a vote in, or even where they personally have a vote.

Heirs will pledge to do the same, if and when they become head of their house.

The counter-part of their being a vassal, will be a pledge by Lord Black to defend their houses. He will also have a role in the upbringing of their members. This is part of how we will break the multi-generational aspect of their ideology."

We were all fairly impressed by the plan, and agreed to it.

Mad-eye Moody, observed, "If we want them to take the oath, we need to convince them that he-who-must-not-be-named is truly not returning, and that the Death Eater organization is truly broken. I have some ideas on that I'll present in detail soon."

Bill Weasley said "You should all be aware, that we possibly have found a way to remove the Dark Mark. We could add to the writing on the door of the oath, the benefits we plan, but are not pledged, to give them, including not using their confessions against them in trial, defending them against retaliation for defecting, and attempting to remove the Dark Mark."

Later in the summer, Luna and I became formally betrothed. The magical world of families that pre-date the late 1600's Statute of Secrecy, usually follow long standing traditions.

Our parents knew that we were both mentally older than our ages, but waiting until the bride's graduation from Hogwarts is expected. They also knew that neither of us would ever change our minds, and that there was no need to wait for our betrothal.

At the next D-Day planning meeting, Luna had her betrothal ring, and everyone congratulated us. Sirius asked, "When should I put the wedding on my calendar?" We answered, "6 years from now, June 1999."

Later, Dumbledore privately talked to us and said, "Not even considering your joint unique circumstances, I cannot recall seeing a couple as well matched as you two. Congratulations."

At a lunch Luna and Xenophilius had at the Picard house, I was talking to Xenophilius about the Deathly Hallows. "Would you recommend to Harry Potter to join the three?"

Xenophilius was a little besides himself and said, "What?"

I clarified, "Ignotus Peverell was the ancestor of the Potters, so Harry has the Cloak. Tom Riddle was a descendant of Cadmus Peverall and had the Stone, but turned the ring it was part of into a Horcrux. It was retrieved. To help fulfill the prophecy that it is by Harry Potter's hand, that the Dark Lord will be defeated, Harry Potter paid for mission to get the ring, and the cleansing and retrieval of the stone, and has ownership over it now. The Wand was won by Albus Dumbledore during his duel with Grinderwald."

Xenophilius answered, "We are talking about legends, not certainty. The one who unites the three, becomes the master of death. Some say, that would only happen if the one who unites the three accepts the inevitability of death. What happens then? It could be some form of immortality. It could be becoming death itself, for a time, or for ever. There are many other possibilities."

I then showed everyone in the room, many memories from canon, and explained that the best I could determine, the books take precedence over the movies in which parts of canon are in our timeline.

Xenophilius remarked "Too many possibilities to give an answer about the hallows. Did Harry Potter truly unite the hallows, not just possess each of the three at possibility different times? Was his survival due to the hallows? There is not enough information to be sure.

If I had the chance to unite the three, I might do so merely out of curiosity. I could not recommend it to Mr. Potter, especially, since his horcrux is likely to be removed without his own death, brief as it may be. Furthermore, it seems that his desire is more to destroy two of the hallows to prevent any future wizard from holding them with bad purpose, in the movies, but not perhaps not in the books. Albus Dumbledore, as the possessor of one of the hallows, and at one point in the past, of two of them, and in the canon future of the third, is not someone who should be allowed to unite the three. His motives are not pure, as seen in canon. If Harry Potter is to consider uniting them, I would recommend he do so as an older man, perhaps Dumbledore can will him the wand. He might develop wisdom as to what to do with them, and I do not believe he'll need them as a tool for the next challenges he will face."

As the planning continued, we started to get the timing more precise. At D minus 4, that is 4 days before summoning the Death Eaters, we would start releasing, over a period of 3 days, evidence of corruption and overall badness of Minister Fudge, and Senior Undersecretary Umbridge.

Also at D-4 the takeover of the Daily Prophet and the Wizarding Wireliess Network, by Sirius, would take effect, with some firings and new editorial control.

At D-1 there will be an emergency Wizangot meeting to remove Fudge and Umbridge, and appoint Amelia Bones as interim secretary, with a formal election to follow.

At the start of D-Day many of the group, including both of our parents, the entire Weasley family, and many others would go into hiding in fidelius protected locations.

At D-Day night, the Death Eaters would be summoned, and those who answer the call would be captured.

By D+1, the Malfoy Manor would be raided for the Diary of Tom Riddle, using whatever information could be obtained from him. A secondary plan for a full raid, with or without Ministry approval would also be ready, if information could not be obtained from Lucius Malfoy.

At D+2 there would be raids to round up all other known Death Eaters. Information from captured Death Eaters should help.

At D+3 and D+4 all captured Death Eaters will be given a choice of an oath to change sides or a duel.

Also at D+3, the horcrux in Harry Potter's scar will be removed.

At D+5 a large scale raid of Albania will occur, to find any leads of the location of Voldemort and to destroy his current form. Nagini, will be killed, whether or not the snake is already a horcrux.

If all horcrux's have in fact been destroyed, it would possibly be then, the true end of Voldemort.

At D+6 extensive information will be published in all friendly media. There will be a public plan to be on the lookout for any possible revival of Voldemort, or of the Death Eater organization.