Sunday dawned brightly, with the promise of the new moon that night. Hermione met her friends and initial Shadows members at the coven clubhouse to discuss their plan. It was more people than she'd realized; her coven was there, but also Tracey, Millie, Pansy, and Draco. She wasn't quite sure how they'd reached nine people already, but as she glanced around, she was glad for each person who was there. They all brought a different viewpoint and very different ideas.
Once everyone was assembled around the large round table, Pansy and Tracey took the lead on explaining what they had been up to.
"We've got quite an interested crowd," Pansy reported. "There's still interest in seeing the Valkyrie. A lot of doubt, naturally, but so long as we can convince them you're not an imposter, we should be good."
Blaise looked at Hermione sideways. "Can you manage that?"
Hermione gnawed on her lip.
"I don't know," she admitted. "Maybe? I mean, I can conjure the Fiendfyre and float on fire wings again. But without a dementor to destroy, will that really be enough?"
Tracey scoffed. "Oh, because so many people can fly unaided and summon Dark fire from hell?"
"Hey!" Harry protested. He rubbed Hermione's arm supportively. "Be nice. All of us in the coven can fly unaided, now. Who knows who else can do that?"
"The Dark Lord." Millie gave Harry a flat look. "That's it. He was the only one known to be able to do that before the Valkyrie hit the news."
Harry faltered. "…oh."
"Where are we planning on doing this?" Hermione was still weighing the matter over in her mind. "If we do it on top of a cliff or near a rockface, I could make stone arms come out again if I needed to."
"We were planning just on a vacant moor near a forest," Pansy said, raising an eyebrow. "Given you'll be summoning Fiendfyre, it seemed wise to use a wide-open space."
"That's probably smartest," Hermione conceded. "Well. Hopefully the Fiendfyre will be enough."
"Can you walk through fire?" Luna chimed in, tilting her head. "If you entered by walking through a fire we have set up just for light, everyone will be impressed by that."
"You think?" Hermione asked. "I can, yeah – I just need to make sure to not wear normal robes, then, though—"
"Not even You-Know-Who could walk through fire," Susan said firmly. "That's bound to impress."
"So: Hermione enters walking through fire. She then addresses the crowd, leaps into the air on wings of fire, and conjures Fiendfyre while declaring she is the Valkyrie," Tracey said, writing rapidly. She looked up. "Anything else? Is there a registration sheet we pass around afterward?"
"This is a secret group, not a mailing list," Pansy snapped. "No, we do not pass out a bloody sign-up sheet."
"Then what do we do?" Tracey wanted to know. "How do we leverage this spectacle into recruiting more people for the Shadows?"
"It'll intrigue them," Blaise said with certainty. "Those who witnessed it will gossip with their friends, and the story and mystery will spread quietly, by word of mouth. We need to help steer that gossip a little, make sure it includes a few of our goals and ideals, and the people will come."
"Which goals and ideals?" Tracey wanted to know. She glanced at Pansy. "I trust we're not handing out pamphlets?"
Pansy gave her a scathing look and rolled her eyes.
"What are we offering that will entice people the most?" Hermione asked. "I don't think many people are going to want to join if we tell them we're going to save the world, even if it's true."
"I would highlight the benefit to them," Susan said. "You offer power and knowledge. You offer positive freedom for everyone to enjoy life." She paused. "We could touch on equality a little bit – not about goblins and House Elves, mind you – but if a lot of the people coming are hedgewitches, I think telling them that they should be equal to anyone else magical would go a long way."
"Hedgewitches equal to other witches," Tracey muttered, writing furiously. She looked up. "Anything about what they might have to do?"
Hermione sat back hard, exhaling sharply.
"No," she admitted. "I mean, I feel like the Umbra will be the ones taking case of the horcruxes, not just random people on our side. What's the best thing for just general people to do?"
"Nothing," Harry said, sighing. "Not really."
"That's not true," Susan objected. "Consider all the people last time around who cowered and hid. Many of them were murdered in their homes. At the least, we can teach these people how to ward their homes and houses against Dark magic and intruders, right?"
"We could," Hermione agreed. "Full members will have a way of escaping a life-or-death situation as well, so that'll be good. And… I guess we teach them other ritual magic? Whatever they might need to protect themselves and others."
"That's a good idea," Blaise said, nodding. "Have everybody bond together first, give them power and aid. That way, when you need to call them in, they'll be ready and eager to repay your generosity."
"There's one thing we haven't brought up yet."
Hermione raised her head to look at the far end of the table. Draco had been sitting there, very still and silent for the entire conversation. Now, he looked up, his eyes a steely gray as everyone looked at him, waiting.
"And what's that?" Blaise prompted, after a long, awkward moment.
"What to do with traitors," Draco said. He looked around. "What do we do to those who betray us?"
There was a heavy silence as they all considered this. Hermione found herself staring blankly, trying to think. It'd never occurred to her that traitors were a thing she would need to deal with.
"Well, first: what would constitute a betrayal?" Susan asked pragmatically. "It can't just be 'admit you're in The Shadows' to someone – people will need to be able to do that in order to recruit their friends."
"Joining the Death Eaters," Harry said immediately, just as Pansy said, "Join Dumbledore." They glared at each other for a moment before looking away.
"Joining contrary causes," Hermione summarized, nodding to Tracy, who wrote it down. "Turning another Shadow into the authorities, or admitting The Shadows exist to anyone loyal to the Ministry."
"What if someone sends a spy?" Draco wanted to know. "How do we make sure to keep the other groups' people out?"
"We'll need to interrogate them somehow," Hermione said, sighing. "Veritaserum, maybe? Though I'm not a fan of that – you can poison people really easily, apparently. And we can't just check arms – Voldemort didn't brand everyone who followed him, only those most loyal to him."
"Plus Dumbledore doesn't do that," Luna added, and they all nodded.
"We need to interrogate them in a place where they cannot lie," Hermione said, frowning. She glanced around. "Would we be able to construct a Truth Circle?"
There were murmurs around the table, glances from person to person.
"I don't see why not," Susan said slowly. "It's ancient magic, of course, but that's never exactly stopped us in the first place."
"Can we set it underground?" Blaise asked. "If we could set a Truth Circle, then bury it, and then plant a ring of mushrooms directly over top of it – we would have the perfect eerie place to bring people for interrogation without them realizing why they can't lie."
"So just let them think the Fae are preventing them from lying?" Luna asked, smiling.
"Why not?" Blaise said, shrugging. "Adding even more mystery and lore to our organization will make it seem even more impressive and cool."
"That helps how to make sure traitors don't join," Draco said plaintively. "But what about people who turn traitor after they join?"
Hermione bit her lip, and the table lapsed into silence once more.
"The only thing I can think of is to link their vows to their access to the ley lines," Hermione said. "But—that's likely to be fatal for anyone who does betray us."
"Is that a bad result?" Pansy asked pointedly. "The Dark Lord certainly didn't leave spies and traitors alive."
"I'd like to think we're not as bad as Voldemort," Harry snapped.
"She has a point, though," Susan said reluctantly. "Dumbledore didn't eliminate people who left the Order of the Phoenix, and I think it was to his loss. He probably made sure they couldn't talk about what they learned there, but once people knew they could leave and only face his disappointment…" She shrugged, trailing off.
"Would it really be the same as the Dark Lord, though?" Millie asked. "We're not suggesting Hermione execute people, are we?"
"No," Hermione said reluctantly. "It'd be more… once they've betrayed us, the next time they enter a ley line, they'll have lost safe passage."
"What does that mean?" Pansy wanted to know. "Does their magic get swept away?"
"No," Blaise said. "They just get abducted by the Fae."
There was a poignant silence as everybody turned to stare.
"Are you serious?" Tracey demanded. "We're fucking with the Fae here?"
"Language!" admonished Hermione.
"No, I'm with Tracey here," Pansy said flatly. "We're seriously planning on messing with the Fae?"
"We are not messing with them," Hermione said firmly. "I have struck a bargain with them to let Shadows pass safely through their lands within the ley lines. If we tie members' vows to their safe passage, and they break their vow, then their safe passage would be revoked. Nothing might ever happen if they never try to use the ley lines again, but if they did, they'd stand a strong chance of being abducted to the Faerie Realm."
There was a heavy silence.
"That's kind of badass," Millie admitted after a moment. "The Dark Lord? He has to kill someone. That takes effort. Us? You just vanish into the ether forever."
Pansy snorted.
"What if they don't travel in these lines again?" she challenged. "Then what?"
"We make them," Blaise said, shrugging. "We make it a condition of meetings – everyone has to arrive by ley line. It helps verify everyone is actually a member. That way, the only way we'll have a traitor is if someone turns traitor and never returns to The Shadows again. Otherwise, they'll be swallowed up in the lines."
"And if someone suddenly goes missing, we would notice when we take attendance," Tracey agreed, nodding. "Then we could send a couple of people to investigate."
"Attendance?" Pansy said, her tone scathing. "Do you think the Dark Lord took attendance at his Death Eater meetings?"
"Yes," Draco cut in. "He did." He gave Pansy a dark look. "If you were missing, there were consequences. That meant he knew when someone wasn't there."
Pansy rolled her eyes. "Does no one see the danger of just having clerical paperwork lying around, documenting the existence of our very secret and very illegal group?"
"It's not like it wouldn't be protected!" Tracey objected. "But keeping records is a good way to keep things organized. If we keep notes on the people who have joined, we'll be able to know who is good for what missions!"
Pansy rolled her eyes. "Neither Dumbledore nor the Dark Lord did that."
"No, but they probably took mental notes, right?" Hermione said, thinking. "If we want The Shadows to be able to function decentralized if needed, we need more than one person knowing what people's strengths and weaknesses are. I think it's a smart idea."
Tracey shot Pansy a smug look. Pansy just rolled her eyes and huffed.
"Back to tonight," Blaise said. He looked at Hermione. "Do you want to let your hedgewitch friends know ahead of time so they can come?"
Hermione faltered. "Ah—do you think I should?"
"I do," Draco said firmly. "You've already helped them. Their testimony will go a long way in helping convince the others there that you keep your word."
Hermione glanced at Blaise, who shrugged.
"Derek's charismatic, and Clover's fierce," he said. "It certainly wouldn't hurt, in my mind."
Hermione bit her lip and nodded.
"Yeah," she said. "Yeah… let's do that. It's a good idea."
"What about Squibs?" Luna asked.
Pansy shot her a look. "What about them?"
"Do we have a place for them?" Luna asked, serene. "They can't travel via ley line. Is there anything they can do to help or join?"
Hermione exhaled, suddenly overwhelmed.
"Let's deal with that another time," she suggested, deflecting. "Squibs – that's a whole big issue on its own. Let's keep that separate for now. Focus on initial recruitment now, then we'll get to more nuanced things, like Squibs."
Luna shrugged, appeased, but Hermione felt a bit ill.
"Is this too much?" she asked suddenly, looking around at them all. "This is a lot."
Susan blinked at her. "Too much for what?"
"Just… this is a lot, you know?" Hermione said, blowing out her breath. "Forming a secret society to fight in a theoretical war, hiding identities, recruiting adults, teaching people to travel via ley lines and how to protect their homes… we're all still in school. Should we really be doing all this right now?"
There was a silence.
"I mean, no," Harry said, breaking the silence. He looked Hermione squarely in the eyes. "We shouldn't have to be the ones doing this. But somebody needs to. So it might as well be us."
He shrugged. It was a very pointed shrug somehow, but it made his point.
"There was no third side last time," Susan said. Her voice quieted. "If there had been a third side teaching people to ward their homes with old magic, my family might still be alive."
"We're all with you in this, Hermione," Blaise said, laying his hand on top of hers. "You won't be alone – you've got support. We can do this."
Hermione glanced at Luna, whose lips quirked.
"The viper borne to muggles shall be the New Blood to change the world," she said. She tilted her head, eyes glittering with amusement. "By clearing the cluttered path with those who answer her call."
"Whether gifted or claimed," Tracey chimed in, looking at Luna, "true, faked, or false, pure magic unfurled—"
"The she-serpent borne of teeth shall rise and triumph over them all," Hermione finished, in unison with the other two. Luna flashed a grin at her, and Hermione rolled her eyes but sighed with a smile.
"Thanks," she said, after a moment. She glanced around. "It is a lot. But if we all work together, I'm sure we'll be able to make a difference somehow, no matter how small."
Everyone looked around at each other, exchanging small, hopeful grins. There was a feeling of camaraderie among them, even between those who didn't get along with each other so well. Being united toward a common cause did that to people, Hermione thought, smiling at her friends. And they were all going to work together, to make this all come true.
