Chapter 10: Real Plans Revealed

Date: 16th May 2010

Time: 9pm, Malfoy Manor

Hermione sat them all down in the Manor living room and she was facing all the Athena, Weaselys, Malfoys, Potters, Neville, Pansy, Katie and Zabini. There was a moment of silence before Hermione burst into a rapturous laughter.

She was joined by the rest of the gang and rich sound of humor graced the room.

Hermione smiled, "Wow! I haven't laughed like this for a long time. I can't help but feel proud of myself. All my plans worked to the T and all you people played your respective roles to perfection. I can safely say today has been one of our greatest victories."

Harry smirked, "And to think that at this very moment, Lucas is basking in glory in a false sense of victory."

An urgent buzz sounded in the room and Hermione asked Malcom to enter.

He gave a bow to Hermione before proceeding, "This room is bugged. Before you discuss some specific strategy or victory, we must scan the room for a/v devices."

The scan in the next 10 minutes turned up 15 visual and 20 audio bugs that even Malcom and company enviously stared at. These were the best technology available in the globe. They agreed to make this a routine procedure before any group meeting.

Athena gave a dry smile, "Our opponent challenges us to an open battle but he is sneaky enough to listen in on us. He wisely does not trust us. This strategic battle is a slippery one for both sides."

Hermione continued, "It would be a thankless action if I take all the credit for this victory myself. It was Luna who gave me the idea. She noticed how upset I was on the morning after Aurey was attacked and she told me to turn pain into gain. My opponents knew my weak point and if we used Aurey as bait to shift the battle our way, we ought to take it. From the beginning, we knew that this war had to be fought differently. We can't hope to win with covert intelligence against perhaps the greatest intelligent mind we have seen this millennia. We had to get his primary strategy out in the open in exchange for less vital information from our side. Aurey achieved us exactly this victory. We had briefed Aurey earlier about our plan and he briefly became his pawn. Pansy lowered the force guard of Aurelian as he entered the children's box, making it easier for Lucas to gain access to him. All said and done, I expected one of his associates to do the dirty work of making Aurey the trigger, not the man himself. Aurey, you make us all very proud."

"Thanks a lot, Mom!" Aurey smiled. "After my tomfoolery earlier, this was my golden chance to do something right for a change."

Hermione shook her head, "Aurey we laud your instinct and thirst for knowledge. You are just like me. However, every pursuit has certain ground rules and unfortunately, you broke them and nearly suffered the consequences. By the way, 1000 galleons a week perpetuity is too much when I had already done 75% of the work. You get 300 galleons a week that is deposited in the school account for your supplies, trips, etc. We are not allowing you to handle so much money on your own."

"I agree, Mom. You are far wiser in these matters. Can I however keep the first week's money to buy a Nimbus 3000?"

"No Aurelian. I will ask you to wait a month and in July, we will present you with a Nimbus 9000, after you successfully negotiate the June 3rd year finals."

Aurey's eyes got wide and big and then he gave a gigantic smile. "A Nimbus 9000, mom? Really!? Only 6 players in the world own those brooms and they are the legends of the game. Wow Mom! I really never even imagined anything like that let alone dream of possessing one. Thanks a lot! As regards studies, I am always serious but this is seriously, the best incentive ever."

Draco whispered skeptically, "Hermione that is 30,000 galleons. Are you sure about this?"

Hermione nodded, "Draco, we get 12000 galleons between now and July in Royalty, followed by a quarterly bonus announcement in July. Between you and me, we can give him this."

Hermione continued, "The other part that I discussed with Luna was to use Dr Celia as a foolish muggle bait but Dudley's involvement changes the picture. After Celia recovers from her pregnancy, we involve her to develop cardiothoracic vascular fitness, diet and drug regime that benefits both Muggles and Wizards. She will also be engaged in cardiothoracic new drug development and I will share with her my research findings. Dudley will be the front and she will be a strategic leader on the Muggle wing. Her neuropathy treatment that quickens reaction time after visual input will also benefit both races and I expect all of us to take her training as seriously as holy gospel. The standards we expect Dudley to follow equally bind us when we are her students."

Everyone agreed.

Ron asked, "So what exactly are we planning to do on the day of the Quidditch world cup final?"

Hermione pursed her lips, "We do nothing. We just wait for one slip up at their end and we hop on it. They will play right into our hands that day, just as they did today. Today was the first major slip up on their end. This is not a war we can win in 180 days. We are having a minimum 5 year horizon, if all things perfectly go our way all the time. Even with our collective talents, I am not that presumptuous and proud. We are dealing with the most intelligent man and he is surely to come up with his own reactions and we must face them."

Athena shook her head, "I do not think it was a mistake. He genuinely loves a challenge. Do you really take him to be a fool? He must have noticed that only Aurelian's field was vulnerable and the rest of us were secure and we were inviting him to play with us."

Hermione smiled, "This thought already crossed my mind. Pansy's spell lowered all our guards but he chose Aurelian because he knew that Aurey was my weak link. He landed right into my trap and spilled the beans."

This time everybody applauded her in a standing thunderous ovation, including Athena and through a special signal, she got the same applause from Malcom and his Z* team.

Harry then sighed, "Still, everything is not perfect. We had a lead and we lost it. From henceforth, Lucas will be extra careful and we shall not have inside information. I hate to think how he must be torturing our source. This is a major setback for us and we are back at square one on that front."

Hermione nodded, "It would have been a genuine setback had your source been captured."

Neville stared at her, "What do you mean, Hermione?"

Hermione looked at Athena and smiled, "We knew in advance that the source was in danger and we replaced him with his twin brother who has end stage cancer and is expected to survive for one year at most. We gave his twin brother, this guy's past memories and mannerisms to keep Lucas at bay, for as long as possible. As long as he does not slip up, everything will be fine. Both share same genes, hence they look and act similar but only Lucas will be able to notice subtle differences, such as this guy has a peacock tattoo on his left throat. I added my own invention to the Polyjuice potion that will keep the Polyjuice effect for 3 years running. A microchip inserted into his brother's jaw will pass information to Harry, Dudley, Athena and myself simultaneously. Meanwhile, our source will live as his ailing brother with his family, playing his part and in turn decoding the live messages we receive from his brother. Harry and Athena can meanwhile take down all past information about Lucas inner circle. We have moved him and his brother's family underground under our financial and physical protection under the able command of 40 Z*** officers, whose only existence is for ultra-sensitive special missions and whose identity even I nor Malcom are aware of. We just sent a secret code authorizing the creation of this task force and with my signature, the funds are disbursed. We have taken care of some basic vulnerabilities but we are ready to face the backlash as and when it comes."

Ginny, Fred and George whooped and Arthur, Charlie, Bill, Percy, Neville, Pansy, Katie, Zabini and the rest of the order congratulated her, embracing her warmly. Harry spoke for everybody when he said, "This is the most unique war we are waging that is both bloodless and yet has the highest stakes. Even so, I feel no fear. We are playing our individual parts to perfection under the watchful eye of two of the greatest proponents of knowledge: Athena and Dearest Hermione. They are the finest leaders we can have and I freely and openly acknowledge one fact: It is good to be brave like all of us are but without the brains of Hermione and now Athena, we would have all gone haywire. Knowledge and thorough research won us 3 bloody wars and will win us many more. You all look to me as a leader but Hermione is my heart."

Ginny corrected Harry, "Hermione is OUR heart, Harry. And she has the surefooted backing of Athena and Dr Celia, this time around. I do not know the enemy's strengths but with our collective talents, I can feel that we will do a major service to the Magical Universe. This is an ideal time to repay the benefits we have received from this magnificent universe we share."

Draco nodded, "Que sera sera, Ginny."

Hermione looked at Pansy, "This is a war of brain over brawn, kindness over cruelty. We will do more as time goes on . For now, our focus is on the next 42 days. There is one more thing bothering me. What happened 170 years back, Pansy?"

Arthur raised his hand, "Let me answer that, Hermione. Our 10 generations Great Grandmother lead a band of brave witches and wizards against aristocratic oppression 190 years back and Lucas helped them as a young 20 year old. Then they allowed Lucas the boon of eternal life, just as Athena now has. He was an ideal ally for the downtrodden- intelligent, brave and handsome. He successfully seduced the female upper echelons and turned them against the male leadership. He also brought about the many feminist equality revolutions that we see in the Muggle World including women taking up medicine. For all his good work however, we all saw that he was power hungry. In 20 years, he created his own legion of followers with his nonviolent but shrewd approach. His followers increasingly comprised of the shady characters of society. He called himself their mentor and reformer but he was ideally a leader who used these characters as henchmen. We tried to negotiate his powers but he refused to relent and ultimately we chose to expel him from civilized society. Within 2 months, all the members of the original order committed mass suicide in chronic depression, throwing themselves off a luxury ship enroute North Atlantic. He serves to warn us of similar consequences. He plays with minds once he controls people and then even loved ones can do nothing. My ancestor was left an orphan after both his parents drowned but he eventually married and carried on with the Weaselys line."

Harry shook his head and called all members to hold palms in a circle, "Nothing of that sort will happen to us. Let us all make this mission the biggest priority in our lives and let us find ways to communicate our goals to the next generation in codes, should we all collectively die. Our generation has won 3 wars and well on our way to winning a 4th, but with enemies that are of an unprecedented intelligence level, we must leave nothing to chance. I will never rest easy until Lucas and his entire gang are not behind their own force field bars."

Everyone agreed and embraced. The real battle was just warming up.

A/N: Hey Readers and Viewers, thanks a trillion for viewing my story. Please review the material in the 11 chapters thus far. This is meant to be a fan-fiction with different type of war and new character dynamics. All your comments, review and suggestions are extremely valuable.