Chapter 18: Analysis & Consolidation

Date: Sunday, 7th November 2010

Time: 7 pm, Malfoy Manor, Celia's Room

Hermione and her full group had satisfied smiles on their faces. Her lab had confirmed that they had received the DNA samples.

The full group had now assembled in Celia's room, deciding to actively involve her in the mission but at the same time choosing her comfort and safety.

Luna just finished introducing the full group with Veena. Hermione explained why her presence was not made known earlier. With DNA data in their hands, the stakes had changed in their favor and Veena could now reveal herself to other members of their group.

Veena, however, was in no mood for niceties. Her hero, Hermione, was put at grave risk and she pounced hard on Athena and Malcom.

"First it was Harry, now you and Malcom. Three of the best people protecting her fail in the same short week. How could you be so careless, Athena? Your stupidity nearly cost her life."

Athena, Harry and Malcom hung their heads with genuine guilt and shame.

Veena continued, "I know I sound incredibly cruel but I must say this. Hermione is your most important priority but she is not the only priority. Harry had to think about his Aurors. Athena and Malcom had to investigate questions of their own mind when they went to investigate the blue hue. All of you value and love Hermione tremendously as your most important person but she is not your life. To me, she is the one. For her, my own life and that of my son, heck even my country, can be put at stake. Her name fills my being with heroic courage. She is not just an incredible person to me. To me, she is my essence, my soul. If all of you want to protect her, make her your soul. Forget your family, country, profession, society or any other parameter. Make her your soul. Only then can she be safe against this powerful cartel. If all of you fail, at least I will be there for her, till my last breath." Tears escaped her eyes before she could stop herself and she sported an angry embarrassed look.

Other people in the room, all except Hermione, looked at Veena with conflicting simultaneous emotions of respect and anger. Respect for her devotion to Hermione, anger because she was accusing them of giving lesser priority to Hermione.

Hermione quickly took control of things and spoke, "We are not here to compare someone's love for me. Every person here loves me like a Mother, Daughter, Wife, Best Friend and Heroic Leader. Love is not something you measure or compare. Veena, you have a crazy level of devotion because you Hero Worship me. I also hero-worshipped Buddha, Gandhi, ML King, Mother Teresa and Mandela in my pre-Magic days. If any of them were alive and wished my help, I would have moved heaven and earth to help them. That is what Heroic Leaders inspire in others and to you at least, I fit in this mold. That does not mean others are bad, selfish or incompetent. If I qualify as the most important person but not the soul's essence in their life, I am fine with that. Even Draco does not form my soul's essence, despite being my husband and my life partner. My essence is to protect and nourish my loved ones, my beloved country and this beautiful planet we label as Earth. Every person, Muggle or Magical, has an innate essence that is completely unique to them, as unique as their DNA. Veena, your essence is selfless hero-worship, which is an admirable trait, but that in no way diminishes what others feel for me and vice-versa."

Veena nodded her head in agreement. The tension in the air had diffused.

Patrick knocked and appeared in the room and bowed before Hermione, "Ma'am, we have a drone message for Athena and you. Z grade officials have stopped it entering this room because drones may have hidden explosives."

Hermione nodded, "Have they completed the check?"

"Yes Ma'am. If you permit them, the drone can make its way into this room. The drone may be for Athena but without your permission, no person or thing can enter this room-not even Draco."

Hermione laughed kindly, "Thank you for spelling out my authority and ownership, Patrick. By the way, your name is quite different from other elves. Who named you?"

"Ma'am, even I found my real name funny-Patton Pattern, after I was born early when my mother was reading about General Patton, sitting on an Egyptian art pattern cotton bed sheet. Reverend former Minister Arthur took pity on my social awkwardness and named me Patrick."

Arthur laughed, "He was constantly ribbed even by his own kind earlier, so I decided a formal human name. A living creature serving the Minister of Magic deserves some respect and unique standing, after all."

Hermione smiled, "OK Patrick, the drone may enter this room. I will call you later when required." Patrick bowed and left.

Harry smirked, "Elves really have a thing for you. But then, so do humans, perhaps more so."

Ron joined in the resulting laughter from the 3 old friends, "SPEW initiative! Who can forget that? By the way, how can an elf by free will commit himself and his offspring to your service?"

Hermione continued, "A service out of voluntary love and devotion is extremely powerful magic, something akin to Lily's protective charm. He loves me and has committed his whole life and his offspring to my service even though he was a free elf earlier. Such bonds can't be broken by merely giving him clothes. This love based bond is eternal and from his pure free will so I did not specifically object to his decision. In our last mission in 2000, I clarified with Draco that I hate to see cruelty against any living creature and before I met Pernie, all house-elves were ill-treated. I am at one with Athena and Luna on dignity of and respect to all life. However, we can discuss our ethics hallmarks later. Let us now focus on the message this drone brings."

As soon as she finished her sentence, a small automated object, nearly the size of a marble, entered her room and settled itself on the table opposite Athena. Athena raised her hand and signed, prohibiting any person to touch the drone.

After 7 minutes of a series of advanced tests, she sighed with relief, "Every single day new technologies on explosives come out. Even Z* level checks may fail to detect explosives. We can never be too careful. Though it is highly unlikely that this drone was intercepted by others enroute lab to here, it is better to check things out and never leave things to assumption and chance."

Veena and Luna stepped forward as Athena continued, "I coded this Drone with 3 eye pairs' information: Mine, Veena, and Luna. In case one of us die or is injured, others can open it with a password just the 3 of us know. Unless we voluntarily divulge the password, not even memory magic can detect the password. It was our united pledge that even facing death, we will never compromise Hermione's safety. Ok, here we go."

A blue light emitted from the drone and scanned the Iris of Athena, Veena and Luna. Immediately, as others watched in fascination, the outside metallic case dissolved to reveal a test-tube with a scroll of paper inside. As Athena tried to open the test-tube cork, a gas escaped from its pore and asked each of the three people to scribble their password on the test-tube glass. Luna said that the Drone perfectly followed the 2-step security they had set up. Once the passwords were accepted, the test-tube disintegrated and Athena finally held a small scroll of paper. Even that paper would not open until the blue light from the paper's edge scanned the Iris of Athena, Veena and Luna.

Finally the paper rolled out into a 30 page report-it was magically condensed. Athena scanned the contents. Inside, was the physical, chemical, medical, mental, social, emotional and spiritual profile of each person's DNA they captured including habits, modus operandi and favorite hangouts. One could gauge the entire past, present and future life of those people from this 10 page report.

"Great Job-Penelope and Pansy", Athena complemented.

Earlier in the morning, Pansy and Penelope had spent an hour at the lab detailing what information was critical to this report.

Hermione smiled, "So we have here the identity and specialties of 3 cartel members. As suspected, these are the young haughty members, who fell for our trap. We have a male Canadian specializing in Nuclear and Anti-Matter Ballistics (Veena Smiled), a girl from Kyrgyzstan specializing in profiling (Pansy smiled) and a Korean male Teenager in Stem Cell robotics and holograms."

Suddenly the smiles across the board were masked in pure terror from Athena, Veena, Luna, Penelope, Pansy and Hermione and as they made various signs of shock and despair, together they looked at each other in terror and together they shouted "Cups!" Draco almost dropped his cup of coffee in pure shock as he heard Athena use profanity for the first time ever.

Athena exclaimed, "Bloody f&#$, we are in mighty big trouble!"

Harry stood up perplexed, "What's the matter? Why are all of you so tense?"

Hermione jumped up, "I will provide Full Explanations later, and it is my promise. It is time for action now. Katie/Zabini come with me along with Veena."

Hermione closed the door of Room#3 behind her.

Hermione spoke, "OK Guys, listen up. I want you guys to go to the bin where we threw our picnic cups. There, if you do find the cups in the yellow container, magically seal them and bring them all back to me. If not, Veena has the capability of advanced Magic. She can track the contents of the bin up to 8 hours prior. In this case, she merely has to track the yellow container we deposited 2 hours back and attach a memory tracker. Do not disturb her. Just have her back. All you need to do is simply observe the trail and where the item is right then and Apparate right back to the Manor gardens. No smart moves. The people we are dealing with are not just skillful, they are intelligent and brave. Now go. Your Z Team will be with you."

Veena smiled proudly, "I feel incredibly happy today, taking direct orders from my lifetime idol."

Hermione laughed, "It is a long night Veena. We will need your presence at multiple places tonight. Use your energy wisely."

Veena's voice was trembling, "If you ask me to visit other galaxies and come back tonight for another mission, that too will be fine. I was once on an 80-hour nonstop mission involving 17 countries, 50 meetings and 6 combat zones. I was almost a zombie when it ended. Serving you is the epitome of my life, Hermione."

All of them bowed before her and Apparated away.

Hermione returned to the hallway. "OK, now we form groups. Before that however, Draco, please close the outbound movement of all foreign wizards and witches from our borders. They needed 3 or more hours to consolidate in England before leaving shores but they are sealed in England now. Incoming traffic continues as-is. All you guys, prepare for combat. However trained we may be, we still need a few minutes to switch from casual mode to serious combat mode. Groups now. My core group, myself, Luna, Pansy/Neville are in our group with Harry as combat leader. Rest of you are with Athena and Veena after she joins you back from our first stop. Zabini takes the combat lead there. Prep yourself and meet at the fountains in 5 minutes. Molly and Narcissa, please take care of Dudley and Celia. Patrick, Pernie and Kreachera, Please gather all our children to Room#2. They can play here with Aunt Celia and Uncle Dudley but they must go back to Room#2 when they are tired. Now guys, I will explain once Katie/Zabini and Veena are back."

They came back in 15 minutes with a glum expression. The yellow container with their cups was indeed missing but thankfully, it was still in England. It was with the Korean Biologist.

Hermione explained, "We are now facing our biggest challenge. These guys whose DNA we have identified, they are brave and intelligent. In their culture, they die for their team and they are extremely loyal to their ideals. Death or pain does not scare them. However, it is imperative that we stop them leaving England and play hard ball negotiation with them to hand over our container. The yellow box container has the same cups from which we drank tea. Our saliva is our genetic code. That is enough for these guys to create multiple copies of our own selves from artificial stem cells and use as per their convenience. If they are successful, we circulate like fake currency. We are better alive than dead as their tools. Robots resembling us run the show and mouth their policies and ideologies. Our whole world will descend into chaos. We were trapping them and they were trapping us. They rigged the shop from which we ordered the picnic supplies and dyed them with a special invisible material that glows only with special infra-red rays. They came back there after we left and coolly collected the yellow box. The only bright spot we have is they are still trapped here in England. No lab in this country has specialized equipment sophisticated enough to execute his plan. They may be brilliant at Magic but they have a single weakness-their loyalty and love for each other. Our plan would be to capture the Canadian and the West Asian girl and negotiate their release against handing over the container. The only hiccup to this strategy is that all of these are expert at combat and are not easy to capture. They can hurt us very bad with darkest magic if we are not careful. They conveniently split up after they secured the container, thereby dividing our forces. Athena and group goes after the Canadian, Harry and my group track down the Korean. Athena's field will protect you guys and we are going to arrange similar insurance for ourselves. Failure is not an option today, given the stakes involved. I want nothing wrong to happen, with the Quidditch World Cup Final just 3 weeks away."

Athena and Harry both spoke up, "We swear upon our own honor that we will succeed tonight, come what may and without any bloodshed."

Zabini also smiled, "Thanks Hermione, I feel honored that you trust my ability enough to lead the combat operations in the other group."

"That is not the only specialized role I have in mind. Ginny is the calming factor in your group and I would take on the same role in my group. Athena has some advanced magic in her sleeve. In the field, you are not to disturb her, irrespective of any perplexity. All explanations are postponed till the time we meet here again in the afternoon tomorrow at the same place. To repeat and summarize, our group tracks the Korean and Athena tracks the Canadian & West Asian."

All of them embraced each other and they split up.

Harry looked at Hermione and Veena, "Right, Hermione, where is our first stop?"

"We meet Lucas and Adena. We need their help tonight."

They assembled on the moor outside Malfoy Manor. Hermione took the initiative.

"Lucas, please reveal thy force."

A swirling white mass faced their group and the smoke suddenly had a voice. "My, my, what a pleasant surprise. To what do I have the honor of your visit, Hermione? I am entertaining guests tonight but none of them are as vital as your presence."

Hermione replied, "We are facing an emergency. We need your force field protection NOW. We need the mandatory physical presence of Adena and you as well as the optional presence of Jack. Kindly make a viable excuse and come to the moors at the south end of Malfoy Manor."

The smoke cleared and in 2 minutes flat, Lucas, Adena and Jack came to the moor.

Hermione spoke up, "It may seem strange that we need your help because we are rivals yet one thing is certain. You are a true gentleman and we have complete faith in you. I would rather ask help from a trustworthy rival than shaky friends. We are tracking one of the world's most dangerous and talented young wizard and we need all the help and protection. Your force field can protect our group from some heinous injuries. Jack and Adena can advise us on combat and negotiation tactics because you have far more experience with the dark side than we do. Before we proceed, Luna will update the background."

Luna finished describing all events since Veena's arrival.

Lucas stared at Hermione and Veena with unmasked admiration, "First and foremost, thank you for trusting me. Next, you guys have achieved something we could never do: identity of Cartel members. Third point, you are absolutely right about their dark magic and combat ability alongside their bravery, love, loyalty and their emotional profile. Final point, my force field covers 3 million spells across all cultures but if their dark spell disrupts the force field itself, we will all be vulnerable because it take 20 minutes to create a new one. That is the same as a Millennia when we are facing opponents of this stature. On the sidelines, I hope you guys don't tease me behind my back for my emotional fragility before the Hogwarts incident?"

Hermione gave a kind smile, "That incident revealed a human side in you, Lucas. We respect you for it but if it bothers you, that incident never happened. Moving on, meet Veena. She is with Indian Intelligence and she tipped off Harry, Athena and Luna."

Lucas nodded, "You just keep setting unattainable benchmarks of kindness and empathy, Hermione. As regards Veena, I know all about her. Her heroics in Germany, even risking her infant son to protect German-Indian ties are a stuff of legends. Her presence here indicates that the Cartel is powerful as well as a very real threat. James Bonds are meant for life and death stakes and this mission has already become one. Her presence confirms that. Even so, I have counter plans. I will be protecting all of us with 4 layers of force. Even if 3 layers are destroyed, we will engage them in battle long enough to recreate our cover. Athena must be having similar plans. Great minds think alike."

Adena spoke up, "How do you plan to track the Korean? It helps that all of them are in England but there are plenty of good hiding places. They are also masters at disguise."

Draco replied, "We have banned sale of Polyjuice Potion ingredients to all foreign nationalities, hence they can't change their form easily. Advanced Magic to change facial features without Polyjuice take a minimum of 8 hours and we are merely 2.5 hours since we saw them last. We will nab them before they change."

Jack spoke up, "Tonight we are embarking on the longest night in our partnership. We are all confident and if we stick together and believe in each other's strengths, we will be victorious. Prior to us leaving, Adena and I will explore the manifest you are carrying on the Cartel identity and we will brief you guys on their psychological and emotional profile. Adena will then give specific intelligence on their dark magic combat strategy that we have detected over the years, especially since the 3rd Wizards War. Once we have the idea of how powerful they are, we will target our spells and work on their fragilities. Harry and Adena will jointly finalize the combat strategy and we will follow their leads. We got you into this mess and we now have a clear plan of action to get you out of this."

Hermione smiled. A very long and exciting night of high stakes and adventure lay ahead.

Author Note: Thank you for viewing, reading and following my story. My fan-fiction is about women power and the supreme value of intelligence, kindness, love and empathy. Hermione has all of these in dollops. This is her novel, a work of fiction celebrating her and celebrating all women! Happy Women's day in advance.