It was strange to think of himself as operating a full four hours before the present. Harry's had been the fourth team in the circuit, and they had a decent collection of information by the present, though it was hard to think of that as the present- it had been rather infuriating to sit around and wait for news both from their own and from official channels, until they were sure enough of what was going on, and soon enough he was going to think of it as a bad dream.

"Neville? Luna?"

"We're ready," they said in unison. Neither of them were at the absolute pinnacle of combat prowess, and it was more correct to call them specialists, but apparently Ron and a few of the others thought he balanced them out. Could they think that, though, even with dark magic off the table by his own volition? Were they simply sending him against something perceived to be an easy target? They had reduced the chance that he would run into Rookwood as much as they could by sending out the first three teams before ever involving him- it allowed for more information to roll in, and the others had just as good of a chance at encountering him as he did, and he would know when they simply did not return. The only problem, of course, would be that there was a version of the Time Turner actively in use as soon as it came out that some of their friends had been killed. He wanted to shake his head. There was still some chance that they could catch him off guard and win, after all, and he was discounting the rest of the Death Eaters- there were almost certainly more than enough of them with tricks up their sleeves.

"Then we'll go."

They apparated together. Almost all of the high ranks could do it, and if not, it was for specializing in something substantially more difficult. They split up as soon as they landed. While, theoretically, they were supposed to have arrived earlier than the enemy, the dark wizards with some form of divination on their side might have been waiting for the DA specifically, and might have in turn shown up earlier than they originally heard on the wireless, waiting around for them and only attacking the muggles when it was somehow fated.

Without having to discuss anything, they worked as a team. Neville got to the ground and cast a few diagnostic spells while Harry pointed some others at the Roman Bath exhibit, where nonmagical tourists would reliably gather, and Luna shielded them for the moment. The team had been selected for her memory charms, allegedly, and yet a high profile setting required the greatest of care one way or the other. The witch was fascinated as she looked around.

"Is that why they call this place Bath?"

"I think so," Neville said. "The muggles aren't that creative when it comes to naming things."

"Eyes up. We don't know whether or not this is Rookwood."

They had basically agreed to take the risk of Harry's life, at his own insistence. He had always led from the front, and as long as there was a chance to win, he could not say that the unit going up against the one Death Eater they knew to be particularly dangerous- the rest were just as capable. Most likely, he was not going to be able to identify the target, not in the black robes and silver mask.

"Excuse me, whatever are the three of you doing here? Should you not be in school?"

They turned around to see a woman standing there in sunglasses and a hat; it was a touristy look, but at the same time she seemed very much at home.

"We're not in school."

"Really?"

They had come too early. While coming early gave them the opportunity to find out what was happening, they could not stay long, and they were basically just assuming that the dark wizard had come to case the place rather than just showing up and starting on the killing. Really all they could do was see if they could prevent it; there was no guarantee that they could offer. It was hard to wrap their minds around it, but the Time Turner could be in two places at once, but only active in one, spinning and counting down the seconds. They could potentially come back later, after finding out what happened, but if any of them were seen in different places, the enemy would almost certainly figure out what advantage they had.

"It's true," Neville said. "We're not cutting school."

"What do you do, then? Why aren't you in school?"

"We're in a co-op," Luna said. "It's perfectly legal. Mind your own business."

"Of course." She raised her eyebrows and muttered 'nimby' as she walked off.

"We're attracting too much attention," he said. "We should have come here under the Cloak."

"Only you would have fit," the witch said. "That would not have suited your desire to risk your own life, now would it?"

Just when he thought he had her basically figured out, she surprised him again. It was hard to tell whether or not she was criticizing him. There was some sense in which it was admirable that he was insisting on leading from the front, but he was sure that it made everyone simultaneously worried that their most valuable target was on display for the enemy. They were almost certainly communicating and they would learn to expect teams of three as long as they kept using them.

"Avada-"

Before the female voice could finish the incantation that it started, it was replaced by a choking sound and Harry realized that Neville's Malediction Spores had finally come in handy. The woman from before was holding a wand up to her throat, which was easy enough for him to grab as their partner started casting Memory Charms. They did their best to dissipate the gas, aware that it would not be long before the Ministry showed up. Luna seemed to make a judgement call in acting like she was guiding the woman, who was almost certainly a polyjuiced assailant, through the crowd to the loo, as if to help her with her choking.

"I'll help her get her throat open," he muttered. Somehow he was more incensed by the fact that whoever she was, she started with a killing curse, when there were three of them. Did she expect that they would not be able to function after losing a unit? Did she not get that they had all been through that experience before, with friends and not just recruits? Already, many of their most senior recruits had started on a project, probably Michael's idea originally, for a permanent training camp with a curriculum in one hand and a training regimen in the other. They had assured him it was strictly for adults and would have nothing to do with the kids who were being admitted into the Order's school, but Lupin and a few of the others were opposing them; they were saying it was a pipeline to the front lines, and when they were not talking about that; they were criticizing him specifically for fostering this attitude of permanent revolution, and he had to put his foot down about that. He did not police the ideologies of the people who were helping him, not as long as they were not going against him.

"Then I think you need to decide where you're going," Sirius had said after a moment. In some discussions, he had become a middle ground voice, which was a strange ingredient to mix with his passion in pursuing the enemy. His words at the start of fifth year were particularly chilling; the reminder that the world was not split into good people and Death Eaters.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, though he had no idea whether or not anyone heard him.

The women's loo was otherwise unoccupied, which made sense; the place had not been cleaned in weeks by the looks of it- he could only guess someone was on strike. Luna had their enemy on the ground, and she had not turned back yet.

"We should see if she's under the Imperius. That means getting her out of here. Send Neville after me; I'll be taking her to the base."

"Of course," she said after a moment, looking at him strangely again. He could not tell if it was a good or bad kind of strange look.

The enemy was still unconscious when he brought her to the makeshift hospital where she was subjected to interrogation as soon as he woke Hermione. Daphne's sheet said she had a few more hours off, after all. His old friend shook her head as soon as she looked back.

"She's clear. She's not under the effects of polyjuice either. Most likely, this is one of the wives of the Death Eaters, or some other relative."

"That's right; I never asked you to look over their family trees... with everything else I asked you to look over-"

"It really wasn't that much trouble. Maybe if you never developed good study habits, you would think it was more burdensome than it was, but I actually researched even more than you required. I might be a bit of a china doll in terms of my mental state right now, but you could have afforded to ask more of me."

"I... well, I didn't expect that."

"You're a sensitive person, or something close to that. I've done all I can for now, so I'll let you handle it from here. I've made it an hour a day, but it's better not to push it. It doesn't help me, as it turns out. The only thing that helps me, at least apparently, is working on my mental health."

She went to bed without ceremony and he checked over the spells that were keeping the captive in place; there was one other captive- he understood that the other two missions had resulted in the deaths of their targets, though Blaise and Ron had both been cursed and injured, and Michael was tied up in treating them. The other survivor had been unmasked, but he hardly cared to see who it was. He left without another word.

"Harry?" Susan asked as soon as she saw him. "I need you to join my team to get it back up to three."

"We can't keep going like this. It's gone worse than I thought. If we keep these casualties going, we'll have no one left."

"We still have our strongest units- well, enough of them. If you, Ginny, and I go up against Rookwood, the chances of winning are high enough- with that prototype, we'll be unstoppable. You'll be the one under the cloak, to be in line with our policy on risk-"

"How do you know we'll go up against him?" he asked. "Technically, I still had a team-"

"That's not the point. We'll keep it at three, but we won't be relying on the dead weight. We'll hit the rest of the targets ourselves without having to hand off the Time Turner." He looked away. Technically, it was sound, because there was a good chance that each encounter would not be that demanding, but it felt like it ran counter to the lesson he learned about being able to hand things off and not have to do everything himself. "I didn't want to put it like this either. When you put me on defense, though, I spent every waking moment working on it, for everyone. We've already lost so much. I just want this to be over. I want it all to end."

"You're not thinking str-"

"I haven't ever thought straight." She laughed and shook her head. "I can't believe we still brought that bastard in alive. There was no point. He has nothing he can tell us. There's no way the others would have given him the locations they were going to attack."

"I can't go ahead with this. You're not your usual self, and Ginny's not going to agree to it either."

"What do you mean you can't? You're the only Dragon Marshal around. Just order me to-"

"Get some rest. That's an order. We should be grateful that we've only had a few casualties."

Neville was less than thrilled about how they were going to let their own people recover before ranging again, but as the hours passed, only one report came in. Was Voldemort deliberately not using all the Death Eaters, or was there some other trick in mind? Were some of them posing as muggles? What was the point, if not to draw him out, and how were they going to accomplish that except by making it obvious, even without casting the dark mark in the sky?

"They're trying to make us wander out into the weeds. They didn't underestimate us after all," Ron decided as soon as he was on his feet again. He had been hit a few times by the Cruciatus, probably because it had a wider area of effect than the killing curse and it could hit him even when he was behind cover; the killer was a flash, but it needed line of sight at the very least, while the torturer was almost like rushing water.

"If that's true, then they only had some of them go in masks just in case we weren't sure or something." He shook his head. "You don't need to be a Ministry brat to know the ICW is going to step in before long. They're sort of sticking to rural areas when they're killing muggles in their costumes, but they're still being seen by one or two people here and there, or we never would have known about them. It's not just that they're trying to force us to act for the safety of the muggles; they're not counting on it; they want to force us to get involved, and not have time to think about it. I wouldn't be surprised if they've already called a meeting on it."

"I wouldn't either, but is it really that bad?" Ginny asked. "I mean, at this point, oh wait, no- they'll erase our own memories."

"What?" Neville asked. "Why would they do that?"

"What do you think they do to enforce the Statute of Secrecy?" she asked. "I mean, beyond just restricting underage sorcery and a few specific things- what do you think the point was unless there is something there to keep countries from just deciding that they've had enough of it?" She shook her head. "It's something that they barely bother to tell you because it'll never come up, but there's a condition where if a country goes completely off the rails, the ICW has to step in and erase the memories of the adults there. The wizarding community is effectively wiped out and new magical children that are born have to be rehomed. It's a logistical nightmare that you'd think would never actually happen, in response to an event that you would think would never actually happen. You can see why it's a bit deranged."

"I don't know about that," Luna said. "They can't exactly keep their own world secret unless we do the same with ours. There would be no point if we did not restrict adult behavior like we restrict the behavior of children. What exactly would we train them to do, if not to respect Secrecy?"

"How did they ever get away with muggle baiting?" Blaise asked, looking a bit worse for wear, but nonetheless having caught up on the conversation, as always. Michael followed along, looking annoyed as if he never really cleared either of his patients.

"It was a combination of they stayed out of the way enough for most of the muggles not to find out and the ICW didn't want to deal with powerful dark wizards either, not when he had more followers," Ron explained. "I reckon the same thing could happen again, but they might decide that it's not V-"

"Who else would it be?" Michael asked. "They have no excuse."

"Can't have captured lightning in a bottle," he continued, imitating one of the more 'refined' accents of some Ministry official. "That's what they'll say. They'll say that some other reasonably talented wizard decided to pretend to be the same one, and attract his old followers just like that. It might not be that bad if that's what they really think, though, because then at least they would think that they could take him."

"We can't count on international help," Susan reminded everyone. "They'll sabotage the critical postwar period. We'll never be able to rebuild in a positive direction."

"I agree in principle," Harry muttered. "If you take the queen's shilling, you do the queen's bidding. That said, the point here is allowing the country to decide its future, and not a foreign one." That much, they all seemed to take without argument. As dangerous as their enemy was, they at least knew that he was beatable, and it was more a matter of strategy than numbers or magical talent, making it a pointless venture to beg someone else to show up and rescue them. One way or another, they were going to have to fight for themselves. "I don't trust your judgement right now, though."

"What do you want, then?" she asked. "Do you want people who just agree with you all the time?"

"Harry's never had a problem with people who disagree with him," Luna said. "I still don't think he's convinced in the existence of the Crumble-Horned Snorkack. It seems to register more as an amusing little game whenever I bring it up."

"Yeah, so does everyone else," Ron said after a moment. "I reckon we can all agree that we have to act quickly, but our plan wasn't well-thought out enough. We're lucky we didn't have any deaths." He frowned. "It was arrogant to think that the only deaths would be against Rookwood. We went up against a nutter in random muggle clothes, firing curses in all directions. He saw us coming and kept apparating out of the way. We chased him, of course, but I got hit in the process."

"That's almost certainly going further than what Voldemort actually said," Harry said. "He wouldn't have told them to create a Secrecy issue, just something that we could still salvage if we focused on it enough. Even if he was committed to only using non-lethal spells, he would have made an enormous impact and it would have been a nightmare for the Obliviators to cover up. I don't have a clue, er, not really, but m best guess is that he must have been trying to impress his master with how much of a problem he could cause for the Ministry."

"That's kind of a childish response," Susan said. "Most likely, though, he was just childish. I think we're looking for Chrysomallos Pyrites, based on the way he was described in the records of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He was fancy, and showy, and always got away from the authorities. Most likely, his was a family that had fallen out of relevance, because it's been ages since Argo Pyrites, the notable alchemist. He must have seen something sympathetic in the cause of our enemy."

"How does he do it?" he asked, pressing. "Is he simply that talented?"

"No, there's a trick to it- we just never found out what it was. Some Death Eaters went to Azkaban, some got let off through an Imperius Defense, and some were never caught." She took a deep breath. "He vanished without a trace and swore that he would only return when he could again find a master worth serving, and regarded Lord Voldemort as the very first. In the notes he would leave for the authorities to find, he would go on at length about how our world was being mugglized. He went on at length about how people barely seemed to care about the mystery and whimsy of magic, and things were growing increasingly, frustratingly, boring and certain."

"Well, we can at least give him one last good show," Harry muttered under his breath. As quiet as the room was, though, he was sure everyone heard him.