"Harry, come look at this... I don't like the look of it."

"No problem, Neville."

It was, as it turned out, a problem. Death Eaters had conducted multiple small, likely one-man raids on different muggle areas. They were killing people at random; there was no objective behind the actual deaths that they could identify, and it was easy for the nonmagical authorities to term all the deaths suicides, but some were claiming already that it was the work of the serial killer, due to the presence of the dark mark being carved into something at every scene.

"They haven't claimed credit for anything like this before," Luna said. "That they want us to know they are responsible has frightening implications."

"They're trying to draw us out," Ron said. "They know that at this point, they may have a few lackeys, random criminals and such, but there are fewer real Death Eaters than there are DA members. They never expected that the Order would show up in that last battle, and they lost too many of their units. They still figure they can win in a one-on-one duel, though, and that's what they want us to do .They don't want a big battle again."

"Well, they're not going to get one if they keep this up," Harry muttered. It was probably sensible calling a meeting over the article, and at the same time, it seemed like spirits were going to get inflamed. "We'll use the Time Turner to get ahead of them. Send a message back in time."

"This is a message from the future," Neville said. "That paper was dated a few days from now."

"Oh; I didn't notice." He took a breath. "It says that there's no official response planned by the Ministry."

"They're accusing us of being behind it," Ginny said. "They might say they can't afford to intervene between a real terror group and one we've imagined, for Secrecy reasons, but it's obvious that they want us to go out and grind our bones against the enemy."

"That wouldn't make sense for them," Susan said. "They have a larger force already and they're losing the contest of appearances. There are protests in Diagon Alley. They're too big to be effectively shut down."

"Who's out there protesting who hasn't joined up with us?" Michael asked, annoyed.

"It seems like they're mostly retirees, so people with time on their hands, but not really the most able to help us on our end of things," she responded, shrugging.

"That's not the point here," Harry said. "Even if it would be out of character for them to wait around for their enemies to kill each other, what would they be doing with their forces?" He shook his head. "They're probably having internal troubles. Had they shaped up and accepted reality, they could have avoided this split, but at this point, if an order comes in to hunt me down and kill me, the Auror Corps might actually just refuse."

"Then the Ministry isn't as strong as we thought," Michael said after a moment. "Even if they've got the biggest force, there's all these barriers between that and the brains of the operation. Scrimgeour acting without authorization would be bad for them, but with authorization, he still might not think it's a good idea to go ahead with it, if this government is on its way out." He scowled. "We should keep it from getting stronger."

"The only reason Fudge is still around is because getting rid of him would be a signed confession that they lied about the whole thing; it would be accepting responsibility," Harry said.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Susan asked. "They pick a scapegoat and pin everything on him all the time. They'll just say that he basically forced them to go along with his denial scheme and they had no choice but to just believe what was put in front of them. They'll say that if anyone stepped out of line, it was an instant termination."

"There was too much participation," Ron said, shaking his head. "We both know that it's not really that monolithic of an institution. You get down to the department and office levels, sure, Umbridge was the queen of her little toadstool in Improper Use of Magic, but there was so much independent movement, even from private entities; they were choosing to side with him. Too many people go down with him, and he knows it; he'll lean on them and get himself out of this. He doesn't really care about retiring at this point, not if the way it's got to go, but they'll make it about how there was something there, but we told a lot of lies about it, and made it worse ourselves. That's the only way the majority gets out of it at this point."

No one said anything. Politics had been his least favorite subject to discuss; in the same way that he avoided some of the things his brothers had liked and done well, he had grown up a bit embarrassed by his father's eccentric choice of vocation and the insight it gave him had never been a badge of honor. Everything he had picked up form a family member, though, had come in use at some point, and it seemed he had mostly gotten over the fact that in some ways, he was a worse version of any of them, but it seemed like a better idea not to keep track either way.

"If we can assume that they'll blame it on us either way, how do we respond?" Neville asked. "We can't just let them keep killing muggles. I really don't even care if they get caught for it and intervening only makes us look worse. It's not hard to see that they're trying to split us up, so what do we do? We can't afford to just leave someone behind."

"That's true," Harry said after a moment. "Even if we can accept that we can't protect everyone all the time, we wouldn't achieve much by protecting only a few of the targets. We have to get all of the attackers. If they're moving around randomly, then we don't have a way of predicting it, but if we use the Time Turner-"

"We can't use it that many times. You said it yourself; it stretches when it's used like that."

"It's not going to work going years and years back, but in this case it's only a few hours, depending on when the bodies were found. It's simple; the moment we find out about a hit, we go back, kill the attacker, and while we're doing that, we're searching for information on other deaths. We won't use it while we're back in time; we'll just spend the time researching the matter and then going back as soon as we can."

"There's another problem," Blaise said. "I can't help but think we would be pushing it too hard if we had all of us."

"We're talking three people," Ron said. "If it's me, Harry, and Susan, that'll be enough."

"You'll be worn out," Michael said. "You can't keep chasing them. You'll need to trade out." He shook his head. "After the last encounter, we've learned about our endurance. Before, you might think that you could manage to keep going, but we can't afford that kind of recklessness against Death Eaters. We hand off the Time Turner and all the information we have to the next team."

"That's certainly something that we could do," Susan said. "I'm sure we have any combination of qualified people... plus it wouldn't exactly be a good thing if the other side knew that we have magic that can manipulate time... which would be the only reason why the same people could be in multiple places at once- I mean, sure, there's polyjuice, but what would be the point? Why masquerade as the same three people all over the country?"

"If we were all pretending to be Harry, then we could make it harder for them to know which of us should be targeted, and by whom, because they're insistent on only letting Voldemort kill him, but it doesn't really matter. We won't be going with that. Ideally, we get there and kill them before we're seen, and then we're out of there. The public will know we're the ones killing them because we're the only ones who publicly acknowledge their return and we're the only ones who've done anything about them so far."

"You've used the word 'kill' a few times," he said. "I should tell you something. Ginny and I are rotating off dark magic."

Their highest ranking Healer of sorts stopped and started a few times before actually saying anything.

"Medically, I have to agree that's a wise decision," Michael said after a moment. "If you can't kill people, though, you shouldn't be a part of these squads, though, and that creates a conflict, because you're two of our best in a fight. Maybe we should reassess that, though."

"We found out as much as we need to know about dark magic," he said after a moment. "I don't intend to monitor everyone so closely that I could tell if you use a single dark curse, but I'm not allowing what we've done going forward. It's gone too far in her case and I'm not allowing it to get close to that in anyone else."

"How do you measure that?" Blaise asked.

"I'll just decide for myself," he said. "It should be easy enough for any of us to see. I don't know any way of concealing it that doesn't involve more dark magic."

"You didn't even consult me about this," Ginny said. "You didn't ask me how I felt about it."

"I already knew. It was obvious to everyone. You don't want to keep using dark magic. You complained about it all the time."

"Perhaps we all complained about some aspect of the war," she said. "I haven't forgotten what you told me about it."

"I won't insult you by acting like I forced you, but I didn't put my foot down about it, and that's on me. What would you have us do, allow you to continue until you end up as a dark witch?"

She did not say anything, only looking down. It seemed everyone expected no more of her, that she would answer such an uncomfortable question, but they had all had to confront unpleasant realities. They would not be there otherwise. Nevile only looked back and nodded in approval.

"Even if you could say that dark curses saved our lives here and there, I believe that we started getting attached to them. In forming plans around what we could do, we increased our reliance on dark magic; we had to practice it more in order to produce more results. I don't think it's good for us. I think we'll quickly start to sacrifice each other."

That was another controversial point, from one of the few who seemed to think that sacrificing one of their own units was effectively never justified. It was true that if they did not value themselves or each other, then they would be more likely to use each other's deaths to achieve their objectives, but there were many who believed that the sacrifice of their own units was something that they should consider, that they should in some cases not have evacuations for people. The benefits were proportionate to the risks; precisely because their units were valuable, especially the higher ranks, they were not expected to be sacrificed, and a plan without an exit strategy for any of them could be completely unbelievable. Fortunately, it had not come to any actual arguments about whom should be made into a tribute and when, and even those who thought sacrificing people could potentially be useful did not seem to think it would make such a difference as to write up a whole mission around it.

"This is..." Blaise could only shake his head. "I can't believe I'm the only one saying this. This is ridiculous. I can't simply not use the Imperius."

"It's not my place to say that you can't use it," Harry said after a moment. "I wouldn't be able to tell if you were using it once or twice here and there- use it against one of us and that's a different matter-"

"How dare you insinuate-"

"Shut up, both of you," Ron said, glowering. None of them had really raised their voices, but it was still something of a surprise to see Blaise react so quickly. "We are all sworn not to betray the cause. Everyone remembers. If we even try to do something like that, we die."

Harry had almost forgotten, and he found himself ashamed. He had asked everyone to join his organization, knowing that it was a big ask, and each of them had been committed enough to accept. While he had not intended to imply that any member would betray him, he should have known that it was as an easy thing to see in what he said, rather unlike Trelawney's tea leaves back in the day. Susan interrupted before he could apologize.

"We need to stay on target here. Having a single time manipulation device doesn't give us infinite time, so we need to figure out what we're going to do. I think it's a good idea to split up into teams, but we'll have to spread it out. I'm willing to concede that Michael is probably right, but I don't like it. With our numbers, and with the advantage we possess, we may not have to think about how we should learn to keep fighting forever and ever, but the reason for introducing the Time Turner was to get ahead of Augustus Rookwood and his own time manipulation device. What are we going to do when we see him?"

It seemed like the one thing that none of them had considered. They had been reasonably certain that Voldemort had no idea that they had it, but even if he did not, they still had only one way of overcoming a specific Death Eater- the only spell that traveled faster than one at instant speed was one that had already hit, and they were leaving themselves without that option. It was entirely possible that the whole plan was just a way to trap them with the same trick as before, perhaps thinking that they would believe they could not afford not to take the risk.

"We're going to have to kill each of them before they see us," Ron said after a moment. "They're the ones expecting us, but we'll have to get them by surprise. They won't all know when we show up, though, even if they use that prediction trick from last time. If the future changes, then they'll be expecting it to go one way and then-"

"That's the point of Divination," Susan said. "Even if we use time manipulation, they should still have an idea of different ways that things could go. That's the point of what they've studied, right?" She shook her head. "Our only advantage is that even if they know we're coming, and they could even know when and from what angle we'll attack them, there are going to be three of us for every one of them. They're going after muggles because they have to split up to get us to split up. That still leaves us with a problem- the ones who go after Rookwood are pretty much guaranteed to die, but if everyone else lives, and succeeds, then Voldemort will be down to one servant."

Everyone was silent. That was the exact point they had been dancing around, and he could already tell that it was going to be more of an issue than dark magic. In Harry's mind, though, the difference was clear. He could not trick a spell into thinking that he hated his enemies, but he could know in his heart that he was killing someone for the right reason.

"Would Rookwood be able to take the Time Turner off their bodies?"

"No," she said. "In the moment, he wouldn't even necessarily know we were using it. We'll take it off and leave it here each time we go back."

"That should work," Ron said after a moment. It had already been acknowledged that they had a reason to evaluate the theoretical viability of the plan, which was to say that it was not being rejected outright. "It doesn't have to be worn while you're back in time, you just wear it to go back. Even if we reduced Voldemort to one servant, though, isn't that basically just giving him the prototype time thingy? Won't he just use it himself when we go after him?"

"We'll still have the counter, I suppose," Blaise said. "The main problem that I'm seeing is that we can't confirm that Harry isn't going to be on the team that ends up getting sacrificed- as long as we're all aware that's what this is."

"There might be another option," Neville said after a moment. "If we took the Time Turner with us, that would give us a chance of defeating Rookwood, even if he does see us coming. If we split up as soon as we arrive, even if he kills one person, the other two could go back and get him a moment before. That way, even if he read a prophecy that spelled out when the time travelers would appear, it would be out of date by then."

"You don't understand Divination either, it seems," Susan said, rolling her eyes. "Not that I blame you, if it wasn't really your thing. I'm sure he can't fight off enough people attacking him at once, not if he has limits on how much he can use his own device, and he probably does, if it's just a proof of concept." She frowned. "We've raised a fair concern about how badly this could go if it ends up in the wrong hands, and I can see our enemy doing that, if he decides that this idea is a failure. He may decide that the only way to get an edge on us is to work on it himself." She frowned. "The only reason I can think of as to why he hasn't done that so far is that he must have something else in mind and somehow it's worse."

No one said anything right away. It was hard to say exactly how they were going to get the prototype out of the enemy's hands; it was hard to say what course of action would put them closest to the truth. Harry was becoming increasingly certain of one thing, though.

"I don't think we know how it works either," he said after a moment. "I think it's almost certain that they're using dark magic to get ahead-"

"You can't just say it's dark magic for everything," Michael said. "We barely have anyone who knows about it."

"No one knows about it. That's not how it works. A few of us, however, understand how Divination works, and they can't explain why they weren't told about it in school-"

"Trelawney was a complete dingbat," Ron said. "By itself, the fact that they weren't taught something- well, if it wasn't in the books either, maybe it was dark..."

"Okay," Susan said, putting her hands in front of her, elbows on the table. "Okay, we were all aware that there were problems with the way that she structured her class, and she didn't always present in the most professional way, and she had a fascination with Harry, but she did a good job of teaching us and she would not have been kept on otherwise." She took a breath. "Unfortunately, I have to echo this disturbing chance that it was dark. Nothing was ever explicitly defined, but we were all aware that there were ways that wizards tried to trick fate into giving them the answers they wanted." She swallowed. "They got their answers... but not the way they wanted them."

"I suppose that's why there are books," Blaise said after a pause, upturning a hand. "Let's not repeat their mistakes, shall we?"