There were few things more exciting for their group than violence, but if they were to use the rationale that they always used the most effective way of dealing with their problems, then there was no room for complaint if they were being enlisted in a movement to promote a candidate. The main problem was the entire group had a justifiable question. Who was Eleazar Higgen in the first place?

"That's absurd," Harry had said. "There's no way we can run a person who isn't even real. What's the point of that?"

"The point isn't to take over the government peacefully," Sirius said, finally on board with the idea. "The point is to stir up the common person. What happens after that doesn't matter as much as just that they're actively participating and not feeling like they're powerless because no one else is doing anything. Easily something like ten percent are willing to join your cause, and that's more than you've managed to attract just by having Longbottom stand around in London, isn't it?"

The Order had basically created a person who could not be killed. In a Quibbler interview, a representative was to boast just that, and say that the Ministry would probably try to find fault with their candidate, not that any of it would have any basis. The answers to the questions blatantly admitted that there was no Eliezer Higgen, but they had no intel suggesting that the enemy was reading the publication at all; they only had any interest in it right after Harry's interview where he famously set the record straight, and they only bothered to ban it when it was going around Hogwarts like the plague. If the hired wands who had been sent after it were responding to the content of the magazine, rather than its simple status as alternative media, there would have been some coinciding article that would explain when they attacked. Almost certainly, the message was going to go mostly unnoticed, except with die-hard fans, who would know they needed to act like the candidate was real.

"If we make up a fake person, can't they just demand to see him appear in public?" Ron asked when they were taking what they knew of the plan back to everyone else.

"They can, but he doesn't have to appear anywhere," Daphne said. "We can just use an old picture of someone no one remembers and say that's our candidate, and put the poster all over the place. If we had someone who looks enough like him appear once or twice, then it shouldn't be an issue. The point is to show how much lying there is and how easy it is to fight back, as well as to find our audience. I have been skeptical of various things that the Order has proposed so far, but this makes perfect sense."

"I'll be giving my official endorsement in another interview, one that comes out after he has announced his candidacy," Harry said. The thought of lying to the public, even as a proof of concept, left a bad taste in his mouth, but it seemed like they had no other way of tricking the government into coming up with a smear campaign that they could easily prove to be baseless. They could theoretically prove that Sirius was not guilty of anything if they caught Pettigrew and went through his memories, but that was only going to look like a forgery, not that the public would have any reason to believe he had a preference between old friends of his father, and would have a reason to see one in Azakaban and the other go free.

"Do you think they could just make up someone named Eleazar Higgen and false memory charm him to hell and back?" Ron asked as they watched Terry take everyone through some section of the Phoenix Script explaining the morality of their actions. Apparently, there had been an author of the book a long time ago who concealed innocent people from an evil regime, which was dishonest, but ultimately motivated by justice. "They wouldn't have to go through the trouble of trying to catch him if they did that."

"It wouldn't do any good if they thought he was real; we could just produce the real one at any time. Lupin is writing the speeches that we're going to run over the wireless, and even if no one would really know his voice and his way of speaking before all this, they're going to know if some impostor shows up. As far as Hermione knows, there's no way to just grab a soundbite off a wireless and then reproduce that voice. If you want to pretend to be someone, you have to use Polyjuice."

"That makes sense, I guess, and they're not going to know where to look, since they won't find any record of him. I'm just trying to think of it from their perspective so we'll know what to expect. At this point, if they can't clearly make the case that the candidate is a bad person, they'll just have to muddy the waters as much as possible. Say random things that can't be verified. Make up some better version, like someone with all the same views except more experience in politics, and have him run, just to distract people."

"They might do that, but if they lie enough, it'll become clear to the average person that their record is the one that's going against itself. The only people who really believe the Prophet in the first place are believing it only because it's mostly been internally consistent. When I first heard about this, it sounded like the most important part of this is to keep them from reading the initial interview, but really, if they did, and held it up as proof that there's no Eleazar Higgen, then they're acknowledging the Quibbler as a source. That's at least one of the worst things they can do for their overall case."

If it sounded like he was convinced by the plan, it was only because he wanted everyone to at least think the DA should be on board with it. Cooperation with the Order meant stepping back and agreeing more often than holding ground, and it at least seemed like a good idea, once it had been explained to him, even if he was not overflowing with confidence. The first real interview was happening the following day, and that put his forces at a loss as to what to do for the moment, because some of them had already started drawing up plans to invade Hogwarts, and found themselves a mixture of relieved and disappointed to find out that was not happening.

"This won't take up all our time," he assured everyone around to hear him. It was another mixture of responses, as expected. "We're diverting as many people as we can spare to training the recruits we have, and we're taking everyone else to spy on certain Death Eaters." Everyone knew that he really should have been able to say he would only need one or two other wands for a mission like that, but everyone also knew that their skills were spread out across the organization. Was it that bad, though, that they were taking large parties on stealth missions? After all, if they got caught, would they not have a better chance of fighting their way out?

"I have a different idea," someone said. A few people stepped aside and they saw Hannah. "You've been keeping all the fun missions to yourself. I think you should send someone else to take care of this, and you should catch up on something besides Legilimency." He had gone though the conversation with her about how it was the most important thing for him to learn, but not with everyone else.

"Fine," he said. It made no sense to look like he was unwilling. "We're going to have to be able to get our recruits caught up anyway, so I might as well test your teaching ability."

It was a strange way to take away from the fact that he was behind on combat spells and various other skills, or at least behind where he could be. If he had not been embarrassed about that, what was the point of distracting from it? Would anyone care if he had another reason to catch up on what they had been doing? Did anyone care if he was caught up in the first place? It seemed, though, that even if he did not exactly know, it would be worse to do nothing and just let someone of a lower rank put down his qualifications.

Harry walked over to Susan, who had broken off from a conversation with Ginny, who herself took the cue that she was going on the stealth party. The worst part about being behind was that he was that he was not exactly sure how far the others had progressed. He knew, though, that she had been something like a shielding teacher, and he had put nowhere near the amount of hours into it. Fortunately, if she picked up on his trick to save face, she did not announce it, and they walked off together.

"This is a good place to start," she said. "Though you asked me to effectively maximize my shielding, in the process I've learned a lot about how to seek out vulnerabilities." She raised a few shields just to show him. There was a basic shield charm that was taught early and often for good reason, there was a solid, opaque physical shield that she conjured rather than transfiguring from the environment, and there was a wind shield, a poorly-named recent invention that could catapult her out of the way if worst came to worst. "For the record, this is why I agree with Hannah. You can gain a lot simply by looking at things from a different perspective."

"Fine," he said, replicating two of the three shields. "Are there any others?"

"There are, but these three are the ones I consider the best combination. The more you cast, the more time you spend and the harder it is for you to attack. Most shields also don't move with you, so you become less mobile. I've tested several different shields, especially some fancy new inventions that move with you or change shape and they basically only work if you know what spells your opponent is about to cast. I don't know if professional duelists have a sixth sense about that- or if they actually use some secret, low-level divination, but I can't find a way of applying it in live combat."

"That makes sense," he said, taking a breath. "What's the incantation for the wind shield?"

"Aegis Venti. It's a combination of Greek and Latin. It is basically just an air current that can detect anything coming into it- I've tested this with Ginny, and that doesn't include the killing curse, but that's why you have the physical shield. You really only need to read Winds of Change to master it."

"What am I doing until then?" he asked, presuming she had the book somewhere. "I thought this was going to be a practical exercise."

"I'm going to show you how hard it is for you to overcome this seemingly basic defense."

He knew going in that he could not cast a killing curse, even if he wanted, just for a training exercise, but it was better if he could make her think that he could, or else she would effectively abandon the physical shield. From her confident expression and stance, he did not need her to tell him that she had greatly improved since the last time he tried to beat her, and maybe it was Ron's influence, but he could not help but think she would be excellent for guarding narrow passages. He started with the incantation for a killing curse and switched it to a fire charm, which he knew would get around her physical shield, and she impressed him by blocking both while he levitated a branch behind her, and she took the chance to fire back while the wind shield relocated her.

"Stupefy," they both incanted at the same time. He managed to get a lucky hit on her foot before she could cast another magical shield, but she hit him before he could respond at all; he misjudged the speed of the spellfire and got hit. When he woke up, it was thanks to Michael waking him up, but he walked off rather than sticking around to make jokes.

"That was a good try, Harry," Susan said. "I suppose we should call it a draw."

"It was pure luck," he said. "You two were both right. I'm not where I need to be; I've been... well, I've been using my rank and responsibility to stay on top of certain things, but I haven't gotten to where I need to be in combat."

"Don't feel too bad. It's a good thing that you're recognizing this, but it's not like we have far to go. Against almost anyone else, I would have won outright. The reason Hannah really wants you to get better, and she's told me this herself- it's not because she can point to someone who's that much better. It's because she wants us all to be able to look up to you and count on you."

"Well, we've burned enough time on this. Give me the book and I'll get to work on it." He thought for a moment. "I learned how to dodge in the air while playing Quidditch. You might be able to make the wind shield more effective if you know where you're going, and you can think of what kind of spell your enemy is going to use."

"That was why I raised the physical shield. I had a thought that you might use the killing curse."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to... scare you." That was not exactly true. Tricking her into thinking he would use it was part of the plan. It was closer to the truth that he understood, if he could not say that he was remorseful.

"It's flattering, actually. It shows an incredible amount of trust in me. I'm glad, though, that you didn't really use it, because I might well be dead. I certainly wish that we had an unblockable spell that would not kill us, but I do not know of any."

He trusted that she would have looked it up to make sure; on blocking duty, she could say that knowing about offensive spells was her business. The reading made sense to him after the demonstration; he was always grateful when Hogwarts teachers seemed to accommodate different learning styles and preferences by casting the spells they were supposed to perform ahead of the reading material. Generally speaking, the theory built on what they already knew, and it was easier to see how it progressed the further back he looked; there were times he felt like he really only understood the first three years of material and he had mostly stopped paying attention to the theory after that, because it had become so important for him to learn specific spells, building off what little he knew. In fairness, at some level he felt like he was not really cut out for the finer points of spell creation or even highly advanced magical theory; he knew that what he really liked, back when he had a choice, was Quidditch, and that was where he felt the most at home.

When he was done with reading and practicing the spell, Susan had moved onto doing something else, which was fine, because he wanted to work with Neville. He was already pretty sure that an Occlumency study group had formed between a handful of their members, and there was no way it was a coincidence that it came right after the incident with the captive. Thus far, nothing else had been done with her, but her parents had to have been notified by the Malfoys. When there was an interest in a trade, they would hand her back.

"I'm glad you like plants, Harry," he said. "People underestimate them, but they're dead useful."

"I agree. I've already seen how you've used them." There were levels to Herbology specialty. There was what the average Hogwarts student had at graduation, which was the result of the curriculum Headmaster set in accordance with his or her belief about what constituted a well-rounded education. The next level up was what independent potions masters needed for their own practices- it was worth of note that Snape did not have to grow his own plants, but he knew countless relevant details about how the plants were grown. After that, you had rustic wizards who grew plants to sell to various parties; their full time job was Herbology. They were about the same level as the druids from before the Romans showed up, more knowledgeable, but less reliant. "It's impressive. I think you could make it all the way."

"Wait, really? I mean..."

"Neville, every time you talk about plants, you don't have any lingering confidence issue at all."

"Well, that's easy," he said. "It all makes sense."

"It makes sense to you. No one else has this level of understanding."

"Really?" The idea seemed to confuse him. "Why don't I... I don't know, why don't I feel more confident then?"

"Because you have this idea of yourself that you're not confident," Harry theorized. "You know about plants, and you know you know it, right? You know you're the bloke we seek out for all things plants."

It was not the absolute first time that he had helped Neville to see himself in a different light- it was possible, though, that it would be the last time, because he seemed genuinely cheered. He smiled in a way most of them had not smiled in months.

Because he already knew certain tactical applications of plants; that had been the extent of his interest in them so far, and because he already had a theoretical understanding of how to take care of them, or at least a lot of them, the gap in his understanding was everything truly unconventional. Even in advanced Herbology classes, which he had never had any desire to take, it was understood that Pomona Sprout had no interest in teaching students how to weaponize plants except from a perspective on what not to do; she was not against students defending themselves nor did she create an environment that was completely free of risk; it was just that teaching them how to use plants in combat seemed like such an esoteric purpose that had nothing to do with any other element of the field of study.

"So, when you water plants, you can use transfigured water, and the plant itself doesn't register as transfigured?"

"No, not at all, not with magical plants; you would never know the difference. You can conjure water if you've vanished some, but I can't imagine why you would." He thought about it and even though it was a tangential question, it made him wonder.

"This might not be your thing, but can you vanish a person?"

"No, no one's ever managed it. I don't know of anyone who has ever done that, though I suppose I wouldn't be the person to ask."

"Why not?" He thought about it a moment. "I heard you couldn't vanish a body, so I don't think it's a matter of having a soul."

"That probably means you couldn't vanish an Inferius either." He thought a moment. "That would make dealing with them a lot easier."

"I'm not that concerned about Inferi."

"Why not?"

"I'm trying to say that I'm thinking about how it could be useful down the road- I can't help but think that it will. Do we have a book of the theory on hand? Does it categorically say that you can't vanish a body or does it only say that it isn't known?"

"Well, there was one bit... I'm truly sorry I can't remember much, Harry, but there was one bit about how it was a matter of movement and change, or that was the theory. You're only meant to be able to use it on objects, completely inert, solid objects."

"What about a skeleton?" he asked.

"It's never been tried, far as I know."