(Untitled)

[hiddenpages]

Who: Tonks and Hermione
Where: The Island of Hoy safe house
When: 16 March, 2002 - afternoon
Status: Complete

Comments

[hiddenpages]

"Noise... Moody would have liked that." The words had just popped out of her mouth, surprising even Hermione. She'd not thought of Alastor in a long time and in all honesty she missed the bastard. He didn't have any hesitation about looking for a way to cut the ministry off at the knees in the most explosive way possible.

A sombre expression passed over Hermione's features and she went quiet for a moment.

"Terry and Susan... no they'd have to stay behind... But Michael and Cho could probably stand to get involved... Ginny... Charlie... Ron, but I'd have to talk to him first. And Harry. We've got enough polyjuice to keep him disguised because heaven knows the Ministry would do anything to hunt us down if they... "

Hermione paused as a little niggle of an idea pulled at the back of her mind. A half smile appeared on her face and she shook her head. "Do you think the Ministry would even believe it if they all came to work one day and 'Harry Potter Lives!' was scrawled across the wall in six foot letters?"

[protean_nymph]

"Damn right he would have," Tonks replied easily. She'd learned so much from Moody, there would always be his grumbling voice somewhere at the back of her mind, cursing at her when she did something stupid, and of course encouraging her to do the stupid things in the first place.

"That'll be enough. What we'll need is a small team, with backup and a few people working behind the scenes as well. Sort of like when we got Luna out. That worked well." They had enough people to pull something off, but they'd need to make sure everyone was prepared. It wouldn't do any good to have anyone getting in over their heads.

She laughed, imagining the giant letters on the Ministry wall. She'd seen graffiti messages like that in tube stations, Yossarian Lives and Frodo Lives. She had no idea who those people were, but it always amused her that people felt the need to assert their vitality in such strange places. "That would be brilliant. They'd be going out of their tiny minds."

[hiddenpages]

"It's been almost a whole year since we tried anything that had any impact. Well except for when they went in for Susan.... but that was, from what Michael told me, planned to the nth degree."

Hermione cast a few spells, testing the wards they had redone so far. Satisfied with the perimeter she nodded her head toward the house. What needed to go up was a containment spell. One that could be activated once they were inside. And some very strong locking charms on the doors and windows. Not only to keep Ron in... but to keep others out as well.

"We'd need a very strong plan and back-up plans on top of back-up plans. Everything went so sour when we tried for Katie... I don't want that happening again."

[protean_nymph]

She nodded in agreement. "And even that... going after Susan was a reaction. What we need to act, give them a disaster to react to for a change."

Tonks entered the house and looked around, noting all the openings they'd need to secure. She slid the rusty bolt on the door in and out a few times experimentally; that was definitely not going to be enough.

"No. No one wants anything like that to happen again. But..." she paused, trying to think of a way to express what she was thinking that didn't sound either callous or suicidal. "Look, we have to accept some level of risk, embrace it even. What we're trying to do is bigger than ourselves, bigger than any one person. Remember the masquerade ball when five idiots crashed a ministry party just to make a point, with nothing more than wands, idealism, and portkeys in their pockets? We've done this before. We can do it again."

[hiddenpages]

"I wonder if there was a way to... I dunno... mess up the floo system or take it completely offline. Imagine if they couldn't floo anywhere."

Hermione used her wand to colour a bright blue line on the floor, effectively dividing the room in half. They'd have to put up the barricade on this line. One half for Ron. The other half for her on the first night... and then whomever else would spend the other two nights.

Rubbing the back of her neck, Hermione thought for a while. She certainly was about looking to take more risks now. Why not? No point to hiding all the time and she didn't have any reason not to jump on the risks these days. "I'd be willing to crash a big event again if the Ministry held one. You?"