bait_backup | Come let the truth be shared

Entry tags:

Come let the truth be shared

*With yesterday's Dementor attack still fresh in everyone's mind, the Order assembles quickly and without even a breath of chit-chat, as Moody has been demanding of them for months. This improvement, coupled with copies of the Leisure Centre incident files on the coffee table, is enough to keep the room at large subdued. Most of the victims had been much too young, so many of wizarding Britain's children shuttled off to swimming lessons early Monday mornings without any mandated primary school to attend, and their small bodies lie almost completely still in the water, backs breaching the waterline as their lifeless eyes look down toward their dangling feet. Moody breaks the silence.*

Well. Time's come.

We need to use what we've got and what we know or this'll happen again, just somewhere else. The Death Eaters haven't claimed any of these, Crouch has been pointing fingers at werewolves all along, but no matter who did this, we've got to get everyone's facts on the table, see the big picture to do any good.

No more handling things on your own, or keeping sources secret. Everyone works, everyone reports. Out with it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

*He just smirks a bit at Gideon; there will be teasing later, because he has no shame at all. Looking back to Hestia, though, he gives her a reassuring smile.*

*Hestia nods at Emmeline and then Peter, before slinking back into place beside Lily, doing her best to melt into the wall. She can feel both Prewett boys smiling at her, unsure of what to make of it.*

*Perhaps this isn't the right time for flirting, but Lily can't help but shoot Hestia a knowing look. She didn't have to say a word for her message to make itself loud and clear: We'll talk about this later.*

*Peter returns Hestia's nod, a little embarrassed that Emmeline volunteered him before he volunteered himself. He wonders vaguely what issues she might be having with the spellwork. It might have been some part of the encryption process itself, or... well, he'll find out later. She seems to have put a lot of work into the rest of it. It strikes him as just as strange as it always has that while whole branches of magic have evaded him, he swims easily through arithmancy, a field so many wizards' brains shut down before. He tries to convey some sort of reassurance to Hestia with a look.*

*Sirius is still looking stormy and shaking his head.*

That still doesn't solve anything about how we get him on our side, and how we get him sending us messages. We can post along all the owls we want and he'll just hide his head in the sand if he doesn't trust us--or if he doesn't think has has to trust us.

Alright. So which is he more likely to trust, something more anonymous, or a person? You've basically got those options, for letting him in on what we know.

*Remus is still angry, but it seems Sirius has been talked down from actually doing something as idiotic as waltzing Regulus into the middle of an Order meeting. He can deal with the rest, it's not any more than they'd already talked about. There's no point in not contributing just because he's put out with Sirius, he isn't that immature.*

It needn't even be a 'real' person, if we go that route. A thorough enough disguise would work. But it really comes down to you, Sirius, you're the one who knows him well enough to know how to get in with him.

The only way--and I do mean the only way--that I can think of, if we can't get a house-elf or Barty Crouch Junior on our side and helping us, is to scare the living daylights out of him. Not like it's hard. Just tell him we know what he's up to and we'll tell Voldemort or we know what he's up to and we want to help or, I don't know, we have pictures of him in his knickers. He'll faint and obsess and fret and pull out his hair and then owl back something like "I don't know what you're talking about" but he will owl you back.

So...blackmail.

It's not--

*Sirius looks flustered for a second, and then decides to glower at the Prewett, whichever one it is.*

Listen, you want to know how to get him to respond, that's how to get him to respond. Otherwise he'll just ignore it and go all stonefaced like he would with me. But once he's owled you back, you can hand him the code and tell him it's not safe to transmit messages in plain English, and then we can try to get more out of him that explains what I found without worrying about owls getting intercepted.

I get it, Black. It makes sense.

But I'm not sure it's a good idea to hand a known Death Eater our only code. Thoughts, anyone?

*Fabian's gone quite serious, too, and it's a sharp contrast to the joking smiles a moment ago. The way he's watching Sirius now, he looks much more the well-known Auror and less the bloke taking the piss with his brother.*

Make more than one code, with a different enchantment. Fundamentally different, not something they could logically figure out if the first code gets into the wrong hands.

*Hestia grits her teeth at the request, but doesn't want to display anymore lack of confidence tonight. She steps forward and takes a deep breath.*

I can do that. It'll take me a little longer to work out the discrepancies, but I'm sure with Peter's help, it will work.

Excellent. And if we only use Regulus's code specifically for communicating with him, that should keep the rest of it secure, right?

Yes, that's right. We want not only him to feel comfortable, but for us to as well. I won't let anything or anyone jeopardize anyone else's safety.

Excellent.

*Alice had originally been sitting quietly, listening. But as the conversation went on, and safety became an issue, a horrible thought had struck her.

She'd been fighting herself quietly, but now with Hestia's idea, she feels it might be best to say it.*

There is a safer way.

*She looks down, then nods and looks around the room.*

We could Imperius someone. Someone he trusts, like Barty Crouch Jr.

Imperius, Alice?

*Alice shakes her head.*

It's the safest way I can think of. We Imperius him, make him talk to Regulus, and when it's done we wipe his memory.

Our other option could be Polyjuice, but...

*Sirius shakes his shaggy head.*

Takes months to brew, and if we buy it outright then whomever hands over the galleons is in a lot of danger.

She's right.

The safest option for everyone is to Imperius someone. And the best option is it Imperius Barty Crouch Jr.

*Lily stares at Alice and Sirius with a look akin to horror.*

I don't like that idea. I don't like it at all and I think we should stay away from relying on Unforgivables.

*Gideon frowns. He's not about to jump down Alice Longbottom's throat--the woman is more than an asset, she's a miracle, he knows that--but this rubs him the wrong way, badly, and he's inclined to agree with Lily.

He speaks calmly, reasonably, not betraying his discomfort.*

Is there a better option?

Erm.

*James glances at Lily.*

I'm not sure there is, is the thing. Not if we want to be quick about this.

James...

*Lily is not entirely surprised that he's not on her side about this, but she can't help but feel like the only one who has an objection to all of this. Biting her lip, Lily scans the room.*

Does anyone agree with me?

James is right. We have to be quick with this. Who knows what else I might have missed in there? This research might be months old. We know what it says but we don't know what it means. There might be an attack tomorrow and we'll be scrambling for all the good these papers do us without any kind of context.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject