Chapter 20: Plans
July 9 - 10:00am - Hogwarts
Minerva McGonagall stared down at the parchment on her desk, re-reading it for what seemed the hundredth time. Elias Granger wanted to know the whereabouts of his niece, now his ward, immediately. She removed her glasses and rubbed a hand across her eyes. She honestly did not know what to tell him. She knew that Ms. Granger was safer in the wizarding world at Grimmauld then she would be with her muggle uncle, but that did not mean that she did not sympathize with his position.
To make matters worse, the man lived in France and had stated his intent to return there with his ward as soon as possible. She hoped dearly that Albus had managed to persuade him of the need for Ms. Granger to remain hidden, even an appearance at her parent's funeral could be incredibly dangerous. There were just so many things that could go wrong, and too many muggles to protect. As she stood, replacing her glasses, her fireplace roared to life and out walked Albus Dumbledore.
"Good morning, Albus, would you care to join me in a drink?" She questioned moving to the side table that held a collection of her favorite drinks.
"Better make those fire whiskeys, Minerva, I am afraid I have failed to convince Mr. Granger that our course of action is best," Dumbledore replied sitting in one of the overstuffed red armchairs that faced the Transfiguration professor's desk.
"Oh dear, that badly," Minerva answered as she retrieved her bottle of Ogden's Old Fire Whiskey from the cupboard. She snagged two glasses and went back to her desk. After she poured the drinks and both had taken a stiff drink, she prodded.
"So what exactly did Mr. Granger say?"
"He insisted that I was insane and that I have kidnapped Ms. Granger, filling her head with lies about magic and evil wizards. He demands that she be returned to him immediately or he intends to contact the police," the older man answered swirling his drink in his glass before taking another sip.
"Goodness, I expected some disbelief, but this. He believed none of it?" Minerva said the incredulity evident in her voice.
"None, not even when I demonstrated some magic in front of him. He called them cheap parlor tricks." Minerva could not believe her ears. Who was this Elias Granger anyway?
"It is done, Minerva," Dumbledore cajoled appreciating her look of shock and then anger at Elias Granger's remarks. "He may contact the police, because there is nothing they can do to find her here in our world."
"What about Ms. Granger?" Minerva questioned concern evident in her usual burr.
"I have learned a lot from my experience with keeping things from Harry, so I think it will be best to talk to Ms. Granger and explain everything to her. She will have to remain entirely within the wizarding world until her 18th birthday, otherwise, we will lose her to him," Dumbledore explained.
"What about her parent's funeral service?" Minerva questioned even though she knew the answer.
"She cannot go, in addition to the threat of losing her to her uncle, we run a risk that Death Eater's will attack the funeral to get to her," Dumbledore replied. "We can plan to hold our own memorial service for them along with the others we lost."
"I remember your discussing that before at the meeting, but with all the attacks can we do so safely?" She knew that it was important for the living to have the opportunity to say goodbye to their loved ones, but she cringed at the thought of the risk of losing more in order to do so.
"The proceedings will have to be very secretive. We will have the memorial here at Hogwarts where the wards already in place will allow for added protection," Dumbledore said addressing the concerns he knew she had.
"Do you think that Mr. Granger would believe what you had told him if he were allowed to attend the memorial at Hogwarts?" Minerva suggested.
"Perhaps, there would certainly be less chance of him being able to take Ms. Granger away if he saw her here. He may just need to hear it from her that she wants to stay here," Dumbledore mused aloud.
"Is there any doubt she wouldn't want to stay here?"
"No, Harry has told her of the prophecy. She will not leave him, now, though I do not think she would have left even before they admitted their feelings for one another and he revealed the prophecy to her," Dumbledore answered with absolute conviction.
"How much more work needs to be done before we can hold this memorial service?" Minerva questioned after a moment of silence. She finished her drink and set the glass aside.
"Not much really, with your assistance, we should be able to hold it as early as tomorrow," Dumbledore replied before finishing his own drink. "Then, I believe it will be time to step up our plans as Tom has shown no sign of slowing in his attacks."
"But Albus, we have only just started training Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger, and Mr. Longbottom," Minerva protested, "with reviewing OWL results and readying the notices for new students and those sixth years so they know what classes they can take, I have difficulty finding time to teach the three of them."
"Not all of the students should need to learn that ability. I have already spoken to Mr. Potter and Ms. Granger and they have agreed to continue with their D.A. group even during the rest of this summer."
"They did have excellent scores in Defense, but isn't that asking too much of them? They are already extremely busy with their own studies," Minerva reminded him. She was very proud of the student group her Gryffindors had started last year to teach each other defense, and not surprised at all that Mr. Potter and Ms. Granger had headed that group. Dumbledore smiled for the first time during their discussion.
"I told them that the assignment of teaching the D.A. was there first as members of the Order of the Phoenix."
"What!" The word escaped before she could stop it, and the headmaster smiled even more broadly at the shocked expression of his dear friend.
"Minerva, for a moment, don't think of their age, think of their abilities and all that they have done over the years, is it really so shocking that I would allow them to be members?"
Minerva tried to do as he asked, to think of them not as her students, but about what each had accomplished. She knew the prophecy as well, and knew that Ms. Granger would be there with Harry in that final battle as surely as she had followed him to the Department of Mysteries. She drummed her fingers on the desk nervously for a moment, but she could not think of a legitimate reason to deny them entry to the Order except for their age.
"I suppose that access to accurate information could prevent them from running off again on their own to solve a mystery," she mused aloud, "I cannot say that I am happy with this situation, but I understand why you have included them."
"Thank you, I had hoped that you would see the same arguments that I saw. I value your opinion and it means a lot knowing that you agree with me here," Dumbledore said then added, "I do have one last favor to ask of you this morning before I take my leave." Minerva's eyebrows raised in surprise as she stared back at one of her dearest friends.
"What is it, Albus," she queried curious.
"I would like to start training you to become the next Headmistress of Hogwarts." The statement fell like a bomb into the room. Minerva started to protest, but Dumbledore cut her off before she could even speak.
"I find myself more and more tied to the Wizengamot and handling situations at the Ministry. It is not my wish to give up the post of Headmaster, but I realize that I cannot do everything as much as everyone seems to think I can. Minerva, I could use your assistance with this. We have known for years that you would eventually take my place here. Besides, if something should happen to me, I know that you will protect the students better than anyone else I know, and to do that, I will need to reveal more of the castles secrets to you." Tears sprang to Minerva's eyes at the mere suggestion of losing her dear friend. She pulled her handkerchief from her pocket and dabbed at her eyes.
"Alright, Albus, I will do this for you. Do you have a new Deputy Headmistress or Headmaster to help me in mind?"
"That will be for you to determine later, I had thought that perhaps Nymphadora might enjoy teaching a few transfiguration classes from time to time to make things easier on you. Obviously, the Ministry cannot spare her, but as Tom is determined to come after Harry, it would not hurt to have another Order member appearing regularly at Hogwarts." Minerva smiled at the suggestion as she was fond of the young auror and her metamorphmagi abilities would make her ideal as a transfiguration professor.
"I shall owl her today to find a time to discuss schedules," Minerva replied.
"Excellent, now, I really must be on my way as I have a memorial to finish planning, and some students to talk to about it," Dumbledore said as he rose from his chair.
"Let me know if there is anything else I can do to assist you," Minerva offered as she too, stood, and walked with him back towards the fireplace. With a smile and a flash of green he was gone, and she slowly returned to her desk to begin writing her letter to Tonks.
* * * * *
Grimmauld Place - 11:30am
Ginny Weasley closed the door tightly and cast an impenetrable on the door to prevent their conversation from being overheard. As she took her seat on the sofa by Luna, Ron spoke.
"Mum and Dad are set against us receiving the training that Harry, Hermione, and Neville are getting. What about your parents?" He looked at Hannah first, then Luna and Gretchen. The five were gathered in a little used upstairs room to discuss their situation.
"I don't know," Gretchen replied. "My parents have always been super protective of me. I'm not even sure they'll let me stay here once they get back from their trip."
"I'm not sure that we are going to stay here. My father mentioned something about safe housing," Hannah told them curious if any of them had heard of this. Silence descended and they all turned to look at Luna. She appeared to be reading a copy of "The Quibbler," upside down as usual.
"Luna," Ginny prodded her friend. Luna didn't even look up as she said with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Harry will teach us anything they teach him. Besides, Dumbledore will want us all to learn to defend ourselves as well as possible." Ron continued to stare at her thinking about what she had said. As much as he hated to admit it, she had a point.
"If Luna's right, should we worry about asking to learn directly from Moody?" Gretchen questioned looking around her at the others in turn.
"Don't forget about the training with McGonagall and Dumbledore himself," Ginny reminded her. "And I think we should pressure them to let us learn. If Harry hadn't taught us all those things in the D.A. then we might not have made it out of the Department of Mysteries. But why do we always have to teach ourselves?"
"Harry and the others have been really busy, too, what if they just don't have time?" Gretchen added thinking about how little she'd seen of the other Gryffindors.
"Wait, how much training are they doing?" Ron questioned.
"They're always practicing or reading it seems," Ginny said. "They've become such a tight knit group you almost never see one without the other two."
"Really?" Ron seemed incredulous. Had he been replaced? Surely not, it was laughable really. Harry and Hermione wouldn't do that to him, but he couldn't quite suppress the niggling voice in his head that reminded him that his friends were already training without him.
"So what's the plan?" Ginny pressed bringing everyone's attention back to the matter at hand.
"Talk to Harry and the others, find out what they know, if anything about whether or not we are to receive the same or similar training, then make plans to learn on our own, with or without the others," Luna said finally looking up from her copy of 'The Quibbler.' She looked around at the other students. "Things have gotten drastically worse with increased attacks and we need to know how to defend ourselves and others if we hope to survive."
"Would you show us some of the healing spells and potions you've been learning from Madam Pomfrey as well?" Hannah questioned looking directly at Luna. "I had no idea how to help Draco when he was injured in the fighting."
"That's a great idea," Ginny added. "It could be really useful."
"Alright," Luna agreed easily.
"Can you make extras of some of the more common potions that would be helpful to have on us in case of attack?" Ron asked thinking about what might be handy to anyone caught in an attack.
"Sure," Luna replied, "I can even show some of you how to make them, in case you need to." Ron nodded becoming more excited by the moment.
"We should also carry extra floo powder on us at all times, and maybe some extendable ears," Ron said thinking aloud. The others were nodding their heads in agreement. "We'll need plans, too, ways to alert each other if one of us is in danger and safe places to go to get away from an attack."
"Sounds like we're going to become a real Army or younger Order," Ginny said smiling at her brother's plans.
"I should check on Draco," Luna said rising to her feet.
"I'll go with you," Hannah added standing up as well. "I've been meaning to check to see how he's doing." Ron grimaced, he'd been told about Draco's actions, but it didn't mean he liked or trusted the Slytherin.
"Are you going to talk to Harry, Ron?" Ginny asked before the others left.
"Yeah, I'll talk to him tonight," Ron replied and the others rose as well. As they filed from the dingy room each felt better with a course of action decided.
* * * * *
Author's Note: I apologize for the long delay. Hope you enjoy this next chapter. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten this is a Harry/Hermione site. It's just long overdue that the others start thinking about their own training.