The next day classes were cancelled and the Order in its entirety gathered at Grimmauld Place. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Erin, Neville, Ginny and Lauren, most of whom had been hoping to spend the day catching up with each other and spending some time together, were sat together in silence waiting with everyone else for the meeting to commence.
Dumbledore sat at the front of the room watching them. Ron and Hermione had barely let go of each other since they had been reunited, as though afraid that the other would slip away if they did. Ginny just looked relieved to be back among friends and family, while Lauren was sat in silence, her expression equally quiet. Dumbledore hadnt spoken to them about where they had been for the last six weeks, but he intended to find out by the end of this meeting.
"Friends," he said gravely as the final few filtered in and took their seats, "it is a pleasure to see you all together once again, though it is a great pity we meet under such circumstances.
"We have been holding our own against the threat of Voldemort for three years now, both with and without the aid of the Ministry, and all things considered I think we have done admirably."
The crowd murmured their agreement to this sentiment. Dumbledore allowed them their moment of pride before pressing on with the important part of the meeting.
"Of course, holding our own merely prevents a take over. Voldemort hasn't won his war because we have been there to prevent him each time, often at grievous cost. If Voldemort keeps attacking and we keep defending, I fear we will run out of soldiers.
"To truly stop Voldemort, and win this war, we will have to start being a little more aggressive. It's time we started bringing the fight to them. Too long have we been sat waiting for our problems to sort themselves out, nothing will ever be resolved if we don't seek that resolution.
"Launching an attack against Voldemort will be dangerous, and I make no pretence that we will not suffer losses, but I believe it is for the greater good."
"Attacking Death Eaters is one thing, but Voldemort himself?" someone asked, "Do you really think he can be killed?"
"No one is immortal," Moody said, "he can be killed, it's just a question of how."
"And I suppose it's up to me to work that one out," Erin muttered to Neville, who gave her a guilty smile, as the crowd started talking among themselves, each wanting to give their view on how impossible and or hopeless it was.
"Ok, suppose killing Voldemort is possible, which seems a bit of a stretch given that out of all the people in this room, say three, four, have actually come face to face with him and lived to tell the tale," someone called above everyone else, "we still have to find him first."
"Voldemort's followers aren't difficult to find," Kingsley said.
"And even if we can't find them we could always lure them out with the thought of a fight," Dieter said.
"So we find the Death Eaters, or lure them out for a fight, there's no guarantee that You-Know-Who will actually turn up for the show. As for taking the fight to him, no one knows where he is!"
"I do," Lauren spoke for the first time.
Those two words silenced everyone as the whole room turned to look at her. Moody and Dumbledore both sat up straighter in their chairs, curious, hopeful looks crossing their faces. Lauren caught Dumbledore's eyes, and after noting that her eyes were vibrant green rather than their usual shade of icy blue, he nodded his head indicating for her to speak.
Lauren stood up and took out her wand, conjuring up a map against the far wall. With a further flick of her wand she circled a remote area in Eastern Europe.
"Voldemort's most secret base, the closest thing he has to a home, is located here, at least it was twenty years ago. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't still be there now, after all, we never found it last time did we? It's the place he retreats to with only his innermost circle of Death Eaters, so only a select few know of its location. Most of the Death Eaters we capture will never see it."
"How did you find out about it?" Dieter asked.
"With a massive sacrifice of my dignity that I'd really rather not talk about right now," Lauren answered.
Apparently satisfied with that, Dieter rolled his eyes and allowed her to continue.
"If we're going to take the fight to Voldemort, I suggest we take it to him there," she said, "he won't suspect it, and with the element of surprise we might stand a chance of winning."
"Would it be wise to launch a full scale attack on Voldemort at this stage?" Snape said, "considering it's likely that his innermost base is probably where he is keeping Ana."
"Ana?" Lauren questioned, "what happened?"
"It turned out the attack on the orphanage was an elaborate ploy to kidnap Ana," Dumbledore explained, "it would seem he still hopes to convert her to his side."
Or he wants the baby, Lauren thought, and she didn't think she was the only one.
"Ana would not want her own safety to preside over a chance at ending this war," Lupin said heavily, "if we have a chance to stop Voldemort then we should take it."
"Then we attack," Tonks said, "hit Voldemort where it hurts! Launch a full offensive or whatever it is those army guys say!"
"It's a remote area, and it probably won't be very well guarded in a man-power sense," Rei said, "there could be a chance that a small group could slip through undetected. That way we could rescue Ana without risking her safety."
"But also risk losing the only advantage we have over Voldemort," Carla said, "this could be the only attack he won't see us coming, we need to utilise that to our full benefit."
"How long could a large group stay undetected though," Rei mused, "if Voldemort knew his base had been discovered he could turn it into an ambush or just leave, retreat somewhere else."
"We can assume he will have some magical barriers," Moody said, "and without wasting time spying, we have no way of knowing what they are, and how quickly they will alert him to our presence."
"With that in mind, an all out offensive is probably a better option. If the element of surprise isn't on our side, then at least there will be the benefit of numbers," Kingsley said.
"Do you think Ana would be able to tell us much about the security?" Lauren asked.
Most people looked at her as if she was crazy, but Harry and the gang, as well as Margrit, shared an expression of curiosity.
"Quite possibly," Dumbledore said, "but more to the point, can she tell us?"
He directed this question to Margrit who shrugged her shoulders and said it had to be worth a try.
.....
Lauren returned briefly to Hogwarts to fetch John, while Margrit returned to her home to get Kimi. The hope was that together with Ron they would be able to mentally communicate with Ana. Lauren didn't understand why Kimi couldn't just do it herself, but it became clear when the small girl arrived at Grimmauld Place.
She had always had an ethereal quality to her, but in the six or so weeks since Lauren had seen her last, Kimi had become a shadow. She was gaunt and looked tired.
"I have too much power," Kimi said in response to Lauren's silent question, "my body cannot cope simply by being I destroy myself."
"Then we can't ask you to do this," Lauren said.
"Yes you can," Kimi said with a smile that would have looked more at home on the face of an old woman, "you need me too."
"We can spy, it's slow, but what's a little more time?" Lauren said.
"Exactly, what is a little more time?" Kimi said, "Is my time any more important than yours? No, not by a long stretch, I'm prepared to sacrifice my time so you don't have to."
"Ok," Lauren said.
It wasn't ok. Nothing about this war was ok. But Lauren understood. She stepped back and took a seat as Ron and John joined hands with Kimi, and between the three of them they attempted to communicate with Ana.
Ana slept fitfully. It was hard enough trying to sleep when you were in the lair of the enemy, but it was made even harder by her awkward pregnant stomach. With only six or so weeks to go before she gave birth, Ana was feeling rather bloated.
As she tossed and turned, she started dreaming she was in a field, a large expanse of grass that spread as far as the horizon in every direction.
"Woah, this is weird," Ron said from somewhere behind her.
Ana span round, shocked at his sudden appearance.
"Ron?"
"Yup, it's me," he said, "really, not just some freaky dream, well, kind of," he said, shrugging his shoulders in a confused kind of way.
"How is this possible, I don't even know where I am, how can you be talking to me?"
"It's ok, we know where you are," Ron said, "Lauren found out somehow, she won't tell us the exact details which probably means she had to do something dodgy, but she found you, and now we're coming to get you, but we need to know what the security is like there."
"Um, there isn't a lot, couple of very standard barriers, but they get set off a lot by wild animals and Muggle walkers, no one pays much attention to them."
"Guess Voldemort figured his base was so secret it didn't need protecting," Ron said.
"I guess he thought no one would be crazy enough to storm it even if they did find it," Ana said.
"Oh, we're crazy enough alright," Ron grinned, "We're coming to get you, you'll be home soon."
"Please, don't do anything stupid," Ana said, "Voldemort has expressed no desire to kill me, so I'm safe. Don't put your lives at risk for mine!"
"Lupin said you'd say that," Ron said, "but we're coming anyway. This might be our only chance to stop Voldemort once and for all, and we're taking it."
"You think you might be able to end the war? I hope I'm not talking in my sleep!"
"I better go, I don't know how much longer they can keep up this connection," Ron said suddenly as he started fading from view, "We're coming Professor, we'll get you out of there!"
Ana could feel herself waking up, and struggled to maintain her grip on sleep. She didn't want to wake up to the horrible cage she was trapped in, but she also didn't want to let go of the only familiar and friendly face she had seen for weeks. Even if Ron was fading from view the feeling of his presence was still strong in that expanse of grass. She didn't want to lose touch with it.
But too soon she felt the familiar pull of reality dragging her out of the depths of sleep and the grassland was replaced by the all to recognisable barren wasteland that surrounded Voldemort's choice of home.
With the information Ana had given, Dumbledore, Moody and some of the more senior members of the Order retreated to a room to discuss battle tactics. They would be the ones who decided whether it was better to go for a sneak attack or a fully-fledged battle. Meanwhile everyone else was left to talk amongst themselves.
"'With a massive sacrifice of my dignity that I'd really rather not talk about right now'?" Charlie said to Lauren as she returned to her seat.
"I chatted up Regulus Black," she admitted, her expression clearly stating that she wanted no more discussion on the matter.
Charlie raised his eyebrows but his eyes were laughing. Lauren scowled, but was saved from any further questioning by Professor McGonagall asking for a quiet word.
"I hope you're certain about the location," she said, "this could be the end of us if it goes awry."
"I'm not certain, I can't possibly be certain," Lauren said, "I have the word of one dead scumbag, over twenty years ago. He was in fear of his life, I don't think he would have lied to me, but what was true then might not be true now."
"That wasn't really what I came to talk to you about," McGonagall confessed, "I wanted to make sure you are ok."
"Why wouldn't I be?" Lauren asked.
"Because where ever you've been for the last six weeks, I know you would have been looked to to be the responsible one. That can't have been easy," McGonagall said.
"It wasn't," Lauren said, "but we got by, I got by. Speaking of which, what do you know about a family, lives in Oxfordshire, right near Lestrange Manor, or at least where it used to be. Named Underwood?"
Harry sat waiting in silence for the decision to be made. Whatever they decided, he was going, if they liked it or not. It could be his only chance to put an end to the war, and he intended to take it, and to end it.
He wasn't very good at being patient though, never had been, and as the minutes rolled into hours, he sat tapping his foot as his irritation and impatience grew.
"You will be on your way before too long," Kimi said, appearing beside him.
"Not soon enough," Harry replied.
"You do not like waiting," Kimi said.
"Nope."
"Because you can feel you are running out of time?"
Harry turned to look at the strange young girl. She smiled up at him, but the smile was joyless, merely an exercise of the muscles on her face.
"Maybe," he said.
He felt something, an urgency, but he couldn't really pinpoint what it was. Perhaps it was the sense that they were all running out of time. Running out of time to live? Running out of time before Voldemort became all powerful once again? Perhaps these two options were one and the same...
"You are bound to Voldemort, your fates are entwined. You can feel him ascending, and your soul knows this leads to the destruction of all you hold dear and love," Kimi continued, "you feel the need to destroy him as soon as possible."
"I'm sure the others would tell me to be patient and wait until I have a strategy, wait until I know what to do when I find myself face to face with him," Harry said.
"Then you must make them see things your way," Kimi said.
"Why? They're probably right? What am I gonna do if I find myself in a room with Voldemort other than get myself killed?"
"You might manage to fire some sparks at him," Erin said, sitting next to Harry.
"Not even that, our wands don't really work against each other," Harry said.
"Well, you just take your time and wait until you are strong enough to take him down," Erin said, "I for one certainly don't want to see you get yourself killed for rushing in."
"It's not that simple," Kimi said.
"What do you mean?" Erin asked.
"Voldemort is still one step away from achieving ultimate power, and while he is, he is still vulnerable," Kimi said, "You are on a time limit, my friends, before too long no one will be able to stop him."
"No one?" Harry asked.
"Not even you," Kimi replied.
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