"Rose, we need to focus on the rescue," Harry said, briefly exasperated as an image of Hermione's raised arm waving in the front of a classroom flashed through his mind. Again warding off his emotions, Harry looked down at his Malfoy ring and tried to remember how it worked with the other two rings that were subordinate to it. He closed his eyes, focused on the ring, and tentatively reached out with it toward Lily's ring. He could soon hear voices, even though he could see nothing. He listened as faceless Death Eaters viciously threatened Mrs. Potter and Weasley, trying to find out why they had been in 12 Grimmauld Place. A few more seconds of eavesdropping and Harry was able to establish through the ring's magic that the two women were without doubt at Malfoy Manor.
"They're definitely at the Manor," Harry said. "They seem to be as good as can be expected for the moment."
"Good," Bellatrix nodded. "We will need a plan."
"Okay," mused Harry. "We can't do a full on frontal assault. We'll need to find a way to sneak in and rescue them."
"It shouldn't be that hard," Bellatrix said. "You've got the Malfoy ring which can get us all past most wards-at least to the extent they're based on the property and not on other things. Really, we could probably blast in there, take them by surprise, and be gone before any of the Death Eaters know what is happening."
"That would have worked," Harry said. "But while I was listening in, the Death Eaters were telling Lily and Molly that the dark lord was on his way to question them."
"Not good," Leo Black swallowed.
"I would rather not confront Tom at the present moment," Harry said. "I'm still recovering from injuries and have a limited supply of magic in my reserves. I had also hoped to avoid notifying him that I'm around-at least until I've built up more stamina."
Not understanding why Harry wanted to conceal himself from Voldemort for the moment, but game enough to try to work in the boundaries, Ginny piped up. "You can probably do a lot of your stuff without him realizing that you're around. Maybe your wife could be a red herring and distract You-Know-Who while you do your job."
"Maybe," Harry temporized, somewhat surprising himself with his deep hesitation to place Bellatrix in danger. But the only apparent alternative, placing the three teenagers in danger, seemed to be an equally terrible idea.
Suddenly, Bellatrix's eyes lit up and she took the floor. "I've got an idea. What if Harry was the red herring?"
"Are you saying that Harry would be the red herring to distract You-Know-Who from discovering that Harry exists?" Ginny asked haltingly.
"Yes," said Bellatrix.
"That doesn't make any sense!" Rose exclaimed.
Rolling her eyes, Bellatrix began to lay out her plan. Although imperfect, with input and then agreement from everyone, Harry and Bellatrix were able to put her plan into working shape.
.....
Its members in a state of general distress, the Order convened at an abandoned home in Hogsmeade. Professor Dumbledore had purchased the house for the sole purpose of hosting Order meetings. The urgent nature of some meetings made it impractical to require Order members to apparate outside the Hogwarts boundaries and walk to his office. The homes of individual Order members were also out of the question because no one Order member trusted every single member of the Order with access to their homes. The existence of the suspicion was sad-but it had saved lives.
"I don't understand why Rose, Leo, and Ginny would sneak out like that," Frank Longbottom said, still aghast at the news of Lily and Molly's capture and trying to come to terms with what must have happened.
"I'm suspicious about this raven patronus that allegedly raised the alarm," Mad-Eye said gruffly, raising his voice enough to be heard over the general chatter.
"If it's a patronus the person probably isn't a Death Eater," Sirius Black said, rolling his eyes.
"Ravens are dark creatures!" Moody retorted. "I think this could be a trap."
"We went to Grimmauld Place and nobody was there," James Potter interrupted impatiently. "Lily and Molly are nowhere to be found! The Death Eaters must have captured them. We would have heard from them by now otherwise."
"The children aren't around either!" Moody retorted. "Where are they, and why didn't this mysterious patronus sender tell us about their status?"
Nobody knew, but plenty of people were willing to debate it. Eventually, Dumbledore personally arrived and the meeting began in earnest.
.....
Neville Longbottom followed Rose and Leo down a garden path. "Wait, so you're really launching a rescue mission?" he asked his two friends.
"Yes," said Rose as the trio walked briskly toward the perimeter of the Longbottom residence. "There's virtually no risk to us. We just need an extra wand."
"If there's no risk, why do you need a wand?" Neville asked suspiciously. He knew that Rose and Leo had a tendency to underestimate the risks-he also knew from what his parents had told him before leaving for the emergency Order meeting that Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Potter were allegedly being held at Malfoy Manor. Everyone knew that the dark lord considered that his headquarters.
"Look, you and Ginny are going to stand around with some guy. If any Death Eaters get close, all you have got to do is activate a portkey and send him away. It's that simple," Rose said. "There's practically zero chance of anything bad happening. You parents probably won't even know you left the house."
The trio reached the perimeter and apparated away after Leo told Neville the location to which he should apparate. The trio arrived in a small clearing in the woods a small distance away from Malfoy Manor. They could see the silhouette of the Manor in the moonlight. Rose, Leo, and Neville looked around and found Ginny perched on a stack of wooden crates.
"Did you find any dynamite?" Leo asked Ginny.
"No," Ginny said quietly, "but Bellatrix and I were able to ah… borrow something called C4."
"What's C4 and who is Bellatrix?" Neville asked curtly.
"Bellatrix is this lady, who, ah…" Leo tried to explain.
Rose snorted. "She's not a lady-she's a teenage girl. I bet she's no older than me."
"If she was your mom's schoolmate, and if this Ashworth guy gave your mom a ring, then she's definitely not a teenage girl," Ginny pointed out before explaining to Neville briefly what had happened and how Harry and Bellatrix were involved.
"So where are this Harry and Bellatrix?" Neville asked.
"Behind you," came a female voice.
....
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