Order Only: Hermione

[alt_sirius]

Okay, Benjy and Caradoc and I have had a chat. Benjy's gone to the Horseguards to keep an eye out in case Malfoy marches over there to start arresting teenagers.

Meanwhile, Hermione, I think we need to talk about what your friends know and don't know, and what you ought to be able to tell them and what you can't tell them, and what we need to know about them.

So, first off: I don't care who they are as individuals. If they want us to know, that's fine, but it doesn't matter one bit to me and it's probably better if we don't know their names.

Second, if they've already helped you and Terry hide your wands and if their first move was to ask you to pass a message to us, then I think it's fair to say they know we're at least loosely organised and that we're sympathetic to the Muggleborn. I'm guessing they feel the same way or they wouldn't have bothered befriending you or Terry in the first place. The fact that they're already keeping those secrets means I think they're fairly trustworthy.

The sticky part, though, is that you're all just kids. None of you should have information that would put you in the direct path of danger if you should get caught. I know we can't avoid that in your case and I regret that, kiddo, but for your friends, they can't be told who we are or what our plans are for any specific mission we discuss. But you already know that.

I guess what I'm saying is that I think you're in with a rather clever lot, particularly if they've figured out a way to communicate that circumvents the journals. I know Caradoc and Benjy really want some details about that - how they've got round the charm, whether it's a lock like Bill's Order Only lock, or whether you're communicating outside the journals altogether - but I think it's really none of our business. And just like your friends are safer not knowing about us and how we talk, I think we're safer not knowing about them and how they've done it. I'll admit I'm curious, but I can live with the disappointment.

I do agree with Benjy and Caradoc, on the other hand, when they point out that we should have some assurances about how you lot have each other's pledge to keep the secrets you share. It's not just nosing in: Depending on what you're using, we might be able to suggest some better methods, more foolproof protections that you haven't thought to cast.

Here's what I propose: You tell us how it is you're sure about their loyalty to you, and in return we'll let you tell them that you're part of a larger group, which they've guessed already, but that you are bound by oaths so you can't tell them who any of us are. You can talk with them about us in a very general sense, but not about anything we've got planned - and that's also to make sure they don't get tempted to share the action themselves - and you can't tell us who they are or them who we are, as individuals.

Will that work for you? For the rest of us?

Comments

[alt_arthur]

The only thing that I'd add as a caution is that first of all, we need to re-do the Unbreakable Vow on Hermione before she says ANYTHING whatsoever to her group. You're saying that we're giving her our permission to let her group know a little bit about us, but the Vow she has on her now does NOT know that, and consequently may not permit that. It will enforce the original agreement that Hermione made. I'm sure none of us would want her to drop dead because the original Vow binds her, even if we've gone and given her permission to say more than that.

The Vow may have to be magically released and then re-sworn with the new parameters as we've outlined them.

[alt_sirius]

Obviously, I wasn't there when you bound her with the Vow. Getting her alone to recast it may be impossible. But there may be a way around it if she can confirm things they guess (or have already guessed) without being the one to reveal it herself.

[alt_arthur]

Hermione swore her Vow to Minerva, and I was the bonder. Either of us could release it, then. Of course Minerva would be much more likely to be able to seize a private moment with her to do so, at Buckingham.

[alt_mcgonagall]

I am certain that I will have the opportunity to do so.

[alt_alice]

Could we send along Hermione's portkey charm to you in London, then, Minerva? You can give it to her then.

[alt_mcgonagall]

Yes, you certainly could.

I've looked into it further. Portkeys work in certain parts of Buckingham. So the Portkey charm will indeed be successful - as long as Hermione knows which part of Buckingham to reach before she activates it. I shall make sure she knows.

[alt_alice]

Thank you, Minerva. We've sent it by owl, our fastest.

It's a small sphere, and to activate it, you turn the bottom half so that the bottom picture lines up with the top one. Frank's been working on it ever since we had our scare earlier this summer, and he's made sure it doesn't spin round by itself or by mistake, and that it works every time once you've spun it. We've included a note for her that explains everything.

[alt_bill]

I'm rather eaten up with curiosity about your communication methods, myself, and I'm not sure I can live with the disappointment of not knowing. Must admit I'm rather proud of having come up with the Order lock, but if there's another way for slipping something unseen into the journals, maybe I need to know it, because I'm responsible for the security for our own lock, d'ye see? Is there another work around that hasn't even occurred to me? Is it something that the MLE could figure out, too?

[alt_sirius]

Bill, no offence meant, mate, but if we can figure out a way to lock out a segment of the population, then someone else probably can as well.

Still it's a fair point.

But we could solve that question just by asking Hermione whether she can tell us whether it involves the journals at all. Does it, Hermione?

[alt_frank]

if we narrow down how the messages work, that's a short jump to who might've done it, and although I can see the point in learning about any risks about our own methods, I think it'd be okay for her to not answer that.

seems like they really don't want us to know who they are and I'd rather err on the side of caution and respect that. it's a good sign they've got some decent thinkers among them any road.

[alt_hermione]

Yes, it does. But I'm not saying more yet.

[alt_sirius]

Merlin.

You're supposed to say 'No, it's nothing to do with the journals' and then poor Bill could've stopped salivating and we'd be done.

Really, we're going to have to work on those obfuscation skills.

[alt_bill]

Bloody hell. Bloody hell. I built the 'Order Only' lock into the very structure of the journals themselves when I set them up. But if there's another way....

What did I miss? What did I miss?!

It's going to drive me mad now, I know it is.

[alt_bill]

About that one point you made, that since they're kids, they shouldn't have information that should take them into the path of danger. Well, kids grow up to be adults. I did, after all. And sometimes those kids pick up a fair amount from the adults that the adults don't realise they have along the way.

That being said, Mum and Dad didn't give me any dangerous information deliberately until I came of age.

But they had a pretty good idea of my opinions and loyalties when they did.

Whoever these kids are, I hope you'll keep an eye on them for us, Hermione. Because they may eventually be the Order's new recruits.

[alt_molly]

We tried to be careful.

[alt_bill]

Of course you did.

I'm usually nosy, however.

I bet the twins would be even more than I was. Not much gets past them. I hope you and Dad are watching your step around them.

[alt_sirius]

I'm glad you said it, Bill. I don't think it's my place to say, but if there's anyone capable of finding a way round the journals without any help, it's your twin brothers, I'd bet.

And I've never even met them.

[alt_frank]

precisely the sort of thing our hermione has been asking us not to do, black.

[alt_sirius]

I wasn't asking her to confirm it - just speculating.

[alt_frank]

well just do us a favour and keep names out of it, right?

[alt_alice]

I think we're on the same page now dear heart.

[alt_bill]

Huh. That's a thought. I'm not asking to know who either, Hermione. But for what it's worth, the twins have never asked me a single thing about my work on the journals.

[alt_sirius]

Well, anyway - we're getting sidetracked, I think.

The point is that Frank's right and unless there's a compelling reason to tell us how their system works, because it represents a breach of our security, it's none of our business.

[alt_alice]

Right, love.

I think asking to talk about how they assure security is important, though.

I also think that it might be a good thing they thought to turn to us for help, even if they knew so little about us.

[alt_sirius]

Which was my original point, thanks, Allie.

[alt_alice]

I wonder if they're having the same conversation we're having right now.

[alt_poppy]

Security, indeed.

It seems to me that we're thoroughly compromised already if there are schoolchildren who know to ask Miss Granger to ask her friends for help smuggling Muggleborns.

I don't like this a bit.

Not one bit.

[alt_sirius]

Come, now, Poppy. James and Remus and I weren't much older, really, when we came into the Order the first time.

As Bill says, I think we're looking at our next recruits, like it or not.

[alt_poppy]

That's entirely different, Sirius. And I'll tell you how. When you came into the Order, you became one of us. You took the same vow the rest of us have taken. You knew our secrets because they were and are your own secrets.

These children are not in the Order. And yet, somehow they have learned about us, and they know too much. If they are our next recruits, we should get on with that. Like it or not, indeed.

And what I really want to know is how our vow has failed us. How do these children know what they do?

[alt_frank]

well, if they knew our Hermione had a wand...

it sort of follows doesn't it? that there'd be a group of people that liked Muggleborns enough and was well connected enough to send her a wand?

she shouldn't have shown them.

that's a fairly significant blunder on her part, no mistake.

but she did, and now we've got to go forward from there.

[alt_molly]

It wasn't Hermione though, I think. It was Terry, wasn't it?

He needed a way to keep his wand safe. And he hadn't made any promises to us, and he didn't know us at all. So he turned to people that he could trust for help.

[alt_frank]

we don't know what all happened, or who told what. it could very well have been Terry and not Hermione.

but they all know now, any road.

[alt_molly]

It does point up something important: if we provide wands for people, once other people see those wands, it's going to inevitably raise questions about us. If we pass along a wand to anyone, we had better make it clear what, if anything, can be said about it. Or we will need to also provide a way that the wand can stay hidden. Hermione and Terry's bracelets would be excellent for that.

[alt_frank]

good point, molly. very good.

[alt_lupin]

I agree with Molly. The wider the reach of our activities, the greater the risk of the Order being uncovered. People are bound to put two and two together, as the children appear to have done, and realise that these things aren't happening without coordination. I wonder if Alice and Frank's reappearance contributed too. That can't have gone unnoticed.

There's always going to be some degree of risk, as long as we're active. I know we all accept that. All we can do is mitigate it as far as possible.

That said, as much as Hermione and Terry deserve to have their own wands, I do wonder whether the benefits are outweighed by the risk - to ourselves and to them.

[alt_sirius]

True, Moony, but we had to start somewhere. And the reasons for giving them their wands still apply. They need them for self-protection in case we're not able to get them away if the need arose.

Nearly everyone else we've given wands has nowhere near the contact with wizards as these two. So I'm not sure it's as large a concern outside of their circle.

I think it's clear that her friends have pieced the information together, not anything she or Terry have told them deliberately.

Still. Perhaps it's time for the Order to make it a little clearer, when we do supply wands and other materials, exactly where it comes from. Something like a calling card? Davidson's group has done something similar, haven't they, Kingsley?

I mean to say, if they're going to guess at or conclude the existence of an organised resistance, we may as well give them a rallying cry to go with it.

[alt_lupin]

I wish we could supply some kind of reassurance through confirmation that we are out there, working to help as much as we can, but honestly, I can't imagine anything more likely to draw the Ministry's attention.

We can't afford another close call with the Aurors. I doubt we'd be so fortunate a second time.

[alt_arthur]

Well, I must say, whoever made those bracelets for Hermione and Terry, they were dead clever. I'm almost ashamed to say it, but even though they're the children and we're the adults, they did a spot more thinking about the consequences of handing out unregistered wands than we did ourselves.

I'd say that Hermione has chosen her friends well.

[alt_arthur]

And you can tell them that we said that, my dear. Once your Unbreakable Vow is adjusted, I mean. Let them know we're pleased with how they're protecting you, and that we respect their cleverness.