Order Only: Exodus

[alt_sirius]

That's it.

I know it's important to maintain the illusion that most of the ISS are dutiful, diligent and devoted denizens of the Protectorate and Hogwarts but honestly, how much longer are we going to let them endure that woman's nonsense?

Molly, I know we said they had to stay for their NEWTs but if Fred and George feel they need to take a stand by leaving, I say you should let them. (Fred, George, take note!) As for the others - pull them all out, I say. We had them at Grimmauld this past fortnight and it was perfectly successful. Emrys, it was better in that we were able to combine with a few of the Moddey kids as well. More like it ought to be.

I know, the halfbloods have to make it through their OWLs - but let's face it, the way things are going, that's not going to do them any bloody good except maybe keeping them out of the camps. And if they joined the Order and lived here at Grimmauld, they wouldn't even need to fear being sent there, anyway. For sure we ought to leave it up to them if they stay once they've taken their O.W.L.s and there's nothing holding them to their lessons.

Every day we leave them in the hands of that malevolent whale they are in danger. Danger that is probably just as bad as anything Carrow ever did, maybe worse in some ways. And we tolerated that all that time because there wasn't an alternative while so many of them were so young. But we don't have to tolerate it now. She can't even claim the same protections as a Death Eater, for Circe's sake. And we're leaving our best hopes of success to have to turn to the likes of Antonin motherfucking DOLOHOV for their own safety and any shred of education they might be salvaging from this waste of a year.

Pull them out, I say. Or we join up with Albus and Sniv Snape there at school and put a stop to her ourselves.

Comments

[alt_pomona]

Sirius - it is very grim, I admit. (And worse, apparently: she's hexed another young man so he can't read or write at all, for three days, so Auri tells me.)

Give us an evening though: there is to be quite a gathering of interested staff to see what we can do to mitigate more, or to find some better leverage.

(Auri got a house-elf about it to me a few minutes ago: apparently we have accumulated even more since our meeting over hols, and it is to include everyone but Acton, Carpenter, and Hooch, who are still firmly in certain pink pockets. Apparently neither Auri nor Antonin can figure out what to make of Brutka, which rather amuses me in its small way. Not Milland, sorry, Severus, but everyone still thinks you on her side as well. Might I drop a word in an ear or two about the fact you are trying to mitigate? Or is that too much of a risk?)

As to where - well. Antonin Dolohov has offered his rooms, and no matter what else one thinks of the man, I suspect that Dolores will not directly provoke his defences. At least if she does, we will have a resolution to our problem.

[alt_frank]

right.

let us know what they say.

[alt_severus]

I do not think it wise to call much attention to me -- Dolohov and Lestrange must not be allowed to look too closely.

[alt_gredforge]

As long as some of our crew are here, we don't feel as though we can abandon them. We were able to render some assistance to Parkinson today, for example. She came to us in desperation over that ruddy spell that Umbridge put on her, the one that made her cuss out Perks. We tested the parameters, and gave her some suggestions for holding it at bay, but we guess Umbridge strengthened it even further when she reapplied it this morning, so not much worked. We ended up giving her two handkerchiefs: one that made her sneeze when she held it up to her nose, and the other one made the sneezing stop. (We told her to sneeze into the face of anyone baiting her to rag on Perks.) Then we took her to Snape, and he put another spell on her to make her really hoarse.

Things are definitely getting worse, though, and we're all worried.

Honestly, Hogwarts has never felt like this before.

[alt_alice]

Thank you for the update, Fred and George. And it's good to know you were able to provide a bit of a buffer.

I agree that things seem to be getting markedly worse there. Let's wait on Pomona's report before deciding on what would be the next step.

[alt_bill]

I spent the afternoon trying to work things from the Ministry angle (I am Purity Control's liaison to Education and Public Information, and I might as well make use of that fact). I managed to glean that Massopust was away for off-site meetings this afternoon--it's never a good scene when I run into him, since he loathes me--and so I stopped by to see if I could find out what sort of support Umbridge has with department management.

I received a few hints (this has been backed up by my analysts) that the Division Director of Education, Latimer Caldwell, is certainly allied with her. You may have noticed that she writes him private messages all the time. I spoke with Helena Provim, of OWL/NEWT oversight (she works with YPL, too), and she's been getting an earful over the Easter holiday from outraged and worried parents about the necessity for tutors. She then passed me on to her supervisor, Parthenope York. Parthenope seems to be quite the charming old battle-axe. Her method of becoming acquainted was to pepper me with a barrage of questions about my family and background and then work out the genealogical ties to the people she knows. (Once she learned that my brother Ron was roommates with Neville Longbottom, she warmed up noticeably: she was roommates with Augusta Longbottom, and apparently they still correspond regularly. Perhaps that is a tie which we can use?)

It turns out that Gilbert Morrison, who is just under Latimer Caldwell, is her nephew. Gilbert had left for the day by the time our conversation ended, but she promised to drop a word in his ear, and I'll try to touch base with him later this week.

So, the upshot: Umbridge has the head of the department in her pocket, more or less, but the people underneath him are growing alarmed about the situation. We should definitely use that.

[alt_molly]

I'm dreadfully torn. I'm so angry that this woman has apparently set out to destroy the Hogwarts we all knew. I don't want to abandon it to her! I do want the children to finish school; I'm worried about their futures. But you're right, Sirius, I'm afraid it is getting dangerous for them.

I'd like to hear what Pomona learned at the meeting.

[alt_alice]

If we are looking to remove the ISS, it'd be a fairly large-scale move. Whereas Fred and George could presumably leave school and get work without too much disruption even without NEWTs, pulling the younger ones out en mass would raise a great deal more suspicion, and I see very few solutions other than moving them to Moddey full time, which would mean we'd most likely have to bring in Molly, Bill, Charlie, and Augusta for good measure.

We could do it. It is an option. And I'd be willing to ask the ISS to consider that option. I just think our best choice right now is to try and address things at the source first. We've got to see if sorting out the blackmail will do the trick, but that needs to move faster. Severus, can you see what you can find?

And at this point, I am not as adverse to using whatever methods necessary to remove her from power. As long as they're carefully done, and we secure solid alibis for Poppy and Minerva. I wonder what sort of safeguards she has in place for her personal safety.

[alt_lupin]

Moving the entire Institute now would raise quite a few suspicions, it's true. If they can hold out until the end of the year, the OWL students could opt not to return for NEWTs and probably no one would look too closely. (Or maybe I'm being overly optimistic about that. Pomona, what sort of response do you think it would get if our OWL students all decided not to return after their exams?)

Of course, if someone deals with that horrific nightmare of an alleged Headmistress before next autumn that should make things a great deal safer.

[alt_pomona]

I think it would raise more than a few eyebrows. Even without the idiotic requirements Umbridge has put in, there is still rather a lot of tracking done on students. I think Bill's very right that you could not remove some of the Weasleys without all of them going into hiding, though there are probably a few students who could slip through the cracks somehow.

From the sound of it, I do think that something will give before next autumn. It's just a matter of when. And what. And who.

[alt_alice]

We might be able to handle Sally-Anne, Ron, and Neville quietly leaving after OWLs, as well as Evelyn and Luna eventually, but I'd imagine Justin's got a rather different set of expectations on him, as does Pansy, Hydra, and Harry. And Draco Malfoy, if they end up deciding to bring him on. And Susan Bones has family who would have to be taken into account.

If we could extract a few without raising too many eyebrows, then that's certainly a better option than pulling everyone in, but I wouldn't want to make that sort of move unless the entire ISS was behind it, as we'd be asking an awful lot of those who would be in less of a position to leave.

[alt_sirius]

I'm not talking about pulling them out of society, Alice. I'm talking about relieving them from having to attend school.

Once the halfbloods pass their O.W.L.s, no one cares if they go on for N.E.W.T.s and from Dora's experience it doesn't much matter even if they do stay. They can withdraw from school to make their own way and no one has to know they're continuing their education in secret. No one has to move away or go into hiding - just take a stand about the state of Hogwarts' leadership. I doubt anyone on the Council would be surprised. In fact, they might welcome the ammunition that would come from a walk-out.

[alt_alice]

Yes, that's what I meant.

That Sally-Anne, Ron, and Neville could more easily leave school and get work, and we wouldn't have to pull the Weasleys or send anyone into hiding.

The ISS would have to be very much a part of the conversation, as it's a big decision to make either way -- and those who stayed would have to weigh what they'd be staying for.

We've been criticised by the ISS for not taking into account the group as a whole in the past -- the fact that we gave portkeys to Hermione, Neville, and Evelyn, but not to Ron even though he was arguably at just as high a risk as Neville and Evelyn was a specific sticking point. So I think that involving them in the process will be an important step to makes sure that if we do provide chances for some to leave and not others, it's clear as to why, and they have the ability to make those decisions too.

[alt_alice]

Perhaps it should be us.

I'd rather we control the circumstances and be able to deflect as much attention away from Poppy and Minerva than wait for someone else to get up the nerve. And it's not as if she's holding anything over our collective heads.

[alt_pomona]

I'd very much like to hear what Severus has to say on that.

It did come up, last night, that various of us are certain she's using some of the portraits to her advantage. And that's a tricky thing to work around. (We do have tutors coming and going at the moment, so there is some more possibility than there has been.)

The other part is that I've no idea what kind of defences she has in place. Certainly some (since she thought ahead about the accusations and other steps if something did happen to her). It's very hard to tell her level of skill: some things, she has a very sharp wand, others she seems to entirely be ignorant of.

[alt_severus]

I have identified multiple points at which I could have dealt with the problem easily — the woman takes very few personal precautions. A coating of poison rubbed into her teacup in advance of supper and allowed to dry would be the easiest thing in the world, and I have knowledge of several that would mimic natural causes.

(An additional benefit would be that at supper, should the wrong person grab any teacup so prepared, it would be Dolohov or Lestrange. I would not weep if either were to accidentally succumb.)

[alt_bill]

Well, yes, we could do it. And I agree that it would mean pulling in the rest of the Weasleys who are in the Order, but think, Alice: If I'm pulled in, that would drastically affect our mission to the muggleborn, and decimate our intelligence-gathering at the Ministry. We'd lose all the networks I've made, or at least they'd become much more dangerous and difficult to tap. Other than Tonks, Nick would be our chief contact left. Not that he isn't doing a spiffing job, but he isn't positioned very strategically yet.

If Charlie's pulled in, we lose our only potential window to what's happening with the wards.

I agree about the danger to the kids, and Merlin knows, I don't want to lose any of them. But bringing the rest of us Weasleys in would also be a huge blow.

[alt_sirius]

It wouldn't have to be all or nothing, Bill. It wouldn't have to be a renunciation of the Protectorate for the whole family, or even all of the Institute. And it wouldn't have to result in everyone going into hiding at Moddey.

Molly could simply say that she no longer thinks the school's leadership is aligned to the Protector and she's pulling her kids out to finish their education privately. We'd handle the teaching in secret just as we did over the holidays.

If Pomona's right and things do change by summer, then that's different. But if it looks for one second like whomever they put in place is going to be anything like that bint, then we should consider telling them they don't have to come back at all.

And it's only the halfbloods who'd have to worry about disappearing, and that's only if they don't pass with a sufficient number of O.W.L.s. It seems to me that no one much cares what happens to them after that.

[alt_alice]

And even then, Susan Bones and Justin are in a different sort of position, aren't they?

Justin's defection makes him a public figure, which means that he'd be under a great deal of pressure to stay, and although Susan is technically a halfblood, she's got family support rather than fostering.

We certainly ought to give them the choice, however.