"Well, Amelia and the Unspeakables are ready to go with getting rid of all the Death Eaters and sympathisers out of the Ministry," said Sirius. "They're just waiting until the right time to kick Fudge out of office. Between when the Minister is sacked and a new one wins the election, they'll make their move."
Matthias nodded and said, "With Sirius's and Harry's help, I've just about convinced Ogden to step up and run for the post. Once we've finally convinced him, the plan will go into action."
"What's the hold up?" asked Ant, clearly just curious.
"Tiberius... Ogden, that is... is not quite ready yet to believe Fudge isn't the better person to lead us through the war," explained Matthias. "Tiberius still thinks Fudge will soon come to his senses. We just know he won't.
"I think it's going to take getting Tiberius to talk to Fudge directly to push him to the point he'll take the job. I'm trying to set up a meeting now."
"Any news about this Riddle character?" Ant asked next.
"None," said Harry. "He's laying low. I suspect it's because he doesn't feel as powerful as he expected to be after the resurrection ritual, and he's worried something went terribly wrong. If that's the case, he's right of course.
"However, we need to keep an eye out for Death Eater attacks on muggleborn homes, Diagon Alley and the like. The first one we can't do much about, because there's too many of them and not enough of us. But, we should set up a monitoring system, or something, for the Alley.
Shaking his head, Matthias said, "I don't think we'll see any overt attacks until Riddle's resurrection is publicly acknowledged."
"I'd have to agree," said Sirius.
"Then, if there are any attacks, they'll be on the muggleborns," sighed Harry. "We need a way..."
He suddenly stopped and sat up straighter, deep in thought. The others gave him a few moments to think what ever it was he was thinking about, through.
"Portkeys or alert wards?" he said to himself. "But, how many are there? And how do I track them down? For that matter, how do the Death Eaters track them down?"
"Harry?" asked Sirius, confused. "What're you talking about?"
Coming back to himself, Harry looked to his godfather and said, "We know Voldemort will send his thugs after muggleborns; right?"
Sirius nodded back.
"Right, so how does he find them?" he asked. "Is there a record of... oh, of course there is."
"A record?" muggleborns?"
asked
Matthias.
"Of
"Yes; the Ministry has a couple of different ways to track down muggleborns," explained Harry. "The first is through accidental magic in non-magical areas. The second is through the Hogwarts' register, which would have to include the home addresses of all students. The third would include the rare time a muggleborn used magic outside of school and received a warning of underage magic notice.
"We need the information in those records to immediately become even more tightly regulated. We need to stop the Death Eaters getting access to that information."
Nodding, Matthias said, "I'll get Amelia onto that. The Obliviators work from within her department, as does the Underage magic office. I guess the Education examination authority would also have the records of muggleborn students."
"Yeah, that information needs to be placed under better protections," said Sirius. Looking to Harry he asked, "What made you think of it?"
"I was trying to determine whether I could offer an emergency portkey to the families of the all the muggleborn Hogwarts students," explained Harry. "But, I don't know their addresses to visit them to ask. Then I also thought of setting up alert wards for each property keyed to the Dark Mark, or something; and that had the same problem finding them. So, how do Riddle's thugs find them?
"That's what led me to think about whom at the Ministry would know. Accidental magic was the first and most obvious clue. And things snowballed from there.
"However, if we can get those records better secured, the chance of muggleborns being targeted in the first place is greatly reduced. Riddle's thugs can't do them harm if they can't be found."
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, the girls were sitting around the dining table. As they sat down, Deece cast a silencing ward around them so they could speak freely, without the males overhearing them.
"Everything's on target for the fourteenth of August for the wedding," said Cele. "Roma and Della have been helping us co-ordinate."
"They're lovely, aren't they," said Hermione.
"Yes, they've been a real godsend..." realising what she just said, Cele stopped in a shock for a moment before suddenly bursting out laughing in embarrassment as the others laughed. "I cannot believe I just said that."
Once they'd all calmed down again, Deece said, "I have no idea how they're doing it and I don't know I really want to know - but close family and friends have already been notified."
"Because of the dangerous times, the guest list is being kept small," said Cele. "From my side, we're inviting Hermione's grandmother, Elizabeth; her Uncle and Aunt, my brother and his wife, Robert and Marybeth; her Uncle, my brother, John and his partner, Suzette; and her Aunt, my sister, Stacy. All, with the surname Cummings.
"From Ant's side, we have Hermione's grandfather, Stephen, and his partner, Clarice Brennan; and her Aunt, Ant's sister, Gloria Playwright."
Taking it from there, Deece said, "From ours, we have kept the list even shorter due to security. Too much of our extended family have ties with Riddle for us to be comfortable. "We'll have Daphne's Aunt and Uncle, my sister and her husband, Violet and Amos Diggory; and their son, Cedric, and his girlfriend, Cho Chang; and Matthias wants us to invite Tiberius Ogden as a representative from the Ministry."
"And Harry will want Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, the Longbottoms and Nymphadora Tonks to represent family," said Hermione. "I think he'll also want to invite Arthur Weasley and the twins.
"For friends, there's Neville to stand with Harry, Luna to stand with me, and Tracey to stand with Daphne. Other friends include Blaise Zabini, Cedric you already have, and if we can get them there's Victor Krum and Fleur Delacour."
"That should be about all," said Cele. "As we said, we want to keep the guest list low."
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