The Inadequate Life

Harry felt like he had the energy to swim to Calais. Over the course of three days, Harry, Ginny and Pansy had successfully transmuted all the Horcruxes into—whatever they’d become. The Ravenclaws’ research and testing hadn’t been able to determine what, exactly, the objects had become, although they were still working on it. But one thing everyone was in agreement on was that they were no longer Horcruxes. The remnants of Voldemort’s soul had been wiped away. And that meant, for the first time in Harry’s life, that Voldemort was mortal—he could be killed.

And that meant that the D.A. was free to execute their plan. Harry was still working feverishly with Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Oliver and Krum on the distribution of their forces, but they were essentially set. Ron’s crew of Seamus, Dean, Lavender and Parvati were working overtime to get Fred and George’s inventions set up, including some rearranging once Harry had altered the plan to accommodate Hermione’s new role.

But Harry hadn’t yet told everyone just how close they were. So on Sunday night he called a meeting for the entire D.A., even Tonks and Remus. Only Hagrid and Grawp weren’t there, for obvious reasons.

The practice room seemed extra full with everyone crowded in. Harry looked over the group and felt a surge of determination. He and these twenty-seven other people had already accomplished miracles. And soon, they’d be fighting a war that for the first time, Harry really, truly believed that they could win.

The room fell silent when Harry walked to the front. He caught a glimpse of Remus, looking over the heads of the D.A. with surprise, probably at their deference to Harry. He whispered something to Tonks, who smirked and whispered something back; Remus looked up at Harry and clear admiration.

Trying not to feel self-conscious, Harry reached the front of the group and turned to face them. “Well,” he said, “it’s time.”

A murmur ran through the crowd of people. They all knew exactly what Harry meant. Some of them looked frightened, but a great any looked optimistic, ready to go. “We’ve been waiting,” Harry went on. “There were some things that had to happen before we could bring this to a close—I still can’t tell you what, just as a precaution to make certain that no word of it leaks at exactly the wrong time. But suffice it to say, what needed to happen has happened. The fight we’ve been working toward all this time is here; we’re choosing the ideal date, but it’ll be within the next couple of weeks.”

“The next couple of weeks?” Lavender exclaimed fearfully. “You mean…right around Christmas?”

“Probably pretty close, yeah. We don’t want to wait any longer than necessary—if we do, there’s a greater chance that something could happen to ruin everything. But we still need time to make our final preparations—and for all of you to get into a fighting mindset. Speaking of which,” he said wryly, “it’s time for each of you to be made aware of exactly what your part is going to be. Hopefully, these next couple of weeks will give you some time to really get used to the idea—especially since you’ll all be practicing your wand work until you’re ready to collapse.”

It took Harry more than four hours to explain just the basics of the battle plan. Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Oliver helped with the explanations, and Harry found himself soothing people’s trepidation as much as he answered questions. Fortunately, it was clear to everyone that an enormous amount of thought had gone into the plan, and Harry felt that people were impressed and confident with the results.

After the initial shock, most everyone was excited by the prospect of having Hagrid and Grawp on their side for the fight. And the prospect of having four talented fliers racing over their heads protecting them was very warmly received. Some of the other surprises that Harry and the others had cooked up were appreciated too.

After the basic layout of the plan was explained, Harry started getting into tactics. “Fred and George’s concoctions are marked in red on this map,” Harry said, pointing with his wan at a large map Hermione was levitating for him. “Everyone’s going to have to memorize locations so we don’t accidentally run into them ourselves. They might not be deadly, but they are very unpleasant.”

“Speaking of unpleasant—Ginny’s agreed to teach all of us the Permanent Self-Punching Hex,” Harry said. “But you’ll have to be VERY careful with it! As of right now, there’s no way to cure it, and you don’t want to accidentally hex one of us with it.” It was clear from everyone’s expressions that they definitely wanted to avoid doing so. “We’re also going to be on a new rota,” he added, “so that over the next two weeks, everyone in the D.A. has the chance to duel with everyone else. That way you won’t get used to facing one particular person’s magical skills, and can learn to duel on the fly.”

“There’s a good chance that we’re going to be facing Dementors,” Harry said next, and several people shivered. “Which means we’ll need Patronuses. We’ve got a limited number of people who can cast them successfully, which means that everyone who can will be needed when the time comes. If the past is any indication, they’ll come as a swarm, counting on us being unable to conjure any resistance to their numbers. But some time ago, just seven of us handily countered over a hundred Dementors.”

“You did?” Remus exclaimed in shock.

“Yeah, we did,” Harry confirmed. “By the way, Remus—thanks. You taught me the Patronus Charm, and I taught it to all of them. If you hadn’t taken the time with me, we’d have a very serious problem right now.” Remus flushed when everyone’s eyes turned to him. “According to my estimate, there’ll be thirteen of you at the battle who can cast Patronuses,” Harry continued. “That should be enough to handle just about any number that they can fit into Diagon Alley. Those of you who can cast the Patronus—practice it, every chance you get. It might end up being the most important spell we have when the time comes.”

“How many of you still have jobs you’re going to, other than Fred and George’s shop?” Harry asked. Several people raised their hands, and Ron took down a list of names. “I know this will probably sound strange, but I want all of you to quit your jobs,” Harry said. “Your time will be better spent preparing for the battle. Ginny and I will compensate you ourselves to make up for the wages you won’t be getting. Talk to Ron after we’re through tonight—we want to stagger the resignations so it s not too obvious what’s going on.”

“Tomorrow and Tuesday, I’m going to speak privately with each of you,” Harry told them, “to explain exactly what we want you to do during the battle. Some of you have a pretty good idea already, but I’m going to answer any questions you have, as much as I can, so that hopefully you’ll all feel as confident as possible about your part.”

“Harry,” Cho said, raising her hand nervously, “wh-what about V-V- what about him?”

“No, it’s okay,” Harry said as a few people shushed her. “It’s a fair question. After all, the whole point of this is to beat Voldemort. I have got a plan, Cho. For pretty obvious reasons, I’m not going to describe it, but I do actually know what I’m going to do. It’s risky, but then, anything would be. But I’ve been developing this for months now, and I really believe it’ll work.”

“I don’t want any of you thinking about Voldemort,” Harry told them. “I know he’s the point of all this, but luckily for you, he won’t be your concern—he’ll be mine. Focus on your roles, and it’ll make mine that much easier.”

“Harry—what are our chances?” Justin asked. “I mean, not to question your plan, I think it’s really good—but honestly, can you tell us what kind of shot we have at winning?”

“That’s another fair question,” Harry said. “Honestly, Justin? If you’d asked me that a month ago, or even a week ago, I’d probably have said that our chances weren’t so good. But we’ve just accomplished something—and I’m sorry that I can’t tell you what—that improved our chances a hundredfold. I still couldn’t say that it looks great, but it looks a hell of a lot better. I think that if we all stick to the plan and do our parts right, we’ve got a damned good chance of eliminating Voldemort once and for all.”

*****

“So it was probably obvious from the meeting last night,” Harry said, “but we’re going ahead with what I talked to you about before.”

Angelina, Alicia and Katie all nodded. “Glad to hear it,” Katie said, “because we’ve figured out how to do it.”

“You have?” Harry was stunned. “But—I mean, it can’t be that easy!”

“I wouldn’t call it easy, but it’s doable,” Angelina said. “We’ll need a sizable bribe, though. And we’ll have to go at just the right time—it would be a temporary fix, but it would last a good few hours, I would think. We should just need time to get out, get to wherever Hermione is, and tell her it’s ready. From there it would be up to her.”

Harry sat back in his chair and gaped at the three girls. He’d expected to have to urge them to step up their efforts to find a solution to the problem Harry had given them—and they’d already done it! “Explain it to me,” he said. “Every detail. I need to know the logistics of it, so we can work out how to get word from you to Hermione that it’s done.”

The three girls explained their idea, and Harry found himself deeply impressed. It was a bit of creative thinking about the situation that was pure genius on their parts. “You’ve really been working hard at this, haven’t you?” he asked weakly.

“Uh huh,” Angelina said nonchalantly. “Well, Alicia only when she can tear her pelvis off of Ollie’s, that is.”

Alicia smiled placidly. “No need to be jealous, Angie, just because Oliver has twice the stamina of Fred.”

Before the girls could descend into teasing, Harry cut them off; “I love your plan, I think it’s brilliant,” he told them. “But the more opinions the better. Hermione’s in her room with Ron—working,” he added when all three of the girls smirked. “Go up there now, and tell them your plan. If they can’t see any problems with it, than that’s what we’ll do. Oh, and let me know what size bribe we’ll need, so I can withdraw the cash.”

“Don’t you want to talk to us about our roles in the battle?” Angelina asked.

“We’re going to have separate meetings for all of the fliers,” Harry told them. “The three of you and Krum are more integral to the overall plan, so I’m going to discuss your parts with the four of you, Wood, Hermione, Ginny and Ron all together. It’s a bit more important that the fliers and Wood are all on the same page.”

“There is one thing, though: Dementors. You three can all cast Patronuses, so you’ll be needed when the Dementors show up. And as I’m sure you remember from personal experience, trying to fly with Dementors nearby is almost impossible. No matter what, no matter where you are, if you’re in the air when the Dementors show up en masse, get to the ground. You have to land and cast your Patronuses. Once the Dementors have been broken up, then you can take off again.”

*****

Harry walked into the second conference room. “Hey,” he said to Fred, George and Ginny. “I just finished with Angelina, Alicia and Katie, and ran into Lee—he said that you wanted to see me?”

“Yeah,” Ginny said. “I just heard from the last of your contacts, Harry, and this is the best they could do at finding any Mermish Water Stunners.”

Harry looked at the motley pile strewn all across the table. “It doesn’t look like much,” he said.

“It’s not,” Fred confirmed.

Harry sighed and sat down. “It makes sense,” he said. “I mean, what humans would want Mermish Water Stunners? Besides us, that is.”

“Unsportsmanlike fishermen?” George suggested.

“Funny,” Harry retorted sarcastically. “Well, I’ve exhausted all my options… there’s just no way to get any more. And now that the date of the battle is so near, there’s no time to try and plan a trip to the Black Lake.” He eyed the pile on the table. “Is there anything useful here?”

“Sure,” Fred said, poking at the stuff. “We could maybe make four…no, five receiver halves. And the same number of—no wait,” he said, pushing another piece aside. “Five receiver halves and six transmitter halves.”

“Not nearly enough for everyone,” Ginny stated unhappily.

Sorry, mate,” George said sincerely to Harry. “If we had more time we might be able to make more on our own, but…”

“It’s not your fault,” Harry said. “It’s pretty amazing that you managed to make even one magical walkie-talkie work.” He frowned at the pile again, as if willing it to multiply. Then a thought occurred to him. “Wait a second,” he said. “You said you could make five full two-way communicators?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Fred said.

“Could they all be adjusted to work with each other?”

“Funny you should mention that,” George replied. “They were making quite a ruckus when they were piled all together. That’s why they’re spread out, you see.”

“Apparently they react to one another when they’re too close,” Ginny filled in.

“But I bet we could figure out how to make them all work as one—er, network of walk-ee talk-ees,” Fred offered. “Why?”

“The fliers,” Harry said excitedly. “Give one two-way communicator to each of the four fiers, and one to Wood! He could coordinate them from the ground, and they could relay him information that no one else could see except from above!”

“That’s bloody brilliant!” Ginny exclaimed. “Instant communication, information from a birds-eye view? No Death Eaters would be able to hide! The fliers could prevent ambushes!”

“Get started on it right away,” Harry told Fred and George. “And see if you can make them smaller, too. Forget anything else you’re working on—this is your top priority.”

Harry and Ginny said goodbye to Fred and George, who were gathering up the Water Stunner pieces to take back to their shop to work on. “Where are you headed?” Ginny asked Harry.

“Actually, do you have something you’re doing now?” Harry asked.

“No,” Ginny said. “Not for about an hour. Why?” she purred, sliding up to Harry and clutching the front of his shirt. “Did you have something in mind?”

“Er—yeah, but not that,” Harry said regretfully. “Sorry…”

Ginny sighed. “Oh well. I guess I can wait until tonight. What did you actually mean?”

Harry wished he’d just said yes. “Well, I sent Angelina, Alicia and Katie to talk to Ron and Hermione, but they should be done by now,” he said. “So I thought this might be a good time to explain to you three what my plans are for Voldemort.”

Ginny’s eyes widened. “Absolutely,” she said, taking Harry’s hand and leading him to the stairs. “That’s something I’ve been waiting to hear.”