The Inadequate Life

There was a sharp increase in Death Eater attacks over the next several days. According to the Daily Prophet (and the D.A.’s inside sources Tonks and Rita Skeeter), no one in the Ministry seemed to have any notion as to a reason for the sudden escalation of violence—the attacks seemed random, more to create fear than to necessarily advance Voldemort’s agenda.

Hermione speculated that the attacks were motivated by revenge; Voldemort had just lost one of his strongest, most dangerous supporters in Greyback, and the entire wizarding world knew it. That, along with the widely-publicized deaths of Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange, might make Voldemort feel he appeared weak.

Ginny pointed out that Voldemort might actually be feeling pressure to succeed. In addition to Voldemort’s public losses—Greyback, Lucius, Bellatrix and over a dozen Death Eaters, including the Parkinsons—one of his spies inside the Ministry, Percy Weasley, had been discovered and captured. Voldemort had managed to have Percy assassinated before he’d revealed any important information, but it was still a loss. And, although the public didn’t know it, Voldemort had lost the services of Severus Snape months ago. Voldemort didn’t know whether Snape was dead, incarcerated, on the run or if he’d switched sides, but Voldemort had to assume that Snape had given up all kinds of important information, one way or another. His most potent supporters seemed to be dropping like flies; with his power base crumbling, Voldemort appeared to be turning to drastic measures to try and instill fear in the populace.

“That can only be good for us, right?” Ron said as he, Harry, Hermione and Ginny met in Ron and Hermione’s room on Saturday morning. “Voldemort’s not too careful with his planning anyway—if he’s being even more reckless, he’s more likely to make stupid mistakes. That should help us.”

“Try telling that to all the people he’s had killed in the last week,” Harry said wryly.

“I just mean—”

“I know Ron, I was just kidding,” Harry interrupted. “You’re right, it might be to our advantage if Voldemort keeps acting recklessly.”

“But it also means he’ll be less predictable,” Hermione pointed out, “which makes him even more dangerous.”

“That’s true,” Ginny agreed. “Fred told me yesterday that practically everyone who comes into the shop acts scared. There’s a sense out there that Voldemort is preparing to turn the world on its end.”

“I’ve been thinking a lot about that,” Harry said slowly. “I’ve been trying to imagine what kind of forces Voldemort will be able to rally for the final battle. With any luck he won’t have a lot of warning for it, but we don’t know how fast he can organize his followers. Dumbledore said that in the last war, Voldemort had armies at his command—is that what we’re going to have to face?”

“Let’s look at it logically,” Hermione said. “One distinct advantage we’ll have is that some of the non-human races that sided with Voldemort last time won’t be an issue. With Greyback dead, the werewolf packs won’t support either side, and will stay out of any fight.”

“Are you sure about that, Hermione?” Ginny asked skeptically. “I know Greyback was the most notorious werewolf, but for the others that felt like he did about humans, Voldemort still gives them the most appealing future from their point of view.”

They all thought about that for a moment. “I’m going to ask Remus,” Harry said finally. “We’re meeting with him and Tonks tomorrow, and he’s been working on turning some of the packs since well before Greyback died—he’ll probably have better insight.”

“That’s a good idea,” Hermione said, as Ron and Ginny nodded. “Well, the other non-human race I was thinking of was the giants,” she continued. “There simply isn’t any practical way to get giants into Diagon Alley, not even through Knockturn Alley. And besides, some of the information McG—erm, Minerva sent us was the locations of the giants that the order knows of. They’re all in the far West and North of the kingdom. Voldemort’s been using them to destroy small wizarding settlements for the purposes of intimidation. Assuming we manage to give Voldemort as little time as possible before the battle, he’d never be able to get the giants to London, let alone figure out a way to get them into Diagon Alley.”

“It’s a damned good thing, too,” Ron stated vehemently. “We don’t have any way of dealing with giants—they’re just too hard to take down, especially since none of us are going to be flinging around Unforgivable curses. We should really monitor all the giants we can right up until the battle, so we can be sure they’re nowhere nearby.”

“That’s something that I’ve been thinking about,” Harry said. “You’re right, Ron, we should definitely keep closer watch on the giants’ whereabouts,” he said. “But consider this: if Voldemort doesn’t have any giants fighting for him in the battle, think how much difference it would make if we had even one giant fighting for us.”

The others stared at Harry, dumbfounded. Finally Hermione realized something. “You’re talking about Grawp, aren’t you?” she asked sharply.

“That’s right,” Harry confirmed. “Actually, I guess it would be one and a half giants, since Hagrid would have to come too.”

“Harry, I dunno,” Ron said nervously. “Maybe Hagrid can keep Grawp out of trouble in the Forbidden Forest, but…”

“You saw Grawp at Dumbledore’s funeral,” Harry said. “Did he seem out of control?”

“No,” Ginny admitted. “He was… calm. He was obviously worried about Hagrid, and understood that Hagrid was upset. He behaved himself through the whole funeral.”

“Hagrid had a lot more time to work with Grawp,” Harry said. “It was obvious that he’d made a difference in Grawp’s behavior. If Hagrid agrees, we could tell Grawp that the Death Eaters are evil—he might even remember, since he saw them when Hagrid first found him. After that, he wouldn’t have to be calm or behaved—just focused on attacking the Death Eaters.”

“Harry, that’s just cruel!” Hermione exclaimed angrily. “Grawp isn’t some—some siege weapon! He’s like a little child—he wouldn’t understand the risks! It’s unfair to put him in that position!”

Ron looked at Hermione as if she were off her rocker, but Harry understood her objection. “I wouldn’t do it if Hagrid didn’t think it was right,” he told her. “I’m suggesting that I talk to Hagrid about it and see what he thinks. Grawp would be affected by the outcome of the battle too—if Hagrid thinks that Grawp would want us to win, and can help, then I think we should do it.”

“There’s something else, Hermione,” Ginny said as Hermione seemed ready to object again. “Giants aren’t as vulnerable to magic as we are. Even in the middle of a fight, panicked Death Eaters might not be able to concentrate enough to cast something that would even harm him.”

Hermione settled down again, slightly mollified. “That’s true,” she agreed grudgingly. “We saw Hagrid shrug off half a dozen Stunning Spells, and he’s only half giant. But still, a Killing Curse would kill Grawp, wouldn’t it?”

“I think so,” Harry said. “But casting the Killing Curse is supposed to take a lot of concentration, and who would be able to concentrate when a giant is swinging a tree at them?”

Hermione shuddered, recalling the time that she and Harry watched Grawp ripping a tree out by its roots just because he was bored. “That’s not funny, Harry,” she said heatedly.

“I wasn’t kidding,” Harry responded. “Think of the mental impact it would have on the Death Eaters.”

Hermione frowned at Harry. “Yes, all right. It would help a lot, but only if we could be absolutely certain that Grawp could distinguish the Death Eaters from members of the D.A., and only if Hagrid really, honestly believes that Grawp understands what’s being asked of him and approves.”

Ron and Ginny agreed, so Harry made a note to himself to contact Hagrid and set up a meeting. “I’ll give Tonks a note to give to Hagrid when she shows up tomorrow,” he decided. “She should be able to pass it to him secretly.”

“You could just send an owl to McGonagall tonight,” Ron said. “That way Hagrid would get the note quicker.”

Harry hesitated. “I don’t want anyone in the Order knowing anything about what we’re doing unless there’s no other choice,” he said.

“Oh, come on,” Ron responded incredulously. “You think McGonagall is a spy?”

“No, but anyone in the Order might get the message and give it to her,” Harry pointed out. “I’m convinced that there’s still a spy somewhere in the Order, and without knowing who it is, we have to be careful.”

“But… but how can you be so sure?” Hermione asked. “There haven’t really been any leaks of information about the D.A….”

“What about Ernie?” Harry retorted. “Voldemort found out about him somehow, and it wasn’t from any of us! And Seamus, too! Fenrir Greyback didn’t just wander into the Shrieking Shack!”

“But it was Percy who betrayed Seamus to Greyback!” Ron said. “And he’s dead, so he’s sure not spying any longer! He wasn’t in the Order anyway!”

“Ultimately, it was Percy who gave Seamus up,” Harry agreed. “But we had good reason to suspect that Seamus was being watched before that—even before Ernie was murdered. And how did Voldemort find out about Ernie, anyway? We weren’t exactly close at Hogwarts. Someone had to have known to tell Voldemort that Ernie had been in the original D.A., and not that many people actually knew who all the members had been. But McGonagall knew, and Lupin and Tonks, and I’m pretty sure that there were some others in the D.A.—the Order had already been reformed when we started the D.A. I’m pretty sure that Dumbledore talked about the D.A. with some of the other Order members; we don’t know who, but they could have told Voldemort.”

The other three digested that for a bit. “I can’t refute your logic,” Hermione said eventually. “There are other ways that Voldemort could have found out about the D.A., but your explanation is certainly in the realm of possibility.”

“And as close as we are to the end of all this,” Ginny said with a grimace, “we can’t take the risk that it’s not true.”

“Exactly.” Harry sighed. “I really wish we could bring the Order in to help us with the final battle, but we can’t chance it. We’ll have a few of them helping—Tonks and Remus, Hagrid and maybe Grawp, maybe even Charlie and Bill—but not all of them.”

“If only there was some way of figuring out who it was,” Ron said. “But we don’t really have enough access to the Order members to do it.”

“We don’t really have the time, either,” Hermione pointed out. “We’re stretched thin as it is. And we’d have to convince Minerva that there was a spy in the first place.”

“Maybe we don’t need to,” Ginny said thoughtfully.

“What do you mean?” Hermione asked.

“Well, what if we pass false information to the Order, that all of them will hear?” Ginny suggested. “If Voldemort learned of it, we’d know for certain there was a spy.”

“But it wouldn’t tell us who it was,” Harry said.

“That wouldn’t matter,” Ginny replied. “Not if we used it right. Look, we have good reason to believe that there’s a spy in the Order, right? So if we fed them some misleading information at just the right time—like, say, right before the final battle—it might throw Voldemort’s plans off. He might commit part of his followers to something that’s pointless.”

Harry’s pulse accelerated. “That’s it,” he whispered. “Ginny—you just figured out how we’re going to get Voldemort into Diagon Alley!”

“What?” Ginny said, confused. “I did?”

Harry explained his idea, working it out as he went. Ginny, Hermione and Ron all stared at Harry with their mouths hanging open. When he was finished, Hermione gasped “Harry! That’s brilliant!”

“We wouldn’t even have to confront Voldemort in Diagon Alley,” Ginny said excitedly. “We could confront him anywhere we wanted, while his entire army is fighting in Diagon Alley and not around to help him!”

“Would the actual battle even be necessary?” Ron asked. “I mean, if we could get Voldemort somewhere else, then why risk anyone’s lives?”

“There’s no guarantee that it would work,” Harry pointed out. “If that battle wasn’t happening and Voldemort didn’t fall for the plan, then we wouldn’t have accomplished anything. In fact, we’d have messed up really badly, because Voldemort would know that we knew about the Horcruxes, and we’d never get to confront him after he discovered that they were all gone.”

“And if the battle is going on and Voldemort doesn’t fall for it,” Hermione put in, “then he’ll go straight to Diagon Alley, and we may get the opportunity to confront him there.”

“We should certainly consider that when we make our plans,” Harry agreed fervently.

“There’s more than that, Harry,” Ginny said quietly. “Even if we do manage to defeat Voldemort, there will always be people amongst his followers who will try to restore him to power—or try to exact revenge on you.”

“Or take Voldemort’s place,” Ron added.

“Exactly. But any Death Eaters that show up to the final battle will be Voldemort’s most loyal supporters,” Ginny continued. “If we can eliminate them, then any future threat will be minimized. In order to ensure the safest possible future, defeating Voldemort’s followers is just as important as defeating Voldemort himself.”

Harry nodded, his euphoria fading a bit. “Maybe someday I’ll get to live without looking over my shoulder all the time,” he muttered.

“Someday soon, Harry,” Hermione said fondly.

Before Harry could respond, there was a knock. Looking around, Harry saw Luna standing outside the door; they could see her thanks to the magic that made the door see-through from the inside.

Ginny got up and opened the door. “Hi, Luna. Do you need something?”

“Oh, good, all four of you are here,” Luna said vaguely, glancing around the room. “If you’re not too terribly busy, could you come into the other conference room, please? Sally-Ann, Padma, Terry and I would like to update you on our progress.”

“Have you managed something?” Harry asked avidly, since the four Ravenclaws had taken been working on figuring out if Harry’s blood could be used to destroy or alter the Horcruxes.

“Possibly,” Luna answered diffusely. “We may need your permission to move on to the next step.”

Eager to hear what the other group had accomplished, and not having anything specific to continue with at the moment, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny followed Luna into the second conference room, which was right next door. As soon as Ron had shut the door behind them, Harry blurted out “Well? Is it going to work?”

“We think so,” Sally-Ann answered. “Remember that at this point we’re still researching and hypothesizing.”

“But we did want to show you something… interesting,” Terry added.

Terry nodded at Padma, who lifted a sheet off the table, revealing the locket Horcrux. “What the hell?” Harry exclaimed angrily. “You weren’t supposed to do anything with the Horcruxes yet!”

“We haven’t actually tested the blood on the locket in any way,” Padma assured them quickly. “We just discovered something by accident, and it strongly supports the theory that Harry’s blood will affect the Horcruxes.”

“What is it?” Hermione asked curiously.

In answer, Padma reached over to a shelf and picked up a small vial filled with dark red liquid; Harry felt a bit queasy when he realized it was his own blood that he’d given to them to experiment with. He’d felt incredibly unsettled from the moment they’d taken it.

Padma transferred the vial to a set of metal tongs, and held it out from her body. “Now watch this,” she said, and moved the vial next to the locket, about six inches away.

Ginny jumped, Hermione gasped and Ron swore creatively as the blood rapidly climbed up the side of the vial furthest from the locket; defying gravity, it clung to the side, clearly in an effort to get as far away from the Horcrux as possible.

When Harry finally found his voice, it was rough and sharp. “ ‘Interesting’ was a massive understatement.”

“How is that even possible?” Hermione squeaked. “It—it’s only blood, for pity’s sake! It’s not like blood can think!”

“No it can’t,” Luna agreed. “But according to Sawol Immortalis, for magical purposes, blood can be considered ‘alive.’ It’s why blood is such a powerful ingredient in magic, no matter how it’s used—because it amounts to adding life to a potion. And that applies to all blood, not just human blood.”

“That would explain why dragon’s blood is such a potent ingredient in potions,” Hermione said weakly.

“That also explains why Voldemort had to use blood to resurrect himself,” Harry said vaguely, still staring at the vial. “Um, can you stop that? It’s making me feel kind of sick…”

“Oh—sorry, Harry,” Padma apologized, removing the beaker and putting it back on a shelf. “Now, Sally-Ann came up with a pretty clever question,” she continued, taking another vial off the shelf. “So we decided to test it. This vial has Sally-Ann’s blood in it. Watch…”

Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione watched closely as Padma repeated the process with the second vial. But this time, the blood simply sat inert. “So it’s only Harry’s blood that does that?” Ron queried.

“Exactly,” said Terry. “We tried blood from all four of us, but the Horcrux only reacted that way to Harry’s blood.”

“That’s why we’re now convinced that it must be possible for Harry’s blood to affect the Horcruxes,” Sally-Ann concluded. “And if we’re careful, we should be able to manipulate the outcome of that effect.”

“That may explain why touching the Horcruxes harms you, Harry,” Hermione said delicately. “Maybe the blood still in your body is having a similar reaction.”

Harry thought about that, and had to fight back an overwhelming wave of nausea. “That’s just sick,” Ron muttered in a deeply disturbed tone, voicing Harry’s opinion.

“So what are you proposing to do?” Ginny asked pointedly. “You want to start actually testing on the Horcruxes, right? What are you going to do to them?”

“We haven’t worked that part out yet,” Terry said. “We need to do a lot more research on the uses of blood in magic.”

“That’s right,” Padma agreed as she placed the second vial back on the shelf. “We’re going to be attempting something that’s never been tried before, so we have to compare how blood has been used before. By carefully studying other uses, we should be able to theorize how certain applications of Harry’s blood will affect a Horcrux. Then we can formulate a technique. And we’ll have to go over our work about a dozen times to make absolutely certain we haven’t missed anything.”

“Oh, of course we will,” Luna agreed. “We wouldn’t want any mishaps that might injure Harry.”

“What?” Ginny shouted. “What the hell does that mean?”

“Er…” Sally-Ann shuffled her feet uncomfortably. “There’s simply no precedent for the connection Harry has with V-Voldemort,” she said hesitantly. “Blood magic is very sensitive, and if we’re not careful, it’s possible that there could be some sort of—backlash that would work through the connection to harm Harry.”

“Or Voldemort,” Padma put in, “depending on what happened. But we wouldn’t want that either, because it would definitely alert him to our having possession of his Horcruxes.”

Ginny looked ready to strangle the Ravenclaws for failing to mention the potential danger to Harry sooner. Harry laid a retraining hand on her shoulder. “So what you want to do now,” he summarized calmly, “is more research. You want to figure out how to use my blood to destroy or alter the Horcruxes without anything happening to me or to Voldemort in the process.”

“Exactly,” Luna confirmed.

“And we won’t do anything else until we’ve spoken to you about it again,” Sally-Ann added.

“Damn right you won’t!” Ginny snapped.

Harry squeezed Ginny’s shoulder. “Fine,” he told them. “But from now on, no more doing anything with my blood or the actual Horcruxes until you’ve figured out exactly what to do. Then you can explain it to us, and we can try to find any flaws in your logic, and only then will we decide whether to give the go-ahead to try it. Okay?”

The four Ravenclaws agreed, seeming extremely relieved that Harry wasn’t furious with them (except for Luna, who was as unconcerned as ever). Everyone filed out of the conference room. Sally-Ann and Terry went off to start locating books for their research; Padma left to find her sister; and Luna decided to Floo to the shop and find George. “No shagging in the back room!” Harry called after Luna as she disappeared down the stairs. “Other people have to go through there, you know!”

Hermione shook her head with a smirk and changed the subject. “Harry, do we need to resume our conversation?”

Harry thought about it. “I don’t think so,” he decided. “Not right now, anyway. Let’s all think over what we talked about and come up with some ideas. We’ll talk it all through in a couple of days.”

“Good,” Hermione stated. “Pansy asked me to look over her notes on one of her potions.”

“I’ll go downstairs with you,” Ron grumbled. “Maybe I can catch up with Lee before he leaves.”

“Leaves? What do you mean?” Hermione asked.

“Lee’s supposed to be setting the first few of our—of Fred and George’s inventions today,” Ron explained. “We’re really behind, Harry,” he admitted, looking ashamed. “I just don’t have enough people and we’re always busy with other stuff, I just don’t see how we can go any faster but at this rate it’s going to take us months to get everything ready…”

“I didn’t know it was that bad,” Harry said with a grimace.

“Everyone has to work,” Ron explained. “I wanted to make sure there wasn’t any overlaps in who was putting what where, but it’s almost impossible to get us all together at the same time. I’ve had to give everyone their spots separately, and they’re doing them when they have time. It works, but there’s not enough of us to make much progress.”

“Huh. Well, maybe I can do something about it,” Harry said. “I’ll see if I can find a couple of people who can help you out, okay?”

“Thanks,” Ron said gratefully. He and Hermione waved goodbye and headed downstairs.

“Harry, I’m sorry,” Ginny said when they were alone. “I know I shouldn’t fly off the handle like that…”

“Forget it,” Harry said, pulling Ginny into a hug. “You’re looking out for me. I need that—I tend to get into trouble, in case you didn’t notice.”

Ginny snorted. “It had occurred to me. You’re in trouble right now, for instance.”

“Er—I am?”

“That’s right,” Ginny said, stepping back and pulling Harry with her by the front of his shirt. “You’ve got time free, the conference room is empty and you’re alone with your wife.”

Harry swallowed as he was pulled into the conference room. “Definitely in trouble,” he croaked before the door slammed shut.