ORDER ONLY: Private message to Charlie Weasley and Sally-Anne Perks

[alt_alice]

We're working through some logistics today at Grimmauld. You both have a knack for finding structural weaknesses, and would find it difficult to get away and join us.

I'm hoping you'll be able to share some additional thoughts you have now that you've had time to chew it over a bit, so we can consider them during our planning phase. And Sally-Anne, feel free to ask your fellows at school to weigh in too -- this message is not meant to be exclusionary, it's meant to narrow our focus a bit.

Comments

[alt_charlie]

You're right, I have been thinking about it. Still haven't come up with anything to suggest, though. (And ta for the compliment. I don't think I'm anything special, though, I just look at it like a chess problem to solve and then try to find all the possible moves.)

Are we trying to free those particular poor buggers women and children in there, or are we trying to make it so Strangeweale can't keep doing whatever he's doing to others in the future? Because I hate to say it, but we might not be able to do both, not at once. And just destroying the machine won't work to stop him, just slow him down a bit. We've already seen that.

Relying on Polyjuice is dangerous, since there might be protections in place. Sending Tonks is dangerous, too, because if there's anything in there that would finger her as a metamorphmagus, they'd show straight up at her door -- I don't remember, is she the only metamorph around these days? At very least she's the only one working for the Ministry, unless they've got somebody tucked away down there nobody knows about. And if they find her, they find Laszlo's, and from there to a lot of others. Not that I think sending Tonks is a bad idea, just something to think about.

Also, I bet they all know each other down there, so trying to impersonate someone specific -- no matter how you do it -- will be risky. I wonder if Snape might be the answer there, he could read someone's mind to figure out what the right thing to say in a situation would be.

What if we took out Strangeweale first, while he was outside the Ministry -- made it look like an accident, or the work of some random thief or something? Or even took him into custody, then sent someone in polyjuiced as him -- but that would still be risky, since I bet he's spent a lot of time with those people and they'd spot anything out of the ordinary. Although if he's in charge of the project, well, the Protectorate doesn't exactly teach people to question their bosses.

Actually. You know. We have a few Legilimens on hand. We should arrange for one of them to be in the same room as Strangeweale in advance, and see if they can get anything from him. Toss an Obliviate after and it shouldn't alert him.

Private message to Alice

[alt_charlie]

Also, while I have you: What you said to Bill was very kind.

I just hope he listens. The self-loathing can't be helping his current situation.

Re: Private message to Alice

[alt_alice]

It was true, love. Every word of it.

[alt_alice]

If we have to destroy the machine, that means infiltrating the Department of Mysteries one way or another. While we're there, it's worth trying for a rescue.

Polyjuice is a risk. If we question him extensively, we might be able to determine whether we can go that route or not, given his knowledge of security procedures.

I agree that we'd have to be careful about Tonks because she's one of our members living in the open, so it'd be risky to Laszlo's and Remus as well. What do you think might tip people off that she was a metamorphmagus? Would sensors be able to detect her? There are so few of her kind, I'm not sure they would've accounted for it. It's still worth thinking through.

If he appears to destroy the machine and himself in the process, that might be a cleaner story with less loose ends. We could have him leave a suicide note. And that would create enough confusion to get the victims out, possibly.

[alt_sally_anne]

Well she'd want to pick her appearance very carefully. She ought to look sixteen but only just, so that anyone who got away and told MLE what happened later would think, 'well, I thought she was sixteen but obviously she was just very young looking.'

That's a good argument for having her be a muggleborn and Imperiusing Strangeweale. Because if she impersonated Strangeweale and they DO have a way of detecting polyjuice they'll know that either the polyjuice detection didn't work OR the person was a metamorphmagus and then she'll be in terrible trouble.

[alt_alice]

That's a very good point, Sally-Anne -- to make her look young enough to qualify for the machine at first glance, but edging older so that people wouldn't jump to the conclusion it was a metamorphmagus.

I'm hoping that if we do things right, it'll be unclear enough as to what happened so that fingers might not point to the 'victim' in the first place -- we may be able to set Strangeweale up for a fall that places the blame on him.

[alt_sally_anne]

I'd rather rescue everyone.

But, if we stalk and pick off every person who works in the Department of Mysteries I don't know if anyone would be left who would even know what the machine did. Strangeweale and all his assistants. And then no one from the Order would have to go into Mysteries.

I mean Draco says his father doesn't like Strangeweale and doesn't have any idea what he's up to. And really, if he's not telling Mr Malfoy about it that probably means not very many people do know.

[alt_alice]

I think that might be a reasonable fall-back, in case we are utterly unable to gain access.