Well, well...... it looks like Voldy might have competion for his best friend from the grunt squad! Of course, if any of them are both stupid and/or hooked enough to try stealing those little bottles they'll get a first hand look at the other side. Such a pity, that. I wonder if they'd have a warm welcome from their victims? And who would have thought Dumbles would have the mindset of a drug pusher? Why, he might have missed his calling.......Dumbledore, drug lord. He's got Snape to run the lab, and Voldy and the DE's as clients. At least he didn't drop some of his special mixture in Poppy's supplies! The board already wants his head, and hooking innocent kids on his stuff would be just one more mark against him. He might be considered just the villiage idiot at present but something like that would totally ruin what little reputation he has left. He'd probably blame Snape though. I loved the board meeting, between the missing money/students and the take over by competant people I'm suprised Dumbles didn't reach for a little brown bottle of his own....... but then he has those lemon drops. Dumbles must be hating life right now, between Harry's actions and the tag team of Andromeda, Augusta, Amelia and Carolyn! It's going to be a long year for him! It's also going to be a long year for Snape too.....he's caught beteen two nutcases and no escape in sight. Couldn't happen to a more deserving slimy worm...... Ponders: since Voldy's increased torturing all his minions, especially the ones with brains, is it possible that a few might try to bail and get captured by Amelia and company? Or will they try to escape and be snuffed by Voldy? Who knows, Nagini might be leading the pack! As for the mission, is Voldy too far gone to realize what his little mission has done? Harry did warn the Queen what sort of people they were dealing with, and unfortunately the DE's did have some success with this latest mission. I'm just glad that it wasn't a group home for children. It's poor comfort to the ones who died and their families, but at least they were able to strike back against the people who attacked them. I think though that the Queen will understand that it was beyond Harry and Amelia's control, and that if they had known they'd have tried to help. Terrorists are scum, and scum doesn't care what happens to innocent people. Will Voldy learn from this, or will he just try another target? This won't look good for the recrutement drive..... the DE's are being whittled down quite thouroughly! It's good to see! Pity that real world terrorists can't be dealt with in a similar way....sighs. I also enjoyed seeing how Harry dealt with Ernie and Ron. It was also good to see his talk with Megan. As for the other guys, here's hoping that they not only apply the lesson to their behavior during this period, but remember it after this is over. The acronyms were fun! By the way, I know Carolyn will do her best, but Vernon and Petunia won't keep their mouths shut unless she spells them shut.....and that would be an improvement! As always it was a fantastic chapter! I hope Harry and Neville will get through to Ron, but I have my doubts! :)
Author's response
WOW! This is the longest review you've ever written! Thank you!
As usual, I'll try to take it point for point.
Competition: Just yet they won't know they're hooked. And an addiction takes time to build. What I've done is jumpstart the process. Since most of the Deez are wealthy, they'll find ways to procure their own...at first.
Greetings in the afterlife: "Why 'ello, gvn'r. Oi got this loverly boxin' rink jes set up. Y'know wehat a boxin' rink is fer, don' ye? Well, it ain't fer wrappin' bloody Christmas gifts, oi c'n tell ye 'at!
Dumbley's mindset: Anything he does for the greater good is automatically all right. For such a long lived person, he has a rather black/white view of the world.
Tom is his primary target, and so anything he can do to weaken that target it acceptable. and you're right. The -only- reason he brewed the untainted potions for the hospital wing is so nobody would investigate the source.
Board meeting/Lemon drops: Yeah, he definitely has a headache! A sip or two of Snape's 'special blend', would set him straight.
On the other hand, Albie -is- an Alchemist.
And the lemon drops will come in to play soon.
You're right. Albie s going to have a long and uncomfortable year ahead. BWA...BWAHAHA...BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Snape: I have no mercy for Snape. I utterly detest the character, so anything I can do to make him hurt is good in my book.
Voldy, torture and Nagini:
Yeah, Voldy is becoming more and more irrational as time goes on. Perhaps Snape will try to substitute a less addictive potion, but I'm not certain there is one. I'm also not certain Dumbledore would allow it.
Having the Deez try to defect is a good idea. I might use that. Amelia has a method of concealing the mark, and hiding them on the continent, so it might work. On the other hand, they really don't have anything of use to the Ministry that would justify their transfer. Voldemort guards his secrets as well, or better than Dumbledore.
Nagini has a special part to play, though she doesn't know it just yet, and I have no intention of killing her off if I don't have to. It's not her fault she was enslaved by a lunatic.
Mission: He doesn't care...simple as that. To him, muggles are animals to be enslaved or wiped out. Just now, he's limiting the contact because he knows the muggles outnumber him 10,000:1, but that can't hold. Soon enough he'll become arrogant enough that he'll start full scale operations against the muggles as well. That's where the Ministry comes in. Amelia has brokered assistance treaties with France, Italy and Spain, at least.
When he strikes, she'll have the troops she needs to jump all over his crew.
The warning I had Harry give to the queen still holds true, but Riddle is a bigot. He still doesn't believe the muggles are capable of harming him. Since he was under the influence during the raid, and shortly afterward he chugged about a dozen times the safe dosage, he's going to be in stupid-ville for some time to come. When he returns to what passes for his reality, hes going to decide that there must have been blood traitors in the muggle group and that's how his people were injured and killed.
Like Dumbledore, he never listens to anyone but himself.
Unfortunately it's a sad fact that in war, soldiers die. I've buried too many of my friends because of that fact. The queen is also a pragmatist. She cares a great deal for her subjects, but she does understand war only too well.
At least these deaths aren't going to be passed off as 'training accidents'. The families will be told their sons died fighting a dangerous terrorist group and killed more than fourty of the aggressors. Like you said, it won't hurt any less, but the families will have a concrete reason for their deaths.
Nobody knows what the initial target was but Voldemort and Selwyn, so Snape couldn't allow it to leak. For all intents, it was a training mission to sow terror, that went wrong. Since Dumbley is now out of the loop, he won't learn from the queen, who really doesn't know all that much anyway. All he has is Snape's report that the dark lord had three holes and two pieces of metal in him, and fourty of his servants were killed.
Dumbledore knows what a bullet is, and Riddle probably does too, but Snape might not. Even during this formative years, guns were very rare in British popular culture.
Will Voldy learn: Are you kidding? Voldy never learns! That's what makes him so much fun to write!
Recruitment: Unfortunately there's never a lack of people willing to do anything for power. The 'it can't happen to me' scenario is always at the forefront of minds like that.
Also, he's getting more and more careless, more erratic. This will affect the targets he's chooses from here on. Snape will have to keep providing stronger and stronger formulas and Voldy will become more and more addicted.
~Pity that real world terrorists can't be dealt with in a similar way....sighs.~
They can. It's just illegal.
Ernie/Ron: Like Dudley, Ron is redeemable. Ernie, in canon was a pompous overbearing ass, though when the chips were down, he stood solidly by Harry. Here, I've used his earlier personality...specifically that of CoS.
When my daughter told me a boy she knew would pat her ass whenever he'd walk by, I had a little chat with him, explaining the problem there. I believe I told him that there are 28 bones in either hand and I could break all but 8 on a side, without a hammer. then I showed him my well-used 'Fat-Max' 28 ounce framing hammer.
He got the point.
I think Ernie got off lightly.
Megan: One must recognize quality work.
Acronyms: That was too much fun.
Another nod to the genius that is my sister FireLemming.
Carolyn: Actually, that's what I had planned, though I'm going to use a behavioral compulsion instead of an outright spell.
Ron: Harry wants him on the team. He's willing to bend over backwards to make sure he stays, both in the group, and aligned with the Jedi side. Remember, Ron is the character most in danger of turning to the dark side. While I've made him a better character than in canon, he does tend to demonstrate some of the less desirable traits that made him so reviled in the later books. He's still easily angered, quick to judge, jealous, and has an inferiority complex...despite the strong evidence to the contrary.
He is, in fact the very thing spymasters look for, when recruiting local agents.
Neville and Ron. Nevile will do his utmost to help Ron. He's that kind of guy.
I have one more method of reforming him, which will be shown in December.
Thank you for the lovely review. I wish everybody would give this kind.
Alorkin