Tannim's blog: "Harry Potter and the Mental War"

September 11^th

The next morning, Severus looked up from his potions book to see Ginny's head in the fire at Grimmauld Place.  "Severus?  I need to speak with you."

"What is it, Miss Weasley, which interrupts this work?" sneered Snape.

"Stuff the attitude, Severus," Ginny said crossly.  "It's about that work."

She related to him what she saw the previous night during the transformation.  He listened carefully, his sneer giving way to interest and then astonishment.  As she finished, he was stroking his goatee and frowning in thought.

"Miss Weasley, that is indeed impressive, and most useful.  I must apologize for my earlier attitude.  You realize what I am working on, of course.  It is most challenging."

"Understandable, Severus.  We'd all like to see a cure."

"Could I ask a favor?" asked Severus.  "Could you bottle up that memory so I could examine it better?"

Ginny smiled.  "Already thought of that."  She held out a silvery vial.

Severus took it.  "Thank you."  He placed it on the table, the suddenly gasped in pain and grabbed at his left wrist.

Ginny looked alarmed.  "What is it?"

Severus winced in pain.  "The Dark Lord is attempting to summon any remaining Death Eaters," he said through gritted teeth.  "Tell Potter.  I must resist this, since I'm supposed to be in Azkaban."

Ginny thought a moment, then raised a hand and murmured a spell.  "That should help.  I just cast an anti-apparation jinx on you."  Snape let out a visible sigh of relief.

"Thank you again.  Please tell Potter."

Ginny left the fire.

:Voldemort is up to something, Harry.  He just tried to summon Death Eaters.

:Including Snape?

:I saw him when it happened and helped him fight it off.  He told me to let you know.

:All right, I'll see what Tom is up to.

Harry reached out and broke into Voldemort's mind.

* * *

Enough is enough!  Here I am, the greatest wizard of all, hiding like a coward from a mere teenager!  It is past time to stop brooding and liberate my followers even if I have to do it all myself!

He pressed on the Dark Mark and waited.

After thirty minutes, he saw several figures apparate: four in all, cloaked and masked.  They kneeled before him.

"I do not recognize you.  Name yourselves!"

"We serve the Dark Lord," said one in a girlish voice.  "Pansy Parkinson."

"Gregory Goyle."

"Theodore Nott."

"Vincent Crabbe."

"I know those names."  Voldemort looked at the four.  "Your parents, I believe, have been my servants."

"Yes, my Lord, and they are in Azkaban, placed there by that Potter and his traitor friends," said Pansy bitterly.

"How were you able to come here?" demanded Voldemort.  "Only my Death Eaters are able to answer my call, and you have not been inducted! Speak!"

Pansy showed the Dark Mark above her left wrist.  "Our parents duplicated their marks and their enchantments."

She took a deep breath and continued.  "We come to serve you, my Lord, and to liberate our parents from Azkaban.  We also have information of the doings of Harry Potter."

Voldemort thought about it.  Young help is better than no help at all.  "Very well.  What information about Potter do you have?"

"He has grown in ability and strength, and become a skilled Legillimens and Occulmens.  He also is teaching at Hogwarts and training students in advanced spells and dueling, and physical conditioning, along with the Aurors.  His blood traitor friend Weasley married the Mudblood Granger and they are Head Boy and Girl, and he is currently dating the blood traitor's sister, who is at Hogwarts training to be a Healer."  Pansy reported.  "He is relatively safe and very popular there."

"Legillimens and Occulmens?  That explains much.  No matter now.  At this distance not even that dead old fool Dumbledore could reach me."  He turned and paced, thinking.  "We shall liberate Azkaban.  The Dementors are gone, but some well-placed work can break it down.  We will need to be able to get wands to my other servants there as we liberate them.  As we do that, we shall be able to take them all."

He turned to them.  "That means we must get wands for them first.  And that means Ollivander."

"Prepare to travel.  I will return to Britain and we shall make our plans."

The four teens bowed at his feet.  Voldemort summoned Nagini, and they set off for Malfoy Manor.

* * *

Harry withdrew from Voldemort's mind, then turned and started pacing himself.

He doesn't know that Ollivander is on vacation in Romania, seeing Charlie about more dragon heartstrings.  That's good, because it means he won't be there when they hit the wand shop.

We need to let him do this, to build his overconfidence.  Plus, it gets Snape back with him, which we need for the next steps in the plan, and if we're going to figure out the two missing Horcruxes.

He fingered his coin.  "Ron?  Hermione?"  Their faces appeared.  "Meet me at McGonagall's office immediately."  He started to walk that way, then called Ginny.

:Love? I need you here, now.

:Coming.

A moment later Ginny arrived with a pop.

"What is it?"

"He's on the move.  C'mon.  The war just came back into town."

They made it to McGonagall's office, and Ron and Hermione arrived a second later.  The four went up, and knocked on the door.  It opened for them, and they went inside.

McGonagall looked up with a smile.  "You lot!  To what do I owe this visit?"  Her smile disappeared with Harry's words.

"Headmistress, we need to call the Order, right now."

* * *

A few minutes later, most of the Order had arrived, as well as Cornelius Fudge, as requested by Harry and escorted by Kingsley and Arthur.  Briefly Harry explained what Voldemort had planned.  Then he dropped the bombshell.

"We need to let both things happen."  The reaction of utter disbelief was predictable.

"What?" spluttered Fudge.  "You want him to succeed?  Are you barking mad?"

"No, I don't, and I'm not," Harry replied.  "But in order to have him regain his overconfidence, it is necessary.  Plus, we can minimize the casualties."  He turned to Kingsley.  "Have the Aurors place untraceable tracing spells on all of the prisoners, especially his inner circle of Death Easters.  If they sneeze, I want to know it before they put their hands to their mouths.  If they belch, I want to know what they ate for dinner."  He turned back to Fudge.  "We show him what he wants to see, but we will be manipulating him all the while.  We give some ground, but he has to offer battle to get what he wants, and it's easier to play defense anyway.  The Ministry needs to appear to be caught flat-footed on this one.  I know politically that is bad for you, but it's necessary.  The plan is simple:  We replace the guards with doppelgangers and get them out safely.  We let them attack and liberate, then after they leave we repair things and the guards return.  Then the real war begins."

He turned to a portrait.  "Professor Dumbledore, please inform Warden O'Malley of the Order's arrival and the plan."  Dumbledore nodded and walked out of his portrait.

"Potter, why can't you simply wait there and take Voldemort down?" Fudge wailed.  "You're more than a match for him now."

"Not yet, Minister.  If I tried to take him down now, it wouldn't work.  I know that, and the time is not yet right.  It will be soon, but this has to happen first.  We will make up the lost ground, and there will be casualties, but if we don't work it this way, it will be far worse," Harry replied.

"What of Nott, Parkinson, Crabbe, and Goyle?" asked McGonagall.  "I don't like the idea of Death Eaters roaming around here in the school."

Harry sighed.  "I don't either, but we can't let them know we're on to them, or else they'll tip off Voldemort.  If anything, we'll use them as a conduit to show Voldemort what he wants to see, different from what is really happening.  The best you can do at this point is to give them detention for going into the Forbidden Forest."

Dumbledore reappeared in his portrait.  "Warden O'Malley is ready and waiting."

"Let's get busy."

* * *

Harry apparated to Grimmauld Place to find Snape waiting for him.

"Severus, it appears that the plans have to change.  Voldemort plans to liberate Azkaban personally in the next few hours.  You need to be there to be 'liberated' and rejoin his service.  Do not mention our Horcrux hunt."  Snape nodded.  Harry looked him straight in the eyes.  "Good Luck."

"Thank you.  My notes for Lupin's condition are here for the Weasleys to continue in my absence."  He disapparated to Azkaban with a pop.

* * *

Voldemort and the teens apparated directly into the wand shop at midnight, to find it closed and unoccupied, as expected.  Quickly, guided by Voldemort's magical detection skills and instructions, they rounded up two hundred wands, then disapparated.  They were there for all of ten minutes.

Across Diagon Alley, above Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, Fred lowered his Quidditch binoculars.  He moved to the fireplace and sent a message to the War Room: "In and out in ten minutes.  No disturbance, no casualties, and they're on their way."  Then he and George went to bed.

* * *

"MORSMORDE!"

Alarms blared throughout the prison as the Death Mark appeared in the sky over Azkaban.  Voldemort and the teens apparated to the front gates and began the assault.  The doppelgangers easily fell to the assault, killed mercilessly by the Dark Lord, as the teens began a systematic blasting of the lower outer walls with Reduction Curses.  Soon, they were able to make their way into the lower levels, accompanied by some Death Eaters who were able to get through the rubble, and there the liberation began.  Cells were opened and wands handed out, and the numbers grew as they made their way up each level.  Soon all of the Death Eaters were freed, and as one they made their way to the warden's office.

They found it empty except for Dumbledore in his portrait.

"Hello again, Tom," Dumbledore said pleasantly as if he was ordering lunch off a menu.  "Warden O'Malley spotted you at the gates, raised the alarm, and then Portkeyed away to the mainland for help."

"He'll be too late, Dumbledore!" Voldemort sneered.  "By the time his 'help' arrives, we'll be gone!  Your plans are failing, old man, and soon that Potter brat will be mine!"

"On the contrary, Tom," Dumbledore replied calmly.  "My plans ended with my death.  The plans against you are being done by others, and while this raid has caught them off guard, they will adjust.  You had the element of surprise in this case, and you used it well."

Dolohov came running in.  "My Lord, we have taken down the anti-disapparation shields and we can leave now.  Aurors are starting to arrive outside.  Do we fight or leave?"

Voldemort looked at him.  "We leave.  The task here is done."  He turned back to Dumbledore.  "Another time, old man.  Tell Potter I'm coming for him, soon."

He disapparated with a crack.  Dozens of cracks echoed throughout the tower as Death Eaters followed their master, leaving frustrated Aurors in their wake.

* * *

Dumbledore moved to his portrait at the War Room.  "It's over.  The Ministry is securing the tower, and the guards and Warden O'Malley have returned, and repairs have begun.  It appears that he only freed Death Eaters, just under two hundred in all."  He looked at Harry.  "He said that I should tell you that he would be coming for you soon."

Harry just smiled.  "Good, that means he's getting his cockiness back.  He still doesn't understand what happened August 2^nd."

He sat back and broke into Voldemort's mind.

* * *

The Death Eaters assembled at Malfoy Manor.

Voldemort sat in his chair, waiting.  Finally they were all present, and he rose to speak.

"I reward my servants for their successes, and I do not forget their failures.  Pansy Parkinson, Gregory Goyle, Junior, Vincent Crabbe, and Theodore Nott, step forward."

The teens stepped forward, then genuflected before him, staying on one knee, heads down.

"These four sought me out in exile and assisted me in liberating the rest of you.  They came of their own free will and they will be rewarded for their faithfulness.  But for now, they have a job to do, returning and being my spies at Hogwarts.  Go now, and report to me directly every other day as to happening regarding Potter, and his friends.  Report earlier than that if necessary.  Otherwise, be model students and do nothing to attract notice."

"We serve the Dark Lord," they intoned, then rose and disapparated with four cracks.

"As for the rest of you, you all were bumbling fools to wind up in Azkaban!  Had you executed my plans as they were intended, none of this would be necessary, the ministry would have fallen, and we would have Potter by now!"

Snape rose and spoke.  "My Lord, we did follow your plans.  In each case there were ambushes waiting for us, and we had lost the element of surprise.  They KNEW what we were doing, and even though I was your spy, I was not privileged to the plans, so I did not reveal anything!"

"Silence! Crucio!"  Again Snape felt the curse but not the pain, and he acted it out.

Voldemort looked over the assembled.  "Such foolishness will not happen again.  We have relied on fear as a weapon for too long.  They did not fear us that day.  We will make them fear us again!  We will train and hone skills and reactions!"

* * *

Harry withdrew from Voldemort's mind, and turned to the others.

"He's mad at his people, and he's going to take a page from our book and get them on a training regimen.  Evidently he listened to those four, and they are due back at school to play spy."

He sighed.  "We continue as before, but watch where you speak, especially about the Horcruxes.  We're going to need to turn that up a notch."