Moving on

A jerk to the torso and Jess felt his feet leave the ground as Brian's portkey took Kingsley, Jess, and Brian himself, to visit the now ex-Minister for Magic and his family.

Portkeys were not his favourite form of travel, he often thought. His lack of trust for it was only a part of the reason he hated travelling by one of more complex, more strange forms of moving long distances. But of course, that was the beauty to it. You could move far further than apparation could ever take you, and far faster than flying would get you there. It was just one of those things that you had to swallow and accept sometimes.

Landing abruptly on his feet Jess gripped his wand tightly as he checked to make sure he'd not fallen into the middle of a trap, he finally let go of the portkey and looked at the others.

"Brian?" He said curiously. "Where are we?" He asked, continuing to look around.

Having taken the portkey as well, Kingsley suddenly ended up flying away from the atrium and towards an unknown place. He looked around at the surroundings, there was no one around. You could never be to safe though, Kingsley never trusted anyone he didn't know, and this Brian was one of them. I probably should have brought my wand here, he thought with a frown. Jess seemed to have one on him though, and he was gripping it tightly, as if he expected an attack or something right now. "I am a bit confused, where are we going?" Kingsley asked again.

"You need to be read in on what really happened. Jess asked to see Robert, so that's where we're going," Brian said calmly.

The portkey took them to the plain beige painted hallway. "This way," he said quietly. "You're in an unplottable safehouse. Robert will explain." He went down the hallway to the oak door on the left and knocked. Then he opened it. "Robert," he called quietly. "We're back."

"Thank you, Brian," Robert's voice said from inside. "Send them in, please."

"Yes, Sir," Brian replied. He opened the door for Jess and Shacklebolt. "Gentlemen?"

Robert was dresssed for business as if it were any other business day--a formal business suit. He had his typical Earl Grey brewed, magically, in a teapot that he had enchanted to keep the tea hot. It was not proper to conduct a business meeting without tea. Just wasnt' done. He rose and walked towards the other end of the long room.

It was an elegant dark panelled office. It was large enough to hold a large conference table and chairs, and an impresive desk and office set up at the other end. Detailed maps of England with the wizarding world clearly mapped out hung on the walls. It was, in every effect, a war room. Robert was clearly preparing for war.

When he saw Jess with Kingsley, he was glad to see them both. "Come in. I have work to do, and I need your help," he said seriously.

Kingsley nodded as Brian replied. He had known, but he was glad to hear the confirmation. Kingsley had been quite confused as to how Grindelwald had just walked in and became minister. Where had Robert Lupin been? Hopefully the minister, or ex-minister now, could offer an explanation.

Kingsley followed Brian into his office, and frowned as he saw the state of it. Well, it wasn't entirely unexpected, but this confirmed what he had thought might happen, war. Again. Of course, they had no other choice now, and he was glad to see Robert's initiative, but that didn't make it any easier to bear. Kingsley was getting old, and half of his seventy odd years had been spent in fighting. Where did it all end?

"Of course Lupin," Kingsley said, nodding. "By the way, its nice to see you alive. When I saw Grindelwald at the atrium I feared they had got you," he added, as he took one of the seats opposite Robert.

Jess felt a wave of relief crash over him as he heard Robert's voice through the door, inviting he and his companion to enter.

As he walked in he couldn't help but grin quietly to himself as he took in the splendid way that Robert chose to go underground. While most people might choose to drop to the basics and try and lay low, but it looked as if Robert had tried to fit his entire ministerial office here into his safehouse.

"Amen to that, it's a relief to see you're still among the living there Robert... when I got the memo... well, you can't believe how shocked I was," he said shaking his head as he remembered the previous few hours.

Taking a seat before Robert Jess nodded and took in the room in its entirety. "We have work to do, you mean," Jess said grimly, finally looking at the man for the first time since he'd entered. "Well, you're all set to do it, aren't you," he said after a pause.

"Of course I'm ready. Well, as much as I can be with the few people I've trusted lately with this. I'm glad to see you both here. Come in and make yourselves comfortable. This will take awhile. For starters, Grindlewald had to have had supporters in the ministry before he took control," Robert said. "I know a bit about who it wasn't, but that doesn't tell me who it was.

"As you both know, I believe, Khaat was very pregnant. We thought it was twins. It turned out that she had triplets instead. She is small enough, normally, that it was easily missed. However, it was not easy. I took two weeks off--family leave, as I am entitled to by ministry policies to try to tend to my family. I firmly believed I was leaving the ministry in the hands of very loyal and dedicated staff. I am fiding out now, through supporters still inside, that Grindlewald was literally handed my post and allowed inside probably before the ink dried on my leave form. By all our wizarding laws, I am still the rightful Minister of Magic, and he is an outlaw. Plain and simple. He knows it, and I know it.

"Hence, my reason for moving my family into a safehouse. He has to eliminate me if he wants to keep control, and the best way to lure me out is by using my family as bait. Now that they are out of harm's way, I can concentrate on getting this jerk out of my office. I presume I can count you both in, then? There is a lot you do not know about what I have already set into place and what I still want to set into place. In order to do this, it may weil take everyone who still believes in the greater good. For whatever that is going to look like for awhile, I'm afraid," he sighed. "I know neither of you came for tea, but I do find that it does seem to make discussions of dangerous missions a lot more bearable. You're welcome to help yourselves." He gestured to the pot and the mugs that were sitting next to it.

Jess nodded as he let Robert speek, waiting for him to finish speaking before sharing his own views on the matter. It seemed to him that whilst he'd taken the right precautions for his family, he'd done very little to secure his position in the Ministry, and while it might by unfair to point things like that out, it wasn't as his staffing choices hadn't come without controversy.

"Congratulations are in order," He said, flashing a small smile at Robert, before moving onto the more pressing matters.

"You can count on me, as you can the rest of the Order. But you have a lot to answer for," he said, his mouth set in a thin line. "It may be your legal right, but we were approaching an election as it was, and from what I heard at that Atrium, it was one you were going to lose. I know that it's not an excuse, it's merely an observation on my part," he said, starting with the basic facts he'd gathered so far.

"People are saying, Robert," he said slowly, trying to word what he was saying correctly, "that you cared more for your family than for the Wizarding World. I've even heard rumors that you were corrupt, and you gave them reason to believe that. Appointing Jenifer Dent as Head of Law Enforcement... well, we saw how that turned out didn't we, but most people knew that Jenifer was your daughter in law, and that she had been a Death Eater, it doesn't look good for you at all Robert.

"And the more recent appointment of Thaor as Deputy Minister... he had no qualifications and was suspected to be a Death Eater... you elected him because he was your friend, is the problem, and people don't like to see their elected officials handing out high-ranking positions based on friendship," he said quietly.

"These are just observations of mine, and you're welcome to ignore them, I wont press the matter any further, but if we do manage to overthrow this..." he said, clenching his fist then unclenching it, "if we do manage to overthrow Grindelwald... well, you're going to have to clean up your act, no more putting your family before your country, as people are saying, and you'll have to call that election the moment you take power," he said, rushing to get the bulk of his suggestions out as early as possible, so as to skip any latter moments of awkwardness.

"Now," he said, his voice lightening a little, "The Order will support you, but it'll be hard, we've had a lot of bad press recently, as you know," he said, a hint of vinidictivness entering his voice as he remembered the way they'd been slammed in the press, and by the new Ministry.

"Let's get one thing straight right now," Robert said calmly but with iron conviction. Jess was only echoing the public sentiment that Robert had known would most likely come. It was only validation for him that things were going as Grindlewald had planned. And he needed to be sure that he could trust Jess not to buy it. He knew Shacklebolt knew bullshit when he heard it, and he trusted the former headmaster wasnt' easily taken in. He also knew they both could stand up well to straight talk. It was time for truth.

"You don't know squat about me or what I believe in or what I've been doing. I have told very few--on purpose--to keep our allies alive and from being discovered.aq And I don't have to answer to you or anyone else. I will answer if I choose to. And for some of those things, I will answer when the time is right. But so you know, I never--not one time--sacrificed England for my family.

"Let me ask you. Do you know how many people go through just the Ministry Atrium on a daily basis? I do. I have a head count. I have exact numbers of how much traffic goes through every room in that building, on the average, in a day's time. The atrium alone sees hundreds and hundreds every single working day. And almost every one of them are our aliles that we could not afford to lose. How the hell do you propose the three of us overtake Grindlewald and his army with a force of three? Really? You need to let it register into your head that all is not as it seems.

"If I had allowed the Ministry to be attacked and battled like Hogwarts, we really would have lost hundreds--literally. Not just the few that we did lose at Hogwarts. Trust me at least far enough to say I did the math on that one more than once looking for another way.

"Thaor has never been disloyal to me. Not once. He and I knew that Grindlewald was getting inside information somehow and that he would either be forced to battle for the ministry or he would wait until I stepped out. If I had not stepped out when I did, we'd be looking at the loss of almost everyone in our world who believed in the greater good. Most likely including both of you, every Order member, and everyone we've ever allied with. And then some. Were you ready for that? Grindlewald would have come whether I had merely gone home for the night to sleep, or whether he broke out an all out war.

"I TOLD Thaor to not resist when Grindlewald did come. I was trying to save lives. Have you never ever heard the saying that sometimes it is far better off to live to fight another day? We needed to be better organized, we needed to get the wizarding public ready to ally with us, and at this point, they're all freaking brainwashed. All of them. Maybe he's gotten to you too? Just a bit? I do wonder. I gave Jen her positiion because much as she might not be loyal to you and has had a lousy reputation, she's one of the finest aurors I know. She has never ever failed to support me in whatever mission I have ever asked her to do. I don't doubt that she will look like a wild card to both sides right now. But I do know Jen. At the end of the day, I know her better than she knows herself. And yes, I am willing to lay the Ministry on that.

"As for the election, I dont' give one damn whether I am elected again or not. Screw that. Truly. The way it looks, I don't see any election happening anywhere in tthe near future, so I doubt I will lose sleep over that. There are plenty of other priorities than how the rest of the wizarding world sees me. You ought to know at least that much about me by now.

"I do care that Grindlewald is driven out of the ministry and off, at the very least, to some remote place where he hasn't the influence to bother us again for a very long time. He didn't get in this postion of power overnight, and he wont' be taken out overnight. Your front door 'damn-the-torpedos' approach doesn't always work, Jess. I don't like him being in power either, but I am not wiling to see everyone who stands for the side of right and for everything good in our world mass murdered.

"And don't think I have been dashing off to some holiday with my family while my country is in peril. How dare you? You have no idea what I've been doing to try to minimize the death toll and to try to get him out of power and to discredit him at the same time. To do anything else, we will have an uprising of all the dark wizards on top of the deaths of the white lighters. And when that happens, every muggle in England will die as well because there won't be anything left. I'm not willing to do that. Now, you can gripe at me all you want, or choose to go fight this your own way, or choose to let me read you in. Its up to you."

"Look, throw your weight out and about where you want, I wont deny your your right to do that, but at least listen to others when they speak," Jess said curtly, looking directly into Robert's eyes. "I've had enough of listening to you treat me like some sort of ignorant fool, because I am not such a thing. You need my help, and I am more than willing to give it Robert, but cut me off and I will put you out without any hesitation," he said, knowing full well that Robert would probably only further ignore what he was saying and continue with his rant against himself.

"You answer for the people Robert, you answer for the Wizarding community of England, and when they speak, you should have listened, rather than blocking them out based on personal information. Your continued unwillingness to even consider accepting that Jenifer Dent was a poor staff choice is just a symbol of that. Your public spoke against her, and you ignored them," He said, placing his hands on the desk before him.

"I do not care about how many people enter that building," he added, a hint of curiosity crossing his face as he spoke, "I do care about making sure those people are safe, however, and simply allowing Grindelwald to take over, no matter what circumstances he did so, is going to do far more harm than good, no matter your intentions," he said quietly.

"I also don't believe that anyone here has proposed an all out attack on the Ministry, even the most simple minded fools could recognise from a mile away that it would end badly. No, I just think that if you've known all about this since the Battle for Hogwarts, why not work against him from the get go? Why not push him out of the country, and out of power before his support base grew?" He asked, knowing that the question was unfair, but also knowing it was a valid one.

"But you should care about elections Robert. If, once you have regained power, you do no call one immediately, you are no better than he is, it is important, and it cannot be ignored. We both know he wont call one, and that's what distinguishes us from him, our respect for the people, and our democratic ways,

"I told you, Robert, that they were the views of the public, and while I think that some of them may hold a grain of truth to them, I do have the intelligence to see through a pile of dragon dung when I see it. What else, though, have we got? They have risen, all the dark wizards in this country now control this country. Muggles will die, I'm sure of it, it's our job, our duty as fair-standing human beings, to work to put this down, and you fighting with me will not solve anything," he said.

"Now, we don't have the powers, the numbers, or the support to even consider overthrowing Grindelwald, so we need to play on our strengths, and one such strength is our unity. If you're going to fall into his hands and have a falling out, then you are doing yourself absolutely no good deed. We need to stand as one force, and find the hole's in his, because I can guarantee that they're both plentiful, and large," he said, hoping that Robert would put aside his ego for just a minute and see sense

"Jess," Robert sighed. "the only gripe I had that crossed my path about Jen came from you. One does not a majority make. If they had gripes, then they needed to have brought them. Where were you when I needed an auror? Where were you when I needed a Head of Law Enforcement? No, you didn't show up. Would you have preferred I give the post back to Majere? I doubt he'd have wanted it, but he is immensely capable of it. No, you wouldn't want him either. The choice was mine, and I made it based on someone I could trust who was a damned good fighter. I made it based on skill, not on her reputation, but apparently you would much rather judge the book by the cover. I realy did think better of you on that. I thought you were more open minded, but it does seem you are rather narrow minded. It also seems you do a lot of black and white thinking as well. Step into the Minister's shoes. Have at it. Go ahead and see if you find that it is all that glory that you think it is. Every minister we've ever had has been called a buffoon or an idiot at one point or another in their career. Its easy to be an armchair politician, but its much harder to actually do it.

"You should care about how many people are in that building. You should care a great deal. There are more people that traffick through the ministry on a daily basis than there are students in Hogwarts right now. And you know how well that went. A handful of miscreants caused the deaths of some innocent people and the injuries of many more. You overestimate how quickly or well this might have ended. We would not have had nearly the support you believe we might have. Minds have been brainwashed into believing Grindlewald is God for months. We would have lost. We'd have all been injured or killed and then Grindlewalds reign of terror would have been permanent. But you continue to believe whatever little rosy scenario you like. The biggest enemy we had was the months of brainwashing that was spearheaded by Grindlewald and executed by his supporters. And, unfortunately there is no law against propaganda. If there had been, I'd have dispatched that worthless ass James Roland months ago. Before its done, I plan on doing my best to either kill him or off him to Azkaban. Either one. I dont' care. Just so he's not causing any more damage in our world.

"Oh, and by the way, I won't tell you how many reports crossed my desk asking for the arrest of every Order member not just because you're the ones the public blames for the battle at the school, but also because you're all seen as bloody outlaws yourselves. You're welcome. As you seem ot not be in Azkaban yourselves right now, I presume that worked out rather well for you that I was able to look past the fact that I had some things that the wizarding public did not like.

"If you thought Griindlewald needed to be dealt with, why didn't you come talk to me sooner, or take matters into your own hands and drive Grindlewald off yourself? The Order does seem to be rather good at doing whatever they feel is best, and I almost always support it. You were in a far better position to do it than me. On what legal grounds was I to do that? The fact that he was a pain in my ass? The fact that he likes the dark arts? I might have been able to put him in Azkaban, but I doubt I'd have held him long. And what if I had killed him? My guess is that you'd have been unhappy about that as well because I had used a killing curse to do it. How the hell do I please you, Jess? Not that I feel I need to. But life doesnt' always work in clean little black and white packages.

"I do have some people in place to do undercover work for me. And no, I'm not going to reveal them all to you. I am already looking for those weaknesses, and I have been. That's been in place for weeks and weeks. You should be one of the first to realize that an assignment of this magnitude can take months. But I want the deep sort of intelligence that will give me what I need to kick his arse out of range indefinitely. I also have some fighters that will side with me, and I had hoped we could add your forces to them. But, until we can actually get past your need to blast me with how incompetent you think I am, we are rather stuck. So, I shall wait. When you're done venting at me, do let me know so we can get down to the more serious work at hand." He picked up a mug and poured himself a mug of perfectly prepared Earl Grey.