Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire

Jack tried to be focused and professional, but she hated being talked about as though she were not there. She turned to scowl at the person, having been in her own little world as she entered and had not really processed who was actually there, to find herself looking at the Longbottoms. Jack knew where respect was due, and if anywhere, it was with Neville Longbottom. So instead, she nodded her head to confirm his son's words.

And he was speaking truth. It was disheartening, the turn out of the meeting. Jess began to speak and sort of handed partial control over to Robert, who was a friend of Michael's, which made Jack more inclined to trust him had he not been. She was hoping for a plan of action. Something he would tell them that would actually help their cause.

But it came from neither Jess nor Robert. Sophia entered and Jack sort of stared at Robert, before blinking and examining the wall, her mind processing what was going on, before she slowly turned her head back to Robert, "But you're not really telling us anything, are you? I mean, we know all of this. What we need is something to do. Not something to discuss just so we can all agree on. What are we supposed to be doing?"

Kingsley was in a solemn mood, and though he could see that Jess was in the same mood, but trying not to show it, Kingsley didn't understand why they should hide it. Everyone in the room knew that they had failed and that they were losing, and laughing about whatever wasn't going to help. "I'm glad your so happy, Jess," Kingsley replied, not insultingly, but sharply. "Congratulations on being appointed to Charms professor, but I warn you, be vigilant, it might be a trap," he warned seriously. Jess was surrounded by Death Eaters over there, but Kingsley agreed that he should be at Hogwarts, to protect as many students as possible at least.

Shacklebolt turned to Neville next before addressing Robert. "There were more of us before," he said uncertainly. "But perhaps they are feeling less inclined to come participate now that we have lost the ministry." Yes that would probably be it. Disappointment and fear was why so little people had shown up. Robert meanwhile, seemed to have stated the obvious, so Kingsley stood up and began to explain his own plan.

"As we all can see, we don't have enough people to storm the ministry and remove Grindelwald, and he is smart enough to remove any spies we might have had in the death eaters… We should worry, but not panic - all dark wizards fall eventually, and Grindelwald will, just like Voldemort. In the mean time, our main duty now is to protect as many people as possible while the rest of us will gain information, perhaps find a weak spot in the Death Eaters." Kingsley now looked towards Robert again, hoping he would explain the informers he was talking about before.

"Our plans run on the same track," Robert said to Kingsley. "Part of the issue is that the wizarding public has been brainwashed for quite awhile now. They've been deluded into believing that Grindlewald is a better choice than anything we've offered them since about the time of the second Wizaring war. Until the public sentiment changes, we will be ridiculously outnumbered. For us to have acted any differently than we have up til now would have been not just pointless suicide but also a masscre for a lot of unsuspecting innocents.

"Having said that, I have 2 informants of my own in Hogwarts, no less than 6 informants in the ministry, and at least one in the death eaters. For obvious reasons, I won't reveal their identities here. Not because I don't trust you. But a very simple veritaserum can undo much. No offense to any of you. But the less you know about the finer details, the safer some of our allies will be.

"Kingsley is quite right. Our best weapon right now is stealth and preparation. Stealth in gaining information, as much as we can get. And training. We need to be more finely organized and trained than we have been in many years for dueling. The time will be coming when we will need all the skills we can get. Not to mention that it might be in our advantage if we are seen as having our numbers down a bit. We would pose less threat. We might do well to have some of our members seen as having dropped their affiliation with us and to have become neutral. That might suggest to Grindlewald's followers that we are no threat to them. It also might suggest that we are very vulnerable, but that is a calculated risk that we might consider taking."

"Propaganda," Kingsley muttered, nodding. "Its a strong weapon, damn Roland. We should spread our own news for those few who still have nuetral opinion, maybe we can sway them. I remember Fred and George's iittle broadcast," Kingsley added with a laugh as he remembered.

"It could be an advantage if they see us as less of a threat, but remember we did almost win in the Hogwarts battle," Kingsley reminded Robert. (Did we win? I don't remember.) "And I think for one that Grindelwald still sees us as a respectful enemy, which is why he is still being quite careful... I mean, if he thinks we are weak, he would have finished us off already no?"

"Well, since the propaganda is one of our biggest threats, it seems to me that we need to incommode Roland first. The others in that department are not as skilled at churning out the horsecrap like he is. Eliminating him from action would surely wound Grindlewald's offense. And perhaps his defense as well.

"We have an idea of some of those on his side. Not a complete list, though. Emof is working for him, as is Barker. There are at least two women seen with him. Zada Forbes, and the other is a younger woman. The rest are a bit sketchy, though I would presume we might well guess. If I were Grindlewald, I'd be going after a multipledisciplinary team that could provide me a great range of expertise. We need to consider who are dark arts practiioners who would be our A-list players. They would be my top suspects. We need to be perhaps mounting some very careful surveilance on those folks.

"As for your question, Kingsley, I really am not quite sure yet. I can see either scenario as a distinct possibility. Either he still esteems us, or, he's a huge egotist and he doesn't think we're worth it yet. Anyon who makes this sort of calculated bid for power definitely has some ego issues."

Jack had not wanted to speak up- she was about action, not talk, and the more these meetings were dominated by talk, the less any action was done. But she had to speak of, because she felt that it was important that, as leaders, Robert and Kingsley and Jess knew what the people they were supposed to be leading were thinking.

But it seemed that if you weren't an old man, you had no voice. She stared with an appalled, insulted expression. Why did they have meetings if she was not allowed her opinion. "The fu..." she muttered, still staring. Kinglsey went right over her, Robert did not address her, and she simply had no words to express just how disappointed she was in the Order. She sat back and breathed, "Unbelieveable."

They had always seemed so shocked when she admitted she was not confident in the Order, when she did not seem compeletely won over by the Light side. And this was why. First, they never got anything done. Second, it was controlled by old men who were set in their ways and never considered relinquishing their power and would certainly never give anyone else a chance to express their ideas.

She would have left. It was obvious by the storm in her eyes that she was utterly and thoroughly pissed but she was forced to say by the mention of a radio. She thought of Reid, a friend of a friend of a friend. And yet she still knew he was already working on an anti-Grindelwald paper. Hmm, something the old men did not know. "Well, in case you are interested, someone's already working on that. However, for his own benefit I can not release his name. Nor his identity. Nor offer us as support until we prove we want to support people in their ideas and identify them as having a voice. I know him, that's how he'll be."

Of course, she did not know Reid that well.

They were planning without really planning. We should do this. We could do this. Not, okay, Jack you do this. Jess make sure you do this. Sophia keep your eye out for that. And this was why the Order was a joke.

Michael saw Jack's anger, and he looked at her. "Stand down, Jack," he said softly and gently. "No one meant any disrespect. We need the background that Robert has to give before we make a plan of action."

"No, by all means, you may be as angry as you like,' Robert said to her. "But as long as you are going to be angry, let me give you one thing to consider. By our wizarding laws, Gellert Grindlewald has no rightful claim to the ministry or any part of it. Under our law, I am still the rightful Minister of Magic. Therefore, the bulk of the responsibility of restoring things to rights lands on my shoulders, whether any of us like that or not. I appreciate your commitment and your drive. I truly do. But don't disrespect me because you haven't seen me mounting some sort of massive attack or something else you can see as an obvious strike back towards him. I have not been idle. I do understand your frustration, but until we all get on the same page with what we've all been trying to do, along with what the real situation in front of us is, then we'll have another pointless meeting here tonight of arguing without coming to any resolution. And truth be told, I don't have time for that nonsense. I intended to get to everyone, and that did mean you as well. Political counterspinning is a valuable thing, and I'm glad someone is working on it. I am glad to hear it. As long as you have demanded the floor, what else do you have to bring to the table? Let's hear it."

And then she had the floor. She wondered if he had thought by doing so it would catch her off guard because she would have nothing to say, but that was the thing about Jack- she was not going to make a fuss over nothing. She had reasons for the things she did, there was a method in her madness. She nodded, though she disagreed with some of what he had said.

"I wasn't attempting to say we need a massice attack, I promise you, I don't want another battle, believe me." She could live her whole life without another battle. "I get that Grindelwald is there illegaly. I get that we can't just dethrone him. But surely we have gotten to that point where we don't need to hear where we are politically and just start planning. We can explain while we plan."

And as far as ideas. He did not realize the can of worms he had just opened. "First off, while we have people in Hogwarts, what is being done there? I was PA Leader, and we, as students, were totally alone. I almost did not join the Order because I felt so isolated. We can't have that. Somebody needs to be there. Helping them. We have to do something. Especially since Hogwarts seems so much more closed off."

She paused. "We need to distribute the papers. I'll let him know he can go and we need to set up a system so people can report, anonymously, on the goings on. Once the system is secure, we can 'leak' it out so that Grindelwald is taken by surprise. We need people in the Ministry that are on our side, by that time, to have worked their way into his trust circle. While he is busy trying to take us down externally, we can find his internal weaknesses."

She paused. "And I have a question. What are the Death Eaters up to nowadays? Is it just me or did Grindelwald sort of toss them aside?"

Kingsley didn't like the idea of taking down Roland, though not for personal reasons. Roland had been his friend, but that had been a long time ago. "No, we don't want to give the Wizarding World the idea that we are some sort of terrorists attacking ministry officials," he replied curtly.

After listening to Jacks little speech, Kingsley shared a look with Robert, impressed. "Smart," he muttered. "I hadn't thought of the death eaters, if I know them most of them are probably just as unhappy with the current situation as we are." Ne'os, Vincent, Sandra... none of them would like to stand and watch Grindelwald take everything for himself and his lackeys.

The other questions he would let Jess answer, as Kingsley was also out of the loop a little bit about Hogwarts.

Jess looked up as Soph entered and nodded, he understood that she hated to be late, and he understood that sometimes things just got in the way. Heck, even he'd been late tonight. So he decided to keep it simple and made a small gesture for her to take a seat before continuing to listen to the others talk.

He was quite interested, actually, to hear what Robert had to say about all this, it seemed that he was facing the problem that Jess himself had faced many times in the past, and it was quite enthralling to see how someone else handled it.

He was brought out of his thoughts with a snap as he heard his own name spoken by Kingsley. "I know," he said, a tinge annoyed as his pride suffered a little blow, he'd thought that Kingsley knew him a little better than to assume that he would ignore the danger. Still, he was probably just misinterpreting what was being said - Kingsley had never shown any signs of thinking badly of him before... yes, that was it, it was almost definitely just a misunderstanding.

"I just feel," he said, "That I need to be there. I know that we have people in the school, but I need to be there, I need to play my part in their protection," he told Kingsley, struggling a little for words as he spoke. "particularly after last summer," he concluded, his voice held at a low volume.

Continuing to listen Jess heard something he found quite interesting and nodded slowly, pulling out a quill and quickly jotting something down before looking at Jack. "Get in contact with him. If he's interested, I'd like to meet. We cannot offer much in terms of financial compensation, but I can give protection, and the job of spreading the truth, in itself is a reward, in my own opinion," he said to her.

"The fact is that these things take time, Jack. You're right, we don't have the numbers, and you're correct that so far we haven't been able to accomplish much more than laying out a political backdrop and gain the sort of leverage we now have," he explained.

"In the school I am having trouble making contact with the leaders of PA. So far they've been reluctant to share anything with me. I suspect that they blame me for the events last summer, and they have a right to do so, but it makes it very hard for me to make contact. If you still have any way of communicating with them, for example there is a Hogsmeade trip coming up this weekend, then please, please assure them I mean no form of harm. I can't force students to trust me, but they know you," he plead.

"As for distributing papers, like I said I need to talk to your contact, but I think that what you suggested sounds like a good plan. The problem will be to get that security on the onset, whilst still promoting the paper itself. It's quite a hard balance to achieve, I think," he told them all.

"The Death Eaters... clever," he said, cracking a smile and nodding. "They're all very power hungry, and from what I've seen at the Ministry, they're receiving none of what they push for. They're definitely not gaining support there. They're weak, and that's where we want them. However it just makes them all the more cautious. When Dark Wizards like Grindelwald take power, they become arrogant and thus are quite easy to overthrow once the pieces fall into place. With the Death Eaters in their weakened state they'll be on the guard and, in all reality, probably harder than ever to try and knock off," he explained to them all.