Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire

Jack glanced over at Kingsley, who deserved the respect he was given, but had been one of the few men who had made her feel completely ignored. So him acknowledging her ideas and the actual legitimacy behind in it made her feel a little justified in her anger and her rashness. She had had something importnat to say, all she had needed was the gall to stand up and make for damn sure that it was heard.

Jack blinked at Jess. "I don't know that he would want anyone here to know his name. He doesn;t trust the Ministry. But I can do what you ask and serve as a middle man. I'll get his words and his ideas and we can take it and use what funds we have to publish and distribute it. But he is very invested in this. We need him on our side."

He mentioned Potter's Army and Jack sighed. "Potter's Army. Something about it just... doesn't work. I know their struggle. They can't just have meetings. They need objectives. If we could give them goals, the members could take them into account. We want to protect them, but we know how it felt to have nothing to do. There HAS to be something in Hogwarts that we need done that we can't do."

She leaned back and ran a hand through her short hair, scratching her scalp as Jess continued. "Yes. It's a difficult balance, but rather than considering the thousands of ways we can approach it, we need to start it. The worst that happens is a few people get caught who know and expect the risk, and then we try again and be more successful. I know I might sound cruel, but Gellert Grindelwald is here, in the flesh. I don't think we can be overly cautious."

He addressed the Death Eaters and she leaned forward, biting her lips and squinting, staring at Jess before saying, "I think you got something different from what I'm saying. I'm not thinking of taking them down. That splits our focus and weakens us. I was thinking... well, pretty much the polar opposite. I think we need to ally ourselves with the Death Eaters to take down Grindelwald."

Jess nodded and gave a small shrug as Jack spoke, "Not a problem," he said understandingly, "but please, make the offer to meet me in person, they don't need to meet everyone," he said, gesturing around the table as he spoke, "but I'd like to deal in person, if he can. Otherwise, yes, I may have to impose upon your offer to be a middle... woman," he said playfully

"Mmm," he said, "It's a tough problem to crack, they want things to do and look to us for guidance it seems, but they're reluctant to speak to us," he chuckled, shaking his head slowly before sighing a little. "This weekend is a Hogsmeade trip. If you can organise some of them to meet the two of us in Hogsmeade that would be handy, do you still have contacts there?" he asked, hoping that she'd done so.

But as she continued speaking he felt his eyebrows shoot up, his face go blank for a second, then before he knew it, before he could do anything to stop it a single "Ha" of laughter had escaped his lips.

"Ally with the Death Eaters?" He asked, the incredulous tone in his voice fast disappearing only to be replaced by a curious one. "Why... what makes you think that'd be a good idea?" He asked, giving her an appraising look as he turned the idea over in his head.

Kingsley noticed the tone in jess' reply, and understood quickly how Jess had taken it. "I was only saying it out of concern, I'm sure you know best, but I do know you young people always think yourselves as invincible..." Kingsley replied with a shrug. After that, he remained silent while Jess and Jack spoke, at least until Jack brought up her idea of allying with the death eaters. At first Kingsley was totally opposed to it, it seemed ridiculous to even think about it... But on second thought.. "We could," he replied nodding slowly. "But that would mean allying ourselves with people like Felix Barker, Vincent majere, Ne'os emof... I could go on. They want power, or are only looking for ways to continue their cruel actions, do we really want to ally ourselves with people like that? We could defeat Grindelwald, but we would also destroy our own reputation," he explained.

It was a funny thought, that much was for sure. Allying with the Death Eaters could solve some of their problems, at the very least it would help build up the numbers which the Order were in desperate need of... but in doing so, would they be, at the very least, sinking to the levels of those whom they were formed to destroy?

There was merit to both sides of the argument, but Jess couldn't help feel as though he were positioned right on the edge of the fence, his own view clouded by what was right, and what needed to be done, two things which right now seemed blurry as all hell.

Quietly he sat there for a few moments, pondering it over in his mind before nodding. "Kingsley's right, it would destroy our reputation... but what is a reputation worth in comparrison to doing the right thing. The Death Eaters are a bad mob, that much cannot be denied, but they are powerless. Right now, Grindelwald has the power at his fingertips to do anything, which is something we cannot allow," he muttered to himself.

"But how... we don't know what they're doing," he said, his tone shifting to a more antagonistic one. "You're right, we would be siding with people who would turn on us in an instant, that's the sort of danger I cannot allow you all to put yourselves in," he told them with a scowl, his thoughts once again taking ahold of him.

"Potters Army," Robert said, "has been covered. I covered it before the school year began. I wanted them to have an adult supporter inside school walls. We have that. Their leader will ally with us. I have contact with her. But she can't do it alone. If Potters Army is to make any sort of a difference, then they at least need to get to a bloody organizational meeting so we can give them something to do. The adult contact went to the meeting and not one single member of Potters Army showed up, and yes, every one of them were contacted. So as far as i'm concerned," he said, realizing he bordered on rudeness, "they're bloody useless to us unless they can get free enough to operate as a unit. I dont' know why they didn't attend. It's being looked into."

Robert realized Jack wanted action. That was all well and good, but he couldn't do it entirely by himself. Unless he had fighters to go with him, and willing to do it at the proper time and not before, then he knew the entire wizarding world would be lost to Gellert Grindlewald forever. What he had seen about Grindlewald was that the old sorcerer was a strategist. Well, so was Robert. And it was going to take more than energy and brute force to tackle him. It was going to take cunning, strategy, and many, many skilled fighters alongside them.

"Our best chance may ally with the neutrals. Or with the parents of those students who are being mistreated behind Hogwarts walls right now. Angry parents are a powerful force. Anger them enough, and they'll destroy the castle and the ministry brick by brick if they have to to rescue their child. Death Eaters are not reliable allies. Most of their powerful players have already been sighted with Grindlewald anyway, either at the battle or the ministry. I think we need to look elsewhere for help."

Jack listened to them both speak and found that she had an answer for every concern that they presented her with. "What's better- allying ourselves with someone we sort of disagree with to take down someone we totally disagree with, or doing nothing. We may soil our reputation a bit, but at least we'll have a reputation when it's all said in done. We'll still be around. Still be alive. Still have a fighting chance."

Kingsley had listed off some Death Eaters and at Ne'Os' name her skin crawled- the man that had killed her cousin. Then Felix... The man who had tortured her best friend. That alone could have convinced her otherwise if she had thought they had better options. "I'm not saying we need to be friendly with them. I doubt I will. I mean, don't we all have our own lists of sins we're making up for? But we have to be able to function with them. We have to be able to work together. Once things go back, we can withdraw the alliance or... Settle our differences."

Would it be so bad, seeing as they seemed to be the ones that caused all the fighting?

Jess was worried, obviously, about trying to deal with them and Jack knew she had backed herself into a shadow, and she'd have to embrace that shadow to convince them, the shadow that hung over her head like a persistent cloud. And she could almost here the biting reply Vito would give her when she gave him this news. "I know someone in the DEs, and we have a sort of agreement. He can't really hurt me. I can test out the waters and try and arrange a meeting. Like you said, they'd turn on us when they had the power to, but right now, neither of us have power to do anything."

Robert seemed to be disagreeing and Jack felt the conversation move to talk rather than actions and she said, "The nuetrals aren't waiting for an invitation from us, they want no part in it! You try to get Emmett Fisher on our side and he'll tell us we're the fools for letting differences cause us to go to war. We'd be stopping one war to win another."

"Please don't allow yourself to get confused, Jack," Michael said, tiring some of this. He accio'd a bottle of Jess's firewhiskey from the kitchen cabinet and a glass and poured himself a healthy shot of it. "There is a huge difference between a neutral and a dyed-in-the-woool pacifist. Emmett Fisher is not a neutral in the true sense of the word. Not from a political standpoint. He is a pacifist and a weenie. There are a great many neutrals in our world that simply do not care to be forced into joining either a terrorist group that delegates itself to the dark arts, or a group like us that is willing to put our own lives on the line for the greater good, whatever the hell that is. If Fisher is to be of any real use, or any other journalist for that matter, his or her greatest power will be in swaying the undecided masses first. That is where some of the greatest numbers will lie--with those who have been trying to lie quietly to avoid being seen by Grindlewald and his group." He looked over at Robert who merely held a sober face. He thought he almost caught a slight hint of amusement at Michael's candor, but then again, Robert never had expected less from Michael. Nor had anyone else if they truly knew him.

"I'm esaggerating," Jack said tediously- did they really think that she considered Emmett 'nuetral'? No, he had his alliances, he had his ties. "The point is, people are nuetral because they don't want to take a side in it- we've tried that all before haven't we? Why risk recruiting people so they can know we oppose Grindelwald and give them the chance to turn us in? Does no one else find it interesting that the Death Eaters haven't given Grindelwald a list of our names?"

This was something she had been curious about. Surely, they would have been questioned. "Look, between Grindelwald and the Death Eaters, I trust the Death Eaters. Hell, between the Death Eaters and everyone else I trust the Death Eaters. We know their beliefs, we know what to expect. At least we know they will fight for a belief. We have the same belief right now- Grindelwald has got to go. It makes sense that we would team up with them."

"Once again we've been taken into bickering," Robert sighed. He accio'd out a glass from the cabinet himself. "Michael, share that, would you, my friend?" He watched Michael slide the bottle down the table to him where Robert poured himself a shot of firewhiskey. He glanced at the label and then looked at Jess. "Much better brand. Thank you." Then he looked at those around the table. "Jack, enough. We've all heard your beliefs and opinion. It seems to come to this. I dont' care who the hell we get for allies if they are good dependable fighters, if they will stand by us at least long enough to oust Gellert Grindlewald out of England. Use some damned zombies for all I care. I honestly don't bloody care so long as we have fighters that we can depend on.

"What I do care about is that the recklessness that this seems to have taken stops immediately. Recklessness will get us killed. I appreciate your youth and your energy, Jack. I truly do. But if we don't do this as carefully as we possibly can, then we could raise up every Englishman who has ever lived out of his grave and still lose this thing. Do not underestimate our opponent. This is probably the most dangerous game of wizards' chess any of you will ever play. I don't want to have to fight this without you lot, but unless you start to use your heads a bit, I'll fight it without you, and I don't want to have to do that. We all know how Hogwarts turned out when we divided."

"Robert," Jess said a little testily, a strained tone entering his voice. "Please, do not just disregard Jack's Idea as if it's completely without Merit, it's incredibly rude and you must acknowledge that you have no right to claim to be any more correct than she is," he said, his mouth set in a thin line.

"The fact is that not everything you disagree with has to be branded as reckless, if we carefully think this out, it could work.

There is a good chance that you're right, we shouldn't ally with such an inconsistent bunch, but they're here whether we work with them or not, and as Jack was kind enough to point out, the Death Eaters know us, Gellert does not. If the Death Eaters were working closely with the Ministry we'd all be outlaws. Something's obviously up with them, and we'd be fools not to at least consider using an asset that has come available to us.

"I think that it comes down to a simple argument. Stray into the different shades of light and accomplish our goals of getting rid of the current regime, or do nothing and spend the rest of our days feeling responsible for letting Gellert Grindelwald stroll into the Ministry and destroy our world.

"However whilst I may personally agree that a well thought out plan that strays into those different shades is not tantamount to recklessness, that doesn't mean that I'm not interested in your side of the argument. Why not lay it down simply. Robert, your argue your point. Jack, you argue yours and then we hold a vote. In the event of a deadlock I will pass the deciding vote.

"Both parties," he said, gesturing to Robert then Jack, "especially you Jack, should realise that either way the vote goes, that doesn't mean it'll be the successful course of action, and we may need to reconvene once more in the future to discuss other options.

"So," he clapped his hands together and grinned eagerly, "please, plead your cases and refrain from responding to each other's speech, else we will just descend into a squabbling heap," he told them.

"Oh, and you mob," he said with a playful grin as he gestured at the Lupins. "You'll have to understand if I don't count your votes, you're almost definitely a bit biased to go with family... I'm sure you'll understand why," he told them.

((One vote per member, I'm sure you'll understand why.))