Order Meeting - Training In Combat

Matt, a former Death Eater, used to be incredibly helpful during meetings in the past. After all, giving information about the Death Eaters was one of the only ways he'd gotten Jess Potter's trust. But it had been a long time since Matt had actually been needed. There was almost a sense of nostalgia in the air. At the same though he was slightly surprised with Hallie. She was a smart woman but she had no idea what it was like being a Death Eater. She didn't know how to get into the Death Eater mind set. The training you have to force yourself through and the things you have to deal with when you go to bed at night. Only the coldest and the most heartless truly survive to the end. Matt was lucky enough to get out when he did. It had gone downhill after he left.

"Death Eaters are smart and ruthless. If we're going to act we'll need to act soon." he said out loud but mostly to Hallie. "It won't be long before they realize they're being monitored. That is to say if they are actually entering the forest."

He knew all to well that a majority of everything they ever discussed is assumption. And assumption was only as accurate as the information someone heard through the grape vine. In this case however it was full on blind talking. He wasn't opposed to it but he always felt safer when they had some idea about who they were going to be going up against. Nevertheless Matt began to dig deep into his brain and try to pull as much information as he could out.

"Also, if the Death Eater's are aware of the enchantment they are looking for ways to break it. So yes, we should train our basics but we should also spend time on the more advanced spells." he moved away from the wall a little bit.

His name was already out there in the Death Eater world so it mattered not to him whether this list was found or not. What mattered to him was that he bash some Death Eater skull in. Releasing Death Eater names to the public was probably not the best idea. The best decision would be to grab the list and not let anybody know we have it. Cause once the Order has the list they were playing on a whole different level of playing field. They would have leverage for the first time in years and that's what's needed to eliminate the Death Eater threat. At times he thought it would be pointless. Evil will always grow out of the good and good will always grow out of the evil. It is a never ending cycle but there must always be balance.

He looked at Hallie and then around the room. The only person he knew was Mari and he knew she would back him up if he needed it. He moved towards the table and stood over it looking at everyone. "There are Aurors here. People trained in magical combat; but Hallie is right. The Death Eaters are far more experienced then us in one-on-one combat both magically and physically. If it comes down to it we may need to rely on our fists." he told them all. He knew he had some work to do here.

Hallie and Matt made some valid points on the matter, but still there was something about the latter that worried her. It was more of a hunch than anything else. She wished she found the time to talk to Matt before this meeting, that way she would know for sure what he was thinking. If he was anything like before, those protective spells wouldn't protect just Order members from fatal spells, but they would also protect Death Eaters from Matt's fury. Fury was never a good guide in a fight.

"Well I'm up for a little action, my hands are a bit rusty." Mari said in conviction, she still had some doubts on the subject, but she supposed Hallie knew what she was doing, and who was she to question her anyway. There are probably still a lot of things she didn't know about so she made a mental note to talk to either Hallie or Matt later. She arrowed Matt with a significant look that she hoped he caught. It all, but said out loud that they would talk later.

That list seemed significant. Sure it was useful to know their names and their numbers, but Mari couldn't help, but wonder if there was something she was overlooking. "What do we do once we find it? Do we bring it back here or to one of our own huts? I'm sure the object itself will have far more protective spells than the general area in which it's hidden." she asked wanting that little piece of information before they were in the Forest..

Matt made an interesting point upon acting sooner. Although however brutal the death eaters were the Order needed more time, they weren't exactly held together like glue as they once were. Members fluttered from meeting to meeting, not really knowing what their purpose was anymore. The death eaters on the other hand, they were a force to be reckoned with. They worked better as a team and Hallie feared rushing in too soon could be a mistake. None the less she would take what Matt had to say into consideration, after all Jack had trusted him to coordinate the training and battles.

The auror didn't add any comments onto what Matt had said, she felt as though he had covered important issues. Particularly about the death eaters attempting to break the enchantments. The only problem if they were to do that is they'd be risking themselves too, for their own sake the enchantments would benefit them as much as they'd hinder them.

The list. That was another piece of complicated magic and Hallie was thankful she raised the question, it would allow her to be clear with the Order.

'That's a good question, Mari.' Hallie began, address Mari first before looking to other members. 'The lists can't be removed from the huts. Jack Dyllan brought this up a few meetings ago but we still have as little information on the lists as before.'

She swallowed.

'All we know if that the lists can't be removed or destroyed. Someone could hand write them, possible. Maybe duplicate them. But we don't know the full extent of the ancient magic on the lists yet so for all we know anybody who attempts to conceal or steal the lists could be mentally or physically hurt.'

Not that she wanted to strike fear in them but now perhaps people were beginning to realise the complexity of the upcoming battle. If the lists couldn't be stolen nor people be killed, then, when did the battle end? If it was up to Hallie she would have the Order's hut destroyed, gone without a trace to get over this mess, but once again the magic. The stupid, annoying, god-for-saken protective magic wouldn't allow that.

Mari's face went blank to this new piece of information. Only her long term expirience with the surprising and unexpected made her able to conceal her shock and remain expressionless. She was deep in thought over this, this training mission got even more dangerous if that was possible. She assumed they were all expirienced fighters, but she wondered how useful that would be in a direct confrontation with Death Eaters and on their territory, which they probably knew 10 times better than either of them.

However surprising, that was not what worried Mari the most. She was never scared of Death Eaters before and no reason to start being so now. There was however one other point which had her shocked. "I'm sorry, but I don't seem to understand. If we cannot steal it, destroy it or even touch it what excatly are we supposed to do with it? In order to duplicate it, we'd actually need to touch it. " she asked perplexed. Hallie had to admit this was a valid point.

The mear fact that they couldn't touch the book or list whatever it was, didn't worry her so much as the fact that if they reached it and someone got hurt in the process, it would all have been for nothing. "It's a good training expirience, but if this is an actual mission you do realize there's a large possibility that it would be fruitless even if we reached through the protective spells?" she said more as a rhetorical question than in order to adress someone in particular.

In dispite all of her doubts, Mari still looked willing to go. This trip would at least give her some action. She wondered why was she among those who speak the most. DId she just like to be a nuisance or was it because she was mearly cautious? Either way, she thought she asked fair questions, it was good to know as much as possible before actually getting into a fight.

"I'm new" she smiled a little and turn her head toward the person next to her, "I mean literally, this is my first time being here. Oh, and I'm Nym, it's short for Nymeria, but i don't use it, it's ugly." She relaxed her shoulders only now noticing that she was tense "Anyway, It's nice to meet you Mari."

A woman for who she guessed to be Hallie start speaking. Something about some forest and a list of death ethers. She hated the fact she has never heard for one of them before, she was accustomed to always be prepared, but this left her blank, without any ideas, and without knowing any details about anything. She started to listen carefully. Soon others joined the conversation, actually only two of them, some guy, and a women next to her, Mari. She began slowly furl information which she heard. They should go to some forest and take some list which maybe exist, and which they may, but maybe may not touch? It sounds like a mission impossible, especially if we take into account the fact that they don't know how the paper looks, is it bewitched to look like an old newspapers, empty can of soda or something else. This could definitely be one interesting meeting.

'I don't know.' Hallie replied honestly. She was clueless at the moment. She was putting some research after her auror hours to investigate the kind of magic they would be dealing with, no doubt it was something of Dumbledore's work or Harry Potters but considering they were both deceased then the present day Order was at a loss.

'Its unknown whether we can touch the lists but I think it would be wise not to. I have told you all that I know but I think it would be wise if no death eater sees our list for they would be finding out who exactly is an Order member, who to target. The last time the death eaters were seeking a rise to power things got messy at the Orders expense. Disappearances. Murders. We don't want that.'

She'd said it earlier but felt it necessary to repeat how important their privacy was. Matt had thought the best plan would be to head into the forest ahead of the death eaters before they could discover some magic to get past the enchantments. Hallie on the other hand wanted to keep a battle as far from the present as possible. The longer time before a battle broke out the safer they were and the longer, they too, had time to investigate this magic.

'Matt mentioned that we should enter the forest first, strike the death eaters and try and see their list before they work out how to bypass the protective enchantments. I think we need to be more conservative and put off a battle for as long as we can to give us time to train and give us time to figure out how to overcome the enchantments protecting their list.'

She paused.

'But I also know that whatever route we decide to take it will affect you. The Order of the Phoenix is a team and I believe we should all contribute our opinions to what plan of action we take. If you're in favour of attacking first, raise your hand.'

Matt always had at least a dozen things zooming around in his brain at any given moment. It was on of the curses of his life. But this meeting had his brain running at twice it's regular speed. Every new piece of information that seemed to appear only sent his brain into another spiral of twelve thoughts. He knew that the magic they would be dealing with was ancient dark magic. He also knew that dark magic from hundreds of years in the past rarely had counter enchantments. It would be a miracle if they discovered a way to remove the spells from either hut. But there may be a way to destroy the hut, and he was sure Hallie had the same thought. Destroy the hut before any Death Eater could find the list. Although there are easier ways to discover the identities of Order members. Half the Order, including himself, had been in numerous public duels with Death Eater's. But there were many new members. Young members who'd not yet seen the dark side of The Order of the Phoenix.

"I've already been outed as an Order member." Matt mumbled more to himself but audible enough that Hallie and maybe someone near by Mari would be able to hear. It mean that he would take any job that required extreme risk. The only issue was that the Death Eater's still thought that he was dead. But of course he wouldn't bring that issue up because he was in a constant state of foot in the grave anyway. He didn't want to risk the identity of one of the new members with a family. Matt had very little to lose.

Matt had heard Hallie call a vote. His opinion had been stated but it was just that an opinion. He didn't expect many people to agree with him and he kept his arms crossed. He knew that he would have to do a fair amount of training before any sort of battle began. Many people present at the meeting were fresh graduates with no experience in battle. He looked at Mari who was sitting near him. Mari would be a good asset if he was going to need a sparring partner for examples. He smiled at the thought of Mari cursing his ass into next week. She'd done it before.

"I think a battle is going to happen either way." he said out loud. "But I do think that we should be smart with how we attack; it's why I'm here." he added. "We should spend equal time studying the enchantment as we do preparing for battle because it's eventually going to happen." He didn't want to scare anyone too much but it was the truth. In the end it always came down to who knew the most powerful spells and could perform the most complex magic.

It was very difficult for Mari to sit, or rather stand and listen to words that were coming out from Matt's mouth. She fought against her temper in order to keep her serenity and not raise her voice. Maybe he didn't mean for her to hear it, but it was nontheless irritating and this was definetely not the time or place to discuss his, a little irrational behaviour to say so the very least. It sounded like he was slightly suicidal and the only thing she could do was guard his back and stop him if he decided to do something foolish or reckless. What was wrong with him? He was never the most cheerful person, but what have gotten into him nowdays?

"You're right Matt, maybe there will be fight anyway. That however doesn't mean that we should jump into it on purpose. I do think that the most rational temporary plan Hallie is to try and find our huts without activating their protective charms. It is a long shot, I know, but once we put them on alarm, it will be difficult to do anything else before they start chasing us. We should stay incospicious for as long as possible." Mari expressed her opinion rather forcefully though her stern tone was for Matt's benefit which she hoped he understood from her occasional glare at his direction.

She didn't like the fact that Matt was putting fight as inevitable happening even if it was true. "Could we somehow trigger that invisible protective filled? If we threw a rock or anything else that occurs to us, will the shield detect it? Think about our shield which we should know better. They're probably using same or simmilar mechanism.." she asked thoughtful keeping an eye on everyone though inconspiciously.