Remus Lupin

MEETING MINUTES
Order of the Phoenix
Date: 1 June 1996
Location: Aldrich Town

Order Members Present:
Sirius Black, Alice Longbottom, Frank Longbottom, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Albus Dumbledore, Molly Weasley, Dora Tonks, Charlie Weasley, Dorcas Meadows, Caradoc Dearborn, Stephen McGivern, Nick Towler, Cecilia Perks, Remus Lupin, Walden Macnair.

Order Members Absent:
Poppy Pomfrey, Pomona Sprout, Minerva McGonagall, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Bill Weasley, Lee Jordan, Severus Snape, Arabella Scrim, Hermione Granger, Terry Boot, Rhymes with Rudy.

REVIEW OF PREVIOUS MEETING MINUTES:

Why is this even on the agenda? We NEVER review the previous meeting minutes. We didn't this time, either, and we didn't even have a good excuse.

TREASURER'S REPORT:

We can't exactly add Aldrich Estates to our organisational inventory, but since they have expressed willingness to allow us to draw on their resources on occasion, it's worth mentioning here. The Aldrich farms produce wheat and barley; there's a brewery for beer; they raise sheep, from which they produce some rather tasty cheeses, and also wool; they have a woolen mill that produces fabric; they also have some cows and a tannery where they produce fine leather goods which are apparently sold as wizard-made even though they're sewn by muggles. I think I'm forgetting something. Oh, right, citrus. There's a citrus orchard, managed by wizards. That's going to require some magical upkeep or the trees will stop producing rather quickly.

In addition, we are up seven complete wands (we got ten from the raid on Ollivander's, and gave three to wandless muggleborns at the Aldrich Estates); thirty-eight shafts (all different lengths and wood types); and a large assortment of cores which Melli has determined to include one jobberknoll feather, eight excellent strands of unicorn hair, twelve more strands of unicorn hair that might be usable (at least in shorter wands), fourteen strands of veela hair, and six strands of dragon heartstring.

NEW BUSINESS:

Item One: Aldrich Town (formerly Aldrich Estates)

Securing the estates went about as smoothly as we could possibly ask for. Once it was secure, we released the Aldriches and their employees (other than Norman Bell); though we assumed they'd go to MLE, we've had no visitors to the perimeter yet. Presumably they're all still distracted.

There was some immediate concern from the residents citizens of Aldrich Town about enforcing some sort of power balance between muggles and wizards. The wizards present, including the muggleborns, are a distinct minority. The muggleborns have little or no magical education, though we provided them with wands. There was an initial suggestion that the entire town ought to be a 'wand-free zone' (that was how one of the muggles put it) but the sheer usefulness of magic was quickly brought up (what about healing, what about putting out fires, what about maintaining the orange trees...) Norman Bell, bless him, offered to put his own wand into the keeping of a designated muggle, who will hand it over on occasions when magic is necessary. There were mixed reactions to that idea, and after some more discussion they agreed that they trusted him not to abuse it.

They'd like to hold an election, and elect a town council and a mayor. In the meantime they have some informal leaders who (fortunately) have been in accord about things so far.

So I'd say it's going well but the situation is a bit unstable. I had the uncomfortable feeling when I was there that our suggestions were being interpreted more as instructions. And on one hand, we're suggesting things we think would be a good idea. On the other, we didn't free them from one wizarding authority so that we could set ourselves up as another.

Item Two: Planning for future opportunities

We're realising that we've done very little planning to take advantage of sudden opportunities. If we had people positioned, trained, and ready, a week when the Lord Protector was (temporarily) dead and the Death Eaters in complete disarray would have been rather a good week to attempt a full-fledged camp uprising.

Needless to say, we did not have people positioned, trained, and ready.

The problem with this sort of preparation is that it's very difficult to keep secret. You can't simply prepare endlessly for a convenient opportunity that may never come. If we're going to wait for opportunities, we'll forever be restricted to things like stealing wands and securing the occasional farm or (if we get ambitious) maybe a muggle camp. If we wish to plan, we need to plan for revolution. There's no halfway here. If you strike at the King and miss -- you wind up like Dominic Selwyn.

Alice noted that there are 64 children currently living at Moddey. Most are very young. We'll be rather better positioned for a revolution when more of these children are grown, armed, trained, and ready. On the other hand, the longer the regime lasts, the longer the Death Eaters dig in...this degenerated into an argument about whether Pansy Parkinson or Seamus Finnigan could be considered more representative of their generation and we cut things off there as they might go all night.

Item Three: What exactly IS going on with the Death Eaters this week?

I have notes from the meeting, but I'm going to add some additional details we learned last night from the Institute. As we understand it, approximately what happened was this:

Dominic Selwyn, at some point in the last year, turned against the Lord Protector. He recruited a small group of insurgents, got hold of Felix Felicis to bend the odds his way, and then on Tuesday of last week, struck Voldemort dead at court. We think he also killed Theodolphus Higgs and used him as a scapegoat. I don't think we know who else was present, although presumably Conall Drumgoole was in on the plot, since he was executed with Selwyn.

There followed several days of frantic Death Eater political manoeuvring. Bill's alerts on this allowed us to turn somewhat to our advantage (see: wands, Aldrich Town.) Also, during that time, it seems Selwyn's faction began to fragment. We're still not sure of the full implications of that, but Bill, you probably want to be prepared that things may still be shaken up round the Ministry.

On Friday night, Harry was the unwilling guest at an exceedingly dark ritual that brought Voldemort back from the dead. It took place in a graveyard. As described by those who saw the memory, Selwyn, looking rather the worse for wear, was bound to a tombstone. On Bellatrix Lestrange's orders, Lucius Malfoy drew Selwyn's blood and added it to an enormous cauldron, saying, 'blood of the enemy, forcibly taken.' Bellatrix then took bone from the grave at her feet -- that was the bone of Voldemort's father, apparently -- and then she cut off one of her own fingers for the cauldron.

There was another man, and a teenage boy, present; Sirius and Albus recognised them. They were Prince Charles -- well, King Charles, I suppose, unless they've actually got Elizabeth hidden away somewhere as well -- and his son, William. At some sort of threat, Charles lay at Bellatrix's feet and opened his shirt, and Corax Mulciber cut out his heart for the cauldron. That was 'heart of the conquered, taken by right.'

If you haven't viewed this memory, I don't recommend it, let me just note that for the record.

So, once all the body parts were in the pot, along with what looked like a mandrake root, out came Voldemort, looking rather less human than he had before. Not that he was exactly what anyone other than Bellatrix would consider a looker, before.

Voldemort then slew Drumgoole, cut Selwyn loose, and proceeded to cruciate him without mercy. Once his mouth was unstopped, Selwyn shouted that the Lord Protector didn't protect anyone; that his people would be better off without him; look at Warrington, and how he died; 'we are playthings to be broken and thrown away.'

It didn't come out all in a piece like that. Each time Voldemort let the cruciatus lapse for a moment, he spat out another few syllables. Until his voice was gone.

Eventually, Voldemort tired of the game, killed Selwyn, and sent the rest away, including Harry. Rabastan Lestrange took Harry back to Hogwarts and deposited him with Madam Pomfrey in the hopes she'd dose him up with Dreamless Sleep.

Item Four: So how exactly do we get rid of someone who can't be killed?

Albus says that there's a certain form of dark wizardry, called the Horcrux, which allows a ruthless and violent wizard to store a portion of his soul in an object, and makes it possible to survive death. He believes Voldemort has made one. If we can lay hands on his horcrux and destroy it, then kill Voldemort -- he'll stay dead.

Sirius, as our Resident Person Raised by Dark Wizards, had at least heard of a horcrux before. He'd heard they were bad. That was about it. Any of the absent Order members want to weigh in? I'd never heard the word before.

Sirius asked whether possibly we could just excavate all the bones out of that graveyard, deny him the 'bone of the father' or whatever it was. I mean, who cares if he's running around as a disembodied ghost?

Albus said that in a pinch, any ancestral bone would do, so unless we're prepared to track down every grave of every one of Voldemort's relatives back to the dawn of time (or assume Voldemort can't find them) that won't do as a solution.

Tonks said, 'so it could be literally anything' and Albus said no, because Voldemort wouldn't choose an 'unworthy vessel.' It would be something special, something meaningful. Though when he tried to persuade Harry to murder Ridley, Albus thinks he was trying to force Harry to create a horcrux himself; the vessel he chose for Harry was a snitch, the first he ever caught. So the definition of 'special and meaningful' may not be especially helpful.

We can also assume the horcrux will be somewhere safe and well-guarded.

So. That's a lovely puzzle. We'll work on that along with 'how do we have a revolution with a few dozen wizards and muggles and 64 half-grown wizard children' and try to have an answer by the next meeting.

ADJOURNMENT

We adjourned, then sat around for a bit talking about some of this until the message came from Hermione.

Arista and Hector are still at Grimmauld. Hector seems to be calming down, but Arista looks quite a bit worse today; I think it's sinking in that her parents are dead, and she's not going home. She's been asking for Ron. Molly, perhaps you could send her a picture, at least? We've told her she'll get to see him once he's on holiday for the summer, I hope that's alright.
She's going to have to learn not to use the word 'mudblood,' or she won't make herself very popular at Moddey.