Order Only: Private message to Rachel, Sirius, Tonks, and Alice

[alt_lupin]

Rachel, how many of our regulars wound up arrested?
 
Do you know what's happened to them?

Comments

[alt_rachel]

I don't know how many of the people arrested were regulars.

They got sixteen people during the raid. They were all handled rather brutally, because Bellatrix was infuriated that Sirius Black had slipped through her grasp again. I think the survivors have all been transferred to the Vail of Health.

Since then, they've been following up leads. They're being quite a bit more patient with those -- they've brought in dozens for questioning, but most have not been tortured, and some have been released. Mind you, some were released so they could be surveilled, so be really careful if there's anyone you're thinking of making contact with. There have been at least fifty, I think, brought in to see if they let anything slip. Of those...there were four or five who wound up in Truncheon's dungeon. Some of the ones they let go are destined for it sooner or later, I think, but first they want to see if they try to make contact with anybody.

[alt_lupin]

More than fifty?

[alt_rachel]

Truncheon gets a lot of false leads.

You use cruciatus on someone, they'll swear they saw Sirius Black trading Chocolate Frog cards with their upstairs neighbor, if they think saying so will get you to stop.

Legilimency helps a bit, sorting out the true from the false, but sometimes it just means they convince themselves what they're telling you is true. And then you've got leads galore, all of which have to be checked out, most of which will turn out to be utter rubbish.

Everyone taken that first night was tortured. Most of them didn't know anything. But they'd all confessed by the end to knowing whatever they thought the Aurors wanted to hear. Some of them even confessed to being part of the Order. The rest, well, the Crimsons got a lot of press recently, and there's always Dogstar. IMA. You know.

[alt_sirius]

That's not surprising, Moony. Questioning one person leads to three more. And our little community attracted people who were already dissatisfied or unhappy with the Protectorate, so, even if they weren't part of our little band of rebels, there's a higher likelihood they were involved in something MLE will consider unacceptable.

Alice, we were able to get word to the people we'd approached, Tim Wang and Rebecca Kestenbaum. And who was the other one, Moony - Edna or Gladys? None of them were there that night. Or - wait, perhaps Tim was there and got away. I'm not sure. Anyway, they all should be getting to safety. Davidson might hear from them if any of them try to get to Sherwood.

It's getting harder to give them places to go between the Fidelius-protected areas and knowing that MLE are stepping up their surveillance.

[alt_rachel]

Glad to hear that, about Rebecca.

[alt_alice]

Yes. That is good to hear.

[alt_lupin]

You're thinking of Edna Parsons. Gladys Malone hasn't been round in months. Edna's the one whose landlord was working with Beth's network. She got the hell out as soon as the anti-apparition ward was lifted, I think.

Gladys moved out of New London for some job. I can't remember what. Hopefully she's far enough out of things that MLE won't come knocking.

Private Message to Remus

[alt_sirius]

Which means Beth's likely lost another way-station on her railroad.

Merlin. This is all my fault.

Re: Private Message to Remus

[alt_lupin]

Don't be an arse, Padfoot.

Re: Private Message to Remus

[alt_sirius]

All right, I know it's not really my fault. We're at war; things happen.

I just wish we could take a bloody stand and get it over, already.

And I should have killed her when I had the chance. Even if it meant Grouch killing me.

Re: Private Message to Remus

[alt_lupin]

I thought the risk that held you back wasn't Grouch killing you, it was you missing Bellatrix and hitting poor Miss Hibbings.

In retrospect you should've taken the risk, yeah. She'd have been better off.

Re: Private Message to Remus

[alt_sirius]

Well, yes, initially. But when she was down, I mean. In the four seconds before Farty would have closed on me.

Next time - if there is a next time - I won't hesitate.

Re: Private Message to Remus

[alt_lupin]

I know you won't.

[alt_nymphadora]

Gladys always struck me as having good sense. I'll bet she'll be able to keep her head down.

[alt_alice]

Do you think if we were careful about it, a non-Fidelius safehouse might be of use?

[alt_rachel]

I think it's an enormous risk. Sooner or later, someone who knows where it is will get picked up, and MLE will put it under surveillance.

At least Sherwood Forest is rather large.

[alt_alice]

Frank and I have been talking strategy -- how to potentially use the investigation to set something up -- and Saltash came up as a possibility.

We could make MLE think they've got access to Saltash, and then overpower everyone who comes through the barrier. They'd concentrate their energy on breaking into a larger safehouse, possibly taking the heat off of their current investigation. I believe that none of them know about the properties of Saltash yet, and they would be taken completely by surprise by the null field.

[alt_sirius]

That would likely involve someone willingly giving themselves up to feed MLE the information we need them to get, Allie.

Unless you've got another idea to get them interested.

Either way, if we do something like that, I'm in.

[alt_lupin]

We could have the Secret Keeper write it down, let it fall into the hands of MLE somehow.

[alt_rachel]

Oh, yeah. No way they'll expect a trap if we try something like THAT.

[alt_alice]

Regardless of whether they'd expect a trap, they still wouldn't expect a null field.

[alt_alice]

And if we're careful enough about how they get their hands on it...

make them work for it, or think it's a real find.

I'm loathe to ask anyone to be a sacrifice here, but if there are people already on the run, people we know will be snapped up eventually...

Or we could create a safehouse, one meant to be found, and have it there.

[alt_alice]

If we pass along the secret to Saltash to people who are high risk, some might be able to take advantage and escape. And those who do get caught, they'd lead MLE right into a trap if we played it right.