Order Only: Private message to Alice, Remus, and Sirius

[alt_rachel]

Right, I have a couple of pieces of news regarding the Moons.

Karo's replied by owl. She wants to meet somewhere neutral to view the bodies. I think the Order's Albion coroner took them to the morgue we use, where they're being held with a stasis charm for the moment. I'm not sure if there's some morgue that would be a more obviously neutral location?

Meanwhile, apparently Ginny thinks our lot killed the Moons. Sounds like it's not entirely clear if she was told this explicitly or what. But I don't think we can expect them to act in good faith with us.

This got me wondering, though, assuming Evelyn was correct that Antonin Dolohov would truly like Crouch's body back...could we offer to trade it for Ginny? For Ginny ALIVE, I think we'd want to make that as clear as possible. Gathering up the remains at this point would be rather a significant risk, given the Centaurs, but if it got us Ginny back I think it would be worthwhile.

Comments

[alt_sirius]

Bloody brilliant. Well, why not? Every time they want to test a lie, it seems like Ginny's become their captive audience.

Er, no pun intended.

I've a feeling Dolohov might take the bait, but, we'd need to make sure he doesn't tell any of the others about it. They'd be sure to tell him what a bad trade it is. Barty's blasted shreds of a corpse are only of value to him, not to Bella or any of the others. But if it makes getting Ginny out of Buckingham his problem and not ours, I'm all for it.

[alt_rachel]

Oh, I am definitely not expecting he'd run this past Bellatrix.

He clearly had access to Ginny before his unfortunately brief death. He could probably gain access to her again.

And I'm thinking we'd make this an honest trade, not use it to trap him. So it wouldn't be bait, it would be an honest deal. Something of no value to us, for something of no value to him. We both benefit. Assuming we can get the remains out of the forest without the Centaurs killing us.

[alt_sirius]

Right word, wrong context. I didn't mean 'bait' as in we'd double-cross him, I only meant that it might actually entice him to deal. Obviously we wouldn't kill him when the goal is to regain Ginny.

Although ... there's nothing to say he can't convince her to take an Unbreakable Vow or put some other sort of spell on her that will effectively make her into a living booby trap. The Vow would only kill her; some other sort of spell might take her out and whoever happens to be standing near her at the time.

[alt_rachel]

I guess the question is whether we trust Dolohov's promises.

[alt_alice]

How could we convey it was genuinely meant?

It was clear after talking with Evelyn that he was absolutely furious at the trap, as expected. I doubt he'd trust even Siz at this point.

[alt_rachel]

Wouldn't he?

Of people who had a relationship with him -- there's Siz, Evelyn, Sally-Anne, Cedric, Justin, Pansy. Am I missing any? I think Sally-Anne was the one who approached him about returning the bodies of the Death Eater dead after the battle in May. That was done by house-elf.

The issue of him using an Unbreakable Vow to force her into sabotage is a good one, though.

[alt_rachel]

Here's another possibility.

Jason Montague asked for leniency for Seamus Finnigan. Exile, rather than prison. In exchange, he offered to become an Auror for Albion.

I suspect that if we offered Seamus amnesty in exchange for Jason returning Ginny safely, he'd do it. I think he'd want actual amnesty, though, and I think this would have to be fairly soon. (Amnesty with conditions, yes. Prison...I'm less sure, even if it were a comfortable prison like Patil's.)

[alt_alice]

With an Unbreakable Vow regarding use of the Cardinals and Dark Magic, and regular check-ins with security, I'd be willing.

It'd certainly address our concerns regarding any hidden traps Dolohov might plant.

If it isn't possible for him to get to Ginny, what then? We still want a deal.

[alt_rachel]

I think Jason would agree to that. It sounds as though he thinks Finnigan will go along with whatever Jason tells him; I'm not entirely sure he's correct, mind you.

[alt_rachel]

As for 'what then' -- do you mean regarding Ginny, or regarding Jason?

[alt_alice]

Both.

If Jason cannot get to Ginny at all, we wouldn't want to lose him entirely. I suppose our fallback with regards to Ginny would be Dolohov.

[alt_alice]

I think both are viable.

Antonin Dolohov would do just about anything to get back Crouch's remains. If we use that (Merlin help us) to get back Ginny, it might significantly burn him with his companions, and allow us to keep our person on the inside a little while longer.

Jason Montague would be more likely to deliver Ginny safely, without the need for extra precaution.

My first impulse is to see if Montague can get away with it. If he can, for the sake of basic decency, our reputation, and to preempt Dolohov's destructive anger, I'm inclined to simply give the remains over and be done, advantage be damned.

[alt_rachel]

Yes, I do think that if we persuaded Dolohov to restore Ginny to us, that would make his relationship with Bellatrix rather awkward.

I just noticed Justin sent him a PM. He'd asked permission to bait Dolohov, and I told him to go ahead, and didn't rescind the permission... I'm not getting enough sleep. Anyway, I think probably we should offer Jason the deal for Seamus, and focus on killing Dolohov, if we can.

[alt_alice]

Baiting does rather make it difficult to engage in a genuine exchange.

Let's try the first avenue, then. And soon.

[alt_rachel]

Right. I wrote to Jason. We'll see what he says.

[alt_rachel]

I should just note, by the way -- Draco now knows that Jason is my agent, and Jason now knows that 'Faust' is my agent, due in part to Faust's failure to mention to any of us that Montague was an ex-lover.

I've kept Jason's name on a need-to-know basis but Draco certainly needed to know that he hadn't been compromised, and Jason needed to know to give Faust a wide berth.

[alt_rachel]

Jason thinks he can do it.

I guess we'll have to wait and see if he's right.