Alliances

Summer, 1979

"Mr. Malfoy, I must say that I'm very surprised to see you here," Albus Dumbledore said mildly, blinking at the young man sitting across from him over his spectacles. Lucius Malfoy quirked one platinum brow and just looked at him coolly.

"Indeed," Malfoy drawled arrogantly, his lip curled slightly in a sneer. Dumbledore frowned just slightly.

"It would be good to know why you have chosen to grace me with your company today," Dumbledore said with just a touch of frost in his voice.

"Horcruxes," Malfoy explained coolly. Dumbledore sat up straighter.

"My dear Lucius," Dumbledore began, visibly upset, "I am rather disturbed to hear that you're familiar with such dark magic."

"I didn't say that I was familiar with it, Headmaster," Malfoy snapped, his voice glacially cold, and his sneer slightly more pronounced. "You asked why I have come to you today, that is why."

"I must confess then that I find myself confused," Dumbledore said finally, sliding off his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose. Malfoy stopped lounging indolently in his chair and leaned toward the Headmaster.

"Voldemort, or Riddle if you will, has made several of them," Malfoy said tersely, his silver eyes flat and unreadable. Dumbledore's breath caught in his throat. What exactly was young Malfoy saying? If he knew of this, he had basically just confessed to being a Death Eater. Or was the boy trying to taunt him, to see what Dumbledore knew? Could he prove these claims?

"If you could prove this," Dumbledore said quietly, allowing just a hint of doubt to color his tone. Malfoy tossed a leather journal on the Headmaster's desk and quirked one platinum brow at him, smirking slightly. Dumbledore stared at the thing on his desk, an expression of distaste on his face. "This is one of them?"

"Yes," Malfoy said firmly. Dumbledore looked up at the young man across from him and frowned slightly.

"Why are you here, Lucius?" Dumbledore asked softly. Lucius looked at him for several long minutes. He stood and took off his outer robes. Then he unbuttoned his shirt cuff and pushed up his sleeve, turning his arm over so that the Headmaster could see the Dark Mark that stood out starkly against the pale alabaster of his skin.

"This makes me a Death Eater," he said in a flat voice. "I joined because it was required of me by my father. Threats were made against my family, and this was the only way to save them."

"And you want out?" Dumbledore asked cautiously with a calculating look on his face. Malfoy's expression tightened slightly and the sneer was back. The young man started to unbutton his shirt, revealing a pale, but well-muscled chest. Dumbledore wondered if this might become the strangest interview he'd ever had. When Malfoy's shirt was halfway unbuttoned, he pulled it farther open so that Dumbledore could see twin pawprints on either side of Malfoy's collarbone.

"These make me a miles in the Order of the Lioness, a rebellion group within the Death Eaters. We are interested in working with your Order of the Phoenix to take down Voldemort. We had to wait until we had all of his Horcruxes so that we could prove that we spoke the truth," Malfoy announced with a faint hint of pride in voice.

Dumbledore stared at the young man in front of him with a sense of awe. He had had no idea that such a group even existed. There were rumors of another resistance group, but they appeared to be focused on protecting the families attacked by the Death Eaters, not on taking down Voldemort. To be honest, Dumbledore hadn't even considered working with any of those other groups because he wasn't sure if they could be trusted. He wasn't sure if he trusted Malfoy if it came to that.

"I'll need you to come to an Order meeting to discuss this with my people," Dumbledore said slowly.

"I would like to bring my lieutenants," Malfoy said coolly as he rebuttoned his shirt and slid back on his robes.

"How many?" Dumbledore asked cautiously.

Just two," Malfoy replied, his silver eyes watching. Dumbledore nodded.

"That should be acceptable," Dumbledore said at last.

"We are willing to be questioned under veritaserum, but only to pre-approved questions. We have each of us taken Unbreakable Vows to protect the integrity of our group, its members and its objectives, and I would hate to see it all destroyed because someone phrased a question poorly. Make a list of the questions you want answered before your meeting," Malfoy said coolly. Dumbledore nodded again, reevaluating the man before him.

"How can I contact you?" Dumbledore asked him. Malfoy snorted slightly and the sneer was back in place.

"You can't really. My father's the one on the Board of Governors. You have no real reason or excuse to contact me," Malfoy pointed out.

"How do I contact your group then? We must arrange a meeting time, must we not?" Dumbledore asked. Malfoy straightened his robes and turned to the Headmaster.

"Leave word with your brother. It would not be untoward for I, or one of the other milites to go grab a pint at his establishment. In three days, we'll check in with Aberforth. If he has no message, we'll assume you could not get your Order to agree to work with us. If that occurs, we'll need the Horcrux back. It is important that all of them be destroyed at the same time, or Riddle will be alerted to what's happening. We do not want him aware of us before it's time," Malfoy informed his former Headmaster in an arrogant drawl.

"You're really going to attempt to destroy him?" Dumbledore asked curiously. Malfoy's silver eyes flashed.

"If you knew what sorts of atrocities he encourages…you would not say that," Malfoy said flatly.

"What would I say?" The older man could not contain his curiosity. This meeting had gotten more and more fascinating the longer it progressed.

"You would want to know why we waited so long to do so," Malfoy replied icily.

"I see," Dumbledore said faintly. "I thank you for coming to me, Mr. Malfoy, and I will have word for you in three days' time."

Lucius Malfoy stalked arrogantly out of the Headmaster's office, his robes swishing impressively around his legs. Dumbledore sat in his chair and stared at the…thing on his desk. He had not expected this, he truly hadn't. He knew of Horcruxes, certainly, but the very idea was so repugnant to him that it hadn't occurred to him that Voldemort would ever create one, let alone several. He pulled out his wand and performed several magical diagnostic spells. When he was done he sat there pale and shaking. There was a Horcrux sitting on his desk, and according to Lucius Malfoy, there were more. There was apparently a group of Death Eaters who didn't want to be Death Eaters and who were willing to overthrow Voldemort. It was a lot to take in. He took a candy from the dish on his desk and sucked on it thoughtfully. In the span of a few hours he had had his whole understanding of the current situation knocked arse over teakettle. He needed to talk to the other Order members about this as soon as possible.

.

.

HG/HP/HB

.

.

Griselda Marchbanks sat at a table flanked by the committee chairwomen of the Ladies' Aide Society. At the moment, they were all wearing their combat robes, which were all black and rather less robe-like than normal. Each woman's escape portkey was prominently displayed on her chest. The assembled women's faces were carefully neutral. Sitting across from them was one of their own, and perhaps their most important asset, Hermione Black. Behind her, at parade rest, were three young men that all of the ladies present knew well, at least by sight.

"You were aware when we started the Ladies' Aide Society that I had inside information," Hermione began carefully, looking each woman directly in the eyes for a moment. The ladies all nodded at one another. They had known—it was Hermione's information that allowed them to rescue as many children and families as they had. Sometimes they failed, or things were bungled, but without Hermione's help the number of children lost would number among the thousands, if not tens of thousands.

"Your information was the key element that allowed us to do what we've done," Griselda agreed staunchly. Hermione looked at all of the women without shame or fear in her eyes.

"I wasn't sure in the beginning, how to help the families that were targeted. I knew I couldn't do it alone, but I knew I had to do something. You ladies helped me make my goals a reality, and I thank you. In the past, our main focus has been the protection of our magical families, but I come before you now because we need to make a direct assault against Voldemort," Hermione said flatly. The ladies flinched as one when she said Voldemort's name.

"Why haven't we before? Attacked You-know-who, I mean?" Mrs. Fenwick asked her fellow chairwomen curiously. Laurel Bagnold, chairwoman of the wards committee frowned slightly.

"He didn't have any perceived weaknesses," Miss Bagnold said flatly. "We need something, some weak point to punch through in the initial assault and throw him off balance. We couldn't determine one."

"And these men, they're Death Eaters, yes?" Mrs. Bones said with a moue of distaste on her features. The young men standing behind Hermione Black kept their faces neutral and calm.

"Yes…and no," Hermione said finally. "The three men behind me are each a miles, a soldier or knight if you prefer, in a group that is attempting to overthrow Voldemort from the inside. It was decided that from the inside would be the best way, if not the only way, to determine that fatal weak point you were talking about Laurel."

"And you've discovered it?" Laurel Bagnold was almost bouncing in her seat with glee. Her brother, his wife and their two small children had been murdered by Death Eaters.

Hermione tried not to blame herself for each death, but it was difficult. Could she have done something, anything, to make things different? Her visions were occasionally merely a flash of something, and she was unable to grasp enough pertinent information to help. Of everyone, her milites understood the most. They too were consumed by guilt at times, blaming themselves for the needless deaths of innocent witches, wizards, muggles and their children. Sometimes forced to stand back and watch people die because the ultimate goal of destroying Voldemort could not be abandoned.

"Yes, we have," Hermione said softly, looking into each woman's eyes again she began to outline exactly how they planned to take out Voldemort. When she was finished her milites moved forward in unison and bared their chests so that the women present could see the paw prints on their collarbones. "Any that you capture marked thusly is on our side. They are part of the Order of the Lioness and all of them have taken oaths of fealty and sworn Unbreakable Vows to help take down Voldemort."

"The Order of the Lioness?" Griselda Marchbanks asked dryly, glaring sternly at the three young men before her who had all been Slytherins. "Wouldn't the Order of the Serpent be more apropos?"

"That would be his idea of a hilarious joke," Hermione said flatly pointing accusingly at Lucius Malfoy. He smirked slightly and Hermione rolled her eyes at him.

"If you would explain?" Augusta Longbottom asked severely, frowning at them. Hermione nodded.

"Of course, Mrs. Longbottom. I said that they have all sworn fealty oaths and Unbreakable Vows, but I didn't say that they were all to me. Mr. Malfoy finds it amusing to tease me with his Order of the Lioness," Hermione explained quickly.

"So you are the Lioness?" Mrs. Jones asked. Hermione nodded again.

"Yes, ma'am, I am." Hermione said with a quiet dignity.

"I've heard rumors about you, but I thought it was just that," Mrs. Jones said thoughtfully. As the head of their intelligence committee, Lobelia Jones was responsible for sifting through all the intelligence their witches gathered and gleaning the wheat from the chaff.

"No, ma'am, our domina is quite real," Regulus Black said with quiet pride. Mrs. Jones eyes widened.

"The domina and the Lioness are the same person?" She asked sharply. Hermione didn't say anything, but it wasn't necessary. Lobelia's eyes narrowed on the young woman in front of her. "He knows about you, and he wants you badly. I would recommend that you are not part of the assault team."

"We would recommend that as well," Lucius Malfoy agreed coolly. Hermione's eyes narrowed slightly and then she smiled tightly at the ladies sitting across from her.

"Of course," Hermione said flatly. Mrs. Jones watched her for several minutes.

"I'm firm on this, Mrs. Black," Lobelia said solemnly. "I don't want to see you there as part of the assault team."

"You won't Mrs. Jones," Hermione replied coldly.