The Catalyst

The solution to their dilemma of what to do with their prisoners essentially fell into their laps. The day after their nearly disastrous ambush at Diagon Alley, a still somewhat shaky Ginny, at her mum's insistence, spent lunch at the Burrow. She tolerated her mum's doting, accepting that going through such a close call wasn't easy for those around her.

Perhaps in the past, she'd would have had a hard time concealing her annoyance, and would have resisted the treatment, but the insight into how Harry felt about what had happened to her gave her some empathy. So she grinned and bore it while her mum assembled an overindulgent lunch and refused to let her lift a finger.

Ron, and surprisingly enough, Daphne Greengrass joined her, which provoked a raised eyebrow from Ginny. "Not to be rude, but what are you two doing together?"

Ron began to explain, but was cut off by an elbow from Daphne, who simply explained "I tolerate him." Ginny observed the Slytherin girl as she demolished her food, attempting to figure her out. Her mum had assured her that the Order had vetted her, but that didn't mean she had to trust her personally. "Well, as long as you don't become weirdly obsessed with Harry and try to murder us, I'm okay with it."

This time Daphne was the one raising her eyebrows, while Ron had a sudden coughing fit. In response, Ginny simply said "Pansy."

Daphne grinned "Wait, seriously? I heard a little about this, but what's this about her being obsessed with Potter?"

"Oh, she thinks she's in love with him or something." Ginny waved her hand dismissively. "It's pretty deranged." Pansy had spilled her every secret to them, how she'd been recruited in the middle of the night, set up to kill Malfoy only to be stopped at the last moment, and then thrown into the deep end of this infiltration mission. Ginny had almost felt bad for her, but then she'd gone on a rather disturbed rant about how she was in love with Harry, and that she was going to get her revenge on them and take him for herself.

Utterly deranged.

The twins stopped by as well, teasing Ron about his 'new girlfriend' which led to protests from both Ron and Daphne. They then made an exaggerated show of doting on Ginny, but she didn't let it rile her, simply rolling her eyes at their antics.

Honestly, it was nice. Just spending time with her family, like how things used to be. Not that she wouldn't trade what she had with Harry for the world, but she couldn't deny that things were simpler then, when she was still a kid.

God, she hoped they could get Bill back. They'd exchanged letters over the past week, and she'd gone over his letters to her over and over in her head, not knowing if she could trust him, but knowing that she had to give him a chance nonetheless. He hadn't pressed hard for a meeting, but he'd mentioned it occasionally, and Ginny wondered if she should just stop dragging her feet and agree.

That wasn't the only source of gloom. Tonks had been in Saint Mungo's since the attack. The wound had been deep, it refused to heal, and it just wouldn't stop bleeding. She, Harry, Fleur, and Hermione had gone to visit her in the morning, and atmosphere in her room had been grave. Gone was Tonks' seemingly irrepressible sense of humor, and Remus was keeping a silent vigil by her side. Harry had barely said anything, she knew he felt some responsibility, even though he had almost nothing to do with it.

It was with a touch of melancholy that Ginny finished her lunch and bade Ron and Daphne goodbye as they went off to… well she wasn't sure what they had planned, but to be honest, she didn't want to know about her brother's love life. However, before she left, her mum shuffled off to the pantry and came back with a small glass vial.

Ginny and her mum's eyes met, she could see some indecision there, but her mum was going through with it anyway. "Ginny dear, we've heard about the Death Eaters you caught yesterday. I worry about you, and I don't want you to put yourself in danger like that."

"Believe me mum, Harry's ready to keep me under lock and key from now on." Ginny said wryly. Not that I'd let you, luv. Ginny pre-empted her boyfriend. Though to be fair, he hadn't been nearly as bad as Fleur was. Harry had more of an understanding of where she was coming from, but Fleur seemed ready to keep her in bed by force until Harry had distracted her. "We're at war, Mum. I can't promise… no one can promise that they'll make it out of this. I'll try my best to be safe, but I can't just sit on the sidelines when people I love are in danger."

"I know… I know." Her mum said softly. "I'm not here to fight with you on this." She held out the glass vial.

"What is this?"

"Kingsley managed to slip it out of the Ministry. We don't know how secure it is, in the Ministry. They wanted you to get as much information as you can before you hand them over."

"Is this… veratiserum?"

Her mum nodded.

"Thank you." Ginny breathed, not just for the potion, but for the fact that her mum was helping her, even if she didn't agree with everything she was doing.

-----

It was extremely gratifying, watching Bellatrix Lestrange struggle against the effects of the truth serum. She fought it bitterly, to the point where they had to force a second dose of the potion into her mouth before she was forced to answer.

Malfoy had been much easier to interrogate, but there'd hadn't been much he could tell them. His son was alive and being used as leverage again him. He'd had no idea what the diary was or any knowledge of any other artifacts Voldemort might have, the poison on his blade had been derived from Nagini's venom. That last bit, at least, was more than merely useful. It might just save Tonks' life. Arthur Weasley had survived Nagini's venom with the help of a rare treatment.

For Lestrange, each word of her answer was spat out, a look of supreme hatred on her face as her secrets were dragged out from her. But Susan was persistent and patient- she asked pointed, clear questions that couldn't be misinterpreted or wriggled out of, and she got her answers, no matter how long it took.

She didn't know anything about Voldemort's plans for Dumbledore. Voldemort had been out of the country for something important, though she didn't know much more than that. The ministry was indeed heavily infiltrated, and they had plans to launch a coup in the next month, it was only a matter of putting the right people under the imperious. Frustratingly, she didn't know a lot of details, only what she was directly involved in, which left huge blank spots in their knowledge.

This disappointment was made up for by one huge revelation. "There's a horcrux in her Gringotts vault. Hufflepuff's cup." She announced to the assembled group waiting outside the bedrooms turned improvised holding cells. Of course, Lestrange hadn't known it was a horcrux. But Susan had asked her if Voldemort had tasked her with protecting any important artifacts, and the woman had seized, gritting her teeth and screaming incoherently. Susan had to force a third dose of veratiserum down her throat in order to get an answer out of her.

There was a beat of silence. "Well, shit." Katie said eloquently.

"How… how are we going to do this?" Demelza said warily "Gringotts vaults are…"

"Very secure." Hermione finished for her "And we don't have all the details on the enchantments surrounding the vaults, which makes them even more dangerous. We'd need a very solid plan if we're going to break in."

Susan was nodding along, but her jaw dropped when Hermione suggested breaking in.

"What do you have in mind?" Harry asked her.

"Well, the first thing that comes to mind is Polyjuice potion. One of us could disguise themselves as Lestrange."

"I wonder if the invisibility cloak would be useful." Harry added. "One of us could follow along as backup, but that still seems risky…"

"It seems like we'd need someone on the inside." Ginny added "If we can get Bill to come around, maybe he would know…"

"Are you lot mad?" Susan burst out.

Several heads turned to her at once. "Er… no?" Harry tried.

"You… you can't just break into Gringotts!" She threw her hands up "Its utterly mad. And you!" She turned to Hermione "I'd expect something like this from Harry, but you should know better!" Hermione sputtered, indignantly trying to come up with a defense.

"They aren't mad, Susan." Luna interrupted "They're just Gryffindors." Almost identical sheepish looks appeared on the faces of the five Gryffindors in the room.

In an exaggerated motion, Susan placed a hand to her forehead "Merlin help me."

"Alright then." Hermione said, defensive "I suppose we should just walk up to the goblins and ask them to hand it over."

"Don't be ridiculous." Susan snorted. "But I'd rather do that than rob the place!"

"I think you've made your point." Fleur intervened "I assume you have an idea of your own?"

"Well…" Susan faltered, sporting a sheepish look of her own "I have part of an idea."

-----

"Dare I hope that you're here to turn Lestrange and Malfoy into our custody?" Scrimgeour's tone indicated that he had little expectation of them just handing them over, and he was more than a little annoyed by that.

Susan held back a grimace. They were walking a fine line here, they'd outright defied his authority by withholding the Death Eaters, they needed to give him something. "I'm going to be straight here, minister. We've discovered some very sensitive information, and we need your help. Its absolutely crucial to the war effort."

"No one can know about this." Harry insisted "No one."

"I'm listening."

Susan and Harry exchanged a glance. They'd discussed how much they should tell him. Harry had been reluctant to let him know anything, worried that it would just get back to the Death Eaters. Susan, however, believed that they needed to tell him if they were ever going to get him to go along with this.

"Have you ever wondered how Voldemort survived?"

Scrimgeour went pale "Are you saying you know how?"

"Yes, we do." Harry nodded "He's made these artifacts, called horcruxes."

"I can't say I've heard of them."

"I wouldn't expect you too, they're pretty obscure, thankfully." Harry paused "He's split his soul, Minister."

"Merlin." Scrimgeour breathed "So that how he survived, he split his soul, put it into an artifact, used it to come back?"

"Well, he didn't just do it once Minister. He made three of them."

"Three?"

"Three is a magically powerful number." Harry shrugged "The first was his diary, the one Malfoy planted on Ginny to open the Chamber of Secrets. The second was a ring that belonged to Salazar Slytherin, Dumbledore found and destroyed it last year. The third… its Helga Hufflepuff's cup, and its locked in Lestrange's vault in Gringotts."

"And it becomes clear why you've come to me."

"We need a legal way to retrieve it." Susan nodded "We've been reading through the texts of old treaties, and we found something from the treaty for the 1612 Goblin Rebellion." Susan produced a roll of parchment for the minister. "Article 3, section 4."

The minister read through the passage and nodded "Well, this certainly allows the ministry to confiscate property from wizards convicted of high crimes, but there's a reason this hasn't been used."

"Why?" Harry asked.

"For one, no self-respecting pureblood is going to let the Ministry to confiscate the property of another pureblood, even if they're a Death Eater. For the other, no one wants to start another bloody Goblin Rebellion."

Susan leaned forward "So give them a cut." She pressed.

"Who, the Wizingamot or the Goblins?"

"Either, both. I don't care what we need to do, what wheels we need to grease." Susan spoke passionately and intensely "If we don't get that cup Voldemort is immortal and he'll kill us all. Give the Goblins whatever money and artifacts they want under the table, give as many people bribes or cuts of the spoils as you need to. It doesn't matter what it takes, because if we fail…"

"I see your point." The minister nodded. "What say you, Mr. Potter? Are you alright with some dealing under the table to get this through?"

Harry nodded "I don't like it, but we don't really have a choice. But there's something else, we need to do this fast. Lestrange says that they're planning a coup."

Scrimgeour nodded "I know."

"You know?"

"Do I look like a fool? Of course they're trying to overthrow the Ministry. I've got most of my aurors trying to root out these damned moles. I don't suppose you have any specifics for me?" Scrimgeour's irritation was back, and they had to admit they had very little for him.

"No, neither of them was really involved..."

"I'd expect as much." Scrimgeour said curtly "Lestrange, Malfoy, too high profile to be involved. They'd be using unknowns." He paused in thought "You should know, there's no way to do this without it becoming public."

"What do you mean?"

"You-know-who will find out that we're confiscating the Lestrange vault, right after she was captured. He will put the pieces together. He will act to stop it."

"So…"

"We need to be prepared, as soon as the news breaks, for all hell to break loose."