The Heist

Two hours later, they left the bank. The exchanges after the time-travel revelation had been all business, and the two males had been throwing around many words and phrases Daphne didn't know.

The gist of it was that Harry's numbers were mostly correct, that the goblins would look for a suitable piece of land for Slytherin Manor, and they'd be staying in contact by owl while they were at Hogwarts. If everything went well, she and Harry would inspect and approve the site plans during the Christmas break.

Construction would begin within weeks, and if everything went well, the manor would be finished less than a year later. Just in time for Christmas of their second Hogwarts year.

She glanced towards her betrothed. "I still can't believe we got out of there alive. I thought we were done for."

Harry grinned. "You doubted me, Daph? I'm hurt."

"Prat."

"You seemed quite happy once we got into discussing the details of the manor. I thought you were going to start picking out curtains."

Her cheeks tinted. "Well, it's important! I mean, I know it's going to be years until we're married, but this is going to be our home for the rest of our lives."

"We have a good six months to talk about the details."

"True."

"There is one thing that worried me though."

"What?"

"Remember when he mentioned our Hogwarts letters, and how they work on family magics?"

"Oh yes." Daphne recalled a short discussion about how various artefacts determined people's ages. "Ragnok called it the Book of Names, but he said it still used date-of-birth, not time-lived."

"Yes… but what name will it give me? Who will my Hogwarts letter be addressed to? What will the class registers refer to me as?"

She immediately saw the problem. "Oh, damn."

...

"So, to safely get into Hogwarts and confundus the Book of Names, you need to get hold of this invisibility cloak?" Daphne was sat in a Harry-conjured garden chair overlooking the Greengrass flowerbeds, where she'd first seen Harry whip out his wand, two and a-half years ago. Harry sat opposite. An afternoon breeze blew through her long, blonde hair. Birds sang in the trees.

"Yep. And the cloak is in Potter Manor."

"Mmmm…." She thought about it. Harry was testing her, she knew. He often did this. Instead of just telling her what they were going to do, he'd ask her for a plan, and then poke holes in it. She took out a quill, and started doodling on Harry-conjured parchment. Damn, he was useful. Harry went back to his book.

Eventually, she looked up from her work. "Okay. I have it."

Harry gave her a nod to continue.

"Your Weasley girl is tied to the Potter wards, right?"

"You mean Ginny? Yes, she is."

"Right. Ginny. We wait until John Potter tries to invite her over again, then you sneak into the Burrow, stun the male Weasley who's friends with John Potter, and give him draught of living death. Then you levitate him over the Burrow wards where me and Ginny will be waiting. That's so the wards record him leaving." She glanced up to see if Harry was following.

Harry nodded.

"Then, you sneak back through your secret passageway, and cast the imperius curse on Ginny. Ginny floos to Potter Manor, and you apparate me and the male Weasley to the edge of the Potter Manor wards, where you'll have already set up a small-area fidelius charm."

He nodded again.

"Then Ginny loses John and sneaks off to find the cloak. You take control of Ginny, and use magic to help the search—summoning spells, point me spells, et cetera."

He nodded again, although his eyes were starting to glaze over.

She forged ahead. "You have Ginny take a ten-minute polyjuice potion to make her look like the male Weasley, and I push the real male Weasley over the Potter wards so they record him entering the Manor.

You, controlling Ginny, find the cloak, and make a break for the ward line. Ginny waits there under the cloak for the polyjuice potion to wear off, then throws the cloak to me, and I pull the male Weasley back over the ward line.

Then Ginny leaves to find John, they have an argument, Ginny leaves in a huff, we take the male Weasley back to the Burrow, give him the living-death antidote, implant false memories, and Ginny spends the next week popping veritaserum antidote sweets every morning and evening."

"…"

Harry blinked owlishly at her. He leant back in his chair. "Okay, good effort. Seriously. Now you're going to tell me what's wrong with that plan."

She felt a bit sheepish. "Too complex?"

"There's nothing wrong with a complex plan, if it's also the plan with the best risk-to-probability-of-success ratio, but the more complex a plan is, the more likely it is for something to go wrong. That plan is pretty complex. What else is wrong?"

"Um… John Potter might not invite Ginny over?"

He shrugged. "That's just a matter of waiting for an opportunity. If one didn't turn up we could always make one."

"Can't really think of anything else."

"Really? You pretty much acknowledged the biggest weakness yourself, right at the end."

She looked at him, face as blank as a clean slate.

"You want Ginny to take veritaserum antidote for a week after the mission. By doing so you acknowledge the danger that Ginny could be suspected of involvement, and even questioned."

"Ah. You're saying it would be better if none of our people were seen by anyone the whole time."

"Exactly."

"But how do we get into the manor then? The wards will record all our presences. Even yours. Especially yours. Merlin, they might not even have taken down the child safety wards tied to you."

"True."

"Then how?"

"You were almost there when you suggested we use the imperius curse on Ginny."

Her eyes darted around his face, looking for a clue. "But, using the imperius curse on anyone who isn't on our side is incredibly dangerous. If anyone ever found out, it's life in Azkaban. And most people who are tied to the Potter wards will have noble house rings, so no obliviating. I know the Weasleys don't, but it's still more risk than I thought you'd be willing to take."

"Yes. So we use the imperius on someone who can never complain, who can pass straight through the wards without issue, who won't be recorded by the wards, and who it's even legal to cast the curse on."

She looked at him, puzzled. "Who?"

.....

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