Promise to the Past | 🐾 ᴍᴀʀᴀᴜᴅᴇʀs ✓

26 | Secrets Unraveling

 Narcissa's information proved to be quite fruitful. The Death Eaters hadn't expected the demure pureblood witch to become a well of secrets, but after months of being her husband's confidant, she had enough intel to give the Order a considerable advantage.

The Prewetts took Narcissa straight to Moody, the group of them eagerly asking for details as they mapped out the plans for their upcoming raid. The Order had suspected a stronghold of resources and a hub for the Death Eaters' network was based out of Nott Manor- it was why the Prewetts were sent there on the night they were ambushed. Narcissa not only happily confirmed their suspicions, but she smugly told them exactly how to get in, the fortress's weaknesses, escape routes, and internal layout.

Fabian watched in respect as she wandlessly but magically sketched out neat and delicate blue prints of the manor onto spare parchment. He bumped Gideon in the shoulder, gesturing to the slowly growing layouts as if they'd just hit a gold mine. In a sense they had- this was precisely the information they needed to cut out the Death Eaters' legs from under them while minimizing their own losses.

When she'd finished, Moody gave her a rare but approving grunt of appreciation. Gideon was smiling gratefully while Fabian merely watched in slack-jawed awe. Her lips had quirked up at their reaction.

The young witch hadn't anticipated how much fun it would be to prove these wizards wrong of every misconception they had of her.

After nearly a week of careful planning and strategizing, Moody felt ready to call the Order together for the raid. If they managed to pull this off, this could be one of the turning points for the entire war. Voldemort was mortal once again- not that Narcissa knew any of that when she'd willingly revealed information.

"We need all capable Order members in this raid," Moody said sternly. "This is it. This is the night that will shape how the rest of the war will go. If we succeed, the war might be over sooner than we think. I need all your heads in this."

Headquarters was packed to the brim with a sea of nodding heads, everyone ready to go out and finally do something. Too long they'd merely been hiding, trying covertly to oppose Voldemort's influences in the Ministry. Too long they'd been forced underground and into hiding. The room was filled with Order members, aurors, strategists, healers, and allies alike.

Lily was the Order's main Healer in training, even though she'd seen more critical patients in the course of this war than most Healers during their entire career. She agreed to stay at Headquarters to coordinate a team for medical care alongside Madam Pomfrey, Amelia Bones, and Andromeda.

Nearly everyone else was recruited for combat. Even James, despite everyone's protests, had insisted he wouldn't sit idly by as his friends and comrades went into battle when he was perfectly healthy, and was good with a wand.

"Please watch out for him," Lily pleaded to the boys.

Sirius and Remus both dropped an affectionate peck to her head. "We always do,"

Everyone was assigned a partner, and they were told point blank that if someone was to get injured in the raid their partner was supposed to escort them back for medical treatment. The Prewetts were paired together. Sirius and James had immediately chosen each other, and Remus partnered with Hermione. The others paired off as well, but almost everyone left was wary of partnering with Severus Snape. Those who trusted him enough to have their back in battle were already paired. Hermione considered offering to switch when Mary calmly asked to be his partner. Her serene tone as she easily went up to Severus reminded Hermione a lot of Luna Lovegood.

"Let me go with you! I can help!" An irate Narcissa cried, stalking over to Moody and the Prewetts.

"You're grounded for this one missy." Moody said firmly. "One: we don't know if we can trust you in battle when you've been raised with these people. You haven't even earned your wand privileges back yet. Two: your knowledge is far too valuable for us to lose you to one raid."